Jeff Bajorek

I help established sales teams evolve so they can keep pace with today’s buyers | Consultant | Speaker | Rethink The Way You Sell®

Tell me if this sounds familiar…

Bob's been crushing it for 20 years. He knows which accounts to prioritize and why customers trust him quickly.

But ask him to teach it? Not much help.


Here's the problem: Companies can't replicate what they can't explain, and most successful sellers can't explain what makes them successful.

The way Bob built relationships 20 years ago doesn't work the same way today. When you can't decode what made those relationships work, you can't evolve the methods for the current market.


Here's what I do:

I help you decode the unconscious success patterns your veterans use, then evolve them so they work with today's buyers.

But I also find what blocks that evolution: misaligned incentives, outdated methods, people in the wrong roles, or reps misallocating time.


Yes, you can systematize your process while preserving individual methods.

Process = what has to happen for any sale to close
Methods = how you accomplish those things

When the process is clear and friction is removed, people can sell authentically using methods that work for them.


Most clients start with a 3-4 week deep-dive assessment to understand what's driving success, identify what's holding them back, and create a clear roadmap forward.

I roll up my sleeves and work in the field with your people. I learn your industry fast. And I create the environment where people speak candidly about what really matters.

Ready to stop hoping new people will just "figure it out" like the veterans did?

→ jeffbajorek.com

C-Level Sales Executive Experience | 6x President's Club | #SellLikeYou®

Sales Trainer, Advisor and Coach for B2B Sales Leaders

It’s not my job to tell you what to do, what not to do, or what I would do.

I’m a consultant.  It’s my job to help you discover what you should do, to bring out your genius, and in some cases, give you permission to do the thing that you really want to but are afraid of.

I’m going to give you information to consider. I will give you insights gained over a career of working in business and with sales leaders. I will provide you with a point of view derived from the wisdom I’ve gained over two decades in business.

Make no mistake. What you need is already contained within you. You just need a little help letting it out. 

Everybody faces this challenge. Your best work, decisions, and results are all being held back by fear. This is the eternal and universal battle fought by everyone who’s ever done anything creative. 

The top-performing leaders of organizations, salespeople, artists, etc., have all decided at some point in time that they need to trust that little voice inside their heads that their ego just won’t let them believe.

Every time I’ve trusted that voice, I’ve succeeded. I’ve won bigger deals and made money. I’ve gained clarity, love, and new outlooks on life.  I've seen new potential and faced new sets of challenges. It’s brought me fulfillment.

It’s still the hardest damn thing in the world to do.

Do you need a guide? No, but it helps. 

Fear, vanity, and everything else wrapped up inside it makes ego a formidable foe. What a consultant or a coach does is wrestle your ego to the ground so you can gain a little clarity while it’s occupied. This allows you to remind yourself of what you know to be true. 

They help you scrutinize that decision or direction to help you trust it, and then they inspire you to act on that truth. 

This is what a consultant does, and I’m really good at it.

Off to Charlotte for a full day workshop tomorrow with a really fun international sales team. 

I’m pumped about the curriculum we’ve built together and helping this team understand what it does well so it can double down and drive revenue in 2026 and beyond. 

Let’s go get it!

I help sales organizations perform better.

A lot of consultants will say that, and a few of them do, but I haven’t met any who do it the way I do.

One-size-fits-all sales methods don't fit anybody well.

Selling is not an instruction manual to be followed. It’s a series of problems to be solved. Your team has what it takes, but fear holds them back.

They’re afraid of appearing salesy. They’re afraid to “do it wrong.” They’re afraid they won’t do a good job.

Most of the sales improvement industry is based around a compelling speaker selling you templates and playbooks that worked for them and some of their clients. They speak loudly and proudly enough for you to believe they have the cure for what ails you and your team.

It’s a quick elixir, and if you take it right away, you’ll have better results in no time.

The problem is that you’re asking people to adopt a strategy they didn’t have a hand in creating, which means they don’t have any real ownership of it and can’t really identify with it. 

That means they don’t really know how it works, and they’ll get rid of it at the first sign of adversity.

Your team already has what they need. They just need a little help letting it out. They don't need another manual; they need to be encouraged to be better problem solvers.

That’s what I do. I help salespeople believe they can sell by equipping them with the tools, rules, and frameworks to release their selling genius. When people work with me, they believe they’re capable of doing things they weren’t before.

