There’s a reason Why Lead Velocity Rate is the Most Important Metric in SaaS: customer acquisition is the #1 challenge for entrepreneurs. Nowadays, building great technology still takes work, but there are a number of excellent people out there that can do it. When it comes to building a customer acquisition machine that combines lead generation, brand building, and consultative sales reps, all in a cost effective manner, there are many fewer people out there that can do it. Oh, and it’s hard. Really hard.
Here are a few thoughts on customer acquisition as the #1 startup challenge:
- When talking to entrepreneurs, they always say they want to grow revenue faster (I’ve never heard an entrepreneur say “we’re growing too fast”)
- When an entrepreneur fails, it’s always due to not signing enough customers to breakeven (or reach another funding milestone)
- Traction outlines 19 different marketing channels, and most startups aren’t good at more than one or two of them
- Building a high quality sales team is really hard (hint: it all starts with the hiring)
- While finding product/market fit comes before building a repeatable customer acquisition process in the four stages of a startup, building a repeatable customer acquisition process is even harder
As Guy Kawasaki likes to say, sales fixes everything. Figure out a repeatable customer acquisition process that’s financially viable and you have the makings of a very successful business. Customer acquisition is the #1 startup challenge.
What else? What are some more thoughts on customer acquisition as the #1 startup challenge?
David Cummings on Startups 
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