Running a Flawless Sales Process
A simple 5 step process to super charge your growth.
I want to be upfront about something.
I’m not a sales coach. I don’t have a methodology named after me. I came out of real estate investment banking, spent time in custom suits, started two businesses that failed, and somehow talked my way into a sales job at a company selling email signatures in 2019 with zero SDR background and no business getting the role.
The way I learned was embarrassingly simple. I consumed everything Chris Orlob was putting out on Gong. Every John Barrows podcast. Three or four books. Every piece of content I could get my hands on. Then I went to work. Within a year I had closed more revenue than any rep in that company’s history. Not because I was talented. Because I got obsessed with the craft and ran the process.
That led to Sonar. Then Flock, a $30 million company that grew to $450 million over three and a half years, and my teams were responsible for over $50 million of ARR during my tenure.
I’m telling you all of that because what’s in here isn’t regurgitated from a book. This is the process I built by being in it. Every piece of it is earned.
Most deals aren’t lost on the demo
They’re lost in the gaps between meetings.
In the follow-up that never went out. In the demo where a senior exec joined cold because nobody sent them a pre-call agenda. In the deal that quietly died because the rep was single-threaded into one person with zero power to close anything.
Your product is probably fine. Your pitch probably works. What’s killing your win rate is the space between meetings and the rep discipline to treat every single step like it matters on every single deal.
Five stages.
Stage 01 — Pre-Call: Build value before the meeting
Stage 02 — Call 1: Nail discovery
Stage 03 — Between Calls: Build the champion
Stage 04 — Call 2: Demo to decide
Stage 05 — Post-Demo: Keep the line open
Stage 01: Before the First Meeting
The best relationship-building I’ve ever seen doesn’t start with a cold sequence. It starts months earlier, at conferences or in communities, with no pitch, no ask, just genuine usefulness. By the time a deal formally kicks off, the best reps have two or three people inside the account who are already selling for them.
You can’t always be in the room. But you can do the equivalent. Send your prospects things that are actually useful and have nothing to do with your product. Research relevant to their business. Articles about their company or peers. Funding news, policy updates, an intro to someone they should know. In long-cycle B2B, your buyers aren’t going anywhere. They remember the rep who taught them something. They forget the one who pitched them.
The miss I see constantly: a rep builds real credibility with someone over months, and then when that person is ready to move, they have to find the demo form themselves. No direct outreach. And then no follow-up when they fill out the form. Inbound is not the finish line. It’s the starting gun.
The pre-call agenda
Send one before every first call. Four minutes to write. It changes how the call opens.
Three things it does: tells them what you’re covering, how long it takes, and who should be in the room. That last part is the one almost every rep ignores completely. Suggest who else should join. By name if you have it, by title if you don’t. You’re giving your champion a reason to loop in stakeholders without them having to manufacture one themselves.
Subject: AGENDA · [COMPANY] <> [YOUR COMPANY] TOMORROW
Hi [Name],
Looking forward to learning more about [Company] and how [Your Company] may be able to help with [problem 1], [problem 2], and [problem 3].
To make the most of our time tomorrow:
Introductions [Company]’s current state around [problem/challenge] Quick [Your Company] overview Alignment on next steps, likely a deeper demo if there’s a fit
Is there anyone else we should include to make the conversation more productive? We typically find that having [persona 1] and [persona 2] involved early helps teams evaluate fit faster and avoids extra back-and-forth later.
[Name]
The three problems you name in line one come from your research. You’ve named their pain before the call starts. That’s not an accident.
Research
I’ve watched too many reps run an AI summary of an account and call it prep. That’s not prep. It shows up on the call when you can’t go two levels deep on anything.
You need two things. Something personal about the contact you can use to build real rapport. And something recent on the account that proves you actually understand what they’re dealing with right now, a board decision, a funding announcement, a strategic shift. The research isn’t to impress them. It’s to ask sharper questions than they expected.
Stage 02: Call 1
Your time is just as valuable as theirs. Stand on that.
Don’t have slides up. Don’t dump. Don’t try to prove you did your homework by reciting it back at them. Your one job on Call 1 is to talk less than 50% of the time and learn exactly where their pain lives.
The opening two minutes
“Did you get my agenda email?” Yes or no. “Anything you want to make sure we cover that wasn’t on there?” If yes, write it down visibly. Tell them you’ll get to it. But don’t let them pull you off track before the call starts. Confirm timing and hard stops. Then move to introductions.
Introductions are discovery. Don’t waste them.
Most reps treat this as a formality. Names, titles, move on. Especially when there are multiple people in the room, this is where you find out what each person actually cares about and what would make this hour worth it for them. Ask that before you say a single thing about your product.
Prompts that actually open things up:
“What does your day-to-day look like in your role?” “What put us on your radar?” “What would make this hour feel worth it for you today?” “How does this fit into what you’re working on this quarter?”
Discovery
First answer is almost always surface. Stay curious. Go two, three levels deeper.
They say: “Rep productivity is a real problem for us right now.” You ask: “How bad is it, and who owns solving it internally?” Then: “What have you tried, and why didn’t it stick?”
That third question is where the real stuff lives. That’s where you find out if there’s actual pain or just a conversation.
Your research gives you a starting point. Your second and third questions turn that starting point into something that moves a deal.
Company overview
Problem, solution, proof. In that order. No founding story, nobody cares.
Use their exact words back at them. Name companies that look like theirs. Use numbers, not adjectives. “8 to 23 points of improvement” beats “meaningful gains” every single time.
If they push for a demo early, deflect it: “I want to make sure I understand your situation well enough to make this worth your time.” That’s not a stall. That’s you respecting the room.
Next steps
Do not leave Call 1 without a calendared next step. This is not the closing move. This is the whole point of the call.
If you have confirmed pain and an active buyer, cut the discovery short and go book the meeting. A confirmed second call is worth more than another fifteen minutes of questions.
If they push back: “Let’s just put a placeholder, we can always move it.” Pull up your calendar live on the call. Suggest who else should join by name or title. Send the invite before you hang up.
Stage 02 (continued): The 24-hour follow-up
Has to go out within 24 hours. No exceptions.
And it cannot be a transcript. I see this constantly. Reps send three pages of meeting notes with no asks, no owners, no dates. Nobody reads that. Definitely not the exec you’re trying to close.
What it needs: a sharp recap using their exact words back at them, clear next steps with named owners and real dates, and any major objection addressed right here, not saved for a future email.
When you quote someone’s exact words back at them in writing, they feel heard and the urgency they expressed is now on the record. That’s not a trick. That’s what it looks like when you actually listened.
Here’s a real example of what a great post-call follow-up looks like. Sent within 24 hours. Specific. Actionable. Uses direct quotes from the call. Addresses the biggest objection by name before it becomes a blocker.
Hi [Name] and [Name],
Great connecting today. Appreciate the context throughout.
Quick recap: [Restate their core problem in their exact words. The urgency they put on it. The specific thing they said that anchored the conversation.]
Where [Your Company] fits: [Map your solution directly to what they said, specifically. Not features. The problems they named.]
For [skeptic’s name] specifically [if there’s a “why not just build this ourselves” or “why not just use X” objection already on the table, address it here by name. Don’t wait.]: [Specific answer to that objection grounded in proof, not pitch.]
Next steps by [specific date]: [Owner]: [Specific action] [Owner]: [Specific action]
If there’s anything [exec joining next call] wants me to address live, pass it along and I’ll prep.
[Name]
Exec-to-exec right after Call 1
Your CEO emails their CEO. Your CRO emails their VP. Right after the call. Two or three sentences. No ask. Just opening the line.
[Their name],
[Your name] here, CEO at [Company]. Our team has had some great conversations with [names], and I wanted to say hello before they connect again [day].
[One line that shows you understand their situation.] We’d love to help you get there.
If I can be a resource, whether that’s questions on the product, how we’ve helped similar teams, or just a sounding board, feel free to reach out.
[Your name]
Two emails. No ask. You’ve just opened two new channels inside the account without burning a single ounce of your champion’s political capital.
Stage 03: Between Call 1 and Call 2
This is where most deals quietly die.
The rep goes dark. The prospect moves on to the twelve other things they’re dealing with. And by the time Call 2 rolls around you’re starting from scratch.
The best reps do the opposite. Short, frequent, high-value touches from multiple directions. Your AE is emailing the champion. Your CRO is emailing their VP. Your CEO is emailing theirs. Three layers of communication in four days, none of them with any ask, all of them adding value.
The emails between calls should not be random. They need to be specific, tied directly to what you heard in discovery, and used to build out what you’re going to show them on Call 2. Every piece of information your champion gives you should show up in the demo. They need to see that what they shared actually mattered.
The pre-demo Loom
Record a five-minute walkthrough of what you’ve built for the demo. Send it to the champion. Ask: “What should I add or subtract?”
This does four things. It de-risks your demo by surfacing problems before they show up as dead air in front of a senior exec. It builds your champion because they now co-own the demo’s success. It’s async so they can watch it whenever it works for them. And if it’s short and tight enough, they’ll share it up the org before the call even happens.
