4 Important Lessons I Learned From Founding a Successful Startup That Has a 90% Close Rate
Why the secret to startup success requires you to never talk about your product
Survival is a great motivator. So is the fear of not being able to make the next payroll.
In a startup, everyone else gets paid, then you get paid. Try explaining that one to your spouse. Oh, and we are taking on Oracle and SAP with our new product launch. Are you excited to invest in us yet?
I have learned a lot from this journey of the first-time founder to seasoned CEO, and I want to share that with you so you can take shortcuts where I took long detours. Here are the four most significant lessons I learned that were crucial to my success.
1. Hire Startup Mentality People
The first lesson I learned is that you have to have a team that is willing to work outside their area of expertise. This means you’ll need startup mentality people. Startup people learn how to do, adjust, pivot, redo, and repivot. They know or will learn how to create things — from scratch.
Startup mentality people generally can’t be found in larger companies. Larger companies have staff to do this and that. In a startup, everything is everyone’s job because “the right way” hasn’t been uncovered.
A startup mentality means a person knows how to deal with failure.
I have hired intelligent people with outstanding resumes. They always thought they knew what to do because they always aced everything in school. But then I found they couldn’t figure out what to do when their go-to methods weren’t working. I had to learn that someone’s college GPA and resume weren’t everything.
Give me someone with drive, ingenuity, and an excellent attitude to hire any day of the week. I can teach them what they need to learn. Skills can always be taught.
Everything is everyone’s job. I’m not just talking about reordering coffee pods or cleaning the conference room — although that is also important.
I’m talking about crafting a winning penetration message, so you get considered for a deal.
Or, how to win a large new customer by working the night away to create a closing presentation.
Startup mentality people don’t worry about who gets the credit.
2. What Problem Did I Solve?
I knew that making sure I was clear on what problem I solved would be critical if I ever wanted to succeed.
Sounds simple.
Sounds obvious.
But it isn’t.
I have looked at many startup websites and can’t figure out what problem they solve.
If you don’t know what problem you solve, no one else will. The best problems are big and cause a lot of pain. I’ve found that the best solutions usually come from someone who has experienced the pain and figured out a solution.
Prospects will lean in when they can relate to the pain you solve and understand your personal story. Positioning is easier once you clearly identify the problem you solve, who has it, and who owns the budget to solve it.
I’ve noticed that the closer the budget holder is to the pain, the faster prospects will turn into customers.
3. Don’t Talk About My Product
Not talking about product was hard for me, if I am honest. I knew I had a great new solution. The team and I were proud of it.
But I couldn’t talk about it.
At least, not until I identified a prospect that had the problem, the pain, and would prioritize finding a solution to solve it and fund it.
According to a recent Gartner study, 87% of the time a decision-maker will spend on a problem is spent independent of meeting with a seller.
The CEO of TSIA World Tech conference recently asked a room full of over 2,000 technology leaders whether they would find the customers expected outcomes captured in the CRM opportunity record. In the entire crowd of thousands, only five hands came up.
This is because most companies sell based on features of their product. Nothing about customer KPIs or measurable expectations are ever established, recorded, or delivered.
Talking about your product is boring to decision-makers. And sellers won’t get a meeting if their messaging is about the product.
I have learned that the way to succeed is to sell specific business outcomes to business professionals. This is a more complex sales approach.
Why? For two reasons:
Sellers must understand the prospect’s industry, business issues, and even their key business metrics. What are their business problems? Their challenges? How do they measure success? How does your product solve their problem?
That allows you to speak in the language of their business. And this infers that salespeople know to speak the language of the individual company industry verticals.
I knew I had to convince prospects, usually executive personas, that other companies like them were getting business benefits from projects they don’t have underway.
“Based on our customer benchmarks, if you take the same action, you can expect that return.”
Those approaches — outcome selling versus product selling — are completely different and require very distinct capabilities.
How did I get this type of messaging and benchmarks? From my customers.
You can achieve a 90% close rate when you focus on value created with customer proof and have a scoring system whereby you only pursue the perfect prospect.
4. Use The Voice Of The Customer
I’ve found that even if you are a founder and the only salesperson, prospects will only believe a portion of what you say.
To solve this, I have learned that you must sell through your customers. The voice of the customer is believed.
Metrics and KPIs associated with solving the problem are key differentiators.
Metrics, customer quotes, and proof I’ve solved the problem will amplify everything I present.
These materials can then be used to “earn” meetings with decision-makers. Earning an early meeting with decision-makers, armed with Voice of the Customer proof of value cases studies, causes sales cycles to end faster with better conclusions.
Conclusion
Although starting a new business from scratch can seem daunting, I would only choose to have lived and worked this way. Life is not just about work but about passion, love, and your daily purpose. I genuinely love what I do.
Hours have been long, but they went towards something meaningful. I want to change the way salespeople sell.
I want salespeople to spend less time chasing the wrong prospects. I want them to make more money in less time, so they can enjoy their lives.
I want them to be welcomed by the prospects they pursue.
I know this is possible because not only I have done it, but our President of Sales ran his sales teams like this before he joined us.
Everyone wants to be happy, and I can say (very gratefully) that I am. If you’re debating about beginning your own business, and you have passion, I say:
Start. Today.
Jeff is the award-winning co-author of Selling to Zebras and is the dynamic founder and CEO of Zebrafi®. The company developed Zebrafi™ Software, an AI-driven Sales Enablement Automation Platform that directs sellers and B2B buyers through a buying cycle.
For years the Zebrafi team has developed a track record of proven client successes. They coach and collaborate with clients to build a holistic sales system and culture that create trust and sales results. Case studies verify that customers routinely experience faster sales cycles, larger deals, and higher close rates. For more information: visit www.zebrafi.com
