In the earliest days of a start-up do you really need a high-paid sales person? No doubt you'll want dedicated and talented sales people soon, but in the earliest stages of a start-up--before you start getting sales as you say--you *are* the sales team. If you and your start-up are unable to get customers initially, is lack of a full-time salesperson really the roadblock to growth?

Unless your network appeals to a very strong niche market that might pay top dollar for access to your members' attention you'll be getting $5 per 1,000 impressions of Google Adsense, like everyone else. If your network is the #1 hub for, say WPF developers, then you might be able to charge $900/month for job postings. But if your site is just general interest then you won't get much in the way of ad revenue until you have a huge number of active members. And with the networks that already exist, it's tough going unless you have a killer approach. Litmus test: if your network was just a facebook app, would your business idea still work? At some point you could get some bigger sponsors. Until then, take a look at shinyads.com Remember, people generally go to social networking sites to network and socialize, not to shop. Facebook ads have click rates often < 1 click per 10,000 impressions. Google AdSense is more in the ballpark of 1 click per 200 impressions.

Well put, April. Just wanted to add that measurement is key and in the example above you can measure most of this in Google Analytics for free.

Be careful in how you present your pricing. If it costs $100 today and you aren't adding new features (making it at least 2% better) then it's hard for people to justify paying $102 next week. Knowing that it'll be $104.04 the week after that might just be discouraging. Why can't you sell it at full price now? If it's a useful product then it should be useful at it's full value now. If you have to lower the price just to get sales now, what will change in the future that will make people want to pay more for it? Pricing is funny. Consider the consumer electronics industry: early adopters pay *way more* to be early adopters. When the first iPhones came out everyone knew that the first version was only half as good as later versions of the product would be and cost twice what they will next year. Over-paying for earlier versions is part of the cache of being an early adopter in Apple's case. Or, in the sponsorship model (think redbull), give it free to a few key people.

You can learn to sell. And here's why: the key ingredients in selling include: 1. passion for the company and its products (no one has this more than you do) 2. knowledge of the product and its competition (again, this is your area of expertise) 3. presentation skills (which can be learned, but if you're speaking from the heart about what you know and are passionate about, you've probably got this one covered). 4. fundamental sales skills, which can be learned Selling is a process, not a performance. Work to understand your customer's pains. Listen. Ask open questions. Then you can position your solution to *help them solve their* problems. Then agree on a price. Take each step one at a time. There are courses you can take and apps that can help you. Our Sales Cycle Manager product at salesways can help coach you through the sales cycle. (Shameless self-promotion http://salesways.com/sales-cycle-manager-on-demand.php)

Learn how to prioritize your time most effectively. Get a good tool to help with that. Avoid overly-complex CRM data-entry nightmares. Ask the right questions at the right time in the sales cycle (probing in early stage, then proving later, then closing at the end). Empathize. Find a good sales methodology and understand how it applies to your industry.

So, reading your question, you have identified a market--you've found the people who have the problem that your product solves. You have a value proposition--your product costs less or saves more money than the problem it addresses does. And you have a sales process--I'm curious what that is, exactly. What's missing? It might be a silly question, but have you directly asked for the order? Have you specifically asked them to buy? If you have, what did they say? I'm not sure if this applies to your situation, but it may be that your sales cycle is longer than you've been selling for. Are your customers ready to buy, or are they still evaluating their options or looking for alternative ways to solve the problems that your product solves? You can't close a customer who is not ready to buy.