Sales comes out of who you genuinely are

That is a fairy tale kind of story.<p>In reality, by being who you genuinely are you can earn living, if you're lucky, but to earn wealth you need to press and push and cheat.<p>Look, at the differences between CL and Java, Redis and MongoDB, Postgres and MySQL to name the few very popular examples. "Commercially successful" products invest heavily in creating, creating a misleading hype and other manipulations.<p>Being who you means to become a marginal, a hobbyist, with, perhaps, much above average abilities, in the best case.<p>But to make money you <i>must</i> pressure and bullshit people, because it is only by cheating you could get above-average returns. It is much easier and cheaper than to make something which is above average.<p>Look at that Java, ERP, or artificially inflated open source crap? This is how to sell. SAP has the best sales people it could hire. But once you're convinced to buy - you are locked for life.<p>It is all about tricks like SEO or MVPs, faked reviews or whatever, when you put words and hype ahead of the real things. And, of course, there are people, who are ready to do tricks instead of doing real things.<p>I'm not trying to say that it is illegal - trying to exploit fools is a legal practice, the problem is that it become a dominant one.<p>Writing a pleasant stories for fools instead of real product specifications and reference documentation is so common, that nobody even reads it anymore.)

While I agree with the sentiment, the basis for the argument is clearly factually inaccurate. There are plenty of successful salesmen who sell products that cannot possibly benefit the buyer - c.f. boiler room operations, etc. When you ignore or distort obvious facts to make a much less obvious (but possibly true) point like "sustainable sales practices are more accretive over a long enough period" you make people who read your article wonder what else you say has been fabricated to support your position.<p>Let's flip it around: to give out good advice, you need offer it based on actual experience and not just suppositions. (not necessarily true either, but it sure seems like it would strengthen your argument)

<i>a great salesperson will never be selling something that they don't believe actually helps the customer</i><p>This seems very much like a No True Scotsman fallacy.

tl;dr: Believe in your product and don't be afraid to charge appropriately.<p>All solid advice and adding more to the 'believe in your product' concept, the reasoning for this is incredibly simplistic. If you are attempting to sell something you don't believe adds any value or benefit, it will be instantly obvious in your pitch unless you happen to be a fantastic liar and that's what led to the stereotype of the used-car salesman.<p>Minor nitpick: Mamet was never attempting to present Roma as a fantastic salesman. He knows the audience can see the deceitfulness. He's actually showing a 'behind-the-scenes' view of how liars have gained the edge in the sales world.

&#62;David Mamet must not have known a lot of salespeople, to have this view of what a good salesperson is, because that is definitely not how great salespeople work.<p>If I wrote a story about a politician who committed suicide, would you say "You must not know a lot of politicians, to have this view of what a good politician is, because suicide is definitely not what makes a great politician"?

<p><pre><code> Successful salespeople don't pressure or bullshit the prospect into a sale. They are persistent, but they are always focused on achieving a deal where it will benefit all parties. </code></pre> I couldn't agree more. I ranked first in sales at my company for a quarter, before they promoted me. While some of my peers used scare tactics, intimidation and downright lying to close the deal, I was always prepared to walk away from deals. I never suggested anything that wasn't in their best interest because I was thinking long-term. Funny how customers see this genuinity and come back after shopping around. Referrals were often the result, while my peers had customers with buyers regret. They hit their quota by the end of the day, but lost in the long-term. On a side note, your title may be a little misleading. It should say "Sales come out of genuinity" as the current title implies that knowing how to sell is something inherent, whereas it's something I taught myself.

Very good article. For all of you who are now just starting to jump on the bandwagon of enterprise tech, this is an extremely valuable lesson. Sales is really hard, it's very emotionally painful (and jubilent), and requires a lot of humility. But just like building products, it's all about getting in your customer's face. Do it early and do it often.

I have yet to see the film but I'm guessing this is the part that's being referred to.<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa9dttNx1S8" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa9dttNx1S8</a>

Great post. Especially useful for a lot of us "engineering" types on HN who may not think of themselves as sales people. Turns out that if you're a problem-solver, you can be successful in sales. You just have to think of the customer's problem holistically, and from their point of view.

ABC: Always be <i>contributing.</i>