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Comment by AVTizzle | Hacker News Reader

"One of the best podcast episodes you'll ever hear about selling software. Actually about cars. Stick with it."

https://twitter.com/patio11/status/418879954894340096

To substantiate that, if the only thing you got from the interview was the mindset for dealing with customers who are not ready to purchase ("Let's go over this: they are in a car dealership..."), it is worth it.

Next time I have a call with a purchasing officer for the County of Springfield (not actually my last call) I'm going to say "Remember, Patrick, nobody ever sent an email to the CEO of an appointment reminder company just because they were feeling lonely and wanted someone to talk to."

> "Let's go over this: they are in a car dealership..."

Yet another reason why physically going to a dealership seriously weakens your negotiation position as a buyer. Mail, phone or fax multiple dealerships and do not enter one before getting a good offer.

Something I read in a book about buying cars once: If you go to the dealer, test drive the car, etc. (basically take up some of the salesman's time) you can negotiate a better deal than if you just walked in or called and said "This is my price, take it or leave it."

The reason this works is because the salesman has a "sunk cost" in dealing with you for the last half hour and is reluctant to let that time be wasted by refusing a sale.

A competent salesperson (a category which probably excludes many car salespeople...) doesn't fall for the sunk cost fallacy, but they - and their manager - might still be more inclined to offer the deepest possible discount if you've spent the last half-hour actually showing a genuine interest in buying a car, not least because by that stage there's little more they can do to influence your perception of the value of the car.

Possibly things have changed, but I remember PG posted his correspondence with a car salesman via email trying to buy a Jetta or something. Basically got stonewalled.

> if the only thing you got...

Damn, here I was getting ready to put balloons all over my web site.

It's a very good piece of radio, and it's a compelling account of how selling works in the real world but I disagree with the tweet that it's the best podcast you'll ever hear about selling software.

Selling your own software is mostly a distance selling arrangement with little or no agents. So, for example, you can't easily let the customer think they've negotiated a great deal and then get your manager to turn the deal down and counter-offer yourself. You'd look pretty stupid. Also, you probably won't set yourself ridiculous targets which are driven by the desire to smooth out the supply side and grow the business. Software doesn't work that way.

Selling software face-to-face might be a lot similar. But that might be the same as just plain old selling.

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