r/salestechniques

9 years in sales, just landed an Enterprise AE role at a solid company. Here's my blind spot: I've never been aggressive enough in negotiation and the closing stage.

I know how it sounds coming from someone with tenure, but I'm genuinely passive by nature. Multiple managers and colleagues have flagged this over the years, and I've seen it hold me back from bigger deals and higher commission.

I'm serious about fixing this before I plateau in the AE seat. just want to get better at:

- Actually pushing back on pricing instead of caving

- Reading when to apply pressure vs. when to back off

- Closing when the deal is actually ready

What resources have actually moved the needle for you? Books, courses, coaching, mindset shifts anything that helped you go from passive to assertive in your negotiations

Thank you in advanced

I’ve been running an online iphone reselling business for about 2 months. We sell through WhatsApp and social media, mainly TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. We’re currently selling around 1-2 phones per week. Most of our sales have actually come from referrals and people in our existing network. TikTok is bringing us decent traffic and people are messaging/calling us on WhatsApp, but almost none of those leads are converting into sales. We have two people helping with sales/customer service, and one also handles deliveries. Customers usually want to physically see the phone before buying, so sometimes we have to deliver it twice if they don’t buy immediately. I’m trying to figure out where the bottleneck is. Is it lead volume, conversion, trust, follow-up, the delivery/inspection process, or something else?

My current ideas are posting more frequently, creating more social accounts, or adding another salesperson/referral source.
For people who have scaled small retail/reselling businesses, what would you focus on first? How would you find the bottleneck and increase sales from 1-2 phones a week to something significantly higher?

I've been working a deal for about six weeks with a prospect who seemed genuinely interested at first. We've had multiple calls, they've seen demos, asked questions about implementation. But every time we get close to closing, they suddenly bring up a new requirement or say they need approval from someone else who has additional concerns. At this point I've probably spent 20+ hours on this deal and I'm wondering if I'm just chasing someone who isn't actually ready to buy. My manager says to keep pushing, but I'm getting the sense that the real blocker isn't anything I can fix with better sales skills. Is there a point where you should just acknowledge the deal isn't happening and move on, or am I supposed to just keep iterating until they finally give a real yes?

What’s the most unhinged thing you’ve done to land a client?
I’m relatively new to sales/business development, so this is my first real rodeo.
For those of you who’ve been doing this for a while: what’s the most unhinged, unconventional, or surprisingly effective thing you’ve done to land a client or close a deal?
I’m talking about the stuff they don’t teach you in sales training
Could be a weird follow up strategy, cold outreach trick, networking move, negotiating tactic, getting past a gatekeeper, turning a “no” into a “yes,” or something completely unexpected that actually worked.
Also, any advice on maximizing commissions/incentives would be appreciated. What did you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?
Basically: give me your best sales secrets, war stories, and questionable but effective tactics.
I’m taking notes.

When we schedule appointments, we get great bonuses - so the incentive is there. But a lot of our appointments are maintenances that do not immediately result in sales. Our technicians give some estimates, then leave. Customers rarely follow up on those estimates.

I want to work on being more of a powerhouse both with scheduling- but also driving customer followup that results in sales.

Trouble is... it IS challenging, and I find myself quite off-put and anxious over the idea of cold calling to ask if they've considered the estimates we gave. It is awkward. There are so many un-interested responses. So many "No's".

Can anybody pep talk me, give me tips, or even script ideas?

Im in such an oddly specific position, and it is hard for me to find sources on how to improve and change my outlook.

I've been in sales for about six months and I know intellectually that "no" is just part of the job. But every time someone hangs up on me or is rude, it gets in my head. I start second-guessing my pitch, worrying I did something wrong, and then the next call I make is even worse because I'm already defeated.

I make enough calls that statistically some of them should turn into meetings, but I'm not confident in my approach and that comes through. My manager keeps saying I just need to "make more calls" but that doesn't address the emotional part of constantly getting rejected.

For people who've gotten past this mindset, how did you actually train yourself to not care about rejection, or is it just something that comes with time?

ok so this is a weird one but bear with me

i have a pet blog. i don't own a pet. never have. probably never will as i travel too much. and yet every month amazon sends me enough to cover rent because people on the internet are buying stuff for their dogs and cats through my site.

bought my pet blog a few months ago from a marketplace called NicheBlogZone for $199. came already built, articles already up, amazon links already in there. i spent one afternoon doing interlinking basically just connecting related posts to each other so search engines understand the site structure and then closed my laptop and genuinely forgot about it for weeks.

here's what that's looked like:

• march: $710
• april: $995
• may: $1,461
• june: $1,647
• july: $1,461
• august so far: $1,545 (amazon pays 2 months delayed so this is june's money landing now)

march scared me. went from nearly $1k in february down to $710 and i was convinced something had broken. checked everything, found nothing wrong, did nothing. it just came back the next month on its own.

pet people spend insane amounts on their animals btw. like i knew this intellectually but seeing the commission data is something else. dog food subscriptions, orthopedic beds, grooming kits, vet supplements. and because of the 24 hour cookie i get a cut of everything in their cart not just whatever article they landed on.

i do literally nothing to maintain this. no new posts, no ads, no instagram for pets i don't have. i just own the thing and amazon does its thing.

my landlord has been getting paid every month and has no idea a pet blog is behind it. honestly sometimes i forget too until the deposit shows up.

anyone else running a niche they have zero personal connection to? curious if the detachment makes it easier or harder to care about growing it

Suppose the goal of the cold outreach campaign is to get customers for a B2B SaaS.

The B2B SaaS is low ticket & has a self-serve model with plans like $99/month and $149/month

For this case, when I am doing cold outreach should I optimize my cold email content to get a reply or instead put the direct link to the SaaS & optimize for signups instead?

Would love to know your take on this.

Hi,

I got messaged by a bot from Boardy.ai after a post on X. I followed up and even joined an Google Meet with the Bot. Before I commit to its Pro plan I would like to know if anyone here already used it and what your experiences are. Is it worth it or are there better offerings.

Thanks,
Danny

My advice for building a good pipeline:
- know your customer and their problem before calling,
- only talk to people who might benefit from what you bring them,
- call them first (a call gives you 60 seconds of attention and interaction that no other channel will give you),
- data quality is fundamental so you don’t waste your time,
- qualify as early as possible and put aside prospects who aren’t interested or have no urgency, and if they say it’s urgent, ask them how they’re managing without it (you validate the pain), and move forward in their sales process, in which you build a special human relationship and trust when they see that you know what you’re selling.
And finally comes the moment of the decision and the closing.
Don’t be shy, but be confident when you speak, confident that your offer is the best. They don’t want it, they’re not interested? Next one. A no is a no, but only if that no is justified. There’s no shortage of customers.
But the most important thing is execution.
Every day, whatever your mood, pick up your phone, call your prospects, and only stop when your quotas are reached.
The law of large numbers and your determination are your greatest assets.
Market reality and objections will shape your offer and your sales angles. Reality, often shy, hiding and needing to be sought out, is your best ally. Confront reality to move forward.

Would you add anything ?

I sell a \~$60–70k/year B2B SaaS product to ecommerce brands, and I’ve realized I have a problem:

**I don’t think I understand our buyers nearly well enough.**

I’m a marketing generalist, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about positioning, content, demand gen, etc. But I still feel like a lot of my understanding of the customer is second-hand.

The good news is that I have unusually easy access to them. Our customer success team has monthly calls with a few dozen customers, and I can basically join as many of those calls as I want.

So I want to use that opportunity properly.

If you were in my shoes, **what questions would you ask customers to really understand how they think?**

Not just:

* “What problems are you trying to solve?” * “Why did you buy our product?” * “What do you like/dislike?”

I’m more interested in getting inside their heads:

How do they think about their business day to day?
What keeps them up at night?
What numbers do they obsess over?
What do they complain about internally?
How do they decide something is worth paying $60k/year for?
What alternatives do they consider—even ones we wouldn’t think of as competitors?
What language do they naturally use to describe the problems we solve?

If you’ve done customer research / voice-of-customer work for B2B SaaS before, **what are the 3–5 questions you’ve found most revealing?**

I’m especially interested in questions where the answer surprised you or materially changed your marketing.

It's a pretty small software. AI receptionist for small companies. It really doesn't do anything except capture leads that are during busy hours and after hours with a simple dashboard. But tomorrow is day 1 of sales. I've never done it. I've been practicing a script but i stutter and stammer and i just sound like an idiot. Any one ever been through this? Any tips to ease my nerves?

not because the question is dumb. because of what it does.

