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How to sell? | russell: I once tried to turn myself into a salesman, but I coulnt. I think that an engineer has to love selling to sucessfully make the transition. One thing that worked for me was to use an intelligent, personable woman to do the initial setup. Then I would come in for the in-depth pitch. It was a lot more comfor... |
I will work for free ... part 2 | tptacek: I'd like to ask you to take your answers to comments on your previous post and place them as one or more comments on that previous post, instead of making yourself a repeated topic for all HN readers to read. I'm concerned about the precedent, of people writing "Ask HN" posts that are not in fact questions tha... |
How to sell? | coryl: Do you guys have any recommendations - perhaps books and techniques - on how I can gain confidence and become a good salesman?Practice, practice, practice. Get yourself out there, expose yourself to bad situations, tough questions. Start small if you have to, cold calls, emails, whatever. |
How to sell? | epi0Bauqu: I'm doing a video on this very topic with a great software salesman (security to enterprise) for http://tractionbook.com. Please stay tuned.I've decided that I need to do more of these "vertical" videos in addition to entrepreneur traction stories. If there are particular aspects you want me to cover, or oth... |
How to sell? | delano: Give yourself a couple weeks to practice selling a product that you're not attached to and that's in an unrelated market. |
Breaking the Blank Canavas | antidaily: Lately, I've been using a grid css framework to create the layout and focus zones of the template. Fast and easy. Then I tweak the colors and backgrounds in photoshop. I believe 960.gs even comes with PSDs. |
Downvoting etiquette | machrider: No, people shouldn't be downvoting comments just because they disagree with you. However, if you say something that goes against the grain, you're going to get downvoted every now and then anyway. It helps to develop a thick skin, or better yet, try to ignore comment scores altogether. |
How to sell? | access_denied: Understand that the sales conversation is just another engineering project. You are developing a speech-to-speech algorythm that converts any "no" into a "yes". Input parameters are 'features' of your product that have to be synthesized into 'benefits' by a sub-system, etc |
How to sell? | jorisvoorn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKIAlways
Be
Closing"The hardest thing in life is sell"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104348/* * *
The biggest step in my opinion is the psychological one. After that, everything comes in much easier than before. |
How to sell? | hga: I too am an introvert who's physically exhausted by talking to strangers (but not friends). Here's what I did when my programming and system integration work was behind ~ $3.75 million of $5M total for FY92 of the company I was working for:Frequently the senior salesman, our "closer" (and he was good), would take... |
Downvoting etiquette | tokenadult: For a contrary (but perhaps former) view of the site founder, seehttp://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171"I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable that the downarrows aren't only for booing rude... |
How to sell? | lrm242: Don't become a salesman. Become an evangelist for your product. Selling comes in all flavors, but if you're comfortable talking about your product and helping potential customers understand how you can help them, then focus on the pre-sales process and let your partner close the deals. You don't have to be a ba... |
Downvoting etiquette | telemachos: My experience tells me that (1) people certainly do downvote simply for disagreement and (2) it's simply not much worth worrying about.The Guidelines seems to me to get it just right (see link in the site's footer):>> Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring rea... |
How does a Jr. to Mid-Level programmer find work? | hdx: Thanks everybody for the insights, I really appreciate it. I have this idea for an app I'm gonna build it and see what happens :P. In the mean time I'll change my resume a bit so that it emphasizes the stuff you guys pointed out. |
How to sell? | njl: Really really listen, and steer the conversation with questions. Focus on real pain they have that your product can solve. Let them come to realize for themselves that your product will solve real problems for them, and then get the hell out of the way while your partner closes.You're selling something you believe... |
How to sell? | dgunnars: You can probably read thousands of books, take classes and seminars etc. but in order to be a good salesman, all you really need to do is to be willing to listen to your clients, and really try to understand their problems and how your solutions can help them.Once you really listen to your clients, understand... |
Review hyperlocal Q&A site askaro.com | unignorant: Nice, I like it -- cool idea, good design, and straightforward UI.Although it seems you might have some competition in sites like yelp... |
How to sell? | treeform: You need to make people like you as a person first. Then you can sell your product. |
