I had a conversation last week with a salesperson who was frustrated with his results. He’d been reading sales books, listening to podcasts, and absorbing content from LinkedIn influencers. He was fired up and ready to completely overhaul his approach. “I’m going to rebuild my entire prospecting process,” he told me. “New messaging, new cadence, new everything. I’m going to document it all and create a whole system.”

I asked him when he was going to start. “Well, I need to block out some time to really think through the strategy. Probably next month when things slow down.” Translation: Never.

This is the trap I see salespeople, sales managers, and business owners fall into constantly. They want massive transformation. They create huge projects out of small tasks. And then they do nothing because the project feels too big to start.

Remember – You Probably Don’t Completely Suck

Here’s what happens when you decide to completely overhaul something:

You get excited about the vision. You imagine how much better everything will be once you’ve rebuilt your entire approach from the ground up. You start planning the project – all the steps, all the components, all the changes you need to make.

And then reality hits. You’re busy. You have quotas to hit. You have current prospects to manage. You don’t actually have three weeks to disappear into a conference room and rebuild your sales process. So you don’t start. The massive change project sits on your to-do list, making you feel guilty every time you see it, while you keep doing exactly what you’ve always done.

And the truth is that what you’ve always done probably doesn’t completely suck.  If it did, you wouldn’t be making a living.

Meanwhile, the salesperson who added one new question to their discovery process three months ago has asked that question on fifty calls by now. They’ve learned what works, refined the wording, and incorporated it into their natural flow – and they’ve discarded what doesn’t work. Guess who’s actually improved?

“One More” Works

Instead of massive change projects, embrace the “one more” philosophy. Learn one more question. Get one more appointment. Make one more call. Read one more chapter. Try one more approach.

One more. That’s it. That’s the whole strategy.

It sounds almost insultingly simple, but here’s why it works: You can actually do it. Today. Right now. Without planning, without blocking out time, without creating a project plan. Want to improve your discovery questioning? Don’t rebuild your entire discovery process. Learn one more question that helps you understand buyer motivation. Use it on your next three calls. See what happens. Adjust if needed. Then learn another one.

Want to hit your appointment targets more consistently? Don’t redesign your entire prospecting approach. Make one more call today than you made yesterday. Tomorrow, do it again. Want to get better at handling price objections? Don’t create a comprehensive objection-handling playbook. Learn one more way to respond to “your price is too high.” Try it on your next call. See if it works better than what you’ve been saying.

Why This Actually Creates Change

Incremental improvement is like interest at the bank. It compounds.

One more question doesn’t sound like much. But if you learn one new question per month and actually use it, you’ll have twelve new questions in your arsenal by this time next year (and probably discarded 12 weaker ones). Your discovery conversations will be dramatically better – not because you overhauled everything at once, but because you kept adding one more piece.

One more appointment per week doesn’t sound impressive. But that’s fifty-two more appointments per year. At even modest close rates, that’s significant revenue impact – achieved not through heroic effort, but through consistent incremental improvement. The math works in your favor when you stack small improvements over time.  Just like compound interest.

Apply “One More” to the Buyer’s Journey

Remember, 80% of your chance to win or lose the sale is determined by the time you ask your last question. That happens in the Investigation phase of the Buyer’s Journey. You don’t improve Investigation by completely rebuilding how you conduct discovery calls. You improve it by adding one more insightful question. Then another. Then another.

Over time, your Investigation becomes comprehensive and customer-centric – not because you created a massive project, but because you kept asking “what’s one more thing I should understand about my buyer’s situation?”

The same principle applies to every phase of the Buyer’s Journey:

Motivation: Learn one more way to highlight dissatisfaction with the status quo. Solution: Add one more way to demonstrate how your solution addresses their specific needs. Evaluation: Get one percent better at presenting pricing confidently. Decision: Try one more approach to asking for the business. None of these require massive change projects. All of them improve your results.

For Sales Managers and Business Owners

This philosophy applies to developing your team just as much as it applies to individual salespeople.

Stop trying to overhaul everything all at once (unless you truly have a dumpster fire). Instead, focus on one improvement this month. Maybe it’s getting everyone to ask one specific question during discovery. Maybe it’s having everyone make one more prospecting call per day. Maybe it’s implementing one simple accountability metric. One thing. Get everyone doing it consistently. Then add the next thing.

The sales managers who succeed aren’t the ones with the most elaborate systems on paper. They’re the ones who actually get their teams to change behavior – which happens through small, consistent improvements, not massive overhauls.  Again – compound interest.

The Discipline of Small Steps

Here’s the hard part about the “one more” philosophy: It requires discipline.

Massive change projects are exciting. They feel important. You can talk about them in meetings. You can create presentations about your vision for transformation. One more question? One more call? That doesn’t feel exciting. It feels almost embarrassingly small. But small and done beats big and planned every single time.  My friend Darren LaCroix has a great saying:  “Done is more profitable than perfect,” and he’s right.

The discipline is in actually doing the one more thing every day, even when it doesn’t feel significant. In trusting that these small improvements compound. In resisting the urge to create a massive project instead of just taking the next small step.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Start today. Not next week when you have more time. Today. Pick one thing – one question, one activity, one skill – that would improve your results if you did it better or more often. Do it one more time today than you normally would.

Tomorrow, do it again. Don’t create a project plan. Don’t document a comprehensive new system. Don’t wait for the perfect time to overhaul everything.  You don’t need a whiteboard or a new app for this. Just do one more.

Next month, pick another one. Keep the first one going, and add a second small improvement. By the end of the year, you’ll have made twelve small improvements that have become habits. Your results will be dramatically different – not because you executed one massive change, but because you stacked twelve small ones.

Reaping Your Rewards

Real improvement in sales doesn’t come from massive transformation projects that never get started. It comes from small, consistent, incremental changes that actually get implemented. Stop planning the overhaul. Stop creating the comprehensive new system. Stop waiting for the perfect time to make big changes.

Learn one more question. Make one more call. Try one more approach. One more. Do it today. Do it again tomorrow. Stack these improvements over time.  Make compound interest work for you.

That’s how good salespeople become great ones. Not through dramatic transformation, but through relentless incremental improvement.

What’s your one more for today?

I’ve written before about how AI is changing the B2B buying landscape. Buyers are using tools like Perplexity and Claude to research vendors before they ever take a call. They’re finding reviews, analyzing messaging, and comparing options – all before you know they exist.

Here’s the question: If your buyers are using AI to research you, why aren’t you using AI to research them?

The gap between salespeople who leverage AI research tools and those who don’t is already massive. It’s about to become a canyon. Today’s empowered buyers expect to interact with equally empowered salespeople – ones who’ve done their homework and show up prepared. Perplexity makes this possible in ways that weren’t realistic even a year ago. Here’s how to use it to transform your sales approach.

1. Prospecting Research: Finding the Hooks That Actually Matter

Remember when I said that pre-call prep expectations have skyrocketed? Walking into a call asking “What do you do here?” is dead now. But here’s the problem: researching dozens of prospects manually takes hours you don’t have. This is where Perplexity can be a game-changer.

Upload your prospect list into Perplexity and give it a simple prompt: “Research these companies and contacts. For each one, find 2-3 specific hooks I could use in a prospecting call. Search their LinkedIn profiles, recent company news, and any relevant content they’ve posted or engaged with.” What you get back is company-specific (and even contact-specific) talking points that show you’ve done your homework.

Instead of a generic voicemail like “I’d love to talk about your trade show program,” you can say: “I saw your VP of Marketing posted about expanding into the Southwest region. I’ve worked with three companies managing that exact transition, and there are some exhibit strategies that made a huge difference for them.” That’s 1-to-1 personalization at scale, and even if you’re leaving it on a voice mail (8-9 times out of 10, you will), it will still grab attention.

The key is being specific with your prompt. Tell Perplexity exactly what you’re looking for – recent expansions, new product launches, leadership changes, industry challenges they’ve mentioned publicly. The more specific your prompt, the better the hooks you’ll get.

2. Pre-Appointment Research: Showing Up Ready to Add Value

You’ve got the meeting. Now what?

This is where most salespeople still wing it. They know their product cold, but they don’t know enough about the prospect’s business to ask intelligent questions or provide relevant insights. Use Perplexity to do extensive pre-appointment research on the company, its market position, its recent marketing initiatives, and the industry trends affecting them.

Ask Perplexity: “What are the biggest challenges facing [industry] companies like [prospect company] right now? What trends are reshaping their market? How has [prospect company] positioned itself in response?”

Then take it further: “Based on [prospect company’s] recent messaging and market position, what questions should I ask to understand their exhibit and event marketing strategy?” What you’re doing is using AI to help you think like a consultant instead of a salesperson. You’re preparing to have a conversation about their business, not just your products.

Remember my principle: 80% of your chance to win or lose the sale is determined by the time you ask your last question. That happens in the Investigation phase. You can’t ask great questions if you don’t understand their business context. Perplexity gives you that context in minutes instead of hours.

3. Competitor Research: Knowing What You’re Up Against

Your competitors are actively marketing. They’re posting on social media, updating their websites, getting reviews, and positioning themselves in the market.  Are you tracking any of this? Most salespeople aren’t. They have a vague sense of what competitors offer, but they’re not staying current on messaging changes, new offerings, or how customers are responding to them.

Use Perplexity to set up ongoing competitor research. Every week or two, run searches like: “What has [competitor] posted on social media in the past two weeks? What new content or messaging have they released? What are recent reviews saying about them?” This isn’t stalking (well, kinda, but in sales, it’s fair game). This is competitive intelligence.

When you know what competitors are emphasizing in their messaging, you can position yourself against it. When you know what customers are complaining about in reviews, you can proactively address those concerns. When you see them launching new offerings, you can prepare your response.

The refresh frequency matters here. Doing this once and forgetting about it doesn’t help. Make it a recurring part of your weekly routine – twenty minutes every Monday morning to update your competitive intelligence.

4. Self-Research: Know What Your Buyers Are Seeing

Here’s the question that should keep you up at night: What does AI say about your company? Your prospects are using Perplexity to research you before they take your call. They’re reading reviews, analyzing your messaging, and comparing you to competitors. Do you know what they’re finding?

Run the same research on yourself that you’re running on competitors. Ask Perplexity: “What does recent social media, reviews, and marketing content say about [your company]? What are customers saying? How is the company positioning itself?” This isn’t vanity searching. This is understanding your buyers’ perspective before you ever talk to them.

You might discover that old negative reviews are the first thing prospects see. You might find that your company’s messaging emphasizes features that customers don’t actually care about. You might learn that a competitor has positioned themselves directly against you in ways you didn’t realize. All of this is information you need to sell effectively. And all of it is available in minutes through Perplexity.

Remember to Click the Links

Here’s what sets Perplexity apart from other AI tools: It cites its sources. Every piece of information comes with links to where it found that data. When something is important – a significant claim about a prospect, a competitor positioning statement, a customer complaint – click the link. Verify it. Read the full context.

AI tools can occasionally misinterpret information or pull from outdated sources. The links let you validate what matters and dig deeper when you need to. This combination – AI speed with human verification – is what makes Perplexity so powerful for sales research.

Becoming an Empowered Salesperson for Empowered Buyers

I’ve written about how buyers are more empowered than ever. They have access to unlimited information. They can research independently. They complete 70% of their buying journey before they ever contact a vendor. The only way to add value to these empowered buyers is to become an empowered salesperson yourself.

That means showing up to every interaction knowing more about their business than they expect. It means asking questions that demonstrate you’ve done your homework. It means providing insights and perspectives they haven’t considered. None of this is possible if you’re walking in cold.

Perplexity – and tools like it – level the playing field. They give you the ability to do deep research at scale. To personalize at volume. To stay current on competitive intelligence without spending hours manually tracking competitors.

The salespeople who embrace these tools will have massive advantages over those who don’t. They’ll show up better prepared. They’ll ask better questions. They’ll provide more relevant insights. And they’ll win more deals.

The salespeople who ignore these tools? They’ll keep wondering why prospects seem so much better informed than they are.

Putting it in Action

Knowledge is power in sales. It always has been. What’s changed is how quickly you can acquire that knowledge and how much of it you can process.

Start using Perplexity today:

• Research your prospects before you call
• Prepare for appointments with deep company and industry analysis
• Track your competitors weekly
• Understand what buyers are learning about you

Twenty minutes of research can transform a generic prospecting call into a personalized conversation. An hour of pre-appointment prep can turn you from another vendor into a trusted advisor.

Your buyers are already using AI to research you. It’s time you returned the favor.

Congratulations! You’ve landed your first professional sales job. You’re excited, motivated, and ready to crush it. You’re also probably terrified because you have no idea what you’re doing. Welcome to the club. Every successful salesperson started exactly where you are right now – staring at a phone, a CRM system, and a quota, wondering how any of this is supposed to work.  I know I did (well, there wasn’t a CRM system).

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: A lot of companies hired you with the best intentions but haven’t built the infrastructure to properly develop you. They might not have documented processes, structured training programs, or clear guidelines for what your first ninety days should look like. That’s not an excuse to fail. That’s an opportunity to take control of your own development. Here’s what you need to do, starting today.

Embrace the Fact That You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

The biggest mistake new salespeople make is pretending they understand things they don’t. You’re not fooling anyone, and you’re making your learning curve steeper. Your manager knows you’re new. Your colleagues know you’re new. Your prospects will figure it out pretty quickly. Stop trying to hide it and start using it as an asset.

Ask questions. Lots of them. “Can you explain how that works?” “What’s the typical timeline for this?” “How do you handle it when a customer says that?” The window where asking basic questions is acceptable is narrow – probably your first three to six months. After that, you’re expected to know. Use this window aggressively.

Find Your Go-To Person

If your company has assigned you a mentor or buddy, great. Use them relentlessly. If they haven’t, find someone anyway. Look for an experienced salesperson who seems willing to help and doesn’t treat you like an interruption. Buy them coffee. Ask if you can shadow their calls. Debrief with them after your meetings.

Most successful salespeople remember what it was like to be new, and they’re more willing to help than you think. But you have to ask. The key is having one designated person you can go to with the constant stream of questions that will come up. Don’t spread your questions across ten different people – you’ll annoy everyone and get inconsistent answers.

Create Your Own Structure

Your company might not have given you a documented sales process or a weekly routine. Build your own. Start by observing what the successful salespeople in your organization do. How do they spend their days? What does their prospecting look like? How do they prepare for calls?

Then create a basic weekly framework for yourself:

• How many prospecting calls will you make each day?
• How much time will you spend on LinkedIn engagement?
• When will you do your research and prep work?
• What does a productive day look like in concrete activities?

Write it down. Follow it. Adjust as you learn what works. The discipline of having a routine will set you apart from other new salespeople who are just reacting to whatever seems urgent at the moment.

Build Your Own Knowledge Base

Your company might not have quick-reference guides for products, objections, or common questions. Make your own. Every time you learn something new about your product, write it down. Every time you hear a great answer to an objection, document it. Every time you discover a useful resource or process, add it to your notes.

Use a simple document, a notebook, or a notes app – whatever works for you. The act of writing things down helps you remember them, and you’re building a reference you can review before calls. This becomes especially valuable when you’re on a call and a question comes up. Having your own notes to reference gives you confidence and helps you avoid the dreaded “Let me get back to you on that.”

Shadow, Shadow, Shadow

If your company allows it, get on as many calls with experienced salespeople as possible. Listen to how they open conversations. Watch how they handle objections. Notice what questions they ask and when. After each call, debrief. “Why did you ask that question?” “How did you know they were ready to talk about price?” “What were you thinking when they said that?”

This is how you acquire tribal knowledge – the unwritten wisdom that exists in every sales organization but rarely gets documented or formally taught.

Invest in Your Own Education

Don’t wait for your company to send you to training. Start learning on your own. Read books on professional selling. Watch videos on YouTube.  Listen to sales podcasts during your commute. Follow experienced sales professionals on LinkedIn and pay attention to what they’re sharing.

Most importantly, learn about the Buyer’s Journey – how customers actually make buying decisions and what role you play in helping them navigate that process. Understanding the five steps (Motivation, Investigation, Solution, Evaluation, and Decision) will give you a framework for every sales interaction.

This isn’t about becoming a sales guru overnight. It’s about building foundational knowledge that will make everything else easier.

Get Real-World Experience Fast

If you’re selling trade show exhibits, find a trade show and walk the floor. If you’re selling manufacturing solutions, visit a factory. If you’re selling software, attend a user conference. You can’t sell with conviction when you’ve never experienced the environment your prospects operate in. This experiential learning will accelerate your development more than any training manual.

Don’t wait for your company to send you. Find local events on your own. Most industry events will let you register as a vendor or visitor. Make it happen.

Accept That You’re Going to Struggle

Here’s what nobody tells new salespeople: The first six months are going to be hard. Really hard. You’re going to make calls that go nowhere. You’re going to stumble through presentations. You’re going to lose deals you thought you had won. You’re going to feel incompetent more often than you feel confident.

This is normal. Every successful salesperson went through it (even if they won’t admit it). The difference between those who made it and those who didn’t isn’t talent – it’s persistence. The struggling is part of the process. It means you’re learning. Embrace it instead of running from it.

The Bottom Line

Your company might not have built the perfect onboarding program for you. That’s okay. You can build your own development plan. Be proactive about finding mentors. Create your own structure and routines. Document what you’re learning. Shadow experienced salespeople. Invest in your own education. Get real-world experience.

Most importantly, embrace being new. Ask questions while you can. Admit what you don’t know. Use your fresh perspective as an asset instead of hiding it. The sales profession needs people like you – enthusiastic, coachable, and willing to learn. The companies that don’t provide proper structure and training are making a mistake, but that mistake doesn’t have to define your career.

Take control of your own development. The first ninety days set the trajectory for your entire sales career. Make them count.

There’s a religion spreading through the B2B sales world, and like most religions, it’s built on faith rather than evidence.  I’m hearing this preached more and more:  “Buyers don’t want to talk to salespeople. Get out of their way. Let them self-serve. Be there when they’re ready.”

And, at first glance, you might think that the data supports it. According to Sopro’s 2025 research, 75% of B2B buyers say they prefer a “rep-free” sales experience Sopro. Well, that’s all she wrote, right? Salespeople are obsolete. The future is self-service. Time to update your resume.  And time for me to find a new career.  Except….there’s more to the story.

Here’s what the same research reveals: Self-service digital purchases are significantly more likely to result in purchase regret. If you don’t believe me, go to a place where they accept Amazon returns.  You’ll find a line out the door.  Let that sink in. Buyers say they want to be left alone, then regret the decisions they make when they are.

The Numbers Tell a Miserable Story

Some of my counterparts in the B2B sales world have spent a decade preaching “buyer empowerment” and “frictionless self-service,” and the results are in. They’re terrible.  I mean – BAD.  Nearly 86% of B2B purchases stall during the buying process, and 81% of buyers are dissatisfied with their chosen provider, according to Sopro’s research.

Read those numbers again. Nine out of ten deals get stuck. Eight out of ten buyers are unhappy with what they bought. This is what “self-serve” buying looks like. Sales cycles are getting longer – 63% of B2B leads now take at least three months to decide, and 20% wait over a year. Win rates are declining. Buyer satisfaction is tanking. But sure, let’s keep getting out of the buyer’s way.

I also think that the “self-serve” attitude has led to salespeople who have decided to be reactive, rather than proactive. Make no mistake – our job is to be proactive, independent business generation machines.  That’s how we add value to our companies – but we need to add value to our customers, too.

What Buyers Say They Want vs. What They Actually Want

Wanna know the truth?  It’s shown in the numbers above: Buyers don’t actually want to be left alone. They want salespeople who don’t waste their time, head space, and money.  There’s a massive difference between those two things, but the sales world has conflated them.

When buyers say they prefer a “rep-free experience,” they’re not saying they don’t need help. They’re saying they’re tired of salespeople who show up unprepared, ask basic questions they should already know the answers to, and pitch products without understanding their situation.  They’re also saying that when they tell salespeople what they need, salespeople should, you know, listen and act on what they say.

They’re rejecting bad selling, not selling itself. The proof is in the same research. 88% of B2B buyers want to hear from vendors when researching and evaluating their options. Nine out of ten buyers want vendor input during their buying process. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of “leave me alone.”

The Problem with Self-Service Buying

Here’s what happens when buyers try to navigate complex B2B purchases on their own: They do extensive research. Over 80% of buyers know what product they want before starting their research, and 70% buy their initially preferred solution.

Sounds great, right? Buyers are informed and decisive.  Except they’re making overconfident but poorly-informed decisions. All that research doesn’t mean they’ve correctly identified their problem or understand which solution actually fits their needs.

Remember my principle: 80% of your chance to win or lose the sale is determined by the time you ask your last question. That happens in the Investigation phase of the Buyer’s Journey – when you’re helping the buyer define their needs correctly.

If buyers have already “done their research” and decided what they want before you’re involved, you’ve missed the most critical part of the process. You’re not helping them make a successful buying decision – you’re just taking an order for something they may regret.  That means that you need to get ahead of their Investigation phase.

The Role Salespeople Actually Need to Play

When I talk about navigating the Buyer’s Journey, the first step is Motivation – helping buyers recognize dissatisfaction with their status quo and envision a better future state.  If you’re sitting and waiting on the phone to ring, you’re missing this step – and probably a big part of the next one.  And that puts you on the back foot.

The second step – Investigation – is where most of the sale is won or lost. This is where you ask comprehensive, customer-centric questions to help buyers define their needs and priorities correctly.

You can’t do either of these things if you’re “staying out of the buyer’s way.”

Buyers who self-serve through the entire process skip right to Solution and Evaluation. They never get proper Investigation. They never benefit from someone who’s seen this situation hundreds of times before helping them think through implications they haven’t considered. The result is the misery we’re seeing in the data. Stalled purchases. Buyer’s remorse. Dissatisfaction.

When You End the Call, How Is the Customer Better?

I’ve written before about the critical question every salesperson should ask after every interaction: When you end that call, how is the customer better? This isn’t about being liked. It’s not about being friendly. As I’ve said before, the “Good Time Charlie” salesperson is obsolete. It’s about providing expertise, perspective, and insights that customers can’t get from a Google search or a product comparison chart.

Buyers can research products online. They can compare prices. They can read reviews. They don’t need you for any of that.

What they need is someone who can help them:

• Understand if they’ve correctly diagnosed their problem
• See implications and consequences they haven’t considered
• Navigate the gap between their current state and their desired future state
• Make a decision they won’t regret

But only if that salesperson has done their homework, asks intelligent questions, and provides genuine value.

Yep, I’m Going to Talk About The Generational Factor Again

Here’s what makes this even more complicated: Millennials and Gen Z now account for 71% of B2B buyers. Younger buyers have grown up with instant access to information. They’re comfortable with self-service. They’re skeptical of traditional sales approaches.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t need help. It means they’re even less tolerant of salespeople who waste their time with information they could have found themselves. Gen-Z’s and Millennials like adults in the room – IF the adults add value. The bar for adding value has gone up, not disappeared.

Putting This Into Action

The “rep-free sales experience” isn’t making buyers happier or more successful. It’s creating a landscape where deals stall, buyers are dissatisfied, and everyone loses. Buyers don’t need less interaction with salespeople. They need better interaction with salespeople.

Stop apologizing for being a salesperson. Stop trying to “get out of the buyer’s way.” Instead, become the kind of salesperson buyers actually need:

• Do your research before the call (Claude or Perplexity rocks this).
• Ask questions that help buyers think through their situation more thoroughly than they would on their own.
• Provide insights and perspectives they can’t get from self-service research.
• Help them define their needs correctly before they make a decision they’ll regret.

When you end that sales call, the customer should be better informed, better prepared, and more confident about making a successful buying decision – whether they buy from you or not. That’s not getting in the buyer’s way. That’s adding value.

And despite what the “rep-free” evangelists preach, that’s exactly what buyers need.

I was reviewing a salesperson’s weekly activity report recently, and something caught my eye. He’d logged eight customer meetings for the week. Impressive number, right? So I asked him what he’d accomplished in those meetings.

His answer? “Well, I touched base with everyone and we had good conversations.” That’s code for “I wasted eight opportunities this week.”

Purposeless Sales Calls are Cancer

Here’s a problem that’s costing salespeople and their companies millions: Too many salespeople go into sales calls without knowing what they want to achieve, and then they’re surprised when they achieve nothing. They schedule the meeting. They show up. They have a nice chat. They leave. And nothing moves forward. No progress in the Buyer’s Journey. No new information. No commitment. Nothing. This isn’t a sales call. It’s a social visit that happens to occur during business hours.

What “Another Meeting” Really Means

One of the worst objectives I hear salespeople cite is “schedule another meeting.” Unless that next meeting involves different people, addresses a different topic, or represents the next step in the Buyer’s Journey, “another meeting” is meaningless. It’s a way to feel productive without actually being productive. It’s activity without achievement. It’s the sales equivalent of running in place and calling it a marathon.

If your objective for today’s meeting is to schedule another meeting just like this one with the same people talking about the same things, you don’t have an objective. You have a stalling tactic. And you’re the one stalling, not the customer.

“Just Checking In” Is a Waste of Time

“I’m just checking in” might be the four most useless words in sales. Checking in on what? For what purpose? To what end? When you “just check in,” you’re essentially saying, “I have nothing valuable to offer you today, but I wanted to use some of your time anyway.”

Your prospects are busy. Their time is valuable. If the best you can do is “check in,” you’re training them that meetings with you are optional at best and wasteful at worst.  And I get the “checking in” impulse – I have it myself sometimes.  But instead of “just checking in,” think of two or three meaningful questions to ask.  What is it that you really want to “check in” on?  Figure it out and ask.

What a Real Objective Looks Like

Before every sales call, you should be able to answer this question clearly: What do I want to accomplish in this meeting? Real objectives sound like this:

“I want to complete discovery on their decision-making process and timeline.”

“I want to schedule a plant tour so I can see their operation firsthand.”

“I want to get agreement on the key problems we’ve identified and earn the right to propose a solution.”

“I want to present our proposal and ask for the business.”

“I want to introduce our implementation team and confirm the go-live date.”

Notice what all of these have in common? They’re specific. They represent progress. They move the Buyer’s Journey forward. These are objectives worth scheduling a meeting for.

You Have to Ask For What You Want

Here’s the part that too many salespeople miss: Once you know what you want to achieve, you need to ask for it before the meeting is over. If you want a plant tour, ask for it: “Based on what we’ve discussed, I think it would be valuable for me to see your operation firsthand. Can we schedule a time for me to tour your facility?”

If you want to move to proposal stage, ask for it: “It sounds like we’ve identified the key issues. I’d like to put together a proposal that addresses what we’ve discussed. Does that make sense as a next step?”

If you want the business, ask for it: “When would you like to get started?”

Will you always get what you ask for? No. Sometimes the answer is “not yet” or even “no.” But if you don’t ask, you’re guaranteeing a meaningless sales call. You’re leaving with nothing when you could have left with clarity – even if that clarity is “they’re not ready yet” or “this isn’t going to happen.”

When “No Progress” Is Actually Progress

Does this mean you discontinue the relationship if you don’t get what you ask for? Not necessarily. Sometimes you ask for a proposal opportunity and learn they’re not ready yet. That’s valuable information. Now you know where you stand and what needs to happen before they’ll be ready.

Sometimes you ask for a plant tour and learn they have concerns about confidentiality. That’s a buying signal – they’re worried about protecting their operation, which means they’re taking this seriously enough to think about implementation.  Be prepared to sign an NDA.  I’ve been in business over 21 years.  In the first fifteen years, the number of NDA’s I signed could be counted on one hand. In the last five years, it’s nearly become routine.

The point isn’t to strong-arm customers into commitments they’re not ready to make. The point is to get clarity on where you are in the process and what needs to happen next. That only happens when you ask.

What Sales Managers Need to Do

If you’re a sales manager, you need to reinforce this discipline constantly. Before salespeople go into calls, ask them: “What’s your objective for this meeting?” After salespeople come out of calls, ask them: “Did you achieve your objective? If not, what did you learn?”

Make this a standard part of your coaching conversations. Make it part of your sales meeting discussions. Make it cultural. When salespeople know they’re going to be asked about their objectives, they start thinking about them proactively. The behavior becomes habit.

The Bottom Line

Your prospects’ time is valuable. Your time is valuable. Every sales call should accomplish something meaningful or it shouldn’t happen. Figure out what you want from each meeting. Make sure it represents real progress in the Buyer’s Journey. Then ask for it before the meeting ends.

Will you always get it? No. But you’ll get a lot more than you’re getting now by wandering into meetings hoping something good happens. Stop “just checking in.” Stop scheduling meetings for the sake of meetings. Start every sales call with a clear objective and the discipline to ask for what you want.

Your prospects will respect you more. Your pipeline will move faster. And your results will prove that purposeful beats aimless every single time.

It’s January 2, 2026, and if you’re a salesperson or sales manager reading this, I have good news and bad news.  The bad news? The rapid changes reshaping our profession aren’t slowing down. They’re accelerating.

The good news? If you’re willing to adapt, you’re going to have a massive competitive advantage over the salespeople who are still pretending it’s 2015. Here are my predictions for what’s going to separate winners from losers in sales this year.

1. Adding Value Will No Longer Be Optional

It’s not enough anymore to just ask questions, make presentations, and sell product. Customers can do all of that without you – and they know it. The vital skill for 2026 will be your ability to become an expertise provider for your customers. Here’s the question you need to ask yourself after every sales call: When you ended that call, how was the customer better? Did you provide expertise that helped them, even if they don’t buy from you?

Customers can buy things without ever talking to a salesperson. They can research products online, compare prices, read reviews, and click “purchase” – all without your intervention. You need to give them a reason to do otherwise. And it’s not your ability to talk football for 30 minutes. That reason is the expertise, perspective, and insights you bring that they can’t get from a Google search.

If you’re not making your customers smarter and better informed through your interactions, you’re not adding value. And if you’re not adding value, you’re irrelevant.

2. AI is Changing How Customers Research You

While skepticism about AI-generated content will continue to increase – and rightfully so – the use of AI for research is exploding. More and more customers are using tools like Claude and Perplexity (my favorite AI tools, FYI) to research you, your company, and your products before they ever talk to you. They’re finding sources, reading reviews, and gathering information faster and more comprehensively than ever before.

Here’s what that means for you: Salespeople should regularly research themselves, their companies, and their products to see what AI is saying about them. Go into Claude or Perplexity right now and ask what it knows about your company. Ask about your products. Ask about common complaints or issues. See what comes up. Because I guarantee your prospects are doing exactly that before they agree to meet.

3. Customer Expectations About Pre-Call Prep Are Skyrocketing

Once upon a time, salespeople could walk into a call fat, dumb, and happy, knowing almost nothing about the customer and still succeed. You could ask incredibly basic questions like “What do you do here?” and customers would patiently explain their business to you. Those days are over. Research is too easy now. Information is too accessible. Customers expect you to have done your homework before you waste their time.

This doesn’t mean you stop asking questions – Investigation is still where 80% of the sale is won or lost. But here’s the shift: Use research for the basics and confirm, then shift into “asking to learn” mode for the specifics. Instead of asking, “What are the biggest trends you see in your industry?” try this: “I did some research, and here are the trends I found in your industry. How close did I get, and how are those affecting you specifically?” This approach demonstrates both knowledge and curiosity. It shows you cared enough to do research, and you’re smart enough to know that research only gets you so far – you still need their specific insights.

Make good use of the customer’s time. Demonstrate that you care enough to prepare. Then use your questions to get specific about their company needs, buyer motivation, and unique situation.

4. LinkedIn’s Role in Prospecting Will Become Even More Critical

Prospecting continues to get more challenging, and the role of LinkedIn in filling the sales funnel will increase throughout 2026. Yes, there are still a handful of industries where old-style door knocking works. But for most industries, modern security concerns and time management have made that obsolete.

Decreasing contact ratios are harming the effectiveness of phone prospecting. But here’s the interesting twist: Phone prospecting can be an excellent setup to LinkedIn prospecting, rather than vice versa. The search for authenticity is so important now that a voicemail from a real human being launches a relationship. And I advocate giving multiple points of contact in that voicemail, including “look me up on LinkedIn.” When prospects hear your voice, you become real. When they look you up on LinkedIn and see you’re actively sharing valuable content and engaging professionally, you become credible.

Smart salespeople will stay on top of these evolving trends and read and react to what their customers are doing. I fully expect that the prospecting I’m teaching at the end of 2026 might be tweaked or modified from what I’m teaching now – it’s evolving that fast.

5. Generic Email Prospecting Will Finally Die (We Hope)

I’ve been predicting the death of cold email for years, and 2026 might finally be the year it happens – at least for the smart salespeople. Spam filters are getting better. AI detection is getting smarter. And most importantly, prospects are getting more ruthless about ignoring anything that looks like mass outreach. If you’re still sending generic email blasts hoping for a response, you’re not prospecting – you’re just annoying people and damaging your brand reputation.

6. Video Communication Will Become Table Stakes

Video isn’t new, but its importance in sales communication will increase dramatically in 2026. Whether it’s personalized video messages to prospects, video proposals, or simply being comfortable and professional on Zoom calls, salespeople who can’t communicate effectively on video are going to struggle. Younger buyers especially expect comfort with video. If you’re still treating video calls like an awkward necessity rather than a normal communication channel, you’re behind.

One tip here:  Forget the digital backgrounds on Zoom calls.  It slows down the streaming and can make you pixelate or break up.  Instead, sit (or preferably stand) in front of an actual background that makes sense and doesn’t look bad.

7. The Gap Between Adapters and Non-Adapters Will Become a Canyon

This might be the most important prediction of all. The salespeople who embrace these changes – who invest in learning, who adapt their approaches, who stay current with how buyers are evolving – are going to absolutely crush it in 2026. The salespeople who cling to “tried and true” methods that stopped being true five years ago? They’re going to struggle more every month.

This gap has been growing for years, but 2026 is when it becomes undeniable. The winners and losers won’t be separated by talent or personality – they’ll be separated by willingness to adapt.

For Sales Managers: You Need to Stay Ahead

If you’re a sales manager, staying ahead of these trends in order to coach your salespeople effectively is non-negotiable. That requires time in the field with your salespeople – two days a week minimum. You can’t coach what you’re not seeing, and you can’t see it from behind your desk.

Here’s the critical thing: Be very careful before dismissing sales challenges as “excuses.” What might have been an excuse a couple of years ago could be a very real barrier now. The sales landscape is changing so fast that legitimate challenges emerge almost monthly.

Your salespeople have to be smart and versatile to keep current. You have to be a touch ahead of your salespeople to be effective. That means you’re constantly learning, constantly adapting, and constantly challenging your own assumptions about what works.

The Bottom Line

2026 is going to separate the salespeople who are committed to staying relevant from those who are riding the train until the track ends. The changes aren’t slowing down. Customer expectations aren’t decreasing. The bar for what constitutes “professional selling” keeps rising.

You can either complain about how much harder sales has become, or you can adapt and thrive while your competitors are still wondering what happened. Your choice. But choose quickly – 2026 won’t wait for anyone.

I was listening in on sales calls with a distributor of high-performance auto parts, along with their Inside Sales Manager. A customer had called asking about a particular engine wiring harness. The salesperson explained that yes, the harness would work on his engine just fine. Right as the customer was about to buy, the salesperson said, “However, it’s not designed as a stock replacement harness; it won’t work on your original 2000 Camaro.”

The customer stopped and said that what he wanted was a stock replacement harness for his Camaro. The salesperson explained that this harness was designed to swap the engine into an older car and wouldn’t support all the functions of the Camaro’s system. The customer thanked the salesperson and hung up.

The Inside Sales Manager came unglued. What happened next perfectly illustrates one of the worst outdated sales techniques still being taught today.

1. “Never Answer the Question the Customer Didn’t Ask!”

That’s what the Sales Manager yelled at the poor salesperson. “If you hadn’t volunteered that information, he’d have bought.”

The salesman was a rookie, so I stepped in. “If he’d bought,” I said, “that harness would have come right back as a return, and the customer would have been upset. What’s your win there?” As the manager stammered, I continued: “Or worse, he’d have tried to modify the harness to make it work, it still wouldn’t have worked, and then he couldn’t return it OR use it. He’s out $1,000. How does that help anyone?”

This technique is built around “get the order at all costs, and to hell with what happens afterward” transactional selling. It might have worked in an era when customers had limited information and options. But today? Especially with Millennial and Gen-Z buyers who can research everything, read reviews, and blast their experiences across social media? This is professional suicide.

Your role is to help the customer reach a successful buying decision. Here’s your new rule: If it’s information the customer needs to know in order to have a successful result, give it to them, whether they asked or not.

That’s not just good ethics. It’s good business in an age where one bad Google review can follow you forever.

2. The “Take Away” Close

This manipulative tactic works like this: At closing time, you say something like, “You know, you really shouldn’t buy this (for whatever noble reason).” The idea is that the customer now wants it so badly that they’ll justify why they should buy it, essentially selling themselves.

Here’s the problem. If you’ve been selling correctly, you’ve built trust and credibility with the customer. Based on that trust, one of two things happens when you use the “take away”:

First, the customer believes you because of that credibility – which means you lose the sale (or you have to re-close, making yourself a liar).

Second, the customer sees right through the tactic, realizes you’re manipulating them, and walks.

Modern buyers are especially adept at spotting manipulation. They’ve been marketed to since birth. They know every trick in the book. When you try to play games with them, they don’t just walk – they tell everyone they know. Just play the close straight. Only take it away if you’re really going to take it away – meaning it’s genuinely not a good purchase for the customer.

3. Never Ask a Question to Which You Don’t Know the Answer

This is the old “lawyer’s technique,” and it means the salesperson is terrified of being surprised by an answer.

There are two massive problems with this philosophy.

