From Close.Io as per link below.
Stage #1: Founder-driven sales (founders only)
The first person to sell your product should be you—the founder—and your co-founders. Even if you hate sales and suck at it. Even if you don’t have any sales experience and know-how. Do customer development yourself, and be as close to your prospects as you can.
Begin with the low-hanging fruit and tap into your network of:
- Friends and acquaintances
- Co-workers
- Past employers
- Alumni
- And always ask for introductions left and right.
At this point, the objective is not closing deals. Instead, focus on early stage sales exploration:
- Gain insights into your market
- Understand and listen to your customers better
- What objections do they have?
- How do they describe their problems?
- What are their pain points?
- How do they respond to your solution?
- Figure out which metrics truly matter for your sales outreach and your business
- Test different strategies, methods, and tactics to make sales and drive business
- Get started with cold emails
- Learn sales hacking 101
- Write a sales phone script
This phase is all about getting your hands dirty in the startup hustle and figuring out what works in the real world. It’s all about lean sales and validating your idea with the power of the hustle. The experience you gain will help you later evaluate salespeople.
“See the rest of this article below”