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355 points rasulkireev | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source

Hey HN,

I am a solo founder that just finished writing code for my project (MVP) and am ready to find clients.

- for the sake of the question, my clients will be small physical businesses. Think, Family Doctor's Office, Local Cafe, Small barber, etc.

I will be developing a blog for SEO purposes and doing other things to promote my business online. However, I believe the key to success here will be "Cold Sales". I have never done that before. So, if you could recommend a book, a blog post, other online resources, or you just have a random advice that I could learn from, I would be very thankful.

Suffice it to say I will be starting out ASAP, even though I don't know anything. I believe practice is the best teacher. However, if there are any resources that could help me get up and running quicker that would be awesome. Thanks a ton in advance.

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fraaancis ◴[] No.33224754[source]
* > I believe the key to success here will be "Cold Sales" *

100% correct.

1. Get a demo ready that you can show on a laptop. Focus on features.

2. Smile and dial. Set a meeting with the business owner or manager to show the demo.

3. Listen. The things they say (mostly objections) will guide your product development.

4. Accept rejection. You will get meetings from 10% of your calls. You will make sales on 2% of your meetings if the customer even needs the product.

Reading is a good way to forestall the heartache of actual sales, but that's it. Everything you need to know you'll learn in meetings.

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User23 ◴[] No.33224775[source]
Don’t just accept rejection, but learn to thrive on it. That is the secret of sales.
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1. zomglings ◴[] No.33224868[source]
How do you thrive on rejection? Genuinely want to learn.
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2. jimmygrapes ◴[] No.33225408[source]
Depending on how the rejection was given, you can use it to recalibrate your methods or presentation. Avoid "sour grapes" mentality.
3. solatic ◴[] No.33225651[source]
General steps -

1. First, disassociate. Most of the time, rejection is about the subject (doing the rejection) being closed to something new rather than some notion of the object (of the rejection) being undesirable.

2. Gain confidence in the object. Understand that the object has its own merits. The object isn't undesirable, rather, you're looking for subjects who appreciate what the object has to offer. That a given subject doesn't appreciate the object, has no bearing on the object. Move on and find other potential subjects.

3. As potential subjects polarize and reject the object for reasons that are to be expected - because the object is what it is, and does not attempt to be what is not - recognize rejection as an affirmation of the object's qualities.

Most of the loop between (2) and (3) is about improving the clarity of communication, such that subjects do not make mistaken rejections, either because (a) the values of the object are not clear to the subjects or (b) the unsuitability of the subject is not clear to the object.

4. xrd ◴[] No.33227429[source]
Another commenter put it well, disassociate.

This is REALLY hard when you built the thing you are selling by the way.

This is the main reason why it is often good to have a salesperson working with you that doesn't take the ego hit when the product is rejected, because they didn't build it themselves.

Be aware of that. It's hard and one way you can get stuck is to not find a way to get past that.

5. 6510 ◴[] No.33229623[source]
The goal is fast streamlined rejection. You want an enormous list of well defined rejections. Doing one more isn't a challenge. Getting rejected faster, more efficiently, more accurately and for better reasons.

Pretend you run their business, would the product be as useful as it was designed to be? To answer that question you need some information.

If your software is going to be super useful for an event that happens only 1 time per year and doesn't take much time to do manually you don't have to wait for them to explain this to you in their complex polite way.

If it is useful to them, can they afford locking themselves into the service? What happens if the product is discontinued? What will it cost to clean up behind you?

If there is a way out and they cant afford it you can still gain a free user but it might be better not to.

Every second you spend is a second not spend on the next prospect who might badly need your product. You want to waste as little of their time as necessary, when the task is completed it is completed for both parties. The goal was to figure out if it fits. When done you thank them for successfully completing the task.

You have to dial down your clock cycle to their working speed. It is your moment of relaxation. The real work is moving between such interactions as fast as humanly possible.