Pranav Piyush

Co-Founder, CEO at BILL

How to get started with sales as a founder?

Hi folks,

I'm a founder selling to Mid-market and Enterprise CMOs. I'm starting with my own network and at some point will saturate that list.

I need some tactical advice on tools/data sources to build out a target account list. What's the best source to do this efficiently? Apollo? Keyplay? LinkedIn? Something else?

Thanks,

Pranav

🔎 Prospecting

🤓 Sales Tech

19 comments

Sort by:

BTQ

Politicker

Account Manager

I source using LI sales Nav then enrich the prospects data using Apollo.

Apollo can build sequences too.

punishedlad

Tycoon

Business Development Team Lead

I think this is a great place to start building out some broad lists. You're able to get pretty granular with Sales Nav and the Apollo integration is nice.

Like I said though, it's only a great place to *start*. Obviously it limits you to only those who are on LinkedIn.

Co-Founder, CEO

Thank you. Makes sense.

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Yeah I feel like sales Nav is popular but not sure what else.

Co-Founder, CEO

Thanks, makes sense.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Is there a specific tech stack or competitor you sell against/ in conjunction with that you would like to be able to identify and go after? There are a lot of niche software out there so it would likely be good to identify what you are good for. Zoominfo is a starting point.

Co-Founder, CEO

Yes, we'd be looking for CMOs who are spending on 3+ channels (paid media or own media) and have a few tech signals we can look for. Is Zoominfo good for that? I've heard Apollo is better?

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

haven't used Apollo, zoominfo will get you org chart and contact info, crunchbase also does this in a sense. worth trialing Apollo to see what you get if it seems like a good fit

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

What is your ICP, Pranav?

MM and ENT sizing is a single component of the full ICP. Flesh out the rest and let's see how we can help.

Co-Founder, CEO

Love it. Thank you!!!

We target companies with marketing budgets of $5M to $50M (across both program spend and headcount).

Key characteristics of our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

- Spend across multiple (3+) channels (e.g. Google, Facebook, YouTube, Direct Mail)

- Understand and want to invest in brand marketing

- Size of marketing team is 20+ - either in-house or through a collection of agencies

- Have a marketing analytics team (could be small)

- Have a cloud data warehouse

- Don’t have easy access to data science skills at a reasonable cost

Key characteristics of the buyer (CMO) at the ICP

- CMOs who are new to the company/role (last 12 months) are a better fit than if you’ve been in the job for a while (more willingness to adopt and less set in your ways)

- Believer in the power of data to improve marketing efficiency

- Grew up in marketing in the 21st century (25 to 45 yrs old)

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Awesome, so I'd use a combo of Apollo/ZoomInfo (firmographics and intent) and LinkedIn Sales Nav (job change alerts and saved searches).

The cool thing about Apollo is that you could toss good-fit contacts directly into sequences. It's a lean solution, but it'll get the job done as an MVP.

Co-Founder, CEO

Thank you. Super helpful!

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

When you say network, are you restricting yourself to one tool (e.g linkedin)? I would definitely find some groups, events to connect with potential leads. If I have good relationship, I would definitely try to explore the referral route as well. All the best !

Co-Founder, CEO

Thank you. By network, I mean my own LinkedIn connections and then all our investors / friends and their connections. So going to 2nd degree.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

Recommend LI Sales Nav in particular, just cuz it's better than the others!

Sandra_Bearlock

Good Citizen

Business Development Representative

If I had to do it from scratch, I'd use Hubspot, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and Seamless.

Hubspot as CRM + SEP, LI for networking, and Seamless for data enrichment.

Some people like Zoominfo, personally I think it's unbearably slow.

Apollo does sequences, but so does Hubspot, so it doesn't make sense to me to have a CRM+SEP and a Data Enrichment Tool + SEP.

Co-Founder, CEO

Super helpful, thank you!

AnchorPoint

Politicker

Business Coach

The list is only part of the process... and maybe the least important. What sales skills do you possess and to what extent? Do you have a sales process?

Co-Founder, CEO

I've been in marketing / growth until now, so some exposure to sales but haven't done direct sales yet... I've read a ton of books and have had to sell my co-founder, investors, etc. so getting there!

So, have some basics.

I did set up a CRM in my notion space.
I have a basic process - customer discovery on call 1. Try to understand if they have the pain.
Solution selling on call 2 - if things trend well, try to close right away.
If not, keep the conversation going.

Have a pitch deck that I customize for each customer to some extend.

Any recommendations on what else I should be thinking about?

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

Press Careers

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.

Pranav Piyush

How to get started with sales as a founder?

19 comments

Related posts

How did you get into sales?

What got you into sales?

Get me OUT OF SALES