Founder Secrets with Taylor and Flaviu

In this episode Taylor asks Flaviu about his experience scaling a sales team in his last Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company. Then Flaviu and Taylor deep dive on what it takes to scale a sales process successfully, and share some tips they’ve learned the hard way.

Transitioning from founder-led sales to building a sales team [00:00:14] Flaviu Simihaian shares his experience of transitioning from being the primary salesperson to building and managing a sales team.

Learning perseverance in sales [00:02:50] Flaviu talks about his experience of persevering in sales, including going to conferences and optimizing the conference sales process.

Hiring the first salesperson [00:04:18] Flaviu shares the story of how he hired his first salesperson, including negotiating discounts on conferences and offering a trial period.

Importance of mentality in sales [00:06:25] Flaviu emphasizes the importance of having the right mentality in sales and optimizing the sales process to help salespeople be successful.

Salesperson vs Founder [00:07:09] The difference between a founder's involvement in small and large deals and the value of hiring good salespeople.

Hiring Salespeople [00:08:03] Mistakes made when hiring salespeople, including paying salaries instead of commission and hiring based on culture fit.

Managing Salespeople [00:09:39] Challenges in managing salespeople, including promoting top salespeople to managers and organizing and incentivizing them.

Traits of Top Salespeople [00:11:47] The mental toughness and perseverance that separates top salespeople from average ones.

Different Types of Sales [00:12:38] The differences between selling small and large accounts and the different types of sales in various industries.

Sales Process [00:14:07] The importance of identifying pain points in the sales process and using a structured approach, such as the Sandler method.

Identifying Pain Points [00:15:05] Importance of identifying pain points in the sales process and making the customer feel the pain.

Sandler Method [00:17:40] Discussion of the Sandler method, including rapport building and pre-commitments.

Asking for Sale [00:18:15] Importance of asking for the sale and understanding under what conditions the customer would buy.

Trials [00:19:35] Discussion of the drawbacks of offering trials and the importance of understanding the customer's pain points.

Sales process and psychology [00:22:25] Discussion on the importance of the sales process and how psychology plays a role in the decision-making process of customers.

Responsibility for sales revenue [00:23:08] Flaviu's responsibility for sales revenue and the challenges of hiring salespeople for larger deals.

Founder involvement in sales [00:23:58] The role of founders in sales and whether their involvement is necessary for closing deals.

Conversion rate and sales process improvement [00:24:45] The fluctuation of conversion rates over time and the importance of improving the sales process through role-playing and call reviews.

Group call reviews and sales culture [00:27:09] The effectiveness of group call reviews for providing feedback and improving the sales process, and the competitive nature of sales culture.

First sales hire recommendation [00:28:39] The importance of founders selling themselves first and hiring energetic, inexperienced salespeople to create a sales process.

Building a Sales Team [00:00:00] Flaviu shares his experience of transitioning from being the primary salesperson to building and managing a sales team.

Optimizing the Sales Process [00:15:00] Flaviu talks about the importance of optimizing the sales process and creating a system that can be followed by anyone, regardless of experience.

Jeremy flew in from Miami to join Taylor and Flaviu in the NYC studio and discuss YPO, and his background scaling a healthcare business once, and now getting ready to do it again.

(1:35) The value of Young Presidents Organization (YPO)

(2:35) How often do you cry?

(3:10) Overview of how Jeremy built Bluetree Network

(5:10) Service vs Product Businesses

(9:20) How to build a high performing culture as you scale

(13:05) How do you know if someone is a high performer

(15:05) Defining an A player

(17:34) How will AI change consulting businesses

(20:21) What Jeremy would advise a new founder going into healthcare to make a difference

(24:38) Do we need more tech in healthcare? Why is scheduling a doctor visit so hard?

(28:25) How to change healthcare leaders at key organizations? Pay them more ;)

(30:31) How do you get to the key people if you didn’t have any connections?

(33:39) Truth about DEI

(35:56) Networking in 2023

(41:32) Volunteering in South Africa

Maggie started Us Two Tea in 2020 with the vision of reinventing Asian tea and bringing a modern, tasty, healthy, and sustainable product to the market. We also each shared a few stories of raising money early on from angels vs. VC.

(2:35) Us Two Tea Story

(4:01) What does it meant to be an Asian Owned Tea Brand

(5:44) Challenge of importing tea from China

(7:08) How UsTwoTea became Google’s tea

(8:06) The Blue Bottle of Tea

(9:41) The biggest challenge for Maggie right now?

(11:27) Talking to 100 customers

(13:22) How having $100 Million would change UsTwo Tea

(14:48) Stories of first investors and lessons learned

(17:14) Taylor’s investor stories

(19:21) EGO and how to process seeing TechCrunch founders raising $200+ Million

Peter Ungureanu, a Romanian-American serial entrepreneur with a recent exit comes from Taiwan to join Flaviu and Taylor in the NYC studio. They chat the value of Entrepreneur Organization (EO), peer groups in general, and share lots of tips.

(1:20) The value of EO and Peer Groups

(6:19) Difference between Taiwan and US Entrepreneurship

(11:08) Best startup ideas we’ve seen recently

(17:55) Tome - The AI-powered storytelling format

(22:14) Best newsletters we subscribe to

(29:39) How to waste time in a startup

Flaviu, Taylor and guest Mindie Kaplan (from the Male Room podcast) riffed today on VR, DAOs, Scrappy Sales playbooks, AR, and some lessons from selling a startup.

(0:15) The best and worst of building a company and living in New York City

(4:25) Virtual Reality (VR) Business Applications

(8:58) Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) in Sports

(12:10) How Mindie launched her VR company and a great story about The Fat Jewish in an air balloon

(18:47) The scrappy playbook

(21:05) Taylor won Toyota leveraging the Amazon Paradigm

(22:38) Is Augmented Reality (AR) here?

(25:10) How to land big customers?

(32:13) Lessons learned from selling a startup

(0:17) How would you market a painting business?

(4:54) How would you get the first customer?

(5:27) Taylor’s attempt of going door-to-door

(9:09) Flaviu’s process to getting a job as a waiter

(13:33) Can service businesses scale 10x?

(17:20) Thumbtack penalizing users that can pay more

(22:15) No more free lunches

(23:12) C Corp vs LLC Decision

Taylor and Flaviu speak with Bryan Cush of Tidal Health Group, a digital agency focused on companies in the healthcare space. We talked Bryan’s learnings from working on a cruise ship, to how Tidal helps doctor groups with key insights and SEO.

(0:12) Living on a cruise ship for 3 years

(7:41) From cruises to starting an agency

(18:14) Doctors have 1 million dollar ad budgets

Taylor chats with Adriaan Kolff, co-founder of MatcHR and Pantala about starting his company in Ukraine, meeting his wife at Burning Man, and advice from past failures as well as a few successes.

(0:43) How Adriaan met his wife at Burning Man

(5:55) Starting a business in Kiev

(8:37) Moving and building a business based on a spreadsheet

(10:26) Early misconceptions of starting a recruiting business

(12:24) Covid - a blessing in disguise

(15:50) Lessons from managing a business fully remotely in a war zone

(19:40) Learning from working at a big company (Unilever) to founding a startup

(22:26) Landing large clients such as TikTok, Booking.com, and Revolut

(28:13) What fuels Adriaan’s confidence and infectious positivity?

(29:31) How is AI going to change recruiting?

(31:10) How do you scale a people-intensive business?

(32:37) How to apply sales skills to the biggest bang for the buck

(34:58) How do you prioritize what to work on?

(35:47) Adriaan’s experience finding a partner

(39:30) Future of MatcHR

(40:27) Don’t over think it! Ask for favors and advice.

Taylor and Flaviu interview Marc Schwartzberg about the journey of a family business from 1920 to 2022 and the many changes and restarts that had to happen to get Marc where he is today. We also talk about the office space industry, where things are heading and any tips Marc offers younger entrepreneurs

Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcschwartzberg/

Office Furniture Heaven: https://www.officefurnitureheaven.com/

(0:35) Dallek Office Furniture started in 1920

(1:45) Two brothers going in the family business

(2:34) How did the 2008 recession affect furniture sales

(5:25) EOS and Traction Systems for Entrepreneurs

(6:10) What do you do after the family business closes?

(9:13) Marc going out on his own

(12:02) What’s the value in the name of a business? (Dallek, D2, 3D, Office Furniture Heaven)

(13:35) How does a furniture business get customers?

(14:59) WeWork and new players in Office Space

(18:15) Buying another business

(19:57) Sales vs Owning a business

(22:12) Wisdom to pass down to an entrepreneur

(23:54) Would Marc try the family business again with his kids?

(27:57) Tips for how to change your office space

(29:54) Tips for sales

(33:25) Managing your time

Amina Abubakar was a delight this week as she inspired Taylor and Flaviu in this podcast episode. Amina represents the American Dream, and she is a stellar entrepreneur that is a leader in the pharmacy world in the US. She also finds time to give back to her home continent through rohovoyage.com , a way to travel with purpose in Kenya and beyond. Check it out!

(1:26) How Amina raised the money to get from Kenya to America

(4:18) Why Amina started a pharmacy

(10:46) Mistakes in the process of figuring out a new business

(14:12) How to apply learnings from a business conference

(16:19) The journey of building a team starts with me

(18:59) Investing in people development

(25:02) The 10 voices every person has in their head

(30:02) How Amina gives back to her roots through Education, Healthcare, and Purposeful Tourism

(33:16) Optimism in Healthcare

(35:04) Entrepreneurship in Kenya

(36:25) Misconceptions about Kenya

(38:41) How to choose which ideas to focus on

Check out Roho Voyage to travel with a purpose!