building your startup sales & traction

SALES & TRACTIONBUILDING YOUR BUSINESS

Guillaume Balas / Co-founder of Tings & Tings Labs guillaume@tingslabs.com

REMEMBER?

THE PROBLEM IS THAT IT DOES NOT SAY HOW YOU WILL GET TRACTION AND SELL YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE…

WHAT IS TRACTION?

SALES & TRACTION

TRACTION

1.Revenues

2.Traffic

3.Registered Users

4.Active users/Clients

5.Partnerships

6.Profitability

Source: https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-define-traction-for-a-start-up, http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225902, Guillaume Balas

M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11 M12 M13 M14 M15 M16 M17 M18

25% MoM 30% MoM35% MoM 40% MoM

Growth

X

FOCUS ON MARKETING AND SALES TACTICS!

SALES & TRACTION

“BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME”

ACQUISTION

MISTAKE #1

SALES & TRACTION

Source: http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/predictable-revenue/,

InboundOnlineOffline

INBOUND LEADS

MARK

ETIN

G

PERSONAS SECTOR REVENUES EMPLOYEES

B2BB2CSA

LES

NEW CUSTOMERS

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

INBOUND QUALIFIED LEADS

MARKET RESPONSE REPS.

Cold calling 2.0

OUTBOUND QUALIFIED LEADS

SALES DEVELOPEMENT REPS. (SDR)

CAMPAIGNS CONTENT WOM

SALES & TRACTION

INBOUND QUALIFIED LEADS

Source: http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/predictable-revenue/,

PERSONAS SECTOR REVENUES EMPLOYEES

InboundOnlineOffline

INBOUND LEADS

MARK

ETIN

GB2BB2C

OUTBOUND QUALIFIED LEADS

CAMPAIGNS

SALE

S Cold calling 2.0

NEW CUSTOMERS

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

MARKET RESPONSE REPS. SALES DEVELOPEMENT REPS. (SDR)

CONTENT WOMIt takes time, efforts and money to build a well-oiled repeatable

and scalable marketing engine…

MARKETING STUNT

SALES & TRACTION

Source: http://fundersandfounders.com/traction-how-successful-startups-first-got-users-infographic/ , http://www.businessinsider.com/10-brilliant-marketing-stunts-that-put-startups-on-the-map-2014-8#tinder-visited-sororities-and-their-partnering-fraternities-on-campus-and-devised-a-master-plan-to-get-tons-of-signups-1

Paul Graham mentioned Reddit in one of his essays

BLOGGER REVIEW

Paul English made a deal with AOL with only a 10-page slide deck and a 2-person team to show. Kayak launched with 15,000 daily searches

DEAL WITH A BIG CO.

AirBnB massively replied to listers of rental property, offering them to list on AirBnb.CRAIGSLIST POSTS

Noah Kagan built up a mailing of 20,000 subscribers. When Mint launched, they blasted the news out to 20k interested people.

MAILING LIST

Foursquare launched at SXSW which kicked off their growth. They added around 4k users that month. After that they began aggressively adding new cities.

DEMO AT TECH SHOW

Dollar Shave Club blew up in 2012 with a launch video that both echoed Old Spice's popular ads. The video, staring CEO Michael Dubin, has over 15 million view.

VIRAL VIDEO

Josh Kopelman paid 100K to a small town for it to be named half.com, which gained him national media coverage.

PUBLICITY STUNTS

SALES & TRACTION

DOLLARSHAVECLUB.COM Our Blades Are F***ing Great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI

COLD CALLING 2.0

SALES & TRACTION

Source: http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/predictable-revenue/,

WHAT'S NEXT?NOW YOU HAVE A BUNCH OF LEADS…

SALES & TRACTION

“A GOOD PRODUCT SELLS BY ITSELF”MISTAKE #

2

SALES & TRACTION

“SELL” DEFINITION

1.give or hand over (something) in exchange for money.

2.persuade someone of the merits of.

synonyms: persuade someone to accept, convince someone of the merits of, talk someone into, bring someone round to, win someone over to, get acceptance for, win approval for, get support for, get across, promote

3.(archaic) trick or deceive (someone).

Source: https://www.google.cl/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C5CHFA_enES564ES564&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=sell%20definition

LET’S GO & !

