World's Top 30 Sales Professionals for 2026

Guru #1

Grant Cardone

Grant Cardone is a New York Times bestselling author and an internationally renowned speaker on leadership, real estate investing, entrepreneurship, and finance. His seven privately held companies have annual revenues exceeding $370 million. Over $1B in internet sales.

Cardone is a savvy private multifamily investor and holds a portfolio of over 12,000 apartment units throughout the U.S. worth reaching almost 4.8 billion dollars.

He’s a CEO of seven businesses and founder of 10X Movement hosting largest entrepreneur events in the world. As CEO of the #1 Sales Training Platform in the World, Cardone consults with Fortune 500 companies and customers such as Google, Northwestern Mutual, Morgan Stanley, and more.

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Guru #2

Jordan Belfort

Jordan Belfort has acted as a consultant to more than fifty public companies, and has been written about in virtually every major newspaper and magazine in the world, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The London Times, The Herald Tribune, Le Monde, Corriere della Serra, Forbes, Business Week, Paris Match and Rolling Stone. Today, his proprietary Straight Line System allows him to take virtually any company or individual, regardless of age, race, sex, educational background or social status, and empower them to create massive wealth, abundance, and entrepreneurial success, without sacrificing integrity or ethics. Jordan’s two international bestselling memoirs, The Wolf of Wall Street and Catching the Wolf of Wall Street, have been published in over forty countries and translated into eighteen languages. His life story has even been turned into a major motion picture, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese (2013).

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Guru #3

Rajiv Sharma

Rajiv Sharma is a globally recognized public speaker who applies Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) principles to business strategy, sales, and leadership. He created the ‘www.MARKModel.com’™ ‘Mindset, Action, Repetition, Knowledge’ framework that has helped hundreds of thousands of professionals and entrepreneurs. MARK Model features in Forbes, Business Day, This Day and many other international publications.

Rajiv has trained over 500,000 people from 45 countries. With his astute business sense, he brings the evolutionary strategies that lead to extraordinary results for organizations. He specializes in – Sales, Business Strategy Development & Execution, Customer Acquisition & Retention.

Rajiv helps people achieve their personal, professional, and financial goals faster. He has contributed massively over two decades to various business houses. His inspiring seminars on Attitude, Self-Esteem, Goals, Strategy, Creativity and Winning Edge Psychology bring about immediate transformation and long-term results.

Every year Rajiv helps hundreds of global trainers, coaches, and consultants with his proprietary success literature to grow their business. He gives tools and techniques to evolve Mindset, turns ideas into Actions, creates powerful Habits, and innovates new knowledge.

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Guru #4

Colleen Stanley

Colleen Stanley is president and founder of SalesLeadership, Inc., a sales development firm. She was the first sales expert to integrate emotional intelligence skills training into consultative sales and sales leadership training.  As a result, the development of emotional intelligence skills is now recognized in the sales profession as a key competency in achieving hard sales results for sales professionals and sales leaders.

She is a popular sales speaker and the author of two books, Emotional Intelligence For Sales Success, now published in eight languages, and Emotional Intelligence For Sales Leadership, published in three languages.

Sales kudos include being named by Salesforce as one of the top sales influencers of the 21st century. She’s also been named one of the Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers, Top 10 Women in Sales Experts to Follow and one of the Top 30 Global Sales Gurus.

Clients include Harvard Business Review Poland, IBM, Bosch-Rexroth, PCL Construction, Gallagher, Otterbox, HomeAdvisor and PopSockets.

When she’s not writing, teaching or speaking, Colleen and her husband enjoy hiking in the great outdoors of Colorado.

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Guru #5

Jason Forrest

Jason Forrest, CEO of FPG.com, leads a Sales Performance Company where they RECRUIT, TRAIN, AND BUILD sales teams who want to be KNOWN for having the best sales experience in their industry. Jason is a practitioner, not a theorist, a speaker, and a performance coach. He is a Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, the psychology of how top producers think, speak, and act. He is also a Practitioner in Accelerated Evolution, the psychology of removing fear in high performers. He is also the author of several books including Warrior Selling and the Mindset of a Sales Warrior.

Jason is on a mission to ignite pride, purpose, and respect for professional selling.

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Guru #6

Stu Schlackman

After thirty-seven bankable sales years representing major corporations, Stu’s humanitarian spirit sought a fulfilling direction to contribute to the sales community.   With previous know-how gained as a college professor and developer of a university-level sales management course, he reached the confluence of all his gifts: to share his knowledge in a learning environment for those who desired a deeper understanding on how to succeed in a crowded sales marketplace.

Reflecting on how he intuitively developed new and enduring business relationships, Stu classified his understanding of people into four fundamental personality types.  “Four People You Should Know” resulted as a tool for sales professional seeking to close business by understanding what motivates people’s decision making.  Stu provides clear insight into this process through his book, Four People You Should Know, and a personal on-line assessment available on his website.  A prolific writer, Stu has produced a series of publications, including his most recent book, The Relationship Selling Secret.

Through his various service offerings, Stu has inspired and energized individual salespersons, company sales teams, and event audiences alike to improve their effectiveness, resonate more genuinely with customers, and increase revenues.

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Guru #7

Lee Salz

When executives are seeking solutions to tough sales performance challenges, their search leads them to Lee Salz for answers.

Lee Salz, founder and CEO of Sales Architects®, is an internationally renowned sales management strategist specializing in building world-class salesforces. He has helped hundreds of companies in various industries and sizes, develop the strategies, processes, and tools they need – resulting in explosive, profitable growth.

He is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, results-driven sales consultant, and award-winning keynote speaker.

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Guru #8

Victor Antonio

Victor Antonio’s poor upbringing in one of the roughest areas of Chicago didn’t stop him from earning a B.S. Electrical Engineering, an MBA and building a 20 year career as a top sales executive and becoming President of Global Sales and Marketing for a $420M company.     

As Vice President of International Sales in a Fortune 500 $3B corporation at the time, he was selected from over 500 sales managers to join the President’s Advisory Council for excellence in sales and management.

Victor Antonio is one of America’s top motivational speakers. He has shared the stage with top business speakers: Zig Ziglar, Daymond John (Shark Tank),  Jeb Blount, Rudy Giuliani, Paul Otellini (CEO of Intel), and John May (CEO of FedEx Kinkos).

He’s the author of 13 books on sales and motivation including “Sales Ex Machina: How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the World of Selling”.

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Guru #9

Paul Bramson

Paul Bramson is a global keynote speaker, author of Connecting Like A PRO® – Unleash Your Superpower, and elite trainer in communication, leadership, and sales. With more than 25 years of experience, he has impacted over 500,000 professionals across five continents, equipping powerhouse organizations and high performing teams to elevate how they connect, lead, and influence.

Widely regarded as one of the most compelling voices in his field, Paul blends self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and practical strategy. His work has influenced some of the world’s most respected companies, and his signature framework, Connecting Like A PRO®, is transforming how professionals show up in their proffesional and personal lives.

His mission: elevate how we connect, one meaningful conversation at a time.

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Guru #10

Joe Pici

Joe Pici is a leading strategist and coach specializing in results driven sales training. Since 1992 he has functioned as a catalyst for sales teams and individuals, helping them sharpen their skills for creating appointments and closing sales through his live phone call workshops.

Achieving success with his own marketing company as a top 25 percent producer nationally, he coaches and trains on the complete sales cycle.

COO and co-founder of Pici & Pici Inc, Joe is also co-author and the intellectual resource behind the books Sell Naked on the Phone and Sell Naked in Person. Joe has expanded this knowledge and coaching expertise into a comprehensive, turn-key system for success in sales by the same name. The Sell Naked….Successfully sales system is relentlessly on- target, packed with the culmination of his years of experience in:

Reaching decision makers and booking appointments

Closing more sales

Improving communication with existing clients

Creating focus and direction for on-going growth and productivity

Joe’s background as a college level athletic coach combined with his certification as a human behavior specialist lend to his direct, hard hitting, results oriented approach. Working with large international organizations as well as small ‘mom and pop’ sole proprietorships, he has equipped and empowered thousands of individuals to achieve outcomes well beyond their original expectations.

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Guru #11

Mark Hunter

Mark Hunter, known as, “The Sales Hunter,” is globally recognized for his expertise in sales leadership. He specializes in business development and guiding organizations to find and retain high-quality prospects without discounting their fee. His ability to inspire sales teams to create self-motivating and integrity driven cultures, makes Mark Hunter a highly sought-after keynote speaker, consultant and coach. Mark has taken his vision for sales leadership to more than 25 countries and 5 continents where he leads and consults with companies ranging from small startups to global giants.

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Guru #12

Ian Altman

For eight consecutive years, Ian Altman has been recognized as a Global Guru on Sales. Based on research into how executives make and approve decisions, distilled in his co-authored, best-selling book SAME SIDE SELLING, Ian’s integrity-driven methods future-proof business success. He founded the Same Side Selling Academy, recognized as one of the top 5 sales development platforms globally where his members get results through education, mentorship, and a rich professional selling community.

B2B businesses come to him for an integrity-based approach to sales with a proven track record of success. Altman inspires audiences with a modern approach proven to accelerate business growth.

As a CEO for two decades, Ian grew the value of his business services and technology companies from zero to over $1 billion. This success, backed by years of research and hands-on, proven success has established Ian as a leading authority on accelerating business growth.

Audiences are drawn to Ian’s popular weekly podcast, ‘Same Side Selling,’ available on all popular podcast platforms. You can read hundreds of Ian’s articles on business and leadership on Inc. and Forbes.

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Guru #13

Tom Searcy

Tom Searcy is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and the foremost expert in large account sales. His methods of unlocking explosive growth were developed through years of real-world success. By the age of 40, Searcy had led four corporations, transforming annual revenues of less than $15 million to more than $100 million in each case.

Since then, Searcy founded Hunt Big Sales, a fast-growth consultancy and thought leadership organization. With Searcy’s guidance, Hunt Big Sales clients have landed more than $5 billion in new sales with 190 of the Fortune 500 companies, including 3M, Disney, Chase Bank, International Paper, AT&T, Apple and hundreds more.

Searcy’s revolutionary ideas are now more accessible than ever. He is the author of RFPs Suck! How to Master the RFP System Once and for All to Win Big Business and co-author of Whale Hunting: How to Land Big Sales and Transform Your Company. Searcy’s newest book co-authored by Henry DeVries, How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett: Lessons from the World’s Greatest Dealmaker, is being released by McGraw-Hill in November 2012. Searcy writes weekly online columns for Forbes, CBS MoneyWatch and Inc.com, which have a combined monthly readership of 38 million. Searcy’s expertise has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times UK, and Inc. Magazine.

Searcy has also established himself as a nationally renowned speaker. He is a regular contributor to the Inc. Magazine conferences, the Inc. 500/500 Conferences, and Vistage International, the leading organization for CEO thought-leadership, where he is ranked in the top 1% of speakers. He’s also a member of the Million Dollar Speakers Club for the National Speakers Association. Searcy has spoken to more than 5000 CEOs internationally about explosive growth sales.

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Guru #14

Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Gitomer is an American author, professional speaker, and business trainer, who writes and lectures internationally on sales. He is a sales guru of the USA. Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The New York Times best sellers The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Black Book of Connections, and The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude. All of his books have been number one best sellers on Amazon.com. In 1997, National Speakers Association awarded him the designation of Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). A speaker who gives OVER 100 PRESENTATIONS A YEAR, Jeffrey is busy with public and corporate seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts live and Internet training programs on selling and customer loyalty. He is known for presentations, seminars and keynote addresses that are funny, insightful and pragmatic.His content is pure, fun, pragmatic, real world and can be immediately implemented.

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Guru #15

John Rosso

John Rosso is recognized nationally as a business-development expert, specializing in executive-sales consulting and sales-productivity training. John is a dynamic, enthusiastic speaker who informs, entertains, and motivates presidents, CEO’s, other senior managers and sales professionals.

More than 200,000 sales professionals have listened to John speak, and more than 95 percent rate his content and presentation of sought-after selling solutions the best they’ve ever heard. His authentic, real-world approach to the sales process speaks to visionary business leaders who want the freedom success brings.

“The most efficient way an organization can increase market share, revenue, and profit and continue to dominate is by developing a more effective sales force and by getting each and every teammate to overachieve what they thought possible.”

In 1994, John founded Peak Performance Management, Inc. an authorized Sandler Training Center. His track record speaks for itself, as he has helped thousands of executives, managers, and sales professionals triumph over the challenges that inhibit their success and take their sales to the next level. With 250 offices worldwide, Sandler is the global leader in sales and sales management training.

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Guru #16

Carajane Searcy Moore

As President and Partner of Hunt Big Sales for over 13 years, Carajane Moore leads the company in strategic vision and implementation. Since joining the company, she has instituted vital operational and structural changes to the business resulting in growth of over 50 percent in less than three years.

As a serial entrepreneur, Carajane has proven her ability to develop new business and forge critical relationships. Using those skills in her current role, not only has she guided Hunt Big Sales, but she has educated key clients on how to double and triple their companies. Her firm has helped clients land over $21 billion in new business and has paved new ground using the “hunt” approach in industries such as medical devices, telecommunications, technology, real estate, aviation, and construction.

Her varied experiences as a fast-track person in the sales environment have included direct sales, sales training, sales management, team sales, outside and inside sales, and entrepreneurial sales at the $1 million plus level. Carajane has taught the Hunt Big Sales System to other professionals and consulted with major companies as a trusted adviser.

She is the co-author of The Secret to Big Sales: Use Executive Language to Close More DealsHow to Sell In Place: Closing Deals in the New Normal, and Life After the Death of Selling: How to Thrive in the New Era of Sales. She also served as a judge for the 2012 Stevie Awards and earned a degree in Business Administration, emphasis on Marketing, at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Recently, Carajane was recognized as a leading woman in business and was featured in “O, The Oprah Magazine”, “Entrepreneur”, “Fortune”, and “Forbes” magazines.

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Guru #17

Jerry Acuff

Jerry Acuff is a veteran sales guru and has been a consultant and speaker on the issues of sales and marketing excellence for over 20 years.He has got a long tenure of twenty years as a Sales Executive at Hoechst Roussel Pharmaceuticals and won Salesman of the Year twice and District Manager of the Year three times.Jerry felt urged to share his expertise and knowledge which led him to establish Delta Point Inc.Jerry shared his learning and insights in his three bestselling books The Relationship Edge The Relationship Edge in Business and Stop Acting Like a Seller and Start Thinking Like a Buyer.Jerry believes in KMR Knowledge is at the core o sales Messaging is how you are able to communicate your expertise and knowing is the importance of Relationships in business success. His confident speaking style and engaging capability made him a well recognized speaker on sales strategies.

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Guru #18

Lisa Earle McLeod

Lisa McLeod is the global expert on purpose-driven business. She is the author of five books, including her bestseller: Selling with Noble Purpose: How to Drive Revenue and Do Work That Makes You Proud.

Lisa has spent two decades helping leaders increase competitive differentiation and emotional engagement. She developed the Noble Purpose methodology after her research revealed, salespeople who sell with Noble Purpose, outsell salespeople who focus on targets and quotas.

Lisa is a former Procter & Gamble Sales Leader who founded her own firm, McLeod & More, Inc. in 2001. She helps leaders at organizations like Cisco, Roche, Volvo, and Dave & Busters drive exponential revenue growth. Lisa has keynoted in 25 countries and authored over 2,000 articles. She has made appearances on the Today show and the NBC Nightly News, and her firm’s work has been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR.

Lisa’s newest book, Leading with Noble Purpose: How to Create a Tribe of True Believers is a breakthrough book that shows leaders how to win the hearts and minds of their teams and customers.

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Guru #19

Sam Richter

Sam is the founder and CEO of SBR Worldwide/Know More. Through his in-person keynote presentations and online programs, Sam trains leading organizations and entertains tens of thousands of people around the world. Sam’s programs promise to be the highest-content, most take-home-value presentations attendees have ever experienced.

The National Speakers Association inducted Sam into the Professional Speaker Hall of Fame, where fewer than 300 professional speakers worldwide have been honored, and Sam also received the Association’s CSP Designation, reserved for the top 10 percent of the world’s professional speakers.

He was named one of the Top 15 Highest Rated Speakers for Virtual Events, one of the Top 50 Sales Keynote Speakers in the world, one of the world’s Top 100 Motivational Speakers, a Top Sales Coach by the Coach Foundation, and he is also a member of the Minnesota Speaker Hall of Fame.

Sam is the author of the bestselling book, Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling, considered the preeminent publication on finding information online and using it for sales success. Take the Cold was named “Sales Book of the Year” by the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals, and it was also named a “USA Book News Winner” and a “Sales Book Awards Silver Medalist.”

In addition to speaking and writing, Sam created numerous AI-powered technologies, including a family of custom enterprise business, sales, and competitive intelligence search applications., the Business / Sales Intel Engines, a library of online intel tools at YouGotIntel, the financial advisor Find5500.ai program, the AI-powered marketing and sales platform, Relevate.ai. and the Diamond Speaker program for higher-end professional speakers. Sam also creates custom AI and Generative-AI powered resources used by top companies worldwide.

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Guru #20

Mike Weinberg

Mike Weinberg loves sales! He is a consultant, coach, speaker, and best-selling author. His specialities are new business development and sales management, and he’s on a mission to simplify sales and create high-performance salespeople and sales teams. Mike is known for his blunt, practical approach and that he calls it like he sees it. He works with companies in all industries ranging in size from a few million to many billions of dollars and has spoken and consulted on five continents.

His latest book, Sales Truth: Debunk the Myths. Apply Powerful Principles. Win More New Sales., releases June 11, 2019 from HarperCollins Leadership. In her endorsement, sales guru Andrea Waltz, co-author of Go for No, says that Sales Truth is likely the first sales book that will make you gasp! Mike pulls no punches as he takes on many of the popular myths and half-truths damaging sales performance today. Anthony Iannarino summed it up well: “It is rare that a book speaks a truth so strongly and so clearly that it defines an era. Sales Truth is that book.”

Mike was the #1 producer in three different companies before launching his consulting practice, and he has been named a Top Sales Influencer by Forbes, OpenView Labs, and several other publications. His first book, New Sales. Simplified. – The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development became a #1 Amazon Best-Seller and spent a year as the #1 top-rated book in its category, has been named the #3 Most-Highly Rated Sales Book of All-Time (by HubSpot). When 300 sales experts were asked to name one book every salesperson should read, New Sales. Simplified. was a top-5 response.

Mike’s second book, Sales Management. Simplified. – The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results from Your Sales Team has been called “arguably the greatest book ever written on sales management,” and “an unequaled blueprint for leading salespeople and building high-performance sales teams,” and named the #1 book every sales manager should read (Inc. magazine).

 

A transplanted New Yorker, Mike has called St. Louis home for more than 25 years. He says his wife Katie is still the best proof that he really can sell, and he’s a STL Cardinals, NY Pizza and Porsche 911 fan.

You can follow Mike on twitter and instagram at @mike_weinberg and his website and blog can be found at mikeweinberg.com

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Guru #21

Matt Dixon

Matt Dixon is Chief Product & Research Officer of the Austin-based AI and machine learning venture, Tethr. In this capacity, he has responsibility for product strategy, product management and product marketing.  Prior to joining Tethr, Matt was a Senior Partner and Global Head of Sales Force Effectiveness Solutions at Korn Ferry Hay Group and, before that, held numerous global leadership roles in research, product development and management for CEB, now Gartner.

A seasoned business researcher, Matt has been involved in dozens of original quantitative and qualitative research studies on topics ranging from customer experience strategy to customer service and sales effectiveness. His first book, The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation (Penguin, November 2011), was a #1 Amazon and Wall Street Journal bestseller and has sold more than half a million copies worldwide. The Challenger Sale has won acclaim as “the most important advance in selling for many years” (SPIN Selling author Neil Rackham) and “the beginning of a wave that will take over a lot of selling organizations in the next decade.” (Business Insider). Matt is also a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, having been published more than twenty times in both HBR’s print and online editions. Among his noteworthy HBR articles are “Reinventing Customer Service” (November-December 2018), “Kick-Ass Customer Service” (January-February 2017), “Dismantling the Sales Machine” (November 2013), “The End of Solution Sales” (July-August 2012) and “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers” (July-August 2010). His two most recent books are The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty, (Penguin, September 2013) and The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results (Penguin, September 2015).

Matt is a sought-after speaker and advisor to management teams around world, having presented his findings at a wide range of industry conferences as well as to hundreds of senior executive teams around the world, including those of many Fortune 500 companies.

Matt holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh as well as a B.A. in International Studies from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He currently resides in the Washington, D.C. area with his wife and four children.

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Guru #22

Matthew Pollard

Matthew Pollard is responsible for five multi-million-dollar business success stories, all before the age of 30. His humble beginnings, the adversities he faced, and his epic rise to success show that anyone, with the right motivation and the right strategies, can achieve anything they set their mind to.

Today, Forbes calls him “the real deal,” Global Gurus lists him as a Top 30 Sales Professional, Top Sales World Magazine named him a Top 50 Speaker, and BigSpeak lists him as an international Top 10 Sales Trainer. He’s also the bestselling author of The Introvert’s Edge, which hit the Amazon charts as the 8th Most-Sold Book of the Week, appears on HubSpot’s list of the “Most Highly-Rated Sales Books of All Time,” and was selected by BookAuthority as the #2 “Best Introvert Book of All Time.” His soon-to-be-released second book, The Introvert’s Edge to Networking, has already received endorsements from Harvard, Princeton, Neil Patel, Michael Gerber, Dr. Ivan Misner, and Marshall Goldsmith.

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Guru #23

Francis Rodino

Francis Rodino is an award-winning growth marketing expert, international speaker, and founder of Lead Hero, a digital marketing company renowned for helping small businesses scale online with automated systems. He is the author of Leads Machine: The Predictable Selling System to Scale Your Service Business from Seven to Eight Figures, which introduces his RED Method—a 9-step blueprint for consistent, scalable growth.

With a career spanning senior marketing roles at Top Gear, FIFA, PlayStation, BBC, and Virgin, Francis brings big-brand expertise to SMEs. Over the last six years, Lead Hero has generated over £100M in sales opportunities for its clients while saving them more than 50,000 hours annually. His achievements include receiving High Level’s prestigious Gold Award for excellence in marketing automation and CRM solutions.

Through cutting-edge automation and growth strategies, Francis helps businesses uplevel their systems—from marketing and sales to operations—enabling business owners to realize their ultimate vision. His work makes businesses scalable, efficient, and less reliant on human staff, empowering owners to focus on growth and long-term success.

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Guru #24

Jane Baker

Jane Baker is a respected expert in sales strategy, customer experience, and revenue growth, known for helping organizations modernize their sales approaches in an evolving marketplace. She specializes in aligning sales teams with customer needs, value-based selling, and long-term relationship building rather than transactional tactics.

With extensive experience working with sales leaders, entrepreneurs, and frontline teams, Jane focuses on improving sales effectiveness through clarity, confidence, and consistency. Her approach emphasizes understanding buyer psychology, strengthening communication skills, and creating repeatable sales processes that drive sustainable results. Jane is a sought-after speaker, trainer, and advisor, recognized for translating complex sales concepts into practical, easy-to-apply frameworks. Through her work, she continues to support organizations in increasing performance, improving customer trust, and building sales cultures that deliver measurable growth and competitive advantage.

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Guru #25

Brent Adamson

Brent Adamson is a world-renowned researcher, author, presenter, trainer, and advisor to B2B commercial executives around the world.

Known as having the “biggest crystal ball in B2B sales,” Brent is the co-author of the best-selling, industry changing The Challenger Sale and The Challenger Customer. He is also a frequent contributor to well-known business publications, including the Harvard Business Review, featuring his recent articles, “Sensemaking for Sales” and “Traditional B2B Sales and Marketing Are Becoming Obsolete.”

Across the last 19 years, Brent has been privileged to work with some of the greatest thought leaders in B2B and B2C sales and marketing, building and leading exclusive communities of highly progressive commercial executives. Known as a world-class facilitator and speaker, Brent has presented to tens of thousands of commercial leaders both in-person and virtually all over the world, ranging from executive leadership teams to large keynote audiences.

Especially well known for his passion for “productive disruption,” Brent served as the “chief story teller” for CEB, now Gartner’s, sales, marketing, and customer service practices from 2003 to 2022. Across that time, Brent’s research has focused most closely on the critical, boundary-spanning intersection of selling and buying, seeking to understand the rapidly changing nature of effective commercial collaboration. Most recently, Brent and his colleagues at CEB, now Gartner, have introduced industry-leading concepts such as Buyer Enablement, Sense Making, and Customer Decision Confidence.

A native of Omaha, Neb., Brent joined CEB, now Gartner, from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business where he received his MBA with distinction. Prior to that, he served on the faculty of Michigan State University as a Professor of German and Applied Linguistics. In addition to his MBA, Brent holds a B.A. with distinction in political science from the University of Michigan along with M.A.s in political science and German, and a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from the University of Texas. Brent resides in Leesburg, VA with his wife, two daughters, and rescue dog.

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Guru #26

Jeb Blount

Jeb Blount is the bestselling Author of eight books and among the world’s most respected thought leaders on sales, leadership, and customer experience. As a sales acceleration specialist he helps sales organizations reach peak performance fast by optimizing talent, leveraging training to cultivate a high-performance sales culture, developing leadership and coaching skills, and applying more effective organizational design. Jeb is an in-demand speaker and spends more than 250 days each year crisscrossing the globe, delivering keynote speeches, workshops, and training programs to high-performing sales teams and leaders. Through his global training organizations, including Sales Gravy, Channel EQ, and Innovate Knowledge, Jeb advises many of the world’s leading organizations and their executives on the impact of emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills on customer-facing activities, and delivers training to thousands of participants in both public and private forums. As a business leader, Jeb has more than 25 years of experience with Fortune 500 companies, small and midsize businesses (SMBs), and start-ups. He has been named one of the top 50 most influential sales and marketing leaders (Top Sales Magazine), a Top 30 social selling influencer (Forbes), a top 10 sales expert to follow on Twitter (Evan Carmichael), a top 100 most innovative sales blogger (iSEEit), a top 20 must-read author—People Buy You—for entrepreneurs (YFS Magazine and Huffington Post), one the 20 highest rates sales authors—Fanatical Prospecting—of all time (Hubspot), and produces the most downloaded sales podcast in iTunes history, among many other accolades

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Guru #27

Joe Dalton

Joe Dalton is a seasoned expert in sales, leadership, and customer relationship development, known for helping organizations improve sales performance through trust-based and value-driven approaches. He specializes in equipping sales professionals with the skills needed to communicate effectively, understand client needs, and build long-term partnerships rather than focusing solely on short-term transactions.

With years of experience working with sales teams, managers, and business owners, Joe emphasizes consultative selling, emotional intelligence, and strategic follow-up as key drivers of consistent revenue growth. His practical methods help sales professionals increase confidence, handle objections, and close deals with integrity. A respected trainer, speaker, and advisor, Joe is recognized for translating real-world sales challenges into clear, actionable strategies. Through his work, he continues to support organizations in strengthening their sales culture, improving customer loyalty, and achieving sustainable business success.

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Guru #28

Chris Widener

Chris Widener, born on April 18, 1966, in Seattle, is a renowned American author and motivational speaker specializing in sales, leadership, and personal development. He began his public speaking career in 1988 and has since delivered over 2,500 speeches globally, engaging audiences with his dynamic and practical insights.

In the early 1990s, Widener founded the American Community Business Network, later rebranded as Made for Success, a publishing company that distributed personal development materials through major retailers like Costco and Sam’s Club.

Widener has authored over 20 books, with more than 3 million copies in print across 13 languages. Notable works include “The Art of Influence” and “Twelve Pillars,” co-authored with Jim Rohn.

His expertise in sales is highlighted in his seminars and writings, where he emphasizes the importance of influence and relationship-building in achieving sales success. Widener’s contributions have earned him recognition as one of the world’s top 50 speakers and induction into the Motivational Speakers Hall of Fame.

Through his extensive work, Chris Widener has inspired countless individuals to enhance their sales skills and pursue excellence in their professional endeavors.

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Guru #29

Keith Rosen

Keith Rosen is the CEO of Profit Builders, named one of the Best Sales Leadership Coaching organizations worldwide. Since 1989, Keith delivered his programs to over 3 million sales leaders in practically every industry; on six continents and in over 75 countries. Inc. magazine and Fast Company named Keith one of the five most influential executive coaches. He’s been featured in Entrepreneur, Inc., Fortune, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Keith has written several best-sellers including, Own Your Day, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions, winner of Five International Best Book Awards and the #1 best-selling sales management coaching book on Amazon for the last 7 consecutive years. His latest book, Sales Leadership, was named the 2019 Sales Book of the Year by Amazon.com.

Keith was also featured on the award-winning television show, Mad Men and was one of the first coaches who earned the distinguished Master Certified Coach designation credentialed through the International Coach Federation. As a leader in the coaching profession, Keith was inducted in the inaugural group of the Top Sales Hall of Fame. Keith was named The 2009 Sales Education Leader of the Year and was honored as having one of the top 25 Sales and Leadership Blogs for the last 8 years. He was also named one of the 50 Best Salespeople of all time, along with Zig Ziglar, Steve Jobs, Dale Carnegie and Jeff Bezos.

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Guru #30

Tiffani Bova

Tiffani Bova is the growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce and the author of the Wall Street Journal and 800-CEO-READ bestselling book GROWTH IQ: Get Smarter About the Choices that Will Make or Break Your Business (Portfolio).

Bova was recently named to Thinkers50’s Radar Class of 2019 and was Thinker of the Month in December 2018. She has appeared on MSNBC and Yahoo Finance, among others, and was featured in the January 2019 issue of Rotman Management Magazine’s Disruption Issue. She has also contributed to publications including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Huffington Post, and is a frequent guest on Wharton Business Radio and a variety of industry-leading podcasts.

As host of What’s Next! with Tiffani Bova, one of the top 100 business and marketing podcasts on iTunes and top sales podcast of 2018 and 2019 according to Top Sales Magazine, she has interviewed guests from Arianna Huffington and Tom Peters to Dan Pink.

Bova is a top influencer in Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, the Future of Work, and Sales, and she was recently recognized as one of Inc. Magazine’s 37 Sales Experts You Need to Follow on Twitter, a LinkedIn Top Sales Expert to follow in 2019, a Top 100 Women in Tech, a Brand Quarterly Magazine Top 50 Marketing Thought Leader, and one of the most Powerful and Influential Women in California according to the National Diversity Council.

Having delivered over 500 keynote presentations on sales transformation and business model innovation to over 400,000 people on six continents, Bova is highly sought after keynote speaker. Prior to working with Salesforce she was a Distinguished Analyst and Research Fellow at Gartner where she won the Thought Leadership award and earned accolades from the best leaders in the technology world for her cutting-edge analysis and her skill at inventing bold strategies for growth.

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