Validating ICP Through Customer Interviews

Nine months. Zero revenue. One cold text to a CMO. Yosef Peterseil landed McDonald's as Blings' first enterprise sales customer while bootstrapping—and learned why charging for POCs changes everything. In this episode, founders will learn how to close enterprise sales deals without a playbook, why free POCs kill your priority, and when you're actually ready to hire salespeople.

Yosef shares how he validated the wrong ICP for months before discovering customer success managers had no budget, why a 13-month contract structure eliminates double negotiations, and the $30,000 event mistake that taught him to build follow-up systems first.

Blings now serves McDonald's, Mercedes, Meta, and Rocket Mortgage—hitting $1M ARR in 2023 with just 19 people.

This episode is brought to you by:

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🔑 Key Lessons

• 🎯 Always Charge for Enterprise Sales POCs: Even $3,000-$5,000 forces customers to prioritize you and starts vendor onboarding—free trials put you at the bottom of the list.
• 💰 Use 13-Month Contracts: Yosef lost months negotiating POC terms then negotiating again for commercial deals—a first-month exit clause eliminates double negotiations.
• 🚀 Validate ICP Budget First: Dozens of customer success interviews revealed they had no budget—pivot to where the money actually is before building.
• 🤝 Build Follow-Up Systems Before Events: 70 leads from a $30K event went cold because they had no HubSpot sequences or lead scoring in place.
• 🧠 Don't Hire Salespeople Without a Playbook: A great rep closing deals proves their skill, not your product—wait until a mediocre rep can follow your process.
• 📈 Scale Enterprise Sales with Channel Partners: Recruiting industry veterans to open doors for commission scaled Blings faster than direct sales.

Chapters

• Introduction and Favorite Quote
• What Blings Does - The MP5 Video Format
• Company Metrics and Enterprise Customers
• The Origin Story and Co-Founder Relationship
• Validating the ICP Through Customer Interviews
• Pivoting from Customer Success to Marketing
• Landing McDonald's Through a Cold Text
• Closing the First Enterprise Sales POC
• Lessons from POC Agreements
• Why You Should Always Charge for POCs
• Event Marketing Mistakes - 70 Lost Leads
• Building a Lead Follow-Up System
• Hiring Salespeople Too Early
• Building Channel Partner Relationships
• Scaling with 19 People
• Launching PLG Motion
• Lightning Round

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Resources

• Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/466
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