Steer clear of these nine shortcuts, or you\u2019ll only create more work for yourself.<\/p>\n
Researching your prospects while you\u2019re on the phone with them is better than not researching them at all \u2014 but barely.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re scrolling through their LinkedIn profile and company website, you can\u2019t pay attention to what they\u2019re saying. Not only will you miss valuable information, but you\u2019ll sound distracted. Few buyers will be interested in scheduling another meeting with someone who\u2019s not paying attention right now.<\/p>\n Remember that 96% of consumers do their research before talking to a rep,<\/a> so they already have a pretty good idea of what you offer. Don\u2019t let them out-research you. Be equally ready.<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n My former colleague from Serpstat\u2019s sales team learned this the hard way.<\/p>\n During an enterprise software pitch, a prospect threw out an unexpected question \u2014 one that shifted the conversation in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n Caught off guard, Alex fumbled to find the answer mid-call. That awkward silence and frantic searching cost him the deal. Later, the prospect admitted they chose a competitor who seemed to understand their business better.<\/p>\n Determined not to let that happen again, Alex built a pre-call research system covering:<\/p>\n When another prospect asked about field expertise, he had detailed notes ready. This led to much deeper conversations about their pain points and, ultimately, more successful deals.<\/p>\n Pro tip: <\/strong>Make sure you space your calls far enough apart so you can prepare before each one (e.g., 15-20 minutes). Better yet, review your scheduled meetings for the next day before you leave at night. Doing your research after regular business hours (rather than during) frees up additional selling time.<\/p>\n Some salespeople settle into rigid calling and emailing routines. For example, they might call new prospects every morning, send emails in the afternoon, and contact existing opportunities in the hour before they leave the office.<\/p>\n The problem with sticking to a schedule? It\u2019s difficult to connect with a buyer who’s on a different one. If your prospect never gets into the office before 10 a.m., they\u2019ll miss your 9 a.m. call every day. If another prefers to check their emails at the crack of dawn, your mid-day messages will always get buried.<\/p>\n I explored this topic with Shannon Smith O’Connell<\/a>, Operations Director (Sales & Team Development) at Reclaim247<\/a>. She pointed out that sticking to a strict schedule backfired and killed her chances of real engagement.<\/p>\n O’Connell suggests using AI to get personalized insights that lead to authentic conversations.<\/p>\n “Craft your communication to reflect individual needs based on data insights (e.g., determining the best times to reach based on activity), and you\u2019ll definitely enhance your connection potential,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n Pro tip: <\/strong>Use the email tracking tool in HubSpot Sales<\/a> to see when individual contacts engage with your emails. Then, schedule yours to arrive when they\u2019re typically online.<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Conducting discovery and a demo on the same call is like killing two birds with one stone, right?<\/p>\n Wrong. Your demo should be highly customized to your audience\u2019s needs, desires, and goals — and you can\u2019t achieve that level of customization without doing prep work.<\/p>\n Or as Rizala Carrington<\/a>, CEO and Growth Executive at MyGrowthAgent.com<\/a>, says:<\/p>\n \u201cDiscovery should be all about listening, while the demo should be all about demonstrating value based on what you’ve learned. Mixing the two dilutes both.\u201d<\/p>\n Rizala described those calls as a messy, all-over-the-place conversation that never really landed. Instead of tackling real pain points, she just dumped a bunch of generic info. No surprise \u2014 the prospect lost interest, and the deal went nowhere every time.<\/p>\n Once she separated discovery and demo calls, everything changed. Now, she has time to really understand the prospect, tailor her pitch, and create real engagement during demos.<\/p>\n Pro tip:<\/strong> Use the discovery call to diagnose the buyer\u2019s current situation and what they hope the future will look like. In between discovery and the demo, identify which product features will help them reach this better future. Then, craft your presentation around these features and their benefits.<\/p>\n It might feel more efficient to keep track of undone tasks in your mind rather than on paper or in a virtual list, but you\u2019ll end up losing precious hours. No one\u2019s memory is faultless: Inevitably, you\u2019ll forget details or entire tasks.<\/p>\n While adding an item like \u201cSend Jamie Hills the blog post we discussed\u201d<\/em> takes an additional 10 seconds, failing to execute on that could delay the deal. You\u2019ll spend far more time re-engaging your prospect than if you’d followed through on your commitment in the first place.