1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,480 Kevin Mako: Hello, product innovators. Today we learn how to design and execute a sales process for selling your hardware invention from a sales strategist who's worked with over 150 product manufacturers. 2 00:00:09,820 --> 00:00:19,520 Kevin Mako: This is the Product Startup Podcast, a show to learn from top leaders in hardware product development, prototyping, manufacturing, product selling, and everything in between. 3 00:00:19,860 --> 00:00:24,600 Kevin Mako: Hosted by Kevin Mako, the leading expert on product development for hardware startups. 4 00:00:25,180 --> 00:00:28,720 Kevin Mako: Welcome back, everyone. I'm very excited to introduce Wesleyne Whittaker to the show. 5 00:00:29,140 --> 00:00:29,980 Kevin Mako: Wesleyne is CEO. 6 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:37,760 Kevin Mako: of Transformed Sales. A company that has worked with over 150 manufacturers and product brands on building sales processes to grow quickly and effectively. 7 00:00:38,300 --> 00:00:53,220 Kevin Mako: Today, Wesleyne will share valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what a sales process is, the key components and subcomponents of a well-designed sales process, and how to run that process well to ensure you launch and grow your hardware product sales successfully. Now, on to the episode. 8 00:00:54,040 --> 00:01:00,200 Kevin Mako: This show is produced by Mako Design, the original firm providing end-to-end consumer product development service. 9 00:01:00,220 --> 00:01:05,100 Kevin Mako: services tailored specifically to hardware startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. 10 00:01:05,260 --> 00:01:11,320 Kevin Mako: Take your product from idea to store shelves at MakoDesign.com. Now on to the episode. 11 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:15,056 Kevin Mako: Hi, Wesleyne. Welcome to the show. 12 00:01:15,056 --> 00:01:18,620 Wesleyne Whittaker: Hi, thank you so much for having me, Kevin. I'm excited to chat with you. 13 00:01:18,940 --> 00:01:25,380 Kevin Mako: We're excited to chat to you today about sales processes for a new hardware product that a new hardware 14 00:01:25,380 --> 00:01:30,680 Kevin Mako: entrepreneur is trying to get to market. So whether you've been in the sales space or whether you've been in the 15 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:31,980 Kevin Mako: product space, it actually doesn't matter. 16 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:35,360 Kevin Mako: Today you're going to learn the processes, if it's your first time in either of those, 17 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:40,480 Kevin Mako: to really figure out how to build a process, why it's important and how to execute on it well. 18 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:44,700 Kevin Mako: But before we get into all that great stuff, Wesleyne, just give us a bit of a backstory of how 19 00:01:44,700 --> 00:01:46,260 Kevin Mako: you became the success story that you are today. 20 00:01:46,700 --> 00:01:51,500 Wesleyne Whittaker: So I'm a recovering chemist, and I started my career in the petrochemical industry as a failure 21 00:01:51,500 --> 00:01:56,880 Wesleyne Whittaker: analysis chemist. And then my first step into the world of sales was actually selling capital 22 00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:01,920 Wesleyne Whittaker: equipment. So I have the great pleasure of walking around, you know, with my hard hat and 23 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:06,740 Wesleyne Whittaker: my set of tools really focusing on selling capital equipment into plants. And I decided 24 00:02:06,740 --> 00:02:12,060 Wesleyne Whittaker: what I really wanted to do was help manufacturers really focus on building strong sales organization 25 00:02:12,060 --> 00:02:14,658 Wesleyne Whittaker: through process, through training, and through consulting. 26 00:02:14,658 --> 00:02:16,360 Kevin Mako: That's amazing. You've worked now with 27 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:22,540 Kevin Mako: over 150 manufacturers over a long period of time in sales figuring out how to sell better, 28 00:02:22,620 --> 00:02:28,080 Kevin Mako: how to sell more product or how to sell a new product for the first time to the market. And a lot of that 29 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:31,900 Kevin Mako: comes back to the actual process. The nice thing I want to mention here, especially for hard 30 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:36,240 Kevin Mako: we're just kind of tuning in or just getting the idea of the sales process. Maybe you're just in 31 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:39,920 Kevin Mako: development. Maybe you're still even in the idea phase or you're getting into manufacturing 32 00:02:39,920 --> 00:02:44,460 Kevin Mako: and you're starting to look forward to some of these things that you may be doing with your product 33 00:02:44,460 --> 00:02:48,340 