There’s something founders tell me all the time:
“I don’t know how to sell.”
Or:
“I hate talking about money.”
Or:
“I feel weird pitching when I have nothing to show for it.”
I get it. Because I hate sales too.
I’ve helped generate over $85 million in revenue through marketing. But I had very limited experience in direct sales. No formal training. No negotiation background.
I was forced to learn some of it on the job at a startup role. And, I had to take it much more seriously when I started my own business. Why? Same reasons every single founder has to figure out how to at least tolerate sales:
No matter your business model, your first revenue will likely come from direct sales. Yes, even for b2c, because that’s how you validate your customer, positioning, pricing, and other fundamentals to build a 1:many playbook.
In the early days of business building, the velocity with which you have net new conversations is an important metric to optimize for. That’s how you get the data you need to (in)validate fundamentals.
When there is no proof yet, people are often buying you as much as they’re buying the solution. In fact, many founders in my portfolio start with services at least as a ‘bridge business’, so the founder is literally the product.
TL;DR: sure, sales can be icky, but it is inevitable. What is a founder who hates sales to do then?
Use your superpower to make it less ‘icky’
One of the founders in my portfolio told me, “I’m so relational. That’s kind of my superpower. I just don’t know how to sell.”
This got me thinking, being relational is the perfect superpower that can easily be leveraged for sales.
A few days later, this same founder messaged me this:
Research-Sales Methodology is a core part of my Happy Paying Customers™ System
If your instinct is to connect, listen, empathize, make people feel seen? That’s gold for sales especially at the 0-1 stage. The work is not to become someone else, or master sales overnight.
It’s to redirect what already comes naturally for you to conversations with strangers.
Maybe you love:
Helping others
Building relationships
Diagnosing problems
Connecting dots
Debugging issues
Asking thoughtful questions
Making messy situations clearer
You can leverage whatever comes naturally to you.
Of course we can all always get better at sales. But, in the beginning the goal is not to become the best closer on earth. Instead, it is to find a way to make it feel less icky, and much more natural to you as a founder.
It’s to find a way to make this work feel aligned enough that you don’t avoid it. Because avoiding it is what will actually stall your business.
So, consider this, what is your superpower that you can leverage for sales?
My personal experience as an example
As I mentioned in the beginning, I did not come from a sales background. I bought sales books and none of them spoke to me.
What I do love is helping founders and problem-solving.
So I stopped trying to “sell” and started anchoring every conversation around one question: What is the real problem this founder is trying to solve, and what is the best solution for it?
This mindset changed everything.
Now, instead of thinking about how to convince a founder to work with me, I focus on understanding what’s really going on. I have nearly 2 decades of startup marketing experience. I talk with hundreds of founders a year. I have a deep library for pattern recognition in my head around 0–1 business building. That is my superpower.
Now, my ‘sales script’ is so simple: I just get to know their problem. Why aren’t they reaching their goals? What have they already tried? Why hasn’t it worked? What’s actually at stake if nothing changes? What outcome are they truly hoping for?
I mention the Happy Paying Customers™ System if I believe that’s actually the solution they need. If I don’t, I say that too. This work doesn’t even feel like sales to me. It feels like I am helping a friend.
The power of leaning on your strengths
1:1 conversations with your dream customers is so critical to 0-1 business building that I added, what I call, Research-Sales Methodology as a core part of my Happy Paying Customers™ System. Not because I love sales, but because founders need a grounded way to navigate these conversations, gather the right information if they’re in the research phase, and bridge naturally when there’s a fit to make a sale.
Another one of the founders in my portfolio learned this methodology last week. By the end of the week, she had six bookings. The mindset shift motivated her to reach out to her dream customers. She shared candidly, “I'm really nervous because I haven't done this myself before. But also excited about everything I'm going to learn.”
This is the transformation to seek - having conversations with your dream customers should feel exciting.
If sales feels uncomfortable for you right now, that’s okay. You don’t need to become a slick closer. You just need to reframe it in your mind to best leverage your superpowers so you leave yourself 0 excuses to talk with strangers to turn them into Happy Paying Customers.
I’m rooting for you!
Sweta
If, and when, you are ready, here’s how I can help:
I work with new founders to help them validate their idea and de-risk their business using the Happy Paying Customers™ System that has been used by more than 110 founders. You can learn more and choose the path that’s right for you here.
p.s. you can now preview the System.
