I was in a furniture store last week, and I experienced a perfect example of what I call “back-loaded selling.” The salesperson approached me within thirty seconds of my arrival and immediately launched into his pitch. “This is our best-selling sofa! It’s on sale this week only! The leather is top-grain, the frame is hardwood, and we can get you zero percent financing!”

I just stared at him. The truth is that I wasn’t shopping for a sofa. I was looking for a coffee table.

That salesperson had just demonstrated the fundamental flaw in back-loaded selling – he put all his energy into pitching and closing before he understood what I actually needed. And predictably, when we told him we weren’t interested in a sofa, he launched into objection-handling mode: “But you haven’t even sat on it! What if I could get you an even better price?”

I walked out.  Defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory.

Here’s the thing: there are essentially two models of selling in the world, and most salespeople are using the wrong one.

THERE ARE TWO MODELS OF SELLING

The first model is what I call “front-loaded selling.” In this approach, the salesperson invests the majority of their time and energy upfront – asking specific, thoughtful discovery questions, truly understanding the customer’s needs, challenges, and decision-making process, and making sure they’re moving at the buyer’s pace throughout the Buyer’s Journey.

The second model is “back-loaded selling.” This is where the salesperson rushes through discovery (often asking only a handful of leading questions), delivers a generic, rehearsed pitch, and then spends most of their effort trying to close and overcome objections.  You close the customer until they bleed from the ears and hope you get the deal.  And I’ll be transparent – the first sales training I ever had was in exactly this model in the car business.  Even then, the more I moved away from that model (even though I didn’t know what “front-loaded” and “back-loaded” were at that time), the more successful I became.

Guess which one actually works?

WHY FRONT-LOADED SELLING WINS EVERY TIME

When you front-load your sales process, something important happens: there are far fewer objections. Why? Because when you truly understand your customer’s needs, when you’ve identified their dissatisfaction, decision criteria, and Desired Future State, when you know who else is involved in the buying process and what their timeline looks like – your recommendation becomes obvious and logical.  The close becomes a natural part of the conversation, rather than an event in itself.

Think about it this way. If I spend forty-five minutes asking you detailed questions about your business challenges, your current solutions, what’s working and what isn’t, what success looks like to you, what your budget parameters are, and what your company’s decision-making process is – by the time I make my recommendation, you’re probably nodding along thinking, “Yes, that makes perfect sense.”  It’s slowing down to go fast.

Compare that to the back-loaded approach, where I ask three or four surface-level questions and then launch into my standard presentation. Now I’m guessing at what you need. I’m talking about features that might not matter to you. I’m presenting solutions to problems you might not even have. And when you raise objections – which you will, because I haven’t earned the right to make recommendations yet – I have to fight for every inch of ground.  Do you enjoy the fight, or do you enjoy helping people and truly winning business and relationships?

THE BUYER’S JOURNEY DEMANDS RESPECT

Here’s what too many salespeople forget: your customers aren’t just sitting around waiting for you to sell them something. They’re on their own journey. They’ve identified a problem or opportunity. They’re researching solutions. They’re evaluating options. They have internal discussions, budget considerations, and approval processes.

When you back-load your selling process, you’re essentially telling the customer, “I don’t care where you are in your journey. I’m going to drag you to where I want you to be – which is ready to buy right now.”

That’s not selling. That’s being pushy. And pushy doesn’t work anymore, if it ever really did.  I’ve said for years that you MIGHT be able to pressure, manipulate, and cajole someone into buying once.  But you’ll never be able to sell that person something again.

Front-loaded selling, on the other hand, respects the buyer’s journey. It says, “Tell me where you are in your process. Help me understand what you’re trying to accomplish. Let me see if and how I can help.” You’re walking alongside your customer instead of trying to push them forward.

THE HARD TRUTH ABOUT BACK-LOADED SELLING

I know why salespeople gravitate toward back-loaded selling. It feels more active. It feels like you’re “doing something.” Asking questions can feel passive, like you’re not really selling.

But here’s the hard truth: back-loaded selling is actually the lazy approach. It’s easier to deliver the same pitch to everyone than it is to craft thoughtful, specific questions for each prospect. It’s easier to rely on closing techniques than it is to do the hard work of truly understanding your customer’s world.  As I tell my clients – mental agility is one of the best characteristics of the modern salesperson.

And yes, back-loaded selling sometimes works – usually when you get lucky and stumble onto a customer who happens to need exactly what you’re pitching, exactly when you’re pitching it. But that’s not a strategy. That’s hoping.

