From the Court to the C-Suite: A Sales Career Built on Relationships and Learning featuring Michael Jones

Sales Momentum

🎙️ Episode Title: “From the Court to the C-Suite: A Sales Career Built on Relationships and Learning”

🔹 Host:

• Howard Wolpoff, Sales Momentum Host

🔹 Guest:

• Michael Jones, VP of Sales & Marketing at Synoptix Software
• Background in large tech companies, consulting, executive leadership, entrepreneurship
• Currently focused on serving higher education and manufacturing sectors with FP&A software

🔑 Key Topics Covered:

💼 Sales Journey and Career Growth:

• Started at Oracle—a chance opportunity through a basketball game (accidentally broke Larry Ellison’s nose!)
• Learned the value of structured training and technical understanding early in his career
• Grew from individual contributor to sales leader, EVP, CEO, and business owner
• Attributes growth to seizing opportunity, mentorship, and constant learning

🧠 First Sales Role & Learning Curve:

• Entered tech sales with little product knowledge ("couldn’t spell 'relational' at the time")
• Underwent intense training at Oracle and was drawn to the analytical and problem-solving aspects of sales
• Learned the importance of adaptability and continuous development

🏀 Sales & Sports – Parallels in Competitiveness:

• Shared stories illustrating how sports competitiveness translates into sales drive
• Oracle valued his competitive nature—added to his job offer as the guy who "broke the CEO’s nose"

📈 Leadership & Sales Management:

🧩 Transitioning to Management:

• Described moving from individual contributor to manager as a shift from “math to calculus”
• Management = combining strengths of the team rather than relying solely on personal performance
• Compared leadership levels to coaching roles in sports—some are best suited to be position coaches, others head coaches

📚 Developing Sales Teams:

• Emphasized mentorship, reading, ongoing training, and A/B testing
• Encouraged failing fast and learning quickly from mistakes
• Believes everyone in sales, from the rep to the CEO, should be responsible for training and growth
• Today’s “university” is online (YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.)—learning resources are everywhere

🧭 Sales Philosophy:

🗣️ Customer-Centric Selling:

• If the salesperson is talking more than 20% of the time, they’re doing it wrong
• Focus on deep client research before the meeting—understand the business, role, market, and personal background
• Build value through targeted questions and solution alignment

🧠 Sales Preparation:

• Today’s tools (e.g., LinkedIn, Apollo, ZoomInfo) offer a huge advantage—but everyone has access to them
• The real differentiator: who prepares better and uses the tools more effectively

💡 Takeaways:

1. Sales careers can begin in unexpected ways—always be ready to pivot an

We hope you found valuable insights to help you lead smarter, sell better, and build lasting relationships. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review! Your feedback helps us bring more game-changing content to elevate your sales game.

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Keep pushing forward, keep evolving, and keep making those sales! 💥