Podcasts about salespeople

Shoot Us A Message!Hiring insurance producers who actually write premium comes down to building a repeatable training system rather than searching for a unicorn salesperson.In this episode, we break down why relying on experienced talent often leads to high turnover and bad sales habits inside your agency. Learn how to recruit for coachability, structure daily producer onboarding, and run consistent sales training to ramp new hires to full quota faster. If you need a structured framework to evaluate role fit and streamline hiring producers across your team, check out TeamIQ.Key Takeaways and Timestamps00:00 Why hiring experienced insurance salespeople often fails04:15 The cost of uncoachable talent versus raw potential09:30 Structuring daily onboarding and producer training15:45 Setting clear production benchmarks and activity metrics21:10 Building repeatable sales processes for agency scale26:20 Final takeaways on developing top producers in-houseThe Insurance Dudes ResourcesJoin the Agent Elite: https://www.skool.com/agenteliteBest Seller: https://MillionDollarAgencyBook.comInsurance Dudes Files: https://blog.theidudes.comTeamIQ: https://teamiq.theidudes.comTelefunnel Lead Callers: https://theidudes.comILB: https://insuranceleadbrokers.comInsurance Agency Trader: https://trader.theidudes.comIf this helps, subscribe and hit the bell so you can catch every episode.Follow UsFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/theinsurancedudesLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-insurance-dudes-podcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/insurancedudespodcastSupport the showHey there! Thank you for listening! We'd be SUPER GRATEFUL for a subscribe!And a review over on the Apple Podcasts would be incredible!Check out our newsletter, webinar, and some great Internet Lead tactics at The Insurance Dudes Homepage.We appreciate you!Craig Pretzinger & Jason FeltmanThe Insurance Dudes

Inertia is one of the most powerful forces slowing sales in Japan. The buyer may already have a regular supplier. Or we may be introducing a solution they have never used before. In either case, buying from us requires change on their side. And in many Japanese buying situations, change is viewed first as risk, not opportunity. Doing nothing is easy. Staying with the existing supplier is easy. Changing systems, processes, vendors, internal responsibilities, budgets or routines is much harder. That is why salespeople in Japan need to stop thinking only about getting the first deal done. A better mindset is to think about the re-order. If we concentrate only on winning the initial sale, the slow pace and internal obstacles can become enormously frustrating. If we concentrate on creating a relationship that will generate repeated business, we are more likely to do the patient work required to reduce friction and make the first purchase successful. Why is buyer inertia such a major issue in Japanese sales? Buyer inertia is powerful in Japan because remaining with the familiar option usually feels safer than introducing change. The salesperson therefore has to overcome not only competitors, but also the buyer's preference for avoiding unnecessary risk. If the client already has a supplier, switching to us means disrupting an established arrangement. Someone has to approve the change. Someone may have to explain why the existing supplier is no longer sufficient. Processes may need to change. People may need to learn something new. Other divisions may be affected. If our solution is completely new, the uncertainty becomes even greater because the buyer has no internal history to rely on. The current situation may not be ideal, but at least it is known. That is a powerful psychological advantage. This is why the familiar expression, "better the Devil you know than the Angel you don't", applies particularly well to sales. We are the Angel they don't know. Our job is therefore not merely to prove that our solution is better. We have to make changing to our solution feel manageable, practical and sufficiently low risk. Do now: Before your next proposal, ask yourself: "What changes will the buyer have to make internally if they say yes to us?" Why can trying to speed up a Japanese sales process actually slow it down? Speed is not always interpreted positively in Japanese B2B sales. If the buyer believes a decision is being rushed before all risks have been examined, moving quickly can make the proposal feel more dangerous rather than more attractive. Salespeople naturally want momentum. We have targets. We have forecasts. We have reporting deadlines. We want the client to make the decision now. The buyer does not care about our schedule. As I remind myself, the buyer in Japan is never on your schedule. The buyer is concerned with what happens inside their organisation after they make the purchase. The salesperson may be talking to one section, but the consequences of that buying decision can spread across multiple divisions. Operations may be affected. Finance may need to alter payment arrangements. IT may have integration issues. Procurement may have procedures to follow. Managers may need to explain the change to employees. The faster we push, the more uncomfortable the buyer may become if those internal questions have not been resolved. Do now: Instead of asking, "How can I make them decide faster?", ask, "What is making this decision difficult to progress?" How can salespeople identify the internal stakeholders creating friction? The salesperson needs to use the client contact to map which sections will be affected by the change and which stakeholders are likely to support or resist the proposal. This is not always easy. We may never meet the people in the other sections. We may never hear their objections directly. Our contact therefore becomes enormously important. We need to ask them for the lay of the land inside their organisation. One useful question is: "I really appreciate all of your guidance and I understand that buying from us would be a new thing inside the company. I am sure there are many sections which would be directly impacted by making this change and based on your expert knowledge of the organisation, who would you say would be those most affected?" Then stop talking. This is important. Salespeople often ruin good questions because they become uncomfortable with silence and start talking again. Do not dilute the power of the question. Ask it. Then shut up. Give the buyer time to think. Their answer starts giving us a map of the internal decision-making landscape. Do now: Identify the sections most affected by the purchase, not just the people formally approving it. What should salespeople ask about each stakeholder's concerns? Once the affected sections have been identified, the salesperson should explore what each group is worried about and what information could reduce those concerns. Suppose the buyer mentions that Section ABC will be heavily affected. Do not stop there. We need to understand what ABC is likely to worry about. We can say: "It is natural for the key sections you have nominated to take this change seriously and for them to investigate all angles involved. Often I have found that we have information which may not be known to these sections, which would change their perception of the ease of making the change. What would you say would be the major concerns of the ABC section?" Again, stop talking. Let them answer. Notice the framing. We are not accusing ABC of being negative. We are recognising that careful investigation is natural and legitimate. That makes it easier for our contact to discuss resistance without appearing disloyal to colleagues. This is particularly important in Japan, where openly criticising another department can be uncomfortable. Do now: For each important stakeholder, ask: "What would make this change difficult from their point of view?" Why do salespeople need to probe two or three levels deeper? The first answer is often not the real obstacle. Salespeople need to keep probing because the most useful information frequently emerges only after the buyer has had time to think more deeply. Suppose our contact tells us ABC Section has one major concern. Good. Now keep going. Say: "Thank you for mentioning that. Apart from this concern, can you think of other major hesitations which we may need to work on solving for them?" This second or third level is often where the useful information appears. The first response may simply be whatever came immediately to mind. When we give the buyer more time to consider the issue, they can think through the internal consequences more carefully. Another concern appears. Then another. Now we are getting somewhere. We should repeat this process for all of the key divisions likely to be affected. By the end of the conversation, we are no longer simply selling a product or service. We are beginning to understand the internal mechanics of making the purchase possible. Do now: Never assume the first objection is the only objection. Ask, "Apart from that, what else might make this difficult?" How can sellers reduce friction once they understand the obstacles? Once friction points are visible, the salesperson should redesign the implementation so the buyer can change with less risk, less disruption and less internal resistance. This is where professional selling really begins. Perhaps we need to slow the process down. Maybe the client needs more time to prepare internally. Perhaps we should reduce the scope of the initial deal and introduce additional elements later. Maybe the payment schedule needs to fit the client's budgeting cycle or current cash-flow situation. Perhaps the buyer needs a pilot programme before they feel comfortable committing to a larger rollout. A pilot can be particularly powerful. It creates a low-risk opportunity for the client to see how the solution works. They can understand what internal adjustments are required. They can identify problems while the scale is still manageable. Once the solution is proven, increasing the size or frequency of the delivery becomes easier. The aim is not to force the buyer through their resistance. The aim is to remove the causes of resistance wherever we can. Do now: Look at every friction point and ask: "Can we remove it, reduce it, delay it or test it on a smaller scale?" Why should salespeople in Japan sell for the re-order rather than the first order? The real objective is not merely to win one transaction. It is to create a first experience that makes the second purchase easier, faster and more natural. This mindset changes how we behave. If all we want is the initial order, we may push too hard. We may promise too much. We may force the buyer to make changes faster than their organisation can comfortably absorb them. That may win the first sale and destroy the chance of the second. If we think instead about the re-order, patience becomes logical. We want the first implementation to work. We want the client's internal stakeholders to feel comfortable. We want those who supported the purchase to look good. We want the organisation to say: "That worked. Let's do it again." That is when the relationship becomes much more valuable. The first sale often requires enormous energy because we are unknown. Once the buyer has experienced successful delivery, trust grows and resistance falls. That is the point. Do now: Design the first transaction so that success naturally leads to the next one. How should professional salespeople reduce sales friction in Japan? There are no shortcuts. We need to understand what the buyer must go through internally to implement what we are proposing. That requires intelligent, carefully constructed questions. We need to identify who will be affected. We need to discover who is supportive and who is resistant. We need to understand each stakeholder's concerns. We need to keep probing beyond the first answer. Then we need to adjust the deal. Maybe we slow down. Maybe we simplify. Maybe we change the payment schedule. Maybe we begin with a pilot. Maybe we remove parts of the proposal and add them back later. The objective is to make the change as friction-free as possible. We are all creatures of habit. The buyer already knows the existing supplier, process or solution. They do not know us. That means we have to make the unfamiliar feel safe. Do that well and the first order becomes possible. Do it extremely well and the re-orders become easier. That is the real objective of professional selling in Japan. Author bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie One Carnegie Award (2018 and 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver programmes globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentations, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

Half of your buyers already picked their shortlist before your sales team even knew they existed. The only question left is whether your team knows what they typed in to get there.In this episode, John sits down with Tim Sanders, Chief Innovation Officer at G2 and author of five books including Love Is The Killer App, to talk about why half of all software buyers now start their research inside ChatGPT, how BDRs have quietly become the frontline of business intelligence for companies trying to win AI search, and why the one thing AI still can't replace in a sales rep is domain expertise.If you are in sales, sales leadership, or building a go-to-market team that needs to hold up in the AI era, this conversation gives you a practical way to think about what AI search means for your pipeline, why your BDRs might be sitting on your most valuable data, and how to make sure the human in the deal still has something the algorithm doesn't.Want to build a sales team that can hold its own in the AI era? Visit www.jbarrows.com and learn how you can Make It Happen.What You'll LearnWhy half of all software buyers now start their research inside ChatGPT or Gemini, and are eighty percent through their purchase before a sales rep ever talks to themWhy the BDR, not the AE, has become the frontline of business intelligence for companies trying to win inside AI searchWhy Tim says today's best AE is a sommelier, not a closer, and what that metaphor means for a buyer drowning in AI-generated optionsWhy verifier's law explains what AI still can't be trusted to do in sales outreach, and why domain expertise is the one thing that makes a generalist model usefulTim Sanders is Chief Innovation Officer at G2, where he researches how AI is reshaping B2B buying and helps G2's customers adapt their go-to-market strategy. Before G2, he was Chief Innovation Officer at Upwork and spent years as an executive at Yahoo, following his early career with Mark Cuban's audio net, which became broadcast.com. He is the author of five books, including Love Is The Killer App and Today We Are Rich.Visit timsanders.com to learn more about Tim's work and books.Connect with Tim Sanders: Website: https://timsanders.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderssays John Barrows is a sales trainer, speaker, and founder of JB Sales with over 25 years of experience in the industry. He has made hundreds of cold calls a week, led startups to acquisition, and trained high-performing teams at companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Okta. Through JB Sales, John focuses on practical sales execution, helping reps fill pipeline, close deals, and build trust with buyers in today's AI-driven sales environment.Connect with John Barrows: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows Instagram: instagram.com/johnmbarrows TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnmbarrows Check out John's Membership: https://learn.jbarrows.com/pages/individual-packages Join John's Newsletter: https://www.jbarrows.com/newsletter

