The Secrets Behind Joe Barhoum’s $2M Deal: The 4 Rules of Great Sellers

In our new series Meet the World's Best Sellers, we're tracking down the most legendary salespeople in the world.

Unearthing the untold stories. Revealing the unspoken secrets. Showcasing the unsung champions.

I'm Karli Stone and this week my journey to find the World's Best Seller brought me to Joe Barhoum, a salesman whose mastery of the sales fundamentals has led to a sales career of multi-million dollar deals and a philosophy for repeated success.

What makes a winning sales strategy?

A great sales strategy isn't just a list of tactics — it's a repeatable framework for understanding your buyers and guiding them to a solution. It's the difference between hoping for deals and building a predictable revenue engine. While there are dozens of methods out there, the most effective strategies are always built on a foundation of timeless principles. We found a seller who mastered them.

Meet Joe Barhoum: Not your average salesperson

A few words with Joe Barhoum and the stereotypical image of the fast-talking, pushy, disingenuous salesperson is instantly debunked.

Joe speaks with calming authority. He's choosy with his words, thoughtful, eloquent — like he knows the answer to your questions before you ask them. He gives off a sense of familiarity that leaves you hanging on every word.

To get the full scope of Joe's success, we should start at the beginning. At 16, he started his own business making computers. It started as a hobby, helping friends and family build and fix their PCs. But, as he got more clients, it turned into a profitable side hustle that helped put him through college.

He jokes that his little business never went very far, but, only a few minutes into his story, I'm already seeing the makings of a legendary self-starter who would go on to close multi-million dollar deals at every stage of his career.

From payroll to President's Club

Fresh out of college with a shiny Computer Science degree in hand, Joe got a job as an Implementation Specialist at the payroll and benefits giant ADP.

For a few years, it paid the bills, but he had dreams of a lifestyle that this role couldn't pay for. One day, amid the monotony of his mundane office life, Joe gazed out the window and saw a group of sharply-dressed men, effortlessly tossing a football back and forth, surrounded by a fleet of luxurious vehicles. Chained to his desk, he couldn't help but feel envious. That could be me…

He had to know who they were and what they did. "I went up to them and said 'Guys, I gotta ask you, what do you do here?' And they said 'We're the sales team'."

He was hooked. After a year and a half of pushing and pushing ADP's sales managers for a role, he finally got one, not in an entry-level role, but in Major Accounts which accounted for 70% of ADP's revenue.

He had a 350k quota to hit right out of the gate, an assigned territory he was less than ecstatic about, and seemingly unfavorable demographics with low potential for growth. He needed a plan.

That's when he approached Dave, the previous owner of the sales territory to learn the secret behind his success. His new mentor suggested a hands-on approach, distributing informational packets, writing personalized notes, and delivering gift cards to potential clients. This, he said, would help him establish relationships and get a deeper understanding of the territory.

So, that's exactly what he did. Paired with persistent follow-up via cold calling, he started building a pipeline. First, it was one deal. Then another. Then three more. And before he knew it, he had reached the end of Year 1 with a highly coveted spot in the President's Club.

Building the business development program of the future

Eager for a new challenge, Joe became a sales manager at Oracle and eventually ended up with one of their partners, The Hackett Group, an operations and consulting firm.

The company was small, less than 50 people, and Joe was tasked with everything from channel management and scaling a sales strategy to holding his own quota. "It was bananas, I was all over the place," he says, "I started to really hone in on my own creative side and think about what's made me so successful."

For Joe, it was all about figuring out how to deliver value at scale. So he did what others on the sales team hadn't taken the initiative on — he looked to marketing to amplify sales efforts. With a mail merge between Excel and Outlook, Joe scraped names and company info off of his team’s target lists to send personalized and automated emails at scale (with a tool like Apollo this part is now a piece of cake).

Then, he automated and scaled his tried-and-true method at ADP, creating obligation (more on that later) and providing value through a monthly webinar series on all things sales. They invited people at scale and sent registration forms to qualify their leads. With the webinar's attendance and engagement metrics, he built an algorithm for behavior scoring and was able to hand his reps high-intent, high-value leads.

And this alignment between sales and marketing — it worked like a charm. "Our top line started to grow. We had suddenly built a multi-million dollar pipeline out of nothing."

His business development program doubled the company in size, catapulting them into a major acquisition.

The 4 rules every great seller follows

In his two years at Jedox, Joe (in classic Joe-fashion) is the company's highest performer, notching the Top Salesperson title in FY'22 and securing the company multiple multi-million dollar deals. How? With four core sales principles, formed and perfected throughout his 15-year career. He believes they are the keys to greatness for any seller. Here’s how he used them to close one of his biggest deals ever — a 2 million dollar mammoth.

Rule #1: Be prepared

Preparation is key. Joe broke into this account, one of the biggest of his career, thanks to meticulous preparation. The buyer was an international government entity and the account was full of red tape. Like most government organizations, they issued a request for proposal (RFP) in their search for performance management software. Right out of the gate, Joe printed everything out on paper, laid it out on the table, and worked through it with a pen. He took note of everything — what their problem was, how they talked about it, the type of language they used, and the phrases they employed. He did research to understand every piece of technical language. He took it all and compiled it all into a 60-page executive letter. In following conversations and demos, he continued to demonstrate expert knowledge of the account by matching their tone, mimicking their language, and showing an understanding of their need. "It was the perfect union of preparation meets opportunity."

