I write about sales, leadership & productivity to help you become a top sales performer. RSM at Lonestar Forklift | AIB MBA

I’m Chris Crane, and my mission is simple:

Transforming industrial sales reps & teams into formidable professionals.

Over my 15-year sales career, I’ve closed over $100 million in industrial equipment deals, trained more than 150 reps, and led industrial sales teams across Canada and the U.S.

I built the Scaling Success System™ to give industrial sales teams what no one else offers: a sales operating system specifically engineered for industrial sales.

This system has taught over 150+ industrial sales reps & teams to operate as formidable professionals, and it can do the same for your team.

DM "sales" to learn more.

Chris Crane

Most companies hire one kind of rep, and expect them to do both jobs.

They want someone who can hunt.
They want someone who can farm.
They end up with someone who does neither well.

Hunters drive top-of-funnel.
They chase the deal until they get it. 
They don’t stop until the calendar’s full.

Farmers grow existing accounts.
They build solid long-term relationships.
They don’t stop until the client renews again.

Here’s what I’ve learned coaching both:

→ Farmers win with value.
→ Hunters win with volume.
→ Hunters need structure and a clean target list.
→ Farmers need trust  and a relationship to protect.
→ Both lose when you try to make them play the other’s game.

Learning to do both well is an elite level game. 

I have done both, and I can teach someone how to do both, but most companies cannot, and they wonder why they are missing their quotas.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://lnkd.in/dHH93M4u

Experience alone doesn’t scale. A system does. Turn industrial sales prospects into buyers with ARC5™

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Most sales reps consume motivation. Top sales reps study communication.

Everyone wants better closing lines.

Very few reps study the psychology behind why people say yes.

And the gap between those two groups is where commissions are made.

Here are 7 talks every serious salesperson should study.

→ Rejection tolerance — “What I Learned from 100 Days of Rejection” by Jia Jiang

→ Listening discipline — “Want to Help Someone? Shut Up and Listen” by Ernesto Sirolli

→ Persuasion mechanics — “The Four Letter Code to Selling Anything” by Derek Thompson

→ Body language intelligence — “The Power of Nonverbal Communication” by Joe Navarro

→ Conversation control — “How to Have a Good Conversation” by Celeste Headlee

→ Managing resistance — “How to Deal with Difficult People” by Jay Johnson

→ Direct persuasion — “How 5 Simple Words Can Get You What You Want” by Janine Driver

Notice the pattern.

None of them teach scripts.
None of these talks teach product
All of them teach deep human behavior.

Because selling isn’t about explaining your product. It’s about understanding the person sitting across from you.

And the reps who study people always outperform those who study only products.

83% of sales reps run discovery calls with no structure.

They wing it.
They ask surface-level questions.
They pitch before the buyer even admits there’s a problem.

The call feels productive.
The buyer sounds interested.
And then the deal dies quietly two weeks later.

Here’s the 7-step discovery structure most reps skip:

→ Prepare
→ Start Calm
→ Build Rapport
→ Confirm the Agenda
→ Ask & Clarify Pain Points
→ Present Your Crafted Solution
→ Schedule the Next Follow-Up Call

Miss one, and control slips.
Rush one, and urgency disappears.
Ignore the order, and the buyer leads.

The result?

→ Buyers open up faster.
→ Pain becomes specific, measurable, and urgent.
→ Your proposal becomes the logical next step, not a hopeful pitch.

The takeaway:

→ The rep who controls discovery controls the deal.
→ Discovery is not a conversation, it’s a controlled sequence.
→ Structure creates urgency, and urgency creates movement.

Most reps try to close at the end. Elite reps start closing in the first 10 minutes.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://lnkd.in/dHH93M4u

Sales teams don’t fail because of skill.

They fail because they don’t care.
They fail because they’re not engaged.
They fail because they’re disconnected.

Motivation isn’t always about money.

It’s about meaning, mindset & execution.

Here’s what I know:
→ Trust must flow both ways.
→ Goals create clarity & direction.
→ Knowing the “why” drives performance.

Consider this:
→ Start with a 30, 60, 90 plan.
→ Align the team with this objective.
→ Explain the “why” to create full buy in.

Watch what happens with your team in 90 days with full focus on this effort.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://scalingsuccess.co/

71% of sales teams miss quota, and it's not because of effort.

They track revenue.
They track activity volume.
They ignore the indicators that actually drive outcomes.

The dashboard looks full.
The pipeline “feels” healthy.
And the quarter still comes up short.

Here are the KPIs every serious sales leader must track:
→ Key Sales Activity
→ Sales Cycle Length
→ Sales Pipeline Value
→ Average Order Value
→ Product Performance
→ Lead to Opportunity Conversion
→ Opportunity to Sales Conversion

Miss one, and blind spots grow.
Track them inconsistently, and patterns stay hidden.
Obsess over lagging metrics only, and you’ll always react instead of lead.

The result?

→ Forecasting becomes predictable.
→ Coaching becomes precise and data-driven.
→ Revenue stops feeling random and starts compounding.

The takeaway:

→ Activity without conversion tracking is noise.
→ Revenue without pipeline math is guesswork.
→ The leader who tracks the right numbers controls the outcome.

What you measure dictates what your team becomes.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://lnkd.in/dHH93M4u

I almost didn’t call back.

Something felt off.

The buyer sounded polite but distant on the first call.

Most reps would have written the deal off and moved on to the next name in the CRM.

But something didn’t add up.

The problem he described was too operational to ignore.

And when problems are operational, the cost is usually hidden somewhere deeper.

So I called him again.

→ Align: “I understand you’re busy and this might not be top priority right now.”

→ Redirect: “When the system breaks down like you mentioned last week, what usually happens to production that day?”

→ Clarify: “If the line stops for even an hour, what does that actually cost your operation?”

→ Reframe: “So if that downtime keeps happening every week, that’s hundreds of thousands a year lost, correct?”

→ Close: “If we can eliminate that loss, it makes sense to move forward, doesn’t it?”

The result?

→ The problem was bigger than he first admitted.
→ The cost of doing nothing was far worse than the investment required.
→ The deal that almost died on call one closed two weeks later.

The takeaway:

→ Deals rarely die because of rejection.
→ Most deals die because reps accept the first layer of the conversation.
→ The reps who win are the ones willing to dig one level deeper than everyone else.

Most lost deals aren’t lost. They’re just undiscovered.

Most salespeople will never close a seven-figure deal.

They think they can.
They act like they can.
But when the opportunity comes, they choke.

I've seen it firsthand.

I've watched seasoned reps stall.
I've watched managers fumble negotiations.
I've watched buyers walk away, never saying a word.

Here’s what I know:
→ Patience is a strategy. Use it.
→ Big deals don’t die in meetings. They die in silence.
→ If you can’t handle long sales cycles, you won’t survive.

Consider this:
1. Control the frame: If they lead, you’ve already lost.
2. Don't push, pull: Let the buyer convince themselves.
3. Slow down: The bigger the contract, the slower the close.

Big deals are a slow process. Learn to slow down, learn to ask great questions, and the deals will start to come.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://scalingsuccess.co/

Objections don’t kill deals, insecurity does. 

You get pushback.
You lose your composure. 
You spiral into defense mode.

Most reps crumble.

They talk too much.
They try to win the argument.
They forget their job is to lead. 

Here’s what I know:
→ Objections aren’t rejections.
→ They’re tests of your confidence.
→ The buyer is watching how you react.

Consider this:
→ Ask for clarification, find the real fear.
→ Your tone matters more than your answer.
→ Reframe the concern to their original pain.

Master the objection if you want to master the sale. 

Don’t fear them, embrace them.


If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://scalingsuccess.co/

Deals don’t die at the close. They die at discovery.

I learned this the hard way.
Early in my career, I ran a perfect demo.
Clear value, strong interest, confident delivery.

Then the buyer stalled.

“No decision right now.”
And I had nothing to anchor them to.

The problem wasn’t price.
The problem wasn’t timing.
The problem was I didn't equate cost with inaction.

So I rebuilt how I run discovery using CICSR.
→ Context → I force myself to fully understand their current process before touching a problem.
→ Issue → I isolate where the process breaks and make them admit it out loud.
→ Cost → I quantify the damage until the number hurts to say.
→ Solution → I let them describe the future state before I ever show mine.
→ Resistance → I surface hesitation early while I still control the room.

The result?
→ Deals stop stalling.
→ Objections show up earlier and weaker.
→ Buyers convince themselves before I ever ask for the close.

The takeaway:
→ Bad discovery creates fake momentum.
→ Fake momentum collapses at the close.
→ Real discovery makes closing procedural, not emotional.

If you want better closes, stop trying to sound impressive and start forcing clarity.

P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉https://scalingsuccess.co/

The deal didn’t die because of price. It died because I skipped one question.

He was engaged.
He liked the numbers.
He nodded the whole meeting.

I thought it was done.
I moved straight to proposal.
I assumed alignment without confirming it.

Two weeks later he said, “We’re going in a different direction.”

Here’s what I missed.

→ I didn’t go deep enough into Context. I understood the surface process, not the internal politics.
→ I uncovered the Issue, but I didn’t press into real Cost with numbers tied to executive pressure.
→ I pitched Solution before asking the Resistance question that would’ve exposed the hidden decision-maker.

So I went back and did it again, the right way.

The result?

→ I quantified cost with his numbers, not mine.
→ I went back and rebuilt discovery from scratch.
→ I uncovered that his CFO had final sign-off and hadn’t seen the math.

The takeaway:

→ If cost isn’t quantified, urgency isn’t real.
→ Surface-level agreement is not commitment.
→ The rep who skips steps pays for it in lost commission.

Discovery isn’t about sounding smart. It’s about controlling the sequence.


P.S. If you want to turn your industrial sales prospects into buyers, I built a system to show you how 👉

Messaging Strategist & Ghostwriter for Leaders - I help you create instant credibility that gets replies, calls, and conversions with my Microstory Journey using the 3-Minute Story Blueprint.

Most businesses struggle to convert leads because they rely on forgettable downloads and meaningless discounts that fail to create an emotional connection. 

Prospects don't just need information, they need to feel valued, to trust you, and to experience genuine engagement. 

That's why I created the concept of the Microstory Journey, a 5-day emotional experience that uses the 3-Minute Story Blueprint to touch hearts, build authentic connections, and establish unshakable trust, turning hesitant prospects into eager customers ready to take action.

AWAI Verified Copywriter
Case Studies Certification
Sales Enablement Certification

WRITING SERVICES I PROVIDE:

📨 5-Day Education Email Courses
💲 Ghostwriting on Social Media Platforms
📰  Newsletters
🌐   Web Content
✍️   Blog Posting
📧   Email Marketing
🛒   Sales Pages
📱   Facebook/Google Ads 

WHOM I WORK WITH: I help executives, CEOs, founders, & coaches.

3 Simple Steps to Powerful Messaging
1. Define your goals and messaging. 
2. Develop a customized storytelling strategy. 
3. Execute and refine messaging for maximum impact.

HERE'S WHAT TO DO NEXT:
Email me at mike@mikehays.net OR
Book a call with me at https://calendly.com/ask-mikehays

Mike Hays

Stop Answering Like a Wikipedia Page

Or Watch Your Influence Vanish

I used to think credibility meant facts.
The more data I packed in, the smarter I sounded.

So when someone asked me about my messaging framework,
I rattled off three principles, four steps, and two case studies.

Their eyes glazed over in seconds.

I lost them before I even started.

Here's what I didn't understand:
People don't connect with information.
They connect with moments.

I was trapped in what I now call the "3 facts trap"
listing features, citing stats, explaining processes.

Congrats, you just explained yourself into unemployment.

So I tried again.

Same question. Different approach.

This time, I told them about one client
who sent me a voice note at midnight saying:
"I finally sound like myself."

One moment. One lesson.
That's it.

The difference?

They leaned in.

Because stories don't just inform, they land.
They create trust. They build influence.

Your expertise matters.
But if you deliver it like a reference manual,
no one will remember it.

The goal isn't to sound smart.
It's to be heard, felt, and trusted.

Replace your bullet points with one human moment.
That's where connection lives.

How do you explain what you do without losing people?

🔔 Follow Mike Hays for more messaging strategies

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