John Barrows

JB Sales

I don’t waste time on sales training that never gets used. I help sales teams and individual reps improve where it counts. They develop real sales skills, follow a clear sales process, and close more business. My sales training is blunt, practical, and proven because sales is about results, not fluff.

I have worked in the trenches as a sales trainer with teams at companies like LinkedIn and Salesforce, helping them sharpen how they sell. I know what does not work. Scripts, gimmicks, and long-winded pitches. I teach what does. Simple, repeatable steps. Real conversations that move deals forward. Sales skills your team can use right away.

The sales training programs I deliver are built around your reality, your buyers, your team, and your pipeline. No gimmicks. No jargon. Just tested strategies that keep deals moving and help people buy from people.

If you are looking for a sales trainer who tells it like it is and a sales training program that actually improves how your team sells, let’s connect. I will show you how to build sales skills and a sales process that actually works.

GTMfund

Most funds just write checks. I roll up my sleeves. As a Limited Partner at GTMfund, I work directly with SaaS founders to help them build go-to-market strategies that actually work. I bring years of experience running sales training programs and building repeatable revenue systems that teams can execute with confidence.

I coach founders on designing the right sales training for their teams, creating playbooks, and delivering sales courses that strengthen sales skills across the board. I act as a sales trainer, a sales coach, and a trusted advisor, helping them simplify the sales process, hire effectively, and build the kind of sales training programs and coaching frameworks that scale.

At GTMfund, we back companies that care about selling the right way from day one. No hacks. No shortcuts. Just consistent pipeline, strong buyer relationships, and internal clarity. I stay engaged through quarterly syncs, deal flow reviews, and community panels, making sure founders have the sales training courses, systems, and support they need to grow the right way.

This role keeps me close to the front lines of how modern SaaS companies scale and gives me a way to give back by helping the next generation of founders build the skills, processes, and programs that actually deliver results.

Limited Partner

Sales Community

This is not another networking group full of theory and noise. Sales Community is where GTM operators, sales reps, and leaders come together to focus on what works and what to avoid. As an Advisory Board Member, I help keep the conversation grounded in execution, ethical selling, and enablement programs that actually deliver.

I bring my perspective as a sales trainer and sales coach to help members simplify the sales process, strengthen their sales skills, and build sales training programs that produce measurable results. We tackle hard topics including buyer trends, pipeline pressure, leadership burnout, and bloated tech stacks. I make sure the discussion always cuts through the noise and leads to actionable strategies that teams can apply immediately.

I contribute to events, roundtables, and panels on outbound strategy, coaching cadence, and SaaS sales leadership. My work helps members design impactful sales courses, scale sales training programs, and build coaching systems that improve team performance and confidence.

Serving here allows me to give back to a community of high-integrity sales professionals by helping them sharpen their sales skills, master the sales process, and lead their teams with clarity and results.

Advisory Board Member

The Jack Welch Management Institute

I worked directly with Jack and Suzy Welch to help launch the Jack Welch Management Institute MBA program. They brought me in to build the go-to-market plan and enrollment sales strategy from scratch. This was a blank slate. My role was to establish a sales training program, develop the sales process, and coach the admissions team to produce measurable pipeline.

I embedded with the internal team as a sales trainer and sales coach. I designed the first sales training courses and created a sales manual that became the backbone of their admissions playbook. We focused on strengthening sales skills, building confidence in the sales process, and testing outbound messaging that connected with ambitious working professionals.

I supported event strategy and enterprise partnerships to help move intent-based leads through a higher-consideration education sale. We applied narrative-based selling, buyer mindset frameworks, and credibility sequencing to keep the approach authentic and effective.

This project laid the foundation for JWMI’s growth model. Even in a short time, it proved how the right sales training courses, coaching, and process clarity can transform a team. To this day, I still draw on what we built here whenever I think about positioning and persuasion in high-trust verticals like education and leadership development.

VP of Global Market Development (Consultant)

Basho Technologies

As Director of Sales & Training at Basho Technologies, I delivered enterprise-level sales training programs and brought new business into the firm by helping Fortune 1000 sales teams execute with discipline and earn trust faster. My mandate was clear: scale Basho’s methodology into global organizations and prove its impact where it mattered most.