WHERE YOU WANT TO BE

When you front-load your sales process, you’re not just more effective – you’re more professional. You’re positioning yourself as a consultant and advisor, not just someone trying to make a quick sale. Your customers trust you more because you’ve demonstrated that you actually care about solving their problems, not just moving your inventory.

And here’s the bonus: front-loaded selling makes your job easier. When you truly understand your customer’s needs, presenting solutions becomes straightforward. Closing becomes a natural next step rather than a battle. Objections become rare because you’ve already addressed the real concerns during discovery.  And it’s a hell of a lot more fun, too.

The furniture salesperson from my story? If he had asked what I was looking for, he would have learned I needed a coffee table. He could have shown me coffee tables. I might have bought one. Instead, he wasted my time and his.

Don’t be that salesperson. Front-load your process. Respect your Buyer’s Journey. Ask better questions. Your close rate – and your customers – will thank you for it.

I was sitting in on a critical negotiation between one of my distribution clients and their largest potential customer. The procurement director looked at my client’s sales VP and said, “We need a 45-day payment term instead of your standard 30 days to make this work with our cash flow.” Without hesitation, the VP responded, “We can’t do that. Company policy.” I watched as months of relationship building evaporated in an instant. The room temperature seemed to drop ten degrees.

A week later, I coached another sales executive in nearly the identical situation. When faced with the same request, he leaned forward and said, “While our standard terms are 30 days, we can offer 45-day terms on your first three orders to help establish the relationship and smooth your cash flow transition. Then we can implement a volume-based discount on subsequent orders to offset the standard terms.” Same limitation, completely different approach – and this one closed a seven-figure deal that continues today.

The Costly “Can’t” Default

When salespeople default to “can’t” language, several things happen simultaneously – none of them good.

First, you create an immediate barrier between yourself and your customer. You’ve essentially said, “I’m not on your side in solving this problem.” That’s relationship poison, and in our current sales environment, relationships are often the only sustainable advantage you have.  Remember – whatever you sell can probably be purchased online, without your intervention.  Your customer literally has an abundance of options at his or her fingertips.

Second, you train your brain to stop looking for solutions. Once you say “can’t,” your problem-solving machinery shuts down. After all, why look for a solution when you’ve already decided one doesn’t exist?  It’s impossible to overstate the importance of training your brain correctly.  Our job is to adapt, improvise, and overcome.  That’s what salespeople do.

Third, and perhaps most damaging, you train your customers to go elsewhere first. They learn that bringing problems to you is an exercise in frustration rather than problem-solving.  And who needs that?

I watched this play out last month when a manufacturing client won a major account. What happened? The competitor’s salesperson responded to a rush order request with, “We can’t meet that timeline with our current production schedule.” My client responded with, “We can expedite 60% of your order to meet your immediate needs, then deliver the remainder within ten days. Would that work?” Guess who got the business – not just for that order, but moving forward?

Shifting from “Can’t” to “Can”

This isn’t about semantics or word games. It’s about fundamentally reframing how you approach customer requests and problems. Here’s how to make the shift:

1. Ban “can’t” from your vocabulary. This doesn’t mean you’ll never have to decline a request, but it forces you to find a more solution-oriented response. Instead of “We can’t deliver by Friday,” try “Here’s what we can do…” Even when the ultimate answer is no, how you communicate that makes all the difference.
2. Train yourself to pause before responding. When faced with a challenging request, many salespeople panic and default to “no” simply because they haven’t taken time to think through alternatives. Make it a habit to pause, even briefly, to consider other possibilities.
3. Focus on partial solutions. Perfect solutions are rare, but partial solutions often work just fine. “We can’t provide the full 500 units, but we can deliver 300 immediately and the remainder next week” keeps the conversation moving toward resolution rather than shutting it down.
4. Ask clarifying questions. Often, what the customer really needs isn’t exactly what they’re asking for. “What are you trying to accomplish with this timeline?” might reveal flexibility you didn’t know existed.

The Role of Leadership

If you’re a sales manager (or for that matter, any manager), you need to remember your role in this. Your team will model your behavior, for better or worse.

When your salesperson comes to you with a challenging customer request, how do you respond? If you immediately say, “No, we can’t do that,” you’re teaching them to do the same with customers. If instead, you say, “Here’s what we can offer,” you model the exact behavior that builds customer loyalty.

I saw two managers respond differently to the same situation last quarter. A customer requested specialized packaging for a rush shipment. The first manager said, “Tell them no, we don’t have time for special requests right now.” The second said, “Let’s see what we can do. We can’t change the packaging for the entire order, but we could do it for the first 100 units. Would that help them?” Same company, same capabilities, drastically different approaches.

