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21 episodes with sales playbook
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SEPTEMBER 17th & 18th: FREE MARKETING AND SALES MASTERCLASS: https://offers.7figureflipping.com/masmA few years ago I was paying three to eight hundred bucks for a single seller lead in my county, and today I'm paying a hundred and fifty for the same lead, same source, and same county. The price dropped because my competition quit.Everybody's saying the market is hard and there's no deals out there, and they're right that some things got harder, but they're wrong about what that means for you, because when everyone decides it's too hard and stops marketing, the cost to get in front of a motivated seller falls through the floor.In this episode, I break down why the market everybody's complaining about is actually the cheapest and least crowded market I've seen in a decade. I walk through the cash conversion cycle that scares investors into quitting right before their marketing starts working, the niche marketing numbers that are getting me fifteen to twenty one dollars back for every dollar I spend, and why cheap access, rising supply, and almost no competition adds up to the best setup you're going to get if you're still standing.- The exact dollar amount seller leads cost me a few years ago compared to what I'm paying today, and why the drop has nothing to do with lead quality- The real reason most investors quit their marketing right before it starts paying off- How long it actually takes from your first marketing dollar to your first dollar back, and why almost nobody sticks around long enough to find out- The return I'm getting on niche marketing channels most investors never even touch- The three things stacking in your favor right now that almost nobody else is paying attention toThis week I broke down our exact marketing and sales playbook. The real data sources, the channel stack, the conversion numbers, and the budgets that actually work. Grab the Marketing and Sales Playbook: https://www.7figureflipping.com/marketing-and-sales-playbookLINKS & RESOURCES7 Figure Flipping UndergroundIf you want to learn how to make money flipping and wholesaling houses without risking your life savings or "working weekends" forever... this book is for YOU. It'll take you from "complete beginner" to closing your first deal or even your next 10 deals without the bumps and bruises most people pick up along the way. If you've never flipped a house before, you'll find step-by-step instructions on everything you need to know to get started. If you're already flipping or wholesaling houses, you'll find fast-track secrets that will cut years off your learning curve and let you streamline your operations, maximize profit, do MORE deals, and work LESS. CLICK HERE: https://hubs.ly/Q01ggDSh0 7 Figure RunwayFollow a proven 5-step formula to create consistent monthly income flipping and wholesaling houses, then turn your active income into passive cash flow and create a life of freedom. 7 Figure Runway is an intensive, nothing-held-back mentoring group for real estate investors who want to build a "scalable" business and start "stacking" assets to build long-term wealth. Get off-market deal sourcing strategies that work, plus 100% purchase and renovation financing through our built-in funding partners, a community of active investors who will support and encourage you, weekly accountability sessions to keep you on track, 1-on-1 coaching, and more. CLICK HERE: https://www.7figureflipping.com/runway Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram: @7figureflipping Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
► kostenloses Startgespräch buchen: https://linkly.link/24kPi ► Kickscale Extended Free Version: https://2ly.link/1zdl4Champion, Discovery und Pipeline im Software Sales: Warum die meisten B2B-Deals nicht am Pitch scheitern, sondern an oberflächlicher Discovery, falschen Champions und fehlendem Outbound. Darius Lohmann, ehemaliger Account Executive bei JobTeaser, HubSpot und Cognism und 2025 Nummer-eins-Seller in DACH, zeigt, wie du Pain Level bis zum Business Impact runterfragst und nach der Demo die Kontrolle über den Entscheidungsprozess behältst.► Darius auf LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darius-lohmann/ So kann ich dir im Sales helfen:zur Software Sales Formula: https://www.softwaresalesformula.comzum Sales Gym: https://www.sales-gym.ioTimestamps:(0:00) Vom Cold-Call-Anfänger zum #1 Seller in DACH(1:05) Erste Cold Calls: Ablehnung und Know your Numbers(4:20) Happy Ears: Wenn dein Champion kein Champion ist(8:30) Pain Level: Discovery-Fragen aus dem Cognism-Training(13:45) Oberflächliche Discovery: Angst oder fehlende Methodik?(18:40) Kundenzentriert heißt nicht nett: Seller auf Augenhöhe(22:20) Sales as a Service: Darius als externer Account (Executive(26:00) Warum AEs keine Cold Calls mehr machen(34:30) Einwand „Haben wir schon": Die 1-bis-10-Frage(39:15) Ghosting vermeiden: Momentum bis zur Unterschrift(42:45) Deal-Map nach der Demo: Kontrolle behalten(46:50) Es gibt keinen Deal ohne …Infos:jiri@softwaresalesformula.com https://www.softwaresalesformula.com https://www.sales.gym.io
If you want to know how to turn those painful rejections into actual wins, tune in to this episode with Kenny Shaw of Red River Intermodal, talking about the real side of business development in the transportation industry! We dive straight into the trenches of freight sales, breaking down why you shouldn't be afraid to ask for feedback when a prospect absolutely butchers you on the phone and how leaning into those losses is what actually builds a stronger foundation. We also cover the role of AI in logistics—why tools are great for initial research, but why actually picking up the phone and treating gatekeepers like real human beings is what will truly set you apart from the automated noise. Ready to evolve your cold calling strategy and start closing more deals? Don't miss this conversation! About Kenny Shaw Kenny Shaw is part of the family-owned Red River Intermodal, a Shreveport-based 3PL with more than 30 years in the transportation industry. Red River specializes in full truckload freight, including dry van and flatbed, as well as warehousing and other logistics solutions. Kenny is focused on building relationships, growing the family business, and bringing a fresh perspective to an industry that continues to evolve. Connect with Kenny Website: https://www.rrii.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenny-shaw-17bbaa306/
Why would a commercial property pay for snow removal during a light winter? In this episode, Brian breaks down the business behind seasonal snow contracts and why customers are really paying for readiness, not inches. We unpack our 10 plow, 25 salt, and 35 salt structure, plus labor, equipment, salt inventory, overhead, cash flow, reserved capacity, and why sustainable pricing creates better long term partnerships for everyone.
In this episode, let's talk straight to what it actually takes to win in freight sales and business development in today's changing market landscape The days of making generic cold calls and throwing out random rate quotes are dead; shippers are inundated with automated emails and pitch slaps daily, so you have to separate yourself by nicheing down, becoming a true subject matter expert, and leveraging a multi-channel prospecting strategy. I break down how using real market intelligence adds immediate value to your logistics prospects, why holding firm on your pricing builds long-term trust over cheap promises, and how turning your carrier vetting and risk management processes into your secret sales weapon can position your freight brokerage as a stable, reliable partner. Stop selling on fear, start delivering consistent value, and master the follow-up game to build a truly sustainable book of business!
Merchant services has changed—and if you're still leading with rates and payment processing, you're already behind. In this episode, James sits down with Steve Trovillo, President of Cygnus Payments, to discuss why software, AI, and vertical specialization are redefining success for agents and ISOs. They explore how top-performing sales professionals are shifting from selling commodities to solving business problems, why merchants only use a fraction of the technology they already own, and how AI is accelerating software innovation faster than ever before. They also dive into building profitable portfolios, choosing the right verticals, improving merchant retention, and what the future holds for independent sales organizations. Plus, Patti Murphy covers the latest payments news, including X Money's launch, new fraud statistics, payment processor enforcement actions, and evolving Buy Now, Pay Later regulations.
Your pool route does not need more hustle, it needs a cleaner sales system. We walk through how to position PoolRx as a high-value, once-a-year upgrade that helps prevent algae, improves water clarity, and lowers chlorine demand, while also protecting your profit when chemical prices keep moving.We share a simple Good Better Best framework you can apply immediately: buy during spring promotions to save on the backend, pass the cost through as an annual fee, or charge a fair markup based on what customers see online and use that margin to offset chlorine and other consumables. To make the pitch easier and more consistent, we talk about using pre-written, customizable offer letters you can brand with your company logo and send by email, include with billing, or hand to homeowners at the stop.We also get into the most common PoolRx questions pool pros hear on route. Saltwater pool customers get specific benefits like the ability to turn down the salt chlorine generator, slow the pH rise, reduce acid demand, and potentially cut down on salt cell cleaning, which can help extend equipment life. On the troubleshooting side, we cover algae claims including stubborn black algae, why you must reduce chlorine after adding PoolRx to avoid overchlorination, and the real reason you replace the unit each season instead of trying to stretch it with boosters alone. If you want a practical, field-ready way to sell cleaner pools and fewer problems, this one is built for you.Subscribe for more pool service business and water care training, share this with a pool pro who needs a better add-on strategy, and leave a review with your favorite sales line from the episode.We break down how PoolRx can help pool service pros prevent algae, cut chlorine demand, and sell a cleaner-water upgrade without complicating the weekly route. We also share a simple pricing framework, explain why the unit is replaced each season, and clarify exactly when a booster makes sense. • good better best ways to price PoolRx on a pool route • buying during spring promos and protecting your margins • passing cost through versus charging a markup • using customizable offer letters to pitch optional or mandatory programs • strongest talking points for saltwater generator pools • reducing chlorine output after adding PoolRx to avoid overchlorination • handling algae cases including green pools and black algae timelines • why a new unit is needed each season instead of only boosters • how to size and stack boosters for larger gallons and tougher conditions If you're looking for more podcasts, you can find those by going to my website, swingprolearning.com. On the banner, there's a podcast icon. Click on that, and over 1900 podcasts will be available for you to listen to at your leisure. And if you're interested in the coaching program that I offer, you can learn more at PoolGuyCoaching.com. Have a great rest of your week and God bless.Send us Fan MailSupport the Pool Guy Podcast Show Sponsors! HASA https://bit.ly/HASAThe Bottom Feeder. Save $100 with Code: DVB100https://store.thebottomfeeder.com/Try Skimmer FREE for 30 days:https://getskimmer.com/poolguy Get UPA Liability Insurance $64 a month! https://forms.gle/F9YoTWNQ8WnvT4QBAPool Guy Coaching: https://bit.ly/40wFE6y
In Episode 375 of The Real Jason Duncan Podcast, most salespeople are optimizing the wrong game. They're perfecting the mechanics — the right words, the process, the timing — but the real game is being decided long before they ever open their mouth. Bill Caskey spent 35 years watching this pattern play out, and he says it's the costliest mistake a sales team can make. Bill Caskey is a sales development leader and strategist who has been training B2B sales teams and executives since 1990. He is the author of Same Game New Rules, Rewire The Sales Mind, and The Sales Playbook, and co-hosts both the Advanced Selling Podcast — the longest-running sales podcast Jason has ever recommended — and the Bill Caskey Podcast. He has spent four decades inside the sales training world watching teams win and lose, and he finally figured out why most of them never break through. Today, Bill returns to the show for the first time since Episode 77 to expose the lie that runs through almost every sales training program ever built: that mechanics are the game. Master the pitch. Perfect the close. Handle the objection. And success will follow. It won't. Not even close. Because the game starts somewhere else entirely — and most salespeople never find out where. In this episode, Jason and Bill cover: Why Bill spent years near the bottom of the sales stack rank even after getting mechanically good — and what finally changed The concept of detachment — where it came from, what it actually means, and why it produced a 50% revenue increase for one of Bill's clients Why detachment is not ambivalence — and what healthy detachment looks like versus the guy who just doesn't care How fear filters everything through scarcity — and why you can't detach if you're scared The role shift that changes everything — from salesperson to guide — and why prospects stop resisting the moment you make it Why mechanics can't be taught until the mind is right — and what Bill does when someone in the room refuses to engage with mindset work The breakup email — why it works as a mechanic but falls apart the moment you get needy at the bottom The three mindset shifts that matter most: detachment, being the guide, and abundance over scarcity The two sub-lies hiding underneath the main lie — there's not enough, and you're not enough Why 90% of people know success has a spiritual dimension but are scared to deploy it What Bill now knows that he wishes someone had told him 20 years ago — and why nobody did The one thing Bill wants every salesperson still inside this lie to hear before the episode ends You can't mechanic your way to 5X income. The game starts way before you open your mouth. This episode will show you where it actually starts.
Seller productivity is being redefined in real time, and the divide is no longer about effort or experience. In this segment, Alex Varel shares a grounded look at how AI is already reshaping the role, from a RevOps leader training multiple agents in a single weekend to the expectation that sellers will augment their own output. The conversation highlights a growing reality for revenue teams: those who get hands-on with AI will operate at a different level, while those who don't risk falling behind faster than they expect. Alex Varel is EVP of Worldwide Sales at Cerebras Systems, where he leads global go-to-market efforts at the forefront of AI infrastructure. He has built and scaled high-performing teams across MongoDB, Zscaler, and Multiverse, driving growth through IPO, hyper-scale expansion, and emerging technology shifts. Connect with Alex: LinkedIn Resources mentioned: "The Power of Myth" by Joseph Campbell "AI Superpowers" by Kai-Fu Lee “Leonardo da Vinci” by Walter Isaacson "No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy “The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley” by Jimmy Soni Listen to the full episode: How AI Is Rewriting the Sales Playbook and Raising the Bar on Human Performance with Alex Varel Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management
Schedule a Meeting with Joshua TODAY!Are your meetings helping your team grow—or quietly creating confusion, misalignment, and costly mistakes?Most business owners avoid meetings because they feel unproductive, awkward, or like a waste of time. But without clear communication and alignment, teams become reactive, accountability disappears, and businesses end up stuck in constant chaos. In this episode, Joshua Gillow and Frank Bourque break down why structured meetings are one of the most overlooked tools for building stronger teams, improving communication, and creating a more profitable business.You will:Learn how daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly meetings create clarity and accountability across your teamDiscover simple meeting structures that improve communication without wasting timeUnderstand how better meetings help teams solve problems proactively instead of constantly reacting to firesPlay this episode to learn how effective meetings can transform your team culture, improve accountability, and help your business run smoother with less stress.For more information about Frank, visit his website: https://www.frankbourque.com/Ready to get your copy of The CORE 10 Sales Playbook? Check it out HERE!Connect with Joshua at:The WebsiteThe Facebook GroupSales Master ClassesHow to work with Joshua - https://yes.express/apply/Tune into this podcast where a seasoned craftsman shares expert communication skills, strategies for overcoming stress and overwhelm, and insights on building a profitable business in landscaping and hardscaping, with tips on how to sell, close more deals, and achieve financial freedom to retire early as a successful business owner in the design/build and outdoor living industry. Music from #Uppbeat:https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/puncherLicense code: AWUDIYK15E3NWYPK
Schedule a Meeting with Joshua TODAY!Are you heading into spring feeling overwhelmed, reactive, and constantly putting out fires in your contracting business?Spring is the busiest season for contractors and landscapers, but staying busy doesn't always mean staying profitable. Many business owners struggle with team misalignment, poor communication, lack of accountability, and hidden profit leaks that quietly drain time, energy, and money. In this episode, Joshua Gillow and Frank Bourque break down the exact strategies contractors need right now to stay proactive, organized, and profitable during the spring rush.You will: Learn how to use the “3 W's” framework to create stronger accountability and clearer communication with your team Discover how better meetings and problem-solving systems can reduce stress, eliminate confusion, and improve crew performance Understand the key numbers every contractor should track this spring to protect profitability and make smarter business decisions Play this episode now to learn the practical systems and leadership strategies that will help your business thrive during the busiest season of the year.For more information about Frank, visit his website: https://www.frankbourque.com/Ready to get your copy of The CORE 10 Sales Playbook? Check it out HERE!Connect with Joshua at:The WebsiteThe Facebook GroupSales Master ClassesHow to work with Joshua - https://yes.express/apply/Tune into this podcast where a seasoned craftsman shares expert communication skills, strategies for overcoming stress and overwhelm, and insights on building a profitable business in landscaping and hardscaping, with tips on how to sell, close more deals, and achieve financial freedom to retire early as a successful business owner in the design/build and outdoor living industry. Music from #Uppbeat:https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/puncherLicense code: AWUDIYK15E3NWYPK
Most contractors don't have a sales problem — they have a system problem.In this episode, Eric and Larry are joined by Josh Gillow, founder of YES Express and Master Plan Outdoor Living, who shares the painful sales failure that changed the course of his business forever. After getting the door slammed in his face on what should have been a “slam dunk” deal, Josh realized he had no real sales process, no qualification system, and no predictable framework for closing jobs.That moment led to the creation of The Core 10 Sales Playbook — a practical system designed to help contractors stop wasting time, qualify better clients, increase close rates, and sell with confidence.This conversation dives deep into:Why most contractors only close 25–30% of their leadsThe costly mistake of not pre-qualifying buyersHow to stop “performing” on sales calls and start listeningThe 70/30 rule that transforms client conversationsWhy asking better questions closes more jobsHow to build trust and demonstrate value instead of “pitching.”The difference between the “bird dog” and the real decision makerHow scarcity mindset sabotages pricing and confidenceWhy systems, not hustle, create predictable growthJosh also explains how understanding human behavior, communication, and psychology can dramatically increase close rates without sounding scripted or robotic.If you're a contractor, home service business owner, salesperson, or entrepreneur tired of wasting leads, chasing bad prospects, and running nonstop without results, this episode is packed with actionable insights you can implement immediately.TITLE SPONSOR:Super Tech UniversityDramatically improve your team's performance with a system of short daily video lessons training your team in soft skills. When you invest in your team and teach them soft skills, your team can make you more profit. Go to https://supertechu.com/ for more info.Click here for a discount: https://supertechu.com/register/podcastoffer/.Here is an entrepreneur's story you will relate to.SPONSOR: C&R MagazineC&R magazine is the leading periodical in the Cleaning and Restoration industry. Owner and editor Michelle Blevins has brought printed copies back from the dead to increase reader experience. Go to www.candrmagazine.com to get your free copy sent directly to your home or business.
