Find Clients

Four Essential Sales Strategies for Founders

August 1, 2024 · Bradley Jacobs

For a lot of founders, sales feels intimidating. You might be excellent at your function, marketing, ops, finance, tech, but as a founder you're also running a business, and sales touches everything: the team you build, the clients you keep, the runway you have.

If sales makes you nervous or queasy, you're not alone, and it doesn't have to feel that way. You can sell without “selling” at all.

Here are four things that turned sales from something I dreaded into a normal part of running the business.

1. Present a solution, don't pitch

Nobody likes being sold to. The word “selling” brings up images of pushy pitches and pressure. But selling isn't pitching your services. It's presenting a solution to someone else's problem. That one shift takes most of the pressure off, especially if “selling” makes you uncomfortable.

To present a solution, you first have to understand the problem in real detail. That means asking good questions and being genuinely curious. Back when I was consulting in operations, helping freight logistics companies scale without adding headcount, I'd ask things like, “How are you growing this business?” and “What levers can you actually pull?” That usually opened up a deeper conversation about their tech and process. Often a client would stumble on one of those questions, which exposed a gap. So I'd keep going: “How important is this to you?” “How are you measuring it?” “Why is this a priority right now?” By the end I understood their situation cold.

A relevant story builds credibility too. I might say, “When I led the automations team at Uber Freight, here's how we approached it and how we measured success.” Stories like that earn trust. Eventually the client asks, “How would you do this if you were us?” That's your opening to give a sharp, high-level answer that shows your expertise without turning into a hard pitch.

On a scoping call, do quick intros and then get into their business. Ask high-level questions: “What are your top priorities right now?” “What's keeping you up at night?” “What specific goals are you chasing in the next three to six months?” Use their answers as anchors to dig deeper. If a $7M business wants to hit $10M in six months, ask, “How are you planning to get there?” and “What's in the way?”

Skip the sales deck. Have a human conversation, ask real questions, understand the problem. That's how you find out if there's a real problem to solve and whether you're the right person to solve it.

2. Outreach has to be consistent

Sales lives or dies on consistency. You have to put yourself out there over and over, and there are plenty of ways to do it. There's no single right method. The point is finding the one you'll actually keep doing.

If you've listened to my podcast, “Six-Figure Secrets of Founders” (on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), you know my preferred combo is LinkedIn outbound plus daily thought-leadership content. Thirty minutes a day on that, or hiring a service like ours to run it, goes a long way. But LinkedIn isn't the only option:

• In-person events. Conferences and meetups are great for real connections.
• Slack communities. Showing up in niche Slack groups full of decision-makers boosts your visibility.
• Social media. X and even TikTok can reach the right audience.

Even when you're slammed, regular outreach keeps you top of mind and builds a steady pipeline. Do the activities you believe actually move the needle at least three times a week, ideally daily. You don't have to make new content every day, set aside one day a week to create and schedule it out. That consistency compounds: people see you regularly, and that turns into opportunities.

3. Be specific about who you help and how

Standing out in a crowded market is hard, but it's the whole game. Marketing might be your thing, but there are millions of marketers. To set yourself apart, get clear on two things: who you serve and the specific value you bring.

Marketing is huge: paid ads, brand strategy, LinkedIn content, newsletters, partnerships, events. And a 10-person B2B SaaS company needs something completely different from a Shopify store or a 100-person B2C protein-cookie brand.

To stand out:

• Pick your audience. Who do you serve? Small B2B SaaS, e-commerce stores, big B2C brands? Knowing this lets you tailor everything to them.
• Nail your unique value. What makes you different? Maybe an analytics background, so you bring data-driven strategy. Maybe a design background, so your work looks sharp. Maybe you focus on early-stage B2B SaaS with 5 to 15 people and help them land their first 10 enterprise customers through LinkedIn, building dashboards and running A/B tests to sharpen the messaging. A tight niche like that means less competition.

Get clear on your specific value and audience, and it shows up everywhere: your content, your client calls, your whole strategy. You end up talking to the right people and offering the right solution.

4. Follow up, and don't quit early

Following up is where deals are won, and you can't be shy about it. Whether you're in initial outreach, you've sent a proposal, or you're waiting on a signed contract, keep following up. If you don't, you lose clients and miss opportunities, plain and simple.

Don't worry about being annoying. Picture the worst case: someone tells you to stop. That stings for a second, then you move on. Trying to win new business will rub a few people the wrong way, that's the cost of doing it. Persistence creates opportunities. Most replies don't come until the second, third, or even fourth follow-up.

Final thoughts

These four things change how sales feels. Solve problems instead of pitching, stay consistent with outreach, be specific about what sets you apart, and follow up without flinching. Do that and you'll build real client relationships and win more work.

Mylance

Your LinkedIn should be working for you: attracting clients, building credibility, and compounding with every post. Mylance makes that happen. See how it works →