Podcast · ~60 min

Sales Tips Every Founder Should Know, with Steli Efti

Courtland Allen, Steli Efti · Indie Hackers Podcast Free Beginner

A relaxed, honest conversation about founder selling aimed at exactly the bootstrapper or first-timer who dreads sales. Steli demystifies cold outreach, follow-up, and pricing in plain language so it stops feeling sleazy and starts feeling like a skill. Good to listen to on a walk before your first day of outreach.

  • Selling is a learnable skill, not a personality you either have or lack.
  • Consistent follow-up beats a clever one-off pitch.
  • Founders who talk to customers directly learn faster than those who avoid it.
Open on indiehackers.com ↗

It answers 5 questions

  1. How do I talk to customers without them just telling me what I want to hear?
  2. How do I actually get my first 10 customers when nobody has heard of me?
  3. I only have a landing page and a waitlist, how do I turn signups into paying customers?
  4. I'm building for Indian SMBs who use WhatsApp for everything. How do I get my first 10 without a fancy sales process?
  5. How do I cold email people at big enterprises when I'm a small unknown startup from outside the major hubs?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  3. Video · ~25 min How to Talk to Users Eric Migicovsky
  4. An Indian founder story where the early demand test was manual, cold emails and direct outreach to find the first customers... Prime Venture Partners Podcast Podcast · ~50 min How Khadim Batti Built Whatfix Into a Global SaaS Leader Prime Venture Partners
  5. A tactical follow-on covering the channels and motions top B2B startups scale after the first ten. Grounds distribution... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~15 min read How to win your first 10 B2B customers Lenny Rachitsky
  6. The authoritative handbook on founder-led sales, written for technical/first-time sellers building B2B SaaS. Readable free... foundingsales.com Book · book (~400 pages) Founding Sales: The Early Stage Go-to-Market Handbook Peter Kazanjy
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