Most entrepreneurs think that the way to grow their sales is just to push harder. They work longer hours, they take more calls, they squeeze in just one more launch or one more post, and for a while that works. But eventually you hit a wall because there are only so many hours in a day and only so much energy you can give.

Today I want to explore how CEOs scale their sales. How do they do it without burning themselves out or becoming a bottleneck? The answer is simple: they don’t do everything themselves. They rely on assets, people, and systems.

Entrepreneurs drive sales through effort. CEOs drive sales through design. CEOs take responsibility for the result, but they're not doing all of the work. It’s the difference between hauling buckets of water back and forth versus building pipes that keep the flow going whether you’re there or not. Buckets feel fast at first, and pipes feel slow at first, but only one is sustainable.

At some point you have to reevaluate the things you’ve been doing—even the things that are working—because the strategies that got you here won’t be the ones that get you to the next level. You can't keep doing it all.

Let’s start with assets. Assets are the tools that do the talking for you. This could be a video that answers your top five prospect questions, a graphic that shows your process, a case study that highlights client results, or an offer document that clearly explains what someone is buying. Every asset you create becomes like a clone of you. It packages what you normally say so that something else can say it for you while you focus on other things.

Most businesses think they're lacking leads, but what they’re really lacking are assets that move leads forward without depending on the business owner. People drop off when they're waiting on you. Ask yourself how far someone can get in your sales process today if you’re not available. Can they learn what they need to know? Can they buy? Or are they stuck until you show up?

When you invest in assets, you create leverage. You empower buyers and remove yourself as the bottleneck.

Next is people. CEOs know they shouldn’t be doing all the selling. This doesn’t mean building a giant sales team. It simply means having someone besides you handle sales calls, follow-up, responding to questions in DMs or inboxes, introducing upgrades or add-ons, or reviewing funnel data and optimizing the process. Entrepreneurs often say, “No one can sell like me.” CEOs ask, “How can I equip someone to sell successfully without me?” When people have training, clarity, tools, and assets, they can perform extremely well, and the payoff is huge.

The third lever is systems. Systems make sales consistent instead of chaotic. Sales shouldn't rise and fall based on how much energy you have. Systems like weekly campaign rhythms, automated follow-up processes, and simple pipeline trackers stabilize everything. With systems, sales become steady, predictable, and boring—in the best way possible. They take luck out of the equation and remove the need for willpower or memory.

When you zoom out, entrepreneurs grow sales by pushing harder. CEOs grow sales by pulling the right levers: assets that do the talking, people who share the workload, and systems that keep sales predictable. It’s the difference between carrying buckets or building pipes—force versus design, effort versus leverage.

Here’s my challenge for you. Don’t try to overhaul everything at once. Pick one lever—assets, people, or systems—and strengthen it this month. Ask yourself whether you need to package something into an asset, equip someone to take part of the process off your plate, or put a simple system in place that makes sales more predictable.

Scaling sales the CEO way happens piece by piece. And the more leverage you build, the less sales will depend on you, and the more your business can finally grow without you being the bottleneck.