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There are already some very good replies in this thread. This is also an absolutely fantastic question. The book New Sales: Simplified by Mike Weinberg is a de
by throw_away1525 4y ago
There are already some very good replies in this thread. This is also an absolutely fantastic question.
The book New Sales: Simplified by Mike Weinberg is a decent intro to sales that you would probably get a lot out of. You can only learn sales by doing but this book will help you get your feet wet - there are a lot of absolutely awful sales books out there but this one is good. 45 calls in 3 months is very easily achievable, by the way, even just doing cold calls from LinkedIn.
I'd like to add one thing. It's not a direct response to the questions you asked but I hope it can help you once you figure out how to start making calls. I used to sell engineering software to heavy industry customers. I found out very quickly that if you called a customer on the phone (or were on Google Meet or whatever) and asked "anything wrong? anything I can help with?" they would tell you "oh no, everything's great here!". Go visit them in person though, and ask for a tour of their plant, and all of the sudden they're pointing to all sorts of things saying "oh yeah, that new 10 million dollar unit they just put in won't start, we can't figure out why!" and guess what, the software we sold could help them figure out how to start it. I work remote now and I love it, but for sales? Nothing beats meeting in person.
- Centigonal 4y ago> I work remote now and I love it, but for sales? Nothing beats meeting in person. I'm remote, too, and I worry about that being an obstacle sometimes. I saw that Steve Blank article "Be Where Your Business Is"[1] linked here a month ago. I think, in my case, I'll have to start with virtual discovery calls, but at some point it'll make sense to start hopping on trains/planes and making in-person visits. One difference is that we're trying to help analysts, who mostly work at a desk in front of a computer - but I've seen conferences really work to accelerate relationship-building. [1] https://steveblank.com/2023/01/10/be-where-your-business-is/ https://steveblank.com/2023/01/10/be-where-your-business-is/
- throw_away1525 4y agoFor me, selling means traveling, but virtual discovery calls are also the norm - traveling is expensive (both money and time) and I'm not traveling to meet a prospect until I've qualified them. And sure, if you're in financial services, you probably ought to live in NYC... maybe you wouldn't ever even need to leave. But I'd wager that in most other industries which are a bit more distributed geographically, as long as you're willing to hop on a plane at a moments notice, you'll be okay.