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How does a new business get its first client? 新企业如何赢得第一位顾客？
ByOliver Emberton, Founder of Silktide 作者：Silktide创始人OliverEmberton WhenI first started a business, I was 21, bald, and had the social confidence of an asthmaticfieldmouse*. 我第一次创业的时候才21岁，一无所有，对于社会交际也十分羞涩。 FortunatelyI started my business with an ultra-confident Sales Director, who unfortunatelyturned out to be both hopeless and completely mental. He punched me in the faceduring our second board meeting. 幸运的是，我是和一位极度自信的销售总监一起开始创业的。不幸的是，他后来变得绝望又疯狂。在我们第二次董事会议上，他朝我的脸上打了一拳。 Atone of our first pitches to a prospective client he bragged how he “wasn’t muchof a techie” and “didn’t know how to use email”. These were not inspiring wordsfrom a cutting edge web design company. 在我们进行第一轮宣传时，他曾经对一个潜在客户鼓吹自己“并不是一个技术控”，而且“不知道如何使用邮箱”。对于一家最前沿的网页设计公司来说，这样的语言并不是那么鼓舞人心吧。 Soin order to feed myself, I rapidly learnt how to sell. In our first year Isecured government contracts and FORTUNE 500 clients, all with no money and anoffice the size of a refrigerator. Let me tell you how. 因此，为了养活自己，我迅速学会了如何推销。第一年，我就谈下了政府以及世界五百强企业的合同。这一切都是在没有资金而且办公室只有冰箱那么大的情况下完成的。让我来告诉你们我是怎么做到的。
Credibility comes ahead of time 信誉比时间重要 Anew business has no reputation. So at the start, all credibility is on you, thefounder. 一个新企业是没有名声的。所以，在一开始，所有的信誉都取决于你这个创始人。 Formy part, I built websites as a student. One in particular – a social networkfor my university – had grown to thousands of active users, and was raising alot of controversy on campus. 就我而言，在我还是学生的时候，我就建立了网站。特别需要指出的是，我大学的一个社交网站后来有了几千名活跃用户，在大学里也引起了不少议论。 Imade stuff like this simply because I wanted to, and the passion showed. Whenyou can’t find paid work, create stuff for free. Free work is your way of bootstrappingcredibility, and you don’t need anyone’s permission to earn it. 我做这些事仅仅是因为我想去做，并且表现出了自己的热情。当你找不到有酬劳的工作时，就去做一些没有报酬的事情吧。不计报酬地工作是一个提升信誉的途径，而且这种取得方式并不需要征得别人的同意。
Enthusiasm + knowledge 热情+知识 Iwas not a conventional salesman, with slicked back hair and fancy suits. I washowever, fiercely enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable. And it turns out thatmatters more. 我以前并没有商人常见的外表——留着光滑向后梳的头发，穿整齐的西装。但是，我有极度的热枕和渊博的知识，而日后证实这些才是更重要的。 Peoplebuy from people. You may resent this, but they’re far less moved by yourbrochure or your features. They evaluate you as a person, and thatperson had better be convincing. If you are sincerely bubbling over withexcitement at all the wonderful things you could do for them, your enthusiasmwill win many people over. Your credibility (above) should do the rest. 人们总是买"某些人"的帐。你可能会抗拒这个现实，但相比之下人们确实很难会被你们的宣传册和软文打动。人们会把你的团队看作一个“人“，你的团队最好成为一个（他们眼中）有说服力的”人“。如果你能兴高采烈地完成所有你能为他们做的事情，那么你的热情将会赢得许多顾客，而你的信誉（上文提到的）会为你完成剩下的事。 Confidencewill come with time. But the best way to build confidence is to become good atsomething and get yourself in front of people who will appreciate it. 自信会随着时间到来。但是，建立自信最好的办法就是培养自己对某些事物的专业程度，并将你自己展现给乐于欣赏这一才能的人。
