Guerrilla Warfare: the art & science of early-stage selling in the B2B world, by our Charter Member Rajiv Raghunandan (Managing Partner, seedX & Arali Ventures)

1. Context setting
• What stage are your businesses in?
• What is the best sales experience you have experienced as a consumer?
• What is the best enterprise sales process you have seen?

2. Guerilla warfare vs. Selling
Guerilla warfare
• Surviving another day
• Getting that first client
• Getting that first deal in a new segment
• Managing a 1 hour conversation with a veteran
• Closing that first negotiation
• Building initial traction
Selling
• Building pipeline
• Deal conversion stats
• Establishing channels & the appropriate mix
• Building a line of business / practice
• Value added services

3. Some key issues in guerilla warfare…
“How can I pull-off being a domain
expert when faced with a
professional with 20 years
experience in the subject?
“We have no clear view of the
requirements and even the client
does not seem clear”
“It is hard to articulate
differentiation wr.t our offering!”
“We have such a brilliant product
but the client just does not seem
to get it”
“Very often we get just 20 minutes
because of scheduling. How can
we tell the entire story?
“We have no credentials in this
industry. How do I convince the
customer?”
“We leave money on the table all
the time.”
“ Negotiation with a large company
specially when one is desperate for
business is tough!”

4. Dealing with expertise & experience on the other side
• Sense of self: Passion in your business & conviction in yourself
• Clarity on what expertise you bring to the table
• Relevance of your expertise to the conversation
• Reading & awareness is crucial

5. Dealing with Ambiguity
• The art of bottom fishing
• Ask open ended questions
• Use stories/case studies to elicit information
• Listen & assimilate & keep looping back with questions
• Structure the haze
• Be comfortable in what you know
• Make assumptions, take a stance
• Act incrementally, test course and re-validate
• Learn from experience
• Be confident
• Not knowing is OK, perpetuating it is NOT OK

6. Differentiation
• Often it should be just one or two things; Too many differentiators are
dilutive
• Product or service differentiation is only a small part of it
– Way of doing business can be a differentiator
– Putting existing clients in front is the best differentiator
– Focus on the very obvious OR the not obvious
– Your behavior can also be a differentiator

7. Value articulation (Business Impact)
• The techie’s big problem
• Clients often say “Kiss us hard” but we shy away from it:
Use stories
Keep it simple stupid
Make the message concrete and hard hitting
KISS
US
HARD

8. Value articulation (Business Impact)
(HARD)
• Everything has to finally come down to a number
• Enhance messaging around impact
o Contrast, Compare, Increment to past
• Articulate process & business impact
• What if you don’t deliver
• Visuals are critical in articulating impact
Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS)
• No use of complicated or long words
• Say it as it is and don’t mince words
• Use numbers and visuals to enhance simplicity of the
message
Use Stories (US)
• Distill the solution / pitch into 1 or 2 key things that
stick with the audience
• Build credibility of having been there & done that
• Allow the audience to build comfort with you as an
individual or an entity

9. Telling a story
• Selling is about story telling
• Personalise the message always
• Messaging should be visual and emotional
• Less is more!
• Simplicity vs. Sophistication
• …and btw, watch movies & read books!

10. Conviction & marketing
• Making claims is an art
• ….of course, delivering on them is a science!
• Find comparables….
• Don’t ever lie but you don’t have say the full truth!

11. Value identification & Value extraction
• Price to value
• Be clear on boundary conditions
• Relationship is everything
– Invest time & energy ahead of deal closure
– Personal & professional relationship
• Make it difficult to walk away
– From the company/product and from the individual
• Control emotions
– Nothing is fair; People are just working towards objectives

12. Some other random points…
• Incentives can be overrated for sales in an early stage business. Equity & inspiration are
better tools
• Channel sales is key. Focus on building channels early on
• Treat channels like large customers. Effort will be similar if not more
• Intellectuals are rarely good at selling. Be wary of them!
• Sales people have to be inspiring like Cheenu said…..Most of us are not. So………
• You atleast have to be good looking. Again most of us are not……
• Atleast you have to be interesting!!