Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Building Pipeline From Zero as a First Time Sales Hire (Ask Jeb)

13 snips
Sep 30, 2025
Will Frattini, an experienced sales practitioner, shares invaluable insights for first-time sales hires in startup environments. He emphasizes the importance of shadowing the founder to understand their initial success and replicating their value hook. Discussing pipeline-building without tools, he suggests focusing on feedback and iteration. Will also reveals how he scaled a zero-base office to $3M by teaching others his approach and stresses the significance of qualified meetings over vanity KPIs. His practical tips will resonate with anyone facing sales challenges.
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ANECDOTE

Mirror The Founder’s Winning Hook

  • Will joined a founder in Austin with zero market presence and learned by mirroring her approach until it worked.
  • Within a year they scaled to $3M, hired five people, and became the fastest growing office by repeating that hook.
ADVICE

Ask For Brutal Early Feedback

  • Do learn the founder's exact hook and mirror it before inventing your own playbook.
  • Ask the founder to be ruthlessly honest about which meetings truly qualify and why.
ADVICE

Prioritize High-Volume Qualified Meetings

  • Set high meeting activity targets early: Will aimed for 20–30 worthwhile meetings monthly and reached ~60.
  • Prioritize in-person or qualified meetings to rapidly learn what converts.
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