Duncan Knight 

An early-stage HealthTech founder was winning customers but needed a more consistent approach to commercial growth. Here's how our coaching conversations helped him think differently about sales, priorities and building a sustainable business.

When sales slow down, it is tempting to push harder. More outreach, more marketing activity, more pressure on the team. Before increasing the effort, step back and examine what has changed. Your customers’ priorities may have shifted. Your message may no longer reflect the problem they most want to solve. Or the approach that won your first customers may be difficult for anyone else to repeat. A sales strategy review helps you decide where to focus. These seven questions give

A founder once asked me to expand on why meeting people matters when you’re looking for customers, employees, investors and advisers. For me, meeting face to face offers something valuable. You have space to get to know someone beyond their job title, hear about their experiences and discover whether you would like to continue the conversation. Online conversations have their place too. But getting out of your usual environment can introduce you to people and perspectives you

You have built something you believe in. You can explain how it works, why you created it and what you hope it will become. Then comes the moment to contact a potential customer. Suddenly, improving the website feels urgent. There is another feature to finish, another market report to read or another version of the pitch to prepare. If that sounds familiar, it is worth asking what you are putting off. Selling can feel personal when the business is yours. You are asking someon

An enthusiastic conversation can feel like progress towards a sale. But enthusiasm does not tell you whether someone has the budget, authority or reason to buy. I have taken a flight expecting to close a deal, only to learn that the finance director had pulled the budget. On another occasion, I received a purchase order from an IT department and discovered that the person who signed it did not have the authority to do so. Experiences like those teach you to examine what you t

As a founder, you spend a lot of time explaining things. Your product, your priorities, your decisions and what you need from other people. It can become a habit to arrive in a conversation ready to speak. But when you are preparing your answer while someone else is talking, it is easy to miss what they are trying to tell you. You might respond to the first part, make an assumption or solve a problem they have not actually described. I sometimes find my own attention wanderin