How To be a Better Salesperson (1% Rule)
Notes
How To be a Better Salesperson Using the 1% Rule: The Power of Incremental Gains
Are you struggling for a single “magic bullet” that will revolutionize your closing rate. Are you looking for the perfect script, the unanswerable closing line, or a secret hack to bypass the buyer’s natural defenses. Guess what?
Top salespeople understand that sustainable success is not the result of a single event. It is the result of a deliberate, daily commitment to incremental improvement. That magic pill doesn’t exist but there are a few things you can do daily and weekly to make it feel like you’ve taken a magic pill. This episode of The Slow Pitch breaks down the framework of marginal gains and provides a roadmap on how to be a more effective, efficient, and successful salesperson. We’ll use the 1% Rule to get us there.
The Science of Marginal Gains in Sales
To understand how to be a better salesperson, one must look beyond the surface of scripts and objections. True growth is found in the “kick the rock” philosophy—a concept centered on the idea that repeated, small actions polish a professional’s skills over time. Much like the principles found in James Clear’s Atomic Habits, success in business is a lagging measure of your daily routines. When you focus on being 1% Better in every interaction, you build a level of consistency that your competitors cannot match.
Moving from Motivation to Momentum
Relying on motivation is one of those pitfalls every salesperson experiences at least once. Anyone learning how to be a better salesperson might believe that motivation might cure their problems. Guess what? Motivation is helpful, but momentum is built through structure and repetition…which then results in motivation. This episode dives into the psychological shift required to move from a “self-focused” sales approach to “buyer-focused.” By prioritizing the buyer’s needs, pain points, and decision-making processes, you transition from a salesperson who “pushes” to a consultant who “guides.” This shift is fundamental to our approach and methodology by emphasizing the importance of qualifying over closing and understanding the underlying pain of the prospect.
The Identity of an Elite Professional
High-level corporate sales require an identity shift. You are not just someone who sells; you are a professional who facilitates solutions. This episode explains why refining your follow-up process, improving your inquiry techniques, and dedicating time to pre-call research are the non-negotiables of the elite. When you master these small components, your confidence increases because you know your work is grounded in a proven process.
The ‘Kick the Rock’ Philosophy: Polishing Your Sales Identity
Imagine kicking a jagged, rough rock down the street every day for six months. Initially, the rock is ragged and unpredictable, but over time, the constant friction polishes it into a smooth, refined stone. Your sales career follows this exact trajectory. When you focus on being 1% better in your discovery calls, your follow-up emails, and your active listening, you are polishing your professional identity. This concept aligns with the principles of Atomic Habits, where small, repeated actions reshape your entire reality over time.
The 7-Day Performance Audit
This episode introduces a high-stakes 7-day challenge designed to expose the gaps in your current sales process. We discuss the necessity of the “post-meeting review,” where you analyze every interaction to identify:
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Where you assumed a prospect’s answer was true without verification.
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Opportunities to uncover deeper levels of buyer pain.
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Moments where a simple, better question could have changed the outcome.
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Successes that should be codified into your permanent routine.
Why Consistency is Greater Than Talent
In corporate sales, “talent” is often an excuse for a lack of process. A salesperson who is 1% better at setting clear next steps will consistently outperform a “talented” closer who leaves meetings with vague follow-up plans. We explore why the most effective follow-up email is the one you never have to send because the next step was solidified during the initial conversation.
If you want to understand how to be a 1% better salesperson, you need to stop looking for shortcuts. This discussion provides the framework for a 7-day challenge that forces you to analyze your performance with a critical eye. We discuss the importance of reviewing every meeting to identify missed opportunities and successful moments, ensuring that every interaction serves as a learning experience.
Related Links:
5 Sales Tips For Salespeople (pt 1) That Will Improve Your Closing Rate: Pain
What To Do If You’re Not a Good Salesperson (2 Ways to Improve)
Check out our YouTube Channel
About The Slow Pitch Sales Podcast
The Slow Pitch is a sales training podcast that teaches relationship-based selling strategies. Host Rob helps sales professionals slow down their process to close more deals by focusing on genuine client needs, asking better questions, and building trust instead of relying on high-pressure tactics. Every episode delivers practical, proven sales techniques you can use immediately.
Subscribe to The Slow Pitch on YouTube for weekly sales training, tips on improving your close rate, and proven strategies for building a healthier sales pipeline. Don’t forget to share this episode with someone in your network who needs help breaking out of a sales slump.
Remember: Slow Down and Close More.
Keywords: Sales, Business Strategy, Lead Qualification, Pre-Call Research, Research, Sales Process Improvement, The Slow Pitch Podcast, Sales pipeline, sales process, prospect qualification, sales training, closing deals, sales strategies, sales podcast, pain questions, B2B sales, relationship-based selling
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Podcast Recorded on Squadcast.fm
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Music: "Clydesdale Funk" by Cast of Characters, written by: Dustin Ransom.
The Episode
Rob 00:00
You’re here today because you want to be a better salesperson, and you think there’s going to be some huge answer that’s going to make all the difference in the world. But guess what? You’re not going to be happy with what I tell you.
Rob 00:12
So improving in sales is something that you’re going to have to do slowly over time. Here’s what I mean, small, repeated actions do not look impressive in the moment, but over time, they reshape everything that you do. Think about it this way.
Rob 00:26
If you could think a little differently or better, or you could ask better questions, or you could follow up just a little better, or you could listen a little bit better, that’s going to be the difference between being a great salesperson and an okay sales person.
Rob 00:40
Here’s the overall message that I’m going to give you today. You today, that daily sales habits make all the difference in the world. Over time, you’re not gonna find one big overarching thing that, oh, I can close better because I’m doing this or I’m doing that. It’s not about getting a better phrase to use during a close like, I’m gonna close them hard, I’m gonna say this. That is not gonna make the improvement.
Rob 01:00
So let me, let me back up here. I saw a Instagram reel where I saw this guy kicking a rock down the street, and he was kicking it everywhere. The rock was jagged and rough. And he basically the message started with, you know what? What happens when I kick this rock around for like, six months? He wanted to see what the impact was on this rock.
Rob 01:17
And as I watched it, I realized this is very much like a sales person’s mentality, right? So we should, we should be looking at sales like this rock. So in the beginning, this rock was rough, jagged, kind of ugly. Honestly, he would kick it. It would kind of jump all over the place, because it was so ragged and jagged.
Rob 01:33
Over the course of time, you could see that it became a little more smooth, a little more polished. And I feel like that’s the same way that sales improvement works. It’s slow, it’s not a breakthrough. It’s not a all of a sudden, I use this line and I get better because I use that line.
Rob 01:48
That’s not how it works. It’s because of the several little things that you do along the way. So many different sales people want really fast improvement, but they ignore this daily refinement thing. So here’s what we’re going to talk about today. We’re going to get into here are the things you need to do every day, or here’s what things you could do to improve over time so that you become a very, very good salesperson.
Rob 02:11
It’s not about the script and it’s not about objections. It’s not about a closing line. It’s not about those things. What I want you to do is work on consistency. Instead of just doing this every once in a while. I want you to do this every day. So here’s what we’re talking about. It reminds me of the book that James clear wrote atomic habits, about getting 1% better every day in sales.
Rob 02:12
And I know he kind of hits on some of this, but there’s some similarities to this, plus that rock reference. It’s really asking one better question as you go through the sales process. It’s about improving your follow up email a little bit. It’s also about listening a little bit better, and it’s about spending some review time. So here’s what I want you to do over the next seven days, starting today.
Rob 02:52
You’re listening to this today, right? I don’t care what day of the week it is, you’re listening to it today. You have seven days. And what I want you to do is every sales conversation you have over the next seven days, and if you don’t have a ton, make it 14, make it 30, whatever it is, what I want you to do is after your sales call or after your sales meeting, I want you to review and think about what did I miss.
Rob 03:14
What should I have asked? Is there a pain that I did not get out of this conversation that I should have gotten if I would have been able to go back and ask this question again, or if I could ask another question, what would that question be? Where did I assume what they told me it was true? Where would I assume that what I think they said, I didn’t clarify with them and said, Hey, can you explain that a little bit differently?
Rob 03:38
Because I didn’t quite understand what you said. Because when you do that, all of a sudden they say it’s slightly different, and you realize there’s another undertone of an issue there. It’s more pain or more something else, and you didn’t even know it. I want you to take that over the next seven days and start to evaluate and figure out, what is it that you missed? What could you have improved? What could you have done better?
Rob 03:56
Also, at the same time, I also want you to take a look at it and say, What did I nail? What did I do perfectly? What did I if I could just do this again? I just play that video again over and over in my head, this is what I would want to show people, right? That’s the that’s the thing that you want to do. So you want to look at both the positive and the negative. The positive, you want to reinforce the negative. You want to figure out, how do I make that better?
