Ryan Walsh’s Post

While this has always been important to me, I'm realizing the enormous importance of qualification process in #sales, as it relates to near-term revenue within a year. Here's what I'm talking about. You have a great product and a great team, you have inbound interest, and are talking to more buyers than ever. However, many of them end up not working out, through no fault of your own or your company's, but rather, because the solution fit for the buyer isn't quite there. So let's say you have 100 accounts, and 5 of them become customers, while the rest aren't a good fit. Let's say these were a mix of inbound AND outbound accounts. You might like the fact that you got a 5% close for new revenue, but here's the kicker - you spent about the same amount of labor on the 95% that DIDN'T close. When you have a lot of accounts, and your labor is getting lost on poor fit accounts, that time spent is hurting your ability to hit revenue goals within a fiscal cycle. You have to determine some way of disqualifying accounts rapidly, to avoid the poor fit buyers, and focus in on the highly qualified accounts, and drive to a "yes", "no", or "maybe" decision with each of those accounts. #founders #startups

Great to chat with Tom Dines of 6 Degrees Capital on the challenges startups face when they start to build out their sales teams. Transitioning from founder-led sales to a fully-fledged sales team is one of the most important steps for a startup going all-out to pursue growth. But getting it right is incredibly difficult. Here are some key points from the article: - Focus on product-market fit first: You can only scale a sales team if everyone knows what they're selling. There needs to be uniformity in your offering. - Look for scrappy talent: It's tempting to go for logos when hiring, but often the best talent comes from the people who've had to close deals without the advantage of a big brand name behind them - Don't 'buy the rolodex': Sales skills are what matter, not network. It might be tempting to hire the best-connected person you can find, but once their network runs dry, you might be disappointed with what you're left with. https://lnkd.in/eEUKe_7h 

If you are a Salesperson - IMMEDIATELY quit thinking you're so special. We've all been there and done that. Are you..... Afraid of picking up that phone and cold calling? - hundreds of thousands of salespeople have had a crappy series of cold calls & many thought they were going to die when they were met with a LIVE VOICE Afraid that your demo is going to break? - hundreds of thousands of salespeople have botched their demos. Most still demo. Most got really good at it! -Afraid that a prospect will know more than you do about a topic that you might address? - hundreds of thousands of salespeople have been schooled by a prospect. And here's the thing - even when you are the subject matter expert, the least likely person on the prospects team is going to make you believe that they are the expert, anyway... Afraid that your deal is heading sideways and may not be recoverable? - hundreds of thousands of salespeople have lost deals. There's a whole lot more LOST DEALS then WON DEALS in the ether. Afraid that you're going to lose your job because your numbers ain't there? - hundreds of thousands of salespeople have worked for multiple companies. And you won't be different. SO: Stop being afraid. Take chances and put yourself out there. Work with people who have empathy. And Go f*c* up on - all of the above. And collect your bruises and stories... And then you'll be another member of the world-wide Salesperson club.. 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 #sales #salespeople #business #enterprisesales #ae #bdr #salesculture #salesteams #salesleadership #saas #startups #softwaresales #salescoaching #saleseffectiveness #coldcalling #emails #businessdevelopment #club #sdr #salesprospecting #midmarket #smb #salesops

The 9+1 Worst Sales Mistakes Founders Should Avoid Are there more mistakes that should be on the list? Yes Are these the most costly and easiest to avoid? Probably Are these the mistakes that I see the most? Yes 1. The Founder isn’t willing to be the first sales person 2. The Founder stops selling too soon 3. Hiring a Sales Leader too early 4. Trying to figure it all out yourself without a sherpa-guide 5. Listening to Late-Stage Advice for Early-Stage Companies 6. Outsourcing the search for product market fit 7. Misjudging the strength of product market fit 8. Poorly Set Goals ruining the commercial organization 9. Trying to reinvent sales/process/org/compensation Bonus — Trying to save money on sales talent You can read my full post over on medium. Which mistakes should be on this list that I forgot? I'll share #1 here: The Founder isn’t willing to be the first salesperson Many of the best founders we work with don’t have a sales background and are either product or engineering focused. My favorite joke when I meet a brilliant founder is to ask them if they know there’s an easier path to becoming an Account Executive than founding a company. Jokes aside, this is listed as number 1 because we’ve yet to see a successful B2B SaaS company where one of the founders wasn’t the first person doing sales. It can be frustrating for some founders who don’t necessarily like sales or to whom it doesn’t come naturally, but it’s almost always necessary. Sales is hard, especially in the early stages of a startup. So to be bold enough to found a company and then have to build sales skills in the face of brutal rejection is a courageous endeavor. But the truth is, it’s the only way forward, and neglecting this point is doing so at your own peril. It will lead to making even more of the mistakes listed below. Building some level of repeatability in closing at least a handful of deals is the fuel that drives the entire business forward. It helps keep the product team focused on customer feedback and providing value in exchange for revenue. If this doesn’t happen, the company is at risk. So, ensuring the founder(s) have a finger on the pulse of product-market fit is key to growing revenue, and it also helps make it clear who to hire next and with which sales goals/targets.