How Sales Advice Became Self-Parody - And What to Do Instead
“If you’re not leading with value, you’re already behind.”
“Top 3 tips to hit $500K+ OTE.”
“Be authentic. Always.”
You’ve seen it.
That familiar scroll through your LinkedIn feed - post after post delivering confident, concise, crowd-pleasing advice. Tips designed to boost your career, sharpen your game, and supercharge your mindset.
Except... they all start sounding the same.
The same buzzwords. The same listicles. The same “revolutionary” advice, wrapped in slightly different packaging. And eventually, it becomes harder to tell the difference between wisdom… and mimicry.
The Problem: When Sales Advice Becomes Entertainment
LinkedIn has become a platform where advice is optimized not for accuracy, but for engagement. Likes over nuance. Virality over context. Punchlines over process.
Recycled frameworks, “Top 3 tips” lists, and humblebrags dressed as life lessons - these are now the dominant format. It’s no longer about sharing a new perspective. It’s about hitting the formula just right.
What started as a place for exchanging best practices has evolved into a stage for thought-leader cosplay.
And here’s the thing: when advice becomes too safe, it also becomes useless.
The Engagement Trap: Why We Keep Getting More of the Same
Let’s not blame the posters entirely. The platform rewards behavior:
Simple ideas get more reach
Contrarian takes are often punished by the algorithm
The same advice, recycled with new phrasing, performs better than original thought
So Reps trying to learn end up reading the same content in a dozen voices - none of which are actually their own.
But it’s also a chicken-and-egg situation.
Is the platform shaping our behavior? Or is it just responding to what we’ve become?
Ask yourself: when was the last time you spent 10 uninterrupted minutes reading an article - or even a book?
We’ve entered an era where people don’t read, they scan. Bullet points. Carousels. Snack-sized wisdom. More convenient. Easier to swallow.
But is there anything to digest?
The Risk: Mistaking Content for Competence
The problem isn’t that the advice is wrong. It’s that it becomes lazy thinking.
Reps start to follow mantras instead of judgment.
Let’s look at a few classics:
“Always lead with value.” → What does that mean in a technical enterprise sale with a 12-24 month cycle and 8 stakeholders? Is that enough?
“Be authentic.” → What if your buyer wants precision, not personality?
“Personalize everything.” → What if you're managing 200 accounts and burning out by Tuesday?
Sales isn’t about following advice. It’s about navigating context.
So What Should You Do Instead?
You don’t need to reject sales advice entirely. But you do need a better filter.
1. What arena am I in?
Enterprise or SMB? New logo or renewal? The right advice for one can kill a deal in the other.
2. Does this align with how my customer buys?
Do they respond to storytelling, technical precision, risk reduction, or peer validation? “Be authentic” means nothing if it doesn’t resonate with your audience.
3. Is this helping me think - or just giving me a rule to follow?
The best content doesn’t make you nod. It makes you pause.
And that pause matters.
Because some changes - especially the ones worth making - require absorption, not just awareness. If it only touches the surface, the idea will vanish as quickly as you scrolled past it.
And let’s not ignore this: most of the content you’re fed today is about going faster. More productive. More optimized. More efficient.
But in sales - especially in complex, high-stakes selling - sometimes the most powerful move is to slow down. To reflect. To sharpen your most valuable tool: yourself.
Sales Isn’t Gymnastics - It’s Football
Let me repeat a line that keeps showing up on my blog:
Sales isn’t gymnastics. It’s football.
In gymnastics, you follow a perfect routine. In football? You read the field, adjust in motion, and win despite the mess.
Too many Reps are training for the Olympics, when they’re actually in the Premier League.
And that’s the problem:
You can’t choreograph your way through complexity.
Final Thought: Think. Don’t Echo.
The best Reps aren’t parrots. They’re tacticians.
They know which advice to ignore - and when to break the rule entirely.
So next time you scroll past a post promising “the one mindset that changed my life,” just ask:
Is this really helping me think more clearly - or just giving me something to repost?
Good sales advice doesn’t echo. It resonates.
And here’s the hard truth:
If you’re a parrot - if your value lies only in doing things faster - you can be replaced.
Because speed alone is no longer a differentiator. Technology will beat you at fast.
Where it won’t beat you? When the situation is blurry. When the rules aren’t clear. When flexibility, empathy, adaptability, and creativity are required.
Yes, that’s uncomfortable. Yes, you’ll make mistakes. But those mistakes will shape the professional - and the person - you become.
That’s why it’s worth slowing down. To pause, to reflect, and to think through what could happen next. Not to eliminate uncertainty - but to be better prepared for it.
Additional reading here:
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