Before I wrote a line of code, I spent about twelve years selling. Wells Fargo and VXI early on. Then AT&T, where I was a Business Advisor for small and mid-sized companies. Then Optimum Media, selling local advertising to West Texas business owners across cable, streaming and digital.
Different products, same conversation. A business owner sits across from you and wants to know one thing: will this bring me more customers, and how will I know?
Owners buy outcomes, not features
At AT&T nobody cared about the spec sheet. They cared whether the phones worked when a customer called. At Optimum, nobody cared about impressions. They cared whether the phone rang more after the ad ran. Every good conversation I had came back to that.
That is why 806 Growth talks about missed calls, follow-up and booked jobs. Those are the words owners already use.
The leak is usually after the lead
Selling advertising, I kept seeing the same thing. A business would pay to get attention, then the call went to voicemail, or the web form sat in an inbox until Monday. The money was spent getting someone to raise their hand, and then nobody answered.
I couldn't fix that from a sales desk. So I started building the follow-up side myself: the part that answers, texts back and keeps track, so the attention a business already paid for doesn't go to waste.
Go find people
At Optimum I worked a Lubbock territory and built the book through direct outreach and in-person calls, not inbound leads. That habit stuck. I still believe the best way to learn what a business needs is to ask the owner, in person if you can.
Twelve years of that is the foundation under everything I build now. The tools changed. The question owners ask did not.