
Tim Ferriss on Y Combinator and the Art of Pitch: 'Always Be Closing' - armansu
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2012/09/24/y-combinator-launchpad/
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codva
I was selling storage (Sun, not EMC) back in 2000. Sales guy made a fortune
back then not because they were especially good, but because they were selling
servers and storage into the hottest tech market the world had ever known. The
hardest part of my job for a couple of years was just finding enough Sun gear
to fulfill customer requests. I know more than a few guys that made ridiculous
money for a couple of years. None of them have made it back to the income
level. Most haven't even come close. I never had a client blow up so big that
it got me into the "1%" but 1998-2002 were definitely very good years for my
family.

EMC reps making $500K a year was much more of a market bubble than it was a
indicator of sales ability and working hard. I think one reason so many tech
salespeople job hop every 18 months is that they are looking for the next home
run. I was guilty of it myself for a while.

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jpdoctor
It is beyond me why anyone would open with an example from the year 2000, the
most artificial, inflated, unreal market in 3 generations. Salesmen were mere
order-takers: They could spout whatever bullshit they fancied and still
deliver increasing YOY sales.

Fluff meter is off-scale.

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rafitorres
I don't know, I wouldn't use Glengarry Glen Ross as an example of something
you'd aspire to. The play/movie is a criticism of the sleazy "sales animal"
culture where the product doesn't matter, closing sales is equated to
virility, and the players are so desperate for a sale they'd lie, steal and
ruin other people's lives for it.

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tryitnow
Bingo. This is about as amusing as Reagan using Bruce Springstein's "Born in
the USA" in his 1984 presidential bid.

Do some people just not understand how to interpret literary, musical, and
other artistic works? Or are they being deliberately ironic?

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mahmud
Isn't 'Always Be Closing' from David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross? (though more
emphasized in the film adaptation than the script)

<http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/glengarry.html>

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ktizo
Is the video at the top of the article.

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mahmud
I do not, as a principle, click on Tim Ferris links, or that wine guy, or
various other self-promoters. A hardline, yes, but it's a choice I have been
happy with.

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whatusername
As mentioned in another comment, the OP is a bunch of excerpts from the book:
"The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Most Exclusive School
for Startups", written by Randall Strossen.

Tim Ferris does a small intro.

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allwein
The Y Combinator book is by Randall Stross, not Strossen. Strossen is a writer
of a bunch of fitness and weight training books.

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gadders
Slightly off-topic, but if anyone wants to read an interesting blog about
sales and sales techniques, I would recommend Sales Source by Geoffrey James
in Inc Magazine:

<http://www.inc.com/author/geoffrey-james>

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taude
I actually liked this blog post by Ferriss. I almsot didn't click on it
because I don't like his schtick...but this was pretty decent.

Back when I worked in consulting for a successful, trendy dot-com era
consulting company, they had a motto that we were all "working in marketing"
and all of us, even the engineers, were always "selling". It was more
philosophical attitude than anything, but made the engineers think a little
bit when they were on site implementing tech.

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sgdesign
I haven't read through all of it, but it seems to be excerpt from Randall
Strossen's book, only the intro is by Tim Ferriss. Maybe the title should
reflect that?

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ktizo
I went to look at a flat and it turned out that the agent had booked someone
else at the same time to view the flat and then tried to turn it into an
unpleasant contest for who could be the first to bring him a deposit, even
going as far as saying that we could have a fight about it, even though
neither of us had shown any issue with the other.

We were both just standing there open mouthed and staring at him, wondering if
he was for real. I decided there and then that it didn't matter how nice the
flat was, there was no way I was going to have financial dealings with someone
who was that much of an arsehole and told the other guy that as far as I was
concerned he could have the flat if he wanted it.

I eventually went with a place that was equally nice, where the agent told me
that the only people he had had round so far weren't all that interested, so I
could probably take a few days to decide.

So if you are going to always be closing, don't be a dick about it.

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josscrowcroft
I don't think there was anything in there at all about being a dick?

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ktizo
Did you watch the movie clip at the beginning of the article dealing with how
to sell real estate?

The aggression of the character played by Baldwin towards his staff is exactly
the kind of culture that seems to produce people like the agent I had to deal
with.

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alid
This is awesome, I'm going to get the book. Key takeout: "be sales animals".

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alid
I noticed my comment was down voted, but I wasn't being sarcastic & thought it
was a pretty innocuous comment. Being relatively new here I'm genuinely
intrigued, was it what I said or how I said it? Feedback appreciated :)

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droob
No no no no quit it no just stop no no no no no please just no

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theorique
Quit what?

