I was never a huge fan of social media. Never really used any of the social media platforms, and frankly after reviewing the garbage that people post and endless doom scrolling of content, I feel like I made the right call very early on to avoid the cesspool that is social media.

However, I do have LinkedIn. And for a while now, LinkedIn seems to be another place that is becoming very much like Facebook or Instagram. And look power to those who leverage these platforms and build a name for themselves. They do that because they have an audience and if people are getting value from what these influencers are sharing, great, I wish em all the best of luck.

Having said that, my concern is with experienced sales people that are now selling courses or giving advice to young sales reps out there, that perhaps are just looking to get started with their sales career or are pretty new in their journey of sales. They look up to folks with years more experience than them, especially if these experienced sales people worked with companies that are well recognized and popular in the space in which they operate.

That for the most part legitimizes the sales person who is dolling out the advice, because well, if they are associated with that company they must be a top tier VP sales or manager right?

I mean sure that could the case, it takes a lot of grit to be able to make it to the top of the food chain and to hold your own but that does not always translate to the fact that the advice that they are giving out is the ultimate gospel that needs to be followed.

Let’s not take this post as me shitting on other sales influencers (I really dislike this term btw). Like I said, power to them. If their message is helping other sales reps and resonating with people, that’s great. What I am hoping to achieve here is to ensure that folks who read this, especially if they are just starting out in sales or looking to level up, it’s to block out all the noise coming from folks that are 7, 8 or 10 steps ahead of you in your career.

I used to love Gary V, I liked his content, his messaging, but what I realized after watching him for 2 months in a row is that what he was sharing was not advice, it was just a tiring tirade of hustle porn. And if that’s what gets you going, great, consume more content like that. But like the vast majority of people out there, this constant need to better yourself and work 28 hours a day is not something I want to do as I grow older. It’s a sure shot way to assure an early grave, and I happen to enjoy life so want to live a little bit longer.

Anyhow, back to the topic. Just scrolling through LinkedIn can give you massive FOMO, it seems that there are new sales techniques out there that if you don’t know, you won’t close enough deals. End of the year selling guidance, sales qualification questions, proper ways to do demos, books to read, cold plunges at 4am, it’s just too much.

What all of these things don’t factor in are perhaps the external factors that have nothing to do with your selling technique and maybe to do with the market in which you operate, the company you work for, the prospects, your sales cycle, product and so on and so forth. What the vast majority of advice that I seem to be seeing has all to do with the sales reps and how MEDPICC and BANT are whats going to get you in to the hall of fame of sales.

I’m not discounting the need to better yourself, you should invest in yourself and grow. But what I am saying is that you will always feel inadequate if you don’t block out the noise and think that your skillset is not enough. Because these skills are some esoteric god like features that only a few of us possess. I got news for you, that’s not the case.

Sales really hasn’t changed much

Yup. Sales hasn’t changed much since the caveman days. It’s about a need (or a want) someone has and your ability to fulfill that said need or want. Be that be in a form of a software, or service, or a tomato, that depends on the person buying or looking to resolve that pain point.

Sure, the method and the technology we use to sell has changed dramatically over the course of my lifetime alone. And you should always try and get ahead of it. Having said that, the tech itself is not making leaps like it did before. And out of fear of sounding bold, AI while helpful is not going to put the sales reps out of business.

We are in the early days and people as well as businesses are all getting on the band wagon of the hype around AI, it will take time for us to play around with the tech, make mistakes and when the dust settles, ascertain how much AI can really help move the needle when it comes to selling. But more on that at a later date.

95% of sales is knowing your product, being responsive to prospects, and just showing up.

That’s it.

You do that, and I assure you, you will be ahead of 80% of the sales reps out there. No need for fancy selling techniques, or collared shirts and fake small talk.

Sure being likable will help – but the way you ask a certain question during a cold call or the way you craft your email subject line doesn’t mean that much.

That doesn’t mean that the content of the email is not important, it certainly is. Your messaging is important, but a huge focus on getting the right email subject line or way of asking questions on cold call is just a myth.