How to sell? | tkiley: Hire someone who likes sales.Seriously, hire someone who likes sales.I hate selling. I like building. I started my company in 2006. In three years, I signed 3 deals. Then I found a partner who lives and breathes sales. In the past three months, I have signed two additional deals and have five more in end stages... |
How to sell? | robfitz: First, go read Steve Blank's book (http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-Blank/dp/09...). It puts a comforting amount of structure around the sales process and turns what's normally a big ball o' confusion into a set of tasks with concrete steps & goals.It also helped me to spend a lot of time in ba... |
How to sell? | skmurphy: Focus on asking the right questions and then giving good answers (this may often involve follow up in a second conversation). Work as part of a sales team so that the presentation burden can be shared. Develop and maintain an extensive FAQ for your product so that others can also speak knowledgeably about it.... |
How to sell? | metamemetics: Start with Why: http://mixergy.com/start-with-why-simon-sinek/Basically, start by talking WHY you and your company do what you do rather than WHAT it does. In conversation, people are constantly trying to determine the underlying motives and beliefs of the other party. Don't make them work for it, tell th... |
System administrator (to be or not to be) | mshenoy4573: @nailer, @hga thanks guys I will take both of ya'll suggestions into consideration.... I am actually a little hands on ith solaris 8 and 10 and even zfs I will look into the cloud setup as you mentioned @hga tat sounds tempting to me .... thanks again guys. My concern isnt as much as my skills but as to if... |
System administrator (to be or not to be) | dnsworks: As someone who has spent more than half of his life as a sysadmin, I'd suggest only going into it if you're a masochist. It's really a lousy lifestyle. The pay is decent, but even in the best of environments, you're viewed as a cost center, disrespected by developers, and at the end of the day you're only doi... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | thiele: What's the first step to getting started?(or in other words, "Just start building something") |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | bgnm2000: I think customer development (from steve blank's book: the four steps to the epiphany) is a really important subject rarely touched upon in schools. Often times you can sell the product before you even create it. That needs to be communicated to students. |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | BenSchaechter: Hardest thing in my opinion: perseverance. There are going to be ups and downs with starting and running a business. I don't know if anyone really started with the "right idea" -- but as you persevere and keep going ideas evolve and things will hopefully work out in your [business's] favor. |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | adelevie: Why start early?
Early is probably the best time in your life to do it. |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | lyime: "Don't be afraid to take an old school concept and reenergize it. Modern methods are essential to success" via @MassachusettsRealtor |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | quizbiz: First of all I think you're doing a great service to the student body. I have really had to reach out in order to gain advice and information as a college freshman doing a web dev business and a summer storage franchise. I think many think about time management a lot. Here at Emory there is a ton of pressure t... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | chrischen: > Why start your own business? Why start early?I start because I have an undeniable urge. I start early (now) because I want to be able to harness this urge while it's still here, and while the opportunity still exists.> How do you know if you have the right Idea?Test your idea by getting it out asap. That's... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | e1ven: I'd advise against taking on any debt in your own name- It's a very tempting offer, particularly if you have good credit coming out of school, but it will mean that if the business does go south for whatever reason, even if it is outside your control, you may be paying it off for decades.Instead, build something... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | paulgb: Not sure if you found this to be the case with Mugasha, but as an undergrad currently in the same position my biggest advice would be "get mentors". It never occurred to me how useful and willing to talk people who had successful businesses would be.Another one is the importance dedication and hard work. I have... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | dkokelley: You might want to talk about the different styles of businesses (lifestyle business, owner-operator, founder/starup, franchise, hell, you can through MLM/network marketing in there if you want).A lot of times people have an idea in their head of 'this is what a "business" is'. Showcasing the alternative styl... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | mrphoebs: Tell them that they need to weigh the upside and downside of risks they are taking (financial, time, value) before they take the leap. More often than not starting young has a lot of upsides. No golden handcuffs, More agile/lean , No family to support, Ramen profitability is OK and the delta in learning is hu... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | proee: A cardboard box makes for a good table. |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | jacquesm: I'm going to write this as a high-school drop-out that did very well:Finish that college and forget about that startup, assuming you're in a halfway decent college and a somewhat useful discipline.I know you've been asked to speak about your experience, but keep in mind you've been asked because of your succe... |
