
Enterprise Sales with Pete Koomen | Startup School
Y Combinator Partner Pete Koomen led his startup, Optimizely, to $100M ARR. In this video, Pete breaks down the enterprise sales funnel and shares his top tips on how a technical founder can start closing real deals for their startup.
Table of Contents
🚀 Can Technical Founders Actually Sell Enterprise Software?
Why Founders Must Lead Sales Before Product-Market Fit
Pete Koomen, YC Group Partner and co-founder of Optimizely, challenges the common assumption that technical founders need to hire salespeople or find business co-founders to handle sales.
The Counterintuitive Truth About Technical Founders:
- You're the only person capable of selling your product initially - If you can't sell it yourself, you won't be able to hire someone else to do it effectively
- Technical expertise is a massive sales advantage - Your deep understanding of both the problem and solution gives you credibility that professional salespeople lack
- Conviction matters more than sales tricks - Your genuine belief in your product's ability to solve customer problems is surprisingly powerful
Why Pre-PMF Sales is Different:
- Entrepreneurial by nature - Requires vision, credibility, and constant experimentation
- Tight feedback loop needed - Direct connection between customer insights and product development
- Founders have unique advantages - Expertise in the problem space plus authentic conviction
"Sales isn't about tricking people - it's fundamentally about helping people solve their problems, and Engineers are great at doing that." - Pete Koomen
The Reality Check:
- Sales is learnable - Pete and his co-founder Dan both had technical backgrounds and figured it out through trial and error
- You don't need a business co-founder - Many technical founders turn out to be great at selling, often to their surprise
- It's about problem-solving - Not psychological tricks or dark arts
🎯 How Do You Find Your First Enterprise Customers?
The Art of Prospecting: From Hypothesis to Target List
Prospecting is the foundation of enterprise sales - finding potential customers who actually need your product and identifying the specific humans who can buy it.
The Essential Sales Hypothesis Framework:
"Customer X has problem Y and our product will help them solve it"
Optimizely's Original Hypothesis:
"Marketers at small and medium Tech, media, and e-commerce companies want to run AB tests on their websites but they can't because off-the-shelf experimentation tools require users to write code. Optimizely will enable them to run AB tests without writing code." - Pete Koomen
Step-by-Step Prospecting Process:
1. Identify Target Companies:
- Buy industry lists - Get comprehensive lists of companies in your target sector
- Apply filtering criteria - Use tools and signals to qualify prospects
- Look for sophistication indicators - At Optimizely, they used BuiltWith to identify companies using analytics tools and JavaScript frameworks
2. Find the Right Humans:
- Locate decision makers - Identify specific people who can actually buy your product
- Gather contact information - Use tools to find email addresses and phone numbers
- Current tools mentioned - Apollo and LinkedIn Sales Navigator are popular among current YC batch companies
Why a Clear Hypothesis Makes Everything Easier:
- Clarifies your target - You know exactly who to talk to
- Focuses your efforts - Eliminates wasted time on unqualified prospects
- Guides your messaging - You understand the specific problem you're solving
📧 What's the Best Way to Get Prospects to Take Your Meeting?
Outreach Strategy: Making Inbound Your Secret Weapon
The goal of outreach is simple: schedule a meeting with your prospect. But the most effective approach isn't what most founders think.
The Inbound Advantage:
The easiest way to get a meeting is to get prospects to reach out to you first
Building Inbound Demand:
- Launch early and often - Create visibility and momentum in the market
- Create technical content - Videos and blog posts that prospects find while searching for solutions
- Build self-served demos - Shareable demonstrations that showcase your product's value
- Establish expertise in forums - Answer questions where your customers hang out online
- Industry conferences - Be where your customers gather, with pre-scheduled meetings
When You Must Go Outbound:
Warm Introductions (Most Effective):
- Use LinkedIn - Look for shared connections
- Ask for intros - Leverage your network for warm referrals
- Much higher success rate - People respond better to introductions than cold outreach
Cold Email Best Practices:
- Write each email by hand - No mass templates or automation
- Keep it short and clear - Respect their time with concise messaging
- Make the ask obvious - Don't make them guess what you want
- Explain why you're reaching out to them specifically - Show you've done your homework
The Spam Filter Test:
"Humans have built-in spam filters and if your email looks like it was sent to thousands of people it's going to get deleted." - Pete Koomen
Conference Strategy:
- Get attendee lists in advance - Don't leave meetings to chance
- Pre-schedule meetings - Maximize your time and ensure face-to-face conversations
- Be strategic about presence - If your customers are there, you should be too
💎 Key Insights
Essential Insights:
- Technical founders have unique sales advantages - Deep product knowledge and authentic conviction matter more than traditional sales skills
- Pre-PMF sales requires founders - The entrepreneurial nature of early sales makes it unsuitable for hired salespeople
- Inbound beats outbound - Getting prospects to reach out to you is far more efficient than cold outreach
Actionable Insights:
- Start with a clear sales hypothesis - Define exactly who has the problem you're solving
- Use filtering tools strategically - Qualify prospects based on sophistication indicators relevant to your product
- Prioritize warm introductions - Always look for shared connections before going cold
- Build expertise visibility - Create content and engage in forums where your customers seek solutions
📚 References
People Mentioned:
- Pete Koomen - YC Group Partner and co-founder/CTO of Optimizely (Winter 2010 batch)
- Dan Siroker - Co-founder of Optimizely, mentioned as having technical background like Pete
Companies & Products:
- Optimizely - A/B testing platform co-founded by Pete Koomen, reached $100M ARR
- BuiltWith - Tool used to identify what technologies companies use on their websites
- Apollo - Prospecting tool popular among current YC batch companies
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator - Professional networking tool for finding prospects and connections
Technologies & Tools:
- Analytics tools - Used as sophistication indicators for prospect qualification
- JavaScript Frameworks - Another signal of technical sophistication at target companies
- Industry lists - Purchased databases of companies in specific sectors
- Self-served demos - Product demonstrations that prospects can access independently
Concepts & Frameworks:
- Sales Hypothesis - "Customer X has problem Y and our product will help them solve it"
- Product-Market Fit (PMF) - The distinction between sales before and after achieving PMF
- Inbound vs. Outbound - Different approaches to generating prospect interest and meetings
📧 Would You Be Excited to Read Your Own Cold Email?
The Simple Test That Separates Good Outreach from Spam
Before hitting send on any cold email, Pete Koomen shares a simple but powerful litmus test that can dramatically improve your response rates.
The Golden Rule of Cold Emails:
"Only send emails that you yourself would be excited to read. If you wouldn't be excited to get the email you're about to send, your prospect probably won't either." - Pete Koomen
Why This Test Works:
- Forces genuine value - You can't fake excitement about valueless content
- Eliminates generic messaging - Template emails rarely pass this test
- Ensures relevance - You naturally focus on what matters to the recipient
- Builds empathy - You start thinking from the prospect's perspective
The Anti-Pattern That Kills Sales Efficiency:
Talking to anyone who will take your call instead of the right people
The Dangerous Trap of Easy Conversations:
- Selects for availability, not quality - People who respond quickly aren't necessarily good customers
- Creates false progress - You feel busy and productive while accomplishing nothing
- Wastes valuable time - Energy spent on bad prospects can't be used on good ones
- Generates useless feedback - Insights from people who won't buy are often counterproductive
"Talking to bad customers gives you the illusion that you're making progress when you're not. You'll get lots of great product feedback from people who think they're doing you a favor, but because you're not actually talking to someone who needs your product, this kind of feedback is useless at best and counterproductive at worst." - Pete Koomen
🎯 Are You Selling to the Wrong Companies Without Realizing It?
Two Common Mistakes That Sabotage Enterprise Sales
Even disciplined founders fall into predictable traps when choosing prospects. Pete identifies the two most common ways founders waste time on the wrong customers.
Mistake #1: Selling Enterprise Software to Startups
Why This Happens:
- Accessibility bias - Other startups are much easier to reach than busy big company executives
- Comfort zone - Founders feel more comfortable talking to other founders
- Lower barrier to entry - Startups will take calls that enterprises won't
When This Is Wrong:
If your product solves problems that only exist when companies get big (like HR information systems), selling to startups is fundamentally flawed.
Mistake #2: Going Bottom-Up with Top-Down Products
Bottom-Up Products (Like Notion):
- Individual adoption - Employees or teams can start using independently
- No coordination needed - Works without company-wide approval
- Individual contributors as contacts - Direct managers are valid prospects
Top-Down Products (Like Hospital Software):
- Multiple team coordination required - Various departments must work together
- Senior leadership approval needed - CIO for security, CFO for budget decisions
- Complex integration - Requires software team involvement, ops management, etc.
"In this case talking to an individual doctor won't be useful - you need to talk to a senior leader like a CFO or a CIO to do a deal." - Pete Koomen
The YC Misconception Clarified:
"YC says you should sell to companies who will buy quickly even if they aren't good customers"
The Real Advice:
- Find companies that will buy quickly
- Don't spend time on companies that don't need your product
- Focus on prospects with problem + budget + authority
Essential Qualification Criteria:
- They have the problem you're solving
- They have budget to buy your product
- They have decision-making authority
🤔 What Should You Actually Do on Your First Sales Call?
Why Your Job Isn't to Sell (Yet) - It's to Listen and Qualify
Most founders approach their first call completely wrong. Pete reveals the two specific goals that should drive every initial conversation.
Your First Call Has Only Two Goals:
Goal #1: Qualify Your Prospect
Determine if they have:
- The problem you're trying to solve
- Budget to purchase a solution
- Decision-making authority to buy
Goal #2: Schedule a Follow-Up Demo
If they qualify, earn the right to show your product
The Biggest Founder Sales Mistake:
Not asking enough questions
Why Founders Make This Mistake:
- Misunderstand the sales process - Think of it as adversarial combat
- View companies as monolithic entities - Miss the human element
- Believe in the "perfect pitch" - Think they need to break down defenses
"They think of the sales process as adversarial where it's their job to come up with a perfect pitch that will break down their target's defenses. But outside of some used car dealerships, that's not how sales works in the real world." - Pete Koomen
The Reality of Effective Sales:
You're Selling to Humans, Not Companies:
- Humans are easier to understand than organizations
- Individual motivations matter more than corporate policies
- Personal problems drive purchasing decisions
Sales Is About Understanding, Not Convincing:
"In the real world, sales is not adversarial - it's about deeply understanding a customer's problem and helping them solve it. Great salespeople spend most of their time listening because that's the best way to understand someone's problem." - Pete Koomen
Essential Qualification Questions:
- What made you decide to take this call?
- Tell me about this problem - how long have you had it?
- How bad is it? Who else does it affect?
- How do you quantify the impact?
- Why haven't you solved it already?
- What's your budget for solving it?
- How does your organization buy software?
- Who makes the buying decision?
- Who else will need to weigh in on this decision?
The Beautiful Outcome of Good Qualification:
Sometimes you discover they're not a good fit - and that's great! You save time for both parties and can focus on better prospects.
🎬 How Do You Turn a Product Demo into a Compelling Story?
Why Great Demos Feel Like Movies, Not Feature Tours
Most founders think demos are about showing off their product. Pete reveals why the best demos are actually carefully crafted stories that focus on the customer's problem.
The Demo Mindset Shift:
Your job is not to show off your product - it's to convince your audience that you can help them solve their problem.
The Movie Script Framework:
1. Start with Character and Problem:
- Recap who the main character is - That's your user
- Define the problem they're trying to solve - This demonstrates your listening skills
- Prove you understand their company - If they believe you get their problems, they'll take your solution seriously
2. Tell a Problem-Solving Story:
- Resist the feature tour urge - Don't walk screen-to-screen showing everything
- Focus on story flow - Each step should lead naturally to the next
- Show clear purpose - Every feature has a reason for being there
"Great demos actually feel like good stories - they have a flow where each step leads to the next and every feature you show has a clear reason for being there." - Pete Koomen
Elements of Great Demos:
Magic Moments:
- Surprise your audience - Show how easy or delightful something can be
- Create "wow" experiences - Moments that shift their perception
- Demonstrate unexpected value - Go beyond what they thought was possible
Personalization:
- Use their actual data - When possible, customize the demo with their information
- Address their specific problems - Reference the challenges they mentioned in qualification
- Show relevant use cases - Focus on scenarios that match their situation
Story Structure:
- Clear narrative arc - Beginning (problem), middle (solution), end (outcome)
- Logical progression - Each feature builds on the previous one
- Compelling conclusion - End with clear next steps and value proposition
💎 Key Insights
Essential Insights:
- Quality over accessibility in prospecting - Easy-to-reach prospects are often the worst customers; discipline in target selection prevents wasted effort
- Sales is fundamentally about listening - Great salespeople spend most of their time understanding problems, not pitching solutions
- Demos should tell stories, not showcase features - The best demonstrations feel like compelling narratives with clear character arcs and magic moments
Actionable Insights:
- Apply the email excitement test - Only send cold emails that you yourself would be excited to receive
- Ask qualification questions systematically - Use Pete's question framework to understand problem, budget, and decision-making authority
- Structure demos like movie scripts - Start with character and problem, then show how your product creates a satisfying resolution
- Personalize every demo - Use their specific challenges and data to make the story feel relevant and compelling
📚 References
Companies & Products:
- Notion - Example of bottom-up product adoption where individuals and teams can start using independently
- HR Information Systems - Example of enterprise software that only makes sense for larger companies
- Hospital Software - Example of top-down product requiring multiple team coordination and senior leadership approval
Concepts & Frameworks:
- Bottom-Up vs Top-Down Adoption - Different approaches to product implementation within organizations
- Qualification Criteria - Problem + Budget + Decision-making Authority framework
- Movie Script Demo Framework - Structuring product demonstrations as compelling narratives
- Magic Moments - Specific points in demos that surprise and delight prospects
- Feature Tour Anti-Pattern - The common mistake of walking through every product capability
Sales Methodology:
- Adversarial vs Collaborative Sales - Understanding sales as problem-solving rather than persuasion combat
- Qualification Questions Framework - Systematic approach to understanding prospect fit and buying process
- Demo Personalization - Customizing product demonstrations with prospect-specific data and use cases
🎨 How Do You Make Prospects See Themselves Using Your Product?
The Power of Personalized Demos That Feel Real
The best demos don't show your product in a sterile environment - they show it working in the prospect's actual world.
The Personalization Strategy:
Use everything you collected during qualification to make the demo feel authentic:
Customization Elements:
- Their company logo - Make it feel like their software
- Their actual website - Show real improvements, not theoretical ones
- Their customers - Reference their actual client base
- Names of their team members - Use real people in scenarios
- Their specific challenges - Address problems they mentioned
"The more you can do to help them visualize exactly how your product would work in their company, the better." - Pete Koomen
The Optimizely Demo Innovation:
When Dan and Pete were building Optimizely, they noticed something that changed everything:
The Problem:
Every competitor used dummy websites to demonstrate A/B testing tools - Generic, irrelevant examples that felt disconnected from reality.
Their Solution:
Built a feature specifically for demoing on customers' actual websites - Spent weeks creating the ability to run live demos on prospects' real landing pages.
The Magic Moment:
"I knew it was worth it when I saw marketer's eyes light up when they watched us change things on their landing page that would have taken them months to do on their own." - Pete Koomen
Why This Approach Works:
- Eliminates imagination gap - They don't have to translate generic examples to their situation
- Creates emotional connection - Seeing their own content transformed is powerful
- Demonstrates real value - Shows actual improvements they could achieve
- Builds confidence - Proves the product works in their environment
💰 Is There a Secret Formula for Enterprise Software Pricing?
Why Pricing Is an Experiment, Not a Calculation
Most founders agonize over finding the "right" price. Pete reveals why there's no formula and shares a better approach.
The Uncomfortable Truth:
"There isn't a simple formula for doing this... the reality is that pricing involves a lot of guessing in the beginning." - Pete Koomen
The Experimental Approach:
Think of each pricing conversation as an opportunity to run an experiment where you test a price point and learn from your prospect's reaction.
Essential Pricing Questions:
- How much is this problem costing your company?
- How many people are responsible for maintaining your in-house solution?
- What's your budget for solving this problem?
- How much are you spending on my competitor?
Strategic Timing:
- Wait to share pricing until you've asked these questions
- For complex implementations - Don't quote until you understand exact requirements
- Use unpublished pricing - Gives flexibility to experiment
The Biggest Pricing Mistake:
Charging too little or making it free in exchange for feedback
Why Founders Underprice:
- Fear of scaring customers away - Worry that high prices will end conversations
- Lack of confidence - Don't believe in their product's value
- Misunderstand customer psychology - Think price is the primary objection
The Surprising Reality of High Prices:
The $10,000 to $2,000 Story:
Pete shares a powerful example from Optimizely's early days:
"I remember my co-founder Dan coming out of a sales call and telling me that he'd worked up the nerve to quote the prospect $10,000 a month for our software, and the prospect ended up talking us down to $2,000 a month and then buying. Our initial quote was 5x what they were willing to pay and they still bought." - Pete Koomen
Why High Prices Actually Help:
- Test real need - If they negotiate but still buy, they truly need your product
- Attract serious customers - High prices filter for prospects with genuine problems
- Focus on desperate buyers - Like Stripe's strategy of charging more than competitors initially
"Higher prices can help you figure out whether customers actually need your product... High prices make customers more serious." - Pete Koomen
The Stripe Example:
The Collison brothers famously charged more for Stripe in the beginning than their competition did. The fact that they were able to sell their product anyway was compelling evidence that they were on to something.
Practical Pricing Advice:
- Pick a number that makes you uncomfortable - If it feels safe, it's probably too low
- Pay attention to reactions - Learn from how prospects respond
- Allow negotiation - Let them talk you down while still buying
- Optimize for learning - In early sales, insights matter more than unit economics
Supporting Your Champion:
Remember that the most important conversations about pricing will happen without you in the room.
Help Your Internal Champion:
- Provide slides or PDF one-pagers - Explain how pricing works
- Include product overview - For stakeholders unfamiliar with your solution
- Show clear benefits - Make it easy for them to justify the investment
🎯 What Happens After They Say Yes to Your Price?
Why Closing Is a Process, Not a Moment
Most founders think closing means getting agreement on price. Pete reveals why the real work is just beginning.
The Reality of Enterprise Closing:
Closing is not a single conversation - it's a bunch of things that need to happen from the moment your customer decides they want your product to the moment they actually buy it.
The Enterprise Procurement Gauntlet:
Big Company Requirements:
- Security and privacy reviews - Technical teams evaluate your infrastructure
- Legal reviews - Contracts must be approved by legal departments
- Compliance team signoff - Regulatory requirements in highly regulated industries
- Redlining process - Contract terms negotiation with their legal team
The Founder's Biggest Mistake:
Getting surprised and discovering that what they thought was a done deal is in fact not done at all and may take weeks or months of additional back and forth or fall through completely.
Avoiding Procurement Surprises:
Ask the Right Questions Early:
- How does your organization buy software?
- Who needs to sign off on this decision?
- What's your typical procurement timeline?
- Are there security questionnaires we should start early?
Parallel Processing Strategy:
- Identify steps that can run in parallel - Don't wait for sequential approvals
- Start security questionnaires early - These often take weeks to complete
- Engage legal teams proactively - Get contract discussions started
Streamlining Your Process:
Keep Legal Simple:
- Start with open-source templates - YC company Common Paper provides good starting points
- Separate timelines from contracts - Put project details in order forms or tracking documents
- Minimize custom terms - Reduce friction wherever possible
Leverage Your Champion:
"Remember that your prospect, who at this point has become your Champion, is your biggest ally. You should be in constant communication with them, and when you need help getting something unstuck, you should ask them first. Remember they can't solve their problem until you get through procurement, so they're heavily incentivized to help you make it happen." - Pete Koomen
Your Champion's Motivation:
They can't solve their problem until you get through procurement - They want this to work as much as you do.
🚀 Is Getting the Signature Actually the End of Your Sales Process?
The Critical Mistake That Kills Customer Success
Most founders think their job ends when the contract is signed. Pete shares why implementation is actually the most important part of the entire sales process.
The Devastating Founder Mistake:
"The single biggest mistake that Founders make is thinking that implementation is the customer's job." - Pete Koomen
The Optimizely Wake-Up Call:
The Shocking Discovery:
Optimizely closed six-figure deals with excited customers, then discovered a year later when it was time to renew that they hadn't run a single A/B test.
The Surface Problem:
The marketing team who bought the software couldn't convince the engineering team to help them install it on their website.
The Real Problem:
"We didn't do our jobs. We thought our customer was buying a product, so we sold them one and left the rest up to them. In reality, our customers were buying a solution to a problem, and all of the work required to get from product to solution was our responsibility." - Pete Koomen
The Product vs. Solution Mindset Shift:
What Customers Actually Buy:
- Not a product - They don't want software for its own sake
- A solution to their problem - They want their problem solved completely
- Implementation included - All work from purchase to value realization
Your True Responsibility:
Everything required to get from product to solution - Not just delivery, but successful implementation and adoption.
The Implementation Success Framework:
Start Early in Sales Process:
- Ask about implementation requirements - Understand technical needs upfront
- Build detailed implementation plans - Include both marketing and engineering leaders
- Get buy-in before contract signature - No deal without implementation agreement
Treat It Like an Internal Project:
"The trick we learned was to treat the customer implementation the same way that we would a high priority project inside of our own company - by project managing it." - Pete Koomen
Project Management Elements:
- Shared roadmap - Clear timeline visible to all stakeholders
- Task ownership - Every item has a responsible person assigned
- Regular check-in meetings - Hold both sides accountable for progress
- Milestone tracking - Measure progress toward full implementation
The Success Criteria:
Your sales funnel only really ends when your customer is using your product habitually.
The Ultimate Goal:
When you get implementation right: "Congratulations, hopefully you have a customer for life."
🎓 What's the One Thing Every Founder Should Remember About Enterprise Sales?
The Final Wisdom from a $100M ARR Journey
After walking through the entire enterprise sales funnel, Pete distills everything down to one essential message for founders.
The Complete Sales Journey Recap:
We've covered the full funnel from prospecting → outreach → qualification → demo → pricing → closing → implementation
The Learning Path:
There's so much more to learn about sales, and the best founders devour everything they can on the topic.
Recommended Deep Dive:
Peter Kazanjy's book "Founding Sales" - A fantastic resource that's available free online
The Core Message:
"Like most of the hard things about building a company, the best way to learn is by going out and doing the thing. So if you only remember one thing, it should be this: just get started." - Pete Koomen
The Learning Process:
- You'll make mistakes - This is normal and expected
- With enough attempts - Persistence leads to competence
- Selling will start to feel natural - It becomes second nature over time
The Unexpected Superpower:
You'll discover that you've acquired a new superpower - Sales skills become valuable far beyond customer acquisition.
Broader Applications:
- Getting customers and revenue - The obvious primary benefit
- Fundraising - Investors are prospects who need to buy your vision
- Hiring - Candidates need to be sold on joining your company
The Full Circle Moment:
Soon enough, you'll be the one giving advice like this to new founders.
The Ultimate Truth:
Sales is a learnable skill that transforms technical founders into complete entrepreneurs. The journey from not knowing how to sell to teaching others how to sell is both achievable and inevitable with the right approach and persistence.
💎 Key Insights
Essential Insights:
- Personalized demos create magical moments - Using customers' actual logos, websites, and data transforms demonstrations from generic pitches into compelling visions of their future
- Pricing is experimentation, not calculation - There's no formula; each conversation is a chance to test price points and learn from reactions while optimizing for insights over perfect unit economics
- Implementation is your responsibility, not theirs - Customers buy solutions to problems, not products; your job extends through successful adoption and habitual usage
Actionable Insights:
- Make demos feel real - Customize every demonstration with their actual company assets and use cases
- Start pricing conversations uncomfortably high - If the price doesn't make you nervous, it's probably too low; let customers negotiate down while still closing
- Project manage customer implementations - Treat their success like a high-priority internal project with shared roadmaps, task ownership, and regular check-ins
- Ask procurement questions early - Understand their buying process upfront to avoid surprises that can derail deals for weeks or months
📚 References
People Mentioned:
- Peter Kazanjy - Author of "Founding Sales," recommended as essential reading for founders learning to sell
- Dan Siroker - Pete's co-founder at Optimizely, featured in pricing negotiation example
- The Collison Brothers - Stripe co-founders, cited for strategic high pricing approach in early days
Companies & Products:
- Optimizely - Pete's company, reached $100M ARR; examples throughout the pricing and implementation sections
- Stripe - Payment processing company that initially charged more than competitors to validate market need
- Common Paper - YC company providing open-source legal templates for startups
Books & Publications:
- Founding Sales - Peter Kazanjy's comprehensive guide to enterprise sales for founders, available free online
Technologies & Tools:
- A/B Testing Tools - Category of software that Optimizely competed in, with most competitors using dummy websites for demos
- Security Questionnaires - Standard procurement requirement that can be started early in the sales process
- Order Forms - Recommended alternative to putting timelines and scope in legal contracts
Concepts & Frameworks:
- Product vs. Solution Mindset - Critical distinction between selling software and solving customer problems completely
- Procurement Process - Formal buying procedures in large companies including security, legal, and compliance reviews
- Implementation Project Management - Treating customer success like internal high-priority projects with shared roadmaps and accountability
- Pricing Experimentation - Approach to pricing as hypothesis testing rather than formula-based calculation