John Barrows

Elevating The People & Profession of Sales

I have been in sales for over 25 years. I have made 400 cold calls a week, led a startup to acquisition, and trained some of the best-performing teams at Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Okta. Through JB Sales I teach practical sales execution rooted in real-world experience.

My work focuses on performance. I deliver live workshops, on-demand training, and coaching to help reps fill pipeline, close deals, and build buyer trust. I created Filling the Funnel and Driving to Close for reps and managers who want systems that convert.

I work with SaaS companies, agencies, and professional services teams that want to scale ethically and efficiently. My podcast Make It Happen Mondays has over 100,000 listeners and brings weekly strategy and tactics for sales pros looking to level up fast.

I speak on stage, coach in the trenches, and push for better execution across the board. Topics I cover include outbound frameworks, sales leadership, pipeline velocity, and GTM enablement in an AI-driven environment. I also share openly about mindset, mental health, and managing pressure in this career.

I live in Boston but work globally. I am here to raise the bar for sales and help professionals build careers they are proud of. If that mission speaks to you, let's connect.

My "Why" is to elevate the people and profession of Sales by sharing my earned experience with anyone willing to put in the work so they can achieve whatever level of freedom and success they want in life.

I've delivered my two Signature training programs (Filling the Funnel and Driving to Close) to thousands of Sales professionals at some of the fastest growing companies in the world like Salesforce, Linkedin, Amazon, Okta, Salesloft and many others. 

My membership provides individuals and teams with live monthly training (delivered by me) along with workshops, AMAs and an OnDemand library filled with actionable tips.

None of us have all the answers and things are moving too fast right now for any of us to try and figure it all out on our own.  We need to get back to fundamentals while learning how to evolve and where to add value in this new world of AI. 

If you're willing to put in the work and want to elevate yourself, along with this profession, come join me on this ride.

I’m excited to share that I’m partnering with Apollo.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I don’t sit still.

Sales is evolving fast. AI is evolving faster. And I make it a priority to constantly test new platforms, workflows, and tools so I can see what actually works in the field.

I don’t partner with companies because they’re popular.

I partner with companies when I see real impact on execution.

Here’s why Apollo earned that spot:

• It connects data, sequencing, dialing, and enrichment in one workflow
• It reduces tool sprawl and simplifies the prospecting stack
• It drives daily activity instead of adding complexity
• It’s powerful enough for growth teams and practical enough for early-stage orgs
 • Reps actually use it

That last one matters most.

The best tech in the world fails if adoption fails.

What also stood out to me is how Apollo is approaching AI.

They’re not slapping AI onto random features and calling it innovation.

They’re integrating it across the workflow.

From their AI Assistant to the new connector with Claude announced yesterday, the focus is clear. AI is being built into the execution layer.

Not to replace reps.

To accelerate them.

That’s the difference.

Technology should reinforce fundamentals like clear ICP, strong messaging. and consistent activity.

AI should make you more effective at those things. Not distract you from them.

When humans stay in control and AI becomes the accelerator, that’s where real leverage happens.

I’ll be using Apollo in my own prospecting and sharing what I learn along the way.

If you’re evaluating your stack and want something that simplifies the execution layer while building AI in the right way, it’s worth a look.

If you sign up for a paid plan with this link you'll get 2500 bonus credits: https://lnkd.in/eEHtj8Cw

What's the biggest bottleneck you have in your outbound process?

Sales Trainer & Coach | Building Sales Skills & Sales Process | Sales Training Courses & Programs That Deliver

Open article: Apollo Sign Up | Free B2B Sales Intelligence Platform | Apollo.io by get.apollo.io

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🦾Eric Nowoslawski

Founder Growth Engine X | Clay Enterprise Partner

I am a direct response outbound lead generation expert. And by that jumble of words, I mean that I leverage cold email to build predictable revenue pipelines for my clients. 

I leverage over 20 databases to merge Firmographic, Technographic, and Persona data to build highly targeted playbooks with my clients. 

I believe we need to arm sales teams with the knowledge of their total Target Addressable Market and teach them how to score that Market for which companies have the most pain and need their solution. 

The best way to do this is to look at public indicators such as open jobs data, employee growth/attrition, social media growth, web traffic, new product launches, employee sentiment, individual employee tech investment, company tech stacks, etc.

With this data, not only are you only messaging with people that you know have a problem that you can solve, you also are armed  with powerful messaging that cuts through the noise. 

I teach sales teams to embrace technology and multiply what is possible per employee.

Founder

There is actually a limit to cold email reply rates.

Knowing this can hopefully free you from testing things that won't matter.

Let me explain.

I have worked with customers in the past that are obsessed with getting the reply rate as high as possible. They think if they send a good enough email, every single person who could possibly see it is going to respond.

We've run tests that show this just isn't the case.

We had the opportunity to work on behalf of Forbes at Web Summit. We had the list of speakers. We had all their emails. We cold emailed them from infrastructure that had warmed up for four months. The pitch was simple: "This is our booth. We want to interview you for Forbes. Book a meeting." And we sent them a link to Forbes.com.

That only got a 30% reply rate. Basically all positive.

When I say "only" 30% — if I were a speaker at an event and Forbes wanted to interview me, I would think the reply rate would be even higher than that.

We also helped a customer email their own customers. We found data that showed they needed a new product, and we could fix the problem for free.

Still only a 10% reply rate.

I say all this because these two examples are pretty undeniably good offers. And they still did not get 40, 50, 60% reply rates.

When you're sending emails, there are so many reasons why somebody doesn't respond. They didn't even see it. It got mixed up with everything else in their inbox. It's just not the right time for them.

When you've run a couple of experiments and the reply rate is staying pretty steady, I would think more about experiments around lists and experiments around offers versus trying to change the copy to see if an AI personalization or a fancier way of saying something is going to move the needle.

List segmentation and changing your offer matter way more.

What experiments have you run that changed your thinking on reply rates?

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John Barrows

🦾Eric Nowoslawski

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The Battle

John Barrows

🦾Eric Nowoslawski

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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);}John Barrows's LinkedIn Performance

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