Ask HN: Is Elon Musk good at sales?

Musk has sold lots of "full self drive" packages for $6000 to $15000 and I think it is likely that either a court or the California Department of Motor Vehicles will order Tesla to give full refunds. A class action lawsuit was filed recently.

If a salesman sells a lot of things that don't exist then you might think he is good at it if he manages to keep his commission and find a new job before the company that he sells for goes bankrupt.

Musk has sold billions of his Tesla stock, so perhaps it depends if he ends up in personal bankruptcy due to buying twitter or if he has some money left in a few years.

He's great at self promotion which translates to sales. No Matter how you feel about what he is doing the fact is that people are paying attention to what he is doing. Everything he is doing is worldwide news so one he hits on a workable business model he has no need to promote it since the general media is doing it for him. That's billions in free advertisement. That alone is what has and will continue to keep his companies afloat without spending much money in advertising.

A good example is the blue check mark. I don't use Twitter yet I and most of the media consuming crowd know about it. I suspect I will know much more about Twitter and yet I didn't use it and don't plan to use it in the future.

People and the media are treating him as a total fool but he's being a fool all the way to the bank.

A good salesman can sell himself and his products well but not necessary understands his technology and workable future plans. E.g. new Metaverse's VR, Tesla's FSD, solar roof, and Lithium battery.

Buying a safe stock like Berkshire can be valued by the products currently manufactured for its orders quarterly, or any productive asset that delivers output to the market.

People spent $8 just to make misleading tweets that appeared to come from verified accounts.

A lot of said people won’t be doing so next month.

Ad sales will drop because of it. If all it takes to put words in a company’s mouth is $8, why would the company want that risk? Where is the upside?

Is Elon Musk good at sales? Sure, the same way a lousy sales rep can pump their numbers for more commission. Just don’t look at the pipeline. And don’t ask too many question. Just look at the sales. Really just try not to look at any of it.

In fact, maybe look at Musk! There he goes running his mouth again. Did you know he’s a rocket scientist or something?

What were we talking about?