Sales Players Blog

Knowing how to handle competition in business is critical, and there’s one common mistake you must avoid at all costs.

Never attack, criticise, or say negative things about them.

It’s unprofessional and a tried, tested and failed sales strategy.

The more attention you give your competitors, the bigger problem they become.

I’m not advising you to pretend your competitors don’t exist; I’m just recommending you avoid talking about them when you speak with a prospect.

You will come across prospects who are either already using your competitor’s solution or others who are considering it at the same time as your own.

And you’ll also come across competitors trying to take your clients.

How you deal with each of these situations is very different.

When you’re working to pull a prospect away from the competition, you need to be strategic and go in with something of a unique value or a huge discount.

You will, of course, need to ask the prospect your standard qualifying questions to ensure they have needs, but you’ll also need to ask them questions about their current solution.

Too many salespeople still make the mistake of going in aggressively when pulling a prospect away from a competitor. This aggressive approach is often due to their passionate belief that they have a better solution for the prospect.

Sadly, that passion can quickly become frustration when the prospect doesn’t instantly believe them.

I would again advise you to show professionalism and patience with your competitor’s clients, just as in any other situation.

Someone using a competitor’s solution will likely show you more resistance than a regular prospect because they know your end goal.

Here is a list of questions you can use to disarm your competitor’s clients and softly qualify them at the same time.

“What solution do you have in place today?”

“How long have you been using it?”

“What do you like most about it?”

“What made you choose that solution in the first place?”

“Have you managed to achieve those objectives so far?”

“Were you involved in the decision to invest in this solution? (If not, who was?)”

“If you were the CEO of (Competitor’s Name), what would you change about the solution or include in future updates?”

These questions will uncover how happy your prospect is with their current solution and give you a sense of how open they are to discussing an alternative.

It’s important not to be too pushy if you can hear the prospect is happy and not interested in a move.

It’s much more powerful to leave the prospect with a professional impression of you and your company, so you’re first in line when your competitor upsets them.

When a competitor is trying to steal your clients, you must first ask yourself whether you have treated this client well or not.

Have you offered them excellent service or just taken their money and abandoned them?

Setting up simple reminders to say a quick hello to your clients every couple of months will keep a large proportion of them loyal, and you can even automate the process if you don’t have the human resources.

Sadly, most companies or account managers either don’t have the knowledge or can’t be bothered to set up courtesy calls or emails and have to deal with the constant threat of losing clients to their competitors.

The advantage you have against the other sales professionals trying to take your clients is that they probably do everything I’m advising you not to do.

They’ll likely be aggressively pursuing your clients and attacking your weaknesses in a desperate and unprofessional manner.

If you’ve served your clients well and have a solid solution, your clients will defend you.

However, if you’ve abandoned them and failed to create a lasting relationship, you’ll be in trouble.

The dazzle of added features and benefits or the smell of cost savings will always catch the attention of a certain number of your clients, no matter how you treat them.

This is where you’ll need to defend yourself.

To handle this scenario, you’ll need to put your emotions aside and ask your client to do the same with the cost savings or the new features and benefits offered by the competitor.

You must firstly communicate how sad you are to hear the client is considering an alternative solution, but bite your tongue and communicate that you understand it’s just business.

You must avoid appearing to be defensive and remain calm and professional.

Your next step will be to ask your client for a few minutes of their time so you can run over a brief review of their account.

Your goal is to re-qualify their needs to see if anything has changed since they first became clients.

By qualifying your client as a new prospect, you’ll not only highlight any new requirements they have but also remind the client why they selected you in the first place.

Your end goal is to have your client re-evaluate if your competitor’s new features and benefits or cost-savings are worthwhile compared to the potential headache of switching suppliers.

Remember that your job is to ask the right questions and not force your opinion.

The psychology behind great questions will always outweigh the forceful persuasion of an elevator pitch.

If you come up against your competition when hunting for new clients, your strategy will naturally need to be adapted.

I mentioned earlier that the more attention you give your competitors, the bigger problem they become.

In my experience, most salespeople get defensive and start pitching all the reasons why their solution is better than others when they hear that a competitor is involved.

This approach will get you nowhere.

It makes you sound desperate and tells the prospect you’re afraid of your competition.

I will again repeat that your strategy should be to remain calm when your prospect mentions the competition.

Shock your prospect by doing the opposite of what they expect by praising your competitor before flowing smoothly into your qualification questions.

The best form of attack is not defence. It’s confidence.

You must also be prepared for prospects hijacking you by asking what makes you better than such-and-such a competitor down the road.

Be humble and compliment the competitor again; even go as far as to say they have a similar solution.

You should then consider telling your prospect that rather than boring them with a list of reasons why they should choose you, it would be much more efficient if you asked a few more questions to find out if any of those reasons even matter.

Whether your prospect is asking you about your competitor, your pricing, or even the technical aspects of your solution early in a conversation, you must learn to park these questions to avoid losing control of your call or meeting.

Here are a few one-liners you can use to park questions and shift the focus of your conversations back into the qualification process.

(1) “I know them well, and they have a very competitive solution too, but I would rather ask a few questions to find out if we can help you before I try to compete for your business.”

(2) “I could easily list a number of unique features and benefits that we offer, but I’d rather avoid that until I know if they would be of any value to you first.”

(3) “I honestly can’t answer that question until I understand your needs first because, in my experience, not all clients are the same.”

Regardless of how good you get at parking your prospects questions, you’ll eventually have to go head-to-head with your competitors, and your best weapon is to master how to plant seeds of doubt around their weaknesses.

If you know your competitor is expensive, it will do you little good to simply point this out to your prospect, and it will potentially make you appear defensive and insecure.

Alternatively, if you asked your prospect in a slightly concerned tone whether or not they have seen the pricing model of your competitor yet, it will bring that weakness to their attention.

It can also be a great advantage to put together a list of your competitor’s deficiencies in preparation for this conversation.

Rather than telling these weaknesses to your prospect, you can take a more consultative approach and give them a list of recommended questions they should ask your competitor.

In the event your prospect seems keen to go with your competitor, your last-ditch approach may sound something like the following:

“I know them (competitor) well, and they have a great solution too. All I would ask before you decide to go with them is to ask them a few questions about some critical areas of their solution. Do you have a pen handy?”

I recommended you create a spreadsheet earlier in my post about how to sell value using the features, benefits, and outcomes formula, and I would now recommend you add a fourth column to that spreadsheet named ‘Qualifying Question’.

You then need to think about a question you could ask to qualify whether your prospect has a real need for each particular feature or not.

Let’s say you know one of your competitors is weak when it comes to data protection.

Before using this as an advantage, you’ll first want to discover if it’s relevant or not for your prospect, so you could just ask your prospect how vital data protection is to them.

If you then receive a positive response that it’s essential, you then recommend they ask the competitor in question about how they handle data protection.

This strategy may sound crazy, but the reverse psychology this has on the prospect and the panicky response they will get when asking your competitor these questions will put you in the driver’s seat for winning the prospect’s business.

I would go as far as to say that 80% of your prospects won’t even bother calling your competitor to ask these questions if you master the art of planting seeds of doubt in their heads about your competitor’s offerings.

Remember, when you stay calm, cool, and professional, you demonstrate confidence to your prospect about you and your solution – and confidence sells.

This is a story about Greg — one of my sales manager coaching clients.

He was a newly promoted sales leader in a fast-paced tech company, trying to manage a growing team while still carrying his own quota.

Over the course of 12 months, we worked together to help him navigate the pressure, manage his team more effectively, and find some control in the chaos.

What follows isn’t a success story wrapped in a bow. It’s real.

The stress, the self-doubt, the constant juggling — it’s what many sales managers live through but rarely talk about.

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Life Before Sales Manager Coaching

Greg sat in traffic, knuckles tight on the steering wheel, phone buzzing in the passenger seat.

It was 5:30 PM, and while most people were thinking about dinner, Greg was trying to figure out how to squeeze in one more call before he got home.

Emails piling up. Slack messages pinging. A US client chasing a response. His wife texting: “Are you nearly home?”

This wasn’t new. It was daily life. And it was exhausting.

Greg had started in sales, like many do — driven, competitive, scrappy.

He could close deals, hit quota, and handle pressure. But now he was managing a team. And nothing had prepared him for what that actually meant.

Managing people? Delegating? Holding underperformers accountable? Balancing his own quota with leadership responsibilities?

That wasn’t in the sales playbook.

And it sure as hell wasn’t in any training he’d received.

Greg was burning out. And he didn’t know how to fix it.

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Why Greg Didn’t Ask for Help

Greg wasn’t the type to ask for help. He believed in graft, getting on with it, and handling problems himself.

That’s how he’d always worked — and it had served him well in sales.

But this was different.

Leading a team wasn’t just more work — it was a different kind of work. One that left him feeling exposed.

He thought about speaking up, maybe asking his boss for advice, but stopped short every time. What would he even say? “I’m not coping?” “I don’t know what I’m doing?”

Instead, he buried it. Told himself it would get easier. That he just needed to push through. That’s what people like him did — they cracked on.

But deep down, he knew this wasn’t sustainable. And the cracks were showing.

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Greg’s Breaking Point

His breaking point wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t a meltdown or public failure.

It was quieter than that.

One morning, he recorded a podcast with a senior executive. No time to prepare. No plan. Just him winging it between meetings, thinking, “I’ll figure it out.”

Afterwards, he sat there, drained, thinking: “I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to this. I’m stretched so thin I’m useless at everything.”

And that thought didn’t leave. It followed him into the evening, to dinner, to bedtime.

It was the same feeling he got every time he avoided a difficult conversation with his team, or said yes to yet another task he didn’t have time for.

Later that evening, he sat on the sofa, exhausted, watching his one-year-old daughter crawl across the floor.

I remember him telling me about the wave of guilt that hit him.

She was too young to know how distracted he’d been. Too young to notice that he’d missed dinner again. Too young to understand that, most evenings, her dad was physically present but mentally miles away.

But he knew.

And it was eating him alive.

He was missing it — missing her, his wife, these moments — and for what? Another Slack message? Another late-night email?

That was the moment.

No drama. No meltdown.

Just quiet, painful clarity: Something had to give.

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The Unseen Challenges of Sales Leadership

Here’s where most people get it wrong about managing a sales team:

Being a great salesperson doesn’t automatically make you a great sales manager.

Greg thought hitting targets would be enough. But leadership isn’t just about numbers. It’s about people, processes, pressure, and perception.

And no one teaches you how to handle:

• The stress of carrying your own quota and your team’s performance.
• The frustration of managing underperformers when no one backs your decisions.
• The constant pressure to be available — to your team, your boss, your clients.
• The feeling of drowning in meetings, emails, and expectations.

Greg didn’t lack talent. He lacked support, structure, and clarity.

That’s when he decided to get some outside help and look into executive sales coaching.

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Small Changes, Big Results

Greg didn’t need a motivational speaker. He needed practical help. So we started small.

• He blocked his calendar for lunch and actually took it.
• He moved 1:1s from bi-weekly to weekly to build team accountability.
• He stopped jumping on every call and started delegating, even if it wasn’t perfect.
• He tracked when self-doubt crept in and recognised his stress triggers.

One of the biggest breakthroughs? Letting go of being the “nice guy” and addressing underperformance head-on. Not aggressively. Just clearly.

He realised that holding people accountable protected the culture — it didn’t destroy it.

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What Greg Learned (and Why It Matters)

Greg learned that leadership isn’t about doing more.

It’s about doing less, but doing it better.

It’s about:

• Prioritising time and energy.
• Building habits that reduce stress.
• Creating a team culture where expectations are clear.
• Managing yourself first, so you can lead others properly.

If you’re a sales manager or leader, coaching helps you get clear, stay focused, and perform under pressure.

It helps you become the kind of leader your team needs, without losing yourself in the process.

That’s what Greg experienced. And it changed everything.

You’ve probably heard the term consultative selling before.

Maybe in a sales book.
Maybe from a sales coach.
Or maybe it was thrown at you in a meeting with no explanation.

Consultative Selling: The Only Way to Sell in B2B Sales

Consultative selling isn’t a way of selling. It’s the ONLY way of selling.

Especially if you sell SaaS, tech, or services.

In this post, I’ll break down what consultative selling means, why it’s misunderstood, and how you can start doing it today.

What is Consultative Selling?

Consultative selling is a sales approach where the seller acts like a trusted advisor, asking questions, understanding the buyer’s needs, and recommending solutions that genuinely help.

Sell Like a Consultant – Not a Sales Rep

Instead of pushing products, the focus is on helping buyers solve problems and make informed decisions.

Consultative selling simply means selling like a consultant.

You ask smart questions.
You listen properly.
You understand the buyer’s situation, problems, and goals.
And only then do you recommend something that genuinely helps them.

In other words – you give them a consultation.

You help them make a good decision.

And if your solution is the right fit? Great. You sell it.

Why Most People Overcomplicate This

Forget the Buzzwords – This is Just Good Selling

Consultative selling has become one of those buzzwords that trainers love to throw around to make their sales courses sound fancy.

But the truth is, it’s just basic, good selling.

If you sell like a pushy, desperate salesperson, you’ll scare buyers off.

If you sell like a trusted consultant, you’ll disarm them, build trust, and have an honest conversation about whether you can help.

That’s it.

When Should You Use Consultative Selling?

B2B? SaaS? Services? Always Use It

Simple answer – almost always.

• Selling B2B? Do it.
• Selling tech or SaaS? Do it.
• Selling services? You probably already do it.
• Selling cheap B2C products with a short sales cycle? Probably not worth it.

For everyone else, this is the only approach that works long-term.

The Core of Consultative Selling: Qualification

Ask the Right Questions – That’s the Job

The heart of this is asking the right questions.

Questions that help you, and the buyer figure out:

• Do they have a real problem worth solving?
• Can you actually help?
• Are they serious about making a decision?
• What’s stopping them from solving it now?

This is what I teach in my sales qualification training, and this is consultative selling in action.

It’s not about pitching. It’s about guiding.

How to Sell Like a Consultant

A Simple 5-Step Approach That Actually Works

Here’s how you do it:

1. Do your homework.
   Know who you’re speaking to and what problems they might have.
2. Lead with questions.
   Start the call with curiosity, not a sales pitch.
3. Listen like a human.
   Don’t interrupt. Don’t fake interest. Actually listen.
4. Diagnose before you prescribe.
   Just like a doctor, don’t “sell” until you fully understand the problem.
5. Be honest.
   If you can’t help — say so. If you can — show them how.

Final Thoughts

If you’re serious about sales, consultative selling isn’t optional.

It’s not something you “try” — it’s something you commit to.

So next time you’re selling, forget the buzzwords. Forget the pushy tactics.

Just be the consultant your buyers need.

The Sales Hunters, Farmers & Hybrids

There are four distinct types of salespeople — and figuring out which one you are is crucial to your success and the longevity of your sales career.

If you’ve ever felt icky, bored, or disconnected in a sales role, it’s easy to think you’re just not cut out for it — but don’t quit just yet.

You might just be playing the wrong position.

In this article, I’ll walk you through the 4 types of salespeople, help you figure out which one you are, and help you start selling in a way that suits you.

Why Knowing Your Sales Type Matters

“Yes, thank you, David. Please renew us on the same terms as last year”.

That was when I knew something was off.

This was a 120K deal I had closed the year before — four times bigger than our average deal size at the time.

I was supposed to be jumping for joy — but somehow I felt demotivated.

That was the moment I realised I wasn’t cut out to be an account manager — even though I was perfectly capable of doing the job well.

And that realisation became a defining part of my sales career.

One of the biggest reasons salespeople don’t last long in sales jobs is that they’re hired into roles that don’t suit their natural sales type.

The tricky part is, most salespeople can push through and do almost any role — for a while.

But over time, they burn out, lose motivation, or just stop enjoying the job.

A Sales Hunter can survive in an account management or customer success role, but they’ll get bored fast.

And a Farmer might manage to do cold outreach and chase new business for a few months — but they’ll hate every second of it.

The 4 Types of Salespeople Explained

Most people assume sales is just sales — but anyone who’s done the job knows that’s not true.

There are different ways to sell, and different types of salespeople who thrive in different environments.

Some are built for outbound hunting.

Some are better at managing and growing existing accounts.

And some can do both — as long as the role is balanced the right way.

Here’s a breakdown of the 4 most common types of salespeople — so you can start figuring out which one sounds most like you.

Sales Hunters

Sales Hunters are a rare breed — and if you are one, you’ll know it.

You live for the chase.

Without it, the job feels flat.

You like to move fast, cut the fluff, and get straight to the point.

You’ve got no problem cold calling, getting past gatekeepers, and chasing down new business like your life depends on it.

Hunters tend to perform best in fast-moving sales environments with shorter sales cycles — usually under six months.

If you’re selling to SMBs or working full-cycle with high outbound, this is probably where you shine.

Sales Farmers

If you’re a Sales Farmer, you’re the opposite of a pure Hunter.

You’re probably the friendly, chatty type — easy to like and easy to trust.

You get fulfilment from building long-term relationships and keeping your customers happy.

Mentioning upsell targets might make you roll your eyes.

Even retention targets can feel off, because to you, the goal is simple: take care of the customer, and the rest will follow.

And you’re not wrong — happy customers stick around.

And when they’re handled by someone warm, genuine, and low-pressure, upsells often come naturally.

Sales Farmers perform best in roles where they can build long-term relationships without constantly being pushed to close new business.

They’re ideal for account management, customer success, and renewal-focused roles.

Especially in companies with longer sales cycles, recurring revenue models, or enterprise clients that need ongoing care and attention.

Hybrid Sales Hunters

Hybrid Sales Hunters share a lot of the same traits as pure Hunters.

Many are what I’d call retired Hunters — they still enjoy the chase, but they don’t want to do it all the time.

They tend to be more patient, less aggressive, and more selective with the way they work new deals.

If you’re a Hybrid Hunter, you still want to close new business — but you want a more balanced environment.

Ideally, you want a steady flow of good leads, not just cold outreach all day.

This type of salesperson is ideal for full-cycle roles where you handle both the close and the customer relationship after the deal is done.

Hybrid Hunters also tend to do well in Enterprise sales, where deals are complex and the sales cycles are long.

Hybrid Sales Farmers

Hybrid Sales Farmers are one of the most common types of salespeople.

You’re primarily driven by building strong relationships — but you still need a bit of the chase to stay interested.

A long-term pure Farmer role would bore you.

It’s common for Hunters to shift into this type of role later in their career — often after having kids or just wanting more balance.

If you’re the kind of salesperson who enjoys looking after customers but also spotting upsell and cross-sell opportunities, this is probably your lane.

Hybrid Farmers are ideal for roles where you need someone who can keep customers happy — while still driving revenue growth from existing accounts.

How to Figure Out Your Sales Type

Most salespeople can spot their type just by reading the descriptions above — something usually clicks.

But if you’re still unsure, here are a few simple questions to help you figure it out:

1. Do you get a buzz from opening new conversations, or do you prefer building on existing ones?
2. Would you rather cold call a list of prospects or check in with loyal customers?
3. Does admin and account maintenance drain you — or do you enjoy the structure?

Be honest with yourself.

This isn’t about what you should be doing.

It’s about recognising what actually gives you energy — and what quietly wears you down.

Once you’re clear on your natural type, you’ll start spotting the patterns.

The roles you enjoyed.
The ones that burned you out.
The parts of the job that made time fly — and the ones that made you question your career.

And that’s where things start to change.

What to Do Once You Know

Once you’ve figured out what type of salesperson you are, the real value is in how you use it.

If you’re in the wrong role right now, you’ve got two choices — adapt the role or plan your next move.

Start looking at sales jobs and opportunities through a different lens.

Instead of chasing titles or salaries, look at how the role actually works day to day.

Will you be hunting? Managing accounts? Doing both?

Does the role match your strengths — or will it drag you into work that drains you?

You don’t have to sell like someone else to be successful.

You just need to sell in a way that suits you.

Get that part right — and everything else gets easier.

Conclusion

Sales isn’t one-size-fits-all — and neither are salespeople.

Figure out your natural sales type, lean into it, and stop trying to fit into roles that don’t suit you.

Because when you sell in a way that feels right, you perform better, stay motivated, and actually enjoy the job.

Every year, millions of students worldwide work crappy jobs, live in debt, and study long and hard to chase their dream of a career in their chosen profession.

Meanwhile, many less educated people build healthy careers and gain valuable work experience in the sales profession while at the same time getting paid and supporting the economy.

Apart from a couple of part-time evening classes, I never pursued further education.

I never had a clear picture of what I wanted to be and thus had no idea what to study.

The fact I was already earning before I left school also impacted my decision.

I’d worked part-time on weekends as a post-room clerk for several months, and the lure of the full-time job and pay packet waiting for me was hard to resist.

When I was younger, I never quite understood the concept of further education.

I couldn’t figure out why people would put in so much extra time, work, and money into something that offered no guarantee of employment or financial benefits.

As a 16-year-old, I was living the dream.

I was earning money, living at home with my parents, had no commitments, and spent my weekends shopping in Manchester with friends, buying new clothes, DVDs, and computer games.

By the time I started working in sales, I was earning even more, had a car, and was out on the town three to four days per week enjoying the good life.

Aside from the rough learning curve that followed, I can honestly say that sales has been an amazingly rewarding career.

A career in sales has and still does open many doors for me and essentially acted as a catapult to get me to where I am today.

Many people underestimate the critical business experience you gain when working in business-to-business (B2B) sales.

Learning how to sell yourself and your ideas is arguably the most crucial skill in today’s business world, especially if you have ambitions to be an entrepreneur.

The Benefits of a Career in Sales

If you want to be good at what you do, one of the fundamental rules of success is that you have to love what you do. 

I love selling.

I am deeply passionate about my profession, which is why I love teaching people about it.

What you don’t know about me, though, is that I actually worked in sales for almost three years before I even realised it was a profession, and only then did the love affair begin.

Before this, I just looked at all of my jobs as a job.

Something to put money in my pocket until I finally found a profession I wanted to do.

Nobody ever mentioned selling when the career counsellors came to my high school, so how was I supposed to know it was an option?

After a few years, I was lucky enough to receive valuable sales training from someone with a strong passion for sales.

This not only changed my career but, ultimately, my entire life. 

Through my career in sales, I have come to realise and appreciate many of the commonly untold benefits of working in the sales profession, and I would like to share my top 10 with you now.

Some you may know, some you may have forgotten, and others you may have never considered.

1. No Training or Experience Required

You can get a job in the selling profession without any prior training, experience, or education.

That’s amazing, isn’t it?

