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According to “The Chief Marketing Officer Matters,” more than 25% of CEOs started with a marketing and sales background. Many of the most influential CEOs today, from Warren Buffet to Mark Cuban, started in sales. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1509/jm.14.0244 https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/5-traits-that-make-sales-professionals-ideal-ceos/7994/#:~:text=According%20to%20%E2%80%9CThe%20Chief%20Marketing,up%20into%20the%20C%2Dsuite. https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-strategy/what-12000-ceos-have-in-common#:~:text=Business%20development%20is%20far%20and%20away%20the%20most%20common%20first%20job%20function.

The premise for this book seems uninteresting on the surface and irrelevant for sales. There is an argument to be had that our trade is the exact opposite of deep work. It is almost as if we exist to take on the shallow work necessary in the business world so that the real artists, engineers, technicians, and innovators can focus on their more meaningful, “deep work.” While they are in the back of house doing something of importance, we are in the front of house responding and reacting to the shallow work; the emails, texts, phone calls, meetings, and needs of our clientele. However, it is for these exact reasons that I found this book to be profoundly helpful. For a sales professional, at the beginning of our careers, there are often long stretches of opportunity for deep work as we spend our days building our books of business. In fact, one of the common denominators I notice among the high performing newer sales people at my company is that they tend to be the ones who do engage in long extended sessions of focused, deep work. As opposed to those who live in the shallows; mixing their short bursts of thoughtless sales efforts in with their socializing, web surfing, and off campus food and coffee runs. For successful sales people, who have been earning for a long time and are at the top of their game, this book can serve as nothing short of an awakening. Personally, I was struggling with this plateau myself when I came across this book. I was having trouble finding motivation to take on the tedious work of generating new business that would barely move the needle when compared to what my current book of business was generating. This book gave me a reason beyond my bank account to get back into the fundamentals of my trade.

Wondering how to design a well oiled sales system? In sales, your personal patented system is paramount. You want to get to the moon? Designing, maintaining, operating, upgrading, and optimizing that system into one badass money making rocket ship is a good place to start. Design Your Sales System Reverse engineering is the key to creating a solid framework for you sales system. What is your system meant to produce? Whether you are selling medical devices, SaaS, insurance, financial services, or cars your system should be designed for one purpose; closing as much business as possible, for the largest profit possible, over the longest period of time possible. Begin by writing down every repeatable part of your sales process that you can think of. Don’t worry about organizing them to begin with, just get them out an onto a notepad. Time blocking your day in order to: Creating energy spikes and flow states Capitalizing on those energy spikes and flow states Working both in your business and on your business Strategize Execute Optimize

I genuinely love sales. My grandfather was a salesman, my dad was a salesman, my uncles were salesmen, and most of my friends are all salesman. I do a lot of thinking and theorizing about sales, but I’ve never written down the lessons I’ve been taught or am trying to understand, so this blog is going to serve that purpose. Sales is a craft or trade that is easy to learn, but difficult to master. It is a fulfilling, rewarding, highly valued and well compensated career path that provides an intellectual challenge worth studying, practicing, refining, and mastering. For those who view sales as a trade, and approach it with the focus and consistency of a craftsman, there is virtually limitless opportunity for earning potential. SalesAbstract exists for two reasons. The first is self-serving; as a place for me to abstract my own lessons, readings, opinions, methods, theories, and experiences from my active sales career. If no one ever reads this, SalesAbstract will at least fulfill that purpose. The second reason, is to share these thoughts and offer an opportunity for further discussion and debate among other sales professionals who either agree, disagree, or have more to add to the topics presented. Historically, in trade guilds, whether you were a blacksmith or a painter, you began your career as an apprentice; studying the foundational principals, theories, philosophies, and experiences of the masters who have come before you. Next, you would become a journeyman, going out into the economy with your skill set and putting it into practice. This stage typically lasted for years, or in many cases, a lifetime. I’d argue that this is the phase that the majority of all tradesman spend their lives in, especially in sales. Finally, if a journeyman had committed enough hours in their career to their practice, earned a significant sum of money, and could present their masterpiece to the guild for approval, a lucky few would be given the official title of master. Sales has changed my life. I have been fortunate enough to experience success and what it has done for my family and I can not be overstated. However, I do not consider myself a master. I am still a journeyman. There are countless books, podcasts, YouTube channels, and training programs created by the many masters of sales that know much more than I do about this profession and I am not by any means attempting to place myself among them. My mission is to systematically consume the information that they have provided, organize it into an archive to be easily accessed for future reference, then put their knowledge and advice into practice, test it, track it, and ultimately post my opinion and analysis for potential discussion. This is sure to change over time, but to start, here is a rough outline or framework of the topics I want to dig into: Theory: The why Sales as a career option Fundamentals Mindset; eg. endurance, grit, and discipline Broad strategy Basic tactics Product and industry knowledge Execution: System Design Time Blocking Lead Gen Prospecting Follow up Closing Customer development Execution Tracking Advanced tactics System optimization Mastery: Combating complacency & building career capital Coaching and managing Misc: Motivational stories Book reviews Podcast reviews Video reviews Additional theory & philosophy Editorials