blog: how to do sales with no experience #9503
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| "I just need to hire a sales person so we get some revenue". There it is people, the start of the end. | ||
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| Here's the rest of the movie: | ||
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| * salesperson starts | ||
| * they get a few meetings, they're pretty random feeling | ||
| * you start building stuff that people in the meetings have talked about | ||
| * nothing happens for ages, or at all | ||
| * you now don't know if the salesperson is at fault, or if you don't have product market fit |
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This paragraph later:
Everything else is a distraction early on. So what are you doing if you don't care about this? Likely being avoidant from all the rejection and fear of failure! You may not want to hear it but a magical salesperson will be far less likely to figure this out than you.
Especially the "magical salesperson" bit feels like a clearer hook. Something like telling the "The myth of the magical sales person" of that makes sense.
| ## Who I'm writing this for | ||
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| Are you the founder of a startup that has never sold before, and you're trying to figure out product market fit? This is written for you. |
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I think we can leave this implied by combining with the next section
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| Everything else is a distraction early on. So what are you doing if you don't care about this? Likely being avoidant from all the rejection and fear of failure! You may not want to hear it but a magical salesperson will be _far_ less likely to figure this out than you. | ||
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| ## Getting meetings |
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I feel like there should be a tiny transition from:
- do users like your product
- do users pay for it
To "getting meetings", something like "at the beginning, the only way to get people to pay for your product is to ask them, you need to talk to them, and that requires meetings"
| In _both_ types of meeting, you should be asking lots of questions. However, there are some key differences: | ||
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| * In sales meetings, you are aiming to _close down_ objections. In product meetings you want to _expand_ on them. | ||
| * In sales meetings, you are steering the customer. In product meetings, you should let users meander. | ||
| * In sales meetings, you learn by seeing if it closes or not. In product meetings, you learn based on what people are saying. |
| * In sales meetings, you are steering the customer. In product meetings, you should let users meander. | ||
| * In sales meetings, you learn by seeing if it closes or not. In product meetings, you learn based on what people are saying. | ||
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| We should talk vibes for a moment. First, don't make it painful for the customer to interact with you. _You_ are leading the meeting because you asked forit. A good way of doing this is to have some friendly rapport at the beginning, then layout "hey so there are four things I hoped to run through with you in this meeting. First, I want to get a grip on your company and priorities, second I'd like to cover X problem space a bit, and third, I wanted to talk about our product and show you a few relevant bits of it. Is that a good use of the next 25 minutes from your perspective?" Asking for _permission_ to ask questions means it'll feel less awkward when you do. Because you should. |
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| We should talk vibes for a moment. First, don't make it painful for the customer to interact with you. _You_ are leading the meeting because you asked forit. A good way of doing this is to have some friendly rapport at the beginning, then layout "hey so there are four things I hoped to run through with you in this meeting. First, I want to get a grip on your company and priorities, second I'd like to cover X problem space a bit, and third, I wanted to talk about our product and show you a few relevant bits of it. Is that a good use of the next 25 minutes from your perspective?" Asking for _permission_ to ask questions means it'll feel less awkward when you do. Because you should. | |
| We should talk vibes for a moment. First, don't make it painful for the customer to interact with you. _You_ are leading the meeting because you asked for it. A good way of doing this is to have some friendly rapport at the beginning, then layout "hey so there are four things I hoped to run through with you in this meeting. First, I want to get a grip on your company and priorities, second I'd like to cover X problem space a bit, and third, I wanted to talk about our product and show you a few relevant bits of it. Is that a good use of the next 25 minutes from your perspective?" Asking for _permission_ to ask questions means it'll feel less awkward when you do. Because you should. |
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This already looks really good, tbh. I'd tighten up the top half a tiny bit – I don't think we need quite so many sub-headings before you get to the "start", but that's an easy fix.
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The 'Getting meetings' section feels a little barebones atm. To me, the actual article starts at 'Running a sales meeting'. I'd be tempted to ditch this, or move it nearer to end before the self-serve section. It feels like 'Getting meetings' could be a whole article on its own, so expanding it more is best avoided, but it's messing with the flow where it is now. It feels more like a box out atm, but feel free to expand on it if you want to.
I'm working on my own issue atm, but I can start working on this some time next once you're happy with where it's at.
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given you both like this (i liked it too), if you're happy wrapping this up @andyvan-ph i'll write a new piece instead? i'm about to hop on a plane so have some time and lots more ideas of what to write |
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| You have one job. Get to product market fit. | ||
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| It's a _terrible_ idea to out |
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| It's a _terrible_ idea to out | |
| It's a _terrible_ idea to outsource sales to someone else. It's half the battle. |
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| ## Closing a deal | ||
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| * Work backwards. Ask the customer something like "so to get you up and running as a customer, what are all the steps needed?" then get them to go into detail. Do they actually _have_ the budget or do they need to get it? If they need to get it, who do they get it from? Could you run a demo for the other person? |
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| * Work backwards. Ask the customer something like "so to get you up and running as a customer, what are all the steps needed?" then get them to go into detail. Do they actually _have_ the budget or do they need to get it? If they need to get it, who do they get it from? Could you run a demo for the other person? | |
| Start by working backwards. Ask the customer something like "so to get you up and running as a customer, what are all the steps needed?" then get them to go into detail. Do they actually _have_ the budget or do they need to get it? If they need to get it, who do they get it from? Could you run a demo for the other person? |
Cool. I'll take a look at this next week. |
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andy made me do it
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