For the sales professional who is done with pushing
Thirty years in the trade, a heart for the customer, but tired of the pushy culture? What you need is language and a framework to make selling without pushing stick internally.
- Anyone with twenty years in the field already knows pushing does not work; what is missing is not insight but language.
- The iceberg gives you that language: steering on results only changes the top layer, while the layers underneath drive the behaviour.
- With it you are no longer having an argument about feelings internally, but a strategy conversation about what you steer on.

You have been in the trade for twenty, thirty years. You know your market, your customers know you, and you have long known how it works: relationships beat transactions, always. And yet every month you sit in the same meeting. The numbers have to go up, the calling campaign has to be tighter, and you think: this is not why I am good at this job.
You are right, pushing does not work
Let me first say something you probably rarely hear: you are right. You do not need convincing that pushing does not work, you knew that before it was ever in a book. What you are missing is not insight. What you are missing is language and a framework to say out loud what you have felt for years, in a way that a results-driven leadership team will listen to.
The language and framework you were missing
That language exists. The framework is called the iceberg: six layers, from result at the surface to purpose at the bottom, with one law: the deeper the change, the greater the effect on the result. With it you can say something internally that is far stronger than "I do not want to push like this". You can say: steering on results only changes the top layer, and customers feel the pressure that creates. If you really want more revenue, steer on the layers below. That is simply a system instead of luck. Suddenly you are having a strategy conversation instead of an emotional debate.
Protect your own way of selling
And for yourself, until that day comes: protect your own way of working. Do the 100% helping check before every conversation and do not let the fad of the month get to you. Your style, honest and relaxed, is exactly what customers who are called forty times a week can still appreciate. The years-long relationships in your file are the proof of that, and with the funnel logic you can make that value visible internally too.
Is that you? In Sales, Honest & Relaxed you will find the words to explain it internally. Many readers with your experience tell me it feels like confirmation at last. Take the iceberg to your next monthly meeting and ask one question: which layer are we actually steering on?

Klaas Kroezen is an entrepreneur who trains, coaches and speaks. He wrote the #1 Dutch bestseller Sales, Honest & Relaxed and the new book Van klant naar fan (From customer to fan, November 2026). After 25+ years in sales with his own international market research firm, he helps organisations adopt the From customer to fan mindset: selling honestly and relaxed, and turning customers into fans with the whole team.
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