Jen Abel

Effective cold outreach prioritizes extreme relevance to the recipient's role and a counterintuitive perspective on a problem over generic personalization.

"If you can focus the messaging in a way that speaks to something that has a bit of shock value, or is counterintuitive, you'll get them to continue reading. So first and foremost, I usually like to op..."

The first sales call should be a discovery-focused conversation where the founder uses vulnerability to encourage prospects to share their deepest pain points.

"You need to be vulnerable. I would be very open and honest with where you are. Hey, I'm an early stage startup. We have a lot to learn. Can we kind of gain your insight into how this problem is manife..."

Standardizing the sales cycle into distinct phases—from initial discovery to co-authoring the scope—helps founders guide immature buyers through a professional purchasing process.

"The traditional sales stages that most CRMs are even set up as is you have your intro call. You have your second call, which sometimes could be the demo depending on the stage of market you're selling..."

Successfully closing an enterprise deal requires identifying the specific individual with signing authority, who often sits outside of the primary business unit.

"And then post-procurement, it's going to be obviously getting that signature and knowing who the actual signatory is. Sometimes it's not even the business unit, it's sometimes legal, CFO, procurement..."

In the early stages of a startup, the founder's unique subject matter expertise and novel vision are the primary drivers of sales because the product itself is often still abstract or in MVP form.

"And founder led sales is really, really, really important because in the very, very, very early days, when there is no brand equity, when there is no marketing engine running, when there is limited to..."