Daniel Disney

The KING of LinkedIn & Social Selling 👑 Keynote Speaker 🎤 Consultant - LinkedIn & Social Selling + Sales Navigator Training - B2B Influencer Marketing - Author - Investor & Strategic Advisor

I help sales teams all around the world MAXIMISE their pipeline, prospecting, sales and revenue with LinkedIn, Social Selling & Sales Navigator. 

And I don’t just teach it — I live & breathe it. Here’s what that looks like:

✅ £50M+ in closed revenue directly from LinkedIn-generated leads
✅ 1.1M+ LinkedIn company page followers (growing by 10,000+ every month)
✅ 140K+ personal followers and counting
✅ 10M+ monthly content views
✅ World-class Sales Navigator trainer
✅ 50,000+ salespeople trained globally
✅ Best-selling author of The Ultimate LinkedIn Sales Guide & The Ultimate LinkedIn Messaging Guide

What I help companies achieve:
📈 More pipeline, sales, and revenue from LinkedIn
📈 Sales Navigator mastery & team adoption
📈 Proven social selling system implementation
📈 Industry-leading personal brand growth
📈 High-performing, engaging LinkedIn content
…and so much more.

Who I work with:
From high-growth startups to global giants like Amazon, Salesforce, Adobe, Canon, Ricoh, Gong and others — I help sales teams perform at the highest level on LinkedIn.

What I offer:
🎤 Keynotes & Sales Kickoffs that energize and inspire
💻 Virtual Social Selling Training Programs that deliver results
🧭 Sales Navigator Training that drives adoption and ROI

💬 "We gained $2–3 million in new business because of DD’s training."
💬 "Dan’s energy captivated the company at our SKO — his tips gave them so much to apply immediately."

I’m also the founder of The Daily Sales — LinkedIn’s most-followed page for salespeople with:
🔹 1,000,000+ followers
🔹 230,000+ newsletter subscribers
🔹 44,000+ email subscribers

Want to drive more revenue with LinkedIn?
Let’s talk about keynotes, training, partnerships or custom programs.

📧 Email: danieldisney@thedailysales.net

Author - "The Ultimate LinkedIn Sales Guide"

Respect doesn’t have job titles.

It doesn’t matter if someone’s a CEO or a cleaner, a top performer or just starting out — everyone deserves to be treated with the same level of respect, kindness, and appreciation.

Because how you treat people when there’s nothing to gain says more about your character than any achievement ever will.

In sales, leadership, and life, relationships are everything.
 
And relationships are built on how you make people feel.

You can be the best closer in the room…
 
But if you lack respect, humility, and empathy, you’ll never build true trust.

The best professionals — the ones who create loyalty, referrals, and long-term success — lead with humanity.

Here are 3 ways to live that value every day:

↳ Acknowledge everyone.
 
Say hello to the people others overlook. Gratitude and respect cost nothing, but they mean everything.

↳ Listen like it matters — because it does.
 
Whether it’s a customer, a colleague, or a cleaner, give people your full attention. You’ll be amazed what you learn.

↳ Lead with humility.
 
No matter how high you rise, never forget where you started. Stay grounded, stay kind, stay real.

Respect is the ultimate differentiator.
 
It never goes out of style.

So this week, don’t just focus on what you achieve — focus on how you treat people along the way.

That’s real success.

The KING of Social Selling - Helping Sales Teams MAXIMISE Sales With LinkedIn & Sales Navigator

Helping people has always been and will ALWAYS be the key to success in sales, even more so in 2026... 

The best and most successful people live by this.

They're HONEST
↳ They're not "Wolf of Wall Street" sellers.
↳ They don't lie to customers.
↳ They don't manipulate people.

They show EMPATHY and have a high emotional intelligence
↳ They're able to understand their customers.
↳ They have high EQ.
↳ Their customers feel valued.

They listen WAY MORE than they talk
↳ Not just listening, active listening.
↳ They identify 10x more insights because of this.
↳ They build deeper and longer lasting relationships.

They SOLVE problems instead of just selling products
↳ Their customers don't feel "sold to".
↳ They qualify early to identify problems they can solve.
↳ They live to help and serve.

And because of doing all of those things...

They sell more because they're helping more people.

When sales is truly done right it's a win-win.

Less "Selling".
More helping.

The KING of Social Selling - LinkedIn, Social Selling & Sales Navigator Trainer - LinkedIn Influencer (1Million+ Followers) - Keynote/SKO Speaker - 4 X Best Selling Author

Everyone's searching for the secret sauce in sales.

The magic script. The killer technique. The one weird trick.

**The secret is there is no secret.**

Think about the best salespeople you know.

They're not doing anything mysterious.
They're not using some hidden playbook.

They're just showing up. Every. Single. Day.

Consistency over intensity.
↳ 10 quality calls daily beats 100 calls once a month
↳ Regular LinkedIn posts beat viral one-offs
↳ Weekly check-ins beat quarterly panic calls

Progress over perfection.
↳ Your first demo will suck. Do it anyway.
↳ Your cold calls will be awkward. Make them anyway.
↳ Your proposals won't be perfect. Send them anyway.

Fundamentals over fads.
↳ Listening beats any AI tool
↳ Solving problems beats any sales methodology
↳ Being helpful beats any closing technique

The top 1% aren't doing anything you can't do.

They're just doing the basics.
Over and over again.
While everyone else is looking for shortcuts.

Stop searching for secrets.
Start mastering the fundamentals.

The boring stuff? That's where fortunes are made. 💪

Who's ready to embrace the grind?

The only difference between winners and losers?
Winners lose more.

Think about it...

That top rep crushing quota?
Lost more deals than you've pitched.

That VP of Sales everyone respects?
Got fired twice before making it.

That founder with the unicorn startup?
Failed at 5 companies first.

They're not winners because they don't lose.
They're winners because they don't stop.

Every winner's story is just a longer list of losses.

But we only see the highlight reel:
- The promotion, not the rejections
- The closed deals, not the lost ones
- The President's Club, not the PIPs
- The success, not the struggle

Meanwhile, losers have shorter stories.

Not because they failed less.
Because they stopped sooner.

"I tried cold calling. Doesn't work."
(Made 10 calls)

"Enterprise isn't for me."
(Lost one deal)

"LinkedIn doesn't work"
(Gave up after one bad post)

The more you lose, the more you learn.
The more you learn, the more you earn.
The more you earn, the more you win.

But it all starts with losing.
And not stopping.

Every rejection teaches you something:
- What doesn't work
- What to adjust
- What to avoid
- What to improve

Stack enough lessons, you become unstoppable.

From more battles.
More rejections.
More failures.
More attempts.

Count your failures.
Not your wins.

Because when you collect enough failures...
Success becomes statistically inevitable.

The game isn't avoiding failure.
It's outlasting it.

Winners aren't people who don't lose.
They're losers who didn't quit.

Winners are also the ones who take big chances like this...

Stanley (Your Content Coach) are running something called Dare To Dream, and honestly, it's one of the most incredible opportunities I've ever seen.

One lucky person will win $100,000 to cover their salary and living costs for an entire year.

No bills.
No financial stress.
Just 12 months to build the business you've always dreamed of.

Plus you'll get:
↳ Stan Pro and Stanley for a full year
↳ 5 coaching sessions with Stan Ambassadors
↳ A media budget to promote your brand

There are also 5 runner-up prizes of $10,000 each.

You only fail if you stop trying, and maybe this is the one thing you try that opens up a world of opportunities for you.

How to enter 👇

1️⃣ Sign up for Stanley (free trial available) before January 31st - https://lnkd.in/eFPhv8ar

2️⃣ Record a video (under 2 minutes) sharing your dream business and why it matters to you

3️⃣ Post it on a PUBLIC Instagram or TikTok account

4️⃣ Tag @stanforcreators and use hashtag #StanDareToDream26

5️⃣ Fill out the submission form at daretodream.stan.store

IMPORTANT: Submissions are NOT accepted on LinkedIn. Must be Instagram or TikTok.

Deadline: January 31st, 2026
Winners announced: February 23rd, 2026

Imagine if you win? 

If you have a dream.
If you have an idea.
If you have something you've always wanted to build.

This is your shot.

Whether you win or lose, always try.
Sometimes you win.
Sometimes you learn.

Just don't stop.

Helping leaders at early stage tech companies avoid mistakes in all aspects of growing their sales team | Advisor

Kevin has made 1000s of mistakes but that has made him successful. After building, fixing and growing sales teams at 8 startups and 3 liquidity events, he loves sharing these mistakes and learning lessons from over 25 years at pre-IPO tech companies so that you can avoid these mistakes and see faster success.

With KG, you get experience, not inexperienced opinions.

✅ 3 startups I’ve been with have had liquidity events (none fire sales)

✅ Helped build 3 businesses into Inc 500/Deloitte Fast 500 companies (that means fast revenue growth)

✅ Built sales teams at 8 Startups since 1997

✅ Built teams of 30 salespeople - 550 salespeople with GREAT gross margins

✅ Built multiple Inside Sales, SDR/BDR, Account Management and Enterprise Sales teams.

✅ Been in Sales Leadership since 1997

✅ Started 3 of my own businesses (Recruiting, Advising, Real Estate)

✅ Named to the AA-ISP Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals 6 years in a row

✅ Made lots and lots of mistakes

Check out the recommendations section below to read what other people have said about me. 👇

Kevin Gaither

I’m 55. I've had 3 successful exits in my sales leadership career & never have to take a W2 job again if I don't want one but... 
 
 ...I still don’t know what the hell I’m doing most of the time. 🤪 
 
Just a reminder that the people you may look up to, so-called "influencers," are still figuring it out. 
 
Life is the trip, there is no destination. 
 
If this resonated with you, you might like my book which is a collection of sales leadership stories of me screwing up and figuring stuff out. 
 
🆓 There's even a free sample to download. 
 
https://lnkd.in/gXftNAaw

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Stock Option Course

Sign up for my free 10-email course here:

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/landing-page-email-course-on-employee-stock-options?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_campaign=AutoPlug&utm_id=AutoPlug

And learn what the Founders aren't telling you about your stock options

77 Questions

Ready to hire A-player salespeople? Our free guide is your secret weapon, packed with 77 sales interview questions to help you crush the competition and build a powerhouse team.

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/interview-questions-to-ask-salespeople?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=Comment_Plug&utm_campaign=77_Questions

Hiring Bundle

Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence. Only $9.99, instant access. Link 👇🏻

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/landing-page-hiring-bundle?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=Hiring_Bundle&utm_id=FirstComment

Book Promo

100 Sensational Stories about Sales Leadership Screw-Ups and Big Wins

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/landing-page-book-it-happened-on-the-sales-floor?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_id=First_Comment

VP of Sales Working Out

How to know in 30 days if your VP of Sales will work out....or not

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/will-the-vp-of-sales-work-out?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_campaign=First_Comment&utm_id=First_Comment

Mini-Podcast Series

Buy the $4.99 mini-podcast series here:

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/offers/7P4geryA/checkout?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=Text&utm_campaign=First_Comment&utm_id=First_Comment

Avoid the mistakes that almost cost me my sales leadership career.

New Hire Training & Onboarding (not Pentis)

My free guide:  Best Practices for Onboarding and Training New Sales Teams
 
https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/playbook-for-onboarding-new-salespeople?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_campaign=Taplio_Boost&utm_id=Taplio_Boost

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/offers/z8LkYKe4?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=first_comment&utm_campaign=Hiring_Bundle&utm_id=Hiring_Bundle

It Happened on the Sales Floor

For 100 other sales leadership mistakes I've made, check out my book, It Happened On The Sales Floor: 100 Sensational Stories about Sales Leadership Screw-Ups and Big Wins. Link 👇
 
https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/landing-page-book-it-happened-on-the-sales-floor?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_campaign=Taplio_Boost&utm_id=Taplio_Boost

Model Week

Great sales leaders intentionally manage their weeks. Check out my free guide, How Great Sales Managers Model Their Week, to see how they do it:

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/model-week-for-sales-managers?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_campaign=Taplio_Boost&utm_id=Taplio_Boost

Mini-Pod

3 raw, 10-min audio lessons from my biggest failures as a sales leader...the kind you’ll never read in a textbook.

Practical. Fast. Real Stories. Real Lessons.

Only $4.99 - instant access, money-back guarantee.

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/offers/7P4geryA?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=FirstComment&utm_id=FirstComment

Podcast Promo

Link to the podcast episode here: https://www.salesnotselling.com/1039468/episodes/18403715-episode-69-selling-to-your-customer-not-you-with-guest-kevin-gaither

Job Seeker Course

Free Trial: The No-BS Job Search Playbook. 
First 4 lessons are free. No credit card required

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/landing-page-no-bs-job-seeker-toolkit-free-trial?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=FirstComment

Helping job seekers stop guessing and start getting interviews | Free Trial: The No-BS Job Search Playbook

Old school: Always Be Closing

New school: Always Be Helping

#PeopleHelpingPeople

This is the way

"Let's have this sales candidate do a demo presentation for us at the end of the interview"

Another galactically ridiculous step sales leaders put sales candidate through during the sales interview.

Here's 3 reasons why it's ridiculous for a sales candidate to do a demonstration during an interview:

1. Limited time: Interviews are typically limited in time and may not provide sufficient opportunity for the candidate to fully demonstrate their skills.

2. Lack of context: It may be difficult for the candidate to effectively demonstrate their skills without access to the necessary tools, resources, and information that they would normally have in a sales situation.

3. Unfair expectations: Asking a candidate to demonstrate their skills in a simulated sales situation may not be an accurate reflection of their abilities and may set unrealistic expectations.

Overall, it may be more effective to assess a sales candidate's skills through a combination of resume review, behavioral interviewing, and role-playing exercises rather than expecting them to perform a demonstration during the interview. 

PS: If you want to dramatically improve your chances of making an A-player sales hire, download my Sales Leader's Interviewing and Hiring Bundle for only $9.99.

Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence.

https://lnkd.in/gDDmYsJH

*Annual* Performance Reviews should be eliminated for salespeople. Here's 2 reasons why: 
 
- They get "reviewed" monthly or quarterly depending on their quota cycle. "Did you exceed quota or fall below quota?" That's one form of clear, objective performance review and 
 
- They should be getting WEEKLY coaching from their sales manager with fresh, relevant reviews/coaching that point out where they're strong and their areas for improvement. 
 
I eliminated Annual Performance Reviews for my salespeople at my 550 person sales org. 
 
Win-win for everybody involved. 
 
Why wait until the end of the year to review your salespeople?

Here's the good news about being bullied in elementary and high school. I developed thick skin. I was weird then and I'm weird now.

Doing things differently and being weird got me punished back then. But I couldn't stop being weird. And only the truly weird work at start ups.

it's easy to take a job at BigCo. Nobody will judge you for that.

But going to a no name company that has a high chance of failure. Oh there were plenty of people who likely snickered behind my back.

But the thick skin I developed after being bullied for 10 years allowed me to continue on.

Now the joke's on them.

And now, I look back on all of the screw ups in my career and thank heavens that I had the guts to do the cringy stuff that LED ME TO SUCCESS.

Heck, I even wrote a whole cringy book about my screw-ups and failures.

The link is in the first comment.

CEO @ InsideSalesExpert.com Helping sales leaders avoid galactically ridiculous mistakes in all areas of building, fixing & growing their sales teams

If you think Inside Sales people are "less than" outside salespeople you are dead wrong. 
 
If you think the inside sales reps are the red-headed stepchildren of the sales team, you had better wake up. 
 
First, aren't we really ALL in Inside Sales these days? I mean, who is really spending 100% of their time on the road? When was the last time you walked into an office with an order and walked out with a signature? Yeah, never. 
 
Second, inside sales is one of the fastest-growing areas of the sales organization. Statistics suggest that one of the largest growth levers of inside sales is the opportunity it presents a company to be a “first responder”. 
 
✅ An outside sales call costs $308, an inside sales call costs $50 (PointClear) 
 
✅ 37% of high-growth companies use inside sales as primary sales strategy (vs. 27% for field sales, 23% for internet sales, 8% for channel sales) (Pacific Crest) 
 
✅ Outside Sales Reps Now Spend 89% More Time Selling Remotely Than in 2013. 
 
✅ Inside sales are said to be growing 15x faster than outside sales. (SalesLoft) 
 
✅ Three-fourths of buyers prefer not to meet sales agents face-to-face. (SalesLoft) 
 
✅ Ten inside sales representatives are hired for every one outside sales rep. (SalesLoft) 
 
So the next time you think the inside sales team is the baby sales team and the grown ups are on the Outside Sales/Enterprise Sales team, watch out. 
 
