The 35 best pieces of sales advice for 2022 from sales experts
Get sales advice on sales leadership, sales careers, customer relationships, and more straight from the pros.
Sales leadership
Take responsibility
“Remove any finger-pointing and look at the data and understand where bottlenecks are occurring. Is it a lack of leads? The slow movement from demo to the next step? Fix the problems.” — Ben Sardella, co-founder of Datanyze
Create a productive environment
“We enforce a ‘no [meanness] rule.’ We’ve fired top performers because they didn’t fit our culture [and slowed us down].” — Wiley Cerilli, CEO and co-founder of SinglePlatform
Get down in the trenches with your sales team
“If the [leader] is actually out in the field interacting with their salespeople, they can provide the necessary support, reinforcement, and additional coaching and training.” — Suzie Andrews, President and CEO of Stark and Associates Sandler Training
Set your team up for success
“Think about what support your sales team needs to reach [their] goals. Get your marketing team, sales team, and product team together to work on a plan. Handing your sales team new quotas with no basis in reality will leave all parties disappointed and frustrated.” — Alice Heiman, co-founder of TradeShow Makeover
Stay present and accessible
“Your presence during an internal sales meeting sends the message that the activity is important and that you expect everyone to attend and actively participate. By routinely contributing to the meeting and participating in team discussions, others most likely will follow the same behavior.” — Janice Mars, founder of SalesLatitude
Craft the next generation of leaders
“Do not overlook junior staff. Many of them will be decision-makers sooner than you’d expect.” — Dzintars Lusis, managing partner at EF Finanses
Be the leader who would’ve inspired you
“Our industry demands genuine belief in yourself, your employer, and your product. Selling is the transference of that belief.” — Kyle Porter, CEO and founder of SalesLoft
Sales careers
Find a mentor
“If I could give one piece of advice to salespeople looking to take their sales career to the next level, it would be really simple. Find the two people inside your sales organization that are at the top of the leaderboard and ask them to mentor you.” — Jack Kosakowski, CEO of Creation Agency
Work for a company you care about
“Passion sells! Be sure to represent a company that you are proud of and confident that its products or services truly help the buyer. For the past 27 years, I have felt more like a consultant than a salesperson.” — Sue Boardman, VP of sales at MassPay
Always take risks
“The worst that can happen is that you’re right where you were before you ventured. The best that can happen is more sales and more opportunities.” — Steve Przypek, Executive VP of sales at Zoom Media Connect
Work smarter, not harder
“Too often, new sellers come out of the gate fast and determined to make money, but not everyone is their customer. Sellers who can [focus on pain points, not quotas] will naturally guide their buyers to a successful solution.” — Donald C. Kelly, President at The Sales Evangelist
Be a lifelong student
“Always be learning! Over-invest in your own education [and sales training], and be extremely curious about your ideal customer’s problems and ambitions. Learn how to identify all stakeholders involved in a decision and how to guide them towards a decision that benefits them and you.” — George Brontén, CEO of Membrain.com
Embrace your learning curve
“There are four levels of competency in sales. With careful consideration and thoughtfulness, you can be confident in your abilities to sell. Level four is ‘unconsciously competent.’ You reach a level where talking about the sale becomes second nature.” — Bonnie Brown, President of BBI Marketing
Be on time
“Be punctual. They will never remember that you were five minutes early. They will never forget that you were five seconds late.” — Joseph Himelfarb, business consultant at the MoJoe Group
Sales leadership
Take responsibility
“Remove any finger-pointing and look at the data and understand where bottlenecks are occurring. Is it a lack of leads? The slow movement from demo to the next step? Fix the problems.” — Ben Sardella, co-founder of Datanyze
Create a productive environment
“We enforce a ‘no [meanness] rule.’ We’ve fired top performers because they didn’t fit our culture [and slowed us down].” — Wiley Cerilli, CEO and co-founder of SinglePlatform
Get down in the trenches with your sales team
“If the [leader] is actually out in the field interacting with their salespeople, they can provide the necessary support, reinforcement, and additional coaching and training.” — Suzie Andrews, President and CEO of Stark and Associates Sandler Training
Set your team up for success
“Think about what support your sales team needs to reach [their] goals. Get your marketing team, sales team, and product team together to work on a plan. Handing your sales team new quotas with no basis in reality will leave all parties disappointed and frustrated.” — Alice Heiman, co-founder of TradeShow Makeover
Stay present and accessible
“Your presence during an internal sales meeting sends the message that the activity is important and that you expect everyone to attend and actively participate. By routinely contributing to the meeting and participating in team discussions, others most likely will follow the same behavior.” — Janice Mars, founder of SalesLatitude
Craft the next generation of leaders
“Do not overlook junior staff. Many of them will be decision-makers sooner than you’d expect.” — Dzintars Lusis, managing partner at EF Finanses
Be the leader who would’ve inspired you
“Our industry demands genuine belief in yourself, your employer, and your product. Selling is the transference of that belief.” — Kyle Porter, CEO and founder of SalesLoft
Sales careers
Find a mentor
“If I could give one piece of advice to salespeople looking to take their sales career to the next level, it would be really simple. Find the two people inside your sales organization that are at the top of the leaderboard and ask them to mentor you.” — Jack Kosakowski, CEO of Creation Agency
Work for a company you care about
“Passion sells! Be sure to represent a company that you are proud of and confident that its products or services truly help the buyer. For the past 27 years, I have felt more like a consultant than a salesperson.” — Sue Boardman, VP of sales at MassPay
Always take risks
“The worst that can happen is that you’re right where you were before you ventured. The best that can happen is more sales and more opportunities.” — Steve Przypek, Executive VP of sales at Zoom Media Connect
Work smarter, not harder
“Too often, new sellers come out of the gate fast and determined to make money, but not everyone is their customer. Sellers who can [focus on pain points, not quotas] will naturally guide their buyers to a successful solution.” — Donald C. Kelly, President at The Sales Evangelist
Be a lifelong student
“Always be learning! Over-invest in your own education [and sales training], and be extremely curious about your ideal customer’s problems and ambitions. Learn how to identify all stakeholders involved in a decision and how to guide them towards a decision that benefits them and you.” — George Brontén, CEO of Membrain.com
Embrace your learning curve
“There are four levels of competency in sales. With careful consideration and thoughtfulness, you can be confident in your abilities to sell. Level four is ‘unconsciously competent.’ You reach a level where talking about the sale becomes second nature.” — Bonnie Brown, President of BBI Marketing
Be on time
“Be punctual. They will never remember that you were five minutes early. They will never forget that you were five seconds late.” — Joseph Himelfarb, business consultant at the MoJoe Group
Sales performance
Challenge yourself with a hard sales job
“The best investment I’ve ever made in becoming a better salesperson was taking a part-time job selling water heaters door-to-door. There was nothing scarier than going door-to-door, convincing people I wasn’t crazy, and actually getting inside of their house to complete the sale.” — Michele Romanow, co-founder and CEO of Clearco
Don’t rely on sales hacks
“I experienced ups and downs, and through it all, [I learned] that all the charisma, science-backed negotiation tips, and clever sales hacks in the world won’t save you in the long run. If you want to be the best salesperson you know, it’s going to take consistency and discipline.” — Steli Efti, CEO of Close
Find the sales process that works for you
“Experiment, try new things—don’t do the same thing over and over again if it’s not working, expecting different results. Fail, pick yourself up, and become a little better. Invest in your own confidence and realize that you can do this.” — Jamie Shanks, CEO of Sales for Life
Learn from your work
“You have to not only listen to [the] recorded calls, but have [your reps] admit where they screwed up, get them to understand why, role-play to help them get better, and then listen to future calls to see if they’ve fixed it. It takes time to break bad habits, so repetition is key.” — Neil Patel, co-founder of Quicksprout
Focus on the long game
