The Sport that makes You a better Seller

We absolutely love interviewing Sellers to understand what makes THEM great at Sales.

This week, Sebastian Stadelmann, Senior Account Executive at Doctolib, shares his most useful Sales habits. Across Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Gymnastics and American Football, Sebastian learned three behaviours that now influence how he handles objections, runs discovery and moves deals forward.

And honestly, there is a lot Sellers can steal from them!

#1 Stay calm under pressure 🥋

The lesson from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

If you find yourself in a bad position, panicking usually makes it worse!

You don’t escape by moving as fast as possible. Instead you have to stay calm and understand the position.

And ONLY THEN do you decide what to do next!

Sebastian applies the same logic when he comes across objection handling.

A prospect says: “This is too expensive.” or “I don’t think this would work for us.”

And our natural human instinct is to defend, explain and argue.

But Sebastian deliberately tries not to react too quickly.

Instead, he stays calm and asks another question, because the first objection isn’t always the real objection.

“Too expensive” might actually mean:

• “I don’t understand the ROI yet.”

• “We don’t have time” might mean:

• “I’m worried implementation will be painful.”

“We already have another solution” might mean:

• “I don’t see enough reason to change.”

If you start arguing immediately, you might spend five minutes solving the wrong problem!

His exercise for you:

The next time you receive a hard objection:

Don’t answer immediately.

Pause.

Then ask yourself “What do I still not understand?” And ask one question before giving your response. For example:

“When you say it’s too expensive, what are you comparing the investment against?”

or:

“What specifically makes you unsure that this would work?”

Just like in BJJ: Understand the position before you try to escape it.

#2 Timing beats quantity 🤸

The lesson from gymnastics:

In gymnastics, doing the right movement at the wrong moment can still mean failing the exercise. Timing and precision matter.

Sebastian sees the same thing happening in Sales.

You can have the perfect product argument and still ruin it by bringing it up too early.

In his case, it would be when a doctor tells him: “My medical assistants spend half the day answering the phone.”

There’s a temptation to go straight in and say how Doctolib solves that…

But Sebastian first has to go deeper:

• How much time are they spending on the phone?

• What happens during peak hours?

• What does that mean for patients?

• What work isn’t getting done because the team is constantly interrupted?

• How frustrating is this for the staff?

Because there is a big difference between a prospect saying: “My team spends a lot of time on the phone.” and the prospect realising: “We are losing several hours of productive work every single day because of this.”

Then and only then Sebastian places the solution. Because now that the prospect understands the size of their own problem, the solution becomes significantly more relevant.

His exercise for you:

Look at the next product benefit you’re excited to pitch. Before explaining it, ask yourself: Has my prospect actually felt the problem yet?

If not, ask one more question. Quantify it. Explore the consequence. Understand what happens if nothing changes. And only then introduce your solution. Because sometimes the difference between: “Interesting feature.” and “We need this.” is simply timing.

#3 Read the situation, then commit 🏈

The lesson from American Football:

You can analyse a situation forever, but at some point, the play starts.

You have to read what’s happening, make a decision and commit to it.

Sebastian brings that decisiveness into the final stages of his Sales conversations.

When all the conversation went well, the need is there, the solution fits and there doesn’t appear to be a major blocker, but his prospects STILL don't want to commit, then the simple questions of “What is still stopping you from making the decision today?” helps to understand whether there is actually something left to solve.

• Maybe there’s another stakeholder.

• Maybe there’s a commercial concern.

• Maybe they need internal approval.

• Maybe there genuinely is no blocker and nobody has simply asked for the next step yet.

You can’t move the deal forward if you don’t know which one it is.

His exercise for you:

At the end of your next positive Sales conversation, don’t automatically default to:

Ask yourself: Is there actually a reason we can’t define the next step now?

And if you’re unsure, ask: “It sounds like most things are aligned. What would still need to happen for you to move forward?”

Then LISTEN, because decisiveness doesn’t mean being pushy. It means being willing to find out where you actually stand.

Let's summarise:

Sebastian leverages 3 lessons from 3 sports:

1. Don’t rush when you’re under pressure.

2. Don’t pitch before the timing is right.

3. And don’t hesitate once the situation is clear.

Or in other words:

1. Stay calm.

2. Be precise.

3. Then commit.

None of these requires another Sales tool or a new methodology. They’re behaviours you can implement today!

Because the best Sales habits aren’t always things you learn inside Sales. Often you just have to pay attention to what already makes you good somewhere else and bring it with you. ✨

Is your AI setup actually helping you sell? 🤖

AI tools are everywhere right now. Prospecting. Outreach. Meeting prep. Discovery. Follow-ups. CRM. Pipeline management. Coaching.

Which makes the bigger question “Which ones do I actually need?”

On October 7th, we’re putting exactly that to the test together with Markus Gerlach, Senior Regional Manager & AI Strategist at Doctolib.

In our AI Setup Stress Test, we’ll go through the entire Sales Cycle and look at:

• where AI genuinely saves Sellers time

• when a simple prompt is enough

• why specialised agents are more important

• which tools work together

• and which tools you can probably get rid of altogether

Besides Markus' own experience we’ll also reveal the results of our State of AI in DACH Sales 2026 Benchmark and compare how Sellers across DACH are using AI today!

👉 Join us live on October 7th at 12:00 CEST

Register for the AI Setup Stress Test →