When a company is just starting operations, founder-led sales often matter most. At this stage, the founder is the face of the business: they need to acquire clients, communicate with them, and convince them to place an order.  

This approach has many benefits, as people often feel flattered when business founders talk to them directly. The passion is unmatched at this point, full of bold, naked enthusiasm, and no hired employee can describe the perks of your services better than you.

However, if things go well, your company will start growing. Communication might become less personalized and disjointed, which can lead to client loss. To prevent it, you need to know how to scale founder-led sales successfully; Microsoft Teams can help with it.

Integrating Microsoft Teams Calling & SMS in Your Tech Stack

When it comes to tech stacks, every new business should leverage the calling and SMS capabilities delivered by Microsoft Teams. Integrating Microsoft Teams calling and SMS in your startup sales process means that you’ll have a central hub for both internal and external communication. It’s much easier to operate data and maintain contact with your clients and employees when you have every crucial piece of data in one place. See what you can expect as a result and how to execute this integration.

Integration Benefits

Here are the perks of making Microsoft Teams a part of your business from early stages.

• Both texts and calls are managed from the same platform, so communication becomes centralized.
• You get a chance to track the history of every single customer from start to finish, as all the logs are stored right in Teams.
• Collaboration becomes much simpler and more efficient, as the founder and all the team members can view and discuss the same records.

Such a system can easily scale; you can rely on it as a founder early on, and then it’ll be able to support the entire sales team you hire. But how to pull off this integration in the first place?

Practical Tech Steps for Implementation

If you’re eager to integrate Microsoft Teams calling and its SMS features into your tech stack, just follow these steps.

1. Set up Microsoft Teams calling. First, you’ll need to buy and assign phone numbers to members of your team through Microsoft 365. Open the Teams Admin Center, go to Voice and Phone Numbers, and start assigning them beginning with the founder.  
2. Enable SMS integration. Unless you’re located in the US, Puerto Rico, or Canada, you won’t be able to use Microsoft native SMS systems. You’ll need a connector or API instead; sign up with your chosen provider and get an SMS-enabled number. Connect the gateway to Teams and configure where all SMS will arrive.
3. Connect Teams to your CRM. Choose your CRM and use Teams connectors to sync all the call logs and SMS records. This way, every interaction with a customer will be preserved.  
4. Train your first employees. Once you learn how to use Teams yourself, share your knowledge with your first employees. Remember that it’s crucial to use business numbers; never make client calls or send SMS from your personal phone.
5. Monitor and adjust your system. Use Teams Admin Center to review all your call logs and SMS traffic. This will enable you to spot missed calls, slow response times, and many other annoying issues. Adjust routing rules if one of the teams starts feeling overloaded.  

Develop a plan for scaling: the more sales employees you hire, the more Teams numbers and SMS routes you’re going to need. Create shared queues so potential leads don’t depend on a single founder for assistance, and automate some SMS workflows.

Preserving the Effect of Founder-Led Sales

Once the company starts scaling, the founder’s role will start to change as well. That’s where it’s crucial to stay open, trust your team, and share all your insights with them to make sure the clients remain satisfied.

First of all, the founder has to avoid micromanaging the team because it will only lead to dissatisfaction and poor customer service. Hire people you can genuinely trust and understand the fact that the more you grow, the more board members and other joiners you’ll have.

Secondly, be prepared to pass the approach you’ve already refined to the rest of your team. Why did your clients choose to trust you? What made you close so many sales that now you’ve entered an active growth stage? Share these tips with your employees.

Some founders feel too possessive of their knowledge, but unless you’re willing to be open, the level of expected service in your company will drop. If you feel like you can’t trust the people who work for you with your insights, it might be time to change your team and select the next employees more carefully.

Achieve the Balance between Tech Stack and In-Person Communication

Microsoft Teams is a great tool for connecting yourself, your employees, and your customers. Enable calling and SMS with its help, and store all the information on one secure platform.

This is the best tech solution available to founders of startups; once you scale, Microsoft Teams will support your growth. It serves enterprises just as well, so it has all the tools and features you need.

However, remember the importance of in-person communication, too. Cultivate a trust-based bond with your employees and other members of the company, and avoid controlling behavior. Your role will shift with time, so you won’t be leading sales directly any longer; it’s natural, so you should prepare for it in advance.