Thanks, Lenny! This interview is incredibly helpful. Over the past decade, we organically developed a product for the professional carpet cleaning market-well before Jobber and HouseCall Pro came onto the scene-because our techs needed a way to stay organized. We’re not designers and have no prior SaaS experience. Beyond our organization of about 20, we’ve managed to get exactly one subscriber. This interview provided exactly the insights we needed. Truly amazing!
Love the insight that "this is better" pitches just open you up to prove-it-to-me follow up questions! I was thinking about using the "old way" versus "new way" framing of my product, but Jen is right that you can't then get into a real, open discussion that you can learn from and use to refine your pitch/marketing messages. This is my second video watched, new sub - really appreciate the quality of guests and questions.
So much hard-earned tactical advice here from Jen. The combination of selling into the enterprise + early-stage is daunting; great to have resources like this as a starting point. Well done!
My cofounder is a rare customer engineer and caught me "spiraling" re: talking too much many times, especially in the beginning. I started being much more concise and problem focused and we nabbed so many more partners.
Great points! Top of the list: trust is the currency of a salesperson; most sales funnel problems are at the top of the funnel. I am an engineer that has been in enterprise software sales for years. In the next couple weeks my baby gets launched-> a platform to deliver the top of the funnel for enterprise software salespeople. Yes, it is reliant on building trust. Thank you, Lenny! I love this channel. And thank you, Jen. Continued success.
Lenny, This is a fantastic episode (I haven't even finished it yet and I'm commenting!) as its so tuned into the concept of a founder having a new or conter-intuitive insight into a market problem. The reason I'm motivated to comment is a sligjtly throw-away comment by Jen about "Who wants switching costs?" .... That's such a crucial point as I think its really important to not to ask a propspect to replace what they already have (it was almost certainly a real struggle to get where they are now) but to try to be additive by proposing to move them forward to a goal. Do you agree? Cheers, Ben
@@JJen_Abel as you said, the most important (I cannot agree more!) is qualifying leads, are the qualifying Qs (how do you measure, manage, solve?) also apply to B2C? any other characteristics of early/desperate customers? thx
Jen, you've shared invaluable practical advice and examples from your work with early-stage founders. Reflecting on your own entrepreneurial journey, what has been the most unexpected challenge you've faced personally, and how did it shape the way you approach working with founders today? Second, I'm curious, can you share a moment when a founder's unique approach or breakthrough surprised you and made you rethink your own strategies?"
Came here to see the 'tactics for effective cold outreach' part and was disappointed to see that it was pretty high level. I think if you get people to share examples of messages that actually work and have numbers to back it up with case studies it'd be super powerful
"Lead with your unique insight about the market" - this makes a lot of sense, but what if I don't have any unique insight about the market yet and am really just trying to learn more?
if you have nothing to offer them re: unique insight it will be very hard to inspire them to a call -- time is a scarce resource -- unless you are able to discover them when they're in the middle of the problem, but that's very, very hard to do re: timing the market
@@JJen_Abel That makes sense. What would your advice be for founders who are early in building that knowledge and insight about their market then? It's hard to build any insight without speaking to anyone so it feels like a catch-22.
Great podcast, Lenny! Quite tactical about product sales. Do you have some explanations on Win Rate, Conversion Rate, Interest Rate, etc using some funnel/diagram etc?
Okay so I have sent LinkedIn connection requests along with connection messages to bunch a people in my TA and have a v health accept rate. 1) How should I read that? 2) How do I approach sending the follow up message, after they accept the request and what reply rates to the follow is a good one? Get LinkedIn responses I so much easier (incl connection acceptance) than email, but does LinkedIn weigh less than email?
Wow Lenny!!! This is so helpful at this time, you sure know how to drill in and ask great questions. Thanks for sharing Jen.
Best interview ever!😮 Thank you very much!!❤
Thanks, Lenny! This interview is incredibly helpful. Over the past decade, we organically developed a product for the professional carpet cleaning market-well before Jobber and HouseCall Pro came onto the scene-because our techs needed a way to stay organized. We’re not designers and have no prior SaaS experience. Beyond our organization of about 20, we’ve managed to get exactly one subscriber. This interview provided exactly the insights we needed. Truly amazing!
