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Founding Sales - The Startup Sales Handbook
Founding Sales is a book on startup sales for founders and other first-time sales staff written by Pete Kazanjy, founder of Atrium Sales Analytics and the Modern Sales Leadership and Operations Community.
This book is the distillation of Pete’s experience at his first software startup, TalentBin going from a founder with a product marketing and product management background to early sales guy, early sales manager, and eventual post-acquisition sales leader at Monster Worldwide in addition to his later experience founding Modern Sales, the nation’s largest sales operations, enablement, and leadership community.
The book’s goal is to accelerate the learning and success of those who find themselves in a similar spot Pete did in early 2011—don’t know much about B2B sales, and need to figure it out in a hurry.
This book is the distillation of Pete’s experience at his first software startup, TalentBin going from a founder with a product marketing and product management background to early sales guy, early sales manager, and eventual post-acquisition sales leader at Monster Worldwide in addition to his later experience founding Modern Sales, the nation’s largest sales operations, enablement, and leadership community.
The book’s goal is to accelerate the learning and success of those who find themselves in a similar spot Pete did in early 2011—don’t know much about B2B sales, and need to figure it out in a hurry.
- GenresBusinessEntrepreneurship
400 pages, Paperback
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 14, 2021
Stop reading reviews, and just buy this book now - you're wasting your time doing anything else. My co-founder and I used Founding Sales as our go-to-market playbook, and I'm entirely confident that we wouldn't be as successful as we are today without it. It is hands down one of the most applicable book you will have on your bookshelf. It leaves all of the fluffy nonsense that most "sales leaders" are peddling and instead focuses on different milestones and how to actually get there as you grow your business.
December 1, 2020
One of the best business books of the last 5 years. No other book I have found offers descript sales and business building tactics for startups as well as Founding Sales. I asked my team of experienced sellers to read this as the foundations Peter presents are helpful to new and experienced sellers.
December 30, 2020
This is a practical guide for startup founders responsible for sales. Kazanjy breaks down the process of when to do what and provides a lot of nuts and bolts advice. I found his writing to be more helpful for an early stage company than for instance Bob Tinker's Survival to Thrival and found it more of a founder's guide than typical sales books. Recommended.
January 10, 2021
Founding Sales is one of the best books I've read on the fundamentals of growing sales and building a world class sales organization from the ground level. The overarching philosophies coupled with the tactical examples of implementation provide strong foundation for entrepreneurs, investors, and salespeople within any organization.
November 30, 2020
This book is a must-read for any early-stage founder or sales leader. Even if you think you have everything figured out today, check out this book for insights and frameworks that might help today, but will definitely help as you scale your sales org.
November 29, 2020
Might as well be the Startup Sales Bible. Pete breaks down everything founders need to know to be successful with one of the most misunderstood disciplines in business-building: sales.
December 10, 2023
Has some excellent first-hand advice by a founder who developed his sales muscle. This book, with a free HTML version on the internet , should be considered Kazanjy's gift to the startup ecosystem.
There is hardly any hollow or cliched stuff in there - most of the it connects. Of course, your mileage is bound to wary. Nevertheless, it is a breath of fresh air compared to the self-congratulatory, shallow "How I did it is the only way it can done" startup literature out there. There are parts of it that seem already dated - especially the ones that talk about SaaS tools (no surprises there) but, by and large, "Founding Sales" has some truly timeless advice for tech entrepreneurs faced with the daunting sales task that have face sooner or later.
My only gripe is that it covers too much ground - from initial founder-led sales to building a high-impact sales org. It is hard to read in one sitting, especially if you cannot relate to the post-success scenarios. But I suppose it also means it is worth coming back to when you eventually reach that stage.
There is hardly any hollow or cliched stuff in there - most of the it connects. Of course, your mileage is bound to wary. Nevertheless, it is a breath of fresh air compared to the self-congratulatory, shallow "How I did it is the only way it can done" startup literature out there. There are parts of it that seem already dated - especially the ones that talk about SaaS tools (no surprises there) but, by and large, "Founding Sales" has some truly timeless advice for tech entrepreneurs faced with the daunting sales task that have face sooner or later.
My only gripe is that it covers too much ground - from initial founder-led sales to building a high-impact sales org. It is hard to read in one sitting, especially if you cannot relate to the post-success scenarios. But I suppose it also means it is worth coming back to when you eventually reach that stage.
December 6, 2020
Founding Sales should be required reading for any early stage B2B founder or sales leader(s).
Most books pontificate and paint broad brush strokes of inaction-able advice. Founding Sales gives you tactical steps you can start implementing with 10 minutes of reading. And it is guaranteed to help you improve your go-to-market motion.
Plus it is a resource you can keep coming back to as the chapters are highly descriptive and the book covers all the topics that are likely to keep a founder tossing and turning at night with those 3 AM worries.
This is the best investment you could make in yourself, your business and your team if you are building a B2B business.
Also, you should get to know Pete and sign up for a demo of AtriumHQ, you won’t regret it!
Most books pontificate and paint broad brush strokes of inaction-able advice. Founding Sales gives you tactical steps you can start implementing with 10 minutes of reading. And it is guaranteed to help you improve your go-to-market motion.
Plus it is a resource you can keep coming back to as the chapters are highly descriptive and the book covers all the topics that are likely to keep a founder tossing and turning at night with those 3 AM worries.
This is the best investment you could make in yourself, your business and your team if you are building a B2B business.
Also, you should get to know Pete and sign up for a demo of AtriumHQ, you won’t regret it!
December 3, 2020
Peter has done a fantastic job in creating this high vale handbook.
If you are either working for a pre/post product-market-fit startup or an enterprise SaaS attempting a bottoms-up self-serve strategy this would be a must read.
Each chapter in this book cuts into a critical phase of your product's lifecycle in a non-preachy, grounded and practical manner.
It is critical to understand and define a metric-driven process to track for successful outcome in sales.
Use this book to educate yourself and and your teams.
If you are either working for a pre/post product-market-fit startup or an enterprise SaaS attempting a bottoms-up self-serve strategy this would be a must read.
Each chapter in this book cuts into a critical phase of your product's lifecycle in a non-preachy, grounded and practical manner.
It is critical to understand and define a metric-driven process to track for successful outcome in sales.
Use this book to educate yourself and and your teams.
April 17, 2024
I had been eager to read this book for over a year. I kept postponing reading it since it wasn't available on Audible, and buying it was expensive. Recently, I purchased it as an audiobook and a Kindle book and finished it in a week. I found the book valuable because I am a founder trying to learn B2B sales.
This book covers everything from the basics of prospecting to qualifying leads, making sales calls, conducting demos, crafting pitches, preparing proposals, negotiating, ensuring customer success, managing contracts, and managing a sales team. The author's examples from his startups and Salesforce were helpful.
I specifically wanted to learn more about prospecting: what messages to send, whom to send them to, and which channels to use to contact prospective clients. This book provided insights into one way to do it.
I had to adapt its recommendations because the book is geared toward B2B SaaS, whereas I am selling B2B consulting services. I still have gaps in my knowledge around refining my consulting niche and applying these principles to consulting, where trust comes before product benefits. I love the book and rate its impact as 4 out of 5.
I wish there were a GPT chatbot I could ask to get answers from this book.
This book covers everything from the basics of prospecting to qualifying leads, making sales calls, conducting demos, crafting pitches, preparing proposals, negotiating, ensuring customer success, managing contracts, and managing a sales team. The author's examples from his startups and Salesforce were helpful.
I specifically wanted to learn more about prospecting: what messages to send, whom to send them to, and which channels to use to contact prospective clients. This book provided insights into one way to do it.
I had to adapt its recommendations because the book is geared toward B2B SaaS, whereas I am selling B2B consulting services. I still have gaps in my knowledge around refining my consulting niche and applying these principles to consulting, where trust comes before product benefits. I love the book and rate its impact as 4 out of 5.
I wish there were a GPT chatbot I could ask to get answers from this book.
January 25, 2021
I've been doing sales in one form or another for 20 years. For the last five years I've been coaching sales reps and founding CEOs. This book brings everything together in a practical sequence with terrific real world examples.
I also give it a lot of credit because it goes beyond just "sales" as it gets into product marketing, sales enablement, customer success, hiring, management, etc. It's literally everything a first time startup founder or VP of Sales needs to take a product to market!
I also give it a lot of credit because it goes beyond just "sales" as it gets into product marketing, sales enablement, customer success, hiring, management, etc. It's literally everything a first time startup founder or VP of Sales needs to take a product to market!
November 1, 2022
Made me realise how inaccurate my understanding of sales was.
There is no such thing as being a good salesmen or not, especially in early stages of your startup.
You need to roll up your sleeves and approach sales in a structured way.
Wish I read this earlier in my journey!
There is no such thing as being a good salesmen or not, especially in early stages of your startup.
You need to roll up your sleeves and approach sales in a structured way.
Wish I read this earlier in my journey!
August 17, 2020
Ранние продажи основателями и масштабирование. Тема интересная, но вся книга повторяет уже написанное в других книгах, которые в общем-то указаны в рекомендуемых
December 13, 2020
Incredibly hands-on, lots of practical advice for both sales and marketing teams.
February 14, 2021
Read it online, then bought the hard copy so I could mark it up, then bought the kindle version to further support the author and now waiting for the audiobook cause I wants it.
April 12, 2021
I enjoyed reading Founding Sales and I learned a lot.
This book is a fantastic tool to have available all the time. Smart and deep...loaded with amazing information and strategies.
This book is a fantastic tool to have available all the time. Smart and deep...loaded with amazing information and strategies.
July 17, 2022
I would put this under essential reading for any founder.
January 31, 2024
Some good, practical advice but rather long winded and obvious in large segments.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews