How to Do Sales Without Being Annoying | 5 Things to Watchout For

I have 2 major reasons for writing this short essay:

1. I have made some good sales that even the prospects commended my approach after the deal was closed

2. I have also unintentionally been annoying to some prospects

I am sure you have tales of people who tried to sell you one thing or another this week, and you just wish they could leave you alone because they were driving you nut.

Here is the thing to bear in mind: people have a higher chance of buying from you when they feel comfortable with you. Then they will see the value of your offerings and be willing to proceed with the deal.

But the moment a prospect find you annoying, it’s all Dead on Arrival. Therefore, the work of a good salesman is to reduce or totally eliminate the possibility of annoying prospects.

And that essentially is the reason I am writing this for you. There are systems in place for you to know how to sell and make prospect happy that you reached out to them.

I’ll be spilling the sauce.

For those who don’t know, I work at Blockchain Alpha — a popular Web3 technical content marketing agency, and sales is part of my work there.

Sift Prospects Based on Demand

Imagine you are very curious about how you can tighten the security of your Solana-based protocol and someone sends you a message from XYZ firm pitching Move audit service.

Clearly, you don’t need move audit, but you ignored and carried on with your work. Some days later, this person reached out to you again under the guise of “follow-up”.

Again, you ignored even though you are getting uncomfortable with the offer. Now, this same person keeps sending follow-up weeks after. The more you run out of patience, the more annoyed you become and probably block them.

Tap out from your imagination a bit.

Do you see what just happened there? The salesman was selling something you clearly did not need and never might need.

This is why it is good for Web3 sales & marketing professionals to sift prospects first. Prima facie, you’d know a prospect that needs your service and the one that does not.

This way, you save not only your time, but theirs.

This is the first question you should ask yourself: “Who are the ideal customers for this my service or product?” Then write down the top 3 classes of ideal customers.

For me, my ideal prospects are:

• dev-tool companies in Web3

• crypto payment startups and exchanges

• blockchains

I am sure of this based on the value of my offerings. The classes of prospects above will always need technical content to communicate and educate their audience, and that makes them my ideal customer.

If I were to pitch Blockchain Alpha to a car manufacturing company, the chances of “no” are over the roof already.

Hope you got the point.

Reach Out to the Right Person

Let me tell you a short story:

There was a time I was working at a top Web3 security firm, Hacken, and I would have people reach out to me with regards to their intentions of joining the firm.

Meanwhile, I was a Technical Writer and new hire at the time. This kept me wondering, “hope this people know I’m not quite a decision-maker here and even my intros might not really hold water.”

What was going on? They were reaching out to the wrong person. The same thing happens in sales, and I’ve seen it time and time again.

For example, it is definitely not the best thing to pitch the service of a technical content firm to a Business and Development associate.

Yes, you might say you can make them know the essence of technical content from a business perspective, but it is not always that simple.

BD professionals in Web3 are all about ecosystemic and protocol-level partnerships. Therefore, they are a wrong target in the instant case.

So if you keep pestering a BD professional, you will be running an annoying sales outreach.

Instead, speak to the:

• CTOs

• Technical founders, and

• Growth leads

This people are not only decision-makers, but they also connect with the importance of what you want to offer.

Clear Messaging on Value Alignment

Have you ever read someone’s message to you, and you are like, “Alright, so what is the main point? And how clearly can this person benefit me?”

You see, I have also seen this issue with BD professionals in Web3. They can be like, let’s do partnership, and you clearly cannot see how such partnerships can impact you both businesses.

All is just [logo x logo]. No.

I discovered that prospects welcome me more and grant me audience when they see that what I’m bringing to them has business significance as I’ve shown.

This world is runs with the principle of “give and take”. Make people feel like you don’t need them, but they need your value to get to their next stage of growth.

What you have must be so valuable to help what they have. So if they want value, they’ll give in.

I digressed, the main point I’m communicating is that your messaging should always be clear. And it doesn’t have to be too long either.

Here is a formula:

You have [value X] + when applied on prospect’s [product Y] = there will be [result $Z].

Let Prospects do the Chase

I’ve been doing this sales thing for Blockchain Alpha for some years now, and believe me when I tell you that what makes sales professionals annoying is when they keep pestering prospects and try to “close them.”

And most times, this shows a subliminal dysfunction, what I discovered was that if what I have to offer is really valuable, then I shouldn’t have to chase anyone with it.

Which is why my firm recently started:

• technical media coverage for Web3 ecosystems

• participating in hackathons

• participating in audit contests

• building products

We are simply using our expertise to contribute to the growth of the ecosystem and even embark on operations that will impact our revenue.

All these are without are natural engagement with partners.

Again, I digressed, but my point here is to build your value so much people see that what you want to use to “better their lives” makes your own life better.

So when I reach out to people to come work with my firm, I see it that I’m doing them a favor. After sending the first message [sometimes with free strategy package], I leave the rest to them.

Not to sound arrogant, I’ve gone beyond that stage of asking you to hop on a call with me. If you see value in my sales messaging, you’d reply or request we have a call.

This way, prospects are the ones who chase.

Another interesting thing about this is that it makes them to feel more in charge, and it makes me feel less salesy.

Do you now see why it’s important to let prospects do the chase?

Follow-ups Should Not Be More Than Once

First of all, I’d like to burst a myth. Respectfully, those who say “don’t take ‘no’ for an answer in sales” are far from right.

If you message someone with an offer, and they don’t respond, there are 2 things that could have been the cause:

• they got so busy and haven’t replied yet

• they really don’t need what you offer

The reason we do follow-ups is because of 1, and not 2. For me, I don’t do follow-up more than once, and I do that because:

• I respect myself

• I would never want to sound desperate

• I respect the prospect’s time and decision

• I respect the image of the firm I represent

Am I saying anyone cannot follow-up more than once? No, I only spoke on what I practice and has worked for me.

Moreso, the main gist of this essay is so we all do sales that neither suck nor annoy.

Conclusion

Working in sales is interesting because sales people drive demand for every Web3 protocol and firm’s growth.

While doing our work, we also have to be careful we don’t constitute nuisance or make people extremely uncomfortable.

Again, these are the main points we shared:

• Sift Prospects Based on Demand

• Reach Out to the Right Person

• Clear Messaging on Value Alignment

• Let Prospects do the Chase

• Follow-ups Should Not Be More Than Once

By the way, I believe you will enjoy this other sales blog I wrote. If you’re building in Web3 and you need technical content, my firm—Blockchain Alpha—is technically cracked and hyper-efficient.