On selling

I had a great discussion earlier. In essence we moved all around the field, but just before it ended we discussed the topic of selling.

My father always said he is surprised that I am working with Software Development, he always thought I’d work in a more selling role.

Now I’ve done some simpler selling tasks when I was younger. What I found to be the toughest thing about selling is working really hard with a case, and then getting a no. You might have committed to much personal pride in sealing a deal, so when it’s rejected you loose self-esteem.

What I found is even harder, is to sell a product you’ve developed yourself. Then a no becomes ambiguous. All of a sudden you don’t know if it’s you, the product you’ve developed in, or just your lack of interest that drops the deal.

It’s also very easy for a technically focused individual to see a rejection as a sign that the product isn’t featured enough, or needs polishing, or think that it has to drop central aspects of the original idea behind the application.

Don’t get caught up in eternally putting final touches to an application just because its been rejected once or twice.  This risk is substantial if your primary selling channel is the web, and your not getting good conversion rates from your visitors. If you never actually talk to a potential customer you wont know what is wrong with the software.

It seems all there is to it is to bite down, and see things for what they are. No matter what you do, sometimes your product will be rejected. All you can do is try to learn as much as possible, and move on.