Sales IS research
goddamn hippies
I swear, if I hear ONE more person say, “Sales is about pitching, but research is about listening and learning,” …I’m going to lose it.
This idea - that somehow, sales is just pitching, which is different than research - both misunderstands sales and misunderstands research. This idea is repeated endlessly by a bunch of academics, “startup experts”, investors, etc. - a bunch of goddamn hippies who don’t know anything about sales, and think it’s beneath them.
Sales is NOT just pitching. If you’re just pitching, or just demoing, you’re doing sales wrong.
Sales is about listening. Understanding why someone is considering change. What options are they considering? What exactly do they need to accomplish? What does success look like to them?
Sounds like what we’re trying to learn from “research”, no?
More than that: All other forms of “research” leave us with the startup-killing question, What if they’re just telling us what we want to hear? How do we un-bias the interview? Unlike traditional research, sales-as-research is the ONLY approach that closes the loop! We *know with near-certainty* if they’re lying or not by seeing if they take action and buy.
Here’s why this topic gets me so riled up.
By saying that “sales is pitching, not learning”, what these haughty hippies are really saying is, “you’re not ready to sell UNTIL…”
Until what? Until you feel like you’ve done enough research? Until you feel like you’re ready to sell? Until you know you’ve got the right product? Until you’re fully validated?
That day will never come. And as a result, you’ll switch to sales too late, when money’s running out, when you don’t have enough time left to figure out sales. Worse, the hippies have put the WRONG image of sales in your mind, which will make you both hate sales *and* suck at sales when you finally, reluctantly start.
The hippies’ path leads you down a road of stress and pain I don’t wish on an enemy. Trust me, I’ve been there.
Go sell. Sell early. Sell right now. You are ready. Because sales is research. It’s not pitching, it’s not persuading. You can sell AND doing other forms of research at the same time.
Most of all, ignore the goddamn hippies.
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PS:
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