Sales for Startups

Founder-led sales, enterprise deals, and building a sales machine.

Why Founders Must Sell

If you can't sell your product yourself, you probably can't hire someone who can. Pre-PMF sales is fundamentally entrepreneurial. It requires vision, credibility with customers, lots of experimentation, and a tight feedback loop with the people building the product. This is founder work, not sales rep work.

The Sales Process

Prospecting

Build a hypothesis about who has the problem. Start with industry lists, filter aggressively, find decision-makers.

Outreach

Try warm intros first, then cold email. Write each email by hand. Only send emails you'd be excited to receive.

Qualification

Ask questions to understand: Do they have the problem? Budget? Authority? The first call is not a pitch — it's discovery.

Demo

Tell a story, not a feature tour. Every feature shown must answer 'why does this matter to them?'

Pricing

Use the value equation: charge 25–50% of the value you deliver. Start higher than comfortable.

Closing

Ask about procurement process upfront. Manage the gap between 'yes' and signed contract.

Implementation

You're selling a solution, not a product. Everything between signed contract and customer using your product is your job.

When to Hire a Sales Team

Founder-led sales should last until:

You've closed 10–20 customers yourself. You understand the process deeply enough to teach it. You have a repeatable playbook. You know your ICP, conversion rates, and sales cycle length.

Hire in pairs — you can't tell if a problem is the person, the product, or the segment without a comparison. Look for coachability, not just experience.

Next: Pricing Your Product →