Stop What You’re Doing and Go Get a Client
Without customers you have no business.
That sometimes gets lost in the excitement of starting a new business. People want to build the next cool thing. People want to get funding and buy Aeron chairs. People want to strategize, plan and meet. People want to dream.
Nothing wrong with that, but where’s the revenue coming from?
What?!? We need revenue? Aside from the few examples of companies that barely had any revenue or were losing money hand-over-fist and still sold for millions of dollars, most of us have to go out and earn a living, and yup, we even need to turn a profit.
Dharmesh Shah echoes much of my thinking in Startup Founders: Start Selling Customers!
Dharmesh says, “…one of the single biggest influencers of your future success is predicated on how good the founding team is at selling.”
He lists four very important reasons why you need to go out and do sales. I would add to his urgency in this matter and say “Go get a client now.”
You can even secure clients before you’ve launched your business. And I’m not talking “beta” (everything in the Web 2.0 world is in beta these days anyway…) Before beta, you can shop around your business, your product, your ideas and find clients. At that stage they’re more like partners but they’ll be some of the best resources you’ve got available.
And I would add a 5th item to Dharmesh’s list of reasons why startup founders should get into sales (and quickly):
Your first few clients will be your biggest evangelists.
For that reason alone, you should target those first few clients very carefully. Go after clients you believe will be evangelists. Go after clients you feel will become your buzz marketers.
Go. Go get a client. Now.
Thanks for mentioning my OnStartups.com article. I agree totally with your points
You do an even better job of infusing the requisite urgency than I do.
“You do an even better job of infusing the requisite urgency than I do.”
That’s because I’m more panicked and riled up than you. *laugh*
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.