Love the insight that "this is better" pitches just open you up to prove-it-to-me follow up questions! I was thinking about using the "old way" versus "new way" framing of my product, but Jen is right that you can't then get into a real, open discussion that you can learn from and use to refine your pitch/marketing messages. This is my second video watched, new sub - really appreciate the quality of guests and questions.
So much hard-earned tactical advice here from Jen. The combination of selling into the enterprise + early-stage is daunting; great to have resources like this as a starting point. Well done!
This was so good!!!! I love her. As a founder, a step-by-step guide like this is invaluable.
My cofounder is a rare customer engineer and caught me "spiraling" re: talking too much many times, especially in the beginning. I started being much more concise and problem focused and we nabbed so many more partners.
😁
Just scratched the surface of Jen's stuff but she already seems like the GOAT for this very desperately needed focus on early days....
Great points! Top of the list: trust is the currency of a salesperson; most sales funnel problems are at the top of the funnel. I am an engineer that has been in enterprise software sales for years. In the next couple weeks my baby gets launched-> a platform to deliver the top of the funnel for enterprise software salespeople. Yes, it is reliant on building trust. Thank you, Lenny! I love this channel. And thank you, Jen. Continued success.
I really enjoyed this episode. Thanks for making these Lenny ❤
But if you dont have a product ready and just doing the call to understand pain points, there wont be point to book a second call right? 42:36
Lenny, This is a fantastic episode (I haven't even finished it yet and I'm commenting!) as its so tuned into the concept of a founder having a new or conter-intuitive insight into a market problem.
The reason I'm motivated to comment is a sligjtly throw-away comment by Jen about "Who wants switching costs?" .... That's such a crucial point as I think its really important to not to ask a propspect to replace what they already have (it was almost certainly a real struggle to get where they are now) but to try to be additive by proposing to move them forward to a goal.
Do you agree?
Cheers, Ben
one of the best talk on sales, thanks!
Thank you, Lenny and Jen!
GREAT MATERIAL!!!
thank you, Lenny! so powerful for early b2b startups! Just wondering if the tactics apply also to b2c startups?
a specific question happy to answer - I guess depends on what part of convi
@@JJen_Abel as you said, the most important (I cannot agree more!) is qualifying leads, are the qualifying Qs (how do you measure, manage, solve?) also apply to B2C? any other characteristics of early/desperate customers? thx
Excellent!
Jen, you've shared invaluable practical advice and examples from your work with early-stage founders. Reflecting on your own entrepreneurial journey, what has been the most unexpected challenge you've faced personally, and how did it shape the way you approach working with founders today?
Second, I'm curious, can you share a moment when a founder's unique approach or breakthrough surprised you and made you rethink your own strategies?"
The principles and challenges of startups mirror those of small businesses
Came here to see the 'tactics for effective cold outreach' part and was disappointed to see that it was pretty high level. I think if you get people to share examples of messages that actually work and have numbers to back it up with case studies it'd be super powerful
that would be such a waste of this kind of profile's time.
0
1:05:21 whats acv?
Annual Contract Value
"Lead with your unique insight about the market" - this makes a lot of sense, but what if I don't have any unique insight about the market yet and am really just trying to learn more?
if you have nothing to offer them re: unique insight it will be very hard to inspire them to a call -- time is a scarce resource -- unless you are able to discover them when they're in the middle of the problem, but that's very, very hard to do re: timing the market
@@JJen_Abel That makes sense. What would your advice be for founders who are early in building that knowledge and insight about their market then? It's hard to build any insight without speaking to anyone so it feels like a catch-22.
@@dazh894 market conversations are about testing insight not creating insight
Great podcast, Lenny! Quite tactical about product sales. Do you have some explanations on Win Rate, Conversion Rate, Interest Rate, etc using some funnel/diagram etc?
Okay so I have sent LinkedIn connection requests along with connection messages to bunch a people in my TA and have a v health accept rate. 1) How should I read that? 2) How do I approach sending the follow up message, after they accept the request and what reply rates to the follow is a good one?
Get LinkedIn responses I so much easier (incl connection acceptance) than email, but does LinkedIn weigh less than email?