I worked as both a sales trainer and sales coach, embedding with sales teams across technology, pharmaceuticals, and financial services. I led sales training courses designed to strengthen sales skills, simplify the sales process, and build confidence for high-stakes boardroom conversations. We drove measurable improvements in qualification rigor, pipeline forecasting, and buyer engagement by giving teams a clear, actionable playbook.

Internally, I developed curriculum and refined our sales training programs based on field feedback and client results. I collaborated with leadership to test outbound strategies, improve coaching cadence, and enhance sales training courses so they reflected what actually resonated with senior buyers.

This role proved to me that repeatable success comes from clarity, coaching, and execution — not theory. The frameworks I helped deliver at Basho still drive results today, shaping how I design sales training programs, lead sales courses, and coach teams to outperform expectations in any market.

Director of Sales & Training

Thrive Networks

I joined Thrive Networks as employee number five and helped grow it from a scrappy startup to an 85-person company that Staples acquired. As Vice President of Sales & Marketing, I owned all revenue. I carried a quota, built the sales team, and developed partner channels while turning our services into a recurring revenue engine.

I built sales training programs from scratch to strengthen sales skills and teach reps how to simplify the sales process. I worked hands-on as a sales trainer and sales coach, running sales training courses for new hires and embedding coaching into our daily rhythm. My focus was making sure the team could actually execute — not just talk about it.

We grew revenue every year through direct sales, referral programs, and smart vertical plays. I aligned sales and marketing, launched campaigns that worked, and refined our message until it stuck. I made sure delivery always matched our promise and that our sales process stayed tight even as we scaled.

Thrive was named one of Boston’s fastest-growing companies and best places to work multiple years in a row. That didn’t happen by accident. We stayed gritty, trained our people right, and kept our edge by listening to customers and outworking the competition.

Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Xerox

At Xerox I sold tailored document solutions to state and local government clients. This was a crash course in complex sales cycles, procurement rules, and RFP execution. It was also where I learned how to navigate the politics and processes inside large institutions.

My focus was understanding workflows and identifying where print, scanning, and digitization tools could reduce costs and increase efficiency. I had to sell outcomes, not features. I partnered with procurement, IT, and compliance teams to get deals across the line.

It taught me patience, planning, and how to manage long sales cycles with multiple decision-makers. It was not glamorous, but it built the foundation for how I handle enterprise sales today. If you can win in government, you can win anywhere.

Sales Executive

DEWALT

I cut my teeth at DeWalt running live demos and driving sales in big-box stores like Home Depot. I built and led the first event marketing team in Boston, making sure customers saw, touched, and bought our products on the spot. It was fast-paced, gritty, and all about showing up ready to win.

I designed campaigns that moved market share and trained reps to run demos that actually worked. I wrote quick sales training programs, acted as a sales trainer and sales coach, and ran sales training courses on the floor to sharpen sales skills and tighten the sales process. Every shift was about execution.

That hustle got me promoted into the Black & Decker sales team where I managed the third-largest territory in the country. The stakes were higher, and the stage was bigger. I kept the same mindset and continued to build sales training programs, lead sales courses, and coach reps to deliver under pressure.

Those early lessons stuck. Hustle. Consistency. Face-to-face execution. Even now, I use what I learned at DeWalt to design sales training programs, lead sales courses, and coach teams that perform when it counts.

Sales/Event Marketing Specialist

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.

PLEASE STOP USING AI TO GENERATE YOUR COMMENTS!!

Take a look at the screenshot below and tell me these aren't all 100% generated by AI. 

I did a post yesterday on Linkedin's new Trust Advantage report.  

The first 10 comments were legitimate and thoughtful and then I woke up today to see over 20 comments from different people that were all almost exactly the same. 

All generic statements with no insights or value. 

Why do people think this is a good idea?  What value do you get by auto-generating AI comments on Linkedin posts?

Could someone please explain this to me?

