Congratulations. You've closed your Series A, scaled past the first few million in ARR, and hired a CEO or Sales Leader to take the reins. For the first time, you feel like you've moved past "survival" and are now playing the "scale" game. But for the founder sitting in board meetings, a new, silent anxiety sets in: Is this growth repeatable?

Success in sales is not just about luck or talent. It is about cultivating the right habits that drive consistent results. Top-performing sales professionals distinguish themselves through behaviours and mindsets that set them apart from the rest. Understanding and adopting these habits can transform your sales approach and elevate your career.

B2B sales are complex. Unlike consumer sales, they often involve longer sales cycles, multiple decision-makers, and higher stakes. This complexity means that sales teams must be equipped with advanced skills and strategies to navigate the process successfully.

The Compliment That Hides a Curse Every founder is brilliant. Your technical expertise built a fantastic product and got you your first £3M–£10M in ARR through relentless effort, networking, and expert knowledge. That is the compliment. The curse? Your personal brilliance has created a single, catastrophic point of failure: Founder Sales Dependency.

Implementing effective sales coaching requires a structured approach. Here are some practical strategies to consider:

The biggest fear for any founder is running out of customers.The bigger mistake is trying to sell to all of them. In high-value B2B consulting and tech, chasing the largest possible market feels like the safest option. It isn’t. When your pitch can apply to anyone, it lands with no one.

Complex deals need more than one hero. When your AE, SE, RevOps and CS team up with your buyer’s technical and commercial owners, discovery goes deeper, risks surface earlier and approvals move faster.

Most B2B sales teams think they’re doing discovery. But in reality, they’re just ticking boxes.

Too many sales teams invest in CRMs, pitch decks, and automation, yet skip the one thing that changes everything: how you frame the conversation.

Gap to close this quarter = ______ 3 failing conversion points = ______ Coaching cadence (weekly) set? Yes/No 30/60/90 reinforcement...

Why UK SMEs Struggle with Sales – And How to Fix It