Growing a Startup B2B Sales Team

Building-a-B2B-Sales-TeamThis past week I attended the Communitech Peer2Peer Business Development and Senior Sales. Ryan McCartney, Director of Sales at Axonify, presented on “Growing the Startup Sales Team”. His presentation was based on personal experience with two of Waterloo Region’s great startup successes, Miovision and Axonify.

Ryan’s presentation covered many excellent points applicable to growing a startup B2B sales team, but here are the key takeaways in case you missed it.

1. Sell First, Ask Questions Later

Allow your B2B sales team to get the solution in front of customers and test your value proposition, your assumptions, and ask a lot of questions

2. Training Builds Confidence

Just because you’re a startup, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be investing in training. Instead of sending reps for outside training, work on practice cold calls, value proposition applications, sample emails, and objection handling.

3. Hire Slow, Fire Fast

Take your time to make sure you have the right employee, but if it’s not working out don’t be afraid to fire quickly. Getting the right person from a ‘fit’ standpoint is key to the long-term success of your startup B2B sales team.

4. CRM is Essential

The CRM is probably the most important tool and with all of the options available today there should be no excuse for not having one.

5. Webinars are a Good Lead Generation Tool

The frequent use of webinars can help identify qualified prospects that can quickly become leads.

6. Seat Sales People Together

The noise that can be caused by having the B2B sales team together is trumped by the organic learning, team building, and sales competition that naturally occurs.

If you are in Waterloo Region, I would check out the wide array of Peer2Peer options at Communitech. As well, please check out Ryan’s “Growing the Startup Sales Team” for more detail. For more information on growing a startup B2B sales team, check out our white paper Building a Startup Sales Team.

Growing a Startup B2B Sales Team