17 Sales Experts & Leaders Who Are Changing the Game

Sometimes it feels like entire fields pop up over the course of a couple days—if you're not on board with social selling, sales enablement, or automated inbound prospecting, you're getting left behind.

When you're learning about those fields and trends, it pays to learn from the best. Social media and the blogosphere are chock-full of people sharing their thoughts on sales techniques and strategies. But a smaller number of sales experts stand out from the rest.

From the well established to up-and-comers, these 17 sales experts have a ton of valuable insights to share. Want to up your sales game? Keep an eye on these leaders.

If you've been in the sales world for more than five minutes, you know Sales Hacker. It's an indispensable hub of articles, videos, podcasts, and other sales resources. Max is the founder and CEO of Sales Hacker, and he's just as knowledgeable as you'd expect.

Follow for: articles from Sales Hacker, parent company Outreach, and concise, powerful tips like this one on community and micro-influencers in the B2B world.

Find Max: Twitter (@HackItMax) / LinkedIn / Sales Hacker

With 20 years of sales experience, LB has seen a lot of changes in the sales industry. She founded #GirlsClub, an organization that helps women develop the skills and abilities they need to fill leadership positions. She's also a regular contributor to Sales Hacker!

Follow for: female-focused tips on success in the sales world and inside sales tips for men and women alike. You'll be treated to fantastic, intriguing posts like "Silver Platter Syndrome: A New Disease That's Plaguing Your Sales Process."

Find Lauren: Twitter (@_laurenbailey_) / LinkedIn / Factor8

As the founder of the National Association of Women Sales Professionals (NAWSP), Cynthia has great insights for women in a field that’s steeped in bro culture. Her advice is generally focused on women—but we can all use better insights into the difficulties of the modern sales workplace.

Follow for: ideas on how to make the sales workplace a better place for women (like "How to Have Your Fellow Woman's Back in the Cutthroat World of Sales"). NAWSP is great for events, trainings, and job postings, too.

Find Cynthia: Twitter (@cynthiambarnes) / LinkedIn / NAWSP

John's sales trainings have helped companies like Box and LinkedIn boost their sales programs. His blog posts and online trainings for individuals will help you do the same. He interviews other sales experts on his site, too, so you get insights from lots of great minds in one place.

Follow for: high-impact sales tips you can put to use no matter what kind of sales you do. "How I Prospect Every Day" is a great example. Send him a Snap to get a personal answer to your question!

Follow John: Twitter (@JohnMBarrows) / Snapchat (johnmbarrows) / LinkedIn / JBarrows

Trish needs little introduction. As the founder and CEO of The Bridge Group, she's helped companies like Bill.com, Intel, and IBM improve their inside sales programs. And The Sales Development Playbook is an absolute essential for modern salespeople.

Follow for: a strong focus on sales development (like this video on the problem with getting engagement). She's also a great advocate for women in the sales field, so keep an eye out for insights on that topic, too.

Find Trish: Twitter (@BridgeGroupInc) / LinkedIn / The Bridge Group, Inc.

No list of sales experts is complete without a reference to Sales Gravy. Jeb's content and training hub is packed with articles, podcasts, videos, and courses focused exclusively on sales. Whether you want a quick tip delivered to your inbox or a 13-week coaching program, you'll find it at Sales Gravy.

Follow for: insights into sales leadership like "Leaders Are Always on Stage." And be sure to sign up for the Sales Gravy email newsletter; it's a great one.

Find Jeb: Twitter (@Sales Gravy) / LinkedIn / Sales Gravy

After starting her career at Accenture, Eugenia has risen quickly to senior sales roles. She now heads up sales at Medallia, where she specializes in growing SaaS revenue. She revolutionized the sales program and has delivered phenomenal results for her company.

Find Eugenia: LinkedIn

As the founder and CEO of Sistas in Sales, Chantel brings much-needed perspective to the sales game. She provides a place for women of color who work in sales to network and advance their careers. She's also an account executive for LinkedIn.

Find Chantel: LinkedIn / Sistas in Sales

You might not know Fastly, Kendall's current employer. But you definitely know the company where he worked in sales strategy and metrics: Google. With extensive sales experience in the world of cloud computing, Kendall is a sales operations expert to watch.

Find Kendall: LinkedIn

Want to improve every part of your sales process? Alice will help you do it. She writes about everything from getting into a sales mindset to getting more referrals to coaching. If you sell at trade shows, be sure to check out TradeShow Makeover, her site focused specifically on selling at shows.

Follow for: a range of sales advice and specific tips for improving the ROI of your trade shows. Not sure which is for you? Check out "7 Ways to Make the Most of Networking Events" for advice applicable to every salesperson.

Find Alice: Twitter (@aliceheiman) / LinkedIn / AliceHeiman.com / TradeShow Makeover

Closing is great—but you need prospects to make sales. Mark helps salespeople find the right prospects to sell to. He's helped companies like Mattel, Heineken, Lenovo, and Toro improve their sales dev process, and he can help you with yours, too. The Sales Hunter is one of the best resources for SDRs and salespeople alike.

Follow for: actionable advice on sales development (like these 20 things you can do to improve your attitude towards sales development) and lots of links to great articles by other sales influencers.

Find Mark: Twitter (@TheSalesHunter) / LinkedIn / The Sales Hunter

The Sales Blog is an indispensable resource for salespeople—and Anthony is the brains behind it. He's also published must-reads like The Lost Art of Closing and The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need. While he specializes in B2B sales, his lessons are of great value for B2C salespeople, too. (And everyone else in the business world, really.)

Follow for: great advice that you can put to use in any sales field. Start with this: "How to Be Intellectually Curious in Sales."

Find Anthony: Twitter (@iannarino) / LinkedIn / The Sales Blog

As the director of sales execution and evolution at JBarrows Sales Training, Morgan's job is to stay on top of today's sales trends. He turns those trends into actionable insights that help audiences around the world improve their sales chops.

Follow for: tips on improving your sales development and great information on the latest sales trends.

Find Morgan: Twitter (@morganjingram) / LinkedIn

If you're in sales, you've probably heard of Jill. But her sales philosophy is nonetheless a surprising and ambitious one: sellers need to create value with every interaction. It's a big challenge that Jill gives to salespeople, and it's one that she takes seriously.

Follow for: learning how to stand out from other sales professionals by offering more to your prospects. Resources like Jill's Value Proposition Kit are indispensable!

Find Jill: Twitter (@jillkonrath) / LinkedIn / JillKonrath.com

Big names like Goldman Sachs, Carnegie Mellon, and Hewlett-Packard have the honor of calling Sanjana an alumnus. With over nine years of experience in the sales world, she continues to drive great results for some of the biggest companies on the planet.

Find Sanjana: LinkedIn

When AT&T acquired AlienVault to boost its cybersecurity capabilities, they got a great salesperson in the deal: Monica. She made a name for herself at AlienVault and she's now the senior manager of sales operations at AT&T Cybersecurity. But her expertise goes beyond sales: she also digs into finance, fulfilment, engineering, and marketing.

Find Monica: LinkedIn

Are you afraid of hearing the word "no?" Do sales rejections haunt your nightmares? If they do, you'll love Andrea. Go for No! began as a book and has grown into an online empire. Her articles, videos, and audio trainings help salespeople of all kinds get over their fear of rejection.

Follow for: help getting over the fear of rejection, learning what to do after you fail, and tips on developing courage in the sales world.

Find Andrea: Twitter (@GoforNo) / LinkedIn / Go for No!

Do you want to succeed in modern sales? Then you can't afford to stop learning.

New strategies, tactics, priorities, and trends come up all the time. Some of them stick, and some get left by the wayside. Look beyond the traditional sales field and see if there are leaders without traditional titles who can still teach you something about sales.

By following the best minds out there, you can stay up to date on what's working—and more importantly, apply it to your own work. You'll be a sales rockstar in no time.