Cut the smooth-talking B.S. and use these three tactics instead.
If you’re looking for an entertaining, but deeply cringe-worthy experience, look no further than a salesmanship class. I’m not ragging on the (often entrepreneurial) mentors hosting these classes, but rather on the overly confident, yet severely under-skilled attendees who find themselves in front of an arbitrary audience, failing the “sell me this pen” test.
As an entrepreneur — and one with both a traditional business school and Wall Street M&A background — I can attest to the fact that sales is one of the least-practiced, most underrated aspects of startups. Whether I was assisting a co-founder pitching investors, facilitating a $100M+ acquisition, or attempting to sell my idea to partners or product to customers, I did so cold the first time. Oh, and I’m no exception: Sales is one of the rare business activities that, despite being the most direct revenue driver, receives the least preparation.
Think about it: Professional athletes spend more than 90% of their time practicing for that 10% of time (at most) in a live game. Sales (and entrepreneurship) is the opposite: Entrepreneurs spend about 90% of the time attempting to raise funding or peddle our products or services, and at most 10% of the time practicing and preparing. In fact, if we’re honest, most of us spend more than 50% of the time on the product or service and operations, 45% on marketing and sales, and 5% on building our skill sets.
Given all that, what if I told you there was a better use of your time than ace-ing the “sell me this pen” test in front of a salesmanship mastermind? What if there was a way to fast-track your close rate, multiply your earning power and potential, and do so fairly effortlessly, without memorizing a bunch of scammy tactics and made-up “quick close” formulas? There just may be; here are two truths and a lie that attempt to do just that.
I’m going to offer up a secret very few founders would willingly admit: Not all entrepreneurs like their customers.