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Ask HN: Why is everyone spending time at Hackathons and not at Sellathons?
I've learned that 5% of a business is the idea, 15% is the product, and 80% is the selling. The number one reason companies fail is because they do not know how to sell? Isn't it better to spend more time at "Sellathons" learning how to sell - and less time at Hackathons?
- darkxanthos 15y agoI like what you're saying and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. How do we start that??
- RollAHardSix 15y agoWhere did you see newsletter at?
- RollAHardSix 15y agoI fail to see why I was down-voted for this. "I've learned that 5% of a business is the idea, 15% is the product, and 80% is the selling. The number one reason companies fail is because they do not know how to sell? Isn't it better to spend more time at "Sellathons" learning how to sell - and less time at Hackathons?" There is absolutely nothing in here about a newsletter. I feel it's a valid question.
- nodemaker 15y agolol it was a rhetorical comment!
- RollAHardSix 15y agoOh oops! Missed that! Thanks for the clarification. =)
- darkxanthos 15y agoIt was :D But yeah... what happened with this?
- mapster 15y agoor pairing up tech founders with skilled salespeople who want to work in tech.
- sixQuarks 15y agoHow would you go about doing a sellathon?
- SuperChihuahua 15y agoYou spend some time telling each other how you are selling/marketing your product/service and come up with new ways
- chc 15y agoSeems a bit beside the point. I mean, when you go to a hackathon, do you spend all your time telling each other how you hack and coming up with new ways to hack, or do you actually hack? If there hypothetically were regular sellathons like you describe, I'd probably rather skip most of them and spend the time getting real practice selling. There already are conferences that fill the niche you seem to be thinking of.
- bjstewr 15y agoI like where this is going. Too many times there are great products out there that get little recognition because they don't go about marketing and selling properly. I could see this being great if there were some newer companies having sales issues and learning from sales people. Coming from a sales background, one of the hardest things is understanding who might be having the problem you are trying to solve and then going after them. There are plenty of very successful SaaS companies that didn't have a super viral launch but once they figured out their customer went and crushed it. (b2b applications come to mind)
- tstegart 15y agoIt would be better but selling is scary and requires asking something of real people. Its not the easiest thing to do so I think people shy away from it.