- don't advance opportunities in the pipeline that don't have a current pain. I think qualified calls split into two buckets: in pain now, not in pain. the IPNs are the only ones we should pursue. the others should go to long-term (for lack of a better category). we often confuse companies that fit our target with companies that actually have a real need. I think the key is finding signals in the first meeting that the company needs to solve this problem now. in my experience, that means asking whether they want a more detailed proposal to make a decision, and getting them to schedule a second meeting. the company without a real need will say no; the one that has the need will ask for the proposal themselves.
- co-creating with the champion matters because it builds trust. one thing I figured out is that we can accidentally rush accounts. we want to rush them to improve our deal velocity, but that goes against what the person on the other side wants. in my experience, you need at least 3 meetings with latam counterparts to build that trust. you can see it in 1) them agreeing to another meeting, and 2) them sharing more about their pain in each subsequent meeting. trust isn't built just by holding meetings, it's built by co-creating. that can be co-creating the proposal, or co-creating the presentation to the decision maker.
- when you're selling to someone who isn't the decision maker, there's always a moment that's a black box. our product is for heads of people. heads of people need to validate the budget with finance or with the CEO. even if we walk that process with them from the start and have built trust along the way, there's a moment that's a black box: when they present to the decision maker. there are things we can do before that point to support them, but in the end it's on their side. I still have to learn how to support the champion more at this stage, or how to make this stop being a black box.
other lessons unrelated to the sales cycle
1) I learned a huge amount about how to sell this product by interviewing candidates. I learned something from everyone, even from people who weren't a good fit. the questions they asked, their presentations, their tactics for booking a follow-up call. I also learned a lot from watching, from the outside, how I think you shouldn't sell a b2b product. the high-level takeaway is that I always learn a lot from "interviewing", even when it isn't specifically for hiring. having conversations with people who are better than me always teaches me things I can apply almost instantly.
2) when sales calls start to repeat and every client says exactly the same thing, has exactly the same pain, wants the same next step, you have product-market fit. I had the same feeling when we were selling b2c: after the 10th call, every call was identical. same pain, same profile, same urgency. seeing a repeatable process is the signal that you have a product with PMF (think about it in reverse: how brutal would it be if every call was different, wanted a different product, or wanted a different next step).