What's something you struggled with early in your sales career that comes relatively easy to you today? How did you overcome the obstacle?

1. Saying 'No' to (toxic) customers. All of us want business in regardless to who the customer was. I have learned toxic customers can drain you off fast and drag you off more sales if not dealt carefully. I have learnt to say No.

2. Asking for referral. I have always felt shy asking for a referral as usually i would expect this to come automatically if the customer sees value in our services. I have learnt to drop this note subtly to clients thou i still need to learn the art of being more thickskin :)

Most sellers early on (myself included) struggled to keep information gathering as a priority versus getting the sale. In B2B, especially in high-value strategic business development environments, focusing on uncovering a broader scope of relevant information (that relates to the underlying product or service being sold) is key.

With this mentality, the sales opportunities present themselves more organically over time. Instead of a sense of frustration over not getting the immediate sale closed, a successful prospect conversation now is represented by learning something new about the company, understanding the preferences of the decision maker, and uncovering the structure of their buying process or lead time for future purchases. 

This data is valuable, and once memorialized along the way, internally within the lead generation funnel, it steers more informed and intentional future outreach.

This mindset assumes a positive, long term focus of the sales organization, which in and of itself is another key driver of success.

Asking hard questions. I would tiptoe around a prospect instead of asking the deeper questions I knew I should to truly uncover their problems. To overcome it, one day I decided to try asking a probing question and the information I extracted led me to double the deal size. 

The most difficult thing was that I let the job rule me. I felt that I had to respond every time that the customer asked for something, and it was difficult to say no and negotiate.
I learned over time, that being customer centric was not always assuming what the customer wanted, responding immediately just to show that I was there for them, or respond with a yes and sacrificing my point of view. 
I built stronger mutually respectful relationships with my customers when I recognized that customer centricity is to ask more questions so I could understand their perspective deeper and yet balance my or my company's perspective that would bring us together and align strategically. 

Active listening. In the early days, I was in a hurry to speak vs truly seeking to understand. Game changer!!