Hey! Excellent that you have an idea that you're excited about and are taking action on it, well done. At the risk of disagreeing with a lot of the content on here, I'd suggest the first thing you want to look at is 'how you want your customer to buy', and design from there, because there are really big differences in strategy you want to address up front. For example, Product Led Growth (PLG) is really effective for a lot of startups (like Spotify for example), but it requires a very different sales model than you would use for a higher ticket B2B solution. You can learn about PLG here https://openviewpartners.com/blog/what-is-product-led-growth....
So I'd suggest you keep it REALLY simple to begin with, don't worry about the differentiation between channels and direct, marketing versus customer success etc. Talk to a few sales people you know selling in similar markets, or best of all, ask some potential customers you know to recommend sales people they like working with. Approaching a sales consultant for a free consult could work, but be careful to protect your intellectual property at this stage, and be aware that many sales consultants have a single area of expertise, like for me, it's B2B sales. If someone asks me about B2C, I'll have an opinion, but there would be much better people to talk to than me! If you're planning to bootstrap initially and aren't working with investors, don't think that precludes you from approaching VC funds to ask for advice or attending briefings in incubators, and building a relationship before you actually want investment is a really good idea too. An amazing source if advice is other founders / entrepreneurs, many of whom (as long as you pick wisely) will actively make time to help other entrepreneurs if they feel they can help you.
So I'd suggest you keep it REALLY simple to begin with, don't worry about the differentiation between channels and direct, marketing versus customer success etc. Talk to a few sales people you know selling in similar markets, or best of all, ask some potential customers you know to recommend sales people they like working with. Approaching a sales consultant for a free consult could work, but be careful to protect your intellectual property at this stage, and be aware that many sales consultants have a single area of expertise, like for me, it's B2B sales. If someone asks me about B2C, I'll have an opinion, but there would be much better people to talk to than me! If you're planning to bootstrap initially and aren't working with investors, don't think that precludes you from approaching VC funds to ask for advice or attending briefings in incubators, and building a relationship before you actually want investment is a really good idea too. An amazing source if advice is other founders / entrepreneurs, many of whom (as long as you pick wisely) will actively make time to help other entrepreneurs if they feel they can help you.