Companies we talk to tell us that it’s hard to get sales right. At start-up stage and during the early years, their focus is usually on and making sure the funding is there to get the product right and, of course, this is wise – everyone needs to crawl before they can walk. But from the earliest stage, getting customers to try your offering is crucial. If the business is to be a success, it needs customers and attracting these customers requires selling.
Setting up a selling function can seem like a very scary path to go down, especially if you’re not sure how to do this. Yet research proves that most companies fail because they have no sales function in place and in simple terms, having no sales function in place usually means having no customers in place.
With no customers, there is no way to perfect the product, no way to get the pricing right, no way to get essential feedback, and more importantly, no way to make money.
Frequently we hear that business founders are scared of sales because they feel it has nothing to do what they know best. They may have developed their own careers in tech or marketing or finance or beyond and sales seems like a foreign language to them. So they avoid it like the plague. But, in reality, sales is the universal language of all business and so, to be successful, you need to be fluent in it.
Many in business think that success comes simply when a good product is cleverly marketed. But this, too, is a misconception. No amount of marketing is going to work if there isn’t a corresponding sales strategy in place to turn that marketing effort into tangible results. A blueprint is all very fine but it’s no use if there’s no one there to build the house!
At The Selling Labs we’ve helped early-stage start-ups and more established enterprises to set up their sales structures and to get their sales strategies right. We believe that if the product is good enough and the marketing is right, a sophisticated sales team with an excellent sales approach – strong communication skills, confidence and charisma, problem-solving ability, and an entrepreneurial spirit – will guarantee that customers and revenue will follow.
A well-devised sales strategy implemented by a sophisticated team will make all the difference.
Contact enquiries@thesellinglabs.ie for a free consultation.
