I write about sales, leadership & productivity to help you become a top sales performer. RSM at Lonestar Forklift | AIB MBA

I’m Chris Crane, and my mission is simple:

Transforming industrial sales reps & teams into formidable professionals.

Over my 15-year sales career, I’ve closed over $100 million in industrial equipment deals, trained more than 150 reps, and led industrial sales teams across Canada and the U.S.

I built the Scaling Success System™ to give industrial sales teams what no one else offers: a sales operating system specifically engineered for industrial sales.

This system has taught over 150+ industrial sales reps & teams to operate as formidable professionals, and it can do the same for your team.

DM "sales" to learn more.

Chris Crane

Most companies hire one kind of rep, and expect them to do both jobs.

They want someone who can hunt.
They want someone who can farm.
They end up with someone who does neither well.

Hunters drive top-of-funnel.
They chase the deal until they get it. 
They don’t stop until the calendar’s full.

Farmers grow existing accounts.
They build solid long-term relationships.
They don’t stop until the client renews again.

Here’s what I’ve learned coaching both:

→ Farmers win with value.
→ Hunters win with volume.
→ Hunters need structure and a clean target list.
→ Farmers need trust  and a relationship to protect.
→ Both lose when you try to make them play the other’s game.

Learning to do both well is an elite level game. 

I have done both, and I can teach someone how to do both, but most companies cannot, and they wonder why they are missing their quotas.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://lnkd.in/dHH93M4u

Experience alone doesn’t scale. A system does. Turn industrial sales prospects into buyers with ARC5™

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Most sales reps consume motivation. Top sales reps study communication.

Everyone wants better closing lines.

Very few reps study the psychology behind why people say yes.

And the gap between those two groups is where commissions are made.

Here are 7 talks every serious salesperson should study.

→ Rejection tolerance — “What I Learned from 100 Days of Rejection” by Jia Jiang

→ Listening discipline — “Want to Help Someone? Shut Up and Listen” by Ernesto Sirolli

→ Persuasion mechanics — “The Four Letter Code to Selling Anything” by Derek Thompson

→ Body language intelligence — “The Power of Nonverbal Communication” by Joe Navarro

→ Conversation control — “How to Have a Good Conversation” by Celeste Headlee

→ Managing resistance — “How to Deal with Difficult People” by Jay Johnson

→ Direct persuasion — “How 5 Simple Words Can Get You What You Want” by Janine Driver

Notice the pattern.

None of them teach scripts.
None of these talks teach product
All of them teach deep human behavior.

Because selling isn’t about explaining your product. It’s about understanding the person sitting across from you.

And the reps who study people always outperform those who study only products.

83% of sales reps run discovery calls with no structure.

They wing it.
They ask surface-level questions.
They pitch before the buyer even admits there’s a problem.

The call feels productive.
The buyer sounds interested.
And then the deal dies quietly two weeks later.

Here’s the 7-step discovery structure most reps skip:

→ Prepare
→ Start Calm
→ Build Rapport
→ Confirm the Agenda
→ Ask & Clarify Pain Points
→ Present Your Crafted Solution
→ Schedule the Next Follow-Up Call

Miss one, and control slips.
Rush one, and urgency disappears.
Ignore the order, and the buyer leads.

The result?

→ Buyers open up faster.
→ Pain becomes specific, measurable, and urgent.
→ Your proposal becomes the logical next step, not a hopeful pitch.

The takeaway:

→ The rep who controls discovery controls the deal.
→ Discovery is not a conversation, it’s a controlled sequence.
→ Structure creates urgency, and urgency creates movement.

Most reps try to close at the end. Elite reps start closing in the first 10 minutes.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://lnkd.in/dHH93M4u

Sales teams don’t fail because of skill.

They fail because they don’t care.
They fail because they’re not engaged.
They fail because they’re disconnected.

Motivation isn’t always about money.

It’s about meaning, mindset & execution.

Here’s what I know:
→ Trust must flow both ways.
→ Goals create clarity & direction.
→ Knowing the “why” drives performance.

Consider this:
→ Start with a 30, 60, 90 plan.
→ Align the team with this objective.
→ Explain the “why” to create full buy in.

