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Plug this gap by reading and doing, not by hiring. The main reason is that you're still in the early stages of establishing a product/market fit. As Steve Bla
by aamar 16y ago
Plug this gap by reading and doing, not by hiring.
The main reason is that you're still in the early stages of establishing a product/market fit. As Steve Blank (alongside others) says, that means you need to "get outside the building." The people who are in charge of defining and envisioning the product -- the founders, or some subset of the founders -- need to be the people seeing why their product is or isn't selling.
If you feel totally unclear on how sales even works, then read a book or two (starting with Steve Blank). And see if you can meet someone who either buys or sells in the industry; buy them lunch for some guidance and tips. It might be tempting to bring on board someone like that, but dividing up responsibilities early will make it vastly harder to identify real gaps in product fit. Bring on sales people only when you have a consistently replicable process for selling.
In terms of marketing to end-users, you're kind of in a difficult spot in that your target market seems pretty diffuse, therefore not easy to target. If you can come up with a segment of potential users who could be unusually passionate about the product, see if you can reach those people. Go where they are; get endorsements from the people they like. Optimize your viral loops to reach or be useful to those people.
Now, if you have 3 co-founders, it's not necessary for all 3 to sell and market. I'd suggest making it a primary job of 2 of them.
By the way, this advice might be different in the case of other kinds of knowledge gaps. But for sales/marketing, this increasingly and by far seems like the winning strategy.
- bapbap 16y agoIs it not better to get someone in who is actually good at the job rather than me doing it reluctantly? I don't think I'll ever feel comfortable in a sales role. Another reason for wanting someone else to do it is so I can dedicate my time to developing.
- aamar 16y agoYes, those are the common reasons that founders hesitate to sell. I'm sympathetic, especially with the developing part -- superficially it seems like optimal outcomes are generated by everyone focusing on their core skills. But the first major sales are almost always going to come from a founder and/or CEO. So even if the optimal choice is not you, it's probably at least one of the founders; he/she may be very uncomfortable in the role but should be able to do it. (By the way, I'd speculate that the optimal person is you, not either of them.) There are a few exception cases, where someone delegated to a sales person and it worked out. But I think this is a case where those are truly rare exceptions. http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/10/12/startup-sales-why-hiring-seasoned-reps-may-not-work/ http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/10/12/startup-sales-... http://steveblank.com/2009/09/07/the-customer-development-manifesto-the-death-spiral-part-3/ http://steveblank.com/2009/09/07/the-customer-development-ma...