Kevin Mako: down the road. The important thing here is if you can follow some of the processes and best 34 00:02:48,340 --> 00:02:53,040 Kevin Mako: practices, it actually simplifies it a lot. And that's what we're trying to do today to show us to really 35 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:58,480 Kevin Mako: empower you as any person out there selling your product, how you yourself can be great at selling 36 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:04,300 Kevin Mako: your product for the very first time. So, Wesleyne, let's start big picture here. What is the 37 00:03:04,300 --> 00:03:11,800 Wesleyne Whittaker: definition of sales process? A sales process is a proven and repeatable way that you walk yourself 38 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:16,300 Wesleyne Whittaker: through a sales funnel. You might have heard of a funnel or a pipeline or all of these different 39 00:03:16,300 --> 00:03:23,940 Wesleyne Whittaker: terms that people use to get from a person that is out there in the world all the way to a client 40 00:03:23,940 --> 00:03:28,140 Wesleyne Whittaker: who's purchasing your items who's using them. So that's literally what your process is. 41 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:34,240 Wesleyne Whittaker: a step by step from person coming in to person saying, I want to buy your hardware 42 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:37,355 Wesleyne Whittaker: product. I am a raving fan. I am a customer. 43 00:03:37,355 --> 00:03:40,400 Kevin Mako: Love it. So let's drop into what the actual 44 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:46,780 Kevin Mako: processes are. What are the main components of a sales process, just at a high level? So what you want 45 00:03:46,780 --> 00:03:52,940 Wesleyne Whittaker: to do is I like to break it into three big buckets, right? And I go prospect, nurture clothes, right? 46 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:58,460 Wesleyne Whittaker: And so what we're thinking about is in that prospecting bucket. It is how am I engaging the 47 00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:02,740 Wesleyne Whittaker: clients? How am I attracting them? What am I doing in my marketing? What am I doing, you know, 48 00:04:02,780 --> 00:04:08,020 Wesleyne Whittaker: in my outreach? And now they say, hey, I'm raising my hand. I'm kind of interested in what you're doing. 49 00:04:08,020 --> 00:04:15,900 Wesleyne Whittaker: How do I nurture them? What am I doing in terms of my discovery meetings, my email drip campaign? And then 50 00:04:15,900 --> 00:04:21,520 Wesleyne Whittaker: once they're like, okay, I'm ready. They're raising their hand. It's all about how do I close this person? 51 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:27,960 Wesleyne Whittaker: How do I handle objections? And how do I ensure that this one person that I spent X number of dollars acquiring is a 52 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:32,080 Wesleyne Whittaker: repeat customer. They don't just buy one thing, but they come back and buy more of my hardware, 53 00:04:32,220 --> 00:04:35,399 Wesleyne Whittaker: buy more of my products, buy more of the things that I'm offering. 54 00:04:35,399 --> 00:04:36,940 Kevin Mako: That's powerful. You can look at 55 00:04:36,940 --> 00:04:41,200 Kevin Mako: this in many different contexts as well as a hardware startup on there. Know that there's a lot of different 56 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:45,140 Kevin Mako: ways to sell product. You can sell it direct to customers. And this could be, well, how are you selling 57 00:04:45,140 --> 00:04:49,960 Kevin Mako: one to one to somebody who has expressed interest either on your website or through your Shopify, 58 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:56,040 Kevin Mako: through your crowdfunding campaign, whatever else. But this can also include more serious or larger 59 00:04:56,040 --> 00:05:00,580 Kevin Mako: customers, which is your wholesalers, your retailers, any sort of distribution company 60 00:05:00,580 --> 00:05:04,820 Kevin Mako: that's buying potentially in volume, which is a great way for a hardware company to sell 61 00:05:04,820 --> 00:05:09,700 Kevin Mako: because you can go from selling zero to a thousand with one decision maker, one person who's 62 00:05:09,700 --> 00:05:14,480 Kevin Mako: interested. So let's start figuring out how to do this well, Wesleyne. Just give us a bit of best 63 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:19,200 Kevin Mako: practices around that prospecting piece. And we'll go through it piece by piece and learn some of the 64 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:23,100 Kevin Mako: tips and tricks that you've seen over the last 15 years of doing manufacturing sales on how to really 65 00:05:23,100 --> 00:05:25,980 Kevin Mako: do each of these key components well for a hardware startup. 66 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:30,860 Wesleyne Whittaker: So when we think about prospecting, one of the things that you said that is really important is to 67 00:05:30,860 --> 00:05:38,140 Wesleyne Whittaker: understand who is on the end, on the other side of the table from you. Am I focusing on a 50-year-old 68 00:05:38,140 --> 00:05:43,380 Wesleyne Whittaker: man who is doing his own projects around the house? Or am I focusing on a 50-year-old executive who is 69 00:05:43,380 --> 00:05:49,280 Wesleyne Whittaker: thinking about all of the distributors that I have under my tutelage? So we first want to focus on who was 70 00:05:49,280 --> 00:05:54,580 Wesleyne Whittaker: that ideal client and how do they consume information and what do I need to give them? And so when 71 00:05:54,580 --> 00:06:00,100 Wesleyne Whittaker: more prospecting for them, I like to say that we can't just do it in a vacuum. We need to focus 72 00:06:00,100 --> 00:06:05,480 Wesleyne Whittaker: on digital channels. We need to focus on in-person channels. And we need to focus on educating people. 73 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:12,380 Wesleyne Whittaker: So the key to prospecting well is to targeting your ideal client in a multitude of fashions. 74 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:18,460 Wesleyne Whittaker: And I'll just double down on education, which is when people don't use that often, it's educate them and 75 00:06:18,460 --> 00:06:23,020 Wesleyne Whittaker: they will come. That's what I like to say. Once you educate that ideal client, they will then come to 76 00:06:23,020 --> 00:06:27,940 Wesleyne Whittaker: you. So you educate them through your blog post, through your newsletter, through handwritten notes, 77 00:06:28,060 --> 00:06:33,180 Wesleyne Whittaker: through doing webinars, through writing e-books. It doesn't really matter. It's just you need to 78 00:06:33,180 --> 00:06:38,640 Wesleyne Whittaker: educate people on the impact of buying your product, how your product is actually helping them solve 79 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:44,240 Kevin Mako: a challenge. That's powerful because especially as a hardware startup, probably the reason you're in this 80 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:48,420 Kevin Mako: space is because you came up with some kind of an innovation, something that makes your product 81 00:06:48,420 --> 00:06:52,720 Kevin Mako: better than whatever else is out there, something that's helping people or solving a pain point, 82 00:06:53,020 --> 00:06:57,180 Kevin Mako: creating opportunities from them, whatever it might be. But you've got that figured out 83 00:06:57,180 --> 00:07:02,240 Kevin Mako: on the hardware side. You've produced said thing and it does this stuff great. But everything, 84 00:07:02,420 --> 00:07:06,600 Kevin Mako: every product out there requires that element of education. Of course, if you've got a great 85 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:10,420 Kevin Mako: product, the better the product is, probably the easier it will be to educate. But it doesn't matter 86 00:07:10,420 --> 00:07:14,960 Kevin Mako: what way you look at it. But point being is that you really need to focus on ensuring that you've 87 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:19,880 Kevin Mako: closed that gap between interest and understanding. By doing that, that's your education sphere. 88 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:23,000 Kevin Mako: And that can bring a lot of different pieces. That has an all. 89 00:07:23,020 --> 00:07:27,980 Kevin Mako: a whole bunch of different components. But just recognizing the very fact that your job is to educate 90 00:07:27,980 --> 00:07:32,760 Kevin Mako: will help you as a founder who's really been focused on all those engineering details is to pull yourself 91 00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:37,680 Kevin Mako: out of the weeds and then focus on big picture, really what sells that ideal customer that you've 92 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:43,760 Wesleyne Whittaker: considered. Absolutely. You hit the nail on the head. As a hardware startup founder, you're really 93 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:49,080 Wesleyne Whittaker: smart. There's a lot of great things in your head. And the biggest challenge, the biggest thing 94 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:53,000 Wesleyne Whittaker: that I have seen people in the industry do is to not get the information. 