Before
Clarify the objective. Anticipate interests. Separate facts from assumptions. Choose an intentional approach.
Selling is bigger than sales.
Something is
always being sold.
An idea. A decision. An opportunity.
Your value. Your credibility. A next step.
Every day, you encounter moments when you must read what is happening, understand what matters, earn trust and decide how to move an interaction forward.
Free assessment · Immediate results · About 8 minutes
The most valuable sales skills shouldn’t belong only to salespeople.
The reality
You sell every day—even if you’ve never worked in sales.
You sell when you advocate for yourself, present an idea, interview for an opportunity, negotiate, earn someone’s trust or try to move a decision forward.
The question isn’t whether you sell.
It’s how well you do it.
Everyone sells.
Not everyone knows how.
Not everyone knows how.
The hidden mistake
You can know what to say—and still make the wrong move.
Maybe you answered before discovering what they really meant.
Explained your value before understanding what mattered to them.
Reduced your price before discovering whether price was the problem.
The right technique applied to the wrong situation is still the wrong move.
The signature idea
The mistake often happens before you speak.
Before every answer, question, objection, ask or decision, there is a moment—sometimes only a second—when you interpret what is happening and decide what to do next.
- Did they reject the idea—or do they need more certainty?
- Is price really the problem—or simply the first explanation they offered?
- Should you answer, ask, clarify, pause, challenge, reassure—or walk away?
That is
The Moment Before the Move™.
The quality of your next move depends on the quality of your read.
Notice · Separate · Consider · Discover · Move
The complete capability
Reading the moment is only the beginning.
The Moment Before the Move may be the most critical point in an interaction. But what you do before, during and after that moment also determines the outcome.
There’s a name for this ability.
Sales Literacy™
Sales Literacy is the ability to recognize what is happening, understand what matters, communicate value, earn trust, navigate resistance and make moves that improve the likelihood of a better outcome.
During
Listen for what is changing. Ask better questions. Communicate value clearly. Navigate resistance.
After
Follow up with purpose. Preserve trust and momentum. Learn from the outcome. Adapt your next move.
Start here
Put your instincts
to the test.
Step into recognizable real-world situations and explore how you read the moment and choose your next move.
Start the Free AssessmentPersonalized results · No sales experience required
Your Sales Literacy Profile
A starting point for the moments that shape what happens next.
- READ
Explore how you recognize and interpret the situations in the quiz. - MOVE
See the patterns in the responses you choose. - PRACTICE
Explore 25 situations, including how a changed circumstance can change the move. - NEXT
Get three practical moves and a starting point for practice.
Relevant to your world
The same capability.
Different everyday moments.
At work, in your business or in a sales conversation—Sales Literacy helps you recognize what matters and choose a better next move.
When you start the assessment, tell us which situation fits you. We’ll make the questions relevant to your world.
Take the Free AssessmentThe human advantage
AI can give you the words.
You still have to read the moment.
AI can help you prepare. It can suggest words, questions and responses. It can help you analyze what happened afterward.
But in a real interaction, you still have to recognize what is happening, understand what matters, earn trust and decide how to move the interaction forward.
That is Sales Literacy—and in an AI-powered world, it is becoming more valuable than ever.
How RWS helps
From knowing—to recognizing—to doing.
Discover
See patterns in how you recognize and judge the situations in your assessment.
Understand
Learn the principles and capabilities behind Sales Literacy.
Practice
Work through recognizable moments and choose what to do next.
Apply
Use better judgment in the conversations that affect your life.
Improve
Reflect on the outcome, notice patterns and choose what to practice next.
The goal isn’t to memorize scripts.
It’s to become better at knowing what to do next—and why.
Why Real World Sales
Built in the real world—not a textbook.
Across decades, Chris Sargent has studied what causes people to trust, resist, decide, hesitate and move forward.
From in-home selling in the 1980s to earning more than $10 million a year in personal commissions in his strongest years, Chris learned that success rarely comes from memorizing the perfect words.
It comes from recognizing what is happening, understanding what matters and knowing what to do next.
Real World Sales was created to make those capabilities available to everyone—not only professional salespeople.
The most valuable sales skills shouldn’t belong only to salespeople.
Meet Chris SargentYour free experience
1. Take the assessment
Choose your responses to 32 situations in your pathway. Your result appears before email.
2. Open your profile
Enter your email to unlock all eight signals, three practical moves and all 25 practice situations immediately.
3. Keep practicing
Start anywhere in your 25. Save your return email and come back when you need it. Pathway emails begin on Day 2.
Something is always being sold.
Your next important
moment is coming.
Will you recognize what is happening?
Will you understand what matters?
Will you know your next move?
Read the moment. Make the move. Adapt to what happens next.