Sales techniques: which ones work and how to spot them in your own calls

Sales techniques are set ways of running a sales call: how you ask questions, how you listen, how you handle objections and how you close. They only work if you actually apply them. The best place to check that is a transcript of your own call: who talked how much, which questions did you ask and how did the call end?

A sales technique is a repeatable action in a sales call, such as asking an open question, summarizing the customer’s pain or proposing a concrete next step. A sales methodology such as BANT, MEDDIC or the GAP Selling method is a framework that brings several techniques together. The technique is the action; the framework is the structure around it.

In B2B, the techniques that work are the ones that get the customer to say more than you do: asking good questions, active listening, getting the customer to spell out the impact of a problem and ending every call with an agreed next step. Below are seven techniques, each with what you can check in a transcript.

1. Watch your talk time. Let the customer do most of the talking. Check in your transcript what percentage of the time you were speaking.
2. Ask open questions. Questions that start with what, how or why get you more than yes/no questions. Count how many of your questions in the transcript were closed.
3. Dig deeper. An answer like “scheduling is a hassle” is a starting point. Check whether you followed up or jumped straight to your solution.
4. Discuss pain and impact. Let the customer say what the problem costs, in time, money or risk. This is the core of the GAP Selling method and of MEDDIC.
5. Qualify. Find out budget, decision-maker, need and timing, as in BANT. Look in the transcript for what you didn’t ask.
6. Handle objections. Repeat the objection, ask what’s behind it and only then answer it. Check whether you got defensive right away.
7. Close concretely. End with a meeting that has a date and attendees, not with “I’ll wait to hear from you”.

Record the call, have it transcribed and go through the transcript on three points: talk time, questions and closing. Doing that by hand easily takes half an hour per call. A tool that analyzes transcripts does it faster.

1. Record the call with the customer’s consent and export the transcript as .txt, .vtt or .srt.
2. Work out your share of the talk time and compare it with the customer’s.
3. Highlight all your questions and sort them into open or closed.
4. Read the last two minutes: is there a concrete next step with a date?
5. Pick one thing to improve in your next call, not three at once.

There is no fixed rule, because it depends on the stage. In a discovery call, the customer should talk more than you. In a demo or proposal meeting, your share can be larger. Watch out above all for long monologues from you without a question in between: that is often the moment the customer tunes out.

Good sales questions are open, focused on the customer’s situation and lead to a follow-up question. Examples:

• “How do you handle this today?”
• “What happens if this stays the way it is?”
• “Who else needs to weigh in before you can decide?”
• “What needs to happen after this call for us to move forward?”

Summarize what you heard, check that it’s right and agree on a next step with a date and the people involved. In practice, a close without an agreed next meeting is no close at all. You don’t have to push; you make the next moment concrete.

Read more: BANT in sales and MEDDIC criterion by criterion.

Pitched is an online AI tool that analyzes transcripts of sales calls. You paste text or upload a .vtt, .srt, .txt or .md file, choose a framework such as BANT, MEDDIC or GAP Selling and get coaching feedback within 30 seconds. The report includes a speaking time analysis, missed signals, feedback with quotes and timecodes, and an assessment of your opening and closing.

New accounts get 14 days of free access to all frameworks, no credit card required. After that, you keep the Free plan with BANT; MEDDIC is included in Pro, GAP Selling in Pro+.

Want to see how your last call scores on talk time, questions and closing? Try Pitched free for 14 days, with all frameworks, and check out the plans if you want to analyze more calls.