Ask HN: How to learn to sell?
Hi there - one of the few pro sellers on HN here.<p>You&#x27;re planning on prospecting into one of the most rejection-heavy domains out there with small physical business. These people get dozens of calls per day from companies they&#x27;ve never heard of - many of whom are trying to rip them off - and even the best ones (Groupon, Yelp, google ads, etc.) are basically just rent-seeking. Oh, and most have gatekeepers who don&#x27;t care the slightest bit about your pitch.<p>Because of that I&#x27;d stay away from all this &quot;smile and dial&quot; advice. You&#x27;ll have no chance. Go out there and hit the pavement and meet these people at their establishments at off hours. If you catch the owner in there at a good time - do your best to inform them of your products benefits and come up with a really good offer to get started (something that loses you money and time). Free Trial, free month of services, whatever makes sense based on the context of your business. The goal is NOT to make money or build a book of business at this point - it&#x27;s to get a person happy with your software to sell to later.<p>If the owner is too busy or whatever - have some stuff printed out for them to read later that you can drop off. Ideally with a small gift (coffee, food, candy, etc.) and come back in a few weeks to see if you catch them at a better time (again with a gift, until they talk).<p>A solid entry level book would be <i>Fanatical Prospecting</i> by Jeb Blount.<p>Good Luck.<p>*edit to fix book name