David Cummings on Startups

The #1 Thing Entrepreneurs Don’t Want to Hear

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David Cummings

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Entrepreneurs love challenging the status quo. Every problem is a new opportunity. For entrepreneurs, the most exciting part is creating a solution — building a new mobile app, delivering a breakthrough service, or reinventing a stodgy industry. Energy, excitement, and focus are all on the solution. Only, that’s the easy part.

The real challenge is sales and marketing.

The number one thing entrepreneurs don’t want to hear is that they have to become an expert at building a customer acquisition machine.

Think about it: how often do you hear an entrepreneur, upon announcing failure of the business, say it was a product issue vs a sales issue? Failing due to a lack of sales dwarfs all other reasons combined.

The next time an entrepreneur excitedly shares an idea with you, ask how much time, effort, and money they’re going to put into building a customer acquisition machine.

What else? Do you agree that the number one thing entrepreneurs don’t want to hear is that they have to become great at sales and marketing?

Comments

5 responses to “The #1 Thing Entrepreneurs Don’t Want to Hear”

  1. Capitalize Avatar
    Capitalize

    Being in sales, this becomes an interesting topic… An entrepreneur can come up with all kinds of ideas, plans, marketing, labels, logos, but the scary part is actually having someone go out to different businesses and sell the item.

    Reply
  2. startupstroll Avatar
    startupstroll

    Yes and no. It seems very pragmatic and relevant that entrepreneurs focus on the “nuts and bolts” of turning an idea into a viable business with customers and a targeted solution. However there are more of these types of components than just a customer acquisition machine – that is components that could be considered in the same class. Sales and marketing drive the consumer facing side of the bizness. But the backend – the energy, focus and solution – provide the structure for sales/marketing. Or of course you can just buy some google adwords or a Super Bowl commercial and call it a day, no?

    Reply
  3. Juho Vepsäläinen (@bebraw) Avatar
    Juho Vepsäläinen (@bebraw)

    Totally agree. It’s so very easy to surround yourself with bubble wrap and forget about the surrounding world.

    Of course if you aren’t worried about making money, at least you’ll have a nice hobby. And besides, hobbies may turn into something more serious over time. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Izzy Green Avatar
    Izzy Green

    I cant agree more. they are in denial busy doing everything else but the thing that matters most.
    I wrote a similar article on this topic http://izzypreneur.com/the-best-worst-excuse-not-to-do-sales/

    Reply
  5. pfreet Avatar
    pfreet

    One thing many entrepreneurs do not grasp is that sales is a process, not a thing. It is a series of actions that create a pipeline. Unless you have been in a sales role before, this is not easily comprehended. And therefore entrepreneurs underestimate the time and difficulty. Field of dreams indeed.

    Reply

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