Sales 411

Ever been at the right place? At exactly the right time? I have on several occasions. Once, in a workshop with a lot of high priced talent, I overheard this conversation... "The problem with almost all of these startups, is that they have no understanding of the sales process." Amen. Guess what? The world's greatest gizmo or gadget is not going to sell itself! Regardless of how many times you tell yourself it will. Five years ago, I worked with a client that was brilliant in a lot ways, but failed to grasp the simple equation: no sales = no business. I served as CTO, DBA and the sole programmer... helped the client and his team build a world class 'workforce procurement" app... with a killer UI... only to see the sales fail to materialize. But I digress... One of the biggest failures leading up to the "dot com meltdown" was the confusion surrounding raising capital versus the actual sale of a good or service to a real (and paying) customer. I have heard numerous accounts of conversations where the "dot com" founder would respond with answers about rounds of funding when asked about sales. Now, there is help. sales101 dot com The "411" on producing results, and where the funnel is your new, best friend. On the Throughput Press version of the Solar System, consider this new subsidiary "Mars." Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey, Jonah www.ThroughputPress.com (330) 432-3533 P.S. If you have just invented the world's greatest "mouse trap" and would like to see your efforts pay off in cash rather than stock options, call me. tag: Sales 101 (c)Copyright 2007, Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey. All rights reserved.