Podcasts about chief sales officer

75% and 75. That's what I want you to focus on. This is the recipe for a 7-Figure Book of Business. In this podcast episode host Charles Specht will talk about the 75% activity level you need for prospecting as well as creating a list of no less than 75 referral partners. Imagine what your agency or Book of Business would look like if you had 75 COI's referring accounts to you non-stop! Key Topics: Spending 75% of golden hours on active prospecting, not service work Separating prospecting from admin tasks like apps and CRM updates Producers who don't prospect are just account managers Building a dedicated COI prospect list alongside your primary prospect list Why veteran producers get inbound referrals - and how to replicate it intentionally Targeting non-insurance vendors in your niche as COI relationships Reaching out to COIs with a no-sell, mutual referral pitch The 75/75 framework - 75% prospecting time, 75 COIs as your target Agency owners multiplying COI impact by coordinating vendor networks across producers Charles's fractional Chief Sales Officer offer at $500-$1,000 per month Reach out to  Charles Specht Visit: Permission Network Chief Sales Officer Permission Producer School Produced by PodSquad.fm

Brad Shapiro, senior vice president and chief sales officer of HPE Financial Services HPE Financial Services is making a concerted push to be less of a “best-kept secret” and more of a deal-closing engine for partners. At HPE Discover 2026, Brad Shapiro, senior vice president and chief sales officer of HPE Financial Services, walked In the Channel through several new partner-facing offers unveiled at Monday’s Partner Growth Summit. The standout is the 90/9 Advantage structure: 90 days with no payments, followed by nine months at 1 per cent of the original equipment cost, before shifting to level payments. Shapiro said the program is designed to blunt the sting of recent price hikes by pushing costs into future budget cycles without requiring customers to find new money mid-year. On the networking side, HPFS is stacking three offers to help HPE take share from competitors: 0 per cent financing on Mist or Aruba Central software, a “10 per cent better than cash” hardware financing rate, and a competitive takeout program that monetizes displaced gear. The used equipment angle is particularly timely. Shapiro noted that memory shortages have driven up resale values for retiring gear, creating an offset against new hardware costs. “It’s the equivalent of the car market in the early COVID days,” he said. HPFS also expanded its approved credit capacity by 150 per cent, a move Shapiro said was driven by partner frustration with re-approval cycles as component prices fluctuated. The interview also touched on HPFS’s partner pledge – Shapiro said his team does not receive quota retirement until the partner gets paid – and the growing importance of IT asset disposition and chain of custody as Canadian customers navigate AI-driven infrastructure refreshes. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: This episode of In The Channel is brought to you by HPE Discover 2026. Check out our full coverage of the event on ChannelBuzz.ca. You’ll find our HPE Discover 2026 news hub on the menu bar at the top of the page. Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. Today, my guest is Brad Shapiro, Senior Vice President and Chief Sales Officer of HPE Financial Services, the captive financing arm of HPE. Brad is responsible for the global partner-facing financing strategy and programs that help resellers and MSPs close bigger deals and get paid faster. We sat down at HPE Discover last week to talk about the new partner portal enhancements HPEFS rolled out at Partner Growth Summit, the thinking behind the company’s aggressive credit expansion, and how IT asset disposition fits into the overall AI infrastructure refresh wave that’s starting to hit customer budgets. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Brad Shapiro. Brad, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Brad Shapiro: Sure. Glad to be here, Rob. Robert Dutt: You guys rolled out some meaningful enhancements to the HPEFS partner side on Monday: payment structures, promotional pricing, and competitive pricing tiered to the partner’s relationship level. Canada is on the first wave of that for July 1. I understand a bunch of Canadian partners are having a party for that. For a Canadian reseller or MSP who wasn’t here this week, what does it actually change in how they can put a deal together for their customers? Brad Shapiro: Yeah, sure. So as you said, lots of exciting announcements here for Discover. And I think first and foremost, what HPEFS has put together is really focused on helping the HPE partners sell more in a couple of key areas. So we’ve all seen, you know, with commodity prices going up and the price increases around products, we’ve got some really interesting offers that have gained a lot of traction in the market. The 90/9 Advantage is one of the key ones. And that offering partners can offer to their customers is 90 days of no payments, nine months at 1% of the original equipment cost, and then it goes to level payments after. So while we can’t address that the product prices are increasing, what we are doing is providing help for customers who didn’t plan for this in the budget cycle, right? CFOs didn’t say, “Oh, here’s more money because prices are going up.” So it allows the end-user customer to kind of plan for this into the next budget cycle and beyond so they can get the compute power they need. So that’s a key one. The other area, when we look at the networking space, right, we’re very excited about, you know, Aruba and Juniper coming together in the new HPE networking, and they’ve got some tremendous offerings out there. But to really help them and help customers avoid kind of a double payment, like we want to go take market share, we want to be aggressive. So the first offer is 0% financing on the networking software, whether that’s Mist or Aruba Central. Then we have on the hardware side 10% better than cash as a financing offer. So that’s a really cool offer. And then we’ve added a really aggressive focus on IT asset disposition. So we want to go in, help customers by monetizing the competitor’s assets, taking those out, and then putting HPE networking assets in. So when you combine those three offers—0% on software, 10% better than cash on hardware, and a competitive takeout on the competitor’s products—we think we’re really helping partners go and address and partner up with HPE networking and be aggressive in the market to help HPE take share. Robert Dutt: Going back to the 90/9 program, what areas is that covering? Brad Shapiro: That covers all products. So it’s really a financial structure that can address the whole portfolio. And again, it’s a very attractive offer. We’ve seen it compared to any other financing offers we put out there. We’ve seen the pipeline ramp tremendously. It’s really addressing a need that’s out there in the marketplace. Robert Dutt: Before getting into the details of some other programs, you touched on the supply chain situation that is on every partner’s mind right now. I’m curious over the last five months or so that this has been such a big factor. What have you been hearing from partners in terms of what they’re asking for from you, and where they’re looking for help here beyond obviously some clarity and whatever break they can get? Brad Shapiro: I’ll talk from a financial services perspective. It’s really about how can we help the partner address some of the customer concerns. One of the big ones is budgeting. It’s always been the case that there’s more to do than you have budget for. This just puts another wrinkle in it that is unprecedented. I’ve been doing this quite a long time. I’ve really not seen the market dynamic as we have it today. But that’s where financial engineering and financial structuring comes into play. Also, a lot of customers, while the new prices have gone up, when customers are retiring assets, what many don’t realize is the used equipment that’s coming off—the used equipment market has also increased in value. We’re able to give customers a lot more money for their used gear than they’re used to. That’s been helping offset some of the increases on the new product side. Robert Dutt: It’s the equivalent of the car market in the early COVID days. Brad Shapiro: Absolutely. Same type of scenario. Robert Dutt: The announcement around a 150% increase on approved credit capacity—that’s a pretty striking number. Is that part of the response to that? What’s driving you guys to go aggressively there right now? A response to that uncertainty, a response to tariffs, a response to all the things we see going on? Brad Shapiro: It’s a response to a few things. Yes, the price increases. For a while, the component pricing was so uncertain that there was a shorter validity period for quoting. The idea of increasing the credit line created enough room so that our partners didn’t have to keep going through the cycle. What we were hearing as feedback was, “Hey, we would go get a request from HPEFS, we get it approved, then if pricing went up, then we had to go through that process again.” We wanted to give plenty of headroom and be aggressive to allow partners to quickly get their deals done and not have to go through a process twice. It was ease of doing business, speed, and really helping them close their deals. Robert Dutt: Not a peculiar problem for HPE and HPEFS either. That’s something that we’re hearing across the industry front as a major partner issue—the idea of customer sales cycles and “validity” not matching up in any real way. Brad Shapiro: Yeah, absolutely. We’re trying to do our part to help partners get deals done. The good news is HPE on the BU side, on the compute side, announced a longer price validity. I know that they announced that here at Discover and there was really good feedback at the Partner Growth Summit. I think overall HPE, we’re all trying to address and help partners get their deals done with customers. Robert Dutt: The 0% software financing tied to VM migration is interesting when it feels like you’re trying to smooth that painful transition for folks who are on a platform and looking to move somewhere new. Is that the right way to think about it, or what else are you applying to that model? Brad Shapiro: Yeah, so I think just in general, we’re trying to provide customers a way to engage and look at our CloudOps suite—Morpheus and Zerto and OpsRamp and the whole suite—and really focus on how can we make it easy for the customer to say, “Yeah, let me try this.” So at the end of the day, it doesn’t have to be something where they’re coming in and wiping out one versus the other. The cost differential is so great and we believe that if they can just lower the number of licenses on VMware, we can help them reduce costs. So they may look to put in our CloudOps software in certain places and reduce those VM licenses. 0% financing makes it an easier decision: “Hey, I can pay over time and it’s the same as paying cash, no interest.” It’s just another option for customers who may not have it in this year’s budget. Robert Dutt: I’m trying to track it because it’s something that you’re kind of ramping up on though in competitive areas. Brad Shapiro: Yeah, so what’s new from HPEFS, I would say this year versus maybe the past five or seven years, is a renewed focus on leveraging our financing capabilities to help partners sell more with HPE. We didn’t really have in the last five or seven years a lot of financing promotions. We’ve integrated with the BUs. We’ve listened to the partners. They want to see us come out with integrated offers that help drive more sales. And so we’ve been working closely with the BUs. We’ve been developing these offers over the past year. It started a little bit at last Discover, but we’re really hitting our stride now as an organization. And I think the partners are really going to benefit from that. Robert Dutt: PGS also saw the debut of sustainability competencies for partners through HPEFS and through Partner Ready Vantage in combination there. What does earning that competency mean in practice? What does a partner get and why should they be pursuing it? Brad Shapiro: Yeah, so from our perspective, when we think about sustainability, we think it’s a really important aspect of the overall business. We have a responsibility. And so from a partner perspective, by getting that accreditation, there’s incentives that they can get under the Partner Ready Vantage program. And from an HPEFS perspective, we’ve created circular economy reports to help support partners and customers. And we’re proud that we’ve issued our 2,000th report to customers, and that keeps growing. So as sustainability continues to be an important part of this, I think partners have a role to play in helping their customers, but also can earn more from HPE. Robert Dutt: What are you hearing from partners around the idea of sustainability as part of the quoting and solution offering process? It’s just something that I feel like I’m hearing more of from Canadian partners in particular because of a series of regulations and requirements, and in some public sector spaces, the way it’s being weighted. Brad Shapiro: From my perspective, and I have a global role, so in certain geographies around the world, it’s very, very important. And it varies across geographies, but everywhere you look, it’s a growing trend in terms of importance, as you mentioned, in terms of government responses. We’re seeing more governments putting requirements in there. So my feeling is addressing sustainability is quickly becoming a must-have if you’re going to offer solutions. And so we’re right there with our partners in terms of helping them do that. Robert Dutt: It also connects to—and this is something that we touched on a little bit earlier—the idea that every customer upgrading their network and compute stack to something that’s more capable of AI has that corresponding pile of displaced gear that they’ve got to do something with. Brad Shapiro: Yeah. Robert Dutt: I guess, how significant do you see the ITAD opportunity in this refresh wave in the near future, and how do you help partners get in front of that? Brad Shapiro: Yeah, so again, I think there’s a significant opportunity, and I think HPE networking is really well positioned in that AI space. So from our perspective, in looking at the products that we can displace readily, there’s a pretty large install base. Some of our competitors have many customers out there, so the idea of putting those assets back into reuse somewhere is very real. So we think we can do well to help that customer monetize the asset. We can also put that back into reuse, which is good for the environment, and at the same time, help customers really modernize their network, because that’s really a solid foundation you need. When you think about AI, everybody thinks about the compute side and GPUs, but the network is so critical to having that solid AI foundation, and we believe HPE networking is the right choice. Robert Dutt: Across the board in your purview, is there a Canadian dimension here worth calling out? We’re hearing a lot more about data sovereignty driving decisions and that kind of thing about where workloads live. But does that also extend to how customers think about decommissioned hardware and where it goes? Brad Shapiro: Yeah, look, I think from a decommissioned hardware perspective, we are very careful about chain of custody and where that ends up. And I think that’s one thing that differentiates HPE when we’re thinking about decommissioning versus many others out there. We’re a large brand. It’s really important to us to decommission in the right way, following all the regulations that are out there. So if you’re a Canadian partner or a Canadian customer, knowing that the HPE brand… we are as focused on doing those things in the right way and following the rules and regulations. Our brand reputation is at stake, and we put a lot of thought and resource, time and energy into that. Robert Dutt: What’s the single biggest piece of feedback or most common piece of feedback you’ve been getting from partners here at Discover this week? What are they talking to you about? What are they curious about in terms of what you guys can bring to bear for their customers? Brad Shapiro: Yeah, so I think there’s been a lot of positive feedback on the offerings that we’ve come out with. As I mentioned before, we’re showing up differently now. We’re showing up coordinated with the different business units across HPE with these offers. That’s helpful. The other thing we’re focused on is really about the partner experience. So it’s not just having the right offers. It’s making them easy to access, operationally making it a smooth process. We want to be fast. We want to be predictable. When we put lines of credit in place, we commit to funding. We want to fund our partners fast. So my whole team doesn’t get quota retirement in sales until the partner gets paid. So it’s really important that we align our metrics and the way we’re measuring ourselves with what’s going to delight the partner and create a better experience for them. Robert Dutt: Has there been a notable increase in terms of acceleration there on partners getting paid? Brad Shapiro: Yeah, I would say it’s long been a focus of ours, but we’re really emphasizing it in coming out and being very deliberate about what we want to do in terms of turnaround times. We call it our partner pledge, but the idea is we want partners to know that we can be a reliable source of funding. Not only does financing help them close the deal and make the deals bigger, but then they can get paid faster as well. That really helps their metrics because most partners, most businesses, are looking at cash flow and free cash flow and all those kind of metrics. And financing with HPEFS really helps. The other thing it does is when you think about a partner’s capacity to do business, if they’re financing through HPEFS, it’s HPEFS’s credit line that’s being used, creating more availability for the partner to sell other solutions. So it doesn’t go against their credit limits. Robert Dutt: Not to get all “what have you done for me lately” with you, but what can partners expect from your business over the balance of 2026, as much as anyone has visibility into the near future? Brad Shapiro: Yeah, sure. I think what partners are going to see is, again, we talked about the offerings—us showing up with very competitive offerings, us showing up looking to help partners win, and again, helping partners. We want partners to think about, “Okay, there are these financing capabilities and I want to leverage those. How do we grow the HPE business?” The HPE business for our partners should be a growth engine for them—a profitable growth engine—and HPEFS is really here to help facilitate that. Robert Dutt: One thing I hear from folks in similar seats to you all the time is the idea that they feel their capabilities are underused or under-understood by partners. Generally speaking, obviously there are some exceptions to any rule. Does that kind of map with how you feel, and what’s the one tool, offering, or program that you offer that you think more partners would benefit from getting to know and adding to their toolkit? Brad Shapiro: Yeah, sure. I think Phil Mottram said it. He said, “HPEFS is one of our best-kept secrets.” So, yeah, I think generally we feel like we can do a better job, but I would say even coming to this Discover—and I’ve been to many, many, many Discovers—HPEFS is showing up because the marketing team has just done a fantastic job of integrating not only HPEFS, but kind of a whole value proposition focusing around IT economics. And I think that’s been a pivotal message here at Discover. From a partner perspective, again, I go back to all of those special financing offers that you just can’t get generally in the marketplace. You know, 0% on CloudOps software, 0% financing on Mist and Aruba Central. We’ve got a very competitive financing offer on storage. We talked about earlier the networking offerings that we have. So, across the portfolio, there are these offerings that you can only get from HPE and HPEFS. Robert Dutt: For an MSP or reseller who hasn’t thought much about asset disposition as part of their services offering, but is thinking, “Okay, well, maybe this is something I need to get into,” what’s the entry point? Is it something they engage you on directly, or do they kind of have to build their practice first and then bring you into the picture? Brad Shapiro: Well, I think they can engage us. If there’s an opportunity… the way I think about it is most customers are focused on, “What am I going to get that’s new? I need new technology for a project.” A lot of customers don’t have the wherewithal or focus on the disposition side. We think many customers end up giving their product away. Maybe somebody takes it and goes, “I’ll take care of it for you free of charge.” And the customer thinks, “Oh, this is great,” but there’s money in those assets, particularly now with the memory shortage. Anything with memory is going to have value. So for a partner, you don’t need to be an expert; just understand what the customer has in their environment and what they might be getting rid of. And it’s really just contacting HPEFS and we’ll do the assessment of whether there’s market value or not for the partner. Robert Dutt: That’s kind of where I wanted to go. Anything you want to throw out there in summation or in closing? Brad Shapiro: No, I really appreciate you having me. And it was great to get an opportunity to showcase what HPEFS is bringing to the table. I’m really excited and proud of what we’re doing and the role we can play in helping the partners grow with HPE. That’s what being a captive financing company is all about. So, looking forward to winning and growing with the partners in Canada. Robert Dutt: All right. Thank you for taking the time. Brad Shapiro: Thank you. Robert Dutt: There you have it. Brad Shapiro from HPE Financial Services. I’d like to thank Brad for his time, and I’d like to thank you for listening to the podcast. If you found the conversation useful, the best way to support the show is to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts, and leave us a rating or review if you’re so inclined. My takeaway from the conversation? HPEFS is making a deliberate shift away from being a passive financing option to an active weapon in the competitive arsenal. The 90/9 Advantage, the networking offer stack, and especially that partner pledge about quota retirement tied to partner payment speed—those are signals that HPE is serious about removing friction from channel economics. For Canadian partners, the July 1 portal rollout and the emphasis on chain of custody for ITAD are worth getting familiar with. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Sales: You're Already Selling (Here's Why That Matters) | Jeb Blount Fanatical Prospecting Author InterviewMost entrepreneurs think they're not in sales. Jeb Blount knows better. In this backstage episode of the Business Growth Podcast at BizX 2026, we reveal why every business owner must become their company's chief sales officer and how keeping your pipeline full changes everything about how you sell, close, negotiate, and choose customers. Jeb built a 1.2 million-person email list over 20 years, hosts the Sales Gravy podcast (top 10 in its category), and has written 18 bestselling books including Fanatical Prospecting.What You'll Learn:Why Pipeline Is Life: A full pipeline makes you better at every aspect of selling. When you have options, you close better, negotiate stronger, and select the right customers instead of taking anyone who says yes.Selling as Consulting: The value bridge concept reframes selling from pushing products to guiding people toward their goals. Start with integrity, ask better questions, and position yourself as an interpreter who helps buyers reach their desired future state.Multi-Touch Prospecting That Actually Works: Phone calls, voicemail, email, LinkedIn messages, in-person visits, newsletters, and podcasts combine to create powerful sequences. Single-channel approaches fail because no one channel works alone anymore.Why AI Is Breaking Email: Salespeople send 8 times more email than 4 years ago but get one-eighth the results. AI-generated messages have saturated inboxes, forcing email providers to filter aggressively.Bold Calling Is Back: In-person prospecting is experiencing a resurgence. Jeb shares how he scaled a chain-link fence past 'Beware of Dog' signs, met a business owner, and later closed a $1.2 million deal.Key Quotes:"Pipeline is life. When you have a full pipeline, you're better at selling, you're better at closing, you're better at negotiating, and you're better at choosing the right customers.""Selling is helping people get what they want. If you start with integrity and don't sell people things they don't need, you're just guiding them toward their goals.""The phone still works. Nobody answers a phone that doesn't ring. Pick it up."Jeb Blount's Background:Jeb Blount is a sales trainer, author of Fanatical Prospecting and 17 other bestselling books, and founder of the Sales Gravy podcast (top 10 in its category). He built a 1.2 million-person email list over 20 years and runs a 34-person consulting firm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Et si le futur de la vente, ce n'était pas de vendre plus, mais de vendre mieux ?Pierre Fertout est Chief Sales Officer chez Weglot, après avoir piloté les Sales Ops de CoachHub, une scale-up passée de 300 à 1000 personnes en un an, avant d'en redescendre à 400 au gré de quatre plans de licenciement. De cette montagne russe, il a tiré une conviction nette : le sales 2.0 n'est pas un commercial qui pousse plus fort, c'est un commercial qui pense comme un Ops. Dans cet épisode, on entre dans le détail de sa stack, de ses skills IA, et de sa façon de tenir une semaine de quatre jours sans rien lâcher sur la performance.Pierre a un parcours hybride assez rare : conseil en stratégie, IT et Ops chez Sodexo, puis Sales Ops chez MoovOne devenu CoachHub, avant de basculer côté vente chez Weglot, la scale-up française de l'internationalisation de sites web (37M€ d'ARR, 70 personnes, plus de 110 000 sites traduits). Il enseigne aussi la stratégie et le management à l'ESSEC depuis plus de dix ans.Ce que tu vas apprendre dans cet épisode :Pourquoi le "sales 2.0" est d'abord un Ops : comprendre les process et s'approprier les outils avant de chercher à vendre plus, parce que la différence entre un sales qui utilise bien l'IA et un autre est immédiate.Comment structurer un outbound à partir de zéro avec l'IA : analyse des calls et rendez-vous, playbooks reconstruits, séquences de relance automatiques pour les prospects qui “ghostent” (et un taux de réponse multiplié par deux ou trois).Comment former une équipe à l'IA sans la noyer : une bibliothèque de 50 skills par métier, des artefacts, des custom GPTs, et pourquoi un skill partagé ne vaut que si chacun le re-personnalise.Ce qu'on garde et ce qu'on abandonne : deal rooms, simulateur de ROI, et le seul critère qui tranche, la valeur perçue immédiate par l'équipe.Pourquoi viser "l'impact de 100 à 10 personnes" plutôt que de multiplier le chiffre par 100 : la performance au service de l'équilibre de vie, pas l'inverse.Le rapport à l'IA des étudiants et des enfants : comment forger l'esprit critique quand la machine peut tout produire, et pourquoi Pierre exige de "l'exceptionnel" avec ses étudiants.Notes complètes, ressources et captures de l'épisode : [LIEN]Pour aller plus loin :Business Operation Network et RevGenius : deux communautés d'Ops et de Revenue très activesHow to AI, de Ruben Hassid : partage de cas d'usage IA"La vie heureuse" de Sénèque, et l'idée qu'il faut "désirer ce que l'on a"Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

