Always be closing: Top sales influencers to follow on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has become a bloated mess of people of all experiences, skills, and knowledge levels, calling themselves gurus, and ninjas, and influencers.

Oftentimes, people are busy sharing their own expertise in the form of LinkedIn articles and updates to stop to think about whether the people they blindly follow really do know anything about their fields, or have anything worth saying.

Here at GetApp we tried to wade through this swamp of to bring you some sales experts worth listening to who can offer some decent advice and tips to help boost your sales and improve your skills.

Here’s our top 20 list of sales experts, which we will keep up to date as the industry (and LinkedIn) changes and evolves.

Grant Cardone lives by the slogan “Success is my duty.” Grant runs a number of businesses that are aimed at optimizing the sales process at both small businesses and Fortune 500 companies.

He also runs the Cardone Sales University, which is the most popular online sales training university in the world today.

Connect with Grant Cardone

Tiffani Bova currently works as global, customer growth, sales and innovation evangelist at Salesforce. A former VP and distinguished analyst at business and technology insights firm Gartner, Tiffani describes herself as a ‘recovering sales rep.’ In her current role at Salesforce, she helps sales organizations use technology to strengthen customer relationships and accelerate growth.

Tiffani was named one of the “Most Powerful and Influential Women in California” by the National Diversity Council.

Connect with Tiffani Bova

Max Altschuler is the founder and CEO of Sales Hacker global conference and event organization. Sales Hacker also runs a program that helps train military veterans in B2B sales and to get them jobs at leading tech companies. In this role, he helps companies improves their sales processes, while advising millennials and those new to the workforce on how to achieve their goals.

Max is also passionate about helping animals (mainly dogs).

Connect with Max Altschuler

Koka Sexton is the global industry principle of social selling at Hootsuite. As part of this role, he helps the Hootsuite sales team by providing guidance for large organization’s social selling strategies, and how they can drive revenue using social media.

Koka takes what is a more unusual approach to LinkedIn (accept everyone who asks to connect to grow number of connections), as he states in his bio: “Unless we’ve met please personalize any connection requests or they will be denied.”

Connect with Koka Sexton (although only if you know him)

Self-styled King of Sales Jeffrey Gitomer is an international sales trainer and runs the Gitomer Learning Academy, which offers an eight-hour sales certification course. His training covers topics such as social selling, networking, customer loyalty, leadership skills, and life skills.

Jeffrey is also author of The Little Red Book of Selling, which has become the best-selling sales book of all time.

Connect with Jeffrey Gitomer

Jill Konrath is a sales keynote speaker and author, as well as providing consultancy services in her position as “Sales in Residence” at HubSpot Sidekick.

Jill also provides workshops to help salespeople:

• Recover 1-2 hours per day

• Focus on work that really matters

• Be sharper, more strategic and creative

• Accelerate sales.

Connect with Jill Konrath

Also featured as a top sales expert on Twitter, Mark Hunter - otherwise known as “The Sales Hunter - is a sales trainer, consultant, speaker, and author. His sales training workshops focus on prospecting, maximizing price, selling leadership, and sales motivation.

Mark’s books deal with topics such as how to win more sales at full profit and to avoid discounting. He previously worked at Salesforce and BP.

Connect with Mark Hunter

John Barrows provides customized sales training and consulting services for companies such as Salesforce, Box, and Linkedin.

John is also founder of SalesFromTheStreets, which is an online video library of two minute, actionable sales tips.

Connect with John Barrows

A former long-term resident of Silicon Valley, Jill Rowley now lives in Charleston, South Carolina where she is investing in Silicon Harbor. She provides advice for startups, and is currently involved in a program that looks at the most challenging issues and opportunities facing Charleston.

Jill specializes in social selling, digital sales transformation, marketing and sales alignment, and sales enablement.

Connect with Jill Rowley

M. Lance Sinclair - aka the “Sales Wolf” - builds sales and business development strategies. His notable achievements include increasing revenue from $20 million to $180 million over two years while Vice President of Sales at Ionics Circuits Ltd..

He has previously worked as a ERP sales executive and senior account manager, and is now CEO of Airwolf Jet Services, which provides luxury concierge sales and services.

Connect with M. Lance Sinclair - “Sales Wolf”

Eric Quanstrom is CMO at sales acceleration platform Cience, having previously served as CMO at Kitedesk and Pipeliner CRM.

His expertise and past experience cover areas such as Brand Building, advocacy marketing, business development, lead generation, social media, content marketing, SEO, and SaaS and B2B software.

Connect with Eric Quanstrom

Kurt Shaver is a social selling expert who has worked with the likes of HP and NetApp. He is a founding member of The Sales Enablement Society, which aims to better define sales enablement functions and roles.

Kurt also provides sales training, having served as VP of Sales in a Silicon Valley organization.

Connect with Kurt Shaver

Julio Viskovich is another social selling expert who, as the founder of NexLevel Sales, has created a formula to help executives build their LinkedIn profiles to maximize thought leadership. He has built national and global social selling programs at Fortune 500 companies.

Julio currently works as Social Media Expert in Resident at Thompson Rivers University in Canada.

Connect with Julio Viskovich

Mario M. Martinez Jr. is a digital sales evangelist who provides consultancy services to help Fortune 100 sales teams grow revenue.

Mario is also CEO of Vengreso digital sales transformation company, which provides services to all business sizes to help align sales and marketing. Vengreso is the largest social selling training company in the world.

Connect with Mario M. Martinez Jr.

Evan Kirstel is an expert in helping companies use social media to help improve lead generation and B2B sales networking.

Evan has more than 25 years of experience in sales and business development in the telecom and IT industry. He currently works as a social media advisor at unified communications company UCStrategies.

Connect with Evan Kirstel

Kyle Porter is founder and CEO of sales enablement platform Sales Loft. The company offers two major products: SalesLoft Prospector, which builds accurate and targeted prospect lists, and SalesLoft Cadence, which converts target accounts into customer accounts through sales communications, accountability, and analytics.

Kyle’s mission statement is to humanize sales through software.

Connect with Kyle Porter

Mike Kunkle is a sales transformation and sales enablement consultant, speaker, and writer. He takes a four pronged approach to this:

• Talent management

• Sales process

• Sales methodology

• Sales technology

Mike is currently working as VP of Fast Lane US’s new Digital Transformation division to launch a sales transformation practice.

Connect with Mike Kunkle

Trish Bertuzzi is founder and president of The Bridge Group, which helps companies build and improve their inside sales strategies. This service covers three key areas:

• Building the sales pipeline

• Generating revenue

• Redefining the image of the profession.

Trish also serves on the board of the Women Sales Pros Advisory Board.

Connect with Trish Bertuzz

Deb Calvert is an instructor in sales development principles at UC Berkeley Extension, which is the continuing education branch of the University of California, Berkeley.

Deb also provides sales coaching, leadership development, management training, sales productivity consulting, and keynote speeches on sales productivity and leadership.

Connect with Deb Calvert

Lori Richardson is a B2B sales growth strategist who provides advice on both inside and outside sales. She helps B2B companies create accurate sales forecasts, as well working on the recruiting and talent management side, to help stop the loss of talented sellers through sales skills training and helping employees into the correct positions.

Lori is also president of WOMEN Sales Pros, which aims to help get more women into B2B sales positions and sales leadership.

Connect with Lori Richardson

Did we miss anyone off the list? Let us know who your favorite sales experts are, or who think should have been included, in the comments below or by tweeting me @karenmccandless.

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