<\/p>\n Daniel Cook<\/a>, Business Development Specialist at KM Philly<\/a>, was one of those who thought it was possible to pull up facts on the fly. But that led to prospects sensing his lack of preparation. Now, he swears by a to-do list \u2014 especially the one before the call.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you enter a call already aware of their industry challenges, you don’t sell \u2014 you consult,\u201d says Cook.<\/p>\n After the call, create another to-do list to keep the momentum going:<\/p>\n By the way, according to Belkins,<\/a> the first follow-up email is the most effective, boosting reply rates by 49%.<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n So, if you don\u2019t set a reminder for follow-ups, the chances of overlooking them and losing those opportunities are pretty high.<\/p>\n Pro tip:<\/strong> Don\u2019t waste time writing down a to-do list for every lead. Set your CRM to automatically prompt a series of tasks after you complete, say, a discovery call. Create follow-up templates and personalize them after the call takes place.<\/p>\n All that frees you even more time and keeps leads engaged on semi-autopilot.<\/p>\n It may be easy to send the same content to every buyer, but it\u2019s not effective. Imagine the majority of your prospects are finance managers. One might be focused on developing accounting processes for her company\u2019s global expansion, another is concerned with reducing operational expenses, and the third is prioritizing rewriting her company’s expense policy.<\/p>\n If you forward an ebook about decreasing overhead to all three of these managers, it will only resonate with the second. Content should add value and help you establish credibility. To do that, it must be relevant to the individual prospect\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, only a personalized and individual approach will create a real connection and strong relationship, and we know that’s the only way to close deals.<\/p>\n Our research shows that 82% of sales pros say building relationships<\/a> is not only the most important part of selling but also the most enjoyable. So, don\u2019t let laziness or the urge to close a deal too quickly cost you those relationships.<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n If we take into account that 72% of revenue comes from existing customers<\/a> while only 28% from new customers, the importance of building relationships is quite apparent.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what Cook from KM Philly thinks of it:<\/p>\n “Bulk emails can save time but murder engagement. I used to send the same generic sales message to everyone on my lead list, hoping the value prop alone would win them over. Response rate? Horrible.<\/p>\n \u201cThese days, I qualify my emails by industry, company role, and pain point. Then, personalize them with meaningful case studies or observations. Making this simple tweak boosted my response rate 3x over and gave my pitches the tone of dialogue, not junk mail.\u201d<\/p>\n Pro tip:<\/strong> Hone in on your prospect\u2019s likely priorities by looking at their site, browsing their company\u2019s open jobs (which tells what areas they\u2019re expanding in), reading specific job descriptions for your prospect\u2019s department (which gives you granular insight into their team\u2019s goals), and checking out their social media profiles.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an average of five decision-makers involved in the sales process today.<\/a> For enterprise deals, the number can jump as high as 10-15 stakeholders. And 28% of sales professionals say the biggest reason prospects back out of deals is because the sales process takes too long.<\/p>\n A solid approach to handling this is multi-threading, aka building relationships with multiple stakeholders at your target companies.<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n I dare to say that relying on a single point of contact within the company is a recipe for disaster: If they get sick, go on vacation, or leave their job, you\u2019ll probably need to start from scratch.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s not factoring in your contact\u2019s internal influence. Maybe they don\u2019t have a lot of social capital in their organization, or they\u2019re new and ultimately unwilling to recommend any big changes. The wrong customer champion dramatically reduces your chances of closing.<\/p>\n Realtors know all too well how frustrating this can be. Adam Chahl<\/a> from Vancouver Home Search<\/a> shared his hard lessons:<\/p>\n \u201cIn real estate, I\u2018ve seen many agents make the mistake of building a relationship with just one person in a decision-making group, only to realize too late that they weren\u2019t the final decision-maker. Early in my career, I put a ton of effort into nurturing a relationship with a client, only to find out that their spouse had completely different priorities when it was time to move forward,\u201d Chahl said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe deal fell apart because I hadn\u2018t engaged both parties from the start. Now, I always make sure to connect with all stakeholders in a transaction, whether it\u2019s a couple buying their first home or an investment group purchasing multiple properties.