How did you make your first sale?

I'm a founder with an engineering background and sales is proving harder than I thought it would be. While I understand the value my startup (CorOpera) could provide to different companies at different stages in their fundraising lifecycle, I have not perfected how to communicate it yet. This got me thinking, I can't be alone in this right? What are other founders' experiences? How did you make your first sale? What did you learn?