I've yet to have a prospect flat-out say no. I've heard "we're busy, call later," but mostly I've heard "oh, interesting, send me more." ...I still haven't rung the sales gong.
Where I Started
Back in the winter, my boss shifted me to work on NORDVEST nearly full-time from my mechanical work. So I built. We moved Northwest Compressor onto it in March, and it's been running our business ever since. Soon after, I started cold calling. I talked with several shops and got interest.
So Quiet
I procrastinated and slowed the calls down. The pipeline dried up. Active leads went from "let's do this" to 🦗🦗. ...and I was scared to pick up the phone again.
Back At It
I worked through the fear and ramped the calls back up. I loaded up on sales podcasts, got my agents running, built a pipeline, and restarted the emails and calls. I tried to nail the perfect email. In pure terror I kept calling. Literally beating my chest trying to hype myself to press dial. Heart pumping, butt clenched.
- I sent the script all those podcasts touted: "Worth 15 minutes?"
- I congratulated someone for buying our competitor instead of asking how it was going on the phone. Fail.
- I froze when someone picked up the phone, then tripped over my words. They shut me down, saying they were busy, before I even said why I was calling.
It was the worst month of my life.
But some light started to show. I was learning.
The next time someone said they'd just bought our competitor, I asked how it was going. They said it was awful and asked me to send my stuff. Progress.
I stopped asking AI for drafts, wrote my own, and got my first cold-email reply. Progress.
One of the quiet leads emailed back saying they wanted to talk again. Progress.
I've been discouraged.
Still Nothing
The first "let's talk" I got was in April 2026. I'm still talking with that company. They're busy, and I don't know if they're a yes yet. I've been discouraged. Our ICP is owner/operators, and I'm learning it's going to be a long road to the first yes because they're so busy.
Adapting Pricing
In trying to keep pricing simple, we priced out our ICP. After talking with prospects and advisors, we moved to usage-based pricing.
It Will Happen
What I'm confident in is that we will get a yes. It'll just take more time and learning.
What I've Learned So Far
- Owner/operators are extremely tough to sell to. They're swamped by default.
- Selling "savings" doesn't work well.
- Shut up and listen.
- Don't forget to sell in the discovery calls, and do so kindly.
- Price so you grow with them as they see value.
- Lean into the ICP.
Where I Let AI Fail Me
AI kept suggesting and building cool enterprise features. It'd take my simple feature request and round it out, and I'd think, "Yeah, that makes sense, let's keep it." Example: there are three ways to create an asset in NORDVEST. What? This is supposed to be a simple app! For the last few weeks I've been culling features back to the right ones, homing in on a balance that's elusive and still seems to require a human. Sanding it down
If you've worked through to get your first sale, I'd love to hear what you learned along the way.
If you're like me and still looking for your first, email me, too!