How Learning to Sell Helped My Startup Earn $400M in Revenue

Once you’re constructing a startup from scratch, there are two issues no person warns you about sufficient: one, you are going to need to sell. And, two, you are in all probability going to be horrible at it at first.

I do know I used to be. I did not have gross sales expertise once I launched my earlier firm, Vungle. However we had no gross sales workforce, no leads and no model to fall again on. If I wished the corporate to outlive, I needed to study to promote anyway.

I can say now, given hindsight, that the method of figuring it out the exhausting approach is what set the muse for what got here later. Inside a number of years, we had grown to 250 workers throughout eight places of work, with over $400 million in annual income. None of that might have occurred if I hadn’t accomplished the early gross sales myself.

Under are sales lessons I realized from these years, plus tactical ideas any founder can apply, particularly when nobody’s answering your messages.

Associated: 4 Steps to Becoming a Sales-Focused Founder (and Why It’s Important)

Discover methods to point out up the place your clients already are

In our earliest days, we had been attempting to get cell sport builders to make use of Vungle’s advert tech, and cold outreach simply wasn’t reducing it.

So we did one thing unconventional: We began taking part in the video games themselves. Our workforce would log hours on well-liked titles simply to land on the leaderboards. As soon as we had been ranked, we would change our usernames to quick customized messages like “FromVungle_Please_Call_Us.”

This strategy acquired us into conversations with builders who would’ve ignored us in any other case. In a sea of templated outreach, we stood out by embedding our message within the expertise our clients had been already having.

Now, I am not saying that it’s best to gamify your each outreach (except, perhaps, in case your customers are avid gamers). What I’m suggesting is, in case your chilly outreach is falling flat, ask your self: Are you exhibiting up the place your customers are already engaged? Or are you simply sending emails they did not ask for?

Cease speaking about your product

Founders love speaking about their product. That is comprehensible given how this product might be your labor of affection. The catch is, in a chilly message, your product is not the hook — your person’s ache is. For Vungle, one of many best-performing openers was one thing alongside the traces of:

“Hello, I noticed your app on the charts. We have helped different builders increase income by 20% with out altering the person expertise. Value a fast chat?”

See how we did not listing our credentials or clarify our tech stack? As an alternative, we led with one thing our viewers cared about: incremental income for minimal effort.

In case you’re doing chilly outreach, assume the particular person studying your message has no context on who you might be and does not care but. It’s good to earn that curiosity.

This issues greater than it appears. Per a 2024 Salesforce report, 86% of enterprise consumers are more likely to buy when their goals are understood. Meaning most early founders are leaving alternatives on the desk by focusing their pitch an excessive amount of on themselves and empathizing with their clients too little.

Once you take time to craft your first message with out considering of it from the lens of a gross sales electronic mail, it is proof you care sufficient to be related. That is the way you earn the best to pitch later.

Associated: Give Your Employees The 3-Point Strategy They Need To Drive Sales

Construct a repeatable engine first earlier than you hand it off

It is tempting to rent a salesman the second you are feeling overwhelmed. However hiring too early is without doubt one of the largest errors I see founders make.

At Vungle, we did not rent a full-time salesperson till we would already constructed a repeatable script and will practice them on what labored. Till then, we constructed documentation like we would construct product docs: name flows, objection dealing with, aggressive comparisons, gross sales enablement supplies.

That is what allowed us to scale gross sales from $850,000 to $15 million in a single yr, after which to $56 million the subsequent.

In case you do not do that, you danger churning by way of gross sales hires. In that state of affairs, it’s extremely tempting guilty it on “dangerous match.” In actuality, you almost certainly simply did not have a system.

How I see it, your largest duty as a founder main gross sales is definitely NOT closing offers however writing the playbook. Till you have closed 10–20 offers your self and might clarify how you probably did it, you are not able to outsource.

Deal with your gross sales outreach like an extension of product (as a result of it’s)

Founders typically deal with gross sales as one thing separate from product work. However early-stage promoting is without doubt one of the quickest methods to refine your product. It exhibits you what clients truly care about. What they’re confused by. What they’re prepared to pay for.

As an illustration, we thought our price proposition at Vungle was across the pace of integration. However throughout gross sales calls, we stored listening to that growth groups had been fearful about crash charges and efficiency. We shifted our pitch — and later, our product roadmap — round these insights. That realignment made an enormous distinction in our win charges.

Early buyer conversations reveal the “why” behind objections. It should be very validating listening for reward. However resist the temptation. As an alternative tune in nearer for confusion, hesitation and indifference. That is the true product goldmine.

Associated: How to Avoid These Costly Mistakes in Your Startup’s Sales Strategy

Reps > principle

If there’s one fact I’ve seen throughout each startup I’ve suggested or invested in, it is this: You possibly can’t study founder-led sales by studying about it. It’s important to do the reps.

At the same time as you outgrow founder-led gross sales, you may see that “gross sales” is definitely not a brief section. It is the muscle that helps you uncover new markets and alternatives, increase cash, recruit expertise, and evangelize your mission. The earlier you construct it, the extra compound curiosity you may get on each a part of your organization.

All that is to say: sure, founder-led gross sales is tough! It is humbling. However it’s additionally the most effective path to actual traction. In case you’re within the early grind, keep in mind that the most effective founders possible weren’t naturals both. They simply cared and hustled sufficient to place within the reps