Book · full book, free online

Founding Sales: the early stage go-to-market handbook

Pete Kazanjy · foundingsales.com Free Beginner

The whole 400 page book is readable free chapter by chapter, written specifically for founders and first-time sellers rather than career sales people. Chapters 4 to 8 (prospecting, outreach, pitching, closing) are the ones to read first.

Open on foundingsales.com ↗

It answers 7 questions

  1. I have never sent a cold email in my life. Where do I even start?
  2. I am a founder and I have never sold anything in my life. Where do I actually start?
  3. I want to start a GTM career in India but I have zero sales experience. What is the realistic first job?
  4. Founder-led sales sounds terrifying. Why can I not just hire a salesperson?
  5. My cold calls die in the first ten seconds. What do I actually say when they pick up?
  6. I am the first GTM hire at a startup. What is my job really, and how do I not get fired in 12 months?
  7. How do I turn random wins into a sales process someone else can run?

Read with it

  1. Video · ~30 min How to Get Your First Customers Gustaf Alstromer
  2. It makes the point most first-time founders miss, that early on you are selling the founders and the promise that you... Y Combinator Startup Library Video · Talk The Sales Playbook for Founders Tom Blomfield
  3. Video · ~30 min How to Talk to Users Eric Migicovsky
  4. Abel has coached 300+ early founders through their first sales, and this walks the whole path from cold outreach to procurement... Lenny's Podcast Podcast · ~90 min The ultimate guide to founder-led sales Jen Abel
  5. Names both failure modes of the founder-to-first-hire handoff, holding on too long and letting go too early, with input from... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read This GTM Leader Crowdsources Early Lessons From Stripe, Figma and More Meka Asonye
  6. Taylor is good on the part reps own but rarely get credit for: feeding what you hear on calls back into positioning and... In Depth (First Round Review) Podcast · ~60 min "Everyone wants a silver bullet": selling lessons from Sam Taylor of Dropbox, Quip and now Loom Sam Taylor
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