Don't Hire a Sales Team (Yet): Why Founders Must Lead the Charge

Hello and welcome to the show. Today's podcast recording is going to be a very noisy one because the kids are home and I'm recording late in the evening. Also, NEPA has been misbehaving powerfully. So all my neighbors are running their generators. And no, these are just some of the benefits, some of the things we have to look forward to, you know, being a Nigerian anyway. So today what we're going to tackle is not my family issues or NEPA issues, or rather we're going to look at why start up founders should engage in sales,

Why start up founders should do selling first hand. So that's what we're going to do today on the podcast. Now, this your first time listening to the podcast? My name is Tavi Shima Ayede. I am your host. I'm a former lawyer turned business consultant. And if you like these sorts of things, how do you sell? Who should be selling? What's the best way to go about selling? Then subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, on Apple iTunes, on YouTube, on any player of your choice, because this is what we talk about over here on the podcast every single day.

OK, well, every other day because I'm not here every day. Then if you'd love to connect with me, you can call, send me a text message or send me a WhatsApp message on the 08064662140. So if you have questions, you have comments, you have queries, or you'd like us to collaborate on one or two projects, then reach out. And Please remember when I say collaboration, collaboration means I eat and you eat. If you call me and everything is all stacked in your favour, then that's not a collaboration.

And I'm going to politely tell you to get the, you know, out of here. All right? So why start up founders should engage in sales? Why start up founders should do more selling first hand. Now, for those of you who've listened to this podcast for a while, you know that this is an old idea that I've talked about on the podcast over and over and over again. And the reason why is because this is a very important topic because, you know, the startup craze has hit Niger and of course, lots of us want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg.

And because of that, people think that founders think that, you know, you can't come up with a brilliant idea. You have a tech founder and then you hire someone who can sell. So in the old podcast episodes, I have given some reasons why the founder is the best person who is qualified to sell, at least in the beginning. And that's because the founder is the person who has product knowledge. You know, it is your baby, You're the one who has come up with the idea.

You're the one who knows the problem that you're trying to solve. You know you have intimacy with the problem. You know this thing inside, outside. In fact, you spend more time with this app, with this business problem than you do with your spouse or with your girlfriend. So you're very intimate with this idea and because of this intimacy with the idea, you, the founder, you have lots of passion that you're going to use when you're putting forward this idea into the market and when you're talking to a potential customer, a potential partner, a potential stakeholder, a potential whatever.

So in my older podcast episodes, I've said that these are the reasons why the founder is best qualified to sell, at least in the beginning, because you have product knowledge, because you're intimate with the problem, you have passion putting for these ideas. Now, some of you will say, OK, if I have said all this in the past, then why the hell am I making today's episode OK? The reason why I'm doing that is because I now have one new reason why the founder should sell.

And the reason why is because it will put you, the founder, in this unique position. It will help you, it will give you the data, it will give you the perspective, and it will let you know and help you validate your business idea. Now, what does validation mean? Validation just means that you're able to show that this is a good idea to bring to the market. You want to show that your product, you want to be sure that your service is a good one to bring to the market.

So that is what validation is about. Now, how do you get validation or market validation as I like to call it? You do that if you're able to show, number one, that there's some demand for this, your product. Some people like the damn thing. If you can show that good, then we need to show some market validation. Then you also have to be able to establish that you can sell this thing at a reasonable price per head, per seat, per license, per user, per unit, per whatever it is that you want to sell it at.

That is part of validating. Then we also need to be able to establish that enough people are willing to pay for this thing because we're trying to make sure that the unit economics pans out. Now let me repeat market validation. How we establish it #1 show that there is some demand that people like this thing. Then it's not enough just that people like this thing. It has been enough that people are willing to pay for it and that the price is reasonable.

And then we also need to make sure that enough of those people are willing to pay for it and that the unit economics work. It is only when we've done this that we can now show that, OK, there's market validation. The market is saying that this is a good idea that you should continue to put out. Because if we show that there's demand what people are not willing to pay for it, then what are we doing here? We might as well pivot and move to something else.

