I Spent 30+ Days Studying A Programmer Turned Billionaire—One Thing I Learned About High-Ticket B2B Sales
Steal This Blueprint As an Early Stage Founder
I always considered myself an honest person.
Especially with my friends.
If you asked me, “Hey, are you the kind of person who lies to their friends?”
I’d laugh and say, “No, of course not. I don’t need to.”
That was the image I had about myself. And I believed it, fully.
Even if you changed the question and asked, “Hey, are you the kind of person who will lie to your friend just to prove some point?”
I’d laugh again and say, “No, of course not. I don’t need to.”
The morning
It was July 7th.
That morning, I got a call from my old friend.
He said, “Hey, I’ve been in the city for a couple of days. I am going back tomorrow. Can we meet today?”
I could sense the urgency in his voice. Meeting me mattered to him.
I said yes immediately. No hesitation. Earlier, we used to meet almost daily and hang out in the evening, but for the last few months, we haven’t even seen each other.
I genuinely wanted to meet him.
But there was something else happening that week — I’d finally pushed myself to start an online course I’d been procrastinating on for the week.
On that particular day, I started watching lectures, and I started liking it. I was focused and engaged.
I planned to leave the house by 4 PM, take an auto-rickshaw, and reach the place where we were supposed to meet.
Now, at 4 pm, I was in the middle of watching an important lecture. I thought, “Okay, I’ll finish just this video. Then I’ll go.” But you know how it goes. One video turned into two. By the time I looked at the clock again, it was 4:30 PM.
Right then, my phone started ringing. It was him.
“Hey, where are you?”
And without thinking, without pausing. I said:
“I’m at the railway station near the cafe. Almost there.”
A complete lie. The reality was I had just taken my seat in an auto-rickshaw it would take around 15–20 more minutes to reach the railway station.
The second I hung up, I felt it. This sinking feeling in my stomach. Why did I say that?
During that 15-minute journey, I kept feeling bad about this behaviour of mine.
The truth is — he wouldn’t have been mad. He might’ve even laughed if I said, “Hey, I will get late reaching the cafe.”
But I lied and didn’t even give him a chance.
I lied because I didn’t want to look like the person who forgot.
I lied because I wanted to protect that clean image of myself. The one that says: “I’m responsible. I’m reliable. I’m honest.”
But here I was — lying to a friend I hadn’t seen in months, who had taken the time to arrange a meeting with me.
And I realised one thing that I didn’t want to admit:
I wasn’t protecting my friendship — I was protecting my ego.
And maybe I do that more often than I think.
Maybe honesty isn’t about big moments, but the small, dumb ones.
The “I’m almost there” when you’re not.
The “I’m fine” when you’re not.
The tiny edits we make to avoid looking bad, even when the truth is harmless.
The problem with the Early-Stage B2B Founder
In the above situation, I wasn’t lying to protect the relationship. I was lying to protect the image.
And the more I think about this, the more I realise that this is exactly what early-stage founders do not do in friendships, but in sales calls.
You build a product. After some time, you get your first real enterprise lead. You hop on a demo call.
You are a little anxious. You feel the fear.
“What if they say it’s too expensive?”
“What if they say no to the product?”
“What if I look stupid and unprofessional?”
So you do the startup version of my lie.
You offer a discount.
Even before they ask it. Even before they do any pushback.
“It’s 99/seat, but I will do $79 for you.”
You offer a discount not to help them. But in fact, you’re protecting yourself.
It’s about holding an image.
“I’m a reasonable founder. I’m flexible.”
But you make the same mistake I made. When I told my friend, “I’m almost there.” I sacrificed our relationship.
Just like me, when you offer a discount for your first product, you start building your company on a shaky foundation — one where price is negotiable.
What did I learn from Marc?
When Marc Benioff started building Salesforce most of the sales representatives had a habit of offering discounts.
Giving discounts was their closing strategy.
In the quota-driven world where their commissions were tied to quarterly targets.
Most of them used to say:
“We will give you a 20% discount if you sign the deal today.”
But Marc and the team believed their service was fairly priced, and offering any kind of discount would compromise the service’s value.
They also wanted the keep the price the same for everyone. So, instead of giving a discount on a per-seat basis, whether someone bought 2 seats or 200 seats, they kept the price of their product fixed.
According to Marc, why should anyone pay a lower price just because someone’s company is bigger?
If you’re going to charge, then charge everyone the same.
Because of this, their sales reps became better at closing the deal. They started to focus more on customers instead of just giving discounts.
As your company grow, there can be various reasons to have a different price structure.
But don’t get started by selling your product for a smaller amount initially because you’re undervaluing it.
Don’t play the cut-price game at the start. Otherwise, you will never be able to survive. Charge everyone the same.