First, you must ask questions to which you don’t know the answer to properly discover and interpret needs. Be prepared for surprises and for the call to go in directions you hadn’t anticipated. That’s not a bug – it’s a feature. Those surprises are where you learn the most about your customer.

Second, by the time the lawyer gets into the courtroom, the witness has already been questioned numerous times. The lawyer knows what the witness will say. That’s not the case in a sales call.

Remember: 80% of your chance to win or lose the sale is determined by the time you ask your last question. You can’t ask good questions if you’re afraid of the answers.

This fear-based approach is particularly deadly with younger buyers who expect consultative conversations, not scripted interrogations. They want salespeople who are genuinely curious about their situation, not afraid to explore it.

4. The Salesperson Should Seek to Control the Customer

First, any salesperson who believes they have “control” over the customer is fooling themselves. The customer can always remove themselves from the process. This delusion was always problematic, but it’s laughable in today’s empowered buyer environment. Modern buyers – especially younger ones – have done their research before they ever talk to you. They know their options. They control the process whether you acknowledge it or not.

Whatever control we have is more aptly called “influence,” and it’s shown by the customer allowing or asking us to direct parts of the process.

Seek influence, not control. Earn it by respecting the customer’s intelligence, showing your expertise, and working side by side for a successful result. Anything else is a fantasy that will cost you deals.

5. The Up Front Contract

This technique opens the sales call with a closing question designed to lock the customer in with “intent to buy if things are right.” This ranges from the car salesman’s “Are you here to buy a car today?” to “If you like what you see today, is there any reason we can’t move forward?”

The problem is that this question occurs at the start of the selling process, before you’ve built any trust or equity, and before you’ve earned the right to ask a closing question. At this point your customer knows nothing of your offerings or pricing. Many times their needs haven’t even been defined and matched to a product or service – and you’re asking a closing question?

And if the customer says “yes” to the question and later says “no” to moving forward, what can you do? Whine about it?

Don’t worry about the buyer’s intent until the buyer has a reason to have intent. If they’re seeing you, they’re Motivated to enter a buying process – but that’s all. Let them complete their Buyer’s Journey.

The Common Thread

All of these techniques share one thing: they’re designed to maneuver and manipulate customers into places they don’t want to be. They come from an era when salespeople had information advantages over buyers. When customers had limited options. When bad experiences stayed local instead of going viral.

That world is gone.

Today’s buyers – and especially Millennial and Gen-Z decision makers – can smell manipulation from three states away. They have access to unlimited information, countless options, and platforms to share their experiences with thousands of people.

These outdated techniques don’t just fail with modern buyers. They actively damage your reputation in ways that follow you across your entire career. If you’re still using them, the ’70s called and they want their sales techniques back.

Focus on helping customers make successful buying decisions. Ask great questions. Build genuine relationships. Respect their intelligence and their process.

That’s not manipulation. That’s professional selling.  That’s Navigating the Buyer’s Journey.  And it’s what makes you successful in today’s world.

An objection is when a customer states a problem with your offering or asks a question that creates a clear barrier to the sale. Essentially, they’re saying “No” or “No, because.”

And by the time they say it, you’ve probably already lost.

That’s not what most sales managers want to hear. They like to think there are magic “objection responses” that will easily overcome any objection. When a salesperson comes back from a lost deal, the manager asks, “Well, did you say this? Did you say it with the right tone?”

I had a sales manager like that early in my career. His name was Bill, and every time I lost a deal, he’d drill me on whether I’d used the “right words” to handle the objection. Finally, after losing yet another deal, I yelled at him: “Bill, I know the words! I said the words! The words didn’t turn it around!” To Bill’s credit, he didn’t fire me – small wonder. Instead, we had a good conversation that started me thinking differently about objections.  Bill still thought there were magic words – but I knew that there weren’t.

What I Learned the Hard Way

Through trial and error over the years, I discovered something that changed how I sold and how I now teach salespeople to sell: Most objections aren’t won in the objection phase. They’re won in the questioning phase, much earlier in the Buyer’s Journey.

Think about where objections typically surface. Usually, it’s in the Decision phase – after you’ve made your presentation, after you’ve quoted your price, when you’re asking for the business. The customer says, “I need to think about it,” or “Your price is too high,” or “We’re not sure this will work for our situation.”

At that point, the problem has already taken a set in the buyer’s mind. You’re now trying to overcome an obstacle that’s been building throughout the entire sales process, even if the customer didn’t voice it until now. It’s taken a set in the buyer’s mind, and no scripted response is going to magically dissolve that concern.

The Power of the Buyer’s Words

Here’s a principle that should be tattooed on every salesperson’s brain: The words your customer uses are always more powerful than the ones you use. When you respond to an objection with your carefully crafted counter-argument, you’re using your words to fight their words. You’re essentially saying, “No, you’re wrong to think that.”

Even if you “win” the argument, you’ve lost something in the relationship.

But when you surface the concern early through questioning, and the customer articulates their needs and concerns in their own words during the Investigation phase, something different happens. You’re not fighting their concerns – you’re addressing them as part of your solution.

How to Minimize Objections Before They Happen

The real objection hack isn’t a better script. It’s a better process. When you ask comprehensive, customer-centric questions in the Investigation phase, you accomplish several things:

You surface potential obstacles early. The price concern, the implementation worry, the internal politics – these issues exist whether the customer voices them or not. By asking the right questions, you bring them to light when the buyer is still open and exploratory rather than defensive and decided.

You understand the buyer’s definition of success. When you know what success looks like to the customer, you can present your solution in terms that directly address their vision. This isn’t manipulation – it’s customization.

You present to the solution before the objection crystallizes. If you’ve uncovered during Investigation that budget is a concern, you can address ROI and value in your Solution presentation. If you’ve discovered implementation anxiety, you can build your implementation support into your proposal. By the time you get to the Decision phase, you’ve already addressed the concerns that would otherwise become objections.

The Questions That Prevent Objections

So what does this look like in the real world?

Instead of waiting to hear “Your price is too high” in the Decision phase, ask in Investigation: “What budget parameters are you working within? How are you measuring ROI on this type of investment?”

Instead of hearing “I’m not sure this will work for us” at the end, ask earlier: “What concerns do you have about implementing a solution like this? What would need to be true for this to be successful in your environment?”

These questions don’t eliminate all objections. But they bring potential obstacles into the open when you can still do something about them.

When You Should Walk Away

Here’s something else that needs to be said: Not all objections can be overcome, and not all objections should be overcome.

