Sales Techniques: A Practical Guide from Discovery to Signature, with Examples

Sales techniques are the learnable, repeatable behaviours a salesperson uses at every stage of a conversation with a customer. How they prepare for the meeting, which question they ask and when, how they answer an objection and how they propose the next step: that is what techniques are about. Unlike talent, technique improves with practice.

In this guide I explain, with examples, at which moment of a conversation each technique is used and how. Every section includes questions and phrases you can use directly. Most of the examples come from business-to-business sales, but the approach in the discovery, persuasion and objection sections also holds for someone selling in a shop or in the field. For anyone looking for a short answer to "how do you sell", these techniques are the most solid starting point.

What are sales techniques?

The table below is the map of this guide. Each technique is useful at a specific moment in the conversation.

Technique does not replace the sales process. The process tells you which stage an opportunity is at and what is needed to move it to the next one. Technique is about what the salesperson does in the conversation at that stage. I covered the steps of the sales process and how a buying committee works in the guide to what B2B sales is.

Preparing for the meeting

Much of a meeting's quality is decided before you sit down. Customers now often arrive having done their research. They have already read about your product, your price range and your competitors. An unprepared salesperson can do little more in the meeting than repeat what the customer already knows. I discussed how a well-prepared customer changes the salesperson's role in the piece asking whether your salesperson is competing with AI.

Preparation has three parts.

Researching the company and the person. The company's news over the past year, signs of growth or contraction, new investments, open job postings. The role of the person you are meeting, how long they have been at the company, where they worked before. This information is not for showing off in the meeting. It helps you ask the right question.

Forming a hypothesis. Draw an assumption from your research: "This company has opened two new plants and advertised fifteen maintenance technician roles. They may be struggling with maintenance planning and spare parts stock." The hypothesis may turn out to be wrong, and that is fine. A salesperson with a hypothesis goes in with a direction and opens a concrete topic instead of asking something generic like "what can we do for you?"

Writing down the purpose and the next step in advance. Write down what you want to learn from the meeting and which next step you will propose if it goes well. A meeting that starts with "let's talk and see" usually ends with "we'll send you a presentation".

Agreeing the agenda with the customer at the start is part of preparation too:

"We have half an hour. First I'd like to understand how maintenance planning works on your side today, then I'll share what we've seen at similar companies. At the end we can decide together whether there's a next step. Is there anything you'd like to add?"

A short preparation checklist:

• Do I know three important developments at the company over the past year?
• Do I know the role of the person I'm meeting and their likely responsibility for this topic?
• Do I have at least one hypothesis for this company?
• Are the first five questions I want to ask written down?
• Are the purpose of the meeting and the next step I'll propose clear?
• Do I have an example from a similar customer ready to share?

Discovery techniques: asking the right questions

Discovery is the conversation in which you work to understand the customer's situation, their problem and the impact of that problem on the business. It is the part of a sales conversation that takes the most effort and creates the most value. The most common problem I see in the field is that in the first meeting the salesperson talks and the customer listens. The more the salesperson talks, the less they learn about the customer.

Open and closed questions

Open questions invite the customer to talk; they cannot be answered with "yes" or "no". Closed questions pin down information.

• Open question: "How does onboarding for new staff work today?"
• Closed question: "Is that process currently owned by the HR team?"

Open questions should dominate at the start of discovery. Closed questions are for confirming what you heard and getting numbers: "So roughly 120 new people join each year, is that right?" Asking closed questions one after another at the start pushes the customer into short answers, and the meeting turns into a survey.

SPIN question types

The four question types from Neil Rackham's SPIN Selling work are still one of the most useful tools for structuring discovery. The examples below come from conversations at an industrial equipment manufacturer and an HR software company.

Situation questions are necessary, but a few are enough. A salesperson who has prepared already knows most of this. Value emerges in the problem and implication questions. Rackham's point is that the customer recognises their need for a solution through their own answers. A need the salesperson describes is never as persuasive as one the customer puts into words. I compared SPIN and other approaches as methodologies in the guide to sales methodologies.

Probing, pausing, summarising

The first answer is usually on the surface. The real information comes with the second and third question. Short probing questions:

"Could you say a bit more about that?"

"When did that last happen, and what happened?"

"What was the impact, and whose work did it affect?"

"How important is this to you, and where does it sit among your priorities?"

