When you’re the founder of a startup, a concise sales strategy is your most important tool. But the conversations you have with potential customers are the foundation from which you build fruitful client relationships.
I’m originally from Denmark and after a four-year stint in Germany and six-year stint in London, I arrived in Dubai in 2017 with Dyson, tasked with heading up specification sales for EMEA. I’d always worked in construction related products, from lighting to sanitary ware and I wanted to move into software as a service (SaaS) long term.
It was in 2020 that I met Rupert, my co-founder at Procurified. As a B2B contech platform, Procurified’s business model offered the perfect opportunity for me to move in this direction and we’re both proud of where we are now.
That said, creating a sales strategy for a new business is challenging. When you are essentially trying to change the way an industry operates, having product market fit is crucial. If your product is not fully validated with your clients needs, the best laid sales plan simply won’t work.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” Mike Tyson.
The early days for us were exciting, but also incredibly challenging. The famous We Are The Champions anthem by Queen often springs to mind….
… bad mistakes, I’ve made a few, I’ve had my share of sand kicked in my face but I’ve come through… We’ll keep on fighting till the end.’
This really encapsulates how I felt through the challenges of building a new business.
The great thing about creating a sales strategy for a new business is that you have a blank canvas and can determine your own faith. It’s an exciting opportunity to delve deeply and find the right solutions for your business.
When you find a winning recipe, the growth trajectory for a new business is completely different than for an established one. The focus is on hyper growth, not maintaining or avoiding losing, market share.
Practice empathy
According to The Brevet Group, only 13% of customers believe a sales person can understand their needs.
One of the key things I have learnt is that fully understanding your client’s business and taking the time to learn and experience what a working day looks like for them is the most important task you can set yourself.
This will enable you to speak their language which shows empathy and that you understand their challenges and the industry they are in.
Engage in authentic conversations
Generally, I try to keep learning something new everyday. I listen to podcasts, read books and soak up any form of knowledge that may be relevant to what I do.
I find that this wider knowledge means I can provide input and insight and manage a conversation with most people I find myself in front of.
However, your focus when having conversations with customers should always be on being interested rather than interesting.
Dubai was very much built on a strategy of ‘build it and they will come’ and as much as that has worked for Dubai, from a start up selling perspective, it would not be a strategy I would recommend.
If you are selling something that is changing how people do their day to day business, you have to interrupt them, but in the nicest possible way.
One powerful tactic I’ve used on every outreach is from Chris Voss, asking “is it a bad time?”, rather than asking “is this a good time?” because for clients it is rarely a good time.
When you truly believe you have something that will dramatically change a customer’s daily efficiency, enabling them to go home on time or preventing them from working on holiday, then interrupting someone’s day becomes your duty.
Get to know their story, have a conversation. After all, no one likes to be pitched to. Old school sales methods simply don’t work anymore.
Make it personal
A common mistake when talking to potential clients is thinking that everybody needs what you sell.
Clients adapt to technology in different stages so, it’s incredibly important that potential customers fully understand the benefits of your product.
If your product provides major cost savings and productivity gains, ensure that you not only talk about it, but prove it with data.
Time saving is one of the most attractive benefits that SaaS products can provide, so it is crucial to emphasise your savings and the impact these will have not just on their business but also the user during your conversation. People buy on emotion and justify with logic.
Speak to the right person
It is important to get the user’s buy-in, and it can often feel good to speak to them, because we get to discuss the features and benefits of our solution.
But ultimately, the decision maker is the only person with the authority to purchase so make sure that you have buy-in from all parties. I have made this mistake many times and lessons have been learned!
Lastly, when you’re selling your pre-product, be careful not to fall into a trap of stalling tactics and no real commitment during your conversation.
Early stage positive feedback can be deceiving and it’s only when it comes to parting with money or committing to it, that you know if they are being sincere with their feedback.
I was once told “we don’t rise to the level of our expectation, we fall to the level of our training,” so practice sales scripts, practice presentation skills practice phone skills. Don’t ever practice in front of a potential customer.
We’ve all made mistakes, it’s human nature but what’s important is to recognise and learn from them. I hope that the lessons I’ve learned and written down here can help another startup founder move in a positive direction.
Ultimately, if your conversations can prove that your product has a positive impact on the business outcomes of companies that use it, you’re halfway there.
Yes, building rapport is important but if you cannot positively impact a business, they won’t be convinced, and you won’t sell.
Marc Lemmens is the co-founder and VP of customer success at Procurified
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