The one resolution everyone should have for 2021:
“Become a creator”.
Create anything from scratch:
It could be anything.
Don’t be just a consumer.
Be a creator.
Wish you a very Happy, Healthy, Prosperous, and Creative 2021!! 🎉 🎆
They say, work “smart” not “hard”.
The reality is – smart work is the fruit of a lot of hard work.
Hard work is how you become knowledgeable about lots of areas and an expert in a few areas to make better decisions for smart work.
The conventional practice is to convince prospects that your product is superior to your competitor’s.
But it’s not required. There is an alternative option.
It might be sufficient to convince prospects what’s good about your product with a clear, honest, and informative way.
I even have a slide in our Sales deck that tells prospects about the gaps in our product that they will miss in the near term when they switch over from our competitors to us.
If the prospect feels certain that your product is good, and appreciates your honesty, it’s very likely that they will still buy your product.
There is only one right reason to do a startup:
You fall in love with your customer’s problem.
Everything else is a distraction.
You have probably heard of Predictable Pipeline and Predictable Revenue.
But have you heard of Predictable Salesperson?
It’s the one who builds the Predictable Pipeline to deliver the Predictable Revenue.
Predictable Salesperson believes in – “You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
She believes – how you choose to live your days is how you choose to live your life.
She’s putting in the time and effort every day to reach the success she truly wants.
She’s skipping binge-watching the new series because she’s working towards something bigger.
These are the decisions that define who a Predictable Salesperson is and how successful they become as a sales professional.
It’s about daily habits, not about the end goals.
How do you become a Predictable Salesperson?
Create a repeatable process for yourself that you can do every single day without fail.
Focus on actions you control rather than putting all the pressure on results that might not come.
The common adage in Sales is “maybe” is the worst response you could get from the prospect.
It’s better to get “no” than “maybe”.
“Maybe” is a land of hope. Reps shouldn’t waste time there and instead seek “no” and chase new opportunities.
But is it still true with the modern B2B and SaaS buying behavior?
With the power of buying is shifting to buyers, are Sales reps being forced to be very transactional?
Your prospects might have other burning fires going right now. Sometimes the need is there, but the timing is not right.
They’re getting the job done just fine right now. But the need could go stronger as their world evolves.
Just because it’s a “maybe” right now, it’s not a “no” in the future.
“You can’t turn a no to a yes without a maybe in between.” – Francis Underwood
What should Sales reps do when they get “maybe”s?
• List down the most common objections that cause your prospects to answer with a “maybe”.
• Educate sales reps to approach these objections with new sense of purpose and respect the buyer’s world.
• Craft an outreach email campaign to stay on “top of mind” and provide continuous education value.
And eventually when their need becomes stronger, their “maybe” will turn into a “yes”.
I was on a podcast y’day and the host asked me why I got into entrepreneurship. And it reminded me of how I used to get fascinated by manufacturing factories and used to think – one day, I want to build a “factory”. 🏭
Well, that dream never came true 🙁 as I got into Software 😊. And that got me thinking – that’s a new reality.
Today, if you need to start a Software or Internet-enabled business, all you need is – a creative mind and a laptop.
You don’t need a fancy office or expensive machinery. Almost anyone can be in business.
You don’t need unions and departments. One person can do the job of many.
It’s probably easier to start a Software and Internet-enabled business as tools are accessible a click away.
You don’t have to work 9-5. You can work on your own schedule.
You don’t have to take huge debt and a big risk. You can have little savings to get started.
You don’t have to go door to door or trade-shows to sell your stuff. You can sell to anyone in the world by sitting in your home.
It’s a new way of working.
And it is very relevant and important in today’s unemployment situation.
Don’t think you’re starting a “business”. For some people, that is daunting.
Think it like – you are going to work for yourself.
When I was doing customer-development and searching for a co-founder for Avoma, people often asked me – “Are trying to throw this idea on a wall and see if it sticks?”
I hated that question.
There was no Plan B for Avoma.
I strongly believed in the problem with extensive customer research and the gap in the market.
I had a point of view to solve this problem and an ambitious vision of what the world would look like in 5-10 years.
I left the high-salaried full-time job without having a co-founder for 6 months, without having a prototype, or any sort of commitment and clarity on any milestone.
I never doubted my vision and the opportunity even though we had very (I mean really “very”) highly-funded competitors.
We had many investors rejected us because we had “many” highly-funded competitors who had already launched and were ahead of us in the market.
There is not even a single day since Avoma’s inception I ever thought about a Plan B.
There is no Plan B.
I’m an engineer by training. But have fallen in love with selling.
Here is why.
Selling is personal. Share your stories. Be vulnerable.
Selling is interpersonal. Meet new people. Build relationships.
Selling is collaborative. Get help from colleagues. Strategize with the team.
Selling is disciplined. Be consistent. Make and keep promises.
Selling is scientific. Follow the process. Learn from the best.
Selling is artistic. Be creative and solve problems. Make it unique.
Selling is hard. Face many rejections. Persevere until you succeed.
Selling is addictive. Win one, two, ten. Keep winning more.
Selling is rewarding. Create impact. Make companies successful.
Selling is mysterious. Wonder why it worked. Diagnose why it didn’t work.
In the previous post, I shared one of the hiring mistakes we did at Avoma that we hired for skills and not for passion.
But the question is still unanswered, how do you hire for passion in early-stage startups?
If I want to hire for passion in the future, I’ll ask these two questions:
1. What are your passions? (So clichéd 😊)
The goal is not to understand “what” their passion is, but “how” they talk about it.
Their passion could be about literature, painting, sports, etc. and not necessarily about early-stage startups.
But you can judge how passionately they talk about their passion, how deep they go, how do they find time to work on their passion, etc.
2. Do you have any side hustles?
The goal is to understand if they have the ambition to turn their passion into an additional income source.
It indicates their resourcefulness and creativity.
And that’s why they might have a higher chance of being more successful and instrumental in early-stage startups.
Do you agree? Is there anything that you would consider?