„Routine ist gefährlich – man muss sich täglich hinterfragen.“ In dieser Folge von Behind the C begrüßt Franz Kubbillum Urs Krämer, der als Chief Sales Officer bei Capgemini Deutschland die Vertriebs- und Marketinggeschicke für den gesamten deutschen Markt steuert. Mit über 25 Jahren Erfahrung in der IT- und Beratungswelt kennt Urs die Branche wie kaum ein Zweiter. Er erklärt, warum er sich in Zeiten von massivem Kostendruck und dem allgegenwärtigen KI-Hype weniger als klassischer Verkäufer und vielmehr als strategischer Problemlöser für seine Kund:innen versteht. Dabei setzt er konsequent auf das japanische Kaizen-Prinzip: Die Kunst der stetigen, kleinen Schritte, um Organisationen und Menschen auf eine Welt vorzubereiten, in der die Veränderungsgeschwindigkeit nur noch eine Richtung kennt: steil nach oben. Urs blickt im Gespräch auf einen „wilden“ Werdegang zurück – vom Berater an der Front über die CFO-Rolle im Private-Equity-Umfeld bis hin zur CEO-Position bei Sopra Steria und seiner heutigen Rolle im Board. Er erzählt offen, wie er sich vom reinen „Zahlenmenschen“ zum Leader entwickelt hat, der heute vor allem durch eines führt: Kommunikation. Dabei nimmt er bewusst kein Blatt vor den Mund, denn für ihn bedeutet echte Führung auch Mut zur Polarisierung und klare Kante statt weichgespülter Floskeln. Ganz privat erfahren wir, warum der bekennende Morgenmuffel beim Restaurieren von Oldtimern am besten abschaltet und weshalb er im Flugzeug oder Auto lieber schweigend reflektiert, statt sich permanent mit dem nächsten Podcast oder Musik beschallen zu lassen. Drei Fragen, die in dieser Folge besprochen werden: - Wie führt man Organisationen durch echte Begeisterung statt durch bloße Anweisungen und welche Rolle spielt dabei die radikale Vereinfachung komplexer Botschaften? - Wie navigiert man als Unternehmen erfolgreich zwischen dem harten Zwang zur Kosteneffizienz und dem gleichzeitigen Investitionsdruck durch Technologien wie AI? - Warum ist die Fähigkeit zur „input-freien Reflexion“ heute eine der wichtigsten Superkräfte für Führungskräfte geworden, um im Informations-Overload nicht den Fokus zu verlieren? Themen: - C-level - IT-Consulting - Digitale Transformation ----- Über Atreus – A Heidrick & Struggles Company Atreus garantiert die perfekte Interim-Ressource (m/w/d) für Missionen, die nur eine einzige Option erlauben: nachhaltigen Erfolg! Unser globales Netzwerk aus erfahrenen Managern auf Zeit zählt weltweit zu den besten. In engem Schulterschluss mit den Atreus Direktoren setzen unsere Interim Manager vor Ort Kräfte frei, die Ihr Unternehmen zukunftssicher auf das nächste Level katapultieren. ▶️ Besuchen Sie unsere Website: https://www.atreus.de/ ▶️ Interim Management: https://www.atreus.de/kompetenzen/service/interim-management/ ▶️ Für Interim Manager: https://www.atreus.de/interim-manager/ ▶️ LinkedIn-Profil von Urs Krämer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ursmkraemer/ ▶️ Profil von Franz Kubbillum: https://www.atreus.de/team/franz-kubbillum/

The Salt Palace is going to be shut down for three years for renovations...starting in the fall of 2027. But it's going to put a strain on a lot of the conventions we've grown to know and love....like Fan X. Joining me now live in studio is Tyson Lybbert, Chief Sales Officer with Visit Salt Lake.

One out of every four loans in 2026 will be non-agency. Are you positioned to compete for all of them — or just three out of four? In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Tom Davis, Chief Sales Officer at Deephaven Mortgage, for a data-heavy, no-fluff conversation on where the non-QM and non-agency markets are headed, why the equity opportunity is generational, and what loan officers need to do right now to stay relevant. Tom brings a front-row view of what's actually happening across borrower demand, product innovation, and liquidity — and he doesn't sugarcoat what originators are leaving on the table by not having a full suite of non-agency products. In this episode: • Why non-QM is on pace to hit $150–180B in 2026 — an all-time record The $400–500B total non-agency market and why missing it means only accessing 75% of your opportunity • Who the non-QM borrower really is: self-employed, investor, credit event, foreign national — and why they're actually lower risk than you think • Why 30% of all 2025 transactions were investor deals — and what a full investor product suite looks like • The home equity opportunity: $35 trillion in equity, 80% of homeowners locked into sub-5% rates, and $600B in renovation originations projected for 2026 • HELOCs, closed-end seconds, and how Deephaven built a Jumbo HELOC up to $1M with alt-doc features • Why waiting for rates to drop is a losing strategy — and what LOs should be doing instead • How servicers are stealing your past clients at a 90% retention rate — and how equity products stop the bleed Connect is the California MBA's podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the industry forward.

