Sales Career Development

I used to count every "no" in sales like they were failures. Big mistake. After thousands of rejections, here's what I've learned: Each "no" isn't pushing you further from success. It's pulling you closer to your next "yes." Think about it... My worst sales day ever? 47 straight rejections. My best sales day ever? The very next day. Why? Because those 47 "no's" taught me EXACTLY what wasn't working. Here are 5 truths about rejection every salesperson needs to hear: 👇 1. It's NEVER personal (even when it feels like it is) They're not rejecting YOU. They're rejecting the timing, the budget, the priority. I once had a prospect tell me to "never call again." 6 months later? They became my biggest client. Their situation changed. Not me. 2. Most people don't know they need help Your job isn't to convince everyone. Your job is to help people realize their problems. ↳ They think their process is "fine" ↳ They don't see the inefficiencies ↳ They're comfortable with mediocre Sometimes a "no" is just "I don't understand yet." 3. Motivation can't depend on outcomes Lost a deal? Your energy stays HIGH. Got ghosted? Your enthusiasm stays STRONG. Faced rejection? Your optimism stays INTACT. Because here's the truth: The prospect who needs you most might be your next call. Don't let the last "no" rob them of your best effort. 4. Your perfect customers are out there Not everyone needs what you sell. But someone desperately does. While you're wasting energy on the wrong prospects, Your ideal customer is struggling without your solution. Every "no" gets you closer to finding them. 5. Remember your wins For every rejection, someone said "yes." For every slammed door, another opened. For every lost deal, you've transformed a business. Keep a "wins folder." Screenshots of thank you emails. Messages from happy customers. Success stories you've created. Open it after tough days. Here's what changed everything for me: I stopped seeing "no" as failure. I started seeing it as data. No budget? Note it. Move on. Wrong timing? Calendar it. Follow up. Not interested? Perfect. Next. Because rejection in sales isn't a wall. It's a filter. It filters out the wrong fits. It filters out the bad timing. It filters out the mismatched needs. Until all that's left... Are the people you can actually help. So the next time you hear "no"? Don't slump your shoulders. Square them. You're not failing. You're filtering. And your next "yes" just got closer.

Last year, I interviewed 35+ candidates for sales roles at Google and connected with many more looking to join. 👨💼 👩💼 The top 1% of candidates I met showed a specific kind of thinking. If you’re aiming for a role in tech sales, here is my take on how to position yourself: Network with Intent: Don’t just ask for a referral. Even when no roles are posted, reach out to current Googlers to understand the day-to-day and the specific business challenges their clients are facing. Bringing that insider context into your interview shows you’ve already done the discovery work. Demonstrate AI Fluency: We want to see how you use AI. Be ready to show how you use AI to synthesize reports, automate lead research, or sharpen your account strategy. Show it as your business assistant. Be a Data Storyteller: In my work at Google, I’ve seen that data is useless without a narrative. Explain the data signals you identified to solve a client’s problem and how you translated those metrics into a growth strategy. Get Comfortable Being Lost: Tech moves faster than any internal playbook. Share a time you built a strategy from scratch while the product or market was still evolving. We hire for the ability to find a path when there isn't a map. What other areas do you think is most critical for sales reps in 2026? Let’s hear your take below. ⬇️ #AIforBusiness #BusinessStrategy #GoogleEmployee #TechSales #CareerGrowth

