Founder-led sales | Pete Kazanjy (Founding Sales, Atrium)

1. Validate Sales Process

Before hiring your first salesperson, ensure you can reliably convert 15-25% of first meetings into customers, across 50-100 attempts, to prove the sales motion is repeatable.

2. Continuously Update Sales Motion

Treat your sales motion like software, constantly updating it based on customer interactions. Create new slides or talk tracks to address objections and improve effectiveness.

3. Track Leading Sales Indicators

Don’t solely rely on lagging indicators like closed deals; instead, track leading indicators such as conversion rates between sales stages to identify areas for improvement.

4. Adopt a Consultant Sales Mindset

Approach sales as a consultant, identifying prospects whose problems your technology solves. Guide them through discovery questions to reveal inefficiencies and present your solution.

5. Define Ideal Customer Profile

Get very clear on your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), understanding both the characteristics of the target company and the personas within it, to avoid wasting time on unsuitable prospects.

6. Hire Pioneer Salespeople First

After proving your sales motion, hire a couple of early-stage, “pioneer” sellers (deputies or gritty individual contributors) rather than a VP of Sales, as they are better suited to operationalize your knowledge.

7. Document Sales Motion Resources

Ensure new salespeople have all necessary materials, such as slide decks, discovery questions, and demo scripts, to effectively learn and execute the sales motion you’ve developed.

8. Continuously Monitor Sales Performance

Continuously monitor new sales reps’ leading indicators (e.g., number of first meetings, second meeting conversion rates) throughout their ramp-up period to identify issues and provide timely coaching.

9. Avoid Remote for Junior Sales

Work-from-home is problematic for junior salespeople because it slows down critical learning and coaching loops, making it harder to quickly improve their sales motion compared to in-person side-by-side training.

10. Embrace Sales Behaviors

Don’t be afraid of sales; it’s not magical or an innate talent. Getting good at sales behaviors will benefit you in many ways, even if you’re not a born seller.

11. Develop Quick Rapport Skills

Practice building rapid rapport with people in everyday interactions, like bartenders or baristas, to develop the skill of quickly establishing trust and connection with prospects.

12. Master Uncomfortable Questions

Practice asking good, follow-up, and even uncomfortable questions, including asking for money and then waiting for an answer, as these behaviors improve with repetition.

13. Persist Through Multiple Attempts

Recognize that most deals won’t close on the first attempt; persist through multiple interactions and pipeline cycles with prospects, as they may convert on subsequent tries.

14. Implement Written Job Screens

Use a written job screen (e.g., a Google Doc with biographical questions) for sales candidates to filter out unserious applicants, assess communication skills, and check attention to detail.