Rule #2: Be honest

Joe believes that everyone has a BS meter. "And the easiest way to trip the BS meter is to lie." Obviously, great sellers never claim their product can do something it can't or misrepresent their prices. But Joe adds it goes deeper than that. Being honest is also about being genuine and trustworthy. Selling to a government organization, there's no room to play it anything less than by-the-book. When Joe was told who the stakeholders were, who not to engage with, and what his swim lanes were, he followed it — to a tee. This wasn't the time to try to bypass the gatekeepers. Joe knew that would only burn bridges. He put his trust in his champions and focused on working the deal through the genuine relationships he created with his points of contact.

Rule #3: Be inquisitive

Great sellers are inquisitive and curious. They ask the right questions and are eager to provide valuable answers. Closing a 2M dollar deal required this to the nth degree. Joe abided by the golden sales rule: never end a phone call without determining next steps. But, what do you do when the buyer doesn't tell you what they need? Joe was acutely aware that behind every request, concern, or question is a world of reasoning. He became relentlessly curious in his follow-up questions, committed to uncovering the buyer's underlying assumptions and unspoken thoughts. How do you measure success in XYZ? What are your goals for XYZ? What are you looking for in this area? Do you currently see any roadblocks in our path forward? From there, moving towards a closed-won deal was simple.

Rule #4: Create obligation

The last rule of Joe's sales philosophy is to create obligation, asking yourself: What can I do that doesn't cost my buyer anything but maybe a couple of seconds or minutes of their time? What can I give without getting anything in return? By giving without conditions, you can create a relationship with your prospective customers, putting them in a position to feel obligated to give something back. Joe did this by hand-delivering packages back at ADP. He did that with his business development program, providing value to customers in the form of webinars. And he continued to do that here. He created a direct line of communication with his contacts over their internal Microsoft Teams chat, answering the buyers' questions in real time over their preferred channel. With his name in their team account, it couldn't be helped to consider him as already a part of their team. Ad hoc questions turned into daily communication turned into video calls. He was easy to work with, respectful, and incredibly accommodating. With his finger on the pulse, he created a relationship primed for close.

How to implement Joe's strategy in your sales process

Joe's story is inspiring, but how do you turn his principles into your own pipeline? It's about translating his rules into daily actions.

• For preparation: Before any call, spend 10 minutes on the prospect's LinkedIn and company news. Use a tool like Apollo to find key data points and recent company events. Don't just look for facts, look for a story.
• For honesty: Be upfront about what your solution can and can't do. If a feature isn't a perfect fit, acknowledge it and pivot to the value you do provide. Trust is built in these moments.
• For inquisitiveness: Turn statements into questions. When a prospect says, "We need to improve efficiency," your follow-up should be, "That's a key goal for many. How are you measuring efficiency today, and what does a 10% improvement look like for your team?"
• For obligation: Share a valuable, non-gated resource, offer a quick analysis of their website, or connect them with someone in your network. Give first, without expecting an immediate return.

Why Joe's approach works in modern B2B sales

In a world of AI, automation, and endless data, you might think old-school principles are outdated. You'd be wrong. Joe's approach is more relevant than ever because it focuses on the one thing technology can't replicate: genuine human connection.

Buyers are overwhelmed with generic, automated outreach. A strategy built on preparation, honesty, curiosity, and value cuts through the noise. It shows you've done your homework and respect their time. It proves you're not just another salesperson — you're a potential partner. This is how you build trust and win the deals your competitors can't.

Start building your own million-dollar sales strategy

Joe Barhoum didn't get to the top by accident. He built a system based on fundamental truths about selling. You can too. The four rules — be prepared, be honest, be inquisitive, and create obligation — are your new playbook.

But a great playbook needs a great platform to run on. Apollo gives you the data and tools to put these principles into action at scale. Find the right contacts, uncover key insights for preparation, and automate your outreach so you can focus on building the relationships that close deals. Ready to build your own legendary sales career? Get Started with Apollo and turn strategy into revenue.

Frequently asked questions about advanced sales strategies

How do you scale relationship-based strategies for larger sales teams?

Scaling this approach is about systematizing the principles. Use a platform like Apollo to create templates for pre-call research, build sequences that incorporate value-add touchpoints, and track engagement to see what's working. The goal isn't for one rep to have 1,000 deep relationships, but for the entire team to apply the same high-value principles consistently.

Can these strategies work for smaller deal sizes and shorter sales cycles?

Absolutely. The scale just changes. For smaller deals, "preparation" might be a 3-minute review of a prospect's profile instead of a 60-page letter. "Creating obligation" could be a single helpful article instead of a webinar series. The principles are the same; the time investment is just proportional to the deal's value.

What if my industry doesn't allow for the same level of personal engagement?

Every industry allows for preparation and honesty. Even in highly transactional or regulated fields, you can demonstrate you understand a prospect's unique context. Focus on being the most prepared, straightforward, and inquisitive vendor they speak to. That alone is a powerful differentiator.

How long does it typically take to see results from these sales strategies?

You'll see immediate results in the quality of your conversations. Building a full pipeline takes time, but focusing on these principles leads to higher conversion rates at each stage of the funnel. Instead of just more leads, you'll get more leads that actually close, which is a much more powerful outcome.