attribute most my sales success to this shit just being fun to me
cold calling, prospecting, demos, try to make it a human experience and not a template
gurus can say what they want, but acumen + vibes will always work
(all things in life)
wicked success the past six months. biggest unlock has been stripping my sales process to nothing but blunt honesty and mutual accountability
i tell prospects very early, im going to be the hardest sales process you go through but the most transparent
truth builds credibility
a lot of sales is aligning yourself w the right product and something you believe in
managers will flog you for losing a deal, but if you aren’t the best product - should you have won?
would you have just been lying and manipulating a client?
that doesn’t sound ideal to me
to not care about the call you have to not care about hitting quota
to not care about hitting quota you have to not care about getting fired
to not care about getting fired you have to not care about being perceived as a failure
eventually you find bedrock and that’s ur solve
most sales reps thinks the thermostat is the call infront of them, so they say “i don’t care about this call”
but that’s false. that’s not the concern. you have to go all the way down to the truth to free yourself
to reduce anxiety, you need to eliminate fear of the consequence itself. you can’t reduce emotion while you carry dependence on the outcome
but this goes so much further than people believe
for example
worthwhile read imo —
so much of performance anxiety advice is ass backwards
most of it is trying to tell you how to reduce anxiety in high stakes moments
which is like asking how do i turn up the heat on a thermostat but not feel warm
you’re solving the wrong thing
“playing devils advocate” has been my secret weapon over the year
“devils advocate, your current situation doesn’t sound that bad?”
“devils advocate, is there a chance you stay on your current solution”
“devils advocate, this sounds out of budget”
it’s a great softening line
really the only goal of a sales call should be finding some truth.
truth about their business, the problem at hand, how bad their reality is (or isn’t) then holding them accountable if it needs fixing
it’s not about tactics, or questions, or anything besides blunt honesty
@naval, i’ve been deep down your rabbit hole. McKenna, Kapil... I like this way of thinking - there is no good, bad, “you”
this works 99% of the time. But life prevents some gems 1% of the time. Tremendous job offers, high stakes calls - how do you disconnect in these moments?
Jed Talks # 2
The Almanac of Naval Ravikant
The Anthology of Balaji
The Book of Elon
___
This list may not make any sense to some in terms of “sales acumen,” but if you’ve read the first book on this list, you’ll at least understand my thesis for development
was going to write a long essay about what’s changed in my belief system over the past year but 1) I couldn’t find a way to make it compact enough and 2) feel it’s better to just drop all the source material
so heres every book i’ve read in the past year that made me a better AE
Poor Charlie’s Almanack
The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Richard Feynman Six Easy Pieces
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Endurance
Dune
The Disappearing Spoon
Structures or Why Things Don’t Fall Down
Spiritual Enlightenment the Damnest Thing
Awareness - De Melo
it’s just so baffling how wrong so many of my old tweets and sales twitter tweets were after stepping into a real enterprise motion at a billion dollar startup (revenue not valuation)
will speak this soon