The Startup Operator Masterclass: B2B Sales with Jen Abel (Co-founder, JJELLYFISH) | Part 1 of 3 - Founder's role in the 0 - 1 | Early Stage Sales
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Mar 18, 2022 Jen Abel, Co-founder of JJELLYFISH and a B2B go-to-market expert, shares her insights on early-stage sales for startups. She emphasizes the importance of balancing product development with customer needs, stressing that founders must listen to market pain points. The discussion highlights creating urgency in B2B sales by addressing 'why now'. Jen warns against premature hiring of sales leadership, advocating for direct founder involvement in understanding market dynamics to ensure product-market fit.
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Product Comfort Masks Market Risk
- Founders over-index to product because it's where they're comfortable and passionate.
- Building in a vacuum delays learning and causes avoidable 'no market need' failures.
Battling Inertia Is The Core Sales Job
- Most buyers are aware of problems but not motivated to solve them today, so inertia is the biggest barrier.
- Creating urgency requires quantifying frequency, intensity, or economic risk to unlock change.
Founders Must Do Early Sales
- Do founder-led sales pre-product-market-fit and validate assumptions directly.
- Delegate sales only after proving the motion and avoiding becoming the bottleneck.