Do you want to get your customer to be a little more chatty on the phone with you? 

Well, maybe you should stop playing tennis with them. 

We tend to feel the compulsion to fill every moment of silence on the phone with noise, including our own voice as a sales rep. And that’s a big mistake, particularly when the customer’s thinking before they say their next topic. 

You should get good with that mute button. And when your customer is talking, stay on mute. 

That way if you find yourself interrupting with a, “Sounds good” or “Makes sense,” they won’t actually hear it. They’ll just hear the silence that they should be hearing if you were listening in the first place.

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Is that big audience for your next sales call making you nervous? 

Well, your first step is figuring out is this big picture or little picture? 

I found in my career, once they get beyond three people attending my meeting, I always have at least two competing agendas on what people want to learn about. So the larger the meeting, the more different topics that people are going to want to cover. 

So why not do what I do when I start seeing I have a larger meeting than I’m comfortable in having?

I contact my host and determine if is this a big picture or a little picture meeting. Meaning, are the people who are attending the meeting looking for value and benefits and understanding, or are they looking for specific benefits and features? And if the answer is both, why don’t we split ’em up and have two half meetings? 

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Having a hard time describing what you do? 

Well, sometimes the meek shall not inherit the earth. 

The use of hyperbole, which is the use of an exaggeration where all parties know it’s an exaggeration, is a very effective technique to have people anchor and remember the things that you’ve said.

So when describing what you do to people, make sure you’re using words like “best” or “only” or “greatest.” 

Not to brag, but to anchor because it’s that use of hyperbole that tells your listener that you actually do believe that this stuff that you do matters. 

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Not entirely sure when you should bring up competitive differences? 

It’s after they do.

It can always be a struggle in knowing what the right time is to bring up how we’re different and better than our competition. But I always want to make sure I do it after I’ve spoken about their competition. 

By asking the prospect questions about how they compete in their marketplace, it generally reveals elements of pain that can be very helpful when I’m talking about my competitors and why they should choose us over them. 

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Want to drive better engagement on your next sales demo? The secret is simple—let them drive.

Let’s be honest: there’s nothing more boring than a Zoom meeting, unless, of course, you’re watching someone give you a demo on Zoom. Sitting back passively while someone shows you how their product works is the quickest way to lose interest. If you want to give a great demo, it’s important to keep your audience engaged. Traditional demos can feel like a one-way presentation.

So how can you make your demos more engaging for your prospect? One of my favorite sales demo best practices is letting the customer take control. Instead of walking them through everything while they watch (and zone out), let them participate! Have your prospect control the keyboard, mouse, or even the camera, when appropriate.

Why does this work? When customers get hands-on with the product, they are able to experience it firsthand. This keeps their attention high. They’re no longer passive viewers, but become actively involved in the process of exploring. They can dive deeper into the features that matter most to them, which makes the demo feel more relevant and personal.

This method also shifts the focus to the customer’s needs. Instead of talking at them, you’re guiding them. They can ask questions in real time, and you can address their concerns as they test the product. This interaction makes the demo more dynamic. It keeps them engaged longer.

Using these sales demo best practices—like giving the customer control—creates a more engaging, interactive experience. It helps you connect with them and keeps their interest up. The result? More engagement, more interest, and a better chance of closing the deal.

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Do you want to breathe a little extra life into your next Zoom call? 

Why not try a venue change? 

You know, there’s a lot of reasons why these Zoom calls can get very tiring and fatiguing, and one of them is our backgrounds never change. By having the same background every single time we meet with someone, the brain gets lulled into the false idea that this is one long meaning. 

So why not spice it up a little bit like I do? Move around, shoot the video from another part of your home office, or maybe even outside or another venue entirely. 

Sometimes even moving the camera a few degrees can make yesterday’s call seem like a completely different call from today. 

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Want a better sense of what your customer’s looking for? 

Well check out their dating profile and it’ll tell you. 

One of my favorite topics to have with customers is on who their favorite partners and vendors are, even before I’ve discussed my own company’s products, services, and value. By having them focus on their favorite relationships post sale, I start to learn the things that they find important in their partners, and I can start to showcase those things when I position my product later in the call. 

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Ever wondered how many cold emails you should send before calling it quits? The answer might surprise you: five.

This isn’t just my personal opinion. It’s backed by research in the sales and marketing industry. According to a report from sales and marketing management, 80% of all significant deals for Fortune 500 companies begin with at least five cold call attempts. So, the question is not how many cold emails is too many. Instead it’s: how can you strategically approach email to increase your chance of success?

Write in Batches

One common mistake is sending an email, waiting for a response. Then sending a second email, followed by more waiting. This “wait and see” approach can quickly become discouraging. Instead of wasting time on this back-and-forth, why not take a more proactive strategy and write all five cold emails in one go?

By writing all five emails upfront, you can build momentum and stay in a focused mindset. The beauty of this approach is that the fourth and fifth emails are much faster to write than the first one. You’re already familiar with your target audience, and you can fine-tune your message based on what you learned from earlier emails. Whether you want to adjust your approach, change your CTA, or make minor tweaks, having your emails ready to go means you can act quickly without the stress of drafting them on the fly.

Get Ahead

Writing all five cold emails in advance also gives you the advantage of being prepared. If you don’t receive a response from the first email, the second one is already written and ready to be sent. The same goes for the third, fourth, and fifth emails. This approach ensures that you’re not wasting time waiting for a reply.

By setting aside a block of time at the start of the week to plan your cold emails, you can streamline your outreach process. The time investment on Monday will pay off when you can send your follow-up emails seamlessly throughout the week, with less effort. Over time, this strategy will help you stay organized, efficient, and motivated. And, as studies show, your chances of success with cold emailing will rise significantly.

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Are you looking for a surefire way to improve your demo conversion rates? 

What’s simple? One guest at a time. 

It’s so easy for us to get swept into the idea of getting larger and larger attendance to our demos, but that’s often a mistake because in large audiences, it’s very hard to identify the champion or even the anti-champion. 

So want to do what I do? Resist a temptation for a large audience and go the opposite direction. Make sure all of your demos are done to only one person at a time so that you can really have the intimate setting required to learn what their role and responsibility is. 

It will only be after I’ve found a champion that I could have a large demo in front of me. 

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Ever wonder what the best day is to cold call? 

The answer is Friday, not Monday, and I know Friday is when you’re calling. 

Most of us tend to front load our week to the stuff we don’t like. Let’s get our cold calls over with. Unfortunately, it’s true for our buyer as well. The last thing a buyer wants on a dismal Monday morning is an unsolicited cold call. 

Why don’t you reserve your calls to the end of the day and the end of the week? That’s what I do, and I find that by using my Mondays and Tuesdays to prep, research, and write the call scripts I’m going to use, then I can spend all day Wednesday, Thursday, Friday making those calls, and I’m going to be greeted by someone who’s not as busy, who’s a little bit tired and maybe a little more friendly. I know I am on Fridays. Why don’t you give it a try? 

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