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Learn to sell

blairreeves.me

121–130 of 157 posts

Re: Learn to sell

#121
post #54

tl;dr - Most of the article tries to justify why it's important to Learn to sell. Actionable guidance: "cold calling, sending tons of emails, doing prospect/company research and developing cold leads into warm ones" and get a job in sales ("role", "experience", "career"). My personal project is a Chinese learning page. https://pingtype.github.io I tried sending hundreds of emails, researching all the Chinese language…

Hi Peter, this might sound harsh, but first of all 1.- Get a domain.com to look more professional otherwise if I see "GitHub.io" looks like a code repository Pick a better name for your product. Right now it doesn't mean anything (i.e. dropbox reminds people of storage, submittable.com also sounds like form management, hope you get the idea) 2.- Look at well designed websites (i.e Invision, xero.com, mint.com. stripe…

1., 4., and 8. - it's free. There is no pricing, no income to pay for a domain or paid feedback.

2. It will load slower, and not work on all platforms.

3. You're supposed to copy-paste. There's lots of examples in the blog or other links from the headings.

5. and 6. Example video to inspire me?

7. That's useful, thank you. What if the landing page is a subpage? e.g. The blog.

9. My girlfriend already told me I talk too much about it in real life that it's making people not want to talk to me.

Re: Learn to sell

#122

One of my first jobs out of college was software sales. Really opened my eyes to the absurdity of that industry. Very wolf of wallstreeet-esque. The tech was mostly repackaged opensource software with a nicer UI and the senior sales guys were doing copious drugs and bringing down like six figure commissions on multi-million dollar contracts. They hired an army of associates to generate leads and then swooped in to gr…

This is the world in which we live. A very select few feast while the rest fight over table scraps.

And then we argue over those table scraps while those who feast couldn't care less.

Re: Learn to sell

#123
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is "lucky" to be working long hours. No matter how much they love what they're doing. An engineer making $150k working 60 hour weeks is making $5/hr less than an engineer earning $100k working 36 hour weeks. The latter is literally earning more _for their time_ working half as much for 2/3 the salary. The hourly rate of an engineer earning $250k for 60 hour weeks is the same as an engineer earning $150k for 36…

Yeah your math totally makes sense. I just disagree with the premise: > The life of an engineer is a life if sacrifice and 7 days a week work for five days pay. This just isn't true. Maybe at certain startups, but it's your choice to work there. As a (qualified) software engineer, you're blessed with thousands of options, many extremely comfortable. Flexible hours, free food, great pay, no dress code. When so many pe…

No dress code is now a perk? Yikes.

Re: Learn to sell

#124
I'm curious how the author thinks of marketing vs sales. And is sales as important in companies where the product is cheaper, like a $10-$20/month subscription, or is marketing more important in that scenario.

Re: Learn to sell

#125

Just don't be one of the salespeople that promises the client a feature that doesn't exist, then returns to the team after making the sale and says "You have to build this now." F--- that noise.

I literally just did exactly that half an hour ago. Of course, it's my company and I'm both the salesperson and engineer, but sometimes you have to sell shit that doesn't exist yet.

I think the issue he's talking about is more along the lines of "hey we promised X _and_ that we could deliver it in Y" when Y is an unreasonable amount of time. Situations like that almost always lead to death marches in my experience.

Re: Learn to sell

#127
post #39

As a sales leader and consultant, I kept being asked to offer weekly personalized sales coaching for technical founders. I launched it a few weeks ago and so far it's been pretty great for both parties. Being able to sit down on a weekly basis to game plan the sales approach, go over calls, and hold them accountable has been immeasurable. p.s. if anyone is interested - I'm in the process of launching a "Selling 101"…

[deleted]

Re: Learn to sell

#128
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Peter, this might sound harsh, but first of all 1.- Get a domain.com to look more professional otherwise if I see "GitHub.io" looks like a code repository Pick a better name for your product. Right now it doesn't mean anything (i.e. dropbox reminds people of storage, submittable.com also sounds like form management, hope you get the idea) 2.- Look at well designed websites (i.e Invision, xero.com, mint.com. stripe…

1., 4., and 8. - it's free. There is no pricing, no income to pay for a domain or paid feedback. 2. It will load slower, and not work on all platforms. 3. You're supposed to copy-paste. There's lots of examples in the blog or other links from the headings. 5. and 6. Example video to inspire me? 7. That's useful, thank you. What if the landing page is a subpage? e.g. The blog. 9. My girlfriend already told me I talk t…

By copy, I think he meant the writing of the page, copywriting. Please pursue the below links, you may find them helpful. I also recommend redesigning the site to be little more visually appealing.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11469889

https://medium.com/@InVisionApp/10-ux-copywriting-tips-for-d...

https://medium.com/talking-microcopy-writing-ux/go-to-guide-...

Re: Learn to sell

#129
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah your math totally makes sense. I just disagree with the premise: > The life of an engineer is a life if sacrifice and 7 days a week work for five days pay. This just isn't true. Maybe at certain startups, but it's your choice to work there. As a (qualified) software engineer, you're blessed with thousands of options, many extremely comfortable. Flexible hours, free food, great pay, no dress code. When so many pe…

No dress code is now a perk? Yikes.

Considering hundreds of millions of people don't get that luxury, yes?

Re: Learn to sell

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1., 4., and 8. - it's free. There is no pricing, no income to pay for a domain or paid feedback. 2. It will load slower, and not work on all platforms. 3. You're supposed to copy-paste. There's lots of examples in the blog or other links from the headings. 5. and 6. Example video to inspire me? 7. That's useful, thank you. What if the landing page is a subpage? e.g. The blog. 9. My girlfriend already told me I talk t…

By copy, I think he meant the writing of the page, copywriting. Please pursue the below links, you may find them helpful. I also recommend redesigning the site to be little more visually appealing. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11469889 https://medium.com/@InVisionApp/10-ux-copywriting-tips-for-d... https://medium.com/talking-microcopy-writing-ux/go-to-guide-...

I know what copy is. Google Translate doesn't have any copy either, and they serve 200 million people daily.

This is a tool, not a cover letter for a business.

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