Founding Sales

Founding Sales

A practical, stage-appropriate framework for founders and first-time sellers in B2B SaaS organizations. Based on Founding Sales by Peter Kazanjy — the Early Stage Go-to-Market Handbook.

Core Philosophy

Early-stage sales is NOT scaled sales in miniature. It is a distinct discipline: part product management, part product marketing, part evangelism. The founder who tries to skip this stage — hiring sales professionals before achieving product-market fit — almost always fails.

The two epochs:

1. Experimentation Mode (pre-PMF): Tight, iterative loops. You are doing evangelical sales — presenting a partially-baked product, listening hard, and iterating. This is largely an information-gathering exercise, not a revenue-maximizing one. DO NOT hire sales professionals yet.
2. Scaling Mode (post-PMF): You have a known-good solution with proven product-market fit. Now you can hire salespeople to execute a repeatable playbook at scale.

Applying Scaling Mode tools during Experimentation Mode is one of the most common and destructive mistakes early-stage founders make.

The mantra: "You need you." Evangelical sales requires the product-minded founder to be in the room — someone who can craft the narrative, present it, listen to customer reactions, and immediately feed that back into the product.

How to Use This Skill

Identify which stage the user is in and which part of the sales process they need help with. Then guide them using the appropriate framework.

Stages:

• Pre-narrative: User hasn't built their sales narrative yet → start with Chapter 2 (Narrative)
• Pre-activity: User has narrative but hasn't started selling → start with Chapter 3-4 (Materials + Prospecting)
• Active selling: User is in conversations → Chapters 5-8 (Outreach through Closing)
• Scaling: User has PMF and wants to build a team → Chapters 9-12 (CS, Management, Hiring, Onboarding)

For any topic, use the relevant reference file.

The 10 Founder Sales Mindsets

Before anything tactical, the right mindset is required. These are counterintuitive shifts that non-sales founders must make. Read references/ch1-mindset.md for the full breakdown.

The Sales Narrative Framework

The narrative is the single most important artifact to build first. All sales materials are just implementations of the narrative. Read references/ch2-narrative.md for full guidance.

The 7 Questions (Problem-Solution-Specifics Framework):

1. What is the problem? — Crisp description of business pain. Test: prospect says "yes, I have that."
2. Who has the problem? — The specific functional role responsible for solving it. Target them.
3. What are the costs? — Hard ROI (quantifiable cost savings) and soft ROI (opportunity costs).
4. How is it currently solved? Why does that fail? — No solution, process, service, or existing product. Know each.
5. What has changed that enables a new solution? — The technology or market shift that makes your approach possible now.
6. How does the new solution work? — Explain the mechanism clearly. Compare to something they already understand.
7. How do you know it's better? — Quantitative metrics + qualitative proof + third-party validation.

Then set pricing: charge from day one. Start low and raise until win rates suffer. One price tier early — don't segment prematurely.

The assembled narrative test: Can you deliver this as a 3-minute elevator pitch to someone with industry familiarity? If not, keep refining.

The Sales Playbook: Stage by Stage

Stage 1: Build Your Materials (Chapter 3)

Speed beats perfection. Ship imperfect collateral now.

• Sales deck — One slide per narrative step. Extensible; always a work in progress.
• Email templates — Prospecting outreach and follow-ups.
• Phone scripts — Cold call and voicemail frameworks.
• Demo script — Structured walkthrough of your product solving the narrative problem.
• Video content — Rough screencasts beat polished explainers at this stage.

Read references/ch3-7-selling.md for materials, prospecting, outreach, and pitch frameworks.

Stage 2: Find Your Prospects (Chapter 4)

• Define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Industry, company size, revenue, growth signals, tech stack, organizational characteristics that correlate with having your pain point acutely.
• Account sourcing: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, intent data, industry associations, job postings (a company hiring for a role = they have the problem). Build lists manually at first.
• Point-of-Contact discovery: Find the person with functional responsibility for the pain. Not necessarily the C-suite — find the person whose job it is to solve your problem.

Stage 3: Outreach & Appointment Setting (Chapter 5)

• Cadence: Multi-touch, multi-channel (email + phone + LinkedIn). Typically 6-8 touches over 2-3 weeks before giving up for now.
• Email: Short, specific, personal. Subject line that references their specific situation. One clear CTA (a demo).
• Cold call: Get to the point in 15 seconds. "Hi [name], I'm [you] from [company]. We help [role] solve [pain]. Do you have 2 minutes?" Know that most go to voicemail — leave a punchy message.
• Referral prospecting: Warm introductions convert at dramatically higher rates. Ask every customer and contact systematically.
• Inbound: Respond within minutes. Speed is the primary differentiator.

Stage 4: The Pitch (Chapter 7)

The goal of pitching: Validate that the prospect has the pain, establish that your solution addresses it, and move to next steps.

New-Technology Sales Persuasion Formula:

1. Establish the problem (get their agreement)
2. Establish the costs (make the pain vivid and quantified)
3. Establish current solution failures (expose why status quo is insufficient)
4. Present what has changed (why now is the moment)
5. Demonstrate how the new solution works (the demo)
6. Prove it's better (metrics, testimonials, case studies)
7. Present pricing
8. Ask for the sale

Pre-call planning: Review CRM notes, LinkedIn profile, company news. Know the prospect's specific context.

Handling objections: Every objection is a question in disguise. Prepare answers for your top 5-10 objections. Never be defensive. Probe to understand the real concern beneath the stated one.

Read references/ch3-7-selling.md for full pitch, demo, and objection-handling frameworks.

Stage 5: Close & Pipeline Management (Chapter 8)

• Negotiation: Know your walk-away price. Concede on terms (not just price) — payment timing, implementation support, contract length are all levers.
• Close won: Document exactly why you won. Replicate it.
• Close lost: Document exactly why you lost. Was it timing, price, product gap, competition? Feed this back to product.
• Pipeline management: Each opportunity needs a next action and a next action date. Opportunities without both are dead. Weekly pipeline reviews against quota math.

Read references/ch8-12-scaling.md for closing, customer success, and scaling frameworks.

Stage 6: Customer Success (Chapter 9)

Retention is the multiplier on all your acquisition work. Churn destroys growth.

• Implementation: Structured onboarding to get the customer to their first value milestone quickly.
• Ongoing success: Regular check-ins, QBRs, usage monitoring. Intervene on at-risk accounts early.
• Renewals: Start renewal conversations 60-90 days before expiration.
• Customer success generates referrals, case studies, and expansion — the best pipeline you have.

Stage 7: Scaling (Chapters 10-12)

When to scale: You have demonstrated repeatable sales with solid win rates, a clear ICP, and a narrative that works. NOT before. Scaling before PMF is one of the most common startup killers.

Scaling anti-patterns:

• Hiring too early (before you can onboard a rep to a clear playbook)
• Hiring the wrong profile (enterprise hunters for an SMB motion)
• Skipping the SDR/AE split too early
• Not being able to articulate what "good" looks like

Sales hiring: Define the profile first. Source broadly (don't just hire from competitors). Structured interviews that test for specific sales competencies. Reference checks are not optional.

Sales onboarding: Certification-based. New hires must demonstrate they can deliver the pitch, handle objections, and run a demo before getting on the phone with prospects.

Read references/ch8-12-scaling.md for full management, hiring, and onboarding guidance.

Interactive Modes

Mode 1: Stage Assessment (default when user is vague)

Ask the user to describe where they are. Then map them to the right stage and guide them through the first priority action.

Questions to ask:

• "Do you have paying customers yet?"
• "Do you have a written sales narrative?"
• "Are you doing outreach today? How?"
• "What's your current win rate / pipeline size?"
• "Are you trying to figure out what works, or scale what works?"

Mode 2: Specific Framework Application

If the user knows what they need (pitch help, narrative, ICP definition, hiring), go directly to the relevant framework and guide them through it, producing a concrete artifact.

Mode 3: Deal Review

If the user describes a specific deal or conversation, apply the frameworks diagnostically:

• Where in the sales cycle are they?
• What objections are surfacing?
• What's the likely root cause?
• What's the recommended next action?

Common Founding Sales Mistakes

1. Skipping the narrative — Jumping to outreach without a coherent story. Everything downstream degrades.
2. Not charging — Free users don't validate product-market fit. Charge from day one.
3. Premature hiring — Bringing in sales pros before PMF. They can't iterate the narrative; you can.
4. Scarcity mindset — Holding on to bad-fit prospects. They pollute your pipeline and your learning.
5. Over-preparing — Perfecting the pitch instead of getting reps. Each call teaches you more than an hour of prep.
6. Not recording — Relying on memory across dozens of concurrent conversations. CRM discipline is non-negotiable.
7. No pricing — Avoid the "we'll figure out pricing later" trap. It signals lack of conviction.
8. Premature segmentation — Three pricing tiers when you don't know what features matter yet.
9. Activity theater — Staying busy with non-selling tasks to avoid the fear of rejection.
10. Not asking for the sale — The close must be explicit. Prospect won't close themselves.