20 years ago, automation was a pipe dream for industrial workers, 10 years ago it existed in research and development labs. Now it's fully operational in warehouses, production facilities and even mines.The companies driving robotics forwards are going one step further than developing smarter AI. They're figuring out how to apply that advanced engineering to ‘gritty' manufacturing – and there are few places that understand that world better than the Steel City.Pittsburgh has become an important ecosystem for developing autonomous technologies, the combination of engineering talent and thriving industrial background has turned it into somewhat of a testing ground for physical AI.Recorded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this was a special live show in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Robotics Network. Chris is joined by three industry leaders to talk about adopting autonomy in critical industries. Brett Phillips is Chief Revenue Officer and General Council at Hellbender, specializing in on-edge AI hardware development. David Griffin is Chief Sales Officer at Seegrid, manufacturer of autonomous mobile robots. Mike Smocer is CEO of Mine Vision Systems, a mining technology company building real-time digital mapping systems for GPS denied environments.They dig into how autonomy is moving beyond one-off projects, and into fully integrated systems. Brett breaks down how the incorporation of sensors and models are shrinking development timelines for autonomous systems and why Pittsburgh's willingness to ‘get their hands dirty' is key. David explains how advances in perception and control systems have pushed AMRs beyond basic pallet moves into large, complex material moves through busy logistics environments. Mike shares how Mine Vision Systems support vital underground decision making with millions of dollars of impact by replacing manual mapping and tribal knowledge with accurate digital records.For anyone considering where robotics and AI can create value inside their operations, thinking about the intersection between advanced software and manufacturing, or curious why Pittsburgh has become so strong in robotics and autonomy, this episode is a look at how three industry leaders are managing that change today.In this episode, find out: • About the technological advances that shifted autonomy from isolated deployments to a broader ecosystem covering manufacturing, logistics, mining and warehouse operations.• How David explains the evolution of AMRs within lifting, going from limited pallet moves to an all-in-one technology capable of moving any material to any location.• Why mid-tier manufacturers are becoming a major driver of autonomy adoption due to labor constraints and the positive impact of this in regional production environments.• What mining looks like without the implementation of automated systems, Mike discusses highly intelligent operators still using coloured pencils and paper to capture critical underground data.• Mining as a tunnel building process with the constant balance of optimizing extraction with breakage vs. how much time and cost is spent processing the material caused by that breakage.• How Hellbender utilizes their expertise and capability to provide an end-to-end service inhouse, getting their customers to market in a matter of months rather than years.• The role of sensors, on-edge AI, and manufacturing capability in accelerating the production of perception systems that serve as the eyes and ears of the autonomy stack.• What the conversation reveals about Pittsburgh's current position as a robotics hub where engineering talent, institutional history and manufacturing culture are allowing them to go head-to-head with the likes of Silicon Valley.Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It's feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!Tweetable Quotes: • “At the end of the day, we are a software company. The hardware component of our product is essentially a near commodity at this point. It's the navigation systems, the safety systems, the perception systems, the control systems.” – David Griffin • ”There is a transformation involved. There's change management involved. There are workflows that if you disrupt them just because your cool technology solved one little problem, broke 12... There's an approach to developing your technology so that it succeeds not only now, but in the future.” – Mike Smocer• “What's gonna separate us moving forward is the ability to sort of mash this really high-level, very technical engineering with real-world manufacturing. That is where, uniquely, Pittsburgh stands alone.” – Brett Phillips Do you want to connect with other leaders that are moving the needle in manufacturing everyday?Then make sure to join us in the Manufacturing Happy Hour Industry Community on LinkedIn.Apprentice has developed the first AI Agent designed specifically for manufacturing, not adapted from a general model. It connects across your full tech stack, keeps an eye on operations 24/7, and helps automate the mission-critical workflows your team is handling manually today. This isn't “set it and forget it” AI. Your team stays in control of every critical decision, because that's how real manufacturing works.Recommended Resources• Pittsburgh Robotics Network, facilitating commercial business growth and economic development opportunities for the Greater Pittsburgh region's robotics, automation, and vision communities• Seegrid, delivering customized AMR solutions that meet the changing needs of today's manufacturing, logistics, and warehousing facilities• Mine Vision Systems, maximizing efficiency and safety in underground mining operations with real-time 3D mapping technology• HELLBENDER Inc., building mission-critical hardware and software infrastructure for AI-driven perception systems in autonomy, robotics, and industrial applicationsConnect with David, Mike, and BrettDavid Griffin | Mike Smocer | Brett PhillipsMake sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

What happens when your drive and discipline push you to the very brink—physically, emotionally, and spiritually? In this powerful episode of Get Real, Get Results, host Speaker B welcomes Ashley Balding, Executive Vice President and Chief Sales Officer at Associated Luxury Hotels International, for an intimate conversation that cuts through the noise of perfectionism and reveals what it means to truly take care of yourself.Ashley's story is a wake-up call for every woman who's ever put her own health last. Battling career challenges, family upheaval, and overwhelming stress, Ashley ignored her body's warnings—until a near-fatal heart crisis forced her to stop, surrender, and reset everything. She shares how pushing through pain and normalizing exhaustion nearly cost her life, and how open-heart surgery became an unexpected gift that transformed her mindset and sense of purpose.Discover the essential lessons Ashley learned about the hidden dangers of high achievement: Why do so many women equate exhaustion with leadership? How can you recognize the signals your body—and your spirit—are sending before it's too late? Ashley opens up about finding strength in vulnerability, setting boundaries without guilt, seeking wisdom in community, and redefining success by prioritizing faith, family, and intentional living.Packed with raw honesty, practical strategies, and hope, this episode is your permission slip to pause, ask for help, and finally put yourself first. Subscribe for more real conversations that inspire transformation—or share this episode with someone who needs the reminder: you can't pour from an empty cup.CHAPTERS00:00 A Miracle Warning Saves My Life02:13 High-Performing Women Neglecting Their Health05:12 Coping With Crisis: Career, Family, and Personal Loss07:29 Ignoring Medical Red Flags Until It's Almost Too Late08:23 Surviving Open Heart Surgery and the Aftermath10:09 The Long Road to Becoming Pacemaker Free11:07 Mistaking Exhaustion for Leadership12:18 Redefining Worth: Output Isn't Everything16:01 Letting Go of Control: Facing Mortality19:44 The Power of Gratitude After Trauma21:17 Crystal Balls vs. Rubber Balls: Prioritizing What Matters25:43 Lean In—Why Asking for Help Heals29:08 Setting Boundaries With People Who Drain You31:13 Leading With Compassion, Not Overextension33:14 Moving Beyond Anger: Forgiveness as Superpower37:37 Modeling Purpose and Meaning For the Next Generation40:32 The Simple Power of Sleep and Breathwork42:47 The Real Cost of Ignoring Your Body's WarningsThe Success Lie is available now for pre-sale!Learn more at: https://chantellpreston.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chantellprestonYouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@ChantellPrestonJoin host Chantell Preston, a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in healthcare operations, project management, and consulting, as she shares invaluable insights and lessons learned from navigating the complexities of career advancement and personal satisfaction. Through candid conversations and expert advice, "Get Real, Get Results" serves as your go-to resource for achieving harmony between work and life without sacrificing well-being. Learn more at: https://chantellpreston.com

In order for you to win a new client the incumbent agent has to lose. The incumbent agent needs to get fired in order for you to get hired. But how do you get the insured to realize their agent is a "bum" without you saying it? In this episode, host Charles Specht will teach you how to uncover problems with the incumbent agent and get the insured to admit to you that their agent is a "bum" and sign your Broker of Record Letter during the first appointment. Does it sound too good to be true? Well, it's not. You just need to learn the art of Superior Service, Reward Offered, Incumbent Expectation, Prospect's Lips. Check out our website to see our sales training offerings: https://permissiongroup.com/permission-university/ Are you an agency owner looking for someone to help your sales team set more appointments and win more profitable accounts? Then consider hiring Charles Specht as you agency's fractional Chief Sales Officer on retainer: https://permissiongroup.com/chief-sales-officer/ Key Topics: Winning means someone else loses - your real job is getting prospects to fire their current agent and hire you The "insurance agent bum" - producers coasting on renewals while delivering zero real value to insureds Why badmouthing the competition backfires and makes the insured defend the bad decision they already made Showing your superior service and its reward first, then asking if the incumbent agent does the same Workers' comp submission tactic: including an injury and illness prevention program to unlock 3-7% rate reductions most agents never pursue The one-agent-one-quote trap that trained insurance buyers to bring in multiple agents instead of granting exclusivity Renegotiating with underwriters after a carrier is selected - averaging 11% savings on standard and up to 17% on surplus lines Open-ended questions designed to make insureds conclude on their own that their agent is a bum Micro-niching as the foundation for uncovering the gaps that make the BOR request inevitable Charles's California commission network: 12 agencies selected to receive construction referrals directly from his consulting client base Reach out to: Charles Specht Visit: Permission Network Produced by PodSquad.fm

In order for you to win a new client the incumbent agent has to lose. The incumbent agent needs to get fired in order for you to get hired. But how do you get the insured to realize their agent is a "bum" without you saying it? In this episode, host ⁠Charles Specht⁠ will teach you how to uncover problems with the incumbent agent and get the insured to admit to you that their agent is a "bum" and sign your Broker of Record Letter during the first appointment. Does it sound too good to be true? Well, it's not. You just need to learn the art of Superior Service, Reward Offered, Incumbent Expectation, Prospect's Lips. Check out our website to see our sales training offerings:⁠ https://permissiongroup.com/permission-university/⁠ Are you an agency owner looking for someone to help your sales team set more appointments and win more profitable accounts? Then consider hiring Charles Specht as you agency's fractional Chief Sales Officer on retainer:⁠ https://permissiongroup.com/chief-sales-officer/⁠ Key Topics: Winning means someone else loses - your real job is getting prospects to fire their current agent and hire you The "insurance agent bum" - producers coasting on renewals while delivering zero real value to insureds Why badmouthing the competition backfires and makes the insured defend the bad decision they already made Showing your superior service and its reward first, then asking if the incumbent agent does the same Workers' comp submission tactic: including an injury and illness prevention program to unlock 3-7% rate reductions most agents never pursue The one-agent-one-quote trap that trained insurance buyers to bring in multiple agents instead of granting exclusivity Renegotiating with underwriters after a carrier is selected - averaging 11% savings on standard and up to 17% on surplus lines Open-ended questions designed to make insureds conclude on their own that their agent is a bum Micro-niching as the foundation for uncovering the gaps that make the BOR request inevitable Charles's California commission network: 12 agencies selected to receive construction referrals directly from his consulting client base Reach out to: ⁠Charles Specht⁠ Visit: ⁠Permission Network⁠ Produced by ⁠PodSquad.fm⁠

In dieser Podcast-Folge von Elektroauto-News spreche ich mit Gianfranco Pizzuto über die Entwicklung der Elektromobilität seit ihren frühen Anfängen – und darüber, warum sich E-Mobilität am Ende nicht ideologisch, sondern wirtschaftlich durchsetzt. Gianfranco ist seit 2007 unternehmerisch in der Branche aktiv. Er war früh bei Fisker Automotive in Kalifornien beteiligt, investierte eigenes Kapital und begleitete den Weg des Fisker Karma bis zur Produktion in Finnland. Nach technischen Problemen und der Insolvenz des Batterieherstellers folgte die Chapter-11-Phase – ein Einschnitt, aber kein Ausstieg aus der Elektromobilität. Wir sprechen über diese Pionierzeit, über fehlende Ladeinfrastruktur, Prototypen mit Verlängerungskabeln im Kofferraum und über die wirtschaftlichen Risiken einer jungen Industrie. Anschließend geht es um seinen Grauimport des elektrischen Fiat 500 nach Deutschland, Österreich, Italien und in die Schweiz – inklusive eigener Batterieentwicklung und Schnellladesystem. Ein Projekt, das zeigt, wie schnell sich der Markt weiterentwickelt. Heute ist Gianfranco als Chief Sales Officer bei XYTE Mobility aktiv und baut ein Vertriebsnetz für einen dreirädrigen, vollelektrischen L5e-Scooter mit Sicherheitszelle auf. Wir diskutieren, warum Elektromobilität nicht einfach den Verbrenner ersetzt, sondern Mobilität neu strukturiert: kleinere Fahrzeuge, weniger Besitz, mehr urbane Lösungen. Themen wie Mikromobilität, Pendlerkonzepte und Flächeneffizienz spielen dabei eine zentrale Rolle. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt der Folge: Strompreise, Photovoltaik, bidirektionales Laden und die Frage, warum Ladeinfrastruktur und Energiepreise entscheidend für die Akzeptanz von Elektroautos sind. Wenn an Schnellladesäulen bis zu ein Euro pro Kilowattstunde verlangt wird, während erneuerbarer Strom für wenige Cent produziert werden kann, entsteht ein strukturelles Problem. Diese Episode richtet sich an alle, die sich für Elektromobilität, Ladeinfrastruktur, Energiepolitik, urbane Mobilitätskonzepte und die wirtschaftlichen Rahmenbedingungen der Transformation interessieren. Wenn du Fragen zur E-Mobilität hast oder Themenvorschläge einbringen möchtest, schreib mir gerne. Und wenn dir der Podcast gefällt, freue ich mich über eine Bewertung auf deiner bevorzugten Plattform.

Künstliche Intelligenz ist für Deutschland und Europa weit mehr als nur der nächste technologische Hype. Sie ist der entscheidende Hebel für unsere zukünftige Wettbewerbsfähigkeit, technologische Souveränität und industrielle Resilienz. In dieser besonderen Episode des F.A.Z. Digitalwirtschaft-Podcasts bringen wir Ihnen die große Bühne direkt ins Ohr: Hören Sie den exklusiven Mitschnitt der Podiumsdiskussion „AI: Chance für Deutschland und Europa“, die F.A.Z.-Herausgeber Carsten Knop am 20. April auf der Center Stage der Hannover Messe live moderiert hat. Für den heimischen Industriestandort entscheidet sich an der Frage der KI-Nutzung nicht weniger als die eigene Zukunft. Es geht darum, ob historische Stärken in Produktion, Automatisierung und Engineering erfolgreich in die nächste Wachstumsphase überführt werden können. Das Panel beleuchtet KI daher ausdrücklich nicht isoliert als digitale Innovation, sondern als handfeste industriepolitische und infrastrukturelle Gestaltungsaufgabe. Im Mittelpunkt der Debatte steht das notwendige Ökosystem: Cloud- und Recheninfrastruktur, industrielle Anwendungen, Datenverfügbarkeit sowie Energie- und Automatisierungskompetenz müssen nahtlos ineinandergreifen, flankiert von passenden europäischen Rahmenbedingungen für die nötige Skalierung. Ausgangspunkt der Diskussion ist die Überzeugung, dass wir in Europa bereits über erhebliche Stärken verfügen. Nun müssen wir unsere hochrelevanten Mittelstands- und Technologieunternehmen, die industrielle Softwarekompetenz und wachsende Dateninfrastrukturen schneller, mutiger und systematischer zusammenführen. Darüber hinaus berührt das Gespräch zentrale Fragestellungen rund um die Rolle des Staates, der als Möglichmacher, Standardsetzer und Ankerkunde die Skalierung neuer Technologien maßgeblich treiben kann. Die zentrale Erkenntnis der Debatte lautet dabei: Wahre Wettbewerbsfähigkeit entsteht in der industriellen Anwendung von KI nicht durch Algorithmen allein, sondern durch das perfekte Zusammenspiel von Datenzugang, leistungsfähiger Netzinfrastruktur, pragmatischer Regulierung und vor allem einer hohen Umsetzungsgeschwindigkeit. Diskutiert haben darüber Karsten Wildberger, Bundesminister für Digitales und Staatsmodernisierung, Bernie Wagner, Chief Sales Officer bei Schwarz Digits, sowie Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman of the Board of Directors bei Schneider Electric. Komplettiert wird die Runde durch die Verbandspräsidenten Gunther Kegel vom ZVEI und Bertram Kawlath vom VDMA.

www.iotusecase.com#Shopfloor #IndustrialIoT #SinglePairEthernet In dieser Live-Folge direkt von der Hannover Messe spricht Gastgeber Dr. Peter Schopf mit Karsten Walther, Geschäftsführer von Perinet, und Georg Bassenge, Chief Sales Officer bei Perinet.Im Fokus steht die Frage, wie sich Shopfloor-Daten durchgängig und effizient bis in MES- und IT-Systeme übertragen lassen. Dabei geht es unter anderem um ereignisbasierte Kommunikation, netzwerkfähige Sensoren, den Einsatz von Single Pair Ethernet sowie Retrofit-Ansätze im Brownfield. Podcast ZusammenfassungViele IIoT-Projekte scheitern nicht an KI oder Analytics, sondern am Zugang zu Shopfloor-Daten. Gerade in heterogenen Bestandsanlagen gelangen Daten oft nur mit hohem Engineering-Aufwand in IT-Systeme.Ursachen sind unter anderem mehrstufige OT-Architekturen, zyklische Feldbus-Kommunikation sowie unstrukturierte Rohdaten ohne ausreichende Semantik. Schon kleine Änderungen an Sensoren, etwa bei Messbereichen, können dazu führen, dass Daten ohne Kontext schwer interpretierbar sind und aufwendig normalisiert werden müssen.Perinet adressiert dieses Problem, indem Sensoren und Aktoren direkt netzwerkfähig werden. Relevante Informationen werden ereignisbasiert und parallel zur bestehenden SPS-Kommunikation per IP in die IT übertragen.Technologische Grundlage ist unter anderem Single Pair Ethernet, das Ethernet bis ins Feldgerät bringt und Retrofit in bestehenden Anlagen ermöglicht – ohne zusätzliche Infrastruktur wie neue Schaltschränke.Das Ergebnis ist ein schlanker Datenpfad mit geringerem Integrationsaufwand, reduzierter Datenlast und deutlich höherer Datenqualität. Dadurch werden Anwendungen wie KI, OEE oder Condition Monitoring erst effizient umsetzbar – inklusive Security-Anforderungen im Kontext des EU Cyber Resilience Act. -----Relevante Folgenlinks:Peter (https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-schopf/)Georg (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bassenge/)Karsten (https://www.linkedin.com/in/karsten-walther-395822365/)Jetzt IoT Use Case auf LinkedIn folgen1x monatlich IoT Use Case Update erhalten

Zack Schwartz, Chief Sales Officer at Trustifi, spoke with Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, during the Channel Partners Conference & Expo about the rising threat landscape in email security and the opportunity it creates for MSPs. Schwartz explained that email remains the primary attack vector for cyber threats, with increasingly sophisticated phishing campaigns now powered by artificial intelligence. These attacks are harder to detect and more convincing than ever, creating significant risk for businesses of all sizes. “Over 90% of cyberattacks still start with email, and AI is making those attacks more effective,” Schwartz said. Trustifi provides an email security platform designed specifically for MSPs, offering tools that are easy to deploy, manage, and scale across multiple customer environments. The platform includes advanced phishing detection, encryption, and data loss prevention capabilities, enabling partners to protect both inbound and outbound communications. The discussion also highlighted how MSPs can leverage email security as a core service offering. By deploying solutions like Trustifi internally and then extending them to customers, partners can both strengthen their own security posture and create new recurring revenue streams. As cybersecurity continues to be a top priority at Channel Partners, Trustifi is positioning its platform as a critical solution for MSPs looking to address modern email threats while expanding their service portfolios. Learn more about Trustifi: https://trustifi.com/

In this Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work Podcast, Meredith Riley, Chief Sales Officer for New Business at iSolved, explores how iSolved's Center of Influence (COI) program is transforming the way trusted business advisors deliver value to their clients. From benefit brokers to business bankers and accountants, Meredith breaks down why strategic HCM partnerships are no longer optional in today's rapidly evolving business landscape.

The secret sauce to building a huge Book of Business does exist. It really does. The issue is just that you don't know the recipe yet. You don't know how to set more appointments, win more signed Broker of Record Letters, and build a base of loyal clients who choose you and renew with you, year after year. But that can change right now! In this episode, host Charles Specht will pull back the curtain and give you the FOUR INGREDIENTS of the "secret sauce" for building a huge Book of Business. What are the four ingredients you ask? Pain, Problem, Solution, and Reward What do those mean? Well, that's why you need to listen to this episode! If you're interested in hiring Charles for sales training, visit: https://permissiongroup.com/sales-coaching/ If you're an agency leader interested in hiring Charles as a fractional Chief Sales Officer, visit: https://permissiongroup.com/chief-sales-officer/ If you're interested in participating in the next cohort of Permission Producer School, visit: https://permissiongroup.com/permission-producer-school/ Happy prospecting! Key Topics: Stop talking about yourself and your agency during prospecting - prospects don't care about you yet Pain is the only reason prospects ever go looking for a new insurance agent Price is the pain point, not the actual problem - learning to tell the difference is critical Pinning the pain on the incumbent agent and making them the root cause of the prospect's frustration The pain-problem-solution-reward framework as the secret sauce to building a huge book of business Features and benefits pitches fall flat because prospects who feel no pain see no reason to switch Prospecting on pain to set appointments, then shifting focus to the problem at the first meeting How producers can apply the pain-problem-solution-reward formula to diagnose their own sales struggles The cost of winging it without a process and why it keeps producers stuck with the same results Hiring a sales coach or fractional chief sales officer as the solution to breaking through commission plateaus Reach out to  Charles Specht Visit: Permission Network Produced by PodSquad.fm

The secret sauce to building a huge Book of Business does exist. It really does. The issue is just that you don't know the recipe yet. You don't know how to set more appointments, win more signed Broker of Record Letters, and build a base of loyal clients who choose you and renew with you, year after year. But that can change right now! In this episode, host ⁠Charles Specht⁠ will pull back the curtain and give you the FOUR INGREDIENTS of the "secret sauce" for building a huge Book of Business. What are the four ingredients you ask? Pain, Problem, Solution, and Reward What do those mean? Well, that's why you need to listen to this episode! If you're interested in hiring Charles for sales training, visit:⁠ https://permissiongroup.com/sales-coaching/⁠ If you're an agency leader interested in hiring Charles as a fractional Chief Sales Officer, visit:⁠ https://permissiongroup.com/chief-sales-officer/⁠ If you're interested in participating in the next cohort of Permission Producer School, visit:⁠ https://permissiongroup.com/permission-producer-school/⁠ Happy prospecting! Key Topics: Stop talking about yourself and your agency during prospecting - prospects don't care about you yet Pain is the only reason prospects ever go looking for a new insurance agent Price is the pain point, not the actual problem - learning to tell the difference is critical Pinning the pain on the incumbent agent and making them the root cause of the prospect's frustration The pain-problem-solution-reward framework as the secret sauce to building a huge book of business Features and benefits pitches fall flat because prospects who feel no pain see no reason to switch Prospecting on pain to set appointments, then shifting focus to the problem at the first meeting How producers can apply the pain-problem-solution-reward formula to diagnose their own sales struggles The cost of winging it without a process and why it keeps producers stuck with the same results Hiring a sales coach or fractional chief sales officer as the solution to breaking through commission plateaus Reach out to  ⁠Charles Specht⁠ Visit: ⁠Permission Network⁠ Produced by ⁠PodSquad.fm⁠

Lilia Medaghri est Chief Sales Officer chez Ringover, une scale-up qui transforme la manière dont les équipes commerciales utilisent la voix et l'IA. De ses débuts en Finance à un rôle stratégique à la croisée de la performance, de la data et du leadership, elle nous partage dans cet épisode sa vision très concrète d'un métier en pleine mutation.Pour Lilia, l'IA ne remplace pas les commerciaux — elle révèle les meilleurs. Elle permet de comprendre, affiner et scaler ce qui fait réellement la différence : l'écoute, la précision et la capacité à créer une vraie connexion.Au programme :

In dieser Folge geht es um ein Thema an der Schnittstelle von Finanzwirtschaft und Immobilienbranche, das immer stärker an Bedeutung gewinnt: der Aufbau digitaler Ökosysteme im Bereich Bauen und Wohnen.  Die Immobilienwirtschaft steht vor massiven Transformationsanforderungen – von der energetischen Sanierung über fragmentierte Wertschöpfungsketten bis hin zu steigenden Kundenerwartungen an digitale Services. Gleichzeitig suchen Banken und Finanzdienstleister nach neuen Wegen, ihre Kunden über den klassischen Kredit hinaus zu begleiten.  Wie gelingt es, aus diesen Herausforderungen ein funktionierendes Ökosystem zu bauen? Welche Rolle spielen Kooperationen zwischen etablierten Instituten und innovativen Startups? Und was sind die kritischen Erfolgsfaktoren? Um diese Fragen zu beantworten, haben wir zwei Experten eingeladen, die genau an dieser Schnittstelle arbeiten: Martin Kulik, Head of Venture Clienting bei amberra, der Corporate-Venturing-Einheit der Genossenschaftlichen Finanz-Gruppe, und Lukas Maiwald, Chief Sales Officer bei Impleco, einem Spezialisten für digitale Plattformen im Immobilienbereich. Moderation: Peter Fricke, Associate Director FinTech Business Development, und Damian Ziemann, Intern Business Consulting. Ihr habt Fragen oder Anmerkungen? Meldet euch einfach bei uns per Mail unter eyfintechandbeyond@de.ey.com mit Feedback oder Vorschlägen für Themen oder Gäste.

Willkommen zu ChinaHotPod! In dieser Episode hören Sie die Live Aufnahme von der Talkshow am 12. Februar 2026. In dieser Episode geht es um Invesitionen deutscher Firmen im chinesischen Markt. Experten: Stefan Woditsch, Director of Operations, Melchers China Falk Haarig, CPO&CFO, Paul Hewitt GmbH Thomas Krank, Chief Sales Officer, Krank & Luo Indutries

You're losing – literally – tens of thousands of dollars in new business commission each year because your Fizzle Rate is way too high. What's a Fizzle Rate? A Fizzle Rate represents the number of prospects who agree to meet with you and have you quote, but they just don't get you the information you need to put together a submission to go to the marketplace to gather quotes. The prospect simply "fizzles out" and you lose. My estimates for the Fizzle Rate is somewhere between 10% - 40% of all the prospects you meet with. Seriously, the Fizzle Rate is costing you – and your agency – tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in new business revenue. In this podcast episode, host Charles Specht teaches you two things you need to start doing in order to reduce the Fizzle Rate and win more new clients. Also, if your agency is looking for a way to increase new business sales, consider hiring Charles as your agency's fractional Chief Sales Officer. Go here to learn more: https://permissiongroup.com/chief-sales-officer/ And, did you know you can watch the video of these podcast episodes as well? Visit our YouTube page as well at: https://www.youtube.com/c/permissionsales Key Topics: The fizzle out ratio and why 10-40% of prospects never deliver the data you need Becoming high maintenance with a 25-item request list kills your submission rate Cutting your Fizzle Rate by 50% adds tens of thousands in revenue without changing anything else Collecting prospect data in three waves to keep momentum alive Stop asking prospects to pull their own loss runs - it tips off the incumbent and tanks your close ratio Handle supplemental applications by phone yourself - insureds will answer them incorrectly Prospects fizzle because they forget the goal - your tagline must remind them of the reward Reinforcing your one-liner in follow-up emails re-anchors prospects and drives them to act Tracking fizzle ratio, close ratio, and submissions won is non-negotiable for serious producers The revenue math: agents writing $100K in new business could be leaving $25K on the table every year Reach out to  Charles Specht Visit: Permission Network Produced by PodSquad.fm

