Sales For Founders

Welcome to Sales for Founders, the podcast for founders who want to go from hating sales to making sales. Today, Brendan is speaking with Daniel Zarick. Daniel is the co-founder of Arrows, a collaborative onboarding tool for high-touch customers. Before that he ran an app design studio and was the 2nd product manager at Twilio. You can follow Daniel on Twitter at @danielzarick. We're talking SaaS onboarding in some detail, as well as early-stage sales. Daniel shares a particularly great (and swipeable) sales tactic from his Twilio days, along with insights into customer onboarding. And he shares a big win for Arrows. And please feel free to ask us a question that we can tackle in an upcoming podcast, or say hi to us over on Twitter at @louisnicholls_ and @brendanmcadams. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sales-for-founders/message

We're pleased to have Ben Orenstein in as our guest this week. Ben is the co-founder of Tuple, a pairing application for development teams, and he has deep experience as a tech founder.  In this quick and lively episode, we cover several common sales challenges for founders, like: - Dealing with customers, behavior change, and getting things done. - How to think about enterprise accounts, testing pricing, and establishing minimum thresholds. - Discovering the 'fun' in being a technical founder that sells. - How to think about hiring for that ideal sales replacement for the selling founder. Ben is also the co-host of The Art of Product podcast, and you can find him on Twitter.

Okay... It's time for that big initial sales call. You've booked, prepped and dialed in (or maybe you're in-person...right?!) Now what do you do? Plenty, actually. And a lot of it is simple, fundamental, easy, and actionable. And all of it can make that first sales call much more effective. In this episode, Brendan and Louis break down the key practices, tactics and mindset that should be part of your sales process. There are a lot of great tips here that can elevate your sales efforts and help you pursue the right opportunities and minimize the wrong ones.  So please listen in as we go back-n-forth on kicking off the conversation, qualifying the customer, getting the information you need, and so much more. Let us know what you think, share this episode with a fellow founder, and say hi to us (or ask a question) over on Twitter at @louisnicholls_ and @brendanmcadams

Welcome to Sales for Founders, the podcast for founders who want to go from hating sales to making sales. First impressions can make all the difference, and that's especially true when it comes to the first important conversation you have with a prospective customer. Things move quickly, you're still figuring each other out, and there are plenty of pitfalls to avoid. In this episode, Louis and Brendan cover some of the key strategies, tactics and considerations that can help you prepare for that all important first sales call. That includes things like: ... knowing who you're speaking with, ... having a strategy in place, ... setting the stage, and ... optimizing for success. Make that first impression a good one while you set yourself up to maximize the potential. Say hi to us (or ask a question) over on Twitter at @louisnicholls_ and @brendanmcadams

Welcome to Sales for Founders, the podcast for founders who want to go from hating sales to making sales. We have Brendan McAdams at the microphone today for a conversation with Joe Valenti, founder of BrokrBindr, a SaaS application that automates the various functions and processes in the operation of a mortgage broker business. We're talking SaaS sales today, and particularly about: ... early-stage sales, ... the challenges of onboarding, ... how to think about product adoption and engagement, ... and buyer psychology. You're sure to hear some familiar patterns in this episode, along with a few ideas on how to compress the sales onboarding process. And please feel free to ask us a question that we can tackle in an upcoming podcast, or say hi to us over on Twitter at @louisnicholls_ and @brendanmcadams. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sales-for-founders/message

Welcome to Sales for Founders, the podcast for founders who want to go from hating sales to making sales. Louis is back behind the mic for another season of Sales for Founders... ... and this time he's joined by a cohost — sales expert and previous guest Brendan McAdams! We're mixing up the normal format this series with a mix of real-life founder interviews and "expert chats" — where Brendan and Louis do a casual deep dive exploring a specific sales topic founders struggle with (and how to do it better). This week we're talking sales process... ... what is a sales process? ... what does a good sales process look like? ... and why is it so important to have one? We get to the bottom of it in today's episode. Say hi to us (or ask a question) over on Twitter at @louisnicholls_ and @brendanmcadams

Welcome to Sales for Founders, the podcast for founders who want to go from hating sales to making sales. Louis is back behind the mic for another season of Sales for Founders... ... and this time he's joined by a cohost — sales expert and previous guest Brendan McAdams! We're mixing up the normal format this series with a mix of real-life founder interviews and "expert chats" — where Brendan and Louis do a casual deep dive exploring a specific sales topic founders struggle with (and how to do it better). This week we're starting at the beginning and talking about why founders don't like doing sales. Is it fear? Lack of skill? Or are you in such a bad sales mindset that you think all sales is sleazy? We get to the bottom of it in today's episode. Say hi to us (or ask a question) over on Twitter at @louisnicholls_ and @brendanmcadams Thanks for listening!

