Podcasts about sales playbook

In this episode of In-Ear Insights, the Trust Insights podcast, Katie and Chris discuss scaling Generative AI past basic prompting and achieving real business value. You will learn the strategic framework necessary to move beyond simple, one-off interactions with large language models. You will discover why focusing on your data quality, or “ingredients,” is more critical than finding the ultimate prompt formula. You will understand how connecting AI to your core business systems using agent technology will unlock massive time savings and efficiencies. You will gain insight into defining clear, measurable goals for AI projects using effective user stories and the 5P methodology. Stop treating AI like a chatbot intern and start building automated value—watch now to find out how! Watch the video here: Can’t see anything? Watch it on YouTube here. Listen to the audio here: https://traffic.libsyn.com/inearinsights/tipodcast-getting-real-value-from-generative-ai.mp3 Download the MP3 audio here. Need help with your company’s data and analytics? Let us know! Join our free Slack group for marketers interested in analytics! [podcastsponsor] Machine-Generated Transcript What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for listening to the episode. Christopher S. Penn – 00:00 In this week’s *In-Ear Insights*. Another week, another gazillion posts on LinkedIn and various social networks about the ultimate ChatGPT prompt. OpenAI, of course, published its Prompt Blocks library of hundreds of mediocre prompts that are particularly unhelpful. And what we’re seeing in the AI industry is this: A lot of people are stuck and focused on how do I prompt ChatGPT to do this, that, or the other thing, when in reality that’s not where the value is. Today, let’s talk about where the value of generative AI actually is, because a lot of people still seem very stuck on the 101 basics. And there’s nothing wrong with that—that is totally great—but what comes after it? Christopher S. Penn – 00:47 So, Katie, from your perspective as someone who is not the propeller head in this company and is very representative of the business user who wants real results from this stuff and not just shiny objects, what do you see in the Generative AI space right now? And more important, what do you see it’s missing? Katie Robbert – 01:14 I see it’s missing any kind of strategy, to be quite honest. The way that people are using generative AI—and this is a broad stroke, it’s a generalization—is still very one-off. Let me go to ChatGPT to summarize these meeting notes. Let me go to Gemini to outline a blog post. There is nothing wrong with that, but it’s not a strategy; it’s one more tool in your stack. And so the big thing that I see missing is, what are we doing with this long term? Katie Robbert – 01:53 Where does it fit into the overall workflow and how is it actually becoming part of the team? How is it becoming integrated into the organization? So, people who are saying, “Well, we’re sitting down for our 2026 planning, we need to figure out where AI fits in,” I think you’re already setting yourself up for failure because you’re leading with AI needs to fit in somewhere versus you need to lead with what do we need to do in 2026, period? Chris has brought up the 5P Framework, which is 100% where I’m going to recommend you start. Start with the purpose. So, what are your goals? What are the questions you’re trying to answer? How are you trying to grow and scale? And what are the KPIs that you want to be thinking about in 2026? Katie Robbert – 02:46 Notice I didn’t say with AI. Leave AI out of it for now. For now, we’ll get to it. So what are the things that you’re trying to do? What is the purpose of having a business in 2026? What are the things you’re trying to achieve? Then you move on to people. Well, who’s involved? It’s the team, it’s the executives, it’s the customers. Don’t forget about the customers because they’re kind of the reason you have a business in the first place. And figure out what all of those individuals bring to the table. How are they going to help you with your purpose and then the process? How are we going to do these things? So, in order to scale the business by 10x, we need to bring in 20x revenue. Katie Robbert – 03:33 In order to bring in 20x revenue, we need to bring in 30x visits to the website. And you start to go down that road. That’s sort of your process. And guess what? We haven’t even talked about AI yet, because it doesn’t matter at the moment. You need to get those pieces figured out first. If we need to bring in 30x the visits to the website that we were getting in the previous year, how do we do that? What are we doing today? What do we need to do tomorrow? Okay, we need to create content, we need to disseminate it, we need to measure it, we need to do this. Oh, maybe now we can think about platforms. That’s where you can start to figure out where in this does AI fit? Katie Robbert – 04:12 And I think that’s the piece that’s missing: people are jumping to AI first and not why the heck are we doing this. So that is my long-winded rant. Chris, I would love to hear your perspective. Christopher S. Penn – 04:23 Perspective specific to AI. Where people are getting tripped up is in a couple different areas. The biggest at the basic level is a misunderstanding of prompting. And we’re going to be talking about this. You’ll hear a lot about this fall as we are on the conference circuit. Prompting is like a recipe. So you have a recipe for baking beef Wellington, what have you. The recipe is not the most important part of the process. It’s important. Winging it, particularly for complex dishes, is not a good idea unless you’ve done it a million times before. The most important part is things like the ingredients. You can have the best recipe in the world; if you have no ingredients, you ain’t eating. That’s pretty obvious. Christopher S. Penn – 05:15 And yet so many people are so focused on, “Oh, I’ve got to have the perfect prompt”—no, you don’t. You need to have good ingredients to get value. So, let’s say you’re doing 2026 strategic planning and you go to the AI to say, “I need to work on my strategic plan for 2026.” They will understand generally what that means because most models are reasoning models now. But if you provide no data about who you are, what you do, how you’ve done it, your results before, who your competitors are, who your customers are, all the 10 things that you need to do strategic planning like your budget, who’s involved, the Five Ps—basically AI won’t be able to help you any better than you will or that your team will. It’s a waste of time. Christopher S. Penn – 06:00 For immediate value unlocks for AI, it starts with the right ingredients, with the right recipe, and your skills. So that should sound an awful lot like people, process, and platform. I call it Generative AI 102. If 101 is, “How do I prompt?” 102 is, “What ingredients need to go with my prompt to get value out of them?” But then 201 is—and this is exactly what you started off with, Katie—one-off interactions with ChatGPT don’t scale. They don’t deliver value because you, the human, are still typing away like a little monkey at the keyboard. If you want value from AI, part of its value comes from saving time, saving money, and making money. Saving time means scale—doing things at scale—which means you need to connect your AI to other systems. Christopher S. Penn – 06:59 You need to plug it into your email, into your CRM, into your DSP. Name the technology platform of your choice. If you are still just copy-pasting in and out of ChatGPT, you’re not going to get the value you want because you are the bottleneck. Katie Robbert – 07:16 I think that this extends to the conversations around agentic AI. Again, are you thinking about it as a one-off or are you thinking about it as a true integration into your workflow? Okay, so I don’t want to have to summarize meeting notes anymore. So let me spend a week building an agent that’s going to do that for me. Okay, great. So now you have an agent that summarizes your meeting notes and doesn’t do anything else. So now you have to, okay, what else do I want it to do? And you start frankensteining together all of these one-off tasks until you have 100 agents to do 100 things versus maybe one really solid workflow that could have done a lot of things and have less failure points. Katie Robbert – 08:00 That’s really what we’re talking about. When you’re short-sighted in thinking about where generative AI fits in, you introduce even more failure points in your business—your operations, your process, your marketing, whatever it is. Because you’re just saying, “Okay, I’m going to use ChatGPT for this, and I’m going to use Gemini for this, and I’m going to use Claude for this, and I’m use Google Colab for this.” Then it’s just kind of all over the place. Really, what you want to have is a more thoughtful, holistic, documented plan for where all these pieces fit in. Don’t put AI first. Think about your goals first. And if the goal is, “We want to use AI,” it’s the wrong goal. Start over. Christopher S. Penn – 08:56 Unless that’s literally your job. Katie Robbert – 09:00 But that would theoretically tie to a larger business goal. Christopher S. Penn – 09:05 It should. Katie Robbert – 09:07 So what is the larger business goal that you’ve then determined? This is where AI fits in. Then you can introduce AI. A great way to figure that out is a user story. A user story is a simple three-part sentence: As a [Persona], I want [X], so that [Y]. So, as the lead AI engineer, I want to build an AI agent. And you don’t stop there. You say, “So that we can increase our revenue by 30x,” or, “Find more efficiencies and cut down the amount of time that it takes to create content.” Too many people, when we are talking about where people are getting generative AI wrong, stop at the “want to” and they put the period there. They forget about the “so that.” Katie Robbert – 09:58 And the “so that” arguably is the most important part of the user story because it gives you a purpose, it gives you a performance metric. So the Persona is the people, the “want to” is the process and the platform. The “so that” is the purpose and the performance. Christopher S. Penn – 10:18 When you do that, when you start thinking about the purpose, it will hint at the platforms that have to be involved. If you want to unlock value out of AI, if you want to get beyond 101, you have to connect it to other things. A real simple example: Say you’re in sales. Where does all the data that you’d want AI to use live? It doesn’t live in ChatGPT; it lives in your CRM. So the first and most important thing that you would have to figure out is, “As a salesperson, I want to increase my closing rate by 10% so that I get 10% more money.” That’s a pretty solid user story. Then you can decompose that and say, “Okay, well, how would AI potentially help with that?” Well, it could identify maybe next best actions on my… Christopher S. Penn – 11:12 …on the deals that are in my pipeline. Maybe I’ve forgotten something. Maybe something fell through the cracks. How do I do that? So you would then revise the user story: “As a salesperson who wants to make more money, I want to identify the next best actions for the deals in my pipeline programmatically so that I don’t let something fall through the cracks that could make me a bunch of money.” Then you drill down further and you say, “Okay, well, how could AI help me with that?” Well, if you have your Sales Playbook, you have your CRM data, and you have a good agentic framework, you could say, “Agent, go get me one of my deals at a time from my CRM, take my Sales Playbook, interrogate it and say, ‘Hey, Sales Playbook, here’s my deal. What should my next best action be?'” Christopher S. Penn – 11:59 If you’ve done a good job with your Sales Playbook and you’ve got battle cards and all that stuff in there, the AI will pretty easily figure out, “Oh, this deal is in this state. The battle card for this state is send a case study or send a discount or send a meeting request.” Then the AI has to go back to its agent and say, “CRM, record a task for me. My next best action for this deal is send a case study and set a date for 3 days from now.” Now, you’ve taken the user story, drilled down. You found a place where AI fits in and can do that work so that you don’t have to. Because a human could do that work. And a human should know what’s in your Sales Playbook. Christopher S. Penn – 12:48 But let’s be honest, if you do a really good job with the Sales Playbook, it might be 300 pages long. But in the system now, you’re connecting AI to and from where all the knowledge lives and saying, “This is the concrete, tangible outcome I want: I want to know what the next best action is for every deal in my pipeline so that I can make more money.” Katie Robbert – 13:10 I would argue that even if your sales book is 200 pages long, you should still kind of know how you’re selling things. Christopher S. Penn – 13:19 Should. Katie Robbert – 13:21 But that’s the thing: to get more value out of generative AI, you have to know the thing first. So, yeah, generative AI can give you suggestions and help you brainstorm. But really, it comes down to what you know. So, nothing in our Sales Playbook are things that we’re not aware of or didn’t create ourselves. Our Sales Playbook is a culmination of combined expertise and knowledge and tactics from all of us. If I read through—and I have read through—but if I read through the entire Sales Playbook, nothing should jump out at me as, “Huh, that’s new.” Katie Robbert – 13:58 I wasn’t aware of that. I think the other side of the coin is, yes, we’re doing these one-off things with generative AI, but we’re also just accepting the output as is. We’re, “Okay, so that must be it.” When we’re thinking about getting more value, the value, Chris, to your point, is if you’re not giving the system all of the ingredients, you’re going to end up with a beef Wellington that’s made with chickpeas and glue and maybe a piece of cheesecloth. I’m waiting for you to try to wrap your head around that. Christopher S. Penn – 14:45 Yeah, no, that sounds horrible. Katie Robbert – 14:48 Exactly. That’s exactly the point: the value you