You're losing – literally – tens of thousands of dollars in new business commission each year because your Fizzle Rate is way too high. What's a Fizzle Rate? A Fizzle Rate represents the number of prospects who agree to meet with you and have you quote, but they just don't get you the information you need to put together a submission to go to the marketplace to gather quotes. The prospect simply "fizzles out" and you lose. My estimates for the Fizzle Rate is somewhere between 10% - 40% of all the prospects you meet with. Seriously, the Fizzle Rate is costing you – and your agency – tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in new business revenue. In this podcast episode, host Charles Specht teaches you two things you need to start doing in order to reduce the Fizzle Rate and win more new clients. Also, if your agency is looking for a way to increase new business sales, consider hiring Charles as your agency's fractional Chief Sales Officer. Go here to learn more: https://permissiongroup.com/chief-sales-officer/ And, did you know you can watch the video of these podcast episodes as well? Visit our YouTube page as well at: https://www.youtube.com/c/permissionsales Key Topics: The fizzle out ratio and why 10-40% of prospects never deliver the data you need Becoming high maintenance with a 25-item request list kills your submission rate Cutting your Fizzle Rate by 50% adds tens of thousands in revenue without changing anything else Collecting prospect data in three waves to keep momentum alive Stop asking prospects to pull their own loss runs - it tips off the incumbent and tanks your close ratio Handle supplemental applications by phone yourself - insureds will answer them incorrectly Prospects fizzle because they forget the goal - your tagline must remind them of the reward Reinforcing your one-liner in follow-up emails re-anchors prospects and drives them to act Tracking fizzle ratio, close ratio, and submissions won is non-negotiable for serious producers The revenue math: agents writing $100K in new business could be leaving $25K on the table every year Reach out to  Charles Specht Visit: Permission Network Produced by PodSquad.fm

The Six Pillars of Effective Leadership: In-Depth Insights from Jim CarloughIn this episode, host Josh Elledge speaks with Jim Carlough, founder of Jim Carlough, a veteran leadership coach who helps executives navigate the complex transition from management to true leadership. Their conversation explores the foundational principles of integrity, empathy, and community-building that define high-performing organizations. This post captures the most impactful insights from their discussion, offering a roadmap for leaders who want to move beyond titles and start building teams rooted in trust and accountability within The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Podcast.Mastering the Art of Impactful LeadershipTransitioning from a high-performing individual contributor to an effective leader is often one of the most difficult shifts in a professional's career. Jim explains that many organizations fail their talent by promoting them based on technical skill without providing the soft-skill roadmap necessary to manage human dynamics. True leadership requires a departure from "managing tasks" to "mentoring people," a shift that demands high levels of emotional intelligence and self-awareness. By focusing on pillars like integrity and empathy, leaders can move past the initial hurdles of imposter syndrome and the awkwardness of managing former peers, ultimately creating a culture where team members feel valued and empowered to excel.Integrity stands as the non-negotiable foundation of Jim's framework, serving as the lens through which every executive decision should be viewed. He suggests that without absolute honesty and transparency, trust evaporates, leading to the high turnover rates that plague many modern companies. Jim advocates for a daily "integrity audit"—a personal reflection to ensure that one's actions have not come at the unfair expense of others. This commitment to character does more than just boost morale; it creates a stable environment where direct communication thrives and long-term performance becomes the standard rather than the exception.Cultivating a sense of community is the final piece of the high-performance puzzle. Jim draws a compelling parallel between the camaraderie found in local live music and the collaborative spirit of a healthy workplace. When leaders roll up their sleeves and support their teams during challenging times—much like helping a band move their gear—they break down hierarchical barriers and build authentic connections. This human-centric approach transforms a group of employees into a unified community, fostering a level of dedication that traditional management tactics simply cannot replicate.About Jim CarloughJim Carlough is an award-winning Chief Sales Officer, bestselling author, and keynote speaker with decades of experience in healthcare and technology. Known as "The Leadership Coach," Jim specializes in helping professionals navigate the complexities of management through his proven framework.About Jim Carlough (Company)Jim Carlough's coaching and consulting practice focuses on developing high-impact leaders through keynote speaking, mentorship programs, and actionable resources. His work is dedicated to reducing corporate turnover and building resilient, integrity-driven organizational cultures through the "Six Pillars" methodology.Links Mentioned in This EpisodeJim Carlough Official WebsiteJim Carlough on LinkedInKey Episode Highlights

Kelley Hippler is a seasoned Chief Revenue Officer with more than 20 years of global commercial leadership experience. She specializes in driving sustainable revenue growth and transforming sales organizations through strategic planning, disciplined execution, and people-first leadership. Kelley is known as a data-driven and accountability-centered leader who builds scalable teams aligned around a shared vision and clear outcomes.She spent 23 years at Forrester Research and, during her five years as Chief Sales Officer, helped grow company revenue by 51% through organic and inorganic strategies, reaching a company high of $538M in revenue and a $1.13B market cap. Kelley is deeply passionate about developing talent, building cultures of ownership, and driving measurable business impact. Her leadership mantra is: People. Plan. Align. Execute. Win.SHOW SUMMARYIn this episode of the Selling from the Heart Podcast, Larry Levine and Darrell Amy are joined by Kelley Hippler to explore how authenticity, alignment, and disciplined execution drive modern sales success. Kelley shares insights from her extensive executive leadership experience, including how strong sales and marketing alignment, intentional planning, and people-first leadership create sustainable growth.The conversation highlights the evolving buyer journey, the importance of meaningful customer interactions, and how AI and technology are reshaping sales workflows. Kelley offers practical guidance for sales leaders and professionals on maximizing effectiveness, improving qualification discipline, protecting time, and building trust-centered sales cultures that consistently perform.KEY TAKEAWAYSAuthentic, agenda-free selling builds stronger long-term trust with buyers.Revenue growth starts with people—empowered, aligned sellers drive results.Sales and marketing alignment must be demonstrated through shared action, not just words.Time is a seller's most limited asset and must be protected intentionally.Today's buyers are largely through their journey before engaging sellers—value must show up fast.Strong qualification and disqualification discipline improves win rates and efficiency.AI and technology should support effectiveness, not replace authentic human connection.Culture carriers often outperform quota chasers over the long term.HIGHLIGHT QUOTESSelling from the heart really comes down to leading with authenticity and not an agenda. It's about showing up as a human being first.The best sellers I've come across in my career weren't just quota crushers, but they were actually culture carriers.Your people at the end of the day are the ones who drive your results. I may be a chief revenue officer, but I'm not the one driving revenue.Taking the call is the worst thing you can do. You are wasting that person's time. The best thing you can do is let a seller know if it's not the right time.

Building a Culture Where Customers and Employees Want to Stay   Shep interviews David Fuhr, Sweetwater's Chief Sales Officer. He talks about creating remarkable customer experiences through personalized service, passionate employees, and living the company's core values in every interaction.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How does additional generosity impact customer loyalty?  Why is personalizing customer interactions important in today's business environment?  How does a company's culture influence its service and customer retention?  How can companies prevent recurring customer complaints based on feedback analysis?  Why should businesses focus on solving customer issues rather than just addressing problems?  Top Takeaways:    Additional generosity goes a long way in customer experience. It does not have to be expensive or flashy. When you add a small, unexpected touch to a customer interaction, you create a memorable moment. Any brand can show appreciation and stand out by doing a little more than expected. (Sweetwater includes a small bag of candy with every order. Sweet!)  Hiring employees who are truly passionate about what they do makes a big difference. If your team genuinely loves the industry they work in and believes in the products they sell, it shows in the way they interact with and help customers.  Match customers with employees who are genuinely interested in and knowledgeable about the products they sell. This builds trust by creating interactions in which the advice customers receive feels more valuable because it is personalized.   Training never stops. When hiring new employees, equip them with the knowledge they need to excel through immersive training. Once they are working with customers, empower them by providing continuous training that keeps everyone updated and motivated.   Listening to customer feedback leads to better service. Encouraging honest opinions, both good and bad, helps you find out what customers truly care about.  It's important to have a system for collecting this information and then actually acting on it.   Mistakes are learning opportunities. When something goes wrong, the real test is how a company reacts and focuses on "solving the customer,” not just the problem. Communicate with customers quickly, fix what went wrong, and then look deeper to stop the issue from happening to others.   Plus, Shep and David discuss Sweetwater's emphasis on company culture and community. Tune in!  Quote:   "Additional generosity means doing something a little unexpected for the customers. It is a way of saying thank you for thinking of us and giving us the opportunity to earn their business."  About:    David Fuhr is the Chief Sales Officer at Sweetwater, where he leads the company's renowned sales team. Since joining the company over five years ago, he has held key leadership positions, including SVP of Customer Experience, focusing on delivering the Sweetwater Difference for both customers and staff.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Having helped grow Duckhorn from $5M to $500M in revenue and the sales team from 1 to >100 people, Pete Przbylinksi, former Chief Sales Officer of The Duckhorn Portfolio for nearly 30 years, has a deep understanding of managing US wholesale markets. In part two, Pete discusses selling into on- and off-premise chains, pricing, marketing, and more.Detailed Show Notes: Selling on-premise takes more time, need to present the wine, sell 1 case at a time, but more marketing valueROI skews towards off-premise if you ignore brand equityCalera / Kosta Browne targeted 65-70% on-premise, but hard to enforceCan't tell distributor where to sell since they own the productIf retailer asks for it, some states legally require it be offeredSelling off-premise chainsRely very little on distributor, need to build relationship on your ownIf brand is small, can use agents/brokers or distributors to get initial discussionsTakes patience and perseverance, and need a compelling storyBig retailers don't care about the winemaking process, they care that customers will buy the wineIn-store displaysRetail product managers fight with each other for displaysIf displays don't deliver value, they will lose floor space to othersConstellation research: most product pulled from shelf, not displays; displays act as powerful billboard for shoppersShelf placementCold box similar to displays - limited real estate, hard to get in and get the desirable locationsNeed to communicate to wholesaler merchandising teams where you'd like to be (e.g. - x shelf next to y competitor); need to keep message simple Stick w/ message for ~2 years, takes a long time to see impact, needs patienceLarge on-premise accountsLook at ACV (volume) to identify top targetsSimilar to off-premise with limited real estate (wine list slots) and they need the wine to sellCan take fewer wines vs off-premise (2-4 max)Longer lead times, programs can be 1-2 years, need to be ready when windows openBTG great, but creates some pricing complicationsNeed to show up where buyers are, e.g. - major events like Pebble Beach or Aspen Food & WineDecoy's success driven by off-premiseSafeway in CA launched brand, then went to other regions and retailers and grew from thereDuckhorn brand equity gave Decoy a springboard to launch, but was able to stand alone and now most Decoy drinkers don't know the tie to DuckhornPrice increasesGet all the data you can (competitor, consumer behavior, demand elasticity)The nuances of consumers and differences in brand equity are impactfulAny decisions take time, may not affect retailers for ~120 days, could take 6-12 months before you see an impactDiscountingKey for the grocery channelDiscounting should be done after all other options exhaustedThe more it happens, customers think that's the price of the product, erodes brand equityImpact of marketing on salesDuckhorn did very little traditional marketing, mostly sales support (spent ~1.5-2% of revenue)LVMH spends ~30% on marketing, CPG average is ~10% of revenueDid some testing of advertising in 1 market for 1 year and measured impact to determine if it should be expandedPartnerships w/ other products good for grocery channel, can often secure displaysAdvice for a tough wine marketSet up production to align w/ honest and believable sales planLong-term impacts of cutting opex will hurt growing the top-line Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you want to improve your sales results, first focus on the quantity and quality of sales calls.  While this may sound blatantly obvious, it's often neglected, and more rarely ever the focus of an organization's efforts. Yet, it's the keystone event in the sales process. Whether you are a salesperson, a sales leader or the Chief Sales Officer, you can use this concept to make a difference in your sales results. ********************************************* Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert and a Christian Business thought leader.  He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations.  In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.        Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation. WWW,DaveKahle.com Dave's Substack page  Subscribe to Dave's Newsletters

Having helped grow Duckhorn from $5M to $500M in revenue and the sales team from 1 to >100 people, Pete Przbylinksi, former Chief Sales Officer of The Duckhorn Portfolio for nearly 30 years, has a deep understanding of managing US wholesale markets. In this two-part episode, Pete dives into every aspect of managing a wholesale sales team, including incentive structures and collaborating with distributors.Detailed Show Notes: Duckhorn went from 50k cases / ~$5M in revenue / 14-15 employees (1995) to ~$500M revenue (2024)The Duckhorn PortfolioDuck themed: Duckhorn Vineyards (1978), Decoy (2nd label originally), Paraduxx (1994), Goldeneye, Migration, CanvasbackAcquisitions: Calera (2017), Kosta Browne (2018), Sonoma Cutrer (2024)Keys to Duckhorn's successBrand equity - focused on Merlot, which was hot in 1980s-1990s and catapulted wineryKey assets - #1 people, #2 brand equityThe French Paradox (1991) created big demand for red wineTable stakes are good scores, showing up in the market, hosting guestsSales team grew from 1 person to >100 (~85 in the field)No perfect way to calculate ROI for sales people1st method: too many cases & distributors to manage, needed more people2nd method: quantified expected incremental sales from more people (data was full of holes)Final method: managed to target of 8-10% sales opex / revenue, because a KPI for SLT and BoardSales team rolesRegional Managers, over a series of states (50-60% of time working w/ distributors, the rest out in the market or internal analysis and reporting)District Managers, geographically concentrated, go into accounts you want to be inNational Accounts, on and off-premise; a challenge to determine which accounts are national vs regional, ended up doing it case by case and assigning accountsDistributor consolidation led to wineries needed to do the work they cannot doE.g. - identifying underrepresented accounts and coming up with action plan by regionIdentifying top salespeopleLook at overall contribution margin for the regionShare of business in market (using IRI, distributor reports, account base)Gross Profit%, identifies amount of trade spend usedHow responsive they are, their handle on the market, their decision making#1 method: do they bring new ideas to the tableIncentivizing salespeopleBonuses must be meaningful (25-35% is meaningful), higher for higher levelsLook at contribution margin relative to budgetUsed a curve (

In this powerful episode of Live Life by Design, host Jeff Mendez sits down with Damon Price, Chief Sales Officer at Pure Light, for a deep and raw conversation about leadership through adversity in both business and life.From rebuilding a company after a seismic industry shift to navigating the heartbreak of personal loss, Damon shares the real journey behind the titles. He opens up about how he handled a nine-figure acquisition, the toll of burnout, and the mental frameworks that keep him aligned through chaos. This episode is packed with practical wisdom for entrepreneurs, sales leaders, and anyone chasing purpose beyond profit.Damon also reveals something deeply personal he's been holding back, and why now might be the time to share it with the world.This episode will challenge your mindset, recharge your drive, and remind you what really matters.⏱️ Key Timestamps0:00 Welcome to Casa de Mendez1:00 Major Industry Shifts & The "Big Beautiful Bill"3:00 Leadership in Crisis Mode5:45 Turning Turmoil Into Strength8:15 Lessons from a Nine-Figure Acquisition10:40 Burnout, Loss & Work-Life Alignment14:00 What Sales Leaders Actually Need to Teach19:30 Damon's Must-Read Book Recs22:20 Founders Don't Run Out of Money, They Run Out of Will25:00 Do Hard Things on Purpose28:00 A Perspective Shift on Time, Loss & Legacy33:45 “Backstory” and The Rocking Chair Test36:00 Keep It Simple, Keep It Soulful40:00 The Real Sales Strategy: Consistency Over Charisma44:00 Vivint Memories and Industry Mentors48:00 “I've Been Holding This Back…”50:00 Jeff's Final Thoughts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most new account executives stare at their territory list and feel the weight of it immediately. Fifty accounts. A hundred accounts. Sometimes more. Each one needs research, a plan, and outreach that doesn't sound like every other cold email clogging their prospect's inbox.  Jake McOsker, an account executive at Forrester Research, found himself facing exactly this problem when he moved from BDR to AE. He cracked it by changing how he used AI for account planning.  "Rather than taking 10 to 15 minutes to get an account plan out or understand who the notable stakeholders and the decision makers that I need to go with," he explained, "it's a 2 to 3 minute process to go through each one of these accounts." The traditional approach to AI account planning doesn't solve the territory problem. You ask ChatGPT or Claude for company information, and you get Wikipedia summaries. Founded in 1987. Headquartered in Dallas. 15,000 employees. The chief sales officer you're calling doesn't care about any of that, and showing up with generic facts makes you look lazy, not prepared. When you're new to the role, you don't have years of pattern recognition to fall back on. You don't know what good account planning looks like yet. You just know you need to get meetings with people who have better things to do than talk to a rep they've never heard of. The solution isn't using AI as a search engine. It's using it as a sales assistant with a specific job to do. The Problem With How Most Reps Use AI for Account Planning Here's what usually happens. A rep needs to prepare for a call with a VP of Marketing at a healthcare company. They open their AI tool of choice and type: "Tell me about [Company Name]." The AI spits back: Company history Product offerings Recent press releases Maybe some executive names The rep skims it, copies a few bullet points into their CRM, and calls it account planning. Then they get on the call and realize they have no idea what this VP is actually trying to accomplish this quarter. They ask surface-level questions. The prospect checks out. The meeting goes nowhere. This happens because most reps are using AI like a faster Google. They're asking for information instead of asking for intelligence. AI account planning only works when you give the AI a role and a specific outcome to deliver. Not "tell me about this company." Instead, "You're an account executive trying to book a meeting with this company's CMO in the next two weeks. Based on their recent announcements and what their executives are posting on LinkedIn, what initiatives are they likely prioritizing right now?" How to Set Up AI Agents for Account Planning The difference between a basic AI chat and an AI agent is memory and context. When you create an agent, you're teaching it what kind of output you need every single time. You're not starting from scratch with every account. Here's the framework that works: Step 1: Give Your AI Agent a Clear Role Don't just ask questions. Set up the scenario with urgency and context. For example: "You are an account executive at [Your Company]. You've been tasked with bringing in [Target Company] as a new customer within the next 90 days. Your first call is with their [specific role, like Chief Sales Officer]. Based on the materials I'm providing, what are the top three business initiatives this person is likely focused on right now?" This does two things. First, it forces the AI to think from your perspective instead of just summarizing data. Second, it prioritizes current, actionable information over historical background. Step 2: Feed It the Right Source Material Wikipedia summaries don't help you. But these sources do: Recent press releases about new initiatives or leadership changes LinkedIn posts from executives at the company (especially the person you're calling) Company blog posts about their strategic direction Industry news articles mentioning the company Their "About Us" or "Newsroom" page for current priorities Analyst reports or industry trend pieces relevant to their sector If you're selling to publicly traded companies, earnings call transcripts and annual reports (10-Ks) are gold mines. But most new AEs aren't calling on Fortune 500 companies. The good news is that smaller companies often share more on LinkedIn and their blogs because they're trying to build their brand. Upload PDFs or paste content directly into your AI tool. Then let it analyze the content through the lens of the role you gave it. The output will focus on strategic priorities, not corporate history. Step 3: Ask Follow-Up Questions Based on Persona If you're calling into marketing, tech, security, or customer experience, the priorities are different. Your AI agent should help you understand how company-wide initiatives affect the specific person you're talking to. After the initial analysis, ask: "How would these initiatives specifically impact the VP of Marketing's goals this quarter?" Now you have talking points that matter to the person on the other end of the call. Step 4: Validate With Human Intelligence AI gets you 80% of the way there in three minutes instead of fifteen. But you still need to cross-check. Look at LinkedIn. Check recent news. If you have access to account managers or customer success reps who work with similar companies, ask them if the trends you're seeing match reality. AI account planning is a tool, not a replacement for critical thinking. If the output feels off, it probably is. Trust your gut and adjust. How to Turn Research Into Value Messages The goal of account planning isn't to memorize facts about a company. It's to walk into a conversation with an informed hypothesis about what they're trying to accomplish. When you do this right, your opening changes. Instead of starting cold with "Tell me about your role," you can say: "I saw your CEO recently posted about accelerating your digital customer experience, and I'm assuming that's putting some pressure on your team to modernize how you're approaching customer engagement. But I could be completely wrong. What's actually taking up most of your time right now?" Here's how you've impacted your prospect: First, it proves you did real research. Second, it gives the prospect something specific to react to instead of making them explain their entire world from scratch. Third, and this is critical, it still leaves room for discovery. You're not skipping the "What are your biggest challenges?" question. You're earning the right to ask them by showing you've already thought about their business. When prospects talk about their challenges in their own language, you learn how they frame problems, what matters to them, and where your solution might actually fit. Even if your hypothesis is wrong, you've separated yourself from the 90% of reps who show up with nothing. And when you're right, you skip past the surface-level conversation and get straight into the dialogue that matters. That's how you earn credibility as a new account executive, even when you don't have ten years of experience to lean on. Building a Repeatable AI Account Planning Workflow This only scales if you systematize it. You can't rely on remembering the perfect prompt every time or recreating your process from scratch for every account. Create separate agents for different use cases. One for account planning. One for prospecting outreach. One for call preparation. Train each agent for the output you need so you aren't constantly course-correcting. Save your account plans in a central location. The information changes, so plan to refresh your research quarterly. What mattered in Q2 might not matter in Q4, and your account planning needs to reflect that. The key is building a system that you can repeat across your entire territory without burning out. Two to three minutes per account. Not fifteen. Not thirty. That's how you research 50 accounts in a week instead of just five. What This Actually Looks Like in Practice Let's say you're targeting a mid-market software company. You start by checking their LinkedIn. The CEO posted last week about expanding into healthcare verticals. You pull up their blog and find three recent posts about compliance challenges in healthcare tech. You upload screenshots or copy the text into your AI agent and give it the prompt: "You're an AE trying to close this software company in 90 days. The first meeting is with their Chief Revenue Officer. What are the top three priorities they're likely focused on, and how do those connect to the company's broader goals?" The AI analyzes the content and tells you: They're investing heavily in healthcare vertical expansion, but facing longer sales cycles due to compliance requirements They're dealing with the need to build credibility fast in a regulated industry Their CEO has committed to proving ROI in healthcare within two quarters Now you have a hypothesis. The CRO is probably under pressure to close healthcare deals faster while managing a team that doesn't have deep healthcare expertise. That's your angle. You cross-check this with LinkedIn and see that the CRO has been engaging with posts about sales enablement in complex verticals. You look at recent news and find they just hired a VP of Healthcare Sales. Everything lines up. Your outreach message writes itself. You're not pitching. You're acknowledging what they're working on and offering a perspective on how companies in similar situations have approached the same problem. What to Do After the Meeting Your AI workflow doesn't end when the call does. This is where most reps leave value on the table. After your meeting, take the transcript from your call recording tool (Fathom, Gong, Chorus, whatever you use) and upload it to your AI agent.

Most new account executives stare at their territory list and feel the weight of it immediately. Fifty accounts. A hundred accounts. Sometimes more. Each one needs research, a plan, and outreach that doesn't sound like every other cold email clogging their prospect's inbox.  Jake McOsker, an account executive at Forrester Research, found himself facing exactly this problem when he moved from BDR to AE. He cracked it by changing how he used AI for account planning.  "Rather than taking 10 to 15 minutes to get an account plan out or understand who the notable stakeholders and the decision makers that I need to go with," he explained, "it's a 2 to 3 minute process to go through each one of these accounts." The traditional approach to AI account planning doesn't solve the territory problem. You ask ChatGPT or Claude for company information, and you get Wikipedia summaries. Founded in 1987. Headquartered in Dallas. 15,000 employees. The chief sales officer you're calling doesn't care about any of that, and showing up with generic facts makes you look lazy, not prepared. When you're new to the role, you don't have years of pattern recognition to fall back on. You don't know what good account planning looks like yet. You just know you need to get meetings with people who have better things to do than talk to a rep they've never heard of. The solution isn't using AI as a search engine. It's using it as a sales assistant with a specific job to do. The Problem With How Most Reps Use AI for Account Planning Here's what usually happens. A rep needs to prepare for a call with a VP of Marketing at a healthcare company. They open their AI tool of choice and type: "Tell me about [Company Name]." The AI spits back: Company history Product offerings Recent press releases Maybe some executive names The rep skims it, copies a few bullet points into their CRM, and calls it account planning. Then they get on the call and realize they have no idea what this VP is actually trying to accomplish this quarter. They ask surface-level questions. The prospect checks out. The meeting goes nowhere. This happens because most reps are using AI like a faster Google. They're asking for information instead of asking for intelligence. AI account planning only works when you give the AI a role and a specific outcome to deliver. Not "tell me about this company." Instead, "You're an account executive trying to book a meeting with this company's CMO in the next two weeks. Based on their recent announcements and what their executives are posting on LinkedIn, what initiatives are they likely prioritizing right now?" How to Set Up AI Agents for Account Planning The difference between a basic AI chat and an AI agent is memory and context. When you create an agent, you're teaching it what kind of output you need every single time. You're not starting from scratch with every account. Here's the framework that works: Step 1: Give Your AI Agent a Clear Role Don't just ask questions. Set up the scenario with urgency and context. For example: "You are an account executive at [Your Company]. You've been tasked with bringing in [Target Company] as a new customer within the next 90 days. Your first call is with their [specific role, like Chief Sales Officer]. Based on the materials I'm providing, what are the top three business initiatives this person is likely focused on right now?" This does two things. First, it forces the AI to think from your perspective instead of just summarizing data. Second, it prioritizes current, actionable information over historical background. Step 2: Feed It the Right Source Material Wikipedia summaries don't help you. But these sources do: Recent press releases about new initiatives or leadership changes LinkedIn posts from executives at the company (especially the person you're calling) Company blog posts about their strategic direction Industry news articles mentioning the company Their "About Us" or "Newsroom" page for current priorities Analyst reports or industry trend pieces relevant to their sector If you're selling to publicly traded companies, earnings call transcripts and annual reports (10-Ks) are gold mines. But most new AEs aren't calling on Fortune 500 companies. The good news is that smaller companies often share more on LinkedIn and their blogs because they're trying to build their brand. Upload PDFs or paste content directly into your AI tool. Then let it analyze the content through the lens of the role you gave it. The output will focus on strategic priorities, not corporate history. Step 3: Ask Follow-Up Questions Based on Persona If you're calling into marketing, tech, security, or customer experience, the priorities are different. Your AI agent should help you understand how company-wide initiatives affect the specific person you're talking to. After the initial analysis, ask: "How would these initiatives specifically impact the VP of Marketing's goals this quarter?" Now you have talking points that matter to the person on the other end of the call. Step 4: Validate With Human Intelligence AI gets you 80% of the way there in three minutes instead of fifteen. But you still need to cross-check. Look at LinkedIn. Check recent news. If you have access to account managers or customer success reps who work with similar companies, ask them if the trends you're seeing match reality. AI account planning is a tool, not a replacement for critical thinking. If the output feels off, it probably is. Trust your gut and adjust. How to Turn Research Into Value Messages The goal of account planning isn't to memorize facts about a company. It's to walk into a conversation with an informed hypothesis about what they're trying to accomplish. When you do this right, your opening changes. Instead of starting cold with "Tell me about your role," you can say: "I saw your CEO recently posted about accelerating your digital customer experience, and I'm assuming that's putting some pressure on your team to modernize how you're approaching customer engagement. But I could be completely wrong. What's actually taking up most of your time right now?" Here's how you've impacted your prospect: First, it proves you did real research. Second, it gives the prospect something specific to react to instead of making them explain their entire world from scratch. Third, and this is critical, it still leaves room for discovery. You're not skipping the "What are your biggest challenges?" question. You're earning the right to ask them by showing you've already thought about their business. When prospects talk about their challenges in their own language, you learn how they frame problems, what matters to them, and where your solution might actually fit. Even if your hypothesis is wrong, you've separated yourself from the 90% of reps who show up with nothing. And when you're right, you skip past the surface-level conversation and get straight into the dialogue that matters. That's how you earn credibility as a new account executive, even when you don't have ten years of experience to lean on. Building a Repeatable AI Account Planning Workflow This only scales if you systematize it. You can't rely on remembering the perfect prompt every time or recreating your process from scratch for every account. Create separate agents for different use cases. One for account planning. One for prospecting outreach. One for call preparation. Train each agent for the output you need so you aren't constantly course-correcting. Save your account plans in a central location. The information changes, so plan to refresh your research quarterly. What mattered in Q2 might not matter in Q4, and your account planning needs to reflect that. The key is building a system that you can repeat across your entire territory without burning out. Two to three minutes per account. Not fifteen. Not thirty. That's how you research 50 accounts in a week instead of just five. What This Actually Looks Like in Practice Let's say you're targeting a mid-market software company. You start by checking their LinkedIn. The CEO posted last week about expanding into healthcare verticals. You pull up their blog and find three recent posts about compliance challenges in healthcare tech. You upload screenshots or copy the text into your AI agent and give it the prompt: "You're an AE trying to close this software company in 90 days. The first meeting is with their Chief Revenue Officer. What are the top three priorities they're likely focused on, and how do those connect to the company's broader goals?" The AI analyzes the content and tells you: They're investing heavily in healthcare vertical expansion, but facing longer sales cycles due to compliance requirements They're dealing with the need to build credibility fast in a regulated industry Their CEO has committed to proving ROI in healthcare within two quarters Now you have a hypothesis. The CRO is probably under pressure to close healthcare deals faster while managing a team that doesn't have deep healthcare expertise. That's your angle. You cross-check this with LinkedIn and see that the CRO has been engaging with posts about sales enablement in complex verticals. You look at recent news and find they just hired a VP of Healthcare Sales. Everything lines up. Your outreach message writes itself. You're not pitching. You're acknowledging what they're working on and offering a perspective on how companies in similar situations have approached the same problem. What to Do After the Meeting Your AI workflow doesn't end when the call does. This is where most reps leave value on the table. After your meeting, take the transcript from your call recording tool (Fathom, Gong, Chorus, whatever you use) and upload it to your AI agent. Then ask specific questions:

Ed Simon is a seasoned travel and tourism executive with over 30 years of experience in the industry. In June 2025, he was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Sales Officer of Visit Florida Keys & Key West, where he leads sales, group meetings, events, and long-term partnerships. Prior to this role, he served as Executive VP for Visit Lauderdale and held senior sales positions at Destination Hotels and Remington Hotels, and earlier worked for Hyatt. He holds a B.S. in Hotel, Restaurant & Institutional Management from Penn State University.

ABOUT DINA TOWNSEND Dina's Linkedin Profile: linkedin.com/in/dinatownsendDINA TOWNSEND BIOAs Chief Sales Officer at Mamava, Dina leads the Sales Organization with energy, optimism, and a genuine passion for building connections. She is rooted in the belief that strong business acumen and a meaningful mission can be seamlessly intertwined. After a purpose-driven career pivot from Digital Signage Technology to Mamava, she channels her expertise into propelling sales for this mission-centric company. Beyond her professional endeavors, Dina is a former skydiver, a hobby homesteader, an avid college football fan, and a well-intentioned, albeit average, golfer.email: dinat@mamava.com | 802.347.2111 (o) Website: www.mamava.comSay yes to dignified lactation spaces! Be a hero—here's how you can help. SHOW INTRO:Welcome to Episode 82! of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast…In every episode we continue to follow our catch phrase of having “Dynamic Dialogues About DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.” And as we continue on this journey there will be thought provoking futurists, AI technology mavens, retailers, international hotel design executives as well as designers and architects of brand experience places.We'll talk with authors and people focused on wellness and sustainable design practices as well as neuroscientists who will continue to help us look at the built environment and the connections between our mind-body and the built world around us.We'll also have guests who are creative marketing masters from international brands and people who have started and grown some of the companies that are striking a new path for us follow.If you like what you hear on the NXTLVL Experience Design show, make sure to subscribe, like, comment and share with colleagues, friends and family.The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is always grateful for the support of VMSD magazine.VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. I think the IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing us to keep on talking about what makes retailing relevant. You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.SHOP Association represents companies and affiliates from 25 countries and brings value to their members through research, networking, education, events and awards. Check then out on SHOPAssociation.org Today, EPISODE 82… I talk with Dina Townsend Chief Sales Officer at Mamava a company whose mission is to create a healthier society through infrastructure and support for breastfeeding. And, along with partners who share in in their purpose of celebrating and supporting breastfeeding, Mamava is moving closer to creating a future where there is a dignified lactation space anywhere a parent may go. We'll get to my discussion with Dina in a minute, first though a few thoughts…*                     *                          *                          *A few episodes back I had Claire Coder founder and CEO if Aunt Flow on the show. That was an interesting conversation since we crossed what I think were a few boundaries (at least for me) and we talked quite candidly about menstruation. Not just about the biology of women's monthly cycle but about the fact that there are many women who have faced the scenario of getting their period unexpectedly and not have pads or tampons to meet them in their moment of need.Enter the company Aunt Flow who provides free feminine hygiene products in public restrooms, schools and other public buildings and to Fortune 500 corporate headquarters - for which tens of thousands of women are eternally grateful.This conversation with Dina Townsend, I guess you could say, falls in the Aunt Flow camp of subjects. Breast feeding moms was not a subject that I had on the list of things to address on the podcast. But here we are nevertheless with a subject that piqued my curiosity because the company Dina works for, Mamava, checks most of the boxes in our Dialogues on DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and he Arts” catch phrase.First off…I did not know there was something called the “Pump Act”. For the curious out there, a little internet searching comes up with this:“…The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, enacted in December 2022, expands workplace protections for nursing employees by requiring employers to provide reasonable break time and a private, non-bathroom space for pumping breast milk for up to one year after a child's birth.This law allows for legal action if employers fail to comply…”Now… Dina will contend that many employers do in fact provide such a space and also that a janitors closet with a folding chair would be in line with the requirements. Sure, a closet meets the description of a ‘private space' but it wholly underserves the needs of a nursing mother in terms of experience.I am aware that there are widely divergent views on the whole subject of breast feeding – we are not going to go there – except that I'll say that I fully line up behind my wife who breastfed our two sons.My discussion with Dina moves from the necessity to provide environments for nursing mothers to breastfeed their infants while in public places to the buying power of mothers who statistics indicate make an enormous amount of the buying decisions in households to how tying Retail Media Networks - RMNs – to Mamava pods serve a triple bottom line serving People, Planet and Profit. It's a way of shifting our thinking about business from “How much money did we make?” to: “Did we make money in a way that benefits society and the environment too?”Nielsen, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Harvard Business Review research tells us that Women drive 70–80% of consumer purchasing decisions in the U.S. and that is even for products they don't personally use.  And that their annual global consumer spending, is $20 trillionwhich, by the way, is a number projected to rise to $28 trillion. In many households, women make or heavily influence91% of new home purchases, 92% of vacation decisions, and 80% of healthcare choices says research by the Yankelovich Monitor, Marketing to Women Conference data.And Millennial and Gen Z mothers are even more influential: they control about $1 trillion in direct annual spendingand are primary decision-makers for food, home goods, education, and entertainment – says research by the Pew Research Center.So, women and moms are a force to be reconned with in terms of buying power and why Mamava pods are more than an economic discussion. The behavioral and psychographic aspects of them is important as well.Women increasingly valuebrands that support family life, caregiving, and inclusivity and so features like Mamava pods in retail locations or corporate HQs or parental-leave policies have brand-equity impact.We have known for some time that brands that are considered authentic exhibiting genuine empathic concern for their customer and employeesare major drivers in establishing brand affinity and purchase decisions. The BabyCenter “State of Modern Motherhood” report says that “ 9 in 10 mothers say they are more loyal to brands that “understand the challenges of motherhood.”And then there is mom's digital influence. Pew Internet studies explains that“80% of moms research products online before buying and that 60% follow parenting or lifestyle influencers for purchase guidance.”When you combine these factors with the emergence of Retail Media Networks, RMNs, you have a value add to placing Mamava pods in places that do not actually take up any more space on the sales floors of a store than is already being occupied with stuff that does support the brand experience or selling anything.Use to be that when digital screens came into the retail world, we had kiosks as wayfinding devices. Then a proliferation of screens emerged in the market where walls were more digital wallpaper crowding the environment with content and, in my opinion adding little to experience, arguably creating a shopping experience with more visual distraction and diminishing the overall experience. Painting the environment with the broad-brush stroke of digital media is often ineffective in capturing and retaining attention and doesn't lead to the positive results we think it does.That said, well considered application of digital media like those found on Mamava pods creates an opportunity to provide messaging to customers that could be more like a public service announcement, like ‘get your flu shot here today,' or a focused marketing piece that invites customers to consider a particular product that they may not have thought of prior to arriving at the store.So, you might ask why this matters to retail designWomen and mothers aren't just your average everyday consumers, they're key decision-makers shaping the social expectations of brands and spaces. Retailers, airports, and workplaces that provide amenities like Mamava pods, family restrooms, or flexible shopping experiences are responding directly to data-driven insights like:Increased dwell time and spending when caregivers feel accommodated.Higher brand loyalty and word-of-mouth among mothers.Positive CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility - and inclusivity signaling which is important for both consumer and employee attraction.If you have recently traveled through an airport, you may have already come upon a Mamava pod or maybe you have seen their “bench” version in a retail store. Fed up with pumping in bathrooms and borrowed spaces—Mamava's co-founders, Sascha Mayer and Christine Dodson, applied their decades of expertise in design and brand strategy to solve a problem that was largely invisible: the lack of lactation spaces in workplaces and public spaces and as a result, the Mamava pod was born.Tying together the Mamava pod, and its various incarnations, and retail media needed some savvy about how to create an effective in-store media application that wouldn't end up as just another screen in an already overwhelming environment.Enter Dina Townsend.As Chief Sales Officer at Mamava, Dina leads the Sales Organization with energy, optimism, and a genuine passion for building connections. She is rooted in the belief that strong business acumen and a meaningful mission like the Mamava brand platform can be seamlessly intertwined. After a purpose-driven career pivot from the world of Digital Signage Technology to Mamava, Dina channels her expertise into propelling sales for this mission-centric company. ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582bWebsites: https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.comTwitter: DavidKepronPersonal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/Bio:David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why', ‘what's now' and ‘what's next'. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott's “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine's Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation's Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.He has held teaching positions at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon.  The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production is by Kano Sound. The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

Lisa Messina is currently the Chief Sales Officer at Visit Orlando, where she oversees meeting & convention sales, travel industry partnerships, membership and supporting services. Her career spans more than three decades in the hospitality and meetings industry — including leadership roles at Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority and Caesars Entertainment. Lisa holds a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration from Cornell University. Known for her strategic leadership, she has been recognized among the most influential professionals in the meetings field and serves on key industry boards.

Welcome to Industry Spotlight—a focused series hosted by Sam D'Arc, highlighting standout dealerships and innovative companies, and exploring the trends driving success in today's automotive market. Today, Sam sits down with Parker Boice, General Sales Manager at BMW Utah and Than Hancock, Chief Sales Officer at Podium. This episode is brought to you by: 1. Podium - Don't miss another lead. With Podium's AI BDC, dealerships are seeing an 80% increase in after-hours appointments by handling leads 24/7. Instantly respond to inquiries, book test drives, and let your team focus on what matters: closing deals. Learn how Podium can help you sell more cars at https://www.podium.com/car-dealership-guy Check out Car Dealership Guy's stuff: For dealers: Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dealership recruiting ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgrecruiting.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Fix your dealership's social media ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.trynomad.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For industry vendors: Advertise with Car Dealership Guy ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgpartner.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Topics: 01:15 How to compete in a crowded market? 04:45 How are customer shopping trends changing? 06:10 Biggest lead management challenge and solution? 11:53 How does AI improve customer experience? 18:57 What is agentic AI? 22:20 Will AI replace sales jobs? 26:15 Future of AI in dealerships? 28:01 Who owns and controls AI data? 37:31 How fast is AI evolving? Car Dealership Guy Socials: X ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠x.com/GuyDealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/cardealershipguy/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tiktok.com/@guydealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Threads ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠threads.net/@cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Everything else ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Today, I'm joined by a guest who's doing some really innovative things in the trades industry, Nate Keller, the Co-Founder and Chief Sales Officer of Free2Grow.Free2Grow is transforming how contractors handle customer communication by using AI-powered CSRs built specifically for home service businesses. Before launching the AI side, Nate and his team actually ran a live call center, so they understand firsthand what business owners really need on the front lines.In this episode, we dive into:How AI voice systems improve booking rates and customer experienceThe growing role of automation in HVAC, plumbing, and roofingLessons from transitioning from service to technologyThe future of AI and how contractors can leverage it for growthIf you're a contractor or home service business owner looking to scale smarter and stay ahead of the industry shift, this conversation is packed with actionable insights.Learn more about Free2GrowWebsite: https://free2grow.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Free2GrowOfficial/Instagram: @free2growofficialConnect with Nathan KellerFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathan.keller1Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathankeller/Connect with Builders of AuthorityWebsite: https://buildauthority.comFREE Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/7685392924809322BOA Mastermind: https://buildauthority.co/order-form-mastermindGoHighLevel Extended 30-day Free Trial w/TONS of Personal Branding Bonuses: http://gohighlevel.com/adammcchesney

