Some people erroneously believe that, in Startup Land, pg refers to Paul Graham. But that’s actually not correct. It actually stands for Paul Gassée.

Paul has been a startup founder, an investor, and a sales leader. And for the last 16 years(!) he’s been advising startups on their sales effectiveness.

He worked with us at Wefunder for a number of months last year, and was incredibly helpful in sharing best practices, principles, tips and tricks.

This was a super fun conversation, which covered a wide range of sales topics.

I asked Paul about how you know, as a sales leader, whether a particular strategy is working. Maybe you’ve been trying it for 6 months, there’s some green shoots of growth, but it’s definitely not a slam dunk. Should you keep doubling down, and hope that momentum continues to build over time? Or how do you know when to cut and run?

I loved Paul’s one-word answer: “Judgment”.

Then I asked him what are some of the mistakes that he finds his clients making, when he comes to work for them.

His answer:

(1) Over-doing Product-Led Growth (PLG). Paul has seen a number of founders neglect outbound sales for too long, hoping that “if you will build it they will come”. And dwindling their runway in the process.

(2) Not understanding whether the problem is “the product”, or sales / go-to-market effectiveness.

(3) Selling your product is just not enough. When you are on a sales call, you might have the client’s undivided attention. But two days later, you might have lost their attention. So you need to keep earning their attention through the sales process. And “controlling the sale”.