How to Generate sales without A Marketing Budget

Not everyone has a mega-budget to spend $1,000 on facebook and google ads daily while getting started with a startup. New founders barely have money to pay them well. In such a case how can you go about generating sales? Do you hire a Sales team? or you do it yourself? In this video, Sampath points out a few strategies you can employ within yourself to generate sales. Below the video, you will find three Tenets to keep in mind while approaching sales.         Before we get started with the Tenents, you need to accept these facts.

• Your customer won't come to you.
• There is no magic app out there that will bring sales
• You have to learn to love the daily grind
• You have to do things that don't scale

 

1 Understand your position

Learn to see patterns. A lot of time your product unbeknownst to you, start attracting a certain group of individuals who you have never fathom would use your product. But it happens. If you notice your platform has an unnatural amount of users interested in design, then maybe planning to attend a Designer Centric Event is in your good interest. It worked wonders for Pinterest, and it will work for you as well. This may mean you will have to focus on the audience which is using the platform, and not the audience you primarily aimed to entertain. And that's ok. You have to accept the fact that not everyone is your customer.

“It’s not for you. We are not supposed to say that. We are certainly not supposed to want that. But we must.” - Seth Godin, This is Marketing

 

Love you Customers

You are small now. Take this to your advantage, and show how much you love (and need) your customers. talk to your existing customer in public. This can be done by

• arranging a live chat,
• Implement a small email chain
• meet and greet in conferences

Request your customer to share your contact on their socials, or people in their reference. You should also start exploring live chat on all the platforms out there. Linkedin, Twitter (via Periscope), Facebook and Instagram are a few platforms that support live session. The entire point on this is to learn more about your target audience. What they like about your product, if they expect any improvement from you, and even if they would like to see some new products. Tip: Being transparent and developing your product in open will help you get more customers. People love working with people, and not some giant corporation board.  

Provide Value

In order to get sales for your company, you need to prove your worth. Creating content with the knowledge you have is the best way to get started. When people consume the content you create they associate yourself as a reliable source. By creating your content around the product you offer, you are driving high-value traffic to your product page. In 2020, LinkedIn is really blooming. Make sure all the pieces of content you create, is also shared on LinkedIn. It could be a video, an infographic, or even a blog. Tip: Improve your website to provide visitors with CTA. This could be booking an appointment with you, try out your free trial, or maybe even download a free eBook.  

Bonus: How to Network at an Event or Conference

Networking events and Conferences is the best place for you to get customers. The trick is to know which conference to attend. Usually, this is decided by the target audience your product was developed for. Talk to everyone, ask if they want to use your solution, if they agreed to see your product, show your product to them right there and then. If in case they are not interested in your pitch, talk to them and learn what makes them not like your product. Want to take things up a notch? Break out of your comfort zone and get signed up as a speaker!  

Conclusion

Let me know in the comments how you generate Leads without any marketing team!

The question to ask about an early-stage startup is not "is this company taking over the world?" but "how big could this company get if the founders did the right things?" And the right things often seem both laborious and inconsequential at the time. - Paul Graham, Do Things That Don't Scale