We found the internet's best sales advice

Can I show you the highest value comment on Hacker News that I've ever seen?

Yeah, that has a lot of weight.

I feel like I could rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. Uh. I put my all in it like no days off. On the road less traveled never looking back.

This is from, like, years and years ago, but it's this comment about sales, 'cause Hacker News is full of engineers, and they're like, "Hey," like, "You know, I suck at sales. Anybody can help me get better at this?" And, uh, this guy wrote seven points, and I just nodded my head so vigorously that my C4, C5 is a little sore, so let me just give you this here.

[laughs]

He said, the guy goes, "Yeah, there's tons of resources to help you with sales, but I'll start with, I'll try to offer some simple tips. Number one, sales is a lot like golf. You can make it so complicated that it's almost impossible, or you could simply walk up and hit the ball. I've been leading sales orgs for about 20 years. My advice is to walk up and hit the ball. Number two, sales are about people, and it's about problem-solving. It's not about tech, or solutions, or chemicals, or lines of code, or artichokes. It's about people. It's about solving problems. Number three, people buy four things and four things only, ever. Those four things are time, money, sex, and approval or peace of mind. If you try to sell anything other than those four things, you will fail." [laughs]

That's so good.

"Number four, people buy aspirin always. They'll buy vitamins sometimes, and, but it'll be unpredictable. Sell aspirin. Number five, I say in every talk that I give that all things being equal, people will buy from their friends, so make everything else equal and then go make a lot of friends. [laughs]"

[laughs]

"Um, number six, being valuable and useful is all you'll ever need to sell things. Help people out. Send them interesting posts. Write birthday cards. Record videos. Be sharing your ideas of how they could grow their business. Introduce them to people who would benefit from knowing each other, and get out of the way. Expect nothing in return. Do this consistently and authentically, and people will find ways to give you money. I promise. Number seven, no one cares about your quota, your payroll, your OPEX, your burn rate, no one. They care about the problem you're solving for them. There are more than $100 trillion in the economy just waiting for you to breathe it in. Good luck." [laughs]

[laughs] That's awesome.

Who is this god of Hacker News? [laughs]

Are you reading any books?

[laughs] I am reading Influence again by Robert Cialdini.

Why are you rereading, uh, Robert Cialdini's Influence?

Because as the great Buddhist proverb says, "No man steps in the same river twice, for he is not the same man and the river is not the same river."

Oh my God.

I, you know. [laughs]

Have you, how long have you been waiting to use that one? [laughs]

You start reading books, what can you do? You just start turn, you're turning into a quote machine. No, but really, I think, you know, reading the best books again at different times in your life, it's a totally different book. You think you've read it, and what I've found is you, you remember f- you know,