Jill Konrath

Biography

A leading sales strategist … a thought leader in B2B sales … bestselling author of two sales books … an in-demand speaker who provides much needed wake-up calls to sales organizations.

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies and SNAP Selling (May, 2010), believes passionately that your sales force is your competitive advantage in today’s economy. Stressed out, overwhelmed customers want to work with savvy sellers who continually bring them business value—and they’ll pay more for it!

To help salespeople win business with these crazy-busy buyers, Jill speaks frequently at annual sales meetings, kickoff events and professional conferences. She’s practical, provocative and motivating – all in one package.

In her interactive sessions, Jill teaches sellers how to be ruthlessly relevant, align with key priorities, simplify the complex, maintain momentum and become an invaluable resource. Even the most seasoned sales pros turn into engaged learners who are ready to try fresh strategies.

The result? Stronger pipelines, increased new customer acquisition, expanded work in existing accounts and fewer competitive battles.

Jill’s first book, Selling to Big Companies, is a Fortune magazine “must read” and 4+ year Amazon Top 25 sales book. She also writes an award-winning blog and publishes a widely read newsletter. Her sales expertise has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Success, Business Journals, Inc., Entrepreneur, BusinessWeek, Selling Power, Sales & Marketing Management, Speaker and many more media outlets.

In the past few years, Jill started two major initiatives:

  • Sales SheBang, a web resource and conference for women in sales that showcases women sales expert; and
  • GetBacktoWorkFaster.com, an online resource with monthly webinars to help out-of-work professionals. Her new book, Get Back to Work Faster, helps job seekers create new career opportunities in a tough job market. It incorporates many of her savvy sales strategies.

Her clients include: IBM, Microsoft, GE, Hilton, Accenture, Cox Media, 3M, Imation, RSM McGladrey, AAA, General Mills, UnitedHealthcare, Bombardier and Medtronic.

How did Jill get to be such a widely respected sales expert? Did she always want to be in sales? Never in a million years.

She detested slimy, manipulative salespeople. She entered the profession only because she wanted to leave teaching and start her own company. After consulting with SCORE (Service Corp of Retired Executives), much to her chagrin, she discovered that her brilliant service concept would not sell itself.

So she set out to get a sales job – for one year max. But after she got hired by Xerox, all her well-laid plans fell apart. From the onset, she felt like she’d found her people – goal-oriented achievers who inspired each other to new heights. More than anything, she loved the challenge of figuring out what worked and sharing it with others.

Jill quickly became a top performer at Xerox becoming a multiple President’s Club winner before moving into sales management. She then moved into technology sales, winning International Rookie of the Year honors.

In 1987, she launched a sales consultancy focused on shortening time to revenue on new product introductions. As a pioneer in closing the marketing/sales gap, she ensured salespeople had strong value propositions, sales tools to increase their effectiveness and productivity, and the right training to get off to a fast start.

After years of solid growth, Jill’s business crashed when her two mega-clients were told to slash costs by Wall Street. Forced into a major prospecting mode, she discovered that it was nearly impossible to reach decision makers. That’s when she decided to figure out how to crack into accounts in this crazy-busy business environment—which is now the foundation for all her work today.

Jill is a long-time NSA member, active on the national level. She’s on the Advisory Board for Aberdeen Group’s sales effectiveness practice, Landslide Technologies and The Customer Collective. In addition, she actively supports KIVA and Prosper, micro-lending institutions helping entrepreneurs rise out of poverty.

Finally, Jill also has a decade of involvement with Destination Imagination, a creative problem-solving program for kids. She’s served as a Vice Chair of the state board, competition judge, as well as being an award-winning coach of a state champion team.