Sales is rarely about having perfect solutions that check every box. It’s about finding workable alternatives that solve real problems.

The Bottom Line Impact

This isn’t just about making customers feel good (though that matters). It’s about your bottom line. Companies known for problem-solving win more business, and retain customers longer than their competitors. Why? Because customers know they’ll get real solutions, not roadblocks.

Remember that procurement director I mentioned at the beginning? What if instead of a single order, that customer had represented potential lifetime value of millions? The cost of “can’t” language gets exponentially more expensive as the stakes rise.

So challenge yourself and your team: For one week, eliminate “can’t” from your customer conversations. Instead, focus exclusively on what you can do. You’ll be amazed at how many more problems get solved, how many more relationships strengthen, and ultimately, how many more sales you make.

After all, in sales, finding the win rather than defaulting to the loss isn’t just good communication – it’s good business.

In today’s hyper-connected business world, it’s shocking to me how many salespeople still treat LinkedIn as optional—or worse, avoid it entirely. I was talking with a sales manager recently who mentioned that several of his team members “don’t do LinkedIn.” My response: “Then they don’t do professional selling.” That might sound harsh, but let’s be real. If you’re selling B2B in 2025 without utilizing the world’s premier business networking platform, you’re essentially committing sales malpractice.

Think I’m exaggerating? Consider this: When a prospect receives your email or picks up your call, what’s the first thing they do? They Google you—and your LinkedIn profile is likely the first result they’ll see. If your profile is non-existent, incomplete, or unprofessional, you’ve already damaged your credibility before saying a word. First impressions happen digitally now, not when you walk through the door.

LinkedIn isn’t just another social media platform. It’s a business tool—perhaps the most powerful one in a salesperson’s arsenal that doesn’t require a subscription fee. Yet many salespeople approach it with either indifference (“I’m too busy selling to mess with that”) or outdated tactics (sending spam-like direct messages to cold prospects). Both approaches miss the mark entirely.

The real power of LinkedIn lies in its ability to build your professional brand, expand your network strategically, and create multiple touchpoints with prospects—all without being pushy or sales-y. But this requires a methodical approach, not random activity.

Here’s what a professional LinkedIn presence demands:

A complete, client-focused profile. Your profile shouldn’t read like a job application. Nobody cares that you “exceeded quota by 127%” or were “salesperson of the month.” Instead, focus on problems you solve and value you deliver. Your headline shouldn’t be your job title—it should be a value statement. “Helping manufacturing companies reduce downtime through innovative maintenance solutions” tells prospects what you actually do for them.

A professional headshot. Not a vacation photo, not a group picture cropped to show just you, and certainly not a blank avatar. A professional headshot is table stakes. It doesn’t need to be expensive—many smartphones can capture a suitable image—but it needs to look professional.

Recommendations and endorsements. These serve as social proof. Don’t be shy about asking satisfied clients for recommendations. They’re like testimonials that follow you everywhere.

Regular, thoughtful engagement. This is where many salespeople fail. They create a profile and then abandon it, or they only log in when they’re looking for information on a prospect. LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards consistent engagement—and punishes sporadic use.

The good news? Effective LinkedIn use doesn’t require hours of your day. Twenty minutes, used strategically, can yield significant results. Here’s my recipe for LinkedIn success:

1. Post original content once or twice weekly. More than one post per day risks the algorithm flagging you as a spammer. Make your posts thoughtful and useful—not thinly-veiled sales pitches. Share insights, ask thought-provoking questions, or offer genuine value.
2. Engage meaningfully with your network’s content daily. Don’t just hit “like” and move on. Leave substantive comments that add to the conversation. Remember, your comments appear in your connections’ feeds, increasing your visibility exponentially.
3. Strategically expand your network. Send personalized connection requests to second-degree connections where there’s logical opportunity for business relationship. Mention the mutual connection or shared interest—never use the default connection message.
4. Monitor and respond to engagement on your profile. When someone views your profile or engages with your content, that’s an opportunity to start a conversation. Not a sales pitch—a conversation.

The beauty of this approach is that it can easily replace time wasted doom-scrolling other social media platforms. Take those 15 minutes you’d spend scrolling through political arguments on Facebook and redirect them to LinkedIn instead.

What you should NOT do on LinkedIn is equally important. Avoid:

• Mass-sending connection requests without personalization
• Immediately pitching your product after someone accepts your connection
• Posting content that has nothing to do with your professional brand
• Sharing controversial political or religious views (unless that’s part of your brand strategy)
• Complaining about clients, prospects, or your company

LinkedIn works because it allows you to be present in your prospects’ digital world without being intrusive. It creates multiple touchpoints that keep you on their radar. When used correctly, it ensures that when a need arises that you can address, you’re the person they think of.

The younger generations of buyers I’ve written about extensively? They’re ALL on LinkedIn. And they’re researching you there before deciding whether to respond to your outreach. If you’re not there—or if your presence projects unprofessionalism—you’re already behind competitors who understand this reality.

So, are you still treating LinkedIn as optional? If so, it’s time to ask yourself: Can you really afford to commit this kind of sales malpractice in today’s market?

“Hi, Troy,” the email began. “I’ve just purchased [the name of the company that does my Web work], and I just wanted to introduce myself.”  This type of email, starting with this type of sentence, strikes fear into many customers’ hearts.  The company that handles a critical service – one you depend on daily – has just changed hands.  What’s going to happen now?  Are they going to raise prices?  Cut my service?  Screw up my world?

I’ve been through numerous company takeovers, and even sales territory takeovers, and it’s always a turbulent time, both for the service providers and for the customers.  What always amazes me is the level of unforced errors – moments where the company doing the buyout has an opportunity to smooth the transition, but for whatever reason, chooses not to do so.

Here’s my maxim:  Comfortable Customers Buy.  When you’re making a transition of ownership or salesperson, the thing your customers want most is a sense of comfort – that a steady, smart hand is on the rudder of your company and that you’re going to continue to take care of them.

Your enemy here is FEAR.  The customer’s fear that they need to make a move.  The fear that their apple cart will be overturned.  And the employees’ fear of losing their jobs.  All of these fears are in play during a transition of this type, and these fears can cost you big money.  Would it surprise you to know that in many company takeovers, particularly in the small-to-medium sized business space that makes up most of this readership, as much as 50% of the book of business being taken over can go away in a year or less?

That’s exactly what I experienced during one takeover years ago.  To set the stage, I was the new sales manager for a managed-service provider in Kansas.  We had bought out a smaller competitor whose owner had decided it was time for retirement.  So far, so good.  We had a strategy meeting to discuss the takeover and how to do it.  We knew that, for the standards of our industry, the customer wasn’t receiving great service.  Their product quality wasn’t up to our standards, their route drivers and trucks weren’t as well-polished as ours, the service training wasn’t up to snuff.  The sales department was nonexistent – but the previous owner was willing to stay on for six months to help in the transition.

Some within my company felt that we should go full-bore on rebranding the new operation and absorbing it into our company.  Get the drivers in our uniforms, paint or replace the trucks, give them as much “us” as humanly possible, with the route drivers (remember they weren’t well trained) as our main ambassadors, and let them revel in the glories of our company.

I was the contrarian.  I said to change as little as possible early on.  Same drivers, same uniforms (keep in mind, in buying the company, we’d bought the rights to their name, logo, etc.), even the same billing address.  Assume that the customers were happy; many had a personal relationship with the owner of the company, and the company had low customer churn.  Make investments in our product and service quality behind the scenes, so they could see that their service was taking an uptick.  After a month or two of this, let the former owner meet with the customers individually – with our service manager in tow – to explain the changeover and shepherd the transition.

I lost.  We rebranded as quickly as possible, with the route drivers (in their sparkling new uniforms) explaining the buyout in their own words.

And WE lost.  Nearly 50% of the customers left in the first year.  The way we did it sparked fear in the customer base and they bailed.

I can’t fault them; I’ve bailed too during a transition.  I scheduled a meeting with the new owners of my Web provider (they were local to me).  In the meeting, it became obvious that they hadn’t even looked at the very website they were hosting for me, and cared little about my business.  Fear sparked, I looked for and found other options.  I’m guessing I’m far from the only one.

I’ve told you these two long stories for a very good reason.  There seems to be a ‘standard’ way to handle transitions in ownership or salespeople, and they universally spark fear and make you easy prey for your competition.  Since the pace of consolidation in this industry won’t be likely to change – to say nothing of sales turnover – here are some guidelines for handling this transition.

