How to Become Great at Startup SalesㅣPeter Ahn

章节 1：销售之道：坦诚赢得信任，与创新者同行

📝 本节摘要：

Peter Ahn 先概括销售理念：销售是互惠关系，应先提供价值、赢得信任，初创公司要聚焦，主动去找讨论相关问题的人群。随后他介绍自己的经历：从 Google 到 Dropbox，并辅导过 Figma 等百余家初创公司。他回忆在 Dropbox 争取 NBC 环球大单时，被问到最大客户是谁，他如实说明仅有 2000 人规模。最终公司拿下首个多年期数百万美元合同。他由此总结：企业销售是一场关于信任的考验，坦诚永远会赢；初创公司还要筛选并对接愿意冒险的创新型买家。

[原文] [Peter Ahn]: One of the things that is really important to understand in sales: it's a give-and-take relationship. Give something of value first before you ask for a meeting; gain their trust first. Oftentimes, a lot of founders, they go way too broad, and you can't sell the world if you're a startup. Emailing is getting very, very noisy, so you have to be a lot more intentional about thinking about where people are talking about the problem you solve. So I think really good tech salespeople are able to convince buyers that their technology is from the future, but can solve problems today in the most effective way.

[译文] [Peter Ahn]: 做销售，有一点非常重要：它是一种有来有往的关系。在约对方见面之前，先给出一些有价值的东西，先赢得他们的信任。很多创始人常常把目标铺得太广，可如果你是一家初创公司，你不可能把东西卖给全世界。现在邮件渠道已经变得非常非常嘈杂，所以你得更有意识地去想：人们都在哪里讨论你要解决的那个问题？所以我认为，真正优秀的科技销售能让买家相信，他们的技术来自未来，却能以最有效的方式解决当下的问题。

[原文] [Peter Ahn]: Hi, my name is Peter Ahn. I'm a Korean American tech sales coach. I specifically help startup founders and salespeople learn sales in a genuine, authentic way, while gaining confidence in their approach. I started at Google straight out of college, and then from there I went to Dropbox in the early days, helped them form their first enterprise sales motions, and was able to close their first ten large enterprise deals. I've coached over 100 startups. Figma is an example of a company where I helped them, when they were around 20 people, to figure out their early enterprise sales motions; companies like Elicit in the AI space; Bezi, they sell in the 3D design space.

[译文] [Peter Ahn]: 大家好，我叫 Peter Ahn，是一名韩裔美国科技销售教练。我专门帮助初创公司的创始人和销售人员，用真诚、不做作的方式学习销售，同时对自己的打法建立信心。我大学一毕业就进了 Google，之后在 Dropbox 早期加入，帮他们搭建了最早的企业级销售打法，并拿下了他们最初的十笔大型企业订单。我辅导过 100 多家初创公司。比如 Figma，我在他们只有 20 人左右的时候，帮他们摸索早期的企业销售打法；还有 AI 领域的 Elicit，以及做 3D 设计的 Bezi。

[原文] [Peter Ahn]: And there's then companies like Twingate, who started off as a client of mine, and then I joined full-time. I really enjoy kind of the technical sales aspects, because I think that's where, like, the hardest challenges are and where the most skeptical buyers are. There's one moment when we were trying to sell NBC Universal at Dropbox, when my champion and executive sponsor—his name is Lenny Bloom, he was the VP of Identity and Collaboration at NBC—after a day of doing vision talks, having him meet with our founders Drew and Arash, I was escorting him out of the Dropbox building.

[译文] [Peter Ahn]: 还有像 Twingate 这样的公司，起初是我的客户，后来我全职加入了他们。我特别喜欢技术型销售这一块，因为我觉得那里挑战最难，买家也最多疑。有这么一个时刻：当时在 Dropbox，我们正努力拿下 NBC 环球（NBC Universal）。我在对方内部的支持者兼高管发起人叫 Lenny Bloom，是 NBC 负责身份与协作的副总裁。那天我们做了一整天的愿景交流，还安排他见了我们的创始人 Drew 和 Arash，之后我送他走出 Dropbox 大楼。

[原文] [Peter Ahn]: And remember, our main competitor was Box, and they had recently closed a deal with General Electric, and I think they were marketing that deal as having sold over 100,000 licenses. So this was a big, big deal. So we were already nervous about it from the Dropbox perspective, because our biggest deal was a 2,000-license deal on the enterprise side. As my champion and exec sponsor from NBC was getting in the elevator, he looked at me and he said, "Hey, Peter, I just have one more question."

[译文] [Peter Ahn]: 要知道，我们当时的主要竞争对手是 Box，他们刚刚和通用电气（General Electric）签了一单，好像还对外宣传说卖出了超过 10 万个授权。那可是一笔非常非常大的单子。所以站在 Dropbox 的角度，我们本来就很紧张，因为我们在企业端最大的一单也才 2000 个授权。就在 NBC 那位支持者兼高管发起人走进电梯时，他看着我说：「嘿，Peter，我还有最后一个问题。」

[原文] [Peter Ahn]: And his question was, "Who is your biggest customer?" I kind of, like, for a split second, I was thinking about Box. "Oh my gosh, he's asking me this. And if I say our largest customer is 2,000 employees, maybe I'll lose the deal," because NBC was 42,000 employees. But what I decided was, you know what? I've built a relationship. I'm going to be honest throughout the entirety of this deal cycle. And I told him, "Lenny, our largest customer is 2,000 employees at National Geographic. They are similar in terms of use cases, because they also have a lot of large media files, but we don't have yet a Fortune 500 customer.

[译文] [Peter Ahn]: 他问的是：「你们最大的客户是谁？」那一瞬间，我脑子里想的全是 Box：「天哪，他居然问这个。要是我说我们最大的客户只有 2000 名员工，这单可能就丢了。」因为 NBC 有 4.2 万名员工。但我最后决定：管他呢，我已经和他建立了关系，在这整个成交周期里我都要保持诚实。于是我告诉他：「Lenny，我们最大的客户是国家地理（National Geographic），2000 名员工。他们的使用场景和你们很像，也有大量大体积的媒体文件。但我们目前还没有一家《财富》500 强客户。

[原文] [Peter Ahn]: So you would be the first Fortune 500 customer to sign with Dropbox." He said, "Thanks. Okay, that makes sense." And then he kind of rushed off because his car was already there, so I couldn't really get a reaction from him. We ended up actually closing that deal. It was our first three-year, multi-million-dollar contract. It was a big deal. And he told me weeks later, he said, "Peter, that was the right answer when you told me who your biggest customer was, because I like to take risks and I'm an innovator."

[译文] [Peter Ahn]: 所以你们会是第一家和 Dropbox 签约的《财富》500 强客户。」他说：「谢谢，好的，明白了。」然后就匆匆走了，因为他的车已经到了，所以我没能看出他到底什么反应。结果我们真的拿下了这一单。那是我们第一份为期三年、金额数百万美元的合同，意义重大。几周后他对我说：「Peter，你告诉我你们最大客户是谁的时候，那个回答是对的，因为我喜欢冒险，我是个创新者。」

[原文] [Peter Ahn]: And he said, "I like to be the first patient," meaning that he wanted to be at the forefront of buying Dropbox for Business. And so that memory is seared into my mind, because a lot of sales training is about, "Oh, you need to show credibility. You need to show that you're impressive." But there's moments where you also need to be just very brutally honest, because honesty always wins, transparency always wins, and enterprise sales is a trust exercise. The other lesson of that story is that you need to seek out innovators.

[译文] [Peter Ahn]: 他还说：「我喜欢当第一个吃螃蟹的人。」意思是他想走在最前面，率先采购 Dropbox 企业版（Dropbox for Business）。这段记忆在我脑海里刻得很深，因为很多销售培训讲的都是：「你得展示你的可信度，你得显得很厉害。」但有些时候，你就是需要毫无保留地坦诚，因为诚实永远会赢，透明永远会赢，而企业销售本质上就是一场关于信任的考验。这个故事的另一个启示是：你需要主动去找创新者。

[原文] [Peter Ahn]: If you're a startup or you're an underdog, you need to align with buyers who have that mentality that Lenny had, because if he was looking for credibility, like "we had a 100,000-license deal," we would have lost that deal. But there were moments throughout that deal where I knew he was an innovator, where I knew it was exciting for him to work with a startup. And so that's the other lesson: to think about how you are aligning with innovators, because most people are followers.

[译文] [Peter Ahn]: 如果你是初创公司，或者是不被看好的一方，你就需要去对接那些和 Lenny 有同样心态的买家。因为如果他看重的是可信度，比如「我们签过 10 万个授权的大单」，那我们早就丢掉这一单了。但在整个成交过程中，有好几个时刻让我意识到他是个创新者，意识到和初创公司合作会让他感到兴奋。所以另一个启示就是：想一想你要怎样和创新者站到一起，因为大多数人都是跟随者。

[原文] [Peter Ahn]: And so in an enterprise sales cycle, you need to be able to filter for the ones who are not followers, but the ones who are leaders from the buying side. So the way Dropbox celebrated is there was, like, a company-wide email from Drew. There was just a whole bunch of excitement, because it was, like, the largest deal by magnitude. And so I remember just, like, having a really great time that Friday, getting to, like, hug Drew, right? Why it was an important milestone is because everybody—I think even Drew—felt like NBC wasn't gonna close.

[译文] [Peter Ahn]: 所以在企业销售周期里，你得学会筛选，找到买方中那些不是跟随者、而是引领者的人。至于 Dropbox 是怎么庆祝的：Drew 给全公司发了一封邮件，大家都特别兴奋，因为这是我们迄今量级最大的一单。我记得那个周五过得特别开心，还跟 Drew 来了个拥抱。之所以说这是个重要的里程碑，是因为所有人，我想甚至包括 Drew，都觉得 NBC 这单是成不了的。