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Once the minimum viable product (or minimum respectable product if you don’t subscribe to the “you should be embarrassed with your first release” approach) is in place there’s typically a parallel strategy that takes place: acquire the first 10 paying customers through whatever means possible and search for a scalable lead generation strategy. After achieving the start of a scalable lead generation strategy the next step is to profitably acquire customers in a repeatable manner. Of course, the words “profitably” and “repeatable” are critically important and are the death knell for most startups.

Some thoughts are taking this two pronged approach of earning 10 paying customers and finding a scalable lead generation strategy:

• The first 10 paying customers are often found through friends, family, and other forms of brute force marketing. For these 10, the should pay some money so they have a vested interest but even more importantly they need to be a channel for feedback as well as references for future customers.
• Set expectations with these first customers that the system won’t be perfect but that the goal is to continually improve it and to get their input while doing so.
• The scalable lead generation strategy is often found through significant trial and error. Plan on trying dozens of tactics before finding it, if it even exists. Some items that have worked include targeted cold calling, niche community sponsorships, PPC ads, and long-tail ad networks (see yesterday’s post).
• Different lead generation tactics can be experimented in a parallel or serial approach depending on time and budget constraints. The most important thing is to learn from each experiment and look for new clues.

Herb Keller of Southwest Airlines has a great quote:

We have a ‘strategic plan.’ It’s called doing things.

Now, don’t equate actions with results but the more tests you run, and the more failures you have, the closer you’ll be to finding what works.

What else? What other ideas do you have about getting early customers while looking for a scalable lead generation strategy at the same time?

After talking with hundreds of entrepreneurs over the years I like to reflect on patterns and trends. One trend that has emerged, to no surprise, is that sales strategies resulting in serious success are all over the place. The interesting thing is that many startups that have achieved my definition of success can pin point one specific strategy that really catapulted them to the next level.

Here are real world startup sales strategies that led to success:

• Enterprise software company that won a couple RFPs in a vertical and then proceeded to cold call the 4,000 organizations in the vertical and share the success stories
• Software-as-a-service company that developed an expertise in using Google AdWords for lead generation and now spends seven figures a year on PPC and generates eight figures a year in revenue
• Software-as-a-service company that sponsored small, specialized communities with thought leadership for lead generation
• Software-as-a-service company that used small ad networks in niche communities to generate free trials and grow significantly faster than the competition
• Software-as-a-service company that provided a free site that scored a variety of things and then offered more data in exchange for an email address for lead generation

Please send me an email or tweet if you’d like to know the companies behind each of these examples as well as more information. There’s no silver bullet for all companies but there are unexpected techniques that had profound results for many startups.

What else? What are some other example sales strategies that resulted in serious success?

Most entrepreneurs I talk to are focused on growth. They believe that if they grow the business to X things will be better and easier. Once I hear that I then like to ask what their goals are for growth, revenue, and number of employees. I then share with them what I view as a successful business for me personally (growing, profitable, enough scale that the business doesn’t require me, etc).

As growing the business is a function of revenue, we then talk about sales. Most entrepreneurs have a sales challenge. That is, building the product or delivering the service comes naturally — it’s increasing sales that is the most challenging. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs I’ve met are also the most gifted at sales or they figured out a way to build a sales and marketing machine.

Building a sales and marketing machine is incredibly difficult — almost always more difficult than building the product or delivering the service. The next time you go about improving your product or refining your service ask yourself if the time is better spent building a sales and marketing machine. It isn’t easy, and probably not as fun, but I find that entrepreneurs need to spend to spend more time building a sales and marketing machine than they think.

What else? Do you think most entrepreneurs have a sales challenge?

Today I had lunch with two co-founders that have built a nice business the brute force way: they started in 2000, tried to raise money unsuccessfully, and bootstrapped things to a multi-million dollar revenue business. All their leads come from Google PPC ads and existing client referrals. They were lamenting that they’ve tried other marketing avenues like SEO, direct mail, and more but could never justify the cost. Of course, I mentioned marketing automation and how it can help track many marketing activities and close the loop on ROI reporting.

Here are things that can be tracked with marketing automation and other tools:

• Phone calls by way of vanity 800 numbers that are campaign specific
• Direct mail pieces with personalized links
• Social media using referrers and tracked links
• SEO through referrers and source analysis
• Advertising campaigns through tracked links
• Companies on your site through anonymous visitor lookup
• Email marketing and landing pages/forms are typically already tracked

As a marketer, the Internet is boon since everything everywhere can be tracked and correlated with outcomes. If someone tells you it can’t be tracked, it’s time to talk to a different person. Marketers should track everything.

What else? What else can be tracked for marketing?