Startup Sales Execution

Practical playbooks to turn interest into revenue: run discovery, qualify deals, close cleanly, and drive expansion without breaking trust or economics.

When to Use

• You need a founder-led sales motion that actually closes (not just “leads”)
• Discovery calls, qualification, objection handling, or pricing conversations
• Building a pipeline with stages, exit criteria, and weekly deal review cadence
• Proposals, mutual action plans, procurement/security handling
• Renewals/expansion motion (especially in B2B SaaS)
• BD outreach, partner deal negotiation, co-selling execution

When NOT to Use

• Lead capture, demand gen, meeting booking -> marketing-leads-generation
• Pricing model design, unit economics -> startup-business-models
• GTM strategy and channel selection -> startup-go-to-market
• Onboarding/support systems -> startup-customer-success

Quick Start (Inputs)

Ask for the minimum set of inputs that makes sales advice concrete:

• Product: what it does, setup time, and “first value” moment
• ICP: buyer, champion, typical deal size (ACV/ARPA), sales cycle expectations
• Motion: PLG, sales-led, hybrid (who does what, when)
• Current state: current pipeline, win/loss notes, objections heard, pricing page link (if any)
• Constraints: legal/security requirements, procurement friction, implementation/services required

If inputs are missing, proceed with explicit assumptions and ask for 1 example deal (won/lost) to anchor.

Workflow

1. Define the sales motion and handoffs

• Who qualifies (founder/SDR), who closes (founder/AE), who onboards (CS/product).
• Decide the primary close path: demo-first, trial-first, or audit/assessment-first.

2. Set pipeline stages with exit criteria

• Use assets/pipeline-stages.md to define stages and “done means done” criteria.
• Keep stages few and behavioral (what the buyer did), not internal hope.

3. Run discovery that produces a decision

• Use references/discovery-playbook.md and assets/discovery-call-script.md.
• Output: a clear problem statement, impact, stakeholders, and next step.

4. Qualify with one framework (and actually use it)

• Use references/qualification-and-deal-review.md.
• Output: a deal summary that predicts close probability and exposes gaps early.

5. Price and propose with guardrails

• Use assets/proposal-outline.md.
• Keep discounting rules explicit (who can approve, for what, and why).

6. Handle procurement and negotiation without “random concessions”

• Use references/negotiation-and-procurement.md.
• Default posture: trade concessions for commitment (term length, volume, case study, prepay).

7. Close with a mutual action plan (MAP)

• Use assets/mutual-action-plan.md.
• MAP turns “sounds good” into calendar-bound steps with owners.

8. Drive expansion with usage + outcomes (not pressure)

• Define expansion triggers (seats, usage, additional teams, compliance).
• Coordinate with startup-customer-success for retention-first expansion.

9. Run BD outreach and partner deals (when applicable)

• BD discovery differs from direct sales: focus on mutual value and long-term alignment, not pain selling.
• Qualify partners with assets/partner-deal-scorecard.md: audience fit, technical compatibility, incentive alignment, champion access.
• Structure deals explicitly: rev share, referral fees, integration commitments, co-sell SLAs, exit terms.
• BD negotiation is relationship-first: trade exclusivity for commitment, volume for better terms, co-marketing for access.
• Maintain a separate BD pipeline from direct sales (different stages, longer cycles, different success metrics).
• For partner strategy and program design: see startup-go-to-market.
• For detailed BD execution patterns: see references/bd-execution-playbook.md.

10. Install a weekly operating cadence

• Pipeline review (30 min): stage hygiene + next steps.
• Deal review (30 min): top 3 deals + one stuck deal (diagnose gap).
• Win/loss (30 min): one deal, one lesson, one change to the playbook.

Metrics (Minimum Viable Sales Analytics)

• Pipeline created per week (by channel)
• Stage conversion rates and time-in-stage
• Win rate by segment (ICP) and by deal size band
• Median sales cycle length
• Discount rate and reasons
• Expansion rate (if applicable)

Resources

Templates

Data

What Good Looks Like

• You can explain “why buy, why now, why us” in one paragraph per deal.
• Each pipeline stage has a buyer action and a next step scheduled.
• Negotiation trades are explicit (concession for commitment), not reactive discounts.
• You know your bottleneck (top-of-funnel vs close vs onboarding friction) from numbers, not vibes.