1. Jeb Blount

Based in Augusta, Georgia, USA

The most prolific and commercially successful sales trainer working today. Author of 18 books — including Fanatical Prospecting, Sales EQ, Objections, Virtual Selling, and his latest co-authored work The LinkedIn Edge with Brynne Tillman — Blount's Sales Gravy podcast ranks in the Top 200 business podcasts globally with over 29 million downloads, and has published 389 episodes through 2026. More than 360,000 sales professionals build their skills with him weekly. He reported a record-breaking Sales Kickoff season for his company in early 2026, travelling extensively for client keynotes. CEO of Sales Gravy, co-founder of the Outbound Conference. No one in the space has more reach, more output, or more commercial impact.

 

2. Anthony Iannarino

Based in Columbus, Ohio, USA

One of the most respected B2B sales thinkers in the world and a prolific daily blogger since 2009. Author of five bestselling books — The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need, The Lost Art of Closing, Eat Their Lunch, Elite Sales Strategies, and Leading Growth — Iannarino is also co-founder of the Outbound Conference, the world's largest prospecting-focused sales event, which he headlined in 2025 alongside Jeb Blount, Mark Hunter, and Brynne Tillman. Active on LinkedIn with daily content through the review period, his posts consistently draw hundreds of engaged comments from sales practitioners worldwide. A serious, intellectually rigorous voice in a field that doesn't always reward depth.

 

3. Mark Hunter

Based in Omaha, Nebraska, USA

"The Sales Hunter" — one of the most in-demand sales keynote speakers on the planet, travelling nearly 230 days a year and appearing in over 25 countries across 5 continents. Keynoted at Success North Dallas in August 2025 to an enthusiastic reception, and headlined the Outbound Conference 2025 alongside Blount and Iannarino. Author of three bestselling books: High-Profit Prospecting, High-Profit Selling, and A Mind for Sales. Recognised as a Top 50 Most Influential Sales and Marketing Leader. His LinkedIn content posted as recently as this week in March 2026. A consistent, energetic, and practically useful presence in the global sales community.

 

4. Lori Richardson

Based in Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Founder of Score More Sales and President of Women Sales Pros — a community that has become the most important platform for women in B2B sales globally. Author of She Sells: Attract, Promote, and Retain Great Women in B2B Sales, host of the award-winning Conversations with Women in Sales podcast, and a sales coach at Harvard Business School. Presented at Inbound 2025 in San Francisco in September 2025 and published Women Sales Pros content through February 2026. Named a LinkedIn Top Voice in sales, her advocacy for increasing female representation in sales leadership is backed by data, decades of practitioner experience, and genuine commercial results. A pioneer who has measurably changed the profession's demographics.

 

5. Colleen Stanley

Based in Denver, CO, USA

CEO of SalesLeadership Inc. and the leading authority on emotional intelligence in sales. Author of Emotional Intelligence for Sales Leadership and the recently released Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success — now in its second edition and one of the most consistently recommended sales books across the review period — Stanley's framework for connecting EQ to actual commercial performance fills a gap that most sales training ignores. A regular keynote speaker throughout 2025-2026 at sales kickoffs and revenue conferences, and one of the most cited names when sales leaders talk about building sustainable, human-led sales cultures in an AI-augmented world.

 

6. Brynne Tillman

Based in Philadelphia, PA, USA

CEO of Social Sales Link and co-author of The LinkedIn Edge with Jeb Blount — published and actively shipping to readers in early 2026. Tillman is the most practically credible voice on LinkedIn-specific sales strategy globally: not the theory of social selling, but the specific daily mechanics of how salespeople turn LinkedIn profiles into revenue. She was a featured speaker at the Outbound Conference 2025. Her content throughout the review period consistently demonstrates what works on LinkedIn right now, and her partnership with Blount on The LinkedIn Edge gave her the widest distribution of her career. A rising voice who has reached a significant new level of influence in 2025-2026.

 

7. Amy Volas

Based in Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Founder of Avenue Talent Partners and one of the most trusted voices on sales leadership hiring — specifically, the challenge of hiring great sales leaders for SaaS and technology companies. Has personally closed over $100 million in revenue and brings that practitioner credibility to everything she publishes. Throughout 2025, her LinkedIn content on sales culture, hiring mistakes, and what great sales leadership actually looks like generated consistently high engagement. A trusted advisor to SaaS founders, boards, and venture-backed companies navigating the challenge of building sales teams that actually perform. One of the most respected names in the space for people who know what they're talking about.

 

8. Keenan (Jim Keenan)

Based in Denver, Colorado, USA

CEO of A Sales Guy Inc. and author of GAP Selling — one of the most discussed and debated sales books of the past several years, built around the idea that great selling is about identifying and closing the gap between a buyer's current state and their desired future state. Throughout the review period, Keenan maintained his reputation as the most provocative and contrarian voice in sales, regularly generating high-engagement LinkedIn debates about the fundamentals of selling. His willingness to challenge orthodoxy — including the orthodoxy of sales trainers themselves — makes him essential reading for anyone serious about questioning whether conventional sales wisdom actually works.