Most people dislike being cold called, so you’re essentially already on a bad position to start with. How the person you are calling is feeling and how receptive they are (things beyond your control) play a much larger role than your way of asking questions.

A lot of times what people forget is that they are selling to normal human beings. Just be yourself and don’t forget to enjoy the selling process.

One of the things that I often see (and I experienced it myself too) is that selling to sales people is really weird. It becomes this weirdly odd dance of what will they like because they are in sales.

If you’re selling sales training – it has to sound appealing to the sales person, whether it’s effective or not. It’s an odd cycle. The days of SaaS sellers selling SaaS to SaaS sellers really spun out so much crap. I’ve never heard of one company running Becc Hollands playbook that it actually worked for.

But I do want to draw a distinction – what we (the sales people) see as “common sense” is absolutely not common or what people outside of sales think sales is. In the absence of training to the contrary, new sales people inevitably end up acting like used car sales man.

And that brings me to the next point.

Stick to the basics

Once you’ve got the basics down and most importantly are using them consistently, “tips and tricks” from influencers and “gurus” are pretty worthless. It’s all about listening precisely to your prospects and matching the solution to the need rather than jumping in with the product demo in the beginning, which is what so many neophytes do.

Pro sales people, they always listen and let the prospect talk. Famous words from a sales guy whose name I cannot recall at the moment said, thats why we have two of these (pointing to ears) and one (pointing to the mouth), so we listen more than we speak.

Pop culture fails to portray this, which attracts wannabe “silver-tongued devils”. My manager when I started in sales once asked me what I was doing different because my close rates were 50% higher than my team mates. I shrugged and said luck, because what i was doing felt so intrinsically basic. He pushed because you could predict the leaderboard month over month, so it can’t be luck.

What I did differently than my peers was, well actually give a crap about the prospects, and some people might disagree with me on this, but I always negotiated on behalf of my customers with my manager before the first proposal, so there was no room for me to go any lower. The number of times people would try to haggle, and I could confidently assert that I already went to bat for them, and that they can try another rep at one of our competitors and see what they offer first.

Don’t think I’ve ever lost a deal because of that and won so many more than i can count.

To everyone new to selling or looking to level up in their career, in sales it is in your selfish interest to be selfless – that is if you’re playing the long game.

So yes, there are a lot of sales people out there that are killing it, and while I dont want to minimize their efforts, please take everything with a grain of salt. Timing and product certainly help a lot.

Following up though, is like 60% of the job. A lot of sales reps forget or dont follow-up on time and they lose deals. You have to make sure you stay on top of your follow-ups and stay on top of the prospects, especially if they ask you to follow-up after a certain time.

Speak to any customer you are selling to or have sold to in the past, hell speak to any consumer out there and they will all tell you that they end up buying from people who aren’t pushy with the product and take their time to understand what is important to them rather than what they are trying to sell.

If you’re just a normal human being whose primary objective as a sales rep is to honestly help me solve a problem rather than get me to buy into whatever your solution is, I as a consumer am more likely to buy from you.

Steering people away from some of our products they think they want, but aren’t the best solution for them, creates a level of trust and generates more future sales.

90% of being a successful rep is just about being a normal likable person, who is responsive, accountable, curious, and knowledgeable about the industry in which they operate.

Look, at the end of the day I love this profession and I hate this snake oil crap that some sales people try and sell folks who really truly want to learn and level up. It’s totally ok to be new at something, it’s ok to want to learn. You should always strive to do better.

But, understand that to get to a position to even provide legitimate advice about any profession takes years and years of experience. Which is why even for me after years of working in sales, it can become overwhelming just scrolling through Linkedin and being blasted with all kinds of different advice on how to be a better sales person, and it just drains you and most of the time you will feel adequate. Not to mention thinking that there is some big secret that you are not in on, when it comes to sales.

Block out all the noise, stick to the basics, learn the product that you are trying to sell, understand the industry that most of your prospects operate in, what their pain points are, and just be the person that wants to help the prospects not sell them and I promise you, you will go far.

Happy hunting!