Table of contents
Dear Belka,
how do you sell to these awesome customers, considering that you are in Trento and are a bunch of nerds from Computer Science? Btw are you designers, developers…what you actually do?
— Samuele, Riva del Garda
Dear Samuele,
From the outside, Belka looks like a design studio. Cute logo, slick interfaces, some dogs in the photos. You’d be forgiven for thinking we live off Dribbble likes and Figma gradients.
But from the inside, Belka is something else entirely. We are a strategic product consultancy, and our sales cycle is more McKinsey than Mad Men. We don’t sell hours, we don’t take RFPs, and if someone asks us “how much for a new app?” before we’ve even talked about value, we know it’s not going to work.
Why? Because we flipped the model. Most agencies start with the client’s question — how much will it cost, how fast can you do it, what’s in scope? — and then scramble to answer. That’s a terrible way to start a relationship. It puts the project in a box before anyone knows if the box is the right size, or if it should even be a box at all.
So we did the opposite. We start with value. Always. Before ideas, before features, before budgets. Because if we don’t know what success looks like for a client, how can we possibly know what to build?
And that’s how we ended up with our four-conversation sales cycle. Four steps that look simple on paper but change everything in practice: Vetting, Value, Proposal, Closing.
👉 We are hiring an Account Executive in Belka
1. The Vetting Conversation
This is where we politely check if we should even keep talking.
No one likes to admit it, but not every client is right for us — and we’re not right for every client.
So the vetting conversation is simple. Fabrizio runs it. He has a checklist, and it’s short enough to fit on a Post-it but sharp enough to save us months of wasted time.
We only work with companies that:
- Make between €1.5M and €70M in revenue.
- Already launched a digital product.
- Are frustrated because it isn’t growing the way it should.
That’s the high-level filter. If those boxes aren’t ticked, we smile, shake hands (virtually), and move on. No hard feelings.
But the real magic is in the questions. Here’s what Fabrizio actually asks:
- Why us? What pushed you to write to Belka?
- What’s the pain? What challenge are you facing? What’s blocking progress?
- Business context. What are your plans and goals for the year? If you’re a startup, have you raised funding? Are you planning to?
- Budget sanity check. Do you have a number in mind? How much have you spent on similar problems before? For context, our starting projects are around €60k, and most clients spend about €100k a year with us.
- Authority. Who decides? What’s your role in the decision? Who else is involved?
- Timing. When do you want this done? Why now?
It’s not an interrogation. It’s a conversation. But the answers tell us if there’s a real project here or just curiosity shopping.
Without this filter, you end up in the classic agency dance:
Client: “We might have a project…”
Agency: “Wow, that sounds amazing! We’d love to help!”
Client: “Can you send us a proposal?”
Agency: “Of course!”
Everyone smiles, even though half the time the agency knows it’s a terrible fit. Weeks are wasted, proposals written, calls booked, until someone finally admits it’s not going anywhere.
We don’t do that. We vet first. Because once we know a prospect fits our ICP, we can drop the dance and start being useful.
👉 We are hiring an Account Executive in Belka
2. The Value Conversation
Once a prospect passes the vetting filter, they land with me. Forty minutes, one call, no slides, no proposal, no pixel talk. Just questions.
This is the opposite of what most people expect. They show up ready to pitch us their RFP or a long list of features. I stop them. Because Belka’s value isn’t in saying yes to someone else’s idea. It’s in figuring out the right idea together.
So I ask one simple question:
“It’s one year in the future. The project was a huge success. We’re all thrilled. What happened?”
That’s it. That’s the whole trick. It sounds broad (and it is), but it forces the client to imagine the outcome in concrete terms. And once you open that door, you have to dig. What does “success” mean? More revenue? More users? A product that finally works the way the CEO brags about at conferences?
Money comes up a lot. And don’t get me wrong — revenue is important. But money on its own is boring. As I like to say: talking only about money is for people without imagination. The interesting part is how that money happens — what levers are pulled, what behavior changes, what business risks are reduced. That’s the real value
At the end of this conversation, we aim to have two things:
- A clear picture of what success looks like.
- A rough budget.
On budget, there are usually two types
- Investment budgets.
You spend 100 to unlock 1,000. Think in terms of expected ROI — if onboarding improves by 20%, and each user is worth €2k a year, then we can back into how much that improvement is worth and size the investment accordingly. - Allocated budgets.
