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Ask HN: How to learn sales?

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Re: Ask HN: How to learn sales?

#191

Post by User23 »

bladegash wrote: post #60

I think the skill sets needed are highly dependent on the type of sale. The approaches used for a cold sale and technical consultations with leads that are already qualified (demonstrated interest in a product/service) are very different. However, I would start by taking a look into concepts like building rapport, reflective listening, and active listening. You can even look to concepts like social engineering, e.g.,…

Pretty much came here to write this. If one really wants to dive deep I'd add Rhetoric by Aristotle to that reading list.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn sales?

#192

Post by ky3 »

scapecast wrote: post #169
baxtr wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting! > you interview as many prospects and customers as possible Did you do that before or after completing your product / service?

both. this is 4 years ago, the market we were going after were the cloud warehouses like Redshift, BigQuery and Snowflake. In the beginning, we just had an idea for a specific product / service. but we knew that the customer would be the lonely data engineer in charge of building the analytics stack. I started with cold outreach via my network and linkedin. I would use pretty broad language around data warehouse usag…

> Rather, I should have hired a customer success person

Also called a Field Application Engineer in some circles.

> Then let the customer success rep also write (technical) blog post, customer stories / case studies, and documentation.

Also sample code, sample scripts.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn sales?

#193

Post by [deleted] »

mindhash wrote: post #109
skmurphy wrote: post #15

You need to separate sales from marketing. Sales is a conversation, marketing is a broadcast. Marketing gets the phone to ring, sales takes the call and closes the deal. For B2B sales resembles project management: the goal is not to convince everyone to buy your product or service but to diagnose their needs and only engage with firms that will benefit. For larger deals you "sell with your ears" as much as you talk.…

Came to say exactly this. As a first time entrepreneur its important to learn how to spread ideas. Sales comes after.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to learn sales?

#194

Post by pkalinowski »

sitkack wrote: post #179
chiefalchemist wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note the opening five words: "Advertising is a marketing communication..." Your tone is unnecessary and off-target. The above quote from line one is exactly what I said. You don't just wake up, roll out of bed, and advertise. Well, you can but waste a ton of money. In any case, that message needs to be crafted. That's marketing. Advertising is how you disseminate that "plan." Logo - marketing, not advertising. Style…

Folks are getting bound up in shallow semantics in this whole thread and are missing the nuance in your distinctions.

Putting advertising outside of marketing is not a nuance.

Advertising is part of marketing.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn sales?

#195

Post by katiefang »

It really depends on the industry and the stage of the company. Without knowing that, I can't comment much.

Founder sales is very much marketing+ sales. As much as you're selling the product, you're selling yourself. Chances are the early adopters who are going to buy your product are actually buying into your vision and YOU!

I think the question you're asking is how to get the market responds to your product aka product market fit. In the early days, sales is about understanding the market, finding your early adopters and let them help you shape your product. I would recommend you reading "Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers".

Re: Ask HN: How to learn sales?

#196

Post by Biba89 »

- You just get in the middle of sales in every possible way. - Find or build something that gets you excited to sell. - Find your passion, plan how to monetize it and start talking with all potential customer personas who would buy it. - Your goal always should be to get another meeting until it's closed and paid. - Optimize your social media to unfollow all BS things and follow just everything that is quality about sales. Then you will get recommendations on more and more groups, pages, profiles to follow and get into that. - Read books by reading intro and conclusion and if it's boring leave it. If it's interesting read it and write it down and then organize your own process of selling.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn sales?

#198

Post by scapecast »

ky3 wrote: post #192
scapecast wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

both. this is 4 years ago, the market we were going after were the cloud warehouses like Redshift, BigQuery and Snowflake. In the beginning, we just had an idea for a specific product / service. but we knew that the customer would be the lonely data engineer in charge of building the analytics stack. I started with cold outreach via my network and linkedin. I would use pretty broad language around data warehouse usag…

> Rather, I should have hired a customer success person Also called a Field Application Engineer in some circles. > Then let the customer success rep also write (technical) blog post, customer stories / case studies, and documentation. Also sample code, sample scripts.

Spot on, that’s exactly it.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn sales?

#199

Post by bladegash »

User23 wrote: post #191
bladegash wrote: post #60

I think the skill sets needed are highly dependent on the type of sale. The approaches used for a cold sale and technical consultations with leads that are already qualified (demonstrated interest in a product/service) are very different. However, I would start by taking a look into concepts like building rapport, reflective listening, and active listening. You can even look to concepts like social engineering, e.g.,…

Pretty much came here to write this. If one really wants to dive deep I'd add Rhetoric by Aristotle to that reading list.

Hah, funny you mention that. I frequently start by evaluating the pathos, ethos, and logos aspects of my argument when developing a pitch.

Interdisciplinary degree programs certainly have their strengths!

Re: Ask HN: How to learn sales?

#200

Post by kinghtown »

ky3 wrote: post #190
kinghtown wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I would disagree with your comment on similar grounds. There is undoubtedly a lot of nuance and experience in sales, technical requirements depending on the industry, but forgive me, I’m not going to outline everything in a comment. I am arguing that a book won’t cut it and may do more harm than good. Advice from great salespeople must be taken with a grain of salt. Because the core of sales, making deals, is mor…

> Salespeople overthink the strategy and lose sight of what really makes money: making that motherfucker say yes. What if he's not a motherfucker but actually a motherlover? How does that change your sales technique?

They are usually pretty agreeable and say yes at the end of a pitch.
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