Rob 04:16
This is a simple exercise. I know it sounds stupid and simple, but is the simplest thing you can do to get better. So after the seven days for whatever timeline you give yourself, make it tight and short, but I want you to do is build a better bank of questions. I want you to look at that information and say, okay, when they say this, I should have said that, and just start writing those questions down, because when you start writing those questions down, you’ll remember those more when you’re in the meeting, when you’re having the phone call, when you’re talking to them in person, you will remember them better.
Rob 04:44
But I want you to do is when you write these questions down. I want those focused on pain. I want them focused on urgency. I want them focused on how the decisions are made. And I want to focus on how if they don’t take action, what. Happens? What is the consequence? What’s the problem?
Rob 05:02
So you start to write those questions down, you start to build that list, and then what I want you to do is I want you to look at either in your sent email box, or as you move forward in the next seven days, I want you to look at how many times you have to send an email to do follow up.
Rob 05:15
Because if you’re sending emails to say, I need to follow up with this, I have a question about that, or I’m not sure where we are with this, or I don’t know what our next steps are. Steps are basically, or when are we going to meet again? You didn’t do your job during the meeting. You didn’t have a clear next step. That’s really important, so look at your follow up emails and start to identify what am I missing in my conversations.
Rob 05:36
So I don’t have to do these follow ups. The follow up should be confirming when we’re talking on this day, great to see you, or I’m looking forward to seeing you that day. Or here’s a meeting invite for our next meeting, simple as that, like it’s not a it’s not a process, it’s not an it’s not an effort, it’s just the way it is.
Rob 05:50
And then after you’ve done all these things, what I want you to do after that the next seven days is I want you to start looking at taking 10 minutes to prepare for the next important phone call. And I want you to do the research on the buyer that’s going to be buying. And I want you to look at your prior notes, and I want you to look at all your conversations you’ve had with them, and figure out what questions are missing still.
Rob 06:09
And I want you to be prepared for that next meeting so you’ve done the research on the past and what you did wrong, what you should improve, and what you did really well. And then I want you to look at your next upcoming meetings and figure out, how do I incorporate some of these questions in that if I in that if I’ve missed them? And then I want you to do this every day.
Rob 06:31
I want you to reflect on how your day went, what worked, what didn’t do really well, what I did and not do real well, what fell a little bit off, and what do I need to repeat tomorrow? These are all simple, very manageable and realistic things that you can do. It works because routines reduce friction, and they help you build an identity.
Rob 06:45
Your identity is that sales person that is doing all the right things for the client, not for yourself. You stop relying on motivation for things to get done, and you’re doing it because you want to do these things because it’s the right thing, and you can see the value in everything you’ve done so far.
Rob 07:03
Writing those questions down, reevaluating how you’ve done, you’ll start to see that, and you’ll start to feel not only the pressure of doing it right, but you’ll want to consistently improve, and it’s rewarding to do that when you do it right. And what happens is it starts to build momentum, and not motivation, because momentum creates that motivation for you small routines obviously will build confidence, because you know you’re doing the work correctly.
Rob 07:25
But the confidence will come later, when you’re having those conversations and it just comes out of your mouth and you’re like, got it. There you go. There it is. I did it right. And you consistently reinforce all the good things that you’re doing in your conversation. I got to tell you, as a buyer, sometimes I can tell when a salesperson is really calm, they’re prepared.
Rob 07:43
They’re doing things with intent. I feel comfortable with that, with that sales person. When I have a sales person that’s asking me weird questions, or they’re not asking questions and they’re pushing things, it’s because they’re doing it for themselves and not for me as the buyer. And you got to keep that in mind.
Rob 07:58
Daily routines don’t just improve your technique, they just really improve how you do your sales process. And you get better over time. All you need to do is start small, find one or two habits that you can repeat every day, take the next seven days and start to find those things you can improve on and reinforce the things that you’ve done really well. And then start to carry that forward.
Rob 08:19
They go back to that rock. You know that rough rock became smooth because that person just did something every day, they kicked or pushed that rock along the ground for a little bit of time. And that’s the same thing that they do that in jewelry, right? That’s what they do with stones and so forth. They make it more polished. And that’s what you’re trying to do, is become more polished.
Rob 08:37
As a salesperson, if your team, or if you need help becoming more polished, part of this routine creation is something that we can help you with. I’m not sure that you actually need that as much as it is needing the platform or the structure to do that. So figure that piece out. But if you do need some help, by all means, reach out. We’re happy to help and with that, remember slow down and close more.
V/O 09:00
Thank you for listening to the slow pitch, Slow Down and Close More.