Sell More Faster: The Ultimate Sales Playbook for Startups

by Amos Schwartzfarb

Overview

From Amos Schwartzfarb, serial entrepreneur and veteran Managing Director of Techstars Austin comes the elemental, essential, and effective strategy that will help any startup identify, build, and grow their customers from day 1

Most startups fail because they can’t grow revenue early or quickly enough. Startup CEOs will tell you their early missteps can be attributed to not finding their product market fit early enough, or at all. Founders overspend time and money trying to find product-market fit and make false starts, follow the wrong signals, and struggle to generate enough revenue to scale and raise funding. And all the while they never really knew who their customers were, what product they really needed, and why they needed it. But it doesn’t have to be this way, and founders don’t need to face it alone. Through expert guidance and experienced mentorship, every startup can avoid these pitfalls.

The ultimate guide for building and scaling any startup sales organization, Sell More Faster shares the proven systems, methods, and lessons from Managing Director of Techstars Austin and sales expert Amos Schwartzfarb. Hear from founders of multi-million-dollar companies and CEOs who learned firsthand with Techstars, the leading mentorship-driven startup accelerator and venture capital firm that has invested in and mentored thousands of companies, collectively representing billions of dollars in funding and market cap. Schwartzfarb, and the Techstars Worldwide Network of more than 10,000 mentors do one thing better than anyone: help startup entrepreneurs succeed. They know how to sell, how to hire people who know how to sell, and how to use sales to gain venture funding—and now you can, too.

Sell More Faster delivers the critical strategies and guidance necessary to avoid and manage the hazards all startups face and beat the odds. This valuable resource delivers:

• A comprehensive playbook to identify product market direction and product market fit
• Expert advice on building a diverse sales team and how to identify, recruit, and train the kinds of team members you need
• Models and best practices for sales funnels, pricing, compensation, and scaling
• A roadmap to create a repeatable and measurable path to find product-market fit
• Aggregated knowledge from Techstars leaders and industry experts

Sell More Faster is an indispensable guide for entrepreneurs seeking product-market fit, building their sales team, developing a growth strategy, and chasing accelerated, sustained selling success.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781119597803
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	09/04/2019
Series:	Techstars
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

AMOS SCHWARTZFARB is the managing director of Techstars Austin, an early-stage investor, and startup operating executive with more than 20 years of sales, sales leadership, and strategy experience in digital, advertising, entertainment, and software. Amos's specific expertise is identifying product-market fit and go-to-market strategy. Amos's role in the Techstars organization includes mentoring, recruiting, and investing on behalf of the company around the world.

Table of Contents

Foreword xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction: Sell More Faster—Why You Need to Read This Book 1

Starting Up 3

About This Book 9

Chapter 1: The W3 (Who, What, and Why) Framework 11

Where the Heck Do I Start? 12

Who are You Selling To? 17

What is Your Customer Buying? 21

Why is Your Customer Buying It? 24

Putting W3 Together 30

Chapter 2: Finding Your First Customers 37

The W3 Framework is Worthless … Until You Test It! 38

The Wrong W3 39

Sales versus Customer Development 46

How to Find Your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) 50

Product–Market Direction and the Quest for Product–Market Fit 58

Now It’s Your Turn to Start the Customer Development Process 62

Chapter 3: Your Sales Process—The Road to Repeatability 63

Why Having and Knowing Your Sales Process is Important 65

Teasing Out Your First Sales Process 69

Building Your Sales Model through (Not) Guessing 78

Your CRM Blueprint and Early Sales Model 82

Chapter 4: Getting to Repeatability 89

How Do You Know When You’ve Made a Sale? 90

Value Trading and Pricing 92

Negotiation 101 98

The Process of Making a Deal 101

Chapter 5: Scaling Your Team for Speed 107

Knowing When It’s Time to Hit the Gas on Hiring 107

Your First Sales Hire 110

Finding Repeatability in Hiring 120

Paying Salespeople 131

Chapter 6: Big Businesses are Built after the Sale is Closed 143

Keeping the Momentum Going 144

Customer-Centric Cultures Win 147

The Postsales Process 149

Retention and Growing Your Revenue Base 154

Chapter 7: Now Go Out and Sell More Faster! 159

Take the Long View 160

Implementing What You’ve Learned 160

Revel in Your Passion 162

About the Author 163

Index 165