Startup Selling: Talking Sales with Scott Sambucci

Last month, a friend asked if I was up for a half-marathon in November.   I've been taking some down time from heavy training this Fall, but the race is a trail run in the Marin Headlands. Hard to resist a perfect way to stay fit, have some fun, and hang out with a buddy. I was in.   As a way to gear up, we agreed we'd each do 100 air squats and 50 burpees every day for 30 days. The numbers aren't...

One of the biggest challenges startup founders face is dealing with the daily distractions and all the options available for the business –    Lead gen strategies, pricing models, hiring decisions, product features. It's nearly an endless list.   Often there's a tendency to keep trying new things –    Try running a booth at a conference… Try a little bit of outbound… Try recruiting a Sales VP… Try...

If you're a company founder like me, you know it's time for the big push in Q4 to hit those EOY targets and set ourselves up for an even bigger 2022 and beyond.   When we're out there pushing on our SALES – finding new customers, growing revenue, and jumping to the next level this year – we tell ourselves that we'll hustle and grind, to do whatever it takes to hit our target. The hustle and hard w...

One of the biggest sales mistakes most startups, especially ones selling enterprise solutions and targeting Above-the-Line executives make, is that they don't focus on their prospect's PRIORITIES.    Instead, most startups make their outreach and pitches all about their PRODUCT –   "Hi NAME – I'm contacting you because I would like to give you further information about our product called _____…"  ...

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Stephen Steers.   Steers Consulting Group is a global training and consulting company helping Entrepreneurs, successfully tell stories that get customers excited to buy.   They don't teach you sales in school. They don't teach you how to be confident. They don't teach you how to be out in the world and how to make a way for yourself. Bu...

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Zach Stein.   Zach is a multi-time founder and is currently helping lead Carbon Collective, the investment platform that makes climate impact investing = smart investing.    Zach lives in East Bay, CA.    Some of the key topics and questions that we covered in this podcast are:   Carbon Collective and climate change investing. How did Z...

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Jason Bay.   Jason is the Chief Prospecting Officer at Blissful Prospecting. He helps reps and sales teams who love landing big meetings with prospects—but hate not getting responses to their cold emails or feeling confident making cold calls.    A few of his clients have included reps and sales teams from companies like Zoom, CBRE, Med...

When you're a startup with the latest and greatest new product, there's no shortage of interesting conversations.   Everyone wants to see the new, cool thing you've built.    But every demo feels like a fireworks show – everyone's excited, you get lots of applause when it's over, then everything goes dark.   Getting deals to move through your pipeline feels more like pushing a pig through the pyth...

Monday's are usually a day I'm feeling rested and ready to go for the week.   Not today.   As I sat there churning out my Morning Pages, I could just see where the day was headed. The coffee tasted bitter. My mind wandering everywhere. My brain felt spongy and dull.   Today was supposed to be a day off from training to give my body a little extra break before the next big race in 12 days...   I co...

I've got this thing when I'm training called "Headlamp Miles" – it's the miles I knock out in before the sun comes up.   This morning, I hit *start* on my Garmin at 4:16am today for a 10-miler.   It's not so much that I have to practice #running in the dark (though it does help come race day...).   It's more about making the time to train.   I'm a husband and a dad. I want to have breakfast with m...

I don't know about you, but whenever I've got something that seems hard in front of me, I get a little anxious...   😳 I worry that I'm not ready...   😳 I worry that I won't do well...   😳 I worry the thing in front of me will be even tougher than I thought...   This past week was like that EVERY DAY as I looked at my training regimen and work schedule.   After taking a week off from training, I...

Wednesday means repeats out at Lagoon Valley Park – 1.5 miles and down, three times.   I didn't want to go out there today.   The 4am alarm came early. I took forever to get out of the house then took a wrong turn driving out to the trail.   No power on the uphills. No speed on the downhills.   Just a grind from start to finish. It made me doubt how much I really wanted to do this next race in 3 w...

This is a tough week, a transition week.   As of today, I'm 3.5 weeks since the Western States 100 and 3.5 weeks until my next race – the Castle Peak 100k up in Tahoe. I've been running and training the last two weeks, but this is the real week to get back to race preparation mode – early mornings, getting out on the trail, two-a-day workouts, and a strict diet.   Plus, yesterday was my first day...