Get in front ofeveryone you know 走到每一个你认识的人面前 Myfirst sale – a £3,000 ($5,000) website – was to the residence where I had livedas a student. 我的第一笔生意是一个价值3000英镑（5000美金）的网站，这桶金解决了我学生时代的住宿问题。 Thesewere people I knew. I blagged myself a meeting and sold them on what I coulddo. I already knew them and what they wanted; they were sold on the basis of myfree social network and the fact that they knew me. 那些人我都认识。我把大家集合起来，向他们推销我的本事。我那时候已经和他们混熟了，我也知道他们需要什么。这笔生意的促成是基于“免费社交网站“以及”他们都认识我“这两个方面的。 Thisis the key. People buy from who they know. You probably don’t want to hearthat, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Just being vaguely known by that guywho knows that guy is enough to get you in the door of most places. 这就是关键。人们总是从他们认识的人那里购买商品。你可能不想听这些，但这并不意味着这些不是事实。让人们对你有粗浅的认识就行了，这足以带给你绝大多数机会了。 Isold to the school where I’d studied at university. I pitched to the companieswhere my friends were working. Every single person I knew, however low-levelthey might seem, was a potential inroad to another opportunity. This alone gotme a sale to a FORTUNE 500 company (3M) in our first year. 我向我的大学母校推销、向朋友的工作单位推销……不管他们看起来层次多低，每一个我所认识的人都曾是我获取新机会的潜在推动力。仅仅这一条，就让我在第一年与世界五百强企业（3M）有了一笔订单。 LaterI would learn about ‘networking events’, but I didn’t use any for the first 6years of my business. The bestlead is always from someone you already know, and the biggest mistake peoplemake is assuming that they don’t know anyone. 后来我本该从“社交活动”中学到些东西，但是之前的六年我在商业上什么都没用到。最好的途径总是通过那些你已经认识的人，而人们犯的最大错误就是假定那些人（你认识的人）不认识任何人。
Get in at the groundfloor on big names 从名企的最底层做起 Myfirst tiny sale to a department of a university suddenly gave me the ability tosay “I did a website for this university”. Nevermind that it was a smallproject; it could have been free. The most powerful indicator ofcredibility is not your work, it’s the names you can associate with. 我的第一笔小生意是卖网站给一个大学的某个部门，仅仅是因为我有能力说："我曾经为这个大学做过网站"。永远不要介意那是一桩小事；它有可能是免费的。最有力的信誉标志并不是你的工作，而是你可以与自己挂钩起来的那些（响当当的）名字。 Onegreat side effect of big names is they tend to have lots of staff, who move onto other organisations and recommend you. Someone from that university startedworking for a local council, and soon I had my first government client. Someonethere moved on and I had another. Big names attract big names. 名企一个最大的附属作用就是他们倾向于雇佣大量的员工，这些员工会流动到别的单位并举荐你。那个大学的某个人后来在当地的市政府工作，不久我就有了第一个政府客户。那儿的某个人后来去了别的地方工作，于是我又有了另一个客户。名企之间是相互吸引的。 Anothergreat thing about big names – you can grow within them. Over the next 5 yearsthat small school website let us pitch for their parent department, andultimately the whole university – over 20,000 webpages and a lot moremoney. We never lost that contract in 10 years. 名企的另一个好处是你可以和他们共同成长。后来的五年里，那个小小的校园网站让我们能够向上级部门推销，最后是整个学校——超过20000个网页和大量的金钱。十年里我们都没有失去这份合同。 Crucially: deliver on service. If you don't makeyour clients happy, none of this will happen. 关键：提供到位的服务。如果你不能哄你的顾客开心，以上的所有都不会发生。
