Almost everyone thinks salespeople are all about beating their competition (well, there might be a little truth to that). But in reality, many people who work in sales are also motivated to help other salespeople succeed and advance their careers.
Social media has become a bullhorn for top sales influencers, and these easy-to-use (not to mention, free) platforms are something you should absolutely be active on in order to stay current in your sales strategy and become a sales influencer yourself.
Following the right sales influencers on social media channels can give you a lot of insight into best practices, new trends, tips and advice, and help you find ways to connect with prominent thought leaders. Check out a few sales influencers we like to follow:
- Kyle Porter
- Sean Sheppard
- Jill Rowley
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- David Dulany
- Trish Bertuzzi
- Lori Richardson
- Jill Konrath
- Morgan Ingram
- Aaron Ross
1. Kyle Porter
Let’s face it: Salespeople need all of the pep talks they can get. So, if you’re looking for inspiration, Kyle is definitely someone to follow. Even with just 140 characters, he manages to really get to the heart of what position you need to take during tough sales calls, and how to advance your career in sales. As the CEO of SalesLoft, a leading sales software platform, Kyle knows firsthand how to a salesperson to close more deals – even when the clock is working against them.
2. Sean Sheppard
Sean is best known as the founder of Growth X. However, he is also a serial entrepreneur with lots of experience in growing many early stage companies.
He’s really focused on predictability in sales, so if you want to think about ways to leverage tech to drive pipeline, Sean is your guy. Sean’s major focus is all about growth and boosting sales education, so he’s a great influencer for you to follow if you’re just getting started in sales and want to build a pipeline fast.
3. Jill Rowley
Jill Rowley is a noted startup advisor with 17 years of SaaS experience. She’s also a champion of social selling, something more and more sales teams are utilizing in addition to cold calling and predictive solutions.
If you are looking for creative ways to implement social selling into your overall sales strategy, Jill has plenty of insight and experience on how to connect with modern buyers in an increasingly digital marketplace.
4. Gary Vaynerchuk
If you’re in sales and haven’t heard of this guy, crawl out from under your rock right now and start watching his videos and listening to his podcasts immediately.
Gary got his start by building one of the first ecommerce wine sites, WineLibrary, but has since made himself a household name by becoming a serial entrepreneur and early investor in companies like Twitter, Tumblr and Venmo. He’s also a judge on Apple’s new TV Series, Planet of the Apps, which is definitely gaining traction as well. Simply put, Gary really simplifies how people think about sales in the digital era, especially in regards to messaging, audience and just plain old sales hustle.
5. David Dulany
David is a great person to follow on Twitter, mostly because it gives you easy access to his Sales Development Podcast, where he has a really interesting take on the role of the SDR and how it can make the entire Sales Dev community better.
Additionally, David is the lead consultant at Tenbound, a program that helps teams build an SDR infrastructure from scratch. He is an excellent sales professional to follow if you are working on a lean team or startup that is just starting to build pipeline and set up a sales strategy.
6. Trish Bertuzzi
Author of “The Sales Development Playbook,” Trish Bertuzzi has been a major player in the sales game for the past two decades. She quite literally wrote the book on it. Trish is also President and Chief Strategist at The Bridge Group, a company that specializes in helping teams with inside sales.
Trish knows how to motivate salespeople, especially when it comes to honing in on best practices – something that definitely slides to the back-burner as the quarter rolls on. Though her book is a great introduction to her sales philosophy, it can’t hurt to follow her on Twitter as well. Or, you can read her hilarious and equally thought-provoking blog post, I Met a Guy at a Bar and Now I’m a Believer in AI.
7. Lori Richardson
Lori Richardson is a leading sales strategist and influencer as President of Score More Sales, which helps mid-market companies scale up and train their sales teams. She grew up in a family of small business leaders, and carried out that tradition by getting into tech sales in her early 20s.
She’s positioned herself as a sales leader ever since, and is very active on Twitter. Not only does she offer a lot of great advice based on her career in sales, but she shares a ton of practical content (articles, podcasts) she’s discovered that could give you that much-needed inspiration to power through your quarter and finish strong.
8. Jill Konrath
Jill Konrath is a force in sales, and often selected as a keynote speaker at many events based on her past successes in sales acceleration strategy. She’s also the bestselling author of three books geared toward sales and promotes many free sales tools and resources on her Twitter page.
Jill is also a inspirational figure, as she is a the founder of Women Sales Pros, an organization that supports women in sales leadership and B2B sales. Jill’s tweets are as smart as they are practical, so you’ll be able to obtain plenty of actionable takeaways for your future sales strategies by following her.
9. Morgan Ingram
As the manager of sales development at Terminus, Morgan is one of the best people to follow on Twitter if you are interested in SDR development. Creating a strong SDR team requires daily grind and motivation, of which Morgan seems to have an endless supply.
He also tweets a lot about the psychology behind sales, such as neurolinguistic programming in social selling and using your inner creativity to see your audience in a different light. Morgan also contributes to the SDR Chronicles, which publishes stories and great insights from the front lines of SDR development.
10. Aaron Ross
If you’re interested in predictive sales, Aaron is definitely a thought leader you should be following. As the author of From Impossible to Inevitable and Predictive Revenue (a well-respected sales publication in Silicon Valley), Aaron uses Twitter to share his expert analysis on everything from avoiding outbound prospecting pitfalls to sales productivity to improving your SDR workflow.
Aaron is very detailed in his approach to sales success, giving you tangible sales tips that tie in the ever-growing world of predictive sales strategies.