With no initial investment of time or money, you can get a job in a profession where you can earn more money than a Doctor.

I was once out of work for a week or so when I was younger, and my mother started giving me the 3rd degree.

I bet her £10 I could go out, get the paper, and get an interview for a sales job before she got home from work. Within an hour, I had three interviews booked for the following day.

2. You Can Earn As You Learn

With luck, the company you work for will provide some form of basic sales training. If not, you can always educate yourself with books, podcasts or free videos.

If you wanted to study to be a doctor, lawyer, or even a builder, you’d have to consider a part-time job doing something else on the side or an apprenticeship.

Either way, you will spend years working for peanuts before earning a decent salary.

In the sales profession, it does not work this way.

If you’re dedicated enough to learn sales skills and techniques in your spare time while working a sales job, within six months, you can earn serious money.

3. Unlimited Earning Potential

When you work in the profession of selling, you have unlimited earning potential.

Waaw!

Do you know of any other profession where that is possible?

Sure, people who work in hard labour jobs like plumbers or builders can do double the amount of work and make lots more money, but they’re still limited by time.

There are only so many hours in a day and days in the week, right?

When you master how to sell, you can and will multiply your earnings.

Not only will your company be throwing pay rises and other additional incentives to keep you on board, but your sales results will snowball too.

The more sales you make, the more happy clients you will serve, and the more happy clients you serve, the more referrals you will get.

And this is just the beginning of the snowball effect.

I used to pride myself in offering my clients the best service possible throughout the sale, and I would try to serve my employers the same way.

Today, I run a consultancy that runs almost solely on my past clients and contacts and on the referrals they give to others.

4. A Job for Life

If you’re good at selling, you will never be out of a job.

Think about it, when the economy is booming, who do companies want most?

And when the economy is dying, who do companies need most to survive?

Salespeople, right?

No economy could ever survive without salespeople, it’s just not possible.

You just need to look in any job section in a newspaper or website to see the number of sales jobs available compared to the other professions.

Sales jobs are always available, and good salespeople are always in demand.

If you can master sales, you will essentially make yourself recession-proof and guarantee yourself work for life.

5. The Learning Never Stops

One of the things I’ve come to love about the selling profession is that you never stop learning.

Even after more than 25 years in the profession, I can honestly say I learn something new every day.

You’ll realize that there are a vast number of skills, tactics, and techniques to learn, and you won’t be able to take them all in at once.

I used to schedule a calendar reminder to read my favourite sales book at least once every year.

You’d be amazed at how many new things you discover from reading the same book ten years later.

6. Fresh Challenges Every Day

You should also love the profession of selling because you get to face new challenges every day.

If you don’t enjoy constant challenges, a career in sales is not for you.

If you do, imagine how easy it is to get out of bed every morning, excited about what new challenges await you in the day ahead.

It’s genuinely motivational.

7. That Competitive Buzz

You have to love selling for the competitive buzz you get every day.

Whether competing with your colleagues, other teams, or even yourself, you cannot beat the motivational feeling of a good competitive environment.

Many studies have been done about how working in a competitive environment can bring the best out of people.

Working in a competitive environment helps you stay on your toes, raise your game, and constantly work at improving yourself, which are all healthy for the mind.

8. Fast-Track Career Options

Selling is one of the only professions where you can really fast-track your career.

In my first sales job, I went from working as a cashier to being one of the key telesales reps within 12 weeks.

I can also remember my younger sister getting promoted to sales manager for a small company just a week after she started, with only six months prior sales experience.

I went from being a failed, bankrupt sales loser to becoming a highly respected sales leader in less than ten years.

Anything is possible in this profession, you just have to work hard and believe in yourself.

9. Freedom to Be Yourself

I’m sure you will agree that the freedom to be yourself is a fantastic job perk.

In most jobs, you can be yourself when you speak to colleagues, but when communicating with clients, you often have to pretend to be someone else.

In the profession of selling, you do, of course, have to match your client’s personas, but people will also buy from you because they like you, so being yourself and getting your personality across will ultimately increase your earnings.

10. The Freedom to Work from Anywhere

I am writing this article and deliver quite a lot of my sales and leadership coaching from my home office in a small suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark.

I moved here in 2006 from the UK, where I was born and raised.

Since then, I have conducted business in over 70 countries and have thousands of students in 128 countries.

Working in the profession of selling gives you the amazing opportunity and freedom to travel the world.

I could honestly pack up my suitcase right now and go and sit on a beach in the Maldives and work, provided the internet connection was good enough.

Whether you run your own company, work for a large enterprise, or maybe even a small start-up, you will come across some amazing career opportunities in sales that can take you anywhere.

The world is your oyster with modern technology and your amazing selling skills.

Timing is everything in sales.

You can call a prospect one week, and they will put the phone down on you, and you can call them the next, and you’ll close a sale.

One of the reasons for this is that situations change.

Maybe your prospect did not need your solution last week, but they read an article or saw an event that convinced them they did this week.

If you’ve worked in sales for any length of time, I’m sure you or someone in your team has made a sale to a prospect that one of your colleagues had been calling for months without success.

More often, this comes down to the timing rather than the salesperson’s ability.

You’ll also come across prospects who sound red hot when you first speak to them and cold as ice or impossible to reach the next.

The ‘Buying Zone’ is a term I use to describe a period in which your prospects are in a psychological state of mind where they’re ready to invest in your solution.

But this zone does not last forever.

It can last for days, hours, or even just a matter of minutes.

If you sell low-priced solutions, your prospect can likely make a decision the same day; but if you fail to capitalise on this and take too long to follow up, they will either buy from your competitor or decide not to buy at all.

To give you an example, I walked into a sports store a couple of months back to buy a new pair of football boots.

I knew what make, model, and size I wanted because I had seen them on the internet, but I wanted to ensure the fit was comfortable.

The service I received was so slow that I walked out without the boots and bought a different pair from another store a few weeks later.

I can also remember times when I ended up not buying anything at all due to the salesperson being poor at their job.

I’ve sold multiple solutions to thousands of companies worldwide and can tell you from experience that if you give your prospects too much breathing room, they will always convince themselves why they should not invest in your solution.

When you reach the point in the sales process where your prospect is in the buying zone, you must complete the transaction before that time zone expires.

You can discover if your prospect is in the buying zone by asking how they heard about you, listening out for early buying signals and asking how long they have been looking for a solution.

Prospects in the buying zone will often try and rush you through the sales process, send lots of buying signals, and will often come from specific sources such as customer referrals or paid marketing.

Again, I will stress the importance of never letting a prospect rush you through the sales process, but I will also warn you that prospects in the buying zone are like an endangered species.

When they’re gone, they’re gone.

In this article, I share the 15 characteristics of elite sales professionals I have witnessed in almost two decades as a salesman, leader and sales coach.

Almost every sales team consists of a small number of poor performers, a majority of average performers, and a small minority of Elite Sales Professionals.

These high-performing sales professionals are the ones who not only achieve targets but exceed them.

And they do it month in, month out, without fail.

So what makes this Elite few so much better than all the rest?

What qualities do they have, or what do they do differently than everyone else?

There are some basic personal skills you need to be suited to work in the sales profession, but these alone will not get you to the top.

I’ve worked with, managed, and coached thousands of types of salespeople over the past two decades and noted that elite sales professionals always seem to share specific characteristics.

1. They are Very Competitive

You will not find a top performer anywhere in this profession who is not extremely competitive.

They constantly compete with others or themselves to keep pushing their limits to a higher level.

2. They are Passionate about their Profession

Whether you work in a corner shop or play professional football, you have to be passionate about what you do for a living to perform at your best.

Elite sales professionals are passionate about sales and usually about business too.

They don’t just see sales as a job.

They see sales as a true profession and live and breathe it.

3. They are Selective About What They Sell

Top sales professionals refuse to risk damaging their reputation by selling something they do not believe in.

Believing in what you sell is one of the fundamentals of sales success.

Without it, you will never be able to perform at your very best.

4. The Elite are Always Hungry

It’s not getting to the top that is the difficult part in any profession, it is staying there.

Elite sales professionals never get tired of success. They are always looking for the next challenge.

Sometimes this sees them leave great jobs where they are making great money because they know that success is not a bank balance.

5. They Don’t Aim for 100%

The Elite don’t aim to reach targets. They aim to exceed them.

They don’t aim for 100%, they aim for smashing 100% to pieces. They see 100% as the minimum expected of them.

It’s not very often you will see an elite sales professional looking completely satisfied with doing 100% of their target because they see that as doing their job.

6. They are Adaptable

Top sales performers are like chameleons.

They have a natural ability to act and adapt to match their prospect’s characteristics.

This could be their tone of voice or maybe just how they sit.

This adaption puts prospects at ease and makes them comfortable in the salesperson’s presence.

It psychologically takes down the wall of resistance between buyer and seller and helps develop trust.

7. They Are Honest Professionals

The sales elite always remain professional, no matter the circumstances.

They do this because they care about their reputation and because they care about their clients.

This professional act of caring comes across in how they speak with and listen to their prospects.

It builds trust, makes the closing stage of a sale much easier, and increases the chances of getting referrals and repeat business from the client in the future.

8. They’re Intelligent

The elite learn quickly.

They’re constantly asking questions and don’t need to hear the answer more than once before it sinks in. They instantly take that new knowledge, make it their own, and start using it immediately.

Watching when you put a sales champion into a new environment is fascinating.

They’re like a sponge.

They instantly begin to soak in everything around them, with a burning desire to learn quickly and be the best wherever they are.

9. They are Proud & Perfectionistic

Elite sales professionals care about what people think and are their own biggest critics.

Whether it relates to their customer data, client proposals, or their desk, they always want things to be as perfect as possible.

This ensures they keep a clear mind and reduces the chances of mistakes being made. It also ensures they give their clients excellent service.

10. They Treat Problems as Challenges

When things go bad, it motivates them more than ever.

Whether it’s the latest economic downturn or a new competitor in the market, all champions want to do is get better and win more than ever before.

You will often get the best out of elite sales professionals when their backs are against the wall.

11. They Radiate Confidence

Their answer is always something like; no problem, sure thing, I can do it, we’ll be number one, that’s easy, let’s do it.

They never doubt themselves or their ability to do anything and honestly believe they can achieve anything they set their minds to.

They understand their internal communication with themselves is their biggest influence.

12. They are Well Balanced

This helps them structure their day, manage their pipelines, get home in time for tea with the family, and get plenty of sleep.

This balance is also very important when dealing with prospects.

There can sometimes be a thin line between building rapport and being too friendly with your prospects.

You need to keep that relationship balanced so you can ask for the business when the time feels right, without feeling awkward.

I like to describe it as the Jekyll and Hyde characteristic.

They know the cutting edge needed to switch from consultive selling to closing.

13. They Want the Best Things in Life

Most of the top sales elite want to be able to afford the best things in life for themselves and their families.

But don’t we all?

Well, yes, of course, we do, but not everyone.

Some people have different ideas of the best things in life and say things such as, “I just want to have enough money to get by and give my family the basics they need”.

The difference between these people and the top sales elite is that the elite doesn’t want the basic things in life: they want the best.

They don’t want a Vauxhall, they want an Audi, BMW, or better.

They don’t want a semi-detached house, they want a detached house.

They don’t want a holiday in the Canaries, they want to go to the Maldives.

They wouldn’t even consider staying in a three-star hotel. They want four stars, at a very minimum.

