Short answer
Sales techniques are the specific things a seller says and does at each stage of a sale. The ones that work best in B2B: open with a researched reason for contacting the buyer, ask implication questions, listen more than you talk, put a number on the cost of the problem, tell a short customer story, clarify an objection before answering it, recommend one option, and agree a dated next step at the end of every meeting.
- Pick techniques by stage: what works in an opener is different from what works at the close.
- In Gong's analysis of 326,000 calls, sellers talked 57% of the time in won deals and 62% in lost ones.
- Putting a number on the buyer's problem turns a feature conversation into a business case.
- To beat indecision, recommend one option and take risk off the table instead of offering more choices.
- Measure each technique against the stage it's meant to move, for at least a quarter.
On this page
This guide is for account executives, SDRs, founders and sales managers who want practical selling techniques they can use on their next call. It covers the moves within a conversation, stage by stage. Two related topics have their own pages: finding and contacting prospects is in sales prospecting techniques, and full methodologies such as SPIN, Challenger and MEDDPICC are explained in the sales methods guides, which this page links to rather than repeats.
Technique, method or strategy?
| Term | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Sales strategy | Which markets and accounts you go after, and how | Focus on mid-sized logistics firms opening new depots |
| Sales methodology | A repeatable framework for running a whole deal | SPIN Selling, the Challenger Sale, MEDDPICC |
| Sales technique | A specific move inside a conversation | Asking "What happens if that's still true in six months?" |
Methodologies are built from techniques. You can use most techniques below inside any methodology.
Sixteen sales techniques, by stage of the sale
Opening: earning the first conversation
| Technique | What it sounds like | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lead with a researched reason | "I saw you opened the Columbus depot in August; that usually means route planning gets harder." | Every first call and email. Gong's 2018 data found a proactive reason for the call went with a 2.1 times higher success rate. |
| 2. Own the cold call | "This is a cold call. Can I take 30 seconds to say why I picked you, and you decide if it's worth more?" | Calls to people you've never spoken to. Gong's 2024 data put this kind of opener at 11.18% success, against 2.15% for "Did I catch you at a bad time?" |
| 3. Pair a call with an email | Call, leave a short voicemail, and send a two-line email within the hour | Any outbound sequence. Gong found prospects who got a call replied to email at 3.44%, against 1.81% for those who didn't. |
The full process for calling is in the cold calling guide.
Discovery: understanding the problem
| Technique | What it sounds like | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| 4. Implication questions | "What does a missed delivery window cost you with that customer?" | After the buyer names a problem. This is the core of SPIN Selling, drawn from research into more than 35,000 sales calls. |
| 5. Put a number on the gap | "So 12 dispatchers each lose about six hours a week re-planning. What's an hour of their time worth?" | Once you know the problem; it turns pain into a business case. See gap selling. |
| 6. Talk less | Ask, then wait. Count to three before you speak again. | Every call. In Gong's analysis of 326,000 calls of 10 minutes or more, sellers talked 57% of the time in won deals and 62% in lost deals. |
| 7. Label what you hear | "It sounds like the last vendor promised a lot and didn't deliver." | When the buyer is guarded or frustrated. From Chris Voss's Never Split the Difference. |
| 8. Go deeper three times | "Tell me more about that." "How long has that been going on?" "What have you tried?" | When the first answer is vague. The Sandler pain funnel is a full sequence of these. |
| 9. Ask who else cares | "Who else feels this problem, and who would have to agree to fix it?" | Any deal with more than one decision maker; map the answers with Miller Heiman Strategic Selling. |
A full question bank is in the discovery call questions guide.
Presenting value
| Technique | What it sounds like | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| 10. Teach something they don't know | "Most fleets your size think the cost is fuel. In our customers' data, it's driver overtime." | When the buyer has a fixed view of the problem; the idea behind the Challenger Sale. Only teach what you can prove. |
| 11. A three-part customer story | "A dairy distributor with 14 trucks had the same problem. They moved re-planning into one screen. Overtime fell by a third in two months." | After you've agreed the problem. Situation, what they changed, result. Use only stories you have permission to tell. |
| 12. Demo only what they asked about | "You mentioned three problems. I'll show those three and skip the rest." | Every demo. A tailored 20 minutes usually lands better than a full product tour. |
For pitch wording, see the sales pitch examples.
Handling objections
| Technique | What it sounds like | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| 13. Clarify before you answer | "When you say it's too expensive, compared with what?" | Any objection. Often the real objection is different from the first one. |
| 14. Isolate it | "Apart from price, is there anything else that would stop you going ahead?" | Late in the deal, before you negotiate. |
Scripts for the common objections are in the objection handling guide.
Closing and next steps
| Technique | What it sounds like | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| 15. Recommend one option and lower the risk | "Based on what you told me, I'd start with the 90-day pilot on the two busiest depots. If it doesn't cut overtime, you walk away." | When the buyer keeps asking for more information. Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna's The JOLT Effect argues most stalled deals die of indecision, not competition. |
| 16. Agree a dated next step, every time | "Shall we put 30 minutes in for Thursday the 14th with your finance lead to go through the numbers?" | The end of every meeting. A meeting without a next step on the calendar is a stalled deal. |
The how to close a sale guide covers the end of the deal, and a mutual action plan template keeps the dated steps visible to both sides.
Which technique to use when
| Situation | Try first | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Prospects hang up in the first 30 seconds | 1. Researched reason | 2. Own the cold call |
| First meetings don't lead to second meetings | 4. Implication questions | 5. Put a number on the gap |
| The buyer agrees there's a problem but won't prioritize it | 5. Put a number on the gap | 10. Teach something they don't know |
| You talk most of the call | 6. Talk less | 8. Go deeper three times |
| Deals die after the proposal | 15. Recommend one option | 9. Ask who else cares |
| Every deal ends in a price argument | 13. Clarify before you answer | 14. Isolate it |
| Deals drift with no next meeting | 16. Dated next step | 15. Recommend one option |
Worked example: five techniques in one deal
Illustrative example. The companies, people and numbers are invented to show the method.
