Today I’m going to show you how showing up for a sales meeting without a point of view (POV) is silently killing your pipeline.
Because here is the harsh truth: You’re not missing opportunities because you didn’t ask enough questions. You’re missing out because you didn’t have anything to say.
Sellers love to ask smart questions — but too often, it's a stall tactic and not a strategy. They wait and hope for the buyer to self-diagnose and tell them where they fit in.
The problem?
Many buyers either can’t do this or don't want to do this.
Buyers don’t need another discovery conversation, they need your point of view.
When you lead with your own POV, you shift from being just another rep with good questions to a trusted advisor who shapes how buyers think, act, and buy.
In this post, you’ll learn:
There was a stretch — and I’m talking years — early in my sales career when I genuinely believed I was crushing it in my sales prospect meetings.
I used to walk out of sales meetings saying to myself:
“I can't have a bad sales meeting, it's just not possible. All I have to do is ask good questions and the customer keeps talking.”
My logic was simple (and maybe you’re telling yourself the same thing):
And I did.
But then... nothing happened. No next steps. No urgency. No momentum. No deal.
And I couldn't figure out why.
All of my meetings felt good. But the results told a different story.
Here’s what I now understand, looking back with clear eyes:
In short: I had no point of view. I expected the customer:
And because I didn’t bring a perspective of my own, I made it easy for the customer to say, “It was nice meeting you,” and move on — without doing anything.
Why Showing Up With a Point of View Is So Important
If you walk into a sales call without a point of view, you’re not adding value — and you sure as hell are not differentiating yourself.
You’re just another sales rep.
Too many sellers mistake showing up informed for showing up prepared. They spend hours researching the company, scrolling through LinkedIn, maybe even listening to a podcast interview with the exec they’re meeting. Then they open the call with:
“So tell me about your priorities this year.”
This might sound consultative. It might even earn a polite answer.
But it’s definitely not demonstrating a point of view.
And here’s the brutal reality:
According to Forrester Research, only 19% of IT and executive buyers believe their time spent with salespeople is valuable and lives up to their expectations.
Let that sink in — four out of five buyers walk away from a meeting with a salesperson feeling it was a waste of time.
What t Really Means to Have a Point of View
To have a point of view in sales means you’ve done more than research — you’ve formed a perspective about what’s likely going wrong, why it’s happening, and how it could be fixed.
You're not just asking the buyer to teach you what matters. You're guiding your buyer to think differently about what matters.
A strong point of view connects what you know about their business, market, or role — with the risks they may be underestimating, the opportunities they may be missing, or the costs they may be quietly absorbing.
You’re not pitching a solution. You’re naming a problem they didn’t know they had, or reframing one they’re already aware of in a way that makes it more urgent, more solvable — and more important to fix now.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
Because of the internet, today’s informed buyers have a lot of information to sift through and options to consider but they don’t necessarily have more wisdom or confidence in the decisions they must make. They need salespeople like you to share your perspective and point of view to help them think ideas through. Yet, this is where so many sellers are struggling, falling short and losing, while a select few are getting it right and winning.
They don’t need another pitch deck, or product demo.
They need help thinking through complex tradeoffs, understanding hidden costs, and navigating competing priorities.
When a salesperson shows up without a point of view, the buyer has to do all the heavy lifting:
That’s not being consultative. That’s a scavenger hunt.
When you fail to show up without a point of view, you make your do all the customer work.
The Illusion of a Point of View
Here’s the trap: Many sellers think they’re bringing a point of view when they’re really just recycling company slogans or rattling off feature lists wrapped in buzzwords.
Let’s break down a few common mistakes:
These tactics signal that you don’t have a point of view. That you’re unsure of your own value — and expecting the customer to do the work for you.
What Top Performers Do Instead
Top-performing salespeople build a hypothesis before the call:
Here’s what I think is going on in your business. Here’s how it’s showing up. Here’s what it’s costing you.
Then they test it.
They say things like:
“In working with other [CIOs/VPs of Ops/etc.], we’ve seen that when [condition] exists, it usually leads to [problem or inefficiency]. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I believe something similar may be happening here. Can I walk you through how we typically help solve that — and you tell me where I’m wrong?”
This kind of framing changes everything.
This is what it means to show up for a sales meeting with a point of view.
The Consequences of Not Doing This
When salespeople don’t show up with a point of view:
Shift Your Mindset
You're not there to out-tech the technologist. You’re there to help them connect the dots between business objectives and technology solutions. Your POV should be business-first, not tech-first. Self-confidence comes from your preparation and pattern recognition, not technical mastery.
Understand Your Buyer’s World
Example POV for a VP of Engineering: “Many engineering leaders I speak with are under pressure to reduce technical debt and accelerate delivery—but they’re stuck because they don’t have the bandwidth to modernize legacy systems while still hitting roadmap targets.”
Talk to Your Delivery Team
Sit down with engineers, consultants, and project managers. Ask:
Create a “POV Library” of Situational Insights
Build a cheat sheet with:
Leverage Case Studies as Proof Points
Read 3–5 of your company’s client success stories. For each:
“One of our clients, a healthcare company, was struggling with fragmented legacy apps. We modernized their infrastructure and helped reduce downtime by 40%, which directly impacted their customer retention.”
Practice Framing, Not Pitching
In every call, your job is to frame the problem in business terms before ever pitching a service.
Use this framework:
“What we’re seeing across [industry or role] is that leaders are [business objective], but they’re hitting roadblocks like [challenge]. We’ve helped companies like [customer] overcome this by [how you helped], leading to [business impact].”
Do 10 Minutes of “POV Research” Daily
Every day, read one of the following:
“Everyone’s talking about velocity—but no one’s talking about how much of it is wasted on rework from poor requirements.”
Speak Human, Not Tech
You don’t need to talk like a solutions architect. Instead, use plain language and focus on business impact:
Bad: “We optimize your cloud-native Kubernetes deployment.”
Good: “We helped them avoid $250K in cloud waste by right-sizing environments.”