#50: 6 Reasons Why You Should Sell Before You Build

#50: 6 Reasons Why You Should Sell Before You Build

Read Time: 4 min

🤝 Two Announcements

1. We now have four ways to work with Founders. Not all Founders are in a position to capitalize on our premium service and group cohorts, so we decided to incorporate different plans that are more economically feasible to cater to earlier-stage startups. To learn more about how we help you validate PMF and grow ARR, book a call with me here.
   

2. If you need help building your sales team, here's what you need to know. Rampd Recruiting is a sales training and recruiting arm of Rampd that guarantees three key results. 
   
   Number 1: We will source and place proven A-player SDRs and AEs. We receive a couple of thousand sales applications monthly from candidates who want to be placed with our clients. We hand-select the top ones and recommend you run them through your internal interview process. 
   
   Number 2: We will help you ramp up and train those SDRs and AEs quickly. Statistically, it takes about 30 to 45 days to ramp up an SDR and AE, which is about 50 to 100 calls. We can cut that in half and do it twice as fast at half the cost.
   
   Number 3: We will help systematize your sales management and leadership. To learn more, check out this page.
   
   If you’re actively scaling your sales team, you can book a call with me here.

In today’s issue, I’ll discuss one of the biggest culprits of burn rates on cash and how you should consider validating your product and finding indications of product market fit (PMF).

The best founding teams I’ve worked with always focused an incredible amount of bandwidth on getting sales dialed in. It’s the lifeline of your business; why wouldn’t you? It’s the easiest ROI on money invested.

The problem I see is that many founders don’t grasp the residual effect selling will have not only on their business but also on their lives. Make no mistake: selling is a superpower, and the entrepreneurs you read about in books and aspire to mirror their success are incredible sellers. They sell vision, results, and dreams being fulfilled. Sales is an acquired skill that is easily scalable once you commit to the craft.

When clients come on board at Rampd, we typically see two use cases. The former are commonly in a state of panic because their runway is dwindling.

Learning sales was the single most valuable thing we did in the last two years.

~ Peter Zhou (Co-Founder & CEO at Rutter)

Let’s take a look at both.

1. Founders who spend 80% on product and 20% on sales are determined to build the perfect MVP. They ship the product, and it doesn’t receive a warm reception—not because it is no good, but because they have no structure to walk the prospects through. Now, they’re in trouble because they have a product the market doesn’t want (yet), and they have no ability to close revenue because they have zero sales process.
   

2. Founders who spend 60% on sales and 40% on building an MVP. They ship the product and test the hypothesis of what they’ve built before they go ahead and write more lines of code. By doing so, they can generate base hits (deals) and identify why deals don’t close through a rigorous qualification process they take the prospect through.

The latter will always be more fruitful and yield a higher ROI.

Here are 6 reasons why:

1. It teaches you how and why people make decisions.

   My definition of selling is “Identifying pain and empowering people to take action.” The only way to understand how and why people say yes is first to identify the source of their pain. Once you extract this info on the discovery call, you’ll have a better understanding of how to get them across the finish line.
   
   

2. It teaches you how to be an incredibly effective communicator.

   Ninety percent of effective communication is the result of listening and listening to understand rather than listening to reply. When you listen, you can ask really good questions, which conveys to the prospect that you give a shit. From there, you can provide a path forward through your solution. This is effective communication.

   
   

3. It teaches you how to build relationships.

   Business is about relationships. Relationships are rooted in your competence. If you cannot deliver, there is no relationship. We run a multi-seven-figure consulting firm at Rampd, and I’ve never spent a dollar in marketing or advertising—not one dollar. One hundred percent of my business is referrals, either from existing/past clients or VC partners. Why is this? Because I’ve built great relationships, but most importantly, I’m highly competent in what I teach.

    
   

4. It teaches you how to solve problems.

   You are not in the business of selling. You are in the business of solving. Solving problems. Again, this dials back to being an effective listener and asking great questions. This allows you to be a problem solver. There is a big difference between someone trying to sell you something and someone trying to solve a problem. Prospects will intrinsically feel and know the difference.

   
   

5. It teaches you how not to be afraid.

   Most of us are hardwired to be agreeable. We all want to be likable. Asking people to buy things inherently goes against our human DNA. Limiting and confronting beliefs will play a big role in your success. The worst outcome when asking people to buy your product is they say no. It’s the habit of doing things you’re uncomfortable doing that will be the most rewarding. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
   
   

6. It will teach you what to know about being a good operator.

   Successful entrepreneurs are efficient operators. They’re highly skilled in capital allocation. There are 2 parts to capital allocation. Human and financial. You need to find the right asses to put in the right seats and allocate money to those individuals to grow the company. How do you find and hire the right people? How do you raise money? How do you get good at allocating capital? It all comes down to selling. Period.

That’s it for today, folks!

See you all next week.

Darren

P.S. If you’re ready to level up, you can book a call with me here

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