'You don't learn very much when you yourself are doing the talking'
Enough said!

'No goal - no prospect'
This is an easy one to fall into- salespeople like to talk' pain' , prospects don't, they feel much more comfortable talking about their goals. Business problems and challenges will become apparent - but you have to earn the right to get to those. The very worst question you can ever ask your prospect is ' what keeps you awake at night', just don't go there.

Develop your value proposition so that it is just that - a value proposition
Sensitive one this - most salespeople think they can deliver a value proposition, most can't. This is something you have to rehearse, adapt, and deliver within a 10- 15 second timescale so that is resonates with your prospect. It is not a mission statement, but two or three sentences that outline your potential value to your prospect with a snap shot of how you have helped other companies in a similar industry or environment

Just because your prospect asks you a number of questions, it doesn't mean they are interested
Ah the relief when the pitch turns into a Q and A session - right? Gives us salespeople a real opportunity to get close to our prospect, you know establish some real dialogue, get under their skin etc etc.

20 + years in sale when will I learn? So often it's an information gathering exercise for your prospect, maybe that's because its not their decision so they information gather for someone else, maybe its because they are about to buy from someone else and you are the 'backup' maybe it's because they've already bought from someone else and are curious to see if there are any features of your product that maybe they haven't.

Return on investment
If your prospect doesn't 'own' this, buy into it, present it back to you, then there is no return on investment. It can't be yours.

Relevant opinion, relevant fact, irrelevant opinion, irrelevant fact
Imagine a square divided into quarters as above. Every time you make a statement make sure you spend 90% of your time in the Relevant Fact quartile, a relevant opinion has to be earnt and the other 2 speak for themselves.