Jay Aigner’s Post

Ever wonder if #FounderLedSales is worth the chaos? #CEOs, this one's for you! Jay Aigner, Founder and CEO, of JDAQA Software Testing says YES!—and he’s got the results to prove it. Tune in to #SalesTalkforCEOs to listen to Alice Heiman talk to Jay about how he turned his network into a scalable sales machine. Learn how to balance your drive with structure and leverage partnerships for growth. 🌟 https://lnkd.in/enZcCMkU

𝟵𝟯% 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 are doing this vital sales step wrong. In fact, I saw it happen 5 times with 4 different companies last week alone. It’s hard to know how to do it right though. I myself as a startup founder completely messed it up. 🤦♂️ Which was unfortunate, because it’s literally the foundation of the entire sale: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 Yes, even those who think they are doing it fine are missing the key pieces of it. Several have told me they do it well. Only to find out later how much they were losing because they were running their discovery calls incorrectly. Once I figured out the right way to run a great discovery process, we took off. 📈 Exponential growth came from knowing exactly what to get from the prospect, then how to associate our solution to their needs. Our close rate shot up! In fact, it more than doubled. I wanted this to continue, so I wrote down all the great things we started doing. And I listed the bad things we used to do so we didn’t ever do them again. I organized it all into an easy-to-follow guide so my teams wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. It’s called the DOs and DONTs of the Discovery Call. I’m happy to give it away free to anyone who wants it. Just write “Free guide” in the discussion below. 👇 I’ll send it your way. Then your discovery calls will lead to an improved sales process and more revenue. #discovery #sales #mattschats

𝟵𝟯% 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 are doing this vital sales step wrong. In fact, I saw it happen 5 times with 4 different companies last week alone. It’s hard to know how to do it right though. I myself as a startup founder completely messed it up. 🤦♂️ Which was unfortunate, because it’s literally the foundation of the entire sale: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 Yes, even those who think they are doing it fine are missing the key pieces of it. Several have told me they do it well. Only to find out later how much they were losing because they were running their discovery calls incorrectly. Once I figured out the right way to run a great discovery process, we took off. 📈 Exponential growth came from knowing exactly what to get from the prospect, then how to associate our solution to their needs. Our close rate shot up! In fact, it more than doubled. I wanted this to continue, so I wrote down all the great things we started doing. And I listed the bad things we used to do so we didn’t ever do them again. I organized it all into an easy-to-follow guide so my teams wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. It’s called the DOs and DONTs of the Discovery Call. I’m happy to give it away free to anyone who wants it. Just write “Free guide” in the discussion below. 👇 I’ll send it your way. Then your discovery calls will lead to an improved sales process and more revenue. #discovery #sales #mattschats

It’s shocking how many leaders at companies make critical decisions without talking to customers first. It is always a great idea to talk to your customers/partners (and potential customers, and former customers, and leads who didn’t become customers). A few examples specific to strategic partnerships: - You want to build alliances with tech companies so they sell/distribute your product. First, map out the buying journey of your target customers. Talk to them about when they purchase various software in their lifecycle to gain insight on what technology providers are best suited to recommend your product. Not everyone has a “right to sell” or a “right to recommend” your product. - You want to build out an API ecosystem to allow more companies to integrate with your software. Talk to your customers and find out what software is most critical for them. Is there deep pain or an opportunity to “delight” your customers by having an integration? Most integrations are NOT that helpful for customers. Focus on the ones that solve real pain or provide huge pleasure. Otherwise, you’ll spend months/years building out a failed program. Your customers could have told you that if you just asked them. - You want to massively scale your channel program for agencies, brokers, accountants, etc. You guessed it, talk to your current channel partners who are already working with you. Why did they choose you and not competitors? Talk to those who you lost in the sales cycle as well - why did they chose a competitor, what can you do better? And spend massive amounts of time looking at successful competitors and how they build up their channel programs - typically there’s a playbook you can follow but it starts with talking to the target customer and getting a deep understanding of their needs. - You want to add the new hot “embedded fintech” offering to your platform. Talk to your customers - how do they solve this JTBD today? Would they trust you in solving this problem for them? What would they be willing to pay, what features would you need to have for it to be successful? Go talk to two companies that have actually implemented the offering themselves - what did they learn? The last thing you want is to spend a year working on some partnership or product offering that completely fails for an obvious reason - customers simply didn’t want it. 

Many software entrepreneurs face a common fear: sales. They often conjure images of pushy tactics and insincerity, leading founders to shy away from this crucial aspect of business. However, there's a paradigm shift occurring in the SaaS industry. Modern sales isn't about tricks or pressure; it's about creating value and solving problems. You can drive revenue without resorting to traditional 'selling' techniques. The key? Focus on helping your potential clients. By understanding their needs and demonstrating how your solution addresses their pain points, you naturally guide them toward a purchase decision. This approach aligns perfectly with the SaaS model, where long-term client success is paramount. Remember, in today's market, authenticity and genuine problem-solving are your most powerful sales tools. #SaaSFounders #B2BMarketing #ITSales #ITLeadgeneration

Software Dev Founders are achieving exponential growth with Outbound. Honestly, the best part about leveraging outbound is reaching 'dream' prospects and 'perfect fit' clients at scale. Growth becomes simple when you have an abundance of opportunities in your sales pipeline. Very rarely do I speak with Founders doing over $5M that are not leveraging outbound to grow their businesses. Many have overlooked leveraging outbound and have instead focused on referrals and existing demand to grow, which is a common mistake made. Consistent and predictable revenue growth is made simple when you understand how to leverage outbound correctly. Generating 30+ qualified 'perfect fit' opportunities on 95% auto-pilot will transform your business. If you're planning a big 2025, shoot me a DM and I can provide more info about how to implement this within your business and share proof it works.

Have you properly defined your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)? The majority of companies I speak to, startups to enterprise, don't have a properly defined ICP/most valuable customer. Why does this matter? Not all customers are created equal. There are subsets of your customers who convert better, use your product more, churn less, and are more profitable. You need more of them. Sales/Marketing teams need to understand who their ICP is, finance teams should be willing to pay more to acquire & retain them. TLDR - without a properly defined ICP, you're wasting money - acquiring the wrong customers and not doing enough to keep the right ones.

NextBillion.ai's first pre paid 6 figure US enterprise #saas deal ✅ Timeline- 6 months. Inbound lead. Sharing our learnings. Nothing I'm going to say is new info. But navigating a large company can be complex and there is an obvious element of luck involved. - Local, senior on ground presence is game changing. Not founder but senior sales and solutions team to build trust with end customer - Multiple layers involved in decision making right tech, product, business, legal and procurement. Last signature can take 4 weeks - Multiple certifications needed. IT and security is taken very seriously. Having enough runway is keen. Can't expect to sign a large company with 12 months left because they expect multi year collaboration - Multiple touchpoints throughout the sales cycle right from founder meetings to event representations. Most critical learning in true US enterprise deals is building trust than having a great product - Talk about roadmap more than product features. Large enterprises plan 2-3 years ahead so you have to fit into their future plans rather than the present - Patience, patience, patience. Critical to keep check on internal teams but let them manage stakeholders according to their relationship. You cannot force a deal - Product has to check out. No charity out there, you have to be better than the incumbent, be technologically sound and provide stellar support because a lot of trust is going into this engagement and someone's job is potentially on the line for choosing a startup Large companies are finally understanding the #api world. Everyone has developers now so building inside is becoming a norm than licensing heavy software solutions that involve multiple months of time wastage. Hopefully our thesis plays out more in the US but more to come in the coming months! #sales #learnings

 🚀 Boost Your Business Efficiency with ZixFlow! 🚀 Are you struggling with manual document approvals and endless email chains? It's time to simplify your workflow with ZixFlow! ZixFlow streamlines your document approval process, ensuring faster, more secure, and more efficient approvals. No more bottlenecks or lost emails—just smooth, automated workflows. 🌟 Key Features: Seamless document approval automation Customizable workflows to fit your needs Real-time tracking and notifications Secure and compliant with industry standards Transform the way you manage approvals and elevate your business operations with ZixFlow. Click here to learn more! https://lnkd.in/g5DFF2Wp #WorkflowAutomation #BusinessEfficiency #DocumentManagement

Want to learn how to upsell your products? Upselling your products are highly beneficial for businesses because: -You’ll most likely market to existing clients, which are more cost-effective to sell to -Your customers will benefit in the added services they’ll gain from your products -Repeat customers are easier to sell to and tend to spend more Our client, as featured below, learned how to upsell another software product through their new B2B website which was an awesome achievement in itself. The cherry on top was they were able to do it completely hands-off! Wins like these are achievable with the right mindset and the right group of people pushing you forward and helping you with your game plan. This is what we do at Focused Founder. Our main goal is to help tech founders in: -Sustainably earning 7-9 figures in revenue -Having a significant increase tin their business’ valuation -Finding the right investors to expand and scale their business If you think these are all applicable to you, let us know by commenting “UPSELL” below.