two questions

Good morning Predictable Revenue community,

No Black Friday deals here, sorry. I’m looking for your feedback this week and I have two questions for you, one quick and one long.

The short one:

Does the topic of sales management belong in a book for founder’s figuring out revenue?

Let me know by replying YES or NO.

My goal with the book is help connect the dots between customer development and sales. When my editor saw my first draft, he commented that I wrote two books instead of one, one founder book and one sales book. Some chunks needed to be cut in order to deliver a book that felt focused. What I was thinking was a chapter that covered the three weekly meetings that you need in order to manage a sales rep (pipe review, call review, and one on one).

The long one:

Which description resonates with you? One is a little more polished but feel free to ignore the polish, which framing really strikes a chord?

Let me know by replying FIRST or LAST.

First

Are you a startup founder with a great product but no sales? Do prospective clients say your product is interesting, but no one’s buying?

Collin Stewart, founder and CEO of Predictable Revenue, shares hard-earned lessons about navigating the chaos of a startup and the daunting task of finding your first customers. The Terrifying Art of Finding Customers is a straight-talking guide for founders focused on tackling the essential steps to growth in the right sequence.

This is an invaluable resource for any founder, organized into informative, practical sections covering the three major steps in a startup’s journey: finding product-market fit, closing your first customers, and building a scalable revenue engine. It offers clear milestones, practical benchmarks, complete with real stories of successes and pitfalls to help founders learn from mistakes and make lasting impact. With advice that starts with the uncommon art of actually listening to prospective clients, Stewart leads you from measuring the strength of your product-market fit through to hiring your first sales rep, using language and techniques that will make sense to all regardless of their sales experience. Through step-by-step milestones and benchmarks, he demystifies the process of finding your first customers, empowering founders to move forward with clarity and confidence.

Last

This book is for founders trying to find customers - whether you're just starting out or you've made some revenue investments and nothing worked. It addresses one of the most common reasons startups fail: premature scaling, when companies invest in go to market efforts before their product market fit is strong enough to profitably pay back the investments.

The goal of this book is to guide you from identifying a gap worth solving to making your first sales and hiring your first salesperson. It bridges the gap between customer development - where you focus on finding product-market fit - and traditional sales books, which assume you already have a fully developed product.

What makes this book unique is its focus on connecting these two worlds. You’ll learn how to take a new product to market, how to make your first sales, and how to turn those early wins into a repeatable sales process. From there, you’ll explore how to expand into your first sales channel and sales hire.

This is a tactical guide to navigating the critical first steps of starting a company: first product, first sales, and first scalable revenue. If you’re ready to turn your idea into real, predictable revenue, this is the book for you.

Some context

We’re working on a description of the book to take to the various companies and groups that will order the book. The agent at our publisher will use this description to sell the book to the various buyers in the next two months.

Thanks for your feedback!

Collin

PS - Happy belated Thanksgiving. I was fortunate enough to get a turkey dinner last night (my mom’s American) and I am very grateful / still full.