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...
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...