We prefer not to use the term “fail” as we don’t believe there is failure in startups, only testing. You only fail when you give up.
When you have the courage to step out on faith and start a business of your own instead of just talking about it, you’re certainly not a failure and that term shouldn’t define you personally. Entrepreneurship is an admirable feat for anyone to choose. It’s one of the most uncertain decisions one can make, risking it all, for a chance to build something from an idea. Yes, it takes a certain level of courage and confidence to do it, however at some point those wells run dry, especially if you don’t have the revenues to affirm the efforts. Most people have limits on how far outside of their comfort zone they’re willing to take their business venture, particularly if it requires even more risk.
When you have the courage to step out on faith and start a business of your own instead of just talking about it, you’re certainly not a failure and that term shouldn’t define you personally. Click To Tweet
The biggest risk of all new entrepreneurs avoid is rejection–marketplace rejection of the new product or service they’ve built. And this leads into the first reason startups “fail”–the absence of sufficient customer discovery.
The biggest risk of all new entrepreneurs avoid is rejection–marketplace rejection of the new product or service they’ve built. Click To Tweet
How does this happen?
Well, most founders focus on speaking with people they personally (loosely or closely) know to give them feedback on their new business idea. Typically friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, and family. (Yes, I meant to type friends of friends of friends!) You see, all of these people are in some way tied to them, even if it’s a weak tie, nevertheless it’s a relational tie. However, proper customer discovery should be done by speaking with complete strangers–people you don’t know and who have no problem hurting your feelings telling you what they think about your new business idea, if it solves a problem for them, or if they would be willing to pay for it. Unfortunately, after investing so much time, energy, and emotion into developing the business idea, founders may encounter 1 or 2 people that completely diss it during the customer discovery process and they decide to retreat–avoid those scary people who don’t know what they’re talking about. Right? Who wants to be told that their grand idea stinks or that it needs some work, particularly from someone (a stranger) who doesn’t plan to buy it or be your customer anyway?
We prefer not to use the term “fail” as we don’t believe there is failure in startups, only testing. You only fail when you give up. Click To Tweet
So what happens?
Founders go back to speaking with the weak ties that already provided early affirmations that made them feel good and confident about moving forward with the idea. While spending all of their time with the “support group” and physically building the product or service, there’s little time (or desire) to continue the actual customer discovery process of talking to random strangers who may be prospective customers and getting their input.
Never build a product around what YOU THINK people want. Always get customer input before building anything. Click To Tweet
This leads up to the second reason startups “fail”–they don’t sell their product. Well, let’s restate that–they don’t sell their product to customers quickly enough, in large enough quantities, for high enough prices to keep them in business and growing. This stems back to the fear of selling. Many startups want to rely on inbound marketing tactics—like Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, and the like. (By the way, you’ll quickly blow through all of your funds!) The problem with this strategy is it’s a “sit and wait” approach and also that when you’re in the early stages, you don’t have a confirmed, clear client profile that you’re targeting with your marketing. When you are a startup, you have to go get your customers, proactively a.k.a sell. Marketing is great for exposure, but marketing is much different from selling. You still have to sell to close the deal!
As a startup, the founding team members are the best salespeople for the business Click To Tweet
As a startup, the founding team members are the best salespeople for the business, but unfortunately many try to outsource sales functions too early. No salesperson can come in and save the day for a new startup because the data and infrastructure for the salesperson to be successful aren’t even in place yet. There’s a limit to making lemonade out of lemons and by outsourcing this task to an employee hired to be your salesperson instead of the founders doing it themselves, it sends a signal of insecurity. It indicates that there is FEAR—fear of selling your product or service and facing rejection of someone saying no (there will be lots of them!) Yes, there are several tasks the founders are doing every day to operate the business and there’s still never enough hours in a day to get it all done. BUT here’s the truth—nothing is more important than selling your product. Without revenues, the company cannot be sustainable.
So, if you want to dramatically increase the chances of your early-stage company (of any kind!) making it, there’s no way around it…you have to talk to people. You have to talk to strangers. You have to be okay with being told “no” 20 times so you can get to the 1 yes.
You have to be okay with being told “no” 20 times so you can get to the 1 yes. Click To TweetNothing is more important than selling your product. Without revenues, the company cannot be sustainable. Click To Tweet
Let’s hear from you now. Have you experienced a “failed” startup? If so, where do you think it went wrong?
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