Unlocking Earned Revenue

So we are a social impact organization with a mixed revenue model. And one of the things that was really important for us was to pursue both philanthropy, but also our earned revenue with district and school leaders. We had a lot of relationships, a lot of introductions, but did not really have one cycle or an approach for customer development. And so when I thought about the opportunities that were coming in, I said, I need help with sales. My original thinking was, I need someone to come do this for me. But my real need was for me to have an approach to founder led sales specifically for our product. So when I heard about Brandon's offering, immediately I was like, yes, he's the one who can help me maybe figure out how to lead discovery. But even just move a customer from initial interaction all the way through a process, eventually we get a chance to partner together. And so when I heard about Brandon's offerings, I thought, hmm, maybe this is something that's right for me. What I realized is that I needed a lot of coaching around my own approach, my own confidence in pursuing sales. And so the most impactful aspects of the program, the most impactful aspects of the program for me have been one just getting a framework for being able to organize how we would approach a sales cycle phase by phase, moving from discovery to presentation and throughout that, also identifying how to respond or anticipate objections, how to actually handle those. What's my question? Roadmap that I would actually use to support and really understanding pain points from potential buyers, but really also thinking through, based on what I hear, how can I want to listen more deeply, but also anticipate how I might scope based on what it is that I'm hearing. And so there are a few things that were really, really helpful. One I shared already having a solid framework that supported me in understanding, like where I'm moving customers through in terms of phases, but also getting an opportunity to engage in both model and practice inside of sessions around an upcoming call, an upcoming discovery call, where we had a chance to actually think about who this user is and actually really think about how we can really suss out what the pain points are in order for me to get real insights in order to scope really better for that particular partner. I would say one of the things that was really, really helpful was getting both the technical and the adaptive coaching around sales. I think the technical lends itself to like what is the arc of this process? What are the kind of goals that I'm hoping to achieve in each of these conversations with the customer? But the adaptive comes into like how do I actually think about a little bit more finesse, a little bit more of kind of thinking beyond the thinking that happens inside of those conversations, how to actually control the ball in the conversations based on some just really strong questions that I can ask. I think what this process really helped me to understand is that my whole goal in sales or customer development is really empathizing and really understanding the heart, the pain points behind what our potential buyers or potential customers are really experiencing and getting an opportunity to really, really methodically move them towards a place where they can have confidence that the conversation that we're engaging in around their solution is worthwhile, such that they want to continue to engage. If I were to recommend this service to someone I knew, I think that this is really, really strong for folks who are in founder led sales, specifically folks who are in social impact organizations who might be thinking through how do I lift off my mixed revenue model, knowing that, you know, philanthropy is going to be part of the work that we do, but we also have a real product that people would buy, how do we actually engage in that? I think this is supporting me, particularly because as I build out my own skill set and founder let sales, I'm also thinking about how I can also coach other teammates to replicate this process. And so if your business is thinking about moving beyond philanthropy to really lift off your earned revenue model, you should certainly partner with Brandon and his organization, his company, because you will develop the tangible skills that you need in order to engage in a sales cycle, all the way from customer development to actual closing on an opportunity. I would say that this is probably the most impactful development that I received as a founder and has really benefited me in terms of building my own confidence, my own skillset, technical and adaptive, to be able to move customers from an introduction all the way to the place where they are partnering with us around a solution. So I'm incredibly grateful.