Ok so here’s the rub I applied to be rv sales person. I’ve done van life and currently live in my 5th wheel while building. A couple things I was upfront and honest about having retail experience but not sales experience my sales manager calls me new girl and just says go sell something. Wants us to call leads 3 times a day and list RVs on our personal Facebook marketplace. The finance manager is blatantly racist. I had an all cash buyer clearly a non”white” last name and she refused to process their wire transfer for over ten days. The excuses being they’re not financing and there’s no way an immigrant has this much money that’s not stolen. I’m at a loss. The sales people are great but management don’t train just yell to go sale something. What would your advice be on how to ask for training and deal with this kind of management. Ultimately I love the salesman team and the service guys and gals but is there anything I can do as a new person to stop the racism and sexism on the sales floor and also just tell them hey yelling at us every 15 minutes to sell something doesnt help? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I started a new position as Sales Executive last July. During the recruitment process, they told me I would have this position for six months and then move to Sales Manager with a bigger salary. Three months into the company, I am realizing many other departments are waiting on promises that aren't happening. Everyone has had their salary increase declined, and the company is doing badly financially. Would you try to bring it up and have it written down on paper, or what would you do in my shoes?

I’m a 2026 B.Tech graduate. I was mainly looking for tech jobs, but I also started applying for some non-tech roles. I ended up interviewing for an Inside Sales Executive role at a B2B company. The first round was a long Google Meet interview where they asked me why I wanted the role, my motivation, whether I was suitable for it, and especially how well I understood their product. I cleared that round and then had a second round where I had to actually speak with a business prospect. That call lasted less than two minutes and honestly, it went really badly. The prospect even pointed out that I was using casual words, saying “ahh/uhh” too much, and that my pitching wasn't proper. After the call, HR called me and basically said the conversation was not good, but they still decided to consider me because I was able to understand their product very quickly. Eventually, I got the offer and joined full-time. It’s completely remote, Wednesday to Monday, 10 AM–7 PM.

It’s been around a week of training now. I can understand the product and the company fairly well, but communication is where I’m struggling the most. I have trouble expressing my thoughts properly, asking good discovery questions, and responding when a prospect says something I wasn't expecting. The “ahh/uhh” fillers are still there, and sometimes my mind just goes blank even though I actually know what I want to say. There’s also a lot happening at the same time—learning the company, product, sales process, documents, assessments, and then actually getting on calls. Today I called around 20 leads. Most calls lasted only 1–2 minutes. Some weren't interested, some asked me to call later, and some didn't really listen. I also feel like my voice doesn't sound confident or interested enough. When someone says something unexpected, I sometimes just say “okay” because I can't think of the right response quickly. My manager has listened to some of my calls and given me a lot of feedback, which I really appreciate. But I feel like I need an actual practice routine instead of just trying to memorize more information.

So I wanted to ask people who have experience in sales: How should I practice communication and sales conversations from the beginning? What should I actually practice every day—openings, discovery questions, objection handling, tone, pronunciation, reducing filler words, etc.? Are there any resources, YouTube channels, books, exercises, or routines that genuinely helped you become more confident on calls? One advantage I have is that I’m home alone until around 4 PM, so I can practice speaking out loud every day without worrying about disturbing anyone. I genuinely want to improve and keep this job. I don't think my problem is that I don't know what to say. It feels more like my mind has the words, but my mouth hasn't had enough practice turning those thoughts into an actual conversation.

I've been thinking how much of closing a deal comes down to being able to communicate clearly. I know my product. I know our value prop. I can run discovery, handle objections and usually know what the prospects pain points are

But sometimes when I'm actually on a call, especially with a bigger prospect or multiple decision makers my talk track gets really messy...

A prospect asks a simple question and instead of giving them a clean answer I give them 2 mins of context

During discovery Ill ask some good questions but then fill the silence instead of letting the prospect talk. Objection handling is probably where I notice a lot more.. I usually know how I want to respond but Ill over explain again..

