Founder Insights
10/27/20/25
'When your ICP ain't your ICP'
Too many times I see founders talking about their product as "working for everyone!"
If you're <$1bn in revenue, you need to be tight on who you go after.
You frankly do not have the resources to be going after "everyone".
There is a huge Product Market Fit discussion to be had here, but from a purely sales team perspective, trying to be everything to everyone means:
- Your teams lists suck;
- Their approach becomes scatter-gun;
- The messaging becomes necessarily generic;
- The focus and resilience wanes as confidence declines.
Building a strategy around a key industry/persona means knowing exactly how to solve a specific problem or couple of problems.
Execute well on this.
Then pivot a new product onto existing customers.
Then pivot that new product to new customers.
Rinse. Repeat.
Prove you can do it right
10/24/2025
'Build it to understand it'
It's simply not enough in 2025 to roll into a sales cycle without understanding the potential Decision Criteria a company will have.
If you're waiting to be reactive to what the customer needs to see, you're leaving food on the table.
- Preparing strategies for how to handle these requests;
- Preempting the criteria with documentation;
- Building & showcasing frameworks;
- Crafting messaging.
All of these are tactics to help grease the wheels of the criteria and build credibility.
I built a Decision Criteria scoring platform to showcase how I prep each line item in an RFP before the call, so I know how to steer the conversation.
10/17/2025
The 3 biggest mistakes you will make when building a sales team for the first time.
I know this one will be fun…
1. You will find a rep with great experience at a big brand and think that will translate.
This will be one of the costliest early decisions you make.
I get it: you started a company, have sold some deals and are just looking for time back.
A rep from a big brand with a big reputation is a sure-thing right?
Wrong! I have worked with countless reps at orgs where it was clear their sales process wasn't up-to-scratch, but the big US tech brand opened doors for them.
2. You won't lay the foundations for repeatable sales.
You call a company, with your founder email signature, and it works out most of the time. Easy peasy right?
But you're trying to scale this business, and unless I'm living under a rock: I am pretty sure you can't clone yourself.
A deep understanding of your TAM, SAM, ICP, messaging, channels, audience attention and more are required.
Knowing what resonates, with whom, where and when is what creates repeatable sales.
3. You will think sales take about half as long as they do.
Sales cycles are getting longer in APAC, not shorter.
Why?
Trust, cost of living, AI noise and more.
We live in turbulent times.
The cost of making a bad investment in a software solution is very expensive.
Your buyer will lose:
- Money
- Reputation
- Social Capital
- Maybe even their job.
All things considered it's a wonder any deals get done, right?
Good reps don't push deals, they invite buyers.