Kristin Sargent

What's the one thing you wish someone told you before you became a founder?

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I have not found entrepreneurship to be cutthroat. Most companies have looked to form partnerships, find key differentiations, and look for opportunities for everyone to succeed. Fellow CEOs have often found time on my calendar to see how they could help me grow my business, and I have done the same in return. The spirit of Pionyr is truly everywhere, in my experience!

Leaving a corporate job to start your own company may feel like jumping off a cliff, but really you're jumping into different waters where a lot of people are already swimming and they're cheering you on.

How did you build a sales process that consistently converts, and refine it into something repeatable?

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There are 3 keys to building a sales process that consistently converts.

First, focus every conversation on the client's needs. If you need them to just sign your contract already, send them an email asking if there's anything you can do to make navigating their own legal process easier. If you are in pricing negotiations, justify the higher price based on what the client achieves with the investment.

Propose to the client what you will discuss, ask them if there's anything they'd like to add, and leave enough time at the end to agree on and execute the next step. I do not end calls saying we will find a time to meet; I end them having already sent the invitation for the next meeting.

Finally, I remember that no deal is ever dead! I thought a deal was dead when the CEO ghosted me for 6 months. When I emailed him asking if working together was a priority in the new year, he responded that as a publicly traded company, he had been doing a reorganization and couldn't communicate with me due to disclosure rules. I ended up signing the contract when the re-organization was complete. I refine, repeat, and scale my processes by finding ways to better orient off the client, reduce friction, and find creative ways to re-engage with deals that are on life support, but not dead!

Many founders find sales outside their comfort zone. How did you shift your mindset around selling?

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When you are selling, you are the doctor and your client is the patient. They are experiencing pain, and you are offering a solution that resolves their pain. In sales, all you are expected to be is a good doctor.

You want to actively listen to clients' symptoms, only prescribe a treatment if you're confident it will help, and pass on opportunities where you know you can't. I think this mindset alleviates a lot of the negative stereotypes we have about selling and allows us to command our own value. Can you imagine a doctor not willing to engage with patients? What a waste of expertise and help for the well-being of others! Avoiding selling what we've created as women founders is no different.

What's a major early mistake, and what did you learn from it?

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During my first ever sales call, I was on the phone with the CEO of a publicly traded company and his executive sales and marketing team. They asked me a series of questions, and instead of stating, "it depends," and positioning to do an assessment that would allow me to give them sound responses, I just went ahead and did my best to answer their questions. I was nervous about looking dumb! They ended up taking everything I responded with and implementing it across their business. Whether it helped them or not, I don't know.

so that you are properly guiding them based on a true understanding of their business while getting paid for the value you provide.