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 👉

I’m Natan — Team Lead. Tech Entrepreneur. Strategist.

After 7 years in software development, I’ve learned one thing: code matters, but strong teams, strategic thinking, and emotional intelligence matter more.

I write for those who want to be more than just good engineers — for those who want to be respected, followed, and heard.

In my content, you’ll find:
🔹 How to make decisions when there’s no clear right answer
🔹 How to build trust and lead with emotional awareness
🔹 How to stay grounded when everything feels chaotic

I don’t just share wins — I share lessons, mistakes, and what I learn along the way. Because real growth comes from honesty, strategy, and empathy.

Follow if that resonates with you. I’m here to think out loud, grow, and lead — together with you.

Natan Mohart

Free pizza doesn’t build a great culture.

When I joined a famous company,
everything looked perfect on the surface:
state-of-the-art offices, gym access,
endless snacks, a polished global brand.

On paper it was a dream.
In reality it was a different story.

Behind the glass meeting rooms there was:

— a toxic leader who managed through pressure, not growth
— legacy code nobody wanted to touch
— no real path to develop
— a culture where speaking up was risky

At some point it became obvious:

Perks are noise. Culture is the signal.

And yes, as much as I genuinely like pizza,
my mental health still matters more.

That’s why I really liked this visual from @Dan Murray.

People don’t stay because of perks.
They stay where there is:

• Fair pay — real recognition of value
• Genuine appreciation — not corporate scripts
• Empathetic leadership — that develops, not destroys
• Trust and work-life balance — results over control
• Growth and learning — room to evolve
• Psychological safety — no fear, no burnout

And here’s the conclusion I came to:

Working for a big corporation isn’t what makes a job great.
Working where you’re respected and valued is what matters.

Pizza is a detail.
Culture is the system. And the system determines everything.

So let me ask you:
💬 What “perks” have companies used to attract you, and did they actually matter?

—
Natan Mohart

Tech Entrepreneur | Artificial & Emotional Intelligence | Daily Leadership Insights

Most people don’t have a time management problem.
They have a prioritization problem.

High performers don’t try to do everything.
They decide what deserves their attention.

The Eisenhower Matrix is simple but brutally effective:

1. Urgent + Important — Do it now
Real consequences. Act immediately.

2. Important, Not Urgent — Plan it
This is where long-term growth actually happens.

3. Urgent, Not Important — Delegate it
If someone else can do it well, it shouldn’t live on your plate.

4. Not Urgent, Not Important — Delete it
Low-value work quietly destroys your focus.

Most careers stall not because of lack of effort,
but because too much energy goes to Quadrants 1 and 3.

Top performers protect Quadrant 2.

Which quadrant takes most of your week right now?

—
Natan Mohart

Eisenhower Matrix How Top Performers Prioritize What Truly Matters By Natan Mohart

Public speaking is not about words
It’s about mastering attention

A strong speaker doesn’t rush
He lets silence do the work
He knows that a pause can speak louder than a sentence

People don’t listen to the one who talks the most
They listen to the one who makes them feel

Every gesture every look every tone is a signal
Every story is a tool
Every emphasis is intention

A speaker who understands this
Stops performing
And starts leading

🧠 This infographic shows 11 techniques to capture and hold your audience’s attention.

Because speaking is easy
Making people listen is an art 

💭 Which of these techniques works best in your experience

—
Natan Mohart

11 Tactics to own the room. Public speaking secrets that make people listen. By Natan Mohart


Most people think saying “No” is about rejection.
But in reality — it’s about protection.

Every “No” you say is a silent “Yes”:
→ To your health.
→ To your focus.
→ To the life you want to live.

Boundaries are not walls.
They are the architecture of freedom.

The Eisenhower Matrix, Buffett’s 25/5 Rule, the Pareto Principle…
They are just tools to remind us of one truth:
Your time is finite. Your attention even more so.

The world will always try to pull you into urgency, into noise, into the endless yes.
But mastery lies in restraint.
In choosing less, but better.

Next time you feel guilty for saying “No” — remember:
You’re not closing doors.
You’re keeping the right ones open.

💭 Question to reflect on:
What “No” today could create the space for your most important “Yes” tomorrow?

— 
Natan Mohart

Learning to say ‘No’: How To Set Boundaries

Leonardo da Vinci didn’t just paint he saw.
Where others saw a bird, he saw the mechanics of flight.
Where others saw chaos, he noticed patterns.

Most people think creativity is a gift.
It’s not.
It’s a way of seeing the world.

Leonardo’s secret wasn’t talent,
it was his way of thinking:
→ He asked more questions than he answered.
→ He observed longer than anyone else.
→ He embraced uncertainty as a source of discovery.

True creativity lives at the edge of logic and imagination,
between what we know
and what we dare to explore.

So when it feels like inspiration is gone
don’t look for it outside.
Look closer.
The answer might already be right in front of you.

I’ve collected 6 rules of Leonardo da Vinci’s creative thinking
in a simple and visual infographic.
Save it to revisit whenever your ideas stop flowing.

👇 Infographic below

—
Natan Mohart

Leonardo da Vinci 6 Rules for Creative Thinking By Natan Mohart

Only about 36% of people worldwide are emotionally intelligent.
Are you one of them?

Emotional intelligence is not about being calm all the time.
It is not about being agreeable or soft.

It is about understanding your emotions before they control you
and recognizing what others feel before they say a word.

Here are 12 subtle signs you are not just emotionally aware
you are emotionally intelligent:

You pause before reacting
→ You think before you speak and avoid unnecessary damage.

You handle criticism calmly
→ You separate feedback from ego and grow from it.

You read between the lines
→ You notice what is meant, not just what is said.

You are aware of your emotional triggers
→ You understand your patterns instead of being ruled by them.

You do not need to be right
→ You value connection more than control.

You sense the emotions of others
→ Empathy is attention, and you give it freely.

You stay calm under pressure
→ Stress does not dictate your behavior.

You see through manipulation
→ You recognize when influence turns into control.

You support without trying to fix
→ You offer presence, not pity.

You know how to set healthy boundaries
→ Kind does not mean passive.

You celebrate others’ wins
→ Confidence means being inspired, not threatened.

You listen to understand, not to reply
→ You hear with empathy, not agenda.

Most people master skills.
Few master themselves.

Which of these 12 feels most true for you right now?

Comment the number below.

—
Natan Mohart

12 Signs You Have High Emotional Intelligence by Natan Mohart

Everyone wants to be a leader.
Until they realize what leadership actually costs.

It’s not a title.
It’s not authority.
It’s not a seat at the table.

It’s what you do after the meeting ends.
When no one’s clapping.
When everything’s on fire.
When people are hurting and looking at you for answers.

I thought I was ready.
I wasn’t.
Here’s how I found out the hard way:

13 brutal signs you’re not ready to lead (yet):

1. You never doubt yourself
 → If you never question your decisions, you stop learning.

2. You think leadership means being “the boss”
 → Commanding is easy. Inspiring is hard.

3. You try to control everything
 → Control kills trust. Trust builds growth.

4. You reject feedback
 → If feedback feels like a threat, leadership will feel like war.

5. You don’t truly listen
 → Great leaders don’t just talk — they listen like hell.

6. You panic when plans change
 → Leadership is calm in the chaos.

7. You want the title, not the weight
 → Leadership isn’t a prize. It’s a burden you choose.

8. You ignore your team’s emotions
 → People over process. Always.

9. You’d rather be liked than honest
 → Seeking approval will cost you both results and respect.

10. You fix symptoms, not systems
 → Managers react. Leaders recognize patterns.

11. You chase quick wins
 → True leaders play the long game.

12. You fear giving others credit
 → If their win threatens you, you’re not leading — you’re competing.

13. You don’t know how to forgive
 → Without forgiveness, teams break under pressure.

Most people won’t admit this.
But leadership hurts before it transforms you.

Which one hit hardest for you?
👇 Drop the number.

—
Natan Mohart

13 Signs You`re Not Ready to Lead (Yet) by Natan Mohart

Cut waste by 70%. Boost quality by 90%.
This isn’t magic. It’s Kaizen.

Most companies get stuck not because they’re bad,
but because they try to improve in chunks that are too big.

Big changes =
more risk
more resistance
more failure.

Kaizen solves this systemically.

It forces improvements to be:
— small
— measurable
— reversible.

Every change must:

1. reduce friction
2. save time
3. lower the chance of error.

If it does none of these, it doesn’t get implemented.

That’s why Kaizen scales.

Teams don’t argue about strategy.
They lock in the current best way of working and improve it.

Every day.

The result:
• fewer reworks
• less management noise
• more predictability.

Most importantly, you get a system
where improvement doesn’t depend on motivation.

It’s built into the process.

The companies that win
aren’t the ones with the best ideas.

They’re the ones with the fastest error-correction speed.

Visual framework by Eric Partaker

—
Natan Mohart

Strategic thinking without EQ is cold mathematics.
EQ without strategy is emotion-driven improvisation.

And I’ve seen both extremes break strong teams.

We tend to think strategy is about numbers, analytics, and forecasts.
But every strategy is executed through people.

And people are not spreadsheets.

That’s why the decision-making framework 
introduced by Jessica Luna resonates with me. 

It doesn’t position strategy and empathy as opposites. 
It shows how to integrate them into one system.

A strong decision answers two questions at the same time.

Is it logical?
Is it sustainable for the people who will have to execute it?

Strategic thinking is responsible for:
— direction
— priorities
— risk exposure
— long-term consequences

EQ is responsible for:
— perception
— motivation
— trust
— cultural context

Here’s what I’ve observed in practice.

Most leadership failures are not calculation errors.
They are failures in anticipating human reaction.

Leaders often assume that if a decision is rational, it will automatically be accepted.

But rationality does not eliminate emotion, status dynamics, fear of losing influence, or internal politics.

Ignore strategy and you create chaos.
Ignore EQ and you create resistance that quietly sabotages even the best plan.

In mature leadership, there is no conflict between head and heart.
There is the ability to hold the system and the people within it in the same frame.

First, analyze the model.
Then, analyze the behavior.

Only after that do you make a decision that can be not just announced, but actually carried through the organization.

Strategy defines where you are going.
EQ defines how fast and how sustainably you get there.

Strong leaders do not choose between the two.
They operate in both dimensions simultaneously.

And honestly, this is where real leadership begins.

💬 In your experience, what causes more failures today, weak strategy or weak people leadership?

—
Natan Mohart

Strategic & Empathetic Decision-Making Combining strategic thinking and emotional intelligence to make decisions that truly lead. Adapted from Jessica Luna’s framework | Infographic by Natan Mohart

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