Selling Without the Sleaze: A Founder’s Guide to Human B2B Sales
If you’ve launched your own business and suddenly realised, “Wait… I have to sell now?” — welcome to the club.
Most founders didn’t start their business dreaming of pipeline metrics and discovery calls. You started because you’re good at what you do. You saw a problem worth fixing. You wanted more freedom, more impact, or both.
Sales? That was just the necessary side quest.
And somewhere along the way, B2B selling picked up a reputation for being pushy, scripted, overly persistent, and vaguely uncomfortable. Cold outreach feels awkward. Talking about your offer feels self-congratulatory. “Closing techniques” can feel more like emotional gymnastics than professional conversations.
No wonder it gives people the ick.
The good news? Proper B2B selling doesn’t look like that at all.
Why founders feel weird about sales
Most founders don’t come from a traditional sales background — and that’s not a weakness.
The discomfort usually comes from what we’ve seen modeled as “sales”:
Aggressive cold calls
Overpromising and underdelivering
Robotic scripts
Artificial urgency
Pressure disguised as persuasion
When it’s your product, your name, and your reputation on the line, those tactics feel misaligned at best — and deeply uncomfortable at worst.
The issue isn’t that you’re bad at selling.
The issue is believing that’s what selling is supposed to look like.
Let’s reframe this: selling is helping someone decide well
At its core, B2B sales isn’t about convincing someone to buy something they don’t need.
It’s about:
Understanding a real business problem
Exploring whether you can genuinely help
Making it easier for someone to make a smart decision
When done properly, sales feels like a structured conversation — not a performance.
If you’ve ever:
Given thoughtful advice
Helped a client think through options
Recommended a supplier, tool, or approach
You’ve already been selling.
Authentic sales just adds clarity, intention, and consistency to conversations you’re probably already having.
Clarity beats confidence
New founders often think the solution is “I just need to be more confident.”
Not quite.
Confidence grows from clarity.
When you are crystal clear on:
Who you help
What problem you solve
Why it matters
You stop trying to sell to everyone. And that alone makes everything easier.
If you can clearly say:
“I help this type of business solve this specific problem so they can achieve this outcome.”
You’re no longer pitching randomly. You’re speaking directly to the right people.
And when buyers feel understood, trust builds quickly.
Stop pitching. Start asking.
Nothing creates sales discomfort faster than launching into a pitch before understanding the situation.
Authentic B2B selling prioritises curiosity over persuasion.
Strong sales conversations are built on:
Asking thoughtful questions
Listening more than you speak
Exploring context before offering solutions
Instead of:
“Let me tell you about our solution.”
Try:
“Can you walk me through how you're currently approaching this?”
Your job is not to prove how impressive your product is.
Your job is to determine whether a meaningful problem exists — and whether solving it makes sense right now.
And sometimes, the most honest outcome of a sales conversation is deciding not to move forward.
Ironically, that honesty often builds more trust than a forced close ever could.
Ditch the scripts. Keep the structure.
Authentic doesn’t mean improvising everything.
Structure is essential in B2B — especially when deals are higher value and involve multiple decision-makers.
The trick is to use structure without sounding like you memorised it from a sales handbook.
A simple, natural conversation can cover:
Context — What’s happening in their business?
Impact — Why does this problem matter?
Alternatives — What have they tried?
Fit — Does your approach make sense here?
That keeps things focused while still feeling human.
Buyers don’t want to be “closed.”
They want to feel confident they’re making a smart decision.
Trust is the real currency
Founders often rush sales conversations because revenue feels urgent. That’s understandable.
But pressure erodes trust faster than almost anything else.
When people feel safe in a conversation — not cornered — they share more honestly. Better information leads to better decisions. Better decisions lead to stronger long-term relationships.
And long-term relationships are what make B2B businesses sustainable.
Sales that feels good is sales you’ll actually do
The biggest benefit of authentic selling isn’t just comfort.
It’s sustainability.
When your sales approach:
Aligns with your values
Sounds like you
Doesn’t rely on pressure tactics
You’re far more likely to:
Show up consistently
Improve steadily
Build durable client relationships
For founders, consistency always beats bursts of intensity.
You don’t need a new personality
You don’t need to become louder, slicker, or more aggressive to succeed in B2B sales.
You don’t need to fake charisma.
You don’t need to manufacture urgency.
You don’t need to feel uncomfortable to be effective.
You need:
A clear message
A genuine interest in your buyers
A simple structure for your conversations
That’s it.
If selling feels uncomfortable right now, treat it as feedback about your approach — not your suitability.
You started your business to help people.
That’s what good selling is.
