4 Unique Startup Selling Techniques Founders Should Apply

Marketing is essential for every business, especially startups. It can make or break a business depending on the strategies applied. Statistics indicate that 14% of companies fail because of bad marketing techniques.

Marketing is even more challenging if you’re not naturally good at selling. But with practice, you can become good at it. Let’s look at four expert selling techniques used by marketing professionals founders should apply.

1.  Sell the Product Benefits

Customers are always looking for solutions to their unique needs. Focus on the product benefits when marketing, don’t dwell on the features. The end goal is to show how the product can improve their life.

Create stories for your products to emphasize their benefits. Selling benefits instead of features is a trick marketers use to evoke an emotional response and make people buy instead of feeding them with factual information.

2.  Work on Your Sales Pitch

Once you’ve established expertise in your niche and identified your target market, it’s time to sell to consumers. This is only possible with a great sales pitch; one that grabs attention and ignites meaningful conversations.

One company that offers California title loans applied a unique strategy to win new business. It started marketing its potential by demonstrating how its loans addressed people’s challenges. Your sales pitch should do the same.

You only have about 90 seconds to make a persuasive pitch. Do proper research so you can take control of the conversation. While at it, share your knowledge and controversial views to pique the potential client’s interests.   

3.  Connect with Decision Makers

Statistics show that only 46% of salespeople go past junior managers to meet company decision-makers. The majority get it wrong: they either have the wrong product or waste a lot of time engaging lower-level managers.

If you’re convinced you have a great product, devise a sales strategy that connects you with company decision-makers in the shortest time possible. You may have to offer value to the company first without expecting anything in return.

It could be something as simple as mentioning the company on your corporate blog or featuring them in a major publication you write for. It becomes easier to grab CEOs’ attention if you don’t seek them directly. They may even start a conversation with you first.

4.  Ask for Referrals

It’s common for people to ask about businesses that sell good products. But sometimes, you may have to ask for referrals. Ask your happy customers to refer your business to their family and friends. You can also take a different approach to get instant results.

Instead of asking random people on LinkedIn and Twitter for referrals, study their close associates. Check the companies they’ve worked for and their connection list. That way, you can come up with a list of who to target.

Send the people a short message or email requesting referrals. You can make the process more frictionless for them by sending a referral email template to prompt them to take action.