20 Outdated Sales Practices To Retire And What To Do Instead

by Expert Panel, Forbes Councils Member

In today's fast-moving business landscape, sticking to old sales tactics can hold companies back from meaningful growth. Outdated practices like generic cold outreach and activity-based success metrics often fail to resonate with modern buyers.

To stay competitive, businesses must embrace personalization, data-driven insights and authentic relationship building. Below, 20 members of Forbes Business Development Council share outdated business development practices they still see too often and what leading companies should be doing instead.

1. Relying Too Heavily On Sales Tools

An outdated practice is companies buying tool after tool in the hope that it's going to solve their problems. Tech used properly can be an enabler, but it's not a solution in itself. Tools allow us to hide behind understanding the real problem. Companies need to be brave and strip back. They must get crystal clear on the biggest company problems and align all their efforts on solving them. This is unlikely to be solved by a messy patchwork of shiny technology. - Alice Wyatt, Codat

2. Measuring Success By Volume, Not Value

Many companies still measure sales success by activity volume: calls made and meetings booked. In an AI-driven world, however, that's outdated. The shift should be toward value-based engagement—using AI to understand customer context, anticipate needs and drive meaningful outcomes. Today, success is not about how many transactions you drive, but how many transformations you enable. - Jigar Kothari, Aisera

3. Using One-Size-Fits-All Discounts

Relying on one-size-fits-all discounts is outdated. Instead, companies should adopt targeted offers—personalized incentives based on user intent and behavior. This increases conversion and ROI while protecting margins. We've seen a 2 to 3x lift with this approach versus blanket promotions. - Shikha Agarwal, Yelp

4. Cold Outreach Without Personalization

The outdated sales practice of generic cold outreach, such as cold calling without context or sending mass, unpersonalized emails, alienates prospects and delivers poor returns. Instead, businesses should adopt a modern approach to building genuine relationships and trust. - Hashim Syed, Google

5. Overcomplicating Commission Structures

One outdated practice is using complicated commission structures. When sales reps can’t easily see how their actions lead to results, motivation drops. Clear, straightforward compensation tied to real outcomes builds trust and keeps teams focused on what actually drives growth. - Scott Hozebin, StrideMD

6. Treating Sales As Purely Transactional

Treating relationships like transactions is an outdated practice. Too many still chase deals before trust is built. Buyers today expect partners, not vendors. The shift is toward relationship compounding—showing up with insights and value before there’s an opportunity. Deals come faster when you stop acting like every conversation needs to lead to one. The winning companies are playing the long game. - Nathan Rice, Energy CX

7. Letting Gut Instinct Override Data

Too many leaders still let gut instinct drive big decisions, sidelining what the data is saying. Even worse, they consider top performers to be fragile instead of capable. Protecting them from stretch opportunities in the name of caution often stunts growth and sends talent out the door. - Umang Modi, TIAG, Inc.

8. Wasting Time In Ineffective Meetings

Relying on endless internal meetings to drive progress needs to be addressed. The truth is, unnecessary meetings kill momentum. Instead, you should use KPIs, behavioral nudges and light gamification to keep teams focused and fired up. You should replace the weekly talkfest with quick, purpose-built check-ins that actually move the needle. - Angelica Kopec, She Knows Business

9. Chasing Movement Over Meaningful Impact

I still see companies and MKT teams pushing volume just to show movement, without asking if it makes a real impact and without telling a compelling history. In PE-backed or growth-stage companies, you can’t lose sight of the bottom of the P&L. In complex markets, real growth comes through strong partners. You should work with finance, track results and stay focused. Do not throw in the towel. - Oscar Chavez-Arrieta, SonicWall

10. Failing To Modernize Event Strategies

In-person events haven't been the same since the pandemic, so I encourage leaders to take a closer look at their events strategy for business development in 2025 and beyond. Today's industry events and trade shows need to positively impact customer growth, deliver a premium brand experience, prove ROI and more. - Hayden Stafford, Seismic

11. Following The 'Customer Is Always Right' Mentality

Companies need to change their “customer is always right” mentality. They are increasingly tired of buying what they think is right. What they actually need is guidance on what will truly benefit their business. Highlighting pain points and problem areas—even making the customer uncomfortable—can be an effective strategy. When they're clear on the risks of inaction, they’ll be more likely to act and invest in the right solution. - Dima Raketa, Reputation House

12. Treating All Leads The Same Way

One practice that still lingers is treating every lead the same, regardless of buying stage, role or intent. Companies should invest in real-time intent data, persona-driven playbooks and dynamic enablement tools. You should be tailoring your motion to how the buyer wants to buy rather than how your team wants to sell. This isn’t just modern sales, it’s the new baseline. - Aaron Biggs, Summit

13. Separating Sales And Marketing Functions

Treating sales and marketing as separate entities leads to inefficiencies and inconsistencies, with handoffs that often lack proper context or nurturing. Instead, you should embrace revenue operations (RevOps). You can unify sales, marketing and customer success under one strategy. This streamlines processes, optimizes tech and ensures a cohesive customer journey, boosting shared KPIs and fostering collaboration. - William DeCourcy, AmeriLife

14. Leading With Product Features Instead Of Listening

Many sales teams still start by promoting their product’s features and functionality. However, this will not lead to sales success. Business development professionals must listen and thoroughly understand the challenges their prospects face, both professionally and personally. This approach helps foster understanding, gain consensus and create solutions that address business problems. - Julie Thomas, ValueSelling Associates

15. Scaling Too Early Without Deep Learning

Many teams rush to scale too early. The best insights often come when you do things that don’t scale—like talking to customers one-on-one or writing custom proposals. These small efforts build real trust and clarity. You must learn deeply first, then scale what actually works. - Vipin Thomas, SparrowGenie

16. Neglecting Partner-Driven Growth Strategies

Relying solely on a direct route-to-market strategy is outdated. A modern GTM approach blends direct sales with a strong ecosystem of partners and strategic alliances. When grounded in partner experience and backed by enablement, partners can scale growth and act as a true extension of your brand. - Susana Cabrera, Parsec Automation

17. Holding On To Legacy Funnel Reviews

It's hard to pinpoint one area, as there are tons of improvement opportunities in organizations still holding onto a legacy practice. One major one would be a weekly-bi-weekly-monthly team funnel review or reporting where the whole group is tied for a good few hours, going rep by rep. With the tools at our disposal, this approach simply does not work anymore, even if your objective is team building. - Mustansir Paliwala, Zomara Group

18. Pushing Quotas Over Customer Fit

One outdated practice is a quota-driven, product-pitching mindset, whether or not it fits the customer’s needs. Effective salespeople create value by solving real customer problems. This requires listening, understanding priorities and delivering tailored solutions. It is also essential to be disciplined and walk away when there isn’t a strong fit, preserving trust and focus. - Jani Hirvonen, Google

19. Using Generic Demos Across All Industries

Using the same presentation or demo materials across industries or using a generic industry use case (for example, transaction management in banking) is ineffective. You must do the homework, tailor the use case and be nimble enough to demo that use case that resonates with the customer's pain points. If that resonates in the moment, you've won yourself a buyer (and of course, the arduous onboarding). - Aman Rangrass, Skan.AI

20. Ignoring The Power Of Social Selling

Many sales teams don't emphasize the importance of social selling to warm up leads, thus keeping conversion rates of "cold" calls much lower. This stems from not thinking through persona personalization at scale. - Darryn Lee, Cedar