If we show that there's some demand and people are willing to pay for it, but they're not willing to pay enough, so the pay no makes sense, then what are we doing here? We might as well pivot if we find out that people like it, they're willing to pay and they're willing to pay, you know, per head. And the thing kind of makes sense. But let's say you need, you know, 100,000 people or 5000 people or whatever you need to make this thing work, but you can't find those 5000 people,

then what are we doing here? We might as well pivot. So that is why all these elements are important. Now, another word for validation or market validation as I like to call it, is product market fit. So for those of you who've been listening to those fancy tech podcasts, you've been hearing product market fit, product market fit. They are wondering what are these people saying? Now you know what they're saying. So the reason why it's a good idea for you, the founder, to do the selling is because when you're doing the selling in this early days, you are in the driver's seat.

And of course when you're in the driver's seat, you can see the road with your own 2 coro Coro eyes. If there's pothole, you can swerve. If there's any danger, you can dodge it. So selling puts you in the front seat. And what that means is you're going to get all the qualitative signals early. Now for those of you who have a tech bent, you guys already know about a quantitative signals. Quantitative just means you're looking at your dashboard,

you're looking at your numbers, you're looking at your whatever, and you're getting clear signs about where to move and you know, stuff like that. Now, there's other kinds of data that you guys are not so familiar with, and that's the kind that I like, which is qualitative data. Now qualitative data is information that you can't reduce to to numbers. You can't put it in a statistical model. But when you're getting insights, when you're getting opinions, when you're noticing certain trends, you know it is only when you are selling one-on-one that you can be seeing these things before it shows up in the data.

If you as a founder is selling you begin to see some trends that OK, I thought this was a good idea, but as I have spoken to the last 20253050 people, it is as if they are feeling that ABC ideas or ABC problems are more important. You are getting qualitative signals and this will is what you can use to. You can take this knowledge should now reiterate on your your product or your service because you are thinking one thing as you've entered inside the market now and you're talking to people based on body language, based on what they're saying or based on how they're using your products, based on what they're doing.

You can now see that you know what I thought was one thing, but the market is giving me signs that is something else. So when you are selling as a founder, you are in the driver's seat. You will be able to see quickly whether this is a good idea or not. You'll be able to answer this question yourself whether you should pivot or not. You won't have to wait on to board meeting when you people are checking different different statistical models or different this or different that.

You would have started getting a sense by yourself that this is a good idea or this is not a good idea. Now, funny enough, this is also an idea that I've come across that I've also seen expressed in another podcast. It was, I can't remember anyway, I think it was a podcast about cybersecurity. So this idea is not something that is unique to me or other people who are in the sales, sales and selling field. You know, other people, other professionals in other fields are also saying that there's a benefit to you trying to sell and trying to bring your product or service to the market yourself.

So you as a founder, what are the kinds of things that you should do #1 prospecting. If you've been listening to the podcast for any length of time, you are aware of that. Prospecting is the thought process, it is the activity, it's the strategy, it's the tactics, it is the whatever around trying to figure out who might be interested in your product or who might be interested in your service. So you should do that. You should sit down, you should do the thinking.

You should be trying to figure out who might be interested in the product or service. Another thing that founders should be doing is outreach or channel strategy, as you guys like to put it. So outreach or channel strategies just means now that we know who might be interested with our product or service and we know where these people are physically or where they hang out online, which channel, which tool, which medium, which platform are we going to use to try and reach out to these people?

So you as a founder should be engaged in this sort of activity. As a founder, you should also be starting conversations with people. Now, what kind of conversation should you be having in sales? We call them qualification and discovery. That's just a fancy way of saying we should be asking questions about the people because we need to know them. We're trying to figure out a few things. Demographics and psychographics.

Who are they? Name, age, height, location, sex, occupation, blah, blah, blah. We need to know because this will tell us the use case scenarios of our product. Who are the people that use this thing best? Who are the people that like this thing best? So that's why qualification or asking questions around the person is important. Then discovery. Discovery is when we ask questions around the problem. So OK, I just mentioned a couple of minutes ago or seconds ago rather about use case scenarios.

So what are the problems that the product or service, what are the problems that our app, our product or service solve? Or how do people use them to solve this problem? And of course, when we're asking questions around the problem or the vision, the problems that the vision that the customer is trying to achieve or the problems that they're trying to solve, we're also trying to figure out if this is a serious enough problem to solve.

So we should be asking them questions about. So I'm trying not to overload you guys with technical terms, but in sales, you know, these kinds of questions are called implication questions and need payoff questions. That is when you're trying to find out from people that, OK, look, this is a serious problem or serious enough, but if you don't use this app, if you don't use this product, if you don't use this solution, like what's the worst that can happen or how do you cope?

So if you have this brilliant idea that you're putting out to the market and people think, yeah, it's nice, you know, we need it. But at the end of the day, like if this thing is not here, they can cope in some other way, then perhaps you don't have a serious enough problem that your product, that your service, that your app solves. And maybe it is time for you to now start thinking or pivoting or moving or refining the idea one way or another.

Then as a founder, you should also be involved in making proposals, making presentations. Now that is the part of the sales process where you're telling a potential customer that this is how my product, my service, my app can help you. As a founder, you should also be trying to gain a commitment, which is getting people to drop a deposit, getting people to sign up for, you know, whatever it is that the next reasonable next step is.

Well, bottom line, like I said, if you're engaged in all these processes, that is prospecting, talking to people who might be interested in your product or service, trying to figure out what is the appropriate channel. Starting the conversation with people, learning about them and their interests, figuring out how they interact with the your app, with your product, with your service. Trying to figure out if this is a serious enough problem.

And then you're making proposals and presentations and you're trying to close on some accounts. If you do all this, you're going to be getting qualitative data. Remember, not quantitative, because I know that you tell guys you love quantitative data. You love things that can be reduced to ratios, to stats, to statistics, to this and to that. But you guys lose sight of the fact that qualitative data is important. As in you're talking to somebody and you are getting, you know,

you're getting some kind feelings. That is qualitative data. You're getting some kind feelings, some kind insights, some kind, you know, what's that word anyway, forgive me, the English is escaping my head. But anyway, you understand what I'm talking about. So yeah, that. And these are reasons why the founders should be involved. And these are the kind of activities that you should be involved in or involved with. And of course, I'm sure that you guys have noticed that.

I think you tech founders, you guys try to take your hands off too quickly. You guys try to automate everything too quickly. You know, relax, get your hands dirty, you know, for for a little bit, little bit longer. But for those of you who are thinking, look, I just want to be Mark Zuckerberg and I want to have, you know, a billion dollars in my account, you know, don't worry. Yeah, SETI selling is dirty. It's grimy. I understand.

And you don't want to do this forever. But don't worry, you won't have to do this forever. All you have to do when you're going through all this is make sure you document all the processes. Put everything down in an SOP. That's something that you tech people like to say. SOP, standard operating procedure. Write everything down. Document this thing. Let it be on a sheet of paper, Let it be in a Google document, let it be, you know, wherever so that other people who are coming in to sell on your behalf, the people who you will recruit,

they will be the people who you're going to delegate the selling function to. They're going to be able to refer to this document. They're going to be able to learn from it. They're going to be able to follow this thing. So don't worry, you won't have to sell forever. Just make sure you're documenting everything, writing it down, come up with an SOP, standard operating procedure. Use that to recruit people. Use that to train people, Use that to delegacy selling functions.

You start off like that, you won't be too bad. But summary, let me say one more time, startup founders, it is a good idea to get your hands dirty in sales because a lot of you want to answer this question, should we pivot or not? Should I be here or not? If you're with the boys in the trenches and you're selling the field. So boys and girls because of course you know girls selling the text page too. So if you're in the trenches,

you have all the information that you need. So instead of faffing around for two years, then you now issue press release, you say that you are now pivoting when you're on the trenches with the boys and girls, you have all the data that you need so that even if it's just, you know, four months, five months, six months, you know that OK, this in a makes sense or this thing no pure. And then you'll be able to bounce or you'll be able to remain, or you'll be able to double down and refocus.

So that's it. And that is all for today. Thank you very much for listening to the podcast. Remember, if you would like to connect with me, you can call, send me a text message or send me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So if you have questions, you have comments, you have queries, or you want to suggest the collaboration, then reach out. So that's it for today. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you all some other time.