Rethink Your First Call Strategy to Boost Conversions by 2.5x

Why Your First Call Might Be Killing Your Deals

Stick around to the end. After years of ideating I am launching something you will really care about…

A few weeks ago, I reviewed a sales call with a founder running a data management platform at €21K MRR. He had leads but struggled with a 13% conversion rate from lead to opportunity. Within five minutes, it was clear why: he lost control of the deal during and after the first call.

His mistake? He fell into the "demo selling" trap—jumping into a product demo without first understanding the prospect’s specific challenges, context and needs.

The Two Biggest Mistakes Founders Make in First Calls

1. You Can’t Tailor the Demo

Instead of making the product relevant to the prospect, he walked through every feature. But prospects don’t care about what your product does; they care about what it does for them. The moment the demo doesn’t align with how they see their problem, you lose them.

2. You Miss the Discovery Opportunity

Your first call is the best chance to dig deep into the prospect’s pain points, decision criteria, and urgency. If you spend it showing features instead of learning what they care about, you won’t get that chance again.

After the call, the power shifts to the prospect. If they don’t see value, they won’t respond to your follow-ups, and you won’t know why.

The Fix: A 2.5-Step First Call Strategy

Step 1: Qualify Early

Before diving into discovery, confirm whether the prospect fits your ideal customer profile (ICP). Your time is too valuable to waste on bad-fit leads.

• Ask upfront questions such as: “What led you to explore solutions like ours?”

• Identify deal-breakers early ( such as budget, authority, urgency).

Step 2: Lead with Discovery

Your goal is to understand how they define their problem—not to tell them what you think they need.

• Dig into pain points: “What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing with [current process/activities]?”

• Uncover motivation and urgency: “Why solve this, now?”

• Define success: “What would make this a no-brainer for you?”

Step 2.5: The Micro-Demo

Instead of a full walkthrough, show only the 1-2 features most relevant to their pain points.

• Keep it short: “Let me show you a 2-minute example of how we solve that.”

• Use it to ask deeper questions: “Would this workflow fit into how your team operates?”

This strategy helped us improve conversion rates from lead to opportunity from 13% to 33%—a 2.5x increase in just a few weeks.

Takeaway: Your Next Step

Before your next sales call, take 5 minutes to plan:

• Qualify first (ensure the prospect is a fit).

• Lead with discovery (understand their priorities).

• Only micro-demo (if necessary, and keep it focused).

Master this, and your prospects will feel like you truly understand their needs—making the path to closing much smoother.

Introducing: The Founder Protocol

After years of helping founders scale from zero to $1M ARR, I realized something simple—but powerful:

The most consistent path to traction isn’t more quick tips.
It’s building a repeatable, proven protocol that creates predictable outcomes.

Yet 90% of founders wing it.

That’s why I created The Founder Protocol—a tactical program with bi-monthly coaching, real-world frameworks, and templates that help technical founders build a rock-solid sales motion before hiring a sales team. It also includes live Q&A within the group so everyone can take advantage of it and ask questions specifically related to their current experience on that topic so you can get first hand advice.

Inside, you'll find assets such as:

• My Discovery Call Framework (yes, the one that lifted that 13% conversion rate)

• How to define your TAM, ICP, and niche to cut through the noise

• Lead gen playbooks, trust-building scripts, objection handling tools—and more

This isn’t theory. It’s the distilled playbook used with teams at poolside.ai, Escape, Bump.sh, Pivot, and many others—tailored for seed and bootstrapped founders.