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[Re-sent] #97 - 5 sales mistakes founders make

[Re-sent] #97 - 5 sales mistakes founders make

5 sales mistakes founders make

January 15, 2023

Reading time: ~2 min

Proven strategies to grow cyber security sales

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Mistakes founders need to avoid when they start selling

If you are a founder, do you find that your natural habitat is not sales? Perhaps your background is in product management or engineering, and for the first time, you have to get out there and start selling. Yikes!

If that sounds familiar (or you know a founder), don't make these five common mistakes!

1. Treat a sales call as a pitch

When I analyze sales calls with founders, I often see that they do the VAST majority of the talking. They've got a few slides and maybe a quick demo, and they GO! Don't do this!

Your primary job is to understand if the prospect on the sales call is a good prospect for you. You will only achieve that if you ask some great questions.

2. Have a "me" orientation, not a "prospect" orientation

When a founder has spent so long working on their fantastic product, they often let that dominate their mindset on sales calls. Instead, the focus must first be on the prospect and the problems.

Bring a prospect/problem mindset to your sales calls, and you will be much more effective.

3. Focus on what the product does, not the problems it solves

I do not doubt that your product does amazing things. It's revolutionary and has a long list of pretty compelling features. But here's the thing; no one cares! What your prospects care about is what problems it solves for them. So, don't list all the capabilities and features when talking about it.

Start by framing your prospects' problem, then explain how you solve that problem. This simple change can transform your effectiveness on sales calls.

4. Think they have to convince, as opposed to finding like-minded people

The temptation for founders is to try and convince every prospect that they should buy. It results in conversations that are awkward and often a little needy.

Instead, your goal is to find people who are already thinking like you are (or are open to it). It's much easier to work with people who already think your approach is dead on.

5. Assume that anyone cares about their founding story

Founding stories are overrated! Most people don't believe them (mostly because they have a loose association with the truth), and they aren't all that compelling.

The ONLY exception is if you were doing the job of your ICP before starting your company. E.g., "I was a SOC VP for four years at [well-known company], and I faced these challenges that I got fed up with. So I decided to start a company to fix them. Since you are a SOC VP too, I'm curious if you have the sales challenges I had?"

I covered EIGHT more mistakes on Episode 179 of the Sales Bluebird podcast.

Listen here>>>

Time for a dad joke break...

Q: What does NASA do when they throw a party?

A: They PLANET!

Asa Hunt, Sales @ SANS

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