Sales as Gravity Building: Creating Orbital Victories

The Tale of Two Sales Approaches

Marcus leaned back in his chair, exhausted. As the sales director at EnterpriseCore, a traditional enterprise software company, he’d just finished another quarterly review. The numbers looked good—they’d hit 103% of target—but he felt a familiar sense of déjà vu. Every quarter was the same Sisyphean challenge: reset the counters, push the boulder back up the hill, and start again. Despite years of success and an ever-growing customer list, each new prospect required the same herculean effort as the first.

Across town, Sophia was also reviewing quarterly results at Zendesk. Three years earlier, she had transformed their sales approach from traditional transaction-focused methods to what she called “orbital victories.” The difference was stark. While her team still actively pursued new business, they were now spending more time responding to inbound enquiries than cold calling. Better still, their sales cycles had shortened by 40%, and their conversion rates had nearly doubled.

“The difference,” Sophia would later explain at an industry conference, “wasn’t that we became better at extracting value from sales conversations. It’s that we became obsessed with creating value through every interaction—regardless of whether it led to an immediate sale.”

These contrasting approaches represent fundamentally different views of the sales function. One sees sales as primarily extractive—a mechanism for converting market presence into revenue. The other sees sales as primarily constructive—a system for building gravitational assets that progressively increase pull over time.

Traditional sales measures success by what you extract from each interaction. Gravitational sales measures success by what you create.

This chapter explores how to transform your sales function from a transactional pursuit into a systematic gravity-building operation—where every conversation, whether successful or not, creates assets that progressively increase your pull and reduce the effort required for future opportunities.

As we’ve established in previous chapters, gravity isn’t an abstract concept but a practical reality in business physics. We’ve explored how building initial gravity requires focusing on a minimum viable audience and delighting your first crucial customers. Now we’ll examine how your sales function—often seen as the most transactional part of an organisation—can become one of your most powerful gravity generators.

The Sales-Gravity Mindset Shift

Most sales organisations operate under a fundamental misconception: that their primary purpose is to extract value from the market through closed deals. This transactional mindset creates several limitations:

It measures success only through immediate conversion, ignoring the gravitational potential of each interaction
It treats rejected opportunities as failures rather than valuable learning assets
It incentivises short-term extraction over long-term relationship building
It views sales as separate from, rather than integrated with, your broader gravitational strategy

The alternative is a gravitational sales mindset, where:

Every interaction builds long-term pull, regardless of immediate outcome
Learning and insight gathering are valued alongside revenue generation
Success is measured through increasing gravitational efficiency over time
Sales becomes a systematic builder of orbital momentum rather than merely a value extractor

“In gravity-building sales, a lost opportunity that teaches you something specific about your market is more valuable than a won deal that teaches you nothing,” explains Tom Blomfield, founder of Monzo, the UK challenger bank that built remarkable early momentum through strategic sales approaches. “Every conversation plants seeds for future gravitational pull.”

This mindset shift isn’t just philosophical—it creates concrete economic advantages. At Zendesk, after implementing their orbital victory system, they observed:

40% shorter sales cycles within 18 months
35% reduction in customer acquisition costs
2.7x increase in sales team efficiency (measured by revenue per salesperson)
53% of new business coming from inbound enquiries (up from 22%)

The physics of this transformation is straightforward but profound: when sales activities systematically build gravity rather than simply extract value, the force of attraction compounds over time, progressively reducing the effort required to achieve the same results.

Implementing this shift requires rethinking several fundamental aspects of sales:

From Closing Deals to Creating Assets

Traditional sales training obsesses over “closing techniques”—psychological tactics to overcome objections and secure commitments. Gravitational sales, by contrast, focuses on creating valuable assets through each interaction:

Deeper market understanding through systematic capture of prospect insights
Refined positioning through analysis of objection patterns
Enhanced product development through feedback on unmet needs
Compelling success documentation that attracts similar prospects
Strengthened proof hierarchy through client evidence collection

From Activity Metrics to Gravitational Indicators

Most sales teams track activities (calls made, meetings held) and outcomes (deals closed, revenue generated). Gravitational sales adds another layer: indicators of increasing pull.