1. Assume the customers are happy until you know otherwise. Too many transitions are based on ego; on the idea that ‘we’re so much better than they’ve had.’  Maybe that’s true, but you will have to prove it to the existing customer base.
2. Keep the transition gradual, and have as much of the ‘old’ interspersed with the ‘new’ as possible. If the former owner or managers can assist, let them; in the case of a sales transition, have the sales manager on board for the calls from the new person.
3. Respect the old while introducing the new. One of the biggest unforced errors is when the new people put down the old people, without knowing what the relationship was.
4. Keep the customers CLOSE, at sales, service, and management level. Overpay them attention.  Customers are less likely to have fears and look for new vendors if they’re being communicated with, openly and honestly.
5. Do NOT go for a quick upsell; make sure your relationship is strong and the customer is mentally bonded to your company before trying to raise their level of business.

Do these guidelines mean that you won’t have fear on the part of your customers? Probably not – but those guidelines will help you alleviate the fear and keep your customers comfortable as soon and as well as possible – and then you won’t lose a substantial portion of the business you just paid for.

A while back, I was doing some initial consultations with a client that does custom machined parts for industry.  The salesperson is the outside relationship manager, and they have an internal sales team that handles the order process.  When I was doing my discovery, I found that they were having huge problems getting orders and quotes through the system, and that it was taking up an inordinate amount of time.  The reason was that they weren’t good at getting the information needed to process quotes and orders.

I checked, and they had a quote form that had spots for all critical quoting information, and a supplementary form that included other needed data to actually make the parts.  The problem was that they were struggling to get accurate quote information (things like material, dimensions, tolerances, etc.), and that was flowing through to order fulfillment.  Meanwhile, sales was screaming at the inside salespeople to get them their quotes FAST – but the inside sales was screaming back that they didn’t have all the information needed.  What a mess!  But the problem was cleared up when I talked to a senior salesperson.  He told me something that left bruises from my jaw hitting the table.

“Well,” he said, “once we get the request for the quote, we don’t ask any more questions.  We’re trained not to.  We get out of there before the customer can change his mind.”

By my stunned, open-mouthed silence, he surmised that I was shocked by this.

“So, explain to me,” I said, “You leave with a request for a quote, but not knowing what it is that you’re quoting?”

“Yeah,” he said, “We find out later.  Don’t you know that you’re not supposed to talk past the sale?”  The conversation got worse from there.  But upon further reflection, I’ve seen this sales method before.  I should point out that these salespeople were NOT trained by me.

One of the old sayings of sales – which is still a good one, when you interpret it correctly – is, “Don’t talk past the sale.”  What this means is that, after the customer says “yes,” (either to a quote or to an order), don’t keep babbling and re-selling.  But it doesn’t mean that you have to get the hell out of the customer’s sight immediately.

What your customer is expecting is that you will now become their caretaker and facilitator.  That doesn’t mean that you won’t rely on internal staff to assist in their functions, but it does mean that you’ll be a professional and do what you can.

In this case, what customers were likely expecting is that the salesperson would shift gears, express an appreciation for the opportunity, and then begin acquiring the info that the inside salespeople would need in order to generate an accurate quote.  Instead, the salesperson was going back in and telling the inside sales staff that he needed a quote on, say, an aluminum pulley, approximately 4 inches in diameter and 1 inch wide, with a  V-belt groove.  Trust me when I say that there are MANY more pieces of information needed to generate a quote that’s accurate (to make sure that the product functions), competitive (to assist in getting the business), and profitable for the company.

Instead, it was a Chinese fire drill getting quotes out, with significant wasted time for everyone and heated tempers involved.  That’s dumb.

So, why do salespeople sell this way?  I can think of three reasons:

1. The salesperson is scared to death that, if they ask the questions that I like to call “Order taking questions,” the customer will rethink the deal and take it back.  That’s nonsense.  Asking the right order taking questions is just basic professionalism, and actually reassures your customers that you know what the hell is going on and that they are in good hands.  Ultimately, this fear is that you haven’t properly sold your customer – and that’s on you.
2. Sometimes, salespeople want to do the absolute minimum of effort before moving on to the next deal (or to Happy Hour).  So they do a half-assed job of getting the details down, and usually end up with significant errors in the quoting process (bad) or the production process (way worse).
3. Bad training. As I noted above, the salespeople didn’t come up with this approach on their own – they just didn’t let their common sense override their sales training (which probably indicates some level of #1 or #2 above).

By the way, I’m lumping a sale and a quote into the same process, because many times, it is the same process – and even when it’s not, a similar dynamic happens in the sales conversation.

So, how should you handle this situation?  First of all, understand that by either requesting a proposal, or placing an order, your customer has made a significant commitment to you in advancing the Buyer’s Journey.  It’s your job to navigate the customer through this process.  Here are three strategies for how to handle this moment.

