How Successful Startups Avoid Selling To People Who Aren’t Buying

Discover, define, and mine your market to find customer gold

Why do some new products fly off the shelves while others have sales cycles that extend out for months?

Selling any product is a mixture of art and science, but selling a new product with no track record from a company with no reputation — that requires a science all its own.

Every new product is different, of course, but one commonality I see among successful startups is an unwillingness to market and sell to people who aren’t buying. As simple as that sounds, it’s a trap entrepreneurs fall into over and over again.

In 20 years of rolling out new products and selling into dozens of different markets, I’ve learned that to sell a new product, repeatedly and sustainably, you have to refuse to twist the customer’s arm.

Here’s how to do that.

Your goal is NOT to sell as much product as you can

I’m going to buck conventional wisdom here a little bit and tell you that all of the advice you hear about always-be-selling and always-be-closing and throwing enough shit at a wall for some to stick — this isn’t for you.