Most early founder-led sales will come from the founder’s personal network. Once you are bootstrapped with a few customers, you should also receive referrals from them (if you are not, that’s a signal that you don’t have something people love). For B2B startups charging high 5 figures, low 6 figures per installation, you should be able to close all of the sales you need (learning and adjusting along the way) to get from seed stage to raising your series A.
See also:
- The number one job of a startup CEO is finding product market fit, getting good feedback early requires asking for money
- This shouldn’t be outsourced, founder led sales helps identify product problems
- The path from concept to product is an annealing process, there is danger in committing too soon to the wrong buyer, pricing, and packaging
Links to this note
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Make it Easy to Say Yes to Making an Introduction
When asking for an introduction, make at is easy as possible for the person making the introduction. Share a short blurb (4-5 sentences) about your company (or yourself) so they can copy it into an email. Research before hand who you want to be introduced to and that the person you are asking knows them. Finally, write the email in a way that they can forward it directly with almost no effort (subject: looking to speak with X, body: I’d love to speak with X about Y, here’s a short summary of what we are doing).
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Get Started With Growth Marketing
Growth marketing is simple to get started. Sell the product directly to 10 paying customers. Review the sales process with those customers and identify an ideal customer profile and their “aha” moment—preferring customers with low friction and grow organically. Experiment with automated ways to acquire the next 100 customers from that profile. Once you’ve built a playbook that works repeatedly, move on to the next cohort.
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§ How to Make Your First Sales Before Launching
Answering the question, how do you do early sales when you are pre-product?