Ian Koniak

I help tech sales AEs perform to their full potential in sales and life with coaching, courses, and community | Sales Coach | Former #1 Enterprise AE at Salesforce | $100M+ in career sales

I help B2B Account Executives perform to their full potential by mastering their  mindset, habits, and selling skills. 

As the former #1 Enterprise AE at Salesforce globally, I teach you what works. I've sold over 100M in my career, hit quota 16 of 19 years, and broken 7 figures 3 times. 

My coaching programs help sales professionals achieve the results they know they are capable of, while also finding joy and fulfillment outside of just their work. This program is built specifically for SaaS AE's and provides the training which you likely aren't getting from your company or manager. 

Prior to starting my own business, I worked in B2B technology sales for 19 years at F500 tech companies as an individual contributor, Sales Manager, and Director of Sales, with over 100M in career sales and numerous finishes at #1 nationally, including finishing #1 in the US Enterprise Select Division of Salesforce.

Most recently I worked as a Strategic Account Director for the Enterprise West Sales team at Salesforce, where I partnered with our largest customers to help them drive growth, innovation, and success on the Salesforce Platform. At Ricoh, I led a team of 10 Sales Managers and 70 reps responsible for 60M Annual Revenue across hardware, software, and services. 

After a near death experience, I started a coaching business to serve others and help them achieve incredible success by mastering the mindset, habits, and skills needed to perform at the highest level. I've also had to overcome numerous hardships in my personal life, including nearly losing my family to addiction. 

My mission is to share my learnings over 20 years in tech sales to help AE's perform their best without sacrificing their personal time, families, or health. To hear my full story, visit www.iankoniak.com or visit https://untapyoursalespotential.com

When I'm not coaching, I enjoy spending quality time with my wonderful family, running, and traveling.

Founder & CEO

We help Account Executives perform at their full potential by mastering the mindset, habits, and skills needed to perform at the highest level in sales with our sales coaching programs and online courses.

We offer private, group, and online sales coaching programs. We teach the exact playbook Ian Koniak used to become the #1 Enterprise AE at Salesforce and close over 100M in his career. 

Through a combination of live coaching calls, online training videos, live events, and a vibrate community, we help sellers perform reach the top 1% and change their lives and their families lives forever by maximizing their impact and impact. 

To learn how to get started, book a free coaching strategy call here https://calendly.com/tanveermostafa/30min-1

What’s the difference between how a consultant sells, and how a typical software AE sells?

In one word: EVERYTHING!

My first four years at Salesforce, I spoke to customers like many AE’s do.

I was friendly, charismatic, and asked a lot of questions about their current situation.

If I thought we could help the client, I shared our value proposition, overview of the software, and asked for next steps, such as a demo or deeper discovery.

I worked hard and considered myself a good “closer,” who could reel in any fish I had on the line using discounts, incentives, and old-fashioned persistence.

Overall, this approach worked okay, and allowed me to make 200K-300K/year on average.

Pretty good living, right?

I thought so too.

But I never BLEW IT OUT of the water.

While my income was decent, I felt like a failure compared to many reps selling over 200% of quota and making BIG money at Salesforce!

I wanted to know what they were doing differently.

One thing I consistently heard is that the top performers were using a “consultative selling” approach, and many of them engaged a group at Salesforce called “Ignite.”

This group only worked with the most strategic accounts who wanted to transform their business, and their approach centered around design thinking to drive digital transformations.

I was determined to run an Ignite in one of my largest new logos: Berkshire Hathaway Home Services.

I engaged my Ignite Partner, a man named Noah Flower

I was fortunate to book a meeting with the COO of BHHS, and invited Noah to join me.

When I saw how Noah interacted with him, my mind was blown.

He asked strategic questions focused on the COO’s highest priorities, biggest challenges, and long term vision for the company.

He listened attentively, dug deeper to understand everything the COO shared, and was deeply curious and interested in the clients business.

Not once did he mention anything about our Salesforce or our solutions.

At the very end of the meeting, he said that he believed we could help, and shared more about Ignite.

For this to work, we would first need to gain consensus from the C-suite, and Noah offered to help our COO prepare for an internal stakeholder meeting.

Within a month, we had 1:1 interviews with their CEO, CFO, and CIO.

Within 6 months, we had closed the largest deal of my career after running an Ignite.

That year I finished #1 at Salesforce, and made club every year thereafter.

Noah changed my life by showing me a much better way to sell.

The reason Noah was so effective in front of customers is because he was not a “seller.”

He was a consultant, who spent 7 years at Deloitte prior to joining Salesforce.