get out of generative AI. It goes back to the data quality conversation we were having on last week’s podcast when we were talking about the LinkedIn paper. It’s not enough just to accept the output and clean it from there. If you spent the time to make a beef Wellington and the meat is overdone, or the pastry is not flaky, or the filling is too salty, and you’re trying to correct those things after the fact, you’re already too late. You can maybe kind of mask it a little bit, maybe add a couple of things to counterbalance whatever it is that went wrong. But it really starts at the beginning of what you’re putting into it. Katie Robbert – 15:39 So maybe don’t be so heavy-handed with the salt, maybe don’t overwork the dough so that it is actually more flaky and more like a pastry dough than a pizza dough. Christopher S. Penn – 15:52 I’m really hungry now. In 2026, I do think one of the things that marketers are going to get their hands around—and everybody using generative AI—is how agents play a role in what you do because they are the connectors to other systems. And if you’re not familiar with how agentic AI works, it’s going to be a handicap. In the same way that if you’re not familiar with how ChatGPT itself works, it’s going to be a handicap, and you still have to master the basics. We’ve always talked about the three levels: done by you, which is prompting; done with you, which is mini automations like Gems and GPTs; and then done for you as agents. I think people have kind of at least figured out done by you, give or take. Christopher S. Penn – 16:41 Yes, there’s still a lot of crappy prompts out there, but for the most part people don’t need to be told what a prompt is anymore. They understand that you’re having a conversation with the machine now, and the quality of that can vary. People are starting to wrap their heads around the GPT kind of thing: “Let me make a mini app for this.” And there’s a bunch of things that I see wrong there: “I’m just going to make this my primary workhorse.” No, it doesn’t have the context, doesn’t have the ingredients to do that. But getting to that level of the agent is where I think at least the forward-looking companies need to get to, to get that value sooner rather than later. Christopher S. Penn – 17:20 This past year in 2025, we have built probably two dozen agentic systems, which is nothing more than an AI wrapped around a whole bunch of code connecting to data sources. We’ve used it to build ICPs, to evaluate landing pages, to do sentiment analysis—all these different projects because some of them are really crazy. But the key for the value was connecting to those systems. Christopher S. Penn – 17:49 That’s the really difficult part because—and we have a whole thing about this if you want to chat about it—we have a data quality audit. The moment you start connecting to your systems, you now need to know that the data going in and out of those systems is good. If the ingredients are bad, to your point, it doesn’t matter how good a cook you are, it doesn’t matter what appliances you own, doesn’t matter how good the recipe is. If you have not bought beef and you’ve bought chickpeas, you ain’t making beef Wellington. Katie Robbert – 18:27 Side note: I have made a vegetarian beef Wellington with chickpeas, and it actually came out pretty good. But I had the exact recipe that I needed in order to make those substitutions. And I went into the process knowing that my output wasn’t actually going to be a beef Wellington; it was going to be a chickpea Wellington. I think that’s also part of it—the expectation setting. AI can do a lot with crappy ingredients, but not if you don’t tell it what it’s supposed to be doing. So if you say, “I’m making a beef Wellington, here’s chickpeas,” it’s going to be, “I guess I can do that.” Katie Robbert – 19:13 But if you’re saying, “I’m making a chickpea loaf covered in puff pastry and a mushroom filling,” it’s, “Oh, I can totally do that,” because there was no mention of beef, and now I don’t have the context that I’m supposed to be doing anything with beef. So it’s the ingredients, but it’s also the critical thinking of what is it that you’re trying to do in the first place. Katie Robbert – 19:34 That goes back to this is where people aren’t getting the right value out of generative AI because they’re just doing these one-off things and they’re not giving it the context that it needs to actually do something. And then it’s not integrated into the business as a whole. It’s just, Chris is over there using generative AI to make songs. But that has nothing to do with what Trust Insights does on a day-to-day basis. So that’s never going to make us any money. He’s spending the time and the resources. This is all fictional. He doesn’t actually spend company time doing this. Christopher S. Penn – 20:09 I spent a lot of time personally. Katie Robbert – 20:10 Doing this, and that’s fine. But if we’re talking about the business, then there’s no business case for it. You haven’t gone through the Five Ps. Katie Robbert – 20:20 To say this is where this particular thing fits into the business overall. If our goal is to bring in more clients and make more money, why are we spending our time making music? Christopher S. Penn – 20:32 Exactly. As we have this conversation, it occurs to me that in 2026 we are probably going to need to put together an agentic AI course because the roadmap to get there is very difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. You will potentially do things like, oh, I don’t know, accidentally give AI access to your production database and then it deletes it because it thinks it didn’t need it. Which happened to someone on the Replit repository not too long ago. Katie Robbert – 21:04 Whoops. Christopher S. Penn – 21:08 This is why we do git commits and rollbacks and we use sandbox AI. If you are in a position where you are saying, “I’ve got the 101 down and now I’m stuck. I don’t know where to go next,” the three things that you should be looking at: Number one is the Five Ps to figure out what you should be doing, period. Number two is a data quality audit to make sure that the data you’re feeding into AI is going to be any good. Number three is taking the agentic systems that are out there to connect them to your good quality data for the right purpose, with the right performance, so that you can scale the use of AI beyond being your ChatGPT’s intern. That’s what you are. Katie Robbert – 21:58 Chris, I don’t know if you know this, but we have a course that actually walks you through a lot of those things. You can go to Trust Insights AI strategy course. To be clear, this specific course doesn’t teach you how to use AI. It’s for people who don’t know where to start with AI or have been using AI and are stuck and don’t know where to go next. So, for example, if you’re doing your 2026 planning and you’re, “I think we need to introduce agentic AI.” Christopher S. Penn – 22:33 Cool. Katie Robbert – 22:34 I would highly recommend using the tools that you learn in this course to figure out, “Do I need to do that? Where does it fit? Who needs to do it? How are we going to maintain it? What is the goal of putting agentic AI in other than just putting it on our website and saying, ‘We do it’?” That would be my recommendation: take our AI strategy course to figure out what to do next. Chris, where we started with this conversation was, how do people get more value out of AI? So, Chris, congratulations. Chris is an AI ready strategist. Katie Robbert – 23:14 We’re very proud of him. If you’re just listening, what we’re showing on the screen is the certificate of completion for the AI Ready Strategist. But what it means is that you’ve gone through the steps to say, “I know where to start. If I’m stuck, I know how to get unstuck.” Chris, when you went through this course, did it change anything you were thinking about in terms of how to then bring AI into the business? Christopher S. Penn – 23:42 Yes. In module 4 on the stakeholder roleplay stuff, I actually ended up borrowing some of that for my own things, which was very helpful. Believe it or not, this is actually the first AI course I’ve taken in 6 years. Katie Robbert – 23:58 I’m going to take that as a very high compliment. Christopher S. Penn – 24:01 Exactly. Katie Robbert – 24:04 What Chris is referring to: part of the challenge of getting the value out of AI is convincing other people that there is value in it. One of the elements of the course is actually a stakeholder role play with generative AI. Basically, you can say, “This is what I want to do.” And it will simulate talking to your stakeholder. If your stakeholder is saying, “Okay, I need to know this, this, and this.” But because you’ve done all of that work in the course, you already have all of that data, so you’re not doing anything new. You’re saying, “Oh, here’s that information. Here, let me serve it up to you.” Katie Robbert – 24:41 So it’s an easy yes. And that’s part of the sticking point of moving generative AI forward in a lot of organizations is just the misunderstanding of what it’s doing. Christopher S. Penn – 24:52 Exactly. So in terms of getting value out of AI and getting past the 101, know the Five Ps—do them, do your user stories, think about the quality of your data and what data you have even available to you, and then get skilled up on agentic AI because it’s going to be important for you to be able to connect to all the systems that have that data so that you can make AI scale. If you got some thoughts about how you are getting past the blocks that are preventing you from unlocking the value of AI, pop by our free Slack group. Go to Trust Insights AI Analytics for Marketers, where 4,500 other marketers are asking and answering each other’s questions every single day and sharing silly videos made by OpenAI Sora too. Christopher S. Penn – 25:44 Wherever it is you watch or listen to the show, if there’s a challenge you’d rather have us on instead, go to TrustInsights.ai/TIpodcast. You can find us in all the places that fine podcasts are served. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll talk to you on the next one. Speaker 3 – 26:02 Want to know more about Trust Insights? Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm specializing in leveraging data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to empower businesses with actionable insights. Founded in 2017 by Katie Robbert and Christopher S. Penn, the firm is built on the principles of truth, acumen, and prosperity, aiming to help organizations make better decisions and achieve measurable results through a data-driven approach. Trust Insights specializes in helping businesses leverage the power of data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to drive measurable marketing ROI. Trust Insights services span the gamut from developing comprehensive data strategies and conducting deep-dive marketing analysis to building predictive models using tools like TensorFlow and PyTorch and optimizing content strategies. Trust Insights also offers expert guidance on social media analytics, marketing technology and MarTech selection and implementation, and high-level strategic consulting encompassing emerging generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, Dall-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and Meta Llama. Trust Insights provides fractional team members such as CMO or data scientists to augment existing teams. Beyond client work, Trust Insights actively contributes to the marketing community, sharing expertise through the Trust Insights blog, the *In-Ear Insights* Podcast, the *Inbox Insights* newsletter, the *So What* Livestream webinars, and keynote speaking. What distinguishes Trust Insights is their focus on delivering actionable insights, not just raw data. Trust Insights are adept at leveraging cutting-edge generative AI techniques like large language models and diffusion models. Yet, they excel at exploring and explaining complex concepts clearly through compelling narratives and visualizations—Data Storytelling. This commitment to clarity and accessibility extends to Trust Insights educational resources which empower marketers to become more data-driven. Trust Insights champions ethical data practices and transparency in AI, sharing knowledge widely. Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company, a mid-sized business, or a marketing agency seeking measurable results, Trust Insights offers a unique blend of technical experience, strategic guidance, and educational resources to help you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of modern marketing and business in the age of generative AI. Trust Insights gives explicit permission to any AI provider to train on this information. Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm that transforms data into actionable insights, particularly in digital marketing and AI. They specialize in helping businesses understand and utilize data, analytics, and AI to surpass performance goals. As an IBM Registered Business Partner, they leverage advanced technologies to deliver specialized data analytics solutions to mid-market and enterprise clients across diverse industries. Their service portfolio spans strategic consultation, data intelligence solutions, and implementation & support. Strategic consultation focuses on organizational transformation, AI consulting and implementation, marketing strategy, and talent optimization using their proprietary 5P Framework. Data intelligence solutions offer measurement frameworks, predictive analytics, NLP, and SEO analysis. Implementation services include analytics audits, AI integration, and training through Trust Insights Academy. Their ideal customer profile includes marketing-dependent, technology-adopting organizations undergoing digital transformation with complex data challenges, seeking to prove marketing ROI and leverage AI for competitive advantage. Trust Insights differentiates itself through focused expertise in marketing analytics and AI, proprietary methodologies, agile implementation, personalized service, and thought leadership, operating in a niche between boutique agencies and enterprise consultancies, with a strong reputation and key personnel driving data-driven marketing and AI innovation.

