12 Most Important Lessons in Sales

What’s up, it’s Zayd.

I was recently asked about the most important things I’ve learned in sales.

A few are timeless pieces of advice we’ve all heard (but a reminder can’t hurt). Others are lessons I’ve learned through a dose of failure, grit, or success.

In this week’s newsletter, I’m diving into it all.

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Zayd’s Picks

My favorite finds of the week.

• How to identify the root causes of a prospect’s pain (link)

• Email open tracking is dead (link)

• 5 important learnings from the founder of Default (link)

• 2 must-dos to revive your open rate (link)

• How to generate demand on autopilot (link)

• Market segmentation insights for b2b startups (link)

Most Important Lessons In Sales

I’ve spoken to thousands of prospects throughout my career. These are the 12 most important lessons I’ve learned.

1. Match the Energy of the Room

Some people are uniform in how they bring themselves into the room. But the best sellers know how to match the energy of the prospect.

This is in:

• How loud you speak

• Your intonation

• Your body language

• Your word choice

Example: You’re super energetic. You hop on a call with someone more introverted.

If you normally walk around with broad shoulders, puffed chest, and a louder voice, you might want to round your shoulders, relax your chest, and speak softer.

2. Use the First 10 Minutes to Ask Questions

The goal in the first 10 minutes is to understand the problems the prospect is facing and what they’ve done so far to fix it.

You won’t get the depth of understanding you need if you aren’t asking questions.

3. Build a Mental Map to the Perfect Pitch

As the prospect is speaking, start to build a mental map around the problem they’re facing. Run the practice pitch through your head, with each point relating back to the problems they’re trying to solve.

Remember - nobody wants to see a demo. They want to paint a picture in their head of how your product will improve their lives.

Use this mental map to emphasize the right parts of the product - or how your product solves the exact problems they just brought up.

4. Put Yourself on the Same Side of the Table as Them

In every and any way possible.

To get our first 15 customers, I focused on the idea of raising money for us, building this thing for us.

Do the same thing in sales.

If I’m talking to a mid-level employee, I’m approaching it from the angle of How can we get you promoted? Align your incentives.

5. Lean on Warm Intros (But Use This Approach)

Warm intros will almost always take a meeting with you.

And I guarantee - there are at least 10 people in your circle that would be willing to give a warm intro. (investors, advisors, former coworkers, etc.)

But don’t just reach out and ask for a warm intro.

Do this instead:

1. Go to their LinkedIn.

2. Look at their 1st connections.

3. Find someone who’s in your ICP.

4. Look at how many mutual connections they have with each other. This will tell you how connected they might be/how well they might know them.

5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until you have a list of people.

6. Create blurbs specific to each person.

7. Reach out to your connection and ask if they’re willing to make an intro. Send them the blurb and say, “Would you be willing to make an intro to these people? Here are their emails, and here’s a quick blurb you could send for each of them.”

If you take 2 focused days to do this, you’ll probably get ~40 demo calls.

Lessons 6-12

6. Follow up immediately after the call.

7. Do your research. Show up with an idea of what their problems might be based on their website.

8. If you’re asking for the call, don’t send your calendar. Offer times. Do the heavy lifting.

9. Be available 24/7. You don’t need to work 24/7, but whenever a prospect is available, you should be available. People on my team take demos at 3 AM if needed.

10. Borrow ideas. Be the best at what other people have already figured out. No need to reinvent the wheel.

11. Use your product.

12. Review game film. Watch your demo calls back. You’ll notice things you didn’t realize the first time around.

How I Can Help

Let me book sales calls for you while you’re traveling for Labor Day Weekend. Seriously.

I built Valley to be your automated SDR and empower AEs. Get started today and watch your calendar fill up with qualified leads.