
How to sell: tips from a marketing guy who can actually sell something - sliggity
http://bostinnovation.com/2011/08/24/how-to-sell-tips-from-a-marketing-guy-who-can-actually-sell-something/
======
idlewords
My problem with howtos on sales/marketing is that they fall into two
categories:

1\. The author is not a good salesperson, so you should ignore the advice.

2\. The author is a very good salesperson, and will sell you on the article.

The problem with 2 is that the author's interests are not the same as yours -
they want pageviews, while you want effective advice. So my advice when
reading a particularly pithy sales or marketing HOWTO is to ignore the content
and concentrate on how it's written.

So by my own logic, ignore this comment if you found it persuasive.

~~~
ivancdg
This was a witty comment (the end made me chuckle)...but flippant.

Ultimately it is not very helpful: it does not address the content of the
original article, which is excellent.

It is easy to fall into the trap of being so skeptical of sales writing as to
automatically discount it. We see a lot of that here on HN which I find to be
an unfortunate knee-jerk reaction.

Sales is a skill. During a layover I bought a book on the 'business' shelf of
a UK airport. The book had tons of the warning signs of #2 above. I was
extremely skeptical. It was called 'Selling to Win' by Richard Denny. It had
the cheesiest cover you can imagine (think citrus green with pink).

But the things I learned in that book allowed me to get to 'ramen
profitability' in my field. I was ahead of the crowd 6 months later, largely
thanks to the techniques in that book.

Had I dismissed the book, I'd still be making fun of the cover and complaining
about not having enough work.

------
aspir
Another rule that is assumed, but not mentioned is this is the following:

 _Rule 0: If you don't believe in your product or respect the people you're
selling to, the deal is already broken._

I'm sure when the author was selling steak knives, he believed that those
knives were the absolute best available, and that he was legitimately
providing a huge value to the people he spoke with. That formula should be
true in any sales or marketing engagement you're involved with; you need to
believe that your startup's service solves a large problem to the customer,
and that your startup is absolutely the best player in the market to assist
them in meeting their needs.

Sales/Marketing isn't about conning people out money, it's about helping
people via a product.

~~~
tptacek
The best salespeople I worked with at $LAST_VENDOR_JOB could have given a
flying fuck about the product they were selling. None of them understood it.
Belief in your product is simply not a requirement for successful sales. It
may be for a startup, but not in the general case.

Sales is a skill. I could try to break it down in a neat little bulleted list,
but I'm not a good salesperson and so wouldn't be credible.

~~~
18pfsmt
The problem I have found is that many supposedly-good sales people seem to set
customer expectations too high. After the fact, there is a lot of effort
expended on easing customer concerns.

I'm not a good salesperson either, as I will easily give away my concerns
about a product I'm not completely sure of, but I've worked for people that
are great at closing deals for shoddy products.

At one time, I worked with the sales guys from Akamai-during-the-ipo. It was
very interesting to see them operate (and how specifically they wanted our
salesforce account configured).

------
fab1an
Good stuff. I'd add that point 2 (Establish competence) and 3 (confirm pain)
should ideally be connected in an educational fashion: start your meeting with
data about your potential client's market (and pain), _not_ your product or
your company. E. g.: if you're selling collaboration software, provide some
(reliable + interesting) statistics on how much time and money is wasted in
unproductive meetings etc.

Also, and that's a general rule: _ask, don't tell_. Get them talking about
their problem. If you really have a good solution for it, the most natural
progression of such a conversation will lead to your product and why they want
to buy it automagically.

I've had "sales" calls where I simply asked prospective clients whether they
had a minute to tell me a little more about the problems they're currently
facing (which are of course connected to our solution). Instead of pitching
them on your product, the client's problem monologue often naturally flows to
a point where _they_ bring up the idea of using your solution to solve their
problem.

------
silverbax88
I love this comment:

"Demonstrate you’re not a dick. To do this, it helps not to be a dick."

~~~
nedwin
Me too. Nailed me. And is probably the biggest part of sales IMHO.

------
abcd_f
It'd be very helpful to see these principles in application. An example of a
sales cycle with 5-point breakdown would go a _really_ long way. To be able to
see all the nitty-gritty details, exact wording, timing and what not. Not to
repeat it blindly later, but to get a practical feel for these hints.

------
rjbond3rd
One quibble:

> Establish competence – The first question on the table in every meeting is
> “Why should I listen to you?” Bring some content to the dance; a slide or
> better yet a story that shows you to be someone worthy of attention in your
> prospect’s busy schedule.