Sometimes the barrier is very real and indicates that bad business is in your future. Maybe the customer truly can’t afford your solution. Maybe their expectations are unrealistic. Maybe the timing is genuinely wrong. Bulldozing through these objections might get you a sale, but it gets you an unhappy customer who feels pressured, regrets the purchase, and becomes a problem down the road.

Salespeople need to be trained to know when to say “no.” Sometimes the best response to an objection is, “You know what? Based on what you’re telling me, I’m not sure we’re the right fit right now.” That honesty builds credibility for future opportunities and saves everyone from a bad experience.  I had an experience like that myself this week.  The business didn’t happen – but the relationship is intact.

When You Do Face Objections

Sometimes, despite your best Investigation, you’ll still face objections in the Decision phase. When that happens, understand what you’re dealing with: a concern that’s already taken a set in the buyer’s mind. Your best move isn’t a scripted response. It’s a question that takes you back to Investigation: “Help me understand where that concern is coming from. What specifically worries you about this?”

Then listen. Really listen. Because if you didn’t surface this earlier, you need to understand it now before you can address it – or decide if you should even try.

The Bottom Line

Stop looking for magic objection responses. Stop drilling your salespeople on whether they said the “right words” with the “right tone.” Instead, improve your Investigation phase. Ask better questions. Surface concerns early. Build your solution around the buyer’s definition of success. And recognize when an objection is telling you this isn’t the right deal.

When you do that, you’ll find something interesting: The objections that used to derail your deals in the Decision phase simply don’t come up anymore. Not because you got better at handling objections. Because you got better at preventing them. And when they do come up, you’re smart enough to know which ones to address and which ones to respect.

That’s not a script. That’s a strategy.

I saw a post from another sales trainer yesterday that annoyed me enough to write about it. He said:

“Pick one communication channel at a time. Email, voicemail, LinkedIn InMail, and text all go to the same place. When you give me the same bad reason to respond in 2, 3, or more of these at the same time, I’m out. Pick one. Next time, try another. Less is more.”

This is outdated nonsense from someone who’s clearly out of touch with how younger buyers operate. And if you follow this advice, you’re going to lose deals to competitors who understand modern communication.

The Fundamental Problem with “Less is More”

Here’s what this trainer misses: The salesperson did exactly the right thing. When you leave a voicemail or send an email, you should absolutely give the prospect multiple ways to respond—phone, text, email, LinkedIn. Why? Because you don’t know which method they prefer.

Some buyers live in email. Some never check voicemail but respond to texts within minutes. Others prefer LinkedIn. Still others want to call back. When you only say “call me at this number,” you’re forcing them into your preferred channel instead of letting them respond through theirs.

I used to agree with “less is more.” Twenty years ago, it made sense. Back then, there were two channels—phone and email. You left a voicemail with your phone number, or you sent an email with your email address. Simple.

But things have changed, and my viewpoint has changed with them. Today’s buyers—particularly younger ones—expect communication versatility. When you give them multiple response options, you’re not being confusing. You’re being respectful of their preferences.

What the Data Actually Shows

Here’s what I’ve seen in real-world selling: Giving prospects multiple response options increases response frequency. It’s not even close. When my clients’ salespeople say “respond however works best for you—call, text, email, or LinkedIn,” they get significantly more responses than when they only provide a phone number.

And here’s the kicker: The most common response method these days is text, not phone call. Think about that. If you’re following the “pick one channel” advice and only give them your phone number, you’re missing the channel that gets the highest response rate from younger buyers.

For every one prospect who gets confused by multiple response options, there are two who appreciate the flexibility and respect the courtesy. And that ratio is growing as generational dynamics shift the buyer population younger.

The Generational Disconnect

The trainer who posted this is obviously not a young man. His perspective reflects how Boomers and older Gen X prefer to operate—you leave a voicemail with a callback number, or you send an email and they email back. One channel in, same channel out.

Gen Z and younger Millennials don’t operate this way. They’re channel-agnostic. They might get your voicemail but prefer to text back. Or read your email but respond via LinkedIn. When you only give them one way to respond, you’re forcing them to use your preferred method instead of theirs. And in today’s empowered buyer environment, that’s backwards. – and the buyer just opts out of the process.

The Real Issue Isn’t Multiple Options—It’s Bad Messaging

Let’s address what the trainer actually said: “When you give me the same bad reason to respond in 2, 3, or more of these at the same time, I’m out.” Notice the key phrase: “same bad reason to respond.”

The problem isn’t offering multiple ways to respond. The problem is having a bad reason to respond in the first place. If your value proposition sucks, offering five ways to decline doesn’t make it better—it just gives them more options to ignore you. But if you have a genuinely compelling reason for the prospect to engage, giving them multiple response options increases the likelihood they’ll actually respond through their preferred method.

This is like blaming the return address options when the letter itself is junk mail. The issue isn’t the response mechanism. It’s the message.

How to Actually Do This Right

I work with salespeople who successfully reach decision-makers every day. Here’s what works:

First, craft a compelling, specific reason to engage that’s relevant to that prospect. Not generic messaging, but research-based outreach that demonstrates you understand their business.

Second, when you reach out—voicemail, email, or LinkedIn—give them multiple ways to respond. “You can call me at 913-555-1212, text me at the same number, email me at troy@example.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn. Whatever works best.”

One message. Multiple response options.

The response rate destroys the old “give them one number and wait” method. And responses come through whichever channel the prospect finds most convenient—which, increasingly, is text.

The Aging-In Effect

The communication preferences of younger buyers aren’t a temporary quirk. As Gen Z and younger Millennials move into decision-making roles, expecting multiple response options becomes standard, not exceptional.

Salespeople who give prospects flexibility in how they respond will win. Those who cling to “just give them one number” advice will find themselves shut out by buyers who view that rigid approach as out of touch and inconvenient.

What You Should Actually Do

When you reach out—voicemail, email, LinkedIn, whatever—give them multiple ways to respond. Don’t just say “call me.” Say “call, text, email, or message me on LinkedIn—whatever works best.”

Make it easy for them to respond through their preferred channel, not yours. This isn’t confusing. It’s courteous.  Remember, you aren’t the star of the show.  Your prospect is. And make sure your value proposition is compelling. If you’re getting pushback on offering multiple response options, the problem isn’t the options. It’s the message.

The world has changed. Buyers have changed. If your sales advice hasn’t, you’re teaching people how to lose deals to more adaptable competitors.

Less isn’t more. Flexibility is more.