Decoding Sales: Recent Episodes
Peter & Alex
A podcast where an engineer (Alex Allain) and salesperson (Peter Ahn) demystify what it means to build meaningful business relationships in the modern age.
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Peter just finished recording his audiobook for Unlocking Authentic Sales! While it won't be out for another few months, he's sharing the Foreword (written by our very own Alex Allain) and Introduction here with you all so that you can get a sneak peek into the book!
Support the show
To get more sales advice from Peter, Subscribe to his YouTube Channel, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and purchase Peter's newly published book, Unlocking Authentic Sales!
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In the first couple of weeks of joining TigerBeetle, Peter got together with Alex to discuss TigerBeetle and its positioning. In this dynamic conversation, Alex puts Peter on the spot with the TigerBeetle pitch and provides feedback while also trying his own version!
As they build the story arc together you'll notice some key elements that can be useful for any pitch:
- Encapsulating an undeniable trend happening today
- Describing the pains companies face while keeping up with that trend
- Providing a compelling reason why your technology can help with those pains
- Ending with a strong impact statement around what adopting your tech means for the business
A huge thank you to Joran Greef, Marina Pape, Lewis Daly, and the entire TigerBeetle team for allowing us to use this material and for such a warm welcome to Peter in his first couple of months joining!
Support the show
To get more sales advice from Peter, Subscribe to his YouTube Channel, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and purchase Peter's newly published book, Unlocking Authentic Sales!
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I sat down with Harry and Uddhav from The Inflection Group - the recruiting firm behind successful hires at Coinbase, Pinterest, Snowflake, and more.
We dive deep into the biggest startup hiring questions:
- When should you actually hire your first salesperson?
- How do you avoid the "halo company" trap?
- Why do first sales hires fail so often?
They share stories from 300+ executive searches and explain why being brutally honest about your startup's challenges actually attracts better candidates. Plus, they reveal tactical hiring tricks that work - like putting real prospect objections in your job description. This is essential listening for any founder thinking about their first go-to-market hire.
Support the show
To get more sales advice from Peter, Subscribe to his YouTube Channel, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and purchase Peter's newly published book, Unlocking Authentic Sales!
Send us a text
Mason Fuerst, founder and CEO of Motiv (motivai.us) sits down with Peter to break down how he approaches outbound sales in an authentic way.
With all the noise out there today around how to do outbound it's rare to find something that works, but Mason's mentality around creating genuine connections has worked to produce quality pipeline for his AI startup.
Peter and Mason cover:
- What didn't work for Mason
- The lightbulb moment that changed Mason's outlook on outbound sales
- A deeper look into the tactical steps Mason takes to create meaningful connections on LinkedIn
For Mason's free PDF guide breaking down his outbound approach, connect with either him or Peter on LinkedIn and they'll DM you a copy!
More on Motiv:
Motiv is a software company building advanced AI agents for recruiting. Each agent specializes in a specific part of the hiring process, helping teams free up more time for higher output activities. The agents are trained to mimic your decision-making process so that it can think the same way you would. They also continuously learn from your feedback. Becoming faster and more intelligent with time. These agents act as new additions to the team without the added headcount and salary that comes with a new hire. Learn more by visiting motivai.us!
Support the show
To get more sales advice from Peter, Subscribe to his YouTube Channel, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and purchase Peter's newly published book, Unlocking Authentic Sales!
Send us a text
In this episode Alex and Peter ask, "Is it OK to lie to customers? And if so, when?"
They dive into:
- An experience Alex's friend had with a sales lie
- What to do when a salesperson lies
- How to spot lying salespeople before and after they join a team
Support the show
To get more sales advice from Peter, Subscribe to his YouTube Channel, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and purchase Peter's newly published book, Unlocking Authentic Sales!
Send us a text
Peter and Alex dive into Peter's thoughts on design partnerships and their impact on startups.
They discuss:
- The pressure from VCs to sign more design partners
- Why not all design partnerships are helpful
- Why you should charge for design partnerships
- When free design partnerships are acceptable
- The value of saying no to certain design partners
Support the show
To get more sales advice from Peter, Subscribe to his YouTube Channel, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and purchase Peter's newly published book, Unlocking Authentic Sales!
Send us a text
In this repurposed episode from Peter's YouTube channel, he sits down with Hyperbound's cofounders Sriharsha Guduguntla and Atul Raghunathan.
They discuss:
- The evolution of AI in sales
- How to actually evaluate AI tools (without getting caught in the hype)
- The challenges and rewards of navigating founder-led sales
- The state of diversity within tech sales
- Other AI platforms Sriharsha and Atul are keeping an eye on
You can try Hyperbound for free here.
Support the show
To get more sales advice from Peter, Subscribe to his YouTube Channel, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and purchase Peter's newly published book, Unlocking Authentic Sales!
Send us a text
As a solo host, Peter tries his best to fill Alex's shoes :)
He sits down with YC W24 founders of Centralize, Rachit Kataria and William Wang, to discuss their founder-led sales journey and approach. They discuss:
- Their approach to relationship-based selling
- The challenges and opportunities of selling to GTM leaders
- Creative outbound strategies they've leveraged
- How they think about hiring their first seller
Visit Centralize's website to learn more about Rachit and William's vision. They've built an AI-powered deal collaboration platform that focuses on mapping key stakeholders, understanding them, and how to leverage each to get strategic deals done.
Special shout out to Will Thoni (Sales at Langchain) for making this connection!
Support the show
To get more sales advice from Peter, Subscribe to his YouTube Channel, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and purchase Peter's newly published book, Unlocking Authentic Sales!
Send us a text
Waseem Daher (Ex-Dropbox and Founder of Pilot.com) sits down with Peter Ahn and Alex Allain of Decoding Sales to discuss learnings from his founder-led sales journey.
They discuss:
• The importance of founders being involved in closing a startup's first customers
• How to think through hiring your first salesperson
• What the right profile is for sales hire #1
• How to know when to fire salespeople who aren't working out
• Lead gen tactics for startups and the power of word of mouth
Support the show
To get more sales advice from Peter, Subscribe to his YouTube Channel, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and purchase Peter's newly published book, Unlocking Authentic Sales!
Send us a text
At the end of the year, Peter and Alex look back on what Peter's learned coaching startups and three places he's changed his mind.
They cover:
- Peter's new thoughts on BANT and MEDDIC as discovery and sales qualification frameworks. (Originally discussed in the BANT and MEDDIC episode from December of 2022)
- Why Salesforce may not be the best CRM to start with if you're an early stage founder (originally discussed in in the CRM 101 episode from 2021)
- The changing archetype of what makes a great first sales hire (from the The First Sales Hire episode, also from 2021!)
Support the show
To get more sales advice from Peter, Subscribe to his YouTube Channel, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and purchase Peter's newly published book, Unlocking Authentic Sales!
Send us a text
Having all worked together on Dropbox for Business, Tido, Alex, and Peter share a special bond and respect for building the foundational elements of enterprise sales at Dropbox when it was still seen as a consumer brand.
Now, as founder and CEO of Koala (getkoala.com), Tido shares his learnings, obstacles and opportunities that all founders who are learning enterprise sales for the first time should tune into.
They discuss:
- Early challenges Tido faced learning to sell Koala during the early days
- When is the right time to shift from founder-led sales to sales led sales?
- Hiring “builders” to lead GTM in the early days
- How to think about “jobs to be done” when building out GTM JD’s
- How to master and think through demand generation and demand capture when going outbound
About Tido:
- Tido is a Co-Founder @ Koala, is an end-to-end pipeline generation engine. Prior to Koala, he was Chief Product Officer at Segment from early days through its $3.2B acquisition by Twilio. Prior to that, he worked with Alex & Peter at Dropbox and was an early engineer on the Facebook Ads team. Follow Tido on LinkedIn and visit Koala here!
Support the show
To get more sales advice from Peter, Subscribe to his YouTube Channel, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and purchase Peter's newly published book, Unlocking Authentic Sales!
Send us a Text Message.
Peter and Alex discuss founder-led sales mistake #2: Spending too much time on bad-fit leads.
They dive into:
- What makes a bad-fit lead?
- How do you qualify for fit and what questions can you ask to get clarity around this?
- When are some examples you may continue working with non-ICP customers?
- How do you know when to eject out of a deal midstream?
Learn more about Peter's bootcamp Sales Sprint and his founder-led sales community, Zero to Hero!
Send us a Text Message.
Peter and Alex discuss one of the most common founder-led sales mistakes he's seen early stage founders make: assuming they have a brand when initiating outbound sales.
They dive into:
- Why establishing a digital footprint ahead of going outbound is important
- The value of offering lead magnets and thought leadership content ahead of asking for a meeting
- Why personalization may not be what it once was
- How to get your digital brand started and tips to start posting on LinkedIn
For the next episode they'll dive into Founder-Led Sales Mistake #2 so stay tuned for that discussion!
Learn more about Peter's bootcamp Sales Sprint and his founder-led sales community, Zero to Hero!
Send us a Text Message.
Peter and Alex discuss the state of sales at large companies and what it means to scale authentic sales. They explore the following questions and topics:
- Can startup sales be relevant at large companies?
- Why sales training isn't working for large sales teams
- What Toyota's innovation with building cars has to do with sales
- What leaders at public companies can do to reimagine what sales means for their growth and brand
Learn more about Peter's bootcamp Sales Sprint and his founder-led sales community, Zero to Hero!
Peter and Alex review the elements of an effective pitch:
- The elevator pitch and leaning into your origin story (regardless of what VCs will tell you)
- What makes a compelling pitch deck and how not to bore your prospect with deckware
- Teasing a demo to sell the second meeting
Other episodes referenced:
- Episode 32: BANT and MEDDIC
- Episode 3: Call Leadership
Learn more about Peter's bootcamp Sales Sprint and his founder-led sales community, Zero to Hero!
After a break from recording, Peter and Alex are back at it with regular recordings.
Catch-up to hear what Peter and Alex have been up to and how the state of play has changed within startup enterprise sales.
Peter and Alex discuss:
- Standing out in a hyper competitive environment
- The importance of establishing founder branding
- Multi-stakeholder sales in today's environment
- The role of AI in sales
Founders mentioned on the episode for thought leadership examples:
- Victor Hunt, Ava
- Julian Park, Bezi
- Ashu Dubey, Gleen.ai
- Animesh Koratana, PlayerZero.ai
Every day you're presented with moments where you can decide whether to take what's offered, or you can negotiate. Most of us take what's offered because it's comfortable and easy, but are you leaving something on the table? Peter and Alex share expert strategy for mastering negotiations with vendors, sales staff, contractors, and even friends. Learn to build stronger relationships, reach win-win outcomes and secure fairer deals for everyone, while also sharpening your your negotiation chops for those big ticket items. Learn actionable tactics, powerful phrases, and the key mindset to build your negotiation skill in everyday life and never feel taken advantage of again.
This episode is sponsored by our friends at Salesroom who are building a video conferencing platform specifically for AE's and their buyers to build strong relationships in the virtual world. Built from the ground up specifically for sales interactions with video note-taking, real-time transcription and question detection, and AI-based recommendations, every feature of the platform is meant to help build rapport and trust. Go to salesroom.com to get access!
BANT and MEDDIC are two popular sales methodologies. Learn what each of them are for, how to apply them, and how they help you create a more effective sales process.
This episode is sponsored by our friends at Salesroom who are building a video conferencing platform specifically for AE's and their buyers to build strong relationships in the virtual world. Built from the ground up specifically for sales interactions with video note-taking, real-time transcription and question detection, and AI-based recommendations, every feature of the platform is meant to help build rapport and trust. Go to salesroom.com to get access!
Sales and marketing teams need to be able to reach out to prospects cold. But prospects hate getting bombarded by irrelevant messages. What do you do with this necessary channel for building awareness for your company? Peter and Alex debate what makes cold outreach emails bad, what makes them effective, and look for common ground on what you should do if you want to make cold outreach emails that prospects don't hate.
High inflation, negative GDP - possible recession? It doesn't matter what you call it, it matters what you DO. In this episode:
👀 Peter shares his view of the state of play and how sales teams should be reacting
🎯 How a recessionary environment forces you to up your game and what you need to do differently
🎱 How to forecast and adjust your quotas in the face of uncertainty
🤝What to do when a customer wants to renegotiate a contract due to layoffs or lost business
- How body language and subtle cues can tell you if a deal is on track - or not
- How to take the initiative when you get clues that the conversation is going off-track
- Cues to look for in a virtual sales environment
- How to recreate casual "lobby moments" during a virtual call
This is our first video episode! Find it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzNtJUyjKoA
This episode is sponsored by our friends at Salesroom who are building a video conferencing platform specifically for AE's and their buyers to build strong relationships in the virtual world. Built from the ground up specifically for sales interactions with video note-taking, real-time transcription and question detection, and AI-based recommendations, every feature of the platform is meant to help build rapport and trust. Go to salesroom.com to get early access!
Competition is a fact of life and business; in this episode, learn how to sell and win against your competitors.
- How to understand what the competition is saying about your weaknesses - and turn it to your favor
- Why understanding technology trends is crucial to winning deals against competitors
- How to credibly undermine the competition - without seeming petty
- Why and when it's OK to lose some deals
- How to stay authentic when you're trying to beat the other guys
This episode is sponsored by our friends at Salesroom who are building a video conferencing platform specifically for AE's and their buyers to build strong relationships in the virtual world. Built from the ground up specifically for sales interactions with video note-taking, real-time transcription and question detection, and AI-based recommendations, every feature of the platform is meant to help build rapport and trust. Salesroom is opening up access to their beta program. Go to salesroom.com to get early access!
Virtual-first selling is here to stay--what does the future hold?
- How virtual-first and in-person sales will merge into a hybrid sales process
- When to stay virtual and when and how to leverage face-to-face
- How virtual sales unlocks access to high level prospects
- Keeping a prospect's attention in a high-distraction selling environment
- Buyer-friendly tactics made possible by the freedom of virtual calls
Previous episodes mentioned
- Future of Sales post-COVID - https://www.buzzsprout.com/1260710/episodes/8597153
This episode is sponsored by our friends at Salesroom who are building a video conferencing platform, specifically for AE's and their buyers to build strong relationships in the virtual world. Built from the ground up specifically for sales interactions with video note-taking, real-time transcription and question detection, and AI-based recommendations, every feature of the platform is meant to help build rapport and trust. Salesroom is opening up access to their beta program. Go to salesroom.com to get early access!
Zoom fatigue, everyone has it because it's taken over our lives. But what makes a seller successful over Zoom?
- Zoom etiquette for dealmakers.
- Peter's stack rank of Zoom backgrounds (including the weirdest Zoom background he's ever seen).
- How tools like Zoom and Slack work together to change the game.
- Tips for successful - non-embarrassing - demoing over Zoom.
Plus we try out publishing automated transcripts for the first time!
If you build it, will they come? Maybe not. How do you build a modern outbound sales motion that brings in new customers?
- Peter's moment of insight about the modern sales motion
- How to go beyond cold prospecting
- ...and how to do cold outreach without being obnoxious
- Why you shouldn't think of inbound and outbound as completely independent
- Peter's pep talk for a new rep doing outbound for the first time
💸 How do you organize your sales team to scale?
🔗 The importance of aligning your product roadmap and sales org design.
📞 How do you share knowledge across sales teams and offices?
📍 The ways sales teams can specialize and how to tell it's time to specialize?
How to navigate the modern sales tools suite to accelerate sales
🛫 What tools do you need beyond your CRM?
🤼 How to close deals faster by bringing data out of Salesforce and into your workflows
🌎 How to pull in publicly available data to make your sales data more useful
🔮What the future of sales tools might look like
Thanks to our episode sponsor, Momentum. Momentum is a no code deal collaboration platform to automate sales workflows. With pre-assembled recipes that seamlessly operationalize sales motions, revenue teams close deals faster, with better accountability and collaboration along the way. Check them out at https://momentum.io or on Product Hunt.
🛤 Career tracks in sales vs engineering.
🏁 The importance of staying in the trenches to be a sales leader.
💲 Setting and managing the sales team's quota.
💸 How to manage + raise quotas as a team grows.
😰 How to tell if your sales leader is mismanaging the team.
What to do when you aren't making the sales.
❓ The first question to ask when debugging the process.
🎎 How to figure out the right buyer persona for your product.
🪓 How to tell you should fire your sales leader.
🔬 The importance of being hands-on when sales isn't working.
What rookie salespeople get wrong - and how to avoid them.
- Key mindset shifts for new salespeople - and how to know you're making them
- Key rites of passage
- How new salespeople throw away leads too quickly
- How to get feedback and support as a founder
Resources and links
- Episode on the price
- Episode on the first sales hire
- Episode on sales myths
- Peter's article on how the best salespeople are technologists
- The Authentic Sales episode covers the striplining concept
- Episode on It Takes a Village
How to write emails that get results - and when to switch to other channels.
- How do you know when an email you're writing is too long
- How Peter uses the "phone test" to tell if his email is going to get a response
- When - and how - to switch to text messages, phone or Slack (and how to handle it gracefully when your outreach is rejected)
- Why response speed is an underrated asset in sales
- How to frame powerful questions that get responses
- The one type of conversation you never want to have over email - and what to do instead
Facts and myths about salespeople
- What really motivates salespeople (it's not just the number!)
- What shapes customer perceptions of sales (it's not the average sales person)
- Peter confesses that as a professional sales leader, he doesn't know how to play golf (and why golf isn't an essential sales skill)
- Peter explains what's replaced the importance of the rolodex in modern sales
- How Peter flips the tactics of normal salespeople to break through and win deals against traditional sales processes
- One thing Peter says is 100% true of salespeople (hint - it involves a number!)
- Resources and links
- Episode on Building Client Relationships
- Episode on sales as a team sport - It Takes a Village
- Episode on Call Leadership
- Alec Baldwin clip from Glengarry Glen Ross
- Ben Affleck clip from Boiler Room
- The Market for Lemons
- BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)
Signing a deal is a legally binding agreement - and legal negotiations can kill deals. Learn the ins-and-outs of navigating the landmines separating you from the prize:
- how to avoid complex legal negotiations in the first place
- When you have to negotiate, where to give - and where to hold firm
- The key things to never write into a contract - and what to do instead
- How to balance the sales and legal roles during end-of-deal negotiations
Resources mentioned:
- Call Leadership Episode
- Authentic Sales and sales as relationship building
Peter relives some end of quarter moments and discuss what it's like to experience that final inning rush.
- What does it feel like to manage the end of quarter close?
- How to prepare for the end of the quarter ... at the start of the quarter
- How Peter manages the stress of both the buyer and his sales team at quarter end
- What are the typical last-minute holdups on deals...and how to unstick them
- Are quarters the right model for tracking sales?
Learn to catalyze revenue growth through your early customer community.
- How your first customers differ from later customers
- The formula for finding and winning those customers (and avoiding the wrong first customers)
- The formula for creating systems to turn your first customers into referral engines
- The incentives that drive individual buyers to choose innovative products
Peter shares his experiences adapting to COVID, and
- How COVID upended and accelerated the traditional sales process
- The new profile of the ideal salesperson
- What happens when things return to normal, what's changed for good, and what opportunities are opening up
Let us know - how have you seen sales change and where do you see it going post-COVID?
- How Peter got his start in sales
- The two key ingredients to advancing to sales leadership
- How Peter thinks about finding the right company
- Overcoming stereotypes and how Peter flipped the script to turn perceived weaknesses into strengths
How to pick and set up your first CRM tool.
- What CRM does Peter recommend?
- How to quickly set up your CRM so you can get back to selling
- Common pitfalls setting up a CRM
- Beyond CRMs - what other tools do you need?
- As a bonus - what will the next wave of successful sales tools look like?
- How engineering and product contribute to closing deals
- How NBCUniversal took a leap of faith on the Dropbox's team and vision
- How a team-oriented approach build trust when selling a roadmap and vision
- When to pull in the CEO...and a story of Peter pulling in his CEO at just the wrong time
- Sales as the eyes and ears of the organization
- The pitfalls of a team based approach when not everyone's on the same page
- How sales comp is structured - including real talk about numbers
- How do you set a quota?
- More sophisticated bonus structures - how to incentivize business value beyond deal price
- How to change quotas as the business changes, without burning our your sales team
- The best compensation plans Peter has seen ... and the worst
- How to negotiate sales compensation in the hiring process
📅 When to hire your first salesperson - and how to find them.
❗ Mistakes technical founders make in hiring and evaluation.
⚙ Why your first sales hire need to think like a technologist.
🤝 What you should NEVER compromise on.
🚀 How to sell them on your company before you've taken off.
💰 And finally - how much to pay them.
Find out how CEOs blow their demos - while thinking the call went great.
How to prepare for a demo without sounding scripted.
How Peter handles curveball questions during a demo.
Why feature dumping doesn't work - and what to do instead.
How to handle a distracted prospect.
Getting meaningful feedback at the end of a demo.
When demos aren't the right tool, and what to do instead.
In this episode Alex and Peter break down potential pricing models and how to think about conveying your price if you're a startup. Topics covered include:
- Different pricing models to explore in SaaS
- Positioning your price and different negotiation levers you can employ to get a deal done
- How to think about discounting and the discounting boundaries based on company size & deal timelines
As always, feel free to email us at podcasters@decodingsalespodcast.com with any feedback. If you'd like to do some reading on price, visit Peter's blog post on "Conveying why the price is the price"
In this episode Alex and Peter discuss how to structure effective proof of concepts to help get the deal done while keeping the prospect accountable to specific milestones. Topics include:
- The collaborative aspects of setting up a mutual proof of concept structure
- How to establish tangible success criteria for the evaluation period
- What milestones to track throughout the POC period
- How to determine which prospects need a formal POC structure
- How to hold prospects accountable to meeting POC milestones
Share this episode on Twitter or LinkedIn and reach out to us at podcasters@decodingsalespodcast.com for a copy of a real proof of concept template!
In this episode Peter and Alex discuss how client dinners and meals outside of the regular cadence of emails & calls, can positively impact deal progress. Topics covered include:
- When to offer client dinners & meals
- How to make these engagements productive and fun at the same time
- The importance of conveying your authentic self and culture during client meals
If you have feedback about this episode and any future episode topics you'd like to see covered, please email us at podcasters@decodingsalespodcast.com!
In this episode Peter and Alex discuss how to handle unexpected obstacles that come about during a high stakes negotiation. Topics covered include:
- How to handle prospects asking for additional discounts when they've agreed to a floor already
- The ability to think aloud during a negotiation call while using common language to bridge differences
- Ways to ensure the deal does not get delayed and that you can still pin down a realistic close date, even when curveballs are thrown at you
Feel free to email us at podcasters@decodingsalespodcast.com with any feedback on this episode and future episode topics you'd like to see covered!
In this episode Peter & Alex discuss what it means to effectively lead business calls and conversations. Key learnings include:
- How to start strong with a powerful intro
- How to give the floor to the other person on the call
- The importance of laying out a roadmap for the call
- Employing "bridge phrases" to naturally jump from topic to topic
- Setting up tangible next steps and ownership for those next steps
Feel free to email us at podcasters@decodingsalespodcast.com with any feedback on this episode and future episode topics you'd like to see covered!
In this episode Alex and Peter discuss what it means to effectively find the right person to champion a business deal. An org chart is oftentimes not enough to map out an impactful strategy to navigate stakeholders. Tune-in to this episode for some tips around how to mobilize your prospect and perhaps even more importantly, how to also cut your losses and move on from ineffective deal sponsors.
Feel free to email us at podcasters@decodingsalespodcast.com with any feedback on this episode and future episode topics you'd like to see covered!
In this pilot episode, co-hosts Alex Allain and Peter Ahn demystify sales and discuss what it means to facilitate authentic sales conversations and methodologies. While Peter is a career salesperson, Alex's unique perspective as an engineer sheds light on how modern sales techniques can be broadly applicable to any human engagement.
Feel free to email us at podcasters@decodingsalespodcast.com with any feedback on this kickoff episode and future episode topics you'd like to see covered!