Schedule a Meeting with Joshua TODAY!Are you an outdoor living pro hardscaper or landscaper attracting leads that never turn into real projects? If you are tired of wasting time on unqualified prospects, inconsistent revenue, and projects that never close, this episode breaks down how misaligned marketing and sales systems are costing you time and profit and how to fix it.You will: Learn how to attract better qualified clients before they ever contact you Understand how to use your website social media and forms to pre qualify leads Discover how aligning marketing and sales can dramatically increase your close rates and profitabilityPress play now to learn how to turn your marketing into a predictable system that brings in the right clients and closes more high value projects.Ready to get your copy of The CORE 10 Sales Playbook? Check it out HERE!Connect with Joshua at:The WebsiteThe Facebook GroupSales Master ClassesHow to work with Joshua - https://yes.express/apply/Tune into this podcast where a seasoned craftsman shares expert communication skills, strategies for overcoming stress and overwhelm, and insights on building a profitable business in landscaping and hardscaping, with tips on how to sell, close more deals, and achieve financial freedom to retire early as a successful business owner in the design/build and outdoor living industry. Music from #Uppbeat:https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/puncherLicense code: AWUDIYK15E3NWYPK
Schedule a Meeting with Joshua TODAY!Are you still relying on spring rush marketing and wondering why your pipeline dries up the rest of the year? Many outdoor living pros, hardscapers, and landscapers treat marketing like a switch they turn on only when they need work. The result is inconsistent leads, low trust from clients, and missed opportunities to book premium projects year round. This episode breaks down what actually works today and how to stay visible, trusted, and in demand no matter the season.You will: Learn how to build a consistent marketing system that keeps your schedule full beyond peak season Discover how better visuals and social content can pre-sell clients before you even meet them Understand how reviews and trust signals can dramatically increase your closing rate and pricing power Press play now to learn how to turn your marketing into a predictable, year round growth engine for your business.Ready to get your copy of The CORE 10 Sales Playbook? Check it out HERE!Connect with Joshua at:The WebsiteThe Facebook GroupSales Master ClassesHow to work with Joshua - https://yes.express/apply/Tune into this podcast where a seasoned craftsman shares expert communication skills, strategies for overcoming stress and overwhelm, and insights on building a profitable business in landscaping and hardscaping, with tips on how to sell, close more deals, and achieve financial freedom to retire early as a successful business owner in the design/build and outdoor living industry. Music from #Uppbeat:https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/puncherLicense code: AWUDIYK15E3NWYPK
Schedule a Meeting with Joshua TODAY!Are you wasting hours on outdoor living projects that were never going to close in the first place? For many outdoor living pros, hardscapers, and landscapers, the biggest frustration isn't finding leads—it's spending time on the wrong ones. Clients often don't understand what projects actually cost, leading to massive gaps between expectations and reality. Without a strong pre-qualification process, you can end up designing and estimating jobs that were dead on arrival.You will: Learn how to identify budget mismatches in the first 15 minutes—before you ever leave your office Discover the key questions that instantly filter serious clients from time-wasters Understand how to position yourself as a trusted advisor while protecting your time and increasing close rates Hit play now to learn how to qualify smarter, save hours every week, and close better-fit outdoor living projects with confidence.Ready to get your copy of The CORE 10 Sales Playbook? Check it out HERE!Connect with Joshua at:The WebsiteThe Facebook GroupSales Master ClassesHow to work with Joshua - https://yes.express/apply/Tune into this podcast where a seasoned craftsman shares expert communication skills, strategies for overcoming stress and overwhelm, and insights on building a profitable business in landscaping and hardscaping, with tips on how to sell, close more deals, and achieve financial freedom to retire early as a successful business owner in the design/build and outdoor living industry. Music from #Uppbeat:https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/puncherLicense code: AWUDIYK15E3NWYPK
There are TWO super important opportunities that most sales reps miss during the second quarter and they pay for them dearly for the rest of the year. In this week's episode of The Sales Playbook podcast, we're gonna go there! One more thing . . . During the podcast I mention our upcoming webinar 10 Sales Plays To Run Before Q2 Ends. Here's what you'll gain by attending; How To Set 15 More Appointments Before June 30th The Low Hanging Fruit Top Performers Target How To Keep Your Deal From Going On Vacation With The Team The Main Thing That Economic Buyers Are Concerned With This Time Of Year and How To Get Them On Board. 5 Ways To Ramp Up Your Sales Efforts Before Q2 Ends My 3 Best Emails For Setting Appointments My 3 Best Emails To Send While You're Working A Deal When? May 15th, at 11:30 am EST. What do you get? (1) 60-75 Minute Webinar With ACTIONABLE Tips Webinar Replay If You Can't Join Us Live Or If You'd Like A Second Helping 6 Templates Bonus PDF With Summer Specific Sales Strategies IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT My webinars sell for $99 but let's call it an even $74 if you register ASAP before May 5th. Click HERE to reserve your spot!
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Becca Lindquist is Head of Sales at Clay, one of the fastest-growing AI companies to reach $100M+ ARR. She previously helped scale dbt Labs into a category-defining data platform, building and leading high-performing sales teams. Before that, she was an early sales leader at Heap, where she played a key role in scaling the GTM motion. AGENDA: 00:00 Why most sales reps plateau—and when you should leave your company 02:45 Should you jump from SaaS to a hot AI startup right now? 05:30 How long is too long at one company—and what great tenure actually looks like 08:00 How to read a LinkedIn profile like a world-class sales leader 13:30 The biggest hiring mistake sales leaders make (and how to catch it fast) 16:00 Titles vs salary: what actually predicts a great hire 20:00 What early-stage founders must look for in their first sales hires 24:00 How to evaluate AI startups: PMF, retention, and real signals that matter 27:00 Sales comp decoded: quota, OTE, and how to design winning incentives 33:00 How to build a high-performance sales culture (and avoid a toxic one) 41:00 What makes a true champion—and why most reps get this wrong 45:00 Weekly forecasting: how elite sales teams run pipeline reviews 50:00 Are SDRs dead? How AI is really changing outbound sales 52:00 Why every rep owns pipeline—and how top teams generate it 54:30 The future of sales productivity: AI tools, workflows, and what actually works
AI is shifting from model development to real-world usage, exposing a new bottleneck that most sales teams are not prepared to understand or sell against. As inference speed, memory bandwidth, and infrastructure become the true differentiators, traditional software playbooks begin to break down. Alex Varel joins John Kaplan and John McMahon to unpack what it takes to sell in this new environment, where technical depth, curiosity, and adaptability are no longer optional. The conversation explores how AI is reshaping productivity, why ICPs must evolve weekly, and how elite sellers distinguish themselves by orchestrating value across increasingly complex buying groups. Alex Varel is EVP of Worldwide Sales at Cerebras Systems, where he leads global go-to-market efforts at the forefront of AI infrastructure. He has built and scaled high-performing teams across MongoDB, Zscaler, and Multiverse, driving growth through IPO, hyper-scale expansion, and emerging technology shifts. Connect with Alex: LinkedIn Resources mentioned: "The Power of Myth" by Joseph Campbell "AI Superpowers" by Kai-Fu Lee “Leonardo da Vinci” by Walter Isaacson "No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy “The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley” by Jimmy Soni Key takeaways from this episode: 00:00 – A look inside what it really takes to rethink computing architecture when speed, not scale, becomes the constraint 13:09 – Why many leaders underestimate how the shift from training to inference is redefining where competitive advantage actually lives 25:27 – The mistake many CROs make when applying legacy software playbooks to markets that require constant recalibration 21:33 – What it really takes to turn AI from a concept into a daily productivity multiplier inside a revenue organization 31:34 – Why most sales organizations quietly accept a broken productivity model and what changes when that assumption is challenged 34:26 – A look inside the evolving role of the AE as a multi-dimensional operator across technical, business, and interpersonal domains 49:41 – Why treating ICP as a static exercise leads to missed growth opportunities in markets that are shifting in real time Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management
