Key Idea: Early-stage sales success isn't about elaborate systems or perfect pitches. You need a lean approach focused on finding the right customers, learning fast from every conversation, and making it easy for them to buy.

Permission Slip: You don't need a fancy website, pitch deck, or complex CRM to start. You need just enough to find the right people, learn quickly, and let them buy. Choose speed over polish.

Outcome

After completing this section, you'll understand the key assets you need to start selling:

• ICP clarity (who to sell to)
• Tight value propositions (what to say)
• Simple outreach kit (how to reach out)
• Outreach goal math (setting targets)
• Ultra-light tracking (keeping tabs)
• Discovery session framework (understanding needs)
• Demo approach (showing the thing)
• Simple packaging and pricing (making it easy to buy)
• Streamlined proposal and payment (closing deals)
• Go-live plan (ensuring success)
• Learning log system (continuous improvement)

First, What You DON'T Need

Before we talk about what you do need, let's clear up what you don't need to start selling:

• No crazy website required - A simple landing page or even just email works
• No polished pitch deck - Start with simple documents (maybe a few slides to set context)
• No super slick demo - Your product needs to work, but the demo just needs to be effective
• No fancy marketing materials - Simple one-pagers beat elaborate brochures
• No incredible brand - Your brand should be passable, but it doesn't need to be perfect
• No complex CRM - A Google Sheet works until it breaks
• No sales team - You can start and validate everything yourself

What You DO Need

1. ICP Clarity: Who to Sell To

You need to know exactly who you're selling to. We'll help you nail this down in the "Building Your Sales Experimentation Framework" section later.

What this includes:

• Who they are (title, company type, industry)
• The goal they're trying to achieve
• One main problem blocking that goal
• Why it hurts enough to spend money

(It's also helpful to develop an anti-ICP to avoid wasting time on bad fits)

2. Tight Value Propositions: What to Say

You need 2-3 lines that speak to pain and desired outcomes. Reference the "Value Propositions" and "Story System" sections of the Growth Program to craft these.

3. Simple Outreach Kit: How to Reach Out

Your outreach kit will consist of a couple messages you'll send on LinkedIn, emails, and a few follow-ups. We'll build this together later in the module.

What we'll create:

• 1-3 conversational, curiosity-inducing Linkedin messages
• A framework for writing concise, personalized emails optimized for response rate
• A 3-4 touch follow-up sequence, where each touch adds value

4. Outreach Goal Math: Setting Targets

We'll help you understand how much outreach volume you need and use a Google Sheet we'll provide later to track this.

What you'll learn:

• How to calculate basic funnel math
• How to back into your daily/weekly outreach targets

5. Ultra-Light Tracking: Keeping Tabs

We'll build out an ultra-light CRM in Google Sheets. You'll get permission to not track every outreach - only live conversations. This helps you optimize for actually having conversations rather than organizational work.

What this includes:

• One Google Sheet with essential columns
• Focus on conversations, not activities
• Simple status tracking that actually helps
• A high-level "hypothesis" tracker to quantify what's working

6. Discovery Session Questions: Understanding Needs

We'll teach you how to run discovery sessions to determine if you're talking to the right type of company/buyer that needs your solution. The goal is to understand their world, not to pitch.

What you'll master:

• Six key questions that uncover your prospect's needs
• How to qualify quickly (right person, real pain, budget path, timing)
• When to politely disengage from bad fits

7. Effective Demo: Show the Thing

Your demo doesn't need to be perfect. We'll show you how to prove value in about five minutes using what you have.

Demo options we'll cover:

• Quick live demo
• Short Loom video leave-behind

8. Logical Packaging & Pricing: Making it Easy to Buy

We'll help you think through pricing models, defend your value, and package your offering clearly.

What you'll learn:

• How to choose your initial pricing model (usage-based, flat-rate, tiered)
• How to set a defensible price and anchor it properly
• How to package your experience so buyers understand what they get
• When to use trials vs. pilots vs. paid starts

9. Simple Close & Payment: Closing the Deal

We'll discuss simple ways to close deals and get paid without sales gymnastics.

What you'll understand:

• Why deals really don't close (it's usually not about tactics)
• The non-negotiables for every deal
• Simple closing approaches that actually work
• When to push for a "no" and move on

10. Go-Live Plan: Ensuring Success

We'll build a simple shared checklist to ensure customer success and reduce churn.

What this covers:

• Steps, owners, dates
• Success metrics
• First-value moments

11. Learning Log (No-Bank): Continuous Improvement

We'll set up a simple system to capture "why no" in prospects' exact words, plus what you'll try next.

What you'll track:

• Rejection reasons in their words
• Patterns across won deals and lost deals
• Hypotheses: What to test in the next batch of conversations

What's Next

In the next section, we'll dive into the outreach math and give you the Google Sheet tracker to set your targets and measure what "good" looks like.