In 2021, I began working at a SaaS startup and encountered one of our sales reps with 14 open tabs, 2 sales books on their desk, and a CRM dashboard blinking with reminders. Panic was written all over their face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Just trying to optimize my multi-touch attribution sequence while cross-referencing our value proposition matrix against competitive positioning for tomorrow’s meeting.”
Good lord.
Sales isn’t calculus, folks. It’s not even algebra. It’s basic addition:
- Find people who need your stuff
- Show them why your stuff solves their problems
- Close deals
- Get paid
- Repeat
That’s it. That’s the whole damn job.
We’ve turned selling into this mystical art form with fancy acronyms and methodologies when the fundamentals haven’t changed since someone first traded a shiny rock for a better stick. It isn’t magic.
Look, I love a good sales framework as much as the next revenue leader. But sometimes I think we’d all close more if we just taped the five steps above to our monitors and focused on execution instead of complication.
Want to know the secret to being great at sales? Actually do those five things. Consistently. Every day.
Not writing a manifesto about how you’re going to do them. Not creating a 127-slide deck about your approach. Not overthinking your LinkedIn profile.
Just. Do. The. Work.
