Lessons learned in sales
by Antti Akonniemi
You learn stuff by doing stuff
Books and courses might help, but they won’t help you enough. You actually need to start selling and you get better the more you do it.
You need to do it all the time
Don’t make a mistake we did to stop selling when you are busy. You need to be selling all the fricking time. A lead might take forever to convert to a sale.
Don’t just sell, help
Selling something is hard/impossible. I always thought selling is a bit unnatural, but that was just because I thought that telemarketing was selling. It’s selling, but it’s crappy selling. You need to care and you need to help your clients. Often selling means helping for free (like guiding to correct partner, who might be a competitor of yours). Help your potential client, whatever that means.
Networking pays off
1. Find people 2. Friend them up (if match) 3. Help them
Don’t waste people’s time. Create value for them.
Don’t meet if you are not sure you can help them. You don’t want your time to be wasted by some shitty telemarketer so why would you waste one’s time?
Presentation Deck
Problem
- Define the problem and background
Solution
- Define your solution
Benefits
- What is the client getting? Why your solution matters?
Investment
- What’s the investment? Give few options and remember also to add other than your project costs such as clients resources etc.
- Where is this money coming from?
That’s what I’ve learned so far :)
“That’s what I’ve learned so far :)”
I’m sure you’ve learned a lot more, but this is a great simplification of the whole process. It’s not complicated, but people shouldn’t think it’s easy. It’s a simple process that is relatively difficult (if you want to be real good).
Best way to sell in my opinion is the value you create. If you’re not creating enough value, you shouldn’t be selling to them in the first place.
Yes, I’ve probably learned more, but it’s also a question what is sales and what is communication/relationships.
+1 for creating value!
nice summary.
As with most of the “non-technical” parts of business, it is not *hard* or complicated to do (as there is lots of material out there), but it is actually quite hard to do *CORRECTLY* the first few times, so repetition and continuos practice are required.
The “don’t just sell” approach I have heard referred to as Consultative Selling (i.e. help the potential customer identify the problem, possible solution and initial risk/benefit analysis etc)
Thanks Mike!
You should have seen our first 20 or so sales calls :D Boy did they suck! And I should note that there still seems to be improvement so I’ll probably laugh my ass of to this blogpost after a year :D
Consultative Selling sounds a bit weasel talkish to me ;) Helping people comes more naturally to me.
Good comments!
Antti, I know you would appreciate this book a lot: The sales advantage, how to get it, keep it, and sell more than ever by J. Oliver Crom, Michael A. Crom, Dale Carnegie & Associates.
Whether it is Consultative Selling, SPIN, Solution Selling, Sales2.0, AIDA etc. it’s all about understanding the customer situation and building up a solution with which customer gets more value/benefits (than she even dreamed). Simplified a lot, but I see this as a basis statement in every sales model.
I have been in “the sales business” for only 10 years and I can say I still do mistakes what comes to the sales process. I probably never have made a sale as perfectly as I would have wanted to. Luckily, I’m gradually improving all the time =)
My favorite analogy: Everybody can sell, everybody can hit a golf ball….
- Klemmaritehtailija
Klemmaritehtailija: Thanks! I added it to my reading list! Will read it soon!
Great analogy :)
Awesome discussion here! I’m glad I posted this :)
@antti
Another one i like:
One meeting where we talked about cold-calling and how important it is to do it professionally. Unfortunately it only works in Finnish.
A: Jokainen osaa soittaa ja sopia tapaamisen, ei se ole vaikeaa.
B: Niin… jokainen osaa myös soittaa pianoa.
(A: Everybody can call and book a meeting, it’s not so hard
B: yeah…. everybody can play a piano also
note: In Finnish “soittaa” means both play an instrument and call)
You can just imagine how much fun we have had after we heard this one in a meeting :)
- Klemmaritehtailija
Klemmaritehtailija Classic! :DD That’s very true and excellent analogy!
[...] the co-founder and CEO of Kisko Labs, and a good friend, occasionally writes these “lessons learned in…” style posts on various issues. I thought I’d give it a try with my recent experience [...]
I wonder how much can be sold a kilo of graphic design…
Nice lessons, really.
Thanks Blerim!!