Meet the Author

To turn a $5,000 investment into a net worth of $1 billion is one thing. To maintain a sense of humor throughout the process is another. A short time before Oprah endorsed the "figure-fixing" hosiery and celebrities subsequently began relying on them for their sultry red-carpet debuts, SPANX was a small start-up run out of an apartment.

Twelve years later and millions of items sold, SPANX is not just an undergarment brand but a household name and staple for women of all ages and sizes. However, making bodycon dresses a wardrobe possibility isn’t the only reason we love this hosiery company with humble beginnings.

There are a multitude of reasons why we love SPANX, but to understand them it’s important to first understand the story of Sara Blakely, the indomitable, incandescent spirit of SPANX and its founder.

We love our business development team, and just like the glimpses we’ve given you into the PPC, SEO and Developer Minds, we wanted to have some fun and dive into the inner workings of the biz dev mind:

Having the word “sales” in your business development process inherently makes the process broken. Sales practices today are largely contrived, disingenuous, phony, and inauthentic. Sales means you’re selling someone something. Manipulating. Coercing. Not respecting.

The core shift that’s needed may rattle seasoned sales professionals, but it starts with the golden rule of business development – Never Sell.

At Nebo, we have a business development team. But we never “sell.” To “sell” implies cold calling. To “sell” implies pushing out email campaigns to prospect lists. To “sell” implies sending brochures or company literature via snail mail. To “sell” implies talking about your company from a product-focused perspective to “targeted decision makers.”