Building Real Connection in B2B Sales, Personal Brand, Events, and AI Coaching
Lessons I Took Away From My Conversation With Joe Fontana
I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. It’s part of the job. And like most of you, I scroll past a lot of recycled advice, forced hot takes, and thinly veiled sales pitches.
Then there are the people who make you stop scrolling.
That’s how I found Joe Fontana.
Joe has spent more than 30 years building and leading sales organizations. Eighteen of those were built from scratch. Today, he’s the Founding VP of Sales at Dextego, and he’s also quietly built a LinkedIn following of nearly 20,000 people by doing something most sellers struggle with.
He shows up as a human.
In this Community Spotlight, we talked about personal brand, trust, small events, AI coaching, and why most “modern sales advice” misses the point. Here are the lessons that stuck with me.
You can catch the full video podcast below 👇
Personal Brand Isn’t Promotion. It’s Proof of Character.
Joe didn’t build his following by optimizing post times or chasing engagement hacks. He built it by being consistent, helpful, and honest, with the occasional dad joke mixed in.
What really matters is this:
People don’t follow you because you sell something. They follow you because you show how you think.
Joe made a clear distinction that I wish more sales teams understood.
Your posts are you
Your comments and DMs represent your company
When sellers try to turn every post into a pitch, they lose credibility fast. But when they talk openly about challenges, lessons learned, and what they’re still figuring out, people lean in.
That’s how trust starts, long before a deal is ever on the table.
Sellers Don’t Scare People Away by Being Salespeople
They scare them away by being dishonest.
One of my favorite parts of this conversation was Joe’s take on transparency.
A lot of sellers try to hide the fact that they’re in sales. They soften their titles. They dance around intent. They hope nobody notices until later.
Joe’s advice is the opposite.
Own it.
“I’m a seller. This is what I do. I’m not here to pitch you. I want to learn from you.”
That level of honesty disarms people. It lowers defenses. And ironically, it makes prospects more open to future conversations, not less.
Trust isn’t built by pretending you don’t want anything. It’s built by being clear about why you’re showing up.
LinkedIn Is a Long Game. If You’re Impatient, It Will Expose You.
Joe was blunt here, in the best way.
LinkedIn is not a lead list. It’s not a shortcut. And it’s definitely not a replacement for doing the rest of the work.
Cold calls still matter. Email still matters. Events still matter. LinkedIn is one tool in a larger system.
What LinkedIn is good at is awareness and credibility. When someone finally gets your email or your call, they’ve often already checked your profile. Your content either supports your credibility or quietly kills it.
That’s why consistency matters more than virality.
Small, Bespoke Events Beat Big Conferences
If you actually want pipeline.
This was one of the most practical parts of our conversation.
Joe has helped run hundreds of events, and his take was clear. Large conferences are mostly awareness plays now. They’re expensive, noisy, and hard to convert into real relationships.
The events that actually move deals forward look very different.
15 to 40 people
Carefully curated guest list
No pitches
Minimal branding
Real conversations led by subject matter experts, not sellers
The goal isn’t to close deals in the room. The goal is to earn the right to have a conversation later.
When done right, these events create trust and momentum at the same time. And yes, they take more work. That’s why they work.
Joe also made an important point here. Many companies don’t have the internal bandwidth to run these well, which is why experienced third parties like BuyerForesight exist.
This isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about doing it right.
AI Coaching Works When It’s Built by Real Sellers
We couldn’t talk without addressing AI.
Joe is deeply skeptical of sales tools built by people who’ve never carried a quota. That skepticism is exactly why Dextego exists.
Instead of generic advice, Dextego’s AI is trained on real seller experience. Hundreds of years’ worth of it. The goal isn’t to replace human coaching, it’s to provide in-the-moment guidance that managers simply can’t scale on their own.
The smartest framing Joe shared was this:
AI doesn’t replace mentorship.
It gives people time back so mentorship can actually happen.
That applies far beyond sales.
The Throughline: Be Interested, Not Interesting.
If I had to sum up Joe’s entire philosophy, it would be this.
The best sellers, leaders, and brands focus less on being impressive and more on being curious.
They listen.
They ask better questions.
They help without keeping score.
And over time, that approach compounds.
This conversation was a reminder that trust still wins. Relationships still matter. And the tools only work when the human does.
If you work in sales, marketing, customer success, or GTM leadership, this episode is worth your time. Joe brings clarity without ego, and experience without posturing.
More Community Spotlights like this coming soon.
Learn More About Joe Fontana
Joe Fontana is a sales leader, coach, and builder with more than 30 years of experience leading and scaling B2B sales organizations. Known on LinkedIn as the “Ted Lasso of Sales Teams,” Joe focuses on helping sellers build trust, show up as humans, and develop the skills that actually move conversations forward, not just hit activity metrics.
If you want to follow Joe’s thinking, connect with him, or learn from the way he shows up publicly, LinkedIn is the best place to do that:
💼 LinkedIn – Sales leadership insights, humor, and real talk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-fontana75/
If you work in sales, GTM, or leadership and care about trust-first selling, Joe is absolutely worth having in your feed.
