Belal Batrawy
Founder, Learntosell.io

Why you should follow Belal: Belal has been in software sales for 15 years with extensive experience in outbound prospecting. He specializes in getting skeptical prospects to become happy customers with zero brand recognition. He shares these insights via online courses and bootcamps at Learntosell.io. He’s also been recognized as a sales thought leader by many top brands and media outlets, including Salesforce, LinkedIn, Gartner, and Business Insider.  

⚡ Pro tip: Help your buyers get comfortable with the idea of change.
Sellers often believe that “pain” is enough to make someone act. It’s not. The willingness to change means the buyer is willing to involve others, seek budget, and overcome healthy friction to make a purchase. To establish this willingness to change, make sure you’re competing against the status quo, and confirming that you’re prospect is ready to switch before you advance the deal forward. Otherwise, you might lose it at the end.

Donald C. Kelly
Founder and Chief Sales Evangelist, The Sales Evangelist

Why you should follow Donald: Donald is a former top-performing technology sales professional, the author of “Sell It Like A Mango: A New Seller’s Guide To Closing More Deals,” and the co-author of multiple digital textbooks, including “Professional Selling: A Guide for the Modern Sales Professional.” He is an adjunct professor at Brigham Young University – Idaho, and he hosts the popular sales podcast, “The Sales Evangelist,” with listeners in 155 countries and over four million downloads. 

Elyse Archer
CEO, She Sells and Superhuman Selling

Why you should follow Elyse: Elyse Archer is the founder of the Superhuman Selling and She Sells movements, which help entrepreneurs and sales professionals level up their sales and their income. She is also an author, international keynote speaker, and host of “She Sells Radio,” where she shares best practices from female entrepreneurs and sales professionals who have accomplished their goals. 

⚡ Pro tip: Build your personal brand. 
Do this through social media, podcasting, video, and speaking. Don’t worry about being perfect. Instead, focus on being helpful, with tips and ideas to help your customers overcome their challenges. As you build your thought leadership, your reputation will soar within your industry, attracting and converting ideal clients at a rapid rate.

Ian Koniak
CEO, Untap Your Sales Potential

Why you should follow Ian: Ian Koniak is the founder and CEO of Untap Your Sales Potential, which helps account executives perform to their full potential in sales with world-class coaching, courses, and community engagement opportunities. With over $100M sold in his career, Ian was the former #1 enterprise account executive at Salesforce and the former Dean of Pavilion’s Enterprise Sales School. 

⚡ Pro tip: Focus on your customer’s goals to achieve your own. 
Understand what success looks like for your customers in detail. Then, show them a clear path to achieving their desired goals through use of your products and services. Your sales success is a direct outcome of making others successful.

Jen Allen-Knuth
Founder, DemandJen

Why you should follow Jen: Jen is the founder of DemandJen, which offers keynotes and workshops to help sellers defeat the buyer’s status quo. Previously, she was the chief evangelist officer for The Challenger Sale company. Prior to that, she spent 18 years as an individual contributor, selling over $50M in professional services as a new logo hunter and account manager. She is also a co-host of the “30 Minutes to President’s Club,” one of the world’s top podcasts in sales.

⚡ Pro tip: Learn how to show the cost of inaction (COI)
Buyers are inherently skeptical about ROI claims. The solution? Seek to reframe their beliefs around the cost of inaction (COI). ROI is a hypothetical: the return you could see if you do something. But COI is reality: It’s the cost and risk you already have and will keep experiencing if you don’t change.

John Barrows
CEO, JB Sales

Why you should follow John: John is the CEO of JB Sales, a sales training company that is recognized as one of the top three sales training organizations, according to G2. John is also recognized as a Top Voice in Sales on LinkedIn, where he has over 380k followers. John is the author of “I Want to Be in Sales When I Grow Up!” a bestselling children’s book that he wrote with his daughter to help introduce sales to the younger generation, with 100% of the profits going to charity.  

