Business
On the show this week, Anthony is discussing start-ups with Scott Sambucci has spent the last 20 years building and selling technology products, leading three Silicon Valley startups each to their first millions in revenue. Scott works with startups across the world, helping them grow their sales faster. He has extensive experience in sales, customer development, and company management in both startups and public-traded companies. He’s on the show today to share his experience leading high-performing sales teams and what it takes to make a start-up blow-up. They kick off their conversation by talking about how and where start-ups can find their first customers and clients. When Scott thinks about start-ups, it means getting from the first dollars to the first million, to the fist ten beyond that. What he recommends is looking at the industries in which your company was born. You’ve found a problem that isn’t solved yet, so the simplest and most direct, focused way to making your solution known is to reach out to those already in your network. When you begin to scale that process of sales, too often do we get caught up in the big picture. The most important factor to keep in mind is iteration. The same way you would release a product and adjust based on the feedback your receive, you do the same with any aspect of your business. As far as when to iterate, he uses the rule of 3 and 10. When your company grows by 3x or 10x, everything in place will break. The way you’ve done things won’t work any longer. You have to come up with a new process. This about how you segment the long journey that is scaling. Scott talks a bit about the “Q Framework” that he wrote about in his book. The “Q” stands for questions. There are seven questions that you have to be clear on in order to formulate your own sales process. The first three questions are: What problem are you solving? It sounds easy, but too often we overlook it. No problem, no sale! What segment are you selling to? Get clarity on your target audience. Who are the buyers? Under what circumstances are people purchasing your product? A mistake Scott sees when companies scale is they scale without having a core system in place. Any production line that wants to build multiple warehouses needs to make sure that the first one works as efficiently as possible. Scaling is the same way. If you don’t have a foundational, working, effective process, scaling it will only compound the issues it has. Additionally, trying to crowbar a “good” system into your business could hinder your progress. Trying to use a lego that doesn’t fit your set just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’ll play the role you’d like it to. Scott talks about when to hire a sales representative or when to pursue working for a start-up, the importance of project-based testing for who you bring on your team, and more. What you’ll learn On today’s show, Scott shares with us the in’s and out’s of scaling successful start-ups. He talks about getting from the first dollars to the first million, to the fist ten beyond that. He discusses major mistakes he sees in his industry and touches on important questions to ask when you begin to scale. LINKS https://salesqualia.com/