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355 points rasulkireev | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.201s | 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.

1. gumby ◴[] No.33224921[source]
I highly recommend the Dale Carnegie Sales course which is once a week for IIRC six or eight weeks.

When I took it long ago the class included me (enterprise SW sales for my startup), a woman selling chip fab equipment for KLA-Tencor (24-36 month sales cycle with ASP above $100MM), a woman selling ADT home alarm systems, and two guys who had opened a T-shirt stand on the beach (sales cycle <10 min with ASP of $20). We all got the same lesson and all learned a lot from each other. A very hands on class and you bring to each class how you used the lessons during the preceding week. One of the best investments I ever made.

The stages a customer goes through (whether over 5 minutes or 25 months) are “attention, interest, conviction, desire and close”. The first time I met one of the best sales guys I have ever known, when he changed PowerPoints during a presentation displayed this desktop, and his wallpaper was just those words. Even at his high level he lived them.