The Biggest Sales Mistake Startup Founders Make? Forgetting They’re Selling to Humans

People don’t buy products. They buy outcomes.

EXPERT OPINION BY DAVE KERPEN, CEO, KERPEN VENTURES @DAVEKERPEN

Illustration: Getty Images

Something entrepreneurs rarely talk about when building startups is the fact that customer psychology is really just regular psychology. You’re not trying to build some mystical sales system or game-changing algorithm. You’re trying to understand human beings. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

When I was coming up at Radio Disney, selling sponsorships was my MBA program. That was my classroom. I had to convince companies that paying money for the right to put their name on something was worth the investment. No product yet. No platform. No massive audience. Just relationships and ideas and hustle and persistence.

I was selling sponsorships of ski events, mall events, grand openings, and baseball games. And what I learned in those conversations, over hundreds of calls and meetings, has informed every business I’ve built since.

Here’s the core insight that took me years to fully understand: People don’t buy products. They buy outcomes. They buy peace of mind. They buy the feeling of being part of something bigger. They buy solutions to problems they can articulate clearly and solutions to problems they feel in their bones but can’t name yet.

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When I was selling sponsorships, I wasn’t literally selling ad space on a website or a booth at a conference. I was selling access to customers. I was selling brand affiliation. I was selling the chance to be part of a community. I was selling credibility.

Here’s the wild part: The exact same sponsorship package that one company saw as a complete waste of money, another company saw as the best investment they could make that year. Same package. Different psychological framing.

What changed between those two companies? My understanding of what they were actually trying to achieve. What outcome they wanted. What problem kept them up at night. What would make their boss happy?

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