The war on talent isn't won by matching OTE. Sam Costello knows this and in this segment, breaks down his evolved interviewing approach -- separating stories from facts, owning the dialogue -- and explains why candidates actually stay long-term. It comes down to rare ingredients most companies never get right. Sam Costello is CRO at Harness, where he's spent 7.5 years scaling the platform from sub-$1M to $100M ARR. He interviews ~400 candidates annually and partners closely with co-leader Carlos to build what he calls an 'execution machine', recruiting elite talent, running disciplined sales processes, and developing a culture of radical candor and coachability. Connect with Sam:LinkedIn Listen to the full episode:Why Great CROs Stop Managing Numbers and Start Building Systems 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

What does a broken promise actually cost your business?The answer goes far beyond lost revenue.In this episode of Where's the Friction, Jeff Kahler explores what happens when a business makes a commitment—and then abandons it when a bigger opportunity comes along. Through the story of a manufacturer that broke an exclusivity promise to its smaller retail partners, Jeff shows how one decision can create friction that spreads far beyond the customers directly affected.Because when leaders fail to uphold a standard, people notice.Employees start questioning what the company's values really mean. Salespeople become less confident in the promises they make to customers. Partners and vendors become more cautious. And customers who once trusted your word start hedging their bets.That's the hidden cost of broken promises in business. It may never appear as a line item on a balance sheet, but it can have a lasting impact on customer trust, employee culture, business relationships, and leadership credibility.In this episode, you'll learn:Why broken commitments create hidden business costs that extend well beyond the immediate financial impact.How leadership decisions shape company culture, especially when employees see stated values abandoned under pressure.How to protect trust before a difficult decision arrives by making commitments you're prepared to defend—and naming those commitments when the pressure is on.The real test of integrity isn't whether you keep a promise when it's convenient. It's what happens when keeping that promise costs you something.Before making a commitment to a customer, employee, vendor, or business partner, ask yourself: Have we already decided what we'll do when honoring this commitment becomes difficult?Because if you haven't made that decision yet, you haven't really made a commitment. You've made a plan to decide later.And that gap between the promise and the decision?That's where the friction lives.

In most modern sales environments, asking the buyer questions to understand their needs would be considered one of the most basic skills a professional salesperson should possess. Yet in Japan, questioning the buyer is often far less common than you might expect. Instead, many salespeople launch straight into the pitch. They explain the company, introduce the product, run through the features and hope something catches the buyer's interest. Why? It isn't simply poor technique. There are cultural, organisational and training reasons why pitching can feel safer than questioning in Japanese sales. Here are six of the biggest reasons. Why do Japanese salespeople often pitch instead of asking questions? Many Japanese salespeople pitch because they have never been systematically trained to conduct a consultative sales conversation. Pitching feels familiar, predictable and socially safer. Most salespeople everywhere receive far less professional sales training than they should. Japan has traditionally relied heavily on OJT — On-the-Job Training. In theory, that sounds reasonable. The experienced boss takes the younger salesperson along, demonstrates how professional selling works and gradually develops their skills. The problem is that today's managers are busy. OJT can easily become a couple of accompanied sales calls followed by, "Off you go." That model only works if the manager is already an excellent salesperson. Often, they aren't. From what we see in our own sales training programmes with Japanese employees, and from my own experience as a buyer, sophisticated needs-based questioning is not consistently well developed. The default is often feature pitching. Do now: Don't assume your salespeople know how to ask good questions simply because they have been selling for years. Observe their actual sales conversations and coach the questioning process deliberately. Does Japanese buyer-seller hierarchy discourage sales questions? Yes. The traditional power imbalance between buyer and seller in Japan can make questioning feel presumptuous, while pitching feels consistent with the salesperson's expected role. There is a saying in Japanese business that the customer is not King. The customer is God. That mindset changes the sales conversation. A relatively junior employee working for a huge corporation may be treated with tremendous deference by the President of a much smaller supplier. Company size matters. Rank matters. That is one reason business cards are so important in Japan. You need to understand who the other person is and where they sit in the hierarchy. Within that mindset, the roles can become very clear. The salesperson's job is to explain the offer. The buyer's job is to examine it, challenge it and eliminate risk. The idea that the salesperson should start interrogating "God" with a list of probing questions can therefore feel uncomfortable. Pitching looks safer. Do now: Reframe questioning as professional diagnosis rather than interrogation. You are not challenging the buyer's authority; you are gathering the information required to help them properly. Why are Japanese salespeople worried about embarrassing the buyer? A salesperson may avoid asking questions because the buyer might not know the answer, potentially causing embarrassment or loss of face. This is a genuine concern. Senior people don't always have detailed operational information. Ask them a question they cannot answer in front of colleagues and you may unintentionally put them in an awkward position. I have experienced this myself. We deal with many HR professionals who are sourcing training programmes on behalf of line managers. On one occasion, I asked the HR team my very first needs-based question. Silence. And Japanese silence can be impressively long. It became obvious they didn't know the answer. Then they abruptly asked me to give them my "pitch". What they actually wanted was vendor pricing. I innocently asked whether I could speak directly with the line manager whose people would receive the training. That didn't go well. I was bundled straight out of the opportunity. Goodbye sale. Do now: Ask questions in ways that allow the buyer to answer comfortably. If detailed information may sit elsewhere, ask, "Who would be best placed to help us understand that aspect?" Are direct sales questions too confrontational for Japan? They can be. Highly specific questions about problems, failures and weaknesses may clash with Japan's preference for indirect communication and social harmony. Consultative sales questions can sound brutally direct. "What is going wrong?" "Where are you failing?" "Why haven't you fixed the problem?" "What are the consequences?" In some sales cultures, those questions may be perfectly acceptable. In Japan, communication is often more indirect. Ambiguity can be deliberate. People may communicate difficult messages through nuance, implication and context rather than blunt statements. Direct questioning can therefore feel intrusive or unnecessarily confrontational. That doesn't mean salespeople should abandon questioning. It means we need to become more skilful in how we phrase the questions. Instead of: "Why is your sales team failing?" Try: "Where do you see the greatest opportunity to improve the team's current results?" Same area. Very different feeling. Do now: Keep the diagnostic intent but soften the language. Good questioning in Japan should uncover reality without unnecessarily threatening harmony or face. Why does fear of asking bad questions encourage pitching? Asking a weak question exposes the salesperson's lack of knowledge, whereas pitching allows them to remain safely inside familiar product information. Salespeople know that questions reveal competence. Ask an intelligent question and the buyer may think: "This person understands our business." Ask something obvious, irrelevant or naïve and the buyer may think: "This person doesn't have a clue." That creates fear. To ask strong questions, you need some knowledge of the client's industry, business model, competitors, customers and likely challenges. Without preparation, questioning can feel dangerous. Pitching is much safer. The salesperson knows their own catalogue. They know the product specifications. They know the brochure. They can talk for 30 minutes without exposing how little they understand about the buyer's world. Unfortunately, safety for the salesperson doesn't equal value for the buyer. Professional salespeople prepare sufficiently to ask commercially intelligent questions. Do now: Before every important sales call, prepare several hypotheses about the client's situation and convert them into thoughtful questions. Preparation creates questioning confidence. Do Japanese buyers see sales questions as attempts to extract confidential information? They can, especially when a salesperson they have only just met asks for sensitive information about strategy, margins, performance or future plans. Think about what salespeople sometimes ask. "What are your current results?" "What is your profit margin?" "What is your strategy?" "What is your average sales revenue per salesperson?" "What volumes are you producing?" "What are your future plans?" Useful information for us. Potentially sensitive information for them. And they have only just met us. Why should they tell us? Trust has to precede disclosure. Japanese companies can be particularly cautious about sharing internal information with outsiders, but this issue exists everywhere. The answer isn't to abandon questioning. The answer is to earn the right to ask. Demonstrate credibility. Explain why you need the information. Ask permission. Then gradually move from broad questions toward more sensitive areas as trust develops. Do now: Before asking for sensitive information, explain why the question matters and how the answer will help you avoid recommending something inappropriate. Why do some salespeople simply never think to ask questions? Many salespeople believe their job is to explain everything about the product and let the customer decide whether they are interested. This may be the biggest issue of all. The salesperson arrives with the catalogue, brochure, presentation deck or product demonstration. Their mental model is straightforward: "My job is to tell the buyer everything about our solution." Then: "The buyer will decide whether they want it." Under that logic, questions aren't really necessary. This approach becomes self-perpetuating. Managers who were taught to pitch teach the next generation to pitch. New salespeople copy senior salespeople. Everyone does the same thing because everyone else does the same thing. Doing something different in Japan can attract suspicion. The result is generations of salespeople repeating an inefficient model. The solution is surprisingly simple. Tell the buyer about results you have achieved elsewhere and then say: "Maybe we could do something similar for you. I am not sure yet, but in order to understand whether that is possible or not, may I ask you a few questions?" Permission granted. Now you can sell professionally. Do now: Teach a standard permission-to-question transition and practise it until every salesperson can use it naturally. How should professional salespeople sell in Japan? The apparent power imbalance between buyer and seller should not prevent professional diagnosis. Think about it differently. If you possessed the cure for a life-threatening disease, who would really hold the value in that conversation? The buyer needs the solution. Business is no different. Our clients have problems. Sales are too low. Productivity is weak. Talent is leaving. Managers aren't leading. Teams aren't collaborating. Customers aren't buying. If we genuinely have a solution that can help, our responsibility isn't to launch a hit-and-miss pitch and hope something sticks. Our responsibility is to understand the problem as quickly and accurately as possible. We are all time poor. The buyer is time poor. The salesperson is time poor. So stop wasting the meeting firing random features at the client. Hope is not a strategy. Be a professional. Ask permission to ask questions. Find out what the buyer actually needs. Then recommend the right solution. No pitching required. Author bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie One Carnegie Award (2018 and 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver programmes globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentations, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

In this week’s What the Hack!, Arthur Goldstuck speaks to Lester Kiewit about the return of travel SIM pioneer KnowRoaming in the age of eSIMs, and how the technology could change the way we stay connected when travelling. He also looks at Salesforce and Nvidia’s new AI reasoning model Koa, designed specifically for customer relationship management, before turning to Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and its expanded capabilities for runners, hikers and divers. And Sheryl shares her impressions of BMW’s new iX3 electric vehicle. Read more at https://gadget.co.za/ Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is a podcast of the CapeTalk breakfast show. This programme is your authentic Cape Town wake-up call. Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is informative, enlightening and accessible. The team’s ability to spot & share relevant and unusual stories make the programme inclusive and thought-provoking. Don’t miss the popular World View feature at 7:45am daily. Listen out for #LesterInYourLounge which is an outside broadcast – from the home of a listener in a different part of Cape Town - on the first Wednesday of every month. This show introduces you to interesting Capetonians as well as their favourite communities, habits, local personalities and neighbourhood news. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays between 06:00 and 09:00 (SA Time) to Good Morning CapeTalk with Lester Kiewit broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/xGkqLbT or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/f9Eeb7i Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalkSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy Mindset Monday!Have you ever had somebody try so hard to sell you something that you stopped listening before they were even finished?Most of us have.That is part of what Cam Tolman and I talk about in this episode of Living The Sweet Life.Cam is the founder of PitchDown and calls himself the non-sales sales coach. His belief is simple: everyone is in sales, but you do not have to act like a salesperson. His work focuses on helping people create movement through better conversations instead of pressure, persuasion, or manipulation. What I loved about this conversation is how quickly it moved beyond sales.We talked about curiosity.Trust.Listening.Leadership.Parenting.Purpose.Time.Connection.And what happens when you care more about understanding another person than getting the outcome you originally wanted.Cam shared a simple word he uses early in conversations:If.Let's see if there is a reason for us to work together.Let's see if what I have can actually help you.And if it cannot, I will tell you.That immediately gives the other person some space.They are no longer something to close.They are a person to understand.That is a very different energy.We also talked about how trust is built when people feel genuinely heard, why asking better questions often creates more movement than giving better answers, and how these same skills show up at home.One of the more vulnerable parts of the episode came when Cam talked about how he wishes he had translated some of these skills into his personal life sooner.That is something I think a lot of people can relate to.We spend years becoming better at communicating professionally and sometimes forget that the people we love deserve the most patient, curious, present version of us too.Later in the conversation, we talked about purpose inside organizations and why leaders cannot assume employees automatically understand the impact of their work.Sometimes people are one conversation away from remembering why what they do matters.That is leadership.And maybe the biggest idea beneath this entire episode is this:People do not need to be convinced nearly as often as they need to be understood.Listen to the full episode and then think about the conversations you are having this week.Are you listening to respond?Or are you listening to understand?Website:https://www.pitchdown.com/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/camerontolman/Website:https://tjsweet.comInstagram:@thetjsweetLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/thetjsweet/YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@thetjsweetConnect with CamConnect with TJ