 

9. Colleen Francis

Based in Ottawa, ON, Canada

Hall of Fame keynote speaker and author of Right on the Money: A Game Plan for Bold Growth in Today's Dynamic Market — one of the most practically relevant books for sales leaders navigating volatility and disruption. A decorated sales strategist who has helped companies through the profound shift in B2B buying behaviour, Francis continued active speaking and publishing throughout 2025. Her work on revenue operations, pipeline health, and the discipline required to sustain growth in uncertain markets positions her as one of the most commercially grounded voices in the global sales community. Active on LinkedIn and a consistent presence at major sales conferences through the review period.

 

10. Andy Paul

Based in San Diego, CA, USA

Author of Sell Without Selling Out and host of the Sales Enablement Podcast — one of the most listened-to sales podcasts globally. Paul's central thesis — that the pushy, manipulative sales behaviours that dominated the profession for decades are actively making salespeople less effective with modern buyers — resonates deeply in a market where buyers have more information, more choices, and less patience for being "sold at." His podcast and book output throughout 2025 continued to advance this argument with interviews and evidence that make the case for a fundamentally more human approach to selling. A consistent, credible, and important voice against the prevailing orthodoxy.

 

11. Chris Orlob

Based in San Francisco, CA, USA

Co-founder of PClub.io and one of the most analytically rigorous voices on what actually separates top-performing salespeople from average ones. Former Head of Sales at Gong.io, where he had access to hundreds of millions of sales calls' worth of conversation intelligence data. Throughout the review period, his LinkedIn content on discovery, objection handling, and the specific conversation patterns that predict deal outcomes was among the most cited and shared in the sales community. His ability to bring data and science to questions that are usually answered with anecdote makes him genuinely valuable for sales leaders building evidence-based training programmes.

 

12. Trish Bertuzzi

Based in Boston, MA, USA

Founder of The Bridge Group and author of The Sales Development Playbook — still the canonical text on building and scaling inside sales and sales development functions over a decade after its publication. Throughout 2025-2026, Bertuzzi remained an active voice on the fundamental changes facing SDR and BDR teams in an AI-augmented world — including honest, unsentimental analysis of which parts of the inside sales model are being disrupted and which core practices endure. One of the most respected analyst and practitioner voices in the B2B sales infrastructure space, with a reputation for saying uncomfortable truths about what does and doesn't work.

 

13. Victor Antonio

Based in Alpharetta, GA, USA

Host of the Sales Influence podcast — one of the top-ranked sales podcasts globally with over 500 episodes — and one of the most prolific sales content creators active throughout the review period. A former VP of Sales who turned consultant and educator, Antonio brings a relentless practical focus to topics like AI in sales, buyer psychology, and the specific persuasion mechanics that drive decisions. His YouTube channel and podcast consistently generate high viewership from frontline salespeople seeking actionable tactical guidance. A genuine educator who has democratised access to serious sales training for practitioners who can't afford expensive corporate programmes.

 

14. Todd Caponi

Based in Chicago, Illinois, USA

Author of The Transparency Sale and The Transparent Sales Leader — two of the most intellectually original sales books of the past decade, built around the counterintuitive idea that leading with your product's weaknesses and limitations builds more trust and closes more deals than traditional benefit-led selling. Throughout 2025, Caponi continued to advance and refine this framework across keynotes, podcast appearances, and LinkedIn content that consistently sparked substantive debate. His research into the history of sales thinking and his willingness to challenge the foundational assumptions of conventional sales training make him one of the most genuinely original thinkers in the profession.

 

15. Jen Allen-Knuth

Based in Chicago, IL, USA

Community Growth at Lavender and one of the most energetic and authentic voices in the modern sales community. A co-host of BDR Leader Coffee Talk — a weekly conversation series that gives frontline sales leaders a genuine peer learning space — Allen-Knuth produces consistent, high-engagement content on LinkedIn focused on the realities of prospecting, outreach, and sales team culture in 2026. Her approach is characterised by radical honesty about what's working and what isn't in outbound sales, and her community-building work reflects a genuine commitment to elevating the profession rather than selling a particular methodology or product.

 

16. Dale Dupree

Based in Orlando, FL, USA

Founder of The Sales Rebellion and one of the most distinctive voices in the sales community — building a movement around the idea that salespeople should reject the dehumanising scripts and metrics-only thinking that dominate most sales cultures, and instead lead with creativity, character, and genuine human connection. His community and content throughout 2025-2026 continued to attract a fiercely loyal following among salespeople who feel alienated by traditional "hustle culture" sales messaging. His approach is polarising by design, which is precisely why it generates the kind of authentic engagement that matters for cultural impact.

 

17. Morgan J Ingram

Based in Phoenix, AZ, USA

Strategic Advisor at Champify and Lavender, and one of the most visible younger voices in sales — particularly on the intersection of personal branding, outbound prospecting, and video-first selling. Throughout 2025-2026, Ingram maintained high engagement across LinkedIn and other platforms with content that speaks directly to the BDR and AE community navigating AI-assisted outreach. His energy and authenticity resonate with a generation of salespeople who are building careers in an environment where standing out requires creativity rather than volume. A consistent presence in the most important conversations about the future of outbound selling.

 

18. Mark Roberge

Based in Marblehead, MA, USA

Former CRO of HubSpot, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, and author of The Sales Acceleration Formula — one of the most widely used frameworks for building scalable, data-driven sales organisations. Throughout 2025, Roberge remained active on the question of how sales leaders should respond to the AI-driven transformation of their functions, drawing on both his HubSpot experience and his academic research. His Stage 2 Capital venture work and his HBS teaching give him a rare view of what early-stage sales strategy should look like in the current environment. A serious practitioner-academic whose thinking shapes how ambitious sales leaders build functions from scratch.

 

19. Kevin Dorsey

Based in Austin, TX, USA

VP of Revenue at PatientIQ and one of the most practical and prolific voices on frontline sales leadership — specifically, how sales managers and team leads can coach more effectively, build better cultures, and drive consistent performance from their teams. Throughout 2025-2026, his LinkedIn content on sales management, coaching frameworks, and building high-performance environments generated consistently strong engagement from sales leaders at every level. His posts consistently get hundreds of reactions and comments precisely because they speak to the daily realities of leading a sales team rather than the abstract theory of selling.

 

20. Belal Batrawy

Based in Atlanta, GA, USA

Founder of Death to Fluff and one of the most reliably provocative and practically useful voices on outbound sales strategy and prospecting. His "Death to Fluff" framework — built around stripping all meaningless corporate language out of sales messaging and replacing it with clear, direct communication that respects the buyer's time — gained significant traction throughout 2025. Active on LinkedIn with content that regularly challenges the way salespeople are trained to write emails and conduct outreach. A rising voice whose iconoclastic positioning fills a genuine gap in a community saturated with generic "hustle harder" content.

 

21. Sarah Brazier

Based in Brooklyn, NY, USA

Account Executive and one of the most authentic voices documenting the real daily experience of being a modern salesperson — what prospecting actually looks like, how deals actually progress, and what it feels like to navigate the psychological challenges of rejection, pipeline pressure, and quota. Her LinkedIn content throughout 2025-2026 consistently generated high engagement precisely because it refuses to pretend that selling is easy or glamorous. A counterweight to the motivational poster approach to sales content, and genuinely influential among frontline AEs navigating a difficult market.

 

22. Nate Nasralla

Based in Denver, CO, USA

Co-founder of Fluint and one of the most original thinkers on what he calls "buying process selling" — the idea that great salespeople don't sell to buyers, they sell through buyers, equipping champions inside organisations with the content and narrative they need to build internal consensus. His framework, built around the challenge of navigating complex B2B buying committees where the salesperson is not in the room for most of the decision, addresses one of the most important and least understood dynamics in enterprise sales. His LinkedIn content and podcast work throughout 2025 built a significant following among enterprise AEs and sales leaders.

 

23. Alexine Mudawar

Based in Chicago, Illinois, USA

CEO of Women in Sales and one of the most active advocates for gender equity in revenue organisations. Throughout 2025-2026, Mudawar built Women in Sales into one of the most active and commercially relevant communities in the profession, including the Women in Sales Awards North America held in Chicago. A multi-award winning enterprise seller herself before founding Women in Sales, she brings genuine commercial credibility to her advocacy work — making her case for why companies perform better with more women in sales roles with data and her own career as evidence.

 

24. Chantel George

Based in New York City, NY, USA

CEO of Sistas In Sales — a community championing women of colour in sales globally — and one of the most important voices at the intersection of sales, diversity, and representation. Throughout 2025, George continued to build Sistas In Sales into an increasingly influential and commercially respected community, appearing at major sales events including the Women in Sales Awards North America. Her work addresses a gap in the profession that most diversity initiatives miss: the specific experience and advancement challenges faced by women of colour in sales organisations, and the concrete business case for addressing them.

 

25. Armand Farrokh

Based in San Francisco, CA, USA

Co-founder of 30 Minutes to President's Club — one of the most practically useful sales podcasts and content platforms in the space, built around the single question of what habits and strategies distinguish the top 1% of salespeople from everyone else. Co-author of Cold Calling Sucks (And That's Why It Works) — published 2024 and actively circulating throughout the review period as one of the most honest and practical books on outbound prospecting. Throughout 2025-2026, his teardown approach to sales calls and his consistent output on prospecting, discovery, and deal execution built a growing and highly engaged following among ambitious sales practitioners.

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Congratulations to All 25 Honourees

 

Think a Sales professional belongs on next year's list? 

 

Nominations for the 2027 Industry Leaders Top 25 can be made here https://www.theindustryleaders.org/nominate

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Selections are made at the sole editorial discretion of The Industry Leaders based on publicly available information. Inclusion or exclusion does not constitute an endorsement, and positions within the list do not reflect a definitive ranking of merit.