Contrary to what you see in pop culture, sales is all about building lasting relationships that create customers for life. Whether you’re just starting out or have been running your small business for years, the road to success can often feel like navigating an uncharted path. But here’s the good news: With the right map, you can make the journey smooth, predictable, and, most importantly, sustainable.
In this article, we’ll walk through the essential strategies every entrepreneur needs to win opportunities and build lasting, profitable customer relationships. Think of this as your sales blueprint — the guide for turning potential leads into loyal customers, while optimizing your time and efforts to focus on what truly matters.

There’s no question that B2B sales has always been an intensely competitive and high-pressure job. Competition is only intensifying, especially in the world of Saas. With the sudden rise of AI coding tools, like vibe-coding and GPT-5’s release, companies are debating the choice to build versus buy, while growing increasingly selective with what they choose to outsource. As a result, spending continues to slow, which means seller pressure is mounting.

You’ve been able to generate sales leads — prospective customers who may want to buy your products or services — and produced enough interest to draw them to your website or location. They’ve taken action to identify themselves by calling or filling out a website form. They may have even expressed precisely what they’re looking for and want to purchase. However, when you try to close the sale, they balk or ghost you altogether. What’s going on, and how can you fix it?

While AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini can be helpful, they’re also potential privacy minefields.

Most AI assistants save a complete record of your conversations, making them easily visible to anyone with access to your devices. Those conversations are also stored online, often indefinitely, so they could be exposed due to bugs or security breaches. In some cases, AI providers can even send your chats along to human reviewers.

Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, declared, “Clear communication is necessary to management success.” The paradigmatic virtues of clarity and completeness have long guided how we define successful business communication. This traditional insistence on precision and transparency is pervasive, guiding our endeavors to craft effective messages.

However, as we peel back the layers of this deeply entrenched notion, it becomes apparent that both our personal and professional endeavors often benefit from a more nuanced approach.

We’ve all experienced it—the negative team member that causes problems for the whole team. The snide comments, it-can’t-be-done attitudes, and sour behavior can stain an otherwise functional and healthy team, leaving a wake of frustration behind them.

Their negativity sinks ships…literally. Relationships, partnerships, and most importantly, your leadership, are all undermined, ruining team culture and causing unnecessary drama. It’s up to us as leaders to protect the culture and turn the ship around, helping the negative team member become active in rowing in the same direction as the rest of the team.

We’ve all experienced customer service that didn’t live up to our expectations. Unsatisfactory experiences are universal and negatively impact our lives—a bad customer experience (CX) can sour your mood or your whole day. Yet a good one can quickly turn it around. Whether it’s the friendly local barista or the head of a software company, positive experiences can spark enduring customer relationships for years to come.

That’s where human customer service comes in. Human customer service is about creating support experiences that are personalized, understanding, and efficient to build trust and loyalty with your customer base. And thanks to ever-evolving technology, support teams can leverage AI to make customer connections that are more authentically human.

Your sales funnel is broken and you’re not the only one. Most funnels lose attention fast because they're built for your process, not your buyer's journey. Too many steps, too much confusion, no real punch. What if you could fix the message and the format in one go, and unlock all the sales you dream of?

Sales funnels work when the message is sharp and the offer is hot. ChatGPT has the answers. Copy, paste and edit the square brackets in ChatGPT, and keep the same chat window open so the context carries through.

We've all heard the phrase, "underpromise and overdeliver." Unfortunately, I often see businesses that tend to "overpromise and underdeliver," failing to meet customers' expectations.

For me, it all comes down to trust. Can I rely on a company to consistently meet and exceed my expectations? As entrepreneurs, this can be a difficult question to confront. However, if you're unsure how to respond, it may be time to reflect on your practices.

Let’s talk about the awkward truth most leadership books won’t touch with a ten-foot performance review: good managers fail all the time.

They fail not because they’re bad at their jobs, but because they confuse competency with leadership. They follow playbooks, hit KPIs, conduct polite one-on-ones, and yet. . . . their teams underperform, their top talent walks, and their culture flatlines.

Here’s the rub: being good is no longer good enough.

