James Anderson

The hardest part of managing salespeople isn't the underperformers. It's the ones with potential who haven't figured out why they're stuck. That's actually your job.

We discontinued our AI demo product because it was converting worse than a live AE. Everyone moved on. Nobody asked why. The answer was in the data the whole time.

I manage a 9-person AE team. I built my own call scoring rubric, pipeline health reports, and forecast model using AI. Extra cost: $0. Time saved per week: ~5 hours. Small teams have an advantage here that nobody talks about. Spoiler.. it's OpenClaw and ClaudeCode

Our team had a 49% no-show rate on booked demos. Most managers look at that number and blame the AEs. I looked at it and started building a lead quality model. Completely different problem. Completely different fix.

"AI will replace salespeople" is the wrong conversation. The real question: which sales managers are using AI to outperform the ones who aren't?

I used to make pipeline decisions based on what AEs told me in 1:1s. Now I pull the data myself before every meeting. The gap between what reps say and what the CRM says is always revealing.

When 8 out of 10 AEs miss quota, most managers are quick to blame the reps. I used to. Then I started looking at the data. Bad leads. Unclear process. No feedback loop. Fix the system before you touch the people.

Starting to document what it actually looks like to run a data-driven sales team in 2026. No fluff. Real numbers, real tools, real results. Follow along if that's useful.

@awilkinson Maple leafs adventures if they're available. mapleleafadventures.com

Victoria People: I need a beautiful boat to take a group of ~75-150 people up the gorge and into Vic west this summer for an event I'm putting on. Does anyone have a lead on a cool boat (or multiple boats) that could be chartered?

@chesscom The Juicer! @sadisticTushi

accepting new name ideas for this piece:

@bethanyjbabcock Can you share your prompt that details the app architecture? I can pull off small single task apps but once it gets more complex the design goes crazy on replit

Got home from church and decided to try building another app. I am sure this solution exists too but instead of waiting for 3 business days to get pricing and sitting through a demo, I decided to use Ai to just build it. Now I can save another subcription of $49 a month per manager x 15. It is system for our property managers to manage bids and get owner approval and share key dates and communication for maintenance with the ownership as well as for the PM's to be able to rate and share experiences with vendors. Let's see what the team thinks of this tomorrow. Time for bed.

@SaveTheSunF1R3x @BnzSales @unusual_whales It's nice to have access to a friendly trading partner when shortages happen.

"If Donald Trump slaps 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, we must hit back—dollar for dollar—starting with 100% tariffs on all Tesla vehicles and U.S. wine, beer, and spirits," Canada's Chrystia Freeland has said.

@BnzSales @unusual_whales Lumber is one commodity that might be missed. in 2022, the U.S. imported around 16 Billion board feet of softwood lumber from Canada

@unusual_whales Canada has canola oil and Tim Hortons as their only exports. The oil is bad for you and the coffee is weak. America will survive without.

@CridgeJason If trade deals can be broken so easily, so could international IP laws. Software is another industry that could be challenged by reversing course on international IP. Would love to see some of the 30% app store revenue stay in Canada.

Will be an interesting turn of events if Canada tariffs all pharmaceuticals. We don’t really have any real pharma companies that produce brand name drugs. We could start producing generic versions of brand name drugs, what’d the worst the US could do at this point?

@jakeinnes8 @jack What work do you do?

@nickgraynews @MrBeast He's definitely the greatest at creating content that children want to watch on YouTube.

I got roasted at this tailgate because I tried to say that @MrBeast is one of the greatest minds of our generation Am I wrong? I truly believe that what he’s created and his team and reach and influence… It is world-class and he’s a skilled thinker and I’d even say genius

@zachpogrob I was so into it for about a year. Been off the pouches for 2 years now and so glad I kicked it. Agree that it's great at first! I was loving it and thought I had it all under control.

Zyn review after getting addicted for 3 months and quitting for the last 3 weeks: - Becomes addiction out of nowhere. This one's obvious. First a few pouches a day. Then an entire pack/day (need one in 24/7). - Feels really nice at first. Like the feeling after walking after a big meal. Or being fasted all day. Dialed and refreshed. Thinking quick. - Also at first- suppresses appetite like nothing else. You stop caring about food. - Over time, as you get addicted, those nice effects go away. Then you need it just to feel normal. There are basically no more positives, only avoiding negatives. - You end up getting all your dopamine from nicotine. And so you are less motivated to do things. The pouch becomes your god, your source of happiness, vs. doing things in the world - Increased/uncomfortable heart rate while running/lifting. Immediately notice difference when you take it out - Eventually- anxiety/scrambled thoughts. It's just too much. - If you have addictive personality stay away. If you have self-control maybe try. - Quitting wasn't too hard. A few relapses. What helped me was overexposure and literally getting taste aversion. Can't really stomach them now.

@theraleighwill Did you try to centralize sales? Our office handles marketing and sales for our locations. It helped us grow our newest location and also offer upsells directly at time of bookings.

@JamesWDAnderson Sales yes, marketing was done at the corporate level

I opened the first axe throwing bar in Utah with a full liquor license. I lost over $200k on the idea. Six months in a was losing $10k+/mo and was ready to shut it down but my employees promised it was on the brink of “crushing it.” I listened, not wanting to take my medicine and trusting that they knew better since they were “boots on the ground.” A year later (and another $100k in the hole) I changed the question. Not, “should we shut it down” but “who wants to put some skin in the game and become an owner with me?” Crickets. My employees were bullish when it was my money, bears with their own. I shut it down two weeks later and sold the lease for $50k. If someone has no downside for being wrong (skin in the game) don’t let them dissuade you from what you know you should do.

@TylerPurcell24 Location is also key. It's hard to find the right spot and a lot of the venues that have closed do not have the population or visitors to the area to support the model.

@TylerPurcell24 Holy smokes so have we! "Trendy" businesses often get flooded with opportunistic new operators who are not prepared to do high-level buildouts and come at it with a strong business strategy. It's more than targets on a wall.

Owning laundromats has really turned me sour on trendy businesses. Axe throwing, fad fitness, random QSRs, etc. Who’s made a killing in this space and what’s the game plan? Be early?