
Just Fucking Sell - joshfraser
http://learntoduck.com/startups/just-fucking-sell/
======
mgkimsal
"Series A investors are now looking for real businesses with real potential."

When were they ever _not_ saying that? We can say that "this time" it's
different, but I don't remember "series A investors" ever saying "well, we're
just looking for some BS project to flip in 6 month - we don't care if you're
actually going to make money or not, but we don't want to tell you that to
your face".

So if they're weren't saying it years ago, and aren't saying it now, how else
do you judge what they're looking for? Do you look for what they're investing
in? color.com, anyone? Yes, that's a below-the-belt blow, but no moreso than
comparing every new startup to facebook/google in terms of potential
revenue/marketshare/eyeballs/etc.

Yes, "build something that people want and make revenue from it". Yes, we get
it. That's sane business sense. But we don't see enough of those smaller
success stories in the press. Billion dollar valuations of projects that
haven't even opened yet suck most of the air out of the room, and everyone
else who gets to ramen-profitable (or before) seems they need to get heard by
stating (what should be and is the) obvious, but they're largely preaching to
the choir here.

------
F_J_H
_“You are either building, selling or leaving.”_

I like pithy witticisms like this - reminds me of something business guru
Peter Drucker said:

"Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business
enterprise has two--and only two--basic functions: marketing and innovation.
Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs."

------
redthrowaway
In the vein of the OP, I'm not going to tread lightly:

This post smacks of the founder "culture" post that isn't focussed on
business. He provides a lot of powerful-sounding admonitions, none of which
equate to "build a product people want, and sell it". Sorry, but this seems
far more The Social Network than that-company-that-made-something-cool-and-
got-money-for-it.

~~~
natrius
_He provides a lot of powerful-sounding admonitions, none of which equate to
"build a product people want, and sell it"._

From the post:

 _For a company to be successful there are literally only two functions the
company has to perfect. Building and Selling. Thats it._

Did you actually read it?

~~~
olalonde
I think he meant "all of which".

------
soundlab
No way- selling should be a primary focus?

If this comes as some kind of revelation to you, you need to take time off of
whatever you do and learn about selling.

Go talk to a seasoned quota-carrying sales manager and show him your vanity
metrics- he'll laugh at you and ask you how your pipeline looks and why
haven't you closed XYZ Co. this week. Way too many founders are catering to
investors vs. universal sustainable business practices these days. The vast
majority will never, ever, ever raise beyond friends/family, you may as well
cover your own ass with an executable sales strategy that can keep you in the
game.

"Stop getting excited by the “maybes” and “lets have another meeting”
responses you get to your product. IT MEANS YOUR PRODUCT SUCKS.Budgets,
approvals, etc are all excuses as to why they don’t want to buy, but don’t
want to say no.."

Unless you have a team of field sales guys getting these kinds of responses
you could be making a colossal mistake.

Typically, a very small number of people are in the market, ready to buy what
you are selling right away- especially with zero credibility in the
marketplace or if you have a very new approach to solving their problems. If
you're not taking those "no's" or "soft no's" and putting them into a
nurturing or marketing funnel then you are missing future business for when
they are ready to buy. This is the way of the B2B sales cycle hath been
written by the B2B sales gods. Force feeding people your product at gun point
and not taking no for an answer makes you look like a needy asshole that no
one wants to buy from- now, or in the future.

FWIW I read a new book over the weekend on building sales teams and lead gen
systems called Predictable Revenue by a guy that ran sales teams at
Salesforce- very highly recommend.

P.S. Wish I had never heard the term grinfucking - creepy as hell...

------
_delirium
I see the motivation, but picking one proxy metric to understand your business
by seems like an overreaction. Unless it's not a _proxy_ metric, that is; if
you could predict discounted future profits, then "estimated present value of
net future profits" would be a great metric (assuming those are _accurate_
estimates). But if it's really a proxy metric, all proxies are wrong in more
or less interesting ways, so you might want several angles from which to view
what's going on.

~~~
jkahn
How about this as a metric: revenue. Or another: gross profit.

Yeah, picking one metric might be extreme. The point is to discard the
bullshit ones.

~~~
travem
It reminds me of the "good to great" book's focus on choosing a metric which
represents your economic driver.

------
joedev
Well there's 60 seconds I'll never get back.

~~~
micahb37
here: <http://youtu.be/9W63RzhO-J0> hope we are even now.

------
AznHisoka
I see so many consumer startups brag about vanity metrics. If you're a
consumer startup doing something that's not mobile-focused, the # of unique
visitors you're getting per month as viewed in Quantcast or Compete just tells
the complete story. And even if you're mobile-focused too because Foursquare
actually gets over a million uniques through their website. No excuses for you
not to as well.

~~~
Drbble
What if your startup sells something besides ad impressions?

------
mathattack
People grinfuck you when you waste their time.

The core point lost in the delivery is startups need to build and sell. We
learn how to deliver. Few are taught how to sell. (& certainly not in any top
10 MBA curriculum!)

~~~
xfax
To your point about MBA curriculum not having a component on selling - not
true.

Here are a few courses at Chicago Booth that are all about selling (for
entrepreneurs):

Entrepreneurial Selling by Craig Wortmann Commercializing Innovation by Scott
Meadow

And to a certain extent,

Building the New Venture by Waverly Deutsch and Craig Wortmann.

------
jes5199
I have no idea what you are talking about.

------
hc8217
Definition of grinfucking from feld's blog:

“please don’t grinfuck me by saying how wonderful the talk was as you think in
the back of your mind ‘wow – Feld is a real moron – he totally missed the
point on the blah thing.’”

------
nirvana
Man, I agree. We should have a lot more talk about selling here on HN. It is
much more relevant than politics. Isn't the essence of a business- and all
startups are young business-- the mechanism that generates revenue? And isn't
selling a primary method of it? Sales so often seems focused on selling the
product that is your stock, not the product that is your business's purpose.

He talks about finding that feeling that your product gives.

I've heard this called: "Made, Laid or Paid". How does your product do one of
those three?

I also heard that Sequoia wants a 7 deadly sins slide- how your product
enables one or more of those seven deadly sins.

Also, I think that revenue is important. I think too many startups maybe get
easy money or seek investment as their goal, and thus vanity metrics hold
sway... when the better choice is revenue or ramen profitability. When your
profitable, you no longer have that clock ticking, you're a lot harder to bend
over the barrel and you can be a lot more selective about from whom and under
what terms you take investment.

Everywhere else in life, being in that position means that people want to do
business with you more than they do when you _need_ them.

I've spent too much time at too many startups where the CEO & CFO and usually
one more key person were MIA for quarters, if not years at a time because they
were always chasing money.

