sales strategy

There’s nothing quite as exhilarating as seeing your startup idea come together and take the shape of a deliverable service or product. But now there’s a fresh challenge waiting for you – winning those invaluable first customers. Not beta testers, not friends and family. Real, paying customers. We spoke to Nicky Bowman, an experienced sales coach and Enterprise Ireland mentor, about how startup founders can develop their sales strategy and find those crucial first customers. Presumably, if a founder has built an amazing product or service, getting sales should be fairly easy? As a startup founder, you probably have years of industry experience behind you that’s been invaluable for getting you to this point. But suddenly you have to think...

Pricing is one of the most difficult issues for new businesses, but it is also one of the most critical. While there are some general principles that should be applied by all businesses, there is no one size fits all model for setting prices. Creating the right image through pricing Pricing affects profit, but it also plays a major role in forming your brand's image. Set your prices too high and you will be perceived as not offering good value for money, set prices too low and you may be perceived as cheap. The basic starting point for setting prices is an understanding of costs - you cannot sell your goods or services for less than the cost of production, at...

The United Kingdom represents Ireland’s single largest export market, providing significant opportunities for ambitious and growth-focused companies. The UK market is a natural overseas destination for Irish businesses looking to expand and is viewed by the Irish Government as a key export region for our economic recovery. Not only is the UK one of Ireland’s most important trade partners, but its geographical proximity and cultural similarities make expansion into the UK easier for Irish businesses... on paper, anyway. There is no doubting that both regions share common characteristics. However, the strategic and operational approach that needs to be adopted in, say, Dublin versus Manchester, or marketing and selling to the public sector in the UK versus that of Ireland differs...

International growth is not the same as getting beta customers in your home market – to sell overseas, you’ll need to be able to scale your sales acquisition, and service and manage all the possible agents and resellers in the market. This article will illustrate the major points your startup should be aware of and how you can best position yourself for international growth The international growth ‘toolkit’ Startups today have to think in terms of international growth pretty much from day one. However, it involves a very different set of skills than the one it takes to achieve the first beta customer in your own market – skills more aligned to scaling growth, and managing customers and intermediaries at...

With the number of high-profile exhibitions and trade shows increasing, how can we be sure that participating isn't simply a costly and time-consuming exercise, with no guarantee of success? Trade exhibitions can be very profitable for your business and the secret to success lies in good planning. Determining whether trade fairs are to be part of your marketing strategy is not a decision to be taken at the last moment. You should allow time to research which shows to attend, assign a trade show budget, and identify and purchase the necessary promotional materials. Deciding to exhibit at the last minute may result in increased costs and inconclusive or poor results. Who is organising the event? The success of the show depends primarily on the footfall...

Around 30 Phase 2 participants from around the country joined us at Enterprise Ireland on Thursday for a special workshop that looked at how to find customers and the sales pipeline. This is the first time New Frontiers participants from different locations have come together for a training session, so it was also an opportunity to meet and network with entrepreneurs from other Institutes. How to find customers Finding and retaining customers was the subject of Thursday's workshop, which was facilitated by Alan Costello of Ruby Consulting, a strategy- and innovation-focused boutique consultancy. Alan has worked with numerous small/early-stage/HPSU companies, and as a founder himself has great insight into the reality of startup life. Alan's workshop looked at the different sales cycles that...

Generating sales leads is key to starting a business, but what's the best way to connect with and convert potential customers who are not aware of your company? For most start-ups the priorities are: Confirming that someone will buy your product or service; Building the first version of your product or service; Getting your first paying customer; Raising funding, or making enough sales to self-fund. Every one of these priorities, even building your product, depends on acquiring customers. And you need to acquire customers in a repeatable way, so you know which inputs will generate more outputs (i.e. more customers). Your goal should be to build a process for acquiring customers that is predictable, scaleable and automatable. There are two...