At Adyen, the Dutch payment processing company, they measure:

Time to first meeting (decreasing indicates growing gravitational pull)
Ratio of inbound to outbound opportunities (increasing indicates stronger attraction)
Percentage of prospects who have consumed case studies before first contact
Referred opportunities as a percentage of total pipeline
Average number of stakeholders engaged per account (broader engagement creates stronger pull)

From Individual Heroes to Systematic Assets

Traditional sales glorifies the rainmaker—the exceptional individual who somehow manages to close impossible deals. Gravitational sales focuses instead on building systemic assets that create pull regardless of individual talent:

Documented success patterns that any team member can leverage
Qualification frameworks that ensure resources align with gravitational potential
Learning capture systems that turn individual insights into organisational assets
Orbital evidence that creates pull independent of personal relationships

As Jorgen Sundberg, CEO of Link Humans, explains: “The goal isn’t to build a sales team that’s great at hunting. It’s to build a sales function that systematically increases your gravitational pull, making hunting progressively less necessary over time.”

Pipeline Velocity as Gravitational Measurement

One of the clearest indicators of growing sales gravity is increasing pipeline velocity—the speed at which prospects move through your sales process. This seemingly simple metric reveals profound truths about your gravitational strength.

“Pipeline velocity isn’t about pushing prospects faster—it’s about reducing friction for those already in motion toward you,” explains Timo Boldt, founder of Gousto, the UK recipe box company that achieved remarkable growth through systematic gravity building.

Think of your sales pipeline as a series of orbits, each closer to your gravitational core. In low-gravity environments, moving prospects from one orbit to another requires enormous energy—calls, emails, presentations, proposals, and persistent follow-up. As your gravity increases, prospects move through these orbits with less resistance and greater natural momentum.

The distinction between artificial acceleration and natural momentum is crucial. Many sales organisations try to speed up their pipelines through pressure tactics and artificial urgency. This can temporarily improve numbers but often damages long-term gravitational development.

True gravitational velocity comes from:

1. Positioning Clarity That Creates Natural Momentum

When your market position is perfectly clear, prospects naturally understand where they fit in relation to your offering. This clarity creates acceleration that requires no pushing.

At Shopify Plus, the enterprise arm of Shopify, they discovered that clarifying their positioning for larger merchants dramatically increased pipeline velocity. By explicitly defining the types of growing businesses they could best serve, they reduced confusion and accelerated natural movement.

“When prospects understand precisely what you are and aren’t, they self-qualify more efficiently,” explains Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify. “This natural alignment creates momentum that no sales tactic can match.”

2. Evidence That Builds Conviction Without Effort

Every piece of documented evidence—case studies, testimonials, demonstrations, metrics—creates gravitational pull that accelerates pipeline movement.

Darktrace, the UK cybersecurity company, developed a unique approach to evidence creation. Their “threat-finding” method identified actual security vulnerabilities during sales conversations, creating immediate, tangible proof of value before any purchase decision.

This evidence-first approach meant prospects entered their pipeline with higher conviction, moving through stages more rapidly than competitors who relied on theoretical value propositions.

3. Reduced Friction Through Process Design

Every unnecessary step, unclear expectation, or misaligned message in your sales process creates friction that slows momentum. Gravitational sales systematically identifies and eliminates these points of resistance.

At Monday.com, they meticulously studied their pipeline to identify “velocity blockers”—points where prospects consistently slowed or stalled. For each blocker, they created specific assets that reduced friction:

Procurement guides for legal and compliance questions
Implementation roadmaps for technical concerns
ROI calculators for financial objections
Peer testimonials for risk-related hesitation

The cumulative effect was a 47% reduction in average sales cycle length without any change in closing tactics.

Measuring Velocity Enhancement

To assess your gravitational impact on pipeline velocity, track these indicators over time:

Stage-to-Stage Conversion Times: Monitor how quickly prospects move between defined sales stages
Decision velocity by buyer type: Track how different prospect categories move through your process
Friction Point Analysis: Identify where prospects consistently slow down or require multiple touches
Natural Momentum Ratio: Measure the percentage of stage movements that occur without direct sales action
Inbound Velocity Premium: Compare sales cycle length between inbound and outbound opportunities

“The goal isn’t just to close deals faster,” explains Adyen’s CCO Roelant Prins. “It’s to create conditions where prospects move naturally toward decisions with decreasing resistance over time.”

Number of Clients as a Measure of Growing Mass

Each client relationship represents potential gravitational mass—but not all clients contribute equally to your overall pull. Like celestial bodies of different sizes, client relationships vary in their gravitational influence based on several factors:

Alignment with Positioning

Clients who perfectly align with your market positioning create stronger gravitational pull than those who are exceptions or edge cases. When prospects see customers similar to themselves succeeding with your solution, the gravitational attraction is significantly stronger.

