The Essence of Sales in Entrepreneurship

Harvard Business School senior lecturer Mark Roberge argues that every aspect of being an early-stage founder involves sales. But many founders lack an understanding of how to incorporates sales into their ventures.

Which sales candidate is a startup’s ideal first hire? What marketing channels are worth investing in? How aggressively should you align sales with customer success?

In this episode, you’ll learn how to hire for early sales roles, design compensation, and lay a strong foundation for a growing sales team.

Key episode topics include: leadership, entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, startups, entrepreneurial business strategy, pricing strategy, talent management.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

• Listen to the original Cold Call episode: What Founders Get Wrong about Sales and Marketing (2023)
• Find more episodes of Cold Call
• Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org