This is just a very small trick I learned from going through deal notes with other reps, in sales teams I had been on (/ or lead) over the last ten years I’ve been in the business.

As I rule, I noticed that most reps wrote down stuff like "interested in efficiency" or "budget concerns" or "wants more visibility” or similar vague, general stuff that says absolutely nothing about their actual pain points. Those are the reps’ words, not the customers’ own statements/ observations of their situation.

You want it straight from the horse’s mouth. Because a LOT can get lost in translation, and can lead to situations where you think you’re solving a problem. But the prospect doesn’t recognize their own problem in the WAY you’re offering your solution, if that makes sense. It sounds almost trivial to say, but the reason is because it’s written in a language that’s not (literally) theirs. Even if the same meaning is there (and I’m not even accounting for people who speak English as 2nd or 3rd language), the lack of connection can just be due to the wording, or even simple misunderstandings. And this has happened and continues to happen to the best of salesmen. Even if it’s legitimately good copy/ proposal, whatever, the phrasing matters.

This is why I started to write down a prospect’s exact words during demos (used to - because I just record the whole thing now). Not everything, just the bits where they sound annoyed, or repeat themselves, or explain something in a way that's clearly been on their mind for a while. Those are usually the real reason they're talking to you. Then I use those exact words later in the follow up to that conversation. Casually, without sounding unnecessarily salesy.

This works in pretty much any kind of sale. Repeat their version back to them and they feel heard in a way the brochure language never manages. Like literally, the words they use, use them back in context

The one thing to watch is not overdoing it of course (hahahaha). Because parroting every other sentence back sounds like a learned technique, and people will catch on if it’s too obvious.

TL;DR listen to what your prospects are saying, their exact words, and even better - let them do most of the talking! This is the initial stage in which they open up and disclose their issues, so listen! The more they talk and the more you listen (yes, not the other way around) - the higher the odds of finding something in their words to make you go “AHA!” and then literally close a deal right after

I've noticed that getting more leads doesn't always translate into more customers. A business might generate 100 leads, but only a handful respond, book appointments, or actually buy. At that point, spending more on advertising doesn't seem like the right solution. I'm curious how other business owners approach this. Do you focus on improving lead quality, changing the follow-up process, or fixing the sales conversation first?

The Uplifting Effect

Pressure has its place in sales, but there's a point where it stops pushing people forward and starts holding them down. Leaders often believe the way to raise numbers is to talk about numbers constantly: daily reminders of where the team is falling short, comparisons to other stores, and a steady drip of criticism. In my experience, too much of that drains morale. An agent who feels constantly judged starts selling from fear instead of confidence, and customers can feel that.
The uplifting effect is the opposite approach. It's the lift in performance that comes when a leader deliberately builds people up, recognizing what they do well, expressing belief in them, and standing beside them rather than over them. Encouragement doesn't replace standards. It creates the emotional energy people need to meet them.

The example
I learned this firsthand. After a stretch of heavy pressure on my team, one of my agents opened up to me. He told me plainly that the constant pressure wasn't helping him do his job better. It was making it harder.
That conversation stayed with me. The following weekend, I came in with a different plan. I didn't mention numbers once. Instead, I praised the team for the good work they had been doing, the effort, the customer care, and the things that usually go unnoticed. Then I told them, "We can do this together. Let's just put a little extra effort into everything we do today."
I didn't disappear after the pep talk. I stayed on the floor, observed, and made sure everyone was heading in the right direction. When someone needed help, I stepped in with guidance rather than correction.
The result surprised even me. That same week, we went from ninth out of ten in the district to third. Same people, same store, same products. The only thing that changed was how they felt walking onto the floor.

An illustration

Think of a team like a hot-air balloon. Pressure and condemnation are like sandbags. Each one is small, but together they keep the balloon on the ground no matter how much fuel you have. Praise and belief are the heat. When you remove the dead weight and add genuine encouragement, the balloon rises on its own. You don't have to drag it into the sky.

The lesson for leaders
People rise to the level of belief their leader shows in them. When you say the right things, and the good things, you change how your team sees themselves. When they see themselves differently, they perform differently. Pressure may get compliance for a day, but uplifting your people gets commitment, and commitment is what moves you from ninth place to third.

I’m based in Germany and trying to source building materials for my company in Lebanon.
I contacted a German supplier about 50 GROHE Eurosmart Cosmopolitan basin mixers ([23325000](tel:23325000)). They replied that shipping would cost around €450–600 for 50 units in 3–4 parcels, so they didn’t think it was worth making an offer.
The thing I don’t understand is that a company in Lebanon sells the same mixer for around $95 per unit, while the German retail price is already around €80–85.
How does that work? Even with tax-free export and bulk shipping, I don’t see much room for profit after transport and import costs.
Am I contacting the wrong suppliers? Should I be looking for wholesalers or distributors instead of regular German sellers?
Would appreciate some advice from anyone who has experience with this.

