Inbound Selling

Chapter 1I Was Never Supposed to Be in Sales

There is simply not enough written on the topic of sales from the front-line reps' or front-line sales managers' perspective—the ones bringing billions in revenue into millions of businesses, day in and day out. They are the ones that truly understand the nature of today's buying and selling environment, and it's my opinion that theirs are the voices that matter most. And that their voices should be heard. My goal here is to give them that voice.

Of course, there are volumes upon volumes of literature written about sales management, sales leadership, sales tactics, and more. Yet, these front-line stories are being told too infrequently, mostly because the ones who write anything about sales haven't sold anything in the past decade. Beyond the obvious, that's a problem because by the time those individuals—the academic, retired professional, consultant, or sales executive—writes his or her book, the landscape has inevitably changed. They also won't tell you the truth about what really happens on the front lines of sales because they do not know anymore.

Beyond that, I'm writing my story because the world of sales has changed! Drastically! The same way that the marketing world has experienced dramatic change over the past decade, so, too, has the sales world. Many times, for example, we hear from marketers that over 60% of a buying decision is complete before a prospect ever connects with a sales rep,¹ though I'm not quite convinced ...