Six Effective Sales Techniques

Authored by Maxwell Kuhl, Nick Zarrillo, John Lloyd Bauer, and Balan Selvamuthukumaran

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In a world where buyers have all the information in the world sitting in their pockets, traditional sales pitches are not enough. To keep up with well-informed buyers, businesses must change their tactics from a feature-based model of sales to becoming trusted advisors by putting greater focus on buyers. Going the extra step further to build connections with buyers will help the company standout in the market.

Building a Relationship

One of the most important aspects of sales about building trust—and trust starts with genuine human connection. Building a personal relationship with your client means moving beyond transactional interactions. Show up on time. Remember their name. Ask how their weekend was. These small touches build rapport and humanize the sales process. Importantly, always follow through on what you promise. If you say you’ll call Monday, call Monday. Consistency builds credibility. Personal connection lays the groundwork for repeat business, referrals, and builds long term client relationships.

Tell a Story

In today's world, buyers have all the tools available to research and evaluate which products can best benefit themselves. Instead of pitching a list of features of benefits your product will bring, tell a story. Storytelling can be a powerful tool of persuasion that can create more memorable and engaging sales pitches. By telling a story to a potential buyer, it allows them to imagine a scenario on how your product can benefit them. It creates emotional connections where it can greatly influence a person's decision even after the sale is over.

Inabo, Stella. “6 Proven Sales Techniques (+ How to Actually Apply Them on the Job).” Zendesk, 19 Mar. 2024, www.zendesk.com/blog/proven-sales-techniques/.

Address Pain Points

Pain points, according to Harry Wray, are issues the customers face when using your product. Addressing these pain points will allow the business to understand what the customers' needs are and leaving them unaddressed will cause customers to turn away from your product. Most of the pain points come from usability, financial costs of the product, support issues, and technical issues. The best way to identify pain points is to look at customer feedback and quantitative research (Wray).

Overcome Status Quo

One of the most common reasons deals die isn’t competition—it’s inaction. Studies show that over 40% of pipeline deals are lost to “no decision.” This reluctance stems from a psychological force known as Status Quo Bias—the buyer's natural resistance to change. When faced with multiple similar options, or when the perceived risk of switching outweighs the potential gain, most buyers simply choose to do nothing (Riesterer).

To overcome this inertia, sellers should disrupt the status quo and create a compelling reason for making the switch.

Unconsidered Needs

Problems, risks, or missed opportunities that the buyer hasn’t yet recognized. Buyers are far more likely to act when they discover a risk or ineciency they hadn’t noticed, as vulnerability or lost opportunity necessitates change. This also allows you to dierentiate the company from others – Instead of echoing back what the buyer already knows (and what your competitors are also saying), you oer a fresh, provocative perspective. That changes the buyer’s perception of you, from “Average Joe” salesperson to strategic advisor.

In short: Help your buyer see the risk of standing still. Give them a reason to make the switch.

SPIN Selling

The acronym SPIN stands for four types of questions that guide a consultative sales conversation:

Situation Questions – Gather facts about the buyer’s current environment. These helps establish context but should be used sparingly (e.g., “What systems are you currently using?”).Problem Questions – Identify issues, challenges, or pain points (e.g., “What’s not working well with your current process?”).

Implication Questions – Explore the consequences of those problems, helping the buyer see the cost of inaction (e.g., “How much time do those errors cost your team each month?”)Need-Payo Questions – Get the buyer to articulate the benefits of solving the problem (e.g., “Would it be helpful if those tasks were automated?”).

The genius of SPIN lies in its ability to make the buyer sell themselves on the solution. Rather than relying on their own ability to convince the buyer, the seller asks guiding questions in order to let the buyer convince themself.

Conclusion

Simply selling the product itself isn’t going to make buyers want to buy from your company, but how you can connect to them will. Using these techniques will prioritize the buyers concerns, experiences, and motivations. For there the business can foster an environment of trust, where buyers are motivated to purchase the company's products.

Work Cited

Davis, Jon. 7 Sales Techniques to Help You Close More Deals, 27 Sept. 2023, capsulecrm.com/blog/7-sales-techniques/.

“Eective Sales Techniques Every Salesperson Needs to Know.” Salesforce, www.salesforce.com/in/hub/sales/eective-sales-techniques/. Accessed 9 Apr. 2025.

Inabo, Stella. “6 Proven Sales Techniques (+ How to Actually Apply Them on the Job).” Zendesk, 19 Mar. 2024, www.zendesk.com/blog/proven-sales-techniques/.

“Learn the Value of Stories in Business: Salesforce Trailhead.” Trailhead, Trailhead, trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/manage_the_sfdc_storytelling/msfw_storytel l_business. Accessed 9 Apr. 2025.

McPheat, Sean. “The Ultimate Guide to Storytelling in Sales.” MTD Sales Training, 26 Nov. 2024, www.mtdsalestraining.com/mtdblog/storytelling-in-sales.

Riesterer, Tim. “10 Surprisingly Eective Sales Techniques, Backed by Research.” Corporate Visions, 1 Apr. 2021, corporatevisions.com/blog/selling-techniques/.

Wray, Harry. “Customer Pain Points: How to Identify and Resolve (+ Examples).” Zendesk, 5 Dec. 2023, www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-pain-points/.