Sales objections are a normal part of selling. The problem is not that clients object. The problem is how salespeople react when they hear the objection. There is often a moment of brain fog. Then the salesperson recovers and springs into action — usually the wrong action. They start arguing with the client about why the objection is wrong. That effort normally goes nowhere. Sales objection handling is not about winning an argument. It is about understanding what is really preventing the buyer from moving forward, deciding whether that obstacle is legitimate and then determining whether you can solve it profitably. How should salespeople respond when a client raises an objection? The first response to a sales objection should be to investigate it, rather than immediately trying to answer it. What the client initially tells us is often just the headline. There is usually a much longer explanation sitting underneath it. Think of the objection as the tip of an iceberg. We can hear the few words sitting above the surface, but we cannot yet see all the reasoning underneath. This is particularly important in B2B sales in Japan, where buyers may be cautious about expressing every concern immediately. If we jump in with our magnificent answer to the first objection, we may be solving something which isn't actually stopping the sale. Ask questions. Clarify what they mean. Encourage them to explain their thinking. Do now: Don't fight the objection. Expand it until you understand what the buyer really means. How do you uncover the real sales objection? Keep asking what else is preventing the client from proceeding until you have exhausted their list of concerns. One objection may conceal another. Price might be mentioned first, for example, when the real concern is risk, internal approval, confidence in the supplier or reluctance to change. After uncovering the objections, ask the client to rank them. Which issue is the most important? Which one really prevents them from saying yes? Now we have something useful to work with. At this point, make a judgement. Is the highest-ranked issue a genuine and legitimate objection? If it doesn't sound convincing, you probably haven't reached the real problem yet. Keep digging. Salespeople often feel pressure to start selling immediately. Resist it. Diagnosis comes before prescription. Do now: Uncover all the objections, rank them and work on the highest-priority genuine objection first. Should salespeople always try to overcome an objection? No. Some objections cannot — and should not — be overcome if satisfying them would make the business unattractive or unprofitable. Once we understand the genuine objection, we have another judgement call to make. Can we actually provide what the client wants? Can we deliver it in the way they want? Can we do it at a price which makes commercial sense? This is where sales discipline matters. Some buyers engage in what I call "sport negotiating". Winning the negotiation becomes almost as important as buying the product or service. They want to see how far they can push the salesperson, particularly on price. We don't have to play. I would rather build a long-term relationship with a repeat buyer than lock myself into a transactional relationship with someone who constantly bullies suppliers. Do now: Before overcoming an objection, decide whether winning the deal is actually worth winning. How should you handle price objections in Japan? Protect your pricing because once you lower a price in Japan, that reduced figure can quickly become the new ceiling for future negotiations. If you decide that some movement is possible, you then have to judge how far you are prepared to move. Never casually surrender your best price. If you immediately offer the lowest possible figure, you leave yourself nowhere to go when the buyer pushes again. And they may push again. The objective is not simply to close the transaction. The deal still has to make financial sense. This is particularly important where your pricing reflects local Japanese costs rather than a foreign headquarters' assumptions. We recently encountered this with a global automotive company. Their overseas headquarters wanted Japanese pricing reduced to fit their global model. Yet the programme involved was already heavily subscribed at the existing Japanese price. There was no compelling reason to surrender the economics. Do now: Establish your walk-away point before negotiating and preserve enough margin to negotiate without destroying the value of the deal. How can you overcome the objection that a client is happy with their current supplier? You need clear differentiation and a low-risk way for the buyer to experience that difference for themselves. This objection can be tougher than price. Japanese companies often stay with suppliers they know and trust. Changing introduces uncertainty, and the perceived consequences of making the wrong choice may outweigh the perceived benefit of making a faster choice. Simply telling the buyer that your company is better will not solve that problem. You need differentiation. Perhaps you offer better speed, quality, reliability or cost. More importantly, you need a way of proving it. A trial, test, pilot or limited engagement can allow the client to compare your performance with that of the incumbent supplier without demanding an immediate large-scale commitment. Don't expect the trial to move at your preferred speed either. The client may want to test, observe, test again and observe again. That's fine. Do now: Reduce the perceived switching risk by demonstrating your differentiation through a controlled trial or pilot. When should a salesperson walk away from a deal? Walk away when meeting the buyer's demands would undermine your profitability, quality standards or confidence in the value you provide. Salespeople sometimes become so emotionally committed to winning that every deal starts to look like a deal they must have. That is dangerous. In most industries there are multiple potential buyers. Losing one prospect does not mean losing the entire market. Our global automotive-company example illustrates the point. Their headquarters wanted local Japanese pricing forced into a foreign cost framework. But different countries have different salaries, overheads and operating costs. I asked whether their Japan HR employees would accept salaries adjusted downward to equivalent roles at overseas headquarters. Naturally, the answer was no. Exactly. So why assume a Japanese supplier should automatically adopt another country's cost structure? If you genuinely believe in the quality and value of what you sell, you need courage when facing unreasonable objections. Do now: Know your value, know your economics and be prepared to find another buyer who appreciates both. Conclusion: What is the key to sales objection handling? Great objection handling is not about becoming brilliant at clever rebuttals. It is about becoming brilliant at diagnosis. Question the initial objection. Find out what sits underneath it. Uncover all the concerns. Rank them. Determine whether the highest-priority objection is genuine. Decide whether it can be solved within your commercial boundaries. Then respond. Sometimes the right response will win the sale. Sometimes the right response will involve a test or pilot. Sometimes the right response will be to hold your price. And occasionally the smartest sales decision you can make is to walk away. That is not losing a sale. That is protecting your business and freeing yourself to find clients who genuinely appreciate the quality and value you provide. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

December is where sales years are won or lost, and nowhere is the timing trickier than Japan, where the fiscal year runs to March rather than December. As of 2025, with hybrid work stretching the traditional bōnenkai season and travel schedules compressing the final weeks before the holiday break, salespeople who ease off in December are handing rivals a head start into the new year. Research on sales productivity cycles suggests this pre-holiday slump can cost as much as 8% of annual output — a gap that disciplined pipeline-building in December can close before January even begins. Why does sales productivity drop in December, and why does Japan's calendar make it riskier? Salespeople naturally ease off as year-end approaches, but in Japan this coincides with a fiscal year that still has three months left to run. Unlike US or European firms closing their books in December, Japanese companies operating on an April–March fiscal year are mid-cycle, not wrapping up — so prospects and decision-makers are still budgeting and planning, not disengaging. Sales teams who treat December as "dead time" waste a window when competitors are quiet and calendars, while busy with bōnenkai (forget-the-year) parties, still have room for a well-placed conversation. The productivity dip is real, but it's a choice, not a law of the calendar. Do now: Block two hours this week purely for December pipeline-building, before year-end social commitments fill the diary. How does an Opportunity Matrix uncover sales hidden inside existing accounts? An Opportunity Matrix lists every available solution across the top and every client down the side, using check marks for current purchases and A/B/C ratings for follow-up priority. This turns a vague sense that "there's more we could sell them" into a structured account-by-account plan. Enterprise software vendors and B2B service firms alike use similar account-mapping tools to spot cross-sell and upsell gaps that individual reps, focused on their own patch, often miss. The matrix works whether the client base is five accounts or five hundred — the discipline is the same. Do now: Build your matrix this week and flag every "A" opportunity for a call before the holidays. Why is December the right time to reconnect with "orphan" clients? "Orphans" are former clients who drifted away — through staff turnover, budget shifts, or economic pressure — and December is an ideal, low-pressure time to reach back out. Contacts change roles constantly in Japan's corporate structures, and a client lost under one decision-maker may be very much in play under their successor. A reconnection call in December doesn't need to close anything; it just needs to re-establish the relationship, with a meeting pencilled in for January once new-year budgets are live. Firms that systematically track lapsed accounts consistently recover more revenue than those treating churn as final. Do now: Pull your last twelve months of lost or dormant accounts and send three re-introduction messages this week. How can look-alike targeting make prospecting more efficient than cold calling? Look-alike targets are companies in the same industry as existing clients, likely to share similar needs — and they convert far better than random cold outreach. Instead of working through a generic list, salespeople can lean on the pattern-recognition already earned from serving comparable firms: the same pain points, procurement cycles, and competitive pressures tend to recur within a sector. This mirrors how B2B marketers build lookalike audiences from existing customer data — the sales version simply does it through direct calling and referral requests rather than ad platforms. Compared to sectors like manufacturing, industries with tighter networks (finance, professional services) tend to yield especially strong look-alike results. Do now: List three current clients' closest industry peers and draft one tailored opening line for each. Why is finding the right decision-maker harder in Japan than in Western markets? Decision-maker information is less openly available in Japan than in the US or Europe, making annual reports, referrals, and credibility statements more important than cold digital research. LinkedIn penetration remains comparatively low in the Japanese market, so the tools Western salespeople default to often come up short. Annual reports can surface key personnel names, but referrals through an existing network — colleagues, partners, or satisfied clients — remain the most reliable route past the gatekeeper. A well-rehearsed credibility statement becomes essential when a referral isn't available. Do now: Ask two existing clients this week whether they can introduce you to a contact at a target account. How should salespeople use credibility to get past gatekeepers and reach decision-makers? Leading with direct competitor experience, backed by concrete evidence of past results, is what earns a salesperson the right to a direct connection with a decision-maker. A general statement about services alone rarely clears a gatekeeper; pairing it with a specific, verifiable example of success with a similar company signals relevance immediately. This combination — competitor familiarity plus proof plus a confident ask — works across sectors, from consumer-facing retail accounts to complex B2B enterprise deals, because it answers the gatekeeper's real question: "why should this call go through?" Do now: Rewrite your opening credibility line this week to name a comparable client result in the first sentence. Conclusion December in Japan, known as "shiwasu" — literally, the month when even teachers are too busy to stand still — is not a time to coast. It's the last real window before the fiscal year's final stretch to build a pipeline strong enough to carry into the new year: mapping existing accounts, re-engaging lapsed clients, targeting look-alikes, and sharpening the credibility that gets a call past the gatekeeper. Salespeople who stay active through December set up not just a stronger January, but a stronger finish to the entire fiscal year. FAQs Does the December slowdown affect every market the same way? No — in fiscal-year-end markets like the US, December closes the books, but in Japan's April–March cycle, prospects are still mid-year and open to conversations most competitors have paused. Is an Opportunity Matrix only useful for large sales teams? No, it scales down easily — even a handful of accounts benefits from mapping current purchases against unclaimed solutions. Should salespeople expect to close deals in December? Not necessarily — the goal is pipeline-building and relationship-repair, with meetings and closes often landing in January once new budgets are active. Quick Actions For Salespeople •          Build an Opportunity Matrix for your top accounts before the holidays. •          Reach out to three "orphan" clients this week. •          Identify look-alike targets from your best current accounts. •          Ask your network for two decision-maker referrals. •          Rewrite your credibility statement around a specific competitor win. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

In this episode of "The Selling Podcast," hosts Scott and Mike dive deep into the foundational behaviors that separate true sales professionals from the amateurs. Moving beyond simple tactics, they identify three critical mistakes that a professional salesperson should never make.The discussion covers:Talking more than you listen: Drawing parallels to the medical field, they argue that "prescription without diagnosis is malpractice." Salespeople must act as diagnosticians, asking broad questions and narrowing down to root causes before presenting solutions.Lying, exaggerating, or hiding problems: Scott and Mike emphasize that honesty regarding product limitations builds long-term trust and protects reputation, which is far more valuable than a single commission check.Chasing unwilling prospects: The hosts discuss the futility of "splashing around the lake trying to catch one fish." They distinguish between desperation and persistence, advising sales professionals to accept "no" gracefully and focus their energy on engaged buyers.

