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From the field.

The sale, the language, the hire, the demo that was theater. Steal a line. Use it on Monday.

Sketch of a king and his army at a cliff edge, with a stone bridge built only halfway toward a castle. Titled Product without distribution.

Product-led distribution is an oxymoron

You built the thing. That is not the same as getting it sold.

A wall of faded jargon words behind one clear line: Say it plainly.

Language in business continues to suffer

Jargon does not make you sound smart. It hides.

Five pipeline rows: close date, stage, amount, next step, forecast, with green and red field markers.

Repeatable Forecast: 5 Green Fields

Crushing your forecast is awesome. It also means you need to get better at forecasting.

A rocket climbing a red launch arc through five steps: question, delete, simplify, accelerate, automate.

SpaceX as ERP strategy: how to be less dumb

If you did not delete anything, you did not transform anything.

More from the field

A process flowchart covered in frost.

The first hire freezes the process

Headcount is not a sales operating system.

One unbroken red line running through five stages from first customers to sales leader.

There is no transition out of sales as a founder

The roles change. One founder stays the steward of revenue.

A box labeled their tool followed by a red chain of steps: export, check, retype, send.

We already use something for that.

Do not compare features. Ask what happens after the data leaves that system.

An org chart of twelve circles with only one lit red.

One person loved the demo. The company never decided.

One person liking it is a start. The company still has to decide.

Cartoon of a buyer kicking a box marked sale out of a seller's reach. Titled The classic sale snatch.

Equal commitment

The demo was theater if they never owed you a next step.

A faceted gem with light rays around it, next to the words your shiny object.

Are you hawking your shiny object?

Or solving a problem they already have.

A rear view mirror showing a trend line labeled already happened.

What are you measuring?

The dashboard is what already happened. The forecast is the work.

A stack of index cards marked leads on a coral background with rain streaks.

Glengarry Glen Ross sales lessons: Part 1

The famous lines are not the lessons. Roma skips the conference to be with a customer.

Many scattered lines converging on a single red door.

From chatbots to agentic procurement

Agents without a front door decide in a vacuum.

Work a live deal with Justin

Short answers

Straight answers to the questions founders ask about the first sales hire.