Iliyan I.

Guys are you posting on LinkedIn and do you see it better than X?

A sales take for each one who wants to close more deals": Most “bad sales calls” aren’t a lead problem. They’re a positioning problem. Because the call doesn’t go sideways when the lead is “low quality.” It goes sideways when the buyer can’t quickly answer: “Is this for me?” “And will it fix my problem?” So the call turns into a polite fog: - “Tell me about what you do…” - “So… who do you usually work with?” - “Interesting. Send me something.” That’s not rejection. That’s confusion. Here’s the reframe: It’s not about getting *more* leads. It’s about using clearer words so the *same* leads can make a clean decision. What most positioning sounds like: “We help growing companies scale.” “We drive revenue.” “We offer end-to-end solutions.” That forces the buyer to do the hard work. What clearer positioning sounds like: - **Who you help:** “VP Sales at B2B SaaS companies, 20–200 people.” - **What you fix:** “Pipeline looks ‘busy’ but deals stall after the first call.” - **How it shows up:** “Reps are active, forecast is hopeful, revenue is late.” - **What changes:** “Deals move forward or disqualify fast.” When you do this, your calls get easier because they become a simple yes/no: “Yes, that’s us.” “No, not our issue.” And both answers are a win. You stop “convincing.” You start sorting. The best closers don’t talk smoother. They talk clearer. What’s one vague line you hear in your market that needs to die?

If you have to fill this sentence: I help _[WHO]_ get _[RESULT]_ without _[PAIN]_ (in _[TIME]_) What’s your one sentence right now?

Recognize this?

For people who need to rethink their offer framing: Most companies don’t have a lead problem. They have a message problem. Because “more leads” is a clean story to tell yourself. “My offer is great… we just need more top of funnel.” But when the message is fuzzy, more leads doesn’t fix it. It just gives you more people to confuse. Here’s what the “lead problem” usually looks like in real life: - You post more, but it feels like shouting into the void - You tweak ads, swap funnels, buy tools - You get calls… and hear “Let me think about it” a lot - Your best buyers don’t self-select - Price becomes the main topic way too fast And then you do the normal founder thing: -You work harder. -You add more tactics. -You keep the algo warm. But it’s not about leads. It’s about clarity. It’s not about traffic. It’s about what your traffic understands in 7 seconds. A clear, sharp point of view does something most founders underestimate: It makes the right people feel seen… …and the wrong people feel like this “isn’t for me.” That’s not a downside. That’s the whole point. Because average offers don’t lose because they’re bad. They lose because they sound like everyone else. Same promises. Same words. Same safe positioning. And safe is invisible. So if you want your offer to be something people lean in to hear, start here: 1) Pick a villain (a bad belief) Not a competitor. A common mistake your buyers keep making. 2) Name the cost What does that mistake *actually* cause? Missed revenue? Wasted time? Burnout? Bad hires? 3) Plant your flag “Most people do X. I think that’s wrong. Here’s what works instead.” 4) Make your process match your point of view If you say “done-for-you is dead,” but you sell hours… people feel the gap. 5) Replace vague outcomes with specific moments Not “scale faster.” More like “stop losing deals to ‘We’ll circle back next quarter.’” 6) Use fewer words If it takes 3 paragraphs to explain what you do, your buyer will assume it’s hard to buy. 7) Keep repeating the same idea from different angles This is not being boring. This is being understood. When you fix the message, something weird happens: -You don’t need to “convince” as much. -The right people walk in already halfway sold. Not because you got better at persuasion. Because you finally got clear on what you stand for. That’s the difference between a founder who is “running marketing”… …and a founder who is building a market that recognizes them.

If you are currently are managing a team think about the below: Most teams don’t have a people problem. They have a system that turns good people into “underperformers.” And it happens so slowly you don’t notice it until you’re frustrated. You see: - missed deadlines - “low ownership” - silence in meetings - sloppy handoffs - constant rework So you label it a motivation issue. Because blaming the person is the fastest story your brain can tell. But here’s the quieter truth: It’s not about “bad attitude.” It’s about bad conditions. A broken system can make an A-player look careless. A few common system failures that create “people problems”: - priorities change daily, so nothing finishes - no clear “definition of done,” so everyone argues at the end - meetings replace decisions, so work stalls - feedback shows up late, so mistakes repeat - incentives reward speed, then leaders punish errors In that environment, even motivated people start protecting themselves. They stop taking risks. They stop speaking up. They stop caring. Not because they’re lazy. Because they’re tired of getting burned. A calm operator doesn’t start with judgment. They start with diagnosis. And they ask a different set of questions (System 2 questions, not reactive ones). Here’s the “fix the system first” checklist I use: 1) What is the goal this week (in plain words)? 2) Who owns the decision, and who owns the work? 3) What does “done” mean (examples help)? 4) What is the one priority we will protect? 5) Where do handoffs break down? 6) What keeps coming back as rework? 7) What does the team need more of: clarity, time, tools, or approvals? 8) What do we reward in practice (not in slides)? 9) Where does the system punish the behavior we say we want? Then you fix the system. And only after that, you judge performance. Because a good leader doesn’t ask, “What’s wrong with these people?” They ask: “What is this setup pulling out of them?” If you lead a team right now: What’s one “people problem” you later realized was really a system problem?

