The Secret to Building a World-Class Sales Engine

In this episode I sit down with Phillip Tillman, founder of SurTech and Konsise, to explore the real-world challenges of building and scaling software businesses in the African market .We unpack the founding story of SurTech, a specialist distribution business in the SaaS space, and dive deep into what it takes to build a high-performance sales function from the ground up.

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Phillip shares practical insights on:

- The power of cold calling and why rainmakers still matter

- How to cultivate strong salespeople and structure a sales engine that scales

- Understanding the customer buying cycle and aligning your team around it

- The iterative journey of building Konsise and how customer feedback shaped the product

- Balancing growth between two businesses and managing control as a founder

- Why company culture, intellectual property, and exit strategy all matter more than you think

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We also discuss remote work, future plans, and what it means to build a sustainable business while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.This one is packed with valuable lessons for founders building sales-led companies, especially in emerging markets.