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https://twitter.com/ChrisJBakke/status/1309197276061945857
There was a lot of interest, so I wrote a longer-form version that I'm sending out next week, and I'm happy to send to you if you email me.
The biggest things are: learn by doing + learn via mentorship.
Feel free to email any specific questions and I'll do my best to help answer.
Isn’t sales mostly learning how to wine and dine people?
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.…
Sales is also graded by level of "touch". For example, selling IT services contracts is very high touch. Signing a deal could involve weeks of written correspondence (RFI, RFP), in-person pitching, contract negotiation, etc. Low touch could be fully automated with simple, non-negotiable pricing. There are lots of levels in between.
:-)
1. find out who your users are, and go talk to them
2. your marketing usually will fuel your sales
3. you'll do a lot iteration with 1&2
4. figure out how long your sale cycle will be
5. Usually sales is a full time job, so delegating it to someone might be useful
Advice in this thread is pretty good. im gonna need to write about it later here to remember: https://www.whatwhatgoose.com/product-management
If you are first starting out then what you really need to do is find/build a product that your customers want. You can't sell a product that no one wants. If you are a master seller and if you somehow manage to sell something no one wants then it won't scale.
Try to have calls with potential customers who are interested in your product. If your product is solving a problem then it should be easy to have calls and the customer will ask to buy it. If not, try to understand what they need and iterate.
Maybe this is just your way of procrastinating. I procrastinate from building a company because I tell myself I'm not a software engineer, but I could find a way to do it if I really really wanted to.
If you still feel like you want advice on selling, happy to offer it since I've been doing for my entire career at startups.
An example of a great concept from this book that has shaped the way I approach things: You've heard of the concept of closing, where you ask the customer to buy the product. Spin selling extends that concept in the realm of a longer sales cycle that involves many steps such as demos, consulting sessions and so on. Every interaction you have with the customer has some desired outcome that eventually leads to the final sale. For example, your initial contacts with the prospect, the goal of those initial interactions is to get the demo scheduled. Or perhaps it's to introduce you to someone closer to the decision maker. In each interaction, you keep a goal in mind and close towards that goal.
Three other books that were amazing and formative for me are below. These aren't about sales in particular but about making your own business in general, which includes sales in various degrees: 2. Good to Great 3. Crossing the Chasm 4. The E Myth
Also an honorable mention goes to this book, which is more about marketing than sales: Winning Through Intimidation. The book isn't actually about intimidating people, but it's about branding, image, and approach. Despite the evil sounding title, it's an amazing resource.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Spin-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/05660768... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0... [3] https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-Mainstr... [4] https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About... [5] https://www.amazon.com/Winning-through-Intimidation-Victor-B...
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., priming, elicitation, etc. Most, if not all of these topics, are covered in various books on persuasion/influence.
Be careful though, as you can cross the line towards manipulation really easily easily. That’s not an inherently bad thing if the user wants/needs your product. However, it’s an entirely different story if you are persuading someone to buy something they don’t want/need. For example, a person who comes to buy a car would not be taken advantage of by selling them a car within their budget. It would be taking advantage of someone to persuade them to buy something that they didn’t ask for, was more than they needed, and was more expensive than they could afford.
Another example is the use of the principle of scarcity. While companies/people routinely pressure people into sales via statements like, “I can give this to you for 10% off, but your contract needs to be signed within 5 days due to our end of quarter goals” (yeah, I’m looking at you, Salesforce). The issue here, is that A) Chances are, they’re lying and you could get the same deal on day 6, and/or B) pressuring a customer, in my opinion, is a bit too close to making a light threat intended to spur anxiety in a customer. Everyone has their own levels of moral flexibility, though.
Anyways, I digress. Here are a couple of book recommendations: “Influence” by Robert Cialdini, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie, and “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss.