Why startups struggle with Sales?

Published: 10/8/2025

In the last two years, I’ve had the privilege of consulting with over 200 startup founders, from ideators to those with established products. The experience has been eye-opening, yet consistently frustrating. Regardless of the brilliance or technical elegance of the product they've built, the overwhelming, universal hurdle they face is sales.

The problem isn't the product; it's the process. Too many founders - passionate, innovative people - are starting their journey at the wrong end of the map. They mistake a great idea for a viable business.

Every successful venture starts with identifying a problem. That's fundamental. But a common initial dialogue I hear is this:

1. "Is this my personal problem I want to solve?"
2. "Does anyone else have this problem?"

Founders usually answer with an enthusiastic, confident "Yes!" and proceed directly to development. They've identified a need, but they've fatally skipped the essential commercial validation.

The 99% of founders who struggle with sales have omitted the single most critical question in the ideation phase:

"Am I ready to pay for a product that solves this problem? Are the people who have this problem willing to pay for a solution?"

This is the hinge upon which your entire business model swings. A pain point is not a business opportunity unless it is a paid-for pain point. The difference between a founder who struggles for years and one who achieves rapid scale often boils down to asking (and definitively answering) this question before writing the first line of code.

Here’s the deal: If you can confidently answer "Yes" to the core questions—Does a problem exist, and are people willing to pay to solve it?—you don't just have an idea; you have a cohort of future clients. You have a foundation for a sales strategy, not a scramble for a market.

If you don't ask these questions, you will inevitably fall into the trap of completing your product first, then realizing you have to start an expensive process of convincing people to open their wallets after the fact.

I cannot stress the concept of Market Validation enough. It is not an optional marketing step; it is the first step of product development. It doesn't require a fully developed application, a polished website, or even a finished wireframe.

Market validation starts with the simple, powerful act of collecting social proof that people will pay for the solution. This could mean:

• Getting a handful of potential customers to commit to a pre-order (even at a significant discount)
• Securing Letters of Intent (LOIs) from businesses willing to implement your solution
• Conducting high-quality customer interviews that focus more on their budget allocation for the problem than on the problem itself

Stop focusing on building the perfect product and start focusing on building paid-for commitment. That early validation is the only true indicator that you are building a business, not just a beautiful piece of technology.

Don't wait until launch to start selling. Start validating a paid-for market today.