Every successful entrepreneur has a history not just of wins, but also of losses, setbacks, and pivotal lessons. James Sansone, the CEO of Certified Closers LLC, is no exception. While he’s best known today for building a thriving sales infrastructure business that helps companies scale through validated offers and remote sales teams, his path to success has included its fair share of missteps and learning curves.

In this article, we’re diving into the lesser-known, but critically important, side of James’ story: the failures, the lessons, and how they fueled his rise as a business leader.

Early Missteps: Getting Stuck in the Sales Role

Before James Sansone founded Certified Closers, he was a top-tier closer himself, working directly on the front lines of sales calls. One of his earliest realizations was also one of his biggest bottlenecks: being the closer meant he could never scale beyond his own availability. He was earning, but not building anything that could grow without him.

This wasn’t a failure in the traditional sense, but it was a trap. Like many service providers and freelancers, James hit a ceiling. The real failure was not recognizing soon enough that he needed to remove himself from the sales role in order to build a scalable infrastructure. Once he realized this, he pivoted, hiring, training, and ultimately building out a remote sales team that could run with his systems independently.

The Wrong Offers: Learning That “Nice” Isn’t Always “Necessary”

Another major turning point came when James launched a few offers that sounded great on paper but failed in the market. Early in his consulting journey, he would work with clients or try to build internal offers that were attractive but not essential.

They had the right packaging, good creative, and clean copy, but they didn’t solve a critical need for the target audience.

James has since spoken publicly about how one of his biggest breakthroughs was focusing not on “cool” offers, but on necessary ones. Offers that solve a problem the market is actively trying to fix. That shift changed everything, but not before he experienced campaigns that flopped and left him questioning the direction of his brand.

Underestimating the Cost of Fulfillment

When Certified Closers started gaining traction, James began taking on more clients. What he didn’t anticipate early on was the hidden cost of fulfillment. The demand was strong, but the backend systems weren’t yet tight enough to deliver everything on time at the quality he expected.

This led to a period where client onboarding and delivery timelines fell behind. While clients were still seeing results, internally, the team was stretched thin, and James had to face the reality that scaling too fast without the right operational infrastructure could burn both the business and the brand.

The lesson? Growth is only as sustainable as the backend supporting it. James doubled down on systematization, began refining every piece of his delivery pipeline, and brought in team members to own different phases of client success.

Failed Team Hires

Another tough but necessary lesson came from hiring the wrong people, especially in key sales roles.

As someone building a company rooted in sales performance, James initially assumed he could train almost anyone into becoming a high-performing closer. But over time, he realized that some hires simply weren’t the right fit, even with great coaching.

A few of those early hires cost the company time, leads, and money. More importantly, they drained internal morale. James began developing a more rigorous hiring and training process, focusing on screening for mindset and adaptability as much as skill.

Course Corrections, Not Collapses

It’s important to note that James Sansone’s “failures” didn’t result in the collapse of his company. What defines them is how he responded, each one was a correction point that refined his systems, vision, and leadership approach.

Whether it was an underperforming ad campaign, a broken sales process, or an operational breakdown, James chose to adapt and evolve, not retreat.

Lessons Turned Into Frameworks

Here’s where James truly stands out: every business failure has become part of the Certified Closers framework.

• His failure to delegate sales? Now he trains others how to replace themselves with remote closers.
• His early offer flops? Now he helps clients validate offers before scaling.
• His fulfillment delays? Now he preps clients for fulfillment scale before traffic ever hits.
• His bad hires? Now he has a system for finding and onboarding closers that actually close.

These aren’t scars, these are blueprints.

Final Thought: Why Failure is the Real Advantage

James Sansone’s ability to own and learn from failure is one of the key reasons Certified Closers has become so respected in the business world.

He doesn’t pretend the journey was perfect. He doesn’t sell an overnight success story. Instead, he brings real lessons, tested strategies, and battle-won frameworks to the table. That’s why entrepreneurs from all backgrounds turn to his team, not just for marketing or sales support, but for leadership that understands the full scope of what building a business really takes.

If you’re a business owner, struggling through failures of your own, let James’ story remind you: the setbacks aren’t the end. They’re the beginning of your real edge.