Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
0
Does a CEO (of start-ups especially) need to be a good sales person?
What do you think? Do CEOs need to be good sales people? What about for start-ups, specifically?
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
3 Answers
Chad, this is a great question. Earlier this year, I did a presentation called, "Doctors, Lawyers, and Indian Chiefs are Sales people too.
Whether they realize it or not, CEOs are sales people in the conventional and unconventional senses. For example, they sell their vision to employees, investors, banks, and partners. Mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures are other nonconventional sales environments.
When it comes to startups, CEOs tend to wear many hats and the organization must develop revenue streams rapidly. Having been a CEO in the startup phase, selling knowhow is critical.
Whether you are selling a product or service, a plan, change, or an idea, the process is the same. My opinion is for maximum effectiveness, CEOs should have sales abilities and negotiating skills.
Yes, especially for start ups because they need to be good at selling something that fundamentally does not exist to three very important and varied constituent groups:
1. Venture capitalists
2. Early employees
3. Initial customers
In the early stage of a start up the CEO/founder, the only thing product you have to sell is your vision and idea (maybe a proof of concept if you're lucky). That's a difficult thing to do with a single target, but doing it with three is really hard.
An equally interesting question is "does a CEO need to be really good at customer service". My experience has been that selling is the easier part - keeping everyone happy once they are on board is a lot harder.
Chad, This is an interesting question, and one that many would-be entrepreneurs forget to consider.
Scott and Gary are both absolutely right. But I don't think it's only relevant to startups. CEOs need to be able to sell a vision at every stage of the company's growth. Once the VC has been raised and profitability achieved, the CEO has to continue selling. He or she will need to:
* Sell the board, management, and employees on the company vision
* Sell new investors on the value of the company
* Aid the sales team in attracting and retaining big customers
* Sell the banks on the company when it's time to raise debt financing
etc. etc.
Candyce Edelen
PropelGrowth
www.propelgrowth.com
Answer This Question