How important is the seat you choose on the first day of school?

For me, that decision changed my life.

As a student at MIT back in 2005, I took a class on startups and sat next to an introverted student named Dharmesh Shah. A friendship blossomed into a business relationship and upon graduation Dharmesh and his co-founder, Brian Halligan, hired me as their fourth employee and first salesperson for their company HubSpot. It was one of the most difficult journeys of my life. Here are the ten sales leadership lessons I took away from the experience.

#1: Today’s empowered buyers dictate the sales process, not salespeople. Develop the buyer journey first and then design a sales process that supports it...