The first thing I will do tomorrow morning is join our sales standup. A friend was recently SHOCKED that I look at our sales KPIs daily.

Here’s why I think every CEO should focus on sales in the early stage - a THREAD for you

Sales is like a heartbeat. It doesn’t tell you prognosis, but it gives you a sense your startup in the moment.

Daily checks of sales data helps you understand ebbs & flows fast.

Example: we quickly learned that we were understaffed on Mondays just from reviewing sales data.

CEOs that take sales calls hear customer complaints and problems first hand.

We might not solve every problem, but take enough calls and you start to notice trends that can inform product decisions.

For example...

At soona, we kept hearing that hiring models in COVID was holding up production. Pain point trend pinned.

We listened and we solved it by launching models at checkout for your initial booking - and pickup has been a whopping 33% of customers in the first month.

Even more dope: customers who felt listened to are stickier and spend more money.

You don’t have to solve customer problems exactly as they say either. Solve it and you can still improve cart value, repeat and LTV.

Sales & strategy are intertwined.

If a message isn’t working: it shows up in sales numbers.

If your design isn’t working: it shows up in sales numbers.

If a member of the team isn’t working: it shows up in sales numbers.

I see sales data as a searchable index of problems.

Many a big fish will try to talk “partnerships” with startups because they think it can advantage “both parties,” but we know the little fish always ends up a little bit less well off.

Having a CEO involved in these convos prevents dumb deals from happening (hopefully).

This is my big one: at an early stage startup, EVERY SINGLE EMPLOYEE IS A SALES PERSON.

Accounting.
Engineering.
Even the spouses and families of these employees.

A CEO who can confidently equip their team with easy sales language and directives can easily multiply impact.