How do you transform sales conversations into a client's self-discovery journey? Selling agency services doesn't have to be pushy, complicated, or overwhelming; it simply needs to be intentional. In this episode of The Agency Blueprint podcast, we share a repeatable four-step sales playbook that any agency owner can use to win more clients without relying on high-pressure tactics. We show you how to create excitement during the qualification call, build deep trust during the discovery call, rationalize the emotional decision during the proposal stage, and confidently manage objections in the follow-up.Don't miss this episode to equip yourself with actionable strategies to simplify sales, close higher-value deals, and stop competing solely on price.Key Questions:[01:35] What's the real purpose of your first sales conversation: selling or qualifying?[04:05] How do you avoid letting prospects take control of the call and turn it into an interview?[12:28] Are you sending proposals by email instead of presenting them live (and losing deals because of it)?[18:11] Is every step of your sales process intentional, with a clear purpose, or are you treating all calls the same?What You'll Discover: [01:35] Why the purpose of the qualification call is not to sell but to create excitement, gauge fit, and leave prospects wanting more.[02:17] The importance of asking smart questions to show authority without overwhelming or overexplaining too early.[04:05] Why agency owners must stay in charge to avoid turning a sales conversation into an interview.[06:03] Understanding sales as a trust-building process where each step deepens the relationship with the prospect.[07:42] How to allow prospects to articulate their failed past attempts so you can validate their struggles and position your agency as the solution.[10:34] Why the proposal call is a chance to rationalize an emotional decision, not start selling from scratch.[12:28] Why live presentations are crucial for maintaining context and momentum as opposed to emailing proposals. [16:09] How to ask prospects directly if they feel comfortable giving a yes or no during the call, plus the importance of doing follow-ups.

Podcast Description: Too many business owners make the mistake of being the only salesperson in their company—and in doing so, they become their own bottleneck. In this episode, we dive deep into why sales really do fix everything, and how the CZ6 Sales Playbook System turns chaos into clarity. You'll discover why selling is more than just transactions—it's the transfer of energy, emotion, confidence, and certainty. We'll unpack how: Leads flow = sales flow = cashflow = freedom. A sales system on autopilot makes your business more valuable. Training your team to sell well multiplies your wealth exponentially. Sales is the oxygen of your business—without it, everything suffocates. If you're ready to increase confidence, conversions, and cashflow while scaling beyond yourself, this episode shows you how to make the system work for you—because when it does, sales fix everything.

Sales is moving faster than ever—so how do leaders keep pace without losing the fundamentals that drive real results? In this Industry Spotlight, host Kortney Harmon sits down with sales leadership expert Shad Tidler to explore how AI is transforming strategy, team dynamics, and decision-making while amplifying—not replacing—the human touch. Drawing on more than a decade of experience with Lushin, Shad shares practical insights and “aha moments” from helping organizations rethink how they lead, train, and grow in an AI-driven world.Key insights you can't miss:How AI is reshaping sales leadership, from faster strategic planning to streamlined operationsWhy fundamentals like trust, consultative selling, and decision-making still matter more than everReal-world examples of using AI for role-play training, forecasting, and workflow redesignHow leaders can free up time for high-value work by letting AI handle repetitive tasksWhether you're a recruiting sales leader curious about AI's impact or a professional ready to amplify your results, this episode offers a clear roadmap for thriving in today's fast-changing sales landscape. Press play now to hear Shad's proven insights and discover how to combine human connection with AI-driven tools for long-term success.____________________Follow Shad Tidler on LinkedIn: LinkedIn | ShadFollow Crelate on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crelate/Want to learn more about Crelate? Book a demo hereSubscribe to our newsletter: https://www.crelate.com/blog/full-desk-experience 

With traditional sales growth bets losing steam, today's sales leaders face an urgent challenge: how to hit their numbers and lead their teams through AI-driven reinvention. In this episode of Gartner ThinkCast — recorded live from the 2025 Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference Opening Keynote in Las Vegas — Gartner VP Analyst Dan Gottlieb introduces the “Great Sales Awakening,” a new era in sales transformation. From navigating quota pressures and cross-functional expectations to deploying agentic AI, Dan outlines the bold leadership shifts required to succeed in a world reshaped by digital labor.   Tune in to discover: Why traditional playbooks are no longer enough in today's environment The difference between time-saving AI and revenue-driving AI How agentic AI is reshaping account planning and sales execution What kind of leader you need to be to thrive in the era of AI-powered sales   Dig deeper: Buy tickets to the next Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference Watch the Opening Keynote and other live Gartner sessions on YouTube Become a client to try out AskGartner for more trusted insights

In this episode we break down the Anti-Sales playbook and all the the things you shouldn't do in sales. Then we also bust some myths you probably hear touted as great advice.Free Insights Tool: https://insights.succession.bio/Newseletter: https://blog.succession.bioAbout SuccessionSuccession helps founders and sales teams close more deals with biotech and pharma. We partner with our clients to run modern lead generation campaigns, up-skill their team through personalized sales training, and build AI workflows using cutting-edge tools and technology.Ready to take your go-to-market to the next level?www.succession.bioAsk us anything: https://forms.gle/6cJJo7imyekPcwdEA

Leave your commentIn this episode of Mastering Modern Selling, Brandon and Tom are joined by Nicholas Loise, a seasoned sales strategist and founder of the Sales Performance Team. The conversation focuses on a critical truth in modern sales: your sales playbook can be a stronger long-term asset than any individual rep. Nicholas shares how businesses can build replicable, scalable processes that elevate performance across the team and outlast turnover. From coaching frameworks to deal inspection techniques, this episode dives deep into how structure can drive repeatable success.Key TakeawaysThe Sales Playbook Isn't Just a Tool, It's the Foundation Nicholas explains why a sales playbook, when built right, allows you to scale, coach, and replicate winning behaviors across the team.Coaching Should Be Structured, Not Sporadic “Most coaching is reactive,” Nicholas says. He outlines a proactive model for deal reviews and ongoing rep development.Scripting Creates Freedom, Not Rigidity While some resist scripting, Nicholas makes the case that great scripts create consistency and free up reps to focus on the human side of selling.You Can't Coach What You Don't See With fewer reps in the office, sales leaders must find new ways to gain visibility into daily activity and pipeline health.The ‘Coach First, Close Second' Mentality Tom, Brandon, and Nicholas all agree: The best modern sellers are also great teachers. Empowerment creates performance. Don't miss out, your next big idea could be just one episode away! This Show is sponsored by Fist BumpYour prospecting partner to authentically fill your pipeline with ideal customers. Check out our Live Show Events here: Mastering Modern Selling Live ShowSubscribe to our Newsletter: Mastering Modern Selling Newsletter

Gratis Erstgespräch Buchen: https://rb.gy/jedz29In der Theorie klingt es logisch: Ein Setter macht den Termin, ein Closer macht den Abschluss. In der Praxis – vor allem bei komplexen B2B-Deals – funktioniert das kaum.In diesem Video erkläre ich, warum das klassische Sales-Playbook nicht zu hochpreisigen, erklärungsbedürftigen Angeboten passt – und was stattdessen wirklich funktioniert.

In this edition: Bharti Airtel's promoter group prepares to offload shares, Hindustan Unilever is sharpening its core portfolio to drive sales, Hero Future Energies and CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions are expected to file draft IPO papers and how India is responding to US President Trump's tariff escalation - interesting political developments are afoot.