Schedule a Meeting with Joshua TODAY!Are you wasting hours chasing landscaping leads that were never going to say yes?If you're an outdoor living pro hardscaper or landscaper constantly running out to estimates only to get ghosted this episode hits home as it breaks down why most sales calls fail before you even leave the office and how better screening can protect your time and increase your close rate.You will: Save dozens of hours every month by eliminating unqualified leads early Learn how to confidently ask better questions without losing control of the sales call Discover how top contractors increase close rates by only meeting with serious buyers Hit play now to learn how to take back your time and only work with clients who are ready to move forward.Ready to get your copy of The CORE 10 Sales Playbook? Check it out HERE!Connect with Joshua at:The WebsiteThe Facebook GroupSales Master ClassesHow to work with Joshua - https://yes.express/apply/Tune into this podcast where a seasoned craftsman shares expert communication skills, strategies for overcoming stress and overwhelm, and insights on building a profitable business in landscaping and hardscaping, with tips on how to sell, close more deals, and achieve financial freedom to retire early as a successful business owner in the design/build and outdoor living industry. Music from #Uppbeat:https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/puncherLicense code: AWUDIYK15E3NWYPK
Schedule a Meeting with Joshua TODAY!Are you building your landscaping or hardscaping business for growth while your profits quietly disappear? Right now, many outdoor living pros are facing a confusing market where demand feels steady but profits are getting squeezed. Costs are rising, competition is shifting, and the strategies that worked during the boom years are no longer reliable. If you're still operating like the market is growing fast, you could be setting your business up for serious financial pressure.You will: Learn how to stay profitable even when the economy is flat or slowing Understand how to win market share without cutting your prices Discover the financial habits that separate stable businesses from those that fail Hit play now to learn how to protect your profits, outlast competitors, and position your business to win in today's changing market.Ready to get your copy of The CORE 10 Sales Playbook? Check it out HERE!Connect with Joshua at:The WebsiteThe Facebook GroupSales Master ClassesHow to work with Joshua - https://yes.express/apply/Tune into this podcast where a seasoned craftsman shares expert communication skills, strategies for overcoming stress and overwhelm, and insights on building a profitable business in landscaping and hardscaping, with tips on how to sell, close more deals, and achieve financial freedom to retire early as a successful business owner in the design/build and outdoor living industry. Music from #Uppbeat:https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/puncherLicense code: AWUDIYK15E3NWYPK
In this episode of The Landscaper's Guide, Jack Jostes sits down with Joshua Gillow—landscape industry veteran, coach, and author of The Core 10 Sales Playbook. Joshua shares how he went from working in a family garden center to building and leading successful landscape businesses, and ultimately helping contractors across the country improve their sales systems.You'll hear practical strategies to increase your close rate, communicate more effectively with clients, and break free from competing on price alone. Joshua explains how to transition from craftsman to professional, why most contractors struggle with sales conversations, and how better systems and expectations can help you scale your business while reclaiming your time.You'll Learn:Why selling outcomes—not features—dramatically increases your close rateHow to use the “so that” framework to connect emotionally with clientsThe key differences between a craftsman mindset and a professional business ownerWhy setting expectations early prevents costly mistakes and wasted timeHow improving your discovery process can double your closing rateConnect With Today's Guest:
Heading to Vegas this May? Join Josh at Pulse 2026 and come say hi—your oversized fluorescent daiquiri is on him. No catch.Grab your ticket at gainsightpulse.com and use code UNCHURNED for a special rate.Knowledge used to be the CSM's edge. Not anymore.Diane Wu, Global Head of Customer Success & Experience at Google Cloud Security, operates where every touchpoint is mission-critical — and standing still is falling behind. In this episode, she sits down with Brady Bluhm & Josh Schachter of Gainsight to unpack what the CSM role actually becomes when AI handles the knowledge layer. The answer: context, curation, and hyper-personalization at scale.Diane shares how her team is using NotebookLM and Gemini to compress hours of customer research into minutes, why her best CSMs were the hardest to get onto new AI tools (and why that makes complete sense), and what two-phase AI adoption really looks like on the ground. Brady brings a builder's lens — talking about juggling AI agents, closing 2-year-old CTAs with one prompt, and why the traditional product UI might not survive the next two years.If you lead a post-sales team or work in customer success, this conversation will reframe how you think about productivity, coverage models, and the human role in an AI-first world.---Timestamps0:00 - Preview & introduction1:40 - Meet Brady Bluhm (Gainsight) & Diane Wu (Google)3:00 - Diane's role: Google Cloud Security & the post-sales mission5:25 - The shift from access to curation8:28 - Brady: how AI is changing CSM onboarding and memory10:55 - Are you saving time or just doing more? 12:34 - How AI changes coverage models and the 1:many CSM ratio18:00 - Diane's tactical playbook for running parallel customer analyses 22:05 - Brady's "can I do this with AI?" framework and skill-building loop24:00 - How much time should you spend tuning your AI setup?26:31 - Why your top CSMs are the hardest to get on new AI tools31:21 - LLMs will become the new workspace32:59 - Two-phase LLM adoption and why the UI is going away34:15 - Closing 2-year-old CTAs with one prompt37:47 - Hyper-personalization at scale for Google Cloud---What You'll Learn- Why knowledge is no longer the CSM's differentiator — and what replaces it- How Diane's team at Google Cloud Security uses NotebookLM as a living customer notebook- Why your best CSMs resist AI adoption the most- How AI is reshaping CSM coverage models and the 1:many ratio- Brady's two-question AI habit that keeps him ahead every week- What the Gainsight MCP unlocked — and what it means for the future of CS tooling- Why the traditional application UI may disappear — and what replaces it- How to create "wow moments" that actually drive AI adoption across your team---Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com.---Where to Find the GuestsDiane Wu's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diane-wu/Brady Bluhm's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradybluhm/---Where to Find Josh:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/
Schedule a Meeting with Joshua TODAY!Are you accidentally leaving profit on the table as a landscaper or hardscaper heading into 2026? With rising costs, flat demand, and increased competition, outdoor living pros can't rely on old strategies anymore. This episode breaks down what's actually happening in the economy and how it directly impacts your pricing, scheduling, and profitability so you can stay ahead while others fall behind.You will: Learn why 2026 is the year the best outdoor living pros will dominate their markets Discover how to price based on market value instead of undercharging with outdated methods Understand how to optimize scheduling and job selection to increase profit without increasing workload Hit play now to learn how to position your landscaping or hardscaping business to outperform the competition and maximize profit in 2026.Ready to get your copy of The CORE 10 Sales Playbook? Check it out HERE!Connect with Joshua at:The WebsiteThe Facebook GroupSales Master ClassesHow to work with Joshua - https://yes.express/apply/Tune into this podcast where a seasoned craftsman shares expert communication skills, strategies for overcoming stress and overwhelm, and insights on building a profitable business in landscaping and hardscaping, with tips on how to sell, close more deals, and achieve financial freedom to retire early as a successful business owner in the design/build and outdoor living industry. Music from #Uppbeat:https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/puncherLicense code: AWUDIYK15E3NWYPK
