The seven deadly sins of a sales

It’s a myth that sales is just about having the gift of the gab. Some reps might be naturally inclined to the traits that make great salespeople. But the best learn from their mistakes, train, and improve. Like any skill, they commit themselves to a lifetime of learning.

Sure, it certainly helps when modern training tools allow reps to roleplay with an AI buyer before they make their mistakes on real prospects.

Yet time and again, sales reps fall into the same traps—some more dangerous than others. These aren’t just mistakes, they’re what we like to call the Seven Deadly Sins of Sales. 

Sales leaders beware: these sins are visible in every sales team. Here’s what they are—and what you can do about them.

Sin 1. Pride: Talking more than listening

Sin: Struggling reps talk; great reps listen. Whether through awkwardness or because they simply love the sound of their own voices, reps who dominate the conversation with a pitch-heavy monologue are committing the sales sin of pride—and their performance scores probably show it.

Virtue: If your reps struggle with the sin of pride, coach them to practice active listening. This can look like asking open-ended questions, then letting the prospect speak beyond giving a yes or no response. The more your reps understand your prospects' challenges, the more precisely they can tailor their reply. 

How much should they talk? Your reps should aim to be speaking 30–40% of the time or less in your Sales Trainer analytics.

Sin 2. Sloth: Assuming instead of asking

Sin: A slothful sales rep won’t make an effort to learn about their prospect beyond the basics. This doesn’t just materialize in their call preparation, but involves jumping to conclusions about what the prospect needs instead of simply asking them first. A slothful interchange may look like this:

Rep: “Our HR software really shines when it comes to onboarding people.”
Prospect: “Well, we aren’t actually planning on hiring right now. What we really need is help distributing payroll and bonuses.”
Rep: “...OK, well we do that too!”

Virtue: For reps to avoid the sin of sloth, they should be curious. Encourage reps to ask thoughtful discovery questions. Dig deeper. The gold is in the details that only come from genuine inquiry. And if nothing else, it shows prospects that you care, building the trust needed to close great, long-lasting deals.

Reps also can’t get tied up in the sales playbook to the point that they neglect to learn what the playbook might be missing—new pain points the prospect has that could help you better position your product and close more deals. 

Sin 3. Envy: Feature dumping

Sin: Poor reps will list every product feature as if reciting a brochure. But a truly envious sin comes when features or services you don’t have are touted because your competitors offer it—you know, the “it’s on the product roadmap” remark.

Virtue: Lead with value, not features. And sell with clarity, not envy. Your prospect doesn’t live in your product the way you do—they need context, not a feature parade. Translate each capability into a meaningful outcome, tailored to their goals.

And don’t fall into the envy trap of promising features just because a competitor offers them. “It’s on the roadmap” may win a nod in the moment, but it erodes trust later. Be confident in what you do offer, and how well you deliver it. Integrity and relevance win more valuable deals than wishful selling ever will.

Sin 4. Gluttony: Hoarding leads without converting

Sin: If your reps are holding onto a bloated pipeline, constantly cycling through leads without progressing them or qualifying them out, they may be certified lead gluttons.

Virtue: Sales isn’t a numbers game—it’s a focus game. Treating every name as an opportunity just leads to bloated CRMs and wasted time, both for the rep and the manager overseeing them.

If you’ve got a lead glutton in your midst, they need reassurance in some form. Perhaps it’s reassurance that you know not every deal can be closed right away, or that quality is more important to you than quantity—you’d rather have fresh water in your pipeline than sewage, after all.

If your team is full of gluttons, your playbook may need tweaking, so you can focus on qualifying fast and giving your best attention to the most promising deals.

Sin 5. Greed: Ignoring the decision-making chain

Sin: Rushing to close a deal can be an act of heinous greed. One common effect is that your reps end up selling to someone without authority, then getting stalled in limbo. While gluttony is shoveling down every lead in sight, greed forces your team to hurry a lead through the deal stages before it’s ready to close.

Virtue: Greed often makes us forget our manners, and it’s an act of tact to be able to politely but persistently map the decision-making process with a prospect. Your reps could ask “who else would need to be involved in this decision?” and engage those stakeholders early.

Nevertheless, it’s a conversation reps should feel comfortable with, and something they can and should roleplay in their training.

Sin 6. Lust: Cluttering the conversation

Sin: As a result of eagerness, a desire to prove oneself, or even a sheer passion for the product, reps can often find themselves speaking at the speed of light. Another symptom is having a pitch that’s cluttered with filler words and jargon. We get it, you love words. We do too. But no one’s buying from frantic sellers.

Virtue: Lustful, cluttered conversation can sound desperate. And that’s something that’s traditionally hard to work on. It’s the type of sin you don’t know you commit until someone points it out, and one that only surfaces on real sales calls.

So, reps should practice as much as they can in realistic sales scenarios, being conscious of their delivery during their practice.

Great AI sales roleplay platforms like UneeQ Sales Trainer even show reps how many filler words they use, and how many words per minute they speak, to help them work towards improving their skills and decreasing word vomit.

Sin 7. Wrath: Dismissing the value of structured training

Sin: If there’s one thing that gets reps feeling wrath—well, it’s obviously updating the CRM. But if there’s another it’s being taken away from their work day to train and upskill. 

In fact, 75% of sales reps say they prefer to learn on real sales calls. That wrathful mindset often comes at a high cost—burning through your hard-earned pipeline in the name of practice. And who knows how many other sins they’re committing on your valuable leads?

Virtue: There’s a time and place for learning, but your prospects shouldn't be your test environment. Structured training, simulations, and AI-powered roleplays create space to fail safely, sharpen your approach, and hit the ground running—without jeopardizing real opportunities.

Allow us to give our brief pitch here. UneeQ Sales Trainer has a user recommendation score 3x higher than traditional staff training. Reps prefer it, meaning less wrath and a better path to long-term skills improvement.