We're coming for you.

I saw sales reps get promoted, earn bigger comp & title & a bigger quota only to get fired when they fail to hit this new quota. 
 
But that is a colossal mistake & it tells me that the sales leader failed to have 2 dead-simple components in their performance management plan. 
 
1️⃣ Clearly documented and objective promotion path 
 
This is obvious. If the rep hits X% to goal X times over X period, they get a promotion. NO qualitative garbage! 
 
2️⃣ Clearly documented and objective demotion path. 
 
This is less obvious and I've rarely seen it. If the rep FAILS to hit X% to goal X times over X period, they get a demotion. 
 
What does this result in: 
✅ A bias-free promotion path. Just the numbers please. 
 
✅ A DEmotion path for reps who get promoted but can't cut it. 
 
✅ A bias-free path to termination (you can only get demoted so far) 
 
I never understood why sales leaders would promote a rep, see that rep struggle in the new higher position and then just fire them if they failed to hit that new, higher quota. 
 
🍼 It's like throwing the baby out with the bath water.

They told me to follow the rules. But then they went and hired their buddy.

I spent weeks tweaking my resume like some crazed lunatic.

Is it 1 page or 2? 
What size font?
Should it be an Objective or a Summary?
I even asked several friends to "review my resume."
WTF did they know?

But then I learned some half-baked "internal referral" waltzed into the job with a limp handshake and a slick smile.

That's when I knew:

The whole hiring process is basically rigged.

It’s not about performance.
It's not about the best resume.
It’s about proximity and safety.

The hiring manager and our friends in HR aren't looking for genius.

They’re looking for someone who is safe, won’t screw up and is vouched for by somebody else.
(Bonus points if Susan in Accounting already thinks you're cool)

So I stopped playing the stupid game we think we were taught to play.
No more "one-click" applying through job boards.
No more overthinking the importance of that marketing vehicle we call a resume.

I started learning how to build the only thing that actually moves the needle...the network on the inside.

Real conversations with real people there.
The kind who go, “Hey, you should meet this person,”
and suddenly your name's in a hiring manager's inbox BEFORE the role is even public.

That’s the backdoor.
It’s not a hack. It's not cheating.
It’s the only door that matters.

If you think it's unfair. You're right. It is. But that's the game you're playing whether you like it or not.

Your resume is just a cute little marketing vehicle that you have to have.
But if you do it right, it's merely a receipt stapled to a decision that was already made.

So yeah...follow the rules if you want.
Polish the hell out of your cute little resume.
Pray to the ATS algorithm gods.

Just realize that everyone who gets in walks through the back door, name already on the clipboard.

Keep knocking on the front door if you want. Just know no one's listening.

Or choose to learn how the game works so you can take advantage of it.

Build a relationship with people on the inside.
Skip the line.

Or stay stuck waiting in one where you never even get to see the inside.

🟢 Of course, job seekers really suck at this part and have no idea how to do this. Intuitively they know they need to do it, but they never do.

But it's not their fault. Our education system let them down once again and never taught job seekers how to job search let alone network.

But that's why I created the 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼-𝗕𝗦 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸.

I give you exact steps to follow to network your way into that first interview with scripts and templates so you know exactly what to say and what to write.

The link is in the first comment 👇

Job seekers aren't going to like what I have to say...but it's about time somebody stopped coddling them and told them the truth 👇

#ToughLove

One of my reps was shooting herself in the foot with her own stupid hangups. Of course, it was all MY fault.

I've learned that sometimes salespeople hesitate to sell the higher-priced option because they wouldn’t buy it themselves.

That thought feels harmless. It’s not.

I talked about this recently after coaching a formerly B-player rep who kept talking herself out of bigger, enterprise deals. Not because the product lacked value. Because she couldn’t see the value from the buyer’s perspective.

Once I coached her on the ROI the customer gets, everything changed. She closed bigger deals, got promoted, make President's Club. Not kidding.

But this isn’t a salesperson problem. It’s a leadership problem. It was my problem. I screwed up.

If sales leaders don’t teach how to think in outcomes, sellers default to their own wallet instead of the customer’s business goals.