Schedule a Meeting with Joshua TODAY!What if the reason you're losing projects isn't your price, but the fact that you're selling the wrong thing?Many hardscapers, landscapers, and outdoor living pros make the same mistake during sales conversations: they focus on the features clients ask for like patios, fire pits, and seating walls, instead of uncovering the real reason the client wants the project in the first place. In this episode, Joshua Gillow and Jon Valenta break down why selling features keeps contractors stuck at a 25–30% closing rate and how shifting to outcome-based conversations can transform your sales results.You will:Learn how to uncover the emotional drivers behind outdoor living projectsDiscover the powerful questions that reveal what clients truly want from their backyardUnderstand how selling outcomes instead of features can dramatically increase your closing rate Hit play now to learn how asking better questions and focusing on outcomes can help you close more hardscape and outdoor living projects without competing on price.Interested in learning more about General Pavingstones? Check out their website: https://generalpavingstones.com/Today, we focused on the Core 10 Sales Principle: Stop Selling Features and Start Selling Outcomes. Ready to get your copy of The CORE 10 Sales Playbook? Check it out HERE!Connect with Joshua at:The WebsiteThe Facebook GroupSales Master ClassesHow to work with Joshua - https://yes.express/apply/Tune into this podcast where a seasoned craftsman shares expert communication skills, strategies for overcoming stress and overwhelm, and insights on building a profitable business in landscaping and hardscaping, with tips on how to sell, close more deals, and achieve financial freedom to retire early as a successful business owner in the design/build and outdoor living industry. Music from #Uppbeat:https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/puncherLicense code: AWUDIYK15E3NWYPK
Get the 2026 Roofing Marketing & Sales Playbook: https://secure.rsra.org/2026-roofing-marketing-sales-playbook/---Many roofers have been convinced that ‘branding' is investing.But in reality, they are practically lighting money on fire.Knowing what branding is, and what it isn't… Well, that's the first place to start. So I sat down with marketing expert Jim Ahlin for a brutally honest conversation.We uncovered the most expensive ‘branding moves' that roofers are making right now.=============FREE TRAINING CENTERhttps://adamsfreestuff.com/ FREE ROOFING MARKET REPORT:https://roofmarketreport.com/JOIN THE ROOFING & SOLAR REFORM ALLIANCE (RSRA)https://www.rsra.org/join/ GET MY BOOKhttps://a.co/d/7tsW3Lx GET A ROOFING SALES JOBhttps://secure.rsra.org/find-a-job CONTACTEmail: help@rsra.orgCall/Text: 303-222-7133PODCASTApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3fSQiev Spotify: https://bit.ly/3eMAqJe Available everywhere else :)FOLLOW ADAM BENSMANhttps://www.facebook.com/adam.bensman/ https://www.facebook.com/RoofStrategist/ https://www.instagram.com/roofstrategist/ https://www.tiktok.com/@roofstrategist https://www.linkedin.com/in/roofstrategist/#roofstrategist #roofsales #d2d #solar #solarsales #roofing #roofer #canvassing #hail #wind #hurricane #sales #roofclaim #rsra #roofingandsolarreformalliance #reformers #adambensman
Want the resources mentioned in the training?Instagram ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/mikereillync/Follow this link for the Free training:https://level.strsecrets.com/pc-bookYou want to grow a property management business, you will eventually hit the same wall:You become the person slowing things down.In this video, I share the exact playbook we built before hiring our first salesperson.Inside this training you'll learn:• The perfect type of property we target• The exact type of homeowner we want to work with• The biggest problems Airbnb owners face today• How we show our value to sign new clients• The "UI Method" for finding struggling Airbnb properties• The exact numbers and goals we set for our sales team• The best ways we find and talk to new owners• Our step-by-step sales process and first phone calls• What happens right after an owner signs with usIf you want to grow your company to 30, 40, or 50+ properties, you need a sales plan that works every single time.This episode shows you exactly how we built ours.Subscribe for new weekly videos ➡️ https://bit.ly/2Nrn4XOTimestamps:00:00 – Why You Need a Sales Plan01:12 – The 4 Steps of Our Sales Playbook02:10 – Finding the Perfect Property03:05 – The Perfect Homeowner04:18 – Problems Airbnb Owners Face05:45 – Creating a Strong Offer07:00 – Why You Need a CRM Software08:50 – Sales Goals and Numbers to Track10:20 – The Experiment: 120 Calls in 6 Weeks11:35 – Our Sales Win Rates12:18 – How to Find Leads: The UI Method13:30 – Using Referrals and Partners14:05 – Direct Mail and Ads15:05 – Running Facebook Ads for Leads16:10 – Our Sales Process17:20 – The First Call and Asking Questions18:15 – Handling Owner Concerns19:05 – Bringing on a New Owner20:00 – Weekly Sales Tracking21:10 – Hiring and Testing a SalespersonConnect with us on other social media platforms:STR Secrets FB group ➡️ https://www.facebook.com/groups/STRentalsecretsMichael Sjogren FB Page ➡️ https://www.facebook.com/theAirbnbGuyInstagram ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/miike.sjogrenLinkedin ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesjogren
Want the resources mentioned in the training?Instagram ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/mikereillync/Follow this link for the Free training:https://level.strsecrets.com/pc-bookYou want to grow a property management business, you will eventually hit the same wall:You become the person slowing things down.In this video, I share the exact playbook we built before hiring our first salesperson.Inside this training you'll learn:• The perfect type of property we target• The exact type of homeowner we want to work with• The biggest problems Airbnb owners face today• How we show our value to sign new clients• The "UI Method" for finding struggling Airbnb properties• The exact numbers and goals we set for our sales team• The best ways we find and talk to new owners• Our step-by-step sales process and first phone calls• What happens right after an owner signs with usIf you want to grow your company to 30, 40, or 50+ properties, you need a sales plan that works every single time.This episode shows you exactly how we built ours.Subscribe for new weekly videos ➡️ https://bit.ly/2Nrn4XOTimestamps:00:00 – Why You Need a Sales Plan01:12 – The 4 Steps of Our Sales Playbook02:10 – Finding the Perfect Property03:05 – The Perfect Homeowner04:18 – Problems Airbnb Owners Face05:45 – Creating a Strong Offer07:00 – Why You Need a CRM Software08:50 – Sales Goals and Numbers to Track10:20 – The Experiment: 120 Calls in 6 Weeks11:35 – Our Sales Win Rates12:18 – How to Find Leads: The UI Method13:30 – Using Referrals and Partners14:05 – Direct Mail and Ads15:05 – Running Facebook Ads for Leads16:10 – Our Sales Process17:20 – The First Call and Asking Questions18:15 – Handling Owner Concerns19:05 – Bringing on a New Owner20:00 – Weekly Sales Tracking21:10 – Hiring and Testing a SalespersonConnect with us on other social media platforms:STR Secrets FB group ➡️ https://www.facebook.com/groups/STRentalsecretsMichael Sjogren FB Page ➡️ https://www.facebook.com/theAirbnbGuyInstagram ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/miike.sjogrenLinkedin ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesjogren
Was sind eigentlich die entscheidenden Vertriebsleiter Eigenschaften? Wenn ich diese Frage stelle, höre ich zwar oft die klassischen Antworten: „Er muss der beste Verkäufer sein", „Er muss ein harter Hund sein" oder „Er muss bei der Mannschaft beliebt sein". Doch ich sage dir heute ganz klar: Das ist nicht die Antwort. Denn die Realität ist deutlich komplexer – und wir können sie sogar mit Zahlen belegen. In dieser Ausgabe schauen wir uns dazu Daten aus einer massiven Studie mit 65 Unternehmen, 12.000 Verkäufern und 2.500 Vertriebsleitern an. Dabei entschlüsseln wir gemeinsam den Code, welche Vertriebsleiter Eigenschaften wirklich über Erfolg oder Misserfolg entscheiden. Schließlich haben viele Unternehmen genau hier einen riesigen blinden Fleck. Geschätzte Lesedauer: 12 Minuten Warum dein Bauchgefühl bei Vertriebsleiter Eigenschaften täuscht Grundsätzlich ist der Vertriebsleiter der Transmissionsriemen zwischen der Strategie des Managements und der Execution durch das Team. Egal ob Umsatzrekord oder Einbruch – in der Vertriebswelt hängt extrem viel von dieser einen Person ab, dem Frontline-Sales-Manager. Jedoch gaben damals erschreckende 63 Prozent der Unternehmen an, dass ihre Manager nicht die Skills haben, um das Vertriebsmodell weiterzuentwickeln. Zwar tappen viele Firmen im Dunkeln und befördern einfach den besten Verkäufer. Allerdings korreliert Beliebtheit beim Team oder beim Vorstand nicht zwangsläufig mit harten Ergebnissen. Hingegen zeigt die Datenanalyse aus dem Umfeld des „Challenger Sale" ein ganz anderes Bild und priorisiert die relevanten Vertriebsleiter Eigenschaften völlig neu. Die DNA erfolgreicher Vertriebsleiter Eigenschaften: Die 25/75-Regel Um Klarheit zu schaffen, hat die Studie diverse Variablen getestet und durch eine Regressionsanalyse gejagt. Folglich lässt sich das Ergebnis grob in zwei Blöcke aufteilen: Ca. 25 %: Management Fundamentals (Grundlegende Führungseigenschaften) Ca. 75 %: Sales Management Skills (Spezifische Vertriebsführungs-Kompetenzen) 1. Management Fundamentals: Das Fundament Konkret sprechen wir hier über Integrität, Verlässlichkeit und die Fähigkeit, wirklich zuzuhören. Dabei handelt es sich um binäre Vertriebsleiter Eigenschaften: Entweder du hast sie, oder du hast sie nicht. Denn du bist entweder integer, oder du bist es nicht. Leider kann man das nur sehr schwer trainieren. Dennoch achten viele Unternehmen bei der Beförderung nicht darauf. Somit lassen sie Leute durch, die zwar gut verkaufen, aber menschlich als Führungskraft ungeeignet sind. Das führt deshalb direkt zu unzufriedenen Teams. Mein Tipp lautet daher: Hier musst du im Recruiting und bei der Auswahl extrem streng sein. 2. Sales Management Skills: Der eigentliche Hebel Die restlichen drei Viertel des Erfolgs machen spezifische Skills aus. Diese unterteilen sich wiederum in drei Bereiche: Selling, Coaching und Owning. Vertriebsleiter Eigenschaften: Müssen Chefs selbst verkaufen können? Selling macht etwa 26 % der Performance aus. Häufig wird diskutiert: Zählt „Verkaufen können" zwingend zu den notwendigen Vertriebsleiter Eigenschaften? Dazu sagen die Daten: Ja, es hilft enorm. Allerdings nicht, damit der Chef für seine Mitarbeiter einspringt, wenn es brennt. Vielmehr geht es darum, exzellentes Verkaufen zu modellieren. Denn ein Top-Vertriebsleiter muss verstehen, wie man dem Kunden eine einzigartige Perspektive bietet (Challenger-Ansatz), Angebote maßschneidert und souverän über Geld verhandelt. Schließlich kannst du nicht coachen, was du selbst nicht beherrschst. Nur wer das verstanden hat, kann es auch glaubwürdig vermitteln. Owning & Innovation als unterschätzte Vertriebsleiter Eigenschaften Zusätzlich zum Coaching (ca. 28 %) ist der Bereich „Owning" der wohl spannendste Faktor. Dabei bedeutet Owning, den Vertriebsbereich so zu führen, als wäre es das eigene Unternehmen. Dieser Ansatz erinnert stark an das militärische Prinzip der Auftragstaktik (Commander's Intent): Das Ziel ist klar (Erobere den Hügel), aber der Weg dorthin bleibt dir überlassen. Genauer gesagt gibt es innerhalb von „Owning" zwei Unterpunkte: Resource Allocation: Ressourcen managen, Prozesse einhalten, Fehler abstellen. Das ist wichtig, aber eher Verwaltung. Sales Innovation: Und genau hier liegt das Gold. Was bedeutet Sales Innovation wirklich? Oft ist Sales Innovation der „Missing Link". Es geht nämlich nicht darum, neue Produkte zu erfinden. Stattdessen geht es darum, innovative Wege zu finden, um einen Deal, der feststeckt, wieder ins Rollen zu bringen. Da Kunden heute oft keine Entscheidungen treffen wollen („Keine Entscheidung ist besser als eine falsche"), muss der Vertriebsleiter hier kreativ werden. „Innovation ist nicht Deal-Inspection. Es geht nicht darum zu fragen: ‚Hast du angerufen?'. Es geht vielmehr darum zu fragen: ‚Was können wir tun, damit es weitergeht?'" Hierbei ist der Unterschied zum Coaching essenziell: Beim Coaching kenne ich die Antwort und bringe sie dem Mitarbeiter bei. Bei der Innovation hingegen kennt niemand die Antwort. Deshalb müssen wir uns zusammensetzen und gemeinsam einen neuen Pfad durch den Dschungel schlagen. Das SCAMPER-Framework: Kreativität auf Knopfdruck Sobald wir unter Druck stehen, neigen wir zu „Narrowing Thinking" – wir greifen auf bekannte Standardlösungen zurück (meistens Rabatte). Doch um innovativ zu sein, brauchen wir „Opening Thinking". Deswegen empfiehlt das Buch „Challenger Sale" hier das SCAMPER-Framework, um neue Optionen für blockierte Deals zu generieren. Nutze diese Fragen, wenn ein Deal feststeckt und du nicht weiterkommst, um neue Lösungsansätze zu finden: Substitute (Ersetzen) Was können wir austauschen? Beispielsweise Materialien, Personen oder Prozesse? Combine (Kombinieren) Können wir Funktionen oder Services verknüpfen, um den Wert zu steigern? Adapt (Anpassen) Welche Lösung aus einem anderen Kontext lässt sich hier übertragen? Modify (Modifizieren) Können wir Form, Haptik oder Zusammensetzung verändern? Put to another use (Anders nutzen) Kann das Produkt einen anderen Zweck erfüllen oder für eine andere Abteilung nützlich sein? Eliminate (Eliminieren) Was können wir weglassen oder vereinfachen, um Hürden abzubauen? Reverse (Umdrehen) Was passiert, wenn wir den Prozess umkehren oder neu anordnen? Effizienz vs. Effektivität: Den Zielkonflikt lösen Dabei entsteht oft ein Zielkonflikt. Einerseits wollen wir Effizienz: Saubere Prozesse und wiederholbare Ergebnisse. Andererseits brauchen wir für komplexe Deals („Nuggets") Effektivität durch Innovation. Folglich ist meine Lösung für dich: Die Prozesse sind die Basis (Pflicht). Denn sie sorgen dafür, dass das Standardgeschäft läuft. Aber um die wirklich großen Deals zu gewinnen, musst du als Führungskraft in den Innovations-Modus schalten (Kür). Somit sind saubere Prozesse die Voraussetzung für kreative Lösungen. Fazit: Vom Verwalter zum Gestalter Zusammenfassend zeigen die Daten: Gute Vertriebsleiter Eigenschaften basieren auf einem Fundament aus Integrität (schwer lernbar) und einem starken Mix aus Selling, Coaching und – ganz wichtig – Innovation. Weil die Welt komplexer wird, dauern auch Kundenentscheidungen länger. Daher brauchen wir Manager, die diese Veränderung nicht nur verwalten, sondern aktiv gestalten. Falls du merkst, dass dein Team in der Routine feststeckt, ist es Zeit, an deinen Vertriebsleiter Eigenschaften zu arbeiten und Innovation zu fördern. Willst du wissen, wo deine Blindenflecken sind oder wie du ein Sales Playbook aufbaust, das Effizienz und Innovation vereint? Dann melde dich gerne bei mir. Wir schauen uns in einem Erstgespräch an, wie wir deinen Vertrieb auf das nächste Level heben.
What can a martial artist who trained tier-one special forces teach you about sales performance? Everything. In this episode, Dan sits down with Chris Harris: bestselling author, keynote speaker, Martial Arts Hall of Fame inductee, and creator of the combat system Roku Jitsu. Chris spent 25 years training elite military operators in close-quarters combat before transitioning to sales, where he discovered that the same mental disciplines that create warriors also create top sales performers. In this episode, Chris shares his journey from childhood adversity to becoming number one in his field. He breaks down his four essential questions every salesperson must answer about their product/ service, explains why 95% of selling happens in the subconscious mind, and shares how to reprogram self-limiting beliefs. If you've ever wondered how elite performers think differently, this conversation offers a wealth of pressure-tested strategies that work just as effectively in the boardroom as they do on the battlefield. Follow and subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingSalesPodcast/videos
Ready to adjust your messaging to earn new business and better business? In this special 'best of' edition, we're cutting through the noise to bring you your favorite, most impactful marketing and sales-themed episodes. No fluff, no fakery—just what's working right now for the thinkers in freight.You can binge this one over the holidays for ideas and inspiration to refine your strategy for the new year.In this episode, we revisit five key conversations:The Supply Chain is the Product: A solo episode on how to stop selling shipments and start selling your entire supply chain journey as a competitive advantage. Starts at 5:35-minute mark.TMSA Study Deep Dive: Grace Sharkey joins the show to unpack the surprising data from the Transportation Marketing & Sales Association on what's really happening in our industry—from budgets and sales quotas to the tools marketers are actually using. Starts at 36-minute mark.The Best Reddit Freight Sales Tips: We scoured the freight broker subreddit for years to find the most valuable, unconventional, and effective sales tactics that are getting people in the door. Starts at 1:47:24-minute mark.How Marketers Are Actually Using AI: Moving past the hype to discuss the smart AI tools that work when you put them into practice right now. Starts at 2:25:44-minute mark.A Modern Marketer's Guide to SEO: A masterclass on navigating SEO, AEO, and GEO in the age of AI, finding low-hanging fruit, and answering the question: "should you even be blogging anymore?" Starts at 2:56:15-minute mark.Whether you're looking for high-tech digital strategies or fundamental tactics that are making a comeback, this episode is packed with useful takeaways to fuel your 2025 planning. Watch the video versions of these episodes on YouTube: The Supply Chain Is the ProductTMSA Study Unveils Winning Freight Marketing StrategiesBest Reddit Freight Sales TipsHow Marketers Are Actually Using AI: New Data + Smart Tools That Work Logistics SEOFeedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know. -----------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS! SPI Logistics has been a Day 1 supporter of this podcast which is why we're proud to promote them in every episode. During that time, we've gotten to know the team and their agents to confidently say they are the best home for freight agents in North America for 40 years and counting. Listen to past episodes to hear why. CargoRex is the search engine for the logistics industry—connecting LSPs with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve. Digital Dispatch manages and maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers.
