The art of selling
I just found this gem from the blog of Mike Hirshland. Given that I come from a family full of MIT geeks, I just love this excerpt written by his partner at Polaris, Bob Metcalfe (this was apparently written as part of an article originally published in the MIT Technology Review in 1992)
“I am sad to find that the MIT culture,
at all levels, is still permeated with
the notion that professional salespeople
are properly placed in the food chain just
below green slime.
That attitude relegates too many MIT
students to bleak Saturday nights alone,
because they think it unseemly to do
the bit of selling conducive to lining up
a date….
And too many MIT entrepreneurs launch
companies that give no thought to selling
and so promptly crash and burn.
I can tell you firsthand that selling is
one of the highest arts in entrepreneurship.
Most companies, even successful
high-tech companies in Silicon Valley,
spend 10 times more on selling than on
engineering….
In short, nothing happens until something
gets sold.”
How true. Selling is what separates good products from great companies. I believe that MyPunchbowl.com is a great product– but it’s going to take selling to turn Punchbowl Software into a great company.
Read Mike’s full post — it’s worth a few minutes of your time.
