April 12, 2025 | Read online​

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The more I reflect on the last few weeks, the more I’m worried that we’ve lost the “Art” of Sales.

​Predictable Revenue was the blueprint for the SDR/BDR/AE sales model (specialization of roles). It was a great model back when money was free and there was a “grow at all cost” mentality.

However, let’s be clear, it was NEVER a customer-centric approach to selling.

Think about it - who wants to be handed off 3x before they get to talk to someone who can actually answer their question? (SDR → AE → SE)

Now that money isn’t free, clients have more options and access to information than ever before, competition is coming at us from every angle and AI can do much of the sales process better than we can.

I’m actually starting to think that Predictable Revenue was the beginning of the end for the “Art” of Sales because it turned into too much of a “Science.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been preaching for a while now that I think Sales should be more of a science than an art because the science (structure, process, etc.) lays the foundation for us to figure out our own art.

The problem is that we’ve tried to science it out too much now and I think we’ve lost sight of the art.

It’s like the movie Money Ball about the Oakland A’s. They were able to “science” baseball and put together a team that no one else thought made sense but almost got them all the way to the World Series. Almost.

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P.S.: A great scene and piece of negotiating advice from that movie is when Brad Pitt is negotiating and he says “When you get the answer you’re looking for, hang up.”

I was reminded of the Art of Sales a few weeks ago when we did the debrief of Glengarry Glenn Ross and I heard my mentor Jeff Hoffman talk about his perspective on Ricky Roma’s character in the play.

Jeff is an absolute artist in Sales and represents what the essence of Sales is truly all about, in my opinion. For those of you who missed it, I encourage you to just listen to the first 10 minutes of this debrief we had about the play. You’ll see what I’m talking about.

In addition to the Predictable Revenue model over sciencing Sales, AI is now better at the science part (IQ) than we are.

To make things worse, we have a whole generation of Sales professionals who grew up in Sales in a remote world without ever having to meet a client face to face or sit in a bullpen where they could learn through osmosis.

This is why I think Sales feels so transactional these days.

We need to double down on the EQ (art) and get back to learning how to communicate, listen, be curious, develop relationships and more.

I did a simple search on ChatGPT to find courses on EQ-related things that I wanted to share with you here.

To be clear, I haven’t taken any of these courses and I am not affiliated with any of them. I just want to highlight the need for them and recommend you look into some like them.

These are the skills I think we all need to improve and some resources for you on how to improve them:

1. SKILL = CURIOSITY
   1. Course: Curiosity: A Necessary Ingredient for Successful Innovation – Coursera​
   2. Description: Focuses on leveraging curiosity to enhance innovation, including understanding customer needs and market dynamics.
2. SKILL = BUSINESS ACUMEN
   1. Course: Building Business Acumen ​
   2. Description: Franklin Covey - Based on Ram Charan's insights, this course delves into essential business elements like cash flow, margin, velocity, growth, and customer focus. It's designed to instill C-level insights in employees, aligning their efforts with business goals
3. SKILL = ACTIVE LISTENING
   1. Course: Active Listening: Enhancing Communication Skills – Coursera​
   2. Description: This course delves into empathetic engagement, understanding diverse perspectives, and responding thoughtfully. It's designed for professionals aiming to improve collaboration and build meaningful relationships.
4. SKILL = EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SELF AWARENESS
   1. Course: Yale’s “The Science of Well-Being” (Coursera)​
   2. Description: Helps reps understand what drives their behaviors and how to regulate them. Builds awareness, grit, and gratitude—all EQ superpowers.

Regardless of taking any courses, I encourage us all to take a step back and think about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

• Do we sell because we want a commission check or because we want to help people?
• Do we prospect because we need to hit a number or because we think we can actually help?
• Do we care about the contact information or the person who’s behind the number?
• Do we ask questions to understand or so we can fill out our BANT or MEDDIC sheets?
• Do we go through every slide of a demo so we can get our badge and tell our boss we did a good job or tailor the presentation to what the client actually cares about?
• Do we negotiate to find common ground or are we trying to “win?”

These are all questions we need to ask ourselves at a deeper level right now if we want to stay relevant in Sales.

Let’s try to get back to the Art of selling because the human connection in Sales is what is needed more than ever right now.

FREE TRAINING FRIDAY

Even though AI is already smarter than we are (IQ) and I just talked about refocusing on EQ, we still need to learn how to leverage AI.

Linkedin just released their “ROI of AI” study and one of the highlights is that “top-performing sellers are 2.5x more likely to use AI daily.”

If you’re not already using AI in almost all aspects of your sales process you’re going to get replaced by the reps who do.

That’s why the next Free Training Friday is going to be an “Intro to AI in Sales” with my AI coach and partner, Chris Briest.

Chris is the one who has built all the different GPTs that I share with my Members and integrate into my training.

If you haven’t started using AI or you’re just getting started or you want to learn some of the foundational components of how to get the most out of AI, then you’re going to want to join us on Friday the 25th from 1:00-2:00pm ET.

You’ll walk away with a clear understanding of how to get started in AI, specific use cases, prompts you can start using immediately and much more.

ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR SALES GAME

• The JB Sales Membership is where you’ll get access to my live training, workshops, AMAs and OnDemand catalog so you can level up your sales skills every day! 3000+ Sales pros have already joined. Are you next?
• The industry-leading Make it Happen Monday Podcast where you’ll get insights and inspiration from some of the most interesting and influential people in the world of Sales and business. (this is where you’ll hear the Guy Kawasaki episode on May XYZ)
• The JB Sales YouTube channel with practical tips that you can apply immediately to drive results along with interviews and content that is guaranteed to get you to think differently.

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