Start-ups must establish a viable position amid savage competition, but they face competing priorities. To profit, they must sell quickly, but they also must understand their market sectors. Many new entrepreneurs jump in before they gain that knowledge – a recipe for trouble or even failure. Sales expert Amos Schwartzfarb guides start-up entrepreneurs down a better path. His “operational playbook” can help you avoid costly mistakes and enable you to sell your offerings expeditiously while scaling up efficiently.
The “W3” system – based on knowing who, what and why – can help your start-up scale its operations and maximize sales.
A viable business must sell its merchandise or services. If you can’t close sales, you won’t have a business. Getting sales to close depends on three factors:
- Providing customers with special, measurable value that your competitors can’t match.
- Hiring the best people.
- Establishing a strong corporate culture.
None of these attributes occurs magically, particularly for start-ups. You and your colleagues will need insight about which customers to pursue and how to pursue them. This requires specialization based on verifiable customer data. Applying your insights properly will let you refine your operations and expand your sales.
To grow, you must test your data to find your ideal market. The W3 framework – which calls for answering three vital questions – who, what and why – offers a proven business plan for start-ups and a specialized method for scaling up. The W3 strategy calls for discovering your core customers, and determining what they will buy from you...
Amos Schwartzfarb founded or was an early employee in numerous start-ups, including HotJobs.com, Work.com, Business.com, mySpoonful, BlackLocus and Joust. He has more than 20 years’ experience leading sales organizations.
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