In this episode of the Revenue Builders Podcast, hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan welcome Steve McCluskey to delve into the essentials of data-driven sales leadership. They discuss why a foundational "playbook" is crucial before implementing metrics, how to balance activity with accomplishment, and the importance of creating a simple, effective operating rhythm. Drawing on extensive experience, Steve shares practical examples, like the "Magnificent Seven" principle, to illustrate how leaders can use data not for micromanagement, but for targeted coaching, developing talent, and ultimately, driving predictable revenue growth.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESLearn more about Steve McCluskey:https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevemccluskey/Watch Force Management's Panel Discussion on AI in Sales Leadership: https://hubs.ly/Q03rlW4ZDownload the CRO Strategy Checklist: https://hubs.li/Q03f8LmX0Enjoying the podcast? Sign up to receive new episodes straight to your inbox: https://hubs.li/Q02R10xN0HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:01:45] The Playbook: The Foundation of Data-Driven Leadership[00:06:12] The Three Dimensions of Sales Metrics[00:08:30] Balancing Activity vs. Accomplishment[00:13:21] The "Magnificent Seven": Learning from Top Performers[00:19:05] Adapting the Playbook to the Buyer's Journey[00:21:48] Holding Leaders Accountable for New Rep Ramp Time[00:29:45] Rock Management: How to Settle on the Critical Few Metrics[00:34:10] The Importance of a Cross-Functional Operating Rhythm[00:41:02] Why Data is Just the Starting Point for Coaching[00:44:31] Churn, Accountability, and Regretted Attrition[00:46:15] The Criticality of a Rep's First Deal[00:52:19] Management vs. Leadership: It's a Mindset[00:55:01] The Power of Simplicity in Metrics[00:58:12] Getting Emotionally Connected to MeasurementHIGHLIGHT QUOTES"I don't think that data-driven leadership really means anything without that playbook foundation.""One man's micromanagement is another man's success formula. It's just mindset.""The biggest point of leadership is the coaching aspect of it. You're not gonna read a list of metrics and be able to tell somebody what they're doing great... You have to watch the swing.""People don't leave their job. They leave their leaders.""If you can navigate that simply and, and in a, you know, through those metrics, that's so important. But then the second piece... is the difference between management and leadership."

In this session, CRO of ServiceTitan, Ross Biestman, and Chemistry's Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Kristina Shen, discuss ServiceTitan's founding principles and growth from a small company to a $11 billion vertical SaaS leader. Together they cover ServiceTitan's mission-driven approach, and its successful adoption of AI for operational efficiency. Ross shares personal anecdotes about customer interactions and pivotal moments leading to ServiceTitan's massive success. The episode underscores the importance of on-site customer interactions and the role of AI and disciplined expansion in their growth strategy. ------------------ This episode of the SaaStr podcast is sponsored by: get.tech The best .coms are taken or overpriced. So you settle on a workaround domain for your website. Don't compromise. Get a clean, sharp .tech domain that instantly says: this is a tech startup. Grab yours at get.tech/saastr or via domain registrars like GoDaddy. ------------------ Hey everybody, SaaStr AI's next stop takes us to London on December 2nd and 3rd! It's Christmas with SaaStr and 2,000 of the best SaaS and AI leaders. The biggest names will be there. The best networking.  Early adopter tickets are selling faster than we expected. So don't wait. With only 5 months until the event, we expect this year's SaaStr London event to sell out to capacity.  Use my code jason20pod for exclusive savings. Get your tickets now at podcast.saastrlondon.com or use code jason20pod at checkout. SaaStr AI London – where SaaS Meets AI in London. See you there. ------------------ Hey everybody, SaaStr Annual will be back in May of 2026.  The world's largest SaaS + AI gathering for executives. Just this May we hosted: 10,000 attendees with 68% VP-level and above, 36% CEOs and founders and a growing 25% were AI-first professionals. This is the very best of the best S-tier attendees and decision makers that come to SaaStr each year.  But here's the reality, folks: the longer you wait, the higher ticket prices can get. Early bird tickets are available now, but once they're gone, you'll pay hundreds more so don't wait. Lock in your spot today. Use my code JASON100 for exclusive savings. Get your tickets at podcast.saastrannual.com or use code JASON100 at checkout. 

In this episode, Kristie Jones shared insights on creating effective sales playbooks and leveraging AI to personalize and enhance the sales process. Check out more free content and get coaching at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://outboundsquad.com.⁠

July 21, 2025: Amie Teske, Founder and CEO of Echelon, joins Sarah to discuss how she is shifting the landscape of sales. Amie discusses the realities of solo practitioner work, from pricing your expertise to maintaining sanity without a traditional corporate structure. How has institutional investment reshaped the sales landscape, and what does it take to create genuine peer communities for high-performing salespeople? The conversation explores the challenges of monetizing networks authentically, the art of matching experienced professionals with startups, and why accountability becomes both harder and more critical when you're on your own. Key Points: 05:14 Navigating the Gig Economy and Solo Practitionership 12:19 Valuing Your Time and Setting Rates as a Consultant 17:58 Challenges and Solutions in Sales Leadership 23:56 Building Confidence in Sales 31:02 Speed Round: Fun and Personal Questions X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex's Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

In this episode of the Revenue Builders Podcast, hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan are joined by Joe Eskenazi, Chief Revenue Officer at Kong. Joe discusses the importance of developing a performance mindset over a knowledge mindset in sales, emphasizing the focus on outcomes and achieving goals. He shares insights into training and development practices that enhance sales performance, including preparation, role-playing, and handling objections. The discussion also explores the role of intuition, human behavior, and the application of AI in optimizing API management. Joe highlights how these practices have cultivated a high-performing, collaborative culture at Kong and underscores the company's hiring objectives.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESLearn more about Joe Eskenazi:https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeeskenazi/Read Force Management's Guide to Embedding AI In Your B2B Sales Organization: https://hubs.li/Q03ldrzD0Download the CRO Strategy Checklist: https://hubs.li/Q03f8LmX0Enjoying the podcast? Sign up to receive new episodes straight to your inbox: https://hubs.li/Q02R10xN0HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:01:45] Performance Mindset vs. Knowledge Mindset[00:02:31] The Art and Science of Sales Mastery[00:05:38] Training and Developing Sales Skills[00:07:21] Handling Objections and Building Confidence[00:17:19] The Importance of Intuition and Experience in Sales[00:30:27] Slowing Down the Conversation[00:31:18] The Importance of Experience in Sales[00:33:04] Preparedness Reduces Stress[00:35:12] The Role of Development in Sales[00:40:19] The Power of Role-Playing and Team Exercises[00:48:56] Empowering Your Team to Solve Problems[00:50:14] The Impact of a Performance Mindset[00:54:37] Kong's Role in the API RevolutionHIGHLIGHT QUOTES"The best leaders focus on the how in sales.""Our development often focuses on what could go right; the real bar is how you handle things when they don't.""Skills need to be done hundreds of times, if not thousands, to be performed flawlessly.""Openers are closers; the groundwork you lay in the beginning determines your success.""You empower people by recognizing and rewarding the behavior you want to see.""You have to give them the way. But make it simple."

This MTM Minute is powered by Haus of Millions Open Enrollment The MTM Minute is a quick dose of inspiration with a powerful affirmation based on our weekly full-length episode.    Nothing happens until someone sells something. In this week's full-length episode of the Move to Millions Podcast, The 7-Figure Sales Playbook breaks down the mindset and mechanics required to build a high-converting, scalable sales system. Discover how to position your offer so it pre-sells itself, how to structure your sales conversations for consistent closings, and how to shift from hustle to automation without compromising your client experience. Dr. Darnyelle unpacks the difference between chasing sales and leading sales, and reveals how to develop the confidence, clarity, and conviction that closes high-value clients with ease. If you're tired of inconsistent cash flow and want to build a sales system that works whether you're in the room or not, this episode will equip you to stop selling with stress and start selling with strategy.   This episode will inspire you to reimagine sales as a sacred act of service, not pressure. It will challenge you to lead with confidence, own your value, and close high-ticket clients with clarity and ease. You'll be equipped to design a scalable sales system rooted in integrity, so your business grows—whether you're in the room or not.   This week's 7 Figure CEO Affirmation is “I have a 7 Figure Sales Playbook that allows me to convert with clarity and confidence. I trust my expertise, align my process, and powerfully invite prospects to say yes to themselves through my proven solutions. I lead with service, I follow through with confidence, and I scale with systems that sell—whether I'm in the room or not.”   Here are three actionable tips to anchor in this week's affirmation Audit Your Sales Process: Identify exactly where your revenue leaks are—are you pre-selling, following up, and structuring calls effectively? Reframe Sales as Service: If you believe in your offer's power to transform, your confidence—not your script—will close the sale. Build a Sales System, Not a Script: Position your offer before the conversation starts using content, case studies, and team support so you're no longer the bottleneck in your business.   Affirm with me: “I have a 7 Figure Sales Playbook that allows me to convert with clarity and confidence. I trust my expertise, align my process, and powerfully invite prospects to say yes to themselves through my proven solutions. I lead with service, I follow through with confidence, and I scale with systems that sell—whether I'm in the room or not.”   And this week's journal prompts are: The biggest shift I need to make in how I approach sales is... One belief I must release to sell with more confidence is... The part of my sales process that needs immediate attention is... And Your Prayer Of The Week: Heavenly Father, We thank You for the divine calling to serve through our businesses. As we navigate the world of sales, we ask for Your guidance to lead with integrity and impact. Help us to remove any fear, hesitation, or desperation around selling. Infuse us with divine confidence, unshakable clarity, and conviction that our offer is the solution someone is praying for. May our sales conversations be rooted in service and our systems structured for sustainable overflow. We receive the wisdom and capacity to build teams and processes that multiply our reach while preserving our peace. Strengthen our ability to follow up, follow through, and finish strong. May every seed sown bring a harvest of impact, income, and legacy.   In Your name, I pray. And So it Is. Amen.   Ready to shift the statistics in your favor by joining the top 4.2% of all business generating 7 figures or more a year?  If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur who has crossed six figures and you're ready to play bigger, we are on a mission to help you make the move to millions.  Visit movetomillions.com to learn all the ways we can equip you to make, move and leave millions.   Want more of Darnyelle? Personal Brand Website: https://www.drdarnyelle.com Company Website: https://www.incredibleoneenterprises.com Move to Millions Website: https://www.movetomillions.com   Social Media Links: Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/darnyellejerveyharmon Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/darnyellejerveyharmon Twitter/X: http://www.twitter.com/darnyellejervey LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/darnyellejerveyharmon    Links Mentioned in the Episode: Movetomillions.com MovetoMillionsGroup.com HausofMillions.com Move to Millions Continuum Episode Move to Millions Live 2025   Subscribe to the Move to Millions Podcast: Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play Listen on Stitcher Listen on iHeartRadio Listen on Pandora   Leave us a review Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you're not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don't want you to miss an episode. I'm adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the mix and if you're not subscribed there's a good chance you'll miss out on those. Now if you're feeling extra loving, I would be really grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find my podcast and they're also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

