The Uncomfortable Truth About Sales
Let’s be real – sales is hard. Very hard. If you are struggling to close deals, hit your targets, or get prospects to call you back, you are not alone. Sales have undergone drastic changes, as has the way we buy and sell. What worked just two years ago may now ruin your sales success.
At Aella Creative Force, we have worked with hundreds of businesses with the same challenge: “How to sell in a world that makes it so easy for buyers to be more informed, skeptical, and overwhelmed than ever before.” We have worked with companies that have tripled their conversion rates using the same methods as companies that have failed miserably.
The difference? Understanding the reasons sales is so hard now, and working to adapt.
The Big Reality Check: Sales Isn’t Getting Any Easier
Here’s what has changed the game: buyers are numb to traditional selling and sales processes. Buyers have been pitched to death, research everything before you talk to them, and they can smell a worn-out sales play (you know – the generic sales script) from a mile away.
Just think about it: would you rather talk to 100 tire kickers who waste your time or 10 qualified prospects who genuinely have a problem you can help resolve? Smart business craves quality over quantity.
Why It Feels Impossible To Sell Right Now
Distrust from information overload: Today’s buyers come to sales conversations aware of your pricing, your competition, and likely your customer reviews. They no longer need you to educate them on features – they want you to help solve their specific problems. However, this is where most salespeople fail to adjust: they parade features instead of presenting the prospect with solutions.
Consider the prospect that:
- has done their research and knows more than your new sales reps
- has been burned before and is skeptical of your promise
- is distracted by choices and frozen by options
- can quickly compare you to a competitor’s offering
The attention economy is tough: Your prospects get hundreds of emails, messages, and calls each week. Standing out is nearly impossible without a strategy.
Buying committees, not buyers: the days of convincing one person to buy are dead. You are selling to listening committees of 5-7 people, each with multiple priorities, concerns, and veto power.
The New Sales Formula That Actually Works
Step 1: Become a Problem Detective
97% of successful salespeople report spending more time arriving at what the problems really are than they spend on presenting solutions. This means you cannot just pitch – you need to act as an investigator to discover the real issues your prospects are facing.
What’s working now:
- Asking diagnostic questions
- Revealing pain points
- Listening more (70% listening, 30% talking of the complete conversation time)
- Understanding the cost of inaction, not just the benefit of taking action
- Mapping out the emotional and logical drivers at play
Step 2: Build Authentic Relationships
Deals that close quickly are based on trust, not pressure. Examples of what is successfully working today:
- “Can you tell me about your biggest challenge with [their current solution]?”
- “What do you think will happen if you do not solve this problem within the next 6 months?”
- Sharing relevant case studies that are a replica of their situation
- After a remarkable conversation, following up with value, not just to check in after some time has passed
Step 3: Perfect Your Timing
43% of sales are won or lost based on timing alone. The brands that regularly make sales goals are not only better sellers – they also know when to be aggressive and when to tone it down.
Where the Magic Happens: Platform-Specific Strategies
TikTok: The trend industry
LinkedIn is the home of B2B sales relationships. The most successful sales professionals use LinkedIn not as a platform to pitch to, but to post value and build trust and credibility before they ever make an ask.
Email: The nurture machine
Email performs best as an educational, value-based sequence. We’re talking about “5 questions to ask before choosing a [your solution]” or “The mistake that cost my client $50,000.”
Phone: The trust accelerator
Phone calls are best for high-value, complex sales where you need to read tone, build rapport, and handle objections in the moment.
What’s Working for Sales Teams Right Now
Authentic conversations, not scripts: Sales teams will get away from well-defined scripts and instead use conversation frameworks. Sales professionals will no longer be challenged to memorize responses as much as they should understand the world of their buyer, so they are talking genuinely about their challenges.
Examples:
- “Can you walk me through your existing process for [their problem]?”
- “What has worked for you and what has not?”
- “How do you currently measure success in this area?”
Mastery of social selling: The smartest salespeople don’t use social media as a way of prospecting – they use social media to build authority and trust even before their first conversation.
Consultative selling: Top performers are not product pushers; instead, they position themselves as advisors, helping the prospect to make a better decision, even if that means recommending a competitor occasionally.
The Tools and Strategies That Help
CRM as your relationship hub: Your CRM isn’t just for tracking deals – it’s for understanding patterns, triggers, and the unique journey each prospect takes toward a buying decision.
Smart ways to use your CRM:
- Track communication preferences for each contact
- Document personal details that help build rapport
- Set up automated follow-up sequences based on behavior
- Analyze which touchpoints lead to closed deals
The multi-touch approach: Top performers know that it takes 7-12 touchpoints to close a deal, so they plan sequences that provide value at each interaction.
Social listening for sales insights: Only 34% of sales teams use social listening to understand their prospects better, but those who do report 23% higher close rates.
What Doesn’t Work Anymore (Stop Doing These)
Generic cold outreach: (sending the same template email to 1,000 prospects is senseless). If you cannot make it personalized, do not send any cold outreach.
Selling too early: In sales, you cannot close in the first or second call, trying to close feels desperate and pushy, and your prospect will more than likely not buy. Once you’ve built value with your lead, it is appropriate to attempt a close. Before or during the first phase of sales, it is not appropriate to build value but to close.
Complete the entire buying committee: If you are only selling to one person in a company, you are not going to have a great time. Map out the entire decision-making process that the buying committee must go through before the contract is signed.
The Future of Sales
AI-assisted selling: The next wave of sales success will combine human relationship skills with AI insights about timing, personalization, and lead scoring.
Value-first selling: The sales professionals who thrive will be helpful advisors rather than product pushers.
Community-driven sales: Building communities around your expertise and passion will be more important than prospecting publicly and individually.
Some Final Thoughts
Sales success in 2025 will not be reliant on being a great talker or having some natural persuasion power. The key will be to know your prospects so well that you can create real value in every single moment. It’s bringing your meaningful expertise at the right time and with little effort in the purchase process.
At Aella Creative Force, we help brands rethink the way they sell by integrating proven psychology with modern tools. Because the best sales don’t feel like “sales” at all, they feel like purposeful conversations around meaningful problems.
Are You Ready To Create Your Sales Results?
Sales success isn’t good fortune. It is about being prepared when opportunity shows up. Whether you need help to build a sales system, train your team, or develop messaging that connects, we can help you convert prospects to customers.
Because in 2025, every business will be able to achieve sales success.
The question is: Are you ready to do what it takes?
🚀 Join Our Free Sales Webinar (before it’s €30)
This September, we are hosting a live webinar to explore exactly what is working in sales right now, and what to say, when to say it, and how to close deals in 2025.
Currently, it’s free to sign up for the waiting list, but when registration opens in August, spots will cost €30.
Save your spot for FREE here!
