What Great Salespeople Know Before They Enter the Room (And How Agentforce Gets Them There)

What if the best thing a salesperson could do is stop thinking about selling?

Not as a tactic, but as a genuine shift in how you show up. Leading with curiosity over pitch. Listening for what’s not being said. Understanding a customer’s world well enough that the right solution becomes obvious. 

That’s how Eoin Pigott approaches his work as an Account Executive at Salesforce, partnering with small and growing businesses across Australia and New Zealand. He blends sales with a consultancy mindset that prioritizes understanding a business beyond the meeting room. 

If your approach is similar to Eoin’s, we invite you to join our Talent Community to learn more about our sales roles and stay connected for new opportunities. 

Why Curiosity is a Top Sales Skill

Before he figures out what works for a business, Eoin makes it his job to understand how that business actually works.

He once entered a customer’s event with nothing on the calendar. No meeting, no agenda, just a quiet decision to show up.

“I wanted to see what it actually felt like for their customers,” he says.

What he found surprised him. The scale, the logistics, and the energy of the room provided details that would never surface in a scheduled call. “You can ask questions in a meeting, but those conversations follow the planned agenda. Being there reveals what meetings never could.”

It’s an instinct that shapes every relationship he builds across ANZ. In a market where business is built on trust as much as results, Eoin knows that trust is best earned in the moments nobody planned for.

How Account Executives Earn Trust

When one customer returned after trying a different platform that hadn’t worked for them, Eoin’s instinct was simple.

“My immediate thought was not to sell, but to build their confidence,” he recalls. “I sat with the customers to understand their frustrations, went onsite often, and worked closely with the partner to get things back on track.”

Moments like that aren’t setbacks to him. They’re where the real work happens. “If customers face an issue, I see it as my responsibility to help fix it,” he said.

His drive to be the most prepared person in the room is what led him to Agentforce, which handles the heavy lifting of research and data in the background so he can arrive at every meeting with the right context.

More Time for the Conversations That Matter

Agentforce gives Eoin the one thing every good salesperson wants: more time for the conversations that matter. The minutes he once spent building context, scanning notes, and piecing together an account history are now saved before he even starts a conversation. “It gives you time back,” Eoin says, “and that time goes into having better conversations.”

In practice, that looks like walking into a meeting already aligned and starting exactly where it matters. Instead of playing catch-up, he can focus on what has changed, where the urgency lies, and what the customer is really trying to solve.

This efficiency has also sharpened his curiosity about what could work better or be handled differently, a mindset that extends far beyond his own desk. Eoin is part of an open Slack channel where solution engineers and account executives bring real customer problems to the table. “We ask, ‘What if Agentforce could do this?’” he says, noting how those ideas are picked up, tested, and pushed further by the entire team.

AE Career Lessons From the Field

Ask Eoin what he’s learned and he doesn’t reach for the highlights. He reaches for the moments that shaped him most.

• Match your pace to the customer. Move at their speed rather than your own, sprinting when they sprint and slowing down when they need clarity. “If you don’t match their pace, you lose them.”
• Own the outcome, whatever it is. The response to a problem matters far more than the mistake itself. Get in, fix it, move forward.
• Stay curious as the role evolves. The people who thrive are those who lean into change rather than waiting for it to settle. Since AI is fundamentally changing the way everyone works, “constant learning is the only way to stay ahead.” 
• Let the bad weeks go. Every salesperson faces difficult stretches, but the difference lies in how you process them. “You’ll have bad weeks, but those tough moments only stick if you let them.”

Find Your Momentum at Salesforce

What excites Eoin most about Agentforce is the potential it creates for the future of the industry. He believes that as the role of the account executive evolves, the people who stay curious and committed to learning will be the ones who shape what comes next.

If you are ready to build meaningful customer relationships and grow in a role that keeps changing, you can find a headstart by checking out our free educational resources on Trailhead.

Explore our open roles or join our Talent Community to see where your own momentum can take you.

AI supported the writers and editors who created this article.