\u201d<\/p>\n Pro tip:<\/strong> Ask your original contact to connect you with their coworkers so you can learn more about their individual priorities, buying criteria, and objectives. These details will help you tailor your message to each stakeholder and build consensus.<\/p>\n Some salespeople try to avoid the gatekeeper at all costs. They\u2019ll call the decision maker at odd hours, ask for their cell number instead of the office line, and remain vague about their intentions whenever they do end up talking to an executive assistant.<\/p>\n However, the gatekeeper doesn\u2019t need to be your enemy \u2014 in fact, he can be your ally. Your prospect trusts him. If you get the gatekeeper\u2019s approval, not only will you have an easier time connecting with the buyer, but you\u2019ll also have more credibility from the get-go.<\/p>\n Another example from real estate goes to Amber Couron,<\/a> Transaction Coordinator at Home Buying Hounds<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI learned the hard way about bypassing gatekeepers when I tried going directly to a property owner, only to have the deal fall through because I’d alienated their trusted office manager,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cGatekeepers often have valuable insights about the property and decision-making process that can make or break a sale. These days, I build genuine relationships with everyone involved, from receptionists to property managers, which has helped me close deals more smoothly and get better referrals.\u201d<\/p>\n With that in mind, always treat gatekeepers with respect and courtesy. Instead of circumventing them, go out of your way to talk to them.<\/p>\n You might even ask the decision maker, \u201cIs it okay if I ask [gatekeeper] a couple of questions about [prospect\u2019s company] so I can get another perspective?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n If they say yes, you\u2019ll have a valuable opportunity to learn from a true insider.<\/p>\n A recent Gartner study<\/a> reveals that 76% of sales leaders are either already using or planning to roll out generative AI this year. No doubt AI helps in sales with routine tasks.<\/p>\n However, AI tools can lack nuance, so failing to refine prompts or integrate real-time customer context can make interactions awkward or irrelevant.<\/p>\n Also, if you\u2019re planning to fire a couple of your salespeople just because \u201cAI can do it now,\u201d <\/em>think twice. AI is an assistant, not a closer. It can streamline tasks, generate insights, and automate outreach, but at the end of the day, relationships and trust close deals. AI helps, but sales is still a people game.<\/p>\n What you can use AI for:<\/p>\n![\"Free](\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/53\/b91f6ffc-9ab7-4b84-ba51-e70672d7796e.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSales Shortcuts<\/h2>\n
1. Researching Your Prospect During the Call<\/h3>\n
![\"how](\"http:\/\/nurseagence.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sales-shortcuts-2-20250408-5703574.webp\" "\\"\\"")
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2. Trying to Connect With Prospects at the Same Time Every Day<\/h3>\n
![\"email](\"http:\/\/nurseagence.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sales-shortcuts-3-20250408-9846511.webp\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n3. Running Your Demo and Discovery On the Same Call<\/h3>\n
4. Not Making a To-Do List<\/h3>\n
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![\"reply](\"http:\/\/nurseagence.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sales-shortcuts-4-20250408-5463515.webp\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n5. Sending the Same Content to Every Buyer<\/h3>\n
![\"sales](\"http:\/\/nurseagence.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sales-shortcuts-5-20250408-9766388.webp\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n6. Relying On a Single Point of Contact<\/h3>\n
![\"the](\"http:\/\/nurseagence.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sales-shortcuts-6-20250408-2444032.webp\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n7. Trying to Go Around the Gatekeeper<\/h3>\n
8. Relying Too Much on AI<\/h3>\n
![\"how](\"http:\/\/nurseagence.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sales-shortcuts-7-20250408-1465931.webp\" "\\"\\"")
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/track.hubspot.com\/__ptq.gif?a=53&k=14&r=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.hubspot.com%2Fsales%2Fsales-shortcuts-dont-take&bu=https%253A%252F%252Fblog.hubspot.com%252Fsales&bvt=rss\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"