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Ask HN: How to practice sales without making it a career

13 points by davidlee1435 ↗ HN
Hey all, I’m interested in getting good at sales but not making a career out of it. I love software engineering and could see myself committing to this field for a long time but I would love to get better at “sales-y” skills such as understanding customers, identifying needs, handling objections because they are skills that are useful in any career.

6 comments

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3into10power5
I am in same boat. Wondering if people here can suggest resources
simplecomplex
Read through Seth Godins top 100 posts on Seths.blog He’s focused on marketing which is a big part of sales tactics.

That said, the best way is to practice selling stuff.

thisone
Perhaps not sales exactly, but how about raising money for a charity? Would get you used to some sales aspects, like getting over being awkward, learning different ways of reaching out to people, planning different messages and appraising what works better.

Choose a group that does adventure trips for charity, like hiking kilimanjaro say, where you'd need to raise a fair amount and then do it.

_ah
I'd recommend selling some stuff. Seriously, just go find some things in your basement and sell them on Craigslist. Buy some other stuff and re-sell it. Have some extra concert tickets? Flip those and pay attention to the way the value changes as you approach the concert date. Find something on sale at Target? Buy one and flip it on eBay.

The point it to make sales a "game" for pocket money. You'll never make a ton, but you'll gain valuable experience about writing marketing blurbs, interacting with buyers/sellers, negotiation, the time value of money and products, etc.

As an example: there is, right now, a perfectly working portable air conditioner on Craigslist for free. If I felt like picking it up and storing it until summer I could easy get $100. The seasonal inverse is true for Christmas trees.

...etc etc etc...

hannahzenkova
I think there's nothing better than practice :)

And in case you want to get familiar with the profession, I could offer to try Talk to Ri app in about one week) (it's the product I'm working on, it hasn't launched yet though and its content isn't updated for now). https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/talk-to-ri-business-english/...

It's actually more for learning English for tech, but we will have a conversations trainer, including tech sales manager program)