Sat, 13 Nov 2004
I've figured out why I find sales so unpleasant. Being a business owner
requires a much different mind-set than that of a typical techie.
I've been working as a sys admin and web developer for the past seven years.
As such, I only have to sell myself to an employer or client once, and
typically, over a single one or two hour interview period.
Having to sell a product or service to a customer who hasn't already "hired"
you is a much different proposition.
Failure
As a techie, I don't often have to deal with failure. When working on a new
project or fixing an existing system that is broken, I just keep working on it
until it's done. Rarely must I concede defeat and give up hope of finding a
solution.
Failure is a normal part of sales, though. Salespeople cannot always just keep
working on a sales prospect until a deal is closed. This would likely result
in restraining orders.
With Postica, we decided that Greg would focus on
sales, while I would handle technical issues. Nonetheless, I participate in
some sales calls, and I become frustrated when sales don't increase as quickly
as I would like.
Repetition
Direct sales requires a lot of repetition. You generally have to give the same
pitch over and over to each new potential customer. This conflicts with my
natural desire to automate repetitive behavior. When I come across a task that
I have to do repeatedly, I usually write a script or subroutine to automate the
process.
Part of marketing is to automate the sales message, but when bootstrapping a
business with limited capital, much of your marketing message must be delivered
personally to potential customers.
Mind-set
I need to find some good books on sales that explains how to get into the correct mind-set.
Michael Cage discusses the need to train
non-salespeople for sales. In order to do this, the non-salespeople must
learn to think like salespeople.
A couple years ago, I really got into blackjack. To be successful at blackjack
requires basically becoming a computer. You must keep track of the count, and
bet and play exactly as the rules (based on calculated odds) that you've
memorized tell you that must. You must not become emotional after losing a lot
of money when doubling after splitting (though you may want to feign being
upset for the pit boss's benefit). What happens during a single hand is
irrelevant. Your goal is to grind out a profit by having a slight advantage
over the house based on the rules and your ability to vary play based on the
count.
A fantastic book on blackjack is Million
Dollar Blackjack. It describes how Ken Uston and his team won $4,000,000,
persevering through lawsuits, pit bosses, the gambling commission, and
malfunctioning electronic equipment (they used some computerized counting
gear).
Business tales are often similar. For example, Joe Kraus's story about how Excite
got the deal to be featured in Netscape Navigator is a story about
persistence in the face of rejection.
Is there a way to reconcile the techie mind-set with a salesperson's world?
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