John Barrows

Elevating The People & Profession of Sales

I have been in sales for over 25 years. I have made 400 cold calls a week, led a startup to acquisition, and trained some of the best-performing teams at Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Okta. Through JB Sales I teach practical sales execution rooted in real-world experience.

My work focuses on performance. I deliver live workshops, on-demand training, and coaching to help reps fill pipeline, close deals, and build buyer trust. I created Filling the Funnel and Driving to Close for reps and managers who want systems that convert.

I work with SaaS companies, agencies, and professional services teams that want to scale ethically and efficiently. My podcast Make It Happen Mondays has over 100,000 listeners and brings weekly strategy and tactics for sales pros looking to level up fast.

I speak on stage, coach in the trenches, and push for better execution across the board. Topics I cover include outbound frameworks, sales leadership, pipeline velocity, and GTM enablement in an AI-driven environment. I also share openly about mindset, mental health, and managing pressure in this career.

I live in Boston but work globally. I am here to raise the bar for sales and help professionals build careers they are proud of. If that mission speaks to you, let's connect.

My "Why" is to elevate the people and profession of Sales by sharing my earned experience with anyone willing to put in the work so they can achieve whatever level of freedom and success they want in life.

I've delivered my two Signature training programs (Filling the Funnel and Driving to Close) to thousands of Sales professionals at some of the fastest growing companies in the world like Salesforce, Linkedin, Amazon, Okta, Salesloft and many others. 

My membership provides individuals and teams with live monthly training (delivered by me) along with workshops, AMAs and an OnDemand library filled with actionable tips.

None of us have all the answers and things are moving too fast right now for any of us to try and figure it all out on our own.  We need to get back to fundamentals while learning how to evolve and where to add value in this new world of AI. 

If you're willing to put in the work and want to elevate yourself, along with this profession, come join me on this ride.

I’m excited to share that I’m partnering with Apollo.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I don’t sit still.

Sales is evolving fast. AI is evolving faster. And I make it a priority to constantly test new platforms, workflows, and tools so I can see what actually works in the field.

I don’t partner with companies because they’re popular.

I partner with companies when I see real impact on execution.

Here’s why Apollo earned that spot:

• It connects data, sequencing, dialing, and enrichment in one workflow
• It reduces tool sprawl and simplifies the prospecting stack
• It drives daily activity instead of adding complexity
• It’s powerful enough for growth teams and practical enough for early-stage orgs
 • Reps actually use it

That last one matters most.

The best tech in the world fails if adoption fails.

What also stood out to me is how Apollo is approaching AI.

They’re not slapping AI onto random features and calling it innovation.

They’re integrating it across the workflow.

From their AI Assistant to the new connector with Claude announced yesterday, the focus is clear. AI is being built into the execution layer.

Not to replace reps.

To accelerate them.

That’s the difference.

Technology should reinforce fundamentals like clear ICP, strong messaging. and consistent activity.

AI should make you more effective at those things. Not distract you from them.

When humans stay in control and AI becomes the accelerator, that’s where real leverage happens.

I’ll be using Apollo in my own prospecting and sharing what I learn along the way.

If you’re evaluating your stack and want something that simplifies the execution layer while building AI in the right way, it’s worth a look.

If you sign up for a paid plan with this link you'll get 2500 bonus credits: https://lnkd.in/eEHtj8Cw

What's the biggest bottleneck you have in your outbound process?

Sales Trainer & Coach | Building Sales Skills & Sales Process | Sales Training Courses & Programs That Deliver

Open article: Apollo Sign Up | Free B2B Sales Intelligence Platform | Apollo.io by get.apollo.io

Apollo Sign Up | Free B2B Sales Intelligence Platform | Apollo.io

Co-Founder @ Clay

I’m the co-founder and head of operations at Clay, the best way to turn any growth idea into reality. 

Here's a little bit more about me:

I started my career in politics and government, working in a variety of roles for Hillary Clinton, including on her 2016 campaign. When that ended unceremoniously, I decided that—for now—building in technology felt like the higher-impact path. These days, I’m channeling that same energy into helping people grow their businesses using Clay.

I enjoy (occasionally) beating my co-founder Kareem at racket sports, scouring NYC for the best Indian food (Musaafer is elite), and reading essays and narrative non-fiction—David Foster Wallace and Erik Larson are staples.

Varun Anand

Today, Clay is opening our first international office -- in London!

After spending nearly a month in Europe this past winter, it was so clear to me that we needed to go all in.

We already have thousands of customers across the region, tens of thousands of active community members, and Clay [Clubs] running in dozens of cities. Teams like Lovable, Legora, Sana, Mistral AI, and Verkada are building so creatively with Clay, and we had almost no one on the ground! 

As part of this launch, we're announcing new data partnerships with Lusha and Beauhurst, and expanding our work with Dealfront and Openmart to go deeper on European coverage.

Europe is already 20% of our revenue. We opened an office to better serve those customers and to continue to build our partnerships and community in the region. 

Thank you to everyone who came to events across the continent last fall. We can't wait to spend more time with you! 

→ Check out the full story on our expansion in the comments and apply to join us at clay.com/careers

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Here's how Clay used "Reverse Demos" to find product-market fit and build a self-serve motion from scratch:

When we first launched Clay on Product Hunt in February 2022, we got hundreds of signups overnight. We demo’d our product to them like we knew best: by running 30-minute presentations like college professors on Zoom.

Unfortunately, few retained -- most likely because no one was actually learning during the demo. Potential customers were usually impressed when they saw me use Clay, but as soon as they tried to use it themselves, they got stuck and churned.

Enter: the reverse demo.

Instead of running canned demo meetings, we started emailing potential customers before meetings, asking them to come prepared with a specific data enrichment problem to solve. If they didn’t come with an idea, we’d use the first 5 minutes to come up with a personalized use case for them.

Once they were in the meeting, we’d ask them to share their screen, give them a Clay signup link, and use Zoom annotations to show them exactly where to click to complete their workflow. Our goal on every reverse demo was simple: solve the customer’s stated problem within the 30 minutes -- and try to blow their minds in the process.

Initially, we had to walk people through multiple calls before they had their "a-ha" moments. Through reverse demos, we were able to get it in under one call.

Our goal was to build product habits: by solving any customer’s unique business problem within 30 minutes, we helped them build confidence with Clay and made it more likely for them to use the product to solve their future problems.

The obvious benefit of the reverse demo was better customer conversion and retention. After 100+ reverse demos, we were getting people to “a-ha” moments within just a few minutes and most would convert after that call alone.

But—much more importantly—the reverse demo helped us quickly improve Clay’s product. There’s no tighter feedback loop than getting your ideal customers on Zoom and watching them use the product for the first time. There were dozens of times that I noticed something on a reverse demo, whether bad UX, bad copy, or a bug, and asked Eric Engoron on our engineering team to ship a change the same day. 

Each reverse demo was a UX masterclass. That helped us go from 7 calls to convert a customer to just 1 in less than a year. Eventually this improvement gave us the confidence to remove our waitlist and launch a successful self-serve motion.

This feedback loop was foundational for our growth as we navigated product-market fit and evolved our GTM motion.

Ads in Clay officially launches this Wednesday for enterprise customers. We're coming out of beta! 

This might be the most electric product-market fit we've seen for a new feature in a long time. I met with 8 prospects about Ads last week and they couldn't get enough. 

So, yesterday I sat down with the godfather of Ads, Clay engineer Alex Reznik, to share why we built Ads and how we used it to decrease our Cost-Per Qualified Lead by 80% with just one click. 

He is going to tell you the full Ads story. Where the idea came from (Bruno is claiming credit), how Alex went rogue to build it on his own, what the ads orchestration process actually looks like for growth marketers today (super painful and wasteful), and how we're already getting match rates of 90% on LinkedIn and 60%+ on Meta for customers like Slack, Anthropic, and Rippling. 

Plus, we share all of the coolest use cases and plays we're running internally at Clay (check out below)

But that's not all! As part of our "How Clay Uses Clay" series, we’re hosting a LIVE workshop on Thursday, February 26th, to help YOU build these Ad use cases end-to-end.

Our Head of Growth Davide Grieco will show you exactly how to build the entire Clay Ads flow in 30-40 minutes. You'll leave the session with an automated workflow, higher match rates and way better targeting.

Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eFa78RrD

Here are two plays we're already using this for internally just to whet your appetite:

PLG Exclusion: We have hundreds of thousands of people across our ecosystem - customers, users, competitors, employees, agencies. Showing ads to them was burning up to 20% of our budget. Dynamic exclusion lists now auto-refresh so that spend goes to net-new prospects.

Full-Funnel ABM: Because audiences are dynamic and constantly updating, you cater content to funnel stage. Cold accounts get awareness ads. Medium engagement gets social proof - case studies, webinars. Hot accounts get leadgen ads direct to sales. All programmatic as engagement scores go up.

This is a real conversation I had with a fast-growing early-stage AI startup founder:

(The only reason I didn't screenshot it is because there were so many threaded replies that it would have been impossible to read!)

Founder: Can I ask you something? We're losing our YC hacker house feel and starting to institutionalize a bit. What did your company values look like when you started scaling? Did you have formal company rules?

Me: I just posted our operating principles on LinkedIn. Here https://lnkd.in/eqa9sNx7

Founder: When did you make these?

Me: Two months ago. We had nothing written down until this year.

Founder: Wait, really? What meetings did you mandate at our stage? Weekly all-hands and sprint demos? Anything else?

Me: Just All-Hands.

Founder: How do you handle sprint planning? Through all-hands? I was thinking of sending a company-wide email every Sunday with mid-term goals, short-term goals, and how we're tracking against them.

Me: At your stage? Do what feels authentic to you. That's not authentic to us. But if it is for you, go for it.

Founder: I don't know what's authentic to us yet.

Me: It means instinctively doing what feels right. Fix problems you actually see. Don't do things just because you think you "should."

–––

I have a version of this conversation with early-stage founders a few times a month. It's natural to want to know what others are doing. But there is no one way to build a company. And no one else knows the context of your company better than you do. Do what feels authentic. Solve the problems actually in front of you. Never invent solutions because some other founder (or investor) made you feel like you're behind.

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