Getting a buyer interested in our solution is only the beginning of a B2B sale. In many organisations — and particularly in Japan — the person sitting across from us may have very little authority to make the final decision. Instead, we need that person to become our internal champion. They have to take our idea back into their organisation, explain it, defend it, overcome resistance and put their own reputation behind recommending us. That creates an important responsibility for salespeople. We are not merely asking someone to help us win a deal. We are asking them to take a professional risk on our behalf. What is an internal champion in B2B sales? An internal champion is someone inside the buyer organisation who believes in your solution strongly enough to advocate for it when you are not in the room. Usually, we meet our initial contact through a cold call, referral or networking. We explain what we do, perhaps mention another client we have helped and then ask permission to explore their situation. If we are doing professional consultative selling, we ask questions and go deeply into the issues facing the organisation. Eventually, we start suggesting solutions matched to those needs. That is often when reality appears. Our contact may be enthusiastic about solving the problem but discover that managers, executives, Finance, Procurement or other divisions are not nearly as enthusiastic. We cannot personally attend every internal conversation. Our contact therefore becomes our representative. They have to carry the sale forward for us. Do now: Identify who inside the client genuinely wants the change to happen. Interest alone isn't enough — you need someone willing to advocate internally. Why are internal champions particularly important when selling in Japan? Japanese corporate buying often involves multiple stakeholders, so the salesperson's original contact may be only one participant in a much larger decision-making process. In traditional Japanese organisations, a proposal can move through several layers of internal review. Divisions affected by the purchase may conduct their own due diligence. Section Heads may approve the proposal before it moves to Division Heads. Depending on the scale and nature of the decision, senior executives may then become involved. The traditional ringi process illustrates why internal consensus matters so much in Japan. That can mean a tremendous number of people are involved. Meanwhile, we may only know one of them. The person sitting opposite us may not even have final approval authority, yet we depend upon them to help navigate the proposal through the organisation. This is why Japanese B2B selling cannot simply be about persuading one individual. We need to help that individual persuade everyone else. Do now: Ask, "Who else will be involved in evaluating or approving this decision?" Then help your champion prepare for each stakeholder's concerns. What risk does an internal champion take when recommending a supplier? Your champion puts their credibility and sometimes their career reputation behind your solution, because if your company fails, they may be blamed for recommending you. This is something salespeople can easily underestimate. We naturally think about our own risk. Will we win the contract? Will we achieve our sales target? Will we earn the commission? The buyer's champion is considering something completely different. "If I recommend these people and it goes badly, what happens to me?" Their colleagues are unlikely to say, "Well, that supplier made an unfortunate operational decision." They may say: "Why did you choose them?" That makes trust central to the sale. Our champion has to believe we are credible, reliable and capable of delivering what we promise. They also need confidence that supporting us won't make them look foolish in front of senior management. When viewed from their perspective, choosing a new supplier can be a significant personal risk. Do now: Before asking a champion to advocate for you, ask yourself, "What professional risk am I asking this person to accept?" What can go wrong when a salesperson fails to protect the champion? If the supplier fails after an internal champion has fought to get the deal approved, the damage can extend far beyond the contract — it can damage the champion's standing inside the organisation. I learned this lesson painfully while selling imported mobile telephone antenna steel towers in Japan. The towers were sourced from Australia, and we could install them for around 30% of the price being offered by local suppliers. Imported towers were new, however, so getting agreement wasn't straightforward. The buyer was a joint venture whose executives had come from several shareholder companies. Some arrived with relationships with preferred Japanese suppliers. My champions had to fight internally to get the Australian solution accepted. There was even resistance from the local supplier group, which reacted aggressively to the cheaper imported competition. Eventually, my champions got the deal through. Then things went wrong. The Australian supplier decided to move production to Malaysia to reduce costs. Quality problems followed. Eventually, the business collapsed. Do now: Winning internal approval isn't the finish line. Once your champion has backed you, delivery becomes part of protecting their reputation. Why does supplier failure damage the salesperson personally? From the champion's perspective, the salesperson represents the entire supplier organisation, so internal operational failures can become personal failures of trust. I hadn't personally made the decision to move production from Australia to Malaysia. That distinction didn't matter. To my champion, I was their guy. I had brought the supplier into the company. I had made the promises. They had trusted me enough to fight internally for the deal. Then the supplier let them down. The relationship was destroyed. They stopped talking to me, which I took as a very bad sign indeed. My name was mud. That experience taught me something important about mutual responsibility in selling. Salespeople sometimes think, "That problem came from Operations", "Head Office made the decision" or "Manufacturing caused the failure". The customer doesn't care about our organisational chart. Neither does our champion. We own the promises we make on behalf of our organisation. Do now: Never recommend something internally that you aren't confident your own organisation can deliver. Your credibility travels with the solution. How can salespeople help their champions win internally? The salesperson should make the champion's internal selling job easier by providing the arguments, evidence and risk reduction they need to persuade other decision-makers. Think about what your champion will face after you leave the meeting. Their boss may ask why the company should change. Finance may question the economics. Procurement may challenge the supplier. Users may worry about implementation. Senior leaders may ask what could go wrong. Your champion needs answers. We should therefore provide more than a proposal. Give them a clear business case. Provide relevant evidence. Explain implementation. Anticipate objections. Identify risks and explain how those risks will be managed. Make the recommendation easy for them to explain to other stakeholders. Most importantly, remain conscious that your champion is lending you something precious: their internal credibility. If the deal succeeds, you want them to look smart for having backed you. That is how long-term trusted-adviser relationships are built. Do now: Ask yourself, "What does my champion need to make this recommendation safely and convincingly when I'm not there?" What should salespeople remember about their internal champions? The sale isn't only about getting agreement from the organisation. It is about protecting the person helping us obtain that agreement. Find your champion. Build their trust. Understand the stakeholders they need to influence. Give them the evidence and arguments they need. Reduce the personal and organisational risk attached to choosing you. Then deliver what you promised. My steel-tower experience taught me this lesson the hard way. A champion who fights internally for us deserves much more than our gratitude. They deserve our protection. When we begin the sales process with that responsibility in mind, we make better decisions about what we promise, what we sell and how we deliver. And there is another benefit. Protecting our champion also protects our own personal brand and reputation in the marketplace. Author bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie One Carnegie Award (2018 and 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver programmes globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentations, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

I interacted with dozens of salespeople this week, and they all made the exact same mistake. In this week's training session, we discuss that mistake and how you can easily avoid and correct it. Here is the video https://youtu.be/NyqHe2yLAvI?si=4EbOSWUeJ27Xyd8f

https://thecontractorfight.com/leakWhy The Best Salespeople Disqualify More Than They SellThe best salespeople don't try to close everyone.They identify the wrong prospects early so they can spend their time on the right ones.In this episode, Tom explains why chasing every lead isn't commitment, hustle or good salesmanship. It's a qualification problem.Wrong budget. Wrong timeline. Multiple decision-makers who aren't involved. Homeowners collecting estimates with no intention of buying.No closing technique can fix a bad fit.When you push every lead toward a meeting and proposal, you waste hours on opportunities that were dead from the beginning. That wasted effort eventually damages your confidence, creates desperation and pressures you to offer discounts you never needed to give.The solution is to command the gate.Ask the real questions before you get in the truck and require every lead to earn the meeting.In this episode:• Why great salespeople disqualify more prospects• How chasing every lead damages your confidence and pricing• Why closing techniques can't overcome a bad fit• How five bad leads per month can waste more than 90 hours a year• The purpose of the Shin-Fu prequalification process• How to uncover the prospect's true motive• Why vague answers are valuable information• How to discuss money before scheduling the appointment• Why every decision-maker needs to be identified• What Command the Gate is designed to protectYour challenge:Before scheduling meetings with your next 10 leads, dig into three things on the phone:• Their motive• Their budget• Every person involved in the decisionIf their answers are vague, evasive or reveal that the project isn't a fit, believe the information.Disqualifying a prospect isn't losing a sale. It's protecting the time you need for the sales you can actually win.Find the biggest leak in your sales process with the free Sales Leak Scorecard:https://thecontractorfight.com/leakYou don't win by closing everyone.You win by knowing who is worth trying to close.

Top salespeople think differently, here's how. Join Mark as he reveals why top salespeople stand out and how you can start thinking like a high achiever. Discover what sets top performers apart in both mindset and daily focus.  Learn the secrets behind full pipelines, handling tension with ease, and building a reputation that earns long-term respect. Uncover how the best in sales stay motivated and cultivate strong relationships that drive results. This episode is packed with insights to help you shift your approach and begin your journey to sales excellence.

AI is changing the way marketers measure performance, understand customers, and personalize communication.This episode explores how advanced analytics can help marketers connect advertising investments with measurable business outcomes. The discussion examines marketing mix modeling, short-term conversions, long-term customer value, and the importance of understanding why campaigns succeed.A major example explores how analytics helped evaluate a significant Super Bowl advertising investment. The conversation explains how marketers can track impressions, engagement, conversions, and longer-term effects.The episode also explores the growing role of hyper-personalization. AI can combine customer behavior, demographics, and market signals to create more relevant marketing messages.Email marketing receives special attention. Generic messaging can create deliverability challenges, while differentiated subject lines, preview text, and content can improve engagement.The discussion also covers the connection between marketing and sales. Salespeople can be viewed as highly personalized messaging channels. Marketing analytics can help improve targeting, messaging, and sales effectiveness.Another key takeaway involves data infrastructure. Companies should build strong systems for collecting and analyzing data before their marketing investments become significantly larger. The conversation looks ahead to 2027 and the growing importance of AI-powered hyper-personalization. CMOs will need to justify these investments through measurable business results.The future of marketing will require faster experimentation, stronger analytics, and better customer understanding.Key topics include: AI and Marketing, AI enabled Market Research, marketing analytics, hyper-personalization, marketing mix modeling, email marketing, customer segmentation, sales enablement, data infrastructure, and AI strategy.

