Pitch your product! Smile ear to ear! Greet prospects with a loud, enthusiastic voice!
Have you ever heard this common sales advice?
Unfortunately, sales advice like this is everywhere—and it’s terrible advice!
In fact, the myth of the grinning, cheerful, ever-enthusiastic salesperson is one of the most damaging concepts in sales.
But it stops here.
Let’s bring your selling approach into the modern day, shedding the years of old-school techniques you’ve been taught by well-meaning—but misled—trainers and gurus.
Right here, I’m going to share 14 trending sales advice articles that will dispel the myths you need to banish from your life as a salesperson, while giving you the sales advice you really need to thrive in today’s fast-changing, fast-paced marketplace—no matter your industry.
How This Sales Advice Will Change the Way You Sell
Over the years, I’ve worked with thousands of salespeople.
Along the way, I learned which sales advice actually works in the marketplace—and which crushing mistakes kill the sale every time.
I share sales advice and the insider secrets I’ve found in popular publications such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Inc., and Entrepreneur—and right on my own blog, too.
Below are 14 of my best sales advice articles that are trending today. Check out my personal comments about how each piece of sales advice can help you crush your sales goals!
#1: 5 Secrets to Writing Sales Emails That Prospects Will Reply To published at Entrepreneur.com
Article Description: It’s never been trickier to craft perfect sales email subject lines that get prospects to open, read, and respond.
And can you really blame your prospects for not opening most sales emails? After all, they receive hundreds of emails every single day.
However, with the right email sales advice, you can stand out and capture your prospects’ attention, even in a crowded inbox.
In this sales advice article, you’ll learn 5 secrets to writing emails that ultimately elicit a response.
My Comment: Email is a powerful tool for connecting with prospects; it’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s free.
But without a proven strategy in place, your messages will just be white noise.
The email sales advice in this article is super easy to follow, and it’ll totally transform your response rates.
#2: 5 Disastrous Lies Your Sales Trainer Told You published at Inc.com
Article Description: Most sales trainers have a dangerous habit of regurgitating decades-old sales advice that’s no longer relevant today.
This isn’t just lazy—it’s ruining your chances of success in sales.
Did you know some of the sales advice that gurus teach today is over 100 years old? That definitely won’t help you close more sales in today’s marketplace.
This article uncovers 5 disastrous lies you’ve likely heard about sales—and how to eliminate these self-sabotaging strategies from your approach.
My Comment: Most of these lies are ingrained in salespeople from their earliest days of training.
Once you begin to recognize them, it’s actually not that hard to replace them with strategies that actually work.
Apply what you learn in this article, and you’ll start crushing goals like never before.
#3: Close More Sales with These 11 Quick and Easy Tips published at Salesforce
Article Description: Some of the most powerful sales advice out there comes in the form of a very simple idea.
But don’t be fooled—even one-sentence sales tips can pack a powerful punch.
In this article, you’ll find 11 quick and easy tips that you can implement to dramatically improve your results.
My Comment: Don’t get distracted from your goals by overcomplicating your approach.
From your initial prospecting call to closing the sale, small tweaks can totally transform your selling strategy.
The key is to learn what works, then stick with it.
#4: 3 Phone Sales Strategies Top Salespeople Use to Stand Out from the Crowd published at HubSpot
Article Description: As more salespeople rely on social media and email to sell, your prospects are receiving fewer sales calls than ever before.
This makes the phone a powerful tool you can use to stand out from the crowd—if you know how to use it.
Check out these 3 strategies that top salespeople use for making better sales calls.
My Comment: I’ve worked with top salespeople across a wide variety of industries and found that they all have a few things in common.
Without exception, each one of them uses these strategies to capture attention and connect with prospects over the phone.
Apply what they do to your own selling approach, and you’ll crush phone sales like never before.
#5: 4 Ways to Sell Like the Rock Star Entrepreneurs published at Entrepreneur.com
Article Description: I’ve learned some of the most powerful selling strategies from just one group of people: entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs have a unique approach to life and selling that often makes them incredibly successful salespeople.
Once you see what it is, it will totally change the way you look at selling.
In this article, you’ll learn 4 ways to think like a successful entrepreneur and radically transform your sales approach.
My Comment: I’ve seen it time and time again: When salespeople learn to adopt an entrepreneur’s mindset, they quickly start to reach new levels of success.
But you don’t have to become an entrepreneur to think like one.
This article will tell you everything you need to know to approach selling like an entrepreneur.
#6: 3 Old-School Selling Habits You’ve Got to Ditch Right Now published at HubSpot
Article Description: Most sales advice today is rooted in techniques that were developed in the late 1800s.
In the last 100+ years, we’ve updated nearly everything else in our society—so why not our selling strategies?
Check out this article for 3 old-school selling habits you’ve got to ditch right now.
My Comment: We’ve all been guilty of these old-school selling techniques at one point or another.
In fact, many of the crushing mistakes most salespeople make can be traced back to outdated sales advice.
It’s amazing how much your results will improve once you recognize bad sales advice and cut it out for good.
#7: Sales Tips – 17 Super-Quick Tips to Close the Sale published at MarcWayshak.com
Article Description: If you want to succeed in sales, you have to master the close.
If you don’t know how to close, then all the sales advice in the world on how to fill your pipeline or write the perfect email isn’t going to help you.
Check out this sales advice article for 17 super-quick tips that will help you close more sales than ever before.
My Comment: From planning a presentation to getting a budget to handling rejection, this article covers everything you need to know to become a sales superstar.
Check out the sales advice article, then pick a few sales tips that catch your attention.
Apply those, and you’ll be closing more deals in no time.
#8: How to Get More Customers – 7 Steps to Setting Killer Prospect Meetings That Close the Sale published at MarcWayshak.com
Article Description: What if I told you that you never have to make a cold call ever again?