Watch what happens with your team in 90 days with full focus on this effort.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://scalingsuccess.co/

71% of sales teams miss quota, and it's not because of effort.

They track revenue.
They track activity volume.
They ignore the indicators that actually drive outcomes.

The dashboard looks full.
The pipeline “feels” healthy.
And the quarter still comes up short.

Here are the KPIs every serious sales leader must track:
→ Key Sales Activity
→ Sales Cycle Length
→ Sales Pipeline Value
→ Average Order Value
→ Product Performance
→ Lead to Opportunity Conversion
→ Opportunity to Sales Conversion

Miss one, and blind spots grow.
Track them inconsistently, and patterns stay hidden.
Obsess over lagging metrics only, and you’ll always react instead of lead.

The result?

→ Forecasting becomes predictable.
→ Coaching becomes precise and data-driven.
→ Revenue stops feeling random and starts compounding.

The takeaway:

→ Activity without conversion tracking is noise.
→ Revenue without pipeline math is guesswork.
→ The leader who tracks the right numbers controls the outcome.

What you measure dictates what your team becomes.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://lnkd.in/dHH93M4u

I almost didn’t call back.

Something felt off.

The buyer sounded polite but distant on the first call.

Most reps would have written the deal off and moved on to the next name in the CRM.

But something didn’t add up.

The problem he described was too operational to ignore.

And when problems are operational, the cost is usually hidden somewhere deeper.

So I called him again.

→ Align: “I understand you’re busy and this might not be top priority right now.”

→ Redirect: “When the system breaks down like you mentioned last week, what usually happens to production that day?”

→ Clarify: “If the line stops for even an hour, what does that actually cost your operation?”

→ Reframe: “So if that downtime keeps happening every week, that’s hundreds of thousands a year lost, correct?”

→ Close: “If we can eliminate that loss, it makes sense to move forward, doesn’t it?”

The result?

→ The problem was bigger than he first admitted.
→ The cost of doing nothing was far worse than the investment required.
→ The deal that almost died on call one closed two weeks later.

The takeaway:

→ Deals rarely die because of rejection.
→ Most deals die because reps accept the first layer of the conversation.
→ The reps who win are the ones willing to dig one level deeper than everyone else.

Most lost deals aren’t lost. They’re just undiscovered.

Most salespeople will never close a seven-figure deal.

They think they can.
They act like they can.
But when the opportunity comes, they choke.

I've seen it firsthand.

I've watched seasoned reps stall.
I've watched managers fumble negotiations.
I've watched buyers walk away, never saying a word.

Here’s what I know:
→ Patience is a strategy. Use it.
→ Big deals don’t die in meetings. They die in silence.
→ If you can’t handle long sales cycles, you won’t survive.

Consider this:
1. Control the frame: If they lead, you’ve already lost.
2. Don't push, pull: Let the buyer convince themselves.
3. Slow down: The bigger the contract, the slower the close.

Big deals are a slow process. Learn to slow down, learn to ask great questions, and the deals will start to come.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://scalingsuccess.co/

Objections don’t kill deals, insecurity does. 

You get pushback.
You lose your composure. 
You spiral into defense mode.

Most reps crumble.

They talk too much.
They try to win the argument.
They forget their job is to lead. 

Here’s what I know:
→ Objections aren’t rejections.
→ They’re tests of your confidence.
→ The buyer is watching how you react.

Consider this:
→ Ask for clarification, find the real fear.
→ Your tone matters more than your answer.
→ Reframe the concern to their original pain.

Master the objection if you want to master the sale. 

Don’t fear them, embrace them.


If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://scalingsuccess.co/

Deals don’t die at the close. They die at discovery.

I learned this the hard way.
Early in my career, I ran a perfect demo.
Clear value, strong interest, confident delivery.

Then the buyer stalled.

“No decision right now.”
And I had nothing to anchor them to.

The problem wasn’t price.
The problem wasn’t timing.
The problem was I didn't equate cost with inaction.

