3 Sales Lessons From Pied Piper’s Erlich Bachmann
Warning: This post may contain some spoilers from the show Silicon Valley. If you don’t watch the show, do yourself a favor and start doing so. And then read this blog.
Silicon Valley is one of our favorite new shows out there, even if as tech entrepreneurs it sometimes hits a little too close to home with how they depict the characters in the start-up ecosystem. One of my personal favorites on the show is Erlich Bachmann, the outspoken, self-appointed voice of Pied Piper. Erlich is brash, rude, in your face, and kind of a psycho; but he is also a great salesman. (And I bet he’d love to use Spiro’s sales automation CRM).
Through all of the laughs, Silicon Valley actually provides some good insight as far as what goes into starting a company. And while the technical team of Pied Piper would never admit it, they need a guy like Erlich. Someone to evangelize the product, push the product team, and most importantly be able to string a complete sentence together in front of a stranger (females included).
A few reasons why Erlich is a great salesmen:
He’s Not Afraid to Speak Up.
In sales, it helps when you’re able to talk to anyone and everyone. You’re certainly not doing yourself any favors by standing in the corner by yourself at a party with many powerful, potential investors.
Erlich has the confidence to speak up and go after his targets, whether they’re potential investors or the wives of Tech Crunch Disrupt judges.
As a Salesperson, He’s JUST Technical Enough.
The best sales people don’t have to be engineers (usually they aren’t, but that’s a topic for another blog). However, they need to know their product. I’m not saying Erlich could effectively contribute to the technical side of Pied Piper, but he doesn’t need to – that’s not his role. He needs to be able to speak to the product, understand the market need, and effectively communicate how Pied Piper solves for that gap.
In undoubtedly the best scene (NSFW) of the series so far, Erlich proves a bit of his technical prowess in helping the boys come up with the calculation for M.J.T (Mean Jerk Time).
And on top of all that, he knows H.T.M.L.
He’s a Natural at the Negative Close.
Adam wrote a blog the other day about the negative close – and if the negative close is an art, you might as call Erlich “Van Gogh.” (The negative close is a sales technique where a salesperson basically challenges the prospect to reject an offering.)
Just like Adam, Erlich stumbled upon the negative close accidentally, but was able to ride it to a monster valuation for Pied Piper:
Just don’t take it too far at your next sales meeting and tell your prospect that their muffins smell like shit.
Muffins are delicious.
