In partnership with
Wake up to better business news
Some business news reads like a lullaby.
Morning Brew is the opposite.
A free daily newsletter that breaks down what’s happening in business and culture — clearly, quickly, and with enough personality to keep things interesting.
Each morning brings a sharp, easy-to-read rundown of what matters, why it matters, and what it means to you. Plus, there’s daily brain games everyone’s playing.
Business news, minus the snooze. Read by over 4 million people every morning.
GM to the Top 1% 📊
A study of 25,000 sales calls found something most sales managers don't want to admit.
The top-performing reps talked 43% of the time on discovery calls.
The bottom performers talked 72% of the time.
The difference wasn't energy. It wasn't product knowledge. It wasn't confidence.
It was the ratio of listening to talking.
📊 WHAT ELSE THE DATA SHOWED
Top performers asked 11 to 14 questions per call. Bottom performers asked 4 to 6.
Top performers had a question-to-statement ratio of 1:1. Bottom performers were 1:5.
And the number that consistently stops people when I share it: top performers paused for 2 or more seconds after the prospect finished talking before responding. Bottom performers started talking in under 1 second.
That pause is not silence. That pause is signal.
It tells the prospect: I actually heard what you said. I'm processing it. You matter more than my next talking point.
🔑 WHY MOST REPS DO THE OPPOSITE
Nobody trained us to be quiet. Sales training is overwhelmingly focused on what to say — objection handlers, value propositions, closing scripts. There is almost no training on what to do when the prospect is talking.
So reps fill the air. They pitch. They explain. They defend. And every word they add past the 43% mark is a word that erodes trust.
The irony is that buyers form their opinion of you based on how well you understand them, not how well you describe your product. The rep talking 72% of the time is actively undermining the impression they're trying to create.
💡 THE 43% RULE IN PRACTICE
In my best deals, I set a mental target: say less than the prospect. Not because I have nothing to offer. Because the most valuable thing I can offer is proof that I'm listening.
Ask a sharp question. Then wait. Not for two seconds. For as long as it takes. Let the silence work.
The prospect will fill it with the real answer — the one they weren't planning to give.
✅ YOUR HOMEWORK
Record your next discovery call. At the end, estimate your talk ratio. Be honest with yourself.
If it's above 50%, your next step is clear.
❓ QUESTION OF THE DAY
What's the longest you've ever gone silent on a sales call — and what happened?
☕ Share Morning Sales & Earn Rewards
1 referral → The $500M Sales Vault 3 referrals → 500 AI Sales Prompts PDF 5 referrals → Private Community Access 10 referrals → 30-min strategy call with me
Your referral link: {{rp_refer_url}}
See you tomorrow.
Edward Founder, Morning Sales
P.S. The AI-Native Sales Leader cohort starts April 17. One module is entirely on AI-assisted call analysis — so you automatically get your talk ratio, question count, and deal risk score after every call. 30 seats. Code EARLYBIRD saves 15% through March 31. maven.com/edward-gorbis/the-ai-native-sales-leader
NL06 — Thursday March 19 Subject: ☀️ My sales process in 2015 vs. now (honest breakdown) Preview text: Same hours. Completely different results. Here's what actually changed.
GM to the Top 1% 🔄
I started in enterprise sales in 2015 with a mechanical engineering background, zero sales training, and a territory nobody wanted.
What I had was a system borrowed from my engineering days: if something isn't working, document it, isolate the variable, change one thing at a time.
Here's the honest before and after.
🔄 THEN AND NOW
On prospecting:
In 2015 I ran 80 cold calls a day. Spray and pray. Dial, leave voicemail, repeat. One meeting per 40 dials. I was busy every single day and my pipeline was a graveyard.
Now I run an 8-minute research sprint before every outreach. A LinkedIn engagement before the call. A message that references something real and specific to them. One meeting per 8 contacts. Same hours. Five times the output.
On discovery:
In 2015 I had a list of 20 questions I asked in order on every call. It felt like an interrogation. The prospect felt it too. I was checking boxes and they knew it.
Now I write three questions before every call: "What does success look like if we get this right?" "What's the cost if we don't?" "Who else needs to agree for this to move forward?" Everything else flows from those three.
On follow-up:
In 2015 I sent some version of "just checking in to see if you had any thoughts" at least 200 times. I never got a response worth having.
Now every follow-up adds something new. A market observation connected to what they said. A specific idea tied to their problem. The signal is always: I'm still thinking about your situation, not about closing my quarter.
💡 THE REAL DIFFERENCE
The effort in 2015 and the effort now are roughly the same.
The output is not remotely comparable.
What changed wasn't how hard I worked. It was the precision of what I worked on.
Systems compound. Random effort doesn't.
✅ YOUR HOMEWORK
Pick one of these three areas: prospecting, discovery, or follow-up. Write down what your current process looks like. Then ask yourself: if I had to 5x the output without adding hours, what would I change first?
❓ QUESTION OF THE DAY
What's the one thing in your sales process you wish you had changed years earlier?
☕ Share Morning Sales & Earn Rewards
Know a seller who's still building decks without knowing the room? Share your link:
1 referral = The $500M Sales Vault
3 referrals = 500 AI Sales Prompts PDF
5 referrals = Private Community Access
10 referrals = 30-min strategy call with me
You've referred {{rp_num_referrals}} people.
Only {{rp_num_referrals_until_next_milestone}} more until your next reward.
See you tomorrow.
Edward Founder, Morning Sales
P.S. The AI-Native Sales Leader cohort on April 17 is built entirely around this idea — taking what already works in your process and making it 5x faster with AI. 30 seats. Code MORNINGSALES saves 10% anytime, EARLYBIRD saves 15% through March 31. maven.com/edward-gorbis/the-ai-native-sales-leader