Behavior Hacking Ep 6: Why Selling in Soundbites Wins More Deals

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Paul Stansik:
You have a very specific approach to simplicity with your clients. I think you call it selling in soundbites. Can you explain what that means, how you put it to work, and why it’s sometimes so hard for people to adopt?

Nate Nasralla:
Part of it is just meeting the audience where they are.
For example, let’s say you need to get higher in a Q4 deal. It’s coming up, you’re at stage three, and you still don’t have executive attention. How do you simplify the message?
You have to compress everything into a short soundbite — something simple enough to grab attention and make an executive say, “Actually, I do want to schedule a meeting on this. I care about this. It’s important.” That sound bite is your hook.
If anyone watching this isn’t a sales leader, here’s an exercise: take your laptop, walk into a Walmart on Black Friday, and try to get some work done. That’s the life of an executive. Everyone is pushing to the front of the line, scrambling for attention.
How do you break through that noise? You’ve got two to three sentences.
A simple framework for crafting a sound bite:
There’s a shift happening right now. Your buyer feels it and is likely crafting a strategy around it.
This change requires a response.
Here’s what happens if you do nothing, and here’s the upside if you act now.
If you can craft this message in a way that’s specific to the account and the executive, you can pull them out of the day-to-day chaos and land that meeting.

Paul Stansik:
That honestly sounds like something straight out of Ogilvy on Advertising. Talk about the parallels between advertising — being a student of human attention — and selling.

Nate Nasralla:
You’re right, there are a lot of parallels. The number one competitor in the mid-funnel isn’t another vendor, it’s inertia. Deals don’t stall because someone swooped in and stole them. They stall because nothing happens.
So, you’re constantly fighting for mindshare. If you can shape how your buyer thinks in just two or three sentences, or even a single word, that’s powerful.
Great advertising builds entire brands around a single word. The best sellers do the same.
What do you want to be known for in your market?
What does your buyer already believe and invest in?
How do you connect those ideas into a single, compelling message?
Every great seller has a little bit of Ogilvy in them.

Paul Stansik:
It also creates a curiosity gap — that feeling of “Wait, tell me more.” The best sellers capture hours of discussion in a few words. That’s the art: making it short, pithy, and capturing the case for action.

Nate Nasralla:
Exactly. One of the most powerful things you can hear from a buyer is: “That’s interesting. Can we spend another second on that?”
Or even better: “Tell me more.”
There are also two simple phrases that, when a seller says them to a buying team, are incredibly powerful.

Paul Stansik:
Yeah: “I get it.” And “I think we can help.”
But you can’t say those unless you’ve earned the right. Imagine walking into a doctor’s office, and without any questions, they say, “Looks like you need brain surgery.” That would be insane.
There’s a quote that backs this up: “Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.”
In medicine, that’s obvious. But in sales? It happens all the time. Sellers jump into how they can help before proving that they even get it.

Nate Nasralla:
Exactly. Buyers need to believe two things:
You understand their world.
You actually can help.

Paul Stansik:
And you can’t say “I get it” unless you’ve asked the right questions.
What’s the real problem?
What have they already tried?
Who else is impacted?
Where does this fit among everything else they’re dealing with?
If you don’t ask those questions, you end up trying to “close” the deal instead of collaborating on a solution. Sales becomes this gladiator-style battle of objections, rather than a process of finding evidence that you can help.

Nate Nasralla:
That’s why one of the biggest mindset shifts in sales is moving from selling to a customer to selling with them.
Curiosity isn’t just something the seller brings — it transfers to the buyer. Suddenly, they’re saying, “That’s a good point. I don’t actually know the answer, but I want to figure it out. Can you guide me?”

Paul Stansik:
That’s what’s missing in sales today. Along with curiosity, it’s having a point of view.
You should be able to say:
"I get it. I think we can help. But I also know you have other options—options you’d be crazy not to look at. My job isn’t to sell you. It’s to guide you through this process, help you understand what’s great about us, and give you clarity on all your choices so you make the best decision."

Nate Nasralla:
When you co-create the solution with your buyer, everything changes. Now, when they go back to their team, they don’t just say, “I think Paul’s product is great.” They say, “I know Paul can help—because I was part of building this solution with him.”

Paul Stansik:
Exactly. And in bigger, more complex deals, there’s always a pump-the-brakes moment.
Priorities shift. Budgets tighten. Champions get distracted.
But if you’ve done the work, if you’ve helped them explore what’s broken and why it matters, when they hesitate, it means something. And that’s when the relationship truly changes.