Sales Techniques and Effective Selling Skills

Sales isn’t just about selling — it’s about solving problems and creating value. The best sales professionals know that success comes from focusing on the customer, not the product. This simple acronym S.A.L.E.S. highlights the fundamentals that drive results: 🔹 S – Serve the customer’s needs True sales begin with empathy. Understand what your customer values most. 🔹 A – Ask the right questions Powerful questions uncover pain points, desires, and opportunities. 🔹 L – Listen actively and carefully Sales isn’t about talking more — it’s about listening with intention. 🔹 E – Explain the value clearly Don’t just pitch features; show how your solution creates meaningful outcomes. 🔹 S – Seal the deal with confidence Trust yourself, your product, and your process. Confidence inspires customer trust. ✨ When sales is done right, it’s not about “closing deals” — it’s about building partnerships and long-term relationships.

Last week, I was asked "What are the top 5-10 skills of $1M income salespeople?" 90% of salespeople can't answer this. They usually stop at 3-4. Here's the top 10: 1. VALUE-CREATING Discovery. I'm not talking about the "typical" discovery most salespeople do (the kind every buyer hates). I'm talking about the kind that actively creates value for your buyer. The kind where you leave them off better than how they entered the disco call. 2. Business Acumen. Business acumen makes all your other sales skills twice as valuable. That's what we call a "threshold skills." When you improve your business acumen, you automatically get better at discovery, negotiation, prospecting, and more. 3. Negotiation. The richest people in the world are deal-makers. That's not a coincidence. Likewise, the highest paid salespeople are deal-makers. They can negotiate with or without their boss in the room with them. 4. Stakeholder Management. This includes finding (and creating champions). Strategic (rather than random) multi-threading. And accessing Power. In short, this is intentionally managing the "blend of people" involved on the buyer's side. 5. Pipeline Generation. Goes without saying. The person who can feed their own top of funnel control their destiny. They can write their own check. You're not truly in control of your destiny until you can do this. 6. Insightfulness. Great salespeople know their space. They use that knowledge to teach their buyers to think differently about the problem at-hand. This dramatically improves their credibility. It also "rigs" the deal in your favor. 7. Storytelling That Creates Epiphanies. Not just any old storytelling. Storytelling that changes how people think and feel about their situation. Storytelling that leads to epiphanies. You can't convince someone into an epiphany. Because you can tell a story that they can see themselves in. 8. Mastery Over Your Market. When you know your buyers so well you can write a page from their journal, you're golden. What are their hopes, dreams, desires, fears, frustrations? What are the conversations they have going on in their heads? Learn this. Pays huge dividends. 9. Ability to Learn, Un-Learn, Re-Learn. Market conditions change faster than most of our skills evolve to meet them. The top producer of tomorrow is learning the new and different skills that tomorrow will demand. 10. Social and Emotional Intelligence. Obviously, if you have all of the above skills, but you cannot interact with another human to save your life, they aren't worth much. The good news is you can learn emotional intelligence. The bad news is it takes SOME emotional intelligence to learn it. What would you add to the list? P.S. Take the first step and turn discovery calls into paying customers with these 10 discovery scripts: https://lnkd.in/dSPMU5SM

I was a psychological warfare officer, and this book changed the way I sell. (No, it’s not a book you’ve likely read). ➡️ You Can’t Teach A Kid To Ride A Bike At A Seminar by David Sandler Here’s how to scale sales and not try to receive your emotional needs from selling: 1. Behavior, Attitude, Technique (BAT): Success in sales is driven by behavior, attitude, and technique. Sandler emphasizes the importance of maintaining the right mindset, engaging in consistent, productive behaviors, and mastering effective sales techniques. 2. The Importance of Pain: Understanding the prospect's pain points is crucial. Salespeople should focus on uncovering the emotional reasons behind a prospect's need for a solution, rather than just presenting product features. 3. Upfront Contracts: Establishing clear agreements with prospects about what will happen during sales interactions. This helps in setting expectations and ensuring mutual understanding. 4. Qualifying Prospects: Not all prospects are worth pursuing. The Sandler system encourages salespeople to qualify prospects rigorously based on their pain, budget, and decision-making process to ensure they are a good fit. 5. No-Pressure Selling: The system advocates a no-pressure approach, where the salesperson acts as a consultant or advisor rather than a traditional seller, helping prospects make decisions that are best for them. 6. Reverse Selling: This technique involves turning traditional sales techniques on their head, where salespeople ask questions and let the prospects do most of the talking, leading them to discover their own needs and solutions. 7. Negative Reverse Selling: A specific technique where salespeople use negative language to provoke a positive response from the prospect, often revealing their true intentions or feelings. 8. Post-Sell Steps: Ensuring that the prospect is satisfied and committed after the sale, to prevent buyer's remorse and reduce cancellations or returns. This book taught me more than any of my sales leaders. Master the principles and you can grow sales and eliminate selling “headtrash.”

I learned the secret to sales long before I ever held a quota. Not in a boardroom. Not in a sales training. But in a rhetorical theory class at San Francisco State. My professor stood at the front of the room and shared the ancient wisdom of Aristotle. "If you want to persuade anyone of anything, you must master three modes of persuasion...ethos, pathos, and logos." That day, Aristotle made his way into my DNA. Years later, when I entered the world of sales, I realized… This wasn’t just philosophy, it was the playbook. Here’s how it works: 1. Ethos (Credibility) If they don’t trust you, they won’t hear you. Build authority. Speak with confidence. Show proof. They’re not just buying the offer, they’re buying you. 2. Pathos (Emotion) People act when they feel. Tap into their hopes, their fears, their dreams. Empathy isn’t just good humanity, it’s good business. 3. Logos (Logic) This is where the numbers, structure, and sense-making come in. Even emotional buyers want a logical reason to say yes. Clarity closes. Sales is about persuasion. Persuasion is an art. And Aristotle? He was the first real sales coach. Which one do you lean on the most, ethos, pathos, or logos? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear how you’re using this in your work. #salestips #communication #leadership

Sales isn’t a solo act. It’s strategy, empathy, and execution. Sales isn’t just about closing deals anymore. Today’s most effective sales professionals are part strategist, part storyteller, and part operator. It’s a dynamic blend that goes far beyond charm and charisma. 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 Your product or service isn’t the hero—your customer is. Great salespeople know how to craft a compelling narrative where the buyer overcomes a challenge, achieves success, and sees your solution as the trusted guide along the way. It’s not about features. It’s about 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 Every decision-maker brings personal motivations, fears, internal pressures, and biases to the table. Understanding these unspoken drivers is key. Sales success often comes down to asking better questions, listening closely, and uncovering the 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 reasons behind hesitation or urgency. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 Even the most enthusiastic “yes” can fall apart without structure. Sales cycles are complex—multiple stakeholders, timelines, next steps, and follow-ups all need to be managed carefully. Top performers don’t just influence—they coordinate, prioritize, and remove friction at every stage. In short, sales today requires much more than persuasion. It requires 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘺, 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦. If you’re excelling in all three areas, you’re not just selling—you’re building relationships that last. --- Follow Michael Cleary 🏳️🌈 for more tips like this. ♻️ Share with someone to make an effective salesman.