Practical writing, videos, lessons, and shipped work from Daniel R. Odio, selected for Sales.
10 items
You think you're good at pushing back when things go wrong, but you're probably backing down too early — this breaks down exactly how to make your problem someone else's problem to solve, and why most people (maybe you) fold right before they'd actually win.
You think you know how to sell, but this exercise exposes the gaps — how do you actually identify buyers, reach them before they self-serve, handle returns when things go wrong, and scale beyond one-off transactions? The $20 profit doesn't matter; the seven problems you'll face (and probably fumble) are identical to selling anything real.
You've probably had great ideas die in Slack threads or get buried in your backlog chaos. This breaks down how Scrum's "icebox" and structured sprints stop you from constantly context-switching and losing track of what actually matters, using a real marketing team as the example so you can steal their Pivotal Tracker setup.
You've installed a few Gmail extensions but your inbox still feels like a mess of tabs and lost drafts. This setup reveals the specific combo of tools—Boomerang, auto-save, custom shortcuts—that prevents those "oh no, I closed the tab" moments and actually speeds up your workflow.
You've probably cobbled together your own workflow, but you're drowning in tabs and losing track of leads. This 10-minute walkthrough shows you how Basecamp, Formstack, HighRise, and MailChimp work together so you stop reinventing the wheel every time you need to manage a project or follow up.
You're ready to scale by hiring a VP of Sales and a team, but that's exactly the trap that burns through runway before you've figured out what actually works. This walks through the iteration process for sales hiring — one person at a time — so you don't blow your budget on the wrong pattern.
You're probably still checking voicemail the old-fashioned way and wasting time transcribing important details. This shows you how to route VM straight to your inbox so you can forward, search, and act on messages without ever touching your phone's clunky interface.
You've probably sent dozens of emails that got ignored or filtered, and you've definitely missed at least one important reply sitting in spam. This walks you through the exact 'from' address format that gets opened and a sorting trick to audit your spam folder without wasting an hour every week.
You've dismissed IM as a distraction, but you're missing how it lets you coordinate in real-time during calls, get quick answers without breaking flow, and keep a written record that saves you from disputes. This breaks down why separating work and personal IM accounts turns it from liability into your most powerful productivity tool.
You think you're strategic, but you're probably leaving wins on the table by playing too rationally. This breaks down 'threat power' — the counterintuitive reason why the slightly unhinged negotiator often wins.
You think you're good at pushing back when things go wrong, but you're probably backing down too early — this breaks down exactly how to make your problem someone else's problem to solve, and why most people (maybe you) fold right before they'd actually win.
You think you know how to sell, but this exercise exposes the gaps — how do you actually identify buyers, reach them before they self-serve, handle returns when things go wrong, and scale beyond one-off transactions? The $20 profit doesn't matter; the seven problems you'll face (and probably fumble) are identical to selling anything real.
You've probably had great ideas die in Slack threads or get buried in your backlog chaos. This breaks down how Scrum's "icebox" and structured sprints stop you from constantly context-switching and losing track of what actually matters, using a real marketing team as the example so you can steal their Pivotal Tracker setup.
You've installed a few Gmail extensions but your inbox still feels like a mess of tabs and lost drafts. This setup reveals the specific combo of tools—Boomerang, auto-save, custom shortcuts—that prevents those "oh no, I closed the tab" moments and actually speeds up your workflow.
You've probably cobbled together your own workflow, but you're drowning in tabs and losing track of leads. This 10-minute walkthrough shows you how Basecamp, Formstack, HighRise, and MailChimp work together so you stop reinventing the wheel every time you need to manage a project or follow up.
You're ready to scale by hiring a VP of Sales and a team, but that's exactly the trap that burns through runway before you've figured out what actually works. This walks through the iteration process for sales hiring — one person at a time — so you don't blow your budget on the wrong pattern.
You're probably still checking voicemail the old-fashioned way and wasting time transcribing important details. This shows you how to route VM straight to your inbox so you can forward, search, and act on messages without ever touching your phone's clunky interface.
You've probably sent dozens of emails that got ignored or filtered, and you've definitely missed at least one important reply sitting in spam. This walks you through the exact 'from' address format that gets opened and a sorting trick to audit your spam folder without wasting an hour every week.
You've dismissed IM as a distraction, but you're missing how it lets you coordinate in real-time during calls, get quick answers without breaking flow, and keep a written record that saves you from disputes. This breaks down why separating work and personal IM accounts turns it from liability into your most powerful productivity tool.
You think you're strategic, but you're probably leaving wins on the table by playing too rationally. This breaks down 'threat power' — the counterintuitive reason why the slightly unhinged negotiator often wins.