Validate my ideas: 3 months into first sales role

Hey. Would love to get some insights on my takeaways. Especially from the more experienced salespeople on this subreddit. Extra helpful if you’re used to cold calling offices and dealing with receptionists.

- First call is essentially an information gathering exercise. If you can extract a name, a good callback time, or best-case scenario a transfer to a higher level decision-maker then you’ve won.

- Tone matters way more than content when it comes to the initial pitch. If you sound confident and well-informed your chances of success go up.

- Luck is perhaps the most significant factor in how a sales call goes. Depending on the gatekeeper you run into, the office’s specific needs, time of day, how busy the decision maker is - you can either end up having a good interaction or a bad one.

- Nothing new here, but it’s a numbers game. The more calls you make, the better your chances of striking gold.

- Diligent and consistent follow-ups are the biggest tool in your arsenal. Every time you call you have the chance to move your chess piece forward one step, maybe a couple more if you’re good.

With all this in mind, I do wonder what really separates good salespeople from bad ones?

I mean so far it seems to be more a function of effort, and luck versus any kind of verbal talent. I mean maybe there are some master manipulators out there who can turn any call into a close, but I’m just not aware of how that works. I might be too polite/non-confrontational for this approach.

If I missed anything glaring, do let me know. I’m still super basic in my understanding of how this all works - do let me know. I’m just trying to figure out a playbook here.