Eric Samson founded his agency with a client-first, performance-based model, assuming its superiority would automatically attract customers. He learned the hard way that the "if you build it, they will come" mentality is a myth; even the best product requires a dedicated sales engine to find and win business.
Eric Samson's company initially hired closers and consultants focused on deal closing, only to realize they had no calls for them to handle. This highlights a critical error in building a sales function: you must solve for top-of-funnel lead generation before investing in bottom-of-funnel closing talent.
When proposing to break apart an expert's role, Eric Samson was met with resistance. Instead of forcing the issue, he patiently raised the topic in multiple meetings. This iterative approach allowed the team member to process the change, voice concerns, and eventually buy in, proving more effective than a top-down mandate.
Initially frustrated with consultants, Eric Samson later realized they were giving good advice for challenges his company would face two years in the future. The insight is to diagnose your immediate bottleneck and hire experts who specialize in that specific stage, not generalists who may be solving for a different part of the journey.
Eric Samson's company perfected its operations and service delivery for eight years before cracking the code on sales. He advises founders to solve sales first, warning that it's maddening to have an excellent, efficient business that you can't grow simply because you have no reliable way of telling potential customers you exist.
To lower cost-per-lead, Eric Samson deconstructed his expert's 10-step process. He identified the three steps requiring true expertise and delegated the seven commoditized tasks (e.g., list building) to less expensive personnel. This dramatically increased the expert's high-value output and scaled the entire operation without cutting quality.