This year has been marked by one of the most unprecedented, and challenging global economic environments of the last one-hundred years. Despite the aforementioned, startup investing continues to rip at a feverish pace, marked by technology, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and enterprise software firms. According to this CrunchBase report, “Overall, total global venture dollars for 2020 …
During COVID-19, the world of business has come to an abrupt halt – nearly every industry, sector, and business type (products and services) have been and will be impacted by the pandemic. If you are on the fence still wondering if now might be a good time to start your new business, I say, “Yes! …
Happy New Year and welcome back to my Startup Tip of the Day. I remember being 20 years old, sitting in front of a blank Excel spreadsheet without a clue in the world as to how I was going to build an accurate forecast for my first startup. Without proven revenues or associated costs, the …
Looking back on 2019, I’ve had the privilege of speaking with and advising many different entrepreneurs. I’ve compiled my list of the top 5 most frequently asked questions asked by founders: 1. Do you think this is a “good” business idea? What’s interesting, is that the most frequently asked question of “Do you think this …
What exactly is corporate culture? Can we see it? Does it emanate from a business plan, an un-written code of ethics, or a placard on the wall? Last night we got to sit in on a fireside chat with Ben Horowitz (VC, Andreessen Horowitz) and John Zimmer (Co-founder, Lyft) to discuss culture, and moreover, the …
Startup Tip of the Day One of the most confusing areas for first time founders is managing the capitalization table, often referred to as the “cap table”. The cap table outlines all equity owners, the percentage of ownership of stock, debt or convertible debt (debt that turns into equity at a given date …
I have had a flurry of Zoom calls with #founders across the world – from San Francisco to New York to Singapore – all working diligently to scale their #startups to the next level.
I want to highlight a few of the recurring themes that I have seen, and the frequently asked topics, that have arisen from these discussions.
reaganpollack.com/2020/10/2020-startups-a-year-in-review/
#venturecapital #vc #business #startups #entrepreneurship
2020 Startups - A Year in Review –
reaganpollack.com
The fundamentals of running a startup in today's environment persist - quality and consistent revenue growth today matters more than vanity metrics tomorrow.One of the popular questions founders ask me (once they are up and running their startup) is “How can I develop a consistent sales funnel for customers?”
Here’s a few points I share for them to keep in mind:
1. Sales takes 2-3X longer to close for larger deals than anticipated. For smaller orders (under $1000) you can usually close with 1 phone call and a few emails. But for larger deals, business contracts are involved and often customers need a pilot period to try the product/service. So having a realistic expectation on the time required for your particular sales to close ratio is vital before you even begin.
2. Every business is a bit different, but every customer has a journey from initial touchpoint (experience with your company, product or review online) to acquisition to renewal or re-order. Understanding what touchpoints (and how many) your customers require to feel comfortable buying from you is critical to building an effective sales process.
3. For the first 50-100 customers (for smaller orders under $1000) or for larger enterprise sales (first 5-15 sales), you need to do all of the work yourself to listen to key objections, pricing conversations/negotiations, and what it takes to close. Later on, you can automate a portion or most of the sales process. But, you have to walk the walk before you build a system that does the heavy lifting for you.
4. Before hiring sales teams, founders need to understand the ins and outs of what a customer asks for and needs in order to lower the risk premium for them to buy. Sales is about lowering the friction and risk inherit in the buying experience. Sales is directly tied to your ability to accomplish this repeatedly.
5. Automation of the process. If you can set up an automated process that helps educate leads on the value of your product, program or service and then captures lead information, then you can set up a series of automated emails and materials to help move them from warm lead to active client. I like systems like ConvertKit or Mailchimp to help you set up automated emails that educate, inspire (great content), and guide new clients into the community of active paying customers.
6. Measuring KPIs (key performing indicators) is very important to knowing what copy/emails and touchpoints work and what doesn’t work. Monitor how many leads sign-up, click on the emails to revisit your website, and how many convert to sign up. Without monitoring where leads go stale, you’ll never be able to optimize to increase your conversion ratios and drive higher sales figures.
While this is just a top level overview of a sales process, the main thing to keep in mind is how this journey affects sales volumes and velocity. What you measure grows, and what you can automate reduces the time you need to devote in working sales versus managing other important operational functions for your startup company.
What tools, systems or ideas do you use to manage your sales leads and programs? Comment below!
#sales #business #startups #entrepreneurship #businessowner #growthmindset #marketing
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