⚡ Pro tip: Turn your sales office into an AI lab.
Sales reps spend 72% of their time on non-selling tasks. Each one of these tasks is something that you can offload onto AI. Each week, get the team together and choose one piece of the sales process you want to improve. Then, see if you can find an AI tool that can take that piece on. It’s about experimenting your way to greater efficiency.

Rana Kordahi
Founder, The Selling Academy

Why you should follow Rana: Rana is the founder of The Selling Company, where she has spent a decade helping thousands of sales teams overcome challenges and develop a passion for selling. Rana’s unique approach combines change management principles with sales fundamentals to motivate sellers to apply their new knowledge. She was named a Top 10 Female Sales Coach by Yahoo Finance and a Top 15 Sales Experts to Watch by the Australian Business Journal.  

⚡ Pro tip: Never internalize an objection. 
Sometimes, sales reps stop selling because they begin to internalize the prospect’s objections as truths. As a result, they unconsciously begin to doubt their products and services. Yes, address your customer’s concerns. But it’s equally important not to become discouraged by them. Keep believing in your products and services. 

Anita Nielsen
President, LDK Advisory Services

Why you should follow Anita: Anita is known as the “Sales Sensei” because of her extraordinary, engaging approach to creating lasting behavior change in B2B sales organizations. She supports C-level and senior sales leaders, uncovering the gaps in organizations’ selling systems and developing custom sales enablement strategies to address them. 

⚡ Pro tip: Ask questions that expose emotion. 
You want emotions to seep into the conversation. Asking vanilla discovery questions will get you facts. But it’s feelings and stories that will help you build that authentic relationship that earns you the right to keep selling. Try asking open-ended questions to find out the “why” behind customer pains and goals. For example: “Can you help me understand X?” And, “How does that impact you in your role?” 

Hannah Ajikawo
Founder and CEO, Revenue Funnel

Why you should follow Hannah: Hannah is the CEO and Founder of Revenue Funnel, a consulting firm that helps go-to-market teams optimize their sales process for the B2B buyer journey. Hannah also leads international growth for Sistas in Sales, a professional organization for women of color in sales. She also led the Google Leadership Summit with 72 sales leaders. Previously, she was a go-to-market strategy lead for Skaled Consulting, where she grew revenue for the EMEA region to seven figures within a year.

⚡ Pro tip: Become indispensable to your customer.
You can be an asset to your buyers, leadership, and peers by understanding what’s important to them and showing up to support them. Remain curious and malleable to keep adding value.

Nick Cegelski
Founder, 30 Minutes to President’s Club

Why you should follow Nick: Nick Cegelski is the Founder of 30 Minutes to President’s Club and the host of the club’s podcast by the same name — one of the world’s top podcasts with over two million annual streams. Previously, Nick spent a number of years selling enterprise resource planning software to large law firms and was a wrestling coach at the University of Southern California.

⚡ Pro tip: Immerse yourself in your buyer’s world. 
Stop consuming content that’s designed for salespeople and start consuming content that’s designed for the buyer persona you sell to. Reading trade journals and industry whitepapers will help you develop your sales skills way faster than scrolling LinkedIn and taking random sales courses.

Peter Strohkorb
Founder and Owner, Peter Strohkorb Sales Advisory

Why you should follow Peter: After over two decades in sales and marketing leadership roles in multinational corporations like Dell, Sony, 3M, and Canon, Peter founded Peter Strohkorb Sales Advisory to help sellers adjust to new buyer demands. He specializes in working with sales and business leaders in technology and B2B services, and his affordable and fast-working Sales Acceleration Advisory services have helped businesses on three continents explode their sales success. 

⚡ Pro tip: Adapt your selling approach to how buyers want to buy.
One great way to sell more? Make it easier for your buyers to buy from you. Have you noticed that today’s buyers aren’t responding to the same old selling methods? It’s because buyers want buying to be easy, and they want to do it on their terms. Sellers need to focus less on what they’re selling and imagine what their selling feels like from the buyer’s perspective. This empathy will be rewarded with more sales.

