In honor of David Letterman’s final show today after 33 years, here are my Top Ten One Line Myths About Selling in 2015.

  1. It’s a numbers game. Not if you’re volume is based on calling the equivalent of your Aunt Maureen.
  2. Clients are your friends. Nope. Your friends are the ones that love you despite knowing that weird s**t you pulled off in Year 12.
  3. Selling is about asking questions. Not if they mostly relate to you and your product.
  4. Sex sells. If you want to time travel back to 1980 maybe.
  5. Negotiation is Win-Win. Actually it’s OK if one side gets more. Doesn’t need to be fair, just good business.
  6. Clients spend a lot of time analysing you and your company. Not as much as their real work, Facebook, their kids and analysing their boss.
  7. Mentioning other clients or competitors is unethical. Not if it’s indisputedly true.
  8. It’s important to listen for buying signals/clues. Does that mean you’re not going to listen to the other so-called less relevant stuff the client is saying?
  9. Sales cycles are getting longer. Only if you allow it by not differentiating in the very first meeting at the right level.
  10. Top 10 Sales Myth Lists are too simplistic.

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate sales trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Computershare and CUB.

He is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are creative, engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne, coaches Brighton Junior Soccer and sits on the couch drinking Espressos writing blogs.