In our work, we talk to a lot of sellers.
We manage teams. We coach them.
Sometimes we are the team.
Often, we’re the buffer between the founder and their salespeople.
And I’ve noticed something.
There’s a lot of complaining.
Founders complain about sellers.
Sellers complain about the company.
And somewhere in between, growth stalls.
Founders First
When founders complain, I get it.
They did the early selling.
They knocked on doors.
They figured out pricing, built decks at midnight, chased clients, collected payments, and repeated it all the next day.
So when they hear a seller say, “We need better leads,” they bristle.
Why don’t they just go sell?
Why don’t they figure it out like I had to?
But here’s the truth:
Your sellers are not you.
They’re not founders.
They didn’t start the company. They don’t own it.
They’re employees, and no matter how motivated they are—or how entrepreneurial you hope they’ll be—they’re not going to feel what you feel.
Yes, they should take initiative.
Yes, they should act like owners where they can.
But don’t expect founder-level fire from someone you just onboarded last quarter.
But Now—Let’s Talk About the Sellers
This is where it gets trickier.
The complaints we hear from salespeople often sound like this:
“Marketing isn’t helping.”
“The CRM is a mess.”
“The leads are junk.”
“This comp plan is broken.”
“Support is dropping the ball.”
Look—some of it might be true.
But here’s the issue:
When your default mode is complaining, you’ve already lost.
Because selling isn’t just a job.
It’s a business within a business.
The best sellers—the relentless ones—don’t waste time listing everything that’s broken.
They spend their time figuring out how to win anyway.
They get creative with what they’ve got.
They build their own materials.
They create opportunity out of thin air.
They see themselves not as employees, but as owners of their own pipeline.
Their territory is their business.
And their number is non-negotiable.
The Difference is Mindset
Founders can’t expect every seller to be a founder.
But sellers shouldn’t expect to win by acting like employees.
This is the core tension.
And it’s where growth either accelerates—or dies a slow death buried in Slack threads and CRM fields.
The relentless seller isn’t above asking for help.
But they don’t wait for everything to be perfect.
They take the hand they’re dealt, and they play the hell out of it.
No one’s coming to save you in sales.
And no one’s handing you perfect leads and perfect tools and a perfect comp plan.
You’re either building your business—or you’re blaming someone else for why it’s not working.
The Middle Is Disappearing
There’s one more thing founders and sellers both need to understand.
The rise of sales enablement tools and AI isn’t going to help the average seller.
It’s going to replace them.
We’re entering an era where the CRM writes itself.
Outreach sequences are automated.
AI generates the messaging, summarizes the call, writes the follow-up, and even analyzes intent.
So here’s the question:
If the tools can do the job, what exactly is the seller doing?
The answer?
They're either pushing it over the line—or they’re redundant.
The mid-performer—the seller who checks the boxes, follows the steps, takes direction, and does just enough—is done.
That role is going away.
What’s left?
Relentless sellers.
The ones who treat their territory like a business.
The ones who don’t wait for perfect inputs because they are the input.
The ones who figure it out, every time, because that’s what they were hired to do.
Everyone else?
Gone.
This is the new game. And there’s no room for complainers.
Final Thought
If you're a founder—don’t just complain.
Coach. Clarify. Set expectations. And build a system that supports the kind of selling you want.
If you’re a seller—stop waiting.
Start building. Stop blaming. Start closing.
Relentless doesn’t mean reckless.
It means committed.
To the craft.
To the number.
To growth.
No matter what.
Want to find relentless sellers?
Want to train your team to be relentless?
Want to be a relentless seller?
Talk to us.
At Bossey Research Partners, we believe growth is a choice. We empower founders and executive leaders in the data and insights industry to achieve sustainable, scalable success by crafting compelling value propositions, executing strategic messaging and outreach, and building robust, scalable sales processes. With decades of experience bridging science and strategy, we partner with you as fractional executives, mentors, or high-impact coaches to create actionable playbooks that drive growth, resilience, and higher valuations. Ready to transform stalled potential into thriving success? Let’s connect and shape the next chapter of your story.
Visit us at www.bossey.com