Priya sells route-planning software for Waypoint Logistics Software (waypoint.example) at US$36,000 a year. Her prospect, Saltmarsh Freight Lines (saltmarsh.example), runs 40 trucks from three depots.
- Researched reason (technique 1). Saltmarsh's news page announced a third depot in August. Priya opens with it, and the operations director agrees to a 30-minute call.
- Implication questions (4). The director says re-planning routes after late orders is "a pain". Priya asks what happens when it goes wrong: drivers wait, overtime goes up, and one large customer has complained twice.
- Put a number on the gap (5). Together they estimate the cost: 12 dispatchers x 6 hours a week x US$32 an hour x 48 working weeks = US$110,592 a year of re-planning time. Priya's price of US$36,000 is about a third of that, which pays back in about 3.9 months (36,000 / 110,592 x 12).
- Ask who else cares (9). The director names the CFO and the depot managers. Priya asks for 20 minutes with one depot manager to check the six-hour estimate before any proposal.
- Recommend one option (15) and set a dated next step (16). Instead of three pricing tiers, Priya recommends a 90-day pilot at the two busiest depots with an exit clause, and books the CFO review for a specific date before she leaves the call.
The number did the work. Without it, the conversation was about features; with it, the CFO's question was whether the six-hour estimate was right, which a pilot can answer.
How to practice and measure a technique
Pick one technique, use it on every relevant call for a month, and track the number it should move:
| Stage | Technique examples | Measure |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | 1, 2, 3 | Conversations per connected call; replies per email |
| Discovery | 4 to 9 | Share of first meetings that lead to a second |
| Presenting | 10 to 12 | Share of demos that lead to a proposal |
| Objections | 13, 14 | Share of proposals lost on price |
| Closing | 15, 16 | Share of late-stage deals lost to "no decision"; days from proposal to signature |
Record calls only with consent, and listen to two of your own each week. Small samples mislead, so judge a technique over a quarter rather than a fortnight.
Self-check after your next call
- Did you open with a specific reason this buyer should care?
- Did you ask at least two questions about the consequences of the problem?
- Did you talk less than half the time?
- Did you put a number on the problem, even a rough one?
- Did you tell one short, relevant customer story, and only one?
- When they objected, did you ask a question before you answered?
- Did you leave with a dated next step on both calendars?
Pitfalls
- Pressure closes. Tactics such as fake deadlines and "this price is only for today" damage trust with a buying committee that will be around for years. On US business calls, the Telemarketing Sales Rule's ban on misrepresentation applies too (see is cold calling legal).
- Stacking techniques. A call that tries ten techniques sounds like a script. Use the ones the moment calls for.
- Teaching without proof. A "commercial insight" you can't back with data is just an opinion, and buyers can tell.
- Inventing numbers. Build the cost estimate with the buyer, from their figures, so they own it.
- Skipping the next step. The most common way a good meeting turns into a stalled deal.
Next step: pick the method that ties these techniques together with the sales methodologies comparison, or go deeper with the best sales books.
Sources
- Proven cold call opening lines that work, Gong, 19 April 2018
- The best and worst cold call openers (backed by data from 300M calls), Gong, 24 July 2024
- The hidden power of cold calling: insights from 300M calls, Gong, 18 July 2024
- Talk-to-listen ratio, Gong, 21 August 2025
- SPIN Selling (Neil Rackham), publisher's description, Routledge, accessed 30 October 2026
- The JOLT Effect, by Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna (Portfolio, 2022), catalog record, Open Library, accessed 30 October 2026
- Never Split the Difference, by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz (2016), catalog record, Open Library, accessed 30 October 2026
- 16 CFR 310.6, Exemptions (Telemarketing Sales Rule), Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
What are the most effective sales techniques?
In B2B, the most effective are the ones grounded in the buyer's situation: opening with a researched reason for contacting them, asking implication questions about their problem, listening more than you talk, putting a number on the cost of the problem, telling a short relevant customer story, and agreeing a dated next step at the end of every meeting. Gong's data links lower seller talk time with won deals.
What is the difference between a sales technique and a sales methodology?
A sales technique is one specific move in a conversation, such as an implication question or a labeling statement. A sales methodology is a framework for running the whole deal, such as SPIN Selling, the Challenger Sale or MEDDPICC, and it's built from several techniques. You can use most techniques inside any methodology your team follows.
What are closing techniques in sales?
Closing techniques are ways to move a buyer to a decision. In B2B, the reliable ones are summarizing the agreed problem and value, recommending one option rather than several, lowering the risk with a pilot or exit clause, and agreeing a dated next step. Pressure tactics such as fake deadlines tend to backfire with business buyers, and Neil Rackham's SPIN research found classic closing techniques hurt in large sales.
How do I improve my sales techniques?
Pick one technique at a time and use it on every relevant call for a month. Measure the number it should move: second-meeting rate for discovery techniques, "no decision" losses for closing techniques. Listen to two of your own recorded calls a week, with consent, and practice new lines out loud with a colleague before you use them on buyers.
What is the talk-to-listen ratio in sales?
It's the share of a call the seller spends talking. Gong analyzed 326,000 sales calls of at least 10 minutes and found sellers talked 57% of the time in won deals and 62% in lost deals, with an average of 60% across all calls. Aim to talk less than half the time in discovery: ask a question, then wait for the full answer.