The 3 Pillars of Sales in an Organization

It goes without saying that your most important asset is your people—those you bring in to support your mission. If you hire just to fill a seat, or simply for a resume line-item skillset, you’ll pay for it later. Misalignment here bleeds energy from your business.

Having the right person—aligned with the mission, the story, and the construct of the company itself—creates a deeper coherence across the system.

As Bruce Springsteen put it:

“If you are going to create something that has never been seen, you need to surround yourself with people who believe in what you are doing.”

That truth doesn’t just apply to music. It applies to life. And it especially applies to business.

For most of my professional life, I’ve been responsible for building and evolving sales constructs from the inside out. Whether at a Fortune 500 tech company like Gateway, or working with Tony Robbins, my role has always revolved around one thing:
Creating sustainable systems for impact and revenue.

From tech, software, and B2B consulting to therapy onboarding systems designed to keep clients engaged—the principles of effective sales are universal.

And what I’ve discovered is this:
There are three non-negotiable pillars of effective sales in any business.

1. The Experience

This is where most sales organizations get it wrong.
They design the sales process, but they don’t design the customer journey.

And yet, both are critical.

When your sales process isn’t attuned to the stage of consciousness your customer is in, your numbers suffer and your brand becomes misaligned. You lose resonance. You lose coherence. You lose trust.

When you build your sales flow around the lived narrative of your customer, you create traction. You create trust. You offer them an experience—not just a pitch.

“A good design shows respect for your customer. You’re either respectful of their time, or you’re respectful of what it is they truly desire.”
—Penny Wilson, CMO of Hootsuite

Process is internal.
Experience is external.
The bridge between them is where your sales construct either resonates or collapses.

2. The People

Let’s be clear: Your people are your nervous system.

They are not interchangeable cogs. They’re carriers of signal. They transmit the essence of your mission through every touchpoint.

Hiring for alignment—not just capability—is the single most powerful leverage point for scaling trust and integrity in your sales operation.

But it's more than that.

To truly activate your team, you need to awaken the Sales Archetype.

At its core, a sales professional is not a closer.
A true sales guide is someone who supports a client through a portal of transformation.

You are not just selling.
You are guiding someone across their River Styx.
You are their Yoda. Their boatman. The keeper of the sword they need to slay their dragon.

That’s the responsibility.
Act accordingly.

“If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings—and put compensation as a carrier behind it—you almost don’t have to manage them.”
—Jack Welch

3. The Influence

Here’s the part that gets missed most often.

You can have the right process and even the right people, but if they don’t know how to generate real influence, sales won’t move.

And by influence, I don’t mean manipulation.
I mean authentic alignment.

“You can’t influence anyone until you first know what already influences them.”
—Tony Robbins

Sales is not about convincing.
Sales is about context.

It’s about understanding how your prospect constructs reality:

• What meaning are they assigning to their problem?

• Where are they in their journey?

• What archetype are they living from?

And then, offering the most coherent path toward the outcome they’re already reaching for.

“There are two parts to influence: First, it is powerful. Second, it is subtle. You wouldn’t let someone push you off course—but you might let them nudge you off course and not even realize it.”
—Jim Rohn

Persuasion seeks compliance.
Influence catalyzes agency.

In today’s marketplace, we’ve become immune to persuasion.
But we’re still hungry for resonance.

When you truly understand your customer’s internal world—and offer them the next right step—you are no longer “selling.” You’re helping them author a new reality.

That’s influence.

Final Thought

If you want to master sales today, you need more than tactics.

You need to build your system around transformation—yours and theirs.

And that requires:

• A refined experience

• Aligned people

• And the capacity to generate authentic influence

Sales is not just a numbers game.
It’s a meaning game.

And those who understand that are already playing at another level.