20 real sales hacks that companies use, or that any business can steal, from cold outreach and discovery to pricing, demos and closing. Every hack links to its source. 20 new hacks are added every day. Last updated 30 October 2026.
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Showing 20 of 20 matching hacks (20 in total)
PricingData studyAdded 30 October 2026
Add a decoy option that makes your best plan look obvious
The Economist
Dan Ariely spotted that The Economist offered web-only for $59, print-only for $125, and print plus web for $125. Nobody chose print-only, but it did its job: 84% picked print plus web. Remove the decoy and only 32% chose print plus web, while 68% went web-only. One obviously worse option next to your target plan can swing the whole choice.
Why it works
People struggle to judge value in isolation, so an inferior comparison makes the target option feel like a clear win.
Channel
Mixed
Effort
Low
Cost
Free
Evidence
Data study
Best for
Anyone with two or three pricing tiers or packages
Ask 11 to 14 discovery questions, spread across the call
Gong
Gong analysed 519,000 recorded discovery calls and found the best ones dig into 3 or 4 real business problems and land on 11 to 14 questions. Fewer and you do not understand the pain, more and it feels like an interrogation. A great opener from the post: "Can you walk me through...?" It gets the buyer telling a story instead of answering a checklist.
Why it works
The right number of open questions keeps the buyer talking about their own pain, which is what makes them want a fix.
Ask execs who owns the problem instead of pitching them
Salesforce
In 2003, Aaron Ross at Salesforce was cold calling and getting about two qualified opportunities a month. So he tested 100 classic sales emails against short plain-text emails that only asked for a referral to the right person. The salesy batch got zero replies, while the short referral ask pulled 10 responses from senior executives. Monthly qualified opportunities went from 2 to 11, and that referral email became the first step of Cold Calling 2.0.
Why it works
Asking for a pointer is a tiny, easy favour, and a reply from the boss's boss turns your next email into a warm intro.
Channel
Email
Effort
Low
Cost
Free
Evidence
Case study
Best for
B2B teams selling into big companies where nobody knows who owns what
Count the buyers who actually speak, not the ones who show up
Gong
Fresh Gong research across more than 120 million calls says 4 in 10 people in buying groups say literally nothing on a sales call. A packed demo can just be four people hiding behind mute. Deals where 4 or more buyers speak win 87% of the time, versus 56% when only one person ever talks. So before a forecast call, ask how many people on the deal have said something, and give the quiet exec a direct question before you hang up.
Why it works
A deal with six names and one voice is really single-threaded, and getting more people talking surfaces real buy-in or real blockers.
When a senior leader leaves a paying Clay customer and joins an earlier-stage company, Clay's growth team treats it as a buying signal, not just churn risk. A workflow spots the job change, checks the new company is a fit, looks at how much the person used Clay before, and drafts outreach for the rep to review. The pitch is basically: your last company ran on Clay, your new one does not yet. They reach out in the first few weeks, while the new leader is still picking their stack.
Why it works
Someone who already saw your product work has trust baked in, and new leaders are actively choosing tools in their first weeks.
Channel
Mixed
Effort
Medium
Cost
Low
Evidence
Playbook
Best for
SaaS teams with a few hundred paying customers and a CRM
Gong looked at 28,833 closed deals and found the fastest ones spent 53% more time on next steps in the first meeting. When next steps were not discussed on that first call, close rates dropped 71%, and 26% of intro meetings skipped them completely. The trick is an up-front contract at the start (we either plan the next step or part ways honestly) plus two or three concrete next steps ready to suggest, so the buyer has something specific to say yes to.
Why it works
At the end of call one the buyer has not committed to a buying process yet, and a meaningful next step turns an idea into a project.
Channel
Video
Effort
Low
Cost
Free
Evidence
Data study
Best for
AEs with long sales cycles where deals tend to go dark
Superhuman made every new customer attend a 30-minute 1:1 onboarding before they could use the product. Over 65% fully moved their email to Superhuman after that call, more than double the self-serve result, It also drove nearly 2x the activation rate, and each fully ramped onboarding specialist could add up to $650k of ARR a year. When they tested making the call optional, attendance fell to 15%.
Why it works
A live human gets the customer through setup and the aha moment, and the goodwill turns them into evangelists.
Channel
Video
Effort
High
Cost
High
Evidence
Case study
Best for
Premium or complex products where the first week decides retention
Multithread every deal before your champion disappears
Gong
A Gong writer once lost a deal that was ready to sign because his only contact quit without warning. Gong's data across more than 10 million conversations backs up the pain: winning deals average at least 3 buyer-side people in meetings, while losing deals rarely get past one. On email the gap is 8 contacts in won deals versus 3 in lost ones. Tip from the post: ask who decided on the tool you are replacing, not "who else is involved?"
Why it works
More people means more internal champions and a backup when your main contact goes dark.
Channel
Mixed
Effort
Medium
Cost
Free
Evidence
Data study
Best for
Anyone selling deals that need more than one signature
Open cold calls with "How have you been?" and give a reason
Gong
Gong dug through 90,380 cold calls and the line most reps swear by, "Did I catch you at a bad time?", made people 40% less likely to book a meeting. The winner was weird: "How have you been?", even to total strangers, came in at a 6.6X higher success rate than the 1.5% baseline. Saying "The reason for my call is..." early on added another 2.1X lift. So you open with a pattern interrupt, then calm their brain down with a clear reason.
Why it works
A friendly, unexpected opener breaks the "this is a sales call" reflex, and humans relax once they hear a reason, even a simple one.
Dropbox gave free storage to both the person inviting and the friend who joined, so neither side felt like they were asking a favour. Storage was the thing users wanted most anyway, and the reward cost Dropbox far less than cash. According to the numbers Dropbox shared, registered users went from 100,000 to 4 million in 15 months, with 35% of daily signups coming from referrals.
Why it works
A two-sided reward feels generous instead of salesy, and paying in product keeps referred users using it.
Channel
Product
Effort
Medium
Cost
Low
Evidence
Case study
Best for
Subscription and freemium products with a resource users always want more of
Qualify deals with MEDDIC before you forecast them
PTC
In 1996, PTC's sales team hit roughly 300 reps and attrition was out of control, so Dick Dunkel and Jack Napoli studied why PTC won, lost and slipped deals. Every time it came back to six things: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain and Champion. That became MEDDIC, and PTC grew its sales org from $0 to $1 billion in ten years. The newer MEDDPICC version adds Paper Process and Competition.
Why it works
A checklist of what actually decides deals exposes the gaps early, before a deal you thought was safe slips a quarter.
Channel
Mixed
Effort
Medium
Cost
Free
Evidence
Framework
Best for
Teams selling complex, multi-stakeholder deals with shaky forecasts
Reply to every demo request, then call your best fits the same day
Clay
Clay had a team of AI agents fill out 6,346 B2B demo and contact forms and just wait. Two-thirds of companies never replied at all, 96% never called, and only about 7% of forms got a reply from an actual salesperson. Average speed to lead was 15 to 24 hours. Translation: if you simply answer every form and pick up the phone for strong-fit leads the same day, you are already ahead of almost everyone.
Why it works
Inbound buyers are ready right now, and a fast, personal reply lands before they sit through a competitor's demo.
Channel
Mixed
Effort
Low
Cost
Free
Evidence
Data study
Best for
Any business with a contact or demo form on its site
After launching on Product Hunt in 2022, Clay ran normal screen-share demos and watched people get impressed, then churn once they tried it alone. So they flipped it. Prospects came with a real data problem, shared their own screen, signed up live, and Clay's team pointed at where to click with Zoom annotations. After 100+ of these, most people hit their aha moment within minutes and converted on that one call, and the team found bugs to fix the same day.
Why it works
People remember what they do far better than what they watch, and solving their own problem live builds the habit before the call ends.
Channel
Video
Effort
Medium
Cost
Free
Evidence
Case study
Best for
Products with a real learning curve that can show value in under 30 minutes
Say "we" to build credibility, then "I" when price comes up
Gong
Gong studied language across 23,363 B2B deals and noticed something tiny. Successful sellers leaned on "we" language (our company, our customers) on cold calls, in the first few minutes of a meeting, and when comparing against competitors. After about the five-minute mark they shifted to more "I" language, and it peaked during pricing talks. The idea is the buyer negotiates with a human, not a faceless company, so they grind you down less.
Why it works
Company language earns trust early, and personal language later makes it harder for a buyer to treat you like a vendor to squeeze.
Channel
Video
Effort
Low
Cost
Free
Evidence
Data study
Best for
Reps who feel like every pricing call turns into a beating
Say no to sales calls and let self-serve do the work
Atlassian
An IT leader once emailed Atlassian asking for a sales rep, and they said no. Atlassian ran with no sales team at all, relying on free trials, word of mouth and a website clear enough to buy from. Its first big break was a fax order of about $800 from American Airlines, where someone had set up the software alone. The year before Bloomberg wrote this in 2016, it sold $320 million of software while spending about a fifth of revenue on sales and marketing, against roughly half at Salesforce.
Why it works
Buyers who would rather not talk to sales can buy instantly, and the money saved goes into lower prices and a better product.
Channel
Product
Effort
High
Cost
Medium
Evidence
Case study
Best for
Tools that teams can try, understand and buy without help
In July 2013, ahead of Slack's preview launch, Stewart Butterfield sent his team a memo called "We Don't Sell Saddles Here." His point: almost nobody was shopping for a group chat tool, but lots of people wanted less email, less information overload and faster decisions. A saddle company could sell leather quality, or it could sell horseback riding and grow the whole market. Slack chose to sell organisational transformation, with the software as the way to get there.
Why it works
Outcomes have far more buyers than features, and selling the result frames your product as the obvious path to it.
Channel
Mixed
Effort
Medium
Cost
Free
Evidence
Case study
Best for
Founders creating a new category or replacing an old habit
Talk less than half the time, and keep it that way when deals get tough
Gong
Gong's early research put the winning talk-to-listen ratio at 43:57, meaning top reps listened more than they spoke. When they revisited it in 2025 with 326,000 calls, the bigger story was consistency. High performers kept roughly the same talk ratio whether they won or lost, while low performers swung from 54% talk time in won deals to 64% in lost ones. When a deal wobbles, the weaker rep starts talking more, and that is the tell.
Why it works
Buyers who talk more reveal more, and a steady process stops you from panic-pitching when you sense a deal slipping.
Channel
Video
Effort
Low
Cost
Free
Evidence
Data study
Best for
Any rep who records calls or can get a talk-time readout
Teach the buyer something new about their own business
CEB (now Gartner)
CEB's research on more than 6,000 reps, published as The Challenger Sale, found Challengers made up nearly 40% of high performers, and 54% in complex, insight-driven sales. Instead of asking customers what their problems are, they teach them a risk or opportunity they had not seen, tailor that insight to each stakeholder, and take control of the conversation. They are comfortable pushing back instead of just agreeing with whatever the customer says.
Why it works
Buyers reward suppliers who give them new insight, and a reframe leads naturally to where your product is strongest.
Channel
Mixed
Effort
High
Cost
Free
Evidence
Framework
Best for
B2B sellers facing sophisticated buyers who already researched the options
Use implication questions to make the cost of doing nothing real
Huthwaite International
Neil Rackham's team at Huthwaite built SPIN Selling from a huge study of real sales calls, and it boils down to four question types: Situation, Problem, Implication and Need-payoff. The magic is in the middle. People happily live with problems, so asking things like "What happens to your team's output when this breaks?" turns a mild annoyance into something urgent. Then need-payoff questions let the buyer describe the value in their own words.
Why it works
When the buyer says the consequences out loud, the case for change is theirs, not yours.
Channel
Mixed
Effort
Medium
Cost
Free
Evidence
Framework
Best for
Reps who get nods on calls but deals that never feel urgent
Wake up ghosted deals with "Have you given up on this?"
The Black Swan Group
Your prospect saw the proposal and went silent. Instead of another "just checking in" email, the Black Swan Group (Chris Voss's firm) says to send one line as the subject: "Have you given up on solving this problem?" It gives them a safe way to say no, it pokes loss aversion, and nobody likes being called a quitter. Then wait, and when they reply, summarise their side until they say "That's right."
Why it works
People feel in control when they say no, and the fear of losing something gets a faster reaction than a polite nudge.
Channel
Email
Effort
Low
Cost
Free
Evidence
Framework
Best for
Anyone chasing a stalled deal, proposal or renewal
These hacks are summaries written for learning and inspiration. Numbers come from the linked sources, so open the original before you copy a tactic, and test it on your own buyers. Results will vary. Product and company names belong to their owners, and we are not affiliated with them.
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