Sales leadership, from the field and the research.
A new article every week on leading sales teams, selling with integrity, and building revenue engines that last.
Engineering Repeatable Momentum in Complex Markets
How to build sales momentum that repeats in complex B2B markets by designing systems, routines, and leadership rhythms instead of relying on heroics.
Read article →Leading Sales Teams Through Economic Uncertainty
Practical guidance for sales leaders on keeping teams steady, customers served, and forecasts honest during periods of economic uncertainty.
Read article →Deliberate Practice for Sales Teams
How sales leaders can apply deliberate practice to build lasting skills, replacing one-time training events with focused, repeated practice and feedback.
Read article →When to Bring In a Fractional CRO
The signals that a company needs a fractional CRO, what the role should and shouldn't do, and how to set the engagement up for lasting results.
Read article →Trust as a Competitive Advantage
Why building trust in B2B sales is a strategic advantage, and the specific behaviors that create it with buyers over time.
Read article →The Disciplined Executive: Decisions Under Pressure
Practical habits that help executives and sales leaders make sound decisions under pressure, drawing on military experience and bounded rationality.
Read article →Sales Is a Career, Not a Fallback: A Message to Students
A direct message to college students about why professional sales is a serious, rewarding career path and how to prepare for it while still in school.
Read article →Managing the Long Sales Cycle Without Losing Momentum
Practical ways to keep complex B2B deals moving through a long sales cycle without losing relevance, urgency, or the buyer's attention.
Read article →Content That Actually Helps Your Sales Team
How to create sales enablement content that reps actually use, built around real buyer questions and the stages of a B2B decision.
Read article →Sales Compensation That Drives the Right Behavior
Principles for sales compensation design that align rep incentives with company strategy, customer value, and long-term revenue.
Read article →Behavioral Theory of the Firm, Explained for Sales Leaders
Cyert and March's behavioral theory of the firm, translated into practical lessons for sales leaders who want to understand how their organizations behave.
Read article →The Follow-Through Principle
Why consistent, value-adding follow-through matters more than a great first meeting, and how to build it into your selling routine.
Read article →Measuring What Matters in Sales
How to pick a small set of sales metrics that tell you where revenue is really coming from and what your team should do next.
Read article →What Employers Want From Entry-Level Sales Hires
The qualities employers value most in entry-level sales hires, and how students and new graduates can develop and demonstrate them.
Read article →Expanding Existing Accounts the Right Way
How B2B sellers can grow existing accounts by earning the right to expand, understanding new needs, and treating expansion as service rather than extraction.
Read article →Your First Week in a Selling Role
Practical guidance for experts and career changers stepping into a selling role, focused on what to learn and which habits to build in week one.
Read article →The Behavioral Advantage: Removing Friction From Your Sales Organization
How sales leaders can use behavioral theory to find and remove the hidden friction that drains sellers' time, attention, and motivation.
Read article →One Funnel, Two Teams: Designing Shared Revenue Metrics
How sales and marketing can design shared revenue metrics, agree on definitions, and stop arguing about lead quality and credit.
Read article →Selling Capital Equipment: Lessons From the Field
Practical lessons on selling capital equipment, from navigating buying committees and budget cycles to selling total cost of ownership and service.
Read article →Becoming the Trusted Advisor
What trusted advisor selling really requires in B2B markets, and the everyday habits that move a seller from vendor to advisor over time.
Read article →Developing Nontraditional Salespeople
How leaders can recruit and develop nontraditional salespeople, from engineers to veterans, by building on their expertise instead of erasing it.
Read article →Why I Went Back for a Doctorate After 30 Years in Sales
Why I pursued an executive doctorate after three decades in sales, and what practitioner research can offer leaders who live with the problems daily.
Read article →Defining Your Ideal Customer Profile in Industrial Markets
A practical approach to building an ideal customer profile for industrial and capital equipment markets, grounded in fit, buying behavior, and value.
Read article →Quota Pressure and Integrity: Holding the Line
How sellers and sales leaders can protect integrity under quota pressure, and why designing the system matters as much as personal character.
Read article →Your First 90 Days Leading a Sales Team
A practical, phase-by-phase plan for a new sales leader's first 90 days, built on listening, diagnosing the system, and earning trust.
Read article →The First Sixty Seconds of a Sales Meeting
How to use the opening minute of a B2B sales meeting to show respect, set a clear purpose, and earn the right to a real conversation.
Read article →What Sales Competitions Teach Students That Classrooms Can't
Sales competitions put students in live, high-pressure conversations with real feedback. That experience builds skills no lecture can fully deliver.