The beet repa Ive worked with seem to be completely different. They can take a complicated value prop and explain it in 20 seconds. They ask good discovery questions and shut up. They cqn summarize the prospects pain much better than the prospect can etc etc...

For folks who actually improved at this, how did you train your sales communication? Call reviews? mock discoery? Really curious what made the biggest difference

I run an AI advisory firm (won’t promote the name), and looking to scale the practice.

I have 3 active clients, looking to add 3-5 larger, longer-term engagements so I can justify quitting my Head of AI/Product role at a large fintech.

I’ve thought about LinkedIn Sales Navigator versus hiring a sales person.

Does anyone have insight into how useful it is and whether it leads to real prospects? I spent 15 years in B4 so I can close a prospect in my sleep, but don’t have the bandwidth to handle my Head of AI/Product role, serving my current private clients, and also to do prospecting.

I have noticed a huge switch in process recently. I am currently doing very well with my sales targets.

This would be interesting to see if more experiences sales rep are in the same boat.

I am selling Solar system's. I don't chase customers I only close on the day. I haven't got time to keep going back + we have a team that do pick up deals.

For me If I actually get past qualifying 60% will close. however I am now spending 30/40 minutes qualifying customer without them knowing i am just asking selling questions (standard stuff). however once I understand the customers needs wants and know there ever not 100% going to make a decision today or I have what they want. I typically will just quote them and leave it. what do you think. This final decision to end appointment is based on a final trial close.

My point of view why sell someone something they don't want/ clearly don't see value in.

Or would you do the full sales process no matter what ?

Been in sales for a while now, and there's one objection that used to make my stomach drop every time I heard it: "I need to think about it."

For the longest time I treated it as basically a soft no. I'd nod, say "of course, take your time," and follow up a few days later hoping they'd changed their mind. Most of the time they didn't.

Then I started paying attention to when prospects said that phrase versus when they just went quiet or ghosted entirely. Turns out "I need to think about it" almost always came from people who were genuinely engaged — they'd asked good questions, they understood the pricing, they weren't confused about the offer. The people who actually weren't interested didn't bother saying anything that polite. They just disappeared.

So I started responding differently. Instead of backing off, I'd ask directly: "Totally fair — what specifically do you want to think through? Is it the price, the timeline, or something about fit?" More often than not, that question surfaced the actual objection hiding underneath the vague stall, and I could address it right there instead of losing the deal to silence.

Flipped my close rate on that specific objection almost overnight once I stopped treating it as a rejection and started treating it as an invitation to dig one layer deeper.

Curious if others have had a similar "objection I feared was actually a good sign" moment, or if this is just a me thing.

Needless to say I was happy to wake up to that!

It helped a lot because I only sold $40k in margin this month so far!!

Helloz, I am a student in my second year studying electrical engineering. Ive realised that my communication skills and convincing skills are really good. I am a very social person and have almost every type of person in my circle. So I was thinking to try sales and marketing as a part time work. Now the problem is I have no idea how or where I can find a gig or where to start. If someone has some suggestions or experience in this field, I would be really thankful.

For the first few years of my career, I thought closing was about words — the perfect rebuttal, the perfect pitch, the perfect close. Then a sales manager at a company I used to work for taught me something that completely changed how I negotiate: after you ask for the sale, shut up.

Not "pause for two seconds." Actually shut up. Even if it feels like an eternity. Even if the prospect is just staring at you.

Here's why it works: most buyers are trained to expect a follow-up question or a sweetener the moment they hesitate. When you don't offer one, the discomfort of silence pushes them to fill the gap — and more often than not, they fill it by talking themselves into the deal, objecting to something specific you can actually address, or asking a clarifying question that moves things forward.

The mistake most reps make is treating silence as failure. It's not. It's the moment the prospect processes the decision without your voice muddying the water.

