How Learning to Sell Helped My Startup Earn $400M in Revenue

Once you’re constructing a startup from scratch, there are two issues no one warns you about sufficient: one, you are going to must sell. And, two, you are most likely going to be horrible at it at first.

I do know I used to be. I did not have gross sales expertise once I launched my earlier firm, Vungle. However we had no gross sales staff, no leads and no model to fall again on. If I needed the corporate to outlive, I needed to be taught to promote anyway.

I can say now, given hindsight, that the method of figuring it out the arduous method is what set the muse for what got here later. Inside a number of years, we had grown to 250 staff throughout eight workplaces, with over $400 million in annual income. None of that may have occurred if I hadn’t executed the early gross sales myself.

Under are sales lessons I realized from these years, plus tactical suggestions any founder can apply, particularly when nobody’s answering your messages.

Associated: 4 Steps to Becoming a Sales-Focused Founder (and Why It’s Important)

Discover methods to indicate up the place your prospects already are

In our earliest days, we have been attempting to get cell recreation builders to make use of Vungle’s advert tech, and cold outreach simply wasn’t reducing it.

So we did one thing unconventional: We began taking part in the video games themselves. Our staff would log hours on common titles simply to land on the leaderboards. As soon as we have been ranked, we would change our usernames to quick customized messages like “FromVungle_Please_Call_Us.”

This strategy received us into conversations with builders who would’ve ignored us in any other case. In a sea of templated outreach, we stood out by embedding our message within the expertise our prospects have been already having.

Now, I am not saying that you must gamify your each outreach (except, possibly, in case your customers are players). What I’m suggesting is, in case your chilly outreach is falling flat, ask your self: Are you displaying up the place your customers are already engaged? Or are you simply sending emails they did not ask for?

Cease speaking about your product

Founders love speaking about their product. That is comprehensible given how this product might be your labor of affection. The catch is, in a chilly message, your product is not the hook — your consumer’s ache is. For Vungle, one of many best-performing openers was one thing alongside the strains of:

“Hello, I noticed your app on the charts. We have helped different builders enhance income by 20% with out altering the consumer expertise. Value a fast chat?”

See how we did not record our credentials or clarify our tech stack? As a substitute, we led with one thing our viewers cared about: incremental income for minimal effort.

Should you’re doing chilly outreach, assume the individual studying your message has no context on who you’re and does not care but. You should earn that curiosity.

This issues greater than it appears. Per a 2024 Salesforce report, 86% of enterprise patrons are more likely to buy when their goals are understood. Meaning most early founders are leaving alternatives on the desk by focusing their pitch an excessive amount of on themselves and empathizing with their prospects too little.

Once you take time to craft your first message with out considering of it from the lens of a gross sales e-mail, it is proof you care sufficient to be related. That is the way you earn the appropriate to pitch later.

Associated: Give Your Employees The 3-Point Strategy They Need To Drive Sales

Construct a repeatable engine first earlier than you hand it off

It is tempting to rent a salesman the second you are feeling overwhelmed. However hiring too early is without doubt one of the greatest errors I see founders make.

At Vungle, we did not rent a full-time salesperson till we would already constructed a repeatable script and will practice them on what labored. Till then, we constructed documentation like we would construct product docs: name flows, objection dealing with, aggressive comparisons, gross sales enablement supplies.

That is what allowed us to scale gross sales from $850,000 to $15 million in a single yr, after which to $56 million the subsequent.

Should you do not do that, you threat churning by way of gross sales hires. In that state of affairs, it’s totally tempting responsible it on “dangerous match.” In actuality, you probably simply did not have a system.

How I see it, your greatest duty as a founder main gross sales is definitely NOT closing offers however writing the playbook. Till you’ve got closed 10–20 offers your self and may clarify how you probably did it, you are not able to outsource.

Deal with your gross sales outreach like an extension of product (as a result of it’s)

Founders usually deal with gross sales as one thing separate from product work. However early-stage promoting is without doubt one of the quickest methods to refine your product. It exhibits you what prospects really care about. What they’re confused by. What they’re keen to pay for.

As an illustration, we thought our price proposition at Vungle was across the velocity of integration. However throughout gross sales calls, we stored listening to that improvement groups have been fearful about crash charges and efficiency. We shifted our pitch — and later, our product roadmap — round these insights. That realignment made an enormous distinction in our win charges.

Early buyer conversations reveal the “why” behind objections. It is going to be very validating listening for reward. However resist the temptation. As a substitute tune in nearer for confusion, hesitation and indifference. That is the true product goldmine.

Associated: How to Avoid These Costly Mistakes in Your Startup’s Sales Strategy

Reps > concept

If there’s one fact I’ve seen throughout each startup I’ve suggested or invested in, it is this: You may’t be taught founder-led sales by studying about it. It’s important to do the reps.

At the same time as you outgrow founder-led gross sales, you will see that “gross sales” is definitely not a short lived section. It is the muscle that helps you uncover new markets and alternatives, elevate cash, recruit expertise, and evangelize your mission. The earlier you construct it, the extra compound curiosity you will get on each a part of your organization.

All that is to say: sure, founder-led gross sales is difficult! It is humbling. Nevertheless it’s additionally the most effective path to actual traction. Should you’re within the early grind, do not forget that the most effective founders possible weren’t naturals both. They only cared and hustled sufficient to place within the reps