So I rebuilt how I run discovery using CICSR.
→ Context → I force myself to fully understand their current process before touching a problem.
→ Issue → I isolate where the process breaks and make them admit it out loud.
→ Cost → I quantify the damage until the number hurts to say.
→ Solution → I let them describe the future state before I ever show mine.
→ Resistance → I surface hesitation early while I still control the room.

The result?
→ Deals stop stalling.
→ Objections show up earlier and weaker.
→ Buyers convince themselves before I ever ask for the close.

The takeaway:
→ Bad discovery creates fake momentum.
→ Fake momentum collapses at the close.
→ Real discovery makes closing procedural, not emotional.

If you want better closes, stop trying to sound impressive and start forcing clarity.

P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://scalingsuccess.co/

The deal didn’t die because of price. It died because I skipped one question.

He was engaged.
He liked the numbers.
He nodded the whole meeting.

I thought it was done.
I moved straight to proposal.
I assumed alignment without confirming it.

Two weeks later he said, “We’re going in a different direction.”

Here’s what I missed.

→ I didn’t go deep enough into Context. I understood the surface process, not the internal politics.
→ I uncovered the Issue, but I didn’t press into real Cost with numbers tied to executive pressure.
→ I pitched Solution before asking the Resistance question that would’ve exposed the hidden decision-maker.

So I went back and did it again, the right way.

The result?

→ I quantified cost with his numbers, not mine.
→ I went back and rebuilt discovery from scratch.
→ I uncovered that his CFO had final sign-off and hadn’t seen the math.

The takeaway:

→ If cost isn’t quantified, urgency isn’t real.
→ Surface-level agreement is not commitment.
→ The rep who skips steps pays for it in lost commission.

Discovery isn’t about sounding smart. It’s about controlling the sequence.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉

Chase Dimond

Top Ecommerce Email Marketer & Agency Owner | We’ve sent over 1 billion emails for our clients resulting in $200+ million in email attributable revenue.

I help brands make more money with email marketing.

I’m a Co-Founder of Structured, an ecommerce email marketing agency. Since launching in 2018, our team has helped brands send billions of emails and generate over $200M in email-attributable revenue.

We’re a top agency partner for platforms like Omnisend and Klaviyo.

Shopify featured me as a top email marketing influencer. I’ve also received LinkedIn’s Top Voice Award for Email Marketing, and Favikon has ranked me as the top email marketer across social media.

Some of the brands we’ve worked with include:

Poo~Pourri
Eight Sleep
Health-Ade
Mixtiles
Vessi

If you’re looking to hire an experienced email marketing agency, you can reach me here:

chase@chasedimond.com

——

Outside my agency, I run a number of other fast-growing businesses. I’m fortunate to have over 750,000+ followers and subscribers across my social channels and email newsletter.

I’ve worked with companies including:

LinkedIn
Amazon
TikTok
Gamma
Alibaba
Zapier
ClickUp

I work with a small number of paid sponsors and partners each year.

If you’re interested in exploring a potential fit, please email me with details:

chase@chasedimond.com

Founder

My newsletter is your no BS guide into what's working in email marketing - I'll give you the latest tips + tactics to help you drive more revenue from your email marketing channel. 

Sign up (it's free) here: https://chasedimond.com/chase-email-newsletter

There’s a difference people like to confuse.

Hard is effort.
Hard is learning.
Hard is staying present when things are uncomfortable.

Disrespect is something else.

Disrespect is a signal.
It shows how power is exercised.
How conflict is handled.
How much of yourself you’re expected to compress to stay.

Staying through difficulty can be resilience.
Staying through disrespect is usually conditioning.

This isn’t quitting.
It’s pattern recognition.

Boundaries aren’t about avoiding hard things.
They’re about refusing environments where erosion is normalised.

Know the difference.

Image credit: Dearme2_ on Twitter/X

Top Ecommerce Email Marketer | $200M+ Generated via Email

If your job costs you your peace,
it’s too expensive.

You deserve a job that lets you sleep peacefully at night -
not one that keeps you awake questioning your worth, your future, or your sanity.

