7 Tools That Will Help Your Startup Get More Leads And Sales

Startup Sales — Use these tools to get more sales for your startup.

The name of the game in business is sales.

Without sales, your startup is going to struggle.

Any business will struggle without sales and without new customers.

Some of the people I meet in the startup world are focused on building a great product. That’s obviously important, but early on in the process there has to be focus on sales and where your new customers are going to come from.

In this post we’re going to look at some of the tools that can help you get more leads and sales.

You won’t need all these tools to improve your business. Start with one and focus on testing it to see if there is potential for a low-cost customer acquisition strategy with it.

Let’s get into it.

1. Create A Killer Sales Presentation Using Prezi

When I worked for a large brand, vendors would always ask to give presentations showcasing their software product or even their service. Everyone had a presentation and the ones that were really good clearly showed how the product worked and more importantly, how it could help me look good with my boss.

Usually that meant increasing sales and profit for our company. That’s really the only thing executives care about because it can lead to all the good things that businesses provide including jobs and money to give back to the community.

Use a service such as Prezi (@prezi) to take your presentations to the level that will impress your leads. A few of the items here will help you get leads. Your presentation will help turn those leads into new customers.

2. Upload A Video To Vimeo Providing Insight Into A Hot Trend

You can upload a video to YouTube to tap into the HUGE audience there. Remember, you’re looking to tap into audiences online with your content. A good way to find topics in your industry that your audience will be searching for is to search around for general keywords like (How To Find My iPhone) or whatever the industry is that you’re in.

Look for the most popular video results. Watch those videos. Then plot your attack so you can create your own video that goes beyond each of the popular videos. By doing this you know you’re covering a hot trend or topic in the industry and you’ll be doing it better than what’s out there.

To top it off, publish the vide on Vimeo. The audience is very big on Vimeo (@Vimeo) and is often overlooked with YouTube in the mix. You can gain big attention for your video on Vimeo leading to brand exposure and more leads.

3. Repurpose Your Video Into A Slide Deck On SlideShare

The video will take effort, but it will be worth it. Use a really good description (400+ words) using the phrasing that your audience would use if they were searching for that information.

Once your video is published, take the content and turn it into a slide deck that you can publish on SlideShare (@SlideShare). SlideShare is another GIANT website with millions of people searching for all kinds of content.

Writer another great description and title. SlideShare will also create a transcript from the content in your deck, which makes it even easier to find in their internal search engine.

New audiences. More exposure. More leads.

4. Co-Host Webinars With Complementary Businesses Using AnyMeeting

Webinars can be a great way to generate emails and leads. But it’s difficult to do them on your own. When you’re a startup, you have no audience. To get an audience you have to find a complementary business that has an audience. Partner with them on the webinar. You’ll have to pitch them and convince them that it’s worth their time. Find a topic they are interested in and really go above and beyond to bring good info to the webinar.

Create the outline for the event. Get their feedback and make tweaks. Then work with them to market the event including to their audience (email, social media, etc.).

You can use a tool like AnyMeeting (@AnyMeeting) to get started with webinars. It’s a scalable webinar software that shows ads, but allows you to use it for free for up to 200 invitees.

5. Automated Followup Surveys With SurveyMonkey

It’s pretty easy to setup surveys and send them out on SurveyMonkey. Depending on the size of your business you can personally send out emails to your customers, but you can also automate it using SurveyMonkey’s Zendesk (@SurveyMonkey) integration. You can have surveys trigger to send to your clients at different times.

A good time to send one survey is after you’ve started working with them. Ask questions about the sales process. Questions to ask at this point include:

How did you find us?
What was good about our sales process?
How can our sales process be improved?

Keep it fairly vague so you get a wide variety of answers. With this information you can hone your sales process so you close more leads.

After that, wait until you’re well into the relationship. Then ask questions about satisfaction. There are two questions to ask that will help you get sales.

First, ask what, if any, products and services they would like to see you offer. You don’t have to follow through on all suggestions, but something might stand out as a way to sell more to your current customers.

And second, ask for testimonials and ask if you can use those testimonials. These can really help you with future selling to new customers. Put them on your site. Put them in email signatures. Use them when selling new leads.

6. Respond To 5 HARO Inquiries Per Day To Get Killer Press Coverage

This one will take a little time, but it will be worth it in the long run. Signup for the free email service from Help A Reporter Out (@helpareporter). You’ll get three emails each day. Look for the ones that are related to your industry or even something you can comment on. Respond to 5 each day. You won’t hear back on all of them, but you will hear back from some.

You’ll get exposure on small blogs, but you can also get exposure on popular podcasts, blog communities and even large publications. It’s a great way to get your name out there.

You’re not promoting yourself or your business. Instead, you’ll get exposure as an industry expert with reference to you and your brand.

7. Schedule Social Media Updates With Buffer

Buffer (@Buffer) has been one of the best apps for Ghost Blog Writers. I know it’s caused an increase in traffic to the site and in interest in the company. Discovery is a big part of sales. It’s the early stage of the process, but it’s important. If your target customers don’t know you exist then you need to do something to get their attention.

With a blog or even right on social media you can provide content that teaches your target audience about the topics they care about (trends, sales, etc.). Teach them and use Buffer to make it easier to manage your social accounts.

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Hopefully these tools are helpful. For more on this topic check out these previous posts:

Hopefully these tools can help you get the early sales you need to get your startup off the ground. With those new customers you’re really going to struggle to get going let alone find sustained success. Look for avenues with low-cost customer acquisition. It’s the key to the success of any business even more than having a great product or service.