Some people would say this is greedy and materialistic, which I understand, but this desire is often driven by their need to contribute to others.

And this drive for contribution is often why, with the right guidance, many top sales performers turn out to be great sales leaders.

There is nothing wrong with only wanting the basics in life, but there’s also nothing unhealthy about being driven to want the best.

14. They are Humble

Despite being super confident, wanting the best in life, and always being at the top, the elite remains humble and critical of themselves.

They admit to being wrong and work hard at correcting their imperfections.

Without this crucial characteristic, all you would have is a selfish, spoilt movie star who will eventually come down to earth with a bang.

15. They Follow a Process

Last and certainly not least: every top sales performer, the champions, the elite, the best, always follow the instruction manual.

They never skip parts of the sales process and earn the right to close by listening and building a strong value proposition that makes closing sales a piece of cake.

They are always working on perfecting the small steps in the sales process, and so should you.

Conclusion

So that’s it.

That is all that is needed to be one of the elite sales professionals in your industry.

It’s by no means an easy task, but nobody ever said it was.

Cold calling scripts are a hot topic in my sales coaching sessions, and cold calling in general is something people still seem to struggle with.

In this article, I talk about cold calling scripts and discuss what they are, why they are essential, and how to use them.

You need a cold calling script if you’re new to sales or starting at a new company.

What is a Cold Calling Script?

A cold calling script is a written version of what you plan on saying during a cold call.

Like an actor, as a salesperson, you use a script to ensure you remember what to say when it’s showtime.

There’s nothing more soul-destroying than winging your first cold calls without a script and sounding like a fool.

Many salespeople dislike cold-calling scripts, but they are essential to the learning process.

I was also always resistant to them as a salesperson and trainer earlier in my career.

I always considered them rigid and didn’t like the idea of robotically reading from a script.

Only after I studied training for some years did I realise how much cold calling scripts helped to execute on repetition.

And repetition leads to mastery.

Regardless of how you feel about using a cold call script, you won’t need to use one for long.

The Elements of a Cold Calling Script

For context, I typically work with software companies that sell in the business-to-business (B2B) sector.

The objective of a cold call for most companies I work with is to book a follow-up meeting with the prospect.

In this scenario, your cold call script should include the following five elements:

1. Your Call Opening
2. Your Pattern Interrupt
3. Your Value Statement
4. Your Qualifying Questions
5. Your Closing Question

You may think I have forgotten to include the famous elevator pitch.

But pitching is banned unless you’re working with sales cycles that are less than seven days.

Your objective should be to qualify if your prospect has a need for your solution and get a commitment to talk more.

Your Call Opening

Your call opening is the words that leave your mouth when your prospect answers the phone.

Typically this is a short introduction of your name and company name.

“Hello John, this is David White from DCW Coaching”.

Your call opening should take two to three seconds.

Your Pattern Interrupt

A pattern interrupt is a distraction technique to divert your prospects’ attention from trying to end the call.

A well-executed pattern interrupt will free up your prospect’s brain to digest your opening statement.

I created an article recently with some examples of pattern interrupts, and there are plenty on the internet.

But don’t be afraid of creating your own pattern interrupts because the more unique it is, the more effective it will be in the long run.

When I cold call, I tend to use a couple to mix it up:

“John, I know you’re busy, so I’ll just get to it”.

Or

“Did I catch you at a bad time?”

You must deliver your call opening in a professional, direct and authoritative sounding way.

Tonality is critical when cold calling.

Delivering your pattern interrupt should take no more than five seconds.

Your Value Statement

Your value statement is a short line or two that communicates the core benefit and value your prospect can get from your solution.

I typically work with a value statement such as:

“I help sales leaders unlock the potential of the individuals in their sales team and improve performance.”

Or another reverse alternative:

“I work with sales leaders who don’t have the time or resources to get the best out of their sales teams”.

Value statements should ideally be no longer than ten seconds.

However, you will find some examples of value statements that are much longer and still effective.

Your Qualifying Questions

I always recommend having three to four open-ended qualifying questions prepared for your cold calls.

These questions should extract the qualification criteria you need to decide if a prospect has a need for your solution.

My most commonly used first question is:

“Apart from yourself, who else is helping you coach all of the people in your team?”

Or another alternative:

“What resources do you currently have to help manage your time so you can coach your team?”

I also have another two to three questions designed to continue the dialogue if I get an answer to my first question.

Here are some examples;

“How often do you manage to run training or coaching sessions?”

“What are the most common challenges the team struggles with?”

“What have you tried so far to help them with that?”

Asking practical qualifying questions will help you discover if your prospect has a need for your product or service.

That need will usually come in the form of a pain they need to fix or a goal they need to achieve.

Your Closing Question

Your closing question is a question you ask to get commitment from your prospect to take action.

If you have uncovered a pain or goal you can help with, you specifically include that in your question.

And it sounds a little something like this;

“John, If I could help you coach the team more frequently and improve their performance, would you be open to the idea?”

Or another example;

“John, If I can help your team improve their qualifying skills so they book better meetings, is that something you’d be open to?

In a perfect scenario, you’ll get a positive response, to which you respond by asking;

“Do you have your calendar in front of you?”

Or even better;

“Great – do you have time again this week to discuss this further, or will next week be better?”

Conclusion

So, as you may have gathered by now, cold call scripts contain a lot of information.

With practice and repetition, the elements of your script will become second nature, and you can ditch the script.

But until then, keep it with you as a guide and tweak it until it feels natural.

Rejection is part of the sales game, and learning how to deal with rejection in sales can be the difference between success and failure.

Whether it’s hearing “no” from a potential client or missing out on a deal, rejection stings.

But it’s also an opportunity to grow and refine your approach.

In this article, I’ll break down the two core fundamentals you need to embrace rejection and come back stronger every time.

Fundamental 1: Embrace the No

The first step in handling rejection is to accept that it’s part of the process. In sales, you’ll always face more “no’s” than “yes’s.”

It’s not a reflection of your abilities or your worth—it’s just part of the journey.

When you embrace the “no,” you take control of your response. Every rejection is simply a step closer to finding the right fit or the next big win.

Instead of fearing rejection, start looking at it as an opportunity to learn something new.

Maybe the timing was off, maybe you need to adjust your approach, or maybe that prospect wasn’t the right one for you.

Action tip: After each rejection, ask yourself: “What did I learn?” Take one actionable insight from every “no” and use it to improve your future pitches.

Fundamental 2: Focus on What You Can Control

Rejection can feel personal, but it’s not. The biggest mistake salespeople make is letting rejection get under their skin.

The truth is, you can’t control the decision-making process of your prospects, but you can control your own actions and reactions.

Focus on what you can control: your pitch, your energy, and your follow-up.

Every “no” gives you a chance to refine your skills, reassess your strategy, and improve your process. Stay proactive, not reactive.

The moment you shift your focus to your actions, rejection loses its power over you.

Action tip: Develop a consistent post-rejection routine.

Whether it’s tweaking your approach, sending a follow-up message, or reviewing your notes, keep the momentum going.

Conclusion: Turn Rejection into Growth

Mastering these two fundamentals—embracing the “no” and focusing on what you can control—will transform how you deal with rejection in sales.

It’s not about avoiding rejection; it’s about handling it in a way that propels you forward.

Every rejection is a chance to learn, improve, and grow.

The more comfortable you get with rejection, the more resilient and confident you’ll become. And with that confidence, you’ll turn more “no’s” into “yes’s” in the long run.

Further Learning on How to Deal with Rejection in Sales

Learn how to master objections and turn sales rejections into sales opportunities in my objection handling course today.

Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Crafting a Winning B2B Sales CV, where you will learn how to stand out from the crowd and land more job interviews.

Crafting a Winning Sales CV

I was approached by an experienced salesperson recently who was interested in sales coaching, but he didn’t actually have a job. He wanted help finding one.

Despite having 13 years of sales experience and being a true sales hunter, he had very little idea when it came to putting a good sales resume together.

As sales professionals, we understand the significance of a compelling pitch. Our expertise lies in making connections with prospects, solving problems, and closing deals.

However, when it comes to marketing ourselves, it can be a challenging endeavour. This is where a robust sales CV becomes invaluable.

A meticulously crafted sales CV offers you the opportunity to showcase your success history and the value you can bring to a potential employer.

If executed well, your resume can serve as a gateway to new opportunities and career advancement.

Below are tips for creating a resume that distinguishes you from the competition:

1. Tailor Your Sales CV/Resume to Each Position

In the cutthroat world of sales, one-size-fits-all sales resumes are ineffective.

Customization is the key to success.

Take the time to thoroughly review the job description and adapt your sales CV to emphasize the skills and experiences that are most pertinent to the position you’re applying for.

For example, if the job posting highlights experience with SaaS products, you could state in your sales CV, “Generated £1M in annual recurring revenue by targeting new verticals within the SaaS market.”

This not only demonstrates your experience with SaaS products, as mentioned in the job posting, but also highlights your ability to identify and exploit new market segments, a valuable skill in the sales industry.

When personalizing your sales CV, it’s essential to consider both the explicit and implicit requirements of the job posting.

Read between the lines to understand what the employer values most in a candidate, and then tailor your sales CV to reflect those qualities.

Show the hiring manager that you have the specific skills and experiences needed to excel in this particular sales role.

It’s also important to remember that hiring managers often use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen sales resumes and CVs.

These systems scan your sales CV for keywords related to the job posting.

By tailoring your sales CV to the job description, you increase the chances that your sales CV will pass through the ATS and be reviewed by a human reader.

Tailoring your sales CV requires effort, but it’s an investment that pays off.

By customizing your sales CV for each position, you demonstrate that you’ve carefully considered the role and that you’re genuinely interested in it.

Hiring managers will appreciate the attention to detail, and you’ll be more likely to land an interview.

So, remember to make customization a top priority when crafting your sales resume. Identify the key requirements of the job posting, incorporate them into your sales CV, and showcase your ability to meet and exceed those requirements.

In doing so, you’ll position yourself as the ideal candidate for the role and increase your chances of securing an interview.

2. Showcase Your Achievements with Numbers

In the sales industry, success is often measured by numbers, and your CV should reflect that. Numbers provide concrete evidence of your accomplishments and show that you can deliver results.

Including specific figures in your sales resume will help you stand out and demonstrate your ability to meet and exceed targets.

For example, rather than simply stating that you were successful in your previous role, you could say, “Exceeded sales targets for 12 consecutive months, achieving 145% of my sales target in Q4 2022, and consequently being named Salesperson of the Year.”

By using specific numbers, you offer a clearer picture of your performance and showcase your ability to achieve outstanding results consistently.

Presenting your achievements in this way gives potential employers a sense of your track record and shows them what you can bring to the table.

It demonstrates your ability to set goals, work diligently to achieve them, and contribute significantly to your company’s growth.

When you’re writing your sales CV, think about the most significant numbers that reflect your achievements in your previous roles.

This could be sales figures, percentage increases, or any other data that shows your success in a quantifiable way.

Remember to provide context for your numbers, as this helps employers understand the scale of your accomplishments. Did you contribute to a 10% increase in sales?

That’s great, but it’s even more impressive if that translated into an additional £2 million in revenue.

In short, including quantifiable metrics in your sales resume is a powerful way to show your success, demonstrate your impact, and prove your value as a sales professional.

3. Highlight Your Skills and Expertise

Your CV should make your skills and expertise clear in a way that speaks to the hiring manager. Steer clear of generic terms like “excellent communicator” or “team player.”

