This week was my annual pilgrimage to Austin for the Sales Success Summit. I was talking to my wife as I was getting ready to board my flight home, and she said this:

“I’m so glad you go to this thing every year. It’s like Sales Camp. You get to reconnect with your friends, learn stuff, and come back invigorated.”

I can’t think of a more perfect description, and no surprise that Laurah would be able to summarize it so succinctly.

No swimming, but she’s more right than she knows. There have been talent shows, arts and crafts, even a prank or two. We spent the most time on the craft of selling: the pursuit, the ups and downs, the humanity of it. There are rooms full of sellers all over the world, but none quite like this one, made up of top performers and anyone dedicated to becoming one.

What I’ve always loved about this event is that you can expect the speakers to sit down right next to you after they’re done presenting and take notes. This year, I took several pages.

As you would expect, AI was a common theme. As you might also expect, most of us in that room are not using it the way most sellers are. Stephen Oommen opened the program with a provocative thought:

“Everybody wants the AI answer for outreach, but nobody wants to receive AI outreach.”

We’re automating the mundane parts, getting briefed before calls, and summarizing notes, but we’re not using computers to do the human parts.

I’ve been studying top performers for over two decades now, and I’ve determined that the only prerequisite is wanting to be one.

We all take our own paths to get there, and while there are similarities, none of them really look the same. I’ve been in that room in years past, nodding along at something that makes complete sense to me. At other times, it’s as if I’ve just witnessed an alien life form cosplay as a salesman.

But nobody argues with success. Nobody’s trying to force you into a playbook or sell you anything.

I’ve been to every one of these, going all the way back to 2018, including the 2020 pivot to a virtual conference space. People often ask what makes me come back.

It’s the people. Full stop.

It’s a special room. It’s full of people who “get it.” Very few people understand the pressure, the emotions, the life we’ve chosen. We’re apprentices trying to break down the riddle of a craft, knowing full well there’s never such a thing as perfect. It’s a safe place where people want to see you thrive and will help you do whatever it takes.

Every time we get together, it’s a warm welcome. You may have missed the last three years. It doesn’t matter. “Get in here, it’s great to see you!”

One of the most powerful lines of the entire event to me was from Sarah Thomas:

“Without encountering the pits, would you be ready for the call?”

These people have seen me at my highest. They’ve also seen me at my lowest.

The hugs I get are the same, regardless.

The only prerequisite for being in that room is wanting to be there.

“There’s a direct correlation between the success you have and the amount of truth you tell.”
-Calvin Dennis

“Our KPI is often speed when it should be presence.”
“Be present enough to see it and human enough to say it.”
“Selling more means trusting more.”
- all from Athina Lampru

“I don’t match their energy. I invite them to match mine.”
- Rosa Campagna

Scott Ingram, and it couldn’t be anyone else this week.

The Sales Success Stories podcast has been a labor of love for him for ten years now, and it’s about more than good content. Selling is a team sport, and Scott didn’t just give us fuel. He furnished a bus.

There are a lot of us now bound together by purpose, desire, and curiosity, all because of an idea he had for a podcast a decade ago. He’s laid a lot out on the line to make it happen, and he’s connected us with people we’d never have met otherwise. I have lifelong friends now who get me in a way that even my closest people never will.

We got to thank him in person this week. I wanted to do it here too.

Scott, you’re a gift to all of us who raise our hand. Thank you.

Are you ready to come to Austin next fall, or what? 😉 Personally, I’d like to bring five new people with me next year. I think I’ve already got one signed up. If you’re at all interested, let me know.

See you next Sunday.
JB