đź’ˇShould sales be founder-led?
and why to avoid delegating them
Productive Thursday Everyone,
One of the biggest mistakes I see founders make over and over again is rather than doing sales themselves they just outsource it to first person willing to do it.
Thanks for reading Founders’’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Understandable. Sales make us uncomfortable — especially if you haven’t done them before (first-time founder). Sorry to break it to you, but sales are one of the only two responsibilities of a company.
Forwarded this email? Join 700+ founders.
Anything that’s not building the product or selling it, is a big waste of time for early founders. Either you focus on getting users, or if you can’t get any — improve your product.
When you break down founders’ responsibilities — most of that job description are sales:
- Getting customers to buy your product
- Fundraising (pitching a compelling idea that invokes a huge FOMO in investor’s brain, leading him to jump on your hype train to Wonderland)
- Showcasing your company’s benefits for potential employees
All these are sales. You better get good at them if you want to increase the chances of your success.
Here are the main benefits of founder-led sales:
Founders have a unique advantage when it comes to selling
As a founder, your deep understanding of your product gives you a unique advantage in sales conversations.
External salespeople, no matter how skilled, rarely have full understanding of your product as thoroughly as you do. When a potential customer poses a question about your product’s functionality, this is your time to shine. In these crucial interactions, you have the freedom to showcase everything your product offers — from specific features to exceptional support and tailored solutions for the future.
Additionally, unlike hired salespeople, you have the authority to make on-the-spot decisions, eliminating barriers to closing the deal. Your intimate knowledge and decision-making power position you to address customer needs comprehensively and convert interest into sales immediately.
It gets you closer to the customer
As a part of making improvements on your product, you want to maximise your hands-on time with customers. Customer’s needs are usually found by conducting user interviews — but why?
This can be easily achieved by leading your sales and talking to potential customers. After compelling the customer to sign the deal — you have won a lottery. You can get his insights on the product, alongside providing the best individualised customer support…
This gets you, the founder, closer to your customer base. By spending time in their world, hearing how the offer is landing, and making adjustments based on what is working and what isn’t, you directly improve your product.
It’s critical for finding the right product market fit
Your product might address the correct problem but fall short in its execution. By leading sales conversations, founders can gather feedback to refine their product roadmap, potentially expanding their total addressable market and avoiding costly missteps.
This hands-on approach enables you to pivot much quicker, ensuring your offering aligns precisely with customer needs and market demands.
But who do I target?
Chances are your product is probably not fully finished (it never really is). How do you find your prospects with half-assed product?
If you happen to fall under the Hair on Fire category of a product market fit (I talked about it here), there’s more possibilities to sell it as you may think.
You are what your customers need or at least one day you will be. If you sell them what is finished now, it’s likely they stick with you for the long run (seeing first-handed where you are headed). However, if you wait for your product to finish, odds of your competitor solving their problem instead of you increase every minute.
TLDR; why building a quick MVP and then iterating swiftly on a weekly basis is far superior to any other approach in building startups.
Remember, if you solve users’ problem — they excuse your imperfections along the way.
Be like second-time founders and lead sales.
Oliver.
