We found the internet's best sales advice

**Sam Parr** (0:00)
Can I show you the highest-value comment on HackerNews that I've ever seen?

**Shaan Puri** (0:06)
Yeah, that has a lot of weight.

**Sam Parr** (0:16)
This is from years and years ago, but it's this comment about sales, because HackerNews is full of engineers, and they're like, hey, I suck at sales. Anybody can help me get better at this. And this guy wrote seven points, and I just nodded my head so vigorously that my C4, C5 is a little sore. So let me just give you this here. He said, the guy goes, yeah, there's tons of resources to help you with sales, but I'll try to offer some simple tips. Number one, sales is a lot like golf. You can make it so complicated that it's almost impossible, or you could simply walk up and hit the ball. I've been leading sales orgs for about 20 years. My advice is to walk up and hit the ball. Number two, sales is about people and it's about problem solving. It's not about tech or solutions or chemicals or lines of code or artichokes. It's about people. It's about solving problems. Number three, people buy four things and four things only, ever. Those four things are time, money, sex, and approval or peace of mind. If you try to sell anything other than those four things, you will fail.
Number four, people buy aspirin, always. They'll buy vitamins sometimes, but it will be unpredictable. Sell aspirin. Number five, I say in every talk that I give, that all things being equal, people will buy from their friends. So make everything else equal, and then go make a lot of friends.
Number six, being valuable and useful is all you'll ever need to sell things. Help people out, send them interesting posts, write birthday cards, record videos, sharing your ideas of how they could grow their business. Introduce them to people who would benefit from knowing each other and get out of the way. Expect nothing in return. Do this consistently and authentically, and people will find ways to give you money. I promise. Number seven, no one cares about your quota, your payroll, your OPEX, your burn rate. No one. They care about the problem you're solving for them. There are more than $100 trillion in the economy just waiting for you to breathe it in. Good luck.
Who is this god of HackerNews?

**Shaan Puri** (2:06)
Are you reading any books?

**Sam Parr** (2:08)
I am reading Influence again by Robert Cialdini.

**Shaan Puri** (2:12)
Why are you rereading Robert Cialdini's Influence?

**Sam Parr** (2:15)
Because as the great Buddhist proverb says, no man steps in the same river twice, for he is not the same man, and the river is not the same river.

**Shaan Puri** (2:23)
Oh, my God, how long have you waited to use that one?

**Sam Parr** (2:29)
You start reading books, what can you do? You just start turning into a quote machine. No, but really I think, you know, reading the best books again at different times in your life, it's a totally different book. You think you've read it, and what I found is you remember shockingly little of books. And so going back and reading great books is like the gift that keeps giving in that sense.
So that's what I'm doing.

**Shaan Puri** (2:53)
Did you ever read the blog post that I wrote about Influence, his book?

**Sam Parr** (2:56)
No.

**Shaan Puri** (2:58)
In 2014, I had just read his book and I wanted to implement what he talked about. And he has this rule called the rule of reciprocity, which basically just says, let's say that neighbor one goes to neighbor two. Let's say I go to Sean and I say, hey, can I borrow a cup of sugar? And you say, yeah, I got you. The next day, if you come to me and say, hey, can I borrow your car for the day?
Even though those two ask, they aren't even remotely equal, I, because of the rule of reciprocity, am very likely to lend you my car because the rule of reciprocity states that if you do something nice for someone, they have a high chance of doing something nice in exchange to you, even if they aren't equal. And that's like how society is built, one could say. It's like based off the rule of reciprocity. So when I was a kid, I was 24 years old. There was a motorcycle for sale, I think for $1,800.
And I went to buy it and I took photos and I documented all of this as I went. And I was like, hey, you have the motorcycle for $1,800. Let me see it. Let me check it out. Awesome. Oh, by the way, I'm really sorry I'm late. I just, I wanted to stop and get a Coke because it was kind of hot outside. I got one for you if you want one. Do you want one? And he goes, yeah, sure. Thanks. And then I started talking to him and I'm like, look, I love this motorcycle, but like I'm a young guy. I don't have a lot of money. I know you're asking for 18