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How to Sell Anything to Anyone (7 Creative Sales Techniques)

Alejandro Rioja
Alejandro Rioja
11 min read
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Logistics of selling in person

1. First, get your sales game right

The first key to selling anything is neither the product nor the prospect — it’s you and your mindset. If you’re not confident and calm, you won’t convince anyone. You must believe in the product if you want others to.

Have a positive attitude and approach every conversation assuming interest. You must be ready to hear a lot of NOs and know that enough attempts will always get you to a YES.

2. Be an approach-machine

Someone said no? Move on. There are five other prospects within reach right now. Online, this means keeping your outreach pipeline full — calls, emails, LinkedIn messages, DMs — and not stopping because of a few rejections.

The key to making sales is to always be selling.

3. Be friendly

Friendships sell. People buy from people they like, trust, and feel comfortable around. They also associate the buying experience with the quality of the product itself — so your demeanor is part of the pitch.

Build relationships before you need them. The ROI of positive word-of-mouth far outweighs what any volume-based outreach campaign can do.

The sales pitch

0. Convey value first

People don’t care about features. They care about outcomes.

Will your product save them time? Make them money? Make them look better? Give them status or peace of mind? Your pitch should answer that question before anything else. The remaining tactics won’t work unless you’re selling something that genuinely delivers value.

1. Rehearse — but don’t script

Know the product inside and out. Preparation gives you calm authority. But:

Never give a flat, robotic, scripted pitch — this kills any sale.

A good pitch feels like a dialogue, not a monologue. Know the material cold, then let the conversation breathe.

2. Tailor your tone to the audience

The streets of Venice Beach exposed me to everyone from tattooed skaters to Fortune 500 types on vacation. Each segment communicates differently.

In 2026, this applies to LinkedIn social selling, email outreach, and discovery calls just as much as street selling. Tools like Clay and AI-powered CRMs help you personalize at scale — but the underlying principle (speak the buyer’s language) hasn’t changed.

3. Preempt most — but not all — objections

After a few pitches, you’ll notice patterns. Most people ask the same questions. Address the most common objections proactively so there’s nothing standing between the prospect and a yes.

The main concern of any buyer is: am I getting a good deal, and can I trust this person? Walk them through a logical sequence of facts that answers both.

That said, leave room for the prospect to ask their own questions — they need to feel in charge of the decision.

4. Establish authority

Why should someone trust you? Establish credibility early.

For me, this means pointing to case studies from businesses I’ve grown, content I’ve published, and results I can document.

In 2026, authority is built via:

You don’t need a massive following. You need to be credible to the specific person in front of you.

5. Let them do the talking

The best salespeople talk less than you’d expect.

Tyler Bosmeny, CEO of Clever, noted during a YCombinator lecture that the top 1% of sellers ask a lot of questions and let the prospect do about 70% of the talking. This is still true — and even more relevant now that buyers come to calls already informed from having researched you online.

When I was selling on Third Street Promenade, I’d open with something like: “Do you spend a lot of time outdoors?” The more the customer talked, the higher my closing rate.

In a discovery call, ask: “What’s the biggest blocker on [their goal] right now?” Then listen.

6. ABC: Always. Be. Closing.

From the first moment of the sale, keep closing in mind.

Too many people are afraid to ask for the money. That ask is the most important moment — it’s when the sale actually happens. Everything before it is just informing the prospect.

When you name a price, anchor high to leave room to negotiate. And when you ask for the decision:

7. If you can’t close, know when to leave

I could gauge within 30 seconds whether a prospect was likely to buy. After the 5-minute mark in a street conversation, close or move on — the opportunity cost of staying too long is real.

The same logic applies to sales calls, email threads, and DMs. If someone’s asking endless questions with no forward motion, they probably won’t buy. Respect your time.

7 sales techniques to become the best salesman in your company

1. Offer a free trial

Let your prospect use the product before committing. In person: I let people charge their phone while we talked. For SaaS or services: offer a low-risk entry point — a 7-day trial, a free audit, a sample deliverable.

The more time they’ve invested in the product, the harder it is to walk away. A free trial also signals confidence — you’re not hiding anything.

2. Ask them to do you a small favor

The Benjamin Franklin Effect: if someone does a favor for you, they’re more likely to do another. Asking a prospect to hold the product while you reach into your bag seems small — but it builds micro-commitment and trust.

Online equivalent: ask them to share feedback on a draft, or reply with their take on a problem before you pitch your solution.

3. Use discounts and time-limited offers strategically

Discounting works when used intentionally. Street selling naturally creates urgency and negotiation. For digital products or services, you can manufacture this through:

Don’t discount reflexively — it trains buyers to wait. Use it as a close accelerant, not a default.

4. Surprise them with an unexpected feature

Entertainment is part of the pitch. If your presentation is flat, you’ll lose them. The most memorable sales moments have a beat — a story, an unexpected demo angle, a subtle joke.

When someone’s relaxed and engaged, they buy more readily. Find your product’s “wow moment” and lead with it at the right time.

5. Social proof (this one is huge)

Groups are my favorite to sell to. When one person in a group commits, the others follow. Social dynamics do the closing for you.

Online, social proof looks like:

In 2026, social selling on LinkedIn and X is a primary pipeline driver for B2B — not a supplement to cold outreach.

6. Use silence as a tool

After you ask for the close, stop talking. Most people are uncomfortable with silence and will fill it. The first person to speak after the ask is usually at a disadvantage.

This applies on calls and in person. Ask, then wait.

7. Build your network before you need it

If you have a warm introduction to the decision-maker, you’re already halfway to a yes. A cold email is a hundred times harder than a referral.

Build relationships at events, through your content, and in shared communities — not as a transactional exercise, but as a genuine one. Provide value before you ask for anything. Then when you need to sell, the path is already open.

AI and CRM in sales — what’s changed in 2026

The fundamentals above are timeless. What has changed is the tooling around them:

None of this replaces the human skills. AI can personalize an email opener; it can’t replace the silence after a close, the genuine curiosity in a discovery question, or the credibility that comes from actually knowing your subject.

Sales script

Here is the exact script I used with my salespeople for the Flux Charger. It covers a classic pitch, answers to common objections, and preempted questions. It’s a real-world example of the techniques above in action and can be adapted to sell almost anything.

Sales books to read

Three that have stayed relevant:

Conclusion

In the early days of any business, your ability to close sales can determine whether you make it. Whether you’re selling a physical product, signing a SaaS user, or landing an agency client, the core mechanics are the same: build trust, convey value, ask good questions, and close without apology.

Sales is a learnable skill. The only way to get better is to get out there and try — and fail enough times that the rejections stop mattering.

If you want to read more: how I grew Flux Chargers from $0 to a $100,000/month business and how to find a profitable niche.

How to Sell — 2026 FAQ

Is consultative selling different from what you describe above?

Consultative selling is the same DNA, applied to complex or high-ticket sales. Instead of pitching features, you diagnose the buyer’s situation first, then position your solution against their specific problem. The “let them do 70% of the talking” and “preempt objections” points above are the heart of consultative selling.

How is social selling different from traditional outreach?

Traditional outreach is largely interruption-based — cold calls, cold emails. Social selling is about building credibility and inbound interest before the pitch. You publish useful content on LinkedIn or X, engage in relevant conversations, and earn attention so that when you do reach out, there’s already context. It requires more patience but typically converts better and at higher ticket sizes.

Can AI actually help me sell more, or is it just hype?

It depends on where you apply it. AI tools are genuinely useful for prospecting enrichment, personalization at scale, call transcription, and follow-up drafts. They don’t close deals — humans do. The risk is using AI to send more generic outreach faster, which just pollutes inboxes. Used well, it helps you spend more time on high-leverage conversations and less on admin.

What’s the single most common mistake new salespeople make?

Talking too much. Most rookies fill silence with features and justifications rather than asking questions and listening. The goal in the first half of any sales conversation is to understand the buyer’s situation, not to present your solution.

Related reading: How to build a profitable business · How to grow your business · How to create a million-dollar ecommerce business

The shorter version

If you’re reading this because the workflow it describes is eating your week, that’s the kind of loop I build AI agents for. Two build slots open at a time.

Updated for May 2026

A short note from May 2026: the workflow this post describes was checked against the current state of the underlying tools and platforms. Where specific tools, UIs, or features have evolved, the structural advice still holds — the implementation will look slightly different in 2026. If you hit a step that doesn’t match what you see on screen, that’s likely a UI refresh, not a fundamental change in approach. Drop a note via the contact form and I’ll patch it explicitly.

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