• Building Trust in Sales RelationshipsRain Group research found the number one factor determining whether buyers purchase is not product quality, pricing or competitive positioning but whether they trust the salesperson, and a Salesforce survey of over 6,000 buyers found 89% say the e...17 MIN
• Cialdini's 7 Principles of Persuasion ExplainedWhere Cialdini's principles came from and what they rest on. In the late 1970s he went undercover for years, training as a car salesman, working with direct mail fundraisers and studying door-to-door operations, to understand not why people persua...22 MIN
• Debunking Persuasion Myths: What Actually WorksHis 2013 paper in Psychological Science is titled for the finding, Rethinking the Extraverted Sales Ideal, and the mechanism is simple enough to act on. Strong extroverts talk more than they listen, so they miss diagnostic detail, and they push ha...23 MIN
• Ethical Persuasion Explained: Influence Without ManipulationPatagonia ran the extreme version on Black Friday in 2011, headlining an ad Don't Buy This Jacket and telling customers to buy used gear and weigh whether they needed anything new. The page turns that instinct into seven checkable factors, coverin...19 MIN
• How to Write a Cold Email That Gets RepliesCategory-level personalization sits between them at 2 to 5 percent, so research beats rhetoric and most of the work happens before a word is written. The other gap is persistence, since about 70 percent of campaigns send one email and never follow...21 MIN
• Influence Without ManipulationLinkedIn's 2022 State of Sales Report, cited here, found 78% of B2B buyers want salespeople who act as trusted advisors rather than transactional vendors. Gong.io's analysis of sales calls put the ideal talk-to-listen ratio near 43:57, with top pe...22 MIN
• Negotiation Basics Explained: BATNA, Interests, and OptionsFisher and Ury named it in Getting to Yes, and the practical point is that strong alternatives let you negotiate from confidence while weak ones mean the other side knows you cannot leave. Northcraft and Neale's 1987 study shows how much the first...21 MIN
• Negotiation: Key Concepts and StrategiesWhat negotiation research actually establishes. Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever found that failing to negotiate a starting salary costs the average American worker over $500,000 in cumulative lost earnings by age 60, because raises and equity com...23 MIN
• Objection Handling Explained: Turning Pushback Into ProgressMatt Dixon and Ted McKenna analyzed 2.5 million recorded sales calls for The JOLT Effect and found 56 percent of stalled and lost deals traced to customer indecision rather than a competitor winning. Training built on overcoming the status quo aim...39 MIN
• Solution Selling: Success Strategies ExplainedSolution selling and the research behind consultative sales methods. Neil Rackham's analysis of 35,000 sales calls across 27 countries found that closing techniques which help in small transactions were negatively correlated with success in large ...21 MIN
• The Psychology Behind Persuasion ExplainedHare Krishna members pressed flowers on passersby in 1970s airports and refused to take them back, asking only for a donation. The donations came, even from people who resented the approach. Robert Cialdini saw that receiving something creates a f...20 MIN
• The Stages of a Successful Sales ProcessVantage Point Performance and the Sales Management Association found companies with a formally defined sales process grew revenue 18% faster, and those rigorously managing it grew 28% faster than those with a process only on paper. A process is a ...23 MIN
• Understanding Sales Psychology and Customer BehaviorAntonio Damasio studied patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. They could analyze options and weigh probabilities flawlessly, yet became paralyzed choosing between appointment times. Emotions are not the enemy of good decision...18 MIN
• Value Communication ExplainedFeatures describe your product, outcomes describe the change in the buyer's world, and the gap between them costs deals. Elizabeth Newton's 1990 tapping study, cited by Chip and Dan Heath in Made to Stick, shows why: tappers expected listeners to ...24 MIN