1. Get the info right then. Your customer’s motivation to give you the right information to help you get the quote, or fulfill the sale, is highest at the moment that they say “yes.”  Just have a checklist, pull it out, and use it.
2. Set a time for the information to get to you. Sometimes, the customer will need to gather the information.  That’s fine.  Set a deadline, and let the customer know what your turnaround time will be from the moment you receive the info.  That’s being a good guide and advisor.
3. “I’ll have my people call your people.” It’s common that the decision make isn’t necessarily the person who will handle the technical details of fulfillment – they may have support staff to do it, just as you do.  At this moment, you can either ask your customer to connect you with the support staff, or you can connect your support staff with their staff.  Again, a timeline is important, and it’s vital that you communicate – in advance – what that timeline will be.

Ultimately, your best strategy for handling this moment is this:  Act like you’ve been there before.  The “get outta there” approach speaks to a lack of confidence and expertise on your part, and makes the customer think that you’re inexperienced and/or incapable of handling their needs.  This can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as well as wasting a lot of time, effort, and relationship capital with your own people.  Be a professional, and you’ll sell more and everyone will be much happier.

I’m going to give you a quick peek behind the curtain of sales training.  Here’s what (smart) sales trainers do:  They attempt to predict buyer behavior patterns, and then create techniques designed to work with those buyer behavior patterns in order to move the buyer toward a positive buying decision.  They then teach salespeople how to use these techniques.

But – what if buyer behavior patterns change?  This is the problem facing many people in the sales profession right now.  I’ve been saying it for a while, and it bears repeating.  Today’s buyers are getting younger, they’re more empowered and informed, and they have different wants and needs from salespeople than the buyers of years past had.  That’s changing the foundational assumptions upon which many sales techniques are built – which makes those techniques obsolete.  I heard a story a few days ago that positively blew up one of the oldest and most foundational assumptions of sales, and we’ll unpack it here and talk about what it means.

I was talking to a production manager for a manufacturing company.  He sees salespeople all the time, of course, and he was telling me about one particular visit that he’d had.  He’s 37 years old, which becomes very germane to the story.  A salesman came in for his first visit with the production manager.  As he did, the salesman took a quick look around the office.  As we’ll see, he was doing a quick scan for pictures, mounted fish on the wall, trophies, or anything else that would give an indication of the buyer’s personal interests.

In other words, he was revving up to do some old, hackneyed, fish on the wall selling.

He introduced yourself and spotted a picture of the buyer’s 13 year old son on his desk, about to run track.

The salesman said, “Is that your son?”  Again, common.  You’ve either seen it done or done it yourself.  This was his opening rapport-building gambit.

The buyer said, “Uh, we just met.  Don’t you think it’s a little creepy to ask about my kids?”

The salesman’s jaw dropped and he didn’t know what to say.  After some stammering, he picked up his jaw and said, “Well, I had a son who ran track, too, and I was just asking because I’ve been there.”

The buyer said, “I didn’t have you in here to talk about my kids.  Get to business.”

I should point something out here.  The buyer wasn’t playing games and he wasn’t trying to be rude.  He’s a good dude and a friendly sort.  BUT – he’s also not going to divulge a bunch of personal information when he first meets someone.  And he’s particularly not going to tell you all about his kids and family upon first meeting.  He had 30 minutes reserved on his schedule to talk about what the salesman had to sell – which was, in fact, something he very much needed to buy.  But the salesman’s old rapport-building technique actually did the opposite, and put up the buyer’s defenses.

Why did this happen?

Well, one of the most foundational assumptions of selling – one I hear constantly to this day – is:

“People buy from people they like.”  Because of this foundational assumption, salespeople the world over have accepted the duty of being liked by the buyer first before being eligible to talk business.  Hence, rapport-building techniques have centered on personal likeability, rather than business needs.

I’m not sure that’s as true now as it used to be.  Different generations have different expectations of how their time is to be used by salespeople, and they also have different personal boundaries.  Past generations (in many cases) were more protective of their business needs and information, and much more open with their personal information.  What past generations thought of as a good opening conversation, younger generations think of as phony (because it usually is) and even creepy.  Say what you will about the tech immersion of Millennials and Gen-Z’s, they tend to have a good BS detector when it comes to their business dealings.

The Millennial and Gen-Z generations tend to be much more private about their personal lives in a business setting, and much more open to getting right down to business.  In fact, they demand that you get to business quickly.  The biggest change we see in younger buyers is that, as opposed to forming relationships with salespeople based first on personal connections and then moving to business needs, they form relationships based on your ability to solve their business problems first, and then they are more open to discussion of personal lives and forming a personal bond.

In addition, Millennials and Z’s tend to be more protective of their time and want salespeople to be efficient and productive with it.  I think there are a couple of reasons behind this.  First, work/life balance is more important to these generations, and their mindset is that the more work they can get done in the allotted work time, the more they can focus on enjoying their personal time.

The second is what I call the “Amazon effect.”  These generations are used to being able to buy things quickly and efficiently.  Amazon doesn’t ask if you fish, or what sports your kids play, or how you liked the game last Sunday.  It just gives you the info you need to buy and tells you the price.  That’s efficient, and this mindset translates into their sales interactions.

What this means to us is that, with Millennial and Z buyers, it can often be much more important to be seen as valuable than it is to be overly likeable.  Being a person of business value is your gateway to them liking you – which is a complete flipping of the script from the past. This doesn’t mean that you should be a jerk and make your buyer dislike you, but it’s more likely to get the first order if they feel neutral to you on a personal basis and value you on a business basis these days.

So, your task is easy, right?  Walk in, look at the buyer, figure out what his or her age is, and base your selling style accordingly.

Not so fast.

An interesting phenomenon I’ve seen is that some older buyers – Gen-X (who already had some of the business-first traits of the generations that followed) – and even Boomers are learning from their younger counterparts.  They too want to be more efficient with their time, and some of them are moving toward a business-first paradigm.  Now it’s getting harder, isn’t it?  That’s why sales is a job for those who are smart and mentally agile.

Here’s my advice.  First of all, it’s hard to go wrong with a business-first approach these days.  My opening question to buyers has always been, “So, tell me, how did you come to be in this job?”  This allows them to tell their story.  You build rapport just by listening, and because it’s a business-first question, it doesn’t cross any bad boundaries.  Within their answer, they’ll tell you if they like to talk about personal issues or to stick to business.

Second, the key is to remain mentally agile.  As I said, a business-first approach is the safest, but in those instances where a buyer wants to build a personal bond first, they’ll pump the brakes a bit, and then you can switch to a personal-first approach.  With that said, I do think that the personal-first approach is becoming obsolescent, and may be obsolete in another 10 years or so.

And that’s okay.  One thing to remember – time efficiency for the buyer is also time efficiency for you.  You may find that you’re able to make more sales calls and have more quality interactions than before.  And that’s a win, isn’t it?

Lately, it’s seemed fashionable for a lot of sales trainers to write articles about “why sales training doesn’t work,” which of course allows them to slyly inject why THEIR sales training is the only sales training that could have a possibility of working, in this and all other imaginable worlds.  I think I’ll stay away from that.

I prefer to stay on the positive side, so let’s talk about how to make sales training work.  Will that generate a bit of ROI for your time in reading this article?  Hopefully, it will.  Full disclosure; this article was inspired by a lunch that I had recently with a client who commented on how effective my training was.  In retrospect, I have to say that part of what made it so effective was how the client handled it – and that’s what I propose to pass along today.  First, however, let me pass along the Dirty Little Secret of sales training:

Almost any sales trainer can, and will, generate ROI for your company.  That’s a big statement, I know, and there are certainly exceptions.  But the reality is this:  The economies of sales training are such that even the most expensive sales trainers can pay for themselves if just one person in the class takes what he learns and uses it to significantly up his or her performance.  And I’ve taught very few classes where at least a few people didn’t take the teachings and run with them.  Again, there are exceptions; there are people out there teaching techniques that will actually generate negative ROI because the techniques, when implemented, actually make the customer uncomfortable and less likely to buy – but let’s assume that we’re talking about trainers who at least understand customer friendliness.

So, now that the Big Secret is out there (and I’ll follow up on it at the end by giving you some guidelines on how to pick your trainer), let’s talk about what YOU (whether you are manager or salesperson) can do to make training work for you.

Preparation is key.  I wish I could tell you how many times I’ve walked into a room, looked around, and discovered that the salespeople have no real idea of why I’m there or what I’m there to do; they just know to show up at a certain place at a certain time.  Don’t be that guy. If you’re a manager, prep your people on what will happen and what the expectations are.  Much time gets wasted in these sessions just crossing the “Oh, this is training” hump.  If you’re a salesperson, don’t just settle for a scheduled meeting; ask what will be happening and what the expectations are.  It’s your time, after all.  Good trainers will inform you as to the program outline and plan when they are selling the business; make use of that.

Professionalism is the most basic expectation.  When I was a sales manager and I sent my reps to training, I always did so with the expectation that they be on their most professional behavior; unprofessionalism was a reflection on me, after all.  However, too many training programs (again, of any type) end up looking more like Romper Room than a business environment.  Want to maximize the value of your money?  Make sure your people are on their game when they’re in the room, and that they are punctual when returning from lunches, breaks, etc.  If you’re the trainee, be the leader.  Look at it this way:  You’re going to be there regardless, so if others’ conduct is keeping you from learning, it’s your right to call them on it.  Is it the speaker’s job to ‘control the room?’  To an extent – but I tell all my clients that I am a trainer and not a babysitter.  If your staff requires a babysitter, that reflects on YOU.

One other aspect of professionalism that is worth talking about is what I call “the debaters.”  It doesn’t happen often – thankfully – but from time to time, I’ll encounter a group where one or more members feels that their job in training is to show how much THEY know, and they do it by debating as many points that the trainer makes as possible.  I have no problem with good discussion and differences of opinion.  In fact, my motto is, “If it works for you, and it’s not illegal, immoral, or unethical, do it.”  With that said, when it becomes obvious that some members are arguing just to argue, what you (whether you are a trainee or the manager) need to understand is this:  Their ego trip is taking time away from others’ potential to learn.  Don’t be afraid to call the debaters out.

Focus on the “nuggets” – profitable behavior modifications.  As the training is going on, you will find elements that you have heard before.  That’s going to happen with any experienced worker going through any type of training.  Training becomes unsuccessful when attendees focus in on those commonalities and stop looking for the differences.  Virtually any training of any type, however, will have what I call “nuggets,” or ways to modify behavior that can be very profitable.  I went to a training session for speakers a couple of months ago; 98% of it was stuff that I had heard and knew; I’ve been working the 2% for the last two weeks with some excellent results.

Learn and reinforce.  There’s no substitute for management that participates in the sessions and learns right along with their people; there’s no substitute for when that management, having learned the lessons, continually reinforces that message when the trainer has left.  My client the other day said, “Our profit per stop is up significantly because of your training.”  That’s great, and I appreciate it – but reality is that it’s up partially because of what I taught, and partially because the company has adopted those teachings as part of the culture, and has reinforced those teachings in the months since I was there.

Too many managers look at training – of any type – as a self-contained fix-all solution.  It’s not.  Good training programs are incorporated into the culture of the company or department, and then reinforced consistently and when opportunity comes up.  Training is designed to show the benefits of behavioral change; however, true behavioral change does not happen within a one-day or two-day window.  It’s consistency of management and follow up that really spikes the ROI.

How do you pick a trainer?  So, I promised earlier that I would circle back and talk about how to pick a trainer.  I’ll do so now.  To pick the right person for your needs, just follow these simple guidelines:

• Pick someone who is expert. There are a lot of ‘seminar’ companies out there who provide general-purpose speakers with prewritten courses to present.  The training breaks down when the first person asks a question that starts with “Why?”  Make sure your trainer can answer those questions through personal expertise.
• Pick someone who is current. There’s a lot of training out there – in every discipline and genre – that hasn’t been revised or rewritten in decades.  The on-the-ground realities in every phase of business have changed. Does the proposed training take those changes into account? If not, perhaps you should look for a different trainer.
• Pick someone who is willing to learn. Too many trainers come in with a ‘program in a box’ and end up not speaking your language.  Good trainers build in pre-training time to learn the specific challenges and needs of your business.
• Pick someone who fits your culture, or the culture you would like to have. Training of any kind should set the tone for how things are done at your company; if the trainer is training a method counter to your culture, it won’t be effective.  When it comes to sales training, I always tell my clients that sales training dictates how you want your customers to be treated; is the curriculum and approach a fit?  Even in other departments, you should always remember that the way you treat your employees is reflected in the way your employees treat each other, as well as your customers. Training has a BIG impact on culture.
• Finally, pick someone who is available post session. I’ve heard horror stories about trainers who came in, did an outrageously expensive session, then when the manager or trainees have a question, he wants to bill a big amount just for answering.  Make sure your trainer doesn’t mind getting the occasional call or email post-session.  I always tell my clients that they are free to call or email with questions, and if it gets to a point where I will need to bill for time, I’ll let them know well in advance.

A well designed, planned, executed, and followed training session can be the best thing for you and your staff.  A bad one can be a time waster.  By following these simple steps, you can make sure that your training is effective.