Episode 649 | Learning to Sell SaaS as a Founder (Book Recommendation)
Feb 21, 2023
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Pete Kazanjy, author of 'Founding Sales', shares his insights into effective sales strategies for SaaS founders. He discusses the vital mindset shifts needed for first-time sales roles, advocating for an abundance mentality. Kazanjy dives into practical tips on handling objections and the balance between speed and quality in sales materials. He reflects on his journey growing TalentBin to $6M ARR and emphasizes the importance of founders being actively involved in sales to create repeatable processes.
Founders must adopt a sales mindset emphasizing abundance and resilience to navigate the challenges of selling effectively.
Speed is prioritized over perfection in creating sales materials, allowing founders to iterate quickly based on real-time feedback and client interactions.
Deep dives
The Value of Founding Sales
The book 'Founding Sales' is a comprehensive resource tailored for founders transitioning into sales roles, particularly in the B2B SaaS space. It covers various essential topics such as early prospecting, customer demos, and negotiating, emphasizing the need for effective sales strategies as companies scale. The author, Pete Kazanji, draws from his personal experience of learning sales while building his own company, illustrating how a synthesized approach to sales knowledge can benefit founders lacking prior sales experience. Instead of anecdotal success stories, the book serves as a practical manual that founders can reference repeatedly as their sales needs evolve.
Sales Mindset Shifts
Developing a successful sales mindset is crucial for founders as they step into selling roles, with two key shifts emphasized in the book. The first is adopting an abundance mentality—recognizing that there are plenty of prospects available rather than feeling scarce resources. The second shift involves building resilience in the face of rejection, as founders should be prepared to lose many sales opportunities yet remain enthusiastic and engaged during the process. Understanding that sales and customer interactions are often opportunities to reveal unmet needs rather than merely transactions is vital to reducing the sting of rejection and enhancing overall performance.
The Importance of Speed in Sales Materials
Kazanji emphasizes the significance of speed over perfection when it comes to creating sales materials. Instead of spending weeks perfecting presentations with high production values, founders should focus on iterating quickly based on feedback and real-time learning. This approach allows for immediate adjustments to presentations and pitches, ensuring that relevant information is communicated effectively and objections are addressed instantaneously. By simplifying the sales material creation process, founders can better engage with potential clients using visuals that enhance understanding while maintaining momentum.
Objection Handling and Asking for the Sale
Objection handling is highlighted as a crucial component of the sales process, where meaningful connections and conversions occur. Kazanji posits that objections reflect engagement and provides a pathway for sales professionals to reveal client needs and adjust their pitches accordingly. Founders are encouraged to practice asking for the sale directly, which may initially feel uncomfortable but becomes easier with repetition. This practice, likened to developing muscle memory, can transform selling from a daunting task into a systematic approach that fosters confidence and success in closing deals.
In episode 649, Rob Walling chats with Pete Kazanjy about his book Founding Sales, which is designed to help SaaS founders learn how to sell as well as how to hire and scale sales. We cover a lot, including objection handling, how to ask for the sale, and mindset shifts you need to make when learning how to sell.
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Topics we cover:
3:53 - Overview of Founding Sales
7:54 - Growing TalentBin to $6M ARR
10:28 - What Pete is working on today with Atrium
12:28 - Mindset changes when doing sales for the first time
19:26 - Speed vs. production value for sales materials
22:46 - Handling objections
26:50 - Asking for the sale
31:03 - Relentless execution
32:15 - What sets good sales reps apart from those that struggle?
If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you.