Adyen, the Dutch payment processing company, took this principle to heart with their highly selective approach to early client acquisition. Rather than pursuing any available revenue, they focused exclusively on signing landmark clients in specific verticals that aligned perfectly with their positioning.

“We weren’t interested in client quantity, but in the gravitational quality of each relationship,” explains Pieter van der Does, Adyen’s CEO. “One perfectly aligned client creates more pull than ten misaligned ones.”

This selective approach allowed them to build sector-specific gravity, with each new client making it easier to attract similar companies. As Molly Bloom, Adyen’s former SVP of Sales, explains: “Once we had Spotify, attracting other subscription businesses became dramatically easier. Each aligned client became a gravitational reference point for others in that orbit.”

Documentation Potential

Clients vary tremendously in their value as gravitational assets based on their willingness and ability to serve as documented success stories. Those who can articulate their results, participate in case studies, and serve as references create significantly more gravitational pull.

Palantir, the data analytics company, built their early growth strategy around clients with high documentation potential. They identified organisations facing complex, high-value problems where success would create compelling narratives.

Their embedded team approach—where Palantir staff worked alongside client teams—created unusually deep relationships that yielded rich documentation. Each successful implementation became a gravitational asset that attracted similar organisations facing comparable challenges.

Ecosystem Influence

Some client relationships extend your gravitational reach through their own networks and ecosystems. These “gravitational amplifiers” create pull beyond their direct relationship with you.

Xero, the New Zealand accounting software company, recognised this principle when developing their partner-first approach. By focusing on accounting firms rather than end businesses, they leveraged the ecosystem influence of these partners.

Each accounting firm that adopted Xero could potentially bring dozens or hundreds of business clients into their orbit. This ecosystem approach created compounding gravity that would have been impossible through direct client acquisition alone.

“We weren’t just adding clients; we were adding gravitational nodes that each created their own pull,” explains Gary Turner, UK Managing Director of Xero. “The physics of this approach meant our gravity increased exponentially rather than linearly.”

Building a Gravitational Client Portfolio

Rather than pursuing clients indiscriminately, gravity-building sales requires developing a balanced portfolio of relationships that collectively maximise your pull:

Lighthouse Clients: Highly visible organisations that serve as beacons for others
Narrative Clients: Organisations with compelling stories and documentation potential
Ecosystem Clients: Organisations with extensive networks that extend your reach
Innovation Clients: Organisations that push your capabilities and contribute to development
Volume Clients: Organisations that create statistical validity through numbers

Shopify Plus developed this portfolio approach through their “merchant success” strategy. By identifying and segmenting clients based on their gravitational contribution, they could allocate resources strategically to maximise overall pull rather than just revenue.

“Not every client adds the same gravitational value,” explains Loren Padelford, former GM of Shopify Plus. “Understanding these differences allows you to invest selectively in relationships that build your overall mass most efficiently.”

The Power of Good Qualification

Perhaps counterintuitively, one of the most powerful gravity-building sales practices is saying “no” to ill-fitted opportunities. Strong qualification isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about gravitational focus.

“A well-qualified ‘no’ preserves resources for creating gravitational assets. A poorly qualified ‘yes’ often consumes more resources than it returns,” explains Doug Tatum, author of “No Man’s Land.”

Traditional sales views qualification primarily as a probability assessment: “How likely is this prospect to buy?” Gravitational sales asks a fundamentally different question: “How much will this opportunity contribute to our overall pull, regardless of immediate outcome?”

This shift creates several advantages:

Resource Preservation for Gravitational Investment

Every hour spent pursuing misaligned opportunities is an hour not invested in building gravitational assets. Strict qualification preserves your most valuable resource—attention—for activities that increase your pull.

Palantir exemplified this approach with their famously selective client acquisition strategy. Despite enormous demand for their services, they disqualified approximately 90% of inbound opportunities to focus exclusively on deployments with maximum gravitational potential.

“We weren’t selling software; we were building a gravitational engine,” explains one former Palantir executive. “That meant turning down immediate revenue to focus on opportunities that would create long-term pull.”

Positioning Reinforcement Through Selective Engagement

Each opportunity you pursue sends signals to the market about your positioning. Pursuing ill-fitted prospects creates positioning confusion that weakens your gravitational clarity.

Xero developed a qualification framework specifically designed to reinforce their market position. By focusing exclusively on accounting firms and businesses that aligned with their cloud-first philosophy, they maintained perfect positioning clarity that accelerated their momentum.

“We disqualified traditional accounting firms that wanted to maintain desktop software,” explains Gary Turner. “While this meant saying no to immediate revenue, it preserved the clarity of our positioning that ultimately created much stronger pull.”

The Qualification-Gravity Framework

To systematically assess the gravitational potential of each opportunity, consider these dimensions:

Positioning Alignment: How perfectly does this prospect match your ideal customer profile?
Documentation Potential: How valuable would this client be as a reference and case study?
Ecosystem Value: Would this relationship extend your reach through networks and communities?
Learning Potential: What unique insights might this opportunity provide, regardless of outcome?
Resource Requirements: What investment would this opportunity require relative to its gravitational return?

Darktrace implemented this framework through their “Gravitational Qualification Matrix,” which scored every opportunity across these dimensions. Opportunities needed to reach a minimum threshold score to justify pursuit, regardless of potential revenue.

“This approach meant sometimes walking away from large deals with low gravitational value,” explains Nicole Eagan, former CEO of Darktrace. “But it ensured we invested our resources in opportunities that compounded our pull over time.”

For smaller organisations with limited resources, this qualification discipline is even more crucial. As Hiut Denim co-founder David Hieatt explains: “When you can only make 100 pairs of jeans per week, every customer must contribute to your gravitational story.”

Turning Sales Conversations into Gravitational Assets

Every sales conversation, regardless of outcome, contains potential gravitational value—but most organisations fail to extract it. While traditional sales focuses narrowly on advancing opportunities toward closure, gravitational sales systematically captures insights that strengthen your pull.

“The true value of a sales conversation isn’t measured by the immediate revenue it generates, but by the gravitational assets it creates for future acceleration,” explains Zendesk’s former SVP of Sales.

This value extraction takes several forms:

Most sales teams view objections as obstacles to overcome. Gravitational sales sees them as invaluable positioning feedback that can strengthen your overall pull.

Zendesk developed a systematic approach to objection analysis, requiring sales teams to document every significant concern raised by prospects. These were analysed weekly to identify patterns that revealed positioning weaknesses or opportunities.

“Every objection contains the seed of a positioning refinement,” explains Mikkel Svane, Zendesk’s founder. “When multiple prospects raise the same concern, it isn’t just a sales challenge—it’s valuable market intelligence about how to strengthen your gravitational pull.”

This approach led to significant positioning refinements that accelerated their momentum. When they discovered many prospects worried about the complexity of migration from legacy systems, they developed specific positioning around “implementation in days, not months” that directly addressed this friction point.

Question Patterns as Market Intelligence

The questions prospects ask reveal their priorities, concerns, and decision criteria—invaluable information for strengthening your gravitational approach.

Darktrace created a “Question Intelligence System” that captured and categorised every significant question raised during sales conversations. This growing database provided unprecedented insight into how different market segments evaluated cybersecurity solutions.

“We discovered entirely different decision frameworks across sectors,” explains John Richardson, former Director of Sales at Darktrace. “Financial services firms focused on compliance questions, while manufacturers prioritised operational continuity. This intelligence allowed us to pre-emptively address these concerns in our materials, dramatically accelerating pipeline velocity.”

Competitor Insights as Differentiation Opportunities

Sales conversations often reveal how prospects view your competitors—intelligence that can strengthen your gravitational positioning.

Adyen systematically documented how prospects described alternative payment solutions, creating a detailed map of perceived competitive strengths and weaknesses. This intelligence allowed them to refine their differentiation strategy with precision.

“We discovered our competitors were widely perceived as more established but less innovative,” explains Roelant Prins, Adyen’s CCO. “This insight led us to strengthen our ‘built for the future’ positioning while simultaneously addressing stability concerns that were an unstated barrier to adoption.”

Implementation Systems

To systematically capture gravitational value from sales conversations, consider these approaches:

Insight Capture Protocols: Standardised methods for documenting valuable intelligence from each interaction
Weekly Pattern Analysis: Regular review of emerging themes across all conversations
Positioning Refinement Cycles: Structured processes for translating insights into gravitational adjustments
Cross-Functional Learning Loops: Systems for sharing sales intelligence with product and marketing teams
Conversation Value Metrics: Measuring the gravitational return of sales interactions beyond immediate revenue

Zendesk implemented these systems through their “Conversation Mining Programme,” which treated every sales interaction as a potential source of gravitational assets. Sales teams were incentivised not just for closing deals but for capturing insights that strengthened overall pull.

“We stopped viewing sales as separate from our product and marketing functions,” explains Mikkel Svane. “Instead, we saw our sales team as front-line researchers gathering intelligence that could strengthen every aspect of our gravitational approach.”

