Get your first ten customers

No brand, no referrals, no budget. Work out who to talk to, what to say, and how to close.

4 steps, 64 questions underneath

1. 1
   Who you sell to

   Picking a customer worth chasing, and knowing early when a deal is not one.

   What is an ICP and how is it different from a persona? People use both words for the same thing. 4 → We have about fifteen customers and they are all different. How do I find an ICP out of that? 4 → How do I qualify a deal properly instead of just hoping the enthusiastic person can buy? 4 → Half my pipeline is outside our ICP because those are the leads that came in. Do I chase them? 5 → How do I get the team to actually use the ICP instead of nodding at a slide and then doing what they want? 4 → All 16 questions in Who you sell to →
2. 2
   Positioning and messaging

   Making a buyer understand in one sentence why you exist and why you are the one to pick.

   What is positioning in plain English, and why does everyone insist we have got it wrong? 3 → How do I write a one-line description of what we do that a normal person actually understands? 4 → Our positioning reads fine on the website but every rep says something different on calls. How do I fix that? 4 → How do I build a sales deck that is not just a tour of our features? 4 → We are changing our positioning. How do I roll it out without breaking the pipeline mid-quarter? 4 → All 16 questions in Positioning and messaging →
3. 3
   Outbound that works

   Cold email, cold calls, LinkedIn, sequences and lists. How to start conversations with people who have never heard of you.

   I have never sent a cold email in my life. Where do I even start? 4 → I am a founder in India and my buyers are in the US. How do I get a stranger twelve time zones away to reply? 4 → My cold calls die in the first ten seconds. What do I actually say when they pick up? 4 → How do I build a target list that is worth working instead of scraping ten thousand random companies? 4 → When do I hire SDRs, and how many AEs can one SDR feed? 4 → All 16 questions in Outbound that works →
4. 4
   Running a sales process and closing

   Discovery, demos, qualification, champions, procurement and the last mile to a signature.

   I have a call booked with a real prospect tomorrow. What do I do on it? 4 → Founder-led sales sounds terrifying. Why can I not just hire a salesperson? 4 → How do I know if a deal is real or if I am being strung along? 4 → My demos go well and then the deal stalls. How do I stop that? 5 → How do I turn random wins into a sales process someone else can run? 4 → All 16 questions in Running a sales process and closing →