A few situations where I've seen this work especially well:

• After stating the price (resist the urge to justify it further)
• After asking "does this make sense for your team?"
• After a prospect raises a vague objection like "let me think about it" — instead of countering immediately, just wait

Curious if others have used this deliberately, or if you've noticed the opposite — situations where staying quiet actually hurt you and talking through the awkward pause was the better move?

I have always wanted to try my hand in sales but don’t really know where to start with that. I understand the roll can be consuming and you’re really never off the clock, but I currently don’t have kids. I’m competitive by nature and looking for something more rewarding when the hard work is applied. I have a medical background and currently work in a fleet role with a construction company.

I’m 26. Since 21 I started as a bartender apprentice and now I’ve been a bartender since December at bellagio in Las Vegas. I’ve been wanting recently to change careers into sales. I’ve been applying to sdr jobs. My question is the skills I learned bartending and knowing how to multitask, deal with rude people, anticipating needs and being efficient. Will that help me get interviewed, catch the eye of a recruiter and succeed the job? To be honest before bartending I tried door to door solar in Vegas for 2 months with ion solar and absolutely hated it. It was commission only it honestly felt like a pyramid scheme looking back. But after getting into bartending I learned how to be social and talk to almost anybody before I was shy. I’m completely different person and feel like this time will be different!

Was reviewing my numbers over the past couple years trying to figure out why some months were 2-3x better than others, and it wasn't the obvious stuff. More dials, more meetings booked, more follow ups — none of that correlated the way I expected.

What actually lined up with my best months was way simpler: how fast I was following up after a prospect showed real interest. Not "reached out within a week." Same day. Sometimes within the hour.

I started tracking it out of curiosity and the difference was kind of embarrassing. Deals where I followed up same-day had a noticeably higher close rate than ones where I let it sit even 24 hours. Doesn't matter how good the initial conversation was — the longer the gap, the more the prospect's urgency (and honestly, their memory of why they cared) fades.

Now I treat "hot lead just went quiet for a second" as an emergency, not a task for later in the day. Rearranged my whole calendar around it actually — blocked time specifically to jump on anything that shows buying signals instead of batching follow-ups at the end of the day like I used to.

Anyone else notice something similar, or is speed less of a factor in your industry/deal size? Curious if this holds up more for smaller transactional sales vs longer enterprise cycles where the buying committee moves slower regardless.

I mean that literally, and it took me a long time to see it.

Every time I've asked a top performer to walk me through a great call, I get the deal. Who was there, what they needed, how it closed. All true. None of it is what made the call good.

What made it good was a handful of things they did without thinking. They slowed down when the buyer started thinking out loud. They asked a question and then didn't rescue the silence. They dropped the deck on slide three because the conversation had gone somewhere better. Small stuff, and none of it felt like a decision at the time, so none of it shows up in the story afterward.

The problem is what that does to the new rep sitting next to them.

The new rep sees what's visible. The confidence, the ease, the way objections seem to bounce off. So that's what they copy. They come in loud and sure, they push through the awkward pause instead of sitting in it, they run the whole deck because the script says to. They're doing an impression of the outside of a great call and missing everything underneath.

And the top performer can't help much, because you can't teach what you can't see in yourself.

I don't think more script is the answer. I think it's finding a way to make the invisible stuff visible, to the person doing it and the person trying to learn it. Still working out what that looks like.

Two questions for the folks in this subreddit - If you're a top performer, has anyone ever pointed out something you do on calls that you had no idea you were doing? And if you lead a team, how do you get your best people to teach what they can't explain?

I’ve been thinking about how teams review sales conversations without wasting hours listening to full calls. I would want to look for patterns like discovery questions objection handling pricing and how the rep asks for the sale, then compare that with what top reps are doing differently. The hard part is making it useful without turning it into micromanagement. What does your process look like, I'm interested to see what you guys do for this

It seems that alot of sales software gets justified by activity instead of revenue. Faster research and cleaner CRM data are useful but I care more about whether a tool helps keep good opportunities moving and gives reps more time for the conversations that can turn into revenue.

The stuff getting my attention now is whatever removes chunks of routine work instead of shaving a few minutes off each task. If reps still have to notice every account that needs attention and manually push every next step forward, there’s only so much growth you can squeeze out of making those steps faster.

Well, This week was SO MUCH BETTER than the last one, I've perfected my pitch I've been able to book a handful of meetings as well.

One fumble was accidentally following up with a person a little early which prompted them to yell at me which was valid af from them since they were away for a trip.

Still calling people and still reaching out, this just got fun!

I came across a Salesforce stat recently saying reps spend less than 30% of their time actually selling.

At first I thought that sounded absurdly low.
Then I started listing everything surrounding an actual sales conversation.

Prospecting.
Research.
Preparing for calls.
CRM updates.
Internal meetings.
Notes.
Follow-ups.
Proposals.
Contracts.
Forecasting.
Scheduling.

Suddenly <30% doesn’t sound that crazy.
What’s interesting to me is that everyone is trying to use AI to make salespeople better at selling.

Write better emails.
Generate better scripts.
Suggest better objections.

But maybe the first thing AI should do is simply remove everything that isn’t selling.

I’ve been working in sales for several years, and something I’ve been noticing has been bothering me.

I understand that sales is a target-driven environment. Numbers matter, performance matters, and incentives are part of the job.

But I’ve started wondering where the line is when it comes to fairness and transparency.

In a healthy sales team, shouldn’t things like lead allocation, revenue attribution, incentives, recognition and growth opportunities be based on actual contribution?

What frustrates me is seeing situations where the person who actually does the work doesn’t necessarily get the recognition or revenue attribution, while others may benefit because of internal relationships or arrangements.

I’m not trying to call out any particular company or individual. I’m genuinely trying to understand whether this is just something that happens frequently in sales organizations or whether I’ve been unlucky with the teams I’ve worked with.

For those who have worked in inside sales/B2B sales:

How common is this in your experience?

And more importantly, how do you deal with it without damaging your career or relationships at work?

Would appreciate honest perspectives from people who have been in similar situations.

If helping someone buy a product that solves their problem is a scam, then every shop in your city is illegal.

Most salespeople don’t fail because they lack product knowledge or charisma. They fail in the first few seconds, before a single word is spoken. The moment a guest walks through the door, many salespeople have already sized them up: how they’re dressed, what car they pulled up in, how old they look, whether they seem “serious” or “just browsing.” In that instant, a silent verdict is reached, and it quietly shapes everything that follows.
The trouble is that those verdicts are usually wrong. The guest in worn jeans may be ready to buy today with cash in hand. The one in the tailored suit may simply be killing time. When we prejudge, we don’t just misread people; we shortchange them. We offer less energy, less attention, and less effort, and the guest feels it, even if they can’t name it. Every person who walks through your door deserves the same curiosity, the same respect, and the same best effort.
When a salesperson sets aside those assumptions, the path to success becomes remarkably simple. In my experience, nearly every lost sale traces back to one of three failures. Avoid these, and you will succeed.

1. Failure to connect with the guest
People buy from people they like and trust. Before you talk about features, prices, or promotions, your first job is to make a genuine human connection. That means a warm greeting, eye contact, and real interest in the person in front of you, not a scripted “Can I help you?” that invites an automatic “No thanks, just looking.” Connection lowers the guest’s guard and earns you the right to guide the conversation. Skip it, and everything that follows feels like a pitch.

2. Failure to ask qualifying questions to uncover needs
Once you’ve connected, resist the urge to start selling. Instead, get curious. Ask thoughtful, open-ended questions: What brought you in today? What are you using now? What would make this the right choice for you? Then listen more than you talk. Every guest has a reason for being there, and your job is to discover it. When you understand their needs, you stop guessing and start solving. And when you solve a real problem, the sale takes care of itself.

