3 Useful Ideas — Start Your Day With A Prayer
The Sales Process Starts With Human Connection. Pick Cash Over Growth When Growth Takes All Your Cash.
Every Sunday I share 3 Useful Ideas to help you live a rich life.
This week:
Start Your Day With A Prayer
The Sales Process Starts With Human Connection
Pick Cash Over Growth When Growth Takes All Your Cash
You can find all past editions here. Also check out my Master of the Deal podcast and the M&A This Week newsletter if you’re a dealmaker.
Let’s dive in 👇
(1) Start Your Day With A Prayer
The very moment I wake up is always a prayer. It's always an expression of gratitude. First of all for being alive. Having another chance to live another day.
I heard Novak Djokovic say that and reminded myself to do the same. Often we are so preoccupied with all that we need to do that we forget to stop, just for a minute, and realize how lucky we are. There is so much to be grateful for.
Be grateful that you have all that you have. You were born in your country, into your family. These are the cards you were dealt at birth. You could have been born poor in the middle of a war. You are so lucky!
Be grateful that you are loved and have people to love.
Be grateful that you have health. You can see, hear, walk and talk. You can travel, run, trek and play.
Be grateful that you have purpose. You wake up every day with the ability to use your mind to learn and grow. To create something that has meaning for you.
If you have these basics - health + purpose + love - then you have already won. And all you need to do is keep doing more of what you already are. To never stop peddling. To never arrive.
(2) The Sales Process Starts With Human Connection
Your ability to connect at a human-level is a superpower. AI can help you write better, but it won't help your prospect smile broader.
I've interviewed nearly 30 candidates in the past few weeks. The one which stood out above the rest did not pitch. In fact in his role-play he made it a point to call out the fact that he wants time to not pitch, even though it was a pitch.
He wrote:
"This isn’t a product pitch. Rather, I’m genuinely keen to hear how you’re handling deal flows today, what's working, what's not and if there’s any room where we can add value. If not, we’ll keep it short and respect your lunch break."
So far so good. ChatGPT could have written that too. But that's not enough.
It is how he then interacted with me and led the conversation which made him a cut above the rest. He didn't even show me any slides for the first ten minutes. He just asked questions to understand my job better. He then used my responses to offer solutions. This required active listening. You really need to be glued in to what's being said. He had a structure but that structure was fluid based on what he discovered from my responses.
There was still room for improvement however. To connect at a human level you must be able to find common ground with the prospect. For this you need to do a little research. Connect at a personal level without being perceived like you're trying too hard to make small talk. Very very few can do this well. It requires a certain type of personality. It requires you to be genuinely interested in people.
You must also carry a certain level of energy and enthusiasm. This I believe is shaped to a large degree by nature. Many of the candidates I interviewed ticked all the right boxes but just didn't have the energy; what I call "the invisible vibe". Their eyes didn't light up when they met and spoke about the business or the product or the prospect or themselves.
Sales is not for everyone. It is for a certain type of personality. It requires a certain nature. On top of this you need to nurture your nature so that you can direct all that energy in a structured way to get the prospect to choose you over and above others.
If you are in sales, you are the tip of the spear. That tip better be sharp. Because blunt tips may land on their targets but never stick.
(3) Pick Cash Over Growth When Growth Takes All Your Cash
Should you invest in a business that pays 10% a year and never changes or a business which pays you 2% a year and increases at 10% a year?
In a 1994 shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett said that
“You can certainly have a situation where there’s absolutely no growth in a business, and it’s a much better investment than some company that’s going to grow at very substantial rates, particularly if they’re going to need capital in order to grow."
He then added
"There’s a huge difference in the business that grows and requires a lot of capital to do so, and the business that grows and doesn’t require capital."
If you're investing, you should pay a lot of attention to whether you are investing in a business which:
Doesn't grow but gives a lot of cash.
Grows and doesn't require capital for its growth.
Grows and requires a lot of capital for its growth.
Let's go back to Warren Buffett:
"Some of the best businesses we own outright don’t grow. But they throw off lots of money, which we can use to buy something else. And therefore, our capital is growing, without physical growth being in the business. We are much better off being in that kind of situation than being in some business that itself is growing, but that takes up all the money in order to grow and doesn’t produce high returns as we go along."
Can you find a business which keeps giving you cash consistently? Can you then utilize that cash to invest in a way where it makes even more money?
Try to create homes for your rupees and dollars that keep producing more rupees and dollars.
👋 I’m Harsh. Every Sunday I share three useful ideas to help you live a rich life. Read by 7000+ founders and CXOs. If you’re curious about what I’m building, here’s where I spend most of my time:
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