Week 13: What I learned from 60+ sales calls

One question people often ask me is, “How do you sell your product when your company literally just started?” It’s an interesting question because you’re trying to sell a product that you’ve hardly yet built.

I took this week off, so I thought now would be a good time to answer it. I didn’t learn any of these things from a book or a course—these are just my observations from running 60+ sales calls in the last 12 weeks.

10 bits of advice

Control the pace of the call

Have a plan for what you want to get out of the call and take the lead in letting it unfold. The sequence I nearly always shoot for is:

1. Talk about the problem I want to solve and hear about what the other person has to say about it. Do they understand what the problem is? Have they faced it before? What was that like?

2. Tell them about my solution.

3. Offer a clear deal.

More on all of these below.

Establish credibility

If you don’t know the person on the other end of the line, keep in mind that it helps to take a second and establish some credibility. Think about it from their perspective: they don’t know you and aren’t yet sure if they can trust you. You need to defuse the feeling of fight or flight.

This should be quick. For me, I just say: “I’m excited to talk today about the problem I’m working on. Before this, I started an infrastructure company and sold it to Confluent. I spent 5 years there and just left, so I’m pumped to do this again.”

It only takes 10 seconds.

Make sure it’s their idea

The first objective of the call is to make sure I’m on the same page with the other person about what problem I’m solving. This is where the majority of the time should be spent because it’s where you learn the most about what product to build. Press into as much detail as you can.

Now, here’s the critical part: if you want to have a prayer of selling them something later, you need to identity a concrete problem this person has right now that you can solve. Why?

Because people are busy. Everyone’s roadmap is full for at least a few quarters out. Unless you can help with a critical need right now, you aren’t going to have a shot at a deal.

Use slides, but only after you’re agreed on the problem

Once you’re certain you and the other person are talking about solving the same (hopefully concrete!) problem, present some slides to crystalize what you are talking about.

My slide deck takes < 3 minutes to present and uses this order:

1. Reiterate the problem we just talked about

2. Clearly present the solution I’m selling

3. Walk through an example of solving a real problem with the product

Present just enough to make it clear what you’re building.

Assume that the other person has incomplete information

Sometimes it’s tempting to believe the other person understands you completely, and you don’t need to talk much about the problem or see your solution in detail. Let’s just get cut right to the deal, right?

Resist this shortcut.

It has nearly always been the case that the other person has incomplete or incorrect information. Present the entire deck to make sure you’re in sync.

Besides, even if you’re wrong, it’s better for someone to be bored for ~30 extra seconds than confused for the rest of the call.

Offer the deal

After you’ve talked about the problem and your solution, present a clear deal.

In my situation, I say, “So here’s where I’m at. I just started my business and I’m looking for my first few customers. I’d love to solve <concrete problem we talked about> for free with ShadowTraffic. If you like it after a couple of weeks, I’d love it if you’d become a customer. And if you don’t like it, that’s okay too.”

Everyone wins. I clearly say what I want. The other person clearly understands what they’re getting. And most of all, the focus remains on a real, concrete problem to solve.

Find the decision maker

If you get to this point, congrats—there’s a real opportunity. But don’t forget to ask the critical question, “If you like what I’m building, who makes the decision to purchase?”

If the answer is, “I don’t know”, use caution. In order to close a deal, you need to know who this person is and their willingness to work with a vendor. Better to know early than later.

Confirm that there’s budget

Likewise, make sure the person you’re working with actually has budget to buy your product. You don’t need to have a price tag figured out right then and there, but make sure that it’s a possibility that there can be dollars for you down the road.

Learn something from every person

In a lot of calls, you won’t get exactly what you’d like: the person doesn’t have the problem you’re solving; they don’t agree with your solution; they have no budget.

That’s okay. Learn anyway. Nearly every person I’ve talked to has taught me something. Sometimes they’ve introduced me to someone else that might be interested.

Use what’s in front of you.

Do not get hung up on any single account

Earlier in my career, I often found myself frustrated when trying to sell to a particular account. I’d get ghosted, road-blocked, led on. It hurts.

I learned to overcome the frustration through volume. When you run a ton of sales calls, it’s much easier to detach from one challenging account.

And look it this way: it doesn't make any sense to get worked up about any single account. If the account is make or break, the market isn't big enough for you anyway.