Richard Harris
Founder, The Harris Consulting Group

Why you should follow Richard: Richard offers sales coaching and training for founders and sales reps, bringing over two decades of experience in sales roles ranging from SDR to VP of sales. His client list includes Salesforce, Zoom, and Gainsight. He’s also the co-founder of the sales conference Surf and Sales and is the host of the Surf and Sales podcast. 

⚡ Pro tip: Find the skeptic. 
Sales reps are trained to identify the decision-maker early on. But don’t forget to identify the skeptic as well. Ask your contact who the most skeptical person on the team is when it comes time to review products like yours. Then, get to work on winning the skeptic over. Often, you won’t get to the decision-maker until you do.

Scott Leese
Founder, Scott Leese Consulting and The Surf and Sales Summit

Why you should follow Scott: Scott is the founder of Scott Leese Consulting. Drawing on his experience as a six-time sales leader and four-time founder, Scott has played a part in 11 exits, and focuses on a scalable approach to sales strategies, processes, people, and infrastructure. Scott is also a co-founder of The Surf and Sales Summit, an author of three books, and the recipient of the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals Top 25 Award.

⚡ Pro tip: Set a measurable goal for growing your network.
If your network isn’t growing, you’re in trouble. Your success will be limited by the number of people in your orbit. Make it a point to grow your network and community every day. Set this growth as a measurable goal and perform against it to hold yourself accountable.

Armand Farrokh
Founder and VP of sales, 30 Minutes to President’s Club

Why you should follow Armand: Armand is an expert in leadership, revenue growth strategies, and sales tactics as the founder of 30 Minutes to President’s Club, a sales media company known for running one of the world’s most popular sales podcasts. Prior to running 30 Minutes to President’s Club full-time, he jumped from top account executive at Carta to VP of sales at Pave, all by the age of 29. Under Armand’s guidance, Pave grew from $100k to more than $10M in annual recurring revenue.

⚡ Pro tip: Lead your cold calls with context and a personal connection.
Your goal is to have your prospect forget it’s a cold call. Here’s how: Lead with context (who do you know like them?), introduce yourself (always after the context), and ask if they’ve heard your name tossed around, using an assumptive tone. This makes the call a connection — a conversation. It’s no longer about the sale. It’s about the relationship.

Daniel Disney
Founder, The Daily Sales

Why you should follow Daniel: Daniel is frequently referred to as the “King of Social,” having amassed an audience of over one million LinkedIn followers. His content reaches over 150 million LinkedIn users every year and he has generated millions in sales from the platform. He is the best-selling author of “The Ultimate LinkedIn Sales Guide” and “The Ultimate LinkedIn Messaging Guide,” and is the founder of The Daily Sales.

⚡ Pro tip: Grow a valuable network, not just a big one. 
This should include existing customers, target prospects, key stakeholders, and relevant industry people. Don’t just add everyone in sight, but be thoughtful about adding people you’d like to be in contact with. Also, be sure to write a personalized note every time you connect to someone very senior in a business (VP or above). This will increase the likelihood they’ll engage.

Jason Bay
Founder and CEO, Outbound Squad

Why you should follow Jason: Jason is the founder and CEO of Outbound Squad, a sales coaching consultancy. He’s on a mission to help managers improve training, and help reps turn strangers into paying customers. His customers include sales teams from companies like Zoom, Medallia, Gong, and Xfinity.

⚡ Pro tip: Use “boring” subject lines in cold emails for 40% open rates.
Clever isn’t always better, especially with cold email subject lines. Data supports that subject lines with five words or fewer have the highest open and reply rates. For example, a recent client of mine sells automated welding solutions. Their top challenge? Finding welding talent. They tried cold outreach emails with the subject line: “Automated welding for X company” but had less than a 25% open rate. After shortening the subject line to just one word — “Welders” — they achieved a 90% open rate. When in doubt, keep it short, simple, and obvious.

