Importance of Sales Fundamentals

Despite what you read on Linkedin, Buyers still want to talk to salespeople. I’m a CEO. I’m a buyer. Most of the time I want to talk to a salesperson.  People love to cite Gartner research that 43% of buyers prefer a self-directed approach but then fail to mention that those buyers regret their decision 23% more frequently than those that work with a rep. It’s not that buyers don’t want to talk to salespeople. They just don’t want to talk to poorly trained, uninformed salespeople that waste their time. News flash. That’s not all sellers. The best sellers have passion, curiosity, and are focused on problem solving. The best sellers know the product inside and out and lead with authenticity and transparency, telling you exactly who their product is for and who it’s not for.  The best sellers know their ICP.  The best sellers are craftspeople combining genuine human empathy with adherence to process and structure.  They are rare. But they are out there. Those are the folks I want to talk to.  Here’s another Gartner quote: “The single biggest driver of purchase likelihood in a b2b sale is the degree to which customers feel confident about their own decisions. However, b2b customers in an all digital world are unwittingly pursuing buying behavior deeply contrary to confidence creation. In other words, digital only buying actually harms customer confidence.” TAKEAWAY Digital only buyer experiences lead to inaction and regret. We don’t need a “buyer enablement” team (sorry Santosh). We certainly don’t need a VP of Buyer Enablement.  We need great salespeople that are trained to have authentic human conversations that help people solve problems and people from Interest to Decision.

Sales is not won by pressure. Sales is won by process. In many organisations, when numbers are under pressure, the first reaction is to increase the pressure on the sales team. More follow-ups. More reminders. More escalation. More urgency. But sustained sales performance does not come from pressure alone. It comes from clarity of direction, discipline in execution, consistency in follow-up, and trust in relationships. A good salesperson does not merely chase an order. A good salesperson understands the customer’s need, qualifies the opportunity, builds confidence, offers the right solution, follows the process, and earns the decision. Sales is not a one-day push. It is a daily rhythm. The strongest sales teams are not necessarily the loudest or most aggressive teams. They are the teams that know their customers well, manage their pipeline honestly, review progress regularly, and stay calm even when targets are challenging. Pressure may create activity. But process creates predictability. Pressure may deliver a short-term order. But process builds long-term business. In sales, speed matters. But direction matters more. The real goal is not just to close faster. The real goal is to build better — better trust, better execution, better customer understanding, and better repeat business. Because in the long run, sales is not about forcing outcomes. It is about building a system where the right outcomes become more consistent. Sales is a process. And when the process is strong, performance becomes sustainable. #SalesLeadership #SalesProcess #SalesManagement #CustomerTrust #BusinessDevelopment #Leadership #ExecutionDiscipline #RelationshipSelling #SustainableGrowth #SalesExcellence

If I were a VP of Sales again, I'd make every AE do their own prospecting. That would not be a punishment. It would be part of the job, like running demos or building proposals. Somewhere in tech we turned prospecting into a junior role. - SDRs hunt - AEs close. Everyone nods and moves on. Look around right now. Pipeline is thin at most companies. *If I had to guess, 80% of teams feel behind on meetings and late-stage deals. In that world, an AE with empty gaps on the calendar should not be waiting for someone else to fill them. No meetings this afternoon? That block becomes call time. Slow week for inbound? Time to write manual outreach, send LinkedIn messages, or follow up with old contacts. Prospecting is where you learn how your market thinks. 1. You hear real objections. 2. You find out who has power and who only sits in the room. When leaders protect AEs from that work, skills start to fade. If I were running a team today, the rule would be simple. 1. SDRs can support. 2. Marketing can support. But if an AE does not have a full calendar, they are expected to go build one.

“Sales is not relevant to me, I am in [Function other than sales].” Raise your hand if you've ever thought this way. I would be the first one to raise my hand - dismissing sales as irrelevant to my role in tech. Early in my career, the very word 'sales' conjured images of a sleazy car salesman trying to sell me unnecessary options for my new vehicle. As my career progressed, however, my perspective started to shift. I realized that sales is far more than just transactions and numbers. It's about building relationships, understanding deep-seated needs, adding value and offering meaningful solutions. Sales acumen, I discovered, is like financial literacy – a universal, indispensable skill that transcends job titles, experience levels and functions. To demystify sales and showcase its broad relevance, I reached out to my friend Aaron Norris, a former Principal Account Exec at Amazon Web Services. He is now dedicated to advancing the careers of Account Execs, focusing on long-term happiness, health, and wealth. Here are 5 invaluable tips he shared with me on how sales skills can benefit any role: 1. Discovery: Identifying and understanding your customer's top priority challenges and designing unique value-adding solutions is critical in sales. This is not a one-time effort rather an ongoing process of research, obtaining insights, collaborating and establishing feedback loops to deliver the right solutions and delight customers. 2. Stakeholder Engagement: Adapting the narrative, style, channel and frequency of messaging enables sellers to effectively engage with and obtain buy-in from internal and external executives, technical, and business stakeholders at various levels. 3. Influence: Effective influence in sales hinges on clear, honest communication and a deep understanding of customer needs and team dynamics. It's about building trust by consistently delivering on promises and showing commitment to customers’ and colleagues' success. This approach not only drives decision-making but also strengthens team collaboration, accounting for their unique skills, needs and interests. 4. Resilience: Navigating a high-pressure and target-driven environment, sales professionals often face rejection and must rebound after losses. To remain composed and resilient during challenging times, they prioritize customer focus, engage the executive team early, and make decisions with a long-term perspective. 5. Relationship Building: Building authentic relationships in sales requires prioritizing your customers' success over closing a deal. It involves becoming their most trusted advisor by investing time in building the partnership, understanding their goals and strategy, providing value at every opportunity, and celebrating their wins. Looking for additional insights on the topic? Follow Aaron. He posts daily on the topics of enterprise sales, personal development and leadership. PS: Just for a bit of fun, share a ‘sales horror story’ below!

After 7 years of navigating sales and leading teams in price-sensitive markets across Southeast Asia, I've broken down my experience into these 10 lessons: 1. Leverage real-world examples: When addressing prospects' questions, anchor your responses in actual experiences with other clients. This illustrates social proof without sounding boastful. 2. Showcase intimate understanding: While discussing your product, be tactical, not theoretical; see #1. Display an in-depth understanding of the problem and the client's workflow. 3. Demonstrate first, ask second: Highlight the efficacy of your solution without pushing clients into an immediate commitment. Consider giving consultations, hosting workshops, delivering event talks, or writing articles. 4. Engage, don't oversell on LinkedIn: Stay active on LinkedIn, but refrain from frequent direct selling. Instead, genuinely engage with prospects' content and assist them. Ideally, they shall approach you first. 5. Outbound sales done right: If reaching out, ensure you a) contact 3 to 4 individuals within target organizations, b) A/B test email content and subjects, and c) follow up 3 to 4 times. Rinse and repeat. 6. Emphasize social proof: Populate your digital channels with client testimonials. Create a prominent “Wall of Love” on your website to host all testimonials and case studies, then distribute these across emails, ads, website, social media, blogs, and onboarding materials. 7. Build a lot of social proof: Consider the following to gather more testimonials: a) Offer to draft them for your client, b) Provide services at a reduced/no cost initially, and c) Incentivize the sales team not just for closing deals but also for acquiring testimonials/case studies. 8. Experience on the ground matters: Invest time in your target markets. Begin pitches by sharing personal anecdotes and what you cherish about that particular country. 9. Optimize commission structures: Continually refine your commission structures. Experiment until you find the sweet spot where the team is incentivized optimally for maximum output. 10. Streamline your deck: All supplementary slides should be in an appendix, displayed only if required. The deck structure I like follows this: a) introduce you and your company b) the as-is state c) why existing solutions are not effective d) requirements for the new world e) your solution f) demo g) social proof h) next steps What have I missed?

If your go-to-market strategy relies heavily on targeting ‘Series B startups with 50-100 employees that just raised a funding round’, guess what… You’re fishing where 1,000 more competitors are fishing. That’s the reality for most marketing teams… 🐟 Fishing in the same pond with the same bait. And with generic targeting, the message also becomes generic and gets drowned in the sea of sameness. If strategy = knowing where to play and how to win… 🎯 The goal of signals is to help you understand where (& when) to play. 📓 But more importantly, they help with ‘how to win’. They help you craft a smarter way to win. While your competitors are still using surface-level signals (company size, recent funding), the best marketers are digging deeper: - Technology stack changes and migrations - Engineering team hiring velocity - Executive speaking engagements - Social media comments on key topics - Pricing page updates These nuanced signals reveal CONTEXT. The why behind the what. When a company just raised Series B, it's just noise. When they're simultaneously hiring 3 DevOps engineers, migrating from legacy infrastructure, and their CTO is speaking about scaling challenges – that's a signal. Then, your message isn't the same one they heard 47 times this week: ‘Congrats on your funding round’ Instead, your message is: "I noticed you're building out your DevOps team while transitioning infrastructure. Have you thought about how you can [specific outcome] in 60 days without disrupting your current roadmap?" Your differentiation doesn’t just lie in what you’re selling. It lies in how deeply you understand THEIR MOMENT. Everyone has access to the same basic data, but the competitive advantage lies in finding and blending new signals, interpreting them well, and landing a message that resonates given that context. Clay has launched custom signals recently, and it will lead to even more interesting experiments in this area. At Paddle, we watch for a whole range of moments that matter… - When more than 30% of a digital product company's web traffic comes from outside their home country (a signal that they are likely selling to a variety of markets, and will need sales tax compliance and local payment methods) - When a mobile app builds out a web property (a signal that they are likely to invest in a new web channel, and at some point, monetise there!) - When a large enterprise hires for or announces a new product-led offering (a signal that are investing in a new motion that will need to be flexible, fit for global scale, and fully compliant from day 1) Instead of 'fishing' where and how all your competitors are fishing... stop, think, and start to understand the companies you want to serve. Their context, the signals that indicate this, and the moments these lead to.

Success in sales isn’t about luck or timing—it’s about ownership, discipline, and consistency. I see it all the time: salespeople wait for the “perfect moment” to reach out, or they think too much instead of taking action. Here’s the truth—the only bad call is the one you never make. Prospecting isn’t something you do “when you have time.” It’s a daily habit, like a muscle that gets stronger the more you work it. The more consistent you are, the more momentum you build, and the more confidence you gain. Planning ahead matters too. End your day by mapping out tomorrow—who you’ll reach, what your message will be, and what the next step looks like. Preparation removes hesitation and keeps you moving forward. Every interaction should bring value. Don’t just sell features—help your prospects think differently about their business. Follow up, bring insights, and show them you understand their challenges. And above all, check your attitude. Focus on helping others succeed, and your results will follow. Success in sales isn’t given—it’s earned by showing up, taking action, and creating momentum every single day.

Cold calling is the only part of outbound that AI won't replace Look, you might feel like it's a dead channel that doesn't work anymore. But we've seen across 250+ sales team is that there’s a HUGE delta between okay and great cold callers: - Pick-up rates range from 3.5% to 30%+ - Conversion rates range from 2.3% to 20%+ That’s the difference between booking 3-5 meetings per week (yes, even at the enterprise level) vs maybe a meeting or two the entire MONTH. Our clients made a combined 12,500+ cold calls in April. And the #1 area for improvement? The first 30 seconds. Here’s the takeaway: Resist the urge to talk about your solution. In Gong’s analysis of 300M+ cold calls, your success drops by more than half when you don’t lead with problems and a customary story. Open with a trigger, tension, and trust. We call this the Reason To Meet (RTM). This answers three core basic questions for the prospect: Why change? Why now? Why us? Here’s an example: Trigger: I saw that you’re hiring internationally in France and Spain… Tension: Not sure if you’re running into challenges with compliance and managing multiple systems for payroll… Trust: ABC CLIENT used our help to remove the complexity getting in the way of expansion plans… You should have an RTM for every cold call you make. This will get you to double-digit plus conversion rates over the phone. And you know what? It makes it a heck of a lot more fun too. Want more? Check out my recent feature in HubSpot’s The Science of Scaling newsletter here:  https://lnkd.in/gqip6yxi

Sales teams often build from the top down. That’s why they break. I’ve spent decades studying what separates consistent performers from one-hit wonders. It comes down to this pyramid. Start at the foundation. Habits. Three clear priorities every morning. Follow up with purpose, not just to check in. Maintain clean systems. Build momentum through small daily wins. Consistent structure beats motivation every time. Next level up. Skills. Discovery that uncovers real impact. Objections handled early, not late. Negotiation anchored on outcomes. Demos that show value created, not features listed. The best sellers talk less, listen more, and guide with intent. Then comes Mindset. Treat rejection as feedback, not failure. Build confidence through preparation, not personality. Stay curious. Optimize for learning first, outcomes follow. Growth-oriented sellers outperform those chasing quick closes. Now you’re ready for Process. A predictable pipeline rhythm. Templates that move fast but personalize where it matters. Measure what converts. Forecast with evidence, not optimism. Disciplined process closes more deals than instinct alone. Finally, Edge. Build a reputation that precedes the meeting. Share wins and playbooks internally. Run experiments, not guesses. Coach others. Visibility and credibility create warmer referrals and more inbound.