Compass.uol N.A.’s Post

Great overview of Pear VC of our current journey unlocking early stage sales to build the best tool for blue collar employees in the following years 🚀

If you hire your first two sales reps in your startup, do not tie their commission to individual targets You have absolutely 0 idea what those targets should be And it will be massively discouraging What I did instead: In the first 9-12 months, we set a quarterly target for the whole team (incl. CRO, CEO, partners) We sit together end of quarter to discuss the target for next quarter It is usually a mix of pipeline and ambition So that we definitely believe we can achieve it based on pipeline And the target is ambitious at the same time Whatever percentage we reach of that target, everybody gets as commission At the same time, we do calculations of how many opportunities everybody needs to open and how much weighted funnel we need for next quarter Those numbers we set as soft individual goals We need to have those top of mind And still track individual success So that we know what to work on if we don't make it

The biggest issue when you hire a junior sales rep for your startup as your first sales hire? In case they are not successful, you won't be able to tell whether it is because of their lack of skill or because your product cannot be sold As an entrepreneur, it is easier to think the first to be true Let them go, and hire someone else - and lose 1 year on the way But in 80% of cases, that is not the problem It is so hard to admit that the product is not sellable yet Therefore, I highly recommend hiring someone you know who can sell at first It should be someone well-known to someone in your company or your close circle of friends You will trust that person much more And will be able to focus and push for a more sellable product PS: The founders still have to sell their first 5-10 installations themselves. But their selling won't be comparable to selling as a salesperson. It does not count as proof that it works

There’s a lot of talk about how founder-led sales is necessary for early stage startups. I 100% agree, but I’ll be honest. This was one of the harder parts of the transition from Growth to founder. At heart, I’m a product guy. So as a founder, it was easy to stay in my comfort zone: write specs, product teardowns, sprints, Linear tickets, etc. Asking for money was the hardest thing I have had to do in my professional career. In the beginning, it was flat-out awkward. I’ve never had to be a sales guy before. Compound this with the fact that at the beginning we were selling an idea, this made it 10x more awkward. So a lot of my time over the last six months has been spent learning the nuances of sales and putting them into practice slowly but surely. Here are a few resources & practices that worked for me (aside from sheer reps) to hone my selling skills. → I read Gap Selling by Keenan twice front-to-back. → I listened to 30 Minutes to President's Club weekly. → I built a network of founders who did 0 to 1 sales, and picked their brains on what worked. → I picked the brains of 10x sellers like Max Freeman, Ramp’s Head of MM Sales, Doug Landis, and Ian Feeney. I had to learn from the best people I knew who’d done it before. Fast forward a few months, and I’ve never felt more comfortable as a founder in sales calls. How are you honing your selling skills?

When I started my sales journey, I didn't have prior sales experience I didn't get any training too I was thinking that anyone can become a salesperson because you just happen to sell something which people usually buy My father runs a grocery shop where I used to help him from 2004-10 actively Before starting up my first online business in 2015, I was thinking that people would easily buy my services just because I was selling it (similar to my grocery shop) And it was not the cost which was higher than other players But my ignorance to details Some say ignorance is a curse For me, it became a blessing From 2014-19, there was no one who was literally guiding me for my failed startups And then, the commission sales job helped me learn many basic things about doing sales as a standalone business (OPC) July 2019 led me to the corporate sales and my mistakes became my friends here My failures and time waste became my console to the work pressure I was getting into my first and only B2C profile You learn Sales by doing You learn Sales by understanding what your prospects expect from you #salesexperiences

I took 1000s of sales calls this year. But I finally decided to let someone else handle them. Why it took me so long: When I launched Haven last year, I took every call myself (20+ a day). Not because I'm a control freak or that I can't delegate. But because I had to find out: • what resonated with founders • where we could improve • which intros led to deals • who our best customers were I firmly believe it's the founder's responsibility to learn this stuff firsthand. After 1 year and 250+ clients later, I learned that founder-led sales is basically required. But it doesn't SCALE. Some deals need the founder, but most don't. • Influential founders? Take the call. • Strategic partnerships? Take the call. • Someone who can transform the biz? Take the call. Delegation comes in for standard deals that follow your proven playbook. That's why I hired Michael Brod several months back (Haven's first sales hire, now co-founder, verified GOAT) to take over the core of our pipeline. Now he closes deals while I focus on relationships that can 10x the business. All that is to say, there's a huge difference between delegating sales and removing yourself completely. Do the first (when the time is right).  Never do the second.

Well said. The primary role of a founder should be sales during the first years.

One of my earliest lessons in sales was an unexpected one. This was my first quarter as an AE 😅 I remember talking to a prospective customer (Director of Marketing in charge of a $40M budget) that was skeptical about the solution I was selling 👀 After learning more about her business and specific goals with this project, I agreed with her that we weren’t the right fit and recommended that she look for a different solution 🤷🏽♀️ While it felt like the obvious right answer to me, every person that was successful in the sales org told me it was a mistake. Some suggested I may not be cut out for sales I missed quota by 11% that quarter 😞 As an early 20s ambitious person, it hugely crushed my confidence. Thankfully I decided to stick with the job for 1 year 💪 And then, 2 quarters later — same buyer comes back and insisted on working with me specifically. She decided to buy our solution in 4 short biz days (avg sales cycle was 3 months) and at 4x the original deal value. 💥 Moral of the story: follow your instincts and values even when everyone tells you “it’s not how it’s done” 🔑 I have carried this with me in all my roles since. 🤗 Sales karma is real ❤️ Be a person before being a sales person ❤️ Run your own race ❤️ #Startups #sales #firstprinciples #seller #valuesfirst

Founders underestimate the difficulty of moving past "founder-led sales." When sales for Proxima were founder-driven (me + 1-2 highly experienced AEs), we consistently met and exceeded our targets. This success was key to securing our funding. But once we reached that milestone, it became clear that our existing process wouldn't suffice to achieve the larger targets we now aimed for—and needed—to hit. We had to build a proper sales org. So we’ve moved from founder-led sales to developing a scaled, repeatable process. I’ll say I underestimated how challenging it was going to be to take my hands off of those reigns. As a founder, I have a unique commercial capability that helps us convert better, and I (hopefully) understand the product better than anyone else at this stage. Letting go of that function and telling my sales leaders, "You're responsible for developing this process, scaling your teams, and hitting these targets," was hard. After some iteration, I believe we've landed on a team structure and personnel to scale the sales org independently of me. We now have a robust commercial function led by Archie Winesett, Alex Kahn and Loni Poon. We've got new product offerings in Beta, and we’re moving through this post-Series A world comfortably uncomfortable. Proxima revenue is in good hands—and I’m genuinely excited about our future. I'm curious though. What have you found most challenging to delegate as a founder?

The Real Key to Winning In Sales