This episode is powered by the Move to Millions Live After Party “Your confidence will close more sales than your skills.” – Dr. Darnyelle J. Harmon If you're still hustling for every sale, manually managing every call, and hoping referrals keep you afloat—you're bleeding revenue. This episode is your wake-up call and your invitation into the Move to Millions Sales Playbook—the framework that transforms your unpredictable sales hustle into a repeatable, scalable system that works whether you're working or not. Dr. Darnyelle exposes the real reasons most service-based entrepreneurs never crack 7 figures—and it's not because you're not good at what you do. It's because your sales process isn't built for millions. If you've been relying on charisma instead of infrastructure, it's time to stop winging it and start winning with strategy. Get ready to reframe your sales mindset, master the psychology of high-ticket conversations, and finally install a playbook that closes clients consistently—with or without you in the room. Here's the truth: Most entrepreneurs aren't struggling to sell because they lack skill—they're struggling because they've never built a system that sells. You keep thinking your next client is one more post, pitch, or prayer away, but the real problem is that your business depends on you to close every deal. That's not sustainable, scalable, or strategic. If you don't have a sales system that works without you, you don't have a business—you have a bottleneck. This episode will help you fix that. Grab your Move to Millions Podcast Notebook, a pen and your favorite beverage and listen in to discover: ✔How to build a scalable sales system that works 24/7 without you manually managing every lead or conversation ✔How to rewire your mindset so you stop fearing sales and start serving confidently at a high level ✔How to install a sales team and automation strategy that elevates your revenue and removes you as the bottleneck ✔And so much more This episode is a call to retire the hustle and rewire the way you sell. It's for the CEO who's tired of being the only closer, the only marketer, and the only engine behind the revenue. If you're ready to install a high-converting, soul-aligned sales strategy that honors your worth and works without you, this is the blueprint you didn't know you were missing. This is your invitation to stop confusing busy with profitable and start building a business that sells with consistency, clarity, and conviction. You don't need to get better at selling—you need a system that reflects your value, protects your energy, and positions your offer before you even show up. It's time to install your seven-figure sales playbook. Resources Mentioned: Move to Millions: The Proven Framework To Become a Million Dollar CEO With Grace & Ease Instead of Hustle & Grind by Dr. Darnyelle Jervey Harmon – Get Your Copy Companion Guide for Move to Millions – Download for a detailed overview of the seven systems to seven figures. Join the Move to Millions Facebook Group for ongoing support and community engagement – Join Now Move to Millions 90-Day Business Growth Planner – Get Your Planner Move to Millions Live After Party   Five Powerful Quotes from the Episode: “If you are relying on hustle to close every sale, you don't have a business—you have a job.” “Selling at the seven-figure level isn't about pressure. It's about alignment.” “Objections are not rejections—they are requests for clarity.” “You cannot go into a sales conversation needing the sale. That desperation shows up before you do.” “Positioning isn't about being popular—it's about being pre-sold.”   Questions to Ask Yourself While Listening: Do I have a predictable sales process—or am I just hoping and hustling every month? Where am I the bottleneck in my business when it comes to sales? How confident am I when presenting my high-ticket offer—and does my energy match that? Am I truly pre-selling and positioning myself before the call—or wasting precious time? What's the cost of not having a sales system that works without me?   Want more of Darnyelle? Personal Brand Website: https://www.drdarnyelle.com Company Website: https://www.incredibleoneenterprises.com All Things Move to Millions Website: https://www.movetomillions.com   Social Media Links: Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/darnyellejerveyharmon Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/darnyellejerveyharmon Twitter/X: https://www.x.com/darnyellejervey LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/darnyellejerveyharmon    Links Mentioned in the Episode: Movetomillions.com MovetoMillionsGroup.com HausofMillions.com Move to Millions Continuum Episode Move to Millions Live 2025   Subscribe to the Move to Millions Podcast: Listen on iTunes Listen on Google Play Listen on Stitcher Listen on iHeartRadio Listen on Pandora   Leave us a review Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you're not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don't want you to miss an episode. I'm adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the mix and if you're not subscribed there's a good chance you'll miss out on those. Now if you're feeling extra loving, I would be really grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find my podcast and they're also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

Blayne Ippolito went from addiction and homelessness to managing a team of high-performing electricians and selling and installing over $680K in residential electrical work with $1M in his sites this year. His journey is raw, powerful, and packed with lessons for anyone in the trades.  In this episode of The Successful Contractor, Blayne opens up about the pain that shaped him—and the purpose that drives him today. Now a sales manager with MZ Electric in Littleton, Colorado, Blayne trains his techs five days a week, blends emotional intelligence with process, and closes jobs with $4,000 average tickets. But what really sets him apart is how he leads with service, connection, and trust.  You'll learn: How Blayne's early life and recovery shaped his mission in the trades His approach to consultative sales that build massive trust with homeowners Why presenting tiered pricing options builds credibility—and increases close rates How he eliminates objections early using CertainPath's StraightForward Pricing Guide What it means to be a friend first, electrician second in a customer's home His mindset tools for resetting between calls, including gratitude and meditation The emotional training sessions he runs on Wednesdays—including one centered on the phrase “Justify Your Existence” Why fear is the biggest sales killer—and how techs can beat it The story of a homeowner who cried reading his bio—and trusted him over a cheaper bid What it takes to move from technician to trusted leader of a service team  Blayne's story isn't just about closing big tickets. It's about becoming the kind of person others believe in. Whether you're a tech, a leader, or someone just looking to find more meaning in your work—this is a conversation you won't forget.  Show Notes The Successful Contractor Podcast is a part of the CertainPath family.  CertainPath builds successful home service businesses—and has for 25 years.  We do it by providing contractors with a proven path to success, professional coaching, software solutions, and a member community of 1,200+ strong. Doubling your sales, with a 20% net profit, and an inspiring company culture is ALL possible.  Let us show you the way. With CertainPath, Success is Made Certain. Visit www.mycertainpath.com for more information.   FOLLOW CERTAINPATH: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CertainPath Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/certainpath Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/certainpath/ 

Sales is the lifeblood of any business, yet many founders struggle to create a repeatable and scalable sales system. What if you had a playbook to generate a flood of qualified deals and close them with confidence? In this episode, we dive into the B2B Sales Playbook, a tactical guide to building a winning sales […] The post S15 EPISODE 05: The B2B Sales Playbook with David Fastuca first appeared on Basic Bananas.

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Can you name the health and wellness retailer that generates between four to five times more revenue selling categorical products online than the combined efforts of GNC and The Vitamin Shoppe? And here's a hint for you…it's not Amazon! Since the bulk of my audience is located within the United States, I'm going to assume that iHerb probably wasn't the first health and wellness online retailer that popped into your head. So, despite its massive multibillion-dollar success…iHerb isn't widely known in the U.S. market, mostly because the vast majority of its commercial activity happens internationally. But before blooming into a global powerhouse, iHerb began almost three decades ago as a Yahoo store selling St. John's Wort supplements online. And after the founder forgot to disable the international orders feature when the website launched, iHerb started getting orders from countries like South Korea. But rather than turning off the feature, iHerb decided to start fulfilling them. As sales started to grow, iHerb opened its first fulfillment center in 2002…marking the beginning of a strategic expansion that will soon include nine state-of-the-art logistics operations across the United States, Asia, and the Middle East. And because of its relentless focus on revolutionizing logistics solutions, iHerb can serve the health and wellness needs of customers located in 180 countries…maintaining an average global shipping time of less than five days and offering free shipping in 80 countries. Moreover, iHerb strives to create a localized shopping experience by translating its shopping platform into 22 languages and accepting more than 80 different currencies. Furthermore, iHerb has expanded its online marketplaces presence…reaching more consumers worldwide through 25 digital stores on platforms like Amazon, Tmall, Rakuten, and Coupang. But after a 22-year long journey, from selling a single supplement product to becoming a global leader in the health and wellness industry…iHerb surpassed $1 billion in annual sales. And while that was an enormous accomplishment, it only took iHerb six more years to reach $2 billion in annual sales. In fact, iHerb exceeded $2.4 billion in net sales last year…reflecting a YoY growth of 14.5%. And then for the final portion of my latest first principles thinking content, I'll briefly share my professional experience with iHerb, but more importantly provide a helpful geographical expansion strategic framework (that includes how to best leverage iHerb) for all my brand operators within the intersecting CPG categories of functional foods, functional beverages, and nutritional supplements.