Larry Long Jr. 
Founder and CEO, LLJR Enterprises

Why you should follow Larry: Larry is the founder and CEO of LLJR Enterprises, where he motivates sales professionals through keynote presentations and coaching and training programs. He is the host of “The Cold Calling Podcast” and the author of “JOLT!” which helps sales professionals embrace strikeouts as lessons learned. As an experienced sales leader in software sales, Larry understands many of the challenges in sales today and is driven to help sales teams level up.

⚡ Pro tip: Commit to yourself. 
Sales professionals should prioritize themselves: their growth, learning, and development. First, make time for self-reflection. Second, document feelings, experiences, and lessons. Third, adapt to the lessons learned and earned, with the goal of holistic well-being, from mindset to habits and actions.

Lori Richardson
CEO, Score More Sales and Women Sales Pros

Why you should follow Lori: Lori consults, trains, and coaches on hiring stronger sellers and helping leaders improve revenue growth through data. Using diagnostics, she coaches and trains on building core sales competencies. She is an author, a speaker, and host of the award-winning podcast, “Conversations with Women in Sales.” Lori is an award-winning “women in sales” speaker and consultant helping sales teams create an inclusive environment for revenue growth. 

⚡ Pro tip: Diagnose before you prescribe. 
The power of selling is understanding the buyer: what they need and what their problems and challenges are. Most sellers do not know enough before engaging with a company. Learn to do your homework in advance. 

Marcus Chan
President and Founder, Venli Consulting Group

Why you should follow Marcus: Marcus helps sales managers lead their reps to double win rates in less than 90 days. He is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of “Six-Figure Sales Secrets.” Prior to this, Marcus was in corporate America for 14 years, including working for two Fortune 500 organizations and being promoted 12 times in eight years. In his last role, he led one of the top sales regions in the company with over 110 employees. 

⚡ Pro tip: Use more channels and multimedia in your outreach.
We’ve all seen how prospects are more scattered than ever. You have to find new ways to cut through the noise. One powerful solution? Go multi-modal and multi-channel. For example, send personalized videos in a cold email rather than the same old text. Or send audio messages on LinkedIn. The key is to switch it up and test how things go to see what converts the best.

Dale Dupree
Founder, The Sales Rebellion

Why you should follow Dale: In 2019, Dale founded The Sales Rebellion, offering training and coaching to help sales reps grow their careers. Previously, Dale was VP of sales at North American Office Solutions, growing the business from $8M to $25M in five years. Prior to that, as a sales rep at Zeno Office Solutions, Dale grew net new business by 750% in a single year and was recognized as the company’s top seller by the manufacturer, Canon USA.

⚡ Pro tip: Get more creative with the experiences you give prospects. 
Do everything you can to rebel against robotic sales. One way to start? Try a Rebel Letter campaign. Send your prospects letters that stand out from the crowd. For example, try sending a letter with a giant coffee stain on it, that says: “You probably throw most of your mail away, I made this one into a coffee coaster to be more useful.” It’s all about giving your prospect something to look forward to, instead of yet another dreaded cold email. 

Dini Mehta
Operating Partner, Operator Collective

Why you should follow Dini: Dini is an operating partner at Operator Collective, a venture fund and dream team community of tech executives. Previously, she was the chief revenue officer at Lattice, where she helped scale the business from $3M to over $100M in annual recurring revenue. Before that, Dini was VP of sales at Drawbridge, acquired by LinkedIn in 2019, where she grew revenue to over $80M. 

⚡ Pro tip: Honor your accomplishments with a personal hype doc. 
Make 2024 the year of celebrating your professional wins. Document key accomplishments in a personal hype doc, including things like feedback from a client, performance reviews, awards, and fun moments with the team. These can be helpful reminders when navigating difficult circumstances in the future, helping you build resilience.

Lindsey Boggs
VP Sales Development & Enablement, Glassbox

Why you should follow Lindsey: Lindsey Boggs is a seasoned senior sales leader with over a decade of experience with all types of companies from startups to Fortune 500 companies. She’s currently the VP of enablement and sales development at Glassbox, leading a global sales development team and coaching reps on modern ways of prospecting. Lindsey has also co-founded a nonprofit in mental health called UNCrushed.org where she helps tell people’s stories and help break the stigma of mental health, especially surrounding the workforce. 

