"Grauberg helped us turn complex customer requests into simple to use enterprise software, that allowed us to close 1B€+ revenue companies all over Europe and scale our team." Max Fischer, CEO and founder of Almetra AI

To find product market fit, selling needs to be easy.

You know you are there when sales cycles get shorter, there are less discussions about budget and security, and you get the first few successful pilots. The ones that even want to renew.

But to get there, you need 9 artifacts. And you usually get them from a designer.

1. Website
2. Sales Deck
3. Pitch Deck
4. Sales Demo
5. LinkedIn Graphics
6. Design Brain
7. Product Analytics
8. Print and Booth Design
9. Software

5 of these get set up once. The other 4 you iterate until you have PMF.

1. Website

The website does not work how you think it works.

People don’t use it to book demos and stuff. During a 6 month sales cycle, several people check several times if you are legit. So all we need to do is put a lot of trust, proof and credibility there.

Even if you don’t have any successful case studies yet, we can work with founder sympathy, team photos and certifications.

Set up once.

2. Sales Deck

This is what you need to sell.

From my time as a co-founder at Felloz, where we sold apps to big non profit organisations like SOS Children’s Villages, I know that these sales decks basically get updated every pitch.

So updating needs to be easy. You iterate the wording and what features to present, every single time.

3. Pitch Deck

Also iterated weekly.

Basically the same as sales, but you try to sell to investors. And since we all know you are never not fundraising, this needs to be easy to update as well.

4. Sales Demo

This is the one most founders forget.

The sales demo should be independent from the actual software, because it will include features you don’t have yet. It should showcase what the product could do when the 6 month sales cycle eventually closes.

I’ve been in so many sales presentations now, startups trying to get pilots, that I can confidently say people just always sell things they don’t have yet. And that’s ok.

But you need a good sales demo from your designer that you can iterate quickly.

5. LinkedIn Graphics

Set up once.

Just to make sure the LinkedIn banner shows that you are not a 3 people startup, but a trustworthy AI partner.

6. Design Brain

I set this up every time I work with a startup.

All the interview scripts, all the interviews we already did together, recorded. Plus a summary of the feedback and inputs we collected over time.

This helps us better understand the customer and their needs. And it answers the question “what to build next”.

7. Product Analytics

This one is crucial.

I use PostHog to have website and product usage tracked. The best feature though is session recordings.

Especially in enterprise, you might only have a few key users, so the “numbers” might not tell you much. But how they use or do not use certain features is a crucial design artifact to build better software.

8. Print and Booth Design

Also forgotten often.

Conventions are a great way to get new customers, especially enterprise. But you need to look the part, which means investing in a good booth design, some shirts and so on.

This one will go a long way for you.

9. Software

Final piece of the puzzle. Gets iterated weekly.

I talked to many founders that hired agencies and got a “full software design” after 3 months of work. In 3 months, you could have tested 12 different prototypes with real customers, iterated on them, and all of that without investing a single minute of engineering time.

And with 12 iterations we know a lot better if a feature is good or not.

So yeah, this is the most important part to get right. Sales demos and decks get you the close. But the software gets you a successful case study, a happy pilot customer, and your next funding round.

What this looks like when it works

For Almetra AI, we installed all 9 artifacts in the first few weeks. They eventually closed customers like Viessmann, Bosch and ABB, and raised a $19M Series A.

If you want, you can book a call with me and we walk through the 9 design artifacts you need to close enterprise customers, and pick the one we should work on together.

​Book a call here​

See you again next week!!! Nik