Integrating Positioning Through Sales Pitch

A clear, compelling sales narrative—what April Dunford explores in her book “Sales Pitch: How to Craft a Story to Stand Out and Win”—serves as a crucial bridge between your positioning strategy and your gravitational reality. It transforms abstract positioning concepts into tangible conversations that create pull.

In the context of our gravitational framework, an effective sales pitch isn’t just how you explain your offering—it’s an asset that makes your value instantly understandable. When prospects immediately grasp why you’re different and why that matters to them, natural momentum replaces artificial pushing.

In her framework, Dunford outlines a comprehensive structure that deliberately reframes how prospects think about their challenges before presenting a solution. The framework has two main parts:

Part 1: The Setup (Changing How Prospects Think)

The Insight: Begin with a provocative perspective that challenges conventional thinking about the problem space, creating a cognitive opening for new approaches.
The Alternatives: Continue by honestly assessing current solutions (including doing nothing), acknowledging strengths while revealing fundamental limitations.
The Perfect World: Paint a vision of what becomes possible when the core challenge is solved properly, focusing on outcomes rather than methods.

Part 2: The Follow-Through (Connecting Your Solution)

The Solution Pitch: Introduce your specific approach, connecting it directly to the perfect world vision and demonstrating why it’s uniquely capable of delivering those outcomes.
Demonstration (for products) or Process Overview (for services):
- For Products: Provide a focused demonstration that shows how your solution delivers on the perfect world vision, prioritizing relevance over comprehensiveness
- For Services: Present a clear methodology that builds confidence in your approach and demonstrates how your process addresses the challenges outlined earlier
Proof: Reinforce your solution’s effectiveness with evidence tailored to the prospect’s situation—case studies, testimonials, data, or examples that specifically demonstrate your differentiated value
Objections (optional): Proactively address common concerns that might prevent decision-making, even if the prospect hasn’t raised them
The Ask: Secure clear next steps that maintain momentum in the sales process

This sequence creates natural gravitational pull by first changing how prospects think about their challenges, then presenting your solution as the logical path to their newly reframed goal.

Monzo, the UK challenger bank, demonstrates this principle perfectly. They developed a remarkably clear sales pitch around “banking made easy” that created immediate understanding and natural momentum.

“We refined our pitch until it created instant clarity,” explains Tom Blomfield, Monzo’s founder. “When prospects immediately understood our position relative to traditional banks, the gravitational effect was dramatic—conversations that previously required pushing suddenly developed their own momentum.”

This alignment between positioning and sales narrative creates several gravitational advantages:

Friction Reduction Through Immediate Understanding

When prospects instantly grasp your positioning through a clear sales narrative, cognitive friction disappears and natural momentum emerges.

TransferWise (now Wise) crafted their sales pitch around a single compelling concept: “Banks hide fees in exchange rates; we don’t.” This clarity created immediate understanding that accelerated sales conversations with minimal effort.

“Our sales pitch wasn’t about features or benefits,” explains Taavet Hinrikus, TransferWise co-founder. “It was about creating instant positioning clarity that allowed prospects to understand exactly where we fit in their world.”

Consistency That Compounds Over Time

When your entire organisation delivers a consistent sales narrative aligned with your positioning, the gravitational effect compounds with each interaction.

Slack developed a meticulously crafted sales pitch that every team member could deliver consistently. This narrative coherence meant that whether prospects spoke to sales, marketing, product or support, they received the same clear positioning message.

“Consistency isn’t about being rigid—it’s about ensuring every conversation reinforces the same gravitational pull,” explains Stewart Butterfield, Slack’s co-founder. “When your entire organisation tells the same positioning story, the cumulative effect is exponentially stronger.”

Implementation Guidance

To develop a sales pitch that creates gravitational pull:

Start with positioning clarity: Ensure your pitch directly reflects your market position
Focus on immediate understanding: Test and refine until comprehension is instantaneous
Eliminate cognitive friction: Remove anything that creates confusion or requires explanation
Create conversational momentum: Structure the pitch to generate natural dialogue, not monologue
Build organisational consistency: Ensure everyone delivers the same core narrative

First Direct, the UK telephone and internet bank, implemented this approach through their “One Clear Story” programme. They developed a sales narrative so simple and compelling that every team member—from call centre staff to executives—could deliver it consistently.

“We weren’t trying to create a clever pitch,” explains Joe Gordon, Head of First Direct. “We were creating a gravitational tool that made our position instantly understandable and naturally attractive to our ideal customers.”

