Modern Sales Techniques for 2025

Cold Calling Is Dying. Here’s What’s Replacing It. The numbers don’t lie: • Cold call success rates have dropped to 2.3% in 2025, down from 4.8% last year (Cognism). • 72% of sales calls never reach a person, and it takes 8+ dials to connect with just one prospect. • Only 28% of reps still view cold calling as effective. Meanwhile, high-performing teams are doing something different. Research-Driven, Insight-Led Outreach Wins: • Reps who thoroughly research their prospects are 3x more likely to succeed (Clevenio). • Prospect-specific research can lift conversions by ~30%. • Insight-led outreach builds trust before a call is ever placed. Email and Social Are Outpacing Phone-First Approaches: • Personalized cold emails outperform generic ones by 32%; average reply rates are 8–9%. • 78% of social sellers outsell peers, and social-enabled teams hit quota 66% more often. Takeaway: 1. The call is no longer the first touchpoint. It’s the third or maybe the fourth; it’s only viable once you have demonstrable engagement via other channels. 2. Buyers start with research—so should you. Start with research. Deliver value. Leverage email and social. Then—and only then—call with context. You’re no longer the teacher like when you were knocking on doors. 3. This is how modern sales works. And this is how trust is built at scale. Welcome to the future, my friends. 🙌🏾 #NervousSystemsStrategist #SalesLeadership #ModernSelling #ColdCalling #SalesDevelopment #InsightSelling #SalesStrategy #SalesEnablement

The disconnect between sales managers and reps in 2025 is wild. Manager: "Just pick up the phone!" Rep: *sends 47 emails, 12 texts, 3 LinkedIn messages, and a carrier pigeon* Sound familiar? 😅 After 20+ years in sales, I've watched this communication gap grow wider every year. But here's what both sides are missing: It's not about choosing ONE channel. It's about understanding WHICH channel works WHEN. The most successful reps I've seen? They've cracked the code: **First 24 hours:** • Email → Sets professional tone • LinkedIn → Shows you've done homework • Text → Only if they've given permission **Days 2-5:** • Phone call → NOW it's time (they know who you are) • Voice note → Personal touch that stands out • Video message → Shows real effort **The truth?** Your manager's right - calls DO convert better. You're also right - cold calling blind is dead. The magic happens when you warm them up FIRST. Think of it like dating: You wouldn't propose on the first date. So why are we calling strangers without context? **My top 3 strategies that actually work:** 1. The "Permission Play" End every email with: "Would a quick call tomorrow at 2pm work to discuss?" (They expect it now = higher answer rate) 2. The "Multi-Touch Warm-Up" Email → LinkedIn view → Call within 48 hours (They recognize your name = 3x more likely to answer) 3. The "Context Creator" Reference their LinkedIn post before calling "Saw your post about X, had a thought..." (You're not a stranger = conversation not pitch) Here's the brutal truth: Managers: Your reps aren't lazy. They're adapting to how buyers ACTUALLY buy in 2025. Reps: Your manager isn't wrong. The phone still closes more deals than any other channel. Bridge the gap. Use both. Win more. What's your take - Team Phone or Team Omnichannel? P.S I'm running a FREE 6-week LinkedIn Social Selling Bootcamp starting Monday 15th Sept, grab a free spot here https://lnkd.in/eVmxsMbM

I watched a company lose a $1.2M deal last quarter because they were still running MEDDPICC like it's 1996. They identified a Champion and an Economic Buyer. They documented Pain points. They were textbook perfect. The problem in 2025 is that no single Champion can get a deal done. Sales methodologies from the 90s weren't built for today's buying committees, consensus-driven decisions, and distributed authority. The modern sale requires a complete methodology upgrade. No more obsessing over a Champion. You need relationships with the entire team. No more chasing generic Pain points. You need Numerical Priorities linked to business outcomes. No more vague "Compelling Event". You need documented, financially-validated trigger points. No more hoping for Decision Criteria. You need to shape it with objective benchmarks. The best sellers still run a methodology, but it's evolved. They're identifying group priorities, mapping out competing initiatives, and anchoring everything in provable ROI. Try this on your next deal…instead of asking "What's keeping you up at night?" ask "What are the top 3 numerical priorities for your department this quarter?" Watch how quickly you can separate real deals from wishful thinking.

People are tired of all the sales doom-and-gloom. With the positive financial outlook (lower inflation & interest rates), 2025 can be a hell of a year—IF we don’t assume buyers will start throwing money at us before fixing *how* we sell. Here’s what's broken (and how I’ve seen top sales teams fix it): BACKGROUND: 2022-2024 ended the 'Golden Age of SaaS'. While it wasn't always intentional, we got away with running ‘sales-centric’ motions trying to grow at all costs: - Hired armies of undertrained reps - 16-step spray & pray sequences ruined inboxes - Poor fundamentals, no disco, feature demos - Enablement and tech help sellers, not buyers We’re now in a 'Buyer-Led Era of SaaS'. Buying is more complex & buyers are empowered to self-serve, so they get stuck in indecision or avoid salespeople: - 3-4X more stakeholders in a decade - 73% of buyers fail to achieve consensus - 75% of buyers prefer a rep-free experience Buyers are fed up with being 'sold to'. The avg. sales experience is failing them. 78% of sales teams MISSED 2025. And it’s ON US to fix. We created the norm. We lost focus on what matters. We chose ‘do more’ at the expense of buyers. So now that the power has shifted to the buyer. The entire sales strategy must evolve as well. From enabling sellers to enabling buyers. From Sales to Buyer Enablement. Here are 4 ways to drive this change: —— 1. From a Sales-Centric to a Buyer-Centric Process Most sales processes focus on seller actions: Qualify→Demo→Propose. Flip it to match buyers’ actual stages: Problem Alignment→Solution Exploration, etc., and create sales activities that map to your buyers' actions (e.g. Build a business case, TCO, requirements). More overlap = more influence. 2. From Sales Meetings Training to Buying Facilitation Re-design your training to also focus on how to help buyers run their process: Champion Building, Multi-Threading, Crafting Business Cases, Co-designing Buying Assets, etc. From sales meeting skills to buyer enablement skills. How to facilitate the buyer's journey and sell between meetings. 3. From ‘Sales Content’ to ‘Buyer Assets’ Take a close look at all of the content you create and ask yourself: How much of it truly supports the completion of a buying task or just feels like marketing? Buyers need real resources they can use and share internally: calculators, buying guides, and requirement builders. Less bragging, more enabling. 4. From Do More Tech to Better Execution Look at your tech: Does it really make our team better sellers or just save time and improve manager reporting? Tech was all about “more emails”, “create quotes faster,” but “do more” isn't holding us back. Solve for a better buyer-seller workflow. Use a Digital Sales Room, Interactive Demos, etc. —— Tired of 'no-decision'? So are buyers. They deserve more. Fix it. P.S. We built Aligned to help teams solve the quota gap using Buyer Enablement. 100% FREE Digital Sales Room. Try it: https://lnkd.in/dwX_Zizk

The State of Tech Sales in 2025 AI and automation are now table stakes. If you are still treating them like a competitive advantage, you are already behind. Everyone has AI cold email tools. Everyone is automating DMs. Everyone is using AI call summaries. Everyone is trying to scale conversations instead of mastering them. That is why most reps are getting worse. They are moving faster while building less trust. They are replacing human connection with efficiency. They are cutting corners on the exact skills that actually close deals. Here is what is working in 2025 1️⃣Human connection. Buyers are overwhelmed with automation. They are craving real conversations with people who can understand their challenges and solve real problems. 2️⃣Unscalable tactics. Physical mailers. In person meetings. Handwritten notes. Live events. These used to be normal. Now they are rare. That is why they work. 3️⃣Critical thinking. AI can give you information. It cannot give you insight. Reps who think deeply and provide new perspectives immediately stand out. 4️⃣Creativity. Copying templates and following the crowd used to be safe. Now it gets you ignored. Reps who bring fresh solutions are getting the meetings and closing the contracts. 5️⃣Consistency. Most reps quit when it gets hard. The ones who keep showing up and refining their craft are taking market share. The reps who will dominate the next five years are not the ones with the fastest automation. They are the ones doing the unsexy work that cannot be automated. Master the fundamentals. Build real relationships. Keep leveling up your business acumen. That is how you win in 2025. — These daily habits helped me create $195m/year in sales (even in ROUGH economies): https://lnkd.in/gbpFye_t

Aggressive selling is dead. This is how I build trust and win long-term partnerships in 2026. I've been thinking a lot about how sales people approach discovery calls nowadays. What I noticed is when reps treat SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-Payoff) like a rigid script, they risk generic conversations that leak urgency, qualification and consensus. I think SPIN remains relevant in 2026 but more as a thinking framework and not the entire operating system. Here how I see the modern SPIN upgrade: 1️⃣ Minimise Situation (S) Questions In 1988, reps needed to ask, "What CRM are you using?" because firmographic data wasn't available. Today, asking questions that can be answered by 10 minutes of research is PREP work, not discovery. • The Modern Rule: Situation questions should be minimal, only confirming what you can't reasonably research beforehand. Leading with lazy S-questions damages your credibility. • The Goal: Confirm context asynchronously so you can dedicate live call time to diagnosis. 2️⃣ Double Down on Problem (P) & Implication (I) In modern discovery, spend 80–90% of your time exploring Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff. • Problem: Focus on friction, inefficiencies and where the current setup actually breaks. Ask: "Where is pipeline leaking today?" and not just "What are your challenges?" • Implication is your superpower. This is the engine of urgency. Explore the cost of inaction, delays, errors and resulting internal stress. Implication questions uncover the commercial impact and emotional anchor of the current state. 3️⃣ Let the Buyer Say the Need-Payoff The goal of Need-Payoff questions is not to pitch your solution, it's to make the buyer articulate the value of solving the problem in their own words. • The Modern Rule: Get them to say why they need it and not only what they need. • Crucial Step: Capture those exact phrases and reuse them in summary emails, proposals and executive decks. This buyer-led buy-in converts interest into commitment. 4️⃣ Plug SPIN Into Your Modern Operating System SPIN shouldn't dictate your entire sales process; it should power the content within it. • SPIN + MEDDIC: SPIN provides the conversational structure to elicit pain, build champions and uncover decision criteria. SPIN lives in call transcripts, MEDDIC lives in your CRM. • SPIN + Challenger: Use S/P to understand their world, use Implication to explore the cost of the status quo, then "Teach" by reframing those implications with your unique insight. • SPIN + Gap Selling (by Keenan): Situation is the Current State, Problem and Implication define its cost and Need-Payoff articulates the Future State. When you skip Situation, go deeper on Problems and Implications and let buyers voice the Need-Payoff themselves, SPIN becomes the backbone of elite discovery in 2026 P.S. Repost it if you think your network could benefit from this framework 💖 ✨

We’ve sold Seamless.AI to 1,000,000+ users. Most reps don't fail from lack of skill - they fail because they follow outdated rules their manager taught in 2015. The typical buying group has 13 people who move back and forth between stages. Your playbook hasn't caught up. Here are 6 myths that are killing your deals in 2025/26 (and what actually works): 1.) "It's a numbers game. Make 100 calls a day." This is lazy advice. It's a signals game. One account showing intent is worth 50 cold ones. Prioritize accounts with job changes, product page visits, or competitor mentions. Quality times timing beats volume. 2.) "Find the one decision-maker and you're golden." There hasn't been one decision-maker since 2019. Ask your champion: "Who else will be involved in this decision?" Map their roles - technical buyer, budget holder, end users. Reach each person with messaging for their concern, not copy-paste pitches. 3.) "Cold calling is dead. It's all about email now." Only lazy cold calling is dead. Context calling destroys email-only reps. Call when the account shows in-market behavior and follow with coordinated email. Hybrid beats single-channel every time. 4.) "Just follow the sales stages. They'll move through the funnel." Your CRM stages are fiction. Buyers loop back constantly. Stop forcing "next steps" when they need to revisit problem validation with Finance. Watch for buying signals - not stage completion checkboxes. 5.) "Lower the price. That's what's blocking the deal." Buyers aren't dissatisfied because of price. They're dissatisfied because the buying process didn't build confidence. Send ROI calculators before they ask. Bring in peer references early. Create artifacts your champion can forward to their CFO without editing. Make NOT buying unreasonable. 6.) "Follow up relentlessly. Persistence wins deals." Persistence without value is spam. Buyers ghost you when every follow-up says "checking in." Add new information each time - competitive intel, use case, customer win. Give them a reason to respond. The gap between “best practices” and what buyers actually need has never been wider. Stop following advice from 2015. Start following buyer behavior from 2025.

I recently witnessed a 💸7-figure deal 💸 entirely in Slack. No Zoom calls. No formal presentations. No conference room handshakes. Just ... Slack. The entire sales cycle: Initial connection? Slack. POC kickoff and check-ins? Slack. Scope discussions? Slack. Pricing negotiations? Slack. Contract execution? You guessed it — Slack. Seven figures. Done. I've been in B2B sales for nearly 20 years, and I've never seen anything like this. What's happening here: This buyer wanted speed and clarity, not ceremony. And they got it. 🤜🏼 Every question got answered in real-time. 🤜🏼 Every blocker got resolved in a thread. 🤜🏼 Every decision happened in the moment, not "let's schedule a follow-up to discuss." The reality is this isn't about Slack. It's about buyers demanding frictionless experiences. They're exhausted by traditional sales choreography ... and digital fatigue. They don't want another demo. They don't want to wait three days for a proposal. They want to move. Gone are the days of winning with the slickest sales deck. Today’s A-level sellers are the ones willing to meet buyers wherever the conversation is already happening. In 2025, your sales process needs to be as flexible as your product (claims to) be. Have you closed a deal in an unconventional way recently?

I spent 5 days in NYC talking with sales leaders about how to close $1M+ deals What I learned is that the best sales leaders in 2025 aren’t chasing call volume They’re building top-of-funnel systems powered by their existing relationships. Here’s how the smartest leaders I met last week are optimizing for it in this post-AI world: 1 - AI makes buyers skeptical Everyone’s been burned by overpromising “AI” tools. The winners are humans who show up in person. I’ve never churned a customer I met face-to-face. 2 - Account planning is broken. Old playbook = start with accounts, map top-down. New playbook = start with relationships, then build accounts around that. Territories are so 2015. Trust is the new territory. 3 - Territory ≠ strategy. Every org still draws the same map: East Coast, West Coast, Mid-Market. It ignores that your best warm path into an account might be halfway across the globe. 4 - Ownership is the #1 hiring filter. The mistake is hiring “employees.” The solution is to hire absolute dawgs who act like owners. If they don’t feel like they’re building with you, they won’t stick around. 5 - IRL is back. Dinners, events, one-on-one conversations. One handshake in person beats 100,000 LinkedIn impressions. Every. Damn. Day 6 - Products commoditize. People don’t. Your features will look like everyone else’s in 18 months. The moat is who trusts you, not what you ship. 7 - Relationships compound. I can tell you 10 instances from our customers who were able to win deals across different companies, just by tracking their champions across job changes. One champion who carries you to 3 companies can be worth more than 10,000 cold calls. Most teams still don’t have a system to track this. (That’s why we built Orbb.) Your relationships are the LAST thing to get swooped up and get automated by AI, which is why sales teams are investing in them so heavily right now.

My version of 2025 B2B sales prediction post. Since I've been sharing about AI, this one is centered around that. Here are the key trends I'm watching: 🤖 AI will handle the grunt work, but human connection becomes MORE valuable. While AI excels at research and tailoring initial outreach, meaningful business relationships still require authentic human interaction. Ideally, you are using AI in such a way that you have more time to focus on relationship building. When you have the chance to meet in person, or show your face another way, do it! AI can't go to conferences and shake hands but you can. 🎯 Personalization will reach new levels. AI helps us understand prospect patterns and preferences, but the winners will be those who use these insights to have more relevant, human conversations. It's not about having AI write your emails - it's about using AI to better understand your prospects' needs. Ask AI to take the role of the person you are pitching and ask the LLM for feedback. Experiment with turning on the voice feature and have a conversation with it. 💡 Subject matter expertise becomes critical. As basic information becomes readily available through AI, buyers will increasingly value deep expertise and unique insights. The ability to apply knowledge in context will matter more than ever. This is especially true for professional services where your domain knowledge is central to solving your clients' problems. 🤝 The "tech-enabled human touch" will define success. The most effective sellers won't be those who use the most AI tools, but those who best blend AI capabilities with human skills like empathy, judgment, and relationship building. What I'm telling my clients: Don't focus on replacing your sales activities with AI. Instead, use AI to enhance your human capabilities and create more time for meaningful client interactions. How has AI changed how you're approaching work this year? #b2bsales #artificialintelligence #sales2025 #businessdevelopment"