Silence is a technique too. When the customer finishes an answer, don't jump straight to the next question. A pause of a few seconds gives the customer room to finish their thought and often to add the most important piece of information.

At the end of discovery, summarise what you heard and ask the customer to confirm it:

"If I've understood correctly, three things stand out: unplanned downtime happens four or five times a month, each one delays delivery by at least a day, and the maintenance team spends most of its time on emergency repairs. Is anything missing or wrong?"

A summary shows the customer they were heard, gives them a chance to correct a misunderstanding straight away and becomes the basis of your proposal.

Mistakes that turn a meeting into an interrogation

• Firing questions one after another as if reading from a list, without listening to the answers.
• Starting to describe the solution as soon as the customer mentions a problem.
• Asking leading questions that contain their own answer: "Your biggest problem is efficiency too, isn't it?"
• Asking about two or three topics in a single question.
• Asking implication questions in the first minutes, before the customer has acknowledged the problem. It feels like pressure.

Talking about value

Customers mostly learn about a product's features before the meeting. What they expect from the meeting is what those features mean for their own company. In LinkedIn and Ipsos research with nearly 900 B2B buyers in 2025, 86% of buyers named the seller's expertise as the factor that determines trust. In the same research, only 45% found the sellers they deal with trustworthy. The gap opens up where the salesperson is stuck between describing the product and understanding the customer's business.

Feature, advantage, benefit

A feature is what the product is. An advantage is what that feature enables. A benefit is how that shows up in the customer's business. An example from predictive maintenance software:

Most salespeople stop at the first row. When you build the benefit, use what you heard in discovery: the customer's own numbers and words. Saying "the four or five stoppages a month we talked about" instead of a generic phrase like "efficiency gains" lets the customer notice that they were listened to.

Working out the numbers with the customer

A return-on-investment table the salesperson prepares alone is, in the customer's eyes, often a marketing document. Doing the same calculation with the customer, using the numbers they give you, is far more persuasive:

"Roughly what does one hour of downtime on a line cost you? You mentioned how many hours of downtime you have in an average month; let's assume we can prevent half of that. Does that assumption seem reasonable to you?"

Once the customer accepts the assumption themselves, the resulting figure is now the customer's figure. It is also what you lean on in the price conversation.

Persuasive phrases in sales: examples

In B2B sales, persuasion means helping the customer see their own situation more clearly and make the right decision easily. The phrases below serve that purpose.

Phrases that deepen discovery

"When did you first notice this, and what has changed since then?"

This helps you understand how long the problem has existed and how urgent it is. A problem that has gone unsolved for a long time is either low priority or hard to solve. Both are things you need to know.

"What have you tried so far to solve this?"

This surfaces the customer's earlier experiences and disappointments, and keeps you from proposing the same mistake.

"Apart from you, who is most affected by this?"

This brings out, naturally, the other people who will be part of the buying decision.

Phrases that summarise value in the customer's language

"To put it in your words, the real issue is that the maintenance team is constantly firefighting. Is that right?"

Giving the customer's words back to them is the clearest way to show they were heard.

"Based on what we've discussed, this problem costs roughly this much a year. Does that figure seem realistic to you?"

Instead of presenting value as a claim, this opens it up for the customer to confirm.

"What would success look like for you six months from now?"

This gets you the outcome the customer expects, in their own definition. The proposal and later measurement rest on that definition.

Phrases that propose the next step

"To check what we discussed today with your technical team, could I suggest a one-hour call next week?"

This proposes a dated step with a purpose instead of a vague "we'll get back to you".

"Who joining the next meeting would make your decision easier?"

This is one of the most natural ways to reach the decision maker.

Phrases that make the decision easier

"What worries you most about making this decision?"

This brings unspoken risk into the open. Often what delays a decision is a concern nobody has voiced.

"Would starting with a three-month pilot on a single line make the risk manageable for you?"

This breaks a big decision into a smaller, reversible step.

"If you need to prepare a summary for internal approval, I can draft one with the numbers we discussed. Would that help?"

This helps the customer prepare the document they will use to defend the decision inside their own company.

Why do pressure phrases backfire?

Phrases like "This price is only valid today", "Everyone in the industry is buying this" or "You'll regret missing this opportunity" can produce short-term results in some retail sales where one person decides on the spot. In B2B sales, the decision is made by a group over weeks or months. False urgency puts the person who will have to defend the salesperson at the next meeting in a difficult position. Procurement teams recognise these phrases, and trust in the salesperson drops. Once a salesperson has given a fake deadline, nobody believes the next one.

