Why You Need to Learn SALES
5.28.2009 | Marketing
Technology entrepreneurs build things because they can and because they want to solve problems. However, as cool as many of these startups are, many of them do fail because the CEO/CTO create them under the assumption “if you build it, they will come.”
The web is a big BIG place. Simply building something and expecting traffic these days is like setting up a deluxe lemonade stand in the middle of the Sahara desert and expecting people to just stroll in. Sure, it’s the desert and people LOVE lemonade. It’s the PERFECT marriage of problem and solution – so why is it failing?
The missing ingredient is promotion and sales.
Even if you make the best lemonade in the world, if you cannot wrap your head around how to promote and sell your product, chances are you will fail. On the other hand, if you know how to sell, you can get away with cheap-o lemonade and still make a killing. This is why in startups you want a rockstar hacker, but you NEED predator sales guys.
Case in point: Recently a new automotive startup has popped into the scene and onto our radar. Their niche targets a certain demographic and provides car listings for under $1,000. After careful analysis, it’s pretty apparent that the technology behind this solution is pretty basic and the number of listings they carry is nowhere near an AutoTrader or Craigslist. In fact, I would even go as far as saying this is now one of the biggest and best advertised “BANS” type store ever. (If you’re familiar with how BANS works.)
So how are they getting 100k visitors a month only after 3 months?
Instead of putting all their energy into building a complex solution, they decided to put their focus in marketing and PR. The owners bought a car for under $1,000 and drove it across the country. As they are doing this, local press from various areas picked up their story and ran it on local TV stations and newspapers.
The takeaway? Your life as an entrepreneur doesn’t end when you finish building your product. To be rewarded, you need to gloat, show it off to the world, and talk about it constantly like you just had a baby. You can sell pretty much ANYTHING and get people to talk about you as long as you actually make some effort to do marketing. Even if you’re driving without a map or a destination, it would be better than not driving at all.
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