SALES & TRACTION

GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS adapted by David Mamet, directed by James Foley

MISTAKE #3

https://vimeo.com/14305226

BEWARE… KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

SALES & TRACTION

MAKE SURE TO:

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/thorleifhallund/the-art-of-selling-value

CREATE VALUEENGAGE PROSPECTS LEVERAGE COGNITIVE BIAS

with a personalized, consultative approach. Create a relationship with your prospects.

show you can create more value than your

competitors and focus on showing you create

greater outcomes

get an MBA from Eminem…

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/mcpheats/23-killer-questions-to-use-with-your-prospects?

SALES & TRACTION

COGNITIVE BIAS & DEFEATING YOUR COMPETITOR1.In-group Bias

2.Herd Behavior

3.Availability Cascade

4.Distinction Bias or Outgroup Bias

5.Ambiguity Bias

6.Credential Bias

7.Ingroup / Outgroup

8.Basic Direct Marketing: List The Objections Up Front

9.Humor Bias

10.Extreme Outgroup

11.Credential bias (again)

12.Scarcity

Source: James Altucher, http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/18/how-to-get-an-mba-from-eminem/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gatNLacOjC8

HOWEVER… ALWAYSBECLOSING

SALES & TRACTION

▸ 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect

▸ 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop

▸ 12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop

▸ ONLY 10% of sales people make more than three contacts

▸ 2% of sales are made on the first contact

▸ 3% of sales are made on the second contact

▸ 5% of sales are made on the third contact

▸ 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact

▸ 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

OH AND… MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW UP !!!

Source: https://www.salesgravy.com/sales-articles/closing-techniques/Following-Up-with-Prospects-90-Percent-Never-Do

WHAT ABOUT ONLINE?

SALES & TRACTION

SIX FACTORS TO INCREASE CONVERSION RATE

▸ Value Proposition provides the potential for conversion rate

▸ Conversion drivers:

• Relevance

• Clarity

• Urgency

▸ Conversion Inhibitors:

• Distraction

• Anxiety

Source: Wider Funnel, http://www.widerfunnel.com/the-six-landing-page-conversion-rate-factors/

NEGOTIATIONS

B2B

B2C

SALES & TRACTION

=

“OBSTACLES DON’T HAVE TO STOP YOU. IF YOU RUN INTO A WALL, DON’T TURN AROUND AND GIVE UP. FIGURE OUT HOW TO CLIMB IT, GO THROUGH IT, OR WORK AROUND IT.”

Michael Jordan

SALES & TRACTION

ALL THE ROADS LEAD TO ROME

Source: Philipp Schmitt, Benedikt Groß, and Raphael Reimann, Wired, http://www.wired.com/2015/12/here-are-all-the-roads-that-lead-to-rome/#slide-1

SALES & TRACTION

ACTIVATION

ACQUISTION

RETENTION

REVENUE

REFERRAL

Source: Dave McClure, AARRR Metrics for Pirates

How do users find you? How do you find users?

Do users have a first great experience?

Do users come back?

How do you make money?

Do users tell others?

THANK YOU !GUILLAUME BALAS - GUILLAUME@TINGSLABS.COM

RECOMMENDED RESOURCESSOME HELP

SALES & TRACTION

▸ The Evolution of the Sales & Marketing Relationship

▸ The Company Changing Magic of Sales Operations Done Right

▸ Predictable Revenue

▸ Enterprise 2.0 - The Science of Inside Sales

▸ SaaS Best Practices - SaaS Inside Sales Benchmark Report

▸ A Blueprint from the Woman who Helped Adroll Double its Sales force and sales

▸ 10 Brilliant Marketing Stunts that Put Startups on the Map

▸ Evolving New Sales Model

▸ The Evolution of the Sales Model

▸ The Art of Selling Value

▸ How to get an MBA from Eminem

▸ Five Signs You're Losing a Sale -- And How to Save It

▸ Following Up with Prospects - 90% Never Do

▸ TOOLS

▸ http://www.slideshare.net/mcpheats/23-killer-questions-to-use-with-your-prospects? [Questions for prospects]

▸ https://www.fullcontact.com/blog/sales-prospecting-automation/ [Prospection Automation]

▸ http://firstround.com/review/building-your-best-sales-deck-starts-here/ [Sales Deck Optimization]

▸ http://firstround.com/review/Your-Product-Demos-Suck-Because-Theyre-Focused-on-Your-Product/ [Product Demo]

SALES & TRACTION