So, I've been trying to build my IT company for 10+ years now. I am so disappointed not that I've still not made it, but because I KNOW how capable me and my team is, but every single one of us, with me on the top SUCK at selling something. We can deliver crazy stuff, we were extremely capable of shipping the most crazy software before AI was a thing. Now with AI, literally we have no limit.
I have a company, but it's always on the side, we are a team of 5 – 7 people (some on and off) and usually we work remote for companies separately (or in the same one) to earn salary. We earn okay money as a salary, but that's it.
I am the one that managed to find a good company in the beginning from UAE in which we all started and the idea was while this is happening, I / We will try to find some more serious project / company or make some product.
Well, guess what, we never managed to find bigger client than a web shop and all project that we made ended up with 0 / close to 0 sales.
I really don't know what to do anymore. We tried finding people with sales skills, but none of the potential candidates we met were not genuine and were just far away from the values that we share. The really good ones are already too high to bother with me for no / little money.
The latest attempt that we have is attending and investing heavily in attending events and conferences in a 1000 kilometer radius of us, so that we can possible learn something new and meet someone.
Any ideas? Anyone that has been in similar situation?
I just cannot sell myself, my business or anything that I make
byu/hredittor inEntrepreneur
Posted by hredittor
7 Comments
The only thing that you need to do is start measuring everything. Once you have some data, the problem will be right in front of you.
AI can elaborate on what I mean if the idea interests you.
Although it’s sad that you have done it for 10 years and didn’t put enough effort to find the problem.
Of all the times i’ve talked to entrepreneurs struggling with selling, one thing i’ve noticed in every one of them is that they were afraid of fucking up in front of prospects, so they never tried. Becoming shameless is a good start if you want to think about selling great. Don’t be afraid to be loud.
I’m curious what you mean by the “values” that you share. What are the values the candidates are displaying that are different from your team?
You’ve got a world-class product, but selling is a muscle you need to train. 💪 Start small: package your skills into niche solutions, target ideal clients, and practice pitching daily even cold emails count. AI can help showcase your value visually. Once people see results, sales becomes easier than you think.
Confused you are saying you you are capable of certain things but do you have anything to show a prospect of what you actually shipped? Sounds like you have been around for 10 years and have just done some web shops?
Sounds like you need figure out what you actually want to provide and go from there.
Go and do a b2b sales training workshop. You want to learn about “needs” and “value” based selling. anyone can learn to sell, the reality is most people choose not to. And by nature a seasoned sales guy is going to seem very different to engineers. As a team you need to accept the new personality as a critical part of your success. Way too many tech guys look down on sales guys.
You can only overcome this problem once you fully take responsibility for it. As a business owner the only thing that matters is bringing in revenue. If there are teams out there building garbage and beating you, I hate to be the one to say it: you are the creator of your own problem.