Sales Success Stories

Stephen Oommen has 25 years of go-to-market experience across Microsoft, ADP and Outreach, and he now runs The Referral Effect, coaching sellers and sales leaders on turning relationships into revenue. He left an executive role, and the 70 to 80 hour weeks that came with it, to be a full-time father and build something of his own. That business cleared multiple six figures and turned a profit in its first year, and by his own estimate roughly 98% of the revenue across his entire career has come from relationships and warm referrals.
This is the first Founder Led episode of Sales Success Stories, a new lane for founders who are still doing the selling themselves. Stephen lays out the three things that made the jump work, gets specific about the eight to twelve lead sources he runs and why communities are the most slept-on of them, and takes the story back to growing up as one of the few minorities in his Oklahoma school and later reclaiming the word chameleon as the empathy that now drives his referrals.
Full show notes, the complete transcript and every link from this episode are at top1.fm/203

Elle Perez is Kaseya's Account Manager of the Year and now leads a team of strategic account managers there. She has been selling since 1997, starting in marketing at Anheuser-Busch before the company told her that moving up meant carrying a quota, and joined Kaseya five years ago as an individual contributor in strategic accounts.
This conversation gets specific about the parts of account management that rarely get taught: treating customers as partners rather than accounts, leading with business outcomes instead of product features, and using executive alignment between two C-suites to reopen a stalled relationship. Elle also covers prioritizing a book of business without defaulting to the 80/20 rule, why she believes presence and body language are underrated, and the one habit she wants every seller to pick up this week.
Full show notes, the complete transcript and links to everything mentioned: top1.fm/202

John Krause is the top sales performer at Promess and is currently transitioning into a player-coach leadership role. After building a reputation for winning new business in accounts others considered untouchable, he's now learning a new challenge: helping others succeed rather than simply replicating his own approach.
This conversation explores the mindset behind sustained sales success, including learning from experienced sellers, using rejection as fuel, creating opportunities through referrals and relationships, and maintaining grit through inevitable setbacks. John also shares lessons from moving into management, building trust inside large organizations, and why genuine human connection is becoming even more important in an AI-driven world.

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In this episode, Rosa Campagna tells us about what it actually takes to win at the highest level in enterprise and why patience, hospitality, and influence may be more important than any sales technique.
Rosa Campagna is the number one top performing sales rep globally at OneStream Software for FY25, hitting 428% of quota attainment in one of the most competitive enterprise sales organizations in the market. She works with customers ranging from $4 to $40 billion in revenue and has built her success on three principles: knowing how people think and feel, mastering the internal sale, and refusing to put enterprise customers to bed in pursuit of short-term wins.
Rosa came to sales by accident. She thought she wanted to be Samantha from Sex and the City, landing somewhere in PR and marketing. A theater kid at heart, she eventually found her way into consulting and professional services in the Salesforce ecosystem, survived multiple layoffs during a volatile period of acquisitions, and ultimately made the bet that she was better at selling a thing than selling the process to build one. That pivot to software sales at OneStream, combined with the mentorship of John Davis and a relentless show must go on mentality she calls the Rosa Factor, is what got her to the top of the global leaderboard.

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This episode's guest is Patrick Donnelly, the top strategic enterprise AE at Nook. Patrick brings a founder's mindset to the field, he originally wanted to be a rock star or a startup founder, but found his creative calling in enterprise sales instead. Now three years in at Nooks, he has built the process, led the upmarket charge, and stayed at the top by doing the same things that got him there. Patrick shares a candid, practical playbook built on curiosity, humility, and the conviction that discovery is not a stage it is a lifestyle.
 
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