Foreword by Brad Feld
NEVER ASK FOR THE SALE
Supercharge Your Business with the Power of Passionate Ambivalence
Sue Heilbronner
Business Leader, Conscious Leadership Coach, and Fearless Catalyst for Change
What if selling didn’t feel like selling? Never Ask for the Sale reveals how to stress less, price confidently, and make selling a natural extension of who you are. Perfect for solopreneurs, founders, account executives, and professionals, this book introduces Sue’s “passionate ambivalence” technique—caring deeply about new business while letting go of individual outcomes.
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Brad Feld
Foundry, Partner · Techstars, Co-Founder
“Never Ask gives readers a path to connect their business pursuits to their greatest skills or talents, which allows selling of any kind to be an outgrowth of personal and professional alignment.”
Praise For Never Ask for the Sale
Godard Abel
CEO of G2
Sue’s Never Ask for the Sale captures exactly what founder-led selling should look like—relentlessly passionate yet ambivalent about the outcome. This book is a great-read for any entrepreneur who wants to build thriving businesses by aligning their value proposition to their zone of genius and authentically engaging with their network, community, and customers to bring their vision to life.
Jim Dethmer
Co-Author of The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
Sue is a gifted, passionate, and conscious seller. Making connections, spotting opportunities, and growing businesses all fall into her zone of genius. This book helps sellers align their work with their greatest gifts and genuinely offer themselves with candor, optimism, and a healthy level of detachment around outcomes. This recipe resonates deeply with me.
Jerry Colonna
Author of Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong and CEO of Reboot.io
In a world noisy with hacks and hustle, Never Ask for the Sale offers something quietly radical: a return to self. Sue Heilbronner’s concept of ‘passionate ambivalence’ is a deeply grounded philosophy that honors authenticity over persuasion and presence over performance. This isn’t a book about selling. It’s a book about becoming someone worth buying from—because you believe in the value of your own damn work.
Heather Frick
CMO and Executive Coach, Advisor
Never Ask For The Sale is a game changer. After reading it, I was immediately inspired to respond to an indecisive coaching prospect with radical candor (and confidence)—telling him I’d not prefer to ‘sell’ him on me as a coach, and, if he didn’t give a full body ‘yes’ to work with me, to move on. The next day he signed a six-month coaching engagement with me.
Ashlie Beckham
Amazon Reviewer
As someone who has always dreaded anything that even remotely resembled “sales,” I didn’t expect this book to hit me the way it did. Her concept of “passionate ambivalence” removes the ick from sales and replaces it with integrity and authenticity. This book is impactful, refreshing, and empowering—especially for anyone who has ever said, “I hate sales.” By the last page, I didn’t just understand the shift she was offering—I felt ready to practice it.
Mel
Amazon Reviewer
I believe this book has tangibly altered the trajectory of my career. We product, engineering, and design folks are also selling ourselves all the time. We sell our ideas in meetings, we sell ourselves for promotions, and we sell others when we shout out our teammates for outstanding work. If you’ve ever struggled to advocate for yourself or your ideas at work, this book is worth your time. This book inspired me to take on a highly visible cross-org initiative, and I received a significant special stock award for its success.
Bring Passionate Ambivalence to Your Team.
Whether a team is focused on internal influence or external selling, Sue provides interactive workshops to supercharge your power of persuasion without the “ick.”
Embrace Passionate Ambivalence: A Game-Changer in Sales
Never Ask for the Sale sits at the intersection of coaching, personal growth, conscious leadership, and sales and combines the financial savvy and relatability of Rich Dad Poor Dad with the humanity of Dare to Lead and the growth mindset of Grit and Powerful.
It provides an authentic and actionable guide to supercharge your selling prowess with heart, guts, and intention. Packed with compelling anecdotes from Sue’s personal selling journey and inspiring stories of fellow entrepreneurs, it delivers both insight and inspiration. Each chapter features at least one practical exercise, transforming the book into a hands-on sales “workbook” and a personalized “coaching session.”
1
Clearing Blockers to Success
Beginning the inside job of looking at yourself as the center of your business growth is a bit of a leap for some. This section of the book gives you the tools, exercises, and mindset shifts to take that leap with conviction.
2
Defining the “You” in Your Selling Motion
YOU are your USP. Discover how to align your unique talents with your offerings. Craft a standout two-minute bio, assemble your personal board of directors, find your “zone of genius,” and set game-changing goals that fuel your sales success.
3
Laying the Groundwork for Selling
Build a strong foundation for authentic marketing and sales with Sue’s six transformative principles. Discover how to align your true self with your market presence, crafting strategies that resonate and build trust from the start.
4
Marketing You: Authentically, Imperfectly, and Often
Get your business into the spotlight with actionable steps to create your digital and brand presence, launch your outreach efforts, build visibility in your community and across your network, and create referral relationships –all while staying true to yourself.
5
Selling You: From Prospect to Close
Master the art of selling YOU. Learn to qualify the right prospects, handle responses with tailored templates, conduct a “fit call” with the right tone, and know when to say “no.” Refine your approach to pricing, scoping, and closing deals through proven strategies and pathways.
About the Author
Sue Heilbronner is a sought-after speaker, startup CEO, adjunct professor of entrepreneurship, strategic facilitator and advisor, conscious leadership coach and program leader.
Sue has been selling since she was five years old, when she loaded up her Radio Flyer with books, marked the prices with crayon, and marched around her neighborhood, shilling. Later, she sold cases to juries as a prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice before pivoting to a series of sales and CEO roles in technology companies. She co-founded one of the first venture capital firms focused on companies with at least one woman in leadership. Then, she became a solopreneur, launching an executive coaching, facilitation, and speaking business at HeySue.com
Sue has worked with leaders and teams at GoogleX, Meta, Apple, Salesforce, Microsoft, Techstars, YPO, G2, Teach for America, and more. She earned a BA from Oberlin College and a JD and master’s of public policy from Duke University. She lives in Boulder, Colorado.