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Sell ​

In the beginning the founder always sell and should sell. If a founder can’t sell it, nobody can. Along the way, it’s good to hire a few senior sales reps to help navigate the procurement process and explore the market — but they do not replace the founders’ involvement in the process of doing evangelical selling.

10 tips for Founders doing Sales (from a Founder) by Micael Oliveira is a succinct and clear message for founder learning sales. Here are the 10 tips;

  1. Be passionate about the product you're selling.
  2. Get to know your customers before selling to them.
  3. Don't oversell. Don't commit to things you cannot deliver on.
  4. Learn from others.
  5. Learn and improve your process.
  6. Persevere! Always remember to follow up.
  7. You won't close all deals.
  8. Be fair when referring to competitors.
  9. Fire bad customers.
  10. Celebrate the wins.

7-Part Storytelling Framework. Your customer is a hero, and need your guide.

  1. A [HERO]
  2. Has a [PROBLEM]
  3. And meets a [GUIDE]
  4. Who gives them a [PLAN]
  5. That calls the hero to [ACTION]
  6. And helps them avoid [FAILURE]
  7. That ultimately ends in [SUCCESS]

From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23285438

  1. Sales is a lot like golf. You can make it so complicated as to be impossible or you can simply walk up and hit the ball.
  2. Sales is about people and it's about problem solving. It is not about solutions or technology or chemicals or lines of code or artichokes. It's about people and it's about solving problems.
  3. People buy 4 things and 4 things only. Ever. Those 4 things are -- time, money, sex, and approval/peace of mind. If you try selling something other than those 4 things you will fail.
  4. People buy aspirin always. They buy vitamins only occassionally and at unpredictable times. Sell aspirin.
  5. I say in every talk I give: "all things being equal people buy from their friends. So make everything else equal then go make a lot of friends."
  6. Being valuable and useful is all you ever need to do to sell things. Help people out. Send interesting posts. Write birthday cards. Record videos sharing your ideas for growing their business. Introduce people who would benefit from knowing each other then get out of the way, expecting nothing in return. Do this consistently and authentically and people will find ways to give you money. I promise.
  7. No one cares about your quota, your payroll, your opex, your burn rate, etc. No one. They care about the problem you are solving for them.

There is more than 100 trillion dollars in the global economy just waiting for you to breathe it in. Good luck.

Tools & Services ​

  • Atrium helps sales managers use metrics to increase rep efficiency and survive and thrive in a downturn.
  • Rattle Unlock revenue insights that empower your team’s performance. Engage, update, and close business all from Slack or Teams with intelligent, bi-directional alerts.
  • YTel is a Modern Phone System with Branded Caller ID. An alternative to some of Twilio features.
  • Open Phone
  • Aircall

References ​