The sales landscape is constantly changing...

New technology, new platforms, new corporate structures and fluctuating economies make it a tough industry to keep up with. Sales strategies will evolve to reflect these changes but ultimately sales as a profession, sales as a key activity will rarely change.

Whether you're new to sales or have worked in sales for many years, there are some core principles, some key factors that remain, and will continue to remain the same for many years to come.

Here are the 10 things that will NEVER change in sales:

1) Prospecting will always be king - Whilst the way we prospect may change, the fact that it will always be essential to sales success will never change. Whether it's cold calling, email, voicemail, message, letter, social media or combination approach, it will always be the key activity for sales professionals.

2) Those that fail to plan are planning to fail - The best sales people always recognise the need for planning. If you don't plan your days, weeks, months and years you're inadvertently planning to fail.

3) Pipeline cures everything - Every struggle in sales can be solved by investing in your pipeline and that will remain. More pipeline, more opportunities and so more potential sales.

4) Always Be Closing - Whilst some sales people have gone off the term closing and prefer to use consulting or connecting, the close will always be the single most important stage in the sales process. Without closing the sale there is no sale.

5) Sales people will always have 2 ears and 1 mouth - Unless we genetically mutate in the future it's always likely that listening more than talking will remain the winning strategy in sales.

6) Human relationships will never die - Whilst technology and AI continue to join into the buyer journey one thing can never be replaced and that's human interaction. Some sales may become automated and transactional but so many will remain based on human interaction.

7) YOU will always be the difference - No matter what you sell you'll always have competition. Chances are on face value your products will be very similar and so YOU will always be the key difference in the buyer making their choice.

8) We will always need to adapt - Whilst selling in itself may not change significantly the landscape in which we sell and the tools we use will change and so we will always need to adapt.

9) Rejection will never go - One of the most challenging parts of working in sales is the sheer volume of rejection we face. This will never go, if you're not getting a lot of No's then you're not asking enough people for the sale.

10) It's not for everyone - Not everyone can sell as a job. Sure everyone can and does sell in some way, but not everyone can do it professionally.

Are there any that you agree with? Any that you would add? Please add them to the comments box below!

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This article is supported by Pipedrive, one of the world's best CRM's that's built to help salespeople sell more. It's used by over 100,000 companies in 179 countries. You can try it for free for 30-days right here.

They normally offer 14-day free trial but if you follow one of our links in this newsletter you'll be able to get an extended 30-day free trial and as a bonus, if you choose to use Pipedrive after your trial, you'll get 20% discount on your first year.

If you're potentially interested in trying Pipedrive out, we have a few extra resources that might help:

VIDEO - The 5 best features of Pipedrive CRM

ATICLE - 10 reasons salespeople LOVE Pipedrive CRM

VIDEO - Import prospect details instantly from LinkedIn using Pipedrive

ARTICLE - Why salespeople are switching from their current CRM to Pipedrive CRM