About Andy Paul
I’ve been in sales for over four decades. My first sales job was selling women’s shoes at JC Penney. In my professional career I’ve sold everything from computers to small businesses to complex communications systems that sold for tens of millions of dollars to some of the world’s largest enterprises. I closed hundreds of millions of dollars in products and services before starting my own company.
I was not a typical salesperson. I’m a bit of an introvert. My first employer didn’t think I’d ever succeed because they believed I was “too analytical.” I was a history major in college yet I spent most of my career flying around the world selling complex technical products to enterprises on every continent but Antarctica.
I’ve grown and managed large sales teams from scratch. I’ve coached average performers into being top producers.
And, yet, every new position I took on in my career presented a challenge and required that I re-invent myself. I had to educate myself about new technologies, new solutions, new products, new customers and their unique requirements. Every single day I had to take the responsibility to make myself smarter and better. There was no training that would do that.
It was this experience of assuming responsibility for my own career education; of using day to day learning to power my way to whatever successes I achieved, that inspired me to start my own company in 2000. Since then I’ve been on a mission to educate sales leaders and sales professionals about the power of continuous learning to transform how they perform.
I’m #8 on LinkedIn’s list of the Top 50 Global Sales Experts to follow. More than 170,000 people have signed up to follow the advice I share there. My podcast, Accelerate Your Sales!, is on the top of every list of the best sales podcasts with over 2 million downloads to date, and was on INC Magazine’s list of the top leadership podcasts. My two award-winning books, Zero-Time Selling and Amp Up Your Sales, were both Amazon best-sellers.
And, you know what? Even today, with all my experience, I’ll be the first to admit that I still don’t know everything I need to know about sales. I’m still learning and perfecting my craft every single day.