Hi Reader, it’s Friday again and it’s issue #2 of my Build in Public (BIP) newsletter.

I’m Pierre, and I’m documenting my journey of starting a software consulting business from scratch.

LinkedIn metrics update

• 974 post impressions; that’s 10% less than last week.
• I made a more technical post, and it reached over 30% of developers while only attracting 3% of decision-makers.
• 378 members reached, down 17%.
• 5 calls with peers to talk shop.
• 2 calls with decision makers.

What I learned

I’m still reading Fanatical Prospecting and learning a lot. I am reading about the mindset of prospects during sales calls and how to be more successful when making these calls. Here is what I found noteworthy:

• People resent being interrupted. Prospecting is interrupting people. So, as a salesperson, you should be respectful of the prospect’s time: make the call quick, to the point, don’t play games, and be professional. This means that the whole script should be 10 seconds or less. Easier said than done!
• Even the most experienced salesperson doesn’t enjoy the rejection that comes with these calls. Following a script takes some of the edge off. It frees up mental energy to listen to the prospects and project a more confident energy.
• A good script has these 5 elements: 1. Say hi, 2. say who you are and where you’re calling from, 3. why you are calling (“to set an appointment with you”), 4. give a reason (“because other clients found X useful”), 5. ask for what you want and wait.
• Overcoming objections doesn’t work: people hate salespeople because whenever we say something resembling an objection, they’ll tell us we’re wrong. That’s unpleasant and disrespectful. As a result, people are programmed to avoid any situation feeling salesy: have you ever been to a store, needing something, a salesperson ask you if they can help, and you mechanically answer “just looking” even though you have no clue where to find what you’re looking for? There, that’s to avoid an uncomfortable salesy situation even though it could have saved you browsing half the store to find what you wanted.
• It’s better to take the objection, agree with it, and then disrupt the prospect’s expectations about salespeople. For instance “I’m not interested!” => “That’s what a lot of my clients first said when I called them.” It builds a more collaborative dynamic to show that this isn’t going to be yet another belligerent sales call. Then ask for what you want again. If it doesn’t work after 2–3 times, drop it as it’s not worth your time or annoying the prospect further.

It’s interesting to see how successful salespeople approach sales. It’s very different from the stereotypes I had of a pushy salesman who’d do anything for a sale. It’s fascinating to learn about the professionalism involved; I can see how it would transform a typically negative interaction into a win-win result and it’s definitely changing my perspective on sales.

Other thoughts

I’m still struggling to manage my time effectively. Because it feels like there are a million things to do, I’m spread too thin. Instead of committing to a single activity for a period of time, I tend to “multitask” and achieve much less than I want. I’ll use a different approach this week: I will schedule appointments for various tasks throughout the week and adhere to them instead of jumping between tasks without a plan.

Writing content is also more difficult than I remembered. Not only do I mostly come up with technical topics instead of content that would appeal to my ideal customer profile, I also struggle with the actual writing. I’ve found some post templates, and that was helpful; I’ll definitely dig more into this direction.

I write this newsletter in Markdown and then copy-paste it in ConvertKit. The problem is that this only works with their most basic template… Which is not the most pleasant to the eye. I’m looking for an alternative or a solution; bear with me.

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And that’s it for this week! As always, you can reply to this email to share your thoughts and feedback or chat.

Have a great weekend; see you in the next one!

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