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Yes, there are tons of resources but I'll try to offer some simple tips. 1. Sales is a lot like golf. You can make it so complicated as to be impossible or you

Yes, there are tons of resources but I'll try to offer some simple tips. 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. I've been leading and building sales orgs for almost 20 years and my advice is to 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.

factorialboy 6y ago
One of the best posts I've read on HN ever. Thanks Colin.
iameoghan 6y ago
> Yes, there are tons of resources but I'll try to offer some simple tips. This is a great post!
AlchemistCamp 6y ago
> 4. People buy aspirin always. They buy vitamins only occasionally and at unpredictable times. Sell aspirin. This one is strange to me. I've bought vitamins regularly for 20 of the past 25 years and haven't bought Aspirin (or Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen, etc) even once during that same time period.
- goatherders 6y ago
  Its metaphor for "people buy solutions to problems they have much more than they buy preventative care."
- wenc 6y ago
  Illustration purposes aside, I've interestingly never bought or taken aspirin in my life, and I'm middle aged. Aspirin seems to be a generational marker -- people under a certain age have likely never encountered aspirin. It's like the 3.5" floppy disk Save icon -- most people of the current generation know what it means but they've never seen the real thing.
DoreenMichele 6y ago
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. This doesn't fit my experience at all. People just expect me to do things for them for free out of the goodness of my heart, and expected that even when I was literally homeless. I've never entirely figured out why that is. If people just found ways to give me money because I do useful stuff, I think I would have long ago stopped being poor. But I'm still poor and I routinely get treated like I'm some kind of beggar for trying to find some way to monetize my work. So I think there's probably a bit more to it than that.
- goatherders 6y ago
  I think maybe the difference/nuance is where you mention people expect you to do these things. The activities I mentioned arent expected. In fact, they are usually unexpected which makes them all the more special. Not sure that helps specifically but it did occur to me as I read your post.
  - DoreenMichele 6y ago
    The only explanation I have for that expectation is that I'm a woman. It's not an explanation I like because it gives me no means to solve the problem. It's also not universally true that all women are dirt poor, so I would like to think there is some solution, but I don't know what it is. My experience with doing nice things for people that they didn't expect is that they either latch onto me as a mommy figure and treat me abusively or conclude I'm hitting on them and they would like to hit that. The idea that I'm just social and warm and I see this as a diplomatic thing to do seems to never occur to people. They always and consistently interpret it as extremely personal and latch onto me in a problematic fashion and it doesn't go good places for me business-wise that leads to money. I've been trying to sort that out for years and I feel I have made some progress, but it's far from a solved problem.
- 6y ago
PatrolX 6y ago
If you want to go from deals worth thousands to millions instead then: 8. Take them to lunch, dinner, and karaoke. Relates to #2. It's all about people, relationships, and trust. Once you have that you have everything you need.
jjen_abel 6y ago
YES! Sales is also knowing who to target and when. For example: early-stage startups should be looking for early-adopters. >> Early adopters don’t need as much proof as the early majority in order to buy. >> They take risks on products because they can. They’re often in senior positions with budgets, hold considerable social capital in their company, and can identify a specific use case need. >> Early adopters take risks on new products because they know how much they can gain & motivated by competitive edge >> Early-adopters are also project-driven. They are interested in the shortest time-to-value with a limited amount of resources on their end. Do not try and sell the farm and future value where results take 6 months and beyond. >> Early-adopters are also the first group to generate real revenue.
alexheikel 6y ago
Well done
kirso 6y ago
You are my god!

factorialboy 6y ago

One of the best posts I've read on HN ever. Thanks Colin.

iameoghan 6y ago

> Yes, there are tons of resources but I'll try to offer some simple tips. This is a great post!

AlchemistCamp 6y ago

> 4. People buy aspirin always. They buy vitamins only occasionally and at unpredictable times. Sell aspirin. This one is strange to me. I've bought vitamins regularly for 20 of the past 25 years and haven't bought Aspirin (or Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen, etc) even once during that same time period.

goatherders 6y ago
Its metaphor for "people buy solutions to problems they have much more than they buy preventative care."
wenc 6y ago
Illustration purposes aside, I've interestingly never bought or taken aspirin in my life, and I'm middle aged. Aspirin seems to be a generational marker -- people under a certain age have likely never encountered aspirin. It's like the 3.5" floppy disk Save icon -- most people of the current generation know what it means but they've never seen the real thing.

DoreenMichele 6y ago

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. This doesn't fit my experience at all. People just expect me to do things for them for free out of the goodness of my heart, and expected that even when I was literally homeless. I've never entirely figured out why that is. If people just found ways to give me money because I do useful stuff, I think I would have long ago stopped being poor. But I'm still poor and I routinely get treated like I'm some kind of beggar for trying to find some way to monetize my work. So I think there's probably a bit more to it than that.

goatherders 6y ago
I think maybe the difference/nuance is where you mention people expect you to do these things. The activities I mentioned arent expected. In fact, they are usually unexpected which makes them all the more special. Not sure that helps specifically but it did occur to me as I read your post.
- DoreenMichele 6y ago
  The only explanation I have for that expectation is that I'm a woman. It's not an explanation I like because it gives me no means to solve the problem. It's also not universally true that all women are dirt poor, so I would like to think there is some solution, but I don't know what it is. My experience with doing nice things for people that they didn't expect is that they either latch onto me as a mommy figure and treat me abusively or conclude I'm hitting on them and they would like to hit that. The idea that I'm just social and warm and I see this as a diplomatic thing to do seems to never occur to people. They always and consistently interpret it as extremely personal and latch onto me in a problematic fashion and it doesn't go good places for me business-wise that leads to money. I've been trying to sort that out for years and I feel I have made some progress, but it's far from a solved problem.
6y ago

PatrolX 6y ago

If you want to go from deals worth thousands to millions instead then: 8. Take them to lunch, dinner, and karaoke. Relates to #2. It's all about people, relationships, and trust. Once you have that you have everything you need.

jjen_abel 6y ago

YES! Sales is also knowing who to target and when. For example: early-stage startups should be looking for early-adopters. >> Early adopters don’t need as much proof as the early majority in order to buy. >> They take risks on products because they can. They’re often in senior positions with budgets, hold considerable social capital in their company, and can identify a specific use case need. >> Early adopters take risks on new products because they know how much they can gain & motivated by competitive edge >> Early-adopters are also project-driven. They are interested in the shortest time-to-value with a limited amount of resources on their end. Do not try and sell the farm and future value where results take 6 months and beyond. >> Early-adopters are also the first group to generate real revenue.

alexheikel 6y ago

Well done

kirso 6y ago

You are my god!