Entrepreneurs’ dream is to create possibilities. They believe in trying, dig in the dirt and bring mind, heart, and soul to work, hoping it will be a successful endeavour.
Entrepreneurs believe everything I just mentioned above. But when the hardship starts when possibilities become tough. Hope fails. It becomes tough to continue.
Everyone wanted to join you when they heard about the big idea. But when the idea started meeting the customers, then everything started giving up. The projected sales started looking like mountaineer’s job. The change request by the customer looking tough for accepting. Entrepreneurs counselled customers to believe in them. But even that didn’t work.
To create a customer’s experience, entrepreneurs even gave products & services free. A handful of customers said yes. Many felt like guinea pigs.
Looking at all aspects of the life of an entrepreneur. It comes to a question if luck would have played well.
And when nothing works, the easiest way is to drop the bomb on your firm and find a way elsewhere. Till the time you get an idea.
Lie low and work on product
Many ideas around the world of entrepreneurs’ fail. The idea of customer demand failed. ‘Potential Customers junked your idea.
Sales are not easy-peasy. The product needs to solve significant problems of customers. It is not an idea that is important; it is the problem which entrepreneurs will solve. Not just that, is the solving problem needed every day or is it a problem once in a year. The lesser the dependence will lead to no business.
Here is the classic case, when PMS or OKRs were introduced, I always felt who would need these dedicated systems to manage PMS and OKR. Why will anyone buy spending big bucks on it? Why someone will use it every day, something which annually reviewed.
Till the time someone told big firms that OKRs and PMS are a great way to achieve organizational goals. The strategy is appreciated in Fortune 500 firms. The idea which sells.
The point I am making is to work on your strategy hard enough and make your product successful. Develop product and re-develop until the time you make a mark that customers feel value. Or counsel the world of enterprise that product what you are offering is a necessity and not just for luxury.
Trust sales process
If Hope is fuel, sales conversations are an encouragement. No one is perfect. Even Elon Musk failed in the launch of Cybertruck. But his overall strategy runs around making sales.
Tesla is selling like hotcakes.
If you do search on Sony product failure, you will get a list on google. Products which you never heard. But what sells, they made sure to develop in that line and sell.
Don’t wait for hitting a goldmine product. Products are evolved and not made in one go. The evolution is supported by the Sales process. Make sales conversation less deep thinking and more process-oriented. If 70 prospective customers said No to your product and services, then find 30 who admired. Out of those 30 probably only 2 will buy at the end. But you hit the process.
So for the next 2 sales, you need to communicate to another 100 prospects and then get 2 sales. This percentage might improve as you go on. The sales team will get intellect about the cluster, persona to get better fitment, and vertical to focus.
Team building
It is not new, but then for any struggling entrepreneur, the best way to keep going is a trusted team. A team that will believe in you and a team on which you can trust.
Life is always about ups and downs, someday it will be great and on some other day, it will be depressing. What important here is to have a team and work on every good, bad day.
I don’t guarantee what I say going to work for you. There is no acceptable solution in the struggle of making a firm work. Or there might be more bad luck coming your way. We needn’t have to feel ashamed or blame ourselves.
All we can do is work for betterment, another opportunity, or completely new things. Keep going…