Sales and Marketing

It’s easy to take hard-won capital and spend it aggressively on sales and marketing. But it’s impossible to get that money back if you invest it in the wrong product or the wrong go-to-market approach.

But how do you know whether you’re ready to pour gas on the fire? In Chapter 4, I’ll discuss how to know whether you really have product-market fit, and what to do if you don’t. I’ll introduce two key tools: the Sales Learning Curve and Net Promoter Score, and I’ll describe how you can put them to work quickly and easily. And I’ll talk about the impact traction has on how investors value your company—and what you can do to influence that valuation.

It’s not enough to build a great product—you also have to sell it efficiently. Ultimately, building a successful company comes down to acquiring users or customers efficiently. In Chapter 5, we’ll add another tool to the toolbox, Customer Lifetime Value, which will answer the key question: how much can you afford to spend to acquire a customer? I’ll cover a number of avoidable yet common sales mistakes—from ineffective sales people to bad contracts. And we’ll get into some exciting new sales approaches, such as the freemium model, that you can use to get your sales engine humming.

Of course, if no one’s ever heard of your company other than a handful of friends, you’re not going to have much success in the market. But today, marketing doesn’t have to be costly. In Chapter 6 you’ll learn the seven proven ways to market your startup and your products.

Part II will give you the tools you need to avoid sales and marketing failure—and to sell and market efficiently and effectively.