
Selling Without Scripts, Pressure, or Manipulation
From Sell By Being Human by Alex Smith
March 25, 2026 · 42 min · Season 6 · Episode 155
About this episode
In this episode, Alex Smith and guest Steve Heroux discuss the pitfalls of traditional sales techniques and advocate for a more human approach to selling.
Did you know the idea of closing might be the single worst thing to ever happen to sales? In this episode of Sell by Being Human , host Alex Smith sits down with Steve Heroux, founder of The Sales Collective, author of The Sales Contrarian , and former #1 Cutco salesperson in the country, to dismantle everything you thought you knew about selling. Steve’s journey started exactly where you might expect. He was a quiet kid who didn’t speak for the first 17 years of his life, needed to buy $1,600 worth of textbooks, and took the only job that would hire him, selling knives door to door. What happened next defied every sales script, every closing technique, and every “proven methodology” his training threw at him. With raw honesty and zero filter, think Larry David in the sales world, Steve explains why the desperate need to be liked is killing your deals, why assessments matter more than tactics, and how he went from ripping up his training script on his first demo to becoming the national sales leader, all by treating people like humans. You’ll also hear about his Million Veteran Mission, why Bob Ross is a better sales teacher than any guru, and the one mindset shift that separates…
People in this episode
Host: Alex Smith
Guest: Steve Heroux
Topics covered
- sales techniques
- human connection
- mindset shift
- closing techniques
- sales performance
Keywords
- sales
- closing
- sales scripts
- mindset
- performance
- human connection
- sales techniques
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: The Sales Collective
Books & works: The Sales Contrarian
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