95 00:07:53,020 --> 00:07:58,760 Wesleyne Whittaker: in their head out, to not help educating their prospective clients and their buyers on why 96 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:05,220 Wesleyne Whittaker: their particular product is the best. So use the knowledge in your head. You already know it. 97 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:10,200 Wesleyne Whittaker: It's already in there. And don't feel like you have to sit down and write. If you're like me and you like 98 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:15,360 Wesleyne Whittaker: to talk, record a video. Just record a video and then you can get the transcript and you can use that. 99 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:22,260 Wesleyne Whittaker: If you're a writer, write it out. But get it out of your head. That is the key to success in sales within this 100 00:08:22,260 --> 00:08:26,860 Wesleyne Whittaker: industry. You have to get the knowledge out of your head. I like the fact that you talked about 101 00:08:26,860 --> 00:08:30,820 Kevin Mako: different mediums as well. And you've even identified different ways. You've talked about video writing. 102 00:08:30,820 --> 00:08:36,060 Kevin Mako: And of course, there can be so many derivatives of those. So as a hardware startup, just start adding to 103 00:08:36,060 --> 00:08:40,980 Kevin Mako: these various channels. You're going to educate on socials. You're going to educate on your website, 104 00:08:40,980 --> 00:08:44,460 Kevin Mako: of course. You're going to educate on maybe a brochure. And then you're going to have all these kind 105 00:08:44,460 --> 00:08:48,520 Kevin Mako: of video testimonial pieces that you can put towards it, whether it's customers or using the product 106 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:52,240 Kevin Mako: or you talking about it or whatever else. Just start getting these. 107 00:08:52,260 --> 00:08:57,540 Kevin Mako: pieces of education onto paper because the more of them that you have comes back to your concept 108 00:08:57,540 --> 00:09:02,000 Kevin Mako: Wesleyne that you're talking about this multi-channel approach. So as a customer, you may have different 109 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:08,060 Kevin Mako: ways of digesting information. And as such, the video might not work for one person. And therefore, 110 00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:12,260 Kevin Mako: they want to see the writing and vice versa on a different person. You don't want to miss those opportunities. 111 00:09:12,260 --> 00:09:16,160 Kevin Mako: You want to make sure that you're providing education in a bunch of different formats and in a bunch 112 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:20,660 Kevin Mako: of different ways so that all of the different prospective customers can be educated enough to then switch 113 00:09:20,660 --> 00:09:25,220 Kevin Mako: to that next phase of the process, which is when you're actually trying to get them to 114 00:09:25,220 --> 00:09:31,100 Wesleyne Whittaker: close the deal. Yes. And, you know, the thing is you can, I want to give a very tactical tip 115 00:09:31,100 --> 00:09:37,960 Wesleyne Whittaker: because you can get so much from one median, right? So let's say you get on, you record a video. And from 116 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:43,580 Wesleyne Whittaker: that video, you pull the transcript. From that transcript, you can get social media bits and pieces. 117 00:09:43,780 --> 00:09:49,820 Wesleyne Whittaker: You can pull clips of the video and use that on social media. And in that nurture phase, which is the next 118 00:09:49,820 --> 00:09:55,200 Wesleyne Whittaker: phase in our sales process. We need to nurture people with emails. And so again, education. 119 00:09:55,500 --> 00:10:01,460 Wesleyne Whittaker: I'm putting you guys in the hardware manufacturing fields in a place that you're comfortable. You are 120 00:10:01,460 --> 00:10:06,660 Wesleyne Whittaker: comfortable with knowledge. So I want you to realize in your nurture emails when you're getting 121 00:10:06,660 --> 00:10:12,080 Wesleyne Whittaker: on discovery calls with people, when you're really helping people understand how your product is solving 122 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:19,700 Wesleyne Whittaker: their challenges, you can do that in a place that you're comfortable. So if you feel like I really am 123 00:10:19,700 --> 00:10:24,760 Wesleyne Whittaker: not that comfortable doing face-to-face meetings because I'm more a back of the office kind of person, 124 00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:31,260 Wesleyne Whittaker: have a phone call. It's okay. If you don't like getting on video, do a phone call. If you're more of that, 125 00:10:31,340 --> 00:10:37,420 Wesleyne Whittaker: I want to see you face-to-face, then go to that person. But in that nurture phase, it's really important that you 126 00:10:37,420 --> 00:10:43,400 Wesleyne Whittaker: connect with the buyer. You need to understand these are the problems that I know my ideal client is having 127 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:49,400 Wesleyne Whittaker: and these are the ways that I solve them. And so in these meetings, whether you have two meetings or 10 meetings, 128 00:10:49,700 --> 00:10:55,180 Wesleyne Whittaker: Within that middle phase of nurturing and closing and handling those objections, you have to make 129 00:10:55,180 --> 00:11:00,320 Wesleyne Whittaker: sure that you meet the customer