By Nora Khalili, Techstars Mentor and Principal Consultant at NJK Consulting

I spend many of my days with early-stage founders with ingenious products with solid product-market fit, only to hear that they are struggling to gain sustained momentum with their sales.

Every meeting with a potential customer reinforces that it is a good idea, yet their pipeline is filled with prospects that have disengaged and stopped responding to outreach. 

Does this sound familiar? You log into your meeting, the prospect says, “Show me what you’ve got.” You walk through your well-crafted origin story and very detailed demo, making sure they truly embrace the thought that has gone into development. All this to have the meeting end with a very polite, “That was great, thank you for sharing!” and perhaps the kiss of death, “Let us think about it and come back to you.”

The truth is you have built a fantastic product and there is a potential fit, BUT very often as a founder new to sales, you have fallen into one of two traps.

1. A full feature dump with limited to no discovery. 

If you check your call recordings, do you find that you speak more than 50% of the time? Let me guess, you speak 80% of the time? Don’t feel bad, this happens a LOT. We are so excited to share what we have built that we forget that we need to learn enough about this person and their company to build a business case specific to them. 

Maybe you asked a few qualifying questions at the beginning (e.g., current tools they are using, size of team, etc.), but then you pivoted to a thorough walk-through of why you built the solution and a very detailed demo. 

What we didn’t do was understand why they personally might want this. Why did they agree to take this call? Side note, I know early sales meetings are often with referrals, but these are still busy people who have taken this call because there is something in the back of their mind, they were thinking this might just help. Even the person who says they “just like learning about new technology” has something they are kind of hoping this could solve, what is that?  

A true discovery should feel like a conversation, starting broadly and asking open-ended, probing questions based on a well-researched hypothesis, actively listening, and then adjusting your path to gain more intelligence on their specific situation. 

What is happening in their business that would make this not just relevant but compelling right now? Do they agree that the potential business application is worth pursuing, or is it a nice to have? If it is just a “nice to have,” it does not matter how amazing your demo is — they are not going to buy. 

Once you have the agreement that this is compelling, your demo should leverage what you have learned. Don’t just call out the feature that gives a wow factor; rather, explain how and why that feature will solve their particular problem (using their situation to illustrate it). We live in our products and think the applications are obvious, they are not to other people. Remember, this is new to them; connect the dots for them.

Think you don’t have enough time to do all of this in one call? Cut back on your demo. Remember, people buy for outcomes, not for features. For the initial demo, you want them to see just enough to believe that the outcomes you are promising are real. You can save the very detailed version for a second call, when candidly, you will have more of their attention because they are now bought into the concept versus still trying to understand. 

2. Happy ears.

Has this ever happened: the meeting went perfectly, you did all of the above in #1 masterfully, they loved it, and you left thinking they are for sure going to buy… but then they ghosted you. That is what we refer to as “happy ears.” Don’t feel bad, we all get them (even as a 25-year veteran, I still do). 

The answer to the mystery is that there was some reason they were never going to buy, and we didn’t uncover it.

If an objection (concern, obstacle, hesitation, etc.) exists, it will only get larger in their minds when they walk away. This is why, as scary as it is, we have to run to the objection so we can diffuse it. If you miss this initial opportunity, it is nearly impossible to overcome it later.

Once again, this is why time management is so important in a sales call. You absolutely cannot leave this portion of the conversation to a follow-up call. If an objection exists, chances are the follow-up call will not happen. At best, you will receive a nice note saying, “Hey, now isn’t the best timing, so no need to have this call,” and then silence.

Now, surfacing why someone wouldn’t move forward is challenging as a founder. In my experience, people are inherently kind and feel mean when saying anything negative, especially to the person who built it. Ironically, though, in sales, “no” is the second-best answer. Your time is limited and very valuable; if there is a concern, we need to know so we can address it or move on if it simply isn’t a fit. 

So, how do we create the space for this honesty? 

This may sound silly, but first and foremost, ask for the business. I have seen many founders present and ask for thoughts, which is not the same thing. While this solicits thoughts on the solution that can be interesting, it doesn’t answer whether or not someone wants to buy. Actually asking them if they would like to purchase will produce the real answer you need.

I do realize that after a 30-minute discovery call, someone is unlikely to be ready to make a large purchase, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask, e.g., “Based on what we have talked through, I could see this being a fi,t but I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Are you inclined to move forward with a full evaluation?” One key here is to pause and allow them to fully answer. You’ll notice as we go that the use of silence plays an important role in this process.

Let’s assume you receive a response along the lines of “Maybe. It was super interesting. I’d need to think about it.”

In this instance, rather than say “Great, let’s schedule time to reconnect,” we want to dig in and learn more. A response to this might be, “Sure, of course, help me understand — what are some of the key things you are thinking through?” Again, pause and let them fully answer. Don’t jump on the first thing they say. Awkward silence is your friend, they will start sharing their thoughts if you wait patiently. 

A few common answers may include: 

“Where it would fit in the budget.”

Of note, budget is often a smoke-screen objection. It’s an easy way to say no without feeling cruel. Before you start offering a discount, inquire more about what other priorities exist in the budget and where the potential business outcome you have discussed sits in that list (notice that I didn’t say product or features). If you are able to isolate that it is in fact just an unplanned expense and that they would move forward if they had a better price, then and only then should you present pricing options.

“Have to think about timing.”

Again, you could inquire about competing time and resource priorities. Timing/resourcing often really means they aren’t sure how they would execute which means they are still having trouble visualizing this in practice in their world, a good next step may be to schedule time to walk through the tactical application, “If we could walk through what your new workflow would be based on your specific systems and processes, would that help you to feel more comfortable about execution?”

“I’d have to take this to my boss/team.”

This again could be a way to let someone else be the bad guy in saying no, so the key thing we want to uncover is whether or not they will recommend it. Literally ask, “Sure, I completely understand, will you recommend to them that they move forward with an evaluation?” Now, if someone has been glowing the whole time and it feels silly to ask that, simply add a “feels to me like you are excited about this, is it fair to assume that you will recommend they move forward?” If their response is anything other than “absolutely!” then you want to probe and ask them politely why not (using silence to allow/politely push them time to fully answer).

Once you have addressed the initial objection they have presented and confirmed that they feel better about their evaluation now, the next step is to probe once more and ask, “Any other hesitations?” Founders I advise hear me talk about this frequently, I tend to say “hesitations” instead of “concerns” because it feels a bit less harsh. I may not be overly concerned about this solution, but I am hesitant to move forward. 

Again, we are making it a safe space for them to tell us why they wouldn’t move forward. If a sales cycle is going well, it should feel like you are on a team with them, going through the evaluation to make sure they are getting the best solution. This begins with creating an open and honest conversation where they express not just what they are excited about, but also what they are hesitant about, and most often, both will exist. 

As with all things, the tactics we just talked through take practice. I encourage you to practice out loud; reading it to yourself in your head does not count. You need to become comfortable with the verbiage and putting things into your own words. Being comfortable with these approaches will also enable you to stay in the moment instead of trying to remember what you wanted to say next.

While no sales approach is a silver bullet, I promise you will find that gaining a better understanding of their needs, helping them to specifically see how you can help them to achieve their goals, and addressing their hesitations will create momentum and avoid surprise disruptions that lead to stalls!

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