Disa Pratt, the Chief Sales Officer for Vetnique, joins us to share her remarkable journey in sales leadership. From her early days at Procter & Gamble to leading a thriving pet wellness brand, Disa unveils the strategies that have driven her success. With Vetnique's unique veterinarian-formulated solutions, founded by Dr. James Bascharon, standing out in the competitive pet wellness market, Disa explains how delivering results and being part of supportive company cultures have been pivotal in her career. Her passion for sales and her dedication to building teams resonate throughout the conversation, offering inspiration and practical insights for aspiring leaders.  The art of building successful sales teams comes alive as Disa reflects on her foundational training and mentorship at Procter & Gamble. Her experiences underscore the importance of product knowledge, understanding merchandising dynamics, and cultivating strong buyer relationships. She passionately describes how mentorship has not only shaped her leadership style but also helped her nurture future leaders. Disa reveals the key attributes she seeks when assembling her sales teams—proven track records, cultural fit, and the adaptability necessary for high-growth environments—all while fostering a positive and supportive culture that encourages growth and innovation.  Leadership and accountability in sales take center stage, with Disa discussing the power of vulnerability and feedback in developing as a leader. The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) comes into play as a tool for maintaining accountability and enhancing organizational clarity. Additionally, we explore the critical role of CRM systems, not just as a tool for efficiency but as a catalyst for strategic decision-making through data analytics. Disa emphasizes the need for skilled analysts who can convert raw data into actionable insights, ensuring that sales teams are empowered to achieve excellence. Join us for this engaging episode that offers a wealth of experience and strategies from one of the leading voices in sales leadership.  Disa Pratt is a seasoned sales and business development executive with over 30 years of experience driving revenue growth for both start-ups and global CPG brands. She currently serves as Chief Sales Officer at Vetnique, where she leads sales strategy and retail expansion across major outlets like Chewy, Petco, Walmart, and Target.  Her background spans sales, strategy, eCommerce, marketing, and omnichannel execution, with leadership roles at Zesty Paws, Solid Gold, HALO, and New Chapter (P&G). Disa is known for her data-driven, collaborative approach and proven success in building strong retail partnerships.  She lives on a 40-acre farm in western Massachusetts with her two rescue dogs, Olive and Odie, and is passionate about pet wellness and fostering animals.    Quotes:  "In sales, it's all about results. Promise made, promise kept. Deliver on your numbers and the rest will follow."   "Mentorship has been a cornerstone of my career. Strong mentors believed in me, thrust me into roles I wasn't ready for, and stood by me as I grew."  "Vulnerability isn't a weakness in leadership; it's a strength. Embracing imperfections and learning from them fosters a culture of growth and innovation."   "CRM systems are more than just efficiency tools; they're catalysts for strategic decision-making when aligned with organizational goals."     Links:   Disa's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/disa-pratt-2baa2653/ Vetnique - https://vetnique.com Find this episode and all other Sales Lead Dog episodes at https://empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog/ 

What would it look like if building your dreams wasn't just wishful thinking, but a repeatable process rooted in both art and science? In this inspiring conversation, Rich Boggs shares his journey from being a serial entrepreneur to co-founding the Brave Thinking Institute, where he now helps people transform vision into reality. We explore how science and spirituality come together in personal growth, why community and mentorship are essential, and the daily practices that keep us aligned with what we truly desire. From morning routines to meditation, Rich reveals practical tools anyone can use to stay connected to their vision—even when challenges arise.We also dive into the power of asking the right questions, harnessing creativity in everyday life, and shifting from a reactive to a truly creative mindset. What if your current struggles held the very meaning and growth you've been searching for? And how might your life change if you surrounded yourself with a community of people who are just as committed to dreaming big as you are? Join us for a heart-centered and practical conversation that just might spark the clarity and confidence you've been waiting for.Special DreamBuilder LIVE Ticket for Science & Spirituality podcast listeners: http://bti.com/science97Episode 183 with Mary Morrissey: https://open.spotify.com/episode/179n3H0IPxGeY5WIom2YIF?si=ZdGIXbzRTE--HJlXXmBiVgAbout RichRich Boggs is the Chief Sales Officer and Co-Founder of the Brave Thinking Institute. For more than 25 years, he has helped build multi-million dollar organizations and has been featured as a business expert on CNN, CBS Evening News, ABC World News Tonight, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other national media outlets. Before his business career, Rich enjoyed a decade-long run as an actor, sharing the screen with award-winning talents such as Christian Bale, Reese Witherspoon, and Paul Rudd. He lives in Del Mar, California, with his wife of 31 years and their two children.

HubSpot's new Chief Sales Officer, David Cohen, has spent the last six months traveling the globe meeting partners and customers. What he's learned is shaping not only how HubSpot goes to market, but how to win upmarket—together. It's a conversation about leadership, the AI transformation reshaping go-to-market, customer value, and why partners are central to winning the next era of growth.

In this episode, we sit down with Michael , Chief Sales Officer at NHP Electrical Engineering, to explore why the way you sell is as important—if not more so—than what you're offering. Drawing from his own journey from engineering to sales leadership, Michael sheds light on approaching customers with genuine value, the difference between transactional and professional selling, and how his engineering mindset influenced his sales approach.

In this episode, we sit down with Michael , Chief Sales Officer at NHP Electrical Engineering, to explore why the way you sell is as important—if not more so—than what you're offering. Drawing from his own journey from engineering to sales leadership, Michael sheds light on approaching customers with genuine value, the difference between transactional and professional selling, and how his engineering mindset influenced his sales approach.

Are you struggling to grow your brand with SEO and digital marketing? For that and more, follow us here and subscribe to our YouTube channel!In this episode of Built Online, we talk with Jimi Gibson, Chief Sales Officer at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency, a full-service digital marketing firm helping businesses scale through SEO, social media, and paid advertising. Jimi shares how Thrive drives measurable growth for clients, the changing role of agencies in 2025, and what strategies entrepreneurs can use right now to build sustainable visibility online. ------------JIMI GIBSON:- Website: https://thriveagency.com- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimi-gibson/- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThriveAgency- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thriveagency------------

What if you could quote thousands of lanes in minutes, respond to shippers in under two, and still have time to grow your customer base? Let's welcome Tabi Connect's Dan Hellmann back to the show to explain how quoting automation, RFP modules, and lightning-fast rate delivery are changing the game for freight brokers and carriers! We discuss why speed is your biggest competitive advantage in today's market, how data-driven sales build trust with shippers, and why honest onboarding beats over-promising every time.  Dan covers more topics to help you automate smarter, execute flawlessly, and deliver more value than the competition, so keep tuning in!   About Dan Hellmann With a career spanning 19 years in the transportation and logistics industry, Dan Hellmann is a dynamic and results-driven leader. Currently serving as the Chief Sales Officer at Tabi Connect, he has been at the forefront of the company's success for the past 3.5 years. In this role, Dan leads sales, marketing, account management, and customer success, driving the company's growth and ensuring client satisfaction. Dan is deeply involved in industry associations, serving as a Board Member for the Logistics and Transportation Association of North America (LTNA), an active member of the Young Executive Committee for the Transportation Intermediaries Association, and serves as a Board Member for the Denver Transportation Club.  A true veteran in the brokerage field, Dan Hellmann has accumulated invaluable experience in sales leadership, P&L management, and strategy. His journey includes successfully starting up a brokerage for a former customer, steering it to an impressive $50 million in revenue. Dan brings a wealth of knowledge and practical insights to industry events. His passion for innovation, strategic thinking, and commitment to excellence make him a compelling voice in the world of transportation and logistics.   Connect with Dan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-hellmann-ctb/  Email: DanH@tabiconnect.com  

Meet Stephanie Glanzer. Her WHY.os is Make Sense - Mastery - Trust.Stephanie Glanzer is the Chief Sales Officer and Senior Vice President at MGM Resorts International. She didn't follow the usual path to the top—her early career began in ballet. Over time, her natural need to make sense of things helped her rise through the ranks in hospitality. Today, she leads global sales for one of the biggest names in entertainment and travel. But what really sets her apart is how she leads—with honesty, humility, and a clear sense of purpose.Here's what you'll learn in this episode:How Stephanie made big career shifts without losing her sense of directionWhy strong leadership isn't about knowing everything—it's about asking the right questionsThe real reason your work title matters less than how you treat peopleThis episode is full of real talk on leadership, balance, and building a career that fits who you are. Go listen now—you'll walk away with ideas you can actually use.Get in touch with Stephanie!LinkedInFacebook Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Scott Luton from Supply Chain Now as he sits down with Mac McGary, Chief Sales Officer at Eyelit Technologies, live from the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium in Orlando. In this engaging conversation, Mac shares how Eyelit is transforming supply chain execution by bridging the gap between factory-floor realities and high-level planning.The discussion dives into:How AI is reshaping supply chain decision-makingThe rise of system-driven enterprisesWhy real-time data is key to turning operational chaos into opportunityThe importance of embracing uncertainty and rapid changeHow Eyelet Technologies is helping companies modernize and adaptIf you're leading through supply chain transformation—or preparing to—this is an episode you won't want to miss.Additional Links & Resources:Connect with Mac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mac-mcgary-3792131/Learn more about Eyelit Technologies: https://eyelit.ai/Watch our other interviews from Gartner Supply Chain Symposium 2025: https://supplychainnow.com/gartner-2025 Learn more about Supply Chain Now: https://supplychainnow.comWatch and listen to more Supply Chain Now episodes here: https://supplychainnow.com/program/supply-chain-nowSubscribe to Supply Chain Now on your favorite platform: https://supplychainnow.com/joinWork with us! Download Supply Chain Now's NEW Media Kit: https://bit.ly/3XH6OVkWEBINAR- Strengthening Fraud Defenses Through Tracking and Digital Visibility: https://bit.ly/4eiZ6t3WEBINAR- Real Stories: How an Australian Powerhouse Unlocked Millions in Capex Using Advanced Supply Chain Planning: https://bit.ly/3TsxBUFWEBINAR- From Framework to Action: Decision Automation in the Agentic Supply Chain: https://bit.ly/4nKlkJ6WEBINAR- From Legacy to Leading Edge, Morgan Foods' Supply Chain Journey: https://bit.ly/3IcDDGkWEBINAR- Tomorrow's Factory is Already Here: https://bit.ly/45QMGqoWEBINAR- Mastering Data in the AI Explosion Age - Managing the Fuel That Powers Innovation: https://bit.ly/4ogPN1kThis episode is hosted by Scott Luton and produced by Trisha Cordes, Joshua Miranda, and Amanda Luton. For additional information, please visit our dedicated show page at: https://supplychainnow.com/chaos-clarity-transforming-supply-chains-ai-1463

Nick Loise is the Founder and Chief Sales Officer of Sales Performance Team, a company dedicated to helping small and midsize businesses enhance their sales leadership, processes, and systems. With a background as a salesperson, sales leader, entrepreneur, marketing executive, and President's Club winner, he brings a wealth of experience to his clients. Nick has authored and co-authored several books on sales and marketing, including Moving the Sales Needle in Your Business and The Ultimate Guide to Managing Your Sales Team. He is also a sought-after speaker who has shared the stage with industry leaders such as Dan Kennedy, Russell Brunson, and Barbara Corcoran. In this episode… Many businesses struggle with low sales conversion rates despite having a steady stream of leads. Sales teams often lack structured processes, fail to properly follow up, and lose opportunities due to ineffective recruiting and inadequate onboarding. How can companies create scalable sales systems, hire the right people, and consistently close deals? Nick Loise, an expert in building high-performing sales teams and developing sales systems, provides actionable strategies to overcome these challenges. He emphasizes the importance of building proven, repeatable sales processes rather than relying on individual salesperson styles. He highlights key tools like CRMs, follow-up automation, and AI-driven pipeline analysis to streamline operations. Nick also stresses that active listening is a critical, often overlooked skill in sales, and he recommends using flowcharts instead of rigid scripts to guide sales calls. He shares proven methods for recruiting top sales talent using direct response techniques and detailed screening processes to avoid costly hiring mistakes. In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Nick Loise, Founder of Sales Performance Team, about building effective sales teams and systems. Nick shares insights on sales process design, sales team recruiting, and using technology to improve pipeline management. He also discusses active listening, overcoming constraints in the sales cycle, and the differences between selling and closing.

Looking for a smarter, safer way to invest in real estate—without picking up a hammer or managing tenants?This week on the Exit Strategies Radio Show, host Corwyn J. Melette sits down with Merriah Harkins, Chief Sales Officer at Lucrum Capital, a private real estate lending firm structured as a REIT. With more than 20 years of experience in raising capital for alternative investment funds, Merriah breaks down how accredited investors can earn steady monthly income (7%–8.5%) by passively investing in short-term, first-position loans secured by real estate.She explains the mechanics of Lucrum's conservative fund structure, how their low loan-to-value (LTV) model offers downside protection, and why their REIT structure provides additional tax advantages for investors—especially those using retirement accounts.

In this episode of the Drop In CEO podcast Eric Allen, the Chief Sales Officer for Balance Aesthetics and Wellness, shares his journey from humble beginnings at Mitsubishi Motors to becoming a seasoned C-Suite leader. He discusses the essence of strategic planning, execution, and sticking to goals, emphasizing the importance of understanding business processes from the ground up. Eric also touches on the personal values instilled in him by his single mother, his passion for chess, and the significance of fostering original leadership. Tune in to gain valuable leadership insights from Eric's experiences and thought-provoking perspectives. Episode Highlights: 04:19 The Importance of Ground-Level Experience 09:34 From Tactical Expert to Strategic Leader 17:00 Eric's Success Formula for Excellence 21:17 Eric’s insights on Chess, Community, and Calm Eric Allen is a dynamic business leader known for driving rapid growth through operational excellence and visionary leadership. Beginning his career at Mitsubishi Motors, Eric honed his expertise in Lean management and has since led teams at Astral Brands, Jimerson Enterprises, and Balanced Aesthetics + Wellness. As a COO, he champions execution, team collaboration, and customer-centric innovation. Eric thrives on coaching others to exceed expectations and embraces technology to unlock new revenue opportunities and improve efficiency. His leadership style inspires high performance in fast-paced environments. Eric brings deep expertise in business development, operations, strategy, and scalable growth solutions. Connect with Eric Allen: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/eric-allen-mba-93270174 Company Website: balancedaestheticsmedspa.com For More Insights from The Drop In CEO: