Description

What if the greatest salespeople on the planet are the opposite of who you think they are?

Everyone sells, every day. It’s why the most successful people are better than most at selling themselves, their ideas, or their products and services.

Yet when people hear the word sales they think of an overly confident, articulate extrovert (at best) or a pushy, know-it-all huckster (at worst). Because of these misperceptions, when we find ourselves in a situation where we need to sell, we feel compelled to put on the persona of a “good salesperson.” But there’s a disconnect between who we think good salespeople are and who they actually are. In any room, they’re not the most self-confident, they’re the most self-aware. They’re not the most sociable, they’re the most socially aware. And they don’t succeed in spite of obstacles, they succeed because of obstacles.

Colin Coggins and Garrett Brown sought out some of the most successful people from all walks of life, including CEOs, entrepreneurs, doctors, trial lawyers, professional athletes, agents, military leaders, artists, engineers, and countless others in hopes of understanding why these people are so extraordinary. Colin and Garrett found that, as different as all these incredible people were, they all had an eerily similar approach to selling. It didn’t matter if they were perceived as optimists or pessimists, logical or emotional, introverted or extroverted, jovial or stoic—they were all unsold on what it meant to sell and unsold on who people expected them to be.

The Unsold Mindset reveals a counterintuitive approach not just to selling but to life. It’s a journey toward an entirely new mindset—the greatest sellers on the planet aren’t successful because of what they do, they’re successful because of what they think. Being a good person and a good salesperson aren’t mutually exclusive. The Unsold Mindset will change the way you think about selling and the way you think about yourself.

About the Author

Colin Coggins and his business/teaching/writing partner, Garrett Brown, are authors, speakers, and professors known for their entertaining and unexpected approach to selling that blurs the line between sales and life. They teach the popular class they created, Sales Mindset for Entrepreneurs, at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. As sought-after speakers, they bring their antithetical, mindset-first approach to audiences around the world. They are also co-founders of Agency18, a firm that helps mission-driven companies adopt the Unsold Mindset.

Colin has deep experience as a sales leader and theorist, known for his unique and proven approach to scaling revenue generation by cultivating sales IQ across entire organizations, not just within sales units. He has held senior leadership roles at several emerging technology companies, including Bitium, Mobile Roadie, and most recently as the Chief Commercial Officer at Fabric. Colin was the SVP of sales at Bitium, where he and Garrett met for the first time. They worked together until Bitium was acquired by Google, and haven't stopped working together since. After the Google acquisition Colin continued to serve as an executive sales leader, while also taking on a sales advisor and entrepreneur-in-residence role at Techstars.

Colin remains an investor, advisor, and an executive commercial leader, in addition to the work he does with Garrett. He resides in Los Angeles, California with his family.

Garrett Brown and his business/teaching/writing partner, Colin Coggins, are authors, speakers, and professors known for their entertaining and unexpected approach to selling that blurs the line between sales and life. They teach the popular class they created, Sales Mindset for Entrepreneurs, at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. As sought-after speakers, they bring their antithetical, mindset-first approach to audiences around the world. They are also co-founders of Agency18, a firm that helps mission-driven companies adopt the Unsold Mindset.

Garrett began his career as a corporate lawyer representing entrepreneurs and startup founders. Inspired by his clients, he decided to leave the world of law and enter the exciting world of tech startups. His first role was as a salesperson for online gaming platform Fastpoint Games, where he eventually climbed the ranks to run all sales and business development efforts until the company was acquired.

Garrett later helped launch enterprise software startup Bitium as the company's chief revenue officer, building and overseeing all revenue functions. After Colin joined the company, the two worked side-by-side until Bitium was acquired by Google. Garrett joined Google in a revenue management role, learning countless lessons about the inner workings of one of the most recognizable companies on the planet.

Today, in addition to the work he does with Colin, Garrett is an active investor and startup advisor. He lives in Huntington Beach, California with his wife and two boys.

Praise For…

“If you’re in sales—and everyone is in sales!—this book is an extremely useful guide. It will hone your powers of persuasion and connection. And it will help you become a better salesperson by becoming a better version of yourself.”  — DANIEL PINK, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret and To Sell Is Human

“Presents a fascinating paradox: The harder you sell, the less convincing you often become. Colin and Garrett bring riveting stories and rich experiences to shatter the stigma of selling and help you inject authenticity into your efforts to persuade.” — ADAM GRANT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

“Turns traditional thinking about selling on its ear. Crucially, that ear needs to be open to the important insights the book delivers that demand to be heard and employed.” — ROBERT CIALDINI, New York Times bestselling author of Influence and Pre-Suasion

“Authentic, unorthodox, and transformational. Read The Unsold Mindset and find out why the best salespeople embody these traits while everyone else is just ‘selling.’” — BILL BURNETT, executive director of Life Design Lab at Stanford University and #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Designing Your Life and Designing Your Work Life

“You can have all the data in the world, but it won’t do you any good if you don’t have a mindset that gives you permission to challenge what you’re expected to do with it. The Unsold Mindset shows readers how to turn their own authentic qualities into their greatest strengths.” — MARK ROBERGE, Harvard sales professor, former chief revenue officer of HubSpot, and author of The Sales Acceleration Formula

“Required reading for anyone who wants actionable ways to hack their mindset and become the best version of themselves in any selling situation.” — SEAN ELLIS, author of Hacking Growth