The Hidden Keys to Sales: Authenticity, Practice, and Listening

Author

Benjamin Friedman
July 15, 2025

Morning beehiivcommunity!

This newsletter turns experience into lessons you can apply to your startup. As a growth partner for visionary founders, we help sharpen leadership skills and unlock growth potential.

Sales: Convert Your Dread into Confidence

"Sales is so much more than the slick, loud car salesman aggressively pushing you into buying. The truth is, people love to buy, but they don't like to be sold." – Matthew Pollard

No startup thrives without sales.

For many founders, especially introverted ones, selling feels daunting. However, it isn't about being loud; it's about being clear, assertive, and authentic. Once you realize that sales is a learnable, repeatable process, you can transform your anxiety into confidence.

Success comes from preparation, listening, and empathy. The right system empowers you to guide conversations, ask bold questions, and close deals with quiet confidence.

This post begins with a fictional anecdote before exploring how to minimize discomfort and maximize connection. You'll understand how to build and practice a clear, repeatable process that leverages your strengths: asking the right questions, focusing on value, and confidently guiding conversations through your authentic desire to learn.

Espresso AI for Snowflake [Sponsor]

Espresso AI is a team of AI and performance engineers from Google, Apple, and MIT, using machine learning to optimize Snowflake. We automatically save customers up to 70% on their Snowflake bill.

We built a system of intelligent agents that optimize how your data warehouse scales, schedules, and runs queries.

Each agent targets a specific layer: scaling and sizing, workload placement, and query structure. Together, they help your warehouse - and your data engineering team - do more with less.

Expert Tips for Startups
Quick, valuable insights from accomplished founders

Why Saying “No” Supercharged Our Growth

In our early days, we tried to be everything to everyone. We said yes too often. We took on projects outside our expertise to keep the lights on. This journey taught us what we truly excel at. 

Over the past few years, we doubled down on one core technology (Ruby on Rails) because it’s where we consistently deliver the most value. 

Faster MVPs. Smarter architecture. Easier scaling. Real business outcomes.

Natalie Kaminski is the Co-Founder and CEO of JetRockets, turning your ideas into reality at lightning speed, helping you stay ahead of the competition.

Unlock Billion-Dollar Finance Insights (and Support a Great Cause!) 

John McCarthy was the first CFO at Etsy and has served as CFO for over 70 startups, several reaching $1B+ valuations.

He led finance at Bitly ($800M+ valuation, acquired by Spectrum Equity), NoWait (acquired by Yelp), and Outside.in (acquired by AOL). He has worked across the seed stage to Series C to exit with top investors, including Accel, Insight, USV, FirstMark, Warburg Pincus, and Coinbase Ventures.

When you book a call with John HERE, you get expert insight into how you can maintain capital efficiency and stay exit-ready. On these calls, founders frequently ask:

✔️ Which tools to actually use
✔️ When to hire a finance lead
✔️ Preparing for due diligence and exit
✔️ Building a finance function from scratch
✔️ How to make finance work without slowing down the business

All proceeds from these calls go to Staples Tuition Grants, a non-profit that helps kids afford college.

How We Can Help

Over 90% of startups fail. Build Scale Grow helps founders beat these odds by efficiently scaling businesses and aligning vision, resources, and efforts.

We partner with founders to build and manage teams, systems, and functions, such as Customer Success and Revenue Operations, that drive rapid growth.

Book a free 30-minute call HERE to see how we can help.