Sales Gurus who needs them?

How many sales reps who actually make $500K+ a year* turn around and start some shitty sales enablement, training or coaching company and then hock their wares to other salespeople or sales leaders?


My experience tells me - ZERO


Look all over linkedin and you see these guys - and they are guys mostly - who talk about how much money they made - I saw one today 750K a year at "X" company when I know, for a fact, that comp tops out at about 300k for reps there - including base salary, commision, as well as any potential stock compensation and bonuses.


This is why you see people at Oracle or IBM for DECADES. Because reps that make that kind of cheddar stay there. I've never met a great sales rep who said "you know what I really want to do? Leave my job where they pay me half a million a year to fly Southwest to sit in some dumpy office park in Boise, sit in some shitty conference room with stained ceiling tiles doing some half assed sales training to a bunch of dudebros selling industrial lubricants."


When are we going to stop listening to this bullshit?

๐Ÿค“ Sales Tech
๐Ÿ˜Ž Sales Skills
๐Ÿ— Sales Enablement
17
TennisandSales
Politicker
8
Head Of Sales
hahaha so im with you on alot of this. most sales gurus are garbage.

but the smart ones are not "flying southwest to sit in dump office parks..... "

they charge $18K a year to do coaching all over zoom and never leave their house if they dont want to.

I always appreciate it when ppl can take the knowledge they have and find ppl who will pay them to share it.

now, how valuable the knowledge is, up for debate.
Filth
Politicker
3
Live Filthy or Die Clean
18k a year sounds real low on the sales CONsulting/training side.
TennisandSales
Politicker
3
Head Of Sales
this is per person, not for a company for the person im talking about. if that matters at all haha.
Justatitle
Big Shot
5
Account Executive
We already stopped listening. Everyone knows that the influencers couldnโ€™t do so they influence.
notdavemoss
Valued Contributor
2
CCBW
I hear you - problem is the C-levels listen and then spend money BETTER spent on Demand Gen and Lead Gen on these effing potatoes.
Justatitle
Big Shot
2
Account Executive
Yes, so they can pat themselves on the back, and tell you "We GoT yOu ReSoUrCeS, wHy IsN't It WoRkInG?"
notdavemoss
Valued Contributor
1
CCBW
jUsT sELL mOrE!
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
That is without a doubt when it becomes a problem.

If it's an "influencer" on LI or anywhere else, I can ignore and move on with my life. If my company decides it's worth pursuing, now I have no choice.
punishedlad
Tycoon
5
๐Ÿง™โ€โ™‚๏ธ
I only listen to savages in the war room๐Ÿ˜Ž
Sunbunny31
Politicker
3
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Brilliant!
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
4
Sales Rep
I understand putting up with bullshit for years then taking a pay cut to be their own boss.
coletrain
Politicker
4
Account Executive
Part of it is so that leadership do minimal work, make decisions play the comparison game: X person hit Y revenue target, why aren't you hitting Y revenue? Then of course when decisions are hard: welp, the consultants told us we need to do this.

It's just a different type of consulting.
GingerBarbarian
Opinionated
3
Lead Sales
I want to take the other side of the argument. If managers actually took their time to train their salespeople the right way there would be no reason for Sales Gurus. Sales gurus are a direct result of the lack of confidence most reps have. If more sales managers looked at themselves like educators as opposed to KPI hall monitors there would be no reason for sales gurus.
notdavemoss
Valued Contributor
2
CCBW
100% As a sales manager, director of sales, and VP of Sales, I can tell you that most, like 90%, of sales leaders can't really manage or coach salespeople. Two most common reasons:

1) They are middling salespeople who stuck around long enough to ingratiate themselves with the C-level (think "yes men") and someone said "Hey Sean is a nice person and they never say "no" to us - let's make them a manager!" If you've ever had a manager who said "I know doing X is stupid, but that's what the CEO wants..." you know you're dealing with this person.

2) They are out of touch. While they may have been a superstar when connecting to the internet meant using a dial up modem, they are clueless as how to sell RIGHT NOW. To seem relevant, they let sales "gurus" babybird them all kinds of bullshit and the repackage it and call it sales training.

