If They Aren’t Ready to Listen, it Doesn’t Matter What You Say
By Donald Dodge
Every salesperson knows this, but many entrepreneurs don’t. If they aren’t ready to listen, it doesn’t matter what you have to say. Saying it five different ways won’t help. Saying it louder, faster, more often, or getting other people to say it for you won’t help either. Better to move on to the next opportunity, and come back to this one when they are ready to listen.
This is true for pitching VCs (Venture Capitalists), potential partners, strategic acquirers, customers, prospective employees…and just about everyone else. One young entrepreneur told me it was true of dating too.
So, why is it always a surprise to us when the other party won’t listen? Well, we believe so much in what we have to say that we can’t imagine anyone not wanting to hear it…and act upon it.
When I worked at Microsoft I would often find new startups that were doing amazing innovative things that could really add value to what Microsoft was doing. If the timing was right, and the product group was ready to listen, things happened very quickly…and successfully. I remember when I first saw Xobni I knew instantly that this would be great for Microsoft Outlook. I immediately sent a note to the top people in the Outlook group. They responded the next day and met with them the following day. Within a week or two Bill Gates was demoing Xobni to thousands of people on stage at the Microsoft Office Developers Conference.
Then there is the normal case. A year or two later I met the people from Gist. I was impressed. Gist had a great collaboration product that worked nicely with Outlook email. Gist captured all the relevant data, from lots of different sources, about a person in context of the email in front of you. The founders previously worked at Microsoft. Brad Feld, a personal friend, and well known within Microsoft, was a major investor. So, this should be easy, right? Wrong. The product group was not ready to listen. No matter what I did, or who I talked to…nothing.
Fast forward 18 months. I bring Gist to Google and they totally get it. Yesterday Google made an announcement about Gmail Contextual Gadgets. Gist (and Xobni) were part of the announcement. So, the people at Google are smarter than the people at Microsoft, right? Not really…maybe in some cases…but that isn’t why it worked. It happened because the timing was right. They were ready to listen. Google had a product announcement coming up and needed ISV products to showcase.
I must say that Gist and Xobni both pulled off amazing engineering feats to get this done within days. They worked around the clock to meet an impossible schedule. The people at Google were amazed they did it. Now, Gist and Xobni could have said “Forget it. I have been down that road before and no one listened. I’m not going to turn my world upside down for you guys”. They would have been completely justified in saying that. But, they saw opportunity and pounced on it.
So, why won’t they listen? Lots of reasons. They could be totally heads down on a product release driving like crazy to a deadline. They could have other priorities that trump this one. They could have a similar idea already in the works. Or, they just simply aren’t interested.
Things change with time. In the past I have taken a company or idea back to a group six months later…and they loved it. What changed? They were ready to listen. They were actively looking for ideas or solutions to problems they didn’t know they had six months earlier.
Lesson for entrepreneurs – Focus on people that immediately get it. It won’t be obvious to you who they are or where to find them. They will self select. They will react positively almost immediately. Pitch to everyone you see..all the time. You never know who will “light up” on your idea and want to help you. This goes for investors, customers, partners, potential employees, etc.
Don’t waste time trying to convert someone who isn’t ready to listen. Move on to the next prospect. Go back to the doubters later with a fistful of customers or partners. Or better yet, let them come to you…when they are ready to listen.
Don has been in the software business for more than 25 years. He was part of the leadership team of five software start-ups. Forte Software was the first multiplatform object oriented development environment. AltaVista was the first search engine on the web. Napster was the first P2P file sharing network. Bowstreet was the first web services development environment. Groove Networks was the first secure P2P collaboration platform.