The State of Tech Sales in 2025 AI and automation are now table stakes. If you are still treating them like a competitive advantage, you are already behind. Everyone has AI cold email tools. Everyone is automating DMs. Everyone is using AI call summaries. Everyone is trying to scale conversations instead of mastering them. That is why most reps are getting worse. They are moving faster while building less trust. They are replacing human connection with efficiency. They are cutting corners on the exact skills that actually close deals. Here is what is working in 2025 1️⃣Human connection. Buyers are overwhelmed with automation. They are craving real conversations with people who can understand their challenges and solve real problems. 2️⃣Unscalable tactics. Physical mailers. In person meetings. Handwritten notes. Live events. These used to be normal. Now they are rare. That is why they work. 3️⃣Critical thinking. AI can give you information. It cannot give you insight. Reps who think deeply and provide new perspectives immediately stand out. 4️⃣Creativity. Copying templates and following the crowd used to be safe. Now it gets you ignored. Reps who bring fresh solutions are getting the meetings and closing the contracts. 5️⃣Consistency. Most reps quit when it gets hard. The ones who keep showing up and refining their craft are taking market share. The reps who will dominate the next five years are not the ones with the fastest automation. They are the ones doing the unsexy work that cannot be automated. Master the fundamentals. Build real relationships. Keep leveling up your business acumen. That is how you win in 2025. — These daily habits helped me create $195m/year in sales (even in ROUGH economies): https://lnkd.in/gbpFye_t

When I removed targets from my team, the first question every sales leader asked was... “How did you stop everything turning into chaos?” The answer was simple but not easy. We replaced top down targets with something far more powerful… A personal success blueprint for every rep. If you’ve never used one, here’s exactly what it is and how it works. It's a structured, data informed plan the rep co creates with their manager. It defines the inputs, activity levels & funnel metrics they need to achieve THEIR definition of success. It becomes the foundation for coaching, accountability & weekly 1:1s. Here’s how we built it. Step 1️⃣: Start with what top performers actually do... We pulled the data from our best reps. Things like... Discovery calls per week Discovery to qualified Opps created per month Opps to close Average deal size Sales cycle Etc....you get my point. This became our baseline blueprint. Not a rule, more like a map of effective execution inside our reality. Step 2️⃣: Understand the rep's intrinsic motivators... Because a blueprint only works if the rep is building toward something they care about. But first we needed to model the openness we sought from them. I shared my personal manual for working with me; a meaty guide that included lots of personal info, including my drivers & motivations. Then we found out what drove them... Some wanted a promotion. Some had a clear earning goal. Some wanted to rebuild confidence. Some wanted to be at the top of the leaderboard. Once you uncover the driver, you can build a plan that actually means something. Step 3️⃣: Build their personalised blueprint grounded in data... This is the coaching conversation where real change happens. It sounds like… “If your goal is £X and your deal size is £Y you will need around Z deals…” “Your win rate is X%, top performers sit at Y% percent…where could you realistically get it to?” “With your discovery to qualified at X%, how many discovery calls per week do you need?” The manager questions. The rep thinks. Together they build something ambitious but believable. And everything is rooted in their personal motivator...e.g. a clear path to promotion. The rep signs off. The manager commits to coaching to it. Step 4️⃣: Contract for accountability... This is where most leaders fall. We asked every rep… “When you fall behind, how do you want me to respond?” Some wanted a Slack nudge. Some wanted a short problem solving session. Some wanted it raised in weekly 1:1s Different reps need different triggers. Agreeing this upfront turns accountability into partnership. Step 5️⃣: Use the blueprint every week... Every 1:1 followed the GROW model. Goal, Reality, Options, Will. What’s working, what's not, what options do you see and what will you commit to this week? It keeps the conversation grounded in reality and solution focussed. 5 simple steps but success is driven by the quality of the coaching. That'll be my next post...

