Jen Abel’s Post

So whenever someone tells me we have ten paying customers, my question is: “How did you acquire them?” The thing is that for the startup to become venture scaled business there has to be a repeatable sales process. What is not considered as repeatable sales process: -Selling to besties you have previously worked with or studied together -Asking friend to refer you to that person in a large company -Selling to random founder you have met at some networking event Repeatable sales process allows you to acquire customers through steps that can be easily executed by any person in the sales team.

Going into 2024, the sales process for startups will transition to a direct sales letter… The sales letter is your magnum opus of your pitch, copy, sales argument, and product. It will: - capture demand - create demand - lower your CAC - increase close rates - train lean sales teams - negate the need for large SDR teams - create hyper profitable growth I made a document going over how you can use the sales letter to lower your CAC. Comment ‘CAC’ if you want it!

What crutch are you leaning on to excel in enterprise sales? Is it your sales training? Is it a Google search to learn from adjacent experiences of other startups? Is it your product demo? Whatever it is, the crutch you’re using to help your sales effectiveness is likely actually hurting you if you don’t have the right mentality and confidence. Relying on sales training will make you sound like a sales robot. Relying on online literature and Google searches will distract you from the unique dynamics of your own business. Relying on your product demo to sell will prevent you from asking thoughtful questions of your prospects. So to be great at sales shed your crutches and invest in unlocking your own inner confidence. Learn how to “off-road” on a call to address the elephant in the room. Go off-script to get to the heart of the discussion. Go beyond case studies and confidently convey why your premium price point is different. Leverage your own unique background and values to form deep connections with your prospects that no other founder can impede on. Because relying on your crutch will leave you behind while forming your own unique sales approach will help you stand out in today’s hyper competitive environment. So what crutches are you leaning on today and how are you investing in building your founder/seller confidence? #enterprisesales #b2bsales #techsales #startupsalesmentality

Looking forward to Startup week! Join me April 10th at 3:00 at American Underground to discover how to Supercharge your Sales with these Secret Sales Hacks. Register here https://lnkd.in/eW2ebj5g Sales is an art and a science. In this talk I will share all of my secrets for the first time. You will be able to immediately implement these hacks to acquire customers faster than you can imagine. Does the name of the rep matter when making cold calls? Is it better to use sequences that touch customers every week or once a month? Does turning on your video camera during a demo matter? And several more insights learned over years of acquiring customers and generating 100s of millions in revenue.

I was trying to give a warm customer lead to an early-stage founder. A decision-maker told me about the problem he was facing and I knew this startup was solving it. $12K - 15K ARR deal. After a 10-minute conversation, the founder says - "I will have my sales team contact them". Big bummer! Founders, in your early stage, you ARE the sales team. Especially when you get a warm intro with a champion within. You can form your sales team for outreach, demand gen, first touch points etc and can slowly begin having AEs employed, but never miss the opportunity to get a warm intro with a customer, and build relationships on top of the warm intros to close deals. Never underestimate the power of founder-led sales.

Yesterday, I was invited by CzechCrunch to lead a sales workshop for startups. How would I personally build a sales machine? 1. Start with people - know whom to hire and when. Recommended book: Challenger Sales by Matt Dixon Recommended professional to talk to when hiring A-level sellers: Elza Marincus 2. Define your go-to-market strategy - what you sell, why, and to whom Recommended book: GTM Strategist by Maja Voje 3. Build a sales process based on give-and-take, milestones, and involvement in the buyer journey, not only by sellers. Recommended book: Selling Above and Below the Line - Skip Miller 4. Develop sales skills for your sales team. Recommended book 1: SPIN Selling - Neil Rackham Recommended book 2: Proactive Selling - William Miller 5. Know your goals and metrics Recommended resource: Follow David Skok's website on SaaS Metrics 2.0 No time for reading the books and learning from your own mistakes? Let's chat then :)

📊 Dive into the art of effective sales planning for start-ups! In this post, we uncover the essential strategies to help your start-up lay a strong foundation for sales success. Let's explore the key steps to driving revenue growth. 🚀💼 #SalesPlanning #StartUpSuccess #RevenueGrowth Check out our article:

The challenge I see with most startup sales approaches: They think all customer acquisition costs are equal. They aren't. In reality, you want to acquire customers that: - Are financially healthy and can pay your rates - Understand the pain your product solves - Will stick around for a long time - Require little customization This is often a much smaller market than the TAM in your pitch deck, And that scares most founders away. But in truth, that’s the golden opportunity. You get to speak directly to a cohort in a way that bigger companies cannot. You get to offer attention and services to this cohort that big companies cannot. It’s the narrow niches where true lifetime value is found. Constantly adjusting your sales pitch and customizing solutions is expensive. So my advice to founders: Show off the TAM in the pitch decks But internally – align your sales goals to blitz the niche that will get you from 0 to 1.

Building a strong sales process is one of the most important things for a startup to be able to grow effectively but it is hard on many levels. In my latest Atlanta Ventures blog, I share some key components of a sales funnel and how to determine what parts of the funnel need improvement. https://lnkd.in/ewmMa3aj