Startups
Give every follow-up a reason
Lemkin says a follow-up that only asks whether there is any news signals that you have nothing new to offer. He suggests attaching a customer story, a product update, relevant data, or a direct question, and agreeing on a specific next step before the call ends.
“Every follow-up needs a reason to exist.”— Jason Lemkin, Dear SaaStr: What's the Best Way to Follow Up With a Prospect That Says “I'll Get Back to You”, Sep 2025
Do this: Before your next sales call ends, book a specific time for the next step, and prepare a follow-up built on a customer story, an update, or a direct question.
Cash-flow business
Follow up on every non-reply
Noah Kagan's walkthrough for landing a first customer starts with people who already know you: make three lists, pick the ten most likely buyers and ask each one directly with a price. He says to send the ask by text, DM or phone, bump every non-reply after 48 hours, and ask every no for a referral.
“Follow up with every non-reply after 48 hours.”— Noah Kagan, How to Get Your First Customer (Then Your First 3), Sep 2026
Do this: This week, text your ten likeliest buyers a direct ask with a price, then send each non-reply a short bump after 48 hours.
Startups
Improve the top of the sales funnel
Tunguz describes a four-stage startup funnel in which a Sales Development Rep qualifies a prospect into a lead and an Account Executive qualifies it further into an opportunity and closes it. He argues that improving the early stages, especially prospect and lead qualification, saves go-to-market time and improves unit economics such as customer acquisition cost and payback period.
“Most startups employ a four stage funnel: prospect, lead, opportunity, customer.”— Tomasz Tunguz, Sales Funnel Optimization for SaaS Startups, Mar 2015
Do this: Count how many prospects reached each funnel stage last month and how many hours each stage took you.
Cash-flow business
Price is based on value, not cost
Seth Godin lists short observations on pricing. He says price is an exchange of value but also a story, that it rests on value rather than on the cost of production, and that customers you win by being cheapest leave first when someone cheaper appears. When someone says it is too expensive, he reads that as the story not matching the price, so you may need a better story rather than a lower price.
“Price is based on value, not on the cost of production.”— Seth Godin, On pricing, Apr 2026
Do this: Write one sentence that explains why your current price is fair, and use it the next time a customer says it is too expensive instead of offering a discount.
Startups
Test one acquisition channel at a time
Balfour warns against testing many acquisition channels at once, saying that properly testing even a single channel takes time and focus. With limited resources, he says the quickest way to a first scalable channel is to focus on one at a time and iterate on the metrics.
“Momentum of growth trumps diversity of channels.”— Brian Balfour, 5 Quick Tips To Find Scalable Customer Acquisition, May 2012
Do this: Pick one acquisition channel, run it for the week, and track a single metric for it instead of starting several.
Cash-flow business
Give your best customers something to share
Seth Godin says referrals are the best way to grow but are hard to get, because the person recommending you takes on risk and the act itself is not easy. He suggests making it easy for someone to bring up what you do and giving your best customers something of real value to offer friends. He adds that paying people to refer you rarely works.
“Give your best customers something of real value to offer to their friends”— Seth Godin, How to get referrals, Nov 2006
Do this: Pick your five best customers and offer each one a small gift certificate or special offer they can hand to a friend.
Startups
Test paid channels cheaply and quickly
Khosla Ventures says a startup should test and measure paid growth channels and know the cost of acquiring a customer in each. It recommends channels that reach your target customer narrowly and are quick and cheap to iterate on, noting that a loss of $100-1,000 is easier to absorb than $25,000-100,000.
“Pick the channels that keep you most agile, and be prepared to adjust quickly.”— Khosla Ventures, A Primer on Paid Marketing, Sep 2015
Do this: Put a few hundred dollars into one narrowly targeted channel such as AdWords or Facebook ads and write down the cost per customer.
Cash-flow business
Customer service is a profit center
Derek Sivers writes that CD Baby grew through word of mouth without marketing, and that clients most often said they chose it because a real person picked up the phone. He lists six mindsets for great customer service, including that service is a profit center like sales and that keeping existing customers thrilled is even more profitable than getting new ones.
“Customer service is not an expense to be lessened.”— Derek Sivers, The philosophy of great customer service, Jun 2014
Do this: This week, answer every customer message yourself and pick up the phone when a customer calls instead of sending them to a form.