“I’d rather run into traffic than make a sales call.”
Let’s say you’re the founder/ceo of a one-person startup, and you’re building something new.
Perhaps it’s a new product, or you’re going into a new market.
Your skill set is development, animation, game-design - whatever it may be, but it’s certainly not sales.
You’ve been on an accelerator, you’ve spoken to people broken by the process and you’ve been handed a lovely development grant to build.
But, between the excitement of building and the reality of launching, you've realised something scary…
… someone's going to have to sell this thing.
And that someone is you.{insert expletive}.
If the thought of "reaching out" to someone or "circling back" makes you want to reach for the Omeprazole, fear not.
You're not “bad” at business. You’re probably just slightly terrified of having to learn another skill set which you didn’t embark on doing this year.
That, or you're just someone who's watched enough terrible sales behaviour to know you don't want to be that person.
The "just checking in!" emails.
The bloke with the motivational quote in his email signature who won't take silence for an answer.
The crazy person who keeps looking at your LinkedIn profile… (yes, babes, I see you and I am not going to buy your game-changing AI lead gen product.)
If you’re anything like me, you'd rather run into traffic. Dark for the New Year, I know. But bear with. But there’s a reframing idea that will help you get unstuck and potentially excited to talk to potential customers.
Reframing the early-stage sales conversation
You know those first handful of conversations you have with a potential customer when you're validating a new product or entering a new market? They're not sales calls. They're something else entirely.
And once you see them that way, the whole thing gets a lot less horrifying.
Think of it as detective work if you will.
When you send that first message, you're not trying to convince anyone of anything. You're not "adding value" or "synergising" or whatever fresh horror sales reps are using.
You're trying to learn stuff like:
What language do they use to describe their problem?
(Hint: it's probably not the same language you're using. And it's definitely not the language on your website.)What are they currently doing to solve this problem?
Even if it's a spreadsheet held together with prayers, or just... quietly suffering through it?What would make them switch? What's the trigger that turns "I should probably fix this" into "Right, I'm fixing this today"?
This isn’t sales, it’s customer development. (Imagine that said in a Marks and Spencer type advert way).
It's research.
It's the bit that means you don't waste six months building the wrong thing for the wrong people.
It’s the bit that may likely impress an investor or customer because you’re putting the ground work in.
And if you're a developer or creative who's already built something successful, you're probably quite good at understanding systems, spotting patterns, and asking "but why does it work that way?"
That's all you're doing here. Just with people instead of code or pixels.
Have I made it seem a little less scary?
Questions to ask in those non-sales conversations
If you aren’t horrified by this reframing, and are keen to try a few early conversations, remember you’re looking for insight, not commitment.
Here are some places to start:
On understanding the problem:
"When did you first realise this was something worth fixing?"
"What have you already tried?"
"What's the cost of not fixing this — in time, money, or sanity?"
On how they research and buy:
"If you were looking for a solution tomorrow, where would you start?"
"What would make you trust a new product in this space?"
On what they're using now (without being weird about it):
"What do you like about your current setup?"
"What drives you mad about it?"
"If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing, what would it be?"
You're not interrogating them. You're having a conversation. And most people, if you approach them with genuine curiosity rather than a sales target, are surprisingly happy to talk about their problems. Humans are helpful by nature.
What to listen out for (that could help your sales plan)
A few things to pay attention to:
When someone's voice changes, when they say stuff like, "oh, don't even get me started" — that's where the real pain is. That's your signal. Write it down. Underline it twice.
If they've cobbled together three spreadsheets, two Zapier automations, and a prayer to solve a problem, that's validation. People don't build hacky workarounds for things they don't care about.
If you describe your product and they nod politely but don't ask follow-up questions? That's information too. They might not be your customer, but that’s totally fine - knowing that now is a good thing, not a failure.
You're not becoming someone else
Talking at this early stage of your business idea isn’t sales, it’s showing people that you’ve seen demand for what you offer and you may have a potential solution.
The first ten, twenty, fifty conversations aren't about closing sales. They're about learning enough to know exactly who you're for, what they need to hear, where to find them, and how to market your startup when the time is ready.
