Whether your business has been around for a day or a decade, we can all learn valuable lessons from startups. Since they’re focused on driving consistent growth with constrained budgets, these up-and-coming outfits are fueled by efficiencies and dynamics that sometimes fall away when a company begins to scale up.
Startups are on our mind this week, following the recent announcement that Microsoft for Startups is adding some powerful new capabilities to its platform for early-stage founders. Touching on some pertinent articles that are being shared around the sales and marketing community, let’s take a cue from these scrappy entrepreneurs.
4 Lessons All B2B Sales Teams Can Learn from Startups
Be Ready for the Challenges of Growth
Growth is, of course, the goal for a young startup, but it can quickly turn into a pain point. This was the subject of Steve Crepeau’s recent LinkedIn post on a fast growing B2B SaaS sales problem.
“Often, the rapidly growing SaaS company is a victim of its own success,” he writes, adding that even companies with a truly disruptive offering can “tend to prioritize expanding their product portfolio to exploit the market opportunity primarily at the expense of building out the proper sales enablement infrastructure.”
The point here is to think ahead. Plan for success and don’t let it catch you off-guard. Build scalability into your strategy.
Crepeau suggests that “a common inflection point is the hiring of a new CRO,” tasked with building out the enablement functions that were overlooked in the past. Whether your company is among those adopting a revenue operations department or not, it’s always wise to be positioning your sales team for an increased burden down the line.
Give People Something to Remember
In the latest episode of Sales Pipeline Radio with Matt Heinz, David Keane shared an interesting story about the origin of his company, Bigtincan. Noting that the sales enablement provider has “one of my favorite brand names in B2B,” Heinz asked the Bigtincan CEO just where it came from.
“When you start a new company, finding a name for a company is really tricky, particularly in today’s world when if you want a .com email address, you find out pretty quickly that most dot com are gone,” Keane explained. “Many organizations make up a name and I’m sure you’ve had a few folks you’ve talked to, had a new name for a company, made up a particular word by joining things together or creating a new way of describing a sound ... We wanted a name people would remember.”
Keane continued: “But also we wanted to indicate that it is the Bigtincan into which you could put your stuff and have it handled properly. So that was the reason, and it stuck. We found our customers really like it.”
In most cases, it’s probably too late to rename your company. But Keane’s anecdote serves as a welcome reminder for any sales pro: You’ve got to be different and stand out. Infuse your approach with something unique and memorable, so that when the cold prospect you spoke to six months ago suddenly recognizes a need, you’re the first person that comes to mind.
The beauty of Bigtincan is that it’s not just random. As Keane described, the name is relevant to what his business does. When you can nail down that memorable trait or habit, and it’s true to who you are and what you sell, you hit the sweet spot.
Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Social Media
Last week, our friends over at the LinkedIn Marketing Blog highlighted two startups that are achieving steady growth on LinkedIn. Within, Steve Kearns details the tactics that helped Binti and AMP Robotics drive huge gains in engagement and LinkedIn Page following.
Obviously, it’s a very marketing-centric piece, but there are plenty of valuable nuggets for a social-savvy modern seller to extract. For example: tagging company leaders and industry publications in your posts (when warranted), using hashtags judiciously, and co-opting momentum from events.
It’s also another reminder to huddle up with marketing and make sure everyone’s feeling good about the design and content of the LinkedIn Page. There’s a good chance any prospect you engage with on LinkedIn will click through to learn about your company; you’ll want this space to give the right impression.
Pitch Like Your Company Depends On It
Entrepreneurs are inspiring because they believe so strongly in the business they’ve started, and by necessity, that belief shows through when they talk about their purpose and vision. When making pitches for funding, their passion reflects a deep personal investment because, in many cases, everything is on the line.
Because of the stakes, these founders tend to be very skilled at developing creative and compelling ways to articulate the value of their ideas. You might uncover a new technique or two from watching episodes of Shark Tank, which is among our favorite TV shows for salespeople for this reason.
Never Stop Growing
When you’re modeling strategies and looking for best practices, It’s natural to look up to the big enterprises with high-powered sales teams. But don’t underestimate the benefits of studying those seedlings that are only beginning to sprout. Regardless of where you are in your growth journey, there’s quality insight to be derived from startup sales culture.
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Topics: Sales trends
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