Pre sales: Pre Sales Best Practices for Startup Founders

1. What is pre-sales and why is it important for startups?

Before you launch your product or service, you need to validate that there is a market demand for it and that your potential customers are willing to pay for it. This is where pre-sales comes in. Pre-sales is the process of engaging with prospects and leads, understanding their pain points and needs, demonstrating the value proposition of your solution, and building trust and rapport with them. Pre-sales is crucial for startups because it helps you to:

1. test your assumptions and hypotheses. Pre-sales allows you to gather feedback and data from your target audience, which can help you to refine your product-market fit, pricing strategy, messaging, and positioning. You can also use pre-sales to run experiments and validate your assumptions before investing too much time and money into development.

2. generate revenue and traction. pre-sales can help you to generate early revenue and traction, which can boost your cash flow, validate your business model, and attract investors and partners. You can use pre-sales to offer discounts, incentives, or exclusive access to your early adopters, who can also become your advocates and referrals.

3. build long-term relationships. Pre-sales can help you to establish long-term relationships with your prospects and leads, who can become your loyal customers and promoters. You can use pre-sales to educate, nurture, and delight your prospects and leads, and to create a positive customer experience and satisfaction.

For example, a startup that is developing a new online learning platform can use pre-sales to:

- Conduct surveys, interviews, and focus groups with their target learners and educators, to understand their challenges, preferences, and expectations for online learning.

- Create a landing page, a demo video, and a pitch deck, to showcase the features and benefits of their platform, and to collect email addresses and feedback from interested visitors.

- offer a free trial, a beta access, or a pre-order option, to entice their prospects and leads to sign up for their platform, and to generate revenue and traction.

- Provide support, guidance, and resources, to help their prospects and leads to use their platform effectively, and to solicit testimonials, reviews, and referrals.

By doing pre-sales, the startup can validate their product idea, generate revenue and traction, and build long-term relationships with their prospects and leads, which can increase their chances of success and growth.

2. How to identify and segment your potential buyers and their needs?

One of the most important steps in pre-sales is to define your target market and ideal customer profile. This will help you focus your efforts on the most promising prospects, tailor your value proposition to their specific needs, and avoid wasting time and resources on unqualified leads. In this section, we will discuss how to identify and segment your potential buyers and their needs using various methods and criteria. Here are some tips to follow:

- Use data and research to understand your market size, growth, trends, and opportunities. You can use sources such as industry reports, market surveys, competitor analysis, and customer feedback to gather relevant information about your target market. For example, if you are selling a SaaS solution for e-commerce, you might want to know how many online retailers are there in your region, what are their main challenges and goals, how much do they spend on software, and what are the current gaps in the market.

- Create buyer personas to represent your ideal customers. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on data and research. It typically includes demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and situational characteristics, as well as pain points, goals, motivations, and preferences. For example, one of your buyer personas might be John, a 35-year-old owner of a small online clothing store who wants to increase his sales and customer loyalty, but struggles with managing inventory, shipping, and marketing.

- segment your market based on relevant criteria. Market segmentation is the process of dividing your target market into smaller groups based on common characteristics or needs. This will help you tailor your marketing and sales strategies to each segment and increase your conversion rates. You can use various criteria to segment your market, such as geography, industry, company size, revenue, budget, decision-making process, pain points, goals, and product usage. For example, you might segment your market into small, medium, and large online retailers, and further segment them by their location, revenue, and main challenges.

3. How to communicate your unique solution and benefits to your prospects?

One of the most crucial aspects of pre-sales is how you present your product or service to your potential customers. You need to convince them that you have something valuable and unique to offer, something that can solve their problems or fulfill their needs better than any other alternative. This is where your value proposition and pitch come in. They are the tools that you use to communicate your distinctive solution and benefits to your prospects. Here are some best practices for crafting and delivering your value proposition and pitch:

- 1. Understand your target market and customer persona. Before you can craft a compelling value proposition and pitch, you need to know who you are talking to and what they care about. You need to conduct market research and customer interviews to identify your ideal customer profile, their pain points, goals, motivations, and preferences. You also need to segment your market and tailor your message to each segment based on their specific characteristics and needs.

- 2. define your unique value proposition (UVP). Your UVP is a clear and concise statement that summarizes what your product or service does, how it differs from the competition, and why it matters to your customers. It should answer the question: "Why should I buy from you and not someone else?" Your UVP should be based on your unique selling proposition (USP), which is the core benefit or feature that sets you apart from the rest. For example, Uber's UVP is "The smartest way to get around", which is based on their USP of providing convenient, affordable, and reliable transportation on demand.

- 3. craft your elevator pitch. Your elevator pitch is a short and persuasive speech that you use to introduce yourself and your product or service to your prospects. It should capture their attention, spark their interest, and make them want to learn more. Your elevator pitch should include your UVP, your target market, and a call to action. For example, Airbnb's elevator pitch is "Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world — online or from a mobile phone. Whether an apartment for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb connects people to unique travel experiences, at any price point, in more than 34,000 cities and 190 countries. And with world-class customer service and a growing community of users, Airbnb is the easiest way for people to monetize their extra space and showcase it to an audience of millions."

- 4. deliver your pitch with confidence and enthusiasm. Once you have crafted your value proposition and pitch, you need to practice and refine them until you can deliver them with confidence and enthusiasm. You need to show your passion and excitement for your product or service, and convey your credibility and trustworthiness. You also need to adapt your pitch to different situations and audiences, and use appropriate body language, tone of voice, and visual aids. You should also anticipate and address common objections and questions, and end your pitch with a clear and compelling call to action.

4. Summarize the main points and provide a call to action for your readers

You have learned about the importance of pre-sales for startups, the key steps to follow, and the common challenges to overcome. Now, it is time to put these insights into action and start building your pre-sales pipeline. Here are some tips to help you succeed in your pre-sales efforts:

- define your ideal customer profile (ICP). This will help you target the right prospects who have the problem that your solution can solve, the budget to afford it, and the authority to make the decision. You can use tools like LinkedIn, Crunchbase, or AngelList to find and research potential customers.

- Create a compelling value proposition. This is a concise statement that explains how your solution can benefit your customers, what makes it unique, and why they should choose you over your competitors. You can use frameworks like the Value Proposition Canvas or the Jobs-To-Be-Done Theory to craft your value proposition.

- Develop a pre-sales playbook. This is a document that outlines the best practices, processes, and tools for your pre-sales activities. It should include your sales pitch, your demo script, your objection handling techniques, your qualification criteria, and your follow-up strategy. You can use templates like the Pre-Sales Playbook Template or the Pre-Sales Checklist to create your playbook.

- build rapport and trust with your prospects. This is essential for establishing a long-term relationship and increasing your chances of closing the deal. You can use techniques like active listening, empathy, storytelling, and social proof to connect with your prospects and show them that you understand their needs and can deliver value.

- Ask for feedback and referrals. This will help you improve your pre-sales performance, identify areas of improvement, and generate more leads. You can use tools like SurveyMonkey, Typeform, or NPS to collect feedback from your prospects and customers. You can also ask them to introduce you to other potential customers who might be interested in your solution.

By following these tips, you will be able to create a strong pre-sales pipeline that will boost your revenue and growth. Remember, pre-sales is not a one-time activity, but a continuous process that requires constant learning, testing, and optimization. So, don't hesitate to experiment, iterate, and innovate your pre-sales strategy. The more you practice, the better you will become.

Now, it's your turn to take action. Start applying these pre-sales best practices today and see the results for yourself. And if you need any help or guidance along the way, feel free to reach out to me. I'm always happy to help.