Preface: When I met John Nardella years ago, he was an eager but relatively new AE for a company selling DevOps tools. Within a couple of years, he grew to be the top performer, globally. Today, he is responsible for some of SAPs largest enterprise accounts. John is viciously focused–he deeply understands the customer and their drivers. He will always do the right thing for the customer. At the same time, he considers his quota as something he passes on the way to achieving his personal goals. Like others who’ve offered their stories, John has a clear purpose: “Each sale […]

Preface: Kelly Riggs and I got acquainted a number of years ago. We started sharing ideas on LinkedIn, then Kelly has invited me to appear on his podcasts. Like me, Kelly is a “grinder,” he doesn’t believe in tricks/gimmicks, he believes top performers do the work.  One of the things Kelly highlights is the thrill of competing and achieving, “why I love the profession – it provides a way for me to feed my competitive nature. I want to set goals and reach them. I want to look at the top of the leaderboard and figure out a way to […]

Preface: Don Mulhern is a great friend and colleague. One thing that struck me in Don’s contribution is the joy in “doing the work.” Reflecting on other stories, everyone is excited to “do the work.” Another thing struck me: “And I love what professional selling is not. It isn’t the smarmy, pushy approach using sleazy tricks and gimmicks that unfortunately is how it’s still perceived by many. Rather, it requires process, structure, discipline and collaboration with customers to help them improve their business outcomes.   Why I Love Sales Dave, I found your question very thought provoking. As I pondered […]

Preface: I’m departing from my normal process of introducing a new story about selling. Every once in a while you see something so special, moving, and important, you have to change things. Chloe’s story is just that. I’ve told the story of a variety of others. Some with very distinguished leadership and selling careers. People who have managed 1000s and led multi-billion efforts. People who have been individual contributors, learning, growing and achieving great success. Chloe Wold is different. She’s been in sales for less than a year. It’s her first real sales role. But of all the stories I’ve […]