where they are. Let's talk a bit about objections because I know 130 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:05,880 Kevin Mako: that's a big part of the sales process and a part of this middle nurturing phase before you're 131 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:10,320 Kevin Mako: actually trying to close. Just talk me through. First of all, what are objections and then how can you 132 00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:16,080 Kevin Mako: actually be organized around objections and make sure that those aren't becoming a restriction for people 133 00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:19,680 Wesleyne Whittaker: actually purchasing your product? The biggest objections are. 134 00:11:19,700 --> 00:11:25,340 Wesleyne Whittaker: price, not having the authority to make a decision by themselves and timing. 135 00:11:25,660 --> 00:11:31,440 Wesleyne Whittaker: So I'll go with the big ones. Whenever you hear a price objection, it's not about the price at all. 136 00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:37,500 Wesleyne Whittaker: It's that you have not demonstrated the value of your product. And so it's not worth the investment. 137 00:11:38,300 --> 00:11:43,820 Wesleyne Whittaker: So whenever you hear that, you need to take that onus on you and say, so, Mr. 138 00:11:43,940 --> 00:11:48,900 Wesleyne Whittaker: customer, Ms. Customer, I understand that you say I'm out of your budget range or you can't 139 00:11:48,900 --> 00:11:55,400 Wesleyne Whittaker: afford this, where did I miss the mark? What more do I need to show you to show you the value of this 140 00:11:55,400 --> 00:12:01,060 Wesleyne Whittaker: product? Don't go into the pricing more because if you win on price, you will lose on price. So if you start 141 00:12:01,060 --> 00:12:06,160 Wesleyne Whittaker: discounting your level, especially if this is the first product that you're selling somebody, that is 142 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:10,440 Wesleyne Whittaker: going to be your zero. And it's only going to go down from there. They're going to always come back and ask 143 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:15,840 Wesleyne Whittaker: ask for more discount and more discount until your margins are nothing. And you can't even afford 144 00:12:15,840 --> 00:12:18,660 Wesleyne Whittaker: to service that customer because you played the price for. 145 00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:23,780 Kevin Mako: That's so powerful, especially as a hardware startup, your product, as we talked about before, has 146 00:12:23,780 --> 00:12:30,320 Kevin Mako: some additional value. I love how you mention it. If price is your primary objection, it's your fault 147 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:35,020 Kevin Mako: for not showing them why the value is not there. People look at it differently. You say, 148 00:12:35,020 --> 00:12:39,940 Kevin Mako: if price, oh, I've got to reduce the price or I've got to increase the feature set or some other thing 149 00:12:39,940 --> 00:12:43,620 Kevin Mako: that costs money. You're looking at it the wrong way. It actually just comes down to an explanation. 150 00:12:43,620 --> 00:12:47,580 Kevin Mako: And I can tell you, it's a lot easier from an engineering perspective. It's a lot easier to fix 151 00:12:47,580 --> 00:12:53,340 Kevin Mako: a marketing approach or a set of marketing materials or some messaging than it is to re-engineer the whole product, 152 00:12:53,700 --> 00:13:00,740 Kevin Mako: either to add perceived value to it and or to reduce cost. So focus on your messaging and make sure that if 153 00:13:00,740 --> 00:13:05,900 Kevin Mako: you have a better mousetrap, as an example, make sure that they know what's better and as such are willing 154 00:13:05,900 --> 00:13:10,460 Kevin Mako: to pay a premium. We talk a lot about pricing on the show, especially as a hardware startup. If you've done a great 155 00:13:10,460 --> 00:13:17,560 Kevin Mako: job of design, you've got a fresh 2024, beautiful, modern, sexy, well-designed, well-manufactured product that also 156 00:13:17,580 --> 00:13:23,140 Kevin Mako: has some added benefits that doesn't exist in the world, you should absolutely be charging a higher 157 00:13:23,140 --> 00:13:27,700 Kevin Mako: price than your competitors, especially as you're getting into the market. You can always offer 158 00:13:27,700 --> 00:13:32,540 Kevin Mako: discounts and sales if you want to get some early adoption or some early customers or just some quick 159 00:13:32,540 --> 00:13:36,620 Kevin Mako: feedback, but it's very difficult to increase your price after you've gone to market. So you might as well 160 00:13:36,620 --> 00:13:42,500 Kevin Mako: start high, prove that your premium, as you were talking about, just be there to explain why it's worth 161 00:13:42,500 --> 00:13:47,300 Kevin Mako: the extra money. Put your efforts there. And if you do that well, you'll not only sell the product, but you'll be 162 