Birth of a New Selling System?
Have you ever felt like the universe had a secret plan for you? Like over time it kept dropping subtle queues and hints? Creating opportunities to express your passion through both triumph and adversity? Bringing amazing people into your life at just the right time? As if to say “this is what you were meant to do“? Well, that’s precisely what’s happened to me!
As a former research scientist, life-long learner and someone who got into sales accidentally (like most of us), I’ve found selling to be an exceptionally interesting and engaging profession. I’ve been a Sales Engineer, sold services, been sales rep #1 at a start-up, built teams and playbooks from scratch, and been grateful to lead several incredible sales crews in many different cities over the past 20 years. But as a self-confessed introvert, I never had a strong desire to strike up random conversations with strangers (as anyone who’s sat beside me on a plane knows). I did have three things though:
- An intense curiosity about the people and forces within the world of sales
- The gift of synthesis so I could explain #1 to others
- Exceptionally high conviction about any product or service I found valuable (which I’ve learned is the secret to building both sales pipeline and new ideas).
After three start-ups, two acquisitions, and an IPO, I ended up spending five amazing years at Salesforce (through acquisition #2). It was there that the concept of Cerebral Selling started as a passion project I called the Sales Leadership Academy. As I’ve described in the past, the journey was never about pounding the phones or lamenting the unsavory images conjured up by traditional, stereotypical salespeople. The catalyst was a genuine interest to share my curiosity and conviction for modern-day sales and leadership by telling its story so it could help others.
Don’t get me wrong. It was still about crushing quotas and driving rapid growth. But it was about doing it by exploring new approaches when the old ones stopped working. It was about thinking like our customers and forming deep connections with our team members. It was about learning, reading, and getting smarter every day. And it was about doing all those things with the focus and intensity few others do. Science. Empathy. Execution.
As the message resonated and the passion continued to grow, the universe responded with opportunities to express it. Well into my 4th start-up experience, invitations to speak, record podcasts, and contribute content to other outlets continued. After years of being scattered across the web, I finally created my own website to consolidate all my content so it could more easily help people. Subscriptions doubled organically in 3 months and I was fortunate to connect with some of the greatest minds in sales education to learn about their journeys.
And with the universe seemingly conspiring against me, I asked myself the career question I’ve shared in the past. What would I attempt to do if I knew I could not fail? What was I already doing out of the goodness of my heart because I loved it so much? What am I doing when time stands still? What future had I been resisting all these years? The answer; THIS!!!
That’s why I couldn’t be more excited to announce that starting today, Cerebral Selling will not only be a place to share the content I love creating for all my sales brothers and sisters in the trenches but a new type of sales practice. One built around the belief that buyers deserve to work with sales professionals they love and sellers deserve the type of leaders they would fight to work with!
Could this be the birth of a new selling system? Perhaps. But whatever the future holds, I couldn’t be more grateful, humbled, and passionate about being on this journey with all of you! THANK YOU for supporting my content and inspiring me along the way!
I promise this next chapter is going to be awesome!!!
We promise never to send you junk or share your email! Just helpful sales insights.
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