Most startup founders think their biggest challenge is building a great product.
But in reality — it’s selling it.
If you can’t convince customers to buy, your product never gets a chance to shine.
That’s why Close CEO Steli Efti created SaaS Sales for Startup Founders — a practical, no-fluff guide that teaches you how to sell SaaS products like a pro, even if you’ve never sold before.
👉 Download the free book now →
This book gives you proven, actionable tactics on hiring and paying sales reps, finding the right B2B customers, optimizing demos and trials, and more — everything you need to scale from your first customer to predictable, recurring revenue.
If you’ve built a SaaS product, you’ve already done something hard.
But many founders hit a wall because they rely on inbound traffic, cold emails, or product-led growth alone — and ignore the power of founder-led sales.
Here’s the truth: No one can sell your product better than you. At least not at the start.
This book shows you how to embrace that reality and turn your early sales efforts into a repeatable growth engine.
Inside, you’ll find clear, tactical lessons designed for busy founders — not career salespeople.
Learn when to make your first sales hire, what traits to look for, and how to structure compensation that motivates without draining cash flow.
Discover how to narrow your target market and identify the highest-value customers for your stage — no more chasing every inbound lead.
Get Steli’s proven frameworks for cold outreach, objection handling, and discovery calls that reveal the real customer pain points.
Learn how to turn product demos into deal-closing conversations — and make every trial a bridge to conversion, not an excuse for indecision.
The difference between a startup that grows and one that stalls often comes down to this question:
Can the founder sell?
Even if you eventually hire a sales team, the founder’s early sales process defines:
In other words — mastering SaaS sales as a founder doesn’t just get you more customers.
It shapes your entire company strategy.
One founder shared this testimonial after applying Steli’s follow-up strategies:
“By using Steli’s Follow-Up Formula, we closed a $42K deal after 16 months of consistent follow-up. It worked!”
That’s the kind of persistence and systemized selling this book helps you build — practical, disciplined, and focused on outcomes.
You don’t need a decade of experience to sell like a pro.
You just need the right mindset, the right scripts, and the right playbook.
Inside the book, Steli breaks down 31 actionable lessons on what actually works when selling SaaS — from first outreach to final close.
These insights have been tested across thousands of sales calls, hundreds of startups, and years of real-world experience.
To level up your entire sales process, combine this book with other free tools from Close:
Building a SaaS company is hard. Selling one doesn’t have to be.
SaaS Sales for Startup Founders gives you the exact frameworks, scripts, and mindset shifts you need to sell your product, win your first customers, and scale your business faster.
Stop guessing what works. Learn from someone who’s been there — and start selling with confidence.
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