Set the correct expectations for your first few sales deals.
Go-To-Market Strategy for Techincal Founders
For many first-time technical founders, sales can be a mysterious process. Ask any tech sales rep about how engineering teams work, and you will see the other side of the coin. The worlds of Engineering and Sales need to come together for your startup to win, and with your first few deals, Engineering and Sales will likely be the same team, i.e., you as the founder and CEO.
It is helpful to think about the first few clients you will onboard as “design partners”. You will likely develop a deeper relationship with these folks than you would with your 1000th customer.
Attracting early customers by offering discounts during the early stages of your startup eases them into your pricing structure and acknowledges possible initial product shortcomings. A reduced price also gives you room to ask for feedback, testing of new features, and, ideally, a case study once they’ve seen value in your product.
This is a great strategy; however, when negotiating your first few contracts, be sure to include the long-term, full price for your service. You want to offer your design partners a contract that reflects your product’s actual cost, combined with introductory discounts. The discounts serve as a temporary concession for the product's early-state maturity. You want to set the expectation that once this discount period is over, they will pay full price for a fully functioning product.
Setting this expectation up front makes your job far more straightforward. In 6-12 months, you can easily ask them for more money.
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Things like:
Clarify value props
Nail down your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Tell a compelling story about your product
Run marketing campaigns
Generate Leads
Closing deals