Selling

I recently saw this movie Glengarry Glen Ross. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen, and it definitely is the best one I've seen this year. (Even guy kawasaki thinks so). It's like those movies where, best people of the profession get together and talk, things that are visionary to us, as if they are just old-day rules of the game, a trick in the book, you know.

For most of us, I think it's eye opening. Introducing a new class of people called 'sales people', in a way that atleast I've never realised. These people are whom I've met everyday. Yet I dint know, their moves were taught. I used to think spontaenity had a role. Or atleast, human relations prompted them to make the connections. I'd never buy that again. Oh my!

All right so I'm a fan of this movie, and I'd like to narrate some events I have experienced, that I can link to, or recollect.

ByteCode

A college junior of mine wrote: (removed name of companyX)
[...] We had contacted (companyX) in August and the talks went on for 3 months and then everything got stalled. We have started the talks again and the campus representative has forwarded us to Ms. (some rep) who is in Mumbai office. We have submitted them a proposal and they have told us that they will get back to us in 2 days. Is there any way in which you can help us out? Because Bytecode without any sponsor may not look good. [...]

I had once helped raise money for ByteCode, and this was what I had felt like writing back:
[...] 2. Ask Amazon, HP, Dell, etc etc; Move things fast -- This can get terribly slow with HRs in between. But with a tone that dictates ready acceptance or denial from your side, things can move fast on the other side as well. For instance, the person who contacts the HR must be able to (and be ready to) say Yes/No during the call. Or give conditions for Yes/No with the flexibility also detailed. Things delay if the contact person at your end, says "ok, sounds fine, I'll contact my team and get back to you." [...]

Seems like the first thing they teach you about selling. Most of us, including me dint quite get this right first time. ABC - Always Be Closing. (from the movie).

BankBazaar

I once asked a friend of mine, how their startup managed to strike partnerships.
Theyagarajan: dai essentialy u take one bank in. Then write a smnall mail to the product head of bank and schedule a meeting. Pick ur team. Talk well with them (give impressive intros) and then tell them we will revolutionize ur online presence and a demo of ur product. Product if good usualy impresses them and dont push. Just keep sending updates once in a while when u get new bank or mentioned in press. They will come in because at the end of the day, banks want to make more money open up more channels of revenue.

On a larger note, they say, when you are selling something to someone, everything has to be about him. Highlight what he gains. And never sound desperate for what you gain (dont push).

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Paul Graham quotes this as a great book. To quote some: (that resonate right now)

1. Arouse in the other person an eager want.
2. Talk in the terms of the other man's interest.
3. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
4. Start with questions the other person will answer yes to.

All the above, the movie just nails. Fourth point is so un-expected. If I went back and watched it again, it seems to be obeyed. Psychological aspects.

Making contact

I used to say things like "Let's just checkout this shop, see the models and go."; How much I dint know, the price of making contact. We all find it so hard to say no, to a great sales pitch. Because they do you a favour and dont ask for anything. They always do. It might not be right to correlate (this inability to say no) with status symbol, maybe. I din't even tip waiters when I was at college. A few ones, are so hard to not tip.

The best example I can think of now, are the street performers. When I was new to this place I watched the street magician perform round after round, and I hence realised all his (supposedly) spontaneous jokes are all pre-planned. To pin people into paying him, he says all sorts of things like, "come closer, cars are passing by."; Better yet, they tell you how much exactly you've got to pay. It goes like, "If you watch a magic show on the decks, it'd cost you $20 per person. Well, I'm not asking you $20. How about 19?" (people laugh) "When someone gives me something, all I say is, ask yourself, can I buy anything with it? Well if you can't, nor can I." (people laugh) (in context about don't pay me pennies). "If you give me $10 a person it's great. If it's $20 I'd be very happy. If you give me $100, I'd come home with you" (people laugh) "You know when I first told my dad, I know what I was going to be ... I'm going to be a street comedian -they laughed!" (crowd laughs) "Now ..." "They stopped laughing" (claps from the crowd). They have a set of things that goes deep inside. Great pitches include a personal component, that makes you feel connected to a stranger. The right set of switches arouse the "sense of giving", in this case. The last $100 joke ofcourse meant, that's too much of money to give me, but the gap between 20 and 100 is large, much larger than 10 and 20. When you give in the ballpark of the amount that's last put in your head, it feels as if you obeyed. Now only your sub-conscience is hinted to obey. You feel as if you decisively gifted. (Btw, he earns 10 times as much as I do.)

This guy is atleast several metres far from you, and you can't just walk away. And I'm not talking about the Jo on the street. Even my dad, paid up. I remember once, when we had to get a very important train, we went asking people in the ticket reservation queue weather they can get two more tickets for us, with our money. When three of them shouted at us, the fouth guy we asked agreed. That sort of a guy, my dad, who has self-trained himself, to be able to not take things inside, paid up for this performance. Sure, he could have avoided if he wished, but the fact that he impulsively paid, suggests there's a cost to not paying. In other words, hearing out a salesman isn't cost free.