Instead, provide real examples that demonstrate these qualities.

For instance, you might say: “Used strong communication skills to negotiate complex deals with high-profile clients, including Fortune 500 companies, resulting in an additional £10 million in revenue.”

This not only shows your negotiation skills but also highlights your ability to handle deals with major clients, bringing value to the company.

When you’re crafting your sales CV, consider the specific skills and expertise that set you apart.

Maybe you’re adept at building relationships with clients or you’re a wizard at analyzing market trends. Whatever your strengths, use concrete examples to showcase them and make your CV stand out.

4. Update Your LinkedIn Profile

In today’s digital world, your LinkedIn profile acts as a crucial part of your professional image. Make sure it’s current and matches your CV.

This is also a great opportunity to show off endorsements and recommendations from colleagues and managers, which can be especially valuable in sales roles.

Remember, your LinkedIn profile is often the first place potential employers will look to learn more about you. Make sure it paints a clear, compelling picture of your skills and experience.

Include details of your accomplishments, share relevant content, and join groups that align with your professional interests.

A great LinkedIn profile can make all the difference.

5. Be Honest and Accurate

While it’s natural to want to present yourself in the best possible light, it’s important to be truthful and accurate on your sales resume.

Don’t embellish your achievements or take credit for others’ work. The sales community is often smaller than it seems, and any discrepancies could come back to bite you.

Honesty and integrity are highly valued in the sales profession.

Being truthful about your achievements and experience will help you build trust with potential employers and set you up for success in the long run.

6. Add a Dash of Uniqueness

Perhaps you once worked as a financial analyst before moving into sales. This unique background allows you to approach sales in a way others might not.

For example, you could write: “Leveraged financial analyst background to create tailored solutions for prospects, increasing deal sizes by 25% and leading to a promotion to Senior Sales Executive.”

This shows how your distinctive background has helped you boost sales and earn a promotion.

When crafting your CV, think about what sets you apart. Maybe you have a unique combination of skills or an unconventional career path.

Use these differences to your advantage and show potential employers how you can bring a fresh perspective to their sales team.

7. Get Your References in Order

Think of your references as your cheerleaders; their backing can make a big difference in your job search.

A reference from a former manager might read: “During their time here, this candidate turned a struggling sales territory into our top-performing region, exceeding revenue targets by 150%.”

Such endorsements can reinforce the achievements listed on your sales CV and bolster your credibility.

When asking for references, choose people who know your work well and can speak to your skills and accomplishments.

It’s a good idea to give them a heads-up about potential calls from employers and provide them with an updated copy of your sales CV so they can speak knowledgeably about your achievements.

8. Present Your Accomplishments in a Compelling Way

It’s essential to narrate your achievements in a way that is not only truthful but also compelling. Maybe you once orchestrated a complex deal that required navigating numerous challenges, yet you persevered and brought it to a successful conclusion.

Instead of merely stating, “Closed a major deal,” you could write, “Navigated multiple challenges to close a high-stakes deal with a Fortune 500 company, generating £5 million in revenue.”

This provides a more comprehensive, compelling description of your accomplishment and showcases your problem-solving and perseverance skills.

When discussing your achievements, think about the journey, the obstacles you overcame, and the impact of your efforts.

By providing context, you can paint a vivid picture of your accomplishments and make your sales CV stand out.

9. Keep it Clean and Error-Free

A neat, error-free sales CV not only looks professional but also shows that you pay attention to detail.

Instead of writing, “Assisted with the preparation of quarterly sales reports,” you could say, “Collaborated with the finance team to prepare comprehensive quarterly sales reports, offering valuable insights into revenue trends and growth opportunities.”

This describes the same task in a more precise, detailed manner.

Be sure to proofread your CV several times for spelling and grammar errors. Consider asking a trusted colleague or friend to review it as well.

Small mistakes can make a big difference, especially in a field like sales where details and first impressions matter.

With tools like ChatGPT or Grammarly, spelling mistakes are almost unforgivable these days.

10. Ditch the Objective, Embrace the Summary

Swap out the outdated objective with a powerful summary that showcases your value.

Instead of saying, “Seeking a sales position,” you could write, “Dynamic sales professional with a proven track record of consistently surpassing revenue targets and building long-lasting client relationships.

Skilled at using analytical insights to identify market trends and drive sales growth.” This immediately highlights your value to potential employers.

Your summary should be a concise yet impactful introduction to your CV. It should capture your professional essence and entice the hiring manager to read on.

11. Believe in Yourself

You’re a successful sales professional with much to offer. Don’t be timid about showcasing your achievements.

If you once spearheaded an initiative that significantly increased lead generation, you could write, “Initiated and led a targeted outbound marketing campaign that resulted in a 300% increase in qualified leads and a 20% uptick in conversion rates.”

This demonstrates leadership, initiative, and tangible results.

Believing in yourself and your accomplishments is crucial. When you’re confident in your abilities, that confidence will come through in your CV, your interviews, and ultimately in your sales.

So, go ahead and let your achievements shine.

Remember, a well-crafted CV is more than a list of jobs and achievements. It’s a reflection of your skills, your experiences, and the value you bring to an organization.

By presenting your accomplishments in a compelling way, keeping your CV clean and error-free, embracing a powerful summary, and believing in yourself, you’re well on your way to creating a winning sales CV.

Conclusion to Crafting a Winning Sales CV

Remember, crafting a strong sales CV takes time and effort, but it’s worth it. Your CV is your first impression on potential employers – make it count.

So, roll up your sleeves and start refining that CV. Soon enough, you’ll have hiring managers eager to bring you in for an interview.

As David Ogilvy once said, “The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife.”

Likewise, hiring managers aren’t faceless entities; they’re people looking for someone who can help their teams succeed.

Present yourself as that person, and you’ll be well on your way to landing that dream sales role.

Bear in mind that each job application is unique. Customize your CV to align with the specific requirements and culture of the company you’re applying to.

Demonstrate not only your skills and achievements but also your potential to contribute to the success of your prospective employer’s team.

Happy selling!

In my two-decade career as a sales coach, I’ve served over 5,000 individuals in more than 120 countries.

I’ve worked with salespeople from every corner of the globe, with a broad spectrum of experience levels.

The one universal truth I’ve found is that no matter how high-quality a sales training program may be, it cannot bring lasting results without reinforcement through follow-up sessions.

The Importance of Reinforcement in Learning

After an engaging sales workshop, attendees often leave brimming with enthusiasm, ready to implement what they’ve learned.

However, without follow-up reinforcement, their retention of the material swiftly diminishes.

In my early years as a sales trainer, I saw that my workshop sessions’ impact would fade within weeks. It was disheartening to watch my clients’ investments in training evaporate.

I remember a training program I conducted for a sales team in Europe some years ago.

During the sessions, the participants were active and involved, and they reported gaining valuable insights. However, when I followed up a few months later, I found that most had returned to their old habits.

The training had a transient effect but failed to bring about lasting change.

The Game-Changing Decision

After observing this pattern time and again, I made a significant decision – I would no longer accept one-off sales training projects from new clients unless they also invested in post-training reinforcement through sales coaching.

This decision marked a turning point not only in my career but also in the success rates of the salespeople I trained.

One of the many stories that stick with me is about Sarah, a salesperson who attended one of my training sessions. Sarah was slightly overwhelmed during the training, with a wealth of information to take in. Our subsequent coaching sessions were transformative for her.

We tailored our discussions to her unique needs and challenges, giving her space to ask questions and explore specific areas that she struggled with.

In these coaching sessions, Sarah truly began to shine.

Sarah saw a dramatic improvement in her sales performance and credited our coaching sessions as the catalyst for her success.

Ensuring No One Gets Left Behind

When training sales teams with a mix of experience levels, it’s inevitable that not every participant will derive the same value from the sessions.

Some will grasp the concepts quickly, while others may struggle. Follow-up sessions are vital in this context, ensuring every team member receives the individualised attention they need.

I remember training a team in the Philippines that included both seasoned sales veterans and newcomers.

After the training, the veterans successfully implemented the techniques, but some newcomers were floundering.

In our coaching sessions, I worked with these newcomers to understand and apply the concepts at their own pace.

The results were remarkable – not only did their performance improve significantly, but their confidence levels also soared.

Additional Benefits of Reinforcement and Follow-up

Besides bolstering retention and understanding, follow-up sessions can have several positive effects. One benefit is that they create a sense of accountability.

Knowing there will be a follow-up session where they need to report on their progress and discuss any difficulties can motivate salespeople to be more diligent in applying what they’ve learned.

Moreover, follow-up sessions can serve as a platform for continuous improvement. Sales is a constantly evolving field.

Techniques and strategies that were effective a few years ago may not be as potent today. Regular follow-up sessions can be an opportunity for salespeople to stay updated on the latest trends and best practices.

Lastly, follow-up sessions can help identify areas where additional training is needed. Salespeople may uncover gaps in their knowledge or skills that were not addressed in the initial training.

By addressing these gaps in follow-up sessions, salespeople can become more well-rounded and effective.

Conclusion

Sales training is a powerful tool that requires reinforcement to bring long-lasting results.

Follow-up sessions are an indispensable part of this process. They provide the necessary reinforcement, create a sense of accountability, and offer an opportunity for continuous improvement and personalized attention.

In my 20 years of experience, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative effect that follow-up sessions can have.

They have been the key to success for countless salespeople I’ve worked with.

If you’re considering sales training for your team, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of investing in follow-up sessions as well.

It’s an investment that pays dividends in improved sales performance, confidence, and continuous growth.

Most people think sales coaching only covers general sales skills or pipeline management, but knowing how to be more confident comes up much more frequently.

Knowing how to be more confident and combat low self-esteem is one of the most critical skills we need to achieve things in business and life.

But despite what some claim, learning how to be more confident isn’t easy.

But it is very achievable.

So, in this article, I will share some practical advice on how to be more confident and combat low self-esteem today.

The Foundation of How to Be More Confident

We become self-confident when we become good at something.

Let me say that again, so you can write it down and remember it because it’s important.

We become self-confident when we become good at something.

That is when confidence comes naturally.

But, in order to get good at something, you have to do it over and over and over.

Repetition equals mastery.

Whether you’re making cold calls, pitching investors or trying to beat your kids at Fortnite, you must put in the practice.

And doing things once or twice won’t help.

You must practice, drill and rehearse multiple times until what you are doing starts to feel natural and automatic.

This is when you will start to develop real self-confidence.

It is called reaching an unconscious level of competency.

Self-Confidence Hack

Some people recommend using the ‘Fake it until you make it’ strategy for how to be more confident, but for this to work, you’ll need a little help.

Let’s say you are going to an important interview for a management role or meeting with a huge client.

Even if you are an experienced master of your trade, self-doubt can appear out of nowhere and take bites out of your confidence.

To avoid this, before you set off or enter that meeting or event, take a quiet moment for yourself and close your eyes.

You then need to think back to a time in the past when you were at the peak of your confidence.

A time when you did or achieved something amazing.

Maybe it was winning a sports event as a child, getting your first job, last promotion or something else.

When you have isolated that moment in your head, take yourself back in time to that specific moment and recall the five senses you felt.

When was it? Where was it?

Remember the smell in the air and the taste of the confidence you felt.

What could you hear?

How did you look?

How did you physically feel?

Once you have yourself isolated in that moment of ultimate confidence, stay there and re-live it for a minute or two.

