2017 Top Sales Development Leaders – 25 Names You Need to Know
Ahead of the Sales Development Summit hosted by XANT and Sales Hacker, we put to the vote who are the most popular leaders in sales development. The votes are in, and we now have a list of the most influential sales development leaders of 2017.
Most of the names on our list have years of experience leading large and small sales teams in a variety of industries. Some of them are renowned keynote speakers and best-selling authors. And they all have one thing in common – the burning passion for sales and for constantly being the best at what they do, every single day.
Some of these leaders participated in the Sales Development Summit. This is the largest event for prospecting specialists and sales development managers. You can register to learn more about:
- Latest research in the sales development industry
- Proven steps for sales development reps success
- Tips on how to build successful sales development teams.
If you’re a business development specialist or leader, you need to attend this event!
All the speakers sessions for this virtual event will be on-demand, and you can watch them at your convenience.
And The Sales Development Leaders of the Year Are…
We’ve listed the sales development thought leaders of the year in the order of votes they received. The undisputed leader was Ben Sardella, from Datanyze.
Ben Sardella
Ben is co-founder of Outboundworks and Datanyze. He pioneered the development and success of a SaaS sales model for a number of leading cloud based software companies.
He has experience working at early stage start-ups and rapidly growing SaaS companies. Consistent success establishing inside and outside sales teams both domestically as well as internationally targeting the SMB and Enterprise space.
“Always put customers first in everything you do in your career, their success will determine your success” – Ben Sardella.
John Barrows
John Barrows, owner of JBarrows Training, is a renowned sales coach and published author.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to experience a fantastic Sales education throughout my career at every level through the people I meet and opportunities that arise. Sharing those experiences while continuing to learn from others is why I continue to do what I do.” — John Barrows.
Scott Leese
Scott is Senior Vice President of Qualia and has over 13 years experience as a sales consultant and strategic advisor in for sales organizations.
Grant Cardone
Grant Cardone is a best-selling author and speaker, and CEO of four companies with revenue over $100m. He runs Grant Cardone Sales University and Grant Cardone TV.
Trish Bertuzzi
Trish is author of “The Sales Development Playbook,” President of The Bridge Group, Inc. and Inside Sales Evangelist.
She was winner of Consulting Provider of the Year Award from the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (2013 – 2017 which is 5 years in a row!).
Jake Reni
Jake is Director of Adobe Sales Academy. His knowledge and experience in sales spans across SaaS, Marketing Tech, Sales Tech, Medical Tech, HR Tech, and Educational Tech industries.
Gabe Larsen
Gabe Larsen is VP of XANT Labs, the research arm of XANT. He has 15 years of experience in growing revenue, from helping financial clients price and trade complex derivatives to helping multi-national organizations penetrate new markets.
He hosts the popular Playmakers podcast for sales professionals, with over 15,000 listeners.
Richard Harris
Richard is a seasoned SaaS sales leader and inside sales trainer with 20+ years experience helping early stage and expansion stage start-ups build their sales infrastructure and train their sales teams to “get there faster”. He is a sales leaders and trainer, and founder of The Harris Consulting Group.
Morgan J Ingram
Morgan is Director of Sales with JBarrows sales training. He is a motivational guru and helps people remove their negative thoughts to unlock their inner potential, along with teaching them valuable sales tactics.
Jill Konrath
Jill is a keynote speaker & bestselling author who’s focused on sales acceleration & optimization. She helps sales organizations quickly increase sales & drive millions of dollars in additional revenue.
Max Altschuler
Max is a keynote speaker and president of Sales Hacker, the one-stop shop for sales conferences, events and sales training. He is author of “Hacking Sales“, a guide for high-velocity sales.
“I always wanted to have a life that paid me to do two things. 1) to help people and animals, and 2) to travel. Through my position in Sales Hacker, I get to help salespeople build modern sales processes and ramp up revenue, while also helping millennials and those new to the workforce figure out how to best navigate their careers and hit their goals.”
“This allows me the opportunities to keynote conferences internationally, run workshops anywhere, and work remotely from wherever, whenever. This is truly my passion, and I hope that what I do can bring value to you and your life too.” — Max Altschuler.
Ralph Barsi
Ralph is Global Sales Development Leader at ServiceNow. He has 15+ years experience leading and managing sales teams in global companies.
