Y Combinator Startup Podcast The Sales Playbook for Founders | Startup School
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Aug 15, 2025 Founders often struggle with B2B sales, but there are effective strategies to navigate this landscape. Insights from Tom Blomfield reveal how to manage pilot programs with a focus on financial commitments and customer success. Key tips include understanding the customer's buying process, engaging stakeholders, and creating urgency for faster decision-making. Transitioning from free trials to paid commitments can elevate customer engagement and validate the product's value, ensuring a smoother sales process.
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Founders Commonly Stall Early
- Most founders get stuck in early-stage unpaid engagements instead of progressing to revenue-generating sales processes.
- Speeding through stages prematurely is rare and usually risky without product maturity or proof.
Ship A Narrow Wedge Fast
- Avoid long, vague unpaid design partnerships that drain time and produce little commitment.
- Build a narrow wedge product quickly and sell it to multiple customers before expanding the platform.
Do The Work Yourself To Find Wedges
- Go undercover or do the work manually to deeply understand customer problems and identify automatable tasks.
- Iterate until you find a wedge product customers love and then sell it to similar customers.