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

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

#201

Post by kcplate »

saagarjha wrote: post #47
kcplate wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> without respecting their profession I’d venture to guess that almost everyone reading this thread owes their job to talented salespeople and more importantly the sales profession as a whole. I respect them and their profession because it’s kept my family fed for nearly 40 years. I am not a salesperson, but they sure as shit sell the things I build. I need them more than they need me because talent salespeople can s…

There’s selling things you build and selling things to people who don’t need it. You don’t have to feel good about things that feed you.

Huh? There are very few things that are “salesperson sold” today that are needed. People just go buy what they need.

Pretty much if there is a salesperson involved today it’s an item that is not needed/critical to your life. That’s the whole point of a salesperson, convince you to buy something you don’t necessarily need.

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

#202

Post by StefanBatory »

ozim wrote: post #136
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.…

That’s why you don’t answer phone calls with „yes” as sometimes they would say your name and you would be inclined replying „yes, speaking”. Just heard stories some shitty companies/sales would push you over they have your „yes” on recording. I don’t believe it would hold in any court if they would have to play the whole thing. But it would work on people who are not so tough. Sattelite TV sellers were awful they alm…

Few years in my ago we had telemarketing company. "Good morning Orange". No, that was their name. People thought they were from Orange company, but they just were stating their full name ;)

So many people got scammed.

It's also why I don't have any respect for the sales people.

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

#204

Post by mooreds »

restateplumjer wrote: post #198
mooreds wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I came to a conclusion that there are two types of sales transactions: one that is a one-time transaction and one that is an ongoing transaction. Incidentally, this is the difference between a good real estate agent and a "door opener".

For a real estate agent knowledgeability about the property would be even more important than maintaining relations, even if you're just trying to sell me this thing to never see me again, when I ask to see the breaker box or what kind of heating system is this and get a "I don't know where/what that is" It's not making a strong case for a six-figure purchase.

I used to work in real estate. My boss, an experienced agent, told us that the most powerful phrase an agent can use is "I know that house". As in, they'd been in that house before, knew the construction, location attributes and history.

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

#205

Post by mooreds »

forinti wrote: post #170
mooreds wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I came to a conclusion that there are two types of sales transactions: one that is a one-time transaction and one that is an ongoing transaction. Incidentally, this is the difference between a good real estate agent and a "door opener".

I have not yet met a "good real estate agent". I dread having to deal with these people. Case 1: a puddle in the centre of a room; agent comments that the window had been left open. Case 2: "this view will never change" as a building was going up right in front of us.

Ooof.

They are out there; I've worked with them. They're still salespeople, trying to close.

But the good ones are trying to close you as a customer for the next N deals, not just this one.

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

#206

Post by re5i5tor »

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…

This. The elite salesperson is great at understanding and solving problems, not BS.

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

#207

Post by mrweasel »

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.

We had a sales guy that the rest of the office hated, but whom I absolutely loved. He'd sell the craziest shit. E.g. him and I attempted to replace a customers Kubernetes stack with Azure websites and CosmosDB, saving them two years of hosting the first month (We failed because the client didn't feel like we where being serious).

At one point he sold a project that would lead to his termination and it was the most brilliant sale I've ever seen. A customer wanted monitoring and a 24/7 "operation center", but one which didn't have access to any systems. We'd channel alerts from the customer into our on-call, which would then phone the customers staff and tell them that "YO! X is broken" and hang up. The price was insane, is was free money, but the customer was excited and felt like they got a great deal.

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

#209

Post by mrweasel »

amscanne wrote: post #81
reaperman wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 an…

> Some people love their realtors

I'm sort of concerned that some people have "their realtor". I've sold a few houses, realtors are companies I contract to sell my house and they can be fired.

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

#210

Post by daseiner1 »

reshlo wrote: post #185
mtrovo wrote: post #31

> The better you are at selling, the more debased your life becomes, as everything is reduced to a transaction, a leveraging of the smallest edge I think that's the essence of having a sales mindset if I had to explain it. It's really hard to convey what it means and I think only those that worked close with people with this talent would have a chance to know what this really means. Sales is an art on top of a very t…

Isn’t the point being made in that passage that the better you are at sales, the more you treat your loved ones as customers you can transactionally extract value from by leveraging your sales tactics, rather than just… loving them? I don’t see how this connects to your comment on chefs and F1 drivers needing both grit and talent.

The quoted paragraph literally ends with

‘“Doris, what if I throw in a $50 calling card?” mutates into “I’ll be charming at your office Christmas party if you do the dishes this month,” aimed at a befuddled partner who may or may not have yet realized that what they thought was a partnership is in fact closer to a mutual exploitation.’

So yes, it’s not at all about some preternatural gift for perception or intuition that the parent commenter shoehorned in. Less artful, more “gross”.

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