Top 7 Sales Influencers You Should be Following

Ideas are meant to be shared, especially when it comes to B2B selling. It’s always useful to hear from old pros who have “been there, done that,” and also hear about what works for them in a tough selling situation.

Technology is changing all the time and with it, the nuances of B2B selling are changing as well. Hearing from other professionals who have dealt with the same challenges you do is always insightful.

One of the great advantages of the web is you don’t have to take a formal class or attend an event to hear what the experts have to say. It’s all online. Everyone demonstrates their expertise as part of their own sales pitch, their brand, so you can find all sorts of information to help you become a better salesperson. The questions is: Whom do you follow?

LinkedIn is a good place to start looking for experts. LinkedIn curates a list of experts from various fields, and you can follow their articles and posts covering a diverse range of subjects. The list is always changing, but you can always find the current experts on the LinkedIn Influencers page. If you want to drill deeper by industry, LinkedIn also has a Top Voices list with the top 10 experts in fields such as tech, finance, media, and other areas. These experts are chosen using LinkedIn rankings and other criteria.

You can find sales experts posting everywhere on the web, but determining who has the best wisdom to share is subjective. The easiest way to start looking for inspired experts is by using other people’s curated lists and seeing whom they recommend. Chances are you will start seeing the same names on multiple lists. You might start with LinkedIn Business, which has its own list of the top 50 B2B sales gurus. Other sites such as SmallBiz.Tools, Sales Handy, Treeline, and Datahut all have their favorites.

Here are some of the experts we follow for B2B sales insight:

1. Jill Konrath is on almost everyone’s list of B2B sales gurus. She is a speaker and author who talks about all things related to sales, and she is a consultant for Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, General Electric, Microsoft, and Wells Fargo. She has written a number of books on sales strategies including More Sales, Less Time; Agile Selling; and SNAP Selling. The best way to follow Jill is on LinkedIn and by subscribing to her email list.
   
   
2. Mike Weinberg is another best-selling author with a lot to say about B2B sales. He is the author of New Sales. Simplified. and Sales Management. Simplified., and is a consultant, sales coach, and speaker. You can follow Mike’s blog for regular updates on what he is thinking, and you can follow him on LinkedIn.
   
   
3. Dharmesh Shah, cofounder and CTO of HubSpot, is the technical expert behind one of the most successful marketing platforms available. In addition to launching HubSpot, he is co-author of Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs, and he writes about marketing at OnStartups.com, a blog and online community with more than 700,000 members. You also can follow Dharmesh on LinkedIn and on Twitter where he posts as @dharmesh.
   
   
4. Jeb Blount is an inspirational speaker and prolific author on sales strategies. He writes about sales leadership and customer experience and has authored books including Sales EQ, Fanatical Prospecting, Objections, People Follow You, and People Buy You. Jeb is all over social media and you can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, where he uses the handle @SalesGravy.
   
   
5. Aaron Ross helped Salesforce build its sales from $5 million to $100 million and is the best-selling author of Predictable Revenue. He is currently working on a new software platform to power Cold Calling 2.0 teams. Aaron blogs at PredictableRevenue.com and you can follow him on LinkedIn and on Twitter at @motoceo.
   
   
6. Deb Calvert is the founder of People First Productivity Solutions, as well as a sales trainer, executive coach, and instructor at U.C. Berkeley. Deb brings a mix of senior sales, human resources, and operations experience to the sales process. She’s also one of the 25+ Top Sales Influencers on LinkedIn. She tweets at @PeopleFirstPS.
   
   
7. Lori Richardson is a recognized expert in sales consulting, specifically sales-team development to drive revenue. She has a simple sales strategy and tactics, tools, and resources that are helping drive B2B sales for companies in all industries. You can follow Lori’s blog at ScoreMoreSales.com. Lori is also one of the Top Voices on LinkedIn and tweets at @ScoreMoreSales.

These are just a handful of the professionals who are influencing B2B sales. There are dozens of others, but spend some time searching LinkedIn and other sales sites to discover others that are worth following. You can always learn from new sources. And if you are looking for additional insights on B2B selling, you might also consider downloading our outsourced sales guide, “Is Outsourced Inside Sales Right for You?”