Funny enough - Recently I ran across a CRO who did a weekly recorded Zoom where he waxed philosophical about 'how to sell' by simply taking the last Linkedin Post or Sales Book he read and plagiarized it for his own "look at me" all sales org "podcast." When I talked to some in his org, they said they watch it because "they know he's tracking views." Guy thinks he's Selena Gomez or something in Instagram.

These are also the guys who always ask "I want to be in the closing meeting" but never want to be in the Discovery Meeting. Because they know all those MEDIPSPINBANTWTFBULLSHIT questions they train you to ask someone in an intro meeting don't really work.

Sounds like a rant - but I've been around so many of these serial underperformers it's like I can smell them through the Zoom.

There's a scene in the Family Guy Star Wars parody where Luke (Chris) learns about the Force and then two minutes later is dragging Han Solo (Peter) because he doesn't believe in the "The Force." And Han says "Oh, you mean that thing you just learned about three hours ago?"

Luke is a modern sales manager coaching his team.
Diablo
Politicker
2
Sr. AE
My ears are closed but I hear you
Ashing
Opinionated
2
Senior Account Executive
I agree, I think the rockstars just keep rockstaring, then do a minor side hustle for ONE or TWO local companies where they can sales train a company in a non-competivie industry to make some vacation moneu
buckeyenation
Acclaimed Answer
2
AE
Agree. I have not met a consultant yet who wasn't full of it. Especially go to market people. Usually have never actually taken a product to market...

I am sure there are some guys who did well at these places, stacked cash, don't have a family, and like meeting new people and figured "why not help folks out"...it can be gratifying - so they start a consultant shop.

I have a hard time trusting anyone who sold at a big name place (with huge marketing, product, and momentum behind it), and then seeing them throw up their 7 figure W-2 on linkedin with a "See, you need me" tag on it. Reality is, if you think you need a guy or gal like that, you probably have bigger problems than just sales tecnique.

PS: the best BS I see are people doing that after a year stint as SDR and 2 year stint as AE - gimme a break.
aenima
Celebrated Contributor
2
Principal Account Manager
EXACTLY why I hate Trent Dressel.

He is just like all the other sales guru douchebags, but he is young 20 something with no real experience.
countingmyinterest
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Meh I like Trent. He can be a cringey at times but heโ€™s been at Qualtrics for 5 years. Itโ€™s a good shop
aenima
Celebrated Contributor
2
Principal Account Manager
He hasnโ€™t said a single original thing. He repeats vanilla stuff - and uses his channel as a humble brag about making money. I donโ€™t think he sincerely cares about the success of others and prefers to use that as a facade to tell people how much money he makes - which in the sales world is not that high - he just thinks itโ€™s high because he is young and inexperienced.

I donโ€™t know any sales professional with a decade of experience that looks at this tool bag and says, โ€œthat guy brings value to the world of sales.โ€

Qualtrics is a call center. If thatโ€™s what we think sales is, then sure, itโ€™s a good shop selling survey software ๐Ÿ˜’

There is nothing complicated about the product or the pitch - which is why cold calling 61,000 people to only bring in a million dollars per year is deemed a โ€œsuccess.โ€

I can call 10 people right now and shit out $1M in 90 days. I donโ€™t say that to shine my ego, i say that because Iโ€™m in a totally different world than he is. I say that because what Trent does isnโ€™t real sales, and it certainly isnโ€™t โ€œenterprise sales.โ€ Itโ€™s line memorization. He is an actor that remembers a script. That requires minimal talent - and he doesnโ€™t appear to have enough talent to produce ONE piece of context I havenโ€™t already heard 1,000 times.
SalesBeast
Politicker
1
Ty
Have been saying this for a long while. Great post
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
๐ŸฆŠ
Omg I am living for this rant bb ๐Ÿ‘€๐Ÿฟ
ilovemondays
Executive
0
Senior Account Executive
My experience tells me only three: Jeb Blount, Josh Braun and Jacco.

That's it, so I pretty much agree with your every point in this.
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