sales

“They've grown from first year, ten million in sales to fifty million in sales to last year, about a hundred and five million in sales, and they're looking to double this year, which there's no reason they can't, given the quality of merchandise on the site.”

“If anything, it may be harder than engineering to really do sales properly.”

“To be honest, there was a bit of cynicism around sales in the beginning at Slack, and I totally got that.”

“Because I've always sort of said sales is one part revenue and one part R&D.”

“Founders underappreciate the fact that sales is a skill, just like writing code is a skill. And so they often, I think, maybe hang on to that role as the initial salesperson, maybe a little bit too long before thinking about perhaps I want to bring in somebody…”

“Sales is there to accelerate a healthy machine, but it can't fix a broken one.”

“The best skill you can develop in sales is an insatiable curiosity about what's possible. And truly the instinct to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.”

“And the bottom line is the responsibility for the sales is on the product team.”

“When you're selling to people, you're selling to humans, and if you are vulnerable, and you show your weaknesses, and you show all aspects of your humanity, you actually give the other person permission to also not be perfect”

“I think at an enterprise software company, the answer is always going to be sales because what you promise to customers and what you can deliver to customers can often be at odds.”

“I learned that actually women are just better than men at sales.”

“Honestly, I think it's the latter. And I say that even though that wasn't my experience, because I think there's a perception sometimes about sales, that it is just this like kind of robotic, anyone can do it, go and run a script. And there's not a lot of huma…”

“A no early is as good as a yes later.”

“I think you need to be, have an entrepreneurial spirit in general to go into sales. But I think once you understand what sales is all about, improving a customer's business by driving specific outcomes, You recognize how complex it is, how intricate it is, and…”

“To not know what the financial aspect or pattern is of the organization you're selling to is inexcusable.”

“If you are running a proper deal, you shouldn't be surprised, and if at the end of a campaign, insert whatever it was that surprised you, that is a bad reason to lose a deal, because if you're good at your profession, You should never be surprised as to why yo…”

“When you get into sales, you're probably in the least secure profession, because it really is a performance-oriented profession”

“I think CEOs, founders like to blame other people for failures. Sales, sales is probably the first person to get the finger pointed at.”

“What I can say is I've hired teachers before. Like school educational teachers, professors into sales.”

“So much of sales now is happening online in a way that it can be captured versus face to face. You know, we're all inside salespeople now.”

“I, today, am probably in the sixty-forty, if you press me, I still think it's a lot of art. I still think it's a lot of talent, and when I say talent, I'm talking things that you and I, like, that, that, it's hardwiring. That hardwiring was, when we turned 13,…”

“It actually encapsulates everything I believe about product, which is the product role is the most chameleon role out of all of the functions, which means at some point you're like, I need to lean into sales because Like that's actually how I can build the bes…”

“Now, if you have a big outbound org, there's more of like an art to sales development at that point, you have to be a lot more proactive in the way that you're engaging cold accounts. You need to be able to educate them on a product. They probably have no idea…”

“What I don't agree with is the rep does the land deal and walks away, and they, the customer success rep is responsible for expansion. Expansion is sales, right?”

“They are, in fact, while not as directly responsible as sales, they're still responsible for revenue.”

“In technology companies, and this might be controversial because like, you know, this is like putting aside like all the other things that make these companies go. There is product. And then there is sales. Like, what drives technology companies and most busin…”

“We almost spent no money in marketing. We didn't even have sales for the first three years”

“If you want the equation of sales, sales is equal timing times trust. Timing and trust is either equal to zero or one.”

“I think the biggest mistake is not trying to sell. And if someone is not paying, whether your product is ready or not, if they're not paying, it means that something is wrong.”

“But actually sales is the most important skills. You need to learn as a founder because everything is about sales. It's about sales when you want to hire like a top talent. It's about sales whenever you need to make your first dollars and understand like what …”

“I think it absolutely can be learned. And I think when people say that someone is born a sales, a salesperson, usually what they're referring to is charisma and a big personality. And I don't know that those things are necessarily what makes a great salesperso…”

“There are people who are savants, who are gifted, and there are people who can Connect dots that others don't see, but then others can follow, can learn, and can replicate those things, so I think it's more science than art, candidly.”

“I think it's really important. To have this really close relationship between sales and marketing and for marketing to treat sales as their customer.”

“School misses the two most important things, which is sales and public speaking.”

“This is my big worry for 20, 27 is it happens. It's going to be true in sales. It's already true in support.”

“What becomes more important is your product as a channel, where you actually earn that trust that drives that word of mouth, that drives that likability, and what becomes less important is something across marketing, sales, like more old traditional techniques…”