Oh now I get it. The relocation specialist who found me a rental apartment, who made us assured (in one day), if we wanted anything in vancouver she'd show us around, who introduced herself to the home owners confidently and eagerly as "Rindy Hartner, Partner at Oriental Housing.", who spoke to us highlighting why each house is a great one to see, when we asked her to compare homes, gave us differrent advantages, added the disadvantages and spoke why it dint matter as much to us in particular, who spoke to the land lord saying we are immediately ready to close the deal, who spoke to us before hand saying most land lords ask for a 1 year lease, and when we agreed, said to the land lords when we met, we were willing to sign a 1 year lease, who spoke to us a bit about her personal life, her kids, who got the deal done that single day, who mailed one other day giving dental directions, and whom we never contacted or got contacted by till date. Now I get it, she was a salesman. I wouldnt have even used the same above words to describe her before. (Mostly I would have expanded what I knew about her personal life.) Btw, oh yes, when our flat owner said to us, the next person is coming to see this in 20 mins, (when we said we'd take it today evening, after we saw a couple of more homes), it probably did more good than bad to her. She can always call us back if we moved on to the next home, even if there was no client actually visiting in 20 mins.

Self promotion and status

So is the guy from college, who one night he even almost convinced me, that I got to do a startup with him. He was a salesman. I remember several situations where it's so hard to say a no to him. This guy has now dropped out from college, and is running his own business. Here's my conversation with him a while ago: (removed some contents off it)
me: oh, so what business are you in? In trichy only?
him: simulation... oil rigs...
me: computer simulation?
him: i have it in trichy only.. 3d
me: oh
him: i know trichy well and cost effective
me: sure to start something, but clients are in trichy only? bhel?
him: clients do come to trichy... our first client is (companyX) singapore.
me: oh!
him: he came down to trichy...
me: our? how many ppl? :)
him: i can make ppl come da...
me: lol :)
him: its what u say that counts, abt yourself and place
me: haha
him: trichy is not bad. i gave them a decent 3 star accom - royal suthern
me: wow! and what did they want in return
him: they want to build a platform to make their design workflow simple and effecient, and also remotely accesible
me: marine design?
him: they do it but we jus support exactly that, they have interconvertability problems as well .. they use solidworks. wait.. also many tom dick and harry softwares seriously never heard of them also
me: ok, what did u provide? .. how many are you working with?
him: wait i have a candidate to interview now... will call u.. tell me ur number.. sorry bye :) tc
me: ok. ttyl

When I had this chat with him, I thought it was good for him. I knew he puts things in a way that beats it up - a good sell. And giving a 3 star accomodation, for someone, is no small expense for students like us. So maintaining a status, is one of the important things sales people worry about. Movie even puts it more clearly. Great it worked for him, and he somehow seemed to know already.

If I read this conversation again now, I'd see more in it, and the way I look at it changes, given that I'm beginning to understand how they think. Now, was it true that he was able to convert a singapore client? Maybe. People don't lie unless necessary. And it doesnt work in the longer term, for my image on him. So yes, likely, he did have a singapore client. He met them in trichy, sure. Did they send a representative to meet him, from singapore, after his email and phone contacts? Really? Did he fly to trichy, just to meet him and no other business stuff on his agenda? Or did my friend get introduced by someone to the client, when he was on some business trip? Or did the client company already have a branch in India or trichy in specific? Some other friend of mine told me, he has heard this story a long time ago, which implies either this was the best client he could highlight to me, or it was special because it was first.

On a differrent dimension, what did he work for the client? From whatever I know about this guy, I had an opinion, he's not exactly the deadly programmer, he can write code, as much as real world applications need. Which is why I asked that question. The answer contained so many buzzwords (interconvertability; solidworks) which I'm sure he dint want me to exactly comprehend, (which is OK). "build a platform to make their design workflow simple and effecient" - "they do it but we jus support exactly that" - so he's providing support. I dont think marine software is exactly his area of expertise yet, and 3D is not yet. So it can't be the form of technical consulting, rather likely to be help in development. In other words, he's writing some software for them, as a non-hired programmer. How many are working with him? He dint answer that as well. Which probably means, -not many-. So is he really going to interview someone? Maybe, he's planning to talk with someone and get him develop a part of his work for a pay. Does he have to go at that time? Is it a prescheduled appointment for that time, IMO very unlikely.

OK, about the hotel, did he really take the expenses for the room? Or did he show them to it. Now, I dont know. Maybe, Maybe not. If he did the latter, I probably believed before that he did pay. (From his tone, I still think he paid). So he did a great job. He probably dint lie, but built up a great image, which is so vital for selling.

Animals

Paul Graham writes: What do I mean by good people? One of the best tricks I learned during our startup was a rule for deciding who to hire. Could you describe the person as an animal? It might be hard to translate that into another language, but I think everyone in the US knows what it means. It means someone who takes their work a little too seriously; someone who does what they do so well that they pass right through professional and cross over into obsessive. What it means specifically depends on the job: a salesperson who just won't take no for an answer; a hacker who will stay up till 4:00 AM rather than go to bed leaving code with a bug in it; a PR person who will cold-call New York Times reporters on their cell phones; a graphic designer who feels physical pain when something is two millimeters out of place.

Finally go ahead and see the movie, if you haven't already. :-)