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Jay Webb.   Jay runs a search firm that focuses on helping early to mid-stage companies hire sales leaders and enterprise salespeople throughout North America.    He's also the host of the Over Quota podcast which features in-depth interviews around vision, strategy, and execution with revenue leaders.   Some of the key topics and quest...

Here it is... The 4th and final, installment of my post-race "Startups are Ultramarathons – Lessons from the Trail" from the 2021 Western States 100 Ultramarathon.   In the first three installments, I shared these 8 lessons –   Find Experts. Do the [Right] Work. Preparation, Planning & Visualization. Focus on Your Locus Be Confident. Ask for Help. Give it Everything. Run Your Perfect Race.   (Be s...

This is the third installment of my post-race "Startups are Ultramarathons – Lessons from the Trail."   The first two installments of these Startup Selling Lessons from the Trail included:   Find Experts. Do the [Right] Work. Preparation, Planning & Visualization. How to Focus on Your Locus Act with Confidence. Getting help along the way.   In today's installment, I talk about:   - Giving it every...

This is the second installment of my post-race "Startups are Ultramarathons – Post-Race Lessons from the Trail."   The first installment of these Startup Selling Lessons from the Trail, included:   - How to leverage experts, - The single biggest factor in the pursuit of BHAGs, and - Removing variables from the journey through planning, preparation, and visualization.   In this installment, I'll ta...

It's been nearly two weeks since I ran the Western States 100 – a 100-mile ultramarathon from Olympic Village in the Sierra Nevadas to Auburn, CA.    Every day since then, I've been reflecting back on the race  – what I accomplished, what I learned, and how I prepared for the oldest, and arguably most prestigious, ultramarathon in the world.   Here is the first installment of these Startup Selling...

These are final two pre-race "Startups are Ultramarathons: Lessons from the Trail" leading up to the 2021 Western States 100 ultramarathon.    I'll get to the full-on race report in a series of future posts...    If you've missed the previous three segments, you can find them here on LinkedIn or the Startup Selling Podcast.   #7: Incrementalism   To do hard things, to do what others, and yourself...

It's less than 3 days from the race start – the Western States 100 – an ultra-marathon from Olympic Valley in the Sierra Nevadas to Auburn, CA near the Sacramento Valley.   I didn't sleep well two nights ago – waking up at 1:30am with some pre-race anxiety. That's normal, and expected. Having a few nerves is good – it keeps me focused on every last detail.   That brings me to today's Startup Selli...

On June 26th at 5 am, the gun went off and I took my first step in the Western States 100 – a 100.2 mile ultra-marathon from Olympic Valley, CA to Auburn, CA.    The course included more than 18,000' of elevation climb and daytime temperatures of more than 100 degrees.   I officially started training on Jan 4th – six months of daily effort – more than 1200 miles of running, strength-training 3-4x/...

  Startups are ultramarathons, even though most of us are sprinting every day –   Sprinting to the next product release...   Sprinting to nail down the next sale...   Sprinting to get to the next funding round...   Even though you're sprinting every day, it's important to remember that the path you chose is a long journey.   Over the past six months, I've been training for the Western States 100 –...

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Alexine Mudawar & Gabrielle Blackwell.   Who is Alexine Mudawar?   Carrying 8+ years of SaaS sales experience, Alexine is backed by numerous President's Club awards, quarterly high achievement recognitions, and a consistent track record of surpassing quota.    Outside of her day-to-day sales role, She is an Adjunct Professor and teaches...

Demos are where sales opportunities go to die.   Unless you've got a Prospecting Partnering System in your #sales process.   It's fun finding new leads, diving into problems, and talking about what's possible with your help.   Demos – Nothing more fun than showing off your product to an eager prospect.   Proposals may not be fun to write, but there's the excitement & anticipation of landing your n...

"Demo" should NEVER be a stage in your sales process.   In fact, your entire sales process should minimize your product as much as possible.    Yes, really.   That's why Demo Design is one of the 9 Sales Accelerators.   If you're running your demos the wrong way, I bet every one ends with three things ––   1/ Lots of applause 2/ A request for a proposal 3/ Three months of "Chase the Prospect"   Am...