Sales and Marketing.

Today we are talking about the absolute basics of sales and marketing.

1. Marketing is all about how people initially find your product. There are at least 10 different, well-used ways to reach customers, but most startups should begin with direct outreach, asking for advice. Starting within your own network and then expand out.

2. Most founders dream of building the perfect self-serve application right out of the gate, avoiding sales altogether. The reality for most, even consumer-focused founders, is that you will have to personally sell your product to at least your first 10 customers. Once that is complete, we can think about hiring or self-serve automation.

3. Whatever channels and approaches you choose, you will need to build out a pipeline. For most startups, this can be expressed in just 4 steps — How many people are finding you, how many are expressing interest, how many are trying the product, and how many become customers.

Best of luck out there.

Today, we’re talking about launching your beta to small groups.

1. I advise against releasing your beta to the entire waitlist. You will get the same feedback from almost everyone and will likely throw away a lot of potential customers due to the problems they encounter.

2. Instead, break down the beta launch into small groups of 5–10 people, even less for enterprise software. Launch to a small group, collect feedback, iterate, and then launch to the next small group.

3. This approach ensures you receive a much broader range of feedback, allows you more time to iterate, and prevents you losing customers unnecessarily to fixable bugs.

Best of luck out there.

Today, we’re talking about the basics of startup marketing.

1. In my opinion, your first outreach should be direct. That’s for B2B, B2C, and marketplaces. The reason is that you need lots and lots of feedback at this very early stage. Analytics won’t cover it. You need to be talking to customers directly. Most people start within their own network and then expand.

2. When you want to broaden outreach to dozens of people and beyond, then we can start to test all the various scalable channels, although don’t discount direct outreach — it scales too. However, do remember, the best products often generate referrals from happy customers.

3. So the marketing channels I often suggest startups try first are: content marketing, conferences, and direct outreach, where you ask for advice. The channel I suggest you avoid is Ads, as it’s easy to start but so expensive it can drastically shorten your runway.

Best of luck out there.

Today, we’re talking about building a self-serve product as your first version. And I strongly recommend against it.

1. First and foremost — as a founder, building a self-serve app will not mean you can avoid sales tasks. Put that out of your mind. Outside of sales, fundraising, and recruiting are basically the same, so you will have to do it.

2. Now, you might dream of starting with a self-serve experience that everyone loves, but the reality is that your first versions will be bad, so it’s probably not a good idea to risk potential customers with a self-serve onboarding. Sell your product directly yourself and set up at least your first 10 customers by hand.

3. Once you have a manual setup working well and more than 50% of customers you’re signing up remain engaged, then it’s time to start thinking about automating your onboarding or customer success hiring.

Best of luck out there.

Today, we’re talking about building a simple sales funnel. This framework can be applied to both B2B and most B2C businesses to help you think more strategically about distribution and sales.

1st Stage. Distribution — How many people are discovering your product or encountering your outreach? I recommend allocating 75% of your time to the distribution channels that are currently working for you, while dedicating the remaining 25% to trying new approaches.

2nd Stage. Expressing Interest — How many of the people who find your product are interested in learning more? Indicators of interest might include subscribing to a newsletter, downloading an app, or signing up on your website.

3rd Stage. Product Testing — How many people are trying out your service? This might involve launching a paid pilot or the successful completion of a mobile app onboarding process.

Best of luck out there.