00:13:47,300 --> 00:13:50,840 Kevin Mako: selling the product at a better price, thus giving you better margins to continue to grow your 163 00:13:50,840 --> 00:13:55,580 Wesleyne Whittaker: hardware startup. Absolutely. And when I was on the other side of the aisle, actually selling 164 00:13:55,580 --> 00:14:00,140 Wesleyne Whittaker: hardware, selling capital equipment, one of the things that I always knew is I was always the most 165 00:14:00,140 --> 00:14:07,340 Wesleyne Whittaker: expensive. I was never the cheapest option. And so I understood that my job was to educate 166 00:14:07,340 --> 00:14:13,940 Wesleyne Whittaker: my prospective buyers on the reason why this was a premium product. And I would always say, 167 00:14:13,940 --> 00:14:19,020 Wesleyne Whittaker: if you want to get the, you know, run of the mill that everybody else has and you're going to 168 00:14:19,020 --> 00:14:22,660 Wesleyne Whittaker: have to have service and you're going to have to do this and you have to invest so much on the 169 00:14:22,660 --> 00:14:29,220 Wesleyne Whittaker: back end, why not spend this up front? And I'm guaranteeing you a X number of year warranty and 170 00:14:29,220 --> 00:14:35,100 Wesleyne Whittaker: you're going to have this and this and this. And so the key is to make sure that you have that value 171 00:14:35,100 --> 00:14:40,420 Wesleyne Whittaker: and that question that you ask when you have that objection is, what did I not show you? It helps 172 00:14:40,420 --> 00:14:43,920 Wesleyne Whittaker: you, as you said with your marketing message. It helps you make sure the next 173 00:14:43,940 --> 00:14:48,420 Wesleyne Whittaker: time, you don't lose the same way. Because another thing that I like to say is it's okay to lose, 174 00:14:48,420 --> 00:14:54,360 Wesleyne Whittaker: but it's not okay to lose the same way twice. So if you continue to lose for the same reason over and 175 00:14:54,360 --> 00:15:00,080 Wesleyne Whittaker: over, you're not learning from your mistake. And the onus, again, is on you to figure out what do 176 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:04,460 Wesleyne Whittaker: I need to do differently. If I am just going directly through Shopify or directly through 177 00:15:04,460 --> 00:15:09,240 Wesleyne Whittaker: Amazon or whatever, just a direct-to-consumer place, and I'm getting a lot of returns for the same product, 178 00:15:09,580 --> 00:15:13,920 Wesleyne Whittaker: there's something that's in my messaging that I'm not doing right. There's something that I'm 179 00:15:13,940 --> 00:15:19,840 Wesleyne Whittaker: I'm not telling the consumer and they're not satisfied until the onus is on me to understand 180 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:25,320 Kevin Mako: that. Love it. Powerful. Okay, so let's move on from the nurturing phase to the close phase. 181 00:15:25,660 --> 00:15:30,660 Kevin Mako: Now, you've done your work to prospect. You've got those potential interested folks in. You spend some time 182 00:15:30,660 --> 00:15:36,340 Kevin Mako: nurturing these media forms to educate them as best as possible. Now, how do we get the pen to papers? 183 00:15:36,420 --> 00:15:40,830 Wesleyne Whittaker: They actually close that deal and make the money. So they're going to be two different ways. 184 00:15:40,830 --> 00:15:45,950 Wesleyne Whittaker: if we're going direct to consumer in order to close, you really want to think about what is that 185 00:15:45,950 --> 00:15:51,970 Wesleyne Whittaker: minimum viable product? What is the least amount that I can get somebody to say yes to 186 00:15:51,970 --> 00:15:59,370 Wesleyne Whittaker: and learn the value of the hardware product that I am producing, right? So think about the entry point 187 00:15:59,370 --> 00:16:04,850 Wesleyne Whittaker: into that client. And then once they pay you one time, it's a lot easier for them to pay you for something 188 00:16:04,850 --> 00:16:09,430 Wesleyne Whittaker: bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. So it's about that remarketing, the continuing to nurture, 189 00:16:09,430 --> 00:16:13,790 Wesleyne Whittaker: picking up the phone and calling them, hey, I saw that you bought X, Y, Z. What did you think 190 00:16:13,790 --> 00:16:18,990 Wesleyne Whittaker: about it? Okay? Here's the next thing. And so make sure that again, in your process, you have a step 191 00:16:18,990 --> 00:16:24,290 Wesleyne Whittaker: ladder. You start here, but I want you to end here. If you're targeting business to business, 192 00:16:24,410 --> 00:16:29,510 Wesleyne Whittaker: so you're going directly to distributors or to larger clients, what you really have to do is you have 193 00:16:29,510 --> 00:16:36,570 Wesleyne Whittaker: to make sure that that value that we're talking about, you're clearly able to communicate your value, 194 00:16:37,150 --> 00:16:39,230 Wesleyne Whittaker: how you are solving their problems. 