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What An MBA Didn’t Teach You About Sales

The sales profession is challenging. You need to work hard at it to succeed. You need to learn from the best. You need to improve your skills continuously. If you think you can sell since you are a hit at parties and have a lot of friends, you may soon find that you are a failure as a salesperson. Blunt truth:

because the sales profession is so hard, you have to focus on doing everything in sales very well, or you will be considered a failure.

I call this blog, Skinned Knees because I try to relate all of the learning that I have done over the past 4+ decades (while skinning my knees in the learning process).

I hope that you learn from my mistakes so that your business will grow!


Cut Through the AI Hype: Practical Definitions for Sales Professionals

Artificial intelligence is transforming sales, but too many leaders are investing in tools they don’t fully understand. The result? Costly mistakes, poor adoption, and missed opportunities. This episode of AI Tools for Sales Pros breaks down the three core technologies behind AI: and explains them in plain language that every sales professional can use. The episode compares the current AI confusion to the database revolution of the 1990s. Just as sales leaders once needed to… Cut Through the AI Hype: Practical Definitions for Sales Professionals

AI in B2B Sales Isn’t Optional Anymore

Several months ago, I was serving as a fractional VP of Sales for a $50 million manufacturing company. Their top salesperson was a 15-year veteran who knew the industry inside and out. Yet he was consistently being outsold by a competitor’s much newer hire. At first, it didn’t make sense until we discovered the reason. The competitor’s rep wasn’t just more energetic or aggressive. They were AI-enabled. While my client’s rep was manually scrolling LinkedIn… AI in B2B Sales Isn’t Optional Anymore

Two Tall Guys Talking Sales – Breaking the Silos: Aligning Sales and Marketing for Real Revenue Growth – Episode 147

In this episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales, Kevin Lawson and Sean O’Shaughnessey dive deep into one of the most misunderstood dynamics in business: the relationship between sales and marketing. Pulled directly from a thought-provoking question inside the B2B Sales Lab community, this conversation explores how sales teams can contribute meaningfully to marketing efforts and why that collaboration drives better revenue generation. Whether you lead a sales team, run marketing campaigns, or wear both… Two Tall Guys Talking Sales – Breaking the Silos: Aligning Sales and Marketing for Real Revenue Growth – Episode 147

Two Tall Guys Talking Sales – Future-Proofing Your Sales Career with AI, Strategy, and Smarter Workflows – Episode 144

Is artificial intelligence coming for your sales job? Not if you understand the power of business acumen, value selling, and strategic adoption of tools that amplify, not replace, human expertise. In this high-impact episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales, Kevin and Sean tackle the loud claims of AI-induced layoffs with a grounded, practical message for salespeople and sales managers: evolve or fall behind. This is not a doomsday episode; it’s a wake-up call, a… Two Tall Guys Talking Sales – Future-Proofing Your Sales Career with AI, Strategy, and Smarter Workflows – Episode 144

B2B Sales in the Age of AI: Why Top Salespeople Will Thrive While the Repetitive Roles Disappear

The buzz surrounding artificial intelligence has left many professionals wondering about the future of their careers. For B2B sales professionals, the rise of AI presents a fundamental question: Will AI replace salespeople?

The short answer is no, but it will replace some of their work. More accurately, AI will redefine the B2B sales landscape by eliminating lower-value activities, consolidating support roles, and enhancing the capabilities of top performers. In doing so, it will widen the gap between average and great salespeople.

Several years ago, I wrote a similar explanation about the fear that “the internet” would replace salespeople. That didn’t happen. You can find that article on the blog that supports my first sales book. Are salespeople necessary in the Internet age?

This blog post explores how B2B sales is positioned relative to AI disruption, referencing key insights from Benjamin Todd’s article, “How Not to Lose Your Job to AI” (80,000 Hours, 2025). Todd’s framework on skill types that increase in value in the age of AI helps us understand how high-functioning sales teams should evolve and how sales professionals can future-proof their careers.

Understanding AI’s True Impact: Augmentation, Not Replacement

A common misconception about AI is that it simply replaces humans. This isn’t true. AI devalues tasks it can perform while increasing the importance of the skills it cannot. Todd explains this dynamic through examples like the ATM: while the ATM reduced the need for transactional teller tasks, it actually increased demand for bank branch workers by allowing banks to open more branches. AI follows a similar pattern.

