Here are 30 universal sales truths that have stood up to time and technology:

1. Prospects pay attention to salespeople they believe have something important to say to them.
2. People buy for their reasons, not for yours.
3. People don’t want to be sold, but they do want to buy.
4. When a salesperson and a customer get locked into a war of the wills, the salesperson always loses.
5. Buying is basically an emotional response no matter what you’re selling.
6. Being the sort of salesperson people enjoy doing business with is an invaluable asset.
7. If you don’t close sales, you won’t make a living as a salesperson.
8. Prospects must believe you before they’ll buy from you. And that’s much tougher to do than you think.
9. You can convince others only of what you yourself believe.
10. The more you believe in yourself, the easier it is to get others to believe what you say.
11. A strong, positive self-concept is the most valuable personal attribute any salesperson can have.
12. When you believe, you can make others believe. When you don’t,  no on else will, either.
13. Your customer will never believe in the value of your product or service any more strongly than you do.
14. The seller determines the cost of a product or service, but only the buyer can determine its true value.
15. People pay much more attention to what you are than to what you say.
16. Show people what they need most in a way they want to see it, and they will try to buy it.
17. People are always too busy to waste time doing anything they don’t really want to do.
18. It is always easier to sell to a prospect’s perceived need than to create need in the prospect’s mind.
19. All values are equal until some points out the difference.
20. The secret to successful selling is not in the selling at all. Instead, it is in the accurate, consistent science of prospecting.
21. The vital part of any sale is seldom the close but what takes place before the sales interview even begins.
22. The better job of finding a qualified prospect you do, the higher your closing average will be.
23. The most productive sentence in any salesperson’s vocabulary always ends with a question mark.
24. Treat prospecting as the lifeblood of your sales career because it is.
25. You never know when your prospect’s motivation to buy will suddenly and dramatically escalate.
26. The only certain way to ensure you, your organization, or your product is thought of first is through frequent, repetitious contact.
27. The best way to serve your own interest is to put the needs and desires of your customer first.
28. To deliver value to the prospect, you must see yourself primarily as a value resource for the prospect.
29. All values are considered equal in the absence of a values interpreter.
30. The fatal flaw in selling occurs when you’re so focused on what you want to happen that you lose sight of what the prospect wants to happen.

Adapted from the book The Universal Sales Management Truths by William T. Brooks, founder and CEO of the Brooks Group, a sales and sales management training company.

Tags: close sales, deliver value, prospecting, sales career, sales truths, secret to successful selling