This is a really good framework, and I think it’s hard for technical founders to “get it” until they go through enough sales cycles that they learn the outcome of chasing every lead.
Expanding on inbound leads, I saw this first hand with people new to sales in trade shows. They come back hyped up and think the list of 50 people they talked to is a buyer so they chase. And the worst part isn’t that they don’t get any responses. The worst part is that they trick themselves and the prospect into thinking there’s something here. And no one has the awareness to break it off or say no, so they keep moving a non existing deal forward that never closes. When a salesperson has a big pipeline, and they’re talking up the opps but they can’t articulate the problem they’re going to solve, how it will impact the customers business, and why they want to do it now it’s likely a salesperson chasing too many of the wrong leads.
Why I say that’s the worst is because it was so much company time, and if your sales cycle is a few months it makes it very difficult to evaluate whether a salesperson is doing well or wasting time. Every few months a founder may be ready to fire the salesperson, but there’s some new big opp so they give them more rope. But that opp never materializes and you get stuck in this loop.
Leaders that don’t have sales experience can’t appreciate the nuance of what a good salesperson does like filtering out leads that are going to waste your time, or doing the things early in the deal that helps make opportunities real.
Following your advice here and on your other newsletters will save people a ton of time and money while helping them avoid frustration. These are skills that can be learned.
Thanks Jon for the comment and the shared experience. That really is a great example that points on the points of my post. It’s really about understanding the high payoff activities. I’ve actually been working on a post for next week about how the sales funnel is not longer a funnel but more of flywheel. Which I think builds on this idea.
You get the right leads and focus on them and your flywheel will pick up speed and help you might more leads. To your point it’s not longer about how big the top of your funnel is. Anyone can generate leads today, but can you find the right ones.
This is a really good framework, and I think it’s hard for technical founders to “get it” until they go through enough sales cycles that they learn the outcome of chasing every lead.
Expanding on inbound leads, I saw this first hand with people new to sales in trade shows. They come back hyped up and think the list of 50 people they talked to is a buyer so they chase. And the worst part isn’t that they don’t get any responses. The worst part is that they trick themselves and the prospect into thinking there’s something here. And no one has the awareness to break it off or say no, so they keep moving a non existing deal forward that never closes. When a salesperson has a big pipeline, and they’re talking up the opps but they can’t articulate the problem they’re going to solve, how it will impact the customers business, and why they want to do it now it’s likely a salesperson chasing too many of the wrong leads.
Why I say that’s the worst is because it was so much company time, and if your sales cycle is a few months it makes it very difficult to evaluate whether a salesperson is doing well or wasting time. Every few months a founder may be ready to fire the salesperson, but there’s some new big opp so they give them more rope. But that opp never materializes and you get stuck in this loop.
Leaders that don’t have sales experience can’t appreciate the nuance of what a good salesperson does like filtering out leads that are going to waste your time, or doing the things early in the deal that helps make opportunities real.
Following your advice here and on your other newsletters will save people a ton of time and money while helping them avoid frustration. These are skills that can be learned.
Thanks Jon for the comment and the shared experience. That really is a great example that points on the points of my post. It’s really about understanding the high payoff activities. I’ve actually been working on a post for next week about how the sales funnel is not longer a funnel but more of flywheel. Which I think builds on this idea.
You get the right leads and focus on them and your flywheel will pick up speed and help you might more leads. To your point it’s not longer about how big the top of your funnel is. Anyone can generate leads today, but can you find the right ones.
Thanks again for commenting and sharing!