There is only one right reason to do a startup:
You fall in love with your customer’s problem.
Everything else is a distraction.
The most exciting thing for me about Apple’s product announcements is not about their products.
It is about their website’s copywriting. 📝
They are one of the best copywriters in the world.
They make me believe everything they’re doing is the biggest, thinnest, lightest, and fastest. 😀
They convince me everything they’re launching is revolutionary, magical, and first of its kind. 🤩
They make it catchy too: E.g.,
• H2OK.
• 5G Speed. OMGGGGG.
• Blast past fast.
• Big news. Mini news.
If you’re a marketer, then you should read every single page and paragraph on their website.
Observe the word choices they’ve made.
Get inspired and steal what’s best.
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Predictable Salesperson
You have probably heard of Predictable Pipeline and Predictable Revenue.
But have you heard of Predictable Salesperson?
It’s the one who builds the Predictable Pipeline to deliver the Predictable Revenue.
Predictable Salesperson believes in – “You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
She believes – how you choose to live your days is how you choose to live your life.
She’s putting in the time and effort every day to reach the success she truly wants.
She’s skipping binge-watching the new series because she’s working towards something bigger.
These are the decisions that define who a Predictable Salesperson is and how successful they become as a sales professional.
It’s about daily habits, not about the end goals.
How do you become a Predictable Salesperson?
Create a repeatable process for yourself that you can do every single day without fail.
Focus on actions you control rather than putting all the pressure on results that might not come.
The common adage in Sales is “maybe” is the worst response you could get from the prospect.
It’s better to get “no” than “maybe”.
“Maybe” is a land of hope. Reps shouldn’t waste time there and instead seek “no” and chase new opportunities.
But is it still true with the modern B2B and SaaS buying behavior?
With the power of buying is shifting to buyers, are Sales reps being forced to be very transactional?
Your prospects might have other burning fires going right now. Sometimes the need is there, but the timing is not right.
They’re getting the job done just fine right now. But the need could go stronger as their world evolves.
Just because it’s a “maybe” right now, it’s not a “no” in the future.
“You can’t turn a no to a yes without a maybe in between.” – Francis Underwood
What should Sales reps do when they get “maybe”s?
• List down the most common objections that cause your prospects to answer with a “maybe”.
• Educate sales reps to approach these objections with new sense of purpose and respect the buyer’s world.
• Craft an outreach email campaign to stay on “top of mind” and provide continuous education value.
And eventually when their need becomes stronger, their “maybe” will turn into a “yes”.
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Just Do It, Together
Nike’s new Ad “You can’t stop us” deserves all the praise and attention as it’s an incredible achievement in video editing.
But I think they missed one thing.
They could have updated their tag line to – “Just do it, together”.
“Doing it together” is how we achieve greatness in our life.
Even if you’re playing an individual sport, you achieve greatness with a team of coaches, physicians, etc.
They may not be with you in the field, but you can’t perform and excel without their help.
Today’s modern sales is very similar.
Individual Sales reps don’t close deals on their own – especially in B2B SaaS or Enterprise solutions.
It takes a village.
Modern selling is “collaborative selling”.
It’s about how efficiently your team can collaborate with all key stakeholders to close a deal and serve a customer.
You will have to adopt tools that enable frictionless collaboration.
It will be your competitive advantage.
Just sell it, together.
Are you feeling stuck and not motivated enough to finish your project? Not seeing enough progress or finish line in sight?
Here’s a simple operating principle that keeps me motivated even in the most uncertain projects.
Divide your project into smaller milestones.
Yes, it’s clichéd, but it’s still surprising how often people get stuck because they focus too much on the end goal.
They get overwhelmed, stressed, and lost. And that kills their motivation.
And that’s why – you need to set smaller milestones.
Ideally, a milestone should be accomplished in a few days or max 1-2 weeks.
No milestone should be longer than 2-3 weeks. If it feels it would take longer than a few weeks, then break it again.
Smaller milestones help you get something done.
It helps you accomplish smaller victories and build momentum.
And momentum fuels your motivation and keeps you going.
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3 Kinds of “Yes”
I didn’t know that not all “Yes” are the same.
When Chris Voss shared his secret in the book “Never split the difference”, it opened my eyes.
There are actually three kinds of “Yes”: Counterfeit, Confirmation, and Commitment.
A counterfeit “yes” is one in which your counterpart plans to say “no”, but either feel “yes” is an easier escape route or just wanted to disingenuously keep the conversation going to obtain more information from you.
A confirmation “yes” is generally an innocent response to block-or-white questions. Mostly it’s just simple affirmation but no promise of action.
And a commitment “yes” is a real deal – a true agreement that leads to action.
The commitment “yes” is what you want, but the other two types also sound the same, we confuse ourselves to believe we have a commitment “yes”, but instead, we have either of the other two.
If the counterpart doesn’t take some kind of follow-up action, then it’s most likely not a “commitment”, but a “confirmation”.
The conversation might also look like a “commitment” in the beginning, but very soon can lead to a “counterfeit” after you provide the necessary information and then they ghost you.
Hope this helps you recognize which “yes” is being used so you can truly know when to seal the deal.
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A New Way of Working
I was on a podcast y’day and the host asked me why I got into entrepreneurship. And it reminded me of how I used to get fascinated by manufacturing factories and used to think – one day, I want to build a “factory”. 🏭
Well, that dream never came true 🙁 as I got into Software 😊. And that got me thinking – that’s a new reality.
Today, if you need to start a Software or Internet-enabled business, all you need is – a creative mind and a laptop.
You don’t need a fancy office or expensive machinery. Almost anyone can be in business.
You don’t need unions and departments. One person can do the job of many.
It’s probably easier to start a Software and Internet-enabled business as tools are accessible a click away.
You don’t have to work 9-5. You can work on your own schedule.
You don’t have to take huge debt and a big risk. You can have little savings to get started.
You don’t have to go door to door or trade-shows to sell your stuff. You can sell to anyone in the world by sitting in your home.
It’s a new way of working.
And it is very relevant and important in today’s unemployment situation.
Don’t think you’re starting a “business”. For some people, that is daunting.
Think it like – you are going to work for yourself.
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Hire Better Writers
We recently hired Sales executives at Avoma. One of the reasons we hired them vs other candidates – they demonstrated that they were better writers.
That’s our new hiring criteria when there are multiple options – hire a better writer. 📝
It doesn’t matter if that position is for sales, marketing, design, and even programming.
Better writing suggests that they have clarity in their thinking.
It means they can communicate effectively so others can understand it easily.
Which means there is less back and forth and faster collaboration. ⚡️
And that’s a secret sauce to achieve more with less.
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Why are we busier than ever?
Technically, our life should be easier than our parents’ because so much of manual work is done by machines and software.
But for some reason, we’re busier than ever.
How can this happen?
One hypothesis I have is – we’re being presented with a lot more options and opportunities in every single area of our life.
We’ve many growth opportunities at work.
We’ve many fun activities for our hobbies.
We’ve many options to stay connected with our friends and families.
We’ve many videos to watch, articles to browse, and books to read.
More, more, more…
There is only one thing that hasn’t changed from our parents’ days to ours.
And that is – each of us is born with a finite amount of time on this earth and has 24 hrs on any given day.
And it seems like figuring out how we use it wisely is one of our life’s primary activities.
And I don’t know what is the solution to this issue.
Most likely its – do, use, and aspire fewer things.
It’s easier said than done.
But nonetheless, hope it’s a good reminder for everyone.
