I work with founders on their first million
in revenue, the initial product market fit.
Three points are important for this.
Ideal customer profile, sales funnel,
and trust.
Let's start with the first one,
ideal customer profile.
You need to understand that customers don't buy
technologies, they buy solutions for
specific problems. You need to come up with a
good set of hypotheses. When you
do that, focus on solutions with short sales
cycles, meaning little periphery
integration and little need for customer
resources. The second point is sales
funnel. Even with the best ICP, there will be
deals that don't move with the
velocity you like. Three points are important to
circumvent this. The first
one is choice. Your sales funnel needs to be full
to the brim so that you have the
choice between deals. Aim for 300 properly
qualified MQLs within your
first six to eight months when focusing on SMBs.
The second point is you have to
be brave and cut deals. This is sometimes really
really hard for founders,
especially for the deals that come from the very
early beginnings of your
journey. But you must focus your resources on the
deals with the highest
probability of success. Last but not least,
introduce a proper CRM. You have to
be spot-on on every deal but it also allows you
to start lead nurturing.
And lead nurturing brings us to the last point, trust.
Customers don't know you,
your company, your product, yet you ask them to
spend ten thousands of euros on
your solutions. You need to build up trust to
make sales more seamless.
Four points are very important from my point of view.
The first one is brand. Invest in
a shiny website and sales material that really
resonates with your target group.
The second one is content. Customers have at
least three to four different touch
points with your company before they convert.
Invest in content such as
webinars, trade fairs, or articles in industry
magazines. Third point is
testimonials. Your initial product will have
flaws. Overcompensate with amazing
customer service so that your first 10 to 15
customers really become fans of
your company and your product and are open for
reference calls. Last but not
least, HR. In my experience, it's great to start
with one or two business
development people that can move freely between
sales and marketing. But as soon
as your sales funnel allows it, make sure you
hire seasoned sales talent with
domain expertise. It is incredibly hard to build up
that domain knowledge on your own.
Plus, they boost your reputation with their
working history. These are just a
few topics we cover with our founders. I'm super
excited to work with you on
your first million in revenue.