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Be where your business is

steveblank.com

41–50 of 77 posts

Re: Be where your business is

#41
post #2

> Erin’s VP of sales had just bought a condo in Miami to be next to her aging parents […] > > Her VP of Sales might be wonderful, but with the all the travel the company is only getting her half-time. Erin needs a full-time head of sales in New York. Time to have a difficult conversation. Hustle culture nonsense. Family is important https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html IMO there’s always a way to do both.…

> commuting to NY four days a week

How on earth do people do this? This is 3 hours of flight time each way 4 days a week...do they do something like fly 6am-9am, work 10am-5pm, fly 6pm-9pm, then do it all again the next day (this is also giving woefully small buffer times)? Or am I misunderstanding? Sounds awful.

Re: Be where your business is

#43
post #2

> Erin’s VP of sales had just bought a condo in Miami to be next to her aging parents […] > > Her VP of Sales might be wonderful, but with the all the travel the company is only getting her half-time. Erin needs a full-time head of sales in New York. Time to have a difficult conversation. Hustle culture nonsense. Family is important https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html IMO there’s always a way to do both.…

> commuting to NY four days a week How on earth do people do this? This is 3 hours of flight time each way 4 days a week...do they do something like fly 6am-9am, work 10am-5pm, fly 6pm-9pm, then do it all again the next day (this is also giving woefully small buffer times)? Or am I misunderstanding? Sounds awful.

Usually it means one round trip a week

Re: Be where your business is

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they are as long as the interactions are good. When someone posts “I wish this product did x” and a salesperson posts “hey we are actually working on that now and it should be available next month link-to-info”, that’s a good interaction. When salespeople link to their product whenever a related topic comes up. Or they start a war arguing with all criticism, that’s bad.

You also need to engage with the community independently of the product you're selling. You can't be there just as a sales guy, no matter how tactful, if you're going to "live in" the community.

I don't think you really do if you are just responding to comments with useful info. You might if you want to make top level submissions. But I don't think anyone has an issue with for example, Gitlab people commenting officially answering questions on Gitlab. Their contributions on other threads is irrelevant.

Re: Be where your business is

#47
post #42

No thanks, I’ll be where my family and friends are instead

If your business is good move your family Edit: why the downvotes?

Maybe I haven't found the right thing yet, but I have never had any job or business that had a bigger impact on my quality of life than where I live does. I will never move for a job or business unless I truly can't make enough to survive where I'm living.

Re: Be where your business is

#48
post #2

> Erin’s VP of sales had just bought a condo in Miami to be next to her aging parents […] > > Her VP of Sales might be wonderful, but with the all the travel the company is only getting her half-time. Erin needs a full-time head of sales in New York. Time to have a difficult conversation. Hustle culture nonsense. Family is important https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html IMO there’s always a way to do both.…

This doesn’t even strike me as a good example. In management consulting, flying out to a customer site from Monday to Thursday is the norm. I’ve heard plenty of criticism about McKinsey. I’ve never heard anyone say they don’t work hard.

In fact, that way of life might mean you work more hours if anything. If you live in Miami and work four days a week in NYC, you are likely working very long days. You are not near your friends or family or your chores… that could be four days devoted exclusively to work, say 12-14 hours a day, followed by a Friday working remotely. I can see why a salesperson might need to be in person 4 days a week. But I have a hard time imagining that five days is necessary. VP of Sales has plenty of administrative work to do, and many meetings can be over the phone anyway.

To call this employee “half time” is insane.

Re: Be where your business is

#49
post #42

No thanks, I’ll be where my family and friends are instead

If your business is good move your family Edit: why the downvotes?

The HN community can be a little elitist.

You shouldn’t be receiving downvotes for stating something that people choose to do everyday which is move their families for better opportunities.

Re: Be where your business is

#50
post #42

No thanks, I’ll be where my family and friends are instead

If your business is good move your family Edit: why the downvotes?

I didn't downvote you, but I feel it's inappropriate to tell a random internet stranger how to live their life. So if I had downvoted you, that would have been my reason.
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