CEO & Founder
Jim Ayraud is the CEO and Founder of Next Level, Inc. a leadership and sales performance firm and certified Sandler Training center, headquartered in the greater Boston area. Since 1996, Jim and his team have trained, coached, consulted and mentored hundreds of people in companies spanning over 80 industries.
Over the past decade, Next Level has developed a specialized practice working with firms in the Professional Services arena, more specifically those firms in the Accounting, Consulting, Engineering, and Marketing. Each of these firms presents Next Level with the wonderful opportunity to help those who did not go to school to be in sales, see the importance of adopting a sales process and methodology. They also have looked to Next Level for help with sales leadership, a hiring process, coaching, and developing the next generation of high performers.
Jim is also the co-creator of SalesAccountability, the go-to coaching and accountability software for all of Sandler including affiliates and their clients. The mission of SalesAccountability is to help salespeople, sales managers, and all those that support sales build a better more meaningful and purposeful day. In addition, helping people maximize their return on time invested and ultimately become more successful in their sales development role.
In addition to running a company and advancing a software platform, Jim serves as an ambassador for Sandler’s corporate sales organization helping grow the Sandler brand within larger firms. Jim has also been a featured speaker to many organizations, associations and is a regular contributor to Sandler’s “How to Succeed” podcast series.
Prior to founding Next Level, Jim spend his sales career with companies like P&G and Kimberly-Clark. This high caliber experience has provided Jim with the foundational selling and management skills that have become the backbone of his company today.
Today Next Level is a family company lead by Jim and his two daughters who are helping him take the company to new heights of success.
"Next Level has truly been a game-changer for our organization. We have been with Jim, Haley and the Next Level team for the last five years fine-tuning our organization. They have helped us in three major areas (all of which were broken or non-existent). They have helped define our sales management and refine our sales process to ensure we educate our sales leaders and maximize our interaction with every client at the time of engagement. They have also helped us take a different approach to our hiring process that has allowed us to hire (and retain) top talent with the help of the Devine assessment tool. Without Next Level’s help we certainly would not be as successful an organization. Thank you for everything Next Level!" Mike McDonnell, CFO Pile & Company
