Channels and Sales Defensibility Questions All Startups Should Ask Themselves
Startups should be constantly challenging and reinforcing how they’re doing things. Channels and sales defensibility is important because it lays bare the current strategy and execution surrounding fundamental aspects of your startup in a way that’s nonthreatening and a good avenue for constructive criticism.
One of our mentors, Greg Rodriguez, recently dropped in to challenge our startups assumptions on customer acquisition. Greg is a founding member of the San Antonio Angel Network, former VP of Sales at Rackspace Cloud and currently running the Gregory Group. The Gregory Group looks to partner with organizations to make a significant impact on their revenue growth and other business objectives.
Greg enhances startups’ business processes and to create innovative solutions to meet their unique challenges like sales & marketing strategies, lead generation, operational improvement and much more. Greg left a lasting impression on the startups he mentored. Below are a few of the many questions he asked that I believe most startups can find relevant:
- Where are you currently trying to reach your customers?
- What drives repeat usage & what is your referral engine?
- How do you engage in sales?
- Why are you guys doing this?
- If you don’t have the domain expertise, then why did you decide to go into this?
- Could you explain your mission as if you’re speaking to your 12 year old nephew?
- How do you plan to monetize your venture?
- Are you utilizing any proprietary technology or is it all created by you?
- Defining what differentiates you will make it more successful acquiring customers for your startup.
- Is it your tech or services that make you different than your competition?
- How do you define your space?
- Are you focusing on the pond where you’re able to catch the most fish?
- How do you encourage people to do more business with you? Partner program, tier pricing, etc…?
- Are you looking to do cross-pollination with potential partners that target same demo?
- What are you replacing?
- What is someone going to stop doing when they start using your product?
What are other important questions startups should be asking themselves? Would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions below in the comment section!
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