Your Startup’s Revenue Problem Is Probably a Broken Sales Process
Distractions kill transactions
There’s a single source of truth that determines the success or failure of your business. If you’re not generating the revenue numbers you need to extend your runway, hit your goals, and develop traction, then failure is a foregone conclusion.
Far too often in my 20+ years growing new companies, I see leaders obsess over every detail of their business except the one thing causing the actual problem.
Why does this happen?
Because a broken sales process is a silent killer. Flaws in your sales strategy will quietly linger and fester, systematically eating away at the health of your business. While on the outside, everything will appear to be rosy, just one small break away from an avalanche of new customers.
Here’s how to identify a broken sales process, why we keep overlooking it, and how to fix it.
Why we blame everything but sales
When I ask entrepreneurs and company leaders why they believe they’re not hitting the revenue numbers they want, they’ll point to a lot of different issues:
Messaging: This excuse is usually at the top: “We’re just not doing a good enough job explaining our value proposition to the customer.” Marketing will then fall on their sword to fix it, running through a series of expensive and time-consuming A/B tests and focus groups.
Product: “If it’s not broken, fix it so it sells more.” This backwards logic can easily sneak into leadership’s thesis. But the opposite is actually the truth. If you can’t sell the product you have, you’re not going to sell a newer, sexier version of it.
Pricing: Sales will tell you that the price point is too high. Marketing will tell you that the product isn’t aspirational enough. Or maybe the pricing model is just “wrong” — and you wind up experimenting with subscription or pay-as-you-go or any model that makes one price look like another price.
Reach: Another derivative of marketing. Basically, this means the channels you’ve chosen aren’t reaching the customers you’re targeting. The solution here might include the aforementioned…