If you close $50k+ deals, I have news: Sales is not a numbers game. Sales is a skills game. 7 skills that grow your income without burning out on the volume game: 1. Finding 'the need behind the need.' Great salespeople dig under the surface. When buyers share their problems, they listen. But then they follow up with: "What's going on in your business that's driving that to be a priority?" THAT gets to the true priority. 2. Quantifying customer pain. No measurement, no money. Quantifying pain does three things: a) justifies the spend b) creates urgency c) helps your customer appreciate the magnitude of the problem. Try asking: "What metric is suffering as a result of these challenges?" 3. Creating champions. A great champion runs through brick walls to get the deal done. They sell your product internally when you're not in the room. Indeed: Salespeople don't close deals. Champions do. A league of champions is like a magnetic force for closing deals. 4. Business acumen. The best sellers in the world are actually businesspeople that happen to know how to sell. Don't just improve your SALES acumen. Improve your BUSINESS acumen. Senior execs will respect you 10x more than reps who only know the latest sales techniques. 5. Executive conversations You can close five-figure deals without this skill. But if you want to close six, seven, and eight figure deals? You better have gravitas when it comes to 'facing off' with senior execs. They're direct. They use plain language. They're efficient. 6. Negotiation. Negotiation is a 'threshold' skill. That means it makes almost all of your other skills more valuable. Becoming a great negotiator will pay dividends the rest of your life. Dig in and master it. 7. Writing. Clear writing indicates clear thinking. Sloppy writing indicates sloppy thinking. Your job as a seller is to persuade and communicate. Become a master of every medium that involves: - sales calls - written word - group presentations What skills would you add?

The future of sales isn't simply about closing deals; it's about understanding the complex interplay of technology, human behavior, and incentives.   My colleague, and co-author on this project, Colleen Giblin, and I are excited to share one of the predictions explored in a new research note led by Alyssa Cruz and titled, "Predicts 2025: How Inclusivity and AI Will Reshape Sales Strategy." Our contribution examines a fascinating, and perhaps unsettling, trend emerging in B2B sales.   The core question we wrestled with: As AI-driven automation frees up sellers' time, how will they actually use that newfound capacity? The obvious answer might be "more selling," but what if the reality is more nuanced?   Our prediction is that a non-trivial percentage of sellers (potentially 10% by 2028) may leverage AI-driven time savings to pursue "overemployment"—covertly working multiple jobs. Think of it as a potential arbitrage opportunity created by the productivity gains of AI. This isn't just about extra cash; it's also about control, diversification (think portfolio theory applied to income), and even personal growth.   We found that factors like compensation structures (commission caps, quota ratcheting), the rise of remote work, and a growing sense of "workers not owing organizations anything" are all contributing to this potential shift. It's a complex feedback loop: AI boosts productivity, which creates time, which, combined with certain incentives and mindsets, can lead to unexpected behaviors. It’s crucial to understand the base rates of these behaviors and how they might evolve.   This raises some critical questions for sales leaders:   - How can we design compensation and incentive programs that align seller interests with organizational goals in the age of AI? - What are the ethical implications of "shadow AI" and how can we ensure responsible technology adoption? - How do we foster a culture of trust and transparency that mitigates the temptation towards overemployment?   This research isn't about predicting the future with certainty. It's about exploring a range of plausible outcomes and preparing for them. Understanding these dynamics is essential for building resilient and effective sales organizations.   Clients can consider how these insights might apply to your own sales strategies and explore the full note here. https://bit.ly/4hhxp4G   Non-clients can get smarter with Gartner, by exploring our insights here: https://gtnr.it/GExpert   #SalesStrategy #AIinSales #FutureofWork Adnan Z., Kelly Fischbein, Michael Katz, Daniel Hawkyard

I’m firing my VP of sales today. That’s what a CEO told me, frustrated just 2 months after hiring a VP of Sales. I'm confused, I say. He's only been here 60 days. Why are you firing him? "He hasn’t closed a single deal." "I don’t see the impact I expected." "The team’s numbers haven’t improved." But instead of making a rushed decision, we stepped in (as outsourced sales team) to assess the real problem: - Met with the team and leadership. - Spent weeks understanding the company’s sales history. - Hosted client dinners and shadowed customer calls. - Attended board meetings and built hiring plans. - Worked to fix misalignment between sales and marketing. We diagnosed that the real issue was not the VP’s performance, but a broken sales system. What most CEOs get wrong about sales leadership is that a VP of Sales isn’t a quick fix. Too often, CEOs expect them to: - Close deals instantly. - Magically boost team performance. - Solve deep-rooted sales problems overnight. But here's a reality check: → If leadership isn’t aligned on what sales success looks like, results will stay stagnant. → If your sales process isn’t scalable, no amount of leadership will drive revenue growth. → If your company blames sales for every issue, top talent won’t stick around. How did this story end? The CEO held off on firing the VP. 6 months later: - Sales were up. - Churn was down. - The team was performing. The VP didn’t change. The approach did. If your sales team isn’t hitting targets, don’t just replace the leader. Fix the system.

