Source: @gokulr on X (April 3, 2024 — 51.1K views)
A product-centric founder joined a sales team at an established incumbent in a local services industry. Did a 10-day blitz — door-to-door sales, knocking hundreds of doors, setting appointments.
Four Takeaways
Incentives drive behavior. On a commission-driven sales team, you only get paid when you set an appointment or close the contract. That's it.
No place to hide. When you knock on someone's door to pitch in person, you become fearless, able to objection handle, and think on your feet.
The best closers do really well. Some make $500K/year. A competitor saw this founder pitching and offered them a job — both setting appointments and closing.
Hearing objections > doing research. The founder understood key objections and product issues 100x better hearing them directly from customers than sitting at a computer doing research.
The Lesson
Learning to "carry a (metaphorical) suitcase" — doing quota-driven sales — is one of the best jobs a young person can have.