Startup CXO

Chapter 54In the Beginning: From Prospect to Customer

There's a framework that Matt borrowed from one of our original investors at Return Path, Greg Sands. Greg always talked about the evolution of an enterprise selling process as going from “selling on whiteboard” (a largely custom and conceptual sale) to “selling with PowerPoint” (a sale that requires creativity and tailored pitches) to “selling with PDF” (a standard sale that can be taught quickly to an inexperienced sales rep and used with a high degree of predictability to all customers). Part of what that means is that, as a startup, your goal is not to deliver a polished, final PDF to customers, something that is buttoned down and refined, but to start with a mindset of discovery. As the Chief Revenue Officer, along with your CEO and maybe Head of Product, you should go to a prospect's office and literally use a whiteboard, drawing things out, drawing charts and frameworks and circles and arrows and exclamation points, while you try to understand your potential customer's problem and then go back to the office and work on building the solution they need. You're creating this with the client because you don't have a deck yet, much less a PDF. You've got your initial product, but you're still very much in discovering and positioning mode. You are an evangelist. You don't know what resonates in your prospect's mind. It can be very interactive and engaging with you selling on a whiteboard and using that very intimate moment ...