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Updated August 22, 2022You’re reading an excerpt of Founding Sales: The Early-Stage Go-To-Market Handbook, a book by Pete Kazanjy. The most in-depth, tactical handbook ever written for early-stage B2B sales, it distills early sales first principles and teaches the skills required, from being a founder selling to being an early salesperson and a sales leader. Purchase the book to support the author and the ad-free Holloway reading experience. You get instant digital access, commentary and future updates, and a high-quality PDF download.
There’s nothing like “live fire” drills with actual prospects to hone your skills. That said, doing a series of practice demos, complete with objection handling, can really help get you warmed up and ready for the real deal. You might even continuously mix those in when your calendar is light. If any of your prior interviewees from your customer development research would be willing to do these drills with you, fantastic. But even if it’s people on your team who are not revenue-facing (forcing them to ask questions like a prospect is probably good for them too!), your significant other, or otherwise, any practice is helpful.
importantAlso, recognize that your pitch, demo, and objection responses will never be set in stone; you need to be seeking to improve them as you go. Did you realize that, yes, just like Pete said, offering trials to people is a terrible idea with your current product, and you would be better off just cutting that out of your pitch? Great! Cut it out! If that one slide in your deck isn’t helping, or is constantly causing confusion, drop it. Don’t slavishly adhere to something that doesn’t work. You should view your pitch and down-funnel protocol as a product that you are constantly iterating.
With that said, nothing drives success like raw activity. So get out there and go!
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