Get Vertical! Growing with Sales for Success
Buying behavior has shifted, with 61% of B2B buyers preferring a rep-free experience, yet sales remain critical to growth. Host Mike McCalley and guest John W. Buckner, CRO at Sales Xceleration, discuss how modern sales teams can adapt through coaching, lifetime value thinking, and aligned go-to-market strategy. The conversation draws on Buckner's 30+ years of revenue leadership across multiple industries.
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Key takeaways
61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience, requiring sales teams to rethink their approach.
Understanding customer lifetime value and distinguishing cost of acquisition from cost of ownership is key to sustainable growth.
Coaching transforms sales from a reactive activity into a structured, high-performance discipline.
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Buying behavior has shifted dramatically. Today’s B2B customers do most of their research before ever speaking with a salesperson. In fact, 61% of B2B buyers say they prefer a rep-free buying experience, according to a 2025 Gartner survey. At the same time, U.S. retail e-commerce sales exceeded $1.192 trillion in 2024. Growth still depends on sales—but growing with sales in today’s market requires a new approach.
So here’s the question leaders are asking: If buyers are more independent and informed than ever, how can sales teams still drive meaningful growth?
On this episode of Get Vertical!, host Mike McCalley welcomes John W. Buckner, Chief Revenue Officer at Sales Xceleration, for a practical conversation about what it really means to grow with sales today. Buckner shares lessons from decades of leadership across multiple industries and explains how sales, marketing, coaching, and customer lifetime value all connect to sustainable success.
Key highlights from the conversation…
- Why sales remain essential to economic growth—even in an AI-driven marketplace.
- The difference between the cost of acquisition and cost of ownership, and why lifetime value matters.
- How coaching transforms sales from an activity into a high-performance discipline.
John W. Buckner is a senior revenue executive with more than 30 years of experience leading go-to-market strategy, sales infrastructure, and performance management across industrial, consumer goods, and B2B markets. As Chief Revenue Officer at Sales Xceleration and former Senior Vice President of Sales with P&L responsibility for a $240 million division, he has built multimillion-dollar pipelines, driven double-digit profit growth, and implemented enterprise sales methodologies to scale teams and improve EBITDA. His expertise spans sales strategy, CRM optimization, pipeline development, cross-functional leadership, and coaching high-performance teams to deliver sustainable revenue growth.
Article written by MarketScale.
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Get Vertical with Mike McCalley
Vertical market strategy and revenue growth for B2B companies.
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About the author
Mike is a leading marketer with expertise ranging from start up ventures to fortune 50 companies. With a passion for B2B and community building, Mike has evolved how traditional companies go to market and truly educate, inform, and inspire their community. When Mike isn't building out media and strategy plans for companies you can find him announcing his local high school football games and spending time with his family in Plano, TX.