Anthony Iannarino
Anthony is a well-known speaker and author. sales leader specializing in the complex business-to-business (B2B) sale. He is also a founder and managing partner of two closely-held, family-owned businesses in the staffing industry, leading both entities in strategic planning while growing sales. Anthony is best known for his work at The Sales Blog, which has helped him gain recognition as a top thought leader in sales strategy.
Jeffrey Gitomer
“For the past 25 years, and 13 best-selling books, and 2,500 corporate events, I’ve helped shape the concept, the voice, and the implementation of the new sale.”
“From Fortune 500 companies, to companies trying to earn a fortune, I have traveled the globe helping sales teams get better at discovering buying motives. Why customers buy is one billion times more powerful than how to sell.”
“I also have the largest body of work available to you and your teams on-demand at GitomerLearningAcademy.com.” — Jeffrey Gitomer.
Kristina McMillan
Kristina is lead the research and consulting team for TOPO, an analyst firm that helps sales and marketing organizations achieve scalable revenue growth.
She specializes in sales development, process, methodology, training, sales messaging and lead nurturing.
Aaron Ross
Aaron Ross is author of “Predictable Revenue” and an experienced sales leaders. “Our best-selling book “Predictable Revenue” and framework are based on the outbound process & sales team we created for Salesforce.com, which added an extra $100 million in revenue in just a few years” — Aaron Ross.
Michael Pedone
Michael is currently B2B inside sales expert at SalesBuzz.com. He has a wealth of experience in sales consulting, helping B2B companies refine and manage their sales process for improved revenue.
Lori Richardson
Lori is president of Women Sales Pros. She has 15 years experience in sales and was a sales leader in technology and financial services closing $100M worth of deals.
“Over the last 20 years we have built sales teams and helped mid-market technology and distrib. co’s grow front-line revenues weaving in what the collective team has learned over years in successes and failures” — Lori Richardson.
Chad Burmeister
Chad Burmeister is VP of Sales at TalentReef and Author of SalesHack. He was voted Top 25 in Inside Sales and Top 50 Sales Development leaders, and was the founding chapter president of the AA-ISP Silicon Valley Chapter and Colorado Chapter President. He was voted Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professional by the AA-ISP 7 years in a row (2010 – 2016).
“The thing I’m most passionate about – leveraging AI to equip today’s modern sales professional with game-changing systems and process to dominate their market!” — Chad Burmeister.
Craig Rosenberg
Craig Rosenberg is co-founder and chief analyst of Topo, a research and advisory firm that helps companies grow faster. He was a founder of Funnelholic media and co-founder of Focus, a SaaS-based content marketing platform.
Kyle Porter
Kyle Porter is CEO of SalesLoft. He has over 12 years experience working in sales and marketing leadership roles He is founder of B2BCamp and SportsBarDigital.
Kyle Vamvouris
Kyle is sales development manager at ForUsAll, he has over 15 years experience working in sales development and sales roles.
“By giving your team the skills they need to succeed you don’t only get an increase in conversion. You get a group of people succeeding together and that’s how the entire organization will prosper” — Kyle Vamvouris.
Matt Heinz
Matt Heinz is president of Heinz Marketing, host of Sales Pipeline Radio and a published author.
He held more than 15 years of marketing, business development and sales experience from a variety of organizations, vertical industries and company sizes. He has held various positions at companies such as Microsoft, Weber Shandwick, Boeing, The Seattle Mariners, Market Leader and Verdiem.
In 2007, began Heinz Marketing to help clients focus their business on market and customer opportunities, then execute a plan to scale revenue and customer growth.
Steve Richard
Steve is CEO of Execvision, a B2B sales and marketing expert and sales kickoff speaker. He was a sales trainer for ten years and uses technology to help salespeople get their best game on.
“My mission and life’s work is to help sales professionals become wildly successful. I believe that the quality of sales conversations matters, yet the profession of sales largely misses the mark on teaching sales reps how to have great conversations” — Steve Richard.
Joanne Black
Joanne Black is a renowned speaker and an expert in account based sales and B2B sales and lead generation. She is author of “No More Cold Calling” and founder of the sales coaching company with the same name.
Join the Sales Development Summit
Some of these sales leaders were speakers in the Sales Development Summit virtual event hosted by XANT and Sales Hacker.
Register here to watch on-demand sesssions with over 50 speakers, all with years of experience in the sales development world.
