7 lessons for SaaS sales success

Brandon Fluharty shares seven key lessons from his 20-year sales career, aimed at helping SaaS sales professionals improve both their performance and personal well-being.

1. Start with clear intentions
   Keep your intentions honest and clear. Actions might be misinterpreted by others, but you’ll live with the reasons behind them. Prioritize purpose over perception.

2. Prioritize being human over hustling
   Avoid the 24/7 grind culture. Work hard but on your own terms. Set personal boundaries, and stick to principles that prioritize your well-being.

3. Think long-term
   Avoid shortcuts, even when they seem tempting. Patience and long-term planning yield better outcomes than quick fixes.

4. Stay calm under pressure
   Stressing out doesn’t fix problems. When challenges arise, stay composed—focus on solving issues, not dwelling on them.

5. View failure as learning
   Don’t take failures personally. Use setbacks to learn, analyze, and grow rather than playing the victim.

6. Build strong systems
   You won’t succeed by goals alone—effective systems for managing time, energy, and focus are essential. Create frameworks that allow you to stay organized and aligned with your own goals.

7. Track your own progress, not others’
   Avoid comparing yourself to others. Focus on self-improvement and celebrate your progress without external validation.
   

Why selling isn’t just a numbers game

Benjamin Dennehy explains why selling isn’t just about numbers.

1. Selling ≠ prospecting
   Prospecting is about calling many people to find leads, so it’s a numbers game. Selling, though, requires skill in conversations and control.

2. Disqualify and move forward
   Great salespeople disqualify weak leads and always get a next step in the process.

3. Seek certainty, not hope
   Don’t just look for “maybes.” Find out why a sale might fail early on, and be ready to walk away.

4. Set clear next steps with consequences
   Make sure every call ends with an agreed-upon next step, and state what happens if it’s not completed.

5. Don’t rely on volume
   Endless calls and pitches don’t mean success. Focus on quality over quantity.

Moving past the old-school closer role

Gal Aga critiques outdated sales roles focused on “closers” who rely on pressure and tactics. Today’s B2B closer excels by guiding the entire buying process, not just the end.

Here’s what modern closers do:

1. Project management
   They work with buyers to organize the process from start to finish, keeping it smooth and on track.

2. Building a strong business case
   They dig into needs so deeply that the business case practically sells itself, letting internal champions do the convincing.

3. Consensus building across teams
   Effective closers connect with multiple decision-makers to build agreement within the buyer's team.

4. Executive selling
   They’re skilled at having confident, strategic talks with executives who hold the final say.

Key traits modern closers need:

• Empathy & Integrity
  They show genuine intent, helping buyers without trickery to build trust and loyalty.

• Curiosity
  Buyers today are overloaded with info. Modern closers simplify choices by sharing relevant expertise.

• Grit
  They stay dedicated to helping without pushing, regardless of the sale's outcome.

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