B2B Startup Sales

Are you looking for sales tips you can apply immediately? Then this is for you. Markus Eilers and Patrick Trümpi talk about the 1st commandment in sales: "you should have a "why" sooooo big that any "how" will surrender". Following that advice may improve your mindset and sales success immediately. Have fun and give us some feedback.

Was a true pleasure to discuss B2B SaaS Scaleup sales with Fredrik Ström who before coaching entrepreneurs at Plug and Play Tech Center helped Dataiku in enterprise sales to hit a $2.8B valuation. 3 things that we learnt from him: 1️⃣ Enter the client's world: Empathy and active listening are are essential to understand how clients understand, evaluate and buy in THEIR world, instead of trying to "map" them onto your sales process, deal stages or similar 2️⃣ Selling is learning. The co-founder & CEO needs to remain close to customers to learn quick enough and feed back these insights to enable quick but efficient growth 3️⃣Unlearning takes time: Fredrik favours hiring younger sales people as experienced reps often need to unlearn certain behaviors or change the mindset into a completely new sales approach.

Here are a few take-aways from the discussion with Steven: Founder-led growth is exciting but many startups rush into scaling and struggle with the initial motion. "From impossible to inevitable" is an amazing book that helps avoid many struggles founders have with early sales. When he joined Interseller, the first thing Steven did is raise the price. Because the founders got into "fighting for price". He promised to keep the closing rates - and was successful. Focus on driving one metric after another.  Even if you have a really good and easy-to-use tool, you may want to go with sales-led instead of product-led growth at the beginning. That is what Inerseller was doing, after an unsuccessful focus on product-led growth. You can learn your customer's pains best with a good discovery and adapt your messaging to these. The impact on adaptation is huge. If you want to improve your Prospecting capabilities, Becc Holland is an expert you want to follow and learn from Have fun and please provide some feedback.

We had the pleasure of learning from a great Sales Leader with Julian Jobstreibizer who helps to build sales at UiPath in Switzerland. 3 things that we learnt from him 1️⃣ The vision of the CEO or Sales Leader and the ability to get people to buy into this is essential to retain great sales talent. Great sales people want to get paid, but money is not the primary driver. (2’) 2️⃣ You’re always selling, no matter what. If the CEO does not connect to sales, he or she does not connect to the customer. (5’) 3️⃣You need to work hard TO party hard. Start small, keep it simple, focus on value, become a trusted advisor. This will generate the best referrals, revenue growth and more. (20)

We all struggle with prospecting. What are the right tools? The right messages? Are there cultural differences among countries? How do I increase the likelihood of being heard significantly? With Philipp from ComX, a company that provides outreach for a lot KMUs as a service, we are talking about the big struggles in prospecting and how you can better predict the outcome of your messages.

Learn from a true Sales Leader with Sam from https://www.samsalesconsulting.com/ who built an all-female salesforce (not even by design) and a “BDR as a Service” offering + a helpdesk for clients’ BDRs. 4 things to be learnt from her 1️⃣ LinkedIn is still people-rich, but content-poor. Personalisation when reaching out to people with an authentic desire to help still matters - a lot. And no “More sales, less time, mutual connections” is not working (anymore). (5’) 2️⃣ Why a BDR hotline makes sense. “Delegating” daily Q&A of regular BDR (Business Development Representative) questions to a “helpdesk” in a subscription model can be highly useful for a busy CEOs / VP Sales. (10’) 3️⃣Hourly Rates: It is truly a matter of demand and supply. Sam raised her hourly rate from $200ish / h to currently >$600 to make sure she spends time on high-leverage activities. 4️⃣Sam built an all-female salesforce (which at least I’ve never encountered before). Empowering and supporting more women to go into sales is a leadership responsibility.

This is about learning from a true Procurement Leader with Christoph - who started his career in sales and since then “moved between both worlds” intensely over the last 15 years 3 things to be learnt from Christoph 1️⃣ “Procuring is necessary, (Traditional) Procurements is not”: Professionals buy digitally for even 7-digit amounts and procurement people need to move towards providing solution and a consulting role (3’) 2️⃣ Less than 1(!) out 10 people typically ask Christoph about his internal buyer journey. Dear sales people, please strive to understand before wanting to be understood - people like Christoph are more than happy to help you sell - if you ask! (5’ + ongoing) 3️⃣ Sales is not a “one-time-thing”, but should be - especially in DACH - an activity of continuous value creation for the client. Culture matters (so much) in sales - North America might be a few years ahead in regards to technology, but DACH requires a local approach to succeed. (28’)

"How to find, attract and retain great B2B Tech Sales Talent without paying CHF 150-300k per year?" The root cause of extraordinarily high salaries for sales people in DACH might actually be a lack of "talent supply"...due to a lack of sales culture + education...

