I didn’t create The Sales Collective to make money.
I created it to stop the madness.
Because what I saw happening in sales — day after day, company after company — was so broken, so manipulative, so destructive, that I couldn’t sit back and watch anymore. Salespeople were being abused. Customers were being lied to. Leaders were promoting antiquated selling systems that predate the Moon landing.
And the worst part?
No one said anything.
I decided to.
And that’s how The Sales Collective was born.
The Real Reason I Started The Sales Collective.
If you’ve heard my story before, you know I didn’t grow up dreaming of being a sales trainer. I didn’t go to school for it. I was the shyest, quietest kid you’d ever meet. I didn’t follow the social media grifters and clowns promising endless riches and fool-proof selling techniques.
I lived it.
I spent decades in the trenches, selling and leading, grinding it out in the field. I hit all the numbers. I won all the awards. I made a ton of money. But slowly, over time, I started to realize something wasn’t right.
The Sales Profession Was Infected.
The sales profession wasn’t just broken, it was infected. Infected with outdated, antiquated, abhorrent, high-pressure tactics that treated people like objects instead of human beings.
- “Always be closing.”
- “Feel, felt, found.”
- “Put on a fake stutter.”
- “Yes Ladders.”
- “Isolate the objection.”
- “Pretend to be a confused old man.”
This wasn’t sales. This was manipulation. This was trash.
And what blew my mind was that everyone was teaching this garbage — and salespeople were unknowingly suffering because of it.
Salespeople Were Being Set Up to Fail.
I asked myself: Why do so many salespeople fail?
The answer was horrifying:
It’s not because they’re lazy. It’s not because they can’t sell. It’s because they’ve been fed the wrong information, the wrong tools, and the wrong culture, for decades.
I saw company after company throwing people into the fire with zero onboarding, no real coaching, no sales process, and assigning them a ridiculous quota that made no sense. And when they didn’t magically crush it in 30 days?
They got blamed! They got fired! And guess what? The cycle repeated!
That’s when it hit me: This is a system-wide failure.
The Aha Moments That Changed Everything.
I didn’t wake up one day and say, “I’m going to build a revolutionary sales training company and change the game forever.” It happened in stages, one gut-punch at a time.
Aha #1: “One-Size-Fits-All” Doesn’t Fit Anyone, It Fits NONE.
I sat through sales trainings where the trainer would drone on for eight hours, teaching one magic selling system, one set of scripts, one model for everyone. It didn’t matter if you were a fresh-faced and bushy-tailed 22-year-old BDR who’s excited for their first sales role or a 55-year-old, seasoned and successful, complex selling, long sales cycle sales professional.
Same scripts. Same techniques. Same verbiage. Same approach. Let’s puke together.
I watched salespeople with different ideologies, personalities, backgrounds, skills, weaknesses, and strengths being told to sell the same way — and then getting punished when they didn’t perform!
It was a factory model. It felt like the 1800s. And it was failing everyone.
People don’t need conformity. They need customization.
That was my first big realization: The best training is individualized. Period.
Aha #2: Assessments Were a Joke.
Another lightbulb moment came when I started reviewing the assessments companies were using to make decisions on sales hires. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Most assessments:
- Are based on generic personality types.
- Aren’t remotely predictive of sales success.
- Created by people who’d never sold anything real.
- Totally disconnected from real sales behaviors that lead to execution in the field.
They’d tell you whether someone was an “extrovert” or “introvert”, what color they might be, what their four-letter acronym is, or even what type of dinosaur they would be, but most reveal NOTHING about whether they could sell your exact product/service, in your specific field, industry, environment, or system. But hey, they’re an XY72DI, so let’s hire them!
Companies were making six-figure hiring decisions based on assumptions, buzzwords and color charts.
That wasn’t just bad business — it was sabotage. I discovered that only about 4% of assessments are predictively valid. Meaning, you can trust the data they extract and they’re predictive of success. 96% of assessments do the opposite!
You’re better off conducting tarot-card readings or looking at your applicants’ astrological charts than using most of the assessments out there. They ARE NOT built for sales. Period.
We needed something rooted in real sales performance — not pseudoscience. That’s why we use the Sales DNA Assessment.
Aha #3: Sales Leaders Were Wreaking Havoc.
And then there were the leaders. Well, if you want to call them that. I mean, by title, maybe. By practice, not a chance. Not all of them, but too many.
Leaders who:
- Didn’t onboard their salespeople properly.
- Didn’t set clear expectations.
- Didn’t coach their salespeople effectively.
- Didn’t have a documented sales process in place for them to follow.
- Micromanaged activity but ignored development.
- Threatened their salespeople with PIPs if they didn’t perform.
- Took credit for wins and pointed fingers for losses.
I saw way too many “leaders” who only cared about driving results, no matter the cost.
And guess who paid the cost? The salespeople. I saw countless amazing salespeople leaving their companies because of bad leadership. And very few people seemed to be doing anything about it. So, I figured, why not me?
The Mission Was Clear: Erase. Rebuild. Elevate.
I created The Sales Collective with one mission:
To help salespeople unlearn the B.S. and relearn what works.
That meant building a company that stood for everything the industry wasn’t.
- No gimmicks.
- No manipulation.
- No fear mongering.
- No foisting idiotic quotas.
- No pressure-cooker environments.
- No cookie-cutter sales training.
- No treating salespeople like pawns.
We teach human-first, buyer-centric, integrity-based sales. Not just because it’s ethical, but because it works better.
When people feel safe, seen, and supported — they sell better. When buyers feel respected and heard — they buy more often. When leaders actually coach — their teams grow. And that’s not theory. That’s proven.
What Makes The Sales Collective Different?
Let’s be real: There are a thousand sales training companies out there. So, what makes us different?
Here’s the honest answer:
- We don’t do “sales training.”
- We develop human beings who happen to be in sales.
- We don’t supply magic scripts and fool-proof sales methodologies.
- We partner with our clients to change behaviors, cultures, environments, and results.
- We don’t build soulless, money-hungry sales robots.
- We build resilient, authentic, self-aware professionals who know how to sell the right way and focus on long-term success.
- We don’t “motivate” your salespeople and spew the rah-rah crap.
- We drive change — at the root level.
Whether it’s reinventing your sales hiring process, revamping your onboarding experience for new salespeople, rebuilding your sales process, or training your sales leaders to truly coach your team — we help sales teams stop winging it and start winning.
Why This Still Matters Today.
The sales profession is still reeling from decades of abuse.
- It’s still one of the least trusted professions in the world (lawyers/doctors).
- Burnout is rampant.
- Turnover is outrageous.
- And too many companies are still doing the same outdated, ineffective things… and expecting different results.
The Sales Collective is here to break that cycle.
We’re not here to train, we’re here to transform. We’re here to:
- Empower salespeople to truly reach their full potential.
- Equip leaders to lead and coach properly.
- Restore integrity to the industry of professional selling.
- And build sales cultures that people are proud to be a part of.
Sales shouldn’t be toxic. It shouldn’t be manipulative. And it sure as hell shouldn’t be soul-crushing. Sales should be a profession that helps people solve real problems. That lifts people up. That builds careers and changes lives. And that’s what we fight for. Every single day.