A healthy career doesn’t rely on:

 ❌ burnout
 ❌ constant anxiety
 ❌ toxic expectations

A healthy career is built on:

 ✔️ clear boundaries
 ✔️ supportive leadership
 ✔️ meaningful work
 ✔️ respect for your time and well-being

Your job should challenge you - not drain you.

It should grow you - not break you.

And it should fit into your life, not become your life.

If your work steals your peace, it’s costing you more than it pays.

Perfection is just fear in a nice outfit.

Make it exist first.
Make it better later.

Image credit: itsme_urstruly on Twitter/X

Great leaders don’t need fans. 
They need challengers.
Fans protect ego. Challengers protect future.

(Credit: Mike Leber)
(Image credit: Eric Partaker)

Early in my leadership journey,
I mistook quiet rooms for strong alignment.

No pushback.
No friction.
Nodding heads.

I thought I was leading well.
I wasn’t.

People weren’t aligned.
They were careful.

And careful teams don’t build bold companies.

If no one challenges you,
you might not be respected.
You might be avoided.

That’s not leadership.
That’s authority on paper.

The higher you rise,
the less truth you automatically hear.

People filter.
They soften.
They protect ego instead of mission.

And slowly ...
you start believing your own narrative.

That’s how smart leaders become stagnant.
And confident leaders become fragile.

Strong leaders design for challenge 👇

1. Seek truth, not comfort
→ Surround yourself with thinkers, not echo chambers.

2. Ask open questions
→ “What am I missing?” is a power move.

3. Stay curious, not defensive
→ Curiosity signals strength. Ego signals fear.

4. Reward dissent
→ Publicly thank the person who challenges you.

5. Model vulnerability
→ Admit mistakes. It opens the door for honesty.

6. Celebrate better ideas
→ Especially when they replace yours.

7. Promote the brave, not the agreeable
→ Advance the voice that risks friction for progress.

8. Hire for courage
→ Skills matter. So does backbone.

9. Put data above hierarchy
→ Let evidence outrank seniority.

Policies shape culture.
But your reaction reveals it.

Here’s the real test:

When someone challenges you,
does your body tense ...
or does your curiosity rise?

Great leadership isn’t about agreement.

It’s about being brave enough to be wrong.
And smart enough to grow from it.

If no one challenges you, 
you’re not leading. 
you’re just managing an echo.

Be the leader who can handle the truth.
And build teams brave enough to offer it.

Take the risk.

Because here’s the math:

If it works → Happiness.
If it fails → Wisdom.

If you do nothing → Stagnation.

Why smart founders take bets:

• Action produces data
• Data reduces fear
• Experience builds judgment
• Judgment compounds

Example:

Apply for the stretch role.
Pitch the bigger client.
Ship the imperfect version.

Worst case?
You gain feedback most people never see.

Best case?
You change your trajectory.

Risk is a teacher.

Silence is not.

Next time you hesitate, ask:

What do I gain if I try?

Credit: TheArtidote on Twitter/X

No one looks back and misses their busiest week.

They don’t remember the inbox.
Or the late meetings.
Or the extra hours that blurred together.

They remember the places they went.
The people they were fully present with.
The moments that interrupted routine
and made time feel slower.

Work keeps things running.
It pays the bills.
It builds stability.

But life is what gives those things meaning.

The laughs that weren’t scheduled.
The trips that felt a little irresponsible.
The days that didn’t optimize for productivity
but stayed with you anyway.

You don’t have to choose one or the other.
Just don’t forget to collect both.

Because in the end,
no one wishes they had more busy weeks,
they wish they had more life inside them.

Image credit: Mind_Essentials on Twitter/X

A fake caring culture is worse than a toxic one.
At least with toxicity, you know where you stand.

Fake caring hides behind smiles.
It says "we care", but means "please don’t make this uncomfortable".
It praises your work in meetings...then ignores your feedback after.

It’s leadership with empathy in words,
and apathy in action.

Here’s how fake caring shows up at work:

1️⃣ "We hear you" → but nothing changes.
2️⃣ "We’re like a family" → until KPIs drop.
3️⃣ "We value feedback" → unless it’s critical.

The result?
Distrust. Burnout. Quiet quitting.

Because pretending to care kills trust faster than open conflict ever could.