“does that make sense” hands the prospect an exit. they say yes, you keep talking, nothing actually moved. it feels like progress. it’s not.

compare it to “what’s still unclear.” that one has teeth. it assumes something IS unclear, and it forces them to either name it or admit there’s nothing left to object to.

one question protects their ego. the other protects your pipeline.

small swap. bigger effect than most of the “closing techniques” content out there.

How are you guys coaching reps when most of the selling happens face to face?Ride alongs seem fine on paper but they eat up a whole day just to hear a few conversations. If you manage reps across different locations it gets even worse.I’ve been reviewing a few AI coaching tools that record customer conversations and let managers go back through them later.

I can see how it could save a lot of drive time and give managers a better idea of what reps are actually doing.I haven’t pulled the trigger on anything yet though. My main concern is whether reps will actually use it. Seems pointless to buy something with a bunch of features if everyone stops hitting record after a month.

Not even a big one. Just some random Tuesday it pops back into my head, the exact moment I know now I said the wrong thing, and I still can’t let it go.

Wonder if that’s just part of doing this long enough. You remember the losses in more detail than the wins.

What’s the one that still visits you sometimes?

Hi everyone,

A few months ago, I transitioned from clinical practice into my first medical sales role as an Ophthalmology Product Specialist. My company expects me to drive new business and identify opportunities, but I haven't received any formal sales training, and I'm learning everything on the fly.
I managed to close a small deal for surgical instruments recently, but nothing major yet. I know clinical workflows and the medical side well, but I’m struggling to translate that background into bigger, active sales opportunities.

I learn by myself about sales, listening to podcast, reading, but I feel like this advice is not for med sales but for people who sale financial, house sales etc. Sometimes it’s not bad advice, but here where I live people don’t like salespeople and see them like a stupid trash who can’t do anything better, except the older generation.

So do you have any advice? Thanks!

I sell into facilities managers and I get some version of send me info on about half my first calls. I send the one-pager and the thread goes dead maybe eighty percent of the time. I've tried asking what specifically they want to see and I usually get back everything.

What's the line that gets you a second call out of that instead?

20M I accepted an offer for an entry level D2D sales job. It’s a company that specializes in roofing. I don’t have any sales experience

Salary:
Base Salary: $1400 Bl-weekly + Monthly Phone allowance: $100
$36,400 (Base) + $1,200 (Allowances) = $37,600 Annual before commission

Pay Period Example: (Demo bonus begins on the 4th demo)
3.5 sets/ day
21 sets / week
42 sets / pay period
20% conversion = 42 sets / 8 demos

# of Sets. Demos

.
Below 30. $100
30-39. $200
40-49. $250
50-59. $300
60-69. $350

8 Demos - 3 Demo Quota = 5 Bonus Demos x $250 (40 Tier) = $1,250 bonus
Base ($1,400) + Commission ($1,250) = $2,650

Quarterly Set Bonus:
250+ sets = $5 each (paid on ALL sets) - $1,250 / Qtr = $5000 / Year

Monthly Roofing Bonus:
55 roof sets - $500
75 roof sets - $750

Benefits:
90 days - Medical, Dental, Vision, 401K 3% Match, 3 days PTO days
Training:
$500 per week (15 sets in a week need to get out of)

I feel like Im underperforming so bad. Last quarter was 40 booked and I closed four. FOUR.

I keep sitting there after these calls trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. Last week for example I had a mid-size SaaS, textbook ICP, he knew what we did and he also knew what he wanted. The call felt good, until it went to his "team" and just... stalled. No no, no objection I can actually answer, mere crickets and a cheap "we're gonna hold off for now". And so many of my deals die that exact way, this one actually took the time to properly reject me, most dont even bother to, besides the ones that come from time to time with expectations pulled straight out of a fairytale; but Im man enough to reflect on that second half, I must be doing something wrong but idk, I cant see it, Im doing all the textbook perfect stuff. The meetings themselves keep coming fine, we use reachly for TOF from targeting to outreach, that side of the workflow is stable (besides the usual slow seasons), the one that isn't is mine, once clients are in front of me it falls apart.

Some people say 10% is a good number but I dont think so, I googled it and the average for B2B SaaS is 22-30%. Do I just absolutely suck or am I not the only one in this?

Best books you recommend for consultative selling on discovery calls for contractors?

selling services like coaching/consulting. not produsts.