“It takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something—and those 10,000 hours of cold calling, prospecting, and rejection are brutal, but it’s that investment of time that’s necessary in order to truly understand sales.” — Juliana Crispo, CEO of Provide
Don’t let panicked prospects slip away
“When the rubber hits the road is when people make last-minute demands or seem to panic a little. So, take a deep breath and buckle in for the ride. You’re about to get your long-awaited deal.” — Nancy Nardin, sales productivity tool expert
Make a plan for each sales interaction
“Before I go out on an important sales call, with all the tools that are available, I still just carry around a little notepad and pencil. I’ll write down three or four good questions I want to ask.” — Neil Rackham, best-selling author of SPIN Selling
Sales technology
Collect as much data as possible
“Don’t trust any one piece of information: Triangulate.” — Darren Hitchcock, business and commercial advisor
Embrace text messaging
“Text messaging is the most underutilized communication channel by salespeople today, but it is the most effective and time-efficient. It is also surprising because 78 percent of consumers could text businesses. Why not meet them where they are and give them what they want?” — Josue Sanchez, head of growth at ReplyBuy
Expand your channels of communication
“Don’t go through normal channels. Use video; don’t take more than 60 seconds; aim to provide value and a bit of entertainment. Show that you are professional first, fun to work with the second.” — Jeff Howell, CEO of Lease Ref
Stop guessing and check the dashboards
“Dashboards provide accountability, visibility, credibility (by offering ROI figures), and can serve as a single source of truth for results that both [sales and marketing] teams can access.” — Jeanne Hopkins, CRO at OneScreen.ai
Make automation your friend
“The rule is simple — if you do something more than twice, systemize it. As soon as you start moving your leads down in the sales funnel, you will need a call summary, different offers, and follow-up emails. Systemize these steps.” — Jean-Baptiste Daguené, co-founder of Evergrowth.io
Master the art of LinkedIn
“Publish an enormous amount of content on LinkedIn every day. This is especially true if you’re in the B2B space. Just putting your profile URL in your email signature is enough of a ‘match’ to start your LinkedIn content career.” — Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia
Don’t rely on your tech stack to do all the work
“I love new tools because they’re exciting. But as we get into the future of sales, we need to take a huge step back and focus on skills that are not technology-related at all.” — Ben Sardella, SaaS sales leader at Adobe
Customer experience
Believe in small acts of kindness
“I found that treating prospects with coffee gift cards even before a demo was booked resulted in massive ROI for my sales pipeline and surpassing quotas.” — Kris Rudeegraap, CEO and co-founder of Sendoso
Start with service
“Go out into the community and start to help others to get exposure for you and your business. Discover what educational, trade, and social communities your target prospects are likely to belong to, and offer to help them out.” — Blair Singer, corporate sales coach
Put your quota in the backseat
“No one cares what you want. It’s about the customer—their issues, their goals, their problems, and their business. They couldn’t [care less] about your quota, your product, your needs, your anything. It’s all about the client, and once you get that into your head, everything about selling changes.” — Keenan, CEO of A Sales Growth Company
Let the prospective buyer do the talking
“Always let customers and prospects do the bulk of the talking. They feel in control. But in reality, you’re in control as you guide them with your questions to a meaningful solution.” — Paul Cherry, President of Performance Based Results
Always listen
“Shut up and listen. No matter what you are selling, it is never about you. It is about the client, their wants, and their needs. Don’t interrupt them, let them speak, and hang on to every word. They’re giving you hints on how to move forward with the sale.” — Chris Baumann, Senior VP at Socotra Capital
Keep it honest
“It may be hard to imagine, but something as counterintuitive as leading with your flaws can result in faster sales cycles and increased win rates, and make competing with you almost impossible. 82 percent of consumers specifically seek out negative reviews when making a purchase. Why not engage buyers with unexpected honesty?” — Todd Caponi, author of The Transparency Sale
Remember that people are human
“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.” — Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People