6 Tips for Startup Sales Team
Working in a startup sales team can either bring you a lot of money or a lot of teeth clenching. A job in sales will teach you how to be persuasive, how to persevere, and most importantly, how to hustle. Sales associates are responsible for driving revenue. They’re generating leads, closing deals, and doing whatever it takes to help the startup grow. The best sales teams are quick on their feet, personable, highly competitive, financially motivated, and confident. A genuine love of people is the most important quality a sales team member can have. Being good at sales means being able to strike up a conversation with anyone, anywhere, at any time. Basically, it’s an ambitious extrovert’s dream job! So here are the 6 things a startup sales team needs to remember to be successful in achieving their target
Help People
Customers nowadays can sniff out a salesperson miles away like never before. However, people want passionate and educated advisers who listen to them and point them in the right direction. You need to forget about that what you sell when you are on the phone or a Skype call. Try to give people real advice and help them. Your prospects need help getting their job done that is why they are talking with you. People are so busy with there schedules nowadays that anyone who can help them along the way is truly seen as valuable.
Learn Every Day
Working in startup sales should always be about learning constantly. You’ve been selling for years. A natural salesperson would know his or her product or service inside out. And make sure to use multiple ways to express it to potential clients. You should know what works and what doesn’t and have the passion to reinvent yourself on a regular basis.
Desire For Difference
Everyone loves making money, at least every startup does. But the best startup actually has a mission. A great startup would want to change something big and bring something new to the world. So by being part of the business team of a startup, you are a part of something big. Each closed deal can be an opportunity to make a real difference in customers’ lives.
Connect With Right People
Making 100 calls a day without getting to speak with the right people can be very frustrating. You need to come up with a game plan to identify the right people before you pick up the phone. You need to be really strategic — try to find out influencers, insiders, mutual connections, who you can actually help you get to the top.
Stand Out
It is highly likely than not, there are other companies who do something similar, or possibly the exact same thing, that your company does. And they probably even offer things better than you. Think critically about how and why you should stand out. Part of being in a start-up sales role is building your own playbook — a sales handbook won’t be handed to you during training.
Tough Negotiation Chops
It’s generally understood that tech start-ups are looking to grow at any price, so be ready to negotiate. But this doesn’t mean lower the price and crack the deal. You had better learn to hold your ground to grow the start-up. Don’t be desperate to sell or to make incentives.
Final Thoughts
The technology world sees hundreds if not millions of startups every day and it also watches an equal number of them fail, crash hard and burn. While there may be plenty of reasons for a startup to bite the dust, chief among them is lack of revenue. To be part of the startup sales team means to bring in the right client who can add value to your company. And to remember the company’s growth is also your growth. Read the full article