Write and sound thepart 书写与沟通部分 Youwant to look presentable, of course, but don’t invest your hopes into this.Your appearance won’t win many sales, but a bad appearance will certainly costyou some. Don’t be the smartarse kid who doesn’t realize he needs a haircut,shower or deodorant. 你想要看起来很漂亮，这无可厚非，但是不要把你的希望仅仅寄托于此。你的外表不会为你赢得大量的订单，但是一个糟糕的外表却绝对会让你付出代价。不要像不爱干净的孩子一样，对何时该剪头发，洗澡或者使用体香剂毫无意识。 Masterspeaking and writing clearly. The quality of your communication is one of thestrongest indicators people will use when judging you; it can make a smart kidsound stupid, or an idiot sound vaguely intelligent. If you don’t know how touse apostrophes or capital letters, you’d best believe people who do will notjudge you kindly. And they will never tell you. 掌握清晰的口头和流畅的书面表达能力。交流质量是人们用以评判你最重要的因素之一，它能让一个聪明的孩子听起来很蠢，也能让一个傻子听起来很聪明。如果你不懂得如何使用单引号和大写字母，你最好相信，人们是不会对你有好评的。并且他们永远不会告诉你这些。 Don’t mistake professional communication for fancywords and long sentences. If you can say a lot with a little, you’ve a muchbetter chance of being heard and respected. 不要把专业的交流误认为是华丽的文辞和冗长的句子。如果你能用简洁的语言表达丰富的内容，你会赢得更多被倾听和尊重的机会。
Things that work (but not for you) 有效果的策略（但不适合你） Ifyour sales strategy involves SEO or ‘Social marketing’, get a new strategy. Askpeople who use those things – they work in the long term, and mostly asembellishment for established businesses. You are not Coca-Cola. Planaccordingly. 如果你的销售策略包括SEO（搜索引擎优化）或者“社交营销”，那么重新制定一个策略吧。问问使用那些策略的人——它们需要很长时间才能见效，而且这些策略大部分是在为已初具规模的生意添砖加瓦。你又不是可口可乐公司，你要制定符合自己的计划。 Advertisingis almost always a fiery pit where your money goes to die. Look for what othercompanies like yourself (early stage, same industry) are doing with theiradvertising, and whether they appear to be successful. If you do advertise,spend lightly. 广告通常都是埋葬资金的火坑。看看那些像你一样的公司（处于发展早期且同行业），他们是如何对待广告的，看看他们是否运作得很成功。如果你要打广告，不要花费太多。 Don’twaste money on premature status symbols. Dropping cash on a fancy watch / car /office has terrible ROI – it might make you feel good, but it barelytouches your odds of selling. I didn’t even have a car for my first 5years of business and I was able to win contracts worth £100k ($160k) / year. 不要过早地把钱浪费在建立社会地位象征上。把钱花在奢侈的手表、车和办公室上的投资回收率是很低的，它可能让你自我感觉良好，但是对你的营销并没多大用处。在我开始我的生意的前五年里，我都没有一辆车，但是我能够谈下16万美金/年的合同。
Summary 总结 Ifyou have no reputation, work for free. 如果你没有声望，就做免费工。 Peoplebuy from people, so be enthusiastic and knowledgable. 人总是和人打交道的，所以保持为人热情、学识渊博。 Reachout to everyone you know. 向每一个你认识的人推销。 Onetiny sale to a big name is a tentpole you can build your reputation on. 名企的一笔小生意都是你建立名声的支柱。 Bigorganisations spread word of mouth far faster. 大企业众口相传的速度更快。 Lookthe part, but more importantly: write and sound the part. 外表固然重要，但口头与书面表达的能力更重要。 Don’texpect results from SEO, advertising or status symbols. 不要期待SEO、广告、地位象征能给你带来明显效果。 Bythe way, I bought my face-punching Sales Director out after a year. Lovelyfellow – but let’s just say he sold his 49% share of the company for less thanit’s worth 12 years later. Ho hum. 顺便说一下，一年之后，我买断了那位打我拳头的销售总监。可爱的家伙——但是，这么说吧，他在十二年后以根本不到市值的价格卖出了他在公司49%的股权。哼。 Formore like this, follow my blog. It's likeQuora, except with a different colour scheme and there's no-one but me on it. 若需更多信息，请关注我的博客。它和Quora差不多，只不过界面的颜色不同，而且那里只会显示我的信息哦。 用法： Have the social confidence of an asthmaticfieldmouse: 字面意义是“拥有像一只喘不过气的田鼠那样的自信心“，这里是一个比喻，意为自信心极少。
注释： 1. Quora：一个问答SNS网站（类似于国内的知乎）。
翻译：Wendy 校对：gabriellaz 终校：小郭 树屋字幕组-文翻组 翻译仅供学习交流，严禁用于商业用途
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发表于 2015-8-18 13:08:16
