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Startup Selling: Talking Sales with Scott Sambucci

Over the past twenty years, I’ve led three Silicon Valley startups to their first customers and revenue, and sold everything from financial data, enterprise software, and vaporware to cabinet doors, amusement park daily programs, and “would you like fries with that…?” My customers have included the largest financial institutions in the world, top US Universities, cabinet door makers and people that eat at Applebees and go to amusement parks... I’ve learned a lot, and made a few, ahem, well… a lot, of mistakes. Here in The Sales Podcast with Scott Sambucci, I share the lessons learned from my past two decades of selling. In each episode, I discuss a specific topic in selling and sales strategy like how to find new prospective customers, how to manage leads, how to run an effective sales meeting, uncovering customer needs, and developing pricing strategies. Episodes are a mix of guest interviews, observations from the field, and sales techniques that I’m using every single day. And people that care about such things, I’ve written two books, been a TEDx Speaker, been featured on CNBC, The Financial Times and NPR. Oh… I’m also a husband, a dad, and a three-time Ironman triathlete. Build your sales process so that you can have the company you imagine. The Sales Podcast with Scott Sambucci will help you get there.
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Startup Selling: Talking Sales with Scott Sambucci
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Now displaying: October, 2016
Oct 18, 2016
About this episode: Gina Danford is a business coach and owner of Red Zebra Coaching. We talked about the operational and tactical facets of running your business - working with vendors and customers, knowing your numbers and cash flows needs, joining trade associations, books worth reading, hiring slowly and firing quickly, and reading contracts and partnership agreements. We also talked about Gina’s startup experience at Aircraft Shopper Online from 2000-2007. 
 
Lastly, we talked about Gina’s cancer diagnosis at the age of 19 and how she beats the odds to be talking with me on this podcast.
 
Podcast Topics & Notes:
 
  • 3:45 - Mid-growth business growth challenges such as hiring, cash flow & preparing the business to scale
  • 6:00 - Can a good startup founder be a good mid-growth CEO?
  • 7:45 - Incremental growth mindset & skill set
  • 12:45 - Lessons learned from incremental growth companies for hyper-growth startups in hiring & managing teams
  • 18:00 - Biggest mistakes of hyper-growth startups
  • 21:00 - Negotiating payment terms & legal implications of contracts with vendors & partners
  • 22:00 - Importance of partnership agreements among founders
  • 27:00 - Vendor, expense and cash flow analysis
  • 32:00 - Using your startup status to you advantage as a buyer of products and services
  • 35:00 - Pulling the ripcord on a non-paying customer
  • 38:00 - Finding non-cash currency for payment with customers
  • 42:00 - Gina’s startup experience at ASO in a Web 1.0 world
  • 43:30 - Fighting inertia in an industry to prove your product
  • 50:00 - Engaging with your market via Trade shows and competitors
  • 54:00 - Gina fight with ovarian cancer
 
Websites & Resources mentioned in the podcast:
 
Gina Danford & Red Zebra Coaching
 
American Cancer Society: www.cancer.org
 
[Book] “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less" by Greg McKeown: https://www.amazon.com/Essentialism-Disciplined-Pursuit-Greg-McKeown/dp/0804137382
 
[Book] "Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration Hardcover" by Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace: https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Inc-Overcoming-Unseen-Inspiration/dp/0812993012/
 
[Book] "Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation"
by Steven Johnson: https://www.amazon.com/Where-Good-Ideas-Come-Innovation/dp/1594485380/
 
 
 
Aircraft Shopper Online: www.aso.com 
Oct 11, 2016
Chris Combs is the Co-founder & CEO at LinkSquares. In this episode, Chris talks about his experience raising capital for his various startups, how to avoid “Legal Debt” and specific strategies Chris used to go from idea to salable product at LinkSquares.
 
Podcast Topics & Notes:
 
  • 3:00 - How Chris & I met via Quora
  • 6:30 - Chris’s personal need around Datto’s acquisition of Backupify led to founding LinkSquares
  • 15:30 - About SalesQualia & Startup Selling | Give me a call @ (415) 596-0804 or email: scott@salesqualia.com
  • 17:00 - Importance of a Legal document tracking system
  • 19:00 - Avoiding Legal Debt
  • 20:30 - Using e-signtuare tools like DocuSign
  • 22:30 - Angel capital raising strategies & lessons learned
  • 26:00 - Putting sales & customer development first before capital-raising
  • 30:00 - New funding round definitions around angel round vs seed stage vs venture funding. Building a referral network.
  • 37:30 - Building an MVP at LinkSquares from idea to product 1.0 to salable MVP
  • 45:30 - Completing 50 customer development conversations
  • 51:00 - Selling your MVP & pilot programs. "Getting in the direction of sales."
 
Websites & Resources mentioned in the podcast:
 
Chris Combs & LinkSquares:
 
Scott Sambucci on Quora: www.quora.com/profile/Scott-Sambucci
Datto Backupify: www.datto.com/backupify
CoreLogic: www.corelogic.com
Blend: www.blendlabs.com
Trello: www.trello.com
Atlassian: www.atlassian.com
DocuSign: www.docusign.com
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