You’ve used a logo creator service to make sure you have the best logo, marketing, and branding materials. You’ve created a service or product that rocks your socks and you know that you can sell. You carefully pick a website that was designed by your logo creator service (that doesn’t use stock images), and you make it pop with your own personal touches.
You put on a smile, put your hands on your hips, and wait for people to come knocking down your door.
Nothing happens. You brush the front of your new tux a little, and wait longer. Sure enough, nothing happens. You aren’t sure what you did write. Logo creator service…check. Expert website…check. Pretty suit…check. Experience in your industry…check.
Unfortunately, while this exact situation may not happen to you, it happens to hundreds – if not thousands – of new business owners, especially if you’re a B2B company. It isn’t just about building anymore; ideas and companies don’t fail these days because they don’t have good bones. They fail when they do not have enough sales experience.
Industry Experience /=/ Sales Experience
Maybe you’ve been in software development your entire life, and you’re good at it and have an idea for a product. It makes sense that you want to start your own business in a niche that you know, but regardless of your niche, you will need to sell whatever you create. So you build it, and they don’t come – because you simply do not have sales experience. You’re not a salesman. you’re a software developer. It doesn’t have to be your forte, but you need someone – a company, your logo creator service, your wife – to help you make your product bloom on the market.
Why Startup Businesses Fail
Fortune Magazine reported that the main reason startups fail is that “they make a product no one wants.” However, when the startups were surveyed, over 40% said that they didn’t have a market for their product. While those phrases LOOK similar, they are very different concepts.
Customers won’t tell you what they want, but whatever you create needs to solve an issue that is common enough to need a solution. My first boss used to tell me how to format content for emails, blogs, and copy:
Problem? Another problem?
No problem! Solution!
However, there is often a market for a product; the problem simply is reaching that audience, solving their issue, and making it worth it to do so.
How to Sell It After It’s Built
Your logo creator service that also built your website and marketing materials is going to matter a lot in the build, and when it comes to closing leads, it’ll also do some immense work for you. But you’ll need to tell the difference between when there isn’t a market for something you’re trying to sell and when there is, but you haven’t found it yet.
A lot of the time, this has to do with the team you build. Are they going outside of their comfort zones and asking clients questions? Are they creating leads and figuring out effective ways to close? Get them (and yourself) some sales training to really fill out the full picture of your company’s “feel”.
Here are a few questions to see if sales are effective, according to Forbes:
- Which target clients are you working on this quarter?
- What will be closing soon (within this week, month, and quarter)?
- What is your (individual) sales target for the year?
- How many leads are going to generate soon (week, month, and quarter)?
And Remember to Hire the Right Team
Maybe you can afford or find professionals, but you can make them. Find people who don’t take no as a permanent answer. Find people that smile even when the chips are down. Find the people who think the extra ten bucks for the extra mile is totally worth it. Hire them. Make them your sales team. Paired with a solid branding scheme, good marketing, and a decent product, you’ll be on your way to finding exactly what you need to make ’em come.
