7 business lessons startup founders can learn from free sales training
You’ve spent time and energy developing a product that you’re proud of. Now, that product should sell itself, right?
Many startup founders jump in without a clear path to gain new customers and actually sell their products. As they’re not sales professionals themselves, they figure they’ll leave that to an expert when the time comes.
But here’s the thing: the time is now, and you as a founder are the best kind of expert in the early days of your company.
So, how do you sell your product without that hands-on sales experience?
Here at Close, we’ve developed hundreds of resources specifically for startup founders and sales reps who want to grow their skillset and drive more revenue to their business.
How exactly can this and other free sales training help you succeed? Let’s see 7 things this kind of tailored training can help you accomplish.
1. Create your first ideal customer profile
As a startup founder looking to start the foundation of sales at your business, the first thing you need to know is:
Who is buying your product?
Free sales training can give you the tools and know-how to create your first ideal customer profile (ICP). This is the profile of a company that stands to benefit most from your product, and can also provide value to your business.
This is the first necessary step to building a sales org for your startup because sales strategies and tactics will get you nowhere if you’re not selling to the right people.
2. Build a foundation for deeper customer intimacy
Any free sales training for startup founders should help you learn better ways to know your customers. After all, they are the lifeblood of your business, and sales success depends on knowing exactly what they need, their pain points, and how to present your product to them as the right solution.
Deep customer intimacy starts with actually caring about your customers. After that, knowing how to ask the right questions during sales conversations can help you identify and get closer to the customers you’ve decided will be most successful with your product.
3. Determine the channels that will give you the most ROI
When you’re running an entrepreneur sales strategy, you’re strapped for time and looking for the best ways to get ahead without sacrificing precious minutes of your day.
That’s why startup sales training will teach you how to find the right sales channels and use them effectively. This gets you the best ROI for the time you spend.
4. Create and optimize your first sales process
For entrepreneurs doing sales, training will help you learn how to take buyers smoothly through the process of purchasing your product.
For most salespeople, this process is already in place and they just need to follow it. But as a startup founder leading sales, you’re the one who has to create, test, and optimize this process.
Free sales training that’s geared towards startup founders will help you develop a simple sales process that you can iterate and build on over time.
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5. Identify the customers who won’t succeed with your product
Just as important as finding the customers that are ideal for your product, startup sales training will also give you that sixth sense to detect bad-fit customers before they make a purchase they’ll later regret.
Your product is great, but it’s not for everyone. That’s why qualification is an important part of sales—by talking to potential customers and getting to know their situation, you’ll see whether your product is really what they need, or if another solution would better fit their team.
6. Manage your new leads
As you build out your sales process, you’ll start to get new leads, which is great! But any business that plans to grow should have a system in place to manage, nurture, and report on those new leads.
For entrepreneur sales, it’s essential to have this in place and automate as much as possible, since your time is stretched between different aspects of your business. Free sales training can help you set that up and run effectively.
In the Close Sales Academy course on Prospecting and Lead Management 101, you’ll find an entire section dedicated to teaching you how to manage new leads, distribute them to team members, and report on them, all within your CRM.
7. Get early referrals
Referrals are a fantastic way to start growing your revenue quickly once your startup has a few early customers. Those highly-relevant customers can refer their network and share the power of a recommendation with your growing startup.
Startup sales training should always include information about referral sales since this is one of the fastest ways to grow your revenue quickly with new customers.
Where to start with free sales training for startup founders
If you’ve made it here, it means you’re ready to get started.
Take advantage of free resources and build your skills as a seller and a startup leader.