Notice how re-living the moment fills you with the same feeling of confidence right now.

And then open your eyes, take a deep breath and remind yourself you are good enough and can do anything you put your mind to.

One of the most common topics of many of my sales coaching sessions is about how to negotiate, but most salespeople fail to identify the early signals.

Many negotiation tactics signal the beginning of a negotiation, and it’s essential you become aware of these to avoid treating them either as an objection or rejection.

In my experience, the signs commonly used by the prospect to try and negotiate a better deal are as follows:

1. They Send Buying Signals

The prospect may send you clear buying signals.

A well-oiled negotiator knows how the seller’s brain functions.

They know that if they send you enough buying signals, you’ll smell the sale, and the discounting will begin.

During my live sales negotiation workshops, I often show a picture of a cute fluffy teddy bear.

The bear is meant to resemble that fluffy feeling you get in your stomach when you think you’ve hooked a prospect who sounds ready to buy.

What usually happens, as a result, is you drop your guard and start to throw in some free extras because you’re so happy.

By this point, the prospect has you in an entirely vulnerable position.

You must pull yourself together next time you feel that fluffy feeling.

Your prospect’s flirtatious buying signals can be nothing more than a way of buttering you up to see what deal they can get.

Don’t fall for it. Burn the bear.

2. They Raise Objections

Another common negotiation sign is when your prospect raises objections.

The most obvious example might be when they say something like, “We feel the price is too high” or “We’ve got a better price somewhere else.”

Nonsense always.

If your prospect has a better price elsewhere, why are they still talking to you?

Use the objection handling strategy to isolate the smoke screen and progress to handle the real one.

This statement is often nothing more than a shakedown to get a better price.

3. They Complain or Criticise

Another common smoke screen objection that can signal the start of negotiation is when a prospect nitpicks about certain missing features.

The average salesperson usually has a good comeback.

They promise to get the feature in the next release or devise a perfect workaround.

Smart enough, but a complete waste of time.

When your prospect starts to nitpick, especially on multiple occasions, use the objection handling strategy to isolate the smoke screen again.

More often than not, these missing features are of little value, and the prospect won’t be able to explain why they’re of any importance.

Remember, though, if the prospect raises objections about anything that puts them in the position of being the owner of your solution, it’s a buying signal. It’s not the start of a negotiation.

If the prospect is at the stage where they’re reading the detailed terms of your offer, there’s little need to negotiate unless you’re negotiating brick wall objections such as strict company regulations about payment terms, property rights issues or something similar.

There are, however, certain exceptions to this.

From time to time, you’ll have to get approval on your sale from people with different motives than your primary contact.

As frustrating as this can be, you must stay calm and treat these people respectfully.

An individual in a financial department has one goal – to save the company money.

If your sale needs approval from someone in finance, it’s often because it exceeds a certain amount.

So, when your prospect tells you they need approval from finance, be prepared to negotiate because this is often why these processes are in place.

Another common hurdle in the approval process can come from legal departments whose common goal is to protect their company from making harmful or risky deals.

In my experience, getting past the legal department can either be a breeze or an absolute nightmare.

Some legal teams will request a detailed list of large, small, and sometimes strange contract amendments, whereas others will request few to none.

In my experience, most of the changes are negotiable. I had a new client query fourteen different areas in my contract not long ago, and I agreed to amend just two.

You must not become overwhelmed when dealing with finance or legal departments. A defensive and argumentative response to innocent requests will get you nowhere.

You’ll find that some people just need to be educated on how your solution works.

I once had a legal team request that his company get exclusive rights for the software they were about to purchase.

I had to explain to him they would have to buy our company before I could request such a change.

If you can make the required legal changes, then do so. If you can’t, then explain this to them in an unemotional way.

A stubborn, inflexible approach to contract negotiations is a winning strategy for losing the sale.

The signed contract is too close.

4. They State their Budget

This is commonly a bluff when a prospect tells you how much they have to spend.

In my experience, if the prospect says they only have £200 to spend, they most likely have 3, 4 or even £500.

The figure given could either be an estimate of what they feel your solution is worth or a rough calculation of what the prospect estimates as a good starting point in the negotiation.

This is, again, a buying signal, and with a little creative thinking, you should be able to handle it without trouble.

Sadly though, it’s all too easy to give in and close a quick and easy sale, and that’s usually what the average salesperson does.

The prospect wins, and the sale is closed. This is a result of fear.

You fear if you don’t give in and let your prospect win, they will walk away, and all of your hard work will have been for nothing.

What most salespeople fail to consider is how much time and effort the prospect has invested into the sale, and how badly they may want your solution.

By the time you’ve reached the final stages of the sales process, your prospects have often invested just as much, if not more time than you in getting the sale approved.

On top of the time spent talking with you, your prospect may have dedicated hours to researching and testing solutions, getting budgets approved, coordinating with other team members and stakeholders, and much more.

Trust me; they won’t walk away if they want your solution.

If they do, it’s because they didn’t see the value in the first place.

If your prospect tells you they only have x amount to spend, repeat it back to and paraphrase where possible.

Then hit them with any of the following questions where applicable.

“Will it help if I can spread the payments?”

“How do you feel about starting on the lower package and upgrading later?”

“When will you get more budget allocated again?”

“Which other departments could benefit from the solution?”

“What do you suggest we do now?”

Most importantly, you must be prepared to walk away.

The idea of doing so at this stage of the sales process may seem outrageous, but unless you can learn to hold your cards tight to your chest, you’ll never win a negotiation and will leave money on the table every time you close a sale.

5. They’ll ask, “Is That Your Best Price?”

The smart, direct, and fast-moving negotiator will always ask, “Is that your best price?”.

This is a huge buying signal.

A quick rebound question like, “What makes you ask?” is a smart response when followed by silence.

The question will often prompt your prospect to explain precisely why they asked.

Here are some examples of typical responses I’ve witnessed.

“Because that’s what your competitor offered me.”

“I feel it’s too expensive.”

“I’m just asking.”

Either way, you’ve isolated the real objection and will better understand how to proceed.

6. They Get You Excited

Another strategic approach used only by master negotiators is to ask for more than they need.

These negotiation Yoda’s know perfectly well how to tap into the average salesperson’s emotions.

They do it by creating excitement.

And they create excitement by requesting your biggest package with the most number of users or whatever other add-ons you have, resulting in a potentially huge-looking sale.

The prospect’s objective is to see how flexible you are with negotiating the pricing.

Their strategy is to get you excited by the potential size of the sale. They will then negotiate the best deal for that package before dropping down to a lower option.

To avoid this situation, you must ensure you’re the one recommending which package your prospect needs.

If they start asking about a higher package, beware of the dollar signs that may cloud your judgement and re-qualify the prospect’s needs.

Treating every prospect with a cautious and somewhat pessimistic approach will serve you well.

7. They Use Your Competitors

Another common sign of a prospect who is negotiating is the constant mentioning of your competitors.

These prospects will often not be rushed into making any decisions and will be sure to let you know they’re speaking to your competitors.

You must not allow the name-dropping of your competition to trigger your ‘discount mode’.

I refuse to enter negotiations with such prospects.

In my experience, they often end up being poor clients with no loyalty who will do the same again next year.

Focus on your solution, and treat the prospect as if the competition was not involved.

If you enter into a negotiation with these prospects, be sure to give them a ‘buy-right-now-at-this-cost’ ultimatum to avoid them playing you against your competitors.

8. They Befriend You

You’ll be blown away at how easy it is to make friends when you work in sales.

And you’ll also be blown away at how quickly those friends want something from you, too.

Getting too friendly with your prospect will make negotiating difficult.

Your prospects know that if they get friendly with you, you’ll likely give them a good deal.

You’re asking for trouble if you fail to draw the line between your personal and professional relationships.

I genuinely believe most prospects are friendly and without an agenda.

However, a few always ruin it for others, so stay on your guard.

9. They Play Weak

A common tactic the smart negotiator uses is to play the ‘lack of authority’ card.

Both decision-makers and non-decision makers can utilise this strategy.

If you’ve not already uncovered the stakeholders involved at this stage of the sales process, then you’ve got your work cut out for you.

I won’t suggest a strategy for this scenario.

I’d rather have you struggle, feel pain, and be motivated next time to qualify using the process questions covered earlier in the book.

I believe it’s called being cruel to be kind.

You’re in serious trouble if you enter a negotiation with a non-decision maker.

If you’re lucky, your primary contact will help you. If you’re unlucky, they will play you.

It’s easier said than done but try at all costs to negotiate with the decision-maker directly.

I suggest you all get together on a call, communicate via email, text, chat – whatever – so long as you negotiate with the right person directly.

Negotiating via a go-between prolongs the process, gives more power to the decision-maker and leaves you in the dark about how your opponent is feeling emotionally.

It’s important to know if your last offer enraged them or not before making your next move.

If you know or have a suspicion you’re already dealing with the decision-maker, this could be the start of a negotiation or stall.

A prospect who feels pressured into making a decision may pull the ‘I-need-to speak-to-my-partner’ card to buy more time.

This is good. It tells you their brain is in full working order, and they need a little time to ensure they’re not making a rash decision.

You may be in trouble here if you’re selling a fluffy ‘nice to have’ solution.

If you give your prospect time to process their decision, they’ll likely disappear, never to be seen again.

But if you believe your prospect can get value from your solution, and you feel you’ve done enough to earn the right to ask for the business, grab their tail and pull them back in.

Ask them a question such as;

“Apart from the final sign-off, is there anything else that’s stopping you from going ahead today?”

What you want to do now is take them through those commitment steps again, ensuring they see value in your solution.

If you sense pricing is the concern, bring it up.

Ask them if the payment terms align with their company policy or expectations.

There are plenty of ways to fish out the real objective behind the ‘lack of authority’ card, but if you truly know you’re dealing with someone who can sign off, it’s time to get cheeky.

The best and most direct way of cutting to the chase is to say’;

“You’re not saying that just to get rid of me, are you (First Name)?”

You must say this in a direct yet friendly tone, and it must be followed by instant silence, so you can monitor how your prospect responds and decide on what to do next.

Most salespeople fear using this approach with gatekeepers, let alone decision-makers.

They fear the stakes are too high at this stage of the sales process.

I can tell you from personal experience that I have used this approach repeatedly throughout my career, and it separates the real prospects from the potential time wasters every time.

Your prospect will likely respond in one of three ways.

1. They laugh and begin to negotiate.
2. They innocently and repeatedly confirm they’re not trying to get rid of you, which signals guilt.
3. They respond angrily and end the call, in which case, they just saved you valuable time.

Fear will hold you back in sales and life.

If you lack the confidence and ability to call your prospects bluff, you’ll lose the negotiation every time, even if you win the sale.

If there’s one strong belief you should have when negotiating with the decision-maker, it’s that if they’re negotiating for your solution, it’s because they want it.

So, learn to negotiate with confidence and use fear to your advantage.

In the words of Harvey Spector from Suits, “Play the player, not the game.”

Limiting beliefs are the negative things we tell ourselves that stop us from trying things and ultimately limit our personal development.

We often accept a belief to be true based on our experiences and assumptions rather than facts.

One of the most challenging parts about limiting beliefs is that they are often subconscious, so we don’t recognise we have them until someone them out.

