Make sales work: building high performing teams

Sales isn’t magic and it isn’t as hard as it looks when you install the right process, hire for the right stage, and coach consistently. Apprento co-founded Alex McNaughten shares a practical playbook to turn founder-led sales into a repeatable, scalable revenue machine: document your process, tighten discovery, measure the funnel, hire deliberately, onboard with purpose, and manage through cadence, clarity and coaching.

Key themes include:

1. Process before people
   Document the end-to-end sales process, define stage entry/exit criteria, actions and time limits; keep the pipeline clean.

2. Discovery wins deals
   Use a framework, constantly re‑validate stakeholders, budget and timeline; map collateral to stages and tailor proposals.

3. Measure the funnel
   Track conversion rates between stages (discovery→demo→proposal→close) and fix the weakest link first.

4. Hire for stage and fit
   Prove founder‑led sales first; avoid “too senior” first hires and clearly define roles. 

5. Onboard and coach
   Provide a 30/60/90 day plan, a playbook, regular cadence (team, pipeline, 1:1s), and psychological safety; celebrate wins and pay fairly.

6. Enterprise and remote nuance
   Enterprise = more stakeholders and longer cycles; remote/overseas requires narrow target customer profile and tighter meeting rhythm. 

Key takeaways

• Always book a meeting; never send proposals without a scheduled next step.

• Instrument your funnel and act: measure stage conversions weekly and address the biggest bottleneck.

• Keep compensation simple with over‑attainment multipliers; don’t cap or claw back commissions.

• Hire deliberately: validate with founder-led sales, then add role‑appropriate sellers and a structured onboarding plan.

• Tune in to the full session to learn how to apply these insights.

Tune in to the full session to learn how to apply these insights.