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.

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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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231 : podcast at Keith's house