Ryan Voeltz has had just about every type of sales job there is.

 

In college he sold menswear at Nordstrom. In his first job out of college he sold copy machines. He has sold litigation support services, newswire distribution and web services, financial products and services, and driving range golf tees.

 

He has worked for large corporations and small businesses. He has led the sales effort for a start-up. He has sold products and services, small-ticket and large-ticket items, B2C and B2B, to c-suite executives in high-rise conference rooms and middle managers in nondescript cubicles. He has sold directly to customers and as an internal product partner. You’d be hard-pressed to find a type of sales job that he has not done.

 

20 years of experience holding a wide variety of types of sales jobs gives him deep insight into what it takes to succeed as a salesperson, as well as the many difficulties and challenges that come with a sales career. He combines his firsthand experience with insights from behavioral science to present novel approaches to sales that compliment and enhance existing go to market strategies. In Ghosts in the Machine, he argues that the impact of human irrationality on decision-making is the most under appreciated aspect of the sales cycle. By outlining a behavioral approach that covers the entirety of the sales cycle, he hopes to help salespeople of all stripes better understand and manage those irrationalities that have the greatest impact on the sales cycle, and sell more effectively in doing so.