In my experience, trying to "establish competence" doesn't work. Either your
accomplishments speak for themselves, your reputation precedes you, or someone
vouches for you. You can't foist a "story" on someone who doesn't know you.

~~~
analyst74
Yes you can definitely establish whatever image you'd like to project, with
practice.

It's all about perception and stereotypes. From the clothes you wear, the tone
you speak, the way you shake hands, and the amount of smile you give, etc etc.

I'm by no means good at this, but here are a few things I'm learning to become
a good projector with some success:

to look confident, remember confidence ~= competence \- strong hand-shake,
with a warm and dry hand. I have slow blood flow, so sometimes I get a hot
coffee to warm them up before meeting someone. \- open arms, do not cross
fingers \- show disagreement with good reasons occasionally, but do not argue.
\- throw a witty joke/comment here and there \- do not smile all the time
(this is because I was raised to smile a lot, which seems to be the case for
many Asians) \- pay attention when listening, but do not fear asking questions
or admit I do not understand particular thing \- pay attention when speaking,
adjust speed/explanation based on reaction

to look funny in casual environments, just one particular type of funny out of
the many \- a joke/exaggeration must be thrown into the mix within first 5
minutes, to establish the expectation of being funny \- step out of social
boundaries as soon as I can, like a funny comment on racism/sexism/stereotype
\- never laugh at my own jokes, and try to keep a straight face \- not be
afraid of offending others, actually make fun of them whenever possible, and
try to never get offended myself \- do not apologize

~~~
Terpaholic
"It's all about perception and stereotypes. From the clothes you wear, the
tone you speak, the way you shake hands, and the amount of smile you give, etc
etc."

I totally agree with this - some stereotypes are GREAT for your image. For
example, being viewed as a "Smart asian" gives you credibility when talking
about science/math, while a "Smooth talker" has more ethos when talking about
consumer relations.

------
pkamb
So what can we get from this article if we're selling software to normal
people over the internet?

No meetings, client is not on LinkedIn, no breakfast/lunch/dinner, etc.

~~~
hboon
In that case, marketing is probably higher priority.

------
zavulon
Very good, informative article.

I do have one issue with it though, this line:

1\. Establish warmth – Demonstrate you’re not a dick. To do this, it helps not
to be a dick.

If you're a naturally outgoing person with a warm personality, then yes, it's
not more complicated than that. But a lot of tech people struggle with this..

How DO I "establish warmth" if I'm naturally inwards-looking person that likes
listening more than talking?

~~~
lesterbuck
>How DO I "establish warmth" if I'm naturally inwards-looking person that
likes listening more than talking?

The best salespeople always listen much more than they talk, so you are fine
there. Of course, you actually have to _listen_ , rather than tune out. If you
really listen well, that is a major advantage in sales.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
> _The best salespeople always listen much more than they talk_ //

Hmm, I don't know. I think such salespeople may be the ones favoured by the
crowd here. Though not exclusively, others have mentioned those that attempt
to educate you as being better (IMO that means they're talking more, answering
your questions).

I'm not prepared to accept thought that being more likeable translates to
better sales figures in general without some hard evidence.

Do companies turn down the best financial offer because the salesperson is a
pillock? Can't see it happening much unfortunately.

------
danielrhodes
I recall reading an article here on HN a few weeks ago that said marketing is
not selling, it is lead gen. Selling is an entirely different stage in the
process. Makes me a bit wary to take tips from this guy if he doesn't actually
know the difference.

~~~
dkokelley
"Marketing" in the pure academic sense is the entire collection of activities
that create value, give that value to customers, and extract some of that
value in return. By this definition, sales is a subset of marketing.

~~~
adamtmca
Upvoted.

This definition always caused me to roll my eyes when I heard it from profs,
"Everything from R&D to operations falls under marketing" but it actually
proves valuable; limiting your thinking about marketing to promotion and sales
means you leave a lot of opportunities unexamined.

~~~
dkokelley
It is a particularly broad definition. One could argue that 'anything in
business can fall under marketing in some way'.

A personal definition I like to use is 'marketing is any activity designed to
increase the top-line sales revenue number'. If you research and launch a new
product, that's marketing. If you cold call, that's marketing. If you write
inventory control software, that's not marketing. If the software reduces
delivery time, that's marketing (since you could argue that improved delivery
time translates to increased customer satisfaction, and ultimately increased
sales).

------
lightoverhead
I like this post very much. This strategy can be applied anywhere for your
success. The core value or target here is "people". You get people's heart,
you get everything!

------
ct
Selling is about helping someone find a solution to a problem by finding the
best product that fixes it (whether it's your own or someone else's).

------
zackattack
as a naturally gifted salesman i can confirm this article is spot on

p.s. i am a naturally gifted programmer too. the two are not mutually
exclusive - pun intended =)

~~~
zackattack
being an "asshole" helps

you just have to be a COMPASSIONATE "asshole"

