Sales is the lifeline of any business. And no matter what the fundraising market looks like, if a company founder can increase sales month over month, they are on the road to success.

So, below are fifteen plus one sales maxims that I like to share with those founders that attend our Exponential Boot Camp for Startup Sales. These sayings set the tone for the program. And hopefully, give them some perspective on what sales is about in bite-sized chunks.

During the boot camp, I also like to share with the group a little-known statistic from the paper “Earn versus Burn: Financing Strategies of Successful Entrepreneurial Sell-outs” by Robert Wiltbank. This statistic exclaims of entrepreneurs who achieve exits, those that finance their companies primarily through sales, out-earn VC funded entrepreneurs by four times.

If a statistic like this does not get them to focus aggressively on sales and selling and adopt the fifteen maxims below, I am not sure what would.  

A startup is a race and a journey. It is a race to get to a repeatable sales model before running out of cash. And it is a journey of understanding and development of a sales model that can sustain the company. However, many startup founders lack the experience and acumen to build a sales process from scratch, which will seriously hinder their ability to complete the startup race.
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At the Exponential Boot Camp for Startup Sales, to help founders better understand and navigate the sales journey they are on or have ahead of them, we introduce and train them on our two-mode sales model. The model highlights the different selling and hiring efforts and activities they must undertake at various stages along their journey. We have named these two sales modes, Developmental and Systemic Sales.

​The selling and hiring activities in these two modes are vastly different. Understanding these differences helps entrepreneurs plan their journey with more foresight, better manage their cash resources, engage more effectively with prospects, and hire more astutely. In short, it helps them make sales decisions with more clarity and purpose.

​​If you are an angel or early-stage investor, looking at deals through the two-mode sales model's lens helps you understand how well your founders appreciate the task ahead of them.