Lesson 8. Startup Sales

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Before you jump in to your first sales call, make a sales plan. To make a sales plan, you need to think through your sales “funnel”, your sales “channels”, and include some thoughts on how you’ll eventually grow out and manage your sales team. But that’s not all, you also need a plan for supporting your customers after they buy.

Remember, at scale, all the money needed to run and grow your business must come from customers. Thus while it is tempting to jump straight into sales, even perhaps before any product exists, it is best to take at least a few hours to plan out that process, just as you take a few dozen (or few hundred) hours to plan out the rest of your business.

Part one: funnel, channels, team, projections and tracking.

(Total running time: 64 minutes)

1. Marketing vs. Sales
2. Sales topics
3. The sales funnel
Pursuit of Happyness
4. Rejection
5. Sales channels
6. Organizing the team
Glengarry Glen Ross
7. Motivating the team
8. Projecting sales
9. Pricing
10. Deal Flow
11. Tracking prospects
12. Big complex sales
13. Listen!
14. Your first sale
15. Closing
16. After the sale
17. Your sales process
18. Everyone!

 

Worksheet

The Next Step – Worksheet

Related articles

Why Must You Pay Sales People Commissions? – a16z
Turning $15,000 Into $200,000 Every Month – Inc.
Turning the customer journey into a virtuous cycle – harvard.edu.
Why Sales Matters – leadsimple.com

 

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