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For years sales has been perceived by many as a zero-sum game, paraphrasing Ben Affleck in movie „Boiler Room” – „Either you will sell them the product or they will sell you that they don’t want it”. The stereotype of sleazy salesman trying to push you into buying something thrived. Believe me, if this was the case I would never make sales my career. 

For me there are few ground rules, a code, I try do follow every day. did not invent it – I adapted it. And so can you. Cause sales is like acting – everyone know what to do, no everyone can do it though. 

1. Nobody likes being sold to but everyone like buying – in B2B world rather than like, they’ve been tasked to make a purchase or believe it will help them achieve their goals. Either way, you can help them. But certainly not by forcing your point – this will result in being ghosted.
   
2. B2B buying is hard – all those options, people expecting the results with the purchase you make, most of the cases the criteria for the subject of purchase is totally owned by other department. All the materials to go through, reports, meetings – it takes a long way for a B2B buyer even to short-list. Understand how they buy and what are their challenges in the process – this will help you to be helpful to a Customer. A lot.
3. It is not about talking… – of course pitches and arguments are important. But to make them count you need to listen to Customer problems, ask questions and again – listen to the answers. What Customer likes very much is hearing their own voice – and just then – hearing the response which addresses their concerns.
   
4. …but sometimes you have to talk to get them talking – small talk is a discovery for building rapport. Everyone is stiff at the start (usually), and it is good to take the lead with introduction and purpose to establish some atmosphere before engaging in the conversation.
   
5. Questions – good question is better than a good pitch. Period. Oh… but you have to earn the right to ask it.
   
6. Embrace the chaos – all those accounts, people, their interest. You need to structure your activities, time allocated on each of them, people you need to talk to and customer cases you need to solve to move further. Time-boxing, to-do’s, prioritization – better get accustomed with those.
   
7. Add value. Not every meeting, contact etc. moves you forward to the sale. But it can move your prospect forward to their goal – use you knowledge to help. People buy from people and they will remember you as person who honestly wanted to help. But you need to honestly want to help.
   
8. Fear of being wrong is the error itself. No one is know-it-all. You have right to ask questions or seek help. It is team selling that gets things done. For me I often use my „right for the engineer”.
   
9. Believe in product but know you solve the problem. My case – cybersecurity. I believe with what we offer to Customer they can enhance their cybersecurity posture, protect data and access to critical assets. But ultimately I give them peace of mind for administrators because they have right software, for their management because they equipped them with it and for all the users – because they know someone is there to protect them with the right tool in hand.
   
10. There is no silver bullet.  You have to polish you craft – be a good storyteller, understand emotion, get creative, be organized, know you Customer and use-cases from their peers and industry, know you product and benefits of using it inside out. But ultimately nothing will give you mathematical algorithm for winning the sale – every opportunity is different history. Treat it like this and you will increase your win ratio.
    
11. Don’t overthink it. I will rather apologize that I tried and failed than that I did nothing.Sales is about activity – fear of picking up phone, sending that email or proposing that solution – because you need to think of all possible options and outcomes will get you nowhere. Of course, it will always be there – but it can be controlled. Remember what Liam Neeson said to Christian Bale in the „Batman Beginning” – it is the will to act which drives outcomes.
    
12. Know your numbers. Your target, your current achievement of that target, value of your key deals, gap to your target, dates of the meetings, typical value of the deal for product X, Y, Z in your territory, typical value of competitors products. One of sales influencers I follow told – know the number of calls to get the number of meeting to get you number of revenue you need to hit your target. I am nowhere near there, but it is a process – keep walking.
    
13. Money is the side effect of good work.
    
14. Be curious. Because there’s nothing better to discover and understand others.
    
15. Don’t let negative emotions get in your way. Whether you feel you deserved that win or your co-worker or partner should treat you other way – keep it cool. There is nothing worse than letting your ego drive you. As stated in Bushido – „If someone can made you mad – he won”.
    
16. Fortune favors the bold and life ain’t fair can co-exist. Many times you will not get what you want though you worked for it. However long-time trend – you will succeed.
    

Good luck.