I've been selling for over 25 years and have held every role in Sales from making 400 dials a week to being the VP of Sales of a self funded start up that sold to Staples to now running my own sales training company working with organizations like Salesforce, Linkedin, Amazon, Google and many more of the fastest growing companies in the world. 

These experiences have allowed me to learn a lot along the way of what works and what doesn't work in Sales. As I continue to sell every day I continue to learn. My goal is to share these experiences with Sales professionals to help elevate them and the profession because I believe when Sales is done right it's the greatest profession in the world, but when done wrong, it's the worst.

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

“Why have we made it this hard?"
"Why have we not thought about the buyer and put them at the center of the experience?”

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Predictable Revenue (segmentation of roles) WAS great for us as companies to scale our sales teams  but it was NEVER a customer centric way of selling?

This is what I dove into with 🎺 Rory Sadler on this week's episode of the Make it Happen Monday podcast. 

Buyers have all the power now. The sales process? Full of friction, too many handoffs, repeated and/or irrelevant questions and almost no personalization.

And guess what’s killing deals? Indecision. 

Not price. Not competition. Just an overwhelmed buyer who doesn’t have time to figure out your product or how to sell it internally.

Here’s what’s shifting fast:
 • The old playbook (predictable revenue, handoffs, stages) is crumbling.
 • Buyers want answers now, not a meeting in two weeks.
 • Sales reps need to bring value every single interaction.
 • Mutual action plans and buyer enablement aren’t “nice to have.” They’re deal savers.
 • Reps who don’t prep, personalize, and guide the buyer? You’re irrelevant.

It’s not about what you sell anymore. It’s how you sell. The experience is the differentiator.

This conversation with Rory breaks down how sales needs to evolve and how reps can step up and win by making the process feel easy, personalized, and valuable.

Are you selling like it’s 2025 or still running the 2010 playbook?

Tell me you don’t travel a lot without telling me you travel a lot. 

I’ll start…

How do you deal with a client who tries to entice you with the promise of future business (non-contractual) in return for a discount on the initial engagement?

You know the ones. 

During the negotiation for the initial deal they ask for a discount and tell you "if this goes well, we'll definitely do more with you in the future."

I can maybe count on one hand in my career the amount of times that has panned out.

I have my thoughts and approaches on how I deal with this but I'm curious what you all think and how you deal with this.

Timing is everything when it comes to effective prospecting. 

In more ways than one.
  
I used to spend 30 minutes prospecting each lead:  
  -  Find the right contact  
  -  Research their business  
  -  Look for a trigger  
  -  Write a custom email  
   
That’s all changed.  
   
With the new Sales Assistant from LinkedIn for Sales, I now do all of that in under 5 minutes.  
   
Here’s how it works:  

✅ You tell it what you sell and the accounts you care about 
✅ It builds a persona based on your ICP and starts surfacing leads at those accounts highlighting the ones most likely to convert 
✅ For each lead, it explains why they were selected 
✅ It maps the warmest path in, using your network 
✅ Then it helps you draft a first email you can use for an inmail or email 
   
With LinkedIn's Sales Assistant, you’re no longer guessing. You’re not digging through filters or sifting through accounts and leads to figure out if they’re a good fit.  
   
Sales Assistant serves the right leads, with context, timing, and a plan.  
   
It turns prospecting from a crawl to a sprint.  
   
If you're still doing it the old way, you're burning time you can't get back.  
   
If you want to try it you can join the waitlist here: https://lnkd.in/eZH46J2U   
   
How long does your prospecting process usually take per lead when doing high quality, personalized outreach? 
 
#ad #LinkedInPartner #SalesAssistant

Buyers don’t trust us. They trust their tools. 

And that’s a problem. 

94% of B2B buyers now use AI at every stage of their decision process. That means before you even show up, they’ve already: 

• Compared you to competitors 
• Fact-checked your claims 
• Identified risks in your solution 

The first impression used to be yours. Now it’s theirs, with AI chatbots giving them instant access to almost everything they think they need. 

That’s what makes LinkedIn for Sales' new Trust Advantage report so insightful and important. The main takeaways? 

