Zoho's Sridhar Vembu Says Techies Must Learn Sales to Build Businesses

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has advised engineers, scientists and doctors entering entrepreneurship to spend significant time learning sales. He said technical expertise and a strong product alone are not enough to build a successful business. According to Vembu, entrepreneurs must understand how to communicate their ideas to potential customers and convince them to pay for their products or services. He believes repeated sales interactions can provide practical lessons that are difficult to gain through technical work alone.

Vembu said entrepreneurs should actively participate in sales calls, even when those conversations result in rejection. He argued that repeatedly approaching potential customers can help founders become more comfortable with uncertainty and develop the persistence required to build a business. Facing rejection, according to his advice, can also teach entrepreneurs how customers think and what prevents them from making a purchase. Instead of avoiding difficult conversations, founders can use them as opportunities to improve their approach and understand what the market actually wants.

The Zoho founder also highlighted the importance of communication skills. Entrepreneurs with technical or professional backgrounds may be highly knowledgeable in their respective fields but can struggle to explain complicated ideas in a way that customers understand. Sales conversations force founders to simplify their ideas, listen carefully to objections and respond clearly. Vembu said this process can gradually make entrepreneurs better communicators while also giving them greater appreciation for the role played by sales professionals within a company.

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Vembu stressed that selling is fundamental to every business because companies ultimately need customers who are willing to pay for their products or services. His comments also received support from people sharing their own experiences of using sales situations to improve their communication and confidence. Some described repeatedly making difficult calls as a way to become more comfortable speaking with strangers, while others said experience in areas such as real estate and advertising sales helped them later when developing their own products. The common theme was that rejection can become a useful learning experience when approached consistently.

The entrepreneur has also recently discussed challenges facing technology companies as artificial intelligence increases demand for computing infrastructure. Vembu has pointed to rising memory prices and AI-related costs as factors that could make software businesses more expensive to operate. He has argued that the technology industry may need to rethink how software is designed, particularly as the assumption that computer memory is inexpensive becomes less reliable. In his view, greater memory efficiency could become increasingly important for both conventional software and AI systems.

Vembu's latest comments reflect his broader emphasis on practical business skills alongside technical expertise. For professionals considering entrepreneurship, his message is that developing a product is only one part of the process; founders must also learn how to find customers, communicate value and handle rejection. Regular interaction with potential buyers can help entrepreneurs test whether their ideas solve genuine problems while improving their ability to explain those ideas. His advice ultimately places sales and communication among the essential skills that technical professionals need when moving from specialised careers into business building.

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