3 principles to grow your startup

Attention scale-up owners and startups...do you know the reason why many startups fail? Because they don't have enough revenue. And this is often a direct consequence of a not-so-great Product/Market Fit. 

I originally started out wanting to empower like you. The innovators of this world. Because if your impact increases, the world probably becomes a better place. Seemed like a good mission for my company. 

In the real world, I found out quickly that most start-ups 1 major issue.

👉Some call it a funnel.

👉Others call it "not a good inbound marketing strategy".

👉Again others call it lack of leads.

But it all comes down to 1 thing: sales. I have some advice for you. In this blog, I explain how to fix your sales process to get more leads and more importantly lots of deals. 

Fix your Product/Market Fit 

You think that your offer is great. But does your customer also think so? 

A while back I started to approach start-up owners at random at LinkedIn for a cup of coffee. No ulterior motive, just good old-fashioned networking. I wanted to talk about personal care and stress management. 

Instead, it landed me a freelance marketing gig that I still have to this day. 

Now you might think: “teach me the strategy to do this.” 

I have 1 word for you: listen. 

When I talked to the owners of these great companies, I simply listened. I had no agenda, just to understand their challenges and empathize with their situation. 

My offer was wrong. They were not looking for more self-care and stress management. They wanted a growth marketeer and I happen to have the skills to help. 

My ego might end up a bit bruised because I misread the desires of the market. But as I got close to the customer, I got immediate feedback.  

That is what I want for you too. Want more deals? Then you have to get in the heads of your customers. This is why outbound sales can work great!  

Customers let you know what they think. It helps you collect insights on what needs to be fixed. And where you can upgrade your messaging. You can even use the opportunity to test new messaging or new product offerings. It is a highly effective use of your time. 

Block some time in your agenda now and have coffee. This time investment will pay itself back quickly. 

Map out the sales cycle

Everyone knows the value of a good sales pipeline. Please note that companies who mastered a well-defined sales process experience 18% more revenue growth. 

That makes total sense to me. Because these companies know where their weakest spots are. They have the data to analyze their performance and adjust their tactics and strategy. 

But times have changed. 

You now have to face all the online marketing dilemmas and total data overload. 

When I analyze the sales performance of a company, I usually look at just a few ratios and figures. 

• What are they spending on acquisition?

• What are the # of leads they are getting for that investment?

• How many clients are they signing?

• What is the lead to conversion ratio? The costs per lead? The costs per acquisition? What is the lead to conversion time (for cash flow)?

If you know these, you know how to grow your business. If you don’t, you’re fumbling in the dark and most likely spend far too much time, effort, and money on activities that don’t grow your business.

you need to define the problem space

Despite all the accelerators and business coaches, many scale-ups are still communicating more about solutions than solving problems. And that means your competitors or your customers define the problem space for you.

This is not what you want. If you go along with this, you will end up competing on price instead of value. 

As humans, we are naturally drawn to solutions. Think about a random conversation at a birthday party. Someone says: “I have a problem with my house.” Immediately people start offering up possible solutions to their problem like “have you talked to this guy yet?” or “have you ever looked at x because that helped my friend enormously. “

However, at the beginning of the sales journey, a customer needs to become aware that they have a problem. Talking solutions won’t get you very far. 

And it will probably not get you many leads.  

It is your company that needs to sell the big idea and the unique mechanism you have.

It is your company that needs to have messaging around solving problems.

It is your company that needs to lead.

As this cover of Time Magazine perfectly illustrates: you control the information. So use that to your advantage.

When you define the problem space, you hook people and trigger them to follow you. That is exactly what is needed to close more deals.

the principles to grow your startup

What I tried to illustrate in this blog: growth ultimately comes down to the details. The actions you decide to take.

Everyone can say: “Build a Sales Funnel and everything will work out fine.” But that is not the reality.

You need a Grand Slam Offer. And know exactly what is going on behind the scenes of your busines. Without a clearly mapped out sales process, it will be very hard to scale.

And you need to learn to talk problems and not only solutions.

want to have a chat?

I can tell you what I do…but you are probably more keen for results.

This is what I achieved in the last 3 months:

- I have helped 2 agencies go from 0 leads to a booked up schedule (no exaggeration);

- A scale-up has completely shifted their marketing focus because I have shown them where their sweet spot is. And this means they can decrease their monthly operating budget with 20% (well officially 21,2% but who is counting...);

- One of my clients has used my social selling system for 3 weeks and just booked her 1st high-ticket sell organically trough socials;

- Another client has completely rewritten their value proposition.

These are just random example of how I use strategy, concrete copywriting and growth hacks, lead generation systems and book results.

I'd love to tell you about how I use a combination of growth strategies to help my clients scale, and in the process give you some tactics that are free to steal and implement, even if we never speak again.

So apply for a time slot in my schedule here.