⚡ Pro tip: Integrate AI into the flow of your work.
While there’s no single magic bullet in sales, leveraging AI effectively can significantly enhance your approach in 2024. However, focusing solely on one specific tactic wouldn’t be the most strategic approach. Instead, consider integrating AI across various aspects of your sales process to create a holistic strategy.

Niraj Kapur
Managing Director, Everybody Works in Sales

Why you should follow Niraj: Niraj delivers sales and LinkedIn training that gets results. He’s passionate about helping sales professionals and business owners overcome objections, win more deals, and sell better, whether virtually or face to face. LinkedIn awarded him a Top Voice in Sales and he’s been a Salesforce Influencer four years in a row. 

⚡ Pro tip: Add value. The sales will come.
The heart of sales is not your commission. It’s how you serve others. And serving is not about selling your product. It’s about providing value. The next time you’re on a call, think about what you can say to make the prospect think: “That’s valuable,” instead of: “So what?” The most successful people I have ever worked with are givers who put others first.

Alexine Mudawar
CEO, Women in Sales

Why you should follow Alexine: With over a decade in software sales, Alexine has a track record of surpassing quota, and she has numerous President’s Club awards and quarterly high achievement recognitions to show for it. As CEO of Women in Sales, she focuses on elevating and promoting women in sales. She’s been recognized as a LinkedIn Top Sales Voice, Salesforce Top Sales Influencer, and Crunchbase Most Influential Women in Sales.

⚡ Pro tip: Use AI to eliminate busy work while still remaining human. 
Be smart about which tasks you delegate to AI and which tasks you spend your own time on. For example, use AI to do account research, prioritize leads, and draft emails. Then, focus your energy on forming authentic human connections. That’s the piece AI can never replace.

Ashley Zagst
Account Executive, Flosum

Why you should follow Ashley: Ashley is an account executive at Flosum. Previously, she was an account executive at Apollo.io and a senior account executive at Chili Piper, where she founded and led Proud Pipers, an LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group. While there, she achieved 170% and 150% quota attainment respectively in 2023 and 2022.

⚡ Pro tip: Keep digging until you get to the bottom of what your prospect says.
Get curious. You’re not just trying to book a meeting with a prospect; you’re trying to learn more about them. You’re not just trying to overcome an objection; you’re trying to understand the objection. Make sure the person you’re talking to knows you actually care about their goals.

Cherilynn Castleman
Managing Partner and Executive Coach, CGI

Why you should follow Cherilynn: With over three decades of experience as a global sales executive, Cherilynn now focuses on her work as a managing partner and executive coach at CGI. A champion for diversity in sales, Cherilynn offers transformative coaching to shorten sales cycles and boost deal sizes. She is also a keynote speaker and author, dedicated to elevating sales through diversity. Her mission: Empowering a million women of color to access the C-suite and make an impact while there.

⚡ Pro tip: Become a trusted advisor by doing (more) research. 
Be a trusted advisor? That’s what 87% of business buyers expect. Create your unique point of view by sourcing insights from customer discovery interviews, customer research, and industry benchmark data. That’s how you earn trust and stand out from the crowd.

Cynthia Barnes
Professional Speaker

Why you should follow Cynthia: Cynthia is a sales transformation expert with over 15 years of experience driving results through diversity and empowerment. Cynthia is a LinkedIn Top Voice, the author of “The Cure” and “Reach the Top 1%,” the first Black woman to keynote a national sales conference, and the founder of the National Association of Women Sales Professionals. She’s been featured in over 250 media outlets.

⚡ Pro tip: Put the spotlight on women in sales.
Sales teams are better when we build a culture of recognition and inclusion, and I believe it’s critical to position women as role models and encourage them to lead and inspire others in the organization. Here are some practical ways to feature female sales talent: Feature them in newsletters and meetings, establish awards for leadership and innovation, and involve them in strategic forums to ensure diverse insights in decision-making.