Founding Sales: Peter Kazanjy on selling as Co-Founder at Atrium
Sep 25, 2023
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Peter Kazanjy, co-founder of Atrium and author of Founding Sales, shares sales advice for startup founders. They discuss pivoting startups, democratizing sales metrics, datafication of sales, and building a sales community. The conversation also covers the evolution of sales processes, community marketing, navigating product development for revenue teams, and the consolidation of sales tech.
Founding Sales handbook emphasizes customer interviews and MVP creation for startup success.
Community marketing amplifies brand presence by engaging a broader audience in sales community discussions.
Staging product development incrementally ensures customer satisfaction and validates product market fit.
Deep dives
Starting a Company and Building a Sales Team
Pete Kazanjie shares his journey of entrepreneurship, from founding companies like Honest.ly to writing the startup sales handbook, "Founding Sales". He discusses the challenges of starting a sales team when transitioning from a product marketing background and emphasizes the importance of customer interviews, hypothesis testing, and creating a minimum viable product.
Community Marketing and Modern Sales Pros
Pete delves into the significance of community marketing through platforms like Modern Sales Pros, showcasing the power of engaging with a broader audience within the sales community. He highlights the role of shared insights, industry connections, and building a community to amplify brand presence and support sales efforts.
Challenges of Product Staging and Utility Delivery
Pete discusses the essential strategy of staging product development, using a metaphor of starting with a skateboard before progressing to a car. He emphasizes the importance of delivering utility to customers incrementally, gauging win rates, average selling price, and renewal rates to ensure customer satisfaction and validate product market fit.
Future Trends in Sales Tech and Consolidation
Exploring the future of sales technology, Pete analyzes the trend of CRM adjacent players like Gong, Clary, and Outreach consolidating to offer unified workflow interfaces for revenue teams. With a focus on digital sales aggregators, he anticipates continued consolidation and expansion of functionalities to cater to diverse sales roles more comprehensively.
Sales Strategies and Management Centric Tools
Discussing the evolving landscape of sales strategies, Pete highlights the competition for the attention of Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) and the emphasis on facilitating better management through data-driven platforms. He reflects on the evolving role of sales tech tools in enabling managers and leaders to make informed decisions and forecasts, paving the way for improved sales management practices.