Most sales problems come down to one thing… Prospecting. This causes you to have smaller funnel which then makes you discount and make concessions you do not want to make. If you have long sales cycles, qualifying becomes more important as you could waste a lot of time until you find out they are not going to purchase. People are afraid of picking up the phone because you have been raised to not talk to strangers or to always be able to have an answer for someone of authority. For those that say the phone is dead, he always tells them to prove it, he has yet to have anyone show him a better system. He feels most salespeople are order takers and not sales people. A salesperson does not have to beg for the meeting or for the prospects time. Sales people will ask the tough questions that order takers are to afraid to ask because the answer may be no. A good salesperson will know that the prospect has the problem that you can solve, so you can call the shots moving forward. A sales person is in control of the process. He does not qualify his prospects, he disqualifies. He looks for all the reasons to you are not going to move forward. If he can not get around the no’s with the prospect than he does not move forward. Sales people with less experience or knowledge of the product will tend to do one thing much better than the experienced sales person, which is they will ask better questions as they are trying to understand. Discounting is 100% profit because you can not discount your costs. The easiest way to build report is “disarming honesty” or giving permission to reject. The only thing a sales person can control is their behavior. The 3 key things that drive success in sales is; Behavior attitude and technique If a salesperson can stop focusing on the end game (closing the deal) it will change the way you conduct yourself with the questions you ask and the answers you provide. This will make you better at selling and getting to the truth. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sales-training-southeast-uk/   Final Five What is your favorite sales or leadership book? David Sandler - You cant teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar Do you have someone that you follow/read for sales/leadership ideas? - Marcus Cauchy Are you available 24/7? Do you have strict personal time boundaries? Strict personal time boundries What is your favorite tool used for sales? LinkedIn What one piece of advice do you have for all the founders/CEOs/VP Sales out there? No one cares, they want to know what problem does it fix for me, how can it fix it and if it does fix it, will it make my life better.