Founders should know these basics

Having sales expertise is one of the elementary skills that founders and CEOs should have. Because it is already in demand before a product is ready for the market, for example when addressing angels and investors, which is very similar to a sales process. After all, founding teams have to convince potential financiers of their company and its product range.

For this reason, founders and CEOs of early-stage and growth-stage startups should be their company’s best B2B salespeople. The following points must be observed here:

Founders without sales DNA must be prepared to jump over their own shadow. As with everything, the same applies here: you only get better with practice. Every interaction with customers is therefore an important moment of learning and an opportunity to improve one’s own sales skills.

If you are also involved in sales yourself, you are close to the market and the customers – two aspects that investors require. Thus, sales experiences can help to improve fundraising. The reason: Investors expect that founders have initiated the first sales themselves. They also want to experience first-hand what start-up teams have learned about the market.

For customers, the problem is always decisive. They want to solve this with the help of the purchased product or service. In sales, your offer is always a means to an end. Therefore, founders should always talk about the customer problem and how they solve it. And not just about all the wonderful properties of the product that may or may not be relevant to the user.

In marketing there is a little more flexibility in this respect: depending on the situation and strategy of the startup, the focus here is either on the end or the means.

At 65 to 75 percent, the average salesperson talks too much and thus learns too little from their customers. According to research by startup Gong, which records and analyzes customer interactions, a ratio of 43/57 between talking and listening is optimal. This means that most salespeople only listen 25 percent of the time when they should be listening 57 percent.

Being inquisitive characterizes outstanding salespeople. They want to know everything about the customers and the problem to be solved, but also how their customers make a purchasing decision.

In addition, they are personally interested in their counterpart. This includes, for example, the professional career, his role, tasks and relationships.

The best way to get this information is to ask open-ended questions. You can learn a lot more about the other person with these than with a closed yes/no question. Because they lead to a conversation and are less reminiscent of an interrogation.

Good sellers therefore ask potential customers which other providers are checked or how they arrived at certain evaluation criteria. This leaves enough space for a more detailed answer.

When the end of the sales process is reached, the question arises: will the interested person buy your product or service or not? In any case, you should be aware that you have invested time and resources that are both real and material.

Therefore, sales talks are a give-and-take. You, too, may demand achievements and maintain a balance of power. For example, if you created a custom demo, ask if the CFO will participate. If you send a draft contract to a person by an agreed date, then you set a deadline by when it will be reviewed by the other party. When the time is right, you can also add a condition to placing the order (“So if we take that last step, will we get your order?”).

Startups in the early phase are still looking for the right model, i.e. in the discovery phase. This is also reflected in sales, where most of the processes are very hands-on.

Anyone who hires employees in this area should not rely on candidates who want to implement and scale an existing model. Instead, it needs creative, flexible employees who are willing to do a lot with little.

Because founders and CEOs have to sell their company to angels and investors, they should have good sales skills. Anyone who has not yet gained experience in this area should speak and practice with potential customers at every opportunity – even if this means overcoming oneself. In this direct contact, founding teams gain important insights into the market, but will also understand their own product range better.