How to sell? | onoj: I agree with many postings here but would like to add the following perspective. I dislike labels and "roles" so I would suggest thinking in the following way - you like creating good, viable solutions. You are prepared to go above and beyond to make something work well and work in all applications.The best and f... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | dangrossman: Just because it was the hardest thing you ever did doesn't mean starting a business has to be the hardest thing every student's done. Plenty of businesses have grown out of hobby sites set up in the spare time by college students. |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | portman: >> What advice would you give college students about starting a business?You are not as experienced as you think you are.I wish someone I respected had told me this when I was a college student. In college, I thought I was super-awesome. I thought I was already a leader. I thought I was qualified to manage a 1... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | ra: 1. Don't mess around, just do it.2. Aim high |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | ptn: I'm a college student who wants to start a business, these are the questions that I'd like answered:- do it full-time or on the side?- what kind of advice should I not listen to?- My skills are programming and designing, what kind of stuff should I learn?- do I really need to move to a technology-rich country? (Fo... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | JangoSteve: I actually just had a discussion with a group of students and advisors from the UofM center for entrepreneurship Friday. I think the 3 take-away points from my speech were:1. You know you want to be an entrepreneur when you don't feel right doing anything else. This life is too short to spend it doing somet... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | shaddi: As a current college student, I'd recommend they try their hand at starting a student organization that does something entreprenurial (a microfinance organization, or a group providing tech services to the poor, for example). I suppose I don't have the experience to compare it to launching a startup, but from w... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | chadarimura: Those are great topics, and I would add: "Choosing your team wisely".A former college entrepreneur myself, it was easy in the early stages to ignore "feelings" that our founding team didn't mesh well, but as the company grew in size and responsibility, those initial feelings became show stoppers. |
What's actually "defendable" about web startups these days? | _ngw_: The only answer is the culture behind a decision. If you're doing things right you are following a "plan" and solving a problem, a feature is your catch about a possible solution. If your competitors copy it, you did your work right, it means that you have a good knowledge of your userbase and generally of the d... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | waxman: - Don't be afraid to seek out resources at your school (alumni, entrepreneurship programs, professors, fellow students, etc.)- Don't spend too much time planning; think through some basics, then build a prototype, and launch it. From then on it's all about listening to your users and iterating. I think this is ... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | ecaron: From all I've seen, I would bring home these points:1) Have a full-time job and do the startup on the side until you're simply not able to anymore.2) Read, read, read about modern successes and failures. Studying management of the 80s doesn't make you a good manager - it makes you a historian. Find people you l... |
The health care reform will create more jobs? | tptacek: No idea. But it will definitely make it easier to change jobs, and it will definitely make it easier to strike out on your own. |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | fnid2: - Why start your own business? Why start early?Success takes practice. The sooner you start, the more likely you will be to end up successful in the end. I started my first .com while I was still in college. Start it because it's a learning experience. It's a way to test yourself against a larger pool of compet... |
