Building a startup is, in many ways, a race against time. For b2b startups, the challenge is sometimes magnified by several folds. Long sales cycles, endless reporting lines, and bureaucratic process all create a seemingly impenetrable wall of deterrents inhibiting your ability to collect valuable customer feedback and find product-market fit, all the while your runway continues to burn.
There are, however, several tactics that early-stage founders can implement into their sales approach to effectively shorten iteration cycles and maximize the probability of success.
1. Find the decision-maker and connect with them on the sale.
Most businesses will have an internal champion that's in charge of spearheading startup collaborations and implementation of new products and services. Identify and befriend this person as they will help you navigate the internal hierarchy. But also be mindful of who the ultimate decision maker is (may be the same person) and make sure they're always in the loop.
2. Simplify your offering to a very focused value proposition.
As a startup, focus is the key. In most cases, there should one critical problem that your one solution is solving. Any more than that and you risk involving more stakeholders, more reporting lines, more meetings, and more delays to closing.
3. Set clear deadlines and next steps.
Never leave a meeting without setting clear actionable steps and making sure both you and your client are on the same page. Don't be pushy but you can certainly push, gently but firmly.
4. Simplify contracts that reduce the risks.
Contract negotiation is often another big consumer of time. As mentioned, in this stage it's better to have a customer not none at all. Be mindful and vigilant of the fine print, but don't sweat the details if it's not mission critical.
5. Provide first class service from on-boarding to execution.
In the famous words of YC's founder Paul Graham: do things that don't scale. In the early stage, you should be focused on validating customer pain points and the correct solution to solve them. This will often entail high degrees of customization and 24/7 customer support and service. That's ok in the beginning, as you're still collecting feedback and will eventually move towards optimization and automation.
The final round deadline to apply for AppWorks Accelerator #20 is tonight at 11:59pm (Taipei): http://bit.ly/2PNExdH
