What’s the most fundamentally important thing any organization, but particularly startups, can do to find success? The answer is pretty straightforward – drive revenue.

Without growth in top line sales, there can be no bottom line results to speak of. If you work for a startup, you need to be hyper-vigilant that your job is tightly linked to these top line results. In larger organizations, it can be easy to lose yourself in the bigger picture. But when it comes to startup environments, inevitable resource constraints and limited budgets mean that without early and consistent top line revenue growth, your role can quickly become irrelevant.

With that being said, it’s important that everyone in the organization understands that they have a direct impact upon the organization’s success. Everyone in the organization needs to understand that if you work for a startup, you’re in sales.

Taking an active interest in driving revenue doesn’t mean “sales” in the traditional sense of the word. What it really means is doing your job to the best of your ability with an understanding of how your role impacts your customers and the bottom line of the business. For example:

In a Customer Service Role

This could include going the extra mile to satisfy a customer’s needs, listen more attentively to their potential complaints, and finding a solution that increases the likelihood of retaining the customer over the long-term.

In a Finance Role

This could include recognizing that keeping a call about an outstanding bill amiable can go a long way towards maximizing lifetime customer value (LCV).

In a Manufacturing Role

This could include providing feedback to team leads and management on new and better processes that could improve product quality and lead to a successful price increase.

In a Marketing Role

This could include understanding how the nuances of an inbound lead generation strategy impact lead generation efforts at each stage of the sales funnel and eventually, closed business.

In an Engineering or Technical Role

This could include making an effort to understand the wants and needs of the customer to create product features that can lead to increased prices and longer term customers.

In the end, everything goes back to providing the end-users of your product or services with excellent and repeatable experiences.

Setting up a business is hard. Keeping it sustainable is harder. Ultimately, it takes the effort of all team members, regardless of their role, for the business to find continued success.

If you’re looking for more insight on the startup sales process, check out our free white papers on Building a Startup Sales Team and An Introduction to Startup Sales.