Humanising the sales mindset and approach-Humanising the sales mindset and approach

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Corinne Thomas, Managing Director of Ethical Sales, returned to discuss how B2B sales have changed since COVID-19 and why sales should be “humanised.” She explained that the pandemic accelerated shifts that were already underway: virtual meetings became the norm, face-to-face selling declined, and buyers became less accessible through traditional channels like networking events, trade shows, and office visits. At the same time, sales teams saw a surge in automated tools, AI-driven outreach, and depersonalised mass messaging, which can create distance and weaken trust.<br /><br />Corinne argued that while buying habits have changed, the fundamentals of buying have not: decisions are still driven by emotion, trust remains essential, and buyers still want to feel seen and heard. Through examples from purpose-driven businesses, she showed how sincerity, competency, and consistency in conversations help create better-qualified opportunities, larger deals, and shorter sales cycles.<br /><br />She also stressed the importance of mindset. Salespeople under pressure can become self-focused, but shifting attention to the buyer reduces stress and improves outcomes. For managers, she recommended building supportive team cultures, coaching rather than micromanaging, and aligning everyone around a shared mission and values. She highlighted LinkedIn visibility, team learning, and “everyone is a salesperson” thinking as effective approaches.<br /><br />Practical tactics included customer surveys, key account wishlists, deep research, personal outreach, and using humour and phone calls to build genuine relationships. Her three main takeaways: go back to basics, view everything through the buyer’s lens, and bring more humanity and enjoyment back into sales.

Keywords

B2B sales

humanised selling

COVID-19 impact

virtual meetings

buyer trust

AI outreach

sales mindset

customer relationships

sales coaching

LinkedIn visibility