In B2B sales, AI will handle the most automatable tasks, such as data entry, follow-ups, list-building, and basic prospecting emails. However, this doesn’t eliminate the sales role; it sharpens its focus.

Instead of dialing hundreds of prospects daily, sales professionals will focus more on strategic engagement, account planning, and using AI-generated insights to elevate conversations. The result? Sales has become a more thoughtful, human, and strategic discipline for those who can keep up.

Four Categories of Skills That AI Will Make More Valuable

In Todd’s excellent article, he identifies four skill types that increase in value in an AI-enhanced workplace:

  1. Hard-to-automate skills
  2. Deployment-related skills
  3. Scarce, high-utility skills
  4. Skills hard for others to learn or replicate

Each of these aligns tightly with the demands of modern B2B sales.

Read the rest of the article…

Navigating the Sales Maze: Overcoming Missed Steps in Your Sales Process

The challenges for a salesperson or a sales manager are numerous. One such challenge that often arises during the sales process is the realization that a crucial step has been skipped. This situation is not uncommon and is faced by many salespeople. However, it’s not a moment for reprimanding or pulling out an accountability chart. Instead, it’s a moment of realization and an opportunity to rectify the error to avoid ending up in the ‘no decision lane.’

I have written about the importance of skipping stages of the sales process elsewhere on this site, most recently in “The Key to Profitable Sales Organizations: Understanding and Adhering to the Sales Process,” where I remind you that, according to the Harvard Business Review, 28% of companies that master at least three stages of their sales process will see an increase in revenue growth.

When you recognize you’ve missed a step in your sales process, it resembles backing up a train. You’ve got a lot of cars put together, but one is out on its own. Addressing this situation requires a specific style and approach. As a sales leader, your focus should be on the next step in the process. Have you covered this step from a question in the sales meeting? It’s important to ask questions like, “What is next? What is missing? What is now?” 

As a salesperson, if you realize you’ve missed a step, address it head-on. This approach allows you to rectify your error and builds trust with your prospect by demonstrating transparency and accountability. 

Read the rest of the article…

Validation Events: The Unsung Hero of Sales Process Discipline

In the complex world of B2B selling, trust is built in stages. The challenge in all sales campaigns is ensuring the prospect trusts they are making the best decision for their business.

  1. Do they trust that the salesperson is giving them all of the information?
  2. Do they trust that the company will support them after the sale?
  3. Do they trust that the product will perform as they expect it to perform?

As I have explained in my book, Eliminate Your Competition, as well as the blog for that book and in this blog, the prospect needs to trust all three elements the salesperson is selling:

  1. They need to trust the product.
  2. They need to trust the company behind the product.
  3. They need to trust the salesperson.

Prospects listen to your sales message, review your materials, and hear your claims, but none of that guarantees belief or trust. Trust is validated when your claims are validated. That’s why validation events are crucial to any rigorous sales process.

In The Qualified Sales Leader, John McMahon stresses the importance of customer-driven validation. He cautions sales leaders against relying on internal optimism or anecdotal “good signals” from prospects. Instead, McMahon emphasizes observable proof—real buyer behavior that confirms alignment, commitment, and value. Validation events are when the customer takes action to validate that what you’ve promised is accurate and valuable.

An excellent sample sale process flow looks like this:

  1. Discover
  2. Scoping
  3. Economic Buyer Meeting
  4. Validation Event
  5. Business Case and Final Proposal
  6. Negotiate and Close

As you can see, the Validation Event is the last step before creating the final business case, which will be bundled with your final proposal.

Read the rest of the article…

Two Tall Guys Talking Sales – Scaling Smarter: Building Sales Teams with Steve Caton – Episode 136

What does it take to scale a sales organization in today’s unpredictable business environment? In this dynamic episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales, hosts Sean O’Shaughnessey and Kevin Lawson welcome back Steve Caton, CEO of Altezza Solutions, to unpack the nuances of scaling sales teams, especially through the power of fractional sales professionals. Together, they explore the critical role that sales processes, sales management, and business acumen play in enabling organizations to grow without… Two Tall Guys Talking Sales – Scaling Smarter: Building Sales Teams with Steve Caton – Episode 136