Some useful pointers for salespeople starting 2023...

1. Teach prospective clients at least one new thing on every call

2. Never answer questions at face value

3. Stop accepting surface-level answers

4. Start asking better questions

5. Slow down

6. Don't act like 'best friends' till you've earned the right

7. Stop pandering over prospects for no apparent reason

8. Learn to shut up after asking thought-provoking questions

9. Stop answering your own questions

10. Drop your product & lead with the problems you solve

11. Be present, pause & give yourself time to think

12. Always talk less than your prospect by asking better questions - ideally a ratio of 2:1

13. Treat your own time as your most valuable resource & never waste it

14. Listen to understand, not to respond

15. Ditch the pitch

16. Put commission to the back of your mind & place helping at the front

17. Make your conversations so valuable, people would happily pay you for them

18. Lead with insight

19. Increase your business acumen by reading the FT / Business section of a broadsheet newspaper

20. Have the confidence to express a different point of view