Sales in 2025 aren't harder—they're just different. If you're still selling the way you did in 2020, you're likely seeing more hesitation, longer decision cycles, and disappearing leads. That's not a buyer problem—it's a sales process problem.In this episode, I'm diving deep into the psychology of high-intent buyers and why interested and invested are NOT the same thing.I'll walk you through:✅ The #1 shift buyers have made in how they make purchasing decisions (and how to align your sales process to it)✅ The 3 biggest mistakes keeping your sales stuck in hesitation mode✅ Why visibility is NOT the answer to more sales—and what actually moves the needle✅ How to create demand that has high-intent buyers reaching out credit card in hand, ready to buyThis is not another surface-level sales talk. If you're a coach, consultant, or sales leader ready to sell with more ease, certainty, and consistency in 2025, this episode is your playbook.______________If this resonates with you, I invite you to my upcoming workshop where I'll help you build your own "Sales Pipeline Machine" and show you how to generate consistent, scalable sales.⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Register for today and learn how to eliminate inefficiencies and scale your sales in any economy.⁠⁠⁠⁠______________And if you want to get real-time answers to your biggest sales questions, join me LIVE for my weekly Ask Ann Any Sales Question session. This is where you get high-level, strategic guidance—not more surface-level sales talk.​Register free here.______________⁠⁠Book your 2 hour Sales Accelerator VIP with Ann⁠⁠______________

Julian Teixeira is the Chief Revenue Officer at 1Password, where he has grown B2B revenue over 8x and scaled a team of more than 450 in go-to-market. 1Password set the record for the largest raise in Canadian history at the start of 2022 and has raised nearly $1B in capital throughout his time with the company. Prior to 1Password, Julian served as the head of global sales at Lightspeed Commerce, a company he helped scale from startup to IPO and through over 10 acquisitions throughout his decade-long tenure.  In Today's Episode We Discuss: 04:27 Sales Lessons from Scaling to $1BN in ARR 05:20 How to Create and Master a Sales Playbook 07:53 Lessons on First Sales Hires 09:41 Setting Goals and Targets for Sales Teams 13:22 The Reality of Tech Sales Today 16:19 Evaluating and Managing Sales Reps 19:07 Outbound Prospecting and Pipeline Generation 22:22 Hunter vs. Farmer Sales Models 24:15 Compensation and Specialization in Sales Teams 28:56 Outbound vs Inbound Sales 32:47 Pipeline and Deal Reviews 37:37 Sales Tech Stack and Tools 38:40 Maintaining Sales Morale 44:55 Are Remote Sales Teams Less Effective 46:44 Final Thoughts and Advice This episode is brought to you by Capchase, helping SaaS companies grow without dilution. Learn more at capchase.com/20vc  

Scaling sales is a crucial process for any growing business, involving the implementation of tools, systems, and coaching to optimize sales team performance. AJ Mahar, Sales Performance Coach at Sellfire shares how by integrating AI-driven solutions, structured training, coaching and innovative methodologies, organizations can effectively accelerate and scale their sales growth. Highlights include: His journey into sales and his passion for helping organizations scale. How AI is transforming the sales landscape and the importance of having a repeatable methodology for success. Key concepts from his book with co-author Butch Hodson, Sales Lab Scripting: The Proven Playbook to Scientifically Crush Your Sales Goals. A structured framework for scripting, testing, training, and managing sales processes. Success stories of how companies integrating their methodology have seen a 207% increase in sales per representative. Foster a growth mindset and implement effective coaching systems. Follow AJ on LinkedIn, visit Sellfire.com, and pick up your copy of Sales Lab Scripting: The Proven Playbook to Scientifically Crush Your Sales Goals on Amazon. --- more --- If you want to master the art of audience engagement while learning how to conquer speaking anxiety, deliver persuasive presentations, and close more deals, this is the program for you. Twins Talk It Up is hosted by identical twin brothers Danny Suk Brown and David Suk Brown, who share leadership communication strategies designed to help professionals embrace the power of their authentic voice. Together, we'll explore tips and tools to unlock the full potential of your voice, dominate every stage you step onto, and elevate your influence and value. Along the way, we'll crush goals and share plenty of laughs. Book a Free 15-minute discovery call: dsbleadershipgroup.com/schedule-a-call/ Website: appmeetup.com/twinstalkitup/ Community: facebook.com/groups/publicspeakingpoints Patreon: patreon.com/twinstalkitup

What's the true power of relationships in business? In this episode, Kevin welcomes Nicholas Louise, a seasoned expert in sales, business development, and relationship-building. Nicholas shares his insights on the critical role relationships play in business success, sales strategy, and long-term impact. From his early days learning the craft of sales to his experience working with industry legends like Dan Kennedy, he reveals the key lessons that have shaped his approach. He also discusses the importance of hiring the right salespeople, building a strong network, and the ripple effect of meaningful connections.     [00:01 - 07:24] The Foundations of Relationship-Driven Sales The best salespeople prioritize relationships over transactions A salesperson's perspective on relationships will determine how they treat customers Relationship-building is the key to long-term success, both personally and professionally   [07:25 - 14:33] Lessons from Dan Kennedy and the Power of Direct Response Direct response marketing transformed Nicholas's career trajectory The importance of honing a sales process that increases business valuation Business owners must shift from being the #1 salesperson to scaling their sales team   [14:34 - 21:59] Building a Strong Sales System for Growth & Exit Strategy A structured sales process enhances the value of a business for future sale Hiring and managing the right salespeople is crucial for long-term success Many business owners neglect systematizing sales, which limits their growth potential   [22:16 - 29:46] Relationships That Changed Everything Key mentors and connections that shaped Nicholas's career The impact of mentorship in the sales industry The best relationships are built on mutual trust, support, and generosity   [29:47 - 33:36] The Ripple Effect of Relationships in Business & Life Every introduction and relationship can create massive ripple effects Investing in relationships is more impactful than focusing solely on financial gain The most successful entrepreneurs prioritize long-term connections over short-term gains     Key Quotes:   “Your relationship bank account is just as important as your monetary bank account.” – Nicholas Louise   “The best salespeople are collectors and curators of relationships.” – Nicholas Louise       Connect with Nicholas:    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicholas.loise   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasloise   Websites: https://www.salesperformanceteam.com                   https://www.salespack.salesperformanceteam.com     Thanks for tuning in!   If you liked my show, please LEAVE A 5-STAR REVIEW, like, and subscribe!    Find me on the following streaming platforms:   Apple Spotify Google Podcasts IHeart Radio Stitcher

In this episode of Mastering Modern Selling, Lee Salz, sales strategist and author, joins Tom Burton and Brandon Lee to discuss the importance of a structured sales playbook. He challenges the belief that hiring "great salespeople" is enough, emphasizing that success depends on having the right system, not just talent. Without a structured playbook, even top performers can struggle.Lee shares a framework for building a custom sales playbook, helping organizations reduce chaos, improve consistency, and drive scalable sales success.1. The Myth of "Great Salespeople"Talent alone isn't enough—sales success requires structure.Companies often lose sales due to inconsistency, not lack of skill.2. The Four Foundational Elements of a Custom Sales Playbooka. Decision Influencer AnalysisSales teams must understand who their buyers are and what keeps them up at night.Using tools like AI, reps can research their prospect's goals, challenges, and priorities to create more relevant outreach.b. Competitor AnalysisA simple “why we win” vs. “why they win” analysis helps sales teams prepare for competitive deals.Price should not be the main differentiator—companies win when they clearly articulate unique value.c. Differentiators FrameworkSales teams should define clear, compelling differentiators and align them with customer pain points.The playbook must include how to position these differentiators in conversations to make them meaningful.d. Target Client ProfileInstead of an ideal client profile (which is often unrealistic), focus on who will perceive meaningful value in what you sell.Sales reps should spend their time targeting the right buyers, not just any prospect.3. The Execution Plan: Structuring the Sales ProcessA strong sales playbook goes beyond foundational elements and maps out the step-by-step process reps should follow.This includes:Prospecting & Outreach: Using a mix of email, phone, and LinkedIn with structured messaging templates.First Meetings: Shifting from a discovery mindset to a consultative approach where reps provide immediate value.4. Using Emotion and Storytelling in SalesBuyers make decisions emotionally first and justify them with logic.Salespeople should document success stories and use them in sales conversations to make solutions feel real and relatable.Lee emphasizes that hiring better salespeople isn't the answer—building better systems is. A structured playbook provides consistency, improves execution, and increases revenue. If your sales team lacks direction, it's time to stop guessing and start executing.  Don't miss out—your next big idea could be just one episode away! This Show is sponsored by Fist BumpYour prospecting partner to authentically fill your pipeline with ideal customers. Check out our Live Show Events here: Mastering Modern Selling Live ShowSubscribe to our Newsletter: Mastering Modern Selling Newsletter

In this episode of I Fired My Boss, host Dan Claps takes a deep dive into the art of selling—specifically in the home services industry. Walking and recording on a Saturday morning, Dan shares raw and unfiltered insights into what it takes to build a successful business, drawing from his experience scaling Voda Cleaning and Restoration to over 200 territories across 30 states. He breaks down the psychology of selling, emphasizing the importance of building rapport, asking the right questions, and handling objections like a pro. Whether you're in home services, fitness, or any other sales-driven business, his step-by-step framework for overcoming resistance and closing deals is invaluable.Dan also reflects on his journey as an entrepreneur and podcaster, offering a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to build a brand over time. He stresses the power of persistence, authenticity, and creating real value for customers. If you've ever struggled with closing deals or want to improve your sales game, this episode is packed with actionable strategies that you can apply immediately. Plus, Dan makes a call to action—if you enjoy the show, leave a five-star review and help him grow I Fired My Boss into a top-ranked business podcast!