For anyone struggling with offer creation: Your “offer” usually isn’t stale. Your understanding of the buyer is. Because an offer doesn’t go bad like milk. It goes bad like a map. Same destination. Different roads. New traffic. New hazards. And you’re still using last year’s directions. So you do what most of us do when things slow down: - Add more features - Rewrite the landing page - Drop the price - Bundle “bonus” stuff no one asked for - Post harder on LinkedIn It feels productive. But it’s still guessing. Here’s the reframe: It’s not about “finding a better offer.” It’s about updating your picture of the buyer. When your customer understanding is stale, everything downstream gets weird: - Your value prop sounds generic - Your pricing feels random - Your “ideal customer” becomes “anyone with a pulse” - Sales calls turn into objections you can’t explain But talk to 5 real buyers? Everything sharpens fast. Not because 5 is magical. Because 5 honest conversations will punch holes in your assumptions. Here’s how 5 buyer conversations turns you from “I think we should sell this” into “I know what to build and how to price it”: 1) You learn what they *wanted*, not what you *marketed* Ask: “What were you hoping this would fix in your week?” 2) You hear the moment they decided Ask: “What happened that made this feel urgent?” 3) You find the real competitor Spoiler: it’s usually “do nothing” or “keep the spreadsheet.” Ask: “What almost stopped you from buying?” 4) You get their words (steal these) Ask: “If you told a friend why you bought, what would you say?” 5) You see the pricing anchor in their head Ask: “What felt expensive? What felt cheap? Compared to what?” Then your offer stops being a pile of stuff. It becomes a clean promise, for a specific pain, with a price that makes sense. And that’s a different identity: Not a founder who keeps “trying new offers.” A builder who stays close to the market. So you don’t guess. You adjust. You don’t throw discounts. You make the outcome clearer. If you’re feeling like your offer is getting stale, when was the last time you talked to 5 recent buyers?

A quick one for everyone struggling with close rate and calls: Most “bad discovery calls” aren’t a lead-quality problem. They’re a question-quality problem. Because the call usually isn’t failing at the *top* of the funnel. It’s failing in the first 5 minutes… when we ask soft questions that don’t earn respect, don’t create clarity, and don’t surface truth. So the buyer does what buyers do: They stay vague. They stay polite. They keep their cards close. And you walk away thinking, “These leads suck.” When really… we just didn’t lead. Here’s the old pattern I see a lot: - “So… tell me about your business.” - “What are you looking for?” - “What’s your budget?” - “What’s your timeline?” Those questions sound normal. But they feel like this to the other person: “I don’t know where to take this, so I need you to do the work for me.” That’s what creates the “needy seller” vibe. Not your tone. Not your price. Not even your offer. Your questions. The reframe: It’s not about getting *more* leads. It’s about asking *better* questions on the leads you already have. Because sharp questions do 3 things at once: 1) They create focus 2) They create authority 3) They create safety (the buyer can be honest without getting “pitched at”) Here are 2 questions that instantly change the energy of a discovery call: **1) “What’s happening right now that made this a priority this week?”** If they can’t answer this, the deal isn’t real yet. If they *can* answer it, you just found the trigger. **2) “If we do nothing for the next 90 days, what breaks (or gets more expensive)?”** This pulls the real cost out of the shadows. And it turns “nice to have” into “we should fix this.” Notice what these questions do: - You’re not begging for details. - You’re not trying to “build rapport” for 20 minutes. - You’re calmly guiding the thinking. That’s what experts do. A few simple rules I follow: 1. Stop asking “What do you want?” and start asking “Why now?” 2. Don’t chase “pain.” Chase *change* (what’s different today). 3. Ask questions that a serious buyer would respect. 4. If they stay vague, don’t fill the silence. 5. If they can’t name a consequence, don’t force a solution. 6. Your job is clarity, not convincing. When your questions get sharper… You stop sounding like a seller who needs a yes. And you start sounding like the calm operator who can help them make a good decision. That’s who people want to buy from. What’s one discovery question you’ve asked that instantly improved your calls?