If I Had to Start Over as a Designer, I’d Learn Sales

If I had to rewind and start fresh as a designer, I wouldn’t open Figma.
I wouldn’t dive into design systems, or learn the latest prototyping tool.
I’d open a book on sales tactics.

Sounds counterintuitive, right?

After all, design is about solving problems, creating usable interfaces, and making things beautiful and intuitive. That’s what we’re taught. That’s what we train for. But here’s the truth most design schools and bootcamps don’t talk about:

The majority of a designer’s job isn't designing.
It's communicating about the design.

The Real Work Behind the Work

As designers, especially in B2B SaaS or product teams, here’s what fills most of our calendar:

• Gathering information: asking the right questions to understand the user, the business, and the tech constraints.

• Scoping and planning: understanding priorities, constraints, and resources.

• Research: not just usability tests, but talking to users, running interviews, and translating needs into insights.

• Articulating design decisions: explaining why something looks or works the way it does, in a way that makes sense to engineers, PMs, and founders.

• Leading workshops: collaborating in real time to shape solutions with stakeholders.

• Presenting work: confidently walking a team or a client through your solution and standing behind it.

You might only spend 30–40% of your time actually designing.

The rest?
It’s about selling the design.

What Sales People Know That Designers Should

Salespeople are trained to:

• Handle objections

• Read people’s reactions

• Reframe conversations when needed

• Understand pain points deeply

• Persuade without pressure

• Speak clearly, confidently, and concisely

• Create alignment around a solution

Now imagine bringing those skills into a design context. Imagine being the designer who:

• Can read the room during a presentation

• Can align a stubborn stakeholder with a well-timed question

• Can defend your design without getting defensive

• Can get buy-in early and avoid endless rounds of revision

That’s a design superpower.

Designers Don’t Need to “Do Sales” — But They Need to Think Like Sales

This isn’t about turning designers into sales reps.

It’s about understanding that every step of the design process involves selling ideas:

• You sell your discovery insights to justify the problem space.

• You sell your low-fidelity prototype as a valid exploration.

• You sell your final design as the right solution.

• You even sell the need for design itself when working with founders or engineers who don’t see the value yet.

Design is not just what you make. It’s the conversations around what you make.

If you don’t lead those conversations, someone else will—and their ideas might not be as user-focused as yours.

Common Misconceptions

Let’s clear a few things up:

“Designs should speak for themselves.”
No. They don’t. Not in product teams. Not in boardrooms. Not in startups. A clean UI doesn't speak to business goals or constraints unless you do.

“I’m an introvert, I hate selling.”
Sales isn’t about being loud. It’s about being clear. You don’t have to charm people—you just have to guide them through your thinking in a way that makes them care.

“I already use AI and tools that speed up my work.”
That’s great! But what happens when you have to present those AI-generated flows to the CPO? Or align the founder on a problem worth solving? The best tools in the world won’t help if you can’t carry the conversation.

3 Sales Skills Every Designer Should Steal

Here are the top three sales skills I’d recommend designers build:

1. Discovery and Listening

Salespeople don’t pitch right away. First, they ask questions. They listen for the pain points, and dig deeper than surface-level wants.

Designers can learn from this. Instead of jumping to wireframes, spend more time listening. Ask why. Then ask “why” again.

2. Storytelling

Sales isn’t about dumping features. It’s about crafting a story where the customer sees themselves winning.

Designers need this same arc when presenting work. It’s not just, “Here’s the UI.” It’s:

• Here’s what we learned

• Here’s the challenge

• Here’s how we explored

• Here’s why this solution works best

You’re not showing a screen. You’re telling a story.

3. Handling Objections

Every designer hears it:
“Can we make it more intuitive?”
“Can we use more color?”
“Can we try a version without that?”

Salespeople don’t panic when they hear “no.” They get curious. They clarify. They reframe.

Designers can do the same—handling pushback not as conflict, but as a chance to align on goals.

Tools Are Temporary, Communication Is Forever

Yes, it’s exciting to learn about AI, new design systems, or even how to code.

But trends fade. Tools change. What never goes out of style?
Clear communication. Confident presentation. Persuasive storytelling.

You’ll use those in every job, every project, every meeting.

People Work > Pixel Work

At the end of the day, if you want to grow as a designer, it’s not just about mastering pixels.
It’s about mastering people.

If you’re already good at this—if you enjoy the client calls, the stakeholder meetings, the interviews—then it’s already in your blood. That’s your unfair advantage.

But if you’re not there yet, don’t stress.
Start small:

• Read one sales book (I recommend Sell with a Story or Gap Selling)

• Rehearse your design presentation like a pitch

• Ask more questions in your next stakeholder meeting

The more you think like a sales pro, the more impact you’ll have as a designer.