Objection handling techniques

An objection is the customer voicing a concern or a gap in information before deciding. Most objections are not a rejection; they are a sign of interest and thought. The foundation of objection handling is not answering the first sentence you hear straight away. A five-step approach works:

1. Listen. Let the customer finish; don't get defensive.
2. Ask a clarifying question. Something like "When you say high, what are you comparing it with?"
3. Find the real concern. What is said first is often not the main concern.
4. Answer. A short, concrete answer to that specific concern.
5. Confirm. "Does that address your concern?"

Common objections and how to approach them:

The most common mistake with a price objection is offering a discount as soon as you hear it. That signals the first price wasn't real and leaves the salesperson weak for the rest of the negotiation. "Just send us a proposal", meanwhile, is the objection that wastes the most time in sales teams. A proposal written for an unqualified opportunity usually gets no reply. I explained how to track these opportunities in the pipeline in the guide to what a pipeline is.

Negotiation and closing techniques

In business-to-business sales, closing is a process spread over weeks. Proposal, negotiation, legal and procurement approvals take weeks. Closing techniques keep that process from slipping out of the salesperson's hands.

Mutual action plan

A mutual action plan is a plan you write together with the customer, setting out which step will be taken by whom and when, up to signature. It shouldn't be a calendar the salesperson fills in alone; it should be built with the customer's input.

"You said you want to decide by the end of the month. Working backwards, how much time is needed for technical evaluation, procurement approval and contract review? Shall I put these in a table and share it so we can both track it?"

The plan makes the steps that will delay the decision visible early. Learning at the proposal stage that legal approval takes three weeks is much better than learning it a week before close.

Asking for something in return for a concession

Every concession in a negotiation should be given in exchange for something. A free concession shows the customer that more is possible.

"We can extend payment terms to 60 days. Could you consider a two-year contract in return?"

"To make this discount possible, implementation would need to start in the same quarter. Does that fit your plan?"

Listing the things you can trade (payment terms, contract length, scope, permission to use as a reference, payment method, implementation timeline) before entering the negotiation reduces the need to improvise at the table.

Aligning the close with the customer's decision process

The salesperson's quarter-end target and the customer's decision timeline rarely line up. Instead of forcing the close, propose a step that fits the customer's approval process:

"Your board meets on the 20th. What needs to be in the pack presented at that meeting from your side, and which parts can we prepare together?"

Why do classic closing tricks fall short?

Patterns like the assumptive close ("Shall we do the installation on Monday or Tuesday?") or the either-or close ("Would you prefer to pay annually or monthly?") can work in quick sales where one person decides. In a shop, for example, offering a choice between two colours makes the decision easier. In business-to-business sales, where a buying committee decides, the person in front of you often cannot say yes alone. Pressure on them doesn't speed up the decision; it only makes the conversation tense.

Asking why when you lose

Every lost opportunity is a chance to learn. After the decision is announced, ask for a short conversation:

"I respect your decision. So we can do better in future, may I ask: what was most decisive in your choice, and where did we fall short?"

The answers to this question show which technique the team needs to improve for the next opportunity.

Selling to existing customers: upselling and cross-selling

What is upselling? Upselling is selling an existing customer a higher tier, a broader scope or more users of the product they already bought. For example, offering extra users and a performance management module to a company using HR software for 50 users when it opens a new regional office.

What is cross-selling? Cross-selling is selling an existing customer a different product or service that complements what they bought. For example, offering an annual maintenance contract and energy consumption monitoring to a customer who bought an industrial compressor.

The right moment for both is when the customer is getting results from what they bought first. Offering a new module to a customer whose implementation has just finished and whose team is still learning the system makes them question the value of the first sale. If they are getting results, the conversation opens from a natural place:

"Your payroll close is two days shorter after six months. Would you consider extending the same setup to leave and shift planning?"

"In the last three months of monitoring your compressors' energy use together, we found losses on two lines. Would you like to bring this to your other site as well?"

Discovery rules apply to upselling and cross-selling too. First ask about the customer's current situation and new needs, then make a suggestion. A salesperson who proposes a new product in every meeting soon turns, in the customer's eyes, from an adviser into an order taker.

