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The thing that didn't seem obvious from the article is that "looking" means signing up. If this is the case, it's a conscious choice of the vendor. On the othe

The thing that didn't seem obvious from the article is that "looking" means signing up. If this is the case, it's a conscious choice of the vendor. On the other hand, I do know that it's a widespread feeling among salespeople, that a person who interacts with them, without buying anything, is stealing from them. And wasting someone's time in order to make them feel like they owe you something is a familiar bargaining tactic.

spankalee 2y ago
I don't think "looking" means signing up specifically. The advice is pretty generic, and it could be just users using the site/app/product. I think it just happens that a lot of products are going to have a sign up component if they're not just content for consumption.
dingnuts 2y ago
>a person who interacts with them, without buying anything, is stealing from them This is so asinine. This would be like Target locking you in until you make a purchase, because you entered the store, and are thus wasting their resources. You owe them for being bathed in their fluorescent lights and breathing their climate controlled air, I guess. I swear: sales people must exist in their own bubble. Don't they know that Solutions hates them because Sales sets them up to fail? Don't they know that their customers hate them because the customer knows Sales will lie to get their commission? Don't they know Engineering hates them because they sell things that are impossible, on timelines that nobody can meet, in order to enrich only themselves? If Sales has a chip on their shoulder about anything they can get fucking bent
- lupusreal 2y ago
  Sales is thinking "none of these other people would have jobs if not for us, they owe their existence to us." One might naively think that sales would have the humility to realize they wouldn't have anything to sell if not for everybody else, but actually sales is perfectly happy to sell things which don't actually exist.
ekidd 2y ago
> On the other hand, I do know that it's a widespread feeling among salespeople, that a person who interacts with them, without buying anything, is stealing from them. It's less this, and more that some customers have no business buying certain products, and the sooner you can filter them out of your sales funnel, the happier everyone will be a year from now. Let's say you sell specialized enterprise SaaS that normally gets integrated at the API level. This means: - Lots of potential customers are too small to benefit from the product, or they don't understand what problem the product is actually solving. - Closing a sale probably involves lawyers and custom contracts, which costs $$$. - Customers need to either know how to use an API, or they need to have budget to pay the SaaS provider to write integration code. - Once the sale is closed, there's likely to be labor-intensive onboarding process. - You don't actually want customers who are going to try it for a year, hate it, and bail. You want people who love it and who will renew every year, or who will buy more without another sales process. So sales people are trained to think about these issues, and to prioritize leads who have relevant problems, a good baseline understanding of what the product does, and enough budget to be able to properly set up and use the product.
metadat 2y ago
> it's a widespread feeling among salespeople, that a person who interacts with them, without buying anything, is stealing from them If you're selling something low end, like a hotdog or pair of shoes, this makes sense. But for higher-end purchases there is a relationship component which can take time to build. I've encountered salespeople who get pissed off they've "wasted" time with me and it stood out as kind of a low-class, graceless, bottom-line only approach to the job and life in general. Sales can actually be pretty cool, but not with such a poor attitude!
- michaelt 2y ago
  > If you're selling something low end, like a hotdog or pair of shoes, this makes sense. But for higher-end purchases there is a relationship component which can take time to build. I'd have expected the reverse, in some cases. Almost everyone who enters a shoe store can afford shoes and are seriously considering making a purchase. Whereas if you run a dealership selling $200,000 supercars, there's probably a steady stream of people who'd like a test drive but who don't have $200,000 in their bank account.
  - metadat 2y ago
    Dealerships don't generally allow test-drives on high-end models in my experience. Go to a Porsche dealer and notice how they don't get upset about you "wasting their time". Experienced salespeople have typically figured out the formula to winning people over.

spankalee 2y ago

I don't think "looking" means signing up specifically. The advice is pretty generic, and it could be just users using the site/app/product. I think it just happens that a lot of products are going to have a sign up component if they're not just content for consumption.

dingnuts 2y ago

>a person who interacts with them, without buying anything, is stealing from them This is so asinine. This would be like Target locking you in until you make a purchase, because you entered the store, and are thus wasting their resources. You owe them for being bathed in their fluorescent lights and breathing their climate controlled air, I guess. I swear: sales people must exist in their own bubble. Don't they know that Solutions hates them because Sales sets them up to fail? Don't they know that their customers hate them because the customer knows Sales will lie to get their commission? Don't they know Engineering hates them because they sell things that are impossible, on timelines that nobody can meet, in order to enrich only themselves? If Sales has a chip on their shoulder about anything they can get fucking bent

lupusreal 2y ago
Sales is thinking "none of these other people would have jobs if not for us, they owe their existence to us." One might naively think that sales would have the humility to realize they wouldn't have anything to sell if not for everybody else, but actually sales is perfectly happy to sell things which don't actually exist.

ekidd 2y ago

> On the other hand, I do know that it's a widespread feeling among salespeople, that a person who interacts with them, without buying anything, is stealing from them. It's less this, and more that some customers have no business buying certain products, and the sooner you can filter them out of your sales funnel, the happier everyone will be a year from now. Let's say you sell specialized enterprise SaaS that normally gets integrated at the API level. This means: - Lots of potential customers are too small to benefit from the product, or they don't understand what problem the product is actually solving. - Closing a sale probably involves lawyers and custom contracts, which costs $$$. - Customers need to either know how to use an API, or they need to have budget to pay the SaaS provider to write integration code. - Once the sale is closed, there's likely to be labor-intensive onboarding process. - You don't actually want customers who are going to try it for a year, hate it, and bail. You want people who love it and who will renew every year, or who will buy more without another sales process. So sales people are trained to think about these issues, and to prioritize leads who have relevant problems, a good baseline understanding of what the product does, and enough budget to be able to properly set up and use the product.

metadat 2y ago

> it's a widespread feeling among salespeople, that a person who interacts with them, without buying anything, is stealing from them If you're selling something low end, like a hotdog or pair of shoes, this makes sense. But for higher-end purchases there is a relationship component which can take time to build. I've encountered salespeople who get pissed off they've "wasted" time with me and it stood out as kind of a low-class, graceless, bottom-line only approach to the job and life in general. Sales can actually be pretty cool, but not with such a poor attitude!

michaelt 2y ago
> If you're selling something low end, like a hotdog or pair of shoes, this makes sense. But for higher-end purchases there is a relationship component which can take time to build. I'd have expected the reverse, in some cases. Almost everyone who enters a shoe store can afford shoes and are seriously considering making a purchase. Whereas if you run a dealership selling $200,000 supercars, there's probably a steady stream of people who'd like a test drive but who don't have $200,000 in their bank account.
- metadat 2y ago
  Dealerships don't generally allow test-drives on high-end models in my experience. Go to a Porsche dealer and notice how they don't get upset about you "wasting their time". Experienced salespeople have typically figured out the formula to winning people over.