Welcome to Sales for Founders, the podcast for founders who want to go from hating sales to making sales. This week, your host Louis is talking to sales expert Brendan McAdams. Brendan is the cofounder of Expertscape. He also has over two decades of experience working as a salesperson. And — last but not least — he recently released a book and runs live trainings on how to get better at sales. In this episode, we talk about…  - ... how did Brendan make the first sales for Expertscape?  - ... what qualities does a founder need to become “good enough” at sales?  - ... how has sales changed over the past few decades? … and much, much more! You can find Brendan on Twitter. And don’t forget to check out the totally free fundamentals of sales course at SalesForFounders.com

In this episode of the podcast, your host Louis Nicholls sits down with founder, author and all-round-business-expert Alex Hillman. Alex has decades of experience helping people build successful businesses. From running his coworking community Indy Hall, to his course, 30x500, where he and Amy Hoy have coached hundreds of founders. Now, Alex has distilled all of that experience and knowledge into his new book, The Tiny MBA. It's full of 100 short ideas to build your own business that lasts. I was lucky enough to read a prelaunch copy, and it's easily the best value per word of any business book I've ever read. Today on the podcast, Alex is going to walk us through three of my favourite ideas in the book. You can find Alex on Twitter at @alexhillman, check out his writing at StackingTheBricks.com, and - of course - grab your copy of the Tiny MBA at Tiny.MBA

In this episode of the S4F podcast we switch things up and I (your host Louis Nicholls) take some listener questions in my first ever solo session! We dive into topics like... ... how to feel good about doing sales? ... when will the free Sales for Founders course be launching? ... what 'ask' should I be using in cold outreach emails? ... and more. Also mentioned in this episode of the show are: The Mom Test Book Startups For The Rest Of Us podcast The Sales for Founders course (sign up now for earlybird discounts and access) This week's founder showcase: Abridge.io Thanks to everyone who submitted a question. If you have feedback or a question of your own, let me know with a voice message (link below), or tell me on Twitter (@louisnicholls_).

In this episode of the podcast, your host Louis Nicholls sits down with Nick Davies, cofounder and CEO of Dentally. Nick and his cofounder James cofounded Dentally - a B2B SaaS product for dental practices - straight out of university. And, although they're now running a successful business with 18 employees and millions of dollars in revenue, finding the first 100 customers for Dentally wasn't easy. In today's episode, we'll dive into... how Dentally found their first customers how they struggled with - and overcame - slow initial growth to make it to where they are today and how they’re handling sales during the COVID19 pandemic - when all of their customers’ businesses as closed! If you have a question for Nick, reach him at nick[at]dentallyDOTco Nick's favourite source of sales tips for founders with $10k MRR+ is over at the excellent Close blog.  But check out our recent episode with Close team-member and sales specialist James Urie first! -------------------- Finally, make sure to head over to SalesForFounders.com and sign up for actionable, free advice and templates on how to get good enough at sales to grow your own business.

In this episode of the Sales for Founders podcast, your host Louis Nicholls sits down with a Sales for Founders course alumnus... Frank Breckner. Frank was previously the cofounder of a VC-backed startup, Lavanda, and is now working on multiple new projects. A few months ago, Frank started work on a new business, Finalytic. And he's already grown it to 5 figures in MRR by doing outbound sales. In today's episode, we'll dive into... how Frank made Finalytic's first sales (and came up with the idea) how he's handling sales in an industry devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic how Frank launched yet another SaaS tool, Growth-Hacking.io and grew it from nothing to $2k+ MRR in less than a week ... and much more! You can find Frank on LinkedIn - or shoot him an email at frank@growth-hacking.io.  And don't forget - you get 50% off of your very own Growth-Hacking.io account with discount code "S4F". Finally, make sure to head over to SalesForFounders.com and sign up for actionable, free advice and templates on how to get good enough at sales to grow your own business.

In this episode of the Sales for Founders podcast, your host Louis Nicholls sits down with Baird Hall. Baird is a founder of two bootstrapped SaaS businesses: Waave.co and Zubtitle. We dive into the story of how Baird used sales to grow both companies from zero to $50k+ MRR in just a few short years. Including... a real, inside look at what it took to make Wavve's first, tenth, and 50th sale why most cold outreach fails, and how to make sure yours works when (and how) to transition from outbound sales to inbound marketing ... and much more! You can find Baird on Twitter at @BairdHall - or check out some of his amazing writing on entrepreneurship, sales and marketing at Lofi Ventures. Finally, make sure to head over to SalesForFounders.com and sign up for actionable, free advice and templates on how to get good enough at sales to grow your own business.

Today I’m chatting with Kristen Habacht. Kristen is one of the most successful salespeople I’ve ever met. From joining the sales team at Fog Creek, to basically building the sales department from scratch at Trello, and now killing it in her current role as global head of EDR sales at Atlassian - Kirsten has seen and been successful at every stage of sales in a company’s lifecycle. In this episode, Kristen shares her advice on what founders *need* to know about a broad range of sales topics. Including enterprise sales tips, how and when to hire your first sales reps, and the positives (and negatives) of a freemium plan.  You can find Kristen on Twitter or LinkedIn. And don't forget - the Sales for Founders course opens for enrollment on the 10th of December! If you’re interested in checking it out, don’t wait 'til then - sign up for the earlybird waitlist at salesforfounders.com today, and on the 3rd of December I’ll be sending out the only discounts I’ll ever give on the course - and spending an hour video chatting and answering your questions about the course, and sales or growth more generally!

This week I'm releasing a test episode for a new, shorter format of episodes - office hours. For this test episode, I'm talking to Pat Walls, founder of StarterStory.com, about his new project, Pigeon.  If all goes well, I'll record and publish regular office hours episodes each Friday (alongside the normal expert interviews). We'll follow 3-4 founders who are facing the same challenges as you, growing their businesses from $0-$10k in MRR. I'll check in with each founder once a month, to hear how their business is growing and help them solve their biggest sales and growth challenges. If you'd like to be one of those 3-4 founders, head over to SalesForFounders.com and get your email on the earlybird waitlist. Invites go out on Wednesday the 20th of November, 2019.   I'd love to hear your feedback on the episode (sorry for the sound quality) and what can be improved via email, or hit me up on Twitter. You can also find Pat on Twitter @thepatwalls. Thanks for listening!

This week, your host Louis Nicholls sits down with Andrew Askins.  Andrew is the cofounder and CEO of Krit - a technical agency that helps non-technical founders turn ideas into functioning products. In a new format for the show, Andrew will walk us through his sales journey - from a failed startup attempt to a successful digital agency doing over $50k in monthly revenue. If you’ve ever considered consulting, freelancing or even setting up your own agency, this episode is packed with great advice. We talk about cold emails, productising client qualification, and how the sales process has changed over time - from outbound to a more reliable, inbound approach. You can find Andrew on Twitter, and don't forget to check out the Krit blog for some super useful insights into early stage product development. 

This week, your host Louis Nicholls is joined by James Urie. And this episode is a bit different, because James isn’t a founder - he’s actually a full time salesperson. But what made me even more excited for this episode is that James isn’t just any salesperson, he does sales at a SaaS company called Close, where he actually sells sales software to other sales teams! So we’re going to get amazing insights into how a professional thinks about doing sales, advice on how and when to set up your CRM, and some awesome tips on using text messages to increase conversions. You can find James on LinkedIn, shoot him an email at sales@close.com , and check out the awesome Close blog for tons of sales advice.  And don't forget - the new Sales for Founders course launches in just a few weeks!  So if you're thinking about learning enough sales to get from 0 to $10k in MRR, make sure to get your name on the waitlist for an earlybird discount...

In this episode of the Sales for Founders podcast, your host Louis Nicholls talks to Nat Eliason. Nat is the founder of Growth Machine and cofounder of Cup & Leaf tea. He's also an expert on search-focussed content marketing. So we take a break from talking about outbound sales, and focus on what early-stage founders need to know about SEO-related content marketing instead. Covering listener questions and topics like... - When to make your first sales hire - How SEO and creating content can help you find a product idea to work on - What to do if you aren't a great copywriter - ... and much more! You can find Nat at NatEliason.com or on Twitter at @NatEliason.

In this episode, your host Louis Nicholls sits down with multiple-time founder, YCombinator alumnus and author of 'The Mom Test' - Rob Fitzpatrick. Rob's book is hands down the best resource on how to do customer discovery. It's full of actionable advice on how to talk to customers and learn if your business is a good idea - even when everyone is lying to you. It's also compulsory reading for S4F course participants, and everyone who takes the course gets a copy included. In our chat, Rob explains...  how to talk to customers and come up with a viable product idea how to close your first sale how to get people to talk to you in the first place ... and much more, including listener questions. You can find Rob at RobFitz.com and get the book here.

We kick season 2 of the Sales for Founders podcast off with a bang! Your host, Louis Nicholls, sits down with expert conversion copywriter and email geek Laura Lopuch to talk all things cold emails. We go deep on... How to write emails that get a response How to write cold emails when you don't have a product to sell yet How to avoid the most common cold email mistakes founders make Laura also has an exclusive 10% discount on her training and coaching offerings for S4F listeners - you can get that (and find out more about Laura) by using code "S4F" at lauralopuch.com 

This week, Louis interviews serial founder Jeremy Thiessen. Jeremy has a golden rule for entrepreneurship after some bad luck with his first startup... Don't build anything until you've sold it first! In fact, Jeremy has grown his latest company, Rogue Technologies, to over $150k in revenue in under a year. And it *still* doesn't have a landing page! Listen in to hear Jeremy's thoughts on... why you should sell before building why a 10minute landing page isn't what it seems why his first startup failed and much more! If you want to get in touch with Jeremy or find out more about Rogue Technologies, you can reach him at jeremy@roguetechteam.com --> he made an email address specially for the show! 

