I was recently speaking with an early stage venture capitalist in Chicago and I asked him what I could do for him.
His response was slightly surprising: Send me entrepreneurs that are great salespeople. No one else had said that to me before. Usually, VCs want the hot e-commerce company or the unknown startup that doesn’t need their money. But here’s someone asking for introductions to a generic person with a specific skill set.
Why?
Probably the most difficult hurdle for a startup is that first customer.
Usually, the product is half-baked, there’s limited documentation and the founder is supporting the first customer with every step and it’s clearly not scalable. But an interesting thing develops during this time — trust between the entrepreneur and the customer.
Now fast forward to the 10th customer. If the entrepreneur does that much hand-holding with every customer, the product may start to suffer. The flip side is that not spending time with that 10th customer leads to a less sticky relationship between the entrepreneur and customer, but the business is more scalable because the entrepreneur can’t be everywhere all the time.
It’s a trade-off.
Back to the original comment by the VC about salespeople and this example of relationships: “What about a great product to sell itself?” The answer is that with few exceptions, sales and relationships beat great technology.
The value of relationships
In the B2B world, there are usually fewer than five people who make the decisions on championing your product, integrating your product and selecting your product.
Most people want to select the best product. But trust in a person allows an inferior product to be selected and given a shot. How many times is the first customer someone that the entrepreneur knows? Exactly.
Similarly, when a company grows and that relationship has been cemented over the years, the chances increase dramatically that the entrepreneur gets a call when storm clouds are brewing at a customer’s company and there’s a chance to save the business. If there’s no relationship, the chances of just getting the pink slip from the customer are significantly higher.
Here are five things to do to build those relationships:
Be authentic
Everybody is human (so far) and they want to deal with an authentic person. When you answer questions evasively or explicitly avoid answering, people sense that.
Get to know them
Have a relationship where you know something personal about the customer, whether it’s their children’s names, where they graduated from school or what their favorite vacation destination is.
Follow their company
You don’t need to know everything, but certainly knowing the highlights such as did they just have a new product release, did they hire a senior person or noticing something that impacts their business helps.
Make intros without conditions
A warm introduction is the most valuable type of introduction and making them without a quid pro quo goes a long way towards building trust.
Encourage your customers to talk to each other
Not only does this help your customers trade best practices, but it shows that you are confident enough in yourself and your company that there’s nothing to hide. ●
