Mike Barrett’s Post

Excited to unveil the new Sales Primer website!  After working closely with early stage start-ups and ventures ready to scale, we’ve both expanded and refined our offerings to help Founders get to “Customers and Cash” more quickly.  Our updated services are curated for Founders at any Growth Stage and include:    RAPID VALIDATION: Discover quickly if your business is on the right track. Our Sales Primer assessment cuts through the noise offering clear, actionable insights that validate your market, value proposition, pricing and sales model. FOUNDER SALES: We work alongside Founders, equipping them with the sales skills and strategies needed to rapidly qualify and secure your first customers. REPEATABLE & REPLICABLE SALES: We transform your sales operation from Founder-led selling to team-selling through effective recruitment, training, compensation, and management practices. SCALING: Automate, streamline, and expand your sales at higher margins. FUNDRAISING: Expert strategies to finance your venture. Tailored to your model and stage of growth.  Because you often need some cash to make more cash.   Let us know the support you need, whether a dedicated Sales Primer “sales-readiness” workshop, fractional CRO services, investor-readiness prep, or simply retail access to our Sales Primer web application and video library.   Stay tuned for our first US-based certified Sales Primer partner announcement!   And always remember…   Without Sales, All Else Fails!   www.salesprimer.ca   #sales #salesmodeling #salesexecution #growth #fundraising #startup #venture #scale #businessdevelopment #gotomarket

Right from day one, it’s imperative startup founders form and plant a strong and compelling idea of value in the minds of high value customers. Competitive advantage is brand power.   - Attract an expanding base of loyal, advocate customers. - Increase attraction, productivity, and retention of talented employees. - Attract the right investment growth partners. - Command premium pricing of your offerings. - Grow distribution with strong velocities in sales channels. - Gain attention from earned social and trade media. - Less dependence on advertising.   Startups and early-stage businesses without a well-defined strategy for competitive advantage are at the mercy of the marketplace without a map or compass—lost, weak and vulnerable.   Competitive advantage stems from an "idea of value" that resonates with customers on a deeply profound personal level. An “idea of value” offers what people love, can't live without, and can't find elsewhere.   It's the one and only thing that matters, makes your business relevant, different, loved, and preferred. If you're not clear on an idea of value that forms the foundation of competitive advantage in your early stage business, let's have a conversation. #whitehotcenter #founders #startupstrategies #competitiveadvantage

Excited to unveil the new Sales Primer website!  After working closely with early stage start-ups and ventures ready to scale, we’ve both expanded and refined our offerings to help Founders get to “Customers and Cash” more quickly.  Our updated services are curated for Founders at any Growth Stage and include:    RAPID VALIDATION: Discover quickly if your business is on the right track. Our Sales Primer assessment cuts through the noise offering clear, actionable insights that validate your market, value proposition, pricing and sales model. FOUNDER SALES: We work alongside Founders, equipping them with the sales skills and strategies needed to rapidly qualify and secure your first customers. REPEATABLE & REPLICABLE SALES: We transform your sales operation from Founder-led selling to team-selling through effective recruitment, training, compensation, and management practices. SCALING: Automate, streamline, and expand your sales at higher margins. FUNDRAISING: Expert strategies to finance your venture. Tailored to your model and stage of growth.  Because you often need some cash to make more cash.   Let us know the support you need, whether a dedicated Sales Primer “sales-readiness” workshop, fractional CRO services, investor-readiness prep, or simply retail access to our Sales Primer web application and video library.   Stay tuned for our first US-based certified Sales Primer partner announcement!   And always remember…   Without Sales, All Else Fails!   www.salesprimer.ca   #sales #salesmodeling #salesexecution #growth #fundraising #startup #venture #scale #businessdevelopment #gotomarket

Your business is just a series of hypotheses until you get Happy Paying Customers. As a founder, there can be a lot of competing priorities — product, raising, networking, taxes, legal, hiring and so much more. But I’ve seen it over and over that founders who make real progress with their startup are ruthlessly trying to close deals. I met one such founder recently — Zach Hawtof on my nyc trip. He’s not only been prioritizing getting customers, but specifically get big logos. He has 10 paying customers (and counting of course), out of which several are big names like Clay. 1️⃣ How did he get these companies to trust him and his startup? 2️⃣ How did he get customer 1? 3️⃣ What is his go-to-market playbook to find, engage and convert dream customers? These are just some of the questions Zach will be answering during tomorrow’s Founder-Led Marketing Club session. I’ll be grilling him on the story behind every single customer from 1 to 10. If you know Zach, you know this is going to be a good one. If you’re a startup founder on your own journey to 10 Happy Paying Customers, I’ve reserved 7 seats. Comment below (or DM if you’re in stealth) with a one liner about your startup to get a guest pass!

