Insights
Writing from inside the revenue engine.
Essays on forecasting, hiring, culture and sales systems — written for CEOs and revenue leaders of growing companies.
Why Your Sales Forecast Is Wrong — and What to Do About It
More than 80% of companies missed their forecast last year. Not because of bad luck — because forecasting was treated as a report rather than a discipline.…
The Scoreboard Doesn't Measure Talent. It Measures What the Team Produces Together.
Four of the fastest humans on the planet couldn't pass the baton. A commission-driven team voluntarily split deals without being asked. The difference betw…
Deal Inspection Is Not What You Think It Is
Most deal reviews are controlled by the rep. The manager hears the story they're meant to hear. Deal inspection done right flips that dynamic — and it star…
Sales Leadership
Why Great Sales Teams Get Better Every Quarter — And Most Don't
Most sales leaders manage results. The teams that sustain performance year over year manage something else entirely — rhythm. Here's what separates the tea…
Sales Leadership
Culture Isn't Something You Announce
Every company claims to have a culture. Most of them declared it and waited for it to arrive. Culture doesn't arrive — it accumulates. Here's how high-perf…
Sales Leadership
You hired a VP of Sales. Now get out of their way
Most leaders know the obvious ways a VP of Sales hire goes wrong. There's a third failure mode nobody names — and the leader doing it genuinely believes th…
Sales Leadership
The quota math nobody does
The quota a rep receives on day one is the output of a dozen assumptions made upstream. Most companies never document them. That's the problem.
Five criteria. every candidate. no exceptions
The problem with most hiring processes isn't that managers make bad decisions. It's that they're measuring the wrong things in the wrong order.
Software sales simplified - episode 41
I joined Kevin Donville and Matt Long on Software Sales Simplified to talk about why fractional leadership brings clarity — and why hiring before building…
The Interview Went Perfectly. The First 90 Days Were a Disaster.
The interview is not a hiring tool. It is a performance. And the person on the other side of the table has been rehearsing longer than you have.
Your Sales Kickoff Can't Fix What You Never Built
SKOs are not a bad idea. But they are a very expensive way to paper over a problem that no three-day event can solve.
From Founder-Led Sales to Scalable Sales Teams: My Conversation with the CanadianSME Podcast
I recently sat down with Maheen Bari on the CanadianSME Small Business Podcast to discuss how growing companies can transition from founder-led sales to a…
Featured · Media
47% of My Team Made President's Club. Here's the Only Thing We Did Differently.
When 14 of 30 sellers made President's Club, nobody added headcount, changed the quota, or ran more training. We changed the structure. Here's what happene…
Building a Forecast You Can Bank On: Why Most Revenue Predictions Are Fiction — And How to Fix That
4 in 5 sales leaders missed their quarterly forecast last year. Most blame their team. The research — and a 14-deal collapse I lived through — points somew…
The Sales Playbook That Actually Gets Used
Coaching isn't the solution. It's the final step. And most companies skip everything that comes before it. Here's the hierarchy that actually works—and why…
From Founder-Led Sales to Scalable Sales: The Transition That Makes or Breaks Growth
80% of companies fail to pass $30M because they can't transition out of founder-led sales at the right time. The failure isn't in the selling — it's in the…
The True Cost of a Bad Sales Hire (And How to Stop Making Them)
According to IKO System research, 48% of new sales hires fail and only 6% exceed expectations. Most companies treat this as the cost of doing business. But…
When Quotas Go Up But Performance Goes Down
In 2024, sales quotas rose 37% while only 28% of reps hit their number — the lowest in six years. This isn't a motivation problem. It's a systems problem.…
Sales Systems That Survive Downturns: What 2008 and 2020 Taught Me About Building for Uncertainty
Economic uncertainty doesn't create sales problems. It exposes the ones you already had. After 25 years and three major downturns, here's what actually works.
The Sales Leadership Gap in Mid-Market Companies: Why Promoting Your Top Rep Isn't the Answer
Research shows companies get manager selection wrong 82% of the time. Learn why promoting your top sales rep often backfires—and what to do instead.
Why Most $10M-$100M Companies Don't Have a Sales Foundation — And What It's Costing Them
Only 1% of small and mid-size businesses have a solid sales foundation. If you're running a company between $10M and $100M, there's a very good chance you'…