In my life, I've witnessed three elite salespeople at work • Hacker News Board

Re: In my life, I've witnessed three elite salespeople at work

#81

Post by amscanne » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 4:43 AM UTC

reaperman wrote: post #32

inSenCite wrote: post #18

The best sales people I've worked with were incredible strategic thinkers and not really sales people at all. They built an intimate knowledge of their customer and their industry, built strong connections with the top brass of their client by delivering exceptional work that got those people promoted, and were really good at building autonomous teams that could get the (exceptional) work done with their guidance on…

How does a salesperson deliver exceptional work? In every place I’ve worked, outside of independent contracting, the sales person didn’t do the trench work.

My archetype of a good sales person is the successful realtor. Realtors tend to “eat what they can kill”, so you can see the skills power law clearly. They are selling themselves more than houses, but there’s a lot to learn from that.

Some people love their realtors, although they do very little for their outlandish commissions. They do however, guide you through the process and give you transactional advice. Like any sales person, they generally have an interest in the transaction closing but they are only trusted if they come off as acting in your interest. That trust can ultimately help the transaction close — this is the line that I think good sales people walk.

Re: In my life, I've witnessed three elite salespeople at work

#82

Post by ToucanLoucan » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 4:44 AM UTC

getnormality wrote: post #67

bee_rider wrote: post #62

> I know a good salesman when I see one. I was, briefly, the No. 1 telemarketer in the United States. Oh neat, how? > Unlike many of my less successful colleagues, I quickly learned to take yes for an answer; though we were legally required to read a long list of mandatory disclosures to all our sales, I noticed that this often broke the spell and gave people an opening to back out or “wait and ask the wife about it.…

So... the thing that made him America's top telemarketer was... illegally omitting the disclosures... which everyone was doing... but also, it made him uniquely successful because many of his colleagues didn't do it? I'm getting the strangest feeling that maybe this guy isn't done peddling bullshit?

> So... the thing that made him America's top telemarketer was... illegally omitting the disclosures... which everyone was doing... but also, it made him uniquely successful because many of his colleagues didn't do it?

And Uber is a taxi company that doesn't own taxis, AirBnB is a hotel chain that owns no hotels. Find a hyper-successful company or person, and start digging. The secret 99/100 times is crime (or incredibly crime-adjacent behaviors).

Re: In my life, I've witnessed three elite salespeople at work

#83

Post by yowzadave » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 4:46 AM UTC

> You thought that your success was a product of your gifts, but the success itself was a gift, a gift of randomness, of luck

This is important to remember, and also: those gifts themselves are yours due to luck. That’s why we call them “gifts”.

Re: In my life, I've witnessed three elite salespeople at work

#84

Post by yareally » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 4:46 AM UTC

getnormality wrote: post #67

bee_rider wrote: post #62

> I know a good salesman when I see one. I was, briefly, the No. 1 telemarketer in the United States. Oh neat, how? > Unlike many of my less successful colleagues, I quickly learned to take yes for an answer; though we were legally required to read a long list of mandatory disclosures to all our sales, I noticed that this often broke the spell and gave people an opening to back out or “wait and ask the wife about it.…

So... the thing that made him America's top telemarketer was... illegally omitting the disclosures... which everyone was doing... but also, it made him uniquely successful because many of his colleagues didn't do it? I'm getting the strangest feeling that maybe this guy isn't done peddling bullshit?

It's kind of like claiming you're the world's best trader, but all your winnings come from insider trading.

Re: In my life, I've witnessed three elite salespeople at work

#85

Post by nik282000 » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 4:47 AM UTC

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #74

nextworddev wrote: post #45

The real secret to having a successful sales career is to work at a company that sells a market leading product. This trumps 99% of anything you can do as an individual. I have seen complete noobs have good sales careers at AWS

That's the difference between being a great salesman and having great sales. Any idiot can sell something that's in demand. It takes a genius to sell something that nobody wants. It's better to be the idiot.

> It takes a genius to sell something that nobody wants.

Or just a regular crook.

Re: In my life, I've witnessed three elite salespeople at work

#86

Post by yowzadave » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 4:55 AM UTC

This guy didn’t make an explicit comparison to tech in describing his scummy history in telemarketing and how it’s a clear expression of our cultural values…but it’s an easy one to make—ad slop, algorithmic feeds, deceptive product websites, etc. We’re really no different as an industry, are we?

Re: In my life, I've witnessed three elite salespeople at work

#87

Post by creer » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 4:57 AM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #62

> I know a good salesman when I see one. I was, briefly, the No. 1 telemarketer in the United States. Oh neat, how? > Unlike many of my less successful colleagues, I quickly learned to take yes for an answer; though we were legally required to read a long list of mandatory disclosures to all our sales, I noticed that this often broke the spell and gave people an opening to back out or “wait and ask the wife about it.…

It's amazing how often "illegally" is the American Way. I only wish it were a joke.

Re: In my life, I've witnessed three elite salespeople at work

#88

Post by bushbaba » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 4:59 AM UTC

ajb wrote: post #33

inSenCite wrote: post #18

The best sales people I've worked with were incredible strategic thinkers and not really sales people at all. They built an intimate knowledge of their customer and their industry, built strong connections with the top brass of their client by delivering exceptional work that got those people promoted, and were really good at building autonomous teams that could get the (exceptional) work done with their guidance on…

Okay, I've worked at a company that had that kind of sales. It is indeed very impressive to see. But I think that worked because there were only a small number of vendors who could potentially deliver for these (giant) customers in the first place. Otherwise the immense investment to attempt to land one of these customers would have too low a chance of paying off. Although they have the same title I think it's a diff…

Generally done for large deal sizes. there can be 100 vendors but when you spend 50 mil+/year on a vendor the strategy matters.

Re: In my life, I've witnessed three elite salespeople at work

#89

Post by chairmansteve » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 5:00 AM UTC

Trump is the best salesman in history.

I don't mean it as a compliment. But it is a fact.

Re: In my life, I've witnessed three elite salespeople at work

#90

Post by throwaway984393 » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 5:09 AM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #62

> I know a good salesman when I see one. I was, briefly, the No. 1 telemarketer in the United States. Oh neat, how? > Unlike many of my less successful colleagues, I quickly learned to take yes for an answer; though we were legally required to read a long list of mandatory disclosures to all our sales, I noticed that this often broke the spell and gave people an opening to back out or “wait and ask the wife about it.…

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