How To Sell: A 6-minute video tutorial | Hacker News Reader

How To Sell: A 6-minute video tutorial

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Joe Ades -- passed away last year after many years selling on the streets of NYC. He was profiled a few times, but this article sheds more light on his life and business:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/magazine/27ades-t.html

One heckuva salesman.

Looks like he sold $70 worth of cheap peelers in 6 minutes. I know lawyers that make less than that!

That's what it looks like. Doesn't mean he sold a single one.

Sure, money and peelers changed hands, but those could have easily been all to his employees, who give the peelers back later in the day, after all the real suckers forked over their dough.

If you go to any market in the London suburbs you will see people like this selling all manner of crap.

It doesn't take long to learn that their talk is all talk and their product are invariably shit.

While he's making a lot of money I'd wager he has a high footfall making up for most people just thinking he's selling tat.

Doesn't make him a bad salesman, on the contrary he knows exactly what he's doing.

Sorry but no. The guy was living on the 5th avenue. Why, because he had both: A good product AND a good pitch.

He had done that for years, he even told that a lot of times, people walking on the side just told "true, I have it and it is working great" when people were looking at the pitch. Free recommendations from customers along the way.

Never forget that a good product without a good pitch is nothing now and a good pitch without a good product is nothing on the long run.

Those "endorsements" could have just been by employees of his. As could most of the "customers" he had. And if you think someone on the street is incapable of that level of organization, you should read up on how monte gangs operate.

With a high footfall he might not need a good product. His excellent sales skills will win him a lot of business. He's not expecting repeat custom (they last for ever) and for a few dollars most people aren't going to return a broken vegetable peeler 12 if his claims aren't true.

I know nothing about this man other than this video so I'll accept your assertion that he had a good product. The video does not show he had a good product though. A lot of people can be sold a hell of a lot of crap.

In london I'd wager he would, by most people, be lumped in the dodgy tat seller category and he wouldn't do as well. His charming patois isn't so charming when you've seen a hundred of them.

As I said though, this doesn't make him a bad salesman. He's obviously very good.

A great lesson on selling - I want to buy that peeler. Even after an autotune remix I don't want to buy a Slap Chop.

That is indeed a very good sales pitch :)

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