Do You Want to Follow a (Sales) Guru?
It is another trap
“A teacher introduces us to a new vision of life,
To make us as sharp as a knife.”
Mridulika Ganguly
Hubspot recently published an article on the top 5 sales influencers that “every sales rep should be following.” The reasoning provided was as follows: “Sometimes, you need to rely on experts beyond your immediate circle — prominent sales figures that can provide reference points and insight to help you add some skills to your repertoire and refine your sales efforts. Those people are most commonly referred to as sales influencers.”
While this sounds reasonable, it raised a few questions in my mind:
- Are the five provided an absolute list, and how many others are there?
- How many, if any, should one follow?
- What makes someone an influencer?
- How do you know what they provide is good advice and not just self-serving?
An influencer is someone with a following in a distinct niche, with whom they actively engage. And it is someone who has the power to affect the decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, position, or relationships with the audience.
Let's assume for a moment that if you are in sales, you are only looking for reference points, advice, new skills, novel approaches or techniques, and the latest tools, or simply affirmation that you are doing things right. But know that as you turn to an influencer, you are also being sold to. Influencers have an agenda, and their advice comes with a trade-off. It is inevitable.
Since they are all alike in this, who do you turn to for the best advice? LinkedIn and other social media platforms are full of those who self-describe as “#1 Influencer,” “Change Agent,” “Hacker,” “King,” “Best-selling Author,” “Wolf,” “Keynote Speaker,” “Evangelist,” “Thought Leader,” or ”Advocate.”
Overall, I am with Karen McCandless, who describes this scene as “a bloated mess of people of all experiences, skills, and knowledge levels, calling themselves gurus, and ninjas, and influencers.”
At the end of this article, I am sharing links to write-ups where the author claims to have filtered through the “bloated mess” and is providing you their ultimate list of 5, 15, 19, 30, or even 53 sales influencers.
Rather than joining them with yet another list, let me share what I am suggesting using as selection criteria so that you can make up your own mind:
1. Consistency. People that are creating and sharing new content consistently provide you with food-for-thought over and over again.
2. Original content. Do not fall for those who only re-post. Look for original content and those who provide insightful and relevant comments when re-posting.
3. Existing Engagement. This is a tricky one. People who have plenty of other people liking, commenting, and sharing the content they’re creating, have this indication that they are plain popular or engaging. Neither one is necessarily an indication of the quality of their content.
4. Perspective. Does the person have a really unique perspective or point of view? As you build your portfolio of experts, make sure they do not all follow only one school of thought.
5. Diversity. Follow more than one. No single individual is capable of covering the depth and breadth of the sales world. Don’t follow just one guru, rather select a diverse list of experts.
6. Practitioner. Look for those who are practicing or have recently practiced what they are preaching. Nothing worse than to hear “wisdom” from someone who has not been in front of a customer in decades.
7. Responsiveness. Is all you do, read or listen to what the expert publishes, or is there an opportunity to dialogue? Do they respond to questions you ask?
Using those criteria, you can build your own list.
And just in case you want to connect with the “Chief Evangelist” for Interim & Fractional Sales Leadership, here is a link.
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Jay Fuchs - The Top 5 Sales Influencers Every Sales rep Should Be Following
Klenty Blog - 15 Top Influencers Every Salesperson Must Follow in 2019
Kite Desk & Evolve! - 30 Social Sales Influencers
James Carbary - Are You Following These 53 B2B Sales Influencers on LinkedIn
Kashyap Trivedi - 19 Best Sales Influencers You Must Follow in 2020
Karen McCandless - Always be closing: Top sales influencers to follow on LinkedIn
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