Jay Mays, Pitch Lab Founder

My sales career started in 1996 selling dial-up accounts and web hosting plans to small businesses. Back in those days, my cutting-edge CRM consisted of 4x6 index cards inside an old Nike shoebox.

Over the years a lot has changed. My drive to help clients win hasn’t.

I've booked hundreds of “closed won” deals with marquee clients like AT&T, Red Bull, Meijer, and the Miami Marlins to name a few.

For the sake of optimism though, I never kept track of my “closed lost” deals. That said there were a handful of heartbreakers I still pull my best sales stories and lessons from.

I'm also a recovering stand-up comedian. That background isn't a gimmick. Comedy taught me how to read a room, hold attention, and make something stick with an audience that has every reason to tune out. Those skills show up in every Pitch Lab engagement. And it’s why the training sticks.

For the past decade I've worked with CEOs at B2B companies who know something's off with their sales team but aren't sure exactly why. I get smart about their specific situation first, find out what’s getting in the way of more wins, and build the fixes around what I find.

The result is higher win rates, larger deal sizes, and a forecast you can finally trust.

My passion isn’t limited to sales, I’m also into cortados, 90s rock, the beach, The Onion, Larry David, dry socks, dark chocolate, and of course, my family.

Pitch Lab’s Origin Story: Est. 2016

Hi, I'm Jay, the guy in the videos up above.

Years ago I thought my path to success would be headlining comedy clubs, landing my own HBO Comedy Special and scoring a recurring role on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

I was wrong.

Somewhere in the middle of a decade of slinging jokes from Denver to Miami, I found my success wasn't on stage, but in my sales job, and it was the sales job that was turning into real money. Heartbroken, or stoked, depending on which way you look at it, a lightbulb went off:

There's a connection between stand-up comedy and sales.

This felt too obvious for only me to have figured out, and yet I found not many folks are qualified to link the two together. Sure, there are hundreds of comics talking about how to be a better performer, and even more sales experts who will teach you how to win more deals, but nothing combines these two ideas into a fresh approach to sales.

Turns out, I had an edge at the intersection of comedy and sales. And it was time to do something about it.

Pitch Lab started as an open-mic, providing salespeople a stage to practice their pitch. The idea was inspired by stand-up comics who are on stage night after night, polishing their material, honing their craft in front of a variety of crowds.

On the other hand, the only pitch practice I ever received as a salesperson was in front of actual prospects. And I can tell you firsthand, that's not the right time to build your confidence. So I wondered, why aren't more sales people practicing like comedians?

More digging, more surprises: The answer is there simply weren't any safe spaces for salespeople to practice their skills. Until Pitch Lab.

Since 2016 Pitch Lab has been helping B2B sales teams win more deals. What started as an open mic concept for salespeople to practice their pitch has evolved into something bigger.

Over the past decade we've worked inside hundreds of B2B sales organizations and trained thousands of salespeople. And while the comedy background is still the reason the training sticks, the work has evolved.

Today Pitch Lab is a full B2B sales consulting and training firm. We get smart about your specific situation first, find what's actually getting in the way of more wins, and build the fix around what we find. The result is higher win rates, larger deal sizes, and a forecast you can finally trust.

Curiosity piqued? Take a peek at our sales training programs here.

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