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What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman

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Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman

#71

Post by dang »

mreiland wrote: post #67
dang wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment breaks the HN guidelines. Spewing bile is not ok, but especially not to insult someone who simply happened not to be a native speaker. Fortunately, users flagged it, which I hope communicated to the OP that it doesn't represent the community. HN has users from many countries. They all do their best to communicate in English and we owe them respect for that. It's helpful to remember that the non-native sp…

I don't understand you, my analysis was correct. 1. It was written by a non-native speaker, and 2. It was thrown up on HN in an incomplete state to garner attention (the OP said as much). This is not an informal HN post, this was specifically crafted as marketing and it NEEDS to be done in a professional manner. As far as I'm concerned, if the OP starts getting their posts proofread as a result of my "rude" post, the…

Your analysis was far from correct. You accused the author of not having written the article.

More importantly, your comment was rude and uncivil. And I'm afraid you've done this before. We ban accounts for posting uncivil comments, so please stop doing that. If unsure, simply err on the side of respect—it isn't hard.

Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman

#72

Post by mreiland »

dang wrote: post #71
mreiland wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand you, my analysis was correct. 1. It was written by a non-native speaker, and 2. It was thrown up on HN in an incomplete state to garner attention (the OP said as much). This is not an informal HN post, this was specifically crafted as marketing and it NEEDS to be done in a professional manner. As far as I'm concerned, if the OP starts getting their posts proofread as a result of my "rude" post, the…

Your analysis was far from correct. You accused the author of not having written the article. More importantly, your comment was rude and uncivil. And I'm afraid you've done this before. We ban accounts for posting uncivil comments, so please stop doing that. If unsure, simply err on the side of respect—it isn't hard.

what specifically was incorrect with respect to my analysis?

Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman

#73

Post by IndoJacco »

Training over 1,000s of sales people of SaaS Start-ups by sitting next to them making the call, I like to share some insights on this topic:

This is a great story BUT: + This was a professional, there are few of them left, also there are fewer and fewer people who like to "talk to a stranger on the phone" + This does not scale for many reasons, you simply can't train this + This only applies to a certain kind of sale

So how do you cold call in a scalable and trainable way - in todays always on economy:

COLD + Never make it COLD - but you can do plenty of other things before you call, visit their LI profile, retweet something, share their post, etc.

CALL + There are many ways to CALL - make it based on their behavior/role, calling an IT manager on the phone is not going to be appreciated, but calling an HR person may be. When you call make sure you do something along the following lines - this can be copied:

1) Make this about them 2) Show them you have done the research (have LI profile open) 3) Give straight answers if they ask straight questions 4) Do NOT pitch, instead share how others have benefited 5) Offer them value... 6) Follow the conversation, ask, listen, summarize what they said... 7) Try to ask a handful of questions to diagnose their problem, NOT to sell them something

You can find more via this article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-sales-teams-need-trade-pi...

Hope this helps. Jacco.

Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman

#74

Post by shostack »

ddingus wrote: post #57
shostack wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flip side: I get a ton of sales emails each month. Almost no sales calls because I go to lengths to avoid having my number get out there. In my space, the ad network sales people and ad tech reps almost never add any value to the conversation. I would be better served getting technical documentation as to what actually differentiates them from all of their competitors (usually nothing). It is an annoyance and an intr…

Oh, I should ask, just for a curio: What do you think of high value stuff sent to you? We all get the usual gift card, gadget, or curio. Whatever. But I've had somebody actually send me something I might consider buying. Not the product, just as a gift. I called 'em. Looked like a $50 - $100 item, and I figured they were serious. They were.

Had a vendor send me a (branded) speaker and phone charger. Got the inevitable follow-up pestering for a phone call in an expectant manner. Politely declined stating that I still had zero interest and kept the gift.

Sits in my kitchen now.

Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman

#75

Post by ddingus »

shostack wrote: post #74
ddingus wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I should ask, just for a curio: What do you think of high value stuff sent to you? We all get the usual gift card, gadget, or curio. Whatever. But I've had somebody actually send me something I might consider buying. Not the product, just as a gift. I called 'em. Looked like a $50 - $100 item, and I figured they were serious. They were.

Had a vendor send me a (branded) speaker and phone charger. Got the inevitable follow-up pestering for a phone call in an expectant manner. Politely declined stating that I still had zero interest and kept the gift. Sits in my kitchen now.

Was it any good, or just some obvious swag?

Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman

#76

Post by shostack »

ddingus wrote: post #75
shostack wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had a vendor send me a (branded) speaker and phone charger. Got the inevitable follow-up pestering for a phone call in an expectant manner. Politely declined stating that I still had zero interest and kept the gift. Sits in my kitchen now.

Was it any good, or just some obvious swag?

http://authenticpromotions.com/ProductDetails/?productID=550...

Very obviously bulk swag stuff, but decent quality, and the per-unit cost isn't dirt cheap. Like I said, sits in my kitchen, and my wife and I use it to listen to music while we cook.

The vendor in question is relatively well-known in their space, and were I in the market for a new solution in the future, they were on my short list even before the sales guy initially reached out to me. I just have no interest in hearing the pitch when I have zero intent to consider a new solution, and know that their offering isn't THAT different from what I use now.

Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman

#77

Post by philsnow »

kelukelugames wrote: post #62
philsnow wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> two women interviewers from Oregon, a football powerhouse It's unclear to me from the context whether they are just from some town in the state of Oregon, or that they were alumna of the University of Oregon. The gender ratio among college sports fans is a _lot_ closer to 50/50 than it is for pro sports fans. If somebody assumed because I grew up in California that I'm a fan of the Bears, I would also not be partic…

Is it because we suck? Cal grad here. :P They were both Oregon alums. :)

It's because California is a huge state, and I bristle at getting painted with such a broad brush.

Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman

#78

Post by ddingus »

shostack wrote: post #76
ddingus wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it any good, or just some obvious swag?

http://authenticpromotions.com/ProductDetails/?productID=550... Very obviously bulk swag stuff, but decent quality, and the per-unit cost isn't dirt cheap. Like I said, sits in my kitchen, and my wife and I use it to listen to music while we cook. The vendor in question is relatively well-known in their space, and were I in the market for a new solution in the future, they were on my short list even before the sales…

That one seems almost a waste then.

Thanks.

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