Thus far I’ve founded two bootstrapped B2B startups, and led sales on both. One is off to the races, profitable, and growing. We even hired a general manager so that I can free myself up to work on other projects. The other is slightly more nascent, and just barely at ramen profitability.
It’s really hard to get started with founder led selling. I’m a (slight) introvert, and had basically no sales experience before starting my first business. While I have a business mind, and an MBA in addition to my programming skills, it was still very challenging for me to get started.
I used to view sales as this dark art that I could never master. I’m not “salesy.” I’m much more of a steak than sizzle person. I’m too honest. I don’t look, talk or act like the various stereotypes of a sales person. And so, I thought it was basically unattainable for me to be successful with sales for the first year of my first business.
I’m proud to say that through a lot of struggle and learning, I’ve actually become a decent sales person. For whatever I lacked in initial extroversion and unblended confidence, I make up for in understanding of strategy and product. I’m even fairly confident I could hit quota for any post product/market fit b2b SaaS startup out there.
What I’ve learned about b2b founder sales
It’s been nearly five years now since I started the first business. As a result, I get introduced to other founders every month or two who are starting to sell their products and want advice. Coming out of these conversations, I find myself repeating the same themes.
So, in no particular order, here’s my advice when starting to do B2B sales at your startup:
- Find a sales mentor who’s done pre-product/market fit selling before. It’s essential that someone has done the selling at the earliest stages of a company’s lifecycle. Even someone who led sales at a Series A company won’t have the proper mindset or experience to help you through this. Ideally, it’s another founder who’s been through it, and actually done the selling vs the strategy behind sales. Another bonus is if they’ve sold to the exact customer persona you’re trying to reach.
- Network with account executives who sell into a similar persona. Ask them to walk you through their entire sales process, from initial outreach to demo. Give them your sales pitch, and listen to their feedback. You’ll get good practice demo’ing, and some advice. However, you should realize that most sales reps selling a post product/market fit product will have very little understanding of why someone buys their product, that’s really up to you to figure out.
- Record your first 50 demos and listen to them each within 24 hours of the pitch. You will start to make small adjustments in messaging, in how long you answer questions, etc. Be your own coach and try to look objectively at your pitch.
- Ask for demos for software you are thinking about buying. Think about what the sales reps do well, and what they don’t do well. Mainly do this because you will realize 90% of sales reps are pretty mediocre. They don’t show up on time. They ramble. They don’t do any research. They are too aggressive. You can be 10x better than they are as a sales person, even if you’ve never sold before. And, you’ll have to be to get started without a brand, and a product that is probably half complete.
- Ask sales people you admire what books and blogs they read. My recommendations: FirstRound Review’s articles, this book on founding sales, and the Challenger Sale are good places to start. There is also a hilarious instagram account you will start empathizing with.
- Spend as much time in person with your prospects as possible. That means demos, as well as conferences, dinners, coffee, whatever you can. This will allow you to build trust, and learn a lot faster about your customer than doing calls or even video calls. Working out of one of their offices side by side is a great way to hear how they talk, what they care about, etc. This is great for product development, and even better for sales.
- Sales calls will probably become the most important way you will get feedback on your product in the next 6-18 months. Keep track of the themes you hear, and start to think about how you can build those into your offering / start charging for them. Record the closed/lost reasons for no-sale in a structured way so you can see what % fell out of the funnel due to pricing, competitors, etc.
- Sales can be a grind. I used to get nervous before calls, and found that creating a routine pre-demo really helped – jumping jacks, review the script, and believe that the product I’m offering will help the person on the other end of the phone. You also need to let go of any ego or expectations of being treated like a human being. Most people view sales people as a nuisance. You will get let down a lot by your prospects every single day, but that makes the wins so much sweeter. Plus, it’s a thing that happens to everyone, not just you.
- It’s going to take you a few months to make your first sales (assuming your product is >$1k/yr). Don’t get discouraged. Don’t think “we need to change the pitch/outreach/etc.” If you’ve been thoughtful about your process from the get-go, just keep building your pipeline.
- Celebrate the wins. I’m so bad at this and have some sort of Catholic guilt about it. When someone says “yes” – celebrate. When someone signs the contract – celebrate. When someone goes live – celebrate. High five your co-founder. Get a beer after work. Tell your significant other. Enjoy the moment and pat yourself on your back.
There are a million nuances to sales. My first business was straight B2B SaaS where we were selling HR a product to help with their recruiting. Getting headspace was tough. Getting budget was tough. Getting them to think about their job in a new way was tough.
In my new business, I’m selling to marketing. It’s a completely different buyer that has more budget and is more likely to experiment with new products. I also have an advantage in that I’m putting reviews of their software online, which means they care a lot more than if I was selling them a tool they can ignore. This allows me to cut through the noise more effectively. Of course, it comes with many other challenges, and some I haven’t even run into yet.
I hope you enjoy your journey to becoming an A+ sales person, which is a very attainable goal for any founder. My journey has helped me build win new business, think deeper about product, and kickstarted my personal branding efforts.
Good luck, and feel free to connect if I can be helpful in your journey!
Very energetic article, I loved that a lot. Will there be a part 2?
This is my first time pay a visit at here and i am genuinely pleassant to read all at single place.
These are actually enormous ideas in about blogging.
You have touched some fastidious things here. Any way keep
up wrinting.
Ahaa, its nice discussion concerning this article here at this web
site, I have read all that, so at this time me also commenting here.
I’m really loving the theme/design of your blog. Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility problems?
A small number of my blog visitors have complained about my site not
working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Safari.
Do you have any recommendations to help fix this issue?
My brother suggested I might like this website.