Spoiler: it’s not about using more AI. 

It’s about using better judgment. 

• 86% of buyers say trust is what closes deals 
• But only 45% find sellers trustworthy 
• And 88% say the middle stage of the journey is where trust is won or lost 

That’s our opening. That’s where our insight matters. 

Not templated cadences, generic qualification questions or canned demos. 

If everyone’s using the same tools, you become the differentiator. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Sales has very little to do with WHAT you sell and almost everything to do with HOW you sell. 

Check out the video below and read the report and discover why trust is your biggest sales advantage here: https://lnkd.in/e5jp7Vbd 

What are you doing right now to earn trust when it matters most? 

#Ad #MakeItHappen #TheTrustAdvantage #LinkedInPartner

Objection handling "techniques"? 

Give me a break. What are we in Sales 1985 all over again?

That's what I thought when I went to a training earlier in my career on these two topics. 

I went in with an open(ish) mind and with the mentality I always do when I go to training which is - what's one or two things I can take from this that will help me improve.

I had always "handled objections" earlier in my career but it was almost always reactive and based on my gut feeling. 

I had no approach, no strategy.

As the trainer, and now mentor, Jeff Hoffman went through the training and labeled the different techniques I started to recognize some of them and realize how I had been using them without even knowing it. 

Then it dawned on me that understanding the actual techniques would allow me to leverage them far more strategically and proactively.

My approach to objection handling flipped from being reactive to proactive and my results went to the next level. 

That's why I still train them as part of my Driving to Close program and will be running a free workshop sponsored by Otter.ai on Thursday, November 20th at 12:00pm EST.

If you want to be far more strategic and proactive with how you handle your objections you're not going to want to miss this one. 

https://lnkd.in/eBz6jfXZ

Demos suck, there I said it.
 
But they're one of the MOST important aspects of the sales process for your buyers. 
 
According to Gartner, interactive product demos are the most useful resource for B2B SaaS prospects. 
 
Where demos fail? 
 
Reps asking basic qualification questions and then jumping into their canned demo, going through every slide, pausing intermittently to say something meaningless like "does that make sense" and end by asking "do you have any questions."
 
No engagement, no customization, no value.
 
Let's be clear - NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE ENTIRE DEMO!!!
 
They only care about the part that is most relevant to them.
 
That's why I believe in the "Sell to the 20%" philosophy.
 
Think about any product you own or service you use. I almost guarantee you only use about 20% of whatever that product or service is (Your car, clothes, Excel, LinkedIn, Salesforce, etc.)
 
Because everyone only uses 20% of what they buy, that's how I believe people buy.
 
They only care about the things that are most relevant to them and their priorities.
 
That's what we need to focus on with our presentations if we want to differentiate our solutions and uncover/drive urgency.
 
That's why I've partnered with Consensus.
 
They help buyers figure out their own 20% before they even talk to you.
 
Every time a stakeholder hits the demo, Consensus personalizes what they see based on their role and priorities.
 
It’s like pre-discovery for everyone in the buying committee.
 
So instead of throwing everything at them, you deliver what they care about most automatically.
 
If you’re trying to break through the noise and shorten deal cycles, go check them out.
 
#MakeitHappen #Sponsor

Everyone talks about finding and using "trigger events" to personalize their prospecting efforts but does anyone really understand the "why" behind the trigger event?

Most don't. 

For instance, an M&A is a trigger event that many reps use but most of them have never been through an M&A in a leadership role and have no idea the phases businesses go through and what they need at each step. 

That's why their messaging falls flat. 

They don't have the business acumen to make the real/right connection. 

That's why I tell anyone who is looking to improve their sales results to improve their business acumen over any technique or tip I could ever teach them. 
I sat down to discuss this and a lot more with Lorenzo Bizzi on this week's episode of the Make it Happen Monday podcast. 

Lorenzo is an author, professor, and real-world business strategist who grew up in Italy, studied business at Bocconi University in Milan, and fell in love with blending theory and practice. 

He's now based on based in Los Angeles and teaches strategy at Cal State and trains CEOs across industries.

