20 Stupid Sales Tactics to Abandon in 2020 (and What to Do Instead)

I’ve been selling for over 30 years, and it’s been a blast. I’ve seen some incredible changes, and I can say without a doubt that right now is the best time to invest in a sales career. Sales is fun, critically important to scaling businesses, financially lucrative, and intellectually stimulating.

But being a salesperson in 2018 is very different than being a salesperson in 1987. Buyers have changed, and top salespeople have to change with them. Although it’s arguably more difficult to sell effectively in 2018, it’s easier for top performers to differentiate themselves.

The first thing you need to do? Drop the 18 tactics below.

Examples of Sales Tactics that Don’t Work Anymore

1. Cold calling

If you’re still cold calling prospects and think it’s a great way to generate new opportunities, stop selling now. I mean it — quit sales and get a new job.

Cold calling is hard, wasteful, ugly, and negatively impacts your brand and potential success — it’s also not nearly as effective as inbound selling.

I speak on behalf of HubSpot 50 times a year, and at every engagement I tell my audience they should take the hour they use for cold calls to do something that’s not even in their job description: blogging. I bet them a breakfast sandwich that I can create more leads blogging than they can in 100 hours of cold calling — and I have the statistics to prove it.

It’s not even close to a fair fight. My blog articles live forever, so while old-line salespeople are cold calling, my content is converting like an assembly line in a factory. Forever.

What to Do Instead

Of course, you still need to do call prospecting, and in this scenario, warm calling is the way to go. Do research to offer up a compelling reason for your initial call, work inbound leads that want to talk to you, and provide helpful insights to potential prospects on social media before engaging.

2. Getting on a plane to start a relationship

Back in the 1990s, inside sales was a stepping stone, not a career. Junior reps started in inside sales, and as you moved up through the ranks you were given your own outside territory and sent out on face-to-face sales calls.

Introductions were mostly done over the phone. But even early-stage sales calls were done in person. Meeting in person was not only expensive, it was also a huge pain.

You had to dress formally, print out directions to the office (remember, this was the era before smartphones), travel to the prospect’s office, get there early, wait in the parking lot, make small talk with the receptionist, and then make more small talk with your prospect before you could get down to business.

A simple 45-minute meeting became a three-hour ordeal — and all this just to start a relationship and conduct a basic needs analysis.

What to Do Instead

In-person meetings are the most inefficient process imaginable. In today’s world, actually meeting face-to-face is a nice-to-have, not a requirement. I’ll sometimes do business with people for years without ever meeting them! Inside sales is simply more efficient and scalable.

3. Overselling the product

In the old days, sales cycles were incredibly involved. All meetings were done in person, so the process was inherently slower and more cumbersome.

As a result, salespeople had a bit more flexibility in what they could say to their prospects. You could say whatever you wanted to move the process forward — in six months, nobody would remember what you said anyway.

Because sales took so long to close, a prospect’s priorities and product requirements would often be different by the end of the process than they were at the beginning. It took so long to implement and close a deal that glossing over critical parts of the solution was simply a normal part of the process.

What to Do Instead

Today, thankfully, overselling a product doesn’t fly. If you’re dealing with a 28- or 56-day sales cycle, you’ll be speaking with your prospects frequently. You can’t lie, and you need to sweat the details. If you don’t? You’ll immediately get caught. And this is a great thing for buyers everywhere.

4. Treating your product demonstration as the end-all, be-all

Product demonstrations used to be incredibly important for the final close. There was pretty much no way a prospect could learn about the product on their own, short of watching an acquaintance or reference use it.

Trials of on-premise software were rare. Hardware and software were also much more differentiated a few decades ago and were only updated annually, so the choice between one product and another was higher-stakes. As a result, a boardroom demo was a pretty big deal — and usually included a bit of theater.

Now, technology is much more homogeneous. In most industries, it’s rare that you’re selling the only product that functions the way yours does.

