MY APPROACH TO SALES
Understand what matters to them. Explain how you can help. Make the next step clear—and keep the promise after they say yes.
I bring together customer research, marketing, product thinking and hands-on delivery. That helps me connect a business goal with the experience a person needs to move forward.
See the work behind the approach ↓FROM THE WORK
These projects show the connection between understanding a person, shaping a relevant offer and following through. The practical lessons below draw on that experience.
MAKE THE NEXT STEP CLEAR
4 demos · 2 deals · 11 days
Connected positioning, a clearer demo path, a revenue-leakage review, an ROI calculator and coordinated outreach for a healthcare automation business.
The sales lesson: A useful offer makes the next conversation about a specific business problem.
Read the engagement story →Recorded results for the full engagement, which combined positioning, conversion work and sales follow-through.
UNDERSTAND THE DESIRED OUTCOME
35% improvement in lead-to-enrollment
Built learning pathways, curriculum, community and a customer experience that connected initial interest with enrollment and continued learning.
The sales lesson: A growth journey needs to make sense to the person before, during and after the purchase.
Explore the CodeTeachers case study →Published platform-level outcome across the customer and learning experience. The case study reports a 35% improvement in conversion.
DIAGNOSE BEFORE FOLLOWING UP
12 emails · 3 onboarding prototypes
Used lifecycle and registration data to investigate friction, mapped the actor journey and delivered email creative and onboarding alternatives.
The sales lesson: When people stop responding, examine the task after the click before sending another reminder.
Read the lifecycle review →Research, strategy and onboarding prototypes delivered; behavior-triggered messaging documented as a roadmap.
A PRACTICAL, PEOPLE-FIRST APPROACH
I want to understand the person’s situation, the outcome they want, what they have tried and what makes the decision difficult. I map the journey around the conversation, including the experience before contact and the handoff afterward.
Empathy is useful when it changes the work: clearer language, a more relevant offer, fewer steps, a realistic timeline or a better way to support the decision.
I make scope, ownership and next steps explicit. Follow-up should answer a question, keep a commitment or resolve friction. Repeat business starts with whether the original work helped.
I look at qualified opportunities, completed next steps, loss reasons, adoption and customer outcomes. A high reply count alone does not establish a successful sales process.
EXAMPLE CONVERSATION · A WEBSITE THAT ISN’T CONVERTING
Original teaching examples you can adapt. These are not quotations from a client engagement.
I noticed you are expanding your service team. How are new customer inquiries being handed off today?
Use a true observation and a question the person can answer naturally.
Could you walk me through the last time a promising inquiry went quiet?
Ask about an actual event, then investigate what happened before and after it.
So the team receives inquiries, but no one consistently owns the next action. Have I understood that correctly?
Mirroring means checking meaning. Invite correction; do not imitate someone’s mannerisms.
Would a short overview help, or should we work through one example together?
Allow thinking time and offer a written recap. Pace should support comprehension.
Based on that handoff gap, I would start with a focused review of ownership and follow-up before increasing traffic.
Connect the recommendation to what you heard, with an honest scope and limitations.
Would you like to review a scope for that work, explore another approach or pause here?
A close can be an agreed next step. Make space for a no.
Here is the handoff review we discussed, the remaining question and who owns the next action. Is Thursday still a useful time to review it?
Keep the context, commitment and timing together.
What has improved since the change, and what still takes more effort than it should?
Resolve the original need before proposing another engagement or asking for a referral.
VALUABLE BEYOND A SALES TITLE
These skills support collaboration, influence and clearer decisions. Personal relationships are not transactions: listening, autonomy and boundaries matter even when nobody changes their mind.
| Role | The useful skill | A question to try |
|---|---|---|
| Product & UX | Understand the job behind a feature request. | What would someone be able to do that they cannot do today? |
| Marketing | Connect the promise with the buyer’s actual stage. | What does this person need to understand before the next step feels worthwhile? |
| Engineering | Explain technical choices through customer and business consequences. | Which trade-off matters most: scope, reliability, effort or timing? |
| Leadership & AI adoption | Learn what makes a change difficult and involve the team in a small trial. | What support and evidence would make this worth trying? |
| Customer success | Make sure the promise becomes a usable result. | What is still getting in the way of the outcome you expected? |
| Interviews & career growth | Connect relevant evidence with the employer’s problem. | What would you most want this person to improve in their first three months? |
| Everyday life | Listen, understand needs and respect a different choice. | Would it help to talk through options, or would you prefer that I simply listen? |
TURN THE IDEAS INTO A HABIT
Pick a real situation, replace personal details and practice with a partner. Ask one open question, reflect what you heard, explain a relevant option and agree on a next step only if it is wanted.
Ask your partner: “What did I understand accurately? What did I assume? Where did the conversation feel rushed?” Change one behavior and try again.
WHAT I CAN HELP YOU BUILD
Discovery guides, buyer journeys, offer positioning, objection and follow-up libraries, customer handoffs, practical sales training and AI-assisted preparation workflows.
Bring a conversion problem, a complex offer or a team that needs more confidence in customer conversations. We can define the problem, choose a focused improvement and agree how to measure it.
Let’s talk about the opportunity →Center for Creative Leadership’s listening guidance supports reflection, clarification and follow-through. Harvard’s Program on Negotiation describes practicing inquiry, paraphrasing and acknowledgment. The examples and applications here are original; no specific business outcome is guaranteed.