We explained to all companies that if one GRE test can work for millions of students, one test can work for all the companies.
—Varun Aggarwal (Aspiring Minds)
Business does not happen between companies, it happens between real people.
—Chakshu Kalra (GreyB)
I believe bad product and good marketing can work but good product and bad marketing will never work.
—Deepak Syal (GreyB)
Sales can make or break a business.
Sales can make or break a business.
No, it is not a misprint. I did write that twice because it can never be emphasized enough. If you do not find a way to sell, your start-up will die.
If you do not know how to sell, you must either learn it, just like Chakshu Kalra did at GreyB, or partner with/hire someone who knows it, just like Varun Aggarwal did by co-founding Aspiring Minds with his more business savvy brother Himanshu Aggarwal. Varun has cracked one of the toughest segments known for notoriously long sales cycles—education institutes.
Great sales and marketing lessons are hidden in the story of GreyB. Deepak Syal shows that to win the hearts of your customers, you first need to define the target audience and reach it. Chakshu has designed a whole new framework called friendship sales process that helped win clients such as Apple and Samsung. Together, they prove that you can learn even if you do not have a relevant background.
One common theme that emerges while discussing sales across founders in different sectors is that start-up sales process and the skill set required for it are very different from that in big companies. This brings up a major caveat: hiring a sales manager who sells well in a MNC might not work for you. Then what will work? Read ahead to find out.