3 Reasons Why Every Startup Should Have A Sales Manager

For a lot of entrepreneurs, starting a new business is more about creativity,the pursuit of some great adventure. Most startup operators get great satisfaction seeing their idea come to life. The guy who started a blog simply gets a kick out of seeing people read the blog.

Money is usually not number one on the list or reasons why this person started the firm. The truth however is that earning an income is something most of us cannot view as optional. As much as we hate to admit it, our businesses have to make money.

For any business to realize real revenue and even profits, we must have a serious sales and marketing machine. We must have a mechanisms through which we get either the end user or partner to hand us a check for our product or service.

Now I get it, it is hard to focus on growing users and building features as well as acquiring new customers. This is why every startup entrepreneur should have a sales manager. I know this is not what Inc. Magazine tells you, but bringing someone on who’s job is solely to get paying customers is very important.

Here are 3 reasons why you should hire a sales manager.

1. Save Time and Energy

In a typical startup environment, the founder’s job is innovation. You are meant to motivate the troops, monitor user growth, talk to investors and help launch new products. You do not have the time to build and manage a sales force. It is important to bring in a skilled sales or marketing expert to help build a robust sales machine within your startup.

2. Morale

I have worked for several startups and as fun as it can be, it can also be a very confusing experience. A lot of employees of startups often complain that they are not sure exactly what the company’s purpose is. Sometimes sales and marketing - which should be the command center of your firm, gets pushed to the side. Bringing on a sales manager will not only signal to the troops that you are serious about making money, but also sets the tone for folks working in your company.

3. Budget

In the mid to late 90’s, it seemed like tech startups were popping up all over the place. Every day we heard news of young companies accessing hundreds of millions of dollars in capital. Half the time we were not even sure how these companies made money. Most of these companies failed. They did not go bust for a lack of capital. Most of these tech firms did not have a sustainable business model.

These guys never gave any significant thought to how they were going to make money beyond investor capital. I seriously encourage you to devote resources to hiring a sales operator who will build and run a sales team within your firm. Set your expense projections based on the revenue your sales team brings in. This will help set a realistic budget for all other departments.