What makes a business a high-performing system? Duplication. Helping a team member get promoted is rewarding, as it contributes to the team's growth. However, it can also create their fear of climbing the sales ladder and becoming independent.As a leader and mentor, you maintain their momentum by continuing to guide them in refining their sales strategy. You cannot afford to let uncertainty kill a new leader's drive. Your job is not to trust that they are more experienced now, but to create a structure that guarantees their success.In this Diamond Life Mentor Uncut episode, Balazs W Kardos is back with another Accelerator call to share his apprenticeship system that makes them consistently excel in sales.You will hear powerful insights and motivation around:Duplicating in leadershipTraining team members using an apprenticeship in sales callsMaking incentives effectiveStaying positive while facing objectionsUsing personal stories to illustrate benefitsBalazs presents a scenario where he encourages new leaders to learn from how he does the sales calls. By listening to 3 to 5 calls regularly and providing the Sales Playbook, which outlines the introduction, presentation, objection handling, and closing sequences, you improve the success rate of calls. Once your team masters it, duplication happens, and that's how your team continues to join the ranks.Lastly, you need to face objections with positive energy. You acknowledge their point: "Of course, that makes perfect sense. But you know what? You may not realize that the majority of people actually get started during the holidays for these exact reasons.""The most important thing is that this duplication has now set the standard and the culture for your business." - Balazs W KardosReady to stop creating consistent leaders? Listen to the full episode now to get the step-by-step framework for auditing and cloning your success.Want a Personalized Plan for Business & Life Optimization?Book A FREE Call Connect with Balazs W Kardos:WebsiteFacebookThe Diamond Life CommunityLinkedInYouTubeInstagramThe Diamond Life Mentor Instagram
SaaStr 833: AI and the Death of the 2021 Sales Playbook with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin Join SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin from SaaStr London as we tackle pressing topics in AI and sales during an engaging AMA session. From discussing the evolution of inbound vs. outbound sales to detailing the transformative impact of AI on sales roles and outbound strategies, this session covers it all. Learn about the importance of product expertise for selling AI solutions, the rise of AI SDRs, and why knowing your top three problems is crucial for effective outbound marketing. Plus, discover insights on the rapidly improving capabilities of AI agents and their implications for competitive moats. Whether you're a sales professional, marketer, or tech enthusiast, this episode is packed with actionable insights and future trends in the AI landscape. --------------------- This episode is Sponsored in part by HappyFox: Imagine having AI agents for every support task — one that triages tickets, another that catches duplicates, one that spots churn risks. That'd be pretty amazing, right? HappyFox just made it real with Autopilot. These pre-built AI agents deploy in about 60 seconds and run for as low as 2 cents per successful action. All of it sits inside the HappyFox omnichannel, AI-first support stack — Chatbot, Copilot, and Autopilot working as one. Check them out at happyfox.com/saastr --------------------- Hey everybody, the biggest B2B + AI event of the year will be back - SaaStr AI in the SF Bay Area, aka the SaaStr Annual, will be back in May 2026. With 68% VP-level and above, 36% CEOs and founders and a growing 25% 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 by going to podcast.saastrannual.com to get my exclusive discount SaaStr AI SF 2026. We'll see you there.
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/Business Leadership Series Intro and Outro music provided by Just Off Turner: https://music.apple.com/za/album/the-long-walk-back/268386576
Revolut is doing $690M+ in crypto volume and there's a playbook behind that success.In this episode of Money Moves Fast, we sit down with Jamal Raees, Head of Payments at Polygon Labs, to discuss why blockchain companies without enterprise sales are cooked, how Mastercard's crypto credential vision works, and why cross-border payments need stablecoins.We discuss:- The Revolut integration: $690M+ volume- Why blockchain companies without enterprise sales are cooked- Mastercard's crypto credential vision- The Blockchain Payments Consortium- Building the "Clooney Effect" in BD- Why cross-border payments need stablecoins- Creating standards like EMV did for credit cardsTimestamps:00:00 Intro & Payment Standards Evolution00:52 Welcome to The Rollup01:10 Polygon x Revolut Partnership Deep Dive04:19 Revolut's $690M+ Integration Strategy08:24 Stablecoin Cross-Border Use Cases10:52 Kalshi Ad, Infinifi Ad, Halliday Ad11:28 Network Effects & Partnership Flywheel14:10 Trezor Ad, Relay Ad14:40 Mastercard Crypto Credentials Explained17:40 Visa vs Mastercard Landscape19:48 The Institutional Adoption Window21:35 Blockchain Payments Consortium Vision22:58 Creating Payment Standards That ScaleWebsite: https://therollup.co/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1P6ZeYd...Podcast: https://therollup.co/category/podcastFollow us on X: https://www.x.com/therollupcoFollow Rob on X: https://www.x.com/robbie_rollupFollow Andy on X: https://www.x.com/ayyyeandyJoin our TG group: https://t.me/+TsM1CRpWFgk1NGZhThe Rollup Disclosures: https://therollup.co/the-rollup-discl
Rik Haandrikman talks about sales incentives and growth at RevenueCat, and their creative approach to conferences. He explains why their sales team focuses on helping customers evaluate the product in their own way, how aligning incentives shapes company culture and how they make the most out of rare, compelling events.This episode is brought to you by WorkOS. If you're thinking about selling to enterprise customers, WorkOS can help you add enterprise features like Single Sign On and audit logs. Links: • RevenueCat jobs • Rik's article • Rik's X • RevenueCat's X
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In this episode of the Great Leaders UK series, we welcome Emma Maslen, author, angel investor, and founder of inspir'em. Emma draws on her successful career in large organizations like SAP and BMC to discuss the crucial difference between theoretical playbooks and their real-world, behavioral application. She stresses that the playbook is a framework to drive curiosity and risk mitigation, not a tick-box exercise. Emma also shares why networking is a constant professional necessity, detailing the common mistakes people make and how leaders can intentionally build their networks to gain knowledge and accelerate their careers.
Jen Abel is GM of Enterprise at State Affairs and co-founded Jellyfish, a consultancy that helps founders learn zero-to-one enterprise sales. She's one of the smartest people I've ever met on learning enterprise sales, and in this follow-up to our first chat two years ago (covering the zero to $1 million ARR founder-led sales phase), we focus on the skills founders need to learn to go from $1M to $10M ARR.We discuss:1. Why the “mid-market” doesn't exist2. Why tier-one logos like Stripe and Tesla counterintuitively make the best early customers3. The dangers of pricing your product at $10K-$20K4. Why you need to vision-cast instead of problem-solve to win enterprise deals5. Why services are the fastest way to get your foot in the door with enterprises6. How to find and work with design partners7. When to hire your first salesperson and what profile to look for—Brought to you by:WorkOS—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUsLovable—Build apps by simply chatting with AICoda—The all-in-one collaborative workspace—Where to find Jen Abel:• X: https://x.com/jjen_abel• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/earlystagesales• Website: https://www.jjellyfish.com—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Welcome back, Jen!(04:38) The myth of the mid-market(08:08) Targeting tier-one logos(10:50) Vision-casting vs. problem-selling(15:35) The importance of high ACVs(20:45) Don't play the small business game with an enterprise company(25:09) Design partners: the double-edged sword(28:11) Finding the right company(36:55) Enterprise sales: the art of the deal(43:21) The problem with channel partnerships(44:41) Quick summary(50:24) Hiring the right enterprise salespeople(56:49) Structuring sales compensation(01:01:01) Building relationships in enterprise sales(01:02:07) The art of cold outreach(01:07:31) Outbound tooling and AI(01:14:08) Lightning round and final thoughts—Referenced:• The ultimate guide to founder-led sales | Jen Abel (co-founder of JJELLYFISH): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/master-founder-led-sales-jen-abel• Mario meme: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/missing-meme-led-me-woman-johann-van-tonder-im6df• Kathy Sierra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Sierra• Cursor: https://cursor.com• The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can't stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell• Justin Lawson on X: https://x.com/jjustin_lawson• Stripe: https://stripe.com• Building product at Stripe: craft, metrics, and customer obsession | Jeff Weinstein (Product lead): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-product-at-stripe-jeff-weinstein• He saved OpenAI, invented the “Like” button, and built Google Maps: Bret Taylor on the future of careers, coding, agents, and more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/he-saved-openai-bret-taylor• OpenAI's CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai• Anthropic's CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-cpo-heres-what-comes-next• Linear: https://linear.app• Linear's secret to building beloved B2B products | Nan Yu (Head of Product): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/linears-secret-to-building-beloved-b2b-products-nan-yu• Gemini: https://gemini.google.com• Microsoft Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com• How Palantir built the ultimate founder factory | Nabeel S. Qureshi (founder, writer, ex-Palantir): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-palantir-nabeel-qureshi• McKinsey & Company: https://www.mckinsey.com• Deloitte: https://www.deloitte.com• Accenture: https://www.accenture.com• Building a world-class sales org | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-a-world-class-sales-org• Peter Dedene on X: https://x.com/peterdedene• Hang Huang on X: https://x.com/HH_HangHuang• Hugo Alves on X: https://x.com/Ugo_alves• A step-by-step guide to crafting a sales pitch that wins | April Dunford (author of Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/a-step-by-step-guide-to-crafting• Clay: https://www.clay.com• Apollo: https://www.apollo.io• Jason Lemkin on X: https://x.com/jasonlk• Gavin Baker on X: https://x.com/GavinSBaker• Jason Cohen on X: https://x.com/asmartbear• Baywatch on Prime Video: https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Baywatch/0NU9YS8WWRNQO1NZD5DOQ3I8W6• Playground: https://www.tryplayground.com• ClassDojo: https://www.classdojo.com• Jason Lemkin's post about Replit: https://x.com/jasonlk/status/1946069562723897802—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com
In this episode of the Revenue Builders Podcast, our hosts John Kaplan and John McMahon are joined by Dan Fougere, a venture partner at Index Ventures and former CRO of Datadog. Dan shares insights from his extensive sales career, emphasizing the importance of developing adaptive and context-specific sales playbooks. He discusses the evolution of PLG (Product-Led Growth) strategies, the integration of AI in sales processes, and the critical need for continuous learning and adaptability. The episode also touches on Dan's philanthropic efforts, including his involvement with Homes for Our Troops and other charitable initiatives.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESConnect and learn more from Dan Fougere.Connect with Dan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danfougere/Support Homes For Our Troops: https://www.hfotusa.orgSupport Imagine Reading: https://imaginereading.com/Support No Person Left Behind Outdoors: https://www.nplboutdoors.orgRead the Guide on Six Critical Priorities for Revenue Leadership in 2026: https://hubs.li/Q03JN74V0Enjoying the podcast? Sign up to receive new episodes straight to your inbox: https://hubs.li/Q02R10xN0HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:02:24] Advice for New Sales Leaders[00:02:52] Adapting Sales Playbooks[00:03:27] The Importance of Flexibility in Sales Strategies[00:03:54] Understanding Product-Led Growth (PLG)[00:06:44] Case Study: Datadog's Sales Evolution[00:07:57] Challenges in Scaling Sales Strategies[00:08:51] Building a Sales Organization for the Future[00:12:14] The Role of a CRO in Modern Sales[00:14:48] Adapting to Market Changes[00:26:23] Traits of Effective Sales Leaders[00:34:03] The Tip of the Spear: Leading from the Front[00:34:16] Medallia: Building a Sales Process from Scratch[00:36:58] Profile of a Successful Sales Leader[00:37:47] Recruiting and Building a High-Performance Team[00:39:25] The Importance of High Standards in Hiring[00:52:41] AI's Impact on Sales and Forecasting[01:02:07] Giving Back: Charitable EndeavorsHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:03:21] “A big mistake is trying to force fit a playbook from a previous company into a new company.”[00:06:01] “Approach it with a beginner's mind… it's actually an advantage you only get once.”[00:10:55] “Build your outbound before you need it, because at some point you're going to need it.”[00:13:33] “98.5% of companies realize, ‘I wish I had a great sales organization to go with this great PLG motion.'”[00:19:07] “The thing that tops people out is the inability to adapt and collaborate—they become too rigid.”[00:22:25] “If you know in your heart your team is mediocre, you're never going to be great. Raise those standards.”[00:31:36] “Don't just assume you can get rid of BDRs and have AI do it. I don't see anybody telling me that's working yet." Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Learn how to master the conversation economy and transform your outbound marketing strategy Look, I've been in this business long enough to recognize when something fundamental shifts, and the conversation economy we're experiencing right now is exactly that - a complete transformation of how we approach outbound marketing. Gone are the days of those old pitch-heavy tactics that used to work so well. In this episode, I sit down with my incredible teammate Jerson Mellizo to dive deep into why the traditional sales playbook has completely fallen apart and how authentic conversations have become the absolute key to outbound success. We get into the nitty-gritty of how buyer behavior has completely evolved - these prospects today are doing their homework like never before, and if you're still trying to pitch them in the first conversation, you're going to get shut down every single time. I've got to tell you, Jerson has been absolutely instrumental in transforming our outbound department over these past five years, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. When we started working together, our outbound was in its infancy, and now it's become one of our top-producing lead generation channels - and that's largely because of his dedication and innovative thinking. This guy manages our entire outbound operation from the Philippines, and he's created these incredible profitable experiences for our business coaching clients who come to us wanting to grow faster, generate more predictable revenue, and finally get their businesses less dependent on them as founders. His track record speaks for itself - 72% email open rates, helping businesses generate $10K monthly through organic processes, and personally producing PHP 16,000,000 in gross sales. But here's what really gets me: at our recent workshop, 95% of the attendees were literally clapping for Jerson because of the relationship he'd built with them. That's the power of his conversation-first approach, and it's something every business owner needs to understand. KEY TAKEAWAYS: The traditional outbound playbook of rapport-building, goal identification, challenge discovery, and immediate pitching has stopped working because everyone recognizes the pattern. Modern buyers are significantly more discerning than five years ago, conducting extensive research and consuming hours of content before making purchasing decisions. The new outbound strategy focuses on starting authentic conversations rather than pushing immediate sales agendas with complete strangers. Successful outbound marketing now optimizes for content consumption rather than direct conversions, allowing prospects to build trust naturally. The progression from conversation to consumption to conversion can take up to 365 days, requiring patience and consistent value delivery. Every conversation should move prospects toward consuming more content, whether through reports, workshops, videos, or educational materials. Caring is a competitive advantage, and authentic conversations that prioritize serving others naturally lead to business opportunities. Outbound is a broad category with multiple strategies, so if one approach isn't working, it's the strategy that needs changing, not the entire outbound concept. Growing your business is hard, but it doesn't have to be. In this podcast, we will be discussing top level strategies for both growing and expanding your business beyond seven figures. The show will feature a mix of pure content and expert interviews to present key concepts and fundamental topics in a variety of different formats. We believe that this format will enable our listeners to learn the most from the show, implement more in their businesses, and get real value out of the podcast. Enjoy the show. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any future episodes. Your support and reviews are important and help us to grow and improve the show. Follow Charles Gaudet and Predictable Profits on Social Media: Facebook: facebook.com/PredictableProfits Instagram: instagram.com/predictableprofits Twitter: twitter.com/charlesgaudet LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/charlesgaudet Visit Charles Gaudet's Wesbites: www.PredictableProfits.com www.predictableprofits.com/community https://start.predictableprofits.com/community
John sits down with Zac Dearing (Mantel) to break down how top HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies are moving from “proposal tools” to true shopping experiences that help homeowners buy with confidence—and help teams close more, faster. They dig into hard data from Mantel's platform and homeowner survey: why Tuesdays are the biggest sales day, how response time and proposal view time (“eyeball time”) predict closes, and why a 10-point jump in proposal strength correlates with ~$960 higher average ticket. They also cover remote/virtual selling (and what a high-fidelity, open-cart experience can look like), pricing transparency (69% of homeowners try to find a price online…only 15% find something clear), extended-warranty strategies, and what changes between a $10M shop and a $100M shop (hint: ruthless simplicity). If you want a concrete playbook for modern sales—benchmarks, coaching levers, and systems that scale—this one's for you.
This week's throwback guest is my former boss, Michelle Pietsch. Michelle is the Co-Founder of BeaconGTM, where they help companies from Pre-Seed to Series B build their GTM motions, and get their customers in a position to see successful growth. Michelle was the VP of Revenue at Dooly when she brought me on to build the Account Management function from the ground up, and there were so many incredible leadership lessons she taught me along the way which we get into in today's episode. On today's show, we also discussed:Giving Your Employees A Long Leash Coming With Solutions, Not Just ProblemsAlways Learning In The Early StageWhen To Hire BDRsSetting Expectations With Your Boss Starting Minot Light Much MorePlease enjoy this week's episode with Michelle Pietsch! ____________________________________________________________________________I am now in the early stages of writing my first book! In this book, I will be telling my story of getting into sales and the lessons I have learned so far, and intertwine stories, tips, and advice from the Top Sales Professionals In The World! As a first time author, I want to share these interviews with you all, and take you on this book writing journey with me! Like the show? Subscribe to the email: https://mailchi.mp/a71e58dacffb/welcome-to-the-20-podcast-communityI want your feedback!Reach out to 20percentpodcastquestions@gmail.com, or find me on LinkedIn.If you know anyone who would benefit from this show, share it along! If you know of anyone who would be great to interview, please drop me a line!Enjoy the show!
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.
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 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.
Leverage Your Incredible Factor Business Podcast with Darnyelle Jervey Harmon, MBA
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!
Leverage Your Incredible Factor Business Podcast with Darnyelle Jervey Harmon, MBA
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. 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