This conversation goes deep on one major idea: Sales is applied strategy.

Most reps are taught tactics, scripts, subject lines, cadences, etc but they miss the big picture: how business works. 

And without business acumen, tactics fall flat. Lorenzo argues that if you want to be taken seriously, you don’t just need to sound credible. You need to be credible.

95% of AI initiatives fail.

That stat comes from MIT research. And most people assume it’s because the AI isn’t good enough yet.

I used to think AI would fix the bad data problem. That it could come in, clean up the mess, and make sense of it all.

But the reality? It’s more “garbage in, garbage out” than ever.

I’ve seen companies pour resources into AI tools, only to watch them flop. Not because the tech was wrong. But because the foundation was cracked with bad inputs, disconnected systems, and no governance.

ZoomInfo’s new AI Readiness Assessment cuts through that noise.

It’s a 2-minute tool built on MIT research and real customer patterns. It shows whether your GTM team is ready to actually use AI or if you need to fix your fundamentals first.

Here’s what it reveals:

• Where your data strategy is holding you back
• How your org stacks up on readiness, from Foundation to Leader
• What to fix before you waste another dollar chasing “AI transformation”

If your team is pushing AI without checking the engine underneath, this is your wake-up call.

Take the AI Readiness Assessment now: 

https://lnkd.in/eBnqMiRZ

A lot of reps are running meetings, but they’re not really qualifying.

Some write pages of notes. Others keep it loose. But either way, there’s rarely a consistent way of scoring what happened or even knowing if they are a truly a good fit.

That’s the problem with asking reps to score their own qualification. You get wildly different results. No standard. No accountability. No way to coach.

In this clip from this week's episode of the Make it Happen Monday podcast with Guy Rubin, we break down:

  -  Why letting reps grade their own opps doesn’t work
  -  How AI helps extract consistent qualification signals
  -  What leaders need to do to define the criteria

AI can help, but only if we set clear rules for what good qualification looks like.

Once you define that standard, AI can flag gaps, score calls accurately, and help you coach where it matters.

Watch the clip. Then ask yourself:

Are you/your reps REALLY qualifying, or just filling out forms?

#MakeItHappen

Happy to share that I'll be speaking at # 8 - AI Office Hours: The AI Sales Boot Camp | 12 Weeks to AI Fluency! Make sure to attend it tomorrow.

Empowering Sales Leaders & Women to Shorten Sales Cycles, Grow Deal Sizes & Lead with AI Fluency Harvard Instructor | Executive Sales Coach

Data is everywhere. But insights close deals.

That’s why I’m excited to have John Barrows join me for Week 8 of The AI Sales Boot Camp. 

With 350,000+ followers and a reputation as one of the top voices in sales, John knows how to cut through the noise.

Together, we’ll show you how to use AI to prep smarter and build insight agendasthat resonate with buyers.

Here’s the flow we’ll cover:  
✅ Agenda – Align with buyers before the meeting starts  
✅ Hypothesis – Use AI to make educated guesses about challenges  
✅ Questions – Craft sharper prompts that uncover truths, not just surface info  
✅ Follow-Up – Summarize with clarity and set next steps that build trust

You’ll practice translating one data point into a story that moves a deal forward and walk away with a repeatable framework for insight-driven discovery.

Type “IN” if you’re joining and tag a seller who knows prep is everything.

How much product knowledge does a Sales rep need to have in the word of AI?

That's the question I've been trying to figure out recently and dove into with my friend Dave Govan on this week's episode of the Make it Happen Monday podcast. 

In the past, my opinion was they mainly needed to be the quarterback of the deal and make sure the right people were connected throughout the process (SEs, Executives, etc).

When AI hit, it was evident to me that the client had more power than ever and could almost immediately get access to the majority of the info/value a sales rep typically provided.  With that, I thought it was critical that Sales reps upped their product knowledge game.

I've since gone back to the QB mentality because I believe Sales reps should use AI WITH the client to figure out the details and answer questions they can't. 

Check out Dave's thoughts below and let us know what you think.

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