Documenting Success Patterns for Future Attraction

Perhaps the most powerful gravitational asset a sales function can create is well-documented client success. While traditional sales might capture basic testimonials or reference points, gravitational sales builds comprehensive success documentation that creates pull independently of sales efforts.

“Well-documented success creates a gravitational field that pulls similar prospects into your orbit naturally,” explains Salesforce’s former EVP of Commercial Sales. “When potential clients see organisations like themselves achieving specific outcomes, the attraction is automatic and powerful.”

The distinction between traditional case studies and gravitational success documentation is significant:

From Generic Testimonials to Specific Success Patterns

Traditional testimonials often feature vague praise and general satisfaction. Gravitational success documentation captures specific patterns that create resonance with similar prospects.

Salesforce revolutionised this approach through their Trailblazer programme, which documented specific, replicable success patterns across industries. Rather than generic claims about satisfaction, these assets detailed exactly how similar organisations achieved specific outcomes.

“We stopped talking about how great our software was and started documenting precisely how our users were succeeding,” explains Polly Sumner, former Chief Adoption Officer at Salesforce. “This shift created gravitational assets that attracted new prospects without requiring sales push.”

From Product Features to Business Outcomes

Traditional case studies often focus on product implementation. Gravitational success documentation emphasises business outcomes that resonate emotionally with decision-makers.

Peloton mastered this approach through their member transformation stories. Rather than focusing on their bikes’ technical specifications, they documented specific outcome patterns across member segments—from busy executives finding fitness despite travel schedules to new parents reclaiming personal time.

“We discovered that documenting specific success patterns created far more pull than highlighting product features,” explains John Foley, Peloton’s founder. “When prospects could see people like themselves achieving outcomes they desired, the gravitational attraction was remarkable.”

From Marketing Assets to Sales Tools

Traditional case studies often serve primarily as marketing materials. Gravitational success documentation functions as interactive sales tools that create momentum during conversations.

Zendesk pioneered this approach with their “Adaptive Success Library”—modular documentation components that sales teams could assemble into customised assets during actual sales conversations.

“We stopped treating case studies as marketing literature and started seeing them as interactive gravitational tools,” explains Mikkel Svane. “This shift transformed how our sales teams used success documentation to create momentum rather than just provide evidence.”

The Orbital Success Documentation System

To systematically transform client work into gravitational assets, consider implementing the Orbital Success Documentation System:

1. Victory Story Structure

Create compelling narratives with gravitational pull through this structure:

Situation Context: The specific challenges that create audience resonance
Approach Clarity: How your unique positioning manifested in the solution
Results Specificity: Concrete, measurable outcomes that demonstrate value
Learning Transparency: Authentic insights gained from the process
Future Implications: How the success creates ongoing momentum

Darktrace applied this structure to document how the University of Cambridge detected and prevented a sophisticated cyber attack. By following this framework, they created a narrative that resonated deeply with other educational institutions facing similar challenges.

“The structure wasn’t about making us look good,” explains Nicole Eagan. “It was about creating a story that would generate natural gravitational pull with similar organisations.”

2. Evidence Hierarchy Development

Build credibility through layered proof:

Level 1: Claimed Results - What you say the client achieved
Level 2: Attributed Quotes - What the client says they achieved
Level 3: Documented Metrics - Specific, measurable outcomes
Level 4: Independent Verification - Third-party validation of impact
Level 5: Ongoing Updates - Long-term success documentation

Shopify Plus systematically progressed key clients through this hierarchy, creating increasingly powerful gravitational assets. Their most compelling success documentation included before-and-after metrics, client-attributed quotes, and ongoing updates showing sustained results over time.

“Each evidence level created exponentially more gravitational pull,” explains Loren Padelford. “A Level 5 documentation asset with independent verification and ongoing updates created approximately 8x more pull than a Level 1 asset with just our claimed results.”

3. Format Diversification

Adapt success documentation for different contexts:

Written Case Studies: Comprehensive documentation for detailed evaluation
Video Testimonials: Emotional connection through authentic client voice
Data Visualisations: Impact demonstration through compelling metrics
Presentation Assets: Modular components for sales conversations
Conference Materials: Client co-presentation opportunities

Lush, the UK cosmetics retailer, applied this approach to their ethical sourcing success stories. They created multiple format variations for each story—from comprehensive written documentation to emotional video testimonials from supplier communities to visual data representations of environmental impact.

