GoKawiilThis story appears in the November 2025 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
Years ago, Robert Herjavec hired a young sales guy. The kid was smart, professional, and learned everything about the company’s products. But he couldn’t close a deal.
“This kid’s a loser,” his sales manager told Herjavec. “Let’s get him outta here.”
But Herjavec wanted to join a few calls with the kid first. What he observed was telling: The kid did nothing wrong, but he also did nothing to connect with his clients.
So Herjavec gave him some unusual advice: “On your next sales call, I want you to walk in, sit down, don’t say anything for like a minute,” Herjavec told him. “Then look the client in the eye and say, ‘I’m so thankful for you taking this meeting. But I have to be honest, I am so nervous. This is my first sales call.'”
The results were immediate: The kid started closing major deals.
Why? Because he shocked the narrative. It’s one of Herjavec’s greatest sales strategies.
Here’s the problem, he says: In most professional situations, people think they know exactly how things will go. They’re expecting a standardized, predictable experience. Which means they’re mentally checked out before you even begin.
“People don’t really wanna listen to you,” Robert told me. “When you go on a sales call and you sit down and you’re so excited, the client is thinking: How the hell do I get this person to leave?”
In other words: They already have a narrative about how this will go. So to get their attention, you must shock that narrative — to do something so unexpected and genuine that it forces people to look at you anew.
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