Top 25 B2B Sales Influencers for 2014

In the rapidly evolving world of B2B sales, having a reliable go-to resource for the latest sales tools, tactics, and solutions can be a crucial leg-up. Whether you’re looking for help with hiring, training, and managing a hyper-productive sales team, or boosting your own performance by closing more deals faster and working smarter, not harder, these industry experts represent the best of the best.

OpenView’s Top B2B Sales Influencers for 2014

Greg Alexander, Sales Benchmark Index Greg started Sales Benchmark Index to provide sales consulting services to leading organizations across both private and public sectors. He is an active speaker and writer, co-authoring books such as Topgrading for Sales: World Class Methods to Interview, Hire, and Coach Top Sales Representatives. Connect with him on Twitter @GregAlexander. Congratulate Greg with a tweet.

Miles Austin,  Fill the Funnel As “The Web Tools Guy,” Miles combines a long career in technology sales with a long love affair with technology. He has been recognized as one of the leading authorities on Web Tools for sales and helps companies develop the strategies, implement the tactics, and choose the tools necessary to maximize sales productivity. Connect with him on Twitter @milesaustin. Congratulate Miles with a tweet.

John Barrows, J.Barrows LLC – John is a sales trainer to some of the world’s leading tech companies. As Owner of J.Barrows LLC, he provides sales training and consulting for clients like Salesforce.com and Box. He is also the Founder of SalesFromTheStreets, an online video library of insights from successful sales professionals. Connect with him on Twitter @johnmbarrows”J.Barrows LLC John is a sales trainer to some of the world’s leading tech companies. As Owner of J.Barrows LLC, he provides sales training and consulting for clients like Salesforce.com and Box. He is also the Founder of SalesFromTheStreets, an online video library of insights from successful sales professionals. Connect with him on Twitter @johnmbarrows. Congratulate John with a tweet.

Trish Bertuzzi, The Bridge Group Trish founded The Bridge Group in 1998 with the goal of helping technology companies build better and more successful inside sales teams. She’s a frequent contributor to the company’s Inside Sales Experts Blog, and was named Consulting Provider of the Year by the AA-ISP two years in a row.Connect with her on Twitter @bridgegroupinc. Congratulate Trish with a tweet.

Dave Brock, Partners in EXCELLENCE Dave helps sales and business professionals achieve extraordinary goals through his consulting and services company Partners In EXCELLENCE. A global consulting practice, Partners In EXCELLENCE supports clients worldwide and provides coaching and mentoring to individuals ranging from CEO through individual contributors. Connect with him on Twitter @davidabrock. Congratulate Dave with a tweet.

Elay Cohen, SalesHood Elay is the author of SalesHood: How Winning Sales Managers Inspire Sales Teams to Succeed and the co-founder of SalesHood a “software as a service” platform and community for sales professionals. Prior to SalesHood, he was Senior Vice President of Sales Productivity at SalesForce.com. Connect with him on Twitter @elaycohen. Congratulate Elay with a tweet.

Jonathan Farrington, JFA and Top Sales World Jonathan is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author and consultant. The Managing Partner of Jonathan Farrington & Associates and CEO of Top Sales World, he also contributes sales tips regularly to award-winning blog. Connect with him on Twitter @TopSalesWorld. Congratulate Jonathan with a tweet.

Colleen Francis,  Engage Selling Solutions A successful sales leader for over 20 years, Colleen has become renowned for her practical strategies and use of measurement and accountability to inspire sales team results. She has been distinguished as a Certified Sales Professional (C.S.P.) and Sales and Marketing Magazine has called Colleen and Engage Selling one of the top 5 most effective sales training organizations in the market today. She is the author of Honesty Sells and Nonstop Sales Boom. Connect with her on Twitter @EngageColleen. Congratulate Colleen with a tweet.

Jeff Hoffman, MJHoffman Jeff is a renowned sales executive, educator, and entrepreneur with 25+ years experience. He has consulted with industry leaders throughout the world on the topics of sales, sales management, and sales operations and is the author of the award-winning Your SalesMBA™ and “Why You? Why You Now?”™ sales programs. Connect with him on Twitter @mjhoffman. Congratulate Jeff with a tweet.

Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter As “The Sales Hunter,” Mark helps individuals and companies protect their profits and build better long-term customer relationships. Since 1998, Mark has conducted thousands of customized training programs and keynotes on sales. He is best known for his ability to motivate and move an organization through his high-energy presentations, and he is the author of High-Profit Selling. Connect with him on Twitter @TheSalesHunter. Congratulate Mark with a tweet.

S. Anthony Iannarino,  The Sales Blog Anthony is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur. He is the President and Chief Sales Officer of SOLUTIONS Staffing, the Managing Director of B2B Sales Coach & Consultancy, an Adjunct Faculty Member of Capital University’s School of Leadership and Management. He writes for ThinkSales, SUCCESS Magazine, and daily at thesalesblog.com. Connect with him on Twitter @iannarino. Congratulate Anthony with a tweet.

Jim Keenan,  A Sales Guy Keenan has been selling as well as running, building, tweaking, disrupting, fixing, and flat-out reconstructing sales organizations for almost 20 years. Senior Partner and Founder of A Sales Guy Consulting, and author of blog A Sales Guy, he has been named one of Sales and Marketing’s most influential people by Top Sales World Magazine and listed on Guy Kawasaki’s AllTop Blogs. Keenan is also creator of A Sales Guy U, the Web’s fastest growing site for sales resources, videos, eBooks and more. Connect with him on Twitter @keenan. Congratulate Keenan with a tweet.

Jill Konrath, JillKonrath.com Jill’s fresh strategies help salespeople acquire new clients, minimize losses to “no decision,” and slash months of their sales cycle. She is the bestselling author of SNAP Selling, Selling to Big Companies, and the new Agile Selling. She is a popular blogger, and frequent speaker/trainer at sales meetings. Connect with her on Twitter @jillkonrath. Congratulate Jill with a tweet.

Ken Krogue, InsideSales.com Ken is the President and co-founder of InsideSales.com, the pioneer of Lead Response Management. A sought-after speaker and contributor to Forbes, Ken also writes about best practices, new research, and tips concerning the Inside Sales industry at his blog. He was named Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals in 2010 and 2012 by the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP). Connect with him on Twitter @kenkrogue. Congratulate Ken with a tweet.

Kendra Lee, KLA Group As founder and President of KLA Group, Kendra helps small and midsize technology companies implement and enhance their prospect attraction strategies to get more customers. She is a frequent contributor to the company’s blog and author of The Sales Magnet: How to Get More Customers Without Cold Calling and Selling Against the Goal. Connect with her on Twitter @KendraLeeKLA. Congratulate Kendra with a tweet.

Nancy Nardin, Smart Selling Tools Nancy is the foremost expert on increasing sales productivity through the use of smart tools. She is the founder of Smart Selling Tools and Hushly. See her Top 40 Sales Tools of 2014 eBook and discover great tools for your organization. Learn more about Nancy on her Sales Productivity blog, and connect with her on Twitter @sellingtools. Congratulate Nancy with a tweet.

Steve Richard, Vorsight Steve is Co-Founder of Vorsight, the Sales Training Provider of the Year four years in a row by the AA-ISP. He has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, the Washington Business Journal, theWashington Post, and CNN/Money. He is also a CNBC guest contributor. Connect with him on Twitter @srichardv. Congratulate Steve with a tweet.

Lori Richardson, Score More Sales Lori is the founder and CEO of Score More Sales, LLC, a Boston-based firm that partners with mid-market technology companies to improve prospecting through working directly with sales leaders and in coaching sales reps. Lori splits her time between consulting, training, and as a mid-market sales blogger for technology brands. Her upcoming book, How to Score More Sales will be available late 2014. Connect with her on Twitter @scoremoresales. Congratulate Lori with a tweet.

Mark Roberge, HubSpot Mark is Chief Revenue Officer of the HubSpot Inbound Sales Division. Prior to his role, he was HubSpot’s SVP of Worldwide Sales and Servicers, during which he increased revenue over 6,000% and expanded the team from 1 to 450 employees. He has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, Inc Magazine, BostonGlobe, TechCrunch, and Harvard Business Review. Connect with him on Twitter @markroberge. Congratulate Mark with a tweet.

Craig Rosenberg, TOPO Craig co-founded TOPO, a research and advisory firm that helps companies grow faster by shopping, benchmarking, and improving the experiences that sales and marketing organizations deliver to buyers. He is also the author of popular sales and marketing blog The FunnelHolic. Connect with him on Twitter @funnelholic. Congratulate Craig with a tweet.

Aaron Ross, Predictable Revenue Aaron is co-author of the best-selling book Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com and Predictable Revenue Guide To Tripling Your Sales, based on his experiences building Salesforce.com’s outbound prospecting team.  Connect with him on Twitter @motoceo. Congratulate Aaron with a tweet.

Jill Rowley, #SocialSelling Jill is a social selling evangelist, speaker, and trainer passionate about helping B2B companies use social selling to drive revenue growth. She is currently an advisor for Accompani. Connect with her on Twitter @jill_rowley. Congratulate Jill with a tweet.

Lee B. Salz, Sales Architects Lee is the best-selling author of Hire Right Higher Profits, the #1 rated sales/sales management book on Amazon. He is a leading sales management strategist, CEO of Sales Architects and The Revenue Accelerator, and a featured Business Journal columnist. Connect with him on Twitter @SalesArchitects. Congratulate Lee with a tweet.

Tibor Shanto, Renbor Sales Solutions Tibor has been a sales leader for over 25 years, helping companies achieve and improve their revenue goals. He has been called a brilliant sales tactician, helping sales teams and organizations to better execute their sales process. As a principal with Renbor Sales Solutions, he works with leading B2B sales organizations to deliver sales growth through the right combination of strategic and tactical execution supported by metrics and his Follow-Through Action Plan. Connect with him on Twitter @TiborShanto. Congratulate Tibor with a tweet.

Mike Weinberg, The New Sales Coach Mike is the founder of The New Sales Coach. He consults senior executives and coaches sales leaders and teams offering blunt, practical sales management and new business development help. Mike’s first book, New Sales. Simplified: The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development became a #1 Amazon Bestseller and spent 12 months as the #1 Top-Rated book in its category. Prior to launching his own firm, Mike had been the top-producing salesperson in three organizations. Connect with him on Twitter @mike_weinberg. Congratulate Mike with a tweet.

Rising Sales Stars

This year we also wanted to call attention to five influencers who represent where sales is going. Not only are they utilizing (and in some cases building) the latest emerging sales technologies, they’re also sharing invaluable insights into their experiences and research, helping everyone move forward as a result.

Max Altschuler, Sales Hacker Media Max is the founder and CEO of Sales Hacker Media, the company that produces Saleshacker.com and the Sales Hacker Conference, which bring together proven sales execs and emerging startup founders to share their lessons and experiences in sales automation and tech sales. He is also the co-founder and CRO of CMX Media, the umbrella company for CMX Hub, an online publication for community builders, and CMX Summit. Connect with him on Twitter @MaxAlts. Congratulate Max with a tweet.

Matt Bertuzzi, The Bridge Group Matt represents the marketing and operations side of The Bridge Group, working with clients to make inside sales teams more successful by helping them develop and adopt playbooks, targeted messaging, Salesforce.com process and reporting, and win/loss analysis. He blogs and regularly shares results of research on metrics, compensation, and outbound prospecting at the Inside Sales Experts Blog. Connect with Matt on Twitter @mattbertuzzi. Congratulate Matt with a tweet.

Tawheed Kader, ToutApp TK is the founder and CEO of ToutApp, a sales communications platform that helps teams close more deals faster with industry-leading tracking, templates, and real-time analytics for emails and presentations. You can read his thoughts on sales, entrepreneurship, and his experiences as a tech founder on his blog. Connect with him on Twitter @Tawheed. Congratulate TK with a tweet.

Kyle Porter, SalesLoft Kyle is the CEO and co-founder of sales development software company SalesLoft. An entrepreneur and sales professional for over a decade, Kyle is also the co-founder of B2BCamp, a conference focused on teaching technology and process to B2B revenue generating professionals. Connect with him on Twitter @kyleporter. Congratulate Kyle with a tweet.

Emmanuelle Skala, Influitive Emmanuelle is VP Sales at B2B advocate marketing software company Influitive. A sales management and sales/field operations exec with 18+ years of enterprise software experience, Emmanuelle has expertise in a variety of areas, from lead generation to inside sales to go-to-market strategy. Connect with her on Twitter @elleskala. Congratulate Emmanuelle with a tweet.

Congrats to everyone on this year’s list. If there is someone you would like to see added to next year’s list please nominate them in the comments below!


Photo by: Thangaraj Kumaravel