Hacker News Books

I love Zig Ziglar's Secrets of Closing the Sale.

Another great one is Little Red Book of Selling (https://www.amazon.ca/Little-Red-Book-Selling-Principles/dp/...) but it might not be suitable in your current situation given the time crunch.

I can't recommend "The Little Red Book Of Selling" by Jeffrey Gitomer enough. I have a copy in my desk right now.

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Red-Book-Selling-Principles/dp/...

My partner and I built a product, and we're currently selling to higher ed. He's been selling to higher ed for seven or eight years now, and I've been peripherally involved in selling to higher ed for four or five. I'd love a chance to chat about it, and my email is in my profile.

Without knowing more details, your price feels reasonable. You need to put together a solid, total package, and don't forget 18%/year in maintenance. If your clients are getting funding from an outside source on this, you need to grease the skids. There are people who do nothing but set up and administer grants. If you can hook up with one of them, you're golden.

The best way to learn to sell is to do it. Try to find yourself a mentor you can talk to about it, and just go for it. If you can learn how to effectively cold call, you can rule the world.

There are lots of crappy sales books, but there are many good ones. I like SPIN Selling by Rackham; it's researched, reasonable, and most other solution selling books that came out afterward just repackage Rackham's results. I like Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Red Book of Selling. It's mostly about maintaining a positive attitude while people are telling you no. This is necessary, because selling is a goddamn emotional roller coaster. Watch out for books aimed at the hard sell. You can't hard sell a university.

Good luck!

Our selections from The 100 Best Business Books of All Time were:

-Selling The Invisible by Harry Beckwith (great look at selling services)
-Secrets of Closing The Sale by Zig Ziglar (gets you prepared for objections)
-How to Become A Rainmaker by Jeffrey Fox (shortcuts to better sales techniques)
-The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer (best first book for first time salespeople)

As mentioned in other posts, I would also add SPIN Selling, Mastering the Complex Sale and The Referral Engine.

"Smart" books in the sales space include Influence, Made To Stick, To Sell Is Human.

For motivation, read more Zig, Tony Robbins, and Dale Carnegie.

>I'm starting to become confused to what areas I need to work on.

Some unconventional advice-- understand that your job search is really a sales & marketing process. Recommend reading Gitomer's Little Red Book of Selling to help frame your approach. There's great advice on why people buy (hire), prospecting, networking, elevator pitches, and handling objections.

Reading this book will put you far ahead of your peers-- and will have career-long applications > http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/75890.Little_Red_Book_of_...

A big part of sales is handling rejection. There are books that help you detect buying signals and shape conversations in your direction, but dealing with rejection is a big, big part of sales.

If you want to start selling on your own, I would have a goal to talk to at least _x_ people per day about your product. Ask questions more than you talk at them. A LOT of people will think that you’re crazy, but some will entertain your ask and might even give you useful information.

If you want some help, you should hire (or ask) a salesperson and go out on cold calls/pitches with them. Observe more than you speak.

As far as books go, “The Little Red Book of Selling” is a classic along with “Spin Selling.”

Last thing I’ll add here: if conversation with people that you don’t know is difficult for you, that is the first thing I’d focus on. People need to trust you to buy from you; that trust is built through rapport. 2020 is a terrible year for this since the best way to practice conversations is through meeting people outside, but when things stabilize, I’d go to Meetups, conferences, and the like and try to meet x people per day, just like the goal above.

Source: Me selling myself when pick-up artistry was a thing, then using those same skills when I built my (failed) startup. Eventually landed me jobs in consulting.

Yes, be transparent about who you are. Try to make a friend out of your target user, learn about them. As part of the feedback loop, you may even ask-- what do you think a app/tool like this should cost? Early adopters/promoters who provide good feedback could earn a discount. Book suggestion: Gitomer's "Little Red Book of Selling"-- basic premise "people don't like to be sold, but they love to buy."