I unpack this exact moment, step by step, on a short podcast episode I recorded recently. It’s 16 minutes. No B$. Just a real thought-provoking story (as usual) for sales leaders. 🎧

The link to the short, 16 minute podcast hosted by Stacy Garrett is in the first comment.

VP of Marketing for 💡 Creative 💡 Swag Provider

I've made this mistake and so have you. This is the #1 mistake new sales managers make:

Tolerating Underperformers 📉

I once had a rep on a PIP who worked just hard enough to get off the PIP but then asked me for a promotion. I couldn’t believe it. 🙄

Improving doesn’t mean they’re now a top performer. Effort matters. Improvement matters. But output matters more. 

Too often, new sales leaders unintentionally lower their standards instead of making hard calls. Some reps will improve, but not enough to meet your minimum standards.

😡 And they end up taking more of your time while delivering less than others. 

You don’t have to lower expectations, and you don’t have to give up on them either. Here are two tactics I’ve used to keep standards high: 

1️⃣ Have them self-assess

Ask them to rate their performance in key areas. Then compare their ratings with yours. If they can’t, don't or won't see the gaps, no coaching will work until they do. 

2️⃣ Prioritize your team over individuals

Your time is limited—spending it equally isn’t wise. Ask yourself:

- Would a rockstar rep struggle in the same role? 
- Knowing what you know now, would you rehire them? 

If the answers are no, and you've put in the effort to coach the rep, you need to replace the rep.

If you don't make the move, someone else will make the move for you and likely replace YOU because you're lowering standards on your team not raising them.

Unpopular Opinion: KO your SKO!

6 reasons why I recommend you DON'T do your Sales Kick-Off in the coming months

Most of you are probably right in the middle Sales Kick-Off (SKO) season.

STOP. Don't do it. Kill it. Here's 6 reasons why:

❌ Expensive! The average cost per SKO attendee is between $2,500-$5,000. If you did ANY layoffs this year, don't even think of wasting this kind of money. How many people could you have saved if you didn't spend #SKO money?

❌ Don't fool yourself, SKOs aren't motivational. Salespeople don't come out of the SKO with any long-term improvement in their motivation. Maybe their tolerance to booze may go up but not their motivation.

❌ It's a company distraction. You're likely pulling in people from other departments to do presentations and participate. That's wasted resources again. Also, why don't we have an Engineering Kick Off or an Accounts Receivable Kick Off. Why is there just a SALES Kick Off?

❌ Usually Product/Feature dump. Your Product team will put a great deck together and talk AT the crowd for an hour or so. Save it for a nice email that people can read at home.

❌ Content Retention: Attendees will forget an average of 90% of what they have learned in a very short time. You're going to spend a bunch of money and then people forget 90% of it in a week or so?

❌ Oh, you're going to do it remotely? Good luck. Time for your attendees to catch up on episodes of Severance while they stare into ANOTHER Zoom meeting or a fun little breakout room in Zoom to "collaborate."

💡 Learning Lesson: Ditch your SKO in favor of longer term, practical and structured training with an assessment plan supported by a strong coaching culture.

People who have worked with me know that I've KO'd the SKO at past companies. Do you have the guts to do it?

Be honest, what percentage of your SKO do you find really valuable over the long term?

Learning that SKOs are a big pain in the butt is just one of 100s of mistakes and learning lessons in my sales leadership career.

I document 100 of them in my book, It Happened on the Sales Floor.

The link is in the first comment.

Are SKOs just a huge pain in the @$$ or what?

I don't know about you but I don't think I stepped foot into the career center in College and I couldn't even tell you we had a career center in High School.

But I can tell you that I learned Spanish in High School and now I'm really good at ordering a beer in Mexico and then asking where the restroom is.

Great success!

👉 In reality, especially after having two kids go through high school and college, I've come to the conclusion that the so called career centers at our schools are useless, if they even exist.

Our education system fails us. The main point of school is to teach you HOW to think. But the secondary point is the promise that if you go to school, work real hard and get decent grades, you'll get a good job.

That couldn't be further from the truth.

I read somewhere that unemployment for college-educated 20-somethings is around 9%.

9%! That's insane...and it's unacceptable.

But it's not their fault. Our education system failed them. Nobody ever taught them how to search for job the right way.

Instead they open-mouth breathe and one-click apply to hundreds of jobs they like while intuitively knowing that they're not going to hear anything back and they won't get that job.

But there IS a better way. It's just that nobody ever taught you.

That's why I created my No-BS Job Search Playbook.

-After nearly 30 years as a hiring manager
-After owning my own recruiting business until I sold it in 2018
-After working at the job board, ZipRecruiter for 8 years
-After coaching countless people to teach them how to get their job

I decided to create a no-fluff job search course.

Here's where you're going:

In less than 10 days, I’m going to help you master the entire job seeking process, position yourself properly to get the interviews you want and quickly find your dream job (and avoid landing in a crappy job) for less than a few orders from DoorDash

And you can get a free trial of my course too. No credit card required. If you don't like what you try, don't pay for the rest.

The link is in the first comment.

Did your high school or college career center teach you skills that actually led to a job? 

Especially this time of year when new comp plans and quotas are being rolled out, many sales leaders seem to be deathly afraid of losing their high-performing salespeople.

And they should take it seriously. Make sure you do the right things when rolling out those new comp plans and quotas.

But don't think for a split second that IF you DO lose your #1 salesperson due to the changes that you're making that your entire sales team will collapse as a result.

That's just the threat.

The reality is that it never happens. I've been in sales and sales leadership for over 30 years and I've never heard of situation where a sales team or a company fails completely when the #1 salesperson leaves.

Make no mistake about it, there is a dip. Some bigger than others.

But if you think that dip is going to be extremely severe when you lose your #1 salesperson, then that should be a huge sign to you as a sales leader or CEO.

👉 If you think that your sales team or company will collapse if you lose 1 or 2 high performing salespeople, then you have single points of failure that you need to shore up.

Develop the systems and processes (hiring, onboarding, training, coaching, performance management) that hedge against losing 1 or 2 high performing salesepeople.

If you don't, you'll feel like your #1 salesperson has a lot of control over you and that's not an environment that's conducive for you to make great decisions that's in the best interest of the company.

If you think hiring based solely on sales experience guarantees top performers, you are dead wrong. 👎 
 
Everybody knows that hiring solely based on experience is a fatally flawed strategy but I continue to see this mistake again and again. 
 
And I know why: It feels like it would be a no-brainer to hire the "proven" salesperson rather than the less experienced salesperson. 
 
But don't fall into the trap of overvaluing experience and undervaluing potential. Ever met a seasoned professional stuck in old ways, stubbornly rejecting change? 
 
Or the "experienced" salesperson who won't lift a finger outside of their job description? 
 
💡 Adaptability and Continual Learning outweighs Experience in tech sales. What was successful five years ago might be obsolete today. 
 
👉 Bet on potential. Find the eager learners. Their experience might be less, but their hunger to learn and adapt is priceless. 
 
Redefine 'experience', invest in potential, and you'll find hiring success like I have. 
 
PS: If you want to dramatically improve your chances of making an A-player sales hire, download my Sales Leader's Interviewing and Hiring Bundle for only $9.99.

Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence.

https://lnkd.in/gDDmYsJH

“We went in a different direction.” That’s the default rejection email (if you even send one) but there's no feedback to the candidate about how to get better...

Cold. Vague. Useless.

I've sent those myself. Hiring managers, we need to do better.

Every candidate you reject still needs help. Especially the good ones. The ones some liked, others didn't and almost made it to the final round.

And guess what? They remember you. They remember how you made them feel when you kicked them to the curb.

Some of you want to help and give feedback to help them get better but either you can't, won't or HR won't let you.

I get it. I've been there. It's tricky.

But maybe you can do better than merely throwing rejected candidates back into the job market with nothing but a bruised ego and a B$ boilerplate email.

Here’s what you can do instead:

Send them this.

I built a job search course that breaks down how hiring actually works and then shows them:

→ How to network
→ How to write cold outreach
→ What to say in interviews
→ How to negotiate offer letters like a pro

It’s simple. It’s fast. It’s free to get started.

And it shows candidates exactly how to improve for next time...without you needing to lift a finger. Win win.

If you rejected that candidate but still respected their time and talent, this is how you show it.

