The Lost Art of Selling

I love growing companies. I love this so much, that I have done nothing else for the past 15 years, with companies like TravelChannel, DocMorris, Qype, 9flats, avocadostore.

Sustainable growth requires a very basic art:  Every business must figure out how to

1. Acquire customers profitably and
2. How to sell to them.

People who know how to do this well are few. Customer acquisition via SEM, SEO etc. is a well paid specialty. Still, to this day, I find way more people who do this on a superficial level than people who really know how to do it. Most of the good online marketing experts seem to be consultants.

People who master the second step, to be precise: people who know how to sell online, are extremely rare. In a functional way, there are now user experience (UX) specialists and even conversion specialists. People who know how they can make you press that “buy now” button. But this is not enough.Too few founders know how to really sell on the web

If you really know to what offer to pitch to your customers, how to present the offer, how to differentiate the offer and how to price it, then you are truly a master of your business. It is much easer to get investors if you know how to sell to your customers

If you decide to take on capital and can prove your sales mechanics to potential investors, then it will be much easier to get that capital. Investors love it when they see a formula that works. “Just add water” is what this is called. I love it too, in the rare cases where I invest.

Founders are often better selling themselves

There is this strong misconception that you have to be a good in business development to succeed. This is true for some businesses that really thrive on joint marketing deals or are service businesses, mostly business-to-business (b2b). But in my specialty: Business to Consumer (b2c), I much rather run a business with no business development, but a successful online model that acquires customers successfully.

Most founders I meet focus to much on networking with potential partners and investors, and too little on building a product that sells online.