The responsibilities of a startup CEO encompass a wide range of abilities, such as the capacity to lead team members, develop partnerships, see the big picture, and make good decisions. A startup requires a significant amount of patience and skill. However, the most important skill they need is generating initial revenue. Even the best products can fail if the initial revenue is not secured.
A CEO must be exceptional at selling to three distinct groups: prospective customers, potential employees, and potential investors. A founder’s success is significantly influenced by their ability to communicate their story to these three categories effectively.
Startup founders must be intimately engaged in all three types of sales at the outset for B2B companies. In each interaction, the founder must convey a compelling narrative about their product and themselves that can motivate individuals to trust their vision and take a risk.
Although some individuals are inherently extroverts, others are introverts who have had to develop the ability to be attentive and engaging. CEOs must be able to establish a connection with their customers and comprehend their needs, regardless of whether this ability is innate or acquired. They must be capable of establishing trust-based relationships and be proficient investigators.
They need to find audiences who can be emotionally and logically persuaded about the substantial value proposition to make the leap, as investing in, working for, and collaborating with a startup is always perceived as risky. This is the reason why only 40% of firms achieve profitability.
Although all three of these types of “sales” are essential, we will concentrate on the function of a startup CEO in the process of selling to customers.
A startup must initially establish revenue traction to achieve the growth level required to attract investors and recruit new employees.
Consequently, it is imperative for a startup CEO to:
- Develop their sales skills to win new logos
- Document your communication critical points and create a sales playbook
- Acquire the ability to hire and delegate the sales process to others effectively.
Most founders would prefer to bypass this process’s first and second stages, believing that the third stage will be straightforward. Disregarding or minimising any of these three stages will be to the detriment of the business.
The function of selling is not as difficult as some CEOs may think. Founders and startup CEOs are frequently proficient salespeople from the outset due to their intimate knowledge of the product and their passion for it.
In the initial start-up phase, you investigate your network for opinions and feedback. You would start to qualify prospects, understand their objections, and learn deeper buying reasons. You would learn what needs to be said, what questions prospects will ask, and barriers to making a sale. This is a stage in the business’s lifecycle that will determine its success in the future. The CEO can learn the knowledge rapidly, and the doors of opportunity will open more quickly for a business leader than a sales employee. Startup CEOs have the luxury of people being willing to engage with them at high levels within their target audience.
Most CEOs comprehend the necessity of delegating sales responsibilities; however, they discover it is significantly more challenging than anticipated. They recruit and terminate salespeople. They dedicate months to the pursuit of securing substantial contracts.
They are burdened by the responsibility of attending sales appointments and the lack of time to focus on other aspects of the business. However, to achieve sustainable growth, every startup must establish a sales process that is both repeatable and scalable.
This can only be achieved through CEOs making those initial sales and preparing to shift to stage two. The preparation is capturing important information from their conversations and customer engagement to secure sales.
With sales results coming in and business profitability assured, CEOs must shift to the next growth phase. Documenting the sales process and procedures so sales employees can duplicate success is critical to developing a repeatable and scalable business.
Stage two involves developing the sales playbook. The sales strategy shifts from investigative to formal based on the CEO’s experience in the field.
We are not advocating that the CEO be responsible for documenting and managing the playbook. However, hiring sales enablement services should become your highest priority. This will cement the sales process and knowledge that others will deliver and that CEOs will monitor. The sales playbook is 65% sales process and 35% strategy and operational requirements.
Without capturing experience in stage one, the sales playbook becomes ineffective as it lacks the tailoring required for the foundation of repeatability and scalability as the sales team expands. As the CEO must continue selling in this stage, it should be done efficiently with the least amount of barriers and time wasted so the company can effectively move to the next stage. The playbook should have sufficient content to enable the hiring of salespeople.
Stage three, acquiring the ability to hire and delegate the sales process to others effectively, is one of the greatest stumbling blocks we see. Salespeople are unlike any other employees to manage as they are field-based and can easily become defocused from your strategy without the right management tools. The talent of the sales team is critical to the success of sales and go-to-market.
The company’s available funds will determine the hiring of a sales leader, which is often initially seen as an expensive hire. The sales leader will be your most influential hire in those early years; getting it right can be difficult. Our book, The Sales-Focused CEO, outlines the prerequisites of sales leadership and how to keep them focused.
To minimise risk in those early phases of growth, hiring account executives can be more productive and manageable for the company. Account Executives with robust experience in your sales channel can be beneficial in scaling the business. They work closer to the customers, and more knowledge can be transferred to the sales playbook, building its value to the organisation.
The startup CEO will often be more comfortable handing the sales requirements to account executives and retaining the oversight of their activities until consistent revenue is signed each month and quarter.
The most successful startup CEOs incorporate structures to ensure that they monitor and evaluate the entire sales process and continue to drive sales. When the team size reaches 4-5 people, it is necessary to engage a sales leader, as time will not permit the CEO to continue management without detriment to other areas of the business.
In conclusion:
The startup CEO who can manage the business through the three stages will be the most successful and profitable. Investing time in each stage and building solid foundations for the future will underpin the rapid growth and expansion of the company.
As experts in sales organisations, Sales Focus Advisory can assist you in developing the right strategy and implementation plan for your business.
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You may also be interested in reading these articles:
- Why Sales Playbooks Get Teams to Hit Their Number
- Marketing For Start-Ups: Proven Strategies for Growth
- How Your Current Data Facts Influence Future Sales Growth
- The Different Challenges CEOs Face to Increase Revenue
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