You know the drill.
A lead comes in. They ask for a quote. You send it.
Next thing you know, it’s ghost town, or worse, you get told “someone else can do it cheaper.”
And you start doing the maths in your head:
👉 “Should I shave a bit off to win the job?”
👉 “Maybe I’ll throw in a little extra, just this once.”
👉 “That’s just how it is these days, right?”
But what if that is the reason you’re?
Not the economy.
Not the competition.
Not the market.
The way you’re framing your value is what’s keeping you in the grind.
Most businesses can tell you what they do.
The good ones can tell you how they do it differently.
But the ones that grow sustainably, win better clients, and stand out, they understand something deeper:
It’s not just the problem you solve. It’s what that problem really means for the person living with it.
That’s the layer most businesses skip and it’s the one that matters most when it comes to growth, sales, and why someone chooses you
over someone else.
If you’re running a business, chances are you didn’t start it because you love sales. You started it because you were good at your trade,
passionate about your craft, or saw a better way of doing things in your industry.
But here you are, leading the business and suddenly responsible for keeping the work flowing in. And when sales isn’t your first language,
that part can feel like a grind.
Most businesses don’t set out to misuse their CRM, but that’s exactly what ends up happening.
Instead of becoming a tool that helps sales teams sell better, many CRMs slowly morph into systems for managing activity, reporting upwards,
and creating the illusion of pipeline momentum. But let’s be honest: logging calls and shifting deal stages doesn’t equal progress.
When it comes to sales, not all approaches are created equal or equally suited to your business.
Too often, businesses try to apply a transactional model to the way they sell, even when their product or service isn’t a
simple, one-off decision. This mistake can cost far more than lost revenue. It can affect how customers experience your business, reduce
lifetime value, and make it harder to protect your margins over time.
So let’s unpack it.
Most businesses are sitting on a goldmine and don’t even realise it.
While chasing new logos often feels like the way to scale, the most immediate and profitable growth opportunities often lie with the clients
you already have. The question is: are you truly leveraging your client data, or are you leaving opportunity on the table?
This article explores how to mine insights from your existing client base, identify patterns of success, and use that clarity to drive
smarter cross-sell, upsell, and expansion strategies, all while refining your ideal client profile (ICP).
In the early days of a business, sales success is often fuelled by passion, product knowledge, and hustle, usually led by the founder. Deals
are won through instinct, relationships, and a deep understanding of the problem you solve.
And that works — until it doesn’t.
As you start to grow, the very thing that made you successful can become your biggest constraint. The founder becomes the bottleneck. Sales
becomes inconsistent. New hires struggle to sell like you do. And scaling revenue feels harder than it should.
This is what we call the Founder-Led Sales Trap.
Let’s start with something uncomfortable: Most businesses don’t really understand sales.
They understand revenue. They understand targets. They understand the product.
But sales? The actual function, mechanics, psychology, structure, and strategy behind consistent commercial success? That’s often misunderstood, or overlooked entirely.
For most businesses, sales growth isn’t just about adding headcount, it’s about building a sales organisation that matches your
goals, supports your strategy, and can evolve as you grow.
But here’s the problem: Too often, sales teams are built reactively, based on what’s urgent, who’s available, or what’s worked before. Not
based on where the business is going or what the market demands now.
Whether you’re hiring your first rep, scaling up a team, or adjusting after a growth spurt, here’s what you should be thinking about when it
comes to building and structuring your sales function for real performance.
Sales leaders often tell their teams to “sell the value.” But too often, reps translate that into vague ROI promises or benefit-heavy talk
tracks that don’t quite land.
True value-based selling isn’t about saying your product helps teams "work faster" or "save money."
It’s about demonstrating that you understand what that actually means, for that person, in that role, in that business
context.
That’s where Commercial Empathy comes in.
If you're reading this, chances are you're one of the rare ones.
The ones who wake up thinking about how to close the gap, not just the deal.
The ones who carry a number, a team, and sometimes the weight of the whole commercial engine on their shoulders. And still show up the next
day asking: What can I do better?
That mindset? It’s rare. And it's exactly why I love working in this world.
When most businesses think about improving sales performance, they instinctively look to the frontline, the reps, the scripts, the
tools, and the process. While these elements are undeniably important, there’s one crucial piece that often goes overlooked:
Sales effectiveness starts at the top.
If you want a consistent, high-performing sales engine, coaching your reps isn’t enough. You need to coach your leaders because
they’re the ones setting the tone, building the culture, and driving the rhythm of performance across the team.