Is the right person saying no?

3 min readAug 23, 2016

Image from efolder.net — How it feels trying to find the right person on calls

This blog is a weekly reflection of WorkHound’s time at Dynamo, a logistics-focused accelerator based in Chattanooga, TN. In week six we discuss the importance of finding the right person in the sales process while avoiding big complicated deals. You’ll also find a link to our podcast feature on “Dynamo Discussions”.

Is the right person saying no?

I’ve been making some tweaks to our sales funnel recently where I’ve doubled down on finding the right person at a prospective trucking company. In the past I’ve quickly settled for who I think is the right person and taken their decision “not interested” or “not now” as truth for that company. But the truth is that I wasn’t asking the right question.

“Is the right person saying no?”

If this is the case, effort should be spent working to engage with the right person at a company that has the problem we solve for and cares to get it solved. Sometimes it may take engaging 6+ people at a particular company, but it’s worth it to convert a suspect into a prospect. So instead of giving up on not hearing from someone at a company, I don’t hear “no” until I hear it from the right person. Even then it means “not now”.

No whale hunting

Andrew and I made a commitment early on to not chase whales. These are large customers that would be great logos and revenue boosts. But ultimately they are difficult to work with, as they require significant customizations and special needs to get to a yes.

The temptation is there every single time the opportunity pops up, but development and support resources are precious at our company. One “yes” to a whale throws our entire trajectory off track.

Instead we embrace the importance of market development, a term introduced to us by the team at GrowthX. The goal of this approach is to initially build a scalable product in a sliver of a larger market.

For example, in the US trucking industry there are 1.2 million trucking companies, but we initially focus on 6,000 of them. This allows us to cater our messaging and product to a very specific kind of company. Some companies may be interested and be a great fit later, but the goal is to delight a specific segment with a lightweight solution now.

Saying “not now” to promising prospects is one of the hardest things to do in sales, but it helps us stay on task to complete the bigger picture.

Telling the WorkHound story

Check out our podcast feature with “Dynamo Discussions” where Andrew and I highlighted our journey, what inspired our mission, and future plans for WorkHound.

Dynamo Discussions with WorkHound

Read our previous posts about our time at Dynamo

WorkHound Joins Dynamo // Week 1 Recap // Week 2 // Week 3 // Week 4 // Week 5

What is WorkHound?

WorkHound is a software platform built to help carriers keep drivers and improve the truck driver experience. Truck drivers use their smartphones to share feedback and ideas with the carrier, which WorkHound aggregates and turns into actionable insights to help manage and retain drivers. WorkHound is co-founded by Andrew Kirpalani and Max Farrell.