195 00:16:39,430 --> 00:16:46,430 Wesleyne Whittaker: and allowing them to see, if you don't buy my product, the risk of not buying it. If you don't 196 00:16:46,430 --> 00:16:51,650 Wesleyne Whittaker: tap into this, what's going to happen if you use the competitor? You never mention the competitor by name. 197 00:16:51,750 --> 00:16:59,850 Wesleyne Whittaker: You never mentioned all the bad things. Your job is to take that client on this promised land of what the 198 00:16:59,850 --> 00:17:05,730 Wesleyne Whittaker: world will be like if they purchase your product, if they choose you as a vendor to work with, how you're 199 00:17:05,730 --> 00:17:12,530 Wesleyne Whittaker: going to help them, not just in the problem specifically that your product solved, 200 00:17:12,690 --> 00:17:18,130 Wesleyne Whittaker: but how are you going to help them professionally? Is this going to help them save time? Is this going 201 00:17:18,130 --> 00:17:24,310 Wesleyne Whittaker: to help them allow one full-time person to not have to focus on manufacturing this widget over 202 00:17:24,310 --> 00:17:29,470 Wesleyne Whittaker: and over and over again? Like, think about that, really focus on that human that you are selling to. 203 00:17:29,910 --> 00:17:34,870 Kevin Mako: I love many of the things you mentioned just in there. One of the big ones was MVP. We talk a lot 204 00:17:34,870 --> 00:17:38,910 Kevin Mako: about that on the show, especially from a design and development perspective. You've got this great 205 00:17:38,910 --> 00:17:43,250 Kevin Mako: idea. Focus on that and don't worry about all these bells and whistles you think could be the 206 00:17:43,250 --> 00:17:47,830 Kevin Mako: everything to everybody product one day. But you've actually doubled down on that, but from a sales 207 00:17:47,830 --> 00:17:53,490 Kevin Mako: perspective. So we look at that to make it simpler, faster, more effective to get to a manufacturer product, 208 00:17:53,490 --> 00:17:58,650 Kevin Mako: but also of the fewer features you're doing, you develop those at a world-class standard. You never, 209 00:17:58,650 --> 00:18:03,410 Kevin Mako: especially in hardware, you never sacrifice quality. Well, how do you do that on a startup budget? 210 00:18:03,530 --> 00:18:04,550 Kevin Mako: You focus on less features. 211 00:18:04,870 --> 00:18:09,990 Kevin Mako: And it smooths everything out to, and including manufacturing itself. But on the sales side that 212 00:18:09,990 --> 00:18:15,910 Kevin Mako: you're talking about, it also brings this other added value, which is lifetime value of your 213 00:18:15,910 --> 00:18:20,970 Kevin Mako: customer base. And that's something that very few hardware entrepreneurs think about when they're launching 214 00:18:20,970 --> 00:18:24,110 Kevin Mako: their first product. They think about, okay, well, how many sales have I made? What's the cash flow 215 00:18:24,110 --> 00:18:28,190 Kevin Mako: and whatever else? But you're missing this other piece of equity, which is you've built this client 216 00:18:28,190 --> 00:18:34,470 Kevin Mako: relationship and you've given them the MVP version of your product. They are very likely to buy your next 217 00:18:34,470 --> 00:18:39,370 Kevin Mako: year version or the pro version or the accessories that you end up coming up with over the 218 00:18:39,370 --> 00:18:44,990 Kevin Mako: next few years to build essentially a brand line of a brand portfolio. Those initial relationships 219 00:18:44,990 --> 00:18:49,950 Kevin Mako: are powerful and it takes a lot of the stress from a hardware startup of trying to be the everything 220 00:18:49,950 --> 00:18:55,050 Kevin Mako: to everyone, trying to compete with Fortune 500 development firms that are specifically focused on 221 00:18:55,050 --> 00:18:59,190 Kevin Mako: that. So if you look at these Fortune 500 product companies, all the big brands, yes, of course, 222 00:18:59,190 --> 00:19:03,350 Kevin Mako: they put a tremendous amount of design and engineering effort into being the everything to everyone 223 00:19:03,350 --> 00:19:03,830 Kevin Mako: product. 224 00:19:04,470 --> 00:19:08,210 Kevin Mako: However, you as a startup can't afford those same sorts of luxuries. So focus on your innovation. 225 00:19:08,350 --> 00:19:12,730 Kevin Mako: That's a golden nugget. In addition to cracking into the market, that's your MVP, and then lever 226 00:19:12,730 --> 00:19:20,210 Wesleyne Whittaker: up from there. Absolutely. And when I sold, when I was a salesperson, I love to, I would target 227 00:19:20,210 --> 00:19:25,790 Wesleyne Whittaker: people who had no solution, who they weren't using the big guys. They weren't doing because I got to 228 00:19:25,790 --> 00:19:32,110 Wesleyne Whittaker: educate them. I got to give them their first step into this world. And so by giving them their first step into 229 00:19:32,110 --> 00:19:38,050 Wesleyne Whittaker: this world, it's like, well, what was I doing my whole life? Like, how did I even survive without 230 00:19:38,050 --> 00:19:42,210 Wesleyne Whittaker: having your products? And the thing is, when you can educate somebody and you can give them 231 00:19:42,210 --> 00:19:46,070 Wesleyne