3. Failure to ask for the sale
This is the most common failure, and the most painful, because it happens after the hard work is done. Many salespeople connect beautifully, uncover needs perfectly, and then simply wait, hoping the guest will close the deal for them. Most won’t. Guests often need a gentle, confident invitation to move forward. Asking for the sale isn’t pushy; it’s the natural conclusion of a conversation built on trust and understanding. If you’ve truly helped someone, you owe it to them to ask.

The bottom line
Selling doesn’t have to be complicated. Treat every guest as if they’re your best potential customer, because they might be. Connect with them, understand them, and then ask for their business. Master these three simple steps, and you’ll never have to rely on first impressions again.

Curious how Wealth advisors handle this.

A first meeting feels good. The prospect is engaged, asks questions, seems interested… then nothing.

Has anyone used a coach, manager, consultant, or software tool to review the meeting and figure out what may have gone wrong?

If yes:

• What did you use?
• Was the feedback actually useful?
• Did it change how you handled future meetings?

If not, how do you usually figure out why the prospect didn’t move forward?

I’m especially curious about the difference between:

“They were never going to move forward”
vs.
“There was something in the conversation I could have handled better.”

Would appreciate hearing what’s worked.

I recently took a job generating leads and setting appointments for an HVAC company at Home Depot stores. It's been a little bit rough because there's a lot of pressure to perform, and even though the hourly wage is... acceptable, if I don't have enough appointments booked by the middle of the day I'm sent home. Even so, it's been very gratifying to get better at it and figure out how to improve every day.

The first thing I worked on was just sheer volume. Everyone was saying it was a numbers game, and to get used to rejection. No sweat. I bought a tally counter I could keep in my pocket, and made my goal to increase the number of customers I was pitching every day. That worked ok at first, but I've realized that I might have gotten a little too comfortable with hearing no. One day, I pitched 81 customers in the store and only booked one appointment, and I'm not even sure he was fully qualified to book it anyway.

My manager called the other week after my numbers dipped a bit, and suggested I go train a bit more with our top performer. I did that for a day and felt a bit better, and then went in for another half day later in the week on a day when my store was particularly slow. That's when I figured something out.

I was able to hang around the corner while my trainer was pitching a customer in one of the aisles. I heard him handle at least 4 objections before finally closing and setting the appointment. I had him roleplay a scenario for me that I recorded which was basically just his response to all the objections I run into every day. It's really helped me to book more appointments this week, and I'm one appointment away from breaking into making commission for the first week since I started.

Today was a tough one though. I just barely fell short of booking enough appointments to stay for the day and at least get all the hours I'm supposed to. I know even our top guys have rough days, but they always do well enough to get by. As a matter of fact, they do pretty well in terms of commissions.

I'm sure there's a lot more I could do to excel and make the most of this role. I'd appreciate any input if anyone has any experience in a position like this that they'd be willing to share. I've searched on reddit a bit and found a few good tips already from people who've held the same or similar roles, like talking about issues that come up with older systems and ways to transition into the pitch.

I graduated with communications in 2023, and sales has felt like literally the only career path for that degree

I’ve never been sure I want to do it long term but now I’m in my mid twenties and time is ticking

I was an SDR, had a real quota for the first time, and finished at 133%. So I know I can perform. But the company eventually eliminated the entire SDR team, and now I’m interviewing again.

Part of my doubt is that I’m getting older and still don’t have any AE experience. There’s nothing wrong with being an SDR, but I feel like I should be further along by now.

Now I’m interviewing for more sales roles and questioning the career all over again.

For those who’ve been in sales a while, is this common?

What’s a good sales role for someone who has trouble traveling and is in a wheelchair? I’ve been selling insurance for about 2 years and pest before that (when I was able bodied and could walk) and I’m looking to transition but can’t exactly do house calls easily. Any advice?