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!
Having read this I believed it was really enlightening.
I appreciate you spending some time and effort to put this information together.
I once again find myself spending way too much time both reading and posting comments.
But so what, it was still worthwhile!
I visited various blogs however the audio feature for audio songs current at this web
page is genuinely marvelous.
Touche. Sound arguments. Keep up the good effort.
This is a really good tip particularly to those new to
the blogosphere. Brief but very precise info… Appreciate your
sharing this one. A must read post!
Great post. I used to be checking constantly this blog and I
am impressed! Very useful information specifically the final phase 🙂
I handle such information a lot. I used to be seeking this particular info for
a long time. Thank you and best of luck.
Please let me know if you’re looking for a
article author for your blog. You have some really great articles
and I feel I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some
of the load off, I’d really like to write some material for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine.
Please shoot me an email if interested. Kudos!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate your efforts and
I am waiting for your next write ups thanks once again.
I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your blog.
Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself?
Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it’s rare
to see a great blog like this one nowadays.
Greate post. Keep writing such kind of information on your site.
Im really impressed by your blog.
Hey there, You’ve done an excellent job. I’ll definitely digg it and individually suggest to my friends.
I am confident they will be benefited from this site.
Fantastic blog you have here but I was curious if you knew of any
user discussion forums that cover the same topics discussed in this article?
I’d really like to be a part of community where
I can get responses from other knowledgeable people that share the same interest.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
Many thanks!
My spouse and I absolutely love your blog and find almost all
of your post’s to be exactly what I’m looking for.
Does one offer guest writers to write content for yourself?
I wouldn’t mind creating a post or elaborating on most of the
subjects you write regarding here. Again, awesome website!
Thanks for another informative site. The place
else may just I am getting that type of information written in such an ideal means?
I have a venture that I’m just now working on, and I have been at the look
out for such information.
I constantly emailed this website post page to all my
associates, since if like to read it then my friends will too.
Hi there, You have done an incredible job. I’ll definitely
digg it and personally suggest to my friends. I am confident they will be benefited
from this website.
Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up.
The text in your content seem to be running off the screen in Chrome.
I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do
with internet browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let you know.
The design look great though! Hope you get the issue fixed soon. Cheers
Hey! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that
would be okay. I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward
to new updates.
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back later. Cheers
Visit my blog; http://www.kuliner-indo.com
Hi there, after reading this remarkable piece of
writing i am too glad to share my familiarity here with colleagues.
Why people still make use of to read news papers when in this technological globe the whole thing is existing on web?
I know this site offers quality dependent content and other stuff,
is there any other web site which gives these kinds of information in quality?
I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.
It is pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all
webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the
net will be much more useful than ever before.
Do you have a spam issue on this website; I also
am a blogger, and I was curious about your situation; many of
us have created some nice procedures and we
are looking to trade methods with others, be sure
to shoot me an email if interested.
Usually I do not learn article on blogs, but I
wish to say that this write-up very compelled me to check out and do so!
Your writing taste has been surprised me. Thanks,
quite great article.
I have read so many posts on the topic of the blogger lovers except this piece of writing
is truly a fastidious paragraph, keep it up.
You actually make it seem so easy together with your presentation however I find this matter to be actually
one thing that I believe I’d by no means understand.
It kind of feels too complicated and extremely broad for me.
I am taking a look forward to your subsequent
post, I’ll try to get the cling of it!
Good blog you have here.. It’s difficult to find excellent
writing like yours these days. I seriously appreciate individuals like
you! Take care!!
Magnificent beat ! I would like to apprentice while you amend your web site, how can i subscribe for a blog site?
The account helped me a acceptable deal. I had been tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast provided bright clear
idea
Do you have a spam issue on this site; I also am a blogger, and I was wanting to know your situation; we have developed
some nice methods and we are looking to exchange solutions with others,
why not shoot me an email if interested.
Hi there, I enjoy reading all of your post.
I wanted to write a little comment to support you.
Unquestionably imagine that which you stated.
Your favorite justification seemed to be on the net the easiest factor to be mindful of.
I say to you, I definitely get annoyed at the same time as people think about concerns that they plainly do not know about.
You managed to hit the nail upon the highest and defined out the entire thing with no need side effect , other folks can take a signal.
Will probably be again to get more. Thanks
Heya this is somewhat of off topic but I was wondering 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 guidance from someone with experience.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
My partner and I stumbled over here different page and thought
I might check things out. I like what I see so now i’m following you.
Look forward to looking at your web page yet again.
I’m amazed, I must say. Seldom do I come across a blog that’s both educative and engaging,
and let me tell you, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
The issue is an issue that not enough folks are speaking intelligently about.
I’m very happy that I stumbled across this in my hunt for
something relating to this.
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book
in it or something. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a
bit, but other than that, this is fantastic blog. A great
read. I will certainly be back.
This post is priceless. Where can I find out more?
My webpage – poker online
Hello everyone, it’s my first pay a quick visit at this web page,
and paragraph is really fruitful for me, keep up posting such articles.
Hi there it’s me, I am also visiting this website daily, this web site
is actually good and the visitors are really sharing good thoughts.
My family always say that I am wasting my time here at web, however I know I am getting familiarity every
day by reading such pleasant posts.
I know this web site provides quality dependent articles and other information, is there any other site
which offers these kinds of information in quality?
It is the best time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to be happy.
I have learn this publish and if I could I desire to
recommend you some interesting things or suggestions. Perhaps you can write next articles referring to
this article. I desire to read even more things about it!
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that
I have truly enjoyed surfing around your blog posts.
After all I will be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Fine way of describing, and pleasant paragraph to obtain facts
regarding my presentation subject matter, which i am going to present in academy.
Great post.
Hi, I do believe this is a great site. I stumbledupon it 😉
I am going to revisit once again since i have book-marked it.
Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and continue
to guide other people.
you are in reality a excellent webmaster.
The website loading velocity is amazing. It sort of feels that you’re doing
any distinctive trick. Furthermore, The contents are masterpiece.
you have done a wonderful job on this subject!
Does your blog have a contact page? I’m having trouble locating it but,
I’d like to shoot you an e-mail. I’ve got some ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing.
Either way, great site and I look forward to seeing it improve over
time.
Awesome post.
I’m really inspired along with your writing talents as well as with the structure for your blog.
Is that this a paid topic or did you modify it your self?
Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it’s uncommon to peer a nice blog like this one nowadays..
Thank you, I’ve recently been looking for information approximately
this topic for ages and yours is the greatest I have found out till now.
But, what in regards to the conclusion? Are you sure concerning the source?
ammben 538a28228e https://coub.com/stories/4301868-saints-row-iv-update-4-steamworks-and-lan-fix-rvtfix-full-activation-rar-pc-final