Anyone can Spend, but Honey can you make Money?

Have you ever bought a pair of socks? Pretty easy right? I am sure, everyone does that. But, can you sell the same pair, even at half of its original price? Difficult? Right?

Startup without sales is a hobby, Stelli

If you are one of my customers, then RED ALERT this post is not for you. Because, if you read this, you may not buy from me later, CAUTION: please don’t move ahead.BUT If you are an entrepreneur who has built a product or has plans to do so, and therefore is looking for some “useful Gyan on sales”, then this one is surely written for you. I will share all the things that helped me to create a $50,000 monthly growing business.

I started my career in a hotshot corporate as a techie, but with an ambition to be an entrepreneur someday. Soon, I decided to live my dream and then faced a lot of hurdles in reality. When you decide to become an entrepreneur you don’t have to do just one thing, let us say, programming. Whether you like it or not you have to undertake more than just one job. I decided to be a salesman. People become entrepreneurs because they want to change the conventional ways, they want to break the standards and establish newer ones. If they just wanted to earn money, I am sure they have other ways to do so.

1. It’s not you who sells, it’s the people who buy:

People hire salespersons, they give them targets and incentives. They forget basic things, it’s not you who sell, it’s the people who buy. Ask a question- if you were the customer would you buy your product or services?

Be honest, if you answer is no! Change product or services convert it to a yes. That yes should be loud and clear. Apple knows people are going to buy iPhone, Do you?

2. Investor look for Valuation:

Are you looking to raise funds Investors look for traction, they want you to acquire more and more customers. All the freaking startups closed down because they have given heavy discounts which attract greedy customers. If you spend 100K dollars in Goa, man you are going to be a charmer among the girl, but empty pockets seldom fetch the catch, the party gets over as soon as your cash drains out!

3. Sales is like a marriage; people do it with whom they trust:

Customer look for value, not valuation. When customers pay you the money, they trusted you or your product /services. You become trustworthy, don’t fuckup with your customers. Give them real value. Once they are happy, they are going to tell their friend this product or their services is great. Bingo! You now have a wide and positive network of mouth to mouth publicity. When your customer does sales for you, you will make real money because those customers won’t go anywhere, they will hardly negotiate the price as well.

4. Write like a human being- People hate templates:

When I add someone on LinkedIn, I get long chat, boastful messages about them, their company, their sales. It sounds so fake, that I don’t trust them anymore! I just added you on LinkedIn, does this means I am hungry or that you can flood my mail with narcissist mails. Gone are the days when cold calls and spam emails worked. Now Gmail is going to find that you are a jerk and will put your email in spam!

I have written few fruitful emails and I was fortunate enough to get great replies from:

• Girish, Founder, FreshWork (Formerly FreshDesk)
• Ankur Warikoo , cofounder & ceo, Nearby
• Vinay Singhal, Cofounder & CEO, Wittyfeed
• Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Cofounder & CEO, Paytm
• Amit Grover, co-Founder, AHA Taxis
• Jason Fried, founder & CEO, Basecamp
• Subrat Kar, Cofounder, and CEO, Vidooly
• Gireesh Challa, Founder, Notary Mama.
• Vivek Durai, Founder at TermSheet / Paper.vc
• Able Joseph, Founder & CEO at Aisle
• Joby, CEO & Founder Freshersworld
• Swati Bhargava, Co-Founder, CashKaro
• Santosh Panda, Founder, Explara
• Nemesh Singh, Founder, Appointy

I would be more than happy to share email templates and also I’ll guide you to correct yours, Comment your email template and whom you want to approach for which purpose?

5. How to get sales?

Don’t take silence for a rejection! It is not the handsome guy who gets the girl, but the most persistent one. The best way to get more customers around your product or services is to be useful again, and again, and again, and again. We are not Steve Jobs. And things take time to be perfect. Move fast, take feedback and constantly improve. Strive for excellence.

Finding customers is easy, but finding the right customer is difficult. A right customer is someone who believes in you, who takes you up. Not the one who makes you work, in exchange for money.

20% of your customers are responsible for your 80% growth. People attend networking events, they look for customers, once they get them, they complain that the customer is not great.

6. Support is a language that blinds can see and deaf can hear:

Have you got your first cheque, it’s not the end. People ask how to close lead, don’t close leads, open a relationship. First cheque or first signup tells you that your marketing and brand perception is great but once you get another cheque or recurring payment, that shows you are giving desired, dream value.

Your internet is not working, your services provider asked you to install their app and raise a ticket by selecting the right category. Then after 48 hours someone will call and understand your issue(s). What you are going to do, of course, you are going to change the company, I don’t care whether the founder is my friend or not.

Thumb Rule: Today’s customers are smart.They don’t take bullshit.

Provide great customers service, Employees learn from founders like children learn from their parents. If you are a lazy boss, don’t expect that your people will work hard.

We don’t have to do great things to show that we care. For instance, I have put up my personal number on my website. Both of the founders are available on live chat at my website. It’s ok to have ordinary services. In my city, there are 2,000 IT companies, and in India, there are more than 1 Mn small tech services companies.

It’s been 20 years, my father and I have been buying groceries from the same grocery store. Why? Because they care. So, support your clients. Show people that you care. Not everyone wants to do business with Steve Jobs.

This post is originally posted at EngineerBabu Blog