“It’s just like being in a relationship,” says Brendan on this solo episode of Billion Dollar Tech. Today, he discusses what happens to a lot of startups when they bring in an outside expert or salesperson to help them scale, but the outside party through laziness or even with the best intentions fails to get the business past the growth stage. He lists five things most founders skip at the beginning stages, which can cost them everything, and explains what to do instead. Some of these are basic and universal such as being clear and specific with what you plan to solve, what your ideal customer looks like, and your results.
How do you differentiate yourself from the competition? More specifically, how do you create demand for your product when there is a long-established brand that people trust and don’t feel like changing? How do you overcome the inherent mistrust people have in strangers, salespeople, and both in one? Once you bring people in, what do you have to say to them?
Brendan uses examples such as Cassidy Shield and Clearbit, as well as Seth Godin.
Quotes:
“Especially as you grow, you will hire experts, but you need to be able to speak, you need to be able to read your financial statements. You need to be able to speak the language of product, you need to be able to speak the language of sales and marketing. It doesn’t mean you need to be able to drive the whole function. But you need to reasonably understand enough so that you can effectively interview people and address, ‘Do they know what they’re talking about? Does this make sense for us?’ and so forth.” ([2:51]-[3:14] (Brendan)
“What are their jobs to be done? What are the things that they think are part of their job? Or the outcome that they’re trying to drive? And how are they doing that today? What’s the status quo? And what’s the emotional resonance and like the priority of those jobs that they’re doing? Right? Some things may be less important to people than others.” ([5:25]-[5:44] | Brendan)
“It’s just like in relationship. This is the overused metaphor which is that you wouldn’t go up to a man or woman on the street and ask them to marry you, day one. You’re going to start with coffee, then lunch, then dinner, then you know, and so forth and so on, building that trust over time. And that’s the same with B2B sale.” ([9:25]-[9:43] | Brendan)
Connect with Brendan Dell:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendandell/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendanDell
Instagram: @thebrendandell
TikTok: @brendandell39
Buy a copy of Brendan’s Book, The 12 Immutable Laws of High-Impact Messaging: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780578210926
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About the Author
Brendan Dell
Brendan Dell is an author and the founder of The Daily Creative. As a freelancer he's worked with clients like Expedia, Cvent, Panasonic, Brother, Windstream and 100+ more to build unignorable tech brands. At The Daily Creative, he shares advice and lessons to help freelancers level up.
