MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

Michael Masterson has built several dozen companies, all of which are very successful. His first company didn’t do that well, and from there he also learnt what not to do, which is also incredibly important. I could quote his entire book, Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat which has hit #1 on Amazon’s best-selling book list, but here’s what really struck me as I read it.

Anybody and everybody in a new company should be spending 80% of their time on selling

That’s a bold statement, because people are usually too afraid to communicate the importance of revenues, profits and sales. Michael Masterson says that in launching new businesses, many entrepreneurs do the opposite of spending 80% of their time on selling. If you’re not doing it, you’re wasting time, energy, effort and resources because that’s what it takes to create a successful company.

If your sales generating model isn’t running well, your core is not right. How will you get anywhere if you don’t have any money coming in? All the books I’ve read lately have communicated that message. I love creating the world’s most democratic workplace and pushing that to the next level, but what comes first is sales.

I’m totally comfortable saying that, and I’m glad that many other successful entrepreneurs articulate the same thing. If you don’t sell, you don’t impact people’s lives. I don’t believe that people who read free lessons have as much impact as the people who buy. Very simply, if we don’t get people to buy, we’re not impacting people’s lives.

I will quote his point directly from his book.

It doesn’t matter what sort of expertise you bring into a new venture, whether you area numbers person, a people person, or a systems person, to be truly effective in a startup you must become your business’ first and foremost expert at selling. There’s only one way to do this: invest more of your time, attention and energy into the selling process. The ratio of time, creativity, and money spent on selling as opposed to other aspects of business should be something like 80/20.

How did he learn this lesson? After his first success with a product idea, he and JSN (his partner and mentor) worked together almost every other day. Because he’s a high achiever, Michael Masterson was driven by a view to improving their product.

“How do you know the product needs any improvement?” JSN asked. “I just know it does,” Michael said.

When JSN asked Michael Masterson whether their customers had actually asked for or complained about any of these things, Michael Masterson said, “No, not yet…maybe they will…well, I’m pretty sure they will –these are obvious improvements…”

JSN’s advice? When they start complaining, you can start talking about their complaints but before that, you shouldn’t think about that at all. You should only be thinking about:

1. The sales you are currently making,
2. How many sales you made yesterday
3. How you will make more sales today

That is something most of us don’t think about all the time. I was a victim – it took me 3 years to learn this. We tend to look at things and think, how can we make it better?

Michael Masterson says it very clearly: if you’re not even selling it yet – don’t think about making it better! Think about how to sell more of it.

As a perfectionist, I know how it feels to have 10 ideas to make something better even before it’s released to the market, but sometimes you have to realize that it’s the last thing you should be doing. It’s not about making something better, but about selling something, selling a lot more of it, making the sales process better, and then improving it based on what your customers say.

It takes a different way of doing things – many experienced people have noticed the lack of emphasis on sales because it’s perceived to be something bad or ‘evil’.

What should you be thinking?

Again, I’ll quote from his book. Just what should you be thinking when you think about the sales you are making?

• You should be thinking about how to make more sales.
• Don’t think about what’s wrong or right with the product –there’ll be time for that later.
• Think about how many units you sold last night
• Think about what you are doing today to improve sales

If you make a habit of that, if and when your customers tell you that they want you to improve this product, you will have the money to make all the improvements that they want.

Most business schools don’t appreciate the importance of selling at any time - whether it’s at the beginning, the middle or the end of a customer or company life cycle

That’s the reason why so many MBAs go into business unprepared to take selling seriously. I totally agree with Michael Masterson - it is hard to take selling seriously sometimes. We’ve all been corrupted.

Although Vishen always had a sales-minded attitude, I have had to be corrected because I’ve developed several bad habits even though I’ve gone to 2 business schools. It was good to finally read these things –that it’s not just ‘ok’ but vital for the growth of your business. I’ve come a long way because just 3 years ago, I didn’t ‘get’ it.

If you are not talking about sales and revenues 80% of the time, you are not doing your job as an entrepreneur. Sales and growth are the ultimate measurement. You cannot build your company or your business without achieving those goals. In short, focusing on sales is not bad; it is not evil – it is almost required.

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About the Author

Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay where he conceived of the strategies that led to the investment in Craigslist, the launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition of Skype. Mike has an MBA from Stanford and previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is also a certified Google AdWords Professional.

Check out other posts by Mike

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