The hottest Sales Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

Battle Cards!

The Security Industry • 16 implied HN points • 24 Jan 25
💼 Business Sales
  1. Battle cards are useful tools for sales teams. They provide key information about competitors and help highlight your own product's strengths.
  2. Understanding your competition can help you sell better. Knowing what makes your product different can win over customers who are considering other options.
  3. There are now resources available that can help you create battle cards easily. Using tools like HarvestIQ.ai can make tracking competitor information simpler.

The 10 most common GTM myths about early-stage SaaS

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 43 implied HN points • 27 Jan 24
💼 Business Sales
  1. Having a great product is not enough, you need effective marketing and sales to succeed.
  2. Adding a free plan may not always solve the problem of acquiring paying clients, and freemium may not be suitable for all businesses.
  3. Tracking lost reasons properly, understanding the value you offer, and analyzing churn are crucial aspects that impact the success of a SaaS business.

The legend of the squeaky wheel continues...

My Home Office Hacks • 5 implied HN points • 28 Jul 25
💼 Business Sales
  1. Don't be afraid to question your bills. You might get a better deal just by asking for one.
  2. Self-advocating can save you money. Sometimes, just asking nicely can reduce your costs significantly.
  3. If your webcam isn't clear, consider upgrading to a better portable webcam for video calls. It can make a big difference!

What does it mean to be "Enterprise Ready"

Brick by Brick • 18 implied HN points • 18 Nov 24
💼 Business Sales
  1. Startups need to adapt their processes to meet strict enterprise requirements, especially in compliance and security. This means being ready for audits and ensuring data protection.
  2. Creating a product that fits into the enterprise ecosystem is key. This includes having integrations, customization options, and strong reporting tools that enterprises expect.
  3. When selling to enterprises, startups must change their approach, focusing on value rather than just features. They should also prepare for complex pricing and long contracting processes.
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What to do when your value metric becomes obsolete

Good Better Best • 4 implied HN points • 15 Aug 25
💼 Business Sales
  1. When your pricing model becomes outdated, like moving off server counts, you need to find a new way that makes sense for your customers. This could mean switching to something like project-based pricing.
  2. It's important to simplify your pricing to make it easy for customers to understand and buy. Complicated pricing can lead to frustration and lost sales.
  3. As technology, especially AI, evolves, companies must regularly check if their pricing still reflects the value they provide. Adapting early can help businesses stay ahead.

AI in Action

Tippets by Taps • 6 implied HN points • 12 Jun 25
💼 Business Sales
  1. AI tools like Claude and Cursor are really helping with coding tasks, but sales AI tools still have a long way to go. Many founders are using AI to save time and improve accuracy in their work.
  2. Custom GPTs are a favorite among founders because they solve specific problems quickly. People are moving away from traditional CRMs to more AI-native options that offer deeper insights.
  3. While AI is making strides in development, many sales tools are still underwhelming. Founders are frustrated that they have to customize solutions instead of relying on existing AI products to meet their needs.

Building CAUSL - Episode 3: Ideal Customer Profiles

CAUSL Effect • 19 implied HN points • 10 Mar 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. Finding your ideal customer is important but not easy. You need to identify who can truly benefit from your product and has the budget to spend on it.
  2. It's crucial to consider factors like location, job title, and company size when defining your ideal customer. This helps you focus your efforts on the right leads.
  3. Don't limit yourself to specific industries; every problem can have a solution. Keep an open mind about potential customers to avoid missing out on opportunities.

Why more clients aren't buying from you (yet)

The Ask Newsletter — by Ellen Donnelly • 10 implied HN points • 12 Feb 25
💼 Business Sales
  1. Show your expertise in action. Document your thought processes and how you solve problems to help potential clients see your value.
  2. Position yourself as an authority by clearly sharing your unique mission and message. This attracts clients who resonate with your vision.
  3. Build relationships instead of just relying on cold leads. Most clients come from referrals and connections within your network.

How to Sell Your Tiny Empire

Tiny Empires • 12 implied HN points • 18 Dec 24
💼 Business Sales
  1. Selling a business can be straightforward and profitable. Just agree on a price, create a contract, and transfer the assets to the buyer.
  2. Understanding your business's value is key. Most online companies sell for 4-4.5 times their annual revenue, but this can vary based on several factors.
  3. When you sell, you can choose between an asset sale and a share sale. Share sales are often better for you tax-wise, but they're harder to arrange.

Why Must You Pay Sales People Commissions?

Dan’s Substack • 2 HN points • 19 Apr 24
💼 Business Sales
  1. Salespeople being paid commissions is a common practice, but it can lead to various recurring problems like high turnover and internal disputes.
  2. Research suggests that higher incentives, like commissions, can actually reduce performance in some cases, which is a counter-intuitive result.
  3. The debate over sales commissions reflects two different views of worker motivation: Theory X, where employees are seen as lazy and need external rewards, and Theory Y, where workers are viewed as self-motivated and thrive on autonomy.

Losing always sucks. Even writing this sucks

Brick by Brick • 45 implied HN points • 05 Jul 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. Losing sales opportunities can be a great learning opportunity for both sales and engineering teams.
  2. Sales losses can occur due to reasons like lack of alignment with customer needs, inadequate value proposition, and price constraints.
  3. To learn from sales losses, it's important to assess gaps in perceived value, interview customers for insights, and continually review reasons for lost deals.

Why Your 'Disruptive' Product Isn't Getting Traction

Superfluid • 39 implied HN points • 02 Aug 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. Changing consumer behavior is hard for startups, and it takes more than just a good product to do it.
  2. Before building a product, understand the market deeply, including the barriers to change and existing strategies.
  3. To succeed, focus on what you're really selling, craft a smart GTM strategy, and work progressively to change the market.

Guide #8: Best practices for choosing your marketing channels

Tiny Empires • 36 implied HN points • 16 Aug 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. Focus on marketing channels that give you the best return on investment for your time as a solo-founder.
  2. Be very targeted in your marketing efforts and ask yourself how much it costs to acquire a customer for each channel.
  3. Choose 2-3 marketing channels to focus on, consider direct sales outreach, and think creatively about where your ideal customers are.

Marketing mostly sucks

Turnaround • 79 implied HN points • 10 Feb 20
💼 Business Sales
  1. Marketing can be challenging but doesn't have to suck if done right.
  2. Traditional marketing concepts like the 4Ps are evolving to the 4Cs, emphasizing more consumer-centric approaches.
  3. Effective marketing requires informed and sensible marketers who understand consumer psychology and make strategic choices.

ServiceTitan: Benchmarking the S1 Data

Clouded Judgement • 11 implied HN points • 18 Nov 24
💼 Business Sales
  1. ServiceTitan is a platform designed for trades industries, like plumbing and HVAC. It helps businesses manage things like scheduling, customer service, and payments.
  2. The company has a big market opportunity, aiming to capture a larger share of the $1.5 trillion spent on trades services annually in the U.S. and Canada.
  3. ServiceTitan has shown strong revenue growth at 26% over the last year and has a focus on improving its financial metrics, including gross and operating margins.

Pricing Change Analysis: Airtable and Aha!

Good Better Best • 2 implied HN points • 08 Aug 25
💼 Business Sales
  1. Airtable changed its pricing model from an AI add-on to a credit system, making it easier for teams to use AI features without needing to contact sales.
  2. Credits in Airtable can be shared among users, which helps teams manage their usage better and encourages upgrades when they hit limits.
  3. Aha! launched a project management tool that fits well with their existing products, but its many pricing options could confuse customers instead of helping them choose easily.

Repairing the sales <> marketing relationship

Mehdeeka • 3 implied HN points • 28 May 25
💼 Business Sales
  1. Sales and marketing need to work better together. Just being friends isn't enough; they should share feedback and support each other more.
  2. Pick one salesperson to collaborate with and understand their needs. This focused approach helps build a strong working relationship.
  3. Always acknowledge feedback from the sales team. When they see their suggestions used, they'll feel more invested and likely to collaborate in the future.

The Ultimate B2B SaaS Pricing Guide for early-stage startups.

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 25 implied HN points • 12 Jul 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. The guide provides 5 steps to start with your SaaS pricing, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer pain and choosing a value-based pricing model.
  2. Key pricing fundamentals include isolation effect, price anchoring, incentivizing yearly payments, avoiding undercharging, and collecting pricing-relevant insights for continuous pricing optimization.
  3. The post shares inspiring SaaS pricing examples and expert advice on the significance of learning speed over productivity in startup success.

The perfect cold email: TAPSA framework, trigger events & tips on CTAs, subject lines, and copywriting

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 21 implied HN points • 23 Sep 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. The TAPSA Cold Email Framework consists of Trigger, Assume Pain, Solution, Action, and a good opener is crucial for a buyer-centric approach.
  2. Cold emails require concise copywriting, creative subject lines, clear CTAs, and leverage trigger events for relevance and engagement.
  3. Use trigger events to identify prospects interested in your product, connect with their needs, and structure your email opener effectively.

The Sales Demo Follow Up Email Template

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 17 implied HN points • 04 Dec 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. After a sales demo, send a follow-up email to the prospect, it's important in the sales process.
  2. Key elements of a sales demo follow-up email include summarizing the demo and highlighting important aspects.
  3. Analyze your sales funnel to identify growth issues: acquisition, activation & conversion, and retention problems.

Finding our initial customers

A Bit Gamey • 27 implied HN points • 26 Mar 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. Founders should spend time on sales and marketing for startup success.
  2. Engaging with customers directly helps in improving the product.
  3. Sales process involves prospecting, prioritizing, qualification, sales call, and tracking metrics.

The Shift to Account-Driven GTM

MKT1 Newsletter • 4 implied HN points • 12 Feb 25
💼 Business Sales
  1. Companies need to switch to an account-driven approach for marketing and sales. This means focusing on specific accounts instead of just waiting for leads to come in.
  2. New tools now let marketers understand their entire audience better. They can gather more data on accounts, allowing for more tailored outreach and personalized content.
  3. This shift requires teamwork across departments like marketing, sales, and customer success. Everyone has to work together to effectively target and engage with chosen accounts.

Sales Messaging - The 4 key elements that make your sales outreach effective.

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 21 implied HN points • 27 May 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. Having powerful sales messaging is crucial for business success.
  2. Running powerful outbound sales sequences involves finding ideal leads, getting their emails, enriching data, building campaigns, and creating personalized messages.
  3. The PAS framework (Problem-Agitate-Solution) is a popular copywriting framework that can be applied to various aspects of marketing.

How to handle top customer objections, create powerful case studies & measure product-market fit.

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 17 implied HN points • 23 Aug 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. Create a concern-handling template with objections, responses, and additional resources segmented by buyer journey.
  2. Develop powerful case studies by analyzing existing clients, conducting interviews, and creating various types of social proof.
  3. Measure product-market fit with the Sean Ellis Test by asking users how disappointed they would be without the product.

The Ultimate Guide to Sales Product Demos: Mastering the Art of Closing Deals.

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 21 implied HN points • 21 Mar 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. A powerful SaaS product demo combines structure, value-focused messaging, and engaging communication.
  2. A successful SaaS product demo follows a 9-phase structure, from research and preparation to pricing and next steps.
  3. Key aspects of a strong SaaS product demo include keeping it engaging, focusing on benefits, and addressing pain points.

Thanks and Q&A

Optimally Irrational • 3 implied HN points • 23 Jan 25
💼 Business Sales
  1. Paid subscribers are really appreciated because they allow more time for writing and creating content. Supporting through subscriptions shows value in the work being done.
  2. There is a desire for more engagement and interaction with subscribers, encouraging them to share their thoughts and suggestions. It’s a great way to build a community.
  3. Future plans for the platform include expanding topics and content based on subscriber interests, aiming for more relevant and meaningful discussions.

1 simple habit to be more persuasive

Stream of Consciousness • 1 HN point • 23 Feb 24
💼 Business Sales
  1. Offering only one option reduces the perceived value of that option. Comparing it to alternatives makes it more appealing.
  2. When presenting a product, service, or idea, always contrast it with other options to enhance its desirability.
  3. The decoy effect showcases how introducing a less desirable third option can shift preferences towards a more expensive choice, highlighting the power of comparison.

The Complete Tiny Empires Guide

Tiny Empires • 12 implied HN points • 30 Aug 23
💼 Business Sales
  1. Starting a business takes time and learning from failures is key to success.
  2. Building lean businesses with low costs and high-profit margins can lead to a sustainable 1-person business.
  3. Courses like the Tiny Empires Method and Sales for Introverts offer valuable insights for building successful businesses.

Referral Sales + Importance of Content Distribution + GTM Miro Templates

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 8 implied HN points • 02 Mar 24
💼 Business Sales
  1. Referral sales is a powerful strategy to get intros and referrals with the right 'sales blurbs' from warm leads, helping build trust and increase win rates.
  2. Successful content marketing involves thorough research, planning, creation, distribution, and optimization, with distribution being as crucial as creation.
  3. Utilizing GTM Miro Templates can streamline processes like building ideal customer profiles, crafting messaging, designing homepages, and creating sales decks.

Sales Qualification: Sales Discovery Calls + Qualification Frameworks + 21 Sales Discovery Questions

Startup Business Tips 🚀 • 8 implied HN points • 17 Feb 24
💼 Business Sales
  1. Qualifying a lead involves determining if both the lead and your product are a good fit, making it a mutual decision to invest time in the sales process.
  2. Sales qualification frameworks like MEDDIC, SPIN, SUGAR, and SPICED provide structure for the sales process, improve pipeline quality, and help create a shared understanding internally.
  3. Sales discovery calls are crucial for properly qualifying leads, and using the right discovery questions in a 2-step sales process ensures a focused approach, personalized demos, and involvement of relevant stakeholders.