Alexandra Reiner has spent the last 10 years working with founders, boards and investors helping them scale using her own methodology, Sales Engineering. She has worked with some of the smartest, innovative, ambitious startups and VC's in the UK, US, Canada and the DACH region.
I have been in sales since I was a young. I always knew being an entrepreneur was my goal and selling would always be a key part of that. So I started in the hardest role I could find - cold calling to oil & gas executives; selling them consulting services at a company called The Leadership Network, now called The Gemba.
Despite initial challenges, I quickly rose to become the Head of Sales for the Americas at a young age of 23. I then took on the challenge of launching a new service line from our UK headquarters, expanding my career into Europe.
During my time at The Gemba, I launched new products and services and built sales teams around them. I noticed each time I did this, I followed a similar process that worked very well.
When I left The Gemba for a CSO position at a startup called Hire Space based in London, I continued honing my framework for building sales teams within the business. This is when I started hosting workshops for founders in London. I realised so many founders have never been in a sales role and have no idea of the basics. I saw this as a huge opportunity and led me to start my consulting business
I was then a consultant for 5 years, helping founders build and scale their startups. I worked across a wide variety of industries and sales structures, with companies like Zyper (Acquired by Discord), Finimize (Acquired by ABRDN), Birdi (Acquired by Hanleywood), and other UK businesses like Mytutor, LetsDoThis & Wheely. The best part of working with a client was when they offered me a role full time because that is when I knew I was really adding value. However, it was an offer from Discord to lead their European Go-To-Market team that ultimately caught my attention and led me to accept. This was an incredible journey - taking everything I knew from sales led growth businesses and pairing it with Discord’s product & community led growth to really build my view of how to build the entire GTM.
My experience extends far beyond sales alone. I've discovered that the most significant breakthroughs in my sales career occur when I align with marketing, product development, leadership, and investors. This synergy has been my superpower, driving accelerated sales growth. Throughout my career, I've honed my sales skills while continuously learning how to collaborate effectively with other departments to achieve optimal results. This ongoing journey has been incredibly rewarding, and I'm committed to further growth and success.
Personal Mentor:
Daniel Zweidler: Former Senior Vice President at Merck, his strategic insights have been invaluable in navigating complex business environments.
Founders I've learned from:
Nathan Robinson: CEO of The Gemba, his leadership and training in building my raw sales & leadership skills have been the rock I have built my career on
Amber Atherton: Partner at Patron and author of "The Rise of Virtual Communities," her expertise in community-building has revolutionised customer engagement and customer-led growth
Leaders I admire:
Jacco van der Kooij: Founder of Winning by Design, his expertise in SaaS sales methodologies has driven transformative growth for numerous startups.
Simon Sinek: Renowned for his book "Start With Why," his profound understanding of purpose-driven leadership inspires me to lead with clarity and vision.
Ben Horowitz: Specifically the insights he gives in his book f "The Hard Thing About Hard Things," his candid insights into leadership challenges provide invaluable guidance in navigating inevitable adversity.
Jason Jordan and Michelle Vazzana: Authors of "Cracking the Sales Management Code," their strategies for measuring and managing sales performance offer practical solutions for success.
For managing C-suites, investors, and board members, I adhere to three key principles:
1. Proactive Approach: Avoid reactive responses by staying ahead of challenges, opportunities, team dynamics, and industry trends. Proactivity fosters transparency and prevents surprises, aligning with the Nemawashi philosophy.
2. Develop a Point of View (POV): Proactivity enables the development of well-informed, data-driven perspectives on various topics. Having a clear POV facilitates effective communication and decision-making, especially when time is limited.
3. Emphasise Tracking and Data: Prioritise tracking and data collection from the outset. Access to accurate data enhances discussions with C-suites, board members, and investors, ensuring conversations are focused and informed by quantitative insights. Establishing robust tracking mechanisms is essential for making strategic decisions confidently.
I go in waves of being very organised and great at prioritising, to feeling very overwhelmed and disorganised. As a consultant, the founder who hires me believes they have an idea of what the challenges are, it’s my job to see if that is the actual challenge or it is something else? Often I start on one project and once I open the hood it creates multiple strands of projects and all equally important while balancing short term revenue and long term foundations.
Regularly assessing and adjusting priorities ensures that I can focus on activities that drive the most significant impact for the business.
I'm considering writing a book focused solely on this because I frequently observe the same mistakes being made. While it's impossible to cover them all here, the major categories include:
Hiring:
- Recruiting the wrong salesperson for the role. Not educating yourself on the different types of salespeople. Or not knowing what your role needs.
- Prioritising the prestige of the candidate's previous employer over their relevant sales experience.
- Hiring someone for a senior position when a more junior role is needed.
- Delaying the decision to terminate underperforming hires.
- Allowing founders to hire for sales roles despite lacking the necessary expertise in sales questioning. It's akin to hiring an engineer for a sales position.
- Bringing in candidates from larger companies who may struggle to adapt to the resource constraints of a smaller startup.
Incentives:
- Failing to align a salesperson's commission or incentives with the broader goals of the business.
- Neglecting to align the goals of the sales team with those of other departments, resulting in conflicting objectives.
- Hesitating to offer salespeople commission, despite their potential to be the highest earners in the company.
Sales Strategy:
- Not giving sales leaders a target, especially early in the startup's journey.
- Pursuing too many Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) without establishing Product Market Fit.
- Overcomplicating the sales strategy before it's necessary, emphasising process over actual sales.
- Viewing strategy as a static document rather than an ongoing experiment in need of adaptation.
- Following an eg-led strategy, vs data backed
- Not providing training or coaching for the required strategy
Ali is part of the Greenhouse team that delivers our leadership and management training. We tailor each programme to the needs of each organisation we work with, working with you to select the right mix of start-up leaders, practitioners and leadership thinkers. Find out more here.