That’s my mission. 

That’s why I do what I do. 

And I believe I can help you.

Does it make sense for us to talk?

My DM's are open, or you can book a call at https://bookme.jeffbajorek.com

"No notes, 10/10."

"Wish it was longer."

"One of the most engaging speakers yet this year."

That's what participants said after yesterday's "Psychology of Negotiation" session I led for Sales Assembly.


The cost of knowledge is approaching zero in the age of AI. Anyone can look up negotiation tactics in seconds.

But the value of expertise is going through the roof. 

Knowing which tactics matter in which situations, delivering the right context at the right moment for the right people... that's harder to come by.

I'm no Chris Voss, but I've been selling long enough to know my way around a big deal, and I know what you do before you get in that room matters more than what you do when you're in there.

Big thanks to Jeff, Matt, and Brad for continuing to trust me in front of their clients.

Non-negotiable topics in blue.

Team takeaways and 💡’s in red. 



Spent a full day yesterday with the sales organization (and the Co-CEO’s!) for Elmeco Srl  in Charlotte. 

We covered all of this and then some related to creating new opportunities for growth in a worldwide food andbevrage market. 

This team asked a TON of the right questions and shifter their thinking in a way that sets them up for success.

Thanks to Mateusz (Matteo) Komers for trusting me to guide this session. 

Thanks to Albin, Nilanjana, ORLANDO, Davy, OSWALDO, and Taco for your eager participation. 

And thank you to Alessandra and Umberto Cortese for leaning in, participating all day, and adding so much context to why you’re continuing to build this family enterprise.

Coming off the break, I'm strongly considering the power of a quarterly 4-day weekend.

They're just my favorite, and I've never made it enough of a priority to actually pull it off, it really only requiring 4 days of PTO (or the fact that I'm self-employed 😂).

The infrastructure is there. 
✧ Thanksgiving covers Q4
✧ Q2 and Q3 are covered by Memorial and Labor Day holidays (and those Fridays are both light anyway, especially here in Michigan)
✧ Q1 is a wild card, but given the calendar and keeping things spaced well, the Friday-Monday of Super Bowl weekend works, football notwithstanding

I think the biggest thing keeping me from doing this is the FOMO, and as I type this, it seems really silly...

Anybody else with me?

Helping Companies Uncover the Blind Spots and Gaps That Hide Their Simplest Paths to New Revenue | Sales Consultant & Speaker | Rethink The Way You Sell®

My daughter woke up weeping on Thursday morning, just because she's grateful for who she is, what she has, and her life around her.

I've never once woken up in tears because of gratitude. Have I been missing something?

This year has really humbled me, and I'm realizing that gratitude and humility aren't just related. One requires the other.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The best sales training doesn't happen when a consultant shows up with a program and tells a team what they're doing wrong.

It happens when leadership invests in co-creating something built specifically for their team's challenges, their market, and their strengths.

I'm halfway through a 6-month engagement with Innovative Foodservice Group, and what's making it work isn't just my methodology; it's the team's willingness to do the hard work.

CEO Iain Whyte and his sales leadership team have been in the trenches with me, sharing real customer conversations, surfacing actual objections, and helping guide training that reflects how their customers actually make decisions.

We're not replacing what works; we're amplifying it.

Taking teams that already have relationship skills and field knowledge and giving them advanced value frameworks to sell against price-oriented competitors.

Training only works when leadership is willing to invest time, not just budget. 

It also requires the sellers to lean in and explore how they can adjust their weekly activity to optimize their opportunities.

That's what IFG is going, and that's why their teams are shifting from reactive to strategic selling.

If you're looking to invest in your sales team, the question isn't "which program do we buy?"

It should be, "Are we willing to co-create something that fits and will actually work?"

"It's all about relationships."

That was the first advice I ever got about sales, but what does that even mean?


Sellers used to build their entire careers on relationship equity, leveraging golf outings, steak dinners, and knowing their customers' kids' names.

That approach printed (H/T Johnny Hilbrant Partridge) for decades.

But things have shifted.

I saw this start in medical devices 20 years ago...

Procurement departments, corporate rules against gifting and entertainment, but the biggest one is what so many still fail to see.

People want to spend their time differently outside of work.

⛳️ Golf with a stranger? I can't even find time to play with my friends.

🥩 Dinner at the new restaurant in town? My wife would be bummed if I went without her.

They still work in some industries, but the boondoggles on the corporate dime just aren't going as far, because people have different priorities, and their partners at home have different expectations as well.

The approach needs to be updated. You need to build different relationships on different value.

✧ Insights
✧ Points of view
✧ Challenge the way people think

Be a resource to them and help them succeed.

You used to be able to buy the time necessary to build trust and provide value.

Now you need to show value to build any trust at all.

I've hit every goal I set for myself over the last 10 years.

So why has something been missing?

I finished Bob Rotella's "How Champions Think" this week, and it helped me realize the problem: I never set an aggressive enough goal for myself.

When I started this business, I told myself I didn't want to build anything gigantic. I just wanted to make a living, support my family, and do nice things. 

And I've done all of those things.

But comfortable goals don't create the clarity, systems, or single-minded focus you need to do your best work. They let drift set in without you even realizing it.

Over breakfast with a friend this morning, my inner monologue was clear: "Dude, you're not thinking big enough."

If you've ever hit your numbers but still felt unfulfilled, this one's for you.

Too many companies let the comp plan do the managing for them, and any CFO will tell you that spreadsheets are terrible leaders...

Tell me if you've heard this one...


"Well, the comp plan is set up so they are rewarded when _______. You'd think the reps would act in their own best interests."

You'd think, but they usually don't, because you don't really know what their best interests are at any given time, and there's a limit to where "cash" and "best interests" are the same.

Comp rewards results (and good results deserve to be rewarded well).

Behaviors still need to be managed.

Take a look at your plan:

✧ Does it reward retention as much as it does new logos?
✧ Are there incentives to go above and beyond the plan, or do you create a scenario where it makes sense for reps to stop (especially this time of year)?
✧ Are expectations around non-sales activities like CRM/forecast hygiene clear and are your reps accountable to those standards?

These aren't bad aspects, per se, but they don't always drive the behaviors you want.

Your comp plan isn't just an incentive structure, it's an instruction manual for your team.

If it's sending a different message than your sales meetings, then it's causing confusion, and your reps won't usually speak up.

If you're not getting the results you need, it's not fair to immediately blame the reps.

Most times, they're doing exactly what they're incentivized to do, it's just not what you had intended.

95 out of 100 salespeople refuse to ask their best customers why they buy.


I run a simple exercise in workshops, usually near the beginning.

"How many of you have asked your best customer why they chose to do business with you?"

There usually aren't more than a few hands that go up, if there are any at all.

To the few who have done that work, I ask, "What's the reason?"

I usually get something along the lines of 

"Quality."
"Great service."
"We've had a good relationship for years."

These are "correct" answers, but not specific enough to really do anything with.


The real reasons your best customers buy are specific, personal, and often surprising. You can't just make assumptions, or stop at that surface level.

You need to dig deeper. 

If I'm a new rep, what am I supposed to do with "build a great relationship?"

How am I supposed to "pick up the phone every time it rings" if nobody's ever calling me? 

How do I build a relationship that makes them want to call?

When I ask this question to groups, that's when I usually hear crickets.


You can't replicate what you can't explain, and it takes a little work to learn how to explain things like this.

Are you doing this work?

If not, reply "5" and I'll send you my guide for how to start.

I led a negotiation session this week, and something became painfully clear:

A lot of salespeople are planning their discounts before they ever build their case.

They assume they'll have to give something up at the end. So they start there—strategizing concessions instead of establishing value.

Here's what that assumption costs you:
✧ Margin (obviously) 
✧ Leverage (when you need it most) 
✧ Trust (customers learn to wait you out) 
✧ Satisfaction (yours and theirs)

I wrote for my blog about four lessons that came out of that session for me:

✧ What if discounting felt like a failure?
✧ We train our customers how to buy from us 
✧ Where most companies fall apart 
✧ When the calendar becomes your enemy 

When you build an airtight business case upfront, you rarely need to make significant concessions. 

And when discussions do happen, you hold all the cards.

The real question isn't whether your prospects will pay full price.
It's whether you believe they should.

The best negotiation is no negotiation at all.

jeffbajorek dot com slash posts if you're interested.

I wish more people understood how often AI gets it wrong.

We adopt these tools and project superhuman intelligence upon them, but when you dig into how these models actually produce content, you realize how easy it is for them to make mistakes.

Just this past weekend I was going back-and-forth with an LLM about a recipe for one of my turkeys.

When I raised an objection, it modified the wrong recipe, despite having all the context in the world to know which one I was talking about.

(I was cooking more than one 🦃 on Saturday). 

I caught it at the time. Crisis averted.

Later, when I asked for a summary recap of both recipes, the mistake showed up again. 

Then I posted that summary to LinkedIn without catching it. Didn’t realize my error until just this morning, after I’d sent it to more friends and clients. 

That’s the thing about AI, it’s incredibly helpful until it’s not. 

If you don’t know how to spot the gaps, you’ll miss them entirely.

We need to be diligent about what we’re asking these tools to do.

The more you understand how these answers are created, you realize how necessary it is to have a knowledgeable guide.

AI is a powerful tool, and at least for right now, it’s still just a tool.

Helping Companies Uncover the Blind Spots and Gaps Between How They Sell and Why Customers Buy | Sales Consultant & Speaker | Rethink The Way You Sell®

Most companies can't articulate what makes them different.

Not because they don't know their business, but because they've never forced themselves to write it down.


I'm working on an ebook about two of the biggest blind spots that prevent sustainable growth that outpaces the market.

Somewhere around Chapter 3, a light bulb went on💡above my head.

I've been working with companies on this for years, that "expertise" and "relationships" are great, but what do they mean? Why do you have them?

Then I realized that the only reason I can write any of this with clarity is becasue I've been writing for years.

Writing forces you to be specific in a way that thinking and talking alone just can't.

When you're in a meeting, you can hide behind inflection (as he gestures wildly around himself), and node of understanding.

When you're writing for someone who isn't in the room and may not know you? You can't fake clarity, and without that clarity, you won't get your point across.

So that's the exercise. That's how you figure out what you actually do and who you actually serve.

I've been calling writing my "secret sales weapon" for years, and now, because I'm writing more, I can better articulate why (how meta, right?).

Most people avoid this because it's uncomfortable. it's easier to think you're clear than to prove it on paper.

But the companies that outpace their markets don't just understand their customers better, they understand themselves better.

The answeres are "write" in front of you... 😬 

(Sorry... I'll see myself out.)

I get a lot of calls to fix salespeople. 

“Can you help him close better?”

“She doesn’t like to pick up the phone…”

I don’t need to sniff around very long before I realize the real problem is usually somewhere else. 

🔴 A comp plan that rewards the wrong activities 
🔴 Zero accountability from leadership
🔴 Unclear processes and the wrong tools
🔴 Wrong people in the roles

This leads to a huge gap between what leadership expects and what their team is enabled to do. 

The sellers? They’re usually pretty capable, but with all of these obstacles in the way, it’s tricky to navigate. 

Leaders, a few thoughts based on what I’ve seen in my clients over the past ten years…

✅ Do you have enough leaders in the org chart to support your reps on the front line?

✅ Do your reps have what they need, and do they actually know how to use those tools?

✅ Are you asking hunters to farm, or farmers to hunt? To that end, are you clear on what the roles require?

Sales training and interventional coaching fail when you only address the symptoms, rather than understanding the root causes. 

You don’t even need to completely fix the environment, nobody’s got it perfect, just go to work on it. 

As long as you’re willing to take a look, you’re getting a lot right.

Yesterday, I cooked 38 pounds of turkey for Friendsgiving. 

I’ve been doing this since 1999, and these two birds were all-timers.

ChatGPT gave me two different recipes. A classic one for the oven, and a bolder one for the Big Green Egg over charcoal.

It wouldn’t have been fair not to share them with you.

Any other home cooks out there with killer recipes?

Happy Thanksgiving week.

I’ve made a lot of jokes recently about how I “argue” with my LLM, and how productive I think it actually is. 

This is not that…


I legitimately argued with ChatGPT this weekend, resulting in what is clearly the worst sourdough bread I’ve ever baked.

I could see where it’s logic was coming from, but also where it was incorrect. 

There was a flaw in its reasoning, and it dug in (and for a sycophantic technology, it didn’t really apologize either).


Look, my bread’s gonna be fine. Despite the lack of a good spring and an airy crumb, the flavor will be spot on, and my family won’t judge me harshly because of it. 