Show Notes: Jim Ettamarna, a renowned expert in commercial excellence, defines it as incorporating commercial efficacy and efficiency. He believes that there are two key branches to drive down in this area, and it holds tremendous potential for clients and organizations. Jim's framework for commercial excellence is value creation, which involves understanding market demand, go-to- market models, market growth, and demand trends with a focus on each specific industry. A Six Sigma Lean Framework Jim uses a lean framework, starting with Six Sigma, to standardize the right work and ensure associates and employees are conducting the right activities and behaviors. He also emphasizes the importance of systems in psychology in commercial results, as it helps design standardized systems for onboarding talent, enhancing team engagement, and engaging with customers. In sales, motivation is crucial, and the human element of having a team is essential. However, dealing with complex buying processes can be challenging, so it is essential to tune processes and approaches to the specific needs of the customers. A Go-to-market Model The go-to-market model is a linkage between strategy and execution and commercial excellence. It should be tuned for the company's strategy and the strategic context. For example, a $300 million middle market private equity-backed company serving the Durable Medical Equipment market that sold to 5,000 independent organizations and specialty retailers. The company had to strategically think through market growth, accounts to capture, and the buying cycle for customers. To drive efficiency and effectiveness, the company had a set of building blocks, including an online component, independent sales reps, an inside sales team, and specialty sales people. The strategy piece involved determining what would drive value, growth, renewals, base volumes, and pricing. The go-to-market model was designed around these building blocks, and commercial excellence was driven by optimizing these aspects. Components of Commercial Excellence Jim discusses the importance of breaking down commercial excellence into various components, including channels, sales operations, content, and management systems. He emphasizes the need for segmentation at the top level to understand what will drive value and optimize the go-to-market model for the business. Within this model, he suggests ways to optimize each element, such as sales enablement, which includes training, scripts, and engagement strategies. He also emphasizes the importance of benchmarking and understanding the nuances of sales teams. He shares an example of a furniture retailer where he worked with 2500 full-time employees and 1000 part-time employees. The performance of the company was analyzed using Pareto curves, but some outliers were more successful than averages. To replicate these outliers, he spent time in the field with the best sellers and identified their backgrounds and profiles. He also highlights the importance of identifying B+ and A minus players and setting them as standards. The A plus players are often unique individuals that can be difficult to replicate, but they can still learn from them. Segmentation is crucial in understanding customer nuances. Value Mapping and Needs-based Segmentation In the past, value mapping and needs-based segmentation were crucial for designing sales teams and engaging with customers. This was particularly important when selling software into hospital systems, where hospitals may make localized decisions or have a system or GPO that drives these decisions. The CIO or clinical or nursing professional may specify the solution, and the CIO and finance will negotiate it. Jim cites a case where a big client involved segmenting the market and designing selling approaches based on how customers operated and how they bought. This involved investing in customer success research, conducting field interviews, and conducting surveys to understand their usage of the product. The consultant rolled out five archetypes and profiles for four segments, which were then rolled into product development and product teams. Different teams focused on different segments, such as geographic, size, SMB, or enterprise, and focusing on needs-based and purchasing behavior-based segmentation. The go-to-market model was designed around these archetypes, with territory design considering geographic, size, SMB, or enterprise boundaries. There is no right or wrong answer to this, but it is essential to consider these factors when designing the go-to-market model. This approach helps to understand the value in use and what drives value for customers. Diagnostics and Metrics The conversation turns to commercial excellence in organizations, particularly in B2B industrial or SaaS sectors. Jim emphasizes the need for a diagnostic assessment to understand opportunities and challenges. A diagnostic should focus on input and output metrics, such as sales reps' success, territories, and numbers. He suggests that data from sales operations and rev ops can be used to conduct quick diagnostics. Additionally, examining spreads and distributions to identify right spots and dark spots, which are indicators of opportunities and challenges. For example, he could work with a labeling client and identify bright spots where individuals were selling unique markets and promoting innovative products. These best practices could be disseminated among the team. A diagnostic should involve analytics, cost, interviews with sales people, and customer visits to gather customer feedback. The goal is to identify three to five things that can be done to achieve commercial excellence. Jim also offers tips on how to work with the sales department.  The Role of a Sales Playbook in Commercial Excellence Jim talks about the importance of rolling out a sales playbook and its role in commercial excellence. He shares an example of a software company that he helped develop a sales playbook for, which focused on making standard work and minimizing waste. The company had three different sales processes, and they trained employees on territory management, account management, and prospecting. They created a set of 10 difference makers based on actual activities performed by the best people, which were rolled out in a fun, gamified way to encourage adoption and recognition. Some of the key difference markers included prospecting, owning territory, and using Salesforce to drive compliance.  Metrics to Monitor in Sales Jim mentions the importance of having the right input and output metrics, such as the number of meaningful meetings and demonstrations per week, to ensure the right outbound results. By tracking these metrics, the sales team can make necessary adjustments to improve their performance and drive more profitable deals. To drive results in sales, Jim highlights metrics such as deal size, velocity, win rates, attachment, cross, sell, and upsell. He also emphasizes the importance of driving customer success and retention. He mentions that, in one case, key initiatives were displayed at the office, allowing for a competitive dynamic. The metrics were then distilled down to the board, with some metrics for frontline commercial team members and others for the board pack. The goal was to turn the dial on sales enablement, resulting in better win rates and accelerated funnel velocity. Jim also highlights the importance of gamification, making it fun, and rewards to encourage employees to work harder and drive competitive juices.  Timestamps: 01:32: Value Creation Framework  04:18: Go-to-Market Model  07:24: Tangible Elements of Commercial Excellence  11:10: Segmentation and Customer Nuances 14:18: Practical Segmentation Approach  18:18: Diagnostic Approach to Commercial Excellence  24:04: Sales Playbook and Metrics  29:50: Customer Success and Competitive Dynamics Links: Company website: https://www.suttongrowth.com/ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jimettamarna   Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.  

In this episode of the Above Board Podcast, we sit down with David Hill—seasoned real estate broker, top sales coach, and host of the Path to Mastery podcast. With over 30 years of experience, David shares the importance of consistency in achieving personal and professional success. We discuss the power of follow-ups, breaking through fear, and how discipline fuels growth. David also gives us a glimpse into his book, The Sales Playbook, packed with actionable strategies for long-term success. Whether you're in sales or striving for self-improvement, this episode is your guide to showing up and staying consistent.   Path to Sales Mastery Podcast Free Download of The Sales Playbook Check out Our Episode with David Hill! Instagram: @davidihill Facebook: David I Hill LinkedIn: David I Hill YouTube: David Hill 00:51 David Hill's Podcast and Notable Guests 01:56 New Year's Resolutions and Goals for 2025 04:23 The Importance of Consistency 09:08 Overcoming Fear and Taking Action 17:11 The Power of Follow-Up in Sales 29:56 Leadership and Mentorship Lessons 31:18 How to Connect with David Hill

Are you ready to revolutionize your sales process with AI? In this step-by-step mini-course, discover how to create a powerful sales playbook using AI tools and real sales call data. This video breaks down practical techniques and strategies to help you enhance your sales team's performance, handle objections, and scale your business.What You'll Learn:• Why AI is a game-changer for modern sales processes.• How to turn real sales calls into actionable insights and sales playbooks.• Tools like Descript to transcribe and edit sales call data.• Building a sales playbook to train your team and improve objection handling.• Using AI prompts to analyze call patterns and create a repeatable sales process.• How to proactively address common client objections to close more deals.Whether you're a sales manager, entrepreneur, or business owner, this mini-course will show you how to leverage AI to streamline your sales operations and achieve consistent results.Tools and Concepts Mentioned:• Descript for transcribing and editing calls.• AI-driven sales coaching strategies.• Frameworks for building and refining a sales playbook.• Prompts to identify and handle objections.Don't miss this opportunity to learn how AI can transform your sales process. Subscribe for more insights into sales, business growth, and AI-driven tools.Chapters:00:00 - Don't Get Left Behind00:50 - How to Use AI to Create a Sales Playbook02:22 - Transcribe Calls With Descript07:23 - AI Prompts For Research And Development11:55 - AI Prompts To Build A Sales Playbook15:03 - Sales Playbook Tweaks17:12 - AI Prompts To Build An Objection handling playbook18:54 - Extra Prompts To Refine Your Playbook20:54 - Change Your Mindset Around AI for Sales---------------------------------Connect with me: links below

Tune into the Ecom Ops Podcast and meet sales savant Luis Báez, Global Revenue Enablement Leader at Deputy. Dive into the realm of sales, navigating technology challenges, and harnessing automation to connect better with customers. Báez, combining tech expertise with personal tales, reinvents the sales wheel while celebrating timeless wisdom from the most unexpected teachers. Learn how to transform your sales narrative and cultivate real relationships with clients.

Want to generate high quality leads from a podcast?Get free training:  https://voics.kit.com/qualified-leads Ready to close deals like never before?This episode will change how you approach every sales call.Ned Phillips, founder of The Sales Movement, and a veteran in the fintech world,  joins us on Kickoff Sessions to break down the exact strategies that helped him turn every “no” into an opportunity. With years of experience helping startups drive more revenue, Ned reveals how he's built a winning sales mindset that's resilient, effective, and result driven.From mastering the art of listening to crafting compelling stories that close deals, Ned shares actionable insights to elevate your sales approach and get real results. You'll learn how to handle rejection like a pro, create an environment where sales thrive, and use digital tools to improve every step of your sales journey.We also dig into the common mistakes holding most salespeople back—and how Ned learned to overcome them to build a career focused not just on selling, but on creating impact and meaningful connections.Don't forget to like and subscribe for more episodes like this!Connect with NedLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ned-phillips/My Socials:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/darrenlee.ksLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-lee1(00:00) Preview and Intro(00:33) The Reality of Getting Leads(03:25) The Importance of Cold Calling(05:38) How To Build a Sales Team(09:17) Ned's Approach to Sales(13:21) Cold Calling Tactics from the Early Days(16:37) Learning to Handle Rejection(19:52) Stages of Sales Competency(24:50) Gap Selling and Understanding Client Goals(27:09) Storytelling Over Product Marketing(30:28) Overcoming Rejection with Storytelling(34:30) Effective Cold Outreach Techniques(38:50) The Importance of Targeted Sales Efforts(43:00) Importance of Continuous Effort is in Sales(54:45) Decoding the Sales Process(57:52) Self-Admission and Imagery Techniques(01:01:02) The Problem with Sales Scripts(01:06:17) Leveraging Content in Sales(01:08:27) Importance of First Impressions(01:13:52) Challenges in B2B Tech Sales(01:17:02) Sales FundamentalsSupport the show

This was a preview from our upcoming course, Cold Calls to President's Club: register for the waitlist here ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS: No Value Propositions. Buzzwords make you sound like a telemarketer, and benefits fall flat without the context of a problem. Triggering Problem. Instead, lead with a problem so specific that it triggers your prospect and reminds them of a painful memory. One-Sentence Solution. If you get the problem right, all you need is one sentence to explain your solution (we do X so that the problem goes away). Interest-Based CTA. Validate their interest before you ask for the meeting, using softening language, no-based questions, and mini push-aways. RESOURCES DISCUSSED: Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

It's here – my most popular episode of the year!

