My favorite Kind is sales call is the A type business owner that acts like he’s balling and absolutely on top of the world
Then the second I send payment link starts acting like a little boy
“Is it really that expensive?”
“I thought you guys were the best? This should be nothing for you right?”
Paid
"All rumors are false until officially denied".
For the files:
Starmer quit only 3 days after denying the rumors that he would do so, and "vowing" to remain in his post.
hearing a sales rep describe his motivations in an interview as "a vacation to look forward to..." is just about as close as it gets to speaking to a girl and finding out she's vegan
a quick end to a meeting
being a founder who only makes decisions based on "data" is all fun and games until you realise your sample size is big enough to consider your "decisions" just about as good as reading tea leaves
I grew up in my parents' restaurants. (11 locations), and have worked with 100's of them in our startup. My parents were the laoban Gary is describing here.
Tasted the food, watched the kitchen, knew every regular by name. The bathroom was clean because it was their bathroom. The main restaurant was called "Punjab" (where our heritage is from) which meant that was the thing at risk.
Funny enough we see this at @certus_ai all the time. The best restaurant owners we work with are the ones who test their agent 30 times before going live pretending to be customers trying to break it.
I genuinely think if I correlated the number of test calls an owner does before going live with their Google review rating and feedback their customer give, it would track almost perfectly. The kind of owner who calls in 30 times to make sure the AI pronounces a menu item right is the same kind of owner who notices when a table hasn't been wiped down.
The ignorance of copying others…
People that copy “proven formulas” think they’re tapping into a shortcut.
They derisk their effort, but bound their outcome.
People don’t realize the derivative is always a fraction of the source.
True explosive breakouts come when someone pioneers a new way of doing things.
But this is the hardest/riskiest to do so everyone looking for quick results never does it.
This is where the alpha is in AI land…actually unique creation.
AI is going to print millions of derivatives (all converging to average).
Raw creative invention will be rewarded 100x because it will contrast so hard against all the clones.
This goes for content but also every other creative category.
Whenever you make something, you should ask yourself, “Am I cloning something or inventing something?”
If cloning, you better have a reason why yours is better than the original, or you’re wasting your time.
As a venture backed startup running GTM and Sales it is easy to forget that your ultimate goal is to make money.
Which means a good LTV:CAC
Every dollar spent where that ratio is below 1:1 means:
You are paying customers, to use your product.
I've found this to be an easy way to stay grounded in reality.
Raul saves 10+ hours a week and over $100,000 per year because of Sean, his newest employee from @certus_ai 🚀 👨🏻🍳
Raul is a father. A full-time detective. And a restaurant owner!
We spent an evening with Raul at his restaurant
He started with one food truck. Then two. Then many.
Eventually he built a brick and mortar from the ground up to keep up with demand.
I got to meet his team.
His chef is a childhood friend. So is his FOH manager. So is his GM.
Everyone on the team grew up with him. You feel it when you walk in.
Before Sean, Raul was answering the phones. So were the cooks.
The calls came in during the rush. They missed most of them. The ones they caught took five minutes each.
While Raul was out on detective work (like Sherlock level stuff) he'd get calls on his personal cell from customers who couldn't reach his restaurant asking what was going on.
Those customers hung up. Called the next place. Ordered there.
Sean answers every call now. He's never late. He's never on break. He's never overwhelmed at 8pm on a Friday.
The cooks go back to cooking. The staff get to focus on the customers in front of them.
Raul told me he was skeptical at first.
He's a believer now.
Before Certus, Raul had no way to stop the bleed. He could've hired someone, but as he put it, that's $600 a week for someone who can't cook.
Big chains have always had those people.
Now Raul does too.
Spending the evening with him reminded me why we started Certus.
It reminded me of being 9 years old, answering the phone at my parents' restaurant.
My mom serving customers. My dad in the kitchen. Me on the phone, because there was no one else.
As an independent, you can't afford to lose a single call. You also can't afford to hire someone dedicated to the phone line.
That's the trap.
Sean is the way out.
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Grateful for our team for making this poissible.
Our engineering team. (Raul telling us how amazing the product is.)
Our support team.
(Raul emphasising our support is second to none.)
Our sales team. (The reason operators like Raul ever find us in the first place.)
They're the reason Sean exists, and I could not be more excited to build with such amazingly talented people.
We're hiring across support, engineering, and sales.
If you want to join a rocket ship, let's chat!