Founders: Break Free from the Sales Role to Ignite Growth | Denver Startup Week 2023
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It's a common pain point for founders - you're stuck doing all of the selling for your startup, putting out fires daily in the sales process. But you know you need to be working on higher-level business strategy, not just working in the business day-to-day.
So how and when can you start to remove yourself from the repetitive sales grind and focus your energy on scaling the business? In this post, we'll share hard-won insights from two successful founders: Natalie Henley, CEO of Volume Nine and Lauren Perfors, President of Jollity, as they share some of the insights they’ve gained over the past decade as owners of Colorado-based B2B agencies in hopes it will help you on your own unique path!
Catch the full session live from Denver Startup Week 2023 👇
The Right Time to Hire Your First Salesperson
Bringing on a salesperson too early without the proper systems in place can tank your startup. Natalie of marketing agency Volume 9 shared a horror story of hiring a "cowboy" salesperson too soon. Without a documented sales process to follow, this salesperson was essentially rogue, telling prospects anything to make a sale.
The result? Chaos for the operations team trying to deliver, unqualified leads, and low retention of closed deals. Don't let this happen to you!
On the flip side, Lauren of web development agency Jollity tried handing off sales responsibilities before she had anything documented. When new salespeople asked her how to qualify and manage a new lead, she had no training or process to provide. Without a playbook in place, it was impossible for anyone else to succeed in that sales role right away.
The key takeaway? Put process before people. Take the time to document your entire sales methodology, objections handling process, lead qualification criteria, and onboarding/training procedures before attempting to remove yourself from the sales process. This provides the "Lego instructions" for your sales team to follow.
Defining The Steps of Your Sales Process
An effective sales process boils down to just a few critical steps, according to Natalie of Volume 9. For their consultative sales approach, it flows like this:
Discovery - The most crucial phase, focused on asking smart questions, diagnosing needs, and building rapport.
Proposal - Demonstrate your ideas and solutions in a strategic, customized presentation.
Contract - Create a clear agreement addressing responsibilities, terms, and pricing.
Close - Secure a signed contract and payment.
To have an effective, scalable sales process you need to define:
What are the stages of your process?
Exact criteria that must be met before advancing to the next stage?
Who certifies criteria is complete? At first this may be you as the founder. Later, assign this to sales managers.
How completion of each stage is tracked in your CRM over time.
Asking Smart Discovery Questions
The discovery phase is about understanding your prospect's business, not just gathering superficial requirements. Bad discovery leads to bad fit clients and poor retention.
Natalie and Lauren suggest asking smart business questions like:
What recently changed in your business to make this a priority now?
How will you measure success of this project?
How did you arrive at your proposed budget?
These 3 questions help sales teams tailor pitches, uncover red flags, and uncover buyer intent. They provide the context needed to have an authentic consultative conversation.
Adding Value at Each Step of Your Sales Process
In the age of the educated buyer, sales reps can't just be order takers anymore. As Lauren discussed, prospects expect value from each sales interaction, even if they don't ultimately become a customer.
Lauren provided examples of going above and beyond at each step:
Discovery: Provide trends and insights that show you’re an expert.
Proposal: Provide a free audit or analysis to solve an immediate need, demonstrating your capabilities.
Contract: Explain each component of the contract so the prospect feels educated and comfortable.
Close: Make resources available quickly to get new clients successfully onboarded and launched.
Look for ways big and small to add value in each customer conversation. This builds tremendous goodwill and trust that pays off with referrals and repeat business down the road.
Founder Takeaways: Breaking Free From Sales
If you're a founder who wants to extract yourself from the sales role to focus on higher-level strategy, here are your key takeaways:
✅ Optimize and document your sales process before handing off responsibilities.
✅ Vet sales hires carefully - prior sales experience alone doesn't cut it. Look for salespeople with drive.
✅ Add value for prospects at every single step of the sales process.
✅ Get micro-commitments and incremental buy-in throughout the sales cycle.
✅ Remove yourself slowly, and incrementally, starting with lead qualification.
