News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on How to sell: tips from a marketing guy who can actually sell something. Parent comment

Re:How to sell: tips from a marketing guy who can actually s... by tptacek on Wednesday August 24, 2011 @01:26PM (#2921630)
The best salespeople I worked with at $LAST_VENDOR_JOB could have given a flying fuck about the product they were selling. None of them understood it. Belief in your product is simply not a requirement for successful sales. It may be for a startup, but not in the general case.

Sales is a skill. I could try to break it down in a neat little bulleted list, but I'm not a good salesperson and so wouldn't be credible.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How to sell: tips from a marketing guy who can actually s... by 18pfsmt on Wednesday August 24, 2011 @03:21PM (#2922153)
The problem I have found is that many supposedly-good sales people seem to set customer expectations too high. After the fact, there is a lot of effort expended on easing customer concerns.

I'm not a good salesperson either, as I will easily give away my concerns about a product I'm not completely sure of, but I've worked for people that are great at closing deals for shoddy products.

At one time, I worked with the sales guys from Akamai-during-the-ipo. It was very interesting to see them operate (and how specifically they wanted our salesforce account configured).

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How to sell: tips from a marketing guy who can actually s... by aspir on Wednesday August 24, 2011 @03:41PM (#2922215)
True, single sales can be won and lost by skill alone, but without some passion for either the product, your employer, or your customer, you may end up as a Glengarry Glen Ross style frustrated burnout :)
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How to sell: tips from a marketing guy who can actually s... by iheartmemcache on Wednesday August 24, 2011 @11:20PM (#2923644)
> I could try to break it down in a neat little bulleted list,

Well, can you give it a whirl, anyways? I'd love to hear how it came off to you/ what made them different from other vendors who approached you to make them stand out/ etc. I (and other HN'ers) would really appreciate it, I'm sure.

[ Parent | on HN ]