What to Do Instead

Even if your competitor doesn’t have the same product features today, they’ll probably have it in the next 24 months, and best-in-class features are integrated into every product much more quickly and effectively.

The real differentiators are culture, company, and your ability to solve problems. So don’t ever think your product demonstration is an end-all, be-all — everything you do before and after matters.

5. Telling, not asking

In the old days, we did a lot of telling: “You need this. You have to have that.” Our prospects had no choice but to listen to us, because we held all the knowledge and power in the relationship.

Now, it’s dangerous to make assumptions. Don’t always ask “yes” or “no” questions — explain your experiences and your side of the picture, but never do so without understanding your prospect’s situation first.

What to Do Instead

Selling is more solution-based than ever before, so you can’t take the lead in sales conversations from the beginning. You have to ask pertinent questionsthat pull out relevant information and make 100% sure you understand your prospect’s situation before you begin making any sort of recommendation.

6. Pushing hard for a borderline deal

Top salespeople remember that it’s not about them. It’s about solving for the customer. Yes, you have to make sales to be successful, but pushing too hard is a no-no.

If a deal seems like it’s not going to close despite your best efforts, or a prospect is continually dragging their feet, there’s probably a reason. Deals that are borderline usually can be closed if you push hard enough.

However, slamming deals through can potentially damage your reputation and create a churn risk. Don’t take a quick win today that will hurt you in the long run.

What to Do Instead

Try the Negative Reverse Selling strategy from Sandler. If a prospect keeps ghosting your meetings, won’t answer your calls, and isn’t opening your emails, it might be time to get honest with them and hope for honesty in return.

In this case, here’s what to do:

Prospect: “Sorry I had to push back our meeting again. Are you free in two weeks?”

Salesperson: “Typically when someone pushes a meeting back a few times, it means this isn’t a priority for your team at the moment. Is it fair for me to assume that’s the case?”

Your prospect might reply, “No, not at all. You’ve just caught me on two bad weeks.” In that case, you can move forward and schedule another meeting knowing it’s important to your prospect.

They might also respond, “Yeah, actually, this initiative is on the back burner this quarter.” In which case you can ask if you can try again next quarter, and let them know you won’t bother them again until they’re ready.

7. Moving too quickly

The speed with which you move through a sales process is another factor where you have to balance your sales instincts and retention instincts — the short game versus the long.

This is a difficult situation — landing a one-call close is a huge rush and seems like a quick win. But if you’re just paying attention to the short term, you may wind up missing huge warning signs that your prospect won’t be a good customer.

What to Do Instead

Slow down and take the time to delve deeper into your prospect’s situation so they’re completely informed about their decision and don’t churn out of your customer base in a few months.

8. Ignoring the prospect relationship

There are two laws that govern modern business relationships: Everyone exists online, and your digital reputation is forever.

Salespeople either recognize these facts and use them to their advantage, or they don’t. It’s your choice, but if you ignore the reality of modern selling it can have dire consequences.

You’re only as strong as your network, so if you ignore what your prospect truly needs and only think of them as a number on a paycheck, you’ll steadily lose value as a salesperson.

Don’t think that slamming a deal through won’t come back to bite you. Do it enough times and you’ll have unhappy prospects steering their networks away from you.

What to Do Instead

This isn’t to say you should sell based on relationships alone. In fact, that’s a tactic that’s almost guaranteed to fail. But you should always treat your prospects with the respect they deserve, and never put your needs above theirs.

9. Thinking that being on social media is enough

Just having accounts isn’t helpful. Use social media to build awareness of your product and services. If you are not on LinkedIn, Facebook for business, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat, then you are either stubborn or just haven’t seen the stats yet.

What to Do Instead

Social media is where your prospects spend their time. It matters big time — spend an hour updating your profiles, posting professional pictures, scheduling meaningful content, and setting aside 30 minutes a week to post fresh content. Come on, people — it’s not that hard.

10. Treating Marketing like second-class citizens…

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