Some of the best prospects your business will ever receive are already one introduction away.Yet many entrepreneurs spend aggressively on cold traffic while never building a system that encourages their happiest customers to send new business their way.Referrals should not be left to chance.In this episode of The Level Up Podcast, Paul Alex breaks down how business owners can turn satisfied clients into a consistent source of warm leads by intentionally building referrals into the customer experience.A great client relationship should create more than retention.It should create introductions.In this episode, you'll learn:• Why referrals need to be engineered instead of simply hoped for• When the best moment is to ask a happy client for an introduction• How incentives can encourage customers to actively refer new business• Why referred prospects often arrive with stronger trust and less price resistanceThe truth is simple:Your happiest clients already know people who could benefit from what you sell.Deliver an exceptional result.Ask at the right moment.Give them a reason to make the introduction.Then build that process into your company so referrals happen consistently instead of accidentally.Your next customer may already be inside your current client's network.Your Network is your NETWORTH!Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGhDAD1JyGGzSQUPD9lc9HQLinkedIn: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur? Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:www.CashSwipe.comFREE Copy of my book “Blue to Digital Gold - The New American Dream”www.officialPaulAlex.com

Duji says Snitzer has not lived life. Frequent flyer miles. Someone was seen driving the company car like an ass. Ex-husband attempts to shoot his ex-wife at the opening night of a restaurant in Toledo. Captain Steeeve. Snitz says he will buy the new foldable iPhone. A researcher at Anthropic quits and warns that AI is going to kill us all. Maga games Sydney Sweeney bares all in a new sports betting ad. Duji's friend has been getting weird requests from men on dating apps. Rover and Duji get into a verbal altercation. Big Chuck and Lil' John. iHeartMedia sneakers. Duji has beef with the salespeople. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Big Chuck and Lil' John. iHeartMedia sneakers. Duji has beef with the salespeople. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Salespeople spend enormous amounts of time thinking about the deals they won and the deals they lost to competitors. But there is another, potentially much larger category we often ignore: the buyers who didn't buy from anybody. That group should be fascinating to us. If the client didn't choose us but also didn't choose a rival, perhaps our problem wasn't the competition at all. Maybe the real competitor was doing nothing. That changes how we should think about selling. Why do so many sales opportunities end with no decision? The biggest competitor in many sales situations may not be another supplier. It may be the client's decision to do absolutely nothing. I am a big fan of American sales coach Victor Antonio and his Sales Influence Podcast. In one episode, he discussed research suggesting salespeople close around 40% of the deals they pursue. That leaves 60% which don't close. The interesting part was his breakdown of that 60%. Only around 20% of the total opportunities were reportedly lost to competitors. Another 10% stalled because the price frightened the buyer into doing nothing. That still leaves a substantial group who didn't buy from us, didn't buy from the competition and didn't stop purely because of price. So what happened? For salespeople, this is an important distinction. We tend to conduct win-loss reviews based around, "Why did they choose the competitor?" Maybe we need another question: Why did the buyer decide that changing anything wasn't worth the trouble? Do now: When reviewing lost opportunities, separate competitive losses from genuine "no decision" outcomes. They are different sales problems and require different solutions. Is a lost sale really a price problem? Price matters, but price and value are not the same thing. A buyer can afford your solution and still decide the gain isn't sufficiently attractive to justify taking action. Victor Antonio's argument was that some stalled buyers simply didn't see enough value. That makes sense. Value depends entirely on what the client considers important. The gain might involve reducing costs, increasing revenue, accelerating delivery, saving employee time, improving integration with existing systems, reducing risk or making the client's own offer more attractive to its customers. Unfortunately, salespeople often decide for themselves what the client should value. We become enormously excited about our solution's features and benefits. We explain what it can do. We show the data. We provide evidence. Meanwhile, the buyer is quietly thinking, "So what?" The question isn't whether our solution has value. The question is whether the client perceives enough value according to their own criteria to justify changing their current situation. Do now: Ask clients explicitly, "When you assess a solution like this, what would represent significant value for you?" Why do salespeople struggle to discover what clients really value? Many salespeople don't discover value because their questioning is too shallow. They collect information without uncovering what really matters to the buyer. I see this regularly when we teach salespeople from Japanese companies. When we reach the question-design portion of the training, the idea of deliberately constructing questions to uncover needs, motivations and value can be surprisingly new. The traditional approach is often to get quickly into specifications, data and product features. That is basically throwing mud against the wall and hoping something sticks. Professional sales training is still not as deeply established in Japan as it is in some other markets. A lot of development happens through OJT — On-the-Job Training. The danger is obvious: inexperienced salespeople can inherit the habits of other salespeople who were never formally taught consultative selling themselves. Even salespeople who ask questions often miss opportunities to go deeper. The buyer gives them a hint. A flag appears saying DIG HERE. They ignore it and move mechanically to their next prepared question. That is where enormous amounts of useful information disappear. Do now: When a buyer reveals an important issue, temporarily abandon your question list. Probe it with "Why is that important?" and "What impact is that having?" Can implementation effort kill an otherwise attractive sale? Yes. Buyers don't evaluate only the potential gain from a solution; they also evaluate how difficult achieving that gain will be. I have experienced this myself. I teach in the Japan Market Expansion Competition, or JMEC, a non-profit programme where teams of young businesspeople work with companies and develop business plans for them. I have also been a paying JMEC client. In our case, I received the team's finished business plan — and threw it away. Why? Not because the ideas were necessarily bad. The problem was the amount of effort required to implement the recommendations. When I compared that effort with the likely gain, the equation simply didn't work. Our buyers make exactly the same calculation. We may be concentrating on the return: "This will improve productivity." "This will increase sales." "This will strengthen leadership capability." The buyer may be thinking: "Who is going to organise all of this?" That can kill the deal. Do now: Don't sell only the outcome. Ask what implementation will demand from the buyer and look for ways to reduce that burden. Why is internal friction especially important when selling in Japan? A compelling business case can still stall if the buyer faces too much internal coordination, approval work or organisational resistance. Our counterparts are often Human Resources departments, and many HR teams appear overwhelmed by the volume of work they are expected to manage with relatively limited resources. We may arrive with a wonderful new initiative. They may see another project landing on an already crowded desk. Then there is internal decision-making. In Japanese companies, the ringi seido approval process can require multiple related divisions and stakeholders to sign off before a significant change proceeds. Changing suppliers may therefore involve much more than convincing our immediate contact. Procurement may be involved. Finance may need to approve the expenditure. Senior management may want justification. Users may resist changing an established process. Other departments may have competing priorities. Suddenly our attractive offer has acquired considerable organisational friction. If the perceived gain isn't large enough, doing nothing becomes easier. Do now: Map the client's internal approval journey. Find out who must agree, what objections may emerge and how you can make the buyer's internal selling job easier. What should salespeople ask before presenting their solution? Before finalising the proposal, salespeople should identify the friction points that could prevent the client from implementing the recommendation. We normally concentrate on the traditional sequence: features, benefits, application of those benefits and evidence. All important. But there is another question we need to ask: "If you were to implement our solution, are there any likely friction points we should consider so that we can reduce or remove potential issues?" The buyer may not answer fully during the first meeting. Fine. Ask again later. As trust develops, they may explain the political, administrative, financial or operational barriers standing between your proposal and an actual purchase. That knowledge allows us to adjust the recommendation. Perhaps implementation needs to occur in stages. Perhaps HR needs additional support. Perhaps senior management requires a stronger ROI argument. Perhaps another department needs to become involved earlier. That is not simply objection handling. It is designing a solution the organisation can realistically say yes to. Do now: Before submitting your final proposal, ask yourself two questions: "Why would they buy?" and "What could make doing nothing easier than buying?" What can we learn from the deals that never happened? Salespeople naturally celebrate wins and analyse obvious losses, but the deals which simply disappear deserve much more attention. Look back at your stalled opportunities. Was the price genuinely too high? Was the perceived value too low? Did you fail to discover what the buyer really cared about? Was implementation going to require too much effort? Did internal approval friction overwhelm the attractiveness of the solution? These questions move us beyond blaming competitors. The objective is to anticipate rejection possibilities before they arise. We need to understand not only what has to happen on our side to make the sale, but what has to happen inside the client's organisation for the deal to come to fruition. Sometimes the best way to improve your next sales conversation is to study the deals nobody won. Author bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie One Carnegie Award (2018 and 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver programmes globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentations, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

What separates a good salesperson from a great sales leader? According to Nicolas Gramstad, it starts with listening more than you sell.  In this episode of Sales Lead Dog, Christopher Smith sits down with Nicolas Gramstad, VP of Sales at Campspot, to talk about mentorship, humility, and building sales teams that actually perform. Nicolas shares how his path from a small family lumberyard to leading revenue at a high-growth SaaS company shaped a practical, people-first approach to sales leadership.  They also get into a topic close to home for a lot of sales teams: why so many CRMs end up working against the people using them, and how to strip a bloated system back down to what actually moves deals forward.  If you are a sales leader, CRM manager, or business decision-maker looking for grounded, practical takes on leading a team and running a cleaner sales process, this conversation is worth your time.  What You'll Learn:  Listening beats feature-dumping in every sales conversation  Mentorship and humility are what build lasting sales careers  The real shift that happens when a top rep becomes a leader  Hard, honest conversations are the toughest part of leading a team  Lead from the front to keep a sales team motivated  Bloated CRMs are common, and cleaning them up is simpler than it looks  A good CRM becomes the central hub across sales, implementation, and customer success    About Nicolas Gramstad  Nicolas Gramstad is a SaaS sales leader based in Minneapolis with a track record of scaling revenue teams at high-growth software companies. As VP of Sales at Campspot, he leads sales for the largest reservation and property management platform in outdoor hospitality, helping campgrounds, RV parks, and municipal parks adopt technology to run smarter operations. His approach to leadership is grounded in mentorship, humility, and a genuine focus on helping his people succeed.  Connect with Nicolas Gramstad  LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-gramstad/  Learn More About Campspot https://software.campspot.com/book-more/  About Sales Lead Dog  Sales Lead Dog is hosted by Christopher Smith, CRM technology and sales process expert, and founder of Empellor. Each episode features sales leaders who have separated themselves from the rest of the pack, sharing how they achieve success with their teams and their CRM strategy.  Unless you are the lead dog, the view never changes.  Connect and Learn More  All episodes and show notes: https://empellor.com/salesleaddog/  If this episode brought you value: 

Are you actively creating sales opportunities, or are you waiting for business to come to you?While traveling through Greece and Albania, Ace noticed something that reminded him of a lesson he's learned throughout his career in sales and business: the people who generate business don't sit behind the counter and wait.They activate it.In this video, Ace breaks down what it means to become an "activator" in sales and how salespeople can create more opportunities using the resources already around them.From organizing and reworking old leads to reaching out to your network, using social media, sending emails and texts, asking for referrals, and finding new ways to get in front of prospects, there are opportunities everywhere when you're willing to create the activity.If you're in sales, business development, or entrepreneurship, this is a mindset you can immediately apply to your own pipeline.Topics Covered:• How to generate more sales• Creating your own sales opportunities• Sales prospecting• Lead generation• Building a sales pipeline• Following up with old leads• Sales activity and execution• Competing in today's sales market• Sales mindset• Business developmentSupport the show⚡READY TO BUILD A REAL CAREER IN SALES, MORTGAGES, OR LEADERSHIP?Apply here and choose your track. Already happy with your career? Grab the standalone products and trainings anytime inside the shop.

What does great sales coaching really look like, and why is it so different from simply telling someone what to do? In this episode of The Grow Your Occupancy Podcast, Julie Podewitz, CEO & Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, talks with Jeff Gronemeyer, a Regional Director of Sales & Marketing with Charter Senior Living, for a candid conversation about coaching, continuous learning, discovery, and the human side of senior living sales. Jeff shares insights from nearly two decades in senior living, including why coaching should never feel punitive, how leaders can create a culture where learning and improvement are expected, and why the best coaches guide people toward finding answers rather than simply giving them instructions. Julie and Jeff also explore one of the most important—and often misunderstood—sales skills: discovery. Great discovery isn't an interrogation or a checklist of questions to complete. It's an ongoing conversation built on curiosity, listening, connection, and a genuine desire to understand the person behind the prospect. And if Jeff could wave a magic wand and eliminate one common senior living sales misstep? It would be ending an interaction without establishing a legitimate, meaningful next step. From building trust to navigating difficult conversations, this episode is a reminder that becoming great at senior living sales isn't about reaching a finish line. It's about continuing to learn, practice, improve, and show up for the people we serve.

Episode #1438: Guest host Ben Hadley joins as Dealers rethink fraud incentives by paying employees to stop suspicious deals, JD Power finds drivers prefer technology that quietly works, and OpenAI's young ad business races to a $1 billion annualized ru...

Trust is not one element of a successful sale. Trust is the foundation supporting every other part of the sales process. A customer may like your product, appreciate your expertise and even agree that your price is reasonable. However, when they begin to doubt your reliability, judgement or integrity, the opportunity can disappear very quickly. This is particularly important when selling financial services, consulting, technology or any solution where the customer must accept uncertainty and place something valuable in the salesperson's hands. A small error can create a much larger question: "If they cannot manage this simple detail, can I trust them with the important work?" Salespeople make mistakes. The decisive issue is whether they recognise the damage, adapt their approach and deliberately rebuild the buyer's confidence. Why is trust so important in sales? Trust allows the customer to believe that the salesperson will keep promises, protect their interests and respond responsibly when something goes wrong. Without it, even a strong proposal becomes difficult to accept. Most purchases involve some degree of risk. The buyer cannot know with absolute certainty whether the product will perform, the project will finish on time or the promised support will actually appear. The salesperson therefore becomes part of the product. Their accuracy, preparation, consistency and behaviour give the buyer clues about what working with the company will be like after the contract is signed. This is especially true in professional services, financial advice and business-to-business sales. The customer may be placing money, confidential information, organisational credibility or career reputation at risk. A minor mistake does not always destroy the opportunity. However, an unexplained mistake can cause the customer to question everything else the salesperson says. Do now: Treat every meeting detail, follow-up promise and factual claim as evidence the buyer will use to judge your overall reliability. How can a small sales mistake damage credibility? A seemingly minor error can damage credibility when it contradicts the image of competence and attention to detail that the salesperson is trying to create. Imagine inviting a potential client to your office and then sending them the wrong building address. The client arrives, discovers that your company is not located there and must search for the correct location. The practical inconvenience may only involve ten or fifteen minutes. The psychological damage can be much larger. If the conversation involves investing the client's money, managing a critical project or advising senior management, the customer may reasonably wonder whether the same carelessness could affect something more significant. This is how buyers think. They rarely judge an error in isolation. They use the visible mistake to predict future behaviour. A salesperson may think, "It was only a typo." The buyer may think, "What else will they get wrong?" Do now: When an error conflicts with the competence you are selling, address the larger concern—not merely the inconvenience it caused. Is an apology enough to restore trust? An apology is necessary, but it is rarely sufficient when the mistake has caused the customer to question the salesperson's competence or judgement. Saying "I'm sorry" acknowledges the problem. It does not explain why it happened, whether it reflects a wider pattern or why the customer should continue believing in you. The salesperson must close that credibility gap. A useful recovery contains four elements: A clear acknowledgement of the error A credible explanation without making excuses Evidence that the problem is unusual rather than normal A practical reason the customer can still trust the salesperson and the company The explanation should be concise and authentic. A long, defensive speech can make the situation worse. However, trying to brush past the incident and continue with the standard presentation can leave the customer mentally stuck on the unresolved doubt. The buyer needs help making sense of the mistake before they can properly listen to the rest of the proposal. Do now: Apologise, explain, reassure and provide evidence. Do not expect the word "sorry" to perform all four jobs. How should a salesperson rebuild trust during the meeting? After a credibility-damaging mistake, the salesperson should adapt the meeting and deliberately front-load evidence of reliability, experience and organisational strength. This is not the moment to deliver the same canned sales presentation used in every other meeting. The salesperson should briefly explain the mistake and then transition into the strongest reasons the customer should trust the company. These might include its history, regulatory standing, client base, specialised expertise, service standards, financial stability or documented results. A corporate brochure should not simply be handed over at the end with the suggestion that the customer read it later. The salesperson should guide the buyer through the most relevant sections and connect those points directly to the concern that has arisen. For example: "I recognise that today's address error was not a good demonstration of our standards. Let me show you how our client work is checked and managed, because reliability is central to what we do." That is honest, direct and useful. Do now: Change the presentation to match the trust problem. Lead with proof instead of continuing as though nothing happened. Can the office environment affect a buyer's trust? Yes. The office location, physical environment and way the company presents itself can influence how customers judge its stability and credibility. Many legitimate, successful companies operate from serviced offices, coworking spaces or executive floors. Flexible premises are now common among startups, consulting firms, international businesses and companies adopting hybrid work. The problem is not necessarily the office arrangement. The problem is the unexplained gap between what the customer expected and what they encountered. When someone is considering investing money or appointing a long-term adviser, they may ask: How large is this company? How permanent is it? Will it still be here in five years? The salesperson should anticipate these questions. A sensible explanation might be that the company deliberately maintains a flexible office structure to control overheads and offer clients more competitive fees. That explanation can convert a possible weakness into a rational business choice. Silence leaves the buyer to invent an explanation, and buyers rarely invent the most flattering one. Do now: Identify anything about your premises, company size or operating model that could create doubt and explain it before the buyer reaches a negative conclusion. Why is attacking a competitor risky in sales? Criticising a competitor can weaken trust when the salesperson's own history, conduct or credibility appears inconsistent with the criticism. Suppose a salesperson says that a competitor's fees are unfair. That may sound like useful differentiation—until the buyer learns that the salesperson worked for that competitor for many years. The customer may then ask an uncomfortable but logical question: "Were you comfortable charging those allegedly unfair fees when you worked there?" Simply attacking the previous employer does not resolve the contradiction. It may make the salesperson appear opportunistic or disloyal. A stronger explanation would distinguish personal values from company policy. The salesperson could say they disagreed with the old fee structure, tried to serve clients fairly within the system and eventually chose to join a firm whose philosophy better matched their own. That creates a credible narrative linking past experience with the present position. Competitive selling should focus on meaningful differences, not insults. Buyers are more persuaded by evidence of better value than by complaints about another company. Do now: Explain your company's philosophy, structure and advantages without relying on unsupported attacks against competitors. Conclusion: Trust recovery must be deliberate Every salesperson makes mistakes. Meetings are forgotten, messages contain errors and important details sometimes get missed. The existence of the mistake is not always fatal. The failure to respond intelligently often is. When trust takes a blow, salespeople must stop operating on autopilot. They must think on their feet, recognise the customer's unspoken concern and alter the conversation to address it. That means apologising properly, explaining the error, presenting evidence of credibility and connecting the company's strengths to the buyer's specific doubts. Do not hide the mistake. Do not minimise it. Do not rush past it in the hope that the customer will forget. The customer may never mention the trust issue directly. They may remain polite, accept the brochure and finish the meeting normally. Internally, however, they may have already removed you from consideration. Trust can take years to establish and only a moment to damage. When that moment arrives, recovery must become the salesperson's first priority. Author bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers—Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery—along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His books have also been published in Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう) and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

David Turetsky talks with Nicole Ward of Aon about her concept of the executive athlete and why leadership performance is built on physiology, recovery, and sustainable habits. They explore how burnout shows up in executives and sales teams, and why HR can play a major role in reframing wellness as a business performance issue.Nicole shares her own wake-up call, the accident that pushed her to rethink health, and practical ways leaders can build better energy, focus, and resilience without “boiling the ocean.”  Key topics  Nicole Ward's background at Aon - Senior vice president of sales with a career rooted in professional services, public accounting, and now commercial insurance.  The origin of the executive athlete idea - Nicole's near-fatal rollover accident became the catalyst for a long-term shift toward health and wellness.  Physiology as leadership infrastructure - Her central idea is that energy is the currency of performance, and leaders who are under-slept, under-nourished, and constantly “on” are not operating at full capacity.  Why burnout matters organizationally - Burnout, dysregulation, and chronic stress in senior leaders have downstream effects on teams, culture, and decision-making.  Culture rewards overwork - The conversation pushes back on the idea that always being available is a badge of honor, especially in executive roles.  Recovery improves performance - Nicole argues that slowing down and recovering is not weakness but a competitive advantage supported by real data.  Small changes beat all-or-nothing thinking - She recommends “exercise snacks,” breathing breaks, short movement intervals, and better sleep habits rather than unrealistic total overhauls.  Data can drive behavior change - She shares an example of a sales team using wearable devices over six months to track sleep, stress, and activity, leading to better performance and better well-being.  HR's role in changing the conversation - HR professionals can bring wellness into strategic planning sessions and ask leadership how health is being prioritized.  Bio-individual wellness at work - Nicole emphasizes that companies should offer flexible options because different people need different supports, from meditation space to gym access to better snacks.  Timestamps  00:00 - Welcome to HR Data Labs and introduction to Nicole Ward 01:12 - Nicole's role as senior vice president of sales at Aon 02:15 - The accident that sparked the executive athlete journey 03:14 - Why executives need physiology, not just willpower 06:54 - How boardroom experience shaped the platform 07:24 - A team member's comment that changed everything 08:21 - Why the book is aimed first at sales athletes and then all executives 09:30 - Recovery as a competitive advantage, not weakness 10:43 - The cost of working until collapse 11:20 - The “toxic capacity” bucket and signs of overload 12:19 - Why leaders struggle to fully disconnect 13:26 - Tying recovery to revenue and metrics 14:41 - Burnout in sales and other high-pressure roles 15:31 - Alternatives to always being “on” 16:25 - Why all-or-nothing thinking fails 17:26 - Using micro-habits for sleep, breathing, and movement 19:37 - A six-month wearable experiment with a sales team 21:33 - Salespeople as athletes and why preparation matters 22:48 - Why companies should treat wellness as a real priority 23:45 - The biology of organizations and employee energy 24:48 - How HR can start the conversation with leadership 26:14 - Bringing health and wellness into strategic planning 27:10 - Example of no meeting Fridays 28:46 - Why a bio-individual approach is better than one-size-fits-all 29:15 - Personalized wellness options for different employees 30:11 - The reality of obesity, inflammation, and dysregulation 31:11 - Incremental progress in the face of broader stress 32:01 - Closing thoughts and final thanks  Notable quotes  “Physiology is the infrastructure of leadership and energy is the currency of performance.”  “When we decelerate, when we allow ourselves to recover, we adapt.”  “My best tomorrow starts tonight.” 

What separates successful salespeople from everyone else?It comes down to how you use your resources, protect your time, stay connected to your purpose, and execute every single day.In this video, Ace breaks down the mindset behind high-level sales performance from eliminating distractions and becoming more resourceful to creating focused sales rituals, embracing uncomfortable situations, making faster decisions, and taking action on the information you learn.Topics Covered:• Sales mindset and execution• Becoming more resourceful• Eliminating distractions• Finding your purpose• Sales focus and productivity• Sacred sales time• Handling failure• Building discipline• Creating daily sales rituals• Developing a top-performer mindsetSubscribe for more sales training, sales psychology, communication strategies, leadership development, and business growth content from Acez Academy.Support the show⚡READY TO BUILD A REAL CAREER IN SALES, MORTGAGES, OR LEADERSHIP?Apply here and choose your track. Already happy with your career? Grab the standalone products and trainings anytime inside the shop.