Whittaker: just a little bit of the promised land that they didn't know that they needed, right? Just that 232 00:19:46,070 --> 00:19:52,170 Wesleyne Whittaker: a little leg up, you're really able to help unlock something in them. And the lifetime value of that 233 00:19:52,170 --> 00:19:57,790 Wesleyne Whittaker: client, it is so much easier to service an existing client than to go get a new one. 234 00:19:57,790 --> 00:20:02,090 Wesleyne Whittaker: So spend a little money up front, get them to the MVP, and then think about it. 235 00:20:02,110 --> 00:20:03,710 Wesleyne Whittaker: Okay, from $100, where do they go? 236 00:20:04,210 --> 00:20:09,730 Wesleyne Whittaker: $300? Then they go to $1,000. But it's a step ladder. And that is the reason that we have a process. 237 00:20:10,130 --> 00:20:17,490 Wesleyne Whittaker: Because if we think about taking somebody from $100 product to a $10,000 product, our close rate is going to be probably like 12%. 238 00:20:17,490 --> 00:20:29,310 Wesleyne Whittaker: It's going to be so bad because that's a huge step. But if we take them from $100 to $500 to $500, our close rate will be $50 or $60 or 70% because they now are building the value up. 239 00:20:29,310 --> 00:20:32,090 Wesleyne Whittaker: So think about that as you're building out your problem. 240 00:20:32,110 --> 00:20:37,010 Wesleyne Whittaker: as you're building at your sales process, where do I, how do I want to take this person through and 241 00:20:37,010 --> 00:20:42,340 Kevin Mako: where is the end point for them? That's amazing. Wesleyne, before I let you go, I want to ask you 242 00:20:42,340 --> 00:20:47,460 Kevin Mako: about what you're doing with your organization Transformed Sales. Talk a bit about it and how you help 243 00:20:47,460 --> 00:20:52,420 Kevin Mako: emerging companies built their sales processes and obviously execute on those process as well. 244 00:20:53,180 --> 00:20:59,040 Wesleyne Whittaker: Yes. So what we do is we build sales strategy. We work with startups. We work with hardware manufacturing 245 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:02,020 Wesleyne Whittaker: companies. And we really help look at this overarching. 246 00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:06,680 Wesleyne Whittaker: organization, the company, where you want to be, that promised land, and we build a sales 247 00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:12,260 Wesleyne Whittaker: strategy as well as an actionable sales process that you can hand off to someone or you can execute 248 00:21:12,260 --> 00:21:18,740 Wesleyne Whittaker: yourself. Super helpful. What's the website for that? So I actually would love if people went to 249 00:21:18,740 --> 00:21:25,040 Wesleyne Whittaker: askweslein.com. And there I have a little digital twin. And so you can type in questions, things that we've 250 00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:31,180 Wesleyne Whittaker: talked about here. How do I build a sales process? How do I prospect? And you will get videos of me explaining this. 251 00:21:31,180 --> 00:21:32,660 Wesleyne Whittaker: So ask wesleine.com. 252 00:21:33,100 --> 00:21:36,580 Kevin Mako: Much appreciate it. As always, I'll put the links below in the show notes so anybody can click 253 00:21:36,580 --> 00:21:40,360 Kevin Mako: through and go from there. Wesleyne, thanks so much for all your words of wisdom today on helping 254 00:21:40,360 --> 00:21:45,660 Kevin Mako: hardware startups start selling their actual first hardware product to the market. Thanks again. 255 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:46,480 Wesleyne Whittaker: Thank you. 256 00:21:46,860 --> 00:21:48,160 Kevin Mako: Appreciate it. Take care. Bye-bye. 257 00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:52,080 Kevin Mako: Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Product Startup Podcast. 258 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:57,600 Kevin Mako: If you found some value in the show, please do us a huge favor and hit the like button and subscribe. 259 00:21:58,020 --> 00:22:01,160 Kevin Mako: If you have any questions, guest suggestions, or anything else, 260 00:22:01,180 --> 00:22:06,840 Kevin Mako: Feel free to reach out to us anytime at our email, podcast at MakoDesign.com. 261 00:22:07,180 --> 00:22:12,000 Kevin Mako: This show is hosted by Kevin Mako, North America's leading expert on product development 262 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:17,060 Kevin Mako: for hardware startups. And the podcast is produced by Mako Design, the original firm 263 00:22:17,060 --> 00:22:21,620 Kevin Mako: providing end-to-end consumer product development services tailored specifically to hardware 264 00:22:21,620 --> 00:22:26,960 Kevin Mako: startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Take your product from idea to store shelves at Mako 265 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:34,260 Kevin Mako: at MakoDesign.com. That's M-A-K-O-Design.com. Thanks for joining and see you again soon.