FOUNDER’S GUIDE TO B2B SALES The founder/CEO should generally be a company’s best salesperson. In this section, we show you what it takes to do that. SEVEN THINGS FOUNDERS NEED TO KNOW Here are the seven things that you, as founder/CEO, need to know about sales. We’ll drill into each of them in this section: 1. Learn by doing: get out there and sell 2. Customers buy solutions to problems 3. Sales is 57% listening 4. The best sellers are curious about everything 5. Ask open-ended questions 6. Manage the sales process as a quid pro quo 7. Don’t talk about competitors unless directly asked GET OUT THERE AND SELL The first thing to know about sales is that you need to push yourself to go out and sell. It may not come naturally but you need to do it. With practice, you’ll likely end up very good at it. It will keep you close to the market and your customers – and investors will expect it. A few key things to know: • Your comfort zone will expand. Doing something repeatedly makes it feel more natural over time • View each interaction as a learning moment and hone your skills. You will get better and better with practice • See what works for you. Different styles and sales techniques work for different people. Discover what works best for you, your customers and your business • Selling lays the foundation for hiring your first VP of sales: The more you’ve sold yourself, the better you will understand the job you need your VP of sales to do • It helps to improve your fundraising: Investors expect you to start with founder-led sales, and they will want to hear rich, first-hand stories about what you’ve learned about the market by doing it Five reasons why selling is the key skill founders need to learn. Insights from Balderton Partner Suranga Chandratillake, providing his perspective on why selling is one of the key skills founders need to learn. READ THE ARTICLE SPRING 2023 .06