There is nothing more soul destroying for an evangelist, an investor, and most of all, for a founder than a truly innovative product which never fulfils its revenue promise. A little bit of you dies as every week the sales quotas are not met until the product is relegated to the dumpster.

I love starting companies, investing in start-ups, and promoting great products. But what I REALLY love is seeing them succeed.  And success is measured in dollars, so selling is job #1, #2 and #3.  Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore clearly showed that there are different buyers with very different buying habits. But, despite these insights, little has been written to help entrepreneurs (and intrapreneurs) understand how to transform their brilliant ideas into products or services that companies want to buy and are able to buy.

What is missing is an understanding from the buyer’s perspective on what they go through when they make decisions about buying innovative and disruptive technology. Only then can the entrepreneurs understand how to align themselves and support their buyer.  So this book is about sales, but not about sales technique or a detailed sales methodology.  This is far more fundamental than that. This turns most hardened sales professional’s ideas and prejudices about sales on their head, and buries them forever. 

This book provides practical and implementable actions that you can apply to your organization, tomorrow. It is designed to “make a difference” whether you are leading a start-up, innovating inside a corporation, or standing on the sidelines as an investor cheering the team on. I wish more entrepreneurs like Ian and Dominic would make time to capture their valuable experience of building successful companies. If we did, then probably fewer ground breaking products and services would wither on the vine starved of that critical life-giving resource; sales revenue. Let’s drink to that.