What I Miss About Traditional Sales: 14 Nostalgic Sales Tactics That Still Work

Discover the timeless elements of traditional sales that still make a difference in today's digital world.

1. Benefits of Face-to-Face Meetings: A face-to-face meeting is more valuable for you and your client. Virtual cannot match showing up in person. If you want to improve your sales results, go meet your client where they live.
2. Insights from Touring Client Operations: You can learn much about your client by asking for a tour of their operation. If you can get a meeting, ask for a tour. When you do this, and your competitor fails to do either of these, you have an advantage.
3. Competitor Intelligence by Signing In: One of the things I miss most by forgoing a face-to-face meeting is looking at the sign-in book to see the competitors who have already visited the client I am going to take away from them, or beat them in a contest over the client.
4. The Power of a Handshake in Sales: I miss shaking hands, something homo sapiens have done for a very long time.
5. Strategic Advantage of Encountering Competitors: I miss running into a competitor walking out of the conference room when I was walking in, and the look on their face as they leave.
6. Driving to Client Meetings: I miss leaving the office to drive to the client’s office or facilities. It is especially fun to walk out when your peers are stuck in the office without a meeting to attend.
7. Taking Notes on a Legal Pad for Sales: Even though I am not able to read my own writing, taking careful notes and acquiring the information will help you to win the client’s business.
8. Large Conference Tables and Decision Makers: I miss large conference tables surrounded with decision-makers and their stakeholders. I especially miss walking into the conference room by myself and answering every question. I miss having to think on my feet.
9. Presenting to Clients and Teams: I miss standing in front of my client and their teams. Presenting is the culmination of everything that came before in the sales conversation. It is the last thing before asking for their business.
10. Competitors Trashing My Company: I miss having my contacts tell me what my competitors said about my company. Even though what they said was false, I enjoyed knowing that they believed they could beat me by talking trash. I miss being the boogeyman.
11. Handing Clients a Contract and a Pen: I miss handing the client a contract and a pen. This is a much better experience than an electronic signature. I feel bad for young salespeople who will never get to watch their client sign their contract.
12. Challenges of Responding to RFPs: I miss RFPs. I miss calling the person who sent me the RFP to tell them what they got wrong and why they are not going to get what they want. Most of the RFPs were written during the second Clinton Administration.
13. Receiving Physical Commission Checks: I miss commission checks. I know the money is going to be deposited into my bank account, but it is a lot more fun to set the check on the kitchen table for your spouse to see. It was way more fun, especially if you didn’t say anything.
14. Building Relationships over Lunch: I miss taking clients to lunch. I miss building relationships that would allow me to know the people I work with better. Yes, you can still build relationships. Sadly, some sales reps try to send me a Visa card to buy lunch and eat with them on a virtual platform.

Anything you are able to do virtually will be better face-to-face. What you might notice about all the things I miss is that it takes more time and effort. Whenever it is possible, you should invite the friction that comes from all the many things above.

Dan Pink wrote a book titled To Sell Is Human. Most everything is enabled by some technology. But the one thing that can’t be replaced by technology is the face-to-face meeting, the sales conversation, and the relationships that allow you and your client to succeed together.

Had there never been a pandemic, you and I would not miss all the things that make selling so much fun. But you and I can push back on virtual and go back to a time when selling was much more fun, even if we are only able to get a few clients to spend time with us.