Back in my high school days, I did a lot of sales work at Verizon, Sprint, Sears, Radioshack, Target, and my own service-driven startups. I’ve held the top sales positions at every job since I was 16.
As a sophomore in college, I started an entrepreneur group and recruited 15 students and a co-chair (chosen from over 100 applications) and established 2 partnerships with prominent groups on campus in under 2 months, all while freelancing, being a full-time student, and staying involved in student organizations. Most of the people I met and recruited were attracted initially from a simple Facebook message. I learned quickly that sales was more important than I ever imagined for getting things done.
I think sales is the name of the game when it comes to getting co-founders on board. Same thing goes for getting employees and investors. Unfortunately, most technical people suck at sales. If you want to know the trick behind getting really good people on board, it’s sales and dating (yeah, dating). That’s what it really comes down to. Your idea also matters, but we’ll assume that your idea and experience is good.
- Establish the ground rules. Yeah, I know, nobody is forcing you to do it. But you won’t realize how much pain this saves you later down the road until you’ve experienced it. I’ve been on both sides of the startup fence: I’ve created and I’ve joined. Regardless of your situation, the earlier you negotiate, the better. It’s very difficult to negotiate terms and expectations later, and you fall into a mental trap of rationalizing: “well, I can just do it later, and it’ll be fine.” But it’s not like that. It gets worse and worse, the longer you let it drag out. Be sure to communicate your intentions, expectations, and rules to everyone joining your startup.
- Read up on sales. I know, you read this article hoping that there was some quick and easy answer to your problem. But who said this was going to be easy? Take a week and study sales techniques, strategies, and the psychology underlying everything. Be ready to answer questions, deal with objections, provide incentives to act immediately, and close. Jeffrey Gitomer and Jeffrey J. Fox are personal favorites of mine. Incentives are the cornerstone of life, as quoted by many sales experts. Give every single person you meet a compelling reason to join right now.
- Read up on dating. It sounds kind of strange, but dating involves a lot of social dynamics. You could start with Erik von Markovik, and read up on the characteristic traits of demonstrations of higher and lower values. Getting a co-founder, employees, and venture funding is kind of like a dating game. I’m sure you’ve heard the comparison of VCs to girls; the similarities are surprisingly very strong between the two. To this day, I still recruit friends to join startups of people I’ve worked with, and if you can get a grasp on the concepts that most people in the dating field teach, things will make more sense.
- Make sure your heart is in your work. Ever wonder why some people hate their jobs? It’s probably because they hate what they’re doing and don’t believe in the product they’re selling. It’s pretty similar in sales. Have you ever tried to sell something to someone that you know doesn’t work? It’s hard to do (remember, I worked at Sprint), and you can’t force yourself to be convincing. People can usually tell if you’re not being honest with them. Unless every part of you thinks your product (or startup) is the best around, and you truly have something worth sharing, you’ll likely struggle.
- Don’t come across as desperate. I should have put it as number one. You shouldn’t come across as desperate; that includes being over-enthusiastic about your idea. Try and approach a girl and say “Listen, I really need a girlfriend right now. Are you interested?” Try it out, and see how many girls sympathize for your desperation. On the contrary, to get their attention, don’t care whether they join or not. Don’t get emotional, and don’t get personal. I always say you should do the same when you try to get funding, just because they’ve heard it so many times.
- “No” doesn’t always mean No, but you’ll hear it a lot. You probably won’t be lucky enough to hear a lot of “No’s,” because most people don’t want to hurt your feelings. They’ll make up excuses, or they’ll find a nice way to sugar-coat it. Above all, if you don’t sell them on joining you, they’ll sell you on why they can’t join. Selling will always happen, just depends on who is sold. Remember also that a “No” could be a way of someone saying “I’m not sold yet, so let’s talk about my objections.”
- Go through your friends and family. Chances are, you may just be looking too far out, when you should consider people in your immediate network, like friends and family. People you can really trust. See if they know a friend, or if there’s one of your friends who fits your profile. If you’re at college, try to get involved in the organizations that interest you and compliment your startup.
- Keep a positive attitude. I saw athletes in high school wearing shirts that said “Attitude is everything” and I didn’t really take it too seriously until I got into some sales work. If your attitude isn’t at its peak, your going to struggle. If you lose the internal optimism, you may start looking for less qualified people, and people may sense the frustration (which becomes as bad as desperation). It’s important to stay positive, and remember there’s almost always a “Yes” coming up, and from someone who’s more qualified.
- Learn to read people. Many entrepreneurs are good at reading people, they’re just blinded by their desperation for getting someone to join. They know when people don’t get interested, and for some reason, they flip on this switch in their head that turns the entire pitch into an argument. It digresses into a debate of why a person should join, which does more harm than good. Don’t argue with someone about why they need to join. Dealing with objections is something entirely different. But learn when to give up and start looking elsewhere. When someone isn’t interested, don’t burn a bridge. Chances are, they have something else they’re more interested in now, and would prefer to join at a later time. Unless the world ends tomorrow, it should be ok (but in this day and age, you never know).
- Incentives are the cornerstone of life. As quoted by Steven Levitt (author of Freakonomics), incentives are going to be your way to getting things done. Incentives I’ve heard for attracting a person from a steady job into a startup: a) you’ll have equity and there’s going to be a liquidity event expected, b) you’ll be part of the key decision-making process, c) you’ll learn much more because it’s a fast-paced environment, d) if it works out, you’ll be in a great position to start your own company, e) you’ll meet lots of cool people and investors, etc.
About the Author
Jared Tame is an entrepreneur who has worked with hundreds of clients on website design, marketing, and sales, and currently works with StartPal providing high-quality, low-cost website design and e-commerce solutions to small businesses and startups.