He was entirely right. This post actually made my
day. You can not imagine just how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
Hey there, I think your website might be having browser compatibility issues.
When I look at your blog site in Firefox, it looks fine but
when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping.
I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, great
blog!
Do you have any video of that? I’d want to find out more details.
It’s really a cool and useful piece of info. I’m satisfied that you simply shared this helpful information with
us. Please stay us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
Hi there, I discovered your blog by the use of Google whilst searching for a related subject, your
site got here up, it looks great. I’ve bookmarked it
in my google bookmarks.
Hello there, simply changed into alert to your blog thru Google, and
located that it’s truly informative. I’m going to be careful for brussels.
I’ll appreciate for those who continue this
{in future}. A lot of folks might be benefited from your writing.
Cheers!
Good post. I learn something new and challenging on blogs I stumbleupon everyday.
It’s always useful to read content from other authors and use a little something from other websites.
I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post
was great. I don’t know who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!
This is my first time pay a visit at here and i am genuinely pleassant to read everthing at one place.
What i do not realize is in reality how you are not really much more
well-appreciated than you may be now. You are very intelligent.
You realize therefore considerably when it comes
to this matter, produced me in my opinion consider it from a lot
of various angles. Its like men and women are not fascinated until
it’s one thing to do with Lady gaga! Your personal stuffs nice.
At all times deal with it up!
Hi there, I desire to subscribe for this web site
to obtain hottest updates, thus where can i do it please help.
At this time it seems like Movable Type is the preferred blogging platform available
right now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what you are using on your blog?
Very great post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to mention that I’ve really enjoyed surfing around your weblog posts.
In any case I will be subscribing for your feed and I hope you write again soon!
This is a topic that’s near to my heart… Cheers!
Exactly where are your contact details though?
I got this website from my pal who shared with me about this website and now this time I am browsing this website and reading very informative posts here.
Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m impressed!
Extremely helpful information particularly the final section 🙂 I
take care of such info a lot. I used to be looking for this particular information for a long
time. Thanks and best of luck.
You can definitely see your enthusiasm within the
work you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers such as
you who aren’t afraid to mention how they believe. All the time follow your heart.
Good info. Lucky me I ran across your site by chance (stumbleupon).
I’ve saved as a favorite for later!
This information is worth everyone’s attention. How
can I find out more?
Heya i am for the first time here. I found this board
and I find It really useful & it helped me out much.
I hope to give something back and help others like you aided
me.
Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m inspired!
Extremely helpful information specifically the closing section 🙂 I
maintain such information a lot. I was looking for this particular
info for a very long time. Thank you and best of luck.
Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am impressed!
Very useful info specifically the last part 🙂 I care for such info much.
I was looking for this certain information for a long time.
Thank you and good luck.
This is the perfect blog for everyone who wishes to
find out about this topic. You understand a whole lot its almost hard to argue with you (not that
I really would want to…HaHa). You certainly put a new spin on a topic
which has been discussed for years. Great stuff, just great!
Quality posts is the important to invite the users to visit
the site, that’s what this website is providing.
I have read so many posts concerning the blogger lovers except this piece of writing is
in fact a pleasant piece of writing, keep it up.
I love what you guys are up too. This sort of clever work and reporting!
Keep up the superb works guys I’ve incorporated you guys
to my own blogroll.
Whats up this is kind of of off topic but I was
wanting to know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have
to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no
coding skills so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience.
Any help would be enormously appreciated!
My brother suggested I would possibly like this blog. He was once totally right.
This put up truly made my day. You can not
believe just how so much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
Hi there! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with
SEO? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords
but I’m not seeing very good results. If you know of any
please share. Many thanks!
Your style is very unique in comparison to other folks I’ve read stuff from.
Many thanks for posting when you’ve got the opportunity,
Guess I’ll just book mark this blog.
Hello to every single one, it’s in fact a fastidious for me to
go to see this site, it consists of helpful Information.
Hi, after reading this remarkable paragraph i am also happy to share my familiarity here with colleagues.
Howdy! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me.
Nonetheless, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!
I will right away grab your rss as I can’t find your e-mail
subscription hyperlink or newsletter service.
Do you’ve any? Please allow me realize so
that I could subscribe. Thanks.
I all the time emailed this blog post page to all my contacts, since
if like to read it after that my friends will too.
This paragraph will help the internet people for setting up new blog or even a blog from start to end.
This website was… how do I say it? Relevant!!
Finally I have found something which helped me. Kudos!
Thanks for finally talking about > Tips for Founders Sales: Lessons From Starting Two B2B Startups – Phil Strazzulla's Blog
< Loved it!
Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Excellent .. Superb ..
I’ll bookmark your website and take the feeds also?
I am happy to seek out so many useful info right here
in the post, we want work out extra techniques on this regard, thank you for
sharing. . . . . .
I’ve been browsing on-line more than 3 hours today, yet I by no means found any interesting article like
yours. It is lovely worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all site owners and bloggers made just right content as you probably did, the internet will likely be much
more helpful than ever before.
What i don’t realize is in truth how you’re not really much more well-liked than you may be right now.
You’re very intelligent. You already know therefore considerably in relation to this topic, made me in my opinion believe
it from numerous numerous angles. Its like men and women aren’t
involved except it’s one thing to do with Lady gaga!
Your personal stuffs great. Always handle it up!
Your way of telling everything in this article is genuinely fastidious,
every one can without difficulty understand it, Thanks a lot.
Hi! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay.
I’m absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
Hi there! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any trouble with hackers?
My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended
up losing months of hard work due to no backup. Do you have any methods to stop
hackers?
I constantly emailed this blog post page to all my
associates, as if like to read it then my contacts will
too.
I’d like to find out more? I’d care to find out more details.