Examples of Limiting Beliefs

Here are a few examples of some of the most common limiting beliefs I hear from my clients and other people in my daily life:

• I keep getting really angry and don’t know why.
• I’ve tried that in the past, and it doesn’t work.
• My work life makes it impossible to find any balance.
• I’ve tried everything and don’t know what to do now.
• I don’t get on very well with people.
• I’m not very good with authority.
• I just can’t control my anxiety.

The Power of Limiting Beliefs

I first learnt about limiting beliefs when I was studying Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), and it turned out to be quite a big personal breakthrough for me.

You see, our beliefs (positive and negative) make up what’s called our belief system which ultimately influences our identity as human beings.

For example, if you believe you’re a shy person who doesn’t get on very well with people, that limiting belief will significantly impact your entire life.

And the thing is, most people know these limiting beliefs aren’t true but continue to say them because they feel like it’s part of their identity.

How to Identify Your Limiting Beliefs

The best way to identify limiting beliefs is to ask yourself questions.

For example, you could ask yourself a list of ‘Are you good’, questions such as:

• Are you a good person?
• Are you a good parent?
• Are you a good leader?
• Are you a good colleague?
• Are you good at selling?
• Are you good at learning?
• Are you good at driving?

Before coming up with a list of questions, asking yourself what areas of your life or career you feel you need to improve most can be helpful.

For example, you might feel like you want to improve your conflict management skills so you should ask yourself the question ‘Are you good at dealing with conflict?’

If your answer is anything other than positive, the big question to ask yourself is;

Why?

Your limiting belief(s) will almost always be hidden in your answer.

How to Challenge Your Limiting Beliefs

Once you uncover your limiting beliefs, you can now begin to question them.

You may find this exercise challenging as some of your beliefs may be deeply embedded in your identity since childhood.

You may also have a belief that has been reinforced multiple times too.

For example, one of my coaching clients once believed she wasn’t suited for a leadership role.

When I asked why, she said she didn’t think she had the right qualities.

And when I asked her to describe her version of a leader, she immediately started talking about a couple of her past leaders who were very controlling and not nice.

She had created a template for what a leader should be based on a past negative experience, which had been reinforced more than once.

Thankfully we were able to correct her belief of what qualities a leader needed and, as a result, remove her limiting beliefs that she was not suited to leadership.

Fact or Fiction

I often get my clients to play a game of ‘Fact or Fiction’ with me to help remove limiting beliefs and to help with general doubts.

It’s a great way of ridding yourself of making decisions based on assumptions.

For example, I once worked with a high-performing senior account executive who felt pressured to always work late.

I found it strange that someone who overperformed consistently would feel this way, so naturally, I had to dig into this and ask her, “Why?”.

“I feel like my boss is staring at me and judging me for leaving on time if he is still there”, she said.

“Okay, so if we were to play a game of fact or fiction, which would that statement come under?”, I asked.

Obviously, her statement was based on fiction as she had no concrete evidence her boss was judging her or thinking anything of the sort.

Maybe he was just looking at her, thinking she was rude for not saying goodbye.

Or maybe he was just daydreaming.

Who knows?

Conclusion

Limiting beliefs can be powerful and destructive and keep you from achieving your goals and dreams.

So many of us go through our days with a fixed mindset based on beliefs from our past experiences that may not necessarily represent reality.

But, by using some of the techniques suggested in this article, you can quickly raise your self-awareness and start working on creating a new reality for yourself.

If you say you can’t, you’re right.

If you say you can, you’re right, too.

What is the secret sauce for creating raving customer advocates that never leave?

I’m talking about customers that will repurchase and renew time and time again and never even entertain a conversation with your competitor.

Three words.

Under Promise. Overdeliver.

Amazon and Gong.io Set the Bar

Although I had heard the saying ‘Under Promise. Overdeliver’ many years back, I’d never really experienced it until I moved back to the UK for a couple of years in 2018.

And then I started using Amazon to order stuff for my new apartment.

Delivery estimate: Tuesday 16th April

Actual delivery: Monday 15th April

Amazon offers a wide range of products at competitive prices, a slick buyer experience, fast delivery, excellent communication and easy returns.

But their real ace card is that they frequently deliver earlier than estimated.

They do entirely the opposite of what we expect from most companies.

We have become so used to late deliveries and returns being a painful experience over the years that we have come to expect and accept it.

Gong.io – The B2B Example

On the surface, many people know Gong.io as a sales coaching tool that records calls and provides sales reps and leaders with call feedback.

It’s a fast-growing large US company with a strong brand and over 1,500 employees.

If you work in business-to-business (B2B) tech sales, it’s hard not to know about Gong, as everyone raves about it.

But people often say the same thing at the end of that passionate pitch.

“But it’s pretty expensive”.

Past buying experiences would make it easy to conclude that it’s likely going to be expensive and difficult to use, and I am not going to get much customer service.

But hopefully, it will deliver on its promise of what it does.

And then you get the budget approved and take the risk, hoping it works out so your CFO doesn’t crush you at the next budget meeting for an expensive mistake.

One of the biggest problems with most companies is that their websites and salespeople do such an excellent job of overselling their solutions.

It’s common to feel oversold when you finally get your hands on a product.

But not with Gong.io – not, at least, in my experience.

Even though I had been convinced to invest on the back of rave reviews from two sales leaders I trusted, I was still sceptical of how good it would be.

And then I was met with something way better than I could have imagined.

I won’t go into detail because you’ll probably start thinking Gong is paying me a commission or something, but it is a fantastic tool in many ways.

Like Amazon, the buying process was slick, and communication was excellent, but Gong’s ace card was their fantastic product.

Despite the many appealing promises made on their website, the product delivered so much more.

So much so that I think their pricing is way too cheap – don’t tell them, though 😉

And even if another competitor came along, how could anybody else possibly live up to standards that have already exceeded what I expected?

Conclusion

If you want to create raving customer advocates for your business, you need to stop overpromising because even if you have a good solution, it will never be amazing.

You are in control of setting the expectations for your customers.

But unless your solution exceeds those expectations, your customers will only ever feel like they got what they paid for at best.

Let’s Work Together

I help startups and small businesses of all sizes to start up and scale their businesses locally and internationally.

Learn more about my small business consulting services today.

In this article, I share the most important sales negotiation strategy lessons I have learnt throughout my career and talk about the importance of negotiation cultures.

During my sales career, I have been lucky enough to win clients in over 60 different countries.

I’ve also trained and coached thousands of people in 128 countries and worked with multiple international sales teams.

This experience taught me many valuable lessons about how important culture is when negotiating.

International Negotiation Cultures

Certain nations have particular negotiation cultures and so do companies.

For example, when selling to many African nations, you should always expect to negotiate.

It’s almost customary to do so.

I’ve also experienced the same in the Arab countries as well as India, Italy, and others.

And yet, in places like the UK, negotiation is often seen as rude and unnecessary.

Many people fail to respect cultures, including many companies and their salespeople, when they attempt to break into international markets.

Whether you’re selling on the international market or locally in your own country, you’re going to be dealing with prospects from a variety of cultures.

There are no guarantees the person you’re trying to sell to was born in that country, so their negotiation style may be driven by another culture much different from yours.

I learnt from my own painful experiences how adaptive one needs to be when negotiating in different cultures.

Initially, I would take my prospect’s low starting point in the negotiation as an insult, get all emotional, end the call, and close the opportunity down as ‘lead lost, no budget’.

Heavens knows how much business I lost back then as a result of my immaturity.

Company Negotiation Cultures

I’ve also worked with many fast-growing start-ups and witnessed how quickly a culture of heavy discounting can be born and how costly it can be.

The culture of winning new clients at all costs in the startup phase is a lot of fun, but the negotiation culture of heavy discounting is an expensive and hard habit to kick.

There’s certainly no mistaking why companies such as Apple, Salesforce, or Tesla are so successful in winning and retaining clients despite fierce competition from lower-priced suppliers.

They do this by offering high-quality products and services and almost always maintaining a strict no negotiation policy.

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, hit the nail on the head in 2016 when he heard some of his salespeople had been offering discounts on new cars.

In a company email, he wrote:

“If you can’t explain to a customer who paid full price why another customer didn’t without being embarrassed, then it’s not right.”

I couldn’t have put it any better myself.

I used to give a similar message to my sales teams, and I stick by it today.

A seemingly harmless discount can appear worthwhile when it gets you above target.

But if that client spreads the word, it can quickly become a costly error.

I remember one of my past employers creating a ‘win at all cost’ strategy to get the top ten brand names on board in particular verticals.

In one of those verticals, we landed the UK’s biggest retailer at a heavily discounted rate.

It was a roaring success and was celebrated throughout the company.

I also remember when one of my reps was about to close their main competitor a few months later.

It was the last day of the month, the deal size was huge, and it was down to the final call.

the day the second biggest brand in that same vertical was about to become a client at full price.

I remember the look on the rep’s face as he came to me after the call had ended.

Turns out the prospect was friends with the marketing director at his competitor, who had shared the details of his agreement, including the price.

That one discount alone cost the company thousands in lost revenue.

Conclusion

Sales negotiation lessons can be hard to take, but if you if implement the following two factors into your sales negotiation strategy, it can save you a lot of pain (and money).

1. Always respect and be aware of the culture of your prospect. They may not have been raised in their country of residence, this may not negotiate as you expect.
2. Be very cautious of creating a culture where heavy discounting is used to win deals. It’s often great for the short-term, but costly in the long run.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to negotiate, my sales training courses or sales coaching services may be of value.

In this post, I am going to share with you the two critical negotiation lessons you need to learn from to improve your sales negotiation skills.

If you want to learn how to negotiate, try having kids.

When I became a father in 2010, I can honestly say my sales and coaching skills were tested on a whole new level.

I remember being in a negotiation scenario with my son, Alexander, when he was five.

Alexander was going through a testing period, and I had been strategising with my wife about how we could best handle his temper.

The following evening, I got the chance to apply one of those negotiation strategies.

How to Negotiate with an Angry Customer

We’ve always had a set bedtime routine in the evenings with Alexander.

We aim to have him ready and in bed by 7 pm, which means we’ve to get things rolling by 6.30 pm to leave room for the explosive reaction to come.

Part of our new strategy was to give Alexander a short pre-warning five to ten minutes before the bedtime routine was to begin, and this was where I began.

On this particular evening, Alexander was happily playing with his toy trucks in the hallway.

I approached and gave him a pleasantly toned warning.

“Five minutes before it’s time to start getting ready for bed, Alexander,” I said.

“FIVE MINUTES? THAT’S NOT MUCH,” he yelled with an angry tone.

Luckily, Alexander wasn’t at the age where he fully understood time, but he was at the stage where he would negotiate everything.

“Okay then, you can have two minutes,” I said, knowing full well his response would be to negotiate an extra minute or two more.

As expected, he settled for three minutes and continued to play.

Phase one complete.

Now that’s how to negotiate.

I had successfully negotiated an agreement seven minutes better than aimed for and, more importantly, avoided the explosive tantrum we expected. 

Bravo, Daddy.

Knowing three minutes feels more like thirty seconds in a child’s brain, I let Alexander play for a couple of extra minutes before approaching him again.

“Okay, Alexander. It’s time to go to the bathroom now,” I said, to which I got a super aggressive “NO!” in response.

I took a deep breath, smiled and calmly knelt to his level and, in a low tone, said, “Hey, listen. We agreed on three minutes before, and I’ve allowed you almost ten.”

“Ten,” he said in shock.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Okay then,” he said, and off we walked to the bathroom to get ready.

I looked at my wife with a huge smile.

“I’ll be using that one again next time,” I said.