The difference between sales strategy, tactics and technique

These three concepts are often confused. The difference between them is the level at which the decision is made.

If the sales strategy is wrong, even the best technique gets spent on the wrong customer. If technique is weak, even the right strategy produces no results in the field. Sales tactics build the bridge between the two.

What ties the three together is a sales methodology. Methodologies such as MEDDIC, SPIN or Challenger turn how a salesperson thinks and the criteria for assessing an opportunity into a shared language. Techniques then stop being habits that vary from person to person and are used consistently across the team. I explained which problem each of these layers solves in the piece comparing MEDDIC, SPIN and Challenger.

How do you improve your sales techniques?

Technique improves most through practice. In many companies I see in the field, sales knowledge is passed on master-to-apprentice. When an experienced salesperson leaves, what they knew leaves with them. For individual development, these habits work:

• A five-minute review after each meeting. After every meeting, write answers to three questions: What new thing did I learn about the customer? Which question didn't I ask? Is the next step clear?
• Listening to call recordings. Listening back to online meetings recorded with the customer's permission is the fastest way to see your own share of talk time and the quality of your questions.
• Role play. Before a difficult meeting, rehearse the objections and your questions with a colleague.
• Feedback from your manager. Ask your manager for feedback on one specific thing instead of a general assessment: "Could you look at how I answered the price objection?"
• One technique at a time. For a month, focus only on summarising and confirming; the next month, only on implication questions. Trying to change everything at once means none of it sticks.

Using techniques consistently across a team goes beyond individual effort; it needs a shared method and a management rhythm. I covered this in the piece on what a methodology brings with the same team and the same budget. If you'd like to work on the techniques in this guide with real scenarios and role plays in a small group, take a look at our individual program, where we cover every step from discovery to signature in four weeks.

Where to start

In your next customer meeting this week, try one thing: at the end of the meeting, summarise what you heard in three sentences and ask the customer, "Is anything missing or wrong?" The customer's answer will show you straight away how deep your discovery was, and it will give you solid ground for proposing the next step.

Frequently asked questions

What are sales techniques?

Sales techniques are the learnable, repeatable behaviours a salesperson uses at every stage of a conversation with a customer. The main ones are preparing for the meeting with a hypothesis, running discovery with open and SPIN-type questions, summarising what you heard and asking the customer to confirm it, calculating value together with the customer, meeting objections with a clarifying question and managing the close with a mutual action plan.

Which sales technique is the most effective?

No single technique is the most effective, because each one is useful at a different moment in the conversation. In business-to-business sales, though, the skill that makes the biggest difference is discovery: asking the right questions in the right order to surface the customer's problem and its impact on the business. Good discovery also reduces much of the objections and price pressure in advance.

How do you persuade in sales?

You persuade by helping the customer see their own situation clearly and make the right decision easily. Using the customer's own words and numbers, calculating value together and breaking the decision into small, manageable steps all help. False urgency and pressure phrases reduce trust in business-to-business sales.

How do you handle objections in sales?

First listen to the objection, then use a clarifying question to find the real concern behind it. Give a short answer specific to that concern, and finish by asking whether the concern has been addressed. With a price objection, asking what the price is being compared with is a healthier start than offering a discount straight away.

Where should someone new to sales start?

The best start for someone new to sales is to go into meetings prepared and to learn to ask questions instead of presenting. Forming a hypothesis about the customer before every meeting, writing five questions and summarising what you heard at the end is the first answer to the question of how to sell. Objection handling and closing techniques can then be practised one by one.

What is the difference between sales strategy and sales tactics?

Sales strategy is the company's long-term decision about whom to sell what to and through which channel, and it is set by leadership. Sales tactics are the approach taken for a particular period or opportunity, set by the sales manager and the salesperson. Sales technique is the behaviour applied in the conversation itself.

What is the difference between upselling and cross-selling?

Upselling is selling a customer a higher tier or broader scope of the product they bought. Cross-selling is selling them a different product or service that complements it. For both, the right moment is when the customer is getting results from what they bought first.

Do sales techniques change on the phone or in an online meeting?

The core of the techniques stays the same, but how you apply them changes. In an online meeting attention drifts faster, so agreeing the agenda at the start, moving in shorter sections and summarising and confirming often matter more. On the phone, where body language isn't visible, using silence and listening for changes in the customer's tone of voice come to the fore.