A startup founder explains why sales isn't about pitching. It's listening to what customers actually need, being honest about whether your product fits, and knowing when to walk away. Authenticity beats polish.
I really learned to be a little bit more front facing, more sales oriented. And all the cliches around what I thought sales was as a non salesperson turned out to be absolutely not true. And I had to kind of throw out whatever I thought or believed what sales was to be and have come to a place where I'm doing it almost 99% of my time now having my own startup. But a lot of the foundational kind of learnings or the skill skill set, and I do believe sales is a learned skill set, came from Dropbox. And the biggest learning there was that sales is not about pitching. It's way more about listening and understanding what your customer is asking and ultimately what they need. And sometimes what you're offering is not what they need. And that's okay. But I think that honesty and authenticity is it trumps all.
