When you have a start-up you need customers and you may need to do sales activities that don’t scale. Typically these activities may not scale due to the effort or costs associated. In the short term you need to have conversations with prospects to improve your sales messaging, test pricing, and confirm product market fit. A wise man once said to me that “in the absence of revenue there can be no profit”. You may need to do sales activities that don’t scale to get those first few clients. Here are a few activities that could work for your business.
The Drop-In
Your clients may have a physical office and it may be possible to stop by introducing yourself, drop some information off, and even talk with someone. Sometimes getting the right contact and their details is a good goal. It is important you understand that the person you may want to talk with could be too busy to meet or may not be there. This can make sense if you can visit a few clients in a short distance and time. The success rate can be very low, but it may give you the opportunity to have a few conversations. This is very hard to scale in other markets without significant investment.
Cold Calls
Cold calling is still a great tactic for sales outreach. The team at VA Partners book about 70% of our discovery meetings through cold calls. For this to work long term there needs to be enough margin in your solution to support the effort that is needed. In the short-term one of the founders could be making the calls with their time, so there is not added cost to the business. It will take them away from other tasks, but it could be useful to have some early meetings.
Very Customized Messaging
Customized messaging can be very effective. It does take time to do the research needed and then create custom messages. For account based sales and marketing this could make sense in the longer term. This could prove to be effective when trying to find those early meetings. AI can also help shorten the time needed when crafting the messages.
Leverage 2nd Connections
LinkedIn is a great tool for outbound efforts. The 2nd connection is research gold. This is where your 1st connection has a connection with someone you would like to talk with. Once you identify the contact you can ask your 1st connection for an introduction. This only works if you have a good relationship with your 1st connection. The other option is to send a connection request referencing your connection or that you have multiple common connections.
If you want help putting sales plans in place for your company, feel free to reach out and connect with me.
