5 ms·

Is this a joke, or is it based on real-life experience? I honestly can't tell. Because this might be one of the worst advices I've ever heard.

segmondy 9y ago
We are stealth yo, super top secret kinda stuff. The world will have to wait and we will wow em when we are done and ready.
- _Microft 9y ago
  We are SO in stealth-mode that we ourselves have no idea what we are doing!
  - snaily 9y ago
    Double stealth mode: no one knows what we're building, and neither do we https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4166183 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4166183
    - phaemon 9y ago
      heh, you didn't need to link to a parody. The "We've got an awesome team and have secured VC funding. Now, anyone got any product ideas?" from last week would have done :)
  - deleted 9y ago
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- deleted 9y ago
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trgv 9y ago
Well I don't know what goes on at "marketing school" but here's my view: Knowing your audience seems really important to this discussion. Those of us with technical knowledge immediately want to know "what does it actually do?" But there are a lot of decision-makers without technical knowledge who might be swayed by their "general impression of the people they meet." This group doesn't necessarily care if they're in need of what you're selling. There's a spectrum between these two extremes and how you approach marketing is going to depend on your opinion of how the audience is distributed in this spectrum. If you believe there are more people toward the latter end of the spectrum then a more general, details-free approach may make sense.
Alex3917 9y ago
> Is this a joke, or is it based on real-life experience? I think it's a joke, but there is actually real advice along the same lines. When cold emailing someone with the goal of getting a phone call, you want to avoid giving the person enough information to say no.
- mindcrime 9y ago
  When cold emailing someone with the goal of getting a phone call, you want to avoid giving the person enough information to say no. Why? What's the point in wasting time having a call with somebody when the answer is going to be "no" either way? Better to get to "no" as fast as you can, so you can move on to a better prospect.
  - Alex3917 9y ago
    > when the answer is going to be "no" either way No one is ever going to say 'yes' to a $10M sale from a cold email. They'll only say yes after they've met you in person, but they're not going to agree to meet you in person until you've done a phone call.
    - mindcrime 9y ago
      Sure, but that doesn't argue against "giving them enough information to say no". If the customer doesn't need what you're selling, knows they don't need what you're selling, and are never going to buy what you're selling, then you're wasting your time with the phone call and in-person meeting. That time would be better spent working on a prospect who saw your information and didn't disqualify themselves right from the jump.
      - Alex3917 9y ago
        > That time would be better spent working on a prospect who saw your information and didn't disqualify themselves right from the jump. The problem is that everyone will say they don't need what you're selling, even if they do. You want to disqualify folks as fast as possible, but email doesn't work for that because even if you're selling the cure to cancer to someone with cancer, you're still going to have basically a 100% false negative rate.

segmondy 9y ago

We are stealth yo, super top secret kinda stuff. The world will have to wait and we will wow em when we are done and ready.

_Microft 9y ago
We are SO in stealth-mode that we ourselves have no idea what we are doing!
- snaily 9y ago
  Double stealth mode: no one knows what we're building, and neither do we https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4166183 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4166183
  - phaemon 9y ago
    heh, you didn't need to link to a parody. The "We've got an awesome team and have secured VC funding. Now, anyone got any product ideas?" from last week would have done :)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 9y ago
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trgv 9y ago

Well I don't know what goes on at "marketing school" but here's my view: Knowing your audience seems really important to this discussion. Those of us with technical knowledge immediately want to know "what does it actually do?" But there are a lot of decision-makers without technical knowledge who might be swayed by their "general impression of the people they meet." This group doesn't necessarily care if they're in need of what you're selling. There's a spectrum between these two extremes and how you approach marketing is going to depend on your opinion of how the audience is distributed in this spectrum. If you believe there are more people toward the latter end of the spectrum then a more general, details-free approach may make sense.

Alex3917 9y ago

> Is this a joke, or is it based on real-life experience? I think it's a joke, but there is actually real advice along the same lines. When cold emailing someone with the goal of getting a phone call, you want to avoid giving the person enough information to say no.

mindcrime 9y ago
When cold emailing someone with the goal of getting a phone call, you want to avoid giving the person enough information to say no. Why? What's the point in wasting time having a call with somebody when the answer is going to be "no" either way? Better to get to "no" as fast as you can, so you can move on to a better prospect.
- Alex3917 9y ago
  > when the answer is going to be "no" either way No one is ever going to say 'yes' to a $10M sale from a cold email. They'll only say yes after they've met you in person, but they're not going to agree to meet you in person until you've done a phone call.
  - mindcrime 9y ago
    Sure, but that doesn't argue against "giving them enough information to say no". If the customer doesn't need what you're selling, knows they don't need what you're selling, and are never going to buy what you're selling, then you're wasting your time with the phone call and in-person meeting. That time would be better spent working on a prospect who saw your information and didn't disqualify themselves right from the jump.
    - Alex3917 9y ago
      > That time would be better spent working on a prospect who saw your information and didn't disqualify themselves right from the jump. The problem is that everyone will say they don't need what you're selling, even if they do. You want to disqualify folks as fast as possible, but email doesn't work for that because even if you're selling the cure to cancer to someone with cancer, you're still going to have basically a 100% false negative rate.