Why Star Salespeople Make Terrible Managers   Hook: Why promoting your top rep might be the most expensive mistake your company is making—and how to build a real runway for leadership success.   Description: This episode tackles the painful paradox of sales leadership: why the exact instincts that make someone a "super salesperson" often make them a struggling manager.   When star salespeople get promoted, their management capability is often simply assumed, meaning that 82% of managers step into their new roles with zero formal training.   Without a deliberate transition, they frequently fall back on their sales instincts—micromanaging deals, hovering over their reps, and jumping in to close transactions themselves instead of coaching.   But the cost of this coaching gap is massive. Poor sales management is the reason 57% of sales reps quit their jobs, and up to 70% of salespeople cite ineffective leadership as their primary reason for leaving.   We break down how to stop "hoping" for management success. Learn how to help new managers adopt a new professional identity, why coaching the behavior underneath is far more powerful than teaching mere sales techniques, and how to turn your frontline managers into "talent magnets" who build winning, high-retention teams   Find out more by clicking here -- leigh-farnell.vibepreview.com   #salesmanagement #salescoaching #trainmysalesmanager #salesmanagementskills #leighfarnell 

It seems like every sales team eventually confronts this issue. Should salespeople collect?  Does it hinder their abillity to sell, or is it a reasonable completion of the sales process? Join me in dissecting this issue. It isn't as simple as it seems. ********************************************** Dave Kahle is a B2B sales expert and a Christian Business thought leader.  He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations.  In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.       Learn to sell better.  Check out The Sales Excellence Club

Website traffic is falling across the board, and it's tempting to read that as a marketing problem. It usually isn't. AI summaries now answer the generic top of funnel questions people used to click into your site to answer, so the casual browsers never arrive. The visitors who do show up are the ones already deciding whether you're a fit. That changes what a manufacturing website is for. A list of machines, materials, and certifications was fine when buyers were willing to dig. Now they want a specific answer to a specific question, and if your site makes them hunt for it, they'll go back to Google or ChatGPT and get an answer from a source you don't control. We talk with John Greeley of Navu about what shops should actually do about it, and a lot of it isn't what you'd expect. Old content that used to sit harmlessly on your site is now working against you, because LLMs read your whole site at once and stop citing you when they find pages that disagree with each other. Less content with more depth beats the old habit of publishing a page for every possible search term. The other half of this is labor. The questions landing in your info inbox are usually answered somewhere on your site already, and they're pulling SMEs and owners off the work that actually moves the business. John walks through a real buyer journey where the ninth question was a technical spec buried on page 193 of a PDF, and the tenth was how to talk to sales. Nobody on that team spent a minute on it until the lead was qualified. Brooke also joins us in the host seat for the first time and gives the Gen Z read on all of it, which mostly comes down to letting people find what they need before anyone tries to sell them something. What's Covered in this Episode (0:00) Brooke steps into the host seat, and John introduces Navu (6:38) Take your shop to the next level with DN Solutions (7:50) What a single line of JavaScript can tell you about visitor behavior (10:35) About 37% of users who eventually convert used the chat along the way (11:42) Why traffic is down but conversions aren't (13:26) How LLMs read your entire site at once and punish conflicting answers (16:17) Less content, more depth, and a ruthless pruning habit (17:35) Your site's unanswered questions as a canary in the coal mine (20:14) What buyers actually asked Mike when Hill rebuilt its site (22:15) Why the old pop up chatbots earned their bad reputation (24:42) More than 60% of buyers now start their research in a chat interface (26:16) Turning AI buzzwords into outcomes at the IMTS Industrial AI Conference (27:04) Labor savings is how most customers justify the spend internally (28:50) The landing page listings and a conversation about instant gratification (32:12) Quote response time as the number one factor in winning or losing work (35:13) The real user journey and the questions that you see (38:30) Brooke on why her generation would rather research than call (42:27) Salespeople querying the site mid call instead of chasing down an SME (44:31) Kennametal's Next Level Shop at IMTS 2026 (45:34) Get started and build a custom demo at navu.co/makingchips Resources Mentioned DN Solutions IMTS Industrial AI Conference, Wednesday September 16, South Building Check out the Kennametal booth at IMTS 2026, the Next Level Shop, booth 431800 in the West Building, level 3 Connect with John Greeley Email John Greeley: john@navu.co Navu Connect with MakingChips MakingChips.com On Facebook On LinkedIn On Instagram On Twitter On YouTube

You hired an experienced salesperson, gave them a few weeks of ride-alongs, handed them a territory….and six months later, it's just not working. What went wrong? In this episode of the Landscape Leadership® Podcast, Chad Diller talks with Kayla Lujan, founder of GRIT (Green Industry Talent), about why new salespeople struggle to gain traction in landscaping and other green industry businesses. Kayla draws on 17 years of industry experience, from working on a crew to leading sales for a top 25 landscape company, to explain why hiring the right person is only the beginning. We unpack what effective onboarding actually looks like, why sales managers need to coach behaviors instead of simply managing numbers, and what owners should realistically expect during a salesperson's first 30, 60, and 90 days. They also challenge a long-held green industry hiring assumption: Your next great salesperson may not need green industry experience at all. Key discussion points: Why ride-alongs alone aren't an onboarding program How to create clear objectives and expectations for new sales hires Why information overload can stall a new salesperson The difference between managing sales numbers and coaching the behaviors that produce them Why sales leaders need to spend intentional time in the field with their team How stronger personal relationships make sales coaching more effective What owners should expect at 30, 60, and 90 days Why industry experience isn't necessarily the best predictor of sales success The traits Kayla looks for when hiring salespeople What separates good salespeople from great ones Why you can't hire your way out of a people-development problem Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:42 Meet Kayla Lujan 2:20 Hiring Is Where the Work Begins 3:57 Early Warning Signs in Sales Onboarding 5:12 Why Ride-Alongs Aren't Enough 8:47 Building a Roadmap for New Salespeople 10:18 Managing Numbers vs. Coaching Behaviors 14:16 Why Sales Leaders Need to Get in the Field 16:54 Building Trust Before You Coach 19:40 Are Owners Expecting Results Too Quickly? 21:12 What to Expect in the First 30, 60 & 90 Days 23:02 Where Should You Find Great Salespeople? 24:54 Stop Making Sales a Dumping Ground 27:44 Can Great Sales Skills Be Taught? 29:23 Rapid-Fire Sales Leadership Advice 31:27 How GRIT Helps Green Industry Sales Teams 33:02 The Real Key to Developing Great Salespeople  

Michelle Bove didn't start in enterprise software – she started as a soccer referee in seventh grade, hustling for an extra $10 per game, then moved into door-to-door sales at a three-person startup where she learned rejection quickly and loved it even more. That hunger never left. Today, as an AVP of East Sales at Wiz, she's built her career at some of the sharpest sales cultures in software history (PTC, AppDynamics, Zscaler), closed deals nobody else could get into, and turned around entire teams by replacing broken managers instead of blaming reps. In this conversation, she breaks down the real mechanics of winning: why likability is underrated, how to hire people better than you, why skip levels work when done transparently, and what it actually costs to prove yourself as a young female leader in cybersecurity. Her philosophy is simple: science plus art. Discipline and processes without human connection will only get you halfway there. Michelle Bove is an AVP of East Sales at Wiz and has built her career at PTC, AppDynamics, and Zscaler – some of the sharpest sales cultures in enterprise software. She's known for closing deals nobody else could get into and turning underperforming teams into world-class organizations. Connect with Michelle: LinkedIn Resources mentioned: Profession Profiles International assessments Key takeaways from this episode: 00:00 – Introduction and Michelle's origin story from soccer referee to enterprise sales leader 06:44 – Why likability is the most underrated sales competency and directly impacts your ability to build champions and close deals 20:00 – Why tailored coaching based on individual strengths and weaknesses beats cookie-cutter management 36:30 – How to run skip levels the right way: prep, conduct, document, share back with managers, and follow up without alienating people 47:50 – Operating rhythms in practice: daily prospecting, 15-question deal reviews, and deep customer research that actually moves deals 51:00 – Why in-person customer engagement beats remote-only selling for strategic accounts and mega-deals, even in the AI era 59:45 – The hardest part of her job: being a young female leader in a male-dominated space and proving herself every room she walks into 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

I've been in sales before.  For 10 years, I worked in Christian retail.  I actually worked at a Christian bookstore inside of a church.  Every day I had to manage employees, manage stock, keep track of sales, and please the people that owned the store.  I loved selling people things they needed.  I sold lots of Bibles.  I sold lots of books.  I sold lots of gifts.  I sold a lot of music.  I saw the joy of matching the right product with the right customer.  I knew I wasn't just a salesperson.  I knew I wasn't just a bookstore manager.  I knew that I was in full-time ministry in a Christian bookstore.  I knew that what I did every day was making a difference.  Imagine a world where all the salespeople quit to go into full-time ministry.  That's not a world I want to live in. 

I've listened to thousands of dealership phone calls, and there's one moment I hear over and over: "Do you have the vehicle?" "Yes." "Great. When can you come in?" And then we wonder why the customer doesn't show. As a trainer and sales coach, you must have great questions, the right questions. They must uncover important aspects to gettng appointments that show. In this episode of Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki, I'm breaking down how I coach salespeople to stop collecting information and start collecting reasons for the appointment. The customer hasn't driven the vehicle yet? That's a reason. They're comparing two models? Reason. They have a trade? Reason. They've never owned your brand? Reason. They're unsure about financing, features, space, lifestyle fit, or what's actually right for them? Those aren't objections to overcome. They're opportunities to help. You'll learn why curiosity beats scripts, how to weigh one question against another, how to uncover the customer's real situation without making the conversation feel like an interrogation, and how to stack enough value that the appointment becomes the customer's logical next step, not your sales pitch. Managers, this is a great episode to use with your team. Listen together, pause it, role-play the questions, and challenge your people to identify the reason behind the appointment before they're allowed to ask for one. I make my training accessible because I genuinely love watching dealership people get better, gain confidence, make progress, and WIN in their roles. And I'm grateful to the sponsors who help make Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki and this education possible: LotLinx, Matador, and ZukiTalk. Check out our sponsors! LotLinx.com is a VIN Management Platform that enables precision automotive retailing via /AI/ technologies that improves dealership profitability. Matador.ai, AI That Fully Automates Sales & Service Conversations For Dealerships.ZukiTalk.com helps service advisors by making clear, consistent MPI calls that educate customers and increase approvals. Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki Podcast |  https://apple.co/38lmHM1  https://spoti.fi/3uQ2nd1 | Jennifer@edealersolution.com | 954-873-8029 | edealersolutions.com | Meet me! bit.ly/3J7011t  |  Loyalty-Based Selling Strategies on CBT News | https://bit.ly/3JlcXAx

