Lessons from Jacco van der Kooij, founder of Winning by Design

"People hate to be sold, but they love to buy." [1] This fundamental principle underscores the shift from a seller-focused to a buyer-centric approach.
"Sales is one of the most beautiful jobs in the world and accessible to unlimited amount of human beings because you don't need a degree of significance that will have cost you an enormous amount of debt." [1]
"I think we should help our customers solve their problems." [2]
"Buyers define the experience, not the sellers. Buyers customers define the experience that they are sold at uh that they want to be sold." [1]
"When organizations treat how they sell, as important as what they sell, then sales will work." [3]
"In SaaS, sales isn't just an art—a science. And like any science, it demands precision, understanding, and a method." [4]
"We're not the first to say “prescription without diagnosis is malpractice,” but it is still very true." [5]
" The number one factor that makes a great sales experience is when the salesperson makes you feel that their recommendations are in your best interest, not theirs.” [6]
"Sales is service." [3] This is echoed by Jeff Bezos's quote, "We don't make money when we sell things. We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions." [3]
"Joy should always be prioritized over performance." [7]

"A process is doing something that is proven to work, and doing more of it, while stopping what doesn't work." [3]
"The single biggest challenge facing sales professionals is that they are unable to execute a proper sales process consistently." [3]
"Without a well-defined process, customers and win rates will suffer from poor handoffs between functions." [8][9]
"Organizations need to ensure that specialization is paired with a well-defined, cross-functional process and job training for each role." [8][9]
The "land and expand" model is common, where a customer first samples the impact through a smaller pilot before expanding its use. [8][9]
On negotiation: "Think Committing, not closing; Trading, not negotiating." [3]
"We recommend that salespeople think of negotiation as “trading.” With trading, both parties give up something of value in order to benefit." [5]
" The trade in the heart of sales is the customer's time for the salesperson's value." [3]
"The methodology must become customer-centric: experiences, not stages. The experiences are emotional steps." [3]
"Come up with a plan for how your teams can improve each of these conversion rates with a few basic actions." [5]

"Up to $10M, growth primarily comes from acquiring new customers. Beyond this, growth comes mostly from retention." [6]
"Retention needs to be seen as the same as acquisition. It's an element of growth.” [6]
"Retention behaves the same way as acquisition. The customer needs to be convinced that the impact is still there, and if you don't do that, they won't renew.” [6]
"Historically, growth was driven by a 'growth at all costs' approach. However, this is no longer feasible." [10]
"Recurring impact leads to recurring revenue." [10]

"AI is like a souped-up rocket engine, which can propel us to new heights, but any flaws in its design will cause it to crash faster." [11]
"Just like automation relies on well-oiled factory processes, AI thrives on robust GTM processes." [11]
"We have actually overhired too many salespeople, and now for example with the sales development role we 'Oh my gosh we need to fire so many sales development because AI does a better job or does a lower cost job.' Whatever it is what you find is we were not supposed to mass email people in the first place." [12]
"AI is the strongest where we close loops where we bring lots of data together we draw insights from that." [13]
"AI is consumer grade not enterprise grade... I cannot trust it in the enterprise." [14]
"Leverage AI to elevate the buyer experience. It's not about giving sellers an unfair advantage–it's about using AI to make things easier for buyers." [11]
"The shift from activity to productivity is the major shift that needs to be addressed. Activity is measurable... However, it does not necessarily lead to productivity. To turn activity into productivity, knowledge and skill are needed." [7]

"In a science culture, seventy percent of learning comes from doing and coaching, twenty percent from peer feedback and only ten percent from formal classroom learning." [8][9]
"A superstar culture is built on once-a-year training, delivered by those who have not used the taught skills in over a decade, let alone updated them. Instead, a science culture relies on continuous improvement." [8][9]
"Without a well-defined onboarding and coaching program, the reps will fail." [8][9]
"I don't hire sales people... early on what you'll do as a as a founder CEO... they understand the problem really well... what I generally recommend is that you hire people who are passionate about solving the same problem or passionate about having the same solution." [15]
"The true expertise of selling at every GTM motion, from PLG to deep enterprise, needs to be properly taught and educated." [6]
"I like a person that fails in front of me. I like a person that has things that I see that they're failing. And I like to see how they deal with that failure. I don't like people who are perfect." [2]
"Go talk to customers... customers tell you the things that you can immediately kind of work on." [1]

"Customer conversations are more than transactions; they are the bridges that connect a product's potential to a client's need." [4]
"Effective customer engagement starts with a customer-centric methodology. This means genuinely understanding your customer's perspective, their role, industry, and specific challenges before initiating contact." [16]
"Active listening is mindfully listening to your customers, building on the response they are giving, and providing cues that show them that you're actually comprehending what they are saying." [16]
"Avoid making it feel like an interrogation. Identify pain and impact." [16]
"The TALKER acronym: Tone, Ask questions, Listen actively, Keeping notes, Elaborate on the conversation, Repeat what you've heard." [3]
"Avoid starting with 'I' statements; make it about the customer ('You')." [16]

"I have determined that if I that I am that human beings are pretty decent at forecasting the future... we're really hard at predicting the speed that it comes us with." [1]
"If I go into my business and I predict with my team what will the winning by design business look 10 years from now and assume that we have to be there in 18 months that I'm more accurate than than anything else." [1]
"The problem of competition is against yourself." [1]
"By the time you get to this particular point you're stubborn... it's the only way how you get here right if you haven't listened to all the naysayers you would have never gotten here." [15]
"The era of 'growth at all costs' ended, ushering in a new phase: the era of the Revenue Factory." [10]

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