🧲 Oops, don't make this (deadly) mistake

In sales, making mistakes is normal.

But not all mistakes are equal. Some are deadly—and they will put you out of business fast.

In particular, pay attention to:

• The Timing Trap

• The Single-Channel Addiction

• The Lottery Fallacy

With these, you can’t say, “Oops, I made a mistake…”

You have to prevent them. At. All. Costs.

1. The Timing Trap

Doing the “right thing” at the wrong time is common but still deadly.

Internet gurus thrive on creating confusion over priorities.

If you do X, they say you should do Y. If you focus on Y, they remind you of Z.

And it’s normal to fall for it. They seem way more experienced than you.

On top of that, people get results in a variety of ways. Imagine seeing a tweet like this:

Increasing conversions is good. Should you start A/B testing all your CTAs?

Probably not.

Most A/B tests are useless if you do them at the wrong time.

You have limited resources to make things work. You can’t afford to waste your time, energy, or money on minor optimizations.

Customers (and competitors) won’t wait around for you!

When it comes to sales, focus on your biggest hypotheses first.

Start by answering foundational questions:

• Are we targeting a real problem?

• Are we talking to the right people?

• Are we offering something unique?

• Are we reaching customers at the right time?

When defining your next priority, use the Impact Rule: focus on the change with the biggest impact in the shortest time.

2. The Single-Channel Addiction

If you have a unique offer and target the right problem, you’ll get traction.

Not everywhere, and not at the same rate.

Some channels will work better than others—it’s inevitable. And yes, doubling down on the best one will boost sales in the short run.

But it’ll also make you vulnerable.

During the COVID pandemic, many startups and founders focused on Twitter—it was an effective channel with a lot of buzz.

Then, almost out of the blue, the Twitter API Hammer came down.

Hypefury always relied on the Twitter API, and that change hit us hard, too. But we weren’t fully tied to the platform. It was a rough time, but we made it through.

Not everyone did. Many founders had to shut down or sell their apps in a buyer’s market.

If you rely on a single channel for traffic, leads, or conversions, you’re vulnerable. And you never know when that vulnerability will come back to bite you.

You can’t fix this issue in a day, but the sooner you start, the better. That’s why I’m a huge proponent of repurposing and cross-posting content.

Need help with this? Check out this ChatGPT Prompt for Adaptive Cross Posting—it tweaks your posts to match the vibe and audience of different platforms.

3. The Lottery Fallacy

People love stories of overnight success. A founder lands a huge deal, a creator goes viral, or a cold email brings in a six-figure contract.

It’s easy to believe that one big win is the key to growth.

For example, many people have the assumption that you need a large following to make money. Instead, 👇

If you’re chasing jackpots, you’re gambling—not building.

Businesses don’t scale on flukes—they grow by maximizing customer value over time.

Instead of chasing the next big win, ask:

• How can I increase the lifetime value of each customer?

• How can I turn one-time buyers into repeat buyers?

• How can I create a system that brings in consistent sales?

Selling isn’t about how often you go viral. Instead, focus on delivering value—again and again.

That’s it for now, everyone! We’ll meet again next week to discuss some more of this!

Feel free to reply to this email. It goes directly to me.

Cheers,

Yannick