And now, I’m thrilled to share Noah’s wisdom with you in a Fireside Chat. 

For AE’s looking to shift from transactional selling to consultative selling, this interview is worth its weight in gold.

You can find the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/gqESPGgK

I help tech sales AEs perform to their full potential in sales and life by mastering their mindset, habits, and selling skills | Sales Coach | Former #1 Enterprise AE at Salesforce | $100M+ in career sales

Salman Mohiuddin

Enterprise Account Executive, Marketing Cloud (Financial Services)

Helping sales pros + teams build healthy pipeline to close more deals faster | Sales Coach + Trainer @ SSA | 17 years as a quota carrier | ex-Salesforce, Asana and IBM | Interview Ace

Problem before Product. 

17 years of tech sales experience as an SDR + AE at Salesforce, IBM and Asana all as an individual contributor. There’s more 👉

Currently Founder at Salman Sales Academy.

#1 Sales Influencer in Canada 2025 (source: Favikon)

Coaching and training AEs, SDRs, BDRs + sales teams to find and close more deals.

Started as an SDR in 2006, moved to AE in 2007.

6 years at IBM
- SDR 
- SMB + MM AE
- small Enterprise AE

7 years at Salesforce
- MM AE (new logo)
- Enterprise AE

2.5 years at Asana
- Enterprise AE 

2 years at startups 
- SMB AE (new logo)
- Enterprise AE

I currently coach + train AEs, AMs, BDRs, SDRs and Sales teams on prospecting, problem enablement, discovery, demos, deal strategy and interviews.

DM me for:

- 1:1 Sales coaching 
- Sales team coaching + training for your company
- 1:1 Sales interview consults to help you land an offer
- Speaking engagements or sessions for your company
- Podcast guest 


✅ Widely recognized as a master prospector & hunter

✅ Experienced in consultative selling to C-level, Information Technology (IT), Marketing, Ops, HR and more.

✅ Sales Interview Ace - the interview playbook I've built has resulted in an 80% success rate in interviews

✅ Possess an Honors B.A., Economics

[Sales COACHING]

➡️ Problem Enablement [build confidence in truly understanding your persona and the problems your solution solves for]

➡️ Prospecting [cold email, cold calling, warm calling, objection handling]

➡️ Discovery [full 5-step discovery framework to help lead your calls with confidence and in the flow of the conversation]

➡️ Demos [full demo framework, engaging demos, justifying spend, taking control of deals, PoC/Pilot strategy, etc…]

➡️ Deal Strategy [multithreading, uncovering power, executive alignment + engagement, quantifying pain, business case, negotiation, dealing with objections throughout cycle, taking control of your deals, champion building, mutual plans, forecasting, etc...]

➡️ Interviews - I've refined my interview playbook that has help 80+ folks land offers [interviews, mock cold calls, mock discovery, mock presos, territory plans (that will wow a hiring manager)]

I've built an entire Sales playbook from prospecting to close in everything in between based on my 17 years of experience as an individual contributor in tech sales.

No fluff. All actionable sales insights and content, with real examples, that you can start using right away in your role and see immediate results.

Check out the coaching programs and testimonials here:  www.salmansales.com

or DM me. Happy to help.

Founder

Helping AEs, SDRs + Sales teams find and close more deals. 🚀 Boosting income and revenue. 

17 years of tech Sales experience, all as an individual contributor. I've been in your shoes as an SDR, Commercial, and Enterprise AE at companies like Salesforce, IBM and Asana. In the trenches. Exceeding targets. Even in economic downturns.

Documenting all of my learnings, I've built out a Sales playbook. Now I want to give back to YOU.

I teach individual contributors + Sales teams on how to sell better, exceed targets, boost income / revenue, and accelerate growth. All with actionable Sales content and insights that you and your team can start using right away. Seeing immediate results.

Spoke to an AE who ranked #2 globally out of 700+ AEs at his company last fiscal.

He’s gunning for #1 this fiscal (which ends in a few months for him)

What’s he doing differently?

It’s not complicated.

It’s the fundamentals.

(and it works)

Here’s a glimpse 👇

1. Knows the problems inside and out

He got the same product training as everyone else during onboarding.

Rather than jumping into product after hearing an ounce of pain, he takes a problem-first approach when speak into IT security leaders.

He spent his first few weeks in role truly understanding not the product, BUT

→ the problem it solves (in prospects language)
→ how said problem affects each key persona
→ how typically teams tackle the problem today
→ negative impact of ignoring the problem
→ KPIs + metrics affected by problem 

So when he talks to prospects, they think:

“This person gets my world.”


