The Founder as the First Sales Rep
Sales is tough. And it is toughest for the first sales rep at any startup. Which in most cases, or at least those B2B startups which manage to get somewhere, happens to be the founder.…
The Blurry Lines Between Sales, Marketing, Customer Success & Product in Early-Stage Startups
The classic tension between Sales and Marketing teams makes each view the other as putting the cart before the horse that’s them. But if all you have is a hammer, which is all that a…
The Founder’s Sales Advantage: Five Evidence-Based Strategies for B2B Tech Success
Conventional wisdom suggests founders should step back from sales as quickly as possible. This approach misses a fundamental dynamic: the founder’s unique advantages in B2B sales environments. Academic research demonstrates that founder-led companies consistently outperform…
Eid and Lessons in Sales Leadership
Over the weekend, we observed Eid ul-Adha, honouring Prophet Ibrahim and the spirit of sacrifice he displayed in obeying Allah’s command. Religion isn’t considered the best place to derive business inspiration, especially in sales. Yet…
The Builder.ai Collapse: Sales vs Reality
Following the collapse of Builder.ai, one of the most commonly mentioned quotes by its founder is where he said about wanting to make building an app as easy as ordering pizza. Could it really become…
Two Startups: B2B Sales Strategy as Determinant of Fate
In the summer of 2021, two B2B SaaS startups launched within weeks of each other. The world had started emerging from the global pandemic, but its effects were still reshaping how we work. Remote work…
From Yellow Pages to AI: A Journey through B2B Sales Evolution
My sales career started selling what we used to call dabbe. Originating from the Hindi word dabba which means box, it was a pejorative for cartons of a dumb product. Even in the naive cocksureness…
What’s it about the NYT profile of Elizabeth Holmes?
Over the weekend, I finally gave in. I just had to read the NYT profile of Elizabeth Holmes, the convicted founder of Theranos, to see what it was that had riled people so much. The…
2023 Week 4 – Struck by strike
My kids’ school is closed tomorrow because the teachers are on strike. With the way things are across the UK, this was only a matter of time. I can’t think of any public service that…
2023 Week 3 – No Logo, contd.
Note – I’ve still been thinking about some of the questions which No Logo left me with. So I am going to cheat a bit and build upon last week’s post to add some more…