The health care reform will create more jobs? | blueben: Whether or not it creates jobs, it will surely save jobs and that may be even more important. Health care is a cost that companies bear, and that cost has been rising at an absurd rate. Unless we do something to control that rate of increase, companies will have to start cutting to save costs and the easiest c... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | rue: Finish school. |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | paraschopra: I will advise students to first get some experience at either at a big company or well funded startup. Work for a couple of years and then do your own thing. Right after college, one is usually full of hypotheses and an unreal model of real world. Best way to test all those hypotheses and get a good unders... |
I'm way too shy, please help | sscheper: Don't want this to come off rude, but here's my tip: Get outside. |
I'm way too shy, please help | samh: No I wouldn't.Question one, are you more attached to your self image as someone who has a real problem with shyness or are you more attached to the idea that you need to solve this problem for real ?Are you serious about overcoming it ?If you are, what you need to do is to take steps, possibly very small steps, e... |
The health care reform will create more jobs? | abrown28: sure it will.. government jobs. IRS is planning on hiring 1000s |
I'm way too shy, please help | jacquesm: hey ptn,What are you afraid of that makes you so shy ?People rejecting you or ridiculing you ?Is there something in your past that made you decide to 'play it safe' ?The instrument thing I can completely relate to, I used to play the saxophone (I managed to blow a small hole in one lung so not any more), and ... |
I'm way too shy, please help | iworkforthem: @ptn ... quote 'oprah an't that beautiful either' and she got her own show. this an't going to work if you r not going to get out of your comfort zone.upside, posting a Ask HN is a good stand. Try make a video next. |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | iworkforthem: - Why start your own business? Why start early?
So that you won't have to work some stupid boss and complain all for the rest of your life. We all make mistake along the way. Better to learn from any mistakes early.- How to be a domain expert?
Got to love the subject, and be really really really good at i... |
What advice would you give a young technical cofounder in a "CTO" role? | iworkforthem: Mgrs manage... most of the time they dun do technical shit! more importantly is that u, not other. u being a CTO wat can u do to make things fast with IT. |
Common sense emacs tutorial that doesn't assume I'm stupid? | Fixnum: Emacs has pretty good/massive documentation: for help, just press "C-h t" (Control-h, then t ...) for a tutorial. Or, type "M-x info" to get into info mode and then scroll down to the Emacs section. Type 'h' in info mode for a tutorial on info ...Are you using Scheme or Common Lisp? For MIT Scheme or similar... |
How to sell? | wslh: If you're in the sales/no-sales dilemma and you're a key asset for selling I recommend first to cowork side by side with somebody with experience in sales.If you came from some engineering field you must have some idea about selling, probably starting seeing sales as an engineering problem, I recommend these arti... |
How to sell? | iworkforthem: do a couple of videos and ask for feedback for your existing customers. preach a lot on how ur solution solve your customer's problem. |
I'm way too shy, please help | ax0n: Get out and find people a bit like yourself. My advice: Find a hackerspace where you can collaborate with people in person. You can start by helping them, or giving them input without exposing your work all at once. You'll be around people who understand your type, and some of them will likely be shy as well. Man... |
What advice would you give a young technical cofounder in a "CTO" role? | lgas: Buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride. |
What do you listen to when you code? | Rust: Metal and Jazz, sometimes Country. Metallica to Cat Powers to Django Reinhardt to Travis Tritt to Sepultura to Ida Maria to Godsmack to Opeth to Jennifer Holliday to Jeff Buckley to Rise Against to Jesse Dee to Pantera to Stone Sour to Paul Brandt to Hank Mobley, etc., etc., etc. |
What advice would you give a young technical cofounder in a "CTO" role? | skennedy: Be humble and remember you do not always have the right answer. Listen to advice from everyone and learn when to take some of it with a grain of salt. Question every piece of information from every source, including your own gut feelings. If you can learn to challenge the boss on financials, listen to your su... |
I'm way too shy, please help | dondemarco: I recommend that you read this book: Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr Maxwell Maltz. If you practice all the exercises in the book, particularly the one at the end of chapter two, you will start seeing tangible results after day 21 and significant results in a few months. I cannot recommend this enough! |
I'm way too shy, please help | noodle: with respect to a blog, create a fresh anonymous online identity, and go from there. no need to show it to people you know. let it continue to be closed off so that you can comfortably show off your work. include it on resumes only if it is applicable, where you can feel more comfort in the fact that you're ... |
I'm way too shy, please help | iamelgringo: Great suggestions here. I'd also suggest improv classes or acting classes. Most large cities have improv classes of some form, and your local community college is bound to have some acting classes. They are a great way to get in front of people in a controlled setting, and try to do weird things. After... |
I'm way too shy, please help | anonjon: Just keep in mind that you are going to die eventually, and that life is short, so it will be relatively soon.There's so few ways that embarrassment will kill you but there's many ways that being really really alone like that will kill you.Worst thing happens is you get laughed at, best thing happens is someth... |
I'm way too shy, please help | kingkawn: I used to be awkward, then I realized that by talking to people when I feel that way I can transfer my awkwardness to them, and split between the two of us its not so bad. The shyness comes from trying to handle it all on your own. |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | johnm: So much good advice that's high-level so here's a real simple one...Trim your nails. |
What do you listen to when you code? | nfnaaron: Silence. I rarely listen to music when I'm working, because I like music, and when it's playing I pay attention to it. And then I can't work. |
I'm way too shy, please help | ahi: Practice practice practice. Like anything else you get better by trying (and occasionally failing). You have to put yourself out there to overcome shyness, leaving your comfort zone. There is no switch to flick that makes it go away. I'm not much for formal education, but one thing it has given me is required pres... |
I'm way too shy, please help | patio11: I used to be shy and have a bit of a speech impediment. To get over it, I joined the forensics club (competitive public speaking). It is amazing how much that has helped me over the years. ("Presenting my new idea to the CEO? Pfft, just another speech. Need a joke for the intro... always start with a joke... |
I'm way too shy, please help | weaksauce: Have you tried a job in retail? I did computer sales for a while and I know it sucks but it did help me by forcing human interaction in mass numbers. The company was bad, but it was good on a few fronts: coworkers were generally interesting to talk to, I got a part time job on the side from a customer that g... |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | ahi: - Why start your own business? Why start early?
Have you seen the job market? Most of the job offers you will get (if they get any) will be low pay and low responsibility, essentially digging yourself a hole at the beginning of your careers. Even if unsuccessful, starting your own business builds experience and sk... |
I'm way too shy, please help | puppetsock: Find a good therapist (psychologist) to talk to about this. Working through shyness will be a long process, and having a smart caring person to coach you through it will be a big help. Therapists are people who are genuinely interested in helping people in this way, and they have been developing and honing ... |
I'm way too shy, please help | cheald: Find your local Toastmasters chapter. The pitch is to learn how to become a better public speaker and leader; everyone I've ever known that's been a part of it has raved about how it rounded off their shy edges and made them massively more confident. They'll make you uncomfortable as hell, but just remember tha... |
I'm way too shy, please help | rokhayakebe: ptn, you may be afraid of rejection.Maybe you could start by telling yourself that whenever you are too worried about someone's opinion, you are in fact saying "S/He is more important than me".I am a very shy person. I fear others' opinion. So I turned my fear into a game. For example If I go out, I only t... |
I'm way too shy, please help | armandososa: Perform.I used to be very shy, so much that I wasn't even able to talk to girls (yes, like the guy in TBBT) and I was always afraid of doing something seemingly embarrassing even if it was not. I cannot even make anything ressembling a dance because I was convinced that people will laugh at me.One day I re... |
I'm way too shy, please help | Debugreality: There is some good comments here about practicing, the trick is to find what works for you.Make a list of small things you think you can try. Try them. If one doesn't work for you that's ok, write down what you learn from it not working. Maybe you can try it a bit differently next time, or try something e... |
I'm way too shy, please help | ptn: A very big "thank you" to everyone that posted a reply. There are true gold mines here, and every bit helps. |
I'm way too shy, please help | sutro: Fill a bathtub up with Axe body spray, anabolic steroids, and Old Crow whiskey and soak in it for a couple of hours. Problem solved. |
I'm way too shy, please help | psyklic: Here is a really great blog by someone who made it into a game, with challenges for himself and simple stages. Maybe you can find some inspiration through his posts:http://socialskydivingwithjustin.posterous.com/Also, a trick that I use to practice new ideas is to go into places where I don't know a single per... |
What do you listen to when you code? | atiw: Silence. mostly it is easier to grasp new ideas and form new designs this way.And then, Iron Man Soundtrack or Matrix soundtrack, or Linkin Park. This is for when I know what I am doing, and it just needs to be coded.
Like, doing tests, fixing bugs, testing new features, pretty much all coding which doesn't requ... |
What do you listen to when you code? | proexploit: Dub Step from http://soundcloud.com/. I can't imagine it might work for many people but that's what really gets me moving. |
I will work for free ... part 2 | jarsj: Flagged you. |
I'm way too shy, please help | sev: I'll tell you a little about myself, hopefully my history regarding shyness can help you.I used to be shy, at school, around friends, even at home (outside of my parents and siblings). Until I was chosen to be one of the lead characters at a school play, which I was pretty much forced to be a part of. I had a st... |
What do you listen to when you code? | Kliment: Richard Williams (of Roger Rabbit fame)wrote an excellent book about animation called "The Animator's Survival Kit". In it he describes (illustrated with beautiful caricature) how he once asked Milt Kahl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milt_Kahl)"Milt, do you ever listen to classical music when you're working?"K... |
I'm way too shy, please help | fretlessjazz: If you're young, get a job at a help desk or tech customer support. It will work wonders, trust me. |
I'm way too shy, please help | bricestacey: It helps to do something... a little more mundane. No one goes around casually talking about their complicated lives (of which both guitars and blogs fall).For example, I was cleaning up my backyard today (something mundane) and saw that some flowers had sprouted. I took a picture and posted it on Facebook... |
What advice would you give a young technical cofounder in a "CTO" role? | sandGorgon: if you are clever with HN search, you will find a thread written almost a year back where a CTO talked about being sidelined by a VP-Engineering.The best thing I learned from that was, as a CTO you have to "measure everything and control the conversation"EDIT: got that for ya - http://news.ycombinator.com/i... |
What do you listen to when you code? | gtani: Eno's music for airports, other ambient stuff, Philip glass and Steve Reich. Mostly, i walk around with my Shure IEM jammed into my ears so i can't hear anything.http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=144666http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=132026http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=99936http://news.ycombinator.c... |
I'm way too shy, please help | durbin: I would have considered myself shy in the past and one of the rationalizations that helped me get over being shy is that everyone projects how they would react and feel on other people.Do you judge others work or blogs harshly? Are you judgmental of others opening themselves up and putting their work and thoug... |
I'm way too shy, please help | ankeshk: Countdown to failure. Make it into a game.Rookie salesmen - the best instruction they receive is not: go and get 10 sales. The best instruction they receive is: go and get 30 Nos.The goal of 30 Nos means they won't give up before that even if they face a lot of shit.A lot of pickup artists do this too. They... |
I'm way too shy, please help | jarmop: I used to be very shy. Not any more. I still don't like crowds, and I prefer to be with one or two people - but I can make a speech for five or five hundred persons, who usually tell afterwards that it was the best part of their day - or the whole week.
What helped:I went to a course in our university, "confide... |
I'm way too shy, please help | jacoblyles: I don't have a problem as severe as yours, but I was able to reduce my shyness by forcing myself to go through with situations that I was afraid of. It was sort of like jumping into a cold pool. Once you're in the water it is not as unpleasant as your fear told you it would be. And once you learn that, it g... |
I'm way too shy, please help | Tichy: "I wrote some songs and publicized them...in forums, to strangers, not to people I knew."This just made me think, perhaps you should simply hang out on ChatRoulette for a while :-) (Haven't tried it myself).But seriously, I think just practice. I recently read one of the "The Game" books out of curiosity (about ... |
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