Last week, I explored how job priorities shape the B2B buyer’s mindset when it comes to purchasing decisions. The reality is that unless your product solves a problem that ranks reasonably high on your buyer’s priority list, your chances of closing deals remain slim—regardless of how brilliant your solution might be. The key isn’t just…
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 B2B founder as the first sales rep may sound intuitive. After all, there are many good reasons for this…
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 startup does, just nail a horseshoe and ride the horse yourself. At early stages, you don’t have the luxury of…
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 their peers, particularly in the critical early-stage sales process. Not necessarily because of superior sales technique, but because of their…
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 for believers, it provides a framework guiding their actions. Our beliefs—whether religious or secular—profoundly influence how we act professionally, affecting…
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 that? Possibly so, for there is no dearth of “make your own pizza” options around the corner of any London…
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 had become the new default, and companies were scrambling to adapt to this fundamental shift. Sensing opportunity, countless startups began…
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 of youth, the irony of the term wasn’t lost on me. Those boxes were computing equipment – Desktop Computers (or…