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Ask HN: How to learn to sell?

355 points rasulkireev | 1 comments | 16 Oct 22 15:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.202s | 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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solatic ◴[16 Oct 22 16:33 UTC] No.33224917[source]▶
There's a difference between marketing and sales. You're building a solution to a problem. Marketing is about getting people who have the problem to know your solution exists. Sales is about convincing them to pay money to solve the problem.

If you built the MVP but don't have customers yet, you should already have some people in mind who suffer from the problem your solution is supposed to solve. Selling is then just a conversation that loosely follows the following steps:

  (a) Ask if they still have the problem
  (b) Ask if your proposed solution solves their problem
  (c) Ask them to spend money to buy your solution
Note that every step starts with "ask". This means that you need to listen to their response. If they don't still have the problem, walk away. If your proposed solution doesn't solve their problem, listen to why not, and focus on improving your product until it does solve their problem (hopefully in a generic way such that your improvements will help you sell to other customers in the future). If they aren't willing to spend the price you're asking to buy a solution that they consider to be a solution to a problem they have, then find a way to add more value so that they will be willing to pay that price.
replies(3): >>33227860 #>>33228115 #>>33233381 #
1. raintrees ◴[16 Oct 22 22:46 UTC] No.33227860[source]▶
Exactly. Sales is solving other people's problems, which we find out about by asking a key question or three, and then listening. IF we have a good fit, we see if the other person is even interested in resolving the problem. THEN we explore the possible value to them, which will assist in price negotiations.