Read article →Prospecting Is a Search for Fit
Prospecting is not about volume for its own sake. It is a disciplined search for customers you can genuinely help, and it gets easier when treated that way.
Read article →Marketing Management Fundamentals Every Sales Leader Should Know
Sales leaders who understand segmentation, targeting, positioning, and the marketing mix make better decisions and better partners for marketing.
Read article →A Growth Mindset for People Who Hate Selling
If you believe you are just not a salesperson, this is for you. Selling is a learnable skill, and a growth mindset is where improvement starts.
Read article →Lean Six Sigma Lessons for the Sales Floor
Process thinking from manufacturing can make sales teams more consistent. Here is how to apply Lean Six Sigma ideas without losing the human side.
Read article →Pricing Conversations Sales Leaders Avoid — and Shouldn't
Discounting, price increases, and value-based pricing are hard conversations. Sales leaders who avoid them leave margin and trust on the table.
Read article →Hiring for Sales Potential, Not Sales Polish
Smooth interviews do not predict sales success. Here is how to look past polish and hire for curiosity, coachability, and discipline.
Read article →Closing Without Coercion
Closing is not a trick at the end of a pitch. It is the natural result of honest discovery and a clear, respectful ask for commitment.
Read article →Bounded Rationality: How Buyers Really Decide
Buyers decide with limited time, information, and attention. Herbert Simon's bounded rationality shows how to sell in a way that helps them.
Read article →Turning Your Professional Network Into a Pipeline — Without Using People
Your network can become a healthy pipeline if you lead with usefulness, stay in touch honestly, and ask clearly when the fit is real.
Read article →The Systemic Reasons Top Reps Fail as Managers
When top reps struggle as managers, the cause is usually the system around them, not a lack of skill. Here is what to look at and change.
Read article →Why Your B2B Value Proposition Isn't Landing
Most value propositions fail because they describe the seller instead of the buyer's problem. Here is how to fix the focus and make it believable.
Read article →Handling Objections With Grace
Objections are information, not attacks. Here is how to hear them fully, respond honestly, and keep the buyer's trust intact.
Read article →Forecasting Is a Behavior, Not a Spreadsheet
Forecast accuracy is not a spreadsheet problem. It reflects how honestly a sales team assesses deals and how leaders respond to what they hear.
Read article →Asking Better Questions: A Practical Guide for B2B Sellers
Good questions are the most underrated tool in B2B selling. A practical look at planning, sequencing, and asking questions that actually help buyers.
Read article →Coaching vs. Managing: Where Frontline Sales Leaders Should Spend Their Time
Frontline sales leaders are pulled toward managing deals and reports. Sales coaching is where lasting improvement happens, and it needs protected time.
Read article →Communicating Value Without Bragging
Many experts undersell because they hate self-promotion. Value is easier to communicate when the focus shifts from you to the buyer's outcome.
Read article →Selling in Long, Complex B2B Sales Cycles
Long, complex B2B deals reward patience, structure, and a real understanding of how organizations decide. Here is how to sell in them well.
Read article →Why Every University Needs a Sales Program
Sales is one of the most common first jobs for business graduates, yet many universities barely teach it. Dedicated sales programs close that gap.
Read article →What the Army Taught Me About Leading Sales Teams
Twelve years in the U.S. Army shaped how I lead sales teams: clear intent, high standards, preparation, and taking care of the people doing the work.
Read article →The Discovery Call: Listening for the Problem Behind the Problem
The first problem a buyer names is rarely the whole story. Strong discovery means listening past the surface to find what is really driving the decision.
Read article →Making Sales and Marketing One Team
Sales and marketing often work hard in different directions. Real alignment comes from shared goals, shared language, and shared accountability.
Read article →Ethics Isn't a Ceiling on Performance — It's the Foundation
Many sellers treat ethics as a constraint on results. In long-term B2B relationships, ethical selling is the base that sustained performance is built on.
Read article →Building a Revenue Engine That Doesn't Depend on Heroes
When revenue depends on a few heroes, growth is fragile. A repeatable sales process turns individual talent into organizational capability.
Read article →You're Already in Sales: A Note to Engineers, Clinicians, and Consultants
Engineers, clinicians, and consultants already persuade, propose, and earn trust every day. Seeing that as selling is the first step to doing it well.
Read article →Why Most New Sales Managers Struggle in Their First Year
New sales managers rarely fail for lack of talent. They fail inside systems that were never designed to help them make the leap from seller to leader.
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