But what about all the people anointing this technology to be the end-all? The pinnacle of intelligence?

If you’re making significant business decisions without checking your sources, there’s some real risk there. 

I keep saying this… 

The cost of knowledge is going to zero, while the value of expertise is going through the roof. 

Knowing what to do with the information, and when to look for other sources of it, is imperative.

A few themes are really resonating with me as I'm most of the way through Bob Rotella's "How Champions Think."

👉 Champions dream big... like, really big.

👉 It gives them a singularity of focus that helps with priority setting.

👉 They turn those priorities into processes that they pour all of their efforts into each day. 

Yes, these seem obvious.

But are they?

If they were obvious, wouldn’t more people be doing them?

The thing about "obvious" insights…

If you can't specifically see how/where these fit for you, then they’re not really obvious at all.

If I asked you these questions about your sales organization, could you answer them specifically?

✅ What's your big dream for your sales team?
✅ Where's your singular focus right now?
✅ What daily process are you pouring your effort into?

If these feel vague or you're juggling answers, then you could benefit from a little more clarity (as I could). 

I'll have more details about how this has personally impacted me recently in my newsletter on Sunday.

Check out the contact info in my profile for those details.

H/T to Mike Weinberg who recommended this book somewhere along the way.

What would you be capable of if you were willing to just suck at it for awhile?

I was having a conversation with Sam Pugliese recently (who I can’t say enough good things about as a young seller), and we were talking about how many people are out there thrashing away, and less-than-eloquently…

…succeeding. 

People are out there just doing the work. 

It ain’t pretty. 

Most of them get better. 

A few less of them (but still a lot) are absolutely what they’d call “successful.”


And here I am wondering if I’m doing it ”right” instead of doing it at all. 😕

I finished this podcast episode with Codie Sanchez and Mel Robbins yesterday, and it gave me all the feels for a lot of different reasons, but one of the things Mel said resonated, and hit on the same note…

“Here’s the truth… cringe is actually doing it right. 

Because if you’re actually going to step out of your comfort zone for the first time, you will feel cringy.”

Obviously part of a bigger discussion, but I just see so many people afraid to act, only to finally put themselves out there in a way that doesn’t feel authentic at all…

“But that’s how so-and-so does it,” so at least it’s not cringy. 

So my question is…

How much of your own success are you keeping at a distance, not because you’re afraid to do the work, but because the work it feels like you need to do will look funny for a little bit?

Asking for a friend… 😉

I don’t call him Uncle D for nothing.

There’s a short list of people I think of when you say the word “wisdom,” and 💡DeJuan A. Brown is at the top of it.

Creating space for difficult conversations isn’t a skill you can fake. 

You either believe people are worth investing in, or you don’t. 

DeJuan does, and it shows. 



I believe his superpower is his integrity. 

Want to know what’s important to him? 

Look at how he spends his time and what he posts about: family, fitness, faith, community, lifting others up, art—especially hip hop.

What you’ll notice less of, because of his humility, is just how exceptional of a seller he is. 



He lives his truth and speaks from his heart, even when the words are tough to communicate, and that’s where his integrity really shines. 

I’ve had multiple conversations with DeJuan over the years where I reached out during moments of what I’ll refer to as “cultural significance,” times when no one would have been expected to make space for my curiosity and questions. 

He did anyway. Every single time. And I’ve grown from those experiences in ways that matter.

I firmly believe that selling is a force for good in society, and his philosophy of #LearnTeachLearn is a flywheel that makes that kind of good possible. 

It’s how we get better. 
It’s how we help others get better. 
It’s how the work compounds.



The world is better for having Uncle D in it. 

I’m honored to call this guy a friend, and grateful that he picks up when I call.

If you know him, what did I miss? (These posts can only be so big…)
 
If you don’t, you should change that.

#ThankfulThursday

We hear all the time about the “lurkers” on our social media feeds…

The ones who see, often read, even follow closely, but never react. 

Where does this come from?

Is there a resistance to “training the algorithm?”

Is it something else, like how Todd Caponi says “salespeople ruin everything,” and people fear falling into some funnel that they don’t want to end up in?

I certainly don’t hit the thumbs up for every post I see, but if I’ve been following someone for awhile they’re bound to get one eventually right?

Really curious about this.

taplio

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