Market Expansion Steals Your Startup’s Superpower The challenges of new market entry are familiar. Brand recognition goes to zero. Customer knowledge needs to be rebuilt. GTM instincts that led to growth back home can instead lead you astray. Most critically, doors to buyers, partners, and capital that flew open to you before will not budge now. This is especially painful for a fast-moving, high growth company because new markets often take at least 12 to 18 months to build up similar momentum. Conceptually, everyone understands the timeline but, in reality, tension and stress can build up even in the face of progress. Why does it take so long? Although interconnected, it is not necessarily an issue of product or sales motion. Many companies achieve the table stakes requirements of product and GTM excellence but still face a long journey. The root cause - the lost superpower - is credibility. Building credibility with the new market’s customers, partners, and industry community members is a function of product and sales excellence enhanced by consistency and trustworthiness. Honestly and reliably providing unmistakable value is what forms your credibility and it typically faces non-negotiable time constraints. It seems like startups have superpowers in their home markets because the company, product, and key executives have had the time to become known quantities. That aura grants access to deals, talent, and bold business development opportunities that collectively act as a moat turning your startup into a best-in-class venture. When you are expanding in a new market it is not enough to just make a revenue plan and a feedback pipeline of customer needs. You need to find the right hires, partnerships, and branding to access the same level of opportunities that you can back home. When executed well, your startup can rapidly gain the right credibility and accelerate your speed of expansion. A key to success in a new market is restoring your startup’s superpowers by building credibility as quickly as possible.

𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗬 𝑸: 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘜𝘚 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒕𝒉 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮? 𝗔𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝐀. Access to lots of VC gives money to grow. 𝐁. Great depth of marketing talent creates messaging that really sells. 𝐂. Selling to other startups is the first target segment. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝐀. You only get VC dollars when you've got runs on the board. Money sunk on a product no one wants, doesn't scale. 𝐁. Great marketing / advertising does not fix a product that is not working. Churn is high, and buyers do not have time. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝐂. The US has a huge startup ecosystem. Many companies tracking $50-500M ARR were startups 5-6yrs ago and are willing to try products from other startups. 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 1. Get early sales by identifying the most likely adopters of your product. 2. Iterate and deliver, built trust first, then ramp to larger deals. 3. Get VC when you don't need it on your terms. #growth #GTM #scaling #founderledsales #sales

Hitting the market and trying to find customers through a structured GTM plan (beyond the founders' network) is a super exciting time for any startup! I've recently talked with quite a few startups that want to hit opposite sides of the market right away—Enterprise and PLG. My reaction is always to slow down and really think about the effort and resources needed. The Go-To-Market model from Winning by Design is a great way to frame this. Ongoing success requires solid Marketing, Sales, and Customer Support. And remember, the bigger the client, the more specialized the support has to be! _________________________________________________________________ I help start- ups ‘Evolve Beyond Founder-Led Sales’ ⭐ Zero to One: Helping you find Product-Market Fit and first paying customers. ⭐ One to Ten: Helping you in defining and scaling your GTM strategy and process. ⭐ New Market Expansion: Guiding strategy and execution for new market or product launches.

TechBBQ is hosting a session on founder-led sales. It’s about founders reducing their dependency on investor funding by simply selling their product with brutal success. 🤔 You might think: "Of course, venture-backed businesses can sell," but this isn’t always the case. 😬 The founders play a crucial role here. Some takeaways from this session that I really liked: 🪄 Founders: Sell, and demonstrate to your colleagues, team, and potential investors that your product is sellable! You may not have the right team in place to scale yet, but you, as the founder, can prove that it’s a team issue, not a product issue. The risk lies in handing over sales responsibilities to your new hires. Don’t do this! Keep the responsibility, but delegate and share it. 🕹 Empower your organization to create as many touchpoints with customers and users of your product as possible, from the beginning—both digital and physical. Be on top of these touchpoints, and use the data as feedback to perfect your sales strategy. ✨ Pivot when necessary, but remain persistent in perfecting your sales cycle. Get input from customers and peer groups, like similar SaaS companies, to improve your sales process. Let this process be founder-led and founder-designed. --- Don’t think that just because you’ve secured funding, you no longer need to sell. WRONG! You need to become even better—world-class—if you want to grow your business and attract future investors. #startups #techbbq #innovation #sales #development #founders #companybuilding Beam --- PS: If you as a founder have a hard time selling the product you invented >>> get another job. 😀

As founders, we often get so caught up in acquiring new customers that we overlook the goldmine of growth lying within our existing base. Here’s a personal insight that transformed our stagnant situation into a growth opportunity. The Challenge: Our business was experiencing a plateau—churn balanced out new customer gains, leading to zero net growth. A Family Insight: During a discussion, my brother questioned our approach to engaging long-term customers. "Do you regularly inform your loyal customers about changes and improvements?" he asked. I realized we had neglected this crucial engagement. The Strategy: We launched a monthly newsletter dedicated to keeping our community informed about our continuous improvements and the evolving benefits of our services. The Outcome: The newsletter was a hit! It not only boosted our engagement but surprisingly reactivated old customers who had drifted away. They reconnected with our brand and appreciated the updates, bringing fresh vitality and referrals back to our business. Advice for Founders: Don’t underestimate the power of consistent communication. Regular updates can re-engage old customers and strengthen loyalty with current ones, unlocking growth that acquisition alone cannot achieve. Remember, your next business breakthrough might come from where you least expect it—sometimes even from a casual family conversation! #BusinessGrowth #Startups #Founders #CustomerEngagement #BusinessAdvice #Innovation

If you’re not comfortable with leading on sales, forget being a founder Especially in the early stages In the first 18 months at Connectd, I was there alongside the sales team speaking to as many customers as I could For a good chunk of the week too. A study by HubSpot found that nearly half of high-growth tech companies were led by their founders in initial sales efforts Customers, investors, prospects - people will feel your passion and belief in your product And this energy is highly contagious That personalised communication goes a long way in building trust and securing those initial sales  The reality is, if you can’t sell to your target market, how are you going to convince investors that you can scale this business? How will you attract top talent and show them your startup is the next best thing? Would you agree? Let me know your thoughts below👇🏻 #Founders #Startups