2. In discovery, he goes beyond surface-level pain 

If you took him aside and asked him about an in-quarter deal, he could tell you:

→ the specific problem they are facing (in their language)
→ how the team is dealing with problem today 
→ the use cases tied to that problem 
→ the impact on persona, team and org
→ who it’s affecting and why it actually matters
→ the exeutive priority that problem puts at risk
→ the risks or obstacles currently in the deal 
→ how he’s proactively de-risking them
→ next step, who owns it, and the goal

He knows discovery isn’t a stage in the sales process.

It runs throughout the entire deal cycle.


3. He leverages his x-functional team

Works closely with SDR, SE, CSMs, Pro Services, and a TON with partners.

But he doesn’t just “loop them in”. What he does:

→ prepares SEs before every call and demo
→ brings in execs for exec-to-exec alignment
→ sends each exec a 1-page deal brief before that 
→ works with partners as a true win-win
→ consistently meets with them, “walks the halls”
→ builds mutual plans that hold everyone accountable

………………………………………………

I’ve been coaching this AE for almost 2 years.

He wants to Finish #1 globally this fiscal.

……………………….

With how competitive the market is.
With budgets being super tight.
With all the AI tools at our fingertips.

IMO, it comes down to the fundamentals of sales that will help drive our success.

Helping Sales Pros Close More Deals + Crush Quota | 17 Years as an AE | ex-Salesforce, IBM + Asana | Founder, Salman Sales Academy | #1 Sales Influencer in Canada 2025

1st year AE, I was told these were good disco questions:

“Do you have budget set aside for this?” 
“What’s your timeframe in making a decision?” 
“Who's the decision maker on your end?” 

😐 

I asked them pretty much exactly like that. BANT style.
And prospects saw right through it.

They felt lazy.
Salesy.

Pure “check-the-box” questions.
Deals didn’t move forward.

Conversations stayed shallow.
Something had to change.

If I wanted real answers, I had to stop qualifying and start understanding.

Here’s what changed everything 👇

4 simple shifts that made qualification feel natural 
(not salesy)

1. Timeframe → Consequence

Instead of asking:
“What’s your time frame?” 😐

Ask:
“What’s happening today that’s causing you to take a closer look at this problem now vs later?” 🙂

Now timing had meaning.


2. Decision maker → Initiative ownership

Instead of asking:
“Who’s the decision maker?” 😐

Ask:
“When folks are trying to solve a big problem like this I find it’s usually driven by someone at the exec level. In addition to yourself, is there an exec on your side this initiative is being driven by?” 🙂

No pressure.
Just context.


3. Budget → Reality check

Instead of asking:
“Do you have budget?” 😐

Ask:
“Usually what I find is companies fall in 1 of 2 buckets:
a) have budget set aside for a specific project + eval
b) there's no line item for fiscal aligned to the project + eval
Which bucket would you put yourself in?" 🙂

Way more honest answers.


4. Sign-off → Risk

Instead of asking:
 “When do you expect sign off?” 😐

Ask:
“What would prevent your CIO and CFO from moving forward?” 🙂

Obstacles surfaced early.
Not at the end.

............................................

The difference?
Purpose.
Intention.

Respect for the buyer.

Ask questions that help prospects think, not questions that make them feel sold to.

Not so hot take: Quit wasting time and team resources on RFPs you have no business being in.

Imagine this 👇 

→ prospect invites you to participate in an RFP 
→ AE drops what they're doing, pipes a 100k deal
→ gathers team resources (SE, PS, Product, etc...)

Team is heads down for the next few weeks.

Responding to the 100+ questions.

Preparing for the demo so they can meet req'ts.

Only to find out a month later they aren't the selected vendor.

.................................................

Here's why this is a mistake:

→ you're late to the party if you just found out about the RFP
→ prospect already has a good idea on the vendor
→ your team wastes weeks on a lost cause
→ resources are drained

Winning RFPs requires early engagement.

Ask yourself:

- were we engaged prior to release?
- did we help co-create or shape the RFP?
- are they willing to meet so we can learn more?

If not, you've got to make the smart decision and walk away

... and focus on winnable deals instead.

(There are exceptions here, especially in gov't / public sector for example where RFPs are the norm)

But in the majority of cases, it's true.

Use your time (and your team's time) wisely.

The best salespeople know when to say no.

taplio

The Battle

Ian Koniak

Salman Mohiuddin

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreIan Koniak's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreSalman Mohiuddin's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Ian Koniak

Salman Mohiuddin

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ian Koniak's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreSalman Mohiuddin's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreIan Koniak's LinkedIn Performance