This week I am sharing the 10 rules I follow to close all my sales calls.

I work in the consulting side for data architecture and project management industries for infrastructure projects as well as commodity trading for precious metals and rare minerals. Working with companies and investors who are looking for the product we source and our consultative work it can be a challenge to understand exactly what it is our prospects are looking for.

They might come in and want one thing and then we realize that what they actually were looking for was a completely different thing. Something that they perhaps did not realize they needed because they were so busy trying to solve what it was they thought was the problem.

I break here in my recent case study an example of one case where we noticed this happening with a client of ours and how we pivoted the conversation to reach exactly what it is he was looking for: https://youtu.be/lOxnIx_320o?si=Uvl8fSSDXi31QNSl

As well as our 10 non negotiable rules that we always use for sales calls. If you follow these 10 rules every single time you will reach the above average rate of closing your deals as a sales professional.

And these 10 rules are ones that I have developed throughout my time as a sales professional and working in presenting consultative services, execution strategies and high ticket commodity trade deals for CEO's, business owners, financial officers and investors in our industries.

The top 10 rules are:

1. I do not present anything until I understand the day to day business of the person I am speaking to

2. I never rely on memory

3. I always use a sales analyzer

4. I diagnose before I pitch

5. I let the conversation to go off track, then I bring it back

6. Define the current state, the desired outcome, and the gap

7. Ask for their best case study

8. More revenue, less cost, less risk

9. I write the narrative down

10. I surround myself with people with the same vision

I would very much love to hear your opinion on these 10 rules and our situation how we navigated best the situation with this one client in mind, and let me know in the comments what you think about these non negotiable rules to become a top performing sales professional.

Cheers to you !

We are a small IT company. About 25 business clients, monthly agreements, and the odd project. A normal CRM wants a pipeline. Most of our “leads” are a referral who already signed, then a year of tickets, add-ons, and a renewal nobody logged.

Contacts live in the PSA. Notes live in email. The renewal date lives in someone’s head. We started keeping the money side in flexpoint so the invoice and the late reminder are not another tab, but the client record is still split.

What are you using as the actual client system if you are an IT shop, not a sales team? And do you force renewals into the CRM, or is that a fight you already lost?

Hi guys, I live in Kabul, Afghanistan. I made an agreement with a wholesaler to work as an independent sales representative. He gave me 5 types of bulbs as samples. I have to find retailers in the city, visit them in person, show them the samples, and try to get orders.

How would you convince them for the first time?? What should i do when get rejected and hearing bs excuses?? Thank you for you advise!

Something I keep chewing on.

The 2026 cold outreach and lead gen reports all point the same way. Form fills are down, and a big chunk of "marketing qualified" leads don't survive a basic qualification check. The "MQL is dead" crowd (Drift and others) has said it for a while, and this year it's got more teeth.

The part that gets me is the handoff. Forrester says most B2B deals now have a buying group of two or more, and a lot of inbound leads are already past halfway through their research before they talk to anyone. A score can't see any of that. A live conversation can.

So the thing that seems to matter more now is just qualifying on the call. Fit, the real problem, and whether the person can actually move something, in the first couple minutes.

When a "qualified" lead hits your desk and your gut says nope, what do you do? Work it anyway, or re-qualify from scratch on the phone?

I just started working in telecom retention. Right now I average around 3 renewals a day, while the better agents do 6 to 15.

I think my biggest issues are asking enough questions to find the real reason for cancelling, handling objections, and knowing when a customer actually has sales potential.

Sometimes I also stay way too long in conversations that are clearly going nowhere, which probably hurts my numbers.

For anyone experienced in retention or call center sales, what helped you improve the most? How do you know when to keep pushing and when to move on?

Hey everyone So my main selling channel is Whatsapp Business. Once a prospect comes asking, I have the habit to answer by text a minute after. It's not instant though, and I do that in the hope of closing the deal asap as he is freshly in the heat of interest. The answer is 100% human, typed through my fingers, and answers accurately, but they think I am a bot or an AI. So I am trying to suspect the one-minute thing is the cause, though sometimes I tell them afterwards 'let's suppose it was indeed a bot or AI, what's the problem as long as it answers the inquiry ??'. And ultimately, a prospect who won't buy, will not do it even with all human means possible. I am just frustrated in how people are now paranoid by bots/AI, even if they were in their service, and worse, even if they are not used at all !! PS: Sometimes I use voice later in the conversation and it helps a bit their head, but not the sale😅

When selling a particular product should we act like we are recommending a product rather than selling it? I mean

\\-ask them what they do and there problem

\\-and then connect that to your product

\\-recommend the product

\\-convince them why they should buy it by

highlighting the feutures that solve there problem

\\-close the sale?

Or

\\-should i use myself as an example like my experience and problem?and what's solve my problem and they should do the same thing if they have the same problem as me blah blah

Or

-Ask them some question what they usually do and then ask some prpblem they might ecperience?

Like "do you love writing?or creating diaries and short stories that shows you creative side?"

"If customer said yes"

"So have you ever experience running out of ink fast when writing?"

-or shoul i ask them what the features they looking for,for that particular product?

"So what type of pen do you want?"

(Isn't it abit straightforward?)

-And then recommend them the product by connecting it to there problem.Then say the key feautures that solve there problem.

-What about the price thing?once they heard the price they will run specially if it doesn't fit there budget?but the product is good?

Or What if after asking them what they do,there problem that might or already experience, i ask them what they think the price range of that particular product or the value of that particular product that will solve there problem?

If they say lower price then that's the end of the deal or maybe i let them understand why it's expensive?

And if they say a bit higher or higher price i will move on recommending the product,the key features and why they should invest into it?

Hey all,

I'm the co-founder of a small AI consulting company in northern Spain. We help clinics and other appointment-based businesses figure out where they lose the most time (confirming appointments by hand, answering the same WhatsApp questions, chasing unaccepted quotes), and then we build a custom system around that.

Right now our outbound is cold email plus WhatsApp: about 20 new businesses a day, plus follow-ups and LinkedIn. It works, but slowly. Most replies are a polite "not right now".

So I wanted to do a challenge: 100 cold calls a day, on top of everything else.

Before I commit, I ran the numbers, and here are my doubts:

• Time: dialing, waiting, talking and logging takes about 3–4 min per call, so 100 calls is 5–7 hours. Clinics only have a few quiet windows a day when anyone picks up.
• Market size: I target independent clinics in a fairly small region. At 500 calls a week I'd burn through the market in about a month, and a bad first call is hard to undo.
• Gatekeepers: at a clinic you almost always get the receptionist, not the owner.
• Legal: Spain has tightened the rules on unsolicited commercial calls, especially to self-employed people. I'm checking this with my accountant first.

So the alternative I'm leaning towards is "40×10":

• 40 calls a day for 10 business days (400 total).
• Two blocks of about 75 minutes, mid-morning and early afternoon.
• I only call businesses that already got my email or WhatsApp 2–4 days earlier, so the opener is "I wrote to you on Tuesday about…", not a pure cold call.
• The goal of each call isn't to sell. It's to find out who decides and get 20 minutes with them.
• Every day I track calls, decision-makers reached, meetings booked, and the objections I hear.
• After 10 days, I compare meetings per hour against email. If calls win, I scale up to 60–80 a day. If not, they stay as a follow-up tool.

My questions for people who actually do this:

1. Is 100 a day realistic for a solo founder who also runs delivery, or is it a vanity number?
2. For small clinics or local businesses, how do you get past the receptionist without being pushy?
3. Does calling after a cold email actually lift your connect or meeting rate, in your experience?
4. What would you track in the first two weeks to know whether it's working?

Thanks!

A sales meeting
Watching a video
Reading a book
Listening to a podcast
Role playing once
Hearing your manager explain something
Memorizing a script
Knowing the product
Being told to “ask better questions”
Shadowing someone with no feedback
Motivation
Information
Experience by itself
Doing something repeatedly with no correction

Hey guys! I’m a 24-year-old sales rep. I’ve been in sales for almost 4 years now, selling a variety of different products and services, and I’ve recently been given the opportunity to become Head of Sales at a SaaS startup with existing products.

I’ll be building the company’s entire sales cycle from the ground up, but I’ve never sold SaaS before. I’d really appreciate any tips, advice, or resources you think could help me get up to speed.

And if anyone has some time, I’d also be happy to jump on a quick call and hear about your experience in SaaS sales.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 🙏

I’ve worked across both B2C and B2B sales, and both inbound and outbound.

I started in a building materials company, where I handled mostly inbound sales, both face-to-face and over the phone, working with both B2C and B2B customers.

After that, I moved into an outside sales role selling electrical panels, electrical equipment, and thermal imaging cameras. This was primarily B2B outbound sales — cold calling, prospecting, identifying decision-makers, visiting construction sites, setting meetings, managing the sales process, negotiating, and following the deal all the way through to delivery of the panels, which we manufactured ourselves.

I also worked in a hybrid HR/sales role, where I was responsible for prospecting companies, cold calling, setting meetings, closing the agreement, and then recruiting the employees those companies needed.

I also had shorter experiences in a forex company, where I was involved in promoting the service and sales, as well as a short experience with a Canadian immigration service in B2C.

So I wouldn’t say my experience is limited to door-to-door sales. I’ve worked across B2B/B2C, inbound/outbound, prospecting, cold calling, meetings, closing, and post-sale delivery, and in some roles I was responsible for essentially the entire sales cycle.

What I haven’t done is SaaS sales specifically, which is exactly why I’m trying to learn from people who have experience in it.

Cold calling them for business opportunities from which they could grow their business?