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by AndrewKemendo 2269 days ago
I've always cast a wide net when thinking conceptually about what "sales" is, especially when I was a founder and de-facto lead salesman for years. For the longest I considered sales to be just another flavor of persuasion, and at it's very best it's almost pedagogical.

However now, I think I'd rather just not be in business than do sales. That's really just a recognition that sales is an absolutely necessary part of all businesses, and how terrible I personally find it.
1 comments
pstrazzulla 2269 days ago
What made you change your mind to view it as so horrible?
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AndrewKemendo 2269 days ago
I haven't sat and gotten deeply introspective about it, but when I think about all the trips and dinners and conferences etc I went to in order to build relationships to get a same, it feels deeply icky that the root of those relationships was a desire for a financial transaction.

I think we actually did as well as we did, in part because being rooted in a transaction felt so wrong that I actually tried to build relationships with the people I was trying to sell to, in a way that wasn't purely transactional. I'm actually still friendly with some of those people who bought from us today.

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conductr 2269 days ago
Did you believe the cost/benefit was in the purchasers favor? Or were you cynical about the solution/value of solution?

I’m a purchaser of enterprise software. This is something I try to gauge from the sales rep. There’s a lot of risk in buying software that doesn’t actually solve the problems you face and you typically don’t find this out until well into integration.

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AndrewKemendo 2269 days ago
Yes, we had an amazing product and we could stand on firm conversion/engagement numbers - fundamentally it was a marketing/experience product for retailers. For reference I was the Founder/CEO and we were a computer vision company with mobile AR products for retailers.
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statictype 2269 days ago
>I’m a purchaser of enterprise software.

Hi - Can I add you to my Linkedin Professional Network?

But in all seriousness, does this mean you are part of the procurement department? I would love to see some posts/thoughts on how someone in this position approach procurement of enterprise software.

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