My close rate fooled me.

There's an art to selling. I never considered myself a salesman, but over the years running my own businesses I got really good at closing, whether I was raising money or meeting clients. Truth is though, closing is only a small part of selling. If nobody knows you exist, it makes no difference that you can close at 90%. In a new 6sense survey of 4,611 buyers, 82% of the time they bought from the company they'd already favoured before making contact.

Selling has become more diluted and more accessible at the same time, because the dirty little secret is that selling is a psychological game of touch points. AI can handle most of those touch points beautifully, all with the forward motion of bringing people to a point where they can be closed.

My moment of truth came in my consulting. It's been almost a year of helping clients. The results have been really good, and my close rate is way above average. But here's the honest truth: 90% of all the people who have had a touch point with me, in one form or another, have no idea what I actually do for a living. That's the sales motion, and I failed at it in spectacular fashion.

It's easy to point at a million things around you when something isn't working, and I think that's where a lot of businesses fail. Step away from your ego and the simple truth of any business is this: unless you have a captive audience, you still need to be brave enough to go door knocking and confident enough to close.

People respond when they can tell you've understood them. When I was raising capital, everyone's advice was spray and pray. I did the research on each investor instead, which was much more painful. In a survey of 885 VCs, only 10% of their deals came in cold from founders.

Now you can combine the two. AI can do the research and the repetition, (somewhat) personalised at scale, and you stay selective about who's worth it. There's a market for everything, but reaching it takes skill and psychology. Tech just speeds up the repetition.

Selling is a system. Closing comes with experience.

🎵 Stevie Wonder — Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours) Signed to Motown at 11. Nine years on, his first self-produced single. Full playlist and archive at niccjohnson.com/drop.