We had the pleasure of learning from one Switzerland’s best growth hackers with Joel Capt, who built up the growth team at Beekeeper and just launched his own market offering in the space. 2 things that we learnt from Joel 1️⃣ Growth Hacking done right is not a “black box” and also not a scam or hype, but a sound, coherent method to generate B2B leads at scale by using best practices, technology and data combined with a genuinely curious mindset of people that are embracing continuous learning. 2️⃣ Why moving from a sales-led to a product-led organisation is hard and takes time as time-to-value without human intervention needs to decrease… ...but is essential to consider if you want to have (potential) customers using your product without requiring sales reps, especially for smaller accounts.

1’ How the “Salesforce Sales MBA” works 6’ How interactive small-group work triggered Christian to look into sales 10’ Why asking great questions is crucial in sales 16’ How to gather valuable prospect information from LinkedIn 22’ Why he values and facilitates warm introductions as much as possible 28’ Why he thinks Switzerland’s “LinkedIn Maturity” is not there yet 34’ What he teached 100 Salesforce reps about social selling 39’ Why he sees health as extremely important especially in sales 43’ Why Christian fiercely defends his calendar

1’ Why the right mindset is what differentiates A- from B-players 3’ Why for Umar mindset and not sales training is the new frontier for sales success 8’ How to connect to what’s unconsciously going on and fix limiting beliefs 13’ Why moving from “I know what to do” to “I do it” is so essential 19’ Why showing up fully present is crucial for sales success 23’ How to boost one’s self-esteem before a important sales conversation 31’ How Umar found his mission to help people positively change their mindset

Are you a startup founder and do not really know where to start with building up your sales or you are not happy with the revenue goals you reached so far? This episode will help you: We talk about why it is important to start with your ICP, tactics that help you shorten the sales cycle, and how a sales process actually could look like. There are some special tips in this episode for startups who have a physical product such as healthcare.

1’ Why Constantin & Cyrill founded a Sales Accelerator for Food & Beverage (F&B) 4’ How the opportunity for F&B is still the same as people still consume the same, but differently 7’ Why getting access to and feedback from the right distributors is crucial 9’ How F&B startups can get their products listed faster now than ever 12’ Why startups need to understand when customers now consume their products 15’ Why focus is key for sales 19’ How to spread out from local ambassadors towards big retailers 21’ How to balance opportunity and threat of scaling fast with production partners 24’ How word of mouth and key influence persons can boost your brand 28’ Why directly approaching “the big fish” is often the way to go 30’ Why nailing down a niche can help you not drive your price down 32’ How Planted got a lot of things right in 2020 while going B2B and B2C at the same time 33’ Why Cyrill loves “AldIPA” from Brewdog

1’ How Kajal launched her own startup with next to no B2B sales experience despite her MBA 4’ Why the narrative around sales is often misunderstood 7’ Why sales is a people-driven process 12’ How performance-driven incentives are not necessarily commission payments 16’ Why getting clear and transparent on one’s mission is crucial for sales success 19’ The role of being hyper-local on the ground is important in sales 23’ How customer segmentation got smarter over time 27’ Why - and how - writing a monthly newsletter can still work 33’ How understanding what’s top of mind for people enables outbound sales 37’ How operational activities can change but your DNA should not 39’ Why the biggest mistake of founders is (still) often overbuilding and not investing enough into customer discovery

1' How Matthias' inherently curious mindset brought him into Car Fleet Management 4' How Avrios' failure-tolerant culture helped young people with litte experience to prosper 9' Why being vulnerable in sales creates trust 14' Why customer-centricity is very key in sales 18' How feeling if and how a customer can buy now or later is crucial 22' How having a champion at the customer can help you get even through the Betriebsrat 26' That finding driven & persistent, but also empathic & coachable sales people is really hard 30' How the ego of corporates talking about themselves hurts sales success 34' Why startups need to see hiring through the lens of great sales people 39' That we have all the tools in Switzerland to thrive in B2B Startup Sales, but need to put it together 46' How getting a customer story online took up 9 months in a corporate vs 1/2 day in a startup