Hi [Name],
I’ve put together a short Loom walking through what I built for [day]’s call. Take a look and let me know what I should add or change before we’re live. Want to make sure this is dialed in for [exec name].
[Loom link]
[Name]
Pre-Call 2 agenda to the full cohort
Same move as before Call 1, but this is where the miss is even more common. Reps send it only to the champion they’ve been emailing. A senior exec joins the demo cold. The first ten minutes are wasted getting them up to speed. Send it to everyone, every time.
Subject: DEMO AGENDA · [COMPANY] <> [YOUR COMPANY], TOMORROW
Hi [Names],
Looking forward to tomorrow with you, [Name], and [Exec].
Based on our first conversation and your follow-up, we’ve built the demo around [priority 1], [priority 2], and [priority 3].
Here’s the plan:
Quick recap of what we heard on the first call Demo walkthrough built around your priorities and real examples How this fits into your current workflow [Exec]’s questions and feedback Next steps if there’s a fit
Anything specific you want us to make sure we hit live, especially for [Exec] since they’re coming in fresh?
[Name]
Stage 04: The Demo
By the end of this call you need to know two things. Can they buy, and when. Everything is built around getting those answers.
Open with confirmation
Pull up a slide with specific phrases, quotes, and numbers from your prior calls. Read them back. Then ask “What would you add?” not “Did I miss anything?” One lets them say no. The other puts the ball in their court.
If a new exec is in the room, do not move off that slide until you’ve heard from them. Whatever they add becomes the center of your demo.
Before you show anything, run the problem
Between Call 1 and Call 2 your prospect had ten other fires. They have not been thinking about you. Sixty seconds. Problem, what you do about it, who you’ve done it for. Remind them why they’re in the room. Then make the demo a conversation. Ask questions constantly. If you’re talking for more than 90 seconds straight, you’ve lost them.
Get the read
With multiple stakeholders in the room, this call gives you the clearest signal you’re going to get before a proposal. Are they willing to buy? Are they able to buy? On what timeline? If you can’t answer those three questions when you hang up, you didn’t close the call right.
And like every other call: do not leave without a calendared next step. One of the best moves you can make is reaching out before Call 2 to pre-book the feedback call. Book it before the demo even happens.
Post-demo follow-up
Same rules. 24 hours. Named asks. Real dates. Address the biggest objection in this email, not the next one.
The most powerful thing you can do in this email is use the decision-maker’s own words as the setup for your answer to their biggest concern. Quote them directly. It anchors the whole conversation in something they already said and believed.
Hi [Names],
Thanks for the time today. [New exec], great to meet you.
What we heard you’re solving for: [Restate their goals in their words. Specific. No fluff.]
Where [Your Company] fits: [Map to what they said. Keep it tight.]
On [biggest objection], [exec name], you said it well on the call: “[their exact quote].” [Two to three sentences of proof that directly answers it. Numbers. Real customers. Not pitch.]
Next steps: [Name]: [Specific action by specific date] [Name]: [Specific action by specific date]
[Name]
Stage 05: Keep the Line Open
If the deal is moving, the exec alignment doesn’t stop.
After every meaningful call, your CEO and CRO send short follow-on emails to their counterparts. Three to five sentences. No ask. Just keeping the line warm.
What this builds over time: multiple layers of champion at levels of the org your rep can’t reach alone. A signal to the buying committee that your whole organization is invested, not just the person who needs the commission. And a way to surface concerns before they become blockers.
The more layers of champion you’ve built before a deal hits procurement or legal, the harder it is for that deal to quietly disappear.
The misses that kill more deals than anything else
After reviewing a lot of tape across a lot of teams, three gates fail more than all the others combined.
No pre-call agenda, or no follow-up to inbound. The prospect fills out a form. You wait. Stop doing that. Treat inbound as the start of outreach. Get the agenda out within four hours of booking.
Pre-Call 2 agenda sent only to the champion. A senior exec joins cold. Full cohort, every time.
Follow-ups that read like transcripts. Dense, no owners, no dates, no asks. Put next steps first. Make it scannable in 30 seconds.
Run this every Monday
Against every live deal. Twenty minutes.
What stage is each deal actually in, not aspirationally, actually? Which gate is the bottleneck right now? What is the one move I’ll make this week to unblock it? Which deal needs an exec-to-exec touch this week?
I spent years consuming other people’s content to figure this out. Now I’m putting out my own. If this was useful, subscribe below. More where this came from.