A few months back I was talking to one of the earliest mentor of Ploton labs, Inc. The chat was around how to do sales in an early stage startup, which got triggered from my lookout for a co-founder at my venture. I needed someone to come from the sales background however the more I got involved in talking to candidates and shortlisting profiles, the more I realised that it will be a disaster to look for people in sales atm. Simply because someone in sales will need something to sell… and we were selling just an idea back then and nothing more.
The best people to sell ideas are the one dreaming about it.. hence I was the perfect one to be the first sales person in my own venture. And then one of my mentor from past life joined the venture and I could have not asked for anything more.
Anyway, the discussion touched a point of how the most smart salesman takes nothing personal. A disappointed salescall becomes just a number to check back in future and nothing else… it shouldn’t discourage a great salesman. Every rejection is an opportunity to do better and come back even stronger.
As a founder, I live this everyday now. Early stage companies see rejections from almost every space.. customers, VCs, and even vendors at times. At the start of doing my startup, I used to lose sleep over rejections. Sometimes the emotions will be so strong to feel betrayal and then I burn a few bridges which I shouldn’t. To be frank, I still burn bridges but only when people cross a line of character. But the more rejections I see the more I realise the rejections are just a NOT NOW. Atleast, most of them if not all. Hence, its a future deal reaching its maturity point. And my observation tells me most of the lost deals are because of a process or requirement.
Also most VCs have no clue about most things, a rejection there shouldn’t be personal at all. And I am not saying most VCs are stupid, but VCs have information overload problem and hence their decisions aren’t that great.
Hence, Nothing Personal anymore.