This week we shake things up on the podcast! Instead of an interview, we spontaneously recorded one of the office hours sessions with a founder who is currently taking the Sales for Founders course. Listen along as Gabriel Perez, founder of Peerfeedback.io, walks Louis through his current challenges and progress. We touch on some great cold email strategies, how to make the most out of Gabriel's first conference, and do a deep dive on the first draft of Gabriel's case study. You can find Gabriel online at Peerfeedback.io - and early bird enrollment for the Sales for Founders course is opening up again soon, so get yourself on the waitlist now to secure your earlybird discount! 

This week, Louis interviews friend of the show Manuel Frigerio, founder of ReferralHero. Manuel bootstrapped ReferralHero, a referral marketing platform, to about $20k MRR. And on the show he shares... - How he found his first customers for ReferralHero - Whether your business should even bother setting up a referral program - And, if so, how to do it well... You can find Manuel on Twitter at @mnlfrgr and check out the excellent knowledge base over at ReferralHero.com/Academy. Finally, if you want to give ReferralHero a try, don't forget that you get 20% off the first 3 months with coupon code "s4f"!

This week, your host Louis Nicholls interviews Corey Haines, head of growth at Baremetrics. Corey switches between sales and marketing every day. So he's learned some super useful lessons about how to take the best of sales and grow your business by doing things that don't scale. Today, Corey shares his top 4 actionable tips. You can find Corey at @coreyhainesco on Twitter, and Baremetrics.com. For a list of the best demo/sales questions you aren't asking (but should be), head on over to www.salesforfounders.com/questions  

This week we've delivered a special bonus episode with a slightly different focus than normal. Inspired by Justin Jackson's article on 'the myth of the niche market', your host Louis Nicholls has a conversation about the pros and cons of targeting a niche market, with accomplished bootstrapped founder and investor Tyler Tringas.  Tyler previously founded and bootstrapped Storemapper.co to $50k+ MRR, before starting Earnest Capital - a fund dedicated to investing in bootstrapped startups with a win-win, founder-friendly focus and great founder-alignment. You can find Tyler on Twitter at @tylertringas and Justin Jackson's article that inspired the episode is over at https://justinjackson.ca/niche We'll be back to regular, sales-based interviews from next Tuesday!

This week, your host Louis Nicholls interviews Stephanie Hurlburt, cofounder of Binomial.info.  We go in depth on learning sales as a technical founder, winning large B2B contracts and much, much more! You can find Stephanie at stephaniehurlburt.com or on Twitter at twitter.com/sehurlburt The article Stephanie mentions by Jason Fried is here: m.signalvnoise.com/dont-let-anyone-overpay-you/ -- PS: The next Sales For Founders course closes THIS SUNDAY! If you're fed up of not running your own profitable business, head over to SalesForFounders.com and sign up to get your exclusive earlybird discount and spot on the waitlist NOW!

This week, your host Louis Nicholls interviews Dani Mancini. Dani is an expert copywriter and the solo founder of Scribly.io - a productised copywriting service which she grew from nothing to tens of thousands of dollars revenue in just a few months. There’s a load of great, actionable advice in today’s interview. We talk about finding your first customers About how to deal with burnout and the stress of being a founder And you’ll get some awesome copywriting tips to improve your emails and landing pages You can find Dani on Twitter @dani_scribly and check out her blog on copywriting. Finally, don't forget you get an exclusive 25% discount off all copywriting services as an S4F listener... just mention the Sales For Founders podcast when you get in touch with the Scribly.io team.  ------ PS: The next Sales For Founders course opens soon. If you're fed up of not running your own profitable business, head over to SalesForFounders.com and sign up to get your exclusive earlybird discount and spot on the waitlist NOW!

This week I interview Mark Fershteyn, founder of Recapped.io . Mark has years of sales experience are recently founded his own SaaS company - helping B2B sales teams close more deals faster, with better follow-ups. We go into detail on mistakes you'll make on your first sales calls, how to handle customer objections, and much, much more. You can find Mark on Twitter at @markfersh and don't forget to check out Recapped.io to boost your sales game - SalesForFounders listeners get an exclusive 15% lifetime discount with the code SALESFORFOUNDERS

Lynne Tye, founder of KeyValues.com shares how she learned sales on the job - and grew her project into a profitable 6-figure business helping developers find engineering teams that share their values. You can find Lynne on Twitter (@lynnetye) or search for her recent episode of the Indie Hackers podcast, where she talks more about the non-sales side of Key:Values.