Create Leverage

Sure we don’t want to sell our soul to the devil with some kind of technology license deal. But how do you get you products to market having a “small” voice.  You need to find leverage.  Leverage can come in a number of ways but lets identify a few:

1.   Early adopter customers – word of mouth and referencing is huge in this business.  If a client becomes a supporter / promoter of your company.  There endorsement is very valuable to you.

2.   Channel – The VAR channel works on margin and on the notion that they can provide a service or a set of ideas that make them a neutral party to the client.  Remember they don’t work for free and that they have an angle.  It is either margin or the ability to leverage your unique product to differentiate themselves from other non cutting edge VARS and or to wrap services around your product.

3.   Your entire company is a sales force.  I asked at my first company meeting (we had 22 people in the company) for the sales team to identify themselves by a show of hands.  Only 1 other hand went up. …I corrected them and asked them all to be part of my sales team.  Everyone was invited to sales meetings – the entire team became aware of the issues keeping prospects from buying.  Engineers delivered me leads (names) of people they met a cocktail parties. (Nothing like getting a stack of Napkins with phone numbers scribbled on them from an engineering QA guy and having them hold you accountable for the sales progress

4.   Investors can be customers + they give you a place to practice.

5.   References for other early stage companies – if they have a habit of buying early stage stuff and like to talk about it they make a good target

6.   When it is time to expand leverage your sales team to help find the people – people will follow friends and former co-workers.

7.   Speed is everything – the transfer of information from 1 to many can be immediate today.  Why not create a culture that encourages feedback and rapid help networks.  An email asking a question from a single rep would get 10 answers within 15 minutes from a sales team of 10.   That is a “neural network” – that is culture.