Hacker News Reader

While this answer points out there can be various factors involved in the success of a sale, it completely underestimates the skills of selling and persuasion which many books have been written about and certain character types have a natural affinity for.

View on HN

I have years of experience in high-end retail sales and a subsequent decade of experience in high-dollar niche sales. In all of my jobs my entire life I've worked 100% commission.

Here's the thing both your and the parent's comment are missing: sales isn't about persuasion or communication, it's about listening.

My comment had no need to drill down into the various factors involved in the process, so it was no more "missing" than any other of them; the point was clearly to counter the idea it's not an actual talent or skill; you would have picked that up if you'd "listened" :).

Nah. My point is that most people off the street assume salesmanship is about touting your product effectively. Anyone can talk a big game.

Making people feel heard, and then specifically responding to their pain is the real answer. Yours and many other comments on this page make the same mistake, which is based on a widely-prevalent flawed assumption that is almost universal among the general population.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com