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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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Now displaying: Page 1
Jun 19, 2018

Today we have Kris “Speedhunter” Duggan on the Startup Selling Podcast.

“If you’re not a sales-oriented founder, sales is a critical part of your business success and you can’t outsource it. You should put as much effort on sales as you put into product.” — Kris Duggan

Kris is an expert when it comes to startup sales, especially enterprise software. Kris’s experience and accolades include:

  • Advising Palantir, RelateIQ (acquired by Salesforce), Addepar and Blend (and other…) on their go-to-market strategies;
  • Starting two venture-backed companies that have raised $100M in combined capital.
  • Interviewing over 1000 salespeople, and hiring 15 senior executives in the last 10 years.
  • Personally meeting with 50% of the Fortune 1000 companies. 
  • Carrying a $25M sales quota.

His 2018 goal is to help 100 startups, if you’re interested in getting help from Kris, you can just go to his blog at https://krisduggan.com/ and contact him through there. Look for the blog post titled – “ Live, Personalized Advice for 100 Entrepreneurs – How can I help?”

In this episode, Kris and I cover:

  • Top pitfalls startups make – doing work for free, overcomplicating the price sheet, giving multiple price options, not staying engaged with executives.
  • The fallacy of free trials.
  • Negotiation – Getting people to tell you what you need to do to get the deal done.
  • How to design your pricing so that no customers churn.
  • The pilot program fallacy and what to do instead.
  • What to do when you get asked for proposals.
  • When should startups hire their first sales person, and how much the CEO has to sell BEFORE hiring sales teams.

Some of the books and resources that were mentioned by Kris:

  • Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Markets by Michael Bosworth
  • Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
  • The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matt Dixon and Brent Adamson.
  • The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results by Brent Adamson and Matt Dixon

Where to find Kris on the Interwebs:

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