Here is a FAQ Video on the Courses: https://youtu.be/0F7imrzjXWs Here is a deep dive into which course is best for you: https://youtu.be/JM_jgS8M-iU https://www.b2bRevenue.com - Get Your Free E-Book on How Companies make Decisions. FAQ: 1 YEAR ACCESS, PAY MONTHLY OR ANNUALLY NOT A SUBSCRIPTION OFFICE HOURS EVERY  OTHER WEEK VIA ZOOM. 1 HOUR GROUP Q&A. UNLIMITED 1-ON-1'S  ARE FREE AS LONG AS THEY CAN BE SHARED IN THE COURSE. 1-ON-1 ARE FULL ACCESS ON DAY ONE - NOTHING IS GATED OR TIME RELEASED. ALL CONTENT IS VIDEO BASED AND SELF PACED I RECOMMEND TAKE COURSE ONCE WITHOUT NOTES OR APPLYING IT SO YOU UNDERSTAND THE BIG PICTURE FIRST. THEN TAKE AND APPLY IT STEP BY STEP. YOU START WHEN YOU WANT AND GO AS FAST OR SLOW AS NEEDED.   Email me additional questions: briangburns@me.com     — SAMPLE EMAIL TO EXPENSE THE COURSE MGR,   I have been listening to the brutal truth about sales podcast for X months and it speaks to the issues we face.   They currently offer a course that includes video instruction, group Q&A and One-on-One coaching. I'm committed to my own personal development and would like your help in expensing the course.   It would pay for itself if I closed only one new deal of $X value.   Please let me know by Friday if I can move forward with this 1 year course.   Thanks, ME Here are some student interviews from the courses:      ———————————————————————————————————— Audible 30 day Free Trial: http://www.audibletrial.com/BrutalTruth  

If your MedTech product isn't selling as quickly as expected, are more salespeople really going to fix the problem?When a MedTech launch underperforms, hiring more salespeople, recruiting another distributor or attending more exhibitions can feel like the obvious answer. But if the market hasn't been prepared and customers don't yet see a compelling reason to change, more sales activity won't solve the underlying problem. In this episode, Hakeem explains why successful MedTech commercialisation and export starts long before launch—and why understanding and preparing your market can save you from trying to force adoption later.In this episode you'll discover:Why MedTech commercialisation should begin months before your product launches, rather than after regulatory approval.Why adding salespeople or export distributors won't fix a market that isn't ready to adopt your product.How understanding what keeps your customers awake at night can help you create demand, prepare the market and accelerate adoption.ActionListen now to learn how to prepare your market before you commercialise or export your MedTech product, so your sales team can convert demand rather than having to create it from scratch.Book a 30min Healthcare Export Accelerator discovery callMessage me via DM on LinkedinThis podcast is for clinicians and solo founders feeling stuck in turning their medical devices into real businesses, with practical insight on go to market strategy, sales strategy, product launch, sales plans, business growth, exporting, selling internationally and how to scale up their international sales in MedTech.

What if the thing you think makes you better at selling is actually costing you deals? In this episode of Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki, sales coach and trainer Jen Suzuki breaks down one of the most common habits she sees in dealership training, call recordings, and role plays: salespeople talking too much. A customer walks in and the salesperson immediately starts explaining inventory, incentives, MPG, warranties, pricing, features, colors and specials. It feels productive. It feels like selling. But there's one big problem: you haven't learned anything about the customer yet. The more you talk, the more you guess. I explain why high-performing salespeople don't try to control conversations by filling every second. They lead with curiosity. They ask better questions. They listen for clues. And they're comfortable enough to let silence do some of the work. You'll learn why customers often tell you exactly how to help them, if you give them enough room to talk and why silence after presenting numbers may be one of the most powerful moments in the entire sales process. You'll also hear a simple challenge you can immediately take back to the showroom: after asking a question, wait two seconds longer than feels natural. Because you don't get paid to talk. You get paid to understand. The more you talk, the more you guess. The more you listen, the more you win. When you master that, you stop pushing deals and start guiding decisions. Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki brings practical sales, service, leadership and automotive training straight from the dealership floor designed to help automotive professionals grow their skills, confidence and results. Check out our sponsors! LotLinx.com is a VIN Management Platform that enables precision automotive retailing via /AI/ technologies that improves dealership profitability. Matador.ai, AI That Fully Automates Sales & Service Conversations For Dealerships.ZukiTalk.com helps service advisors by making clear, consistent MPI calls that educate customers and increase approvals. Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki Podcast |  https://apple.co/38lmHM1  https://spoti.fi/3uQ2nd1 | Jennifer@edealersolution.com | 954-873-8029 | edealersolutions.com | Meet me! bit.ly/3J7011t  |  Loyalty-Based Selling Strategies on CBT News | https://bit.ly/3JlcXAx

Mason poses a hot take out of nowhere, Daniel finds out he's illiterate, and Danny pitches a brilliant round of “Shart Tank”.

If you're a project manager, an engineer, or anyone else who ends up on customer calls without "sales" in your title, this one's for you. Bill lays out eight principles that separate a savvy, confident communicator of value from someone who accidentally talks their way out of a deal.You'll learn why your job isn't to convince the prospect they need help — it's to create the environment where they convince themselves. You'll hear why the problem a buyer states first is almost never the real problem, why status quo should always be on the table, and why people don't actually buy your solution — they buy the roadmap to it.Whether you're an accidental salesperson yourself, or a sales leader bringing non-sales teammates into strategy calls, these eight principles will get everyone speaking the same language before the next customer conversation.12 Bold Moves - Audiobook: Want to break free and soar to new heights? "12 Bold Moves" the Audiobook, is your gateway to a fearless reinvention of self and unlocking unprecedented sales success. Get your FREE copy now at http://12boldmoves.com/audiobook.Have a question for Bill or a topic you'd like him to discuss in a future episode? Email him at listener@caskeytraining.com.Schedule a Call: If you'd like to learn more about how Bill can help you or your team reach your potential, schedule a call at http://scheduleacallwithcaskey.com.

Michael Barbarita is the founder of Next Step CFO, strategic CFO, and author of Powerful Business Strategy. After more than four decades of helping businesses grow through smarter financial and business strategies, he's learned that the biggest pricing challenge isn't price—it's trust. In this episode, he reveals why buyers instinctively trust salespeople who aren't attached to the outcome, how transformational conversations outperform transactional ones, and the practical sales strategies that keep buyers focused on value instead of price.   Why You Have to Check Out Today's Podcast: Learn why buyers trust salespeople who don't appear desperate for the sale and how perceived indifference creates credibility instead of resistance. Discover how to shift price objections back to the buyer's transformation. Build stronger offers with upsells, cross-sells, and downsells that protect your value.   "The key is to be perceived as indifferent and transformational." — Michael Barbarita   Topics Covered: 01:40 – Why Business Owners Underprice. Why pricing based on your customer's wallet hurts your business. 04:05 – Sell Transformation, Not Transactions. Keep buyers focused on outcomes instead of products and price. 07:35 – Why Buyers Always Return to Price. The psychology behind price objections and buying decisions. 10:40 – Why Buyers Trust Indifferent Salespeople. How focusing on the buyer—not the sale—builds trust. 13:45 – Buyers Buy Futures, Not Features. Mark explains why customers pay for a better future, not product specs. 16:30 – Can CFOs Really Understand Value? Mark and Michael debate strategy, value, and finance. 19:50 – Finding What Customers Really Value.The questions that uncover why customers actually buy. 22:15 – Michael breaks down his sales framework: Captivate → Fascinate → Educate → Close. 25:30 – The Power of Upsells, Cross-Sells & Downsells. Capture more buyers without lowering your prices.   Key Takeaways: "You have to get on the same side of the table as your prospect." — Michael Barbarita "Packaging and bundling products and services together lets you add more value while increasing the price." — Michael Barbarita "No matter what you do, there's always going to be the price-sensitive people. Instead of losing them, have a downsell." — Michael Barbarita   Connect with Michael Barbarita: Website: https://nextstepcfo.net Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbarbarita/ Book: Powerful Business Strategy (Free Download)   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com  

Tony Ianessa built BIG Construction to $100 million in revenue by year three. Then his own ego nearly destroyed everything he built. In this episode he shares the journey from a basement office to one of Chicago's Top 50 fastest growing companies, and what construction can teach every industry about relationships.Key takeaways:00:00:00 Introduction00:04:52Q: When should you leave your job to start a business?A: Tony Ianessa's mentor told him to start his own business. Rick later passed from cancer, but that conversation was the shove Tony needed at 29.00:12:54Q: How do you survive when revenue drops 60%?A: Tony Ianessa says COVID wiped out 60% of revenue. His sole priority: don't run out of cash.00:24:27Q: What is the biggest challenge going from founder to CEO?A: Tony Ianessa identifies his own ego. He wore the grind as a badge of honor, but it was the reason the company plateaued.00:28:11Q: How do you scale without being the bottleneck?A: Tony Ianessa says 6 to 10 people at 50% of his capacity makes the company "astronomically more successful" than him alone.00:49:21Q: How do you grow to $100M without salespeople?A: Tony Ianessa says BIG Construction has never had salespeople. They exist for the relationship, not the project.01:00:04Q: Does construction have a workforce problem?A: Tony Ianessa argues it has a marketing problem, not a workforce problem.Subscribe for real conversations with founders building businesses that run without them.

Key Outcomes:This podcast episode by Kyle Galaz (Poor to Pro Car Sales Training, Season 10, Episode 5) focuses on a critical leadership trap for sales managers: becoming too friendly with their sales team at the expense of accountability and results. The core message is that salespeople already have friends but lack strong leaders, and managers who prioritize being liked over being respected ultimately hurt their team's earnings and performance.Leadership over friendship: Managers must position themselves closer to the "serious/leader" side of the spectrum, not the middle.Respect is the primary goal; being liked is optional and secondary.To truly care for salespeople = make them more money, not be their buddy.Accountability dies when salespeople view their manager as a peer — they feel no consequence for goofing off or underperforming.Managers lose the ability to coach firmly after being overly friendly; switching to "boss mode" lacks credibility.Why managers fall into the trap:Miss the camaraderie after being promoted; leadership gets lonelier at higher levels.Lack of confidence in management skills — compensate by being likable.Fear of appearing "too corporate" after dealership buyouts.Overcorrecting against distant managers they experienced as salespeople.Stop joining gossip sessions — redirect energy toward calls, appointments, and productivity.Replace casual hangouts with structured one-on-ones: use downtime for walk-around practice, product knowledge, and closing drills.Create intentional distance from group hangouts; be visibly working from clock-in to clock-out.Set daily expectations, not micromanagement: assign goals (e.g., fresh ups logged, appointments set, social media updates), then check in mid-day.Hold everyone equally accountable — no favorites.Stronger culture: everyone understands their role and arrives ready to work.Higher standards: salespeople self-motivate to earn the manager's approval and recognition.Salespeople grow because someone finally holds them to a higher standard and targets (e.g., $20K/month)Manager gains more respect — not buddy-buddy texts, but genuine on-floor motivation to perform.Manager stops carrying the emotional weight of trying to be universally liked.How do managers navigate having a hard conversation with a close ally in the sales department who is underperforming without damaging the working relationship?Sales Managers: Reflect on whether friendship was chosen over leadership this month — identify 2–3 missed coaching moments.Sales Managers: Schedule structured one-on-ones during slow periods instead of defaulting to casual hangouts. 11Sales Managers: Set clear daily expectations for each salesperson and follow up mid-shift.Buy Kyle A Coffee☕️: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/poor2pro⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Strong sales conversations are built long before the pitch begins. In this episode, Dean Newlund and Glenn Poulos explore practical strategies for building trust, strengthening customer relationships, and creating memorable buying experiences in both in-person and virtual sales environments.   In this episode, Dean Newlund and Glenn Poulos discuss: Relationship-driven approaches to professional selling Adapting traditional sales practices for virtual environments Communication techniques that strengthen customer trust Career decisions, entrepreneurship, and business growth Lessons learned from decades of sales and leadership experience   Key Takeaways: Listening carefully, remembering people, and learning about their environment creates stronger trust than leading with product features. Instead of covering everything you offer, identify the customer's primary problem and build your presentation around solving it. Whether meeting in person or virtually, thoughtