Tracing The Start-up Journey | James Ker-Reid

Earlier in the series, James was delighted to be joined by James Ker-Reid, CEO at Sales for Startups. With an evident passion for transforming businesses, James brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the show. We explore the opportunities offered in high-growth sales environments, irrespective of funding and company size. Tracing the start-up journey, James offered us exclusive insights into the keys to success and how to overcome common challenges a plethora of industries face. Thank you James for joining us, it was a pleasure to feature your dynamism and enthusiasm!
“Developing an appreciation and understanding the value of sales takes foresight, takes work, takes delivering on deadlines.”
Sales has become a humongous space that has arguably become convoluted and difficult to grasp, particularly for founders with little sales experience. James brings to light this issue that a lot of start-up’s face, and often find it difficult to overcome in the early days. However, by grasping the power and potential of sales from the start, you can afford yourself the chance to embed strong sales processes that will propel you further forwards. James also goes on to highlight the damage of sales stereotypes across multiple industries, and how they cause many to devalue the work salespeople do. However, sales is never an easy role. Sales creates new business, creates new opportunities and entrenches the position of a firm in the industry.
“Some people are better at talent-spotting, others are better at nurturing talent. But you need both to succeed.”
Hiring and onboarding are two crucial processes firms need to execute well in order to ensure short and long term success. Whilst you may be able to identity the best talent in the marketplace, if you fail to invest in their development once they are in the firm, they become very difficult to retain. As with the latter conversation around sales, investing in strong talent allows you to unlock their potential and truly recognize the incredible trajectory your business could pursue. James highlights that talent-spotting demands an understanding of flags and triggers that indicate whether a person is right for the business before onboarding. And nurturing talent requires firms to craft tailored, authentic development plans that show that people are an integral part of the business. By combining the two you create a comprehensive talent process that will allow start-ups to onboard well from the beginning.
This blog simply touches the surface of a truly fantastic conversation between James and James on Tech Salescraft. With such a wealth of experience and evident passion for sales, James imparts invaluable advice that could transform the mindset of any business, for the better. Thank you James for joining us on the show, it was a pleasure to feature your brilliant insights!