The Secrets to better Sales: 10 Questions for Patrick Trümpi, CSO Taskbase

1. Patrick, what fascinates you personally about sales?

I am a huge fan of learning. In my sales job, I can constantly learn new things and that has a direct impact. If I get better, I can see it immediately in my turnover - that motivates me immensely. Sales also enriches my life as a whole. The skills I develop in sales also help me in my everyday life - be it in conversations with my family, children or friends.

Great, then we will all learn something for life.

2. In your opinion, what are the decisive skills in sales?

99 out of 100 people on the street would probably say that you have to be able to speak well. In my view, however, it's much more about asking questions and being able to listen, showing interest and being curious. It's about asking further questions based on what you've heard and establishing a real dialog. That is the key to being successful in B2B.

"Asking questions, listening, showing interest and being curious - that's my formula for success in B2B sales."

3. You've been with Taskbase since March 2024. What is the first topic you have tackled?

The first thing I always do is define the ideal customer profile. I ask: "Who are we addressing and what big problem are we solving?" A very clearly defined customer profile helps to find the real pain points for a specific group. This allows you to develop the product in a targeted way and create real added value for the customer. The next thing I look for is to make a demo that creates an absolute wow experience for the customers. Of course, that's pretty cool with AI these days.

"My first question is always: Who exactly are we addressing and what important pain points are we solving for the customer?"

4. Focusing on the ideal customer profile reduces the market. Aren't start-ups missing out on something?

If you try to be a platform for all possible industries and needs, in the end no feature really fits perfectly. The product can never really be developed well this way. At Taskbase, we have therefore focused on a few exciting industries, such as education, e-learning and publishing, and are building on our strengths there.

‍5. Are there any special features in the marketing of SaaS and AI-based SaaS products?

Trust is key. Customers must be convinced that the product works. In the SaaS sector, it often takes a while to gain trust. This is particularly relevant with new technologies such as AI. We are in an AI hype. Many AI use cases are being tried out. But most of them won't work. To build trust in the solution, it is therefore important to use pilot phases in the sales process. At Taskbase, for example, we have people send us exercises that we then incorporate and show at the next demo.

"We make sure that we create an absolute wow experience for the customer."

Depending on the product, user adoption is also important. At Taskbase, we have the advantage of being seamlessly embedded in an existing learning platform that is already being used by the customers. Of course, the effort is much higher for start-ups that offer a stand-alone tool that users have to get used to alongside the many tools they already use. Here it is important to make the introduction as simple as possible for the customers. If this is not successful, the license agreement is quickly terminated.

"Trust in the product must be built up during the sales process. It's possible that AI will require even more of these steps in the future because trust will decrease overall."

6. You have 4 people in the sales team at Taskbase. What do you look for when hiring?

Ideally, you should have worked with these people before - as is the case here at Taskbase. If you're starting out on a greenfield site, I think it's better to hire people with four years or more experience. Juniors are coachable and hungry, but that's often not enough in this environment because you usually find an unfinished product and a lack of processes. What I would always look for are skills such as adaptability, intelligence, drive and passion. Adaptability is about being able to absorb new knowledge and adapt. A certain level of intelligence is important because the conversations I have to have at B2B typically involve complex questions. I test all of this in the interview with a few questioning techniques and see how a candidate performs in a cold call or demo.

"Good salespeople learn quickly, are intelligent, have drive and passion."

7. Patrick, your motto is "Become a better salesperson. Every.single.day." How do you ensure this with your sales team?

Every day, we briefly discuss the most important findings on use cases and the ideal customer profile. We also have various coaching sessions. On the one hand, there is an individual plan for each salesperson. We look at which topics people are good or less good at and practise where necessary. Then we have recurring coaching sessions for everyone.

Once a week, we hold a deal review meeting at which one of us analyzes a current deal and tells us what the biggest risks and the most important steps are. Everyone can then ask questions and make comments - this is how we learn and safeguard the deal.

Finally, we have three cold call sessions a week where we do cold outreach as a team. We start with a mock-up round, where we call each other to get to know each other a bit.

8. To what extent is artificial intelligence currently changing your work in B2B sales? AI can definitely help to optimize processes and even acquire new customers directly. Perhaps one day we will even see individual entrepreneurs who can serve a large number of customers thanks to AI.

Today, I save about 10% of my time thanks to AI-based tools, for example Twain, a tool that automatically creates cold emails. It analyzes company websites, extracts information about the target groups and benefits and then creates suitable messages. Within seconds, a personalized email can be created that is of better quality than what many sales people would write themselves. A sales rep at my company was able to generate three appointments in one week.

"AI tools like Twain help me save around 10% of my time. Maybe one day we'll even see individual entrepreneurs who can look after a large number of customers thanks to AI."

9. How do you see the sales and tech teams working together?

In start-ups, collaboration between sales and tech teams is particularly important, as the product still has a lot of potential for further development. I often say "Hey, take Leo with you to the customer, our product manager". This gives Leo direct contact and a better understanding of the customer's needs. Recently, we fast-tracked the development of a planned feature in just two weeks this way, which helped us win a new customer.

Also, our product team gains valuable insights through recorded customer conversations and a detailed feature request database. This data-driven approach allows us to evaluate and prioritize development based on actual customer needs and potential business value.
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10. Many startup founders ask themselves when is the right time to build up an entire sales team. What do you say?

A rule of thumb is that the founder has acquired ten customers who were previously completely unknown to him. This shows that the product is marketable. It is important that the sales people can sell a finished product - not something that is still being developed. A salesperson can only sell what is really there.

"A founder should acquire at least 10 previously unknown customers before hiring salespeople."

Thank you very much for the interesting tips, Patrick. I think you have already made us readers better salespeople. We at Bloomhaus are looking forward to the great developments that can be expected at Taskbase thanks to you and your team. It's actually 10 questions for Patrick. But because it's so exciting, let's add a bonus question, shall we?

Agreed.

Bonus question cold call. For many sales reps, cold calls are a challenge. Do you have a best practice example?

Self-confidence is crucial for a cold call. If you have this and a good approach, it's easy. The first 60 seconds are crucial. And there are two parts: I use the first 20 seconds to simply introduce myself: "Hey Ines, this is Patrick Trümpi from Taskbase. We don't know each other, but if you give me 30 seconds, I can explain why I'm calling." In most cases, around 85% of those called agree.

The next 40 seconds must then address the challenge that the potential customer has. For example, I say: "I talk to many publishers in Germany who tell me about two major challenges. They offer digital learning environments. But most of the exercises are limited to multiple-choice questions, as more complex answers are difficult to evaluate. We know that these more complex exercises, in which you have to give complete sentences as answers, have a much greater learning success. Is this a topic that sounds familiar to you, Ines? And we're already talking."

You can find more insights and experiences via Patrick's Linkedin account. It's worth following!

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