Why Founders Must Sell
The Founder is the Best Salesperson
It’s a cliché for a reason: the founder is always the best person to sell the product. Why?
Because they understand the product better than anyone else.
Because they’re the most credible person to talk about the mission.
Because they can promise more – and deliver – since they’re the one truly accountable.
But there's an even more important reason: sales is the fastest and most honest form of market feedback.
Sales = Real-Time Product Validation
When we were pivoting at Divante, I’d fly out with two sales reps every two weeks. Two days. Fourteen-plus meetings with clients. It wasn’t scalable – but it was the best way to validate our new offer and spot the gaps in our pitch.
It also worked wonders for onboarding the sales team. Every trip was part training, part reconnaissance. It wasn’t elegant, but it worked. We learned fast.
As traction grew, we slowed down, booked fewer but deeper meetings, and focused on quality. But in the early days, sales is a numbers game.
No Intermediaries in the Beginning
If you’re expanding internationally, do it yourself first. Don’t delegate it to agents, intermediaries, or “local partners.”
No one else will get you the raw, unfiltered customer feedback you need.
No one else will care as much as you do.
No one else will help you shape the story like your first clients will.
You can’t afford to be cut off from that data in the early days. If you are, you’ll be selling the wrong thing in the wrong way – and you won’t even know it.
The Bottom Line
Selling is not just closing deals – it's co-creating your product with the market. Founders who avoid it are blindfolding themselves.
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