“Different formats create different types of gravitational pull,” explains Mark Constantine, Lush co-founder. “Written documentation satisfies analytical evaluation, while video testimonials create emotional connection. Together, they form a more powerful gravitational asset than either alone.”

4. Distribution Strategy

Extend gravitational reach through systematic sharing:

Sales Enablement: Integration into sales conversation frameworks
Marketing Amplification: Content strategy alignment
PR Opportunities: Industry recognition and third-party coverage
Client Community: Peer-to-peer sharing mechanisms
Internal Knowledge: Cross-functional learning integration

Salesforce mastered this approach through their integrated distribution strategy. Success documentation wasn’t just published—it was systematically deployed across multiple channels, from sales playbooks to marketing campaigns to Dreamforce presentations to community forums.

“Distribution isn’t an afterthought—it’s an integral part of gravitational asset development,” explains Polly Sumner. “The most compelling success documentation creates little pull if it isn’t strategically shared across channels that extend its reach.”

The Gravitational Sales Assessment

To evaluate your current sales function’s gravitational contribution, assess these dimensions:

1. Conversation Value Creation (Rate 1-5)

Learning Extraction: How effectively do you capture insights from every conversation?
Positioning Refinement: How systematically do sales insights improve positioning?
Problem Understanding: How deeply do you explore customer challenges?
Solution Alignment: How precisely do you match capabilities to needs?
Follow-up Value: How much standalone value exists in your sales process?

2. Qualification Effectiveness (Rate 1-5)

Criteria Clarity: How well-defined are your qualification standards?
Positioning Alignment: How well do qualification criteria reflect positioning?
Disqualification Courage: How effectively do you say “no” to misaligned opportunities?
Resource Preservation: How well do you protect capacity for ideal prospects?
Gravitational Potential: How effectively do you assess long-term value beyond transaction?

3. Success Documentation (Rate 1-5)

Story Completeness: How comprehensive is your success documentation?
Evidence Quality: How compelling is your proof hierarchy?
Production Consistency: How systematically do you create success assets?
Format Diversity: How varied are your documentation approaches?
Distribution Effectiveness: How widely are success stories shared?

4. Gravitational Integration (Rate 1-5)

Marketing Synchronisation: How well do sales insights inform marketing?
Product Development: How effectively do sales observations guide product evolution?
Client Success Loops: How systematically do delivery outcomes feed back to sales?
Community Building: How well do sales activities contribute to broader engagement?
Knowledge Management: How effectively is sales learning captured and shared?

For each dimension, scores of 1-2 indicate transaction-focused approaches, while scores of 4-5 represent gravity-building systems. The assessment identifies specific opportunities to transform your sales function from pure value extraction to gravitational asset creation.

The Gravitational Sales Roadmap

To develop sales gravity over time, consider this sequential approach:

1. Foundation Phase: Establishing Your Sales Gravity Base

Develop qualification criteria aligned with positioning
Create initial success documentation templates
Build learning capture processes for sales conversations
Establish cross-functional feedback mechanisms

When Zendesk began their gravitational transformation, they started with these foundational elements. Their initial customer story documentation framework provided a simple structure that sales teams could implement without disrupting their primary responsibilities.

“We didn’t try to change everything at once,” explains Mikkel Svane. “We started with basic systems that created gravitational assets without overwhelming our sales function.”

2. Amplification Phase: Deepening Sales Gravitational Impact

Refine qualification based on gravitational patterns
Develop evidence hierarchy across client relationships
Create format diversity for different audience needs
Implement systematic distribution of success assets

Adyen focused on this phase by developing vertical-specific evidence for key industries like retail, travel, and digital goods. For each sector, they created tailored documentation with industry-specific metrics and peer comparisons that resonated deeply with similar prospects.

“Once we had basic systems in place, we focused on creating increasingly powerful gravitational assets for specific market segments,” explains Roelant Prins. “This targeted approach created much stronger pull than generic documentation.”

3. Integration Phase: Building Connected Sales Gravity

Create seamless loops between sales, marketing and product
Develop client advocacy programmes beyond testimonials
Build community connections through client relationships
Establish gravitational measurement systems

Salesforce exemplified this approach through their Trailblazer programme, which transformed traditional reference customers into community advocates. These relationships extended beyond simple testimonials to create interconnected gravitational networks that pulled in similar organisations.

“The magic happened when we stopped seeing sales, marketing, and customer success as separate functions,” explains Polly Sumner. “By integrating these teams around gravitational development, we created exponentially stronger pull than any function could generate alone.”

