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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!

Hiring for Growth: How to Build a Sales Team That Drives Long-Term Success

Building a successful sales team requires more than just filling open seats with available candidates. Company leadership must strategically align its hiring process with business objectives, market needs, and long-term goals. 

Whether you’re a solopreneur transitioning to a team-based approach or a CEO managing a growing sales force, the principles of intentional recruitment and onboarding remain the same. Hiring the right people is an investment in the future of your business.

One of the most common pitfalls in sales hiring is a lack of intentionality. Too often, small businesses hire out of convenience, choosing candidates from their immediate network or taking the first person who seems interested. While this approach may solve an immediate need, it rarely leads to long-term success. 

Hiring a salesperson means selecting someone who can actively drive growth and represent your brand with competence and integrity. The stakes are even higher when you’re working with a lean team; every hire matters, and mediocrity is not an option.

To avoid these missteps, it’s essential to approach hiring with the same rigor you apply to your sales process. Think of recruiting as a parallel to securing a high-value client. Just as you wouldn’t sell your product without qualifying leads or understanding their needs, you shouldn’t hire without a structured process to evaluate candidates. 

Begin by defining what success looks like for the role. What skills and attributes are non-negotiable? What specific outcomes do you expect this person to achieve within their first 90 days? A clear job description and measurable KPIs set the foundation for finding the right fit.

Cultural alignment is another critical factor. Your salespeople are the face of your business to prospects and customers. Their ability to embody your company’s values and mission can make or break the customer experience. A candidate might have a stellar track record, but if their approach clashes with your team’s culture, the partnership is unlikely to succeed. At the same time, skills and experience must align with the specific demands of the role. For instance, if your goal is aggressive market penetration, you need a hunter mentality, someone skilled in building relationships from scratch and closing deals in uncharted territory.

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Mastering Sales Channels: How to Align Your Strategy for Maximum Impact

Understanding the dynamics of sales channels can transform how businesses approach their markets. Many sales professionals, whether they are salespeople, managers, or CEOs, often miss a critical distinction: the difference between the product they are selling and the value it provides. 

This gap in understanding can lead to suboptimal sales performance, particularly in environments where products are sold through intermediaries, such as distributors, referral partners, or dealer networks. The challenge is not just about knowing your product, but also about understanding how to position it in a way that resonates with every player in the sales chain.

Sales success starts with recognizing who your true customer is. In sales management or channel sales, the end customer is often not the person you interact with directly. Instead, your “customer” might be the intermediary, your distributor, reseller, or even your own sales team. These intermediaries are the ones who ultimately connect your product to its final user. If you don’t understand their challenges, motivations, and context, you risk failing to equip them with the necessary tools to succeed. Are you selling a product’s features, or are you helping them understand how to sell it effectively? This distinction is vital.

When selling through intermediaries, the emphasis should shift from “what the product does” to “how the product can be sold.” Your distributors or referral partners don’t need every technical detail of your product. They need clarity on how it solves problems for their customers, how it fits into their existing offerings, and how they can position it to drive sales. 

The goal is not to overwhelm your partners with information but to provide actionable insights that align with their specific needs. If you’re focusing solely on product features, you’re likely missing the mark.

Salespeople and sales managers must also recognize the game they are playing. Are you selling a commodity, a widely available product, or an exclusive offering? Each scenario demands a different strategy. 

Commodities often compete on price, necessitating bulk sales or value-added services to differentiate themselves. Widely available products often rely on relationships, service quality, or unique add-ons to differentiate themselves. Exclusive products, on the other hand, can often avoid price wars by emphasizing their uniqueness and superior quality. Knowing which game you’re in allows you to tailor your approach and avoid misaligned strategies.

For small businesses and solopreneurs, the challenge lies in effectively managing referral partners. Referral partnerships are a powerful way to generate leads, but they require careful management and oversight. 

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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 – Managing the Maverick: How to Lead Top Sales Performers Without Breaking Team Culture – Episode 146

When a top-performing salesperson refuses to follow the rules, tensions flare, and your culture might suffer. In this episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales, hosts Kevin Lawson and Sean O’Shaughnessey tackle a question straight from their B2B Sales Lab community: What do you do with a sales rockstar who drives the rest of the team nuts? If you’ve ever struggled with managing high-output, low-alignment team members, this conversation is packed with valuable insights, practical… Two Tall Guys Talking Sales – Managing the Maverick: How to Lead Top Sales Performers Without Breaking Team Culture – Episode 146

Two Tall Guys Talking Sales – Patrick O’Donnell Explains How to Hire and Onboard Sales Talent That Actually Performs – Episode 139

In this high-impact episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales, hosts Kevin Lawson and Sean O’Shaughnessey welcome sales acceleration expert Patrick O’Donnell to tackle one of the toughest challenges facing small business CEOs: hiring and onboarding top-performing sales talent. Together, they dive deep into proven sales strategies that help CEOs find strong candidates and keep them engaged, successful, and driving revenue. If you’ve ever hired a salesperson who didn’t work out, or you’re planning to… Two Tall Guys Talking Sales – Patrick O’Donnell Explains How to Hire and Onboard Sales Talent That Actually Performs – Episode 139

The Three Pillars of Sales Success: Ideal Client Profiles, Effective Messaging, and Aspirational Offers

Let’s start this article with a rhetorical question to the sales professionals, sales managers, or CEOs: Have you ever found yourself guilty of sending messages to prospects without fully considering their specific needs or how your offer aligns with them?

If so, you’re not alone—this is a common pitfall in sales. The good news is, it’s entirely fixable by developing a straightforward, strategic approach.

An effective sales strategy hinges on three core components: defining your ideal client profile (ICP), crafting a resonant message, and presenting a compelling offer. These elements are interconnected. Mastering their alignment will significantly enhance your sales effectiveness.

Ideal Client Profile

Let’s start with the ideal client profile. How well do you know the companies you’re targeting? Identifying your ideal customer is foundational to your entire sales approach. It’s not enough to say that your market is “small businesses” or “tech companies.” Instead, think about your best clients—the ones you genuinely enjoy working with, who value your product, and who generate profitable, sustainable business. Think about companies that rarely devalue your product or service by asking for a discount. What do these clients have in common?

Now that you have your favorite customers from above, reflect on your top five or ten accounts. Are they in the same industry? Do they share similar challenges or company structures? Perhaps they all have common goals that your product consistently solves. Pinpoint these commonalities. This process will help you create a precise and actionable ideal client profile.

But don’t stop at company-level characteristics. Remember, even in B2B sales, you’re ultimately selling to individuals. Identify the specific roles or buyers within these organizations that are responsible for making buying decisions. Who are these decision-makers? What motivates them personally and professionally? Do they all have the same kind of college education? Do they all have similar career paths? Understanding the people behind the logo makes your outreach more personal, targeted, and effective.

What is your message?

Once you’ve developed a clear picture of your ideal client and the people within those companies, the next step is crafting a message that reflects your value-selling message. This message is how you communicate your value proposition—it’s the bridge between your product and your prospect’s needs. Too often, sales messaging falls flat because it focuses heavily on the seller rather than the buyer. Statements that emphasize “we,” “I,” or “our product” rarely resonate deeply. Instead, effective messaging highlights the customer’s perspective, clearly communicating the benefits they will experience.

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Stop Guessing, Start Growing: How Strategic Sales Assessments Drive Real Revenue

You’ll eventually hit a wall if you’re running a sales organization—or wearing multiple hats as founder, CEO, and sales manager. That wall is often invisible until growth stalls, key deals slip through the cracks, or your top salesperson burns out. So, what’s the next move? It’s not more hustle. It’s assessment.

A sales assessment isn’t about checking boxes. It’s about understanding where you are, how you operate, and what’s holding you back. Too many small business leaders assume they’re doing fine because revenue is growing or the team is hitting their quotas. But are you growing at the rate your market allows? Are your sales activities aligned with your long-term goals? Are you building a repeatable system, or are you just getting lucky?

Let’s get tactical. A sales plan isn’t just a revenue target. It’s your go-to-market strategy. It defines your audience, your message, and your motion. It answers why you’re talking to those prospects and what value you’re bringing to them. Without a plan, you’re reacting instead of executing. You’re chasing leads instead of building a pipeline.

If you’re a small company—perhaps under $30 million in revenue—and selling into a national market, chances are your market potential is hundreds of millions, maybe billions. That means your market share is a rounding error, which means there’s room to grow. The question is: Are you operating in a way that allows you to capture that growth?

Even if you’re running lean, you should benchmark your performance against top-tier organizations. Not because you’re competing with them directly, but because they set the standard. What are they doing that you’re not? Where are they more efficient? How do they structure their teams? You’re leaving money on the table if you’re not asking those questions.

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Why Cold Calling is Dead: The Shift to Relationship-Based Selling

Building an effective sales pipeline requires a shift in strategy. Traditional cold calling has become increasingly ineffective, with decision-makers ignoring unsolicited calls and emails.

In the spring of 2021, Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch Wealth Management unit banned trainee brokers from making cold calls. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is hard to succeed with cold phone calls in an era when no one picks up. Merrill executives said personal referrals lead to a response around 40% of the time, but less than 2% of people who are cold-called even answer the phone.

Sales teams must adopt a more strategic approach, focusing on relationships rather than volume-based outreach. The key is leveraging existing networks to create warm introductions, significantly improving engagement rates and overall success.

Cold outreach has become expensive and inefficient, and the time spent dialing numbers, leaving voicemails, and sending emails that never get opened results in diminishing returns. Many executives no longer answer unknown calls, and email filters automatically sort cold outreach into spam. Even when messages get through, recipients are skeptical, assuming they are generated by automation rather than a genuine human connection. In reality, sales professionals must find a better way to reach their target audience.

Relationship-based selling offers a more effective alternative. Salespeople should focus on leveraging their connections instead of reaching out to strangers. This approach involves identifying key contacts who can provide warm introductions to potential prospects. These “super connectors” are individuals with strong networks and the ability to facilitate meaningful introductions. By tapping into these relationships, sales teams can bypass the skepticism associated with cold outreach and start conversations with credibility.

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How to Create an Elevator Pitch That Opens Doors

In business, every introduction matters—especially when time is short. This post explores how to craft an effective elevator pitch or Unique Selling Proposition that captures attention, sparks curiosity, and opens the door to future conversations. Learn the key elements of a winning pitch and how to use real-world success stories to make a lasting impression.

Becoming a Trusted Advisor: Solve Problems, Not Just Sell Products

In B2B sales and sales leadership, problem-solving is an art that goes beyond selling a product or service. The secret to becoming a trusted advisor is addressing business problems, not just selling a product. This concept resonates with salespeople, sales managers, and small business CEOs who sell themselves or manage a team of salespeople. 

Sales is not just about pushing a product or closing a deal; it’s about forging relationships, understanding businesses and their unique challenges, and offering solutions to these problems. The role of a trusted advisor is not to sell a product and become a trusted advisor, but rather to become a trusted advisor who can sell a product. 

The reward for earning trusted advisor status is immeasurable. It is fantastic to receive a call from a client asking for advice on solving problems they have never discussed with you. Imagine having relationships that stand the test of time and outlast competition and challenges. 

So, how does one become a trusted advisor and solve problems for clients rather than just selling them a great product? It starts with building a relationship from scratch. When starting with a prospect list or an ideal client profile, the goal is not to find anyone who will respond but to seek opportunities to build meaningful relationships. 

The cornerstone of these relationships is reliability. 

  • Are you always punctual? 
  • Do you cancel at the last minute? 
  • Do you forget to return phone calls? 

These behaviors erode trust. On the other hand, showing up when needed, providing solutions even when they are not directly related to your product or service, and connecting clients to others who can help them are behaviors that build trust. 

Becoming a trusted advisor also involves understanding and curiosity about the client’s business. Do you ask questions about how the prospective company makes and loses money, how it dealt with past challenges like the pandemic, and how it deals with current challenges like rising inflation or supply chain disruption? The aim is to understand the client’s business, challenges, and competitors and offer insights and parallels to other companies. 

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