A salesperson persuades prospective customers to buy products or services and turns those purchases into revenue. In a B2B startup, salespeople are the company’s revenue engine—but only once there is a product customers can actually buy. section 25.0
Hiring too early creates frustration and waste. Before product-market fit is reasonably proven, salespeople may have nothing to sell and get pushed into product management instead. Founders can close a few early deals, but repeatable professional selling requires a scalable process. section 25.2
The Ennea warning
Ennea had made a handful of sales but had not established product-market fit. Its new CEO discovered that the product did not work as advertised. The lesson is uncomfortable but practical: a strong sales leader cannot compensate for a product that is not ready to sell. section 25.2
Look for these working traits:
- Drive to win: keeps pursuing quotas, customers, and revenue despite repeated rejection. section 25.3.2
- Flexibility and empathy: avoids rigid opinions, listens to the prospect, reads people, and imagines the customer’s problem. section 25.3.1 section 25.3.7
- Detail orientation: researches the target company, decision-makers, gatekeepers, budget, competitors, and the product’s financial impact. section 25.3.4
- Patience: sustains momentum through long B2B sales cycles, including deals that can take many months. section 25.3.7
A salesperson prepares deeply for each meeting, adapts the pitch to the prospect’s needs, follows up carefully, closes current opportunities, and keeps adding prospects to the sales funnel. Winning matters, but understanding the buyer is what makes the pursuit useful. section 25.3.4 section 25.3.7