4. Evolution Phase: Maintaining Sales Gravitational Leadership

Anticipate changing market needs through sales intelligence
Refresh success documentation formats and approaches
Balance transaction requirements with gravitational building
Develop predictive indicators for gravitational growth

Xero demonstrated this evolutionary approach through their partner-led gravity strategy. As their accounting partner network matured, they developed increasingly sophisticated systems for leveraging these relationships’ gravitational potential—from basic referral programmes to comprehensive co-marketing initiatives to integrated technology partnerships.

“Gravitational development isn’t a one-time project—it’s an ongoing evolution,” explains Gary Turner. “As market conditions change and your business matures, your approach to sales gravity must evolve to maintain and strengthen your pull.”

Implementation Across Business Types

The principles of gravitational sales apply across business contexts, but implementation varies:

B2B vs. B2C

B2B implementations typically focus on in-depth documentation and relationship leverage, while B2C approaches emphasise community building and experiential evidence.

Snow Peak, the Japanese outdoor equipment company, adapted gravitational sales principles to their retail context. Rather than documenting traditional B2B case studies, they created immersive experiences that showcased customer adventures and lifestyle integration.

“We had to translate B2B gravitational principles to a consumer context,” explains Lisa Yamai, Snow Peak’s President. “While the mechanics differed, the fundamental physics remained the same—creating assets through every interaction that progressively increased our pull.”

High-Volume vs. High-Value

High-volume sales require scalable, automated gravitational systems, while high-value approaches can invest in deeper, more customised relationship development.

First Direct, handling thousands of new account conversations monthly, developed highly structured gravitational processes that could scale efficiently. By contrast, Palantir, with fewer but larger opportunities, invested in deep, customised gravitational development for each potential client.

“The principles don’t change, but the implementation scale does,” explains Joe Gordon of First Direct. “We had to create gravitational systems that worked across thousands of daily interactions rather than a handful of high-value conversations.”

Product-Led vs. Sales-Led Growth

Product-led organisations integrate gravitational development directly into user experiences, while sales-led companies build it into conversation frameworks.

Slack exemplified product-led gravitational development, embedding success documentation directly into their onboarding experience. Each new team saw how similar organisations achieved specific outcomes, creating pull toward broader adoption without direct sales intervention.

“In product-led contexts, the product itself becomes a gravitational development tool,” explains Stewart Butterfield. “Rather than sales conversations creating pull, the user experience itself generates and documents success patterns.”

Measuring Gravitational Sales Progress

To track your growing gravitational pull over time, consider these indicators:

Quantitative Metrics

Time to First Meeting: Decreasing indicates growing pull
Sales Cycle Length: Should progressively reduce
Inbound/Outbound Ratio: Should shift toward inbound over time
Marketing-Attributed Pipeline: Should increase as gravity strengthens
Referral Percentages: Should grow as gravitational mass increases
Documentation Consumption: Track engagement with success stories

Qualitative Indicators

Objection Evolution: From fundamental concerns to implementation details
Competitive Awareness Shift: From “Why you vs. competitor?” to “How soon can we start?”
Conversation Depth Change: From explanatory to collaborative
Question Sophistication: From basic understanding to advanced application
Stakeholder Engagement: From single champions to broader committees

As Gary Turner of Xero explains: “The true measure of sales gravity isn’t just how many clients you win, but how the nature of sales conversations evolves over time. When prospects start arriving with existing conviction rather than requiring persuasion, you know your gravitational development is working.”

The Compounding Advantage of Orbital Victories

Traditional sales pursues individual transactions that require constant effort. Gravitational sales creates orbital victories that compound over time, progressively reducing the energy required to achieve the same results.

“Gravity-building isn’t about closing more deals; it’s about creating conditions where deals close themselves with decreasing effort over time,” explains Mikkel Svane of Zendesk.

This compounding advantage creates sustainable competitive separation. While competitors continue expending constant energy on transaction-focused approaches, organisations with gravity-building sales systems achieve more with less—creating a widening efficiency gap that becomes nearly impossible to close.

The true power of sales as a gravitational force lies in this compound effect. Every conversation, whether it results in immediate revenue or not, becomes an opportunity to build assets that increase your pull. Over time, this systematic approach transforms your sales function from a simple value extractor to a powerful gravity generator—creating conditions where the right prospects are naturally drawn toward you rather than requiring constant pursuit.

As we’ll explore in the next chapter, this gravitational approach extends beyond sales to other aspects of your business—creating an integrated attraction system where clients, talent, and opportunities increasingly orbit your organisation with less effort and more momentum over time.