We walked away from two deals

If you've ever felt that quiet discomfort before a sales call, the one that says "I don't want to be the pushy one," good. That instinct is right. There's a better way, and it works better too.

We're just shy of three months into building JumpLead (opens in a new tab). There's pressure to win every deal we can. Two salaries to cover, no safety net.

We've already walked away from two.

Not because they weren't good companies. Because we weren't sure they were ready to work with us. And we'd rather lose the revenue now than take the money and fail to deliver three months later.

It's scary. Walking away from cash when you need it most. But that's the principle. If we can't help a client build a consistent sales engine, we say no. Dequalifying is part of the job.

I should say who's writing this. I'm Joe. I turn 37 this week, based in London, dad to a seven-year-old daughter, and I just co-founded JumpLead with my old boss and good friend Chris May (opens in a new tab).

Fifteen years in B2B sales, and most of what I believed at the start has quietly been replaced by something simpler.

A recent quote I love:

"You can have everything in life you want if you'll just help enough other people get what they want." (Zig Ziglar)

Sales is an act of service.

Joe Stone

That's the whole thing. And I will always feel uncomfortable selling something I don't truly believe in.

My best lesson in all of it? Under promise, over deliver. Do that and you get very happy customers and very happy salespeople.

Persuasion matters, but the longer I've done this, the less I lead with it. What I value now is honesty and solution-led selling. Being more interested in fixing the customer's problem than hitting my own quota. It sounds soft. It's the opposite. It's the hardest, most disciplined way to sell, and it's the only one that's ever held up.

So that's what this newsletter is. The honest version of sales. What works, what I got wrong, the deals I lost and why. No cheat codes, just the things I've learned the long way, written down every couple of weeks.

See you in two weeks.

Joe StoneCo-founder, JumpLead