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Be where your business is

steveblank.com

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Re: Be where your business is

#61

Post by actionfromafar »

scubbo wrote: post #38
cobertos wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there really online communities that are so welcoming to salespeople? How can one authentically exist in a community while taking money to do so? It feels inauthentic, a lie by omission, astroturfing. I'm genuinely curious if there's a way to exist "authentically" when money is attached. That said, there are great examples of ways to do it right. Sponsoring events, sharing cool things from your position of corpor…

Huh, the comment claiming that "Salespeople are people too" got deleted. I guess responses were along the same lines as what I was going to post. It would be a shame to waste that piece of writing, so I'll put it here (while noting that, /u/cobertos, this is not a direct reply to you, but rather to another comment which was mostly along the lines of "it is not morally abhorrent to sell things, it can be mutually-bene…

We have a "The Big Kahona (1999)" apt quote here:

- If we're nothing but functions here, then why don't they just send robots?

- They don't send robots, Bob, for the simple reason, they haven't invented one yet. The day comes when they can build a robot to do what we do and make it work, then that's exactly what they'll do, precisely.

- But until that day, they send us.

Re: Be where your business is

#63

Post by FlyingSnake »

hammock wrote: post #42
cramjabsyn wrote: post #34

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

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

Didn't downvote you either, but humans aren't saplings that can be uprooted and planted elsewhere without issues. I've moved countries thrice and I would not recommend that to the general public, especially if they have support from family and friends.

Re: Be where your business is

#65

Post by motoxpro »

zerr wrote: post #59
notthedr wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where would the cash come from?

Details are missing of course. I'm saying that there are many 20-50 person small businesses which are doing well for many decades.

Where do you get the money to buy them out to become a 20-50 person business?

Re: Be where your business is

#66

Post by nisegami »

cobertos wrote: post #32
molsongolden wrote: post #16

Steve's example is financial services companies in New York but this applies to the digital realm too, especially if your customers are less geographically-concentrated. Be where your customers are: forums, slacks, discords, social media bubbles, etc. Cultivate real relationships and build authentically from within a community. Live alongside your customers instead of selling into a community from the outside. Intera…

Are there really online communities that are so welcoming to salespeople? How can one authentically exist in a community while taking money to do so? It feels inauthentic, a lie by omission, astroturfing. I'm genuinely curious if there's a way to exist "authentically" when money is attached. That said, there are great examples of ways to do it right. Sponsoring events, sharing cool things from your position of corpor…

I think most tech/tech-adjacent communities are welcoming of reps once they behave well. I can think of quite a few, including at least one who made a lasting impression on me (Tony from Amazon on the CAG forums).

Re: Be where your business is

#67

Post by scubbo »

actionfromafar wrote: post #61
scubbo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, the comment claiming that "Salespeople are people too" got deleted. I guess responses were along the same lines as what I was going to post. It would be a shame to waste that piece of writing, so I'll put it here (while noting that, /u/cobertos, this is not a direct reply to you, but rather to another comment which was mostly along the lines of "it is not morally abhorrent to sell things, it can be mutually-bene…

We have a "The Big Kahona (1999)" apt quote here: - If we're nothing but functions here, then why don't they just send robots? - They don't send robots, Bob, for the simple reason, they haven't invented one yet. The day comes when they can build a robot to do what we do and make it work, then that's exactly what they'll do, precisely. - But until that day, they send us.

Never seen it, but based on that, I should - thanks!

Re: Be where your business is

#68

Post by jacobsenscott »

bsima wrote: post #30
jacobsenscott wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some positions require a full time employee. I'm sure many of the employees have families, and you're putting them all at risk if you allow a critical full time position to work half time. That isn't hustle culture.

Commuting 4 days a week to NYC is not half time. (Presumably those 4 days are spent working ~12-16h.)

Lol. 2 days a week is not half time (presumably those 2 days are spent working ~20h)

Re: Be where your business is

#69

Post by ido »

mjrbrennan wrote: post #41
bsima wrote: 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.

Fly in Monday morning and back Thursday evening.

Re: Be where your business is

#70

Post by sarchertech »

Gigachad wrote: post #44
sarchertech wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don’t think people have a problem with that, but it’s not the same thing as what the OP was talking about.

You aren’t living alongside your customers by popping in and answering questions about your product when you get an alert that someone mentioned it on HN.

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