B2B Sales

NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD It’s July, and college football teams across the SEC are deep in summer workouts. No games. No crowds. No glory. Just the grinding work that determines who wins championships in the fall. I was thinking about this while reviewing a client’s sales pipeline last week. Their team looked busy. Lots of meetings.…

NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD I gave a sales team a simple assignment last week: have your managers do goal setting sessions with their people. Help them get clear on what they want to achieve personally and professionally. One of the managers came back to me and said something that should terrify every CEO: “Adam, most of…

NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD You know that scene in Armageddon where Bruce Willis is looking at NASA’s version of his drill? He’s just grabbing parts and throwing them aside like “what is this… we don’t need this… what is this?” That’s your sales process. I’ve worked with over 150 sales organizations, and here’s what I see…

NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD You know the difference between teams that win championships and teams that stay mediocre? It’s not the salary cap. Every NFL team has the same amount to spend on players. The difference is where they spend their money. Mediocre teams blow their budget on big-name free agents and hope talent alone will…

NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD You know what I love about Texas pitmasters? Everyone thinks their secret is in some magical sauce recipe passed down through generations. But watch a real pitmaster work. They’ll spend 14 hours smoking a brisket, and maybe 30 seconds applying sauce at the end. The real work happens before anything hits the…

NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD When Josh Heupel arrived at Tennessee in 2021, he inherited a program that had been struggling for over a decade. Players, fans, and even some coaches were skeptical of yet another “system” change. After all, they’d seen multiple coaches come and go, each promising their approach would be different. But Heupel did…

NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD  There’s a scene in Narcos: Mexico where Félix Gallardo gathers all the independent drug lords in a room. His pitch is compelling: “We’re stronger together than apart. One federation. Shared resources. Coordinated territories. Everyone makes more money.” The logic was sound. Each group had their own strengths, their own connections, their own…

NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD  Living in Texas, it’s painful when everyone talks about UT and it’s not Knoxville. But as a long suffering Vols fan, I’ve watched the same cycle for 15 years: Butch Jones, Derek Dooley, Lane Kiffin, Jeremy Pruitt… hire a coach, expect immediate results, get frustrated when it doesn’t happen, fire the coach,…

NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD  Last fall, Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels handed Georgia their first regular season loss in 42 games. The morning after the win, Kiffin did something that caught my attention. He praised his coaching staff. Not himself. Not his game plan. Not even his star quarterback. His coaches. The same man who once…