The negotiation was complete, both parties were happy, and I had a recipe for success.

Or so I thought.

When Negotiations Go Wrong

A couple of days later, I found myself in a similar situation.

Alexander had just started playing with his building blocks in the living room, and I calmly walked in fully prepared for action and gave him his ten-minute warning.

Only this time, there was no negotiation.

Alexander smashed his building blocks to pieces, sending them flying across the living room floor, and spent the next ten minutes kicking and screaming.

What the hell went wrong?

The Two Important Factors of Negotiation

So, here we have a story of two similar negotiations, approached with the same strategy but with two different outcomes.

And it’s a story with two very important lessons about how to negotiate.

1. Every Negotiation is Unique

There is no one winning formula to ensure you win every negotiation on your terms.

You can master tips, tricks, and techniques, but the outcome is often never the same.

2. Emotions Drive Decisions

If you’ve been in sales for long enough, you’ve probably witnessed a prospect get angry after you’ve told them the cost of your solution.

This emotional response can often come down to their expectations about the cost.

Maybe they had seen a lower price on your website or made a foolish assumption.

You never know.

There was one small critical difference in the two almost identical scenarios I just shared about Alexander.

In the first negotiation, I approached Alexander after he’d been happily playing for some time with his trucks.

He would have liked to play a little longer but had no big plans.

In the second negotiation, I approached him just a few minutes after he’d started to construct something with his building blocks.

This time he had expectations of playing a little longer and maybe building whatever he had planned to complete.

Then along came Daddy, who destroyed those expectations, resulting in the emotional reaction that essentially ended the negotiation.

Sure, I could have avoided or stopped his emotional outburst by offering him a better deal, but the result would have been a tired and grumpy child in the morning.

The child wins the negotiation, and Daddy wins the sale, but it’s a bad deal for both parties.

When reality doesn’t align our expectations, we often react in an emotionally negative way.

It’s a common human error you’ll need to navigate with your prospects.

So next time you enter a negotiation, remember Alexander and try to treat every situation as unique, and learn how to control your emotions so you can stay calm and in control.

When it comes to breaking bad habits, there are not many that are tougher to break than micro-pitching.

What is Micro-Pitching?

Micro-pitching is the habit of pitching your solution multiple times during a conversation. It usually starts with you asking a question, which your prospect answers.

You then match one of your features or benefits to that answer and tell your prospect all about it.

Here’s a live example from a call I reviewed recently:

Salesperson: “What do you do to drive traffic to your website at the moment?”

Prospect: “We mainly spend money on search engine advertising.”

Salesperson: “Great. The reason I asked is that we have a licensing agreement with XYZ Ltd, which enables you to get star ratings and can increase your CTR by up to 17%.”

Prospect: “Oh right, interesting.”

The conversation continued with the same flow, and the prospect requested an email with some more information before escaping from the call.

It’s common that some salespeople use the same approach when handling objections, too, ultimately leaving them unresolved.

Why Salespeople Micro-Pitch

Some people micro-pitch because they’ve been poorly trained, whereas others do it because they’re not comfortable asking questions.

The urge to micro-pitch often comes from your healthy passion for your solution. The excitement to tell your prospect how you can help solve their pains or achieve their goals proves hard to resist.

The last thing I want to do is kill your passion, but I do want to persuade you to use it when the time is right.

Micro-Pitching is a killer.

It kills conversations, it kills presentations, and it kills rapport.

Your prospects want to feel like they’re in a dialogue with a professional consultant who cares about their business and wants to understand and help with their challenges.

When you micro-pitch, it not only becomes incredibly tedious for your prospect to listen to, but you begin to sound like a stereotypical salesperson from the 60s.

Not good.

How to Kill the Habit of Micro-Pitching

Instead, picture being a soldier at war trying to get to the front line with limited ammunition.

The front line is your presentation stage, and the ammunition is the contents of your presentation.

If you start firing too early, you’ll not be much use on the front line if you’ve used all of your ammunition, right?

The faster you understand that the best method of selling is by not selling, the more successful you’ll become in the sales profession.

Ask questions with the purpose of collecting the valuable information you’re going to use to deliver your compelling presentation when the time is right.

You’ll only be able to break the habit of micro-pitching if you replace it with a new one.

I highly recommend pinning a very visual sticky note or poster in your place of work to remind you to shut up and save the pitch for the presentation.

It will make you much more efficient on the front line.

The reason why cold calls fail hasn’t changed much over the past decade.

The video below was my first ever live recording I published on YouTube in 2013. As much as it makes me cringe everytime I watch it, it’s still on point.

Too many salespeople are unprepared for reaching the right person and instantly blurt out their elevator pitch in the hope their prospect won’t hang up.

Being unprepared isn’t the only reason why cold calls fail though.

Cold calls can fail for a number of reasons, whether that’s talking too much, too fast, not asking open ended questions or just catching your prospect on a bad day.

This is just part of working in sales.

How to Improve Your Cold Calling Success Rate

I could probably write a list of 100 things you could do to improve your cold calling success rates, but for this post, I will give you a list of 5 things to get you started.

1. Call the Right People in the Right Companies

This one sounds obvious, however, the amount of companies still relying on quantity over quality when it comes to cold calling is shocking.

You need to know or try to define your ideal customer profile (ICP).

Too many salespeople spend their days just calling anyone with a marketing director or CEO title at any company in the region they cover.

By making your target audience niche, you have a better chance of having more relevant conversations with prospects that have a real need for your solution.

2. Separate Lead Preparation and Cold Calling

In order for cold calling to be effective, you need to get in the zone.

If you have to spend 5-minutes preparing for each dial you make, you’re not going to get much done and it’s going to frustrate you.

Schedule a dedicated number of slots each day or week to get your lead preparation done.

And when I say lead preparation, I mean the tedious things such as adding and updating the data in your CRM for the companies and contacts you will call.

In an ideal world, you will have the company name, contact name and phone number as a minimum.

You should complete your lead preparation during the off-peak parts of your day and not during peak calling hours.

By completing your lead preparation in advance, you will be able to get in the zone when cold calling, which will improve your flow, volume, confidence and conversations.

3. Pick a Script and Stick to It

You might not need a physical cold calling script, but you do need a script.

A script is what you will say when you reach your desired contact person.

If you don’t prepare for what to say, you won’t be able to create consistency in your calls, resulting in random outcomes.

I experience far too many salespeople winging it on every call because they’re confident enough to think on the spot, and although it can work, it’s not scalable.

You need to test your call scripts at volume, so you can measure which works best, and then you should keep tweaking and testing it to see if you can get even better results.

4. Remember to Breathe

One of the main reasons many salespeople talk so fast and mess up when they reach a prospect is because they forget to breathe.

No matter how experienced and brilliant you get at sales, your heart rate and anxiety always increase when that phone starts ringing.

So, remember to take a deep breath before dialling and another just after your pattern interrupt.

I would also recommend listening to music before and, if possible, during the call until you reach the prospect.

Feel free to use my B2B Sales Playlist – Don’t judge me. I’m an 80s kid 🙂

5. Focus on the Outcome, Not the Call Volume

I recorded a podcast with Casey Carnevale from SellX recently and asked; what was the main reason she felt was behind her success in cold calling.

She replied, “I always begin with the end in mind. So, to me, it didn’t matter if I needed to make 200 calls or 2 calls. I just focused on getting the meeting.”

This stuck out for me as it’s been quite some time since I’ve been measured on call volumes, but I remembered that’s exactly how I always worked.

You shouldn’t be in a rush, feeling stressed about doing as many dials as possible. You should be on a mission to achieve your desired outcome.

So, screw your boss if they’re a micro-manager and demand you do 200 dials a day and focus on the one goal that counts.

Do you have any great ideas for improving cold call success rates, or want to ask any questions about this post? Let me know in the comments.

In this article, I will walk you through the three common types of sales objections and provide some practical tips on how to deal with each one.

If you’re interested in learning more about sales objections, check out my free sales training course on how to handle objections in sales.

There are three common types of sales objections you must learn to identify before trying to handle objections from your prospects.

Some, you will be able to handle.

Others will be a waste of your time.

1. Smokescreen Objections

The smokescreen is by far the most common type of sales objection you’ll come across. It’s a false objection used to disguise the real one.

Two common examples of a smokescreen objection are when a prospect says your solution costs too much or when they tell you they’re not interested.

The best way to quickly judge if you’re dealing with a smokescreen is to ask yourself if there is a reason behind the objection.

For example, a prospect saying your solution costs too much could be that they don’t have the budget, but it could also be that they don’t see the value.

The same goes for when a prospect tells you they’re not interested.

There could be a considerable number of reasons behind this objection ranging from them having a bad day to having recently purchased another solution.

You just don’t know.

When you fail to spot a smokescreen, you waste a lot of time and energy trying to overcome the wrong objection without coming closer to making the sale.

Another classic example of a potential smoke screen is when a seemingly hot prospect starts nitpicking at the small details of your solution, such as the features and functionality.

You may find that despite your suggested workarounds, the prospect just claims it’s not sufficient and walks away from the deal. In reality, there was probably another reason why they did not go ahead with your solution.

2. Real Objections

The most significant types of sales objections you must overcome are the real ones.

Thankfully there are a small number of real objections compared to smoke screens, so unless you offer a weak solution, you should be able to master overcoming all of them in a short space of time.

When handling sales objections, you must pay particular attention to your prospect’s tone. If they move fast and aggressive, you do the same.

If they move slow and cautious, you move slow and cautious, remembering to speed up again when you’ve overcome the objection.

Objections can relate to time, cost, service, features, and many other areas of your solution, which is why you need to master how to handle them accordingly and why your product and market knowledge needs to be sharp.

3. Brick Walls

You’ll also come across sales objections you cannot overcome.

These are what I refer to as ‘Brick Walls’.

An example of a brick-wall objection would be if you worked in real estate and had a prospect who wanted to buy a house but had no money and could not get credit from the bank.

There would be very little you could do about this situation, and the likely outcome would be that the sale wouldn’t happen.

The best salespeople will always try to find workarounds to make a deal happen. However, it’s important not to frustrate yourself with brick-wall objections by trying too hard.

You can try to find your way over, under, or around a brick wall objection, but do not waste your time and energy trying to break through it unless it’s worth a substantial amount.

If you come across a brick-wall objection at the end of the sales process, you likely failed to qualify your prospect efficiently, so rather than getting frustrated with your prospect, learn from your lesson and move on.

I witnessed a classic example of this a few months back when role-playing with a team of experienced salespeople for one of my clients.

I knew the client offered a software solution that didn’t work on Mac computers without having to install a Windows operating system.

For some companies, this workaround is no problem, but for most, it’s a complete brick wall.

Not one of the salespeople asked me about what computers my company worked with as part of their qualifying questions.

As a result, I hit them with the objection after 15 to 20 wasted minutes of the call, and there wasn’t any reason to continue.

I strongly recommend you write down as many of the common brick walls you know that can kill a potential sale and ensure you’re raising these potential objections as part of your early qualifying questions with new prospects.

It can save you a lot of wasted time and frustration.

Conclusion

Objections are a normal and necessary part of sales.

Some you can handle.
Some you cannot.
The key is knowing the difference.

When you master the skill of handling real objections — and avoid wasting time on smokescreens and brick walls — you’ll close more deals.

And most importantly, you’ll stop chasing buyers who were never serious in the first place.

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📌 Consultative Selling
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