I’m not asking you to be a coach (your HR team might slap your wrist). I’m asking you to be a better human.

You have a boatload of power as a hiring manager.
How you use it matters.

👀 The link to the No BS Job Seeker Course is in the first comment.

Accounts you assign to your sales reps work are yours. 
 
👉 you decide who works the Accounts and Leads 
 
👉 you decide if you want to reassign the Accounts or Leads to more capable reps. 
 
Your sales reps don't "own" the Accounts, they rent them. 
 
As a sales leader, it's wise to set expectations around that so your reps don't feel entitled to Accounts & Leads you assign to them in perpetuity. 
 
I've made that mistake before and learned my lesson. 
 
If you'd like to read about a few more of my mistakes and learning lessons, check out a free sample of my book here: 
 
https://lnkd.in/gVrxP73k

Experience <> (Expertise, Success & Drive)

Experience just means you've done it for some defined period of time but not necessarily well.

I got fooled by hiring "experienced" Enterprise Sales reps who couldn't close their way out of a paper bag.

And that's MY mistake not theirs.

I got duped.

PS: Hiring salespeople is hard. I know, I’ve screwed it up a ton. 

But that’s why I created the Sales Leader's Interviewing and Hiring Bundle Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence. Only $9.99, instant access. 

https://lnkd.in/g-3wryFJ

I’ve hired over 1000 people.
Unfortunately, I’ve rejected even more.

Most job seekers don’t fail because they aren’t qualified.
They fail because they don’t understand how to 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 conduct their job search from beginning to end.

And I've helped countless others for years and years learn how to do their job search the right way...the way that nobody ever taught them before.

So to help the tons of others that are struggling with their job search...

I built 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼-𝗕𝗦 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸.

It walks you through the entire job search...from positioning yourself to interviewing to negotiating the offer...using the exact words hiring managers listen for.

🟢 First 4 lessons are free.🟢

If you’re tired of guessing,
If you're tired of struggling,
If you're tired of the black hole...here’s the system.

The link is in the first comment

No alternative text description for this image

What a punk. https://lnkd.in/g993hcKb #NameAndShame. 

When did Santa Clara University become an Ivy League School? oh yeah....it didn't.

No, Santa Clara University (SCU) is not an Ivy League school, as the Ivies are a specific athletic conference of eight universities in the Northeast. But I'm sure they're not proud of Justin's actions as it probably conflicts with their "Jesuit Values."

I have a daughter who is just getting into the working world this year and I'm encouraging her to start creating a personal brand for herself on this platform.

I hope that enough of us shame people like Justin Lubarsky (who went to Santa Clara University) so that this behavior goes away...because it's not cool and it never was.

Sorry you had to deal with this Melissa Gaglione ⭐️

CEO & Creator 43k+ followers | 50M impressions✨ Founder of Citrine ⭐️ & Content @ ColdIQ 🧠 | Event Speaker

The dark side of putting yourself out there that no one talks about… a DM I got yesterday 👇🏼

“You’re embarrassing yourself.”
“You do nothing all day.”
“Where did you go to school?”
“Get a real job.”
“Stop being a stereotype.”

And my personal favorite… the OnlyFans dig.

Because a woman can’t make money on the internet without it being OF??? 

When I shared this with my creator cohort, I told them something I tell every creator I work with…

This is going to happen.

You’re going to get hate messages. 
You’re going to get posted on LinkedIn Lunatics. 
You’re going to have strangers who know nothing about you tell you exactly who they think you are.

And when it happens, I want you to think… 

“this is a gas station man”

If some random smelly guy at a gas station yelled this at me? 

I’d think wow, what a crazy person. 

I wouldn’t take it seriously. 

I wouldn’t let it ruin my day. 

I definitely wouldn’t question my entire career because of it.


So why would I give this guy any more power?

He’s just a gas station man with a LinkedIn account.

The truth is, if you’re putting yourself out there, building something, sharing your voice… you’re going to attract people who don’t get it.

That’s not a sign to stop.
That’s a sign you’re being seen.

Keep posting
Keep building
Keep shining

The gas station losers will always be loud. 

But they’ll never be louder than your work✨


And honestly he’s lucky I didn’t put him on blast… I’m classy ✌🏼

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