Something interesting keeps happening when I speak at sales kickoffs.
Afterward, someone from the sales team will pull me aside and ask some version of the same question:
"You made the jump from sales to CEO. How can I do that, too?"
It's a great question, and one that doesn't get talked about nearly enough.
Sales is one of the most natural proving grounds for leadership. You learn to build relationships, navigate rejection, forecast with discipline, and close under pressure…Those are CEO skills. But the career path from quota carrier to company leader is rarely laid out clearly.
So I'm hosting a free, live AMA to tackle it head-on.
From Sales to CEO: Career Growth AMA
I'll share what I've learned across a career that started with selling encyclopedias door-to-door on pure commission and led to three CEO roles — including Black Duck Software, where we grew revenue 400% before a $565M exit to Synopsys.
We'll get into:
→ Which sales skills translate directly to the C-suite (more than you think)
→ What salespeople uniquely bring to entrepreneurship, and the gaps you'll need to close
→ The mindset shift from managing deals to managing people, and when to make it
→ What I wish I'd known about the CEO role when I was still in sales
This one is built for salespeople — AEs, managers, VP Sales, and CROs — but it's also a great session for anyone thinking about the founder path. The skills overlap more than most people realize.
And if you know someone in sales who's been thinking about what's next, send this their way.
See you there,
Lou