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Marketing & Sales · Tip

7 Core Sales Rules by goatherders

Seven foundational principles on practical, problem-first sales and relationship building.

From the Xiry library · Updated 8 October 2026

This is a concise set of seven sales principles originally shared by a veteran sales leader on Hacker News. It cuts through complex sales jargon to focus on core human drivers, acute problem-solving, and genuine relationship building. It serves as an approachable mental model for founders, freelancers, and builders who need to sell without being pushy.

How it works

  1. Sales is a lot like golf: You can make it so complicated as to be impossible or you can simply walk up and hit the ball. Walk up and hit the ball.
  2. Focus on people and problem solving: Sales is about people and solving problems—not about solutions, technology, chemicals, lines of code, or features.
  3. People buy only 4 things: Time, money, sex, and approval/peace of mind. If you try selling something outside these four, you will fail.
  4. Sell aspirin, not vitamins: People buy aspirin consistently. They buy vitamins occasionally and unpredictably. Solve acute pain points.
  5. Make friends: 'All things being equal, people buy from their friends. So make everything else equal then go make a lot of friends.'
  6. Be consistently valuable and useful: Help people out. Send interesting posts, write birthday cards, share video ideas to grow their business, and introduce people who would benefit from knowing each other without expecting anything in return. People will find ways to give you money.
  7. Customers only care about their problem: No one cares about your quota, payroll, OPEX, or burn rate; they only care about whether you solve their problem.

What it's for

  • Position a freelance service or product around core buyer motivations
  • Identify whether an offering solves an urgent problem rather than a nice-to-have need
  • Build long-term professional relationships by providing upfront value without transactional expectations

Key points

  • Simplify the approach: focus on executing directly rather than overcomplicating sales tactics
  • Focus on people and problems rather than underlying features or technical implementations
  • Anchor offerings to the four core human desires: time, money, sex, and approval or peace of mind
  • Sell 'aspirin' to solve acute, immediate pain points rather than optional 'vitamins'
  • Cultivate genuine goodwill and friendships since people prefer buying from those they trust
  • Provide unprompted value consistently through introductions, helpful ideas, and thoughtful gestures
  • Remember buyers only care about resolving their own problems, not your internal targets or metrics

Pricing

Free

Details

Type
Tip
Category
Marketing & Sales
Topic
Sales Advice
Open source
No
Platforms
other
For
Freelancers, agency owners, and startup founders learning how to sell.
Tags
sales, freelancing, client acquisition, mindset, business

Why it was saved

  • @advicefromceo.s, 25 September 2026: Demystifies selling by breaking it down into fundamental human psychology: solving real problems, selling aspirin instead of vitamins, and providing upfront value to build trust.

Related

Updated