“Paul, great to see you again. Your usual table…?”

“Yes…I really appreciate it. Great to see you too.”

The elegant hostess leads us to our seats. The lighting is dim enough to feel intimate but bright enough to make out the type on a menu. I hear Sinatra singing “My Funny Valentine” over the faint restaurant din.

We sink into the velvet of our chairs. A well-coiffed middle-aged man approaches our table.

“Good evening, my name is Walter. I’ll be taking care of you tonight. As you already know, this is a tasting menu, so we’re reducing the number of decisions you’ll have to make tonight. Just two of them for you, however. Are you thinking about a cocktail as we kick off dinner? And are you going to be ordering wine? Or will you be going with the pairing?”

I smile. Let go. And realize we’re about to have a blast.

When designing your sales process, you can conjure up an experience you’d like to go through. It can be helpful to ask yourself, ‘How would I like to be sold to?’

For me, the inspiration is a Michelin-star establishment. I want to feel cared for and ushered into a gastronomic adventure. Adroitely guided. But never rushed.

You might ask, “Well, Paul, that’s all well and good…but how does a high-end restaurant even relate to conducting a customer conversation at my startup?”

Glad you asked.

One of the things I appreciate most about a great front-of-house person is their ability to make me feel taken care of with their leadership. Nothing is left to chance. I know exactly what to expect. Setting a sturdy agenda – much like the waiter did above – at the top of every call is a way to impart that feeling in a startup sales process. It not only gives your prospect a sense of what to look forward to but also elevates your status to a trusted advisor. The prospect is reassured by the fact they’re embarking on a well-trodden path.

I also love it when a waiter teases the next dish. I get a pre-sensory digest of what I’m about to eat. My taste buds await something novel or interesting. And that anticipation only builds up the fun we’re about to have. I’ve been made to feel like the next step in our epicurian episode is a can’t-miss. The same is true about a good sales process. You have to sell the next step. Without it, you run the risk of losing the prospect. Folks might drop off for a while, or you could end up losing the deal outright. Selling the next step is the connective tissue between steps in your sales process. Just like with a great dish, you want to sell the value inherent in the next stage. It should feel like “must-see TV” to your potential customer.

“How’s everything going for you? Is there anything else we can get you?” A person waiting on you might ask these questions – or variations of those – several times during a meal. It’s a good way of taking the temperature and ensuring you’re feeling pampered. I also like to see this from sales reps. It’s critical to engage your audience to ensure they’re alert and following along. Without these inquiries, you could end up talking to yourself. A good salesperson is consistently checking in to confirm their points are landing. Questions like “Does that make sense?” or “Do you have any questions?” should be sprinkled throughout a sales conversation.

“Your entrée is a pan-seared duck breast…resting atop a bed of parsnip purée, accented with a port wine reduction and crisp sage leaves, balancing earthy richness with a hint of sweetness in every bite.” Now that’s sophistication I can get behind! The level of refinement in this description not only makes my mouth water but also inspires me to notice the details of my upcoming dish. We should all aspire to describe our products with such polish. It not only communicates the inherent value in the thing we’re selling, but it also conveys our passion for it. A characteristic too often overlooked by founders, I’ve found. We’re porous creatures. Emotions are contagious and can be transmitted from one human to the next. Sales can be viewed as a transfer of enthusiasm from the salesperson to the customer. Forgoing that transmission only hurts our chances of closing a deal.

All of this to say: design the first version of your sales process and go-to-market motion the way you’d like to be sold to. Particularly if you’re part of the target persona. One of them.

But beware of over-applying the golden rule.

“I never answer cold calls…I just hate them!” Or, “I’ve ever responded to an automated email. I can’t fathom it working on me.” Founders will often proclaim, as we’re discussing what go-to-market experiments to run. But that can be a huge mistake. Thinking you’re somehow the exemplar of what might or might not work for your target vertical can lead you astray. That prospect might be very different from you.

They might find the Michelin-star treatment too snooty. Or see the Burgundy truffle upsell on their pasta as obnoxious. Or perceive the sommelier’s description of his latest Napa find as pretentious. While, for me, they’d all be a welcome interaction.

To each their own.

I do ask my clients to remain agnostic as to what might work in their go-to-market motion. Yes, you can construct a sales process based on what you like to experience. And yes, you can make educated guesses as to what will work on your target persona based on what you know about them. Those lines of thinking are encouraged. But don’t confine yourself to your mind. Your frame. Or your point of view.

If you do, you lose out on the richness of a different perspective. A varied past. Contrasting values. Distinct preferences. The key is designing experiments that allow you to learn from the market. Ranking them based on their likelihood of success. (The earlier you run a successful experiment, the closer you are to having a repeatable sales motion.) And iterating on your motion based on what the market is telling you. This all means that we need to develop the skill of listening to the market. Any interaction with the market that isn’t a lesson is a wasted opportunity. So, get out there and sketch out your dream process. But be flexible enough to completely revamp it based on the feedback you get from your customers.