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The thing is, one of the stages of the sales process is qualification. That's where you assess whether the prospective customer is an appropriate fit to actuall

The thing is, one of the stages of the sales process is qualification. That's where you assess whether the prospective customer is an appropriate fit to actually become a customer. Among other things that includes finding out whether they have lots of money which they want to spend now. The OP did a beautiful job of qualification here, he sent one message, and then the prospect revealed that they weren't in the market for spending money on a programmer, and walked away. PERFECTION. This is a moment of joy for anyone in sales because they no longer have to waste a single minute with that useless contact, and they can move on. He should be happy! It's only programmers, artists etc. who seem to get cranky about the sales process and pen long cranky articles about how their craft doesn't get enough respect or whatever. There is clearly a huge market for programming, so there's no need for ruminating, just kick back with a beer, celebrate your newfound freetime, then get back to coding cool stuff.

talldatethrow 3y ago
I'm basically a sales veteran, and what you write is totally true. However, it's ignoring that this conversation didn't start as a sales call. These were acquaintances, and the business guy thought he was asking a favor of a 'friend' (however foolishly). If a friend asked me why his car is making a funny noise, I don't quite him my rates.. even though Im also very skilled as a mechanic. If he asked me if I could help him in person change his timing belt, I'd consider. If he asked me to change it at my house while he was off doing other stuff, well.. he better be a good friend and the other stuff better helping his family member deal with cancer. The real question is, was the asker under the impression this is really a 2-3 hour favor, or were they really expecting a weeks worth of help for free? (I've never helped anyone with a task that took 40 hours in my life, and I'm a super helpful person)
- busterarm 3y ago
  But that's the difference between acquaintances and friends, isn't it? If every acquaintance I ever had hit me up for 2-3 hours of free work, I'd be in trouble.
busterarm 3y ago
OP even managed to turn the no-sale, no-contact into a blog post to generate more leads! Ultimate win!

talldatethrow 3y ago

I'm basically a sales veteran, and what you write is totally true. However, it's ignoring that this conversation didn't start as a sales call. These were acquaintances, and the business guy thought he was asking a favor of a 'friend' (however foolishly). If a friend asked me why his car is making a funny noise, I don't quite him my rates.. even though Im also very skilled as a mechanic. If he asked me if I could help him in person change his timing belt, I'd consider. If he asked me to change it at my house while he was off doing other stuff, well.. he better be a good friend and the other stuff better helping his family member deal with cancer. The real question is, was the asker under the impression this is really a 2-3 hour favor, or were they really expecting a weeks worth of help for free? (I've never helped anyone with a task that took 40 hours in my life, and I'm a super helpful person)

busterarm 3y ago
But that's the difference between acquaintances and friends, isn't it? If every acquaintance I ever had hit me up for 2-3 hours of free work, I'd be in trouble.

busterarm 3y ago

OP even managed to turn the no-sale, no-contact into a blog post to generate more leads! Ultimate win!