The strategies in this article will teach you how to get more customers without ever sitting down to another session of cold calling.
Check it out to learn the 7 steps to setting killer prospect meetings that close the sale.
My Comment: I can’t tell you how many salespeople I’ve met who think they’re doing a great job thinking up creative ways to find new prospects.
In reality, they just have a haphazard prospecting strategy, and it’s causing more harm than good.
The sales advice in this article will help you get organized and keep your sales pipeline full.
#9: Artificial Intelligence in Sales – How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Sales and Selling RIGHT NOW published at MarcWayshak.com
Article Description: Internet, email, social media—it’s no secret that technology has transformed sales in recent decades.
But no technology is more daunting to salespeople than the rise of artificial intelligence.
In this trending sales advice article, you’ll learn what to expect from artificial intelligence in sales over the next few years and how you can use those changes to your advantage.
My Comment: I’ve found quite a few companies already leading the way in using artificial intelligence to analyze sales data.
What they’re doing is going to change selling forever.
Check out this sales advice article to stay on top of the cutting edge technologies in today’s marketplace.
#10: How to Sell Anything to Anyone – The 1 Sales Secret to Close More Sales published at MarcWayshak.com
Article Description: Have you ever heard someone say, “George is such a great salesman, he could sell ice to an eskimo”?
What is the secret to these sales unicorns? How is it that they are able to sell anything to anybody without skipping a beat?
In this article, you’ll discover the big sales secret that will help you become that salesperson who knows how to sell anything to anyone.
My Comment: You may be surprised by this sales advice at first, but stick with me.
Once you understand and apply what I share in this article, it will totally transform your life as a salesperson.
#11: 9 Must-Know Sales Presentation Tips to Close More Sales published at MarcWayshak.com
Article Description: Did you know that buyers rate 65% of salespeople as average or poor?
On the other hand, just 12% of salespeople are perceived as excellent by buyers. Which kind of salesperson are you?
In this article, you’ll find 9 must-know sales presentation tips to close more sales and be perceived as excellent and trustworthy in the eyes of your prospects.
My Comment: There’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a presentation that you feel like you’ve nailed only to hear “no” or “let me think it over.”
We’ve all been there. But the good news is that I’ve found strategies to help you avoid that feeling forever.
Check out this article for helpful hints for crushing any sales presentation.
#12: 5 Exceptional Habits of Successful Salespeople (not what you expect) published at MarcWayshak.com
Article Description: Most people believe that superstar salespeople are just workaholics who have no concept of a work-life balance.
This simply isn’t true.
In fact, the most successful salespeople typically work fewer hours than average—yet earn far more.
In this article, you’ll find 5 exceptional habits that allow top earners to achieve success in sales without working around the clock.
My Comment: I’ve worked with and interviewed thousands of superstar salespeople.
What amazes me about those experiences is my discovery that top earners actually share a lot in common, even across industries.
The strategies in this article have worked for tons of top earners, and they can work for you, too.
#13: How to Be Instantly Irresistible in Sales published at MarcWayshak.com
Article Description: Do you want to know how to be instantly irresistible in sales?
I’m not talking about physical attractiveness; I’m talking about engaging prospects so well that they’re jumping at the chance to work with you.
In this article, you’ll learn the exact steps you need to take in order to become the top choice among your ideal prospects.
My Comment: Many of the salespeople I meet have no idea the bad sales habits they’ve picked up that are actively turning prospects off.
While most sales advice will tell you what you should start doing, I wrote this article to help you discover what you need to stop doing in order to attract more prospects. Check it out.
#14: How to Handle Fear on the Phone When Selling published at MarcWayshak.com
Article Description: How do you feel when it’s time to pick up the phone and start selling?
Sweaty palms? A pit in your stomach? A sudden desire to complete absolutely anything else on your to-do list?
Fear of phone sales is totally normal, but with the right strategies, you can kick that fear for good. This article will show you how to do just that.
My Comment: There’s an old saying that fear simply stands for “False Evidence Appearing Real.”
Think about that. Most fear in phone sales is based on false evidence, not reality.
I wrote this article to call out that false evidence and give you the tools you need to build confidence in sales on the phone. Don’t miss it!
Conclusion: The Sales Advice You Follow Can Make or Break Your Career in Sales
Not all sales advice is created equal.
In fact, many sales gurus and trainers out there are teaching regurgitated sales strategies that may have worked great 100 years ago but simply aren’t effective in today’s marketplace.
The 14 trending sales advice articles I’ve shared here are full of modern advice that has helped salespeople across all industries crush their sales goals.
These sales advice articles cover how to write sales emails, call on prospects, and plan your sales presentations.
They reveal how to recognize and replace bad sales advice and habits.
They tell exactly what you can do to become instantly irresistible to your dream clients.
They keep you in the know on artificial intelligence and other big trends in sales.
They hold the keys to transforming your thinking, creating a powerful selling strategy, and ultimately crushing your sales goals.
Out of the many articles I’ve written, these 14 are trending because salespeople in every industry have found them useful.
Now that you’ve seen them, I want to hear from you. Which article caught your attention? How will you use what you learned in your own approach to selling? Share your thoughts in the comments below to join the conversation.
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About the Author Marc Wayshak
Marc is is the best-selling author of three books on sales and leadership, including the highly acclaimed titles Game Plan Selling, The High-Velocity Sales Organization and his forthcoming book, Sales Conversations, Mastered.
Marc is a contributor to Inc, HubSpot, Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Huffington Post Business. He also hosts a popular YouTube channel on sales strategy with over 103,000 subscribers.
Marc helps thousands of people his data-driven, science-based approach to selling that utilizes all the best tools available to sales organizations today.