
Are You a Hustler? - tortilla
http://www.quicksprout.com/2008/10/20/do-the-hustle/
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cousin_it
Counterpoint: deals are supposed to create surplus value. For example, if a
house is worth $2M to the owner and $3M to the buyer, a sale at $2.5M creates
$500K value for the seller and $500K for the buyer. Now, obviously, the harder
a deal is to make, the less surplus value it creates. If the salesman is very
persuasive, the net value created can even be negative, as I suppose is often
the case with door-to-door sales. Is this really a skill to be desired? I like
Henry Ford's view much more: "For something people want, if the price is
right, there's always a customer."

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lsc
yeah. I guess I would extend this to all advertising that goes beyond making
me aware a product is available. If I know about it, and I need it and can
afford it, I'll buy it. If you have to browbeat or manipulate me into buying
it, you've created negative value. first it wasn't a good deal for me (or else
I would have bought it without the browbeating) and add to that the cost of
browbeating or manipulating me.

But then, most people seem to prefer to buy from salesmen, even when buying
technical products that the salesmen often don't fully understand. After
getting the facts about various products, most companies I've worked for then
invite salespeople to pitch (salespeople who are often not technically
qualified to even discuss the product) and then make decisions based on how
good the salespeople were. This seems irrational to me, but it also seems to
be how most businesses work, so maybe I'm wrong.

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cstejerean
Well in (large) corporations buying things is a little tricky. Needing the
product is not the only requirement. You also need to often convince others
that the product is necessary and also cover your ass in the event that things
don't turn out well. This usually means having to buy expensive products from
big companies with talented salespeople.

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lsc
yeah, but none of that conflicts with my 'sales subtracts value' theory, it
just explains that people working at large corporations are more concerned
with what decision looks right than what decision is right.

That aside, I've seen the same thing happen at small companies that just had a
lot of money. In one example, the guy making the decision was as technical as
I am, and owned a good chunk of the company. I wanted a cheaper homegrown
solution. "Dude, that's your Porsche" I said.

I can understand why he went for the expensive solution instead (I was pretty
young at the time, and prone to rash decisions and mistakes, and so was the
rest of the technical team. The expensive product was expensive, but it
worked.) Still, I felt he went with the vendor who looked good over the vendor
that actually came out ahead in all our tests (and was cheaper, too...
partially because they didn't take us out to lunch at fancy restaurants.)

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fallentimes
When I use the word "hustle" or "hustler" I mean it as a compliment.

Another interesting related post by a different author:
<http://www.ryanholiday.net/archives/hustling.phtml>

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daveambrose
Me as well. I've started using the phrase more and more.

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mrtron
Every day im hustlin'.

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omouse
I came looking for this comment hehe.

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webtickle
I never knew that the PriceGrabber.com guy was a hustler. If he raised raised
no venture capital (only financing from friends/family) and sold the company
for $485 million, I need to become one.

