In his reflection on his first year in sales, the author, a technical founder, highlights the steep learning curve he faced transitioning from programming and design to revenue generation. Realizing that acquiring paying customers was vital, he co-founded Ibex, a hybrid agency/SaaS business focused on helping others find clients. He emphasizes that while some successful bootstrapped SaaS startups rely solely on marketing, he found that a high-touch sales approach—through video calls, personalized emails, and custom solutions—helped build stronger customer relationships and allowed for higher pricing. The author introduces the concept of an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), which he found essential for efficient outreach. He learned that identifying good customers involves understanding who benefits from the service, has a willingness to pay, and is open to engagement. His journey included testing various customer types and iterating on offers, stressing that a compelling offer increases engagement. He outlines his sales funnel process, breaking it down into three stages: Top-of-Funnel (TOFU), Middle-of-Funnel (MOFU), and Bottom-of-Funnel (BOFU), providing specific statistics on connection requests, responses, and conversions. The TOFU stage involved sending 487 connection requests on LinkedIn, resulting in 175 accepted, with only 43 replying. In the MOFU stage, 11 discovery calls were booked, leading to 4 signed agreements. Finally, in the BOFU stage, 4 clients were onboarded, 2 of whom converted to paid plans after pilot programs. The author stresses the importance of generating leads through cold emails and LinkedIn outreach, noting that while cold emailing is scalable, it faces declining response rates. He finds LinkedIn more effective for identifying high-intent prospects due to its public data and trust factors, ultimately making it a critical tool in his sales strategy.