How to sell without sounding salesy

Nobody likes being sold to. At least not by the stereotypical sleazy salesperson.

The kind where they’re trying to overwhelm your senses by speaking fast, asking rhetorical questions or flat out bullying you into conforming to a script that they have rehearsed. For hours.

A Gartner study from March 2026 found that 2 out of 3 B2B buying decision makers would rather there was no salesperson involved during a sales process. The same study found that when there is no salesperson involved, purchase regret is 23% higher.

Which just shows that salespeople are useful. We’re just not liked very much.

I’ve been a salesperson for 16 years. When I think about that, I feel ashamed.

Maybe it’s partly due to the dynamics of the sales role. Fast-paced and intense. Or maybe it’s because the role is misunderstood by so many. And even those who are the cause of this type of behaviour survive in the role. Because closing out a month or a quarter and hitting quota is usually the goal, regardless of the long-term implications.

Over the last 16 years, I’ve honed my own sales skills. And I’ve also kept a close eye on how some of the best salespeople operate. I always wanted to be one of them.

You see, we tend to think being good at sales is finding a way to close a deal that others can’t close, or speeding up the process and getting the client to say yes. Sooner rather than later. But this is exactly where the problem lies.

Closing a deal with the wrong prospect has long-term implications. Ultimately, it affects your brand and reputation. And as you erode either of those, your customer acquisition cost increases (CAC). Because the wrong prospects become unhappy clients, and unhappy clients will at best never recommend you, and at worst tarnish your reputation.

So you end up on an endless treadmill, continually spending to bring in new people.

A top salesperson is someone who is well informed. They understand their marketplace and the problems within it. Their focus is on problem solving. They have good knowledge of their competitors and where their products or services sit within their space.

They know just as much about the shortcomings of their products or services as they know about the features and benefits. And they are the first to offer this knowledge to prospects.

They know that they can’t speed up a decision. They can only ask the right questions, and provide the right information to remove the obstacles in front of a decision.

It’s only when you have satisfied customers, who had a good understanding of what they were getting into during the sales process, that you can rely on your reputation and build champions who speak highly of you and become part of your distribution.

Cheers,

P.S. If someone came to mind while reading this, forward it to them. “Two minutes, worth it” does the job.

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