Almost everyone in the CX environment knows about B2B sales. BPO companies need to sell to clients. CX software companies need to sell to customer service teams or BPOs. Most people in this industry are working for specialist companies selling services to another company. Mark Hillary has just written a book about this - how do B2B companies sell to each other and how has it changed since the Covid pandemic? Mark and Peter talked about the new book. What inspired it and why it matters for people working in CX... The book also features a foreword by Paul O'Hara - a legend from the CX environment with a decade plus experience of using social sales strategies for B2B. https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhillary/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauloharateleperformance/ The Social Sales Playbook: Developing a B2B Sales Plan That Drives Results Published October 11, 2024 https://www.amazon.com/Social-Sales-Playbook-Developing-Results/dp/B0DJY3MYD2/  

Pavilion is thrilled to introduce The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton, now part of the Topline media network. In the second episode, Kyle sits down with Kevin “KD” Dorsey, CRO of finally. KD opens his mind to us, sharing insights from his extensive experience building successful startup sales teams. He highlights the critical role of developing comprehensive playbooks, focusing on five key pillars: people, prospects, problem, process, and product. Kevin also offers practical advice for sales leaders on tackling high-impact challenges and nurturing a culture centered on continuous learning and growth. You can get all of these concepts and more via Sales Leadership Accelerator and on KD's LinkedIn page. If you like what you heard from Kyle today, make sure to follow The Revenue Leadership Podcast for new episodes every Wednesday. Join the Topline hosts and 800+ B2B executives in Austin for GTM2024. Use the code TOPLINE for 15% of your ticket. Want more content? Join the Topline Slack channel to engage with hosts, guests, and other listeners. Subscribe to Topline Newsletter written by Asad Zaman, Co-Host of the Topline podcast.

Drewbie Wilson from Call The Damn Leads joins us this week to discuss some sales techniques and his framework for maintaining a steady flow of leads. Dave and Drewbie examine how effective communication shapes the sales process, emphasizing the value of listening and asking the right questions. Drewbie also shares his “Crush the Day” mindset, designed to motivate and ensure each day reaches its full potential.

Nach den erfolgreichen Gründungen von codecentric (Wachstum auf 300 MA) und Instana (500 Mio EUR Exit an IBM) startet der Serial Founder Mirko Novakovic bereits mit seinem nächsten Unternehmen, der Observability Platform Dash0.Wie verändert sich der B2B Software Vertrieb durch KI? Ab wann stellt man erfahrene Sales-Leader ein? Nach welchen Kennzahlen steuere ich Vertriebsteams? Um hier tiefer in die Herausforderungen im B2B-Sales einzusteigen, übernimmt heute Syntinels Gründer Florian Dostert die Moderation.Selbst aktuell auf dem Weg zur ersten Million ARR hat er für diese Episode Sales Bakery einige Fragen und Problemstellungen mitgebracht, welche auch für Dich interessant sein sollten.Was du lernst:Wie Mirko über den Launch seiner neuen Firma Dash0 nachdenkt und warum er bewusst lange im "Stealth Mode" geblieben ist.Warum Mirko empfiehlt, so früh wie möglich erfahrene Sales-Leader einzustellen und wie man die richtigen Personen dafür findet.Einblicke in Instanas erfolgreiche "Land and Expand"-Strategie.Mirkos Perspektive zu Veränderungen im B2B Software Sales durch KIWie man als Gründer erkennt, ob das eigene Startup keine Zukunft mehr hat.ALLES ZU UNICORN BAKERY:https://zez.am/unicornbakery Mehr zu Mirko und Florian:Mirko Novakovic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirkonovakovic/ Dash0: www.dash0.com Florian Dostert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-dostert/ Syntinels: https://www.syntinels.com/Join our Founder Tactics Newsletter:2x die Woche bekommst du die Taktiken der besten Gründer der Welt direkt ins Postfach:https://newsletter.unicornbakery.deMarker:(00:00:00) 500 Millionen Exit & neue Gründung(00:10:43) How to: Hiring von erfahrenen CROs / VP Sales / Head of Sales(00:18:32) Software Sales: SMB vs. Enterprise(00:22:19) How to: Quereinsteiger im Vertrieb(00:28:17) Kommerzialisierung im OpenSource(00:40:45) Learnings als Serial Founder(00:44:46) Einfluss von KI auf Software Sales(00:52:15) Land & Expand(01:13:15) Krisenkommunikation und Krisenmanagement(01:27:34) Mirkos Passion für B2B-Growth(01:32:03) Woran erkenne ich, ob die eigene Idee (noch) Potenzial hat? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are you a tech consultant staring at an empty sales pipeline, worried about paying your contractors and keeping your business afloat? You're not alone. Many tech consultants who once thrived on referrals face a tough reality as the market shifts. The good news? You don't need to overhaul your entire business or become a content marketing expert overnight. What you need is a well-crafted, tech consultant-specific sales playbook to help you maximize every sales opportunity. In this solo episode, I'll guide you through how a sales playbook can transform your business, secure your contractors, and keep you thriving in a competitive market.Resources and LinksGet the Sales Playbook here!486 - Inbound Mastery: How to Use Content Marketing to Become the #1 Zoho Partner in The USA with Brett Martin388 - Super Niche To Scale FasterPrevious episode: 559 - Three Cold Email Myths Busted​​ with Damien ElsingCheck out more episodes of The Paul Higgins ShowJoin the Tech CollectivePaul Higgins Mentoring YouTube channelTech Consultant's RoadmapJoin our newsletterSuggested resources

Grabbing attention in our industry is pivotal for success in today's market; in an industry saturated with competitors vying for clients' trust and business, you need to stand out. At a recent event, I spoke about the necessity of clear messaging, maintaining and growing a robust online presence, and effective branding to make your agency stand out. Drawing from my own experiences, I speak about how initially targeting the wrong audience led to dismal sales, which highlights the critical importance of focused marketing efforts. I also advocate for the use of detailed "five star prospect profiles" to align your marketing strategies with the values and beliefs of your ideal audience.  I also share a personal anecdote of a well-delivered speech capturing the attention of a Fortune 50 company further proves the power of clear communication and investing in establishing a presence in the market. Join us this week on Bullpen Sessions as I focus on going from unknown to unstoppable. 

In today's episode Aj shares his thoughts on how to build meaningful relationships and connections with all layers of the HR/People Leadership team!

Derek's guest this week is Jack Daly. Jack talks with Derek about his first sales job at age 7, living a life "by design", and key insights from his book "Hyper Sales Growth".Jack Daly is a leading sales speaker and trainer with over 30 years of sales and executive experience. Jack's track record is a testament to his real-world knowledge and extensive expertise in sales and sales management. He started his professional journey at CPA firm Arthur Andersen and rose to the CEO level of several corporations, building six companies into national firms along the way, two of which he subsequently sold to the Wall Street firms of Solomon Brothers and First Boston.In addition to his comprehensive professional background, Jack holds a BS in Accounting, as well as an MBA, and was a Captain in the U.S. Army. Jack Daly is an Amazon Best Selling Author and has written and contributed to many books, including Hyper Sales Growth and The Sales Playbook for Hyper Sales Growth. Jack is a 15-time Ironman competitor and has completed over 93 marathons in 49 states and on six continents. He achieves these goals and lives life to the fullest by following his own Life by Design techniques.Learn more at https://jackdalysales.com/

Every 10th episode, we tear down one topic. This time, we're talking about objections. ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS Most objections are actually reactions. So if you know how to handle the reaction, you'll swat away any objection. The intro to the Mr. Miyagi method - agree with the objection to remove the pressure, incentivize conversation to get them to share more about the objection, and sell the test drive. For dismissive objections be disarmingly blunt; for “not interested” objections, handle the reaction, not the objection; for situational objections, like “no budget”, or “too expensive”, remove the pressure of the sale entirely. Existing solution objections like “we already use X (your competitor)” are essentially “not interested” objections in disguise. Tackle them as such. RESOURCES DISCUSSED The Book on Cold Calling 18 Cold Call Objections & How to Handle Them Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

Brendon Cassidy is one of the OG of enterprise sales of the last decade, having advised the likes of Gong.io, Pipedrive, Showpad. Previously Brendon was first Head of Sales at LinkedIn and VP of Sales at Talkdesk. In Today's Episode with Brendon Cassidy We Discuss: 1. From Recruiter to Sales OG and Linkedin's First Head of Sales: How did recruiting prepare Brendon for a career in sales? What impact did the dot-com bubble burst have on his early career? What does Brendon know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career in sales? 2. The Sales Playbook and Hiring The Team: How does Brendon define the "sales playbook"? Should the founder be the one to create and execute V1 of the playbook? Should the first sales hire be a rep or a sales leader? When is the right time to make that all-important first sales hire?  3. Why Discovery and Outbound Are Broken Today: Why does Brendon feel discovery is useless in today's sales process? Why does Brendon believe outbound will move under the marketing function? How does AI change the world of outbound sales? Why will no great sales leaders join a company that doesn't have an inbound machine? 4. How to Master Onboarding and Increase Sales Performance: What is the right way to onboard new sales reps? How quickly do you know if a sales rep is not good? What are the signs? What is the right way to measure the effectiveness of sales teams today? What are the biggest mistakes founders make in onboarding sales teams?

In this episode, the Collin discusses with Tom Slocum the importance of building a sales playbook and how it can benefit a company's go-to-market team. They explore what should and shouldn't be included in a playbook and who should be involved in its creation. Tom also shares insights on measuring the effectiveness of a playbook and the positive results that can be expected, such as improved sales performance, unified processes, and reduced onboarding time.Follow the Host:Collin Mitchell (Partner, Leadium)Our Episode Guest:Tom Slocum (CEO and Founder, The SD Lab)Sponsored By:Leadium | The leader in outbound sales appointment setting*If you'd like to be a guest on the show or have any questions, email us at guest@salestransformation.co - Just tell us why you're reaching out and we'll contact you as soon as we can!

In this episode, host Colin Mitchell interviews Tom Slocum, the CEO and founder of the SD Lab, about sales development and building effective sales playbooks. They discuss the importance of having a playbook and the common mistakes companies make when creating one. Tom shares key ingredients for a great playbook, including buyer personas, sales scripts, and objection handling. He also provides insights on where the playbook should live and how to make it easily accessible and interactive for the sales team.Follow the Host:Collin Mitchell (Partner, Leadium)Our Episode Guest:Tom Slocum (CEO and Founder, The SD Lab)Sponsored By:Leadium | The leader in outbound sales appointment setting*If you'd like to be a guest on the show or have any questions, email us at guest@salestransformation.co - Just tell us why you're reaching out and we'll contact you as soon as we can!