"9/10 startup deals will not be lost to a competitor. They will be lost to the customer doing nothing."
A conversation with Ricky Pearl, founder of APAC-focused outbound sales & recruiting agency Pointer Strategy.
Ricky Pearl loves problem-solving. So when he noticed that many business owners seemed to be encountering the same issues with hiring, training, and managing their sales teams - he knew there "was something there."
He drew on his extensive management, sales, and technical experience to create Pointer - an outsourced sales agency that uniquely provides "sales as a service" to businesses who don't have the time or resources to effectively manage their own internal sales department.
Since founding Pointer, South African-born Ricky has established himself as one of Australia's sales leaders, partnering with organisations like StartUp Vic, Pavilion, and RevGenius to bring sales knowledge, advice and new ideas for getting each client’s solution or product in front of the business managers who need them most.
In this discussion, Ricky shared:
His background and how he came to be in this space
His career and his journey to Pointer
Overview of Pointer, the kind of clients it takes on, and its revenue model
How sales differ when it's founder-led vs team-led
How should sales interact with product development? What about product marketing?
Product-led growth/inbound vs outbound - when is one better than the other?
Building relationships within the portfolio and future growth plan for pointer
🎙️ Listen to the episode on Spotify.
💼 Actionable Insights
If you only have a few minutes to spare, here's a summary of our key takeaways and highlights:
Coming from South Africa, I've noticed a difference in Australia's sales culture. Australians tend to be risk-averse and conflict-averse, which translates to a weaker sales culture. Asking for discounts or bargaining is considered rude here, and pushy sales tactics are frowned upon. Additionally, Australia's affluent society means that people can live comfortably without striving for the top 1% or 5%. Even those in the bottom 15% or 20% can afford international holidays with their families, depending on their priorities. This lack of pressure may contribute to a general apathy or lack of aggression in sales.
Maybe 20 years ago, if you were the best mechanic, that was enough to have a good business. People would say, this is the right mechanic to go to and everyone in your area would bring their car to you. Nowadays, you need more if you want to be successful mechanic. You've got to know social media marketing, for one. A lot of small business owners didn't have those skill sets. So I wanted to primarily help small businesses that needed a plethora of sales skills to help them succeed. If they had small budgets, they could maybe hire one person. But they needed a sales leader, sales management, maybe some copywriting. They needed a whole team but had the budget for one person. Well, they could give that to us in an agency and we could deliver the full suite. That was the beginning of Pointer.
Most sales hires don't succeed and founders don't necessarily know what to look for, so you don't know which attributes to optimize for. So we thought we could help increase success of these companies by helping them bring in the right sales team and then provide support. So our recruitment model is we will recruit someone for a startup; we will train them three times a week for a year; then, placing them to make sure they know what they're executing it well. If they are not succeeding, we will remove this person and find someone new. So the the training is really attached to the recruitment.
If we look at those early stages, the biggest mistake startups make is thinking the product will sell itself. Product-led growth is an absolute myth. It is something that you get eventually, when you have strong product market fit. But, in those early days, the product does not sell itself and it's a huge strategic challenge. I just want you to know that even if your product was free, the enterprise wouldn't take it. It is not about selling. In enterprise, for example, it's about change management. It's about risk reduction.
I think people don't realize what they’re selling against. They’re selling against the status quo. 9 out of 10 deals will not be lost to a competitor, they will be lost to them doing nothing. But that inertia is incredibly powerful. It's built into our nature. “Doing something is risky, doing nothing is safe” - that's human nature. Often what we don't have as a startup is the ability to make people feel safe with a solution. This is about how you sell the product, or how the product is perceived, or how the implementation of the product is perceived.
✨ Want access to high-quality deal flow from a community of professional investors and exclusive events for angel investors? Please apply to be a member: https://forms.gle/4ZcMPURxDEWV98dv5
✨To get public updates on Bangladesh Angels, please join our substack.