I was talking with an old colleague/ customer/ friend today who's starting to think about what he's going to do in retirement. He's been a beekeeper all his life. His grandfather was a beekeeper. His father was a beekeeper. He's currently a beekeeper. And he's looking at acquiring a bunch more hives. So I started talking to him about beekeeping and what he loves about it. And when he started telling me about how and why it relaxes him, I almost immediately saw the parallels between beekeeping and sales.

At first glance, beekeeping and sales might seem worlds apart. But the conversation really tied it together for me. Both demand routine, a focus on inputs over outcomes, need consistent nurturing, and require the wisdom to execute the right behaviors at the right time.

So here’s the alignment:

2. Focus on the Inputs, Not Just the Harvest: Beekeeping is not a get-rich-quick endeavor (maybe even a not-get-rich at all endeavor). You can’t force a colony to produce honey; you can only manage the environment. Similarly, great salespeople don't fixate solely on the end-of-month revenue goal or just the “big” deal. They focus on the daily "swings of the bat". Sales growth is a mathematical certainty if you consistently put in the repetitions. By committing to a daily proactive outreach, you stop relying on "inbound luck" and start controlling your own success.

3. Shift Your Mindset: Helping, Not Selling: Bees can sense hesitation and fear. In sales, the fear of rejection is the strongest emotion preventing proactive behavior. This causes even talented professionals to hide behind their keyboards. To overcome the fear, you have to change the internal narrative. You have to shift your mindset from feeling like you are "bothering" the customer to realizing you have an obligation to help them. When you approach a call with genuine curiosity, optimism, and a desire to serve, the fear disappears.

4. Slow Down to Build Trust: If you rush out to a hive and spook the bees, you’ll get stung. When you are proposing a new solution or working through a complex product deal, you have to slow down. If you succumb to the (self-inflicted) pressure to rush through a conversation to relieve your anxiety/discomfort or to accommodate a prospect's reactivity, you miss the opportunity to listen and understand. By taking your time, asking thoughtful questions, and ensuring true alignment, you build trust and walk away with a stronger, longer-lasting partnership.

5. Timely Care and Intentional Communication: In beekeeping, a week's delay in treating a hive can spell disaster. Success requires acting on a reliable schedule. In sales, you can’t leave your opportunities to chance. Proactive professionals rely on systematic, persistent and valuable communication. They never leave a next step open-ended. Whether you are checking in on a quote or simply catching up, always secure the next clear step by asking.

6. Survey the Environment & Ask "What Else?": A beekeeper constantly surveys the hives, asking and observing if anything has changed. A proactive salesperson does the exact same thing with their clients. By regularly calling your best customers and simply asking, "What other projects do you have coming up?" or "What else are you working on that I can help with?", you uncover hidden needs. You will be surprised by how often a client will give you additional business simply because you took the time to ask.

7. Measure the Right Indicators: Beekeepers are always thinking months ahead, looking at the health of the brood to predict the summer harvest. Most sales leaders manage by looking at last month's invoiced sales, which is like driving using the rearview mirror. To create predictable growth, you have to look forward by tracking leading indicators. When you measure the daily effort: the phone calls made, the questions asked, the relationships nurtured; you can confidently forecast your revenue health long before it hits the bottom line.

8: There will be times when you WILL get stung.  In beekeeping, most stings are caused by a bee getting crushed or too much pressure placed on it. When a bee stings, they release a pheromone that calls in other bees to attack as well. The worst reaction you can have is to flail your arms as they are attracted to the motion and the pheromone. The best response, even after a sting, is to calmly walk away, let them settle down and come back later.  Much like sales: sometimes the pressure is too great and walking away to come back later works for both your benefit, and their’s.



Amid all the complexity of beekeeping, success comes down to a consistent, repeatable routine of checking the fundamentals. It’s the rhythm of the hive and the shifts of the seasons that ensure the honey is always flowing.

In sales, we must replace randomness with discipline. Building a permanent weekly cadence that plans exactly who you will proactively call and what you are going to ask on those calls, allows you and your team to execute the outreach consistently, track your efforts, minimize fear/call reluctance and celebrate the small daily wins.