Helping others is one of the fastest ways to build trust at work. The colleague who always says yes becomes the reliable partner, the dependable problem-solver, the person everyone turns to when deadlines loom. Yet what begins as a strength can quickly turn into a liability. Professionals who are too generous with their time risk being stretched thin, overlooked for advancement, and quietly resentful of the very culture they helped create.

True leadership isn’t about what you achieve. It’s about who you become.

Two decades of coaching leaders and developing myself as a leader have taught me a key lesson: Leadership isn’t a destination. Just when you think you’ve reached the top of the mountain, look up—you’ll see another peak waiting.
The truth is, there’s no secret sauce for leading yourself or others. Leadership is an ever-evolving process of learning and growing. The best leaders never stop evolving.

Sales that turn into cash fuel your business. Without sales, a business cannot generate the funds needed to cover expenses such as payroll, rent, inventory, and marketing. Sales also fuel growth, enabling businesses to invest in new opportunities, expand offerings, and improve their infrastructure. Sales are crucial for sustaining daily operations, ensuring financial stability, and driving long-term success and competitiveness in the market.

However, while celebrating high sales volume is understandable, it’s crucial to remember that sales without profit is a dangerous red flag.

If you're a founder, freelancer or small business owner, chances are you've had at least one sales conversation go sideways — and maybe more than you'd like to admit. After presenting your offer enthusiastically, the client counters with a laundry list of demands, challenges your pricing or continues to push for more without giving an inch in return.

Sound familiar?

In our work delivering sales training for entrepreneurs and small business owners, we encounter this scenario all the time. Many founders tell us the same thing: "I didn't start my business to be in sales." And yet, selling and negotiations are critical to your business's growth and survival.

Sales professionals today face mounting pressure to close deals quickly, often at the expense of profitability. Buyers come armed with data, competitors undercut prices, and procurement teams push for discounts as a default. But savvy negotiators know that price isn’t the only lever – and rarely the most important one.

The good news: You don’t have to drop your price to close the deal. With the right strategies rooted in preparation, persuasion, and partnership, you can win deals without compromising your worth.

Hour by hour, how we spend our time adds up to how we spend our lives — and for many of us, the sum can feel unsatisfying. Cultural attitudes embedded in adages like “time is money” spur us to prioritize efficiency and to look for ways to condense and consolidate to maximize how much we can get done. But which activities should we really prioritize if we want to craft our best lives at work and in life? We lack a way to assess our time spent from the perspective of the value we personally derive from it. We need such a measure if we are to make the best allocations of our time and build more satisfying lives.

A recent study by MIT reveals a concerning statistic: 95 percent of AI pilot projects fail. This alarming rate highlights significant challenges in transitioning AI from experimental stages to successful implementations within organizations. Understanding the root causes of these failures is crucial for businesses aiming to leverage AI effectively.

Key reasons for the failure of AI pilots
A lack of clear, well-defined objectives. Many organizations embark on AI pilot projects without a precise understanding of the problem they aim to solve or the specific business value they expect to gain. This often leads to projects that are technically sound but fail to deliver real results. Ultimately, this makes it difficult to justify further investment or time.

That was the start of my call with a chief human resources officer (CHRO) at a reputable nonprofit recently. They reached out looking for resources to support what seemed like a rapidly declining workplace culture. Teams weren’t working together as well as they used to, employees weren’t performing at their usual level, and managers were at a loss about what to do. Something was off.

I reminded the CHRO that they’ve been here before. The culprit? Uncertainty.

CEOs spend their careers mastering performance metrics: revenue, EBITDA, market share, retention, and more. They train for scaling, handling crises, navigating disruption, better leadership abilities, managing public relations, and much more. But there’s one leadership moment few prepare for: stepping down.

Succession arrives for every leader. And the end of a tenure isn’t just an operational shift; it’s an identity shift. The stimulation, challenges, and constant decision-making that defined daily life for years suddenly disappear.

AI sales tools are changing how vendors offer products. So are human sales pros still needed? You betcha! The next SAP Insights newsletter explains.

Salespeople in the time of AI: Sales is in the “is AI going to take my job?” category. AI tools for sales are helping companies craft customized product plans—see: the rise of consumption-based pricing—to help customers get the most out of their investment. So, who needs people, right? Your customers do, that’s who! They, too, love a good AI tool, but they also love a salesperson who they trust, who knows their company, and who gets them.