SalesTech Stack Is Facing a Big Shift... In the past six months, I’ve had at least 12 VPs of Sales from tech companies tell me: "We’re downsizing our sales tech stack." I asked them why. What led to that frustration? Here’s what I found: => Since 2016, companies have kept adding one tool after another—not just in sales, but across the organization. => During the pandemic, many rode the wave of inbound growth and added even more tools, anticipating they’d help scale revenue. => But 2023 hit hard: the reality of slower growth, economic pressure, and AI disruption affected almost every company—tech and non-tech alike. => Boards and CFOs are now asking sales leaders to justify $1M+ sales tech budgets, plus the cost of engineering teams managing those integrations. When times get tough, every tool gets a second look: ➔ Which ones are delivering real value? ➔ Which are just sitting in the stack, unused? ➔ Meanwhile, sales reps are buying their own AI tools, adding even more chaos and hidden costs. So, What’s the Reality in 2025? ✅ Every tool must prove a measurable revenue impact - no exceptions. ✅ Long-term contracts? No thanks. Most companies are opting for shorter renewals or walking away entirely. ✅ Best-of-breed tools? Fading fast. Companies prefer platforms that do multiple things well rather than one thing perfectly. ✅ AI tools look great in demos, but the first question sales leaders ask now is: "Does it generate real value as part of the full sales stack?" or is it a shiny object? What Does This Mean for SalesTech Vendors? 📌 Understand sales leaders’ real challenges. It’s no longer enough to show ROI for just your tool - how does it improve overall revenue impact across the entire tech stack? 📌 ROI is top-down and bottom-up. Your tool must deliver value to senior leaders and be indispensable to reps in the trenches. 📌 Pricing models will evolve. We’ll see a shift from per-seat pricing to usage-based models, and maybe even pricing tied to revenue generated - a tricky concept, but gaining traction. Takeaway 🔻 SalesTech consolidation will be massive in 2025–2026. 🔻 Sales leaders will cut tools that don’t directly impact business results. 🔻 Pricing models will shift toward performance-based pricing. What else are you seeing? #salestech #salesenablement #sales #trends #2025 #techstack

The Rejection Email That Changed My (and the candidate’s) Career I just helped a candidate secure a job offer after he'd been rejected by the same company just three months earlier. How? The candidate did something most job seekers never consider. When he received the initial rejection, instead of quietly moving on, he sent a thoughtful response thanking the hiring manager for the opportunity and asking for one specific piece of feedback. That email sparked a conversation which eventually led to him being considered for a different role. This story highlights something I've observed repeatedly in my years as a headhunter: your response to rejection can be as important as your application. Here's what successful candidates do differently: 1. They view rejections as pauses, not stops. The hiring world is fluid—budgets change, requirements shift, and new positions open up. Maintaining positive connections keeps you in the loop. 2. They ask for targeted feedback. Don't request general improvement areas. Ask: "Could you share one skill I could develop that would make me a stronger candidate for similar roles?" This is specific and actionable. 3. They show growth between applications. If you reapply, highlight what you've learned or improved since your last application. This demonstrates commitment and adaptability. 4. They stay visible professionally. Comment thoughtfully on the hiring manager's LinkedIn posts or share relevant industry articles. This keeps you on their radar without being pushy. 5. They treat recruiters as long-term connections. A good recruiter remembers candidates who communicate professionally, even when things don't work out. We often come back to people who left positive impressions. I've seen too many qualified candidates vanish after a rejection, missing future opportunities. The job search isn't just about finding vacancies—it's about building relationships that last beyond a single application. #JobSearch #CareerAdvice #Recruitment