Real care isn’t a slogan.
It’s honesty, follow-through, and doing the right thing even when it’s inconvenient.

What’s one small action leaders can take this week to show they genuinely care? 👇


Image credit: Lorenzo D.

Marketing is the most difficult profession that looks “easy”

Which is dangerous. Why?

Credit: Authority

Because bad marketing can make great products fail.

👀 Marketing is easy to have an opinion on

❌ But difficult to execute the details well

Marketing sits at the intersection of art, science, and emotion.

Marketers spend years studying:

Conversion Rate Optimization
Value Proposition Design
Positioning & Messaging
Persona Development
Behavioral Analytics
Demand Generation
Campaign Strategy
Creative Direction
Journey Mapping
Content Strategy
User Psychology
Visual Systems
Copywriting
Storytelling
Branding

👆That’s why it looks “easy.”

The same way you wouldn’t tell an engineer how to build a car,
Let marketers do their thing.

The best headline ever written wasn't written.

In 1958, David Ogilvy won the Rolls-Royce account. Tiny budget. Two ad placements. It had to work.

He spent three weeks doing nothing but research. Engineering reports. Technical reviews. Factory specs.

Then he found it. Buried in a British car magazine, a quote from the technical editor:

"At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise comes from the electric clock."

He used it word-for-word.

Sales rose 50% that year. Ogilvy later called it the best headline he ever wrote.

But he didn't write it. He found it.

The best copy is already out there - in reviews, in specs, in customer language. Your job isn't to invent. It's to notice.

Quick thought:

The dream isn’t the hard part.

The discipline is.

Anyone can imagine the outcome.

Few commit to the inputs.

Big results are built quietly.

Early mornings.
Tight standards.
Consistent reps.

And humility?

That’s the anchor.

It keeps you learning.
It keeps you improving.
It keeps you coachable.

Ego stalls growth.

Humility accelerates it.

Dream big.

But work in silence.

Image credit: Daily__wisdom_ on Twitter/X

Most marketing copy doesn’t fail because of bad writing.
It fails because it skips structure.

Here’s a high-converting copy framework I use for emails, landing pages, and posts: 

1️⃣ Headline - earn the click
 • Use numbers or data
 • Make a bold promise
 • Focus on the outcome, not the feature
 • Tease just enough to create curiosity

2️⃣ Lead - keep them reading
 • Open with a short story
 • Call out a painful problem
 • Ask a question you immediately answer
 • Share an insight they didn’t expect

3️⃣ Body - remove friction
 • Address objections before they appear
 • Reframe doubts as benefits
 • Guide the reader smoothly, step by step

4️⃣ Proof - build trust
 • Testimonials
 • Case studies
 • Social proof
 • Real, specific results

5️⃣ Guarantee - reduce risk
 • Money-back
 • Free trial
 • Best-price assurance
 Less risk = more conversions.

6️⃣ CTA - make action obvious
 • Short
 • Clear
 • Benefit-driven
 • Action-oriented

7️⃣ P.S. - don’t waste it
 • Restate the core benefit
 • Add urgency
 • Repeat the CTA

Copy isn’t about being clever.
It’s about guiding decisions.

Which part do you think most people skip? 👇

Most people treat Claude like a writing partner.

I’ve started treating it like a proposal team.

Once Gamma is connected, you can build full presentations without leaving the conversation.

Here’s the flow I’m running:
• connect Gamma
• connect Gmail
• connect Notion

Then prompt:

“Pull the discovery call. Grab the project brief. Create a campaign proposal.”

Claude finds the context.

Gamma outputs the deck.

Budget, milestones, deliverables. All there.

If I refine the strategy in chat, the slides will evolve as well.

No copy-pasting.
No version chaos.
No losing momentum between idea and output.

One more thing that makes a big difference:

Set up your brand style in Gamma and tell Claude to use it.

Now, everything generated is already client-ready.

This is what AI should feel like.
You think, it builds.

Give Gamma a spin inside Claude. 

https://lnkd.in/eUJ-Skh3

Brand partnership • Top Ecommerce Email Marketer | $200M+ Generated via Email

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