Most sales advice is written by people who’ve never actually had to close a deal that kept the lights on. This is not that.

I’ve spent the last several years doing contracted sales and growth work for early-stage companies. Three of them got acquired. None of them had a big team, a polished deck, or a clear playbook when I showed up. What they had was a product that worked and a pipeline that didn’t.

Here’s what I learned.

The pipeline problem is almost never the pipeline.

When a founder tells me their sales are stuck, the first thing I do is stop looking at the CRM and start listening to how they talk about what they sell. Nine times out of ten, the problem isn’t follow-up cadence or lead volume. It’s that nobody has gotten clear on who this is actually for and what specific problem it solves for that person.

Fixing that one thing — getting precise about the ICP and the pain — changes conversion more than any tool or tactic.

Speed beats polish, every time.

At all three companies, the version of the pitch that closed deals wasn’t the one that went through six rounds of revision. It was the one that got in front of real prospects fast, got feedback, and adjusted. The companies that got acquired were the ones that had learned to move.

If you’re waiting until your deck is perfect or your case studies are ready, you’re losing ground to someone who picked up the phone last Tuesday.

Relationships compound. Transactions don’t.

Every deal I’ve seen fall apart at the finish line had the same root cause: the relationship was transactional from the start. Someone was trying to close, and the prospect could feel it. The deals that closed — and that led to referrals, renewals, and eventually acquisition interest — were the ones where the sales conversation felt like a strategy session.

People buy from people they trust to tell them the truth. That’s the whole game.

What this means for you.

If you’re a founder or solopreneur trying to grow revenue right now, you don’t need more tools. You need to get clear on your ICP, get honest about your pipeline health, and start having conversations that feel less like pitches and more like partnerships.

That’s exactly what I do at GROWN. If you want to talk through where you’re stuck, the calendar link is here.

I trust that everyting is unfolding perfectly for me.

where can i stop pushing and start allowing?

I assume that I am already chosen.

How would I move today if this were already true?

I am already living the life I once imagined.

What does that version of me prioritize today?

I allow success to come naturally to me.

Where can I let go of forcing?

I have been to no less than 4 web hosted live stream conferences in the last 2 weeks. I have to be honest, I love them. While I know that in person attendance is always ideal, we don’t always have the resources wether it be time, fiscal or otherwise to be at all of the events we’d like to be.

I can tell you that without the distractions of travel, day to day demands and general creature comforts – live event streaming is the way and the truth. You have access to all of the valuable information available with out the high ticket price and awkward interactions at the vendor booth. I mean not for me, I’m in sales but for everyone else, probably a little bit yes.

I’m able to churn out my regular work load while having speakers rattle off facts in the background around the future of AI and increases in productivity by leveraging specific strategies that we’ve known all along work but somehow they’re getting paid 20k to tell us again. Big fan! Occasionally when the gold nugget of information comes across I jot it down quickly and get right back into my work flow, I can think of nothing better.

Perhaps we’ll start listing some here that are recommended but I’d be interested to hear from any followers about your favorites? Being a Hubspot lifer, I’m afraid I’ll never NOT attend an inbound conference and did travel to the bay for Dreamforce last year (2023) but I’m curious what everyone else enjoys outside of the mainstream. Leave a comment or drop an email to share the wealth!

I’ve started no less than a dozen businesses in the past. If we’re counting imaginary hair salons, circus troupes, and private clubs located near the river behind my house with a membership of me and two other neighbor kids, that number goes upwards of a hundred. I’m a born creator, what can I say?

Of course, the natural progression of creating business that did not take off would be that I joined up with other creators with just slightly more capital and resources to help their vision grow instead. I’ve worked with over half a dozen start-ups in my career now, helping all of them expand to new levels of market share. It’s finally reached a point that I looked around, alright, that’s enough….I’m going to make MY business helping other businesses so that’s what we’re doing here.

Through the years, I’ve collected talented co-workers, affiliates and friends like pokemon cards. They each have their own skill set. Strengths and weaknesses. Anytime a project or event has come up, I’ll go through a quick style mental roladex: “who would be the perfect person to solve for X here?”. Now, we have a single source of information for some of those top talent individuals I’ve known and worked with through the years. GROWN management is an amalgamation of decades of shared work experiences – all vetted directly through work and personal experiences.

My hope is that we will be able to help others in the way we’ve helped each other. With kindness, patience, and follow through.