Sales Leaders I Admire
Six must-follow leaders I've been inspired by personally and from afar.
I’ve been reflecting a bit recently on sales leadership as I’ve explored Substack as a way to get all the 20 years of sales leadership experience out of my brain and into written format.
During a recent discussion, someone asked me who the sales leaders are that I admire. It was a GREAT question, albeit one I was ill-prepared to answer off the cuff.
So I put some thought into it and came up with a list of people I admire and who have positively contributed to my sales leadership journey (that sounds corny, but I’m not sure another way to put it).
I know some of these individuals very well and others only through their content. Where applicable, I included links to their LinkedIn profiles.
Cindy McGovern — Orange Leaf Consulting. Known as “Dr. Cindy” and the first lady of sales, Cindy puts out great content.
Dale Dupree — Leader of the Sales Rebellion. I’ve recently been following Dale on LinkedIn. He puts out some great stuff, and I find myself agreeing with 95% of his content on sales.
Scott Leese — I worked directly with Scott as a client when he was the VP of Sales at Qualia. I have my Inside Sales Teams read his stuff, specifically his book Addicted to the Process. Scott is brass tacks, a community builder, and he knows what it takes to meaningfully build teams.
Jeb Blount — Jef runs Sales Gravy and wrote probably my favorite sales book of all time: Fanatical Prospecting. (You can find my book summary here).
Scott Sambucci — Founder of Sales Qualia. Scott gets it. He has a great podcast and helps founders break through and professionalize their revenue generation. Scott acutely understands the difference between discipline and motivation.
Brian Olenik — VP at Chicago Title. I’ve known Brian for 15 years, starting when he was a field rep, and he’s transformed every business he’s touched and is an incredible leader. An all-around great human.
Thank you to all of you above.
Readers: Follow them, interact with them, ask them good questions, or just take in some of the things they’re putting out into the world. I think you’ll be a better leader for it.
- Joe