--- title: It’s Not the Tools That Make the Salesperson | The Sales Blog description: It’s not the tools that make the salesperson. It’s the salesperson that makes the tools. It’s important to know this and to not pretend otherwise. Where Tools Make No Difference A poorly trained, poorly developed, and poorly coached salesperson can only perform poorly even when provided with the best tools (or even the best territory). […] image: https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Screen-Shot-2012-04-01-at-6_04_57-PM.png --- ### [Now booking SKO meetings for 2026/27! 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It’s the salesperson that makes the tools. It’s important to know this and to not pretend otherwise. #### Where Tools Make No Difference A poorly trained, poorly developed, and poorly coached salesperson can only perform poorly even when provided with the best tools ([or even the best territory](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2011/09/02/why-it%e2%80%99s-not-the-land-it%e2%80%99s-the-man-or-woman/)). This is true also of [salespeople in name only](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2010/04/12/sino-the-number-one-reason-salespeople-fail/), those who haven’t embraced sales and who aren’t really salespeople. You can give a poor performing salesperson access to all of the tools that [Sales 2.0](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2011/01/28/social-selling-everybody%e2%80%99s-taking-about-the-new-sound/) offers, and it will not improve their results. They can [tweet](http://www.twitter.com/iannarino), plus, [link](http://www.linkedin.com/in/iannarino), [like](https://www.facebook.com/thesalesblog), and stumble around on the Internet, to no avail. Give them [the best leads](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2011/06/28/you-dont-need-the-glengarry-leads/), the best laptop, the best smart phone, the best sales force automation, the best mobile hotspot, and the best sales collateral ever printed on four-color glossy paper, and they will fare no better. You can even give poor salespeople the best product, best service, best solution, and the world’s greatest value proposition and they will still be outsold. #### No Tools Required, But Well Placed On the other hand, you can give an excellent, well-trained, well-developed, and well-coached salesperson almost nothing in the way of tools and they will still create and win deals. Their ability to win deals relies on [a different set of tools](http://thesalesblog.com/foundational-sales-attributes/), chiefly their [ability to create value for their clients](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2012/03/20/you-are-the-unique-value-proposition/). An excellent salesperson can leverage their ability to sell, their ability to create value, by using the tools that they are given. The Sales 2.0 tools are put to better use because they aren’t being used to compensate for the salesperson’s shortcomings. Instead they are used to demonstrate and share their ability to create value for their dream clients. A great salesperson won’t need your best leads; they’ll produce them. If you give them the best laptop, smartphone, sales force automation, mobile hotspot, and sales collateral, they’ll put it to good use, but these external accouterments won’t be nearly as important to their results as to [what is inside them](http://thesalesblog.com/foundational-success-attributes/). It’s not the tools that make the salesperson successful. It’s something else that isn’t nearly as easy to provide them. There are no shortcuts here, and there is no amount of money you can spend on tools to produce a better result. #### Questions Why are tools useless in the wrong hands? Why do some people believe that possessing the tools will allow salespeople to produce better results by themselves? What are the real “tools” that allow a salesperson to succeed? What do salespeople really need to improve their sales results and how are they provided? ###### Tags: [Sales](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/sales) [2012](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/2012) Post by [Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/author/anthony-iannarino) on April 1, 2012 Written and edited by human brains and human hands. ![Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/ai-blog-profile-crop.jpg) Anthony Iannarino is an American writer. He has published daily at [thesalesblog.com](https://www.thesalesblog.com) for more than 14 years, amassing over 5,300 articles and making this platform a destination for salespeople and sales leaders. Anthony is also the author of four best-selling books documenting modern sales methodologies and a fifth book for sales leaders seeking revenue growth. His latest book for an even wider audience is titled, The Negativity Fast: Proven Techniques to Increase Positivity, Reduce Fear, and Boost Success. Anthony speaks to sales organizations worldwide, delivering cutting-edge sales strategies and tactics that work in this ever-evolving B2B landscape. He also provides workshops and seminars. Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn, X or Youtube. You can email Anthony at [iannarino@gmail.com](mailto:iannarino@gmail.com) [Follow me on my website](https://www.thesalesblog.com/anthony-iannarino) [Follow me on Facebook ](https://www.facebook.com/thesalesblog) [Follow me on LinkedIn ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iannarino/) [Follow me on Twitter ](http://www.twitter.com/iannarino) [![AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27.jpg?width=400&height=400&name=AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27.jpg)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/authority) [![ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1.jpg?width=318&height=179&name=ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1.jpg)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/free-cold-calling-video) ![salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover (1)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover%20(1).jpg?width=768&height=994&name=salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover%20(1).jpg) ### Free Sales eBook: Sales Call Planner Planning your sales call improves the likelihood of making a successful call, and it demonstrates to your dream client your professionalism. 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What we’re doing right now **is working**, even in this challenging economy. **Would you like some help?** [![Solve for Sales](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035) ### Join my Weekly Newsletter for Sales Tips Join 100,000+ sales professionals in my weekly newsletter and get my *Guide to Becoming a Sales Hustler* eBook for FREE! --- ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org/", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Anthony Iannarino" }, "dateModified" : "2022-06-16T3:28:23 PM", "datePublished" : "2012-04-01 18:26:58", "description" : "It’s not the tools that make the salesperson. It’s the salesperson that makes the tools. It’s important to know this and to not pretend otherwise. 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