1' What brought Stephanie from Salesforce Marketing Cloud (back) to the startup world 6' Why starting product-led growth is a lot easier if you started out that way 10' How product-led growth can cause anxiety in Type A sales people losing control 15' Why really good sales reps might struggle at first with product-led growth 19' How Lumavate defines product-market-fit industry-agnostically 23' How marketing initiatives like custom baseball trading cards stand out 27' Why Stephanie cares about brand awareness instead of conversion for paid ads 31' How to leverage own personas even better 37' How creativity and rapid growth are difficult to combine 41' Why sales people hired as a startup need to have their hands dirty 46' When Stephanie was done being quiet and asking for permission

1' Dirk's start as a call center agent 2' What Dirk learned during his career 5' How to go about the sales processes at a Startups 10' Why consultants never learn to sell 13' Why sportspeople make great salespeople 20' How to balance salespeople's goals with long term goals of the company 22' What makes a good bonus system 25' How to shorten and define the sales cycle 30' How to improve onboarding time 35' Why Dirk joined a startup 38' Lead generation at Comatch 41' Dirk's last advice to you as a sales leader

1' Vijay's story 3' Why Vijay is on a one-year sabbatical 6' Urgency vs. importance 10' Founders: The most important trait looking for the first sales/marketing hire 14' What should or should not be outsourced in marketing 19' KPIs 25' What channels Vijay would go about first as a BtoB startup 35' Recent changes in BtoB marketing 37' Top skills needed in marketing

2' How Max started his first company... 11' ...and got into a burnout 16' The first "secret": Meaningful conversations & summarizing 21' The one thing that helps to shorten the sales cycle 24' How salespeople's actions led to a broken model of selling 28' The technique to start a meaningful sales conversation 32' The second "secret": The irresistible offer 37' The third "secret": Sell results that are relevant in a downturn 44' summarizing the most important points 45' What an irresistible offer needs to consist of

3' How Nico got into sales 11' Why a great company culture is the solution for most corporate challenges 14' What Nico learned in his first sales job 18' On the most important task to succeed in sales 25' The one universal rule in sales 27' On sales salaries and commission 43' Salary Intransparency 44' How Nico grew the consultancy from 2 to 30 people 53' The four layers of objection handling

1' Why entrepreneurship is a lifestyle for Daniel since he was 16 years old  4' Why recruiting is sales at the very core and why trust is key  8' Why "care" is the most important aspect Daniel cares about in recruiting  14' How performance also in sales is more than just numbers  18' Why observing behaviour is a process, making recruiting fundamentally difficult  24' Why Daniel asks less about characteristics and more what they mean to a person  27' Why he was and is impressed by the recruiting process of his new employer  35' Why understanding time is crucial for startup hiring  38' How he finds fulfilment in the process itself without an end-result  42' Why he went from self-employed to employee after 7+ years

1' How Antoine got from a Hotel School into Tech Sales  5' What Antoine likes most about sales: Andrenaline, human contact, and pressure  8' When is the Adrenaline pike in a sales cycle and why it matters  11' How COVID impacted sales  13' When you should mention price in sales  14' why mimicking is important and what to do about it  21' Why you should talk openly about your competition  23' What are key traits to look for in salespeople  27’ Why sales is not for everyone  34’ What makes a good closer and why it is important  40’ Tactics to shorten the sales cycle

2' What sales and software engineering have in common  5' Why Maddy stopped MVPs but believes in Minimum Sellable Products  8' Why founders should differentiate between numbers and process  13' Why skipping steps in the sales process of building relationships does not work  19' What "Differentiate or Die" really means for sales  23' How building funnels bottom-up but executing them top-down matters  31' Why customer acquisition costs is not (only) a job of sales & marketing  32' Why you should only ever automate what already works   36' Why closing knowledge gaps can help shorten sales cycles - if prospects feel comfortable  44' How starting to build a sales funnel in an Excel file or a canvas works perfectly well

1' How sales reps increased revenue by up to 89% after gaining real-time insights from customers 3' How relative feedback scales such as a Likert scale can help sales reps set the right learning priorities  7' What 5 key traits Martin looks for when hiring sales reps  11' Why sales people should adopt the same mentality of constant iterations and learning as in agile, scrum etc.  14' How sales people using the right technology and tools have a competitive advantage  19' How remote sales forces sales people to transition to a value-delivering advisor  22' How people fixing 2-3 key improvement areas instantly increase their conversion rates  28' How sales people in DACH are fundamentally working against a relatively change-resistant culture  31' Why Martin thinks the sales profession will gain more recognition and attractiveness in the years to come  35' What value he got from having worked with sales coaches and when leveraging tools make sense

2' How Moritz experienced a cold call-heavy, "push-style" sales approach early in his career  4' How he went from cold calling to "Cold Looming" and why videos are underused in sales in Europe  7' Why sales people need to be driven for success - and need to be successful in itself  12' How he sees the importance of competitiveness and curiosity as key traits for sales  17' Why people that experienced severe failure see sales as an opportunity to prove something  20' Why Moritz is a super big fan of hiring door-to-door sales people  24' How buying something at a street food festival convinced him of the value of sales coaching  27' Why all the content is out there to consume, but execution is key  33' How he implemented sales habits changing behaviour by practicing real-life scenarios (40x...)  38' How local culture have a direct influence on how you approach prospects  43' Why building strong relationships is crucial especially in Switzerland  45' How Moritz actually started his sales career in primary school with candy and Pokemon cards...

3' Why Yves & Raphael are obsessed about customer centricity  7' Why gathering evidence along the way is key to succeed for iterative product development 11' How they design experiments to test assumptions and hypotheses of their clients  16' How they make pivoting as cheap as possible 21' When Virtual Brands with thought-up products make a lot of sense  25' Why inviting a bunch of people to your innovation laboratory is a completely different ballgame  29' Why spending a little money upfront is great value-for-money to "bet on the right horse"  34' How product validation and B2B sales are in some ways very similar  39' Why "keeping it up" on learning is crucial to get maximum value from market validation  44' Why sales is an essential part of product development

2' How Lisa started building up Customer Success Management (CSM) from scratch  5' Why doing CSM initially for free makes sense until figuring out what people want to pay for  9' Why reflecting if and how your product can generate Customer Lifetime Value without people  12' What to consider when assigning responsibility for renewals to sales vs CSM  18' Why sales needs to be ambitious and creative on how to sell the product in the market  22' How she channeled customer feedback from sales to product management over time  28' What a Product Marketing Manager is actually doing  32' How fast-changing companies require fast-changing adaptations and methods  35' How sales, marketing and product marketing can collaborate to figure out what to build next  38' Why the usual job interview answer "patience is my weakness - which is OK" does not work for CSM  40' What Lisa is up to next...

3' Why he let's new sales reps join sales calls even before formally starting at the company  7' Why starting a sales career as a BDR (Business Development Rep) makes sense  11' When hiring senior sales people makes total sense 16' Why sales is about having a conversation and not pitching  20' Why starting hunting a startup only when you are "ready" is too late  25' Why measuring BDRs in SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads), but also revenue contribution makes sense  30' How culture influences sales compensation structure - "0 vs 2x commission?"  34' How an ARR leaderboard is motivating the whole sales team daily  39' Why keeping the whole team together is key especially when scaling  43' Why evaluating bad sales performance is sometimes like having a bad hand in poker

0' How Thibaut came up with the name SalesLabs and why he became an entrepreneur  4' How he moved from 2.5k to 10k+ LinkedIn followers within 6 months  9' How he balances automated outreach and tools with high-quality engagement  14' Why building habits is key for consistency to achieve sustainable success  21' Why self-awareness is key to be(come) a good VP Sales  25' How he found out that is easier to selling to SDRs than VP Sales   28' Why it is very tough but crucial to make sales person-independent  31' Why your job in sales enablement is building products for the sales team  37' How you can technically find phone numbers online, and why you should be careful with it  40' Why "the DIN (Deutsche Industrie Norm) mindset" is hindering sales innovation in DACH

0’ How he installed Beekeeper’s sales-driven attitude at Expense Robot 4’ How breaking down annual goals helps driving continuous sales performance 8’ Why customers need to accept the closing plan and fully commit to it 12’ Why Business Development Reps (BDRs) are a sales guys best friend 16’ Why he is not afraid of signing Kodiak bears now but have them start later 19’ Why attitude is much more important than degrees in sales 22’ Why there is nothing more honest than selling to sales guys 28’ Why it makes sense to have introverted tech people at the sales table 33’ Why sales is all about seeing what works, scale it and then not break it 37’ Why investing into a CRM and data is essential for everybody in sales 40’ Why laziness can be an asset 44’ Why culture shapes how many startups have too many expenses