Sell the Truth

**Nivi** (0:00)
Hi, you're listening to the Naval podcast. This is his regular co-host, Nivi.
There's only two things you need to know in life, how to build and how to sell. Today, we're going to talk about the sales side. Naval is a particularly gifted seller, and some people have accused him of having his own reality distortion field.

**Naval** (0:17)
Yeah, so I've never taken a class on sales. I've never tried to be good at sales. I don't, even though what sales is, I don't sell. I just try to figure things out, and then if there's something I believe in, I try to convey that as accurately and honestly as possible to the other person.
And there's no sales skills involved. I think the full extent of my sales training is I watched Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross. I think that was good. I recommend it. I read Robert Cialdini's Influence, his original book on persuasion. You can skip the second one. Like most sequels, it's just not needed. It has one good idea in there, which is anchoring, but that's it. Robert Cialdini popularized Class R, which is consistency, liking, authority, scarcity, social proof and reciprocity. Those are like the six ways in which you influence people and then his subsequent book, he added the seventh, which was basically anchoring.
But yeah, I actually don't believe in sales. If you feel like someone is selling to you, and if you feel like you're being sold, it's a turnoff. Humans are hardwired to resist being sold to.
So I think what matters much more is credibility. Credibility is way more important than sales. If you want to be good at sales quote unquote, then really what you want is you want to be credible. You want people to trust you.
You want to be the real estate agent that steers people away from bad deals and bad neighborhoods and bad houses, so that when the right one comes along for them, they trust you. You really have to take your ego out of it, put yourself in the other person's shoes and figure out what they want. And then once you've figured out what they want, then you can quote unquote make the sale. But I'm not the guy you would talk to for making the sales quota. Where you have to sell like 50 pieces of software this week or this month. But what I can tell you is that the people you most want to impress in life are the ones who can see right through you.
And they will see right through your sales tactics. They will see right through your pitching them. And these people are the top of the top. So if you want to work with the people who are the top of the top, if you want to successfully sell the biggest things that are out there, then you have to be very credible. And to be credible, you have to be authentic. You have to tell the truth. You have to be knowledgeable. They have to be able to trust you in that you're not just doing what's expedient for you. You're thinking about the long term. You're being honest.
You understand what you're talking about. And you can explain it simply because nobody's an expert in everything. They're not going to come up to speed quickly enough. So you do have to figure out how to analogize it and to convey it to them. And it doesn't always work. You can't be attached to the outcome. You can't sell everyone on everything. I know there is a model out there that does work, where some people are incredibly aggressive. They're like, never give up. Just keep hammering. Just keep going on it. Just keep beating on it. And eventually you'll break through. I'm not one of those people. I'm just lazy. I like to go where it's easy. So if my sale, quote unquote, or if my pitch does not resonate with somebody, I move on. I move on instantly. And I just keep looking for the person whom it will resonate with.

**Nivi** (3:19)
One of the, quote unquote, techniques I've noticed Naval use is that he uses yes and like crazy. Whatever you say to him, he's going to yes and it, even if he disagrees with it. He'll say yes, maybe expand on your point, and then pivot to what he wants to talk about. He's not going to immediately disagree with you or give you a very direct no.

**Naval** (3:37)
That's a technique. And there are times when I do contradict people outright. But I will say that most smart people, if they're telling you something, then it's genuine. They have a reason to believe that. And usually, you can see that reason. And so that's where the yes comes from, where you truly understand, okay, that's your issue. I get it. So you have to understand it. But if I completely disagreed with them, I would just disagree. I would just say no, I don't think that's true. And here's why.