You’ve raised €3M, and you’ve set aside €500k for building the product. It’s not ROI-driven in the short term, but it’s still tied to a strategic plan.
The important part is always the reason behind the number. A budget without a reason is useless. And if a client tells me they “don’t have a budget”? I run. Everyone has a number in mind. Pretending otherwise just sets us up to guess, and guessing is no way to build a lasting relationship.
Sometimes the client already has a strong idea of what they want. Great, we align on that. More often, they don’t — and that’s when we recommend a diagnostic phase. That’s where we take a deep dive into their company, their business model, and how their digital product fits into the larger picture. But we’ll get to that in the next step.
👉 We are hiring an Account Executive in Belka
3. The Proposal Conversation
At this point, we know two things: the client is a fit, and we’ve defined what success looks like. Now comes the part everyone thinks is “the proposal.”
Except, again, we don’t do it the way agencies usually do. No PDF with 47 slides. We make a one-pager. That’s it.
And here’s the important part: that one-pager doesn’t list solutions. Because we’re not paid for our doing, we’re paid for our thinking. The how we solve the problem is the most valuable part of what we do. To throw solutions into a one-pager before we’ve even diagnosed the problem would be malpractice.
That’s why the diagnostic exists. It’s not busywork, it’s how we avoid building the wrong thing. The diagnostic is where we take a deep dive into the product itself — what works, what doesn’t, and why.
Take onboarding as an example. Imagine a company where the onboarding funnel is underperforming. Everyone knows that if onboarding worked better, the business would grow faster: more customers activated, more revenue, a smoother product experience.
The tempting thing to do would be to jump straight to solutions: “Why don’t you simplify the form? Add social login? Make a slicker animation?” But the truth is: we don’t yet know why people aren’t signing up. Maybe the value proposition is unclear. Maybe the users are unqualified. Maybe the friction is elsewhere in the journey.
Until we answer that question, prescribing solutions would be criminal. The diagnostic phase is our way of finding the root cause. Only then can we connect the value identified in the earlier conversation with solutions that have a real chance of delivering it.
So the proposal is not a guess. It’s a bridge: on one side, the value we’ve uncovered with the client; on the other, a project with a clear scope, tied to outcomes, and backed by diagnosis.
This is why we don’t sell hours. An hour doesn’t tell you if your product will grow. A fixed-scope project, born from a proper diagnosis, does.
👉 We are hiring an Account Executive in Belka
4. The Closing Conversation
This is the last step, and by now it’s not really about “selling” at all. It’s about alignment.
The closing conversation is where we sit down with the client, review the one-pager, and make sure three things are true:
- The scope reflects the value we uncovered.
- The investment matches the size of the opportunity.
- Everyone around the (real or virtual) table is actually ready to commit.
That’s it. No dramatic countdowns, no “if you sign by Friday you get 10% off.” We’re not running a furniture store.
The tone is collaborative, not transactional. We’re confirming that both sides are on the same page, that expectations are clear, and that we’re all committing to the same outcome. Because if we’ve done the first three conversations right, this one is almost boring. In the best way.
And here’s the funny thing: closing is often when the client realizes just how different Belka is from the “cute design studio” they thought they were talking to at the beginning.
From the outside, we look like a bunch of designers pushing pixels. From the inside, we’re a consultancy that filters ruthlessly, sells on value, and won’t move forward until the project makes sense for everyone involved. And I am very proud to write that we frequently turn down projects that are not aligned with this perspective.
That’s the point of the closing conversation. Not to pressure, but to confirm: yes, this is the right project, at the right time, for the right reasons.
Why we do this
That’s our four-conversation cycle: Vetting, Value, Proposal, Closing. Why do you need all those steps? The reason is that it’s a filter, a diagnosis, and a way of protecting both sides from bad projects.
And we really don’t like bad projects.
We also know most companies don’t work like this. They take any client, write endless proposals, and spend months polishing pet projects that don’t move the needle.
That’s their choice.
We’re not like that. Belka exists to bring value to the world. Our time is limited and we want to spend it in a meaningful way. If that means fewer projects but better ones, we’re fine with that.
∗ ∗ ∗
👉 We are hiring an Account Executive in Belka
∗ ∗ ∗
Feedback? Write to the author at g@belkadigital.com. All feedback is welcome.
PS if you liked this article you should buy this book and this book. It’s where I studied.
