A few days ago I had to write my first rejection letter and … it felt good! I think after a few companies have sent me a rejection letter over the past few years, it just feels good to send one back at “them”. The words “we regret to inform you…” gave me a little sugar rush, for a moment. But why did I have to write it in the first place? Keep reading.

As part of the NBTC conference, we are inviting a number of companies and start-ups to set up a booth during the exhibition event. A few weeks ago we were approached by a company that makes software for entrepreneurship competitions. Based on the original description it did not sound all that exciting or useful, but we thought since the opportunity presented itself we would give it a test-run, at some point.

The time came faster than we thought as the sales person from that company nearly hunt us down at one of Nspire events. To call him pushy and obnoxious would be an understatement. The guy could not give us a single reason for using his software that didn’t have to do with him getting something out of it, either exposure or connections. I know he was trying to sell the product, but a product has to do something good for us, in order for us to want it, doesn’t it? His product was just an overly complicated Excel spreadsheet!

The bottom line, in the view of the executives who managed to interact with this person, he was really bad at sales, and he was the sales guy! In the first minutes it was clear to us were didn’t want the product, but the guy kept pushing. Today I found a short blog entry from a small TO-based company. You have to be a salesman if you want to build a million dollar business, they say. Based on my recent experience, it checks out! And for myself, I suppose I have to be an outstanding salesman because I want to build a billion-dollar business!