Building a scalable sales engine requires more than quick hacks — it demands scientific precision and disciplined execution. In the second webinar hosted by The Top Voices, GTM expert Ted Chalouhi broke down how to engineer sales for predictable, repeatable growth, using proven systems, clear signals, and proper sequencing.
Ted Chalouhi is the Founder and CEO of Duku AI. He previously led go-to-market teams at Uber, Deliveroo, Tripadvisor, and Foodbomb. With over 20 years of experience in sales and growth across B2B and B2C startups, he has helped scale companies from pre-seed to exit.
Modern Sales: Complexity Over Cash
The main risk for startups today isn’t a lack of funding — it’s poor execution. Recent surveys show that for 78% of founders, the biggest challenge is not burn rate but turning strategy into results. Go-to-market has become more complex: product-led growth shifts the role of sales. The product must now generate and qualify demand on its own, while sales teams focus on high-value deals where human expertise really makes a difference.
Sales as a Predictable System
Predictable growth starts with treating sales as a system, not a gamble. It all depends on high-quality inputs: marketing must deliver not just leads, but clear demand signals. This builds a healthy pipeline and enables accurate forecasts. Without clear signals, teams rely on guesswork and forecasts lose credibility. The sales function shouldn’t depend on heroic reps — it should enable average reps to deliver consistent results.
Focus and Control: ICP, Process, Signals
Sharp focus and tight control separate healthy sales engines from chaotic ones. It all starts with a clearly defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Selling to the wrong customers slows down growth and drives churn. Good segmentation, data enrichment, and solid qualification frameworks (like MEDDIC or BANT) help teams concentrate on accounts with a real chance of closing. It’s crucial to build control mechanisms: signals (daily stand-ups, dashboards) and safeguards to catch execution gaps early. The sales process must align with how customers actually buy — not with internal assumptions.
People: Development Beats Raw Talent
Top-performing salespeople are built, not born. Core traits like coachability, curiosity, and quick learning matter more than big-name experience. Developing these traits requires clear competency frameworks, regular 1:1s, and transparent growth plans. Modern tools like call recording and AI-driven revenue intelligence make performance visible and help replicate best practices across the team. Effective coaching is about removing blockers, not micromanaging every step.
Scaling the Right Way
The biggest mistake is trying to scale sales too soon. At the beginning, founder-led sales must reach repeatability — that’s the only way to deeply understand objections and prove who buys and why. Only then does it make sense to hire the first sales reps — not as a quick fix, but as an extension of learning. Early reps should act like product managers: testing what works and feeding insights back to the team. Once the system is proven and repeatable, scaling the team becomes safe and efficient. That’s how sales transforms from a cost center into a predictable growth engine.
To make sales a reliable growth driver, companies don’t need chaotic hiring sprees or a rush for quick revenue — they need clear structure: the right audience, a tested process, transparent metrics, and a team that learns and evolves alongside the product. A strong sales system is built on discipline, focus, and consistent execution. This approach enables companies to grow steadily and predictably, even in highly competitive markets.