Mistakes founders make when selling (and what they should do instead)
This session is exclusively for The Pitch 2026 finalists.
The Pitch - powered by SeedLegals - is the UK and Ireland's largest pitch competition connecting UK founders with expert mentors, potential investors, unrivalled networking, and prizes worth up to £25k!
If you want the chance to access this mentoring, you must apply for this year's competition - applications are open until December 1st, 2025.
Selling your product, service, or vision is hard - and even great founders can stumble on common pitfalls that also carry over into pitching investors. The way you present, persuade, and respond to questions can make or break your pitch.
Join mentor and sales expert, Alex Stanley-Bell, to learn the most frequent mistakes founders make when selling, and, crucially, how to approach sales differently to win trust and close deals.
During this session, we’ll cover the following mistakes, their consequences and what to do instead:
Assuming the problem and not listening
Feature-first selling (focusing on the tech)
Poor messaging and understanding of value
Pitching/selling on your terms - not giving to get
Not knowing how pain works
Weak ICP focus
You’ll leave with practical strategies and actionable techniques to communicate with confidence, build trust, and make every investor interaction more persuasive.
Meet the mentor
Meet Alex Stanley-Bell, the Founder 2 Closer figurehead who knows how to turn pipelines into profits.
With a track record of creating new revenue streams from scratch, Alex has taken fledgling businesses from startup to scale-up and beyond – and through Founder 2 Closer, he shares the tricks of the trade every founder should know.
Drawing on more than a decade in tech sales, the Founder 2 Closer programme coaches early-stage founders on the fundamentals of sales. Across six sessions of tailored guidance, Alex reveals how to build a seamless system that finds and close revenue, with clear, practical guidance on how to scale at speed, ready for investment and a sales hire who can follow your proven process.