In business? You're in sales

Most businesses, fundamentally, live or die on their ability to make sales.

Seasoned entrepreneurs know this. Many first-time entrepreneurs don’t have a clue.

Of the new businesses created in Australia every year, half are failing within the first four years. As the years in business climb so does the rate of failure.

I have dozens of discussions every year with new business owners through my community micro-grant organisation Awesome Newcastle and my network. I’ve mentored entrepreneurs in startup programs for Red Bull, Sydney School of Entrepreneurship and others. Some years I meet well over 100 early stage entrepreneurs.

Something I’ve told new business owners over and over again is that, despite their passion for whatever their business is, once they start a proper business they’re in sales. (I’m generalising here – obviously not all new businesses are the result of the founder’s passion, but many are). Entrepreneurs/wantrepreneurs are often a bit taken aback by this, but the reality is the sooner they build their sales muscle, the more successful they’ll be.

Some examples:

• If you’re an incredible software engineer working on an image generation startup, you’re now in sales. Your job isn’t making software. Your job is to sell your software to business (ideal) or consumer (probably not ideal) prospects who may or may not be looking for the solution you’re providing. You used to be an engineer. Now you’re in sales. You may also find yourself selling to new employees and investors.

• If you’ve started a not-for-profit which is reliant on external funding, you’re now in sales. Without sales your NFP doesn’t exist. You can expect tough times ahead unless you get very good at sales, very quickly. Who will fund you? How will you get to them? Who do you know who can help you get to them? Why should they choose you over 1,000 other NFPs kicking their door in? How does your NFP help them deliver their strategic objectives? How can you remove risk for them? Where are your proof points; what gives them the confidence that you’ll pull this off? Get moving. You’re in sales.

Some entrepreneurs are better off staying as tinkerers, freelancers, and one-person side-ventures that bring some fun to nights and weekends. Once you pull the trigger and go all-in on a full-time business, you’re in sales.

If you’re an early-stage entrepreneur and need to make sales, here are some things I generally recommend new business owners do and think about:

• Position your business around what you’re really selling. Sell outcomes, not features. When they’re buying your product or service, are customers really buying time, confidence, peace of mind, trust, freedom, flexibility or something else? Position your business around the outcomes the business delivers. Collect your proof points – your evidence of the outcomes – with your first customers and whoever else you can convince to use your product or service in the early days. Work the proof points into your story and messaging.

• Sell first, build later. Most business owners invest too much time and capital in their product or service before they try to sell it. Research and test it all you like, but it’s only when you try to sell it that you’ll find out the value customers place on it, and what they really need. You don’t need to build your entire offering before you sell it – you need the fastest and cheapest version of your product or service for your first sales. The amount of cash I’ve seen lit on fire by lawyers and software engineers registering trademarks and building complex software for solutions customers don’t want would blow your mind. Create a simplified offering – a one-page PDF will often do. Go and sell it. Listen to the objections. Tweak the offering and go again. Once you’ve sold it, build it.

If you follow both these points you’ll be ahead of most first-time entrepreneurs and on the right side of the statistics.

Kick the doors in. Hit the phones. You’re in sales. Get after it!