S2 Ep 7: Mike Sullivan, From $80K Debt to $70M Closed
Mike Sullivan is Executive Director of Sales at TriNetX, where he sells into top-20 pharmaceutical companies.
This episode centers on his career-defining deal - a $3.55M ARR, two-year enterprise contract with a Fortune 500 pharma company that took nearly two years to close, ran 20+ use cases across 5 business units, and required Mike to get high in the account at month 20 of 24.
This came at a time of great personal challenge and difficulty - balancing debt and obligations, while threading the needle of an incredibly difficult strategic sale.
This deal flies in the face of almost everything we're taught in enterprise sales — and it worked because Mike refused to take shortcuts. He was 39 years old with $80K in debt when he joined TriNetX. This deal changed everything.
Connect with Mike:
- LinkedIn: Mike Sullivan
- Website: mikesullivan.co
- Mike offers free 30-minute coffee chats for anyone navigating sales challenges or working to turn things around — reach out directly on LinkedIn or via his site.
On getting high in the account:
"I wasn't high in this deal until month 20 of 24. That goes against everything we're taught in enterprise sales — but I couldn't get there no matter what I tried."
On running the pilot:
"Rather than you as the customer pointing and clicking, we ran the use cases in our software for you and presented back the output. We did the upfront heavy lifting ourselves."
On co-creating the business case:
"We were building the business case with the customer throughout the entire deal cycle. So when we had the readout meeting, it was crystal clear — here's where you are today, here's what tomorrow looks like."
On commission breath:
"If you're making it about you and your commission check, you're putting your deal at risk. You'll subconsciously say the wrong thing at the wrong time."
On patience:
"Aggressive patience. You've got to be aggressive in the right way — persistent, following up — but patient as hell. If you squeeze an egg too hard, it breaks."
On the internal sale:
"A lot of times the internal sale is harder than the external sale. We know in our gut which deals have huge potential even when the pipeline doesn't reflect it."
On transformation:
"I didn't feel like I was selling at all during that deal cycle. It was more just project management — co-creating the process, co-creating the business case, really partnering with them."
On mindset:
"It's you against you. Are you doing the best you can do every single day? You can only control your attitude, your actions, and your effort. Literally nothing else."
Books mentioned:
- The Gap and the Gain — Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin Hardy
- The Four Agreements — Don Miguel Ruiz
- Ego Is the Enemy — Ryan Holiday
- Take the Stairs — Rory Vaden
Connect with Mike:
- LinkedIn: Mike Sullivan
- Website: mikesullivan.co
- Mike offers free 30-minute coffee chats for anyone navigating sales challenges or working to turn things around — reach out directly on LinkedIn or via his site.
