Ron Nelson’s Post

It's been over a month since I last posted on LinkedIn... not good! I know LIAM would not approve 😬 But looking at the past month, there is a decent explanation as to why. It's been crazy (in a good way!) and I've been heads down in the craziness. Once all the craziness settled down a bit (does it really ever with kids?), we decided to take a vacation as a family - something we have not truly done in years. We took the kids to San Diego and LA for a week and had an absolute blast slowing down, walking the beach, playing in the waves, seeing the sights and catching some baseball games. Having had this time to reflect and spend time with my wife and kids, I realized that this is what it's all about. Building a business and keeping clients happy is hard work, but super rewarding when you get to see smiles on your family's face. This right here is motivation to keep crushing it and building memories because I know I'm helping founders build this exact experience for them too! Keep crushing it out there 🤙

Always a good day when I get to hang with Vince Beese but then tossing in Timothy McLoughlin and Ben Hartmere to talk about the sales job market and the differences from pre-covid to today… even better! Key takeaway - ABN (Always Be Networking). You never know who you’ll see and what opportunities you’ll find by putting yourself out there! This advice can be used by sales people, founders, engineers, CFOs, etc. Go crush it out there 🤙 Huge shout out to Lee Whitley for sponsoring and putting on this event! 💪

Founders - how long can you hold on to the selling motion at your startup? You may be surprised that founder-led sales is extending well beyond what it used to. I have talked to companies that have gotten to 2, 3, 4 even $10m in revenue on the back of founder-led sales 🤯 To me, this may or may not be a sign of product market fit, but it is the sign of our current economic climate. The further you can take things on your own, the better suited you are long term. I will say though, the founders that are getting to $5m+ in revenue by themselves have a clear process and structure in place to get them there. Do you have the structure and process in place to get you beyond $5m in revenue as a founder? Happy to chat to see if you are prepared to make that happen - you know where to find me Keep crushing it out there 🤙

Founders, you're losing deals by not having a clear discovery call plan. I've seen this a lot where founders looking to scale up their early sales efforts are going into it thinking the product will get them through the sale In most cases, this isn't the truth You need to have some sort of framework to make the selling motion more repeatable Instead of demo'ing the product, try learning more about them and their challenges first. Your goal should be to know enough to build a customized demo for them. This will help in building solid relationships, build value throughout the process and likely speed up deals on the back end of it. If you don't know where to start, hit me up and I'm happy to lay out some early sales structure for founders! Go crush it out there 🤙

Here are some of the flaws I have seen and heard about from founders in the early stage selling process ❌ Not doing the research prior to the initial call ❌ Not having an initial call strategy ❌ Not understanding the next steps ❌ Not understanding the buying process ❌ Not knowing when and how to give a demo ❌ Not knowing how or when to follow up at different stages of process ❌ Not knowing when to ask for the sale ❌ Not building a solid relationship first The list could go on, but my one word of advice is to be honest with your flaws and pick just one to fix today. Focus on it daily and watch it get better over time Don't know where to start or how to fix it? I'm happy to chat more to see how/if I can help! Keep crushing it out there 🤙

When you’re selling your product to get initial traction, are you using a framework or some sort of structure to qualify and close deals? In talking with a lot of founders and early sales reps at companies, there typically isn’t a defined structure and qualification process. That’s okay, because a lot of founders are good at hustling to get to their next milestone because they have a big network, but some are not equipped for that. If you are struggling to get sales early, there could be a flawed part of the process (or lack thereof) that could be causing it. The only way to truly fix it is to get into the data or the calls and find the culprit. Find someone that has been there before and you trust and know will give you the hard feedback you need to understand where things currently stand and what could get better. Keep crushing it out there 🤙

You never know who could help you get where you want to be I've learned this valuable lesson so many times over the last few years and frankly weeks The power of networking is huge and maintaining that network is so important Get out in the world, meet new people from all walks of life, help them be awesome and watch your own success scale with your network - it doesn't matter what field you are in Keep crushing it out there 🤙

Got to hang with Vince Beese for his masterclass on increasing win rates by engaging with multiple stakeholders in the sales process at SalesHQ yesterday. Here are a few things I learned: 🏡Community is coming back into the world and it’s super exciting. The group had active discussions and genuinely trying to help each other. 👨💻Focus on the technical buyer early or your deal is likely dead 👩💼Bringing the C-Suite into your deal is an art and must be done at the right time 🏢SalesHQ is an awesome place for sales leaders and sales reps to collaborate, get energy from and thrive. It’s not going away anytime soon and hope to see it grow over time! Keep crushing it out there 🤙

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new volunteer position as a Member of the Board of Directors at TheraFriends Community Partnership! TheraFriends caught my eye as a non-profit that was doing a bunch of good in the therapy space to help neurodivergent individuals get the help they need when it is not easily accessible to them. Having gone through the screening and therapy process with my oldest, I learned that it was expensive, time-consuming and a bit overwhelming. TheraFriends is on a mission to make the screening and therapy service more accessible to all who need it and I could not agree more with this mission knowing that this is becoming more and more typical in our youth. With my background, I'm hoping to make a big difference in fund raising and bringing the wider vision to local communities. If you want to chat more about how you can help as an organization or an individual, please reach out and I'd love to chat!

I learned a thing or two from my 10 year old son this weekend. Baseball has a way of doing that. Things can go really really poorly for you or for your team, but if you focus on the next thing and leave behind what already happened, you never know what could be in store for you. My son is usually a pretty good hitter, but struggled in every at bat this weekend. No confidence and struggled even swinging at pitches. He came up in the last inning down two with a runner on base. For the first pitch, he watched it go right on by. I feared he would do what he did all weekend. The second pitch, you could tell he was just going to swing because he needed to get it out of his system. Strike two - missed it pretty badly. Now he's down to his final strike and he hasn't looked good. Next pitch comes in and he hammers it to score the run. He then proceeded to steal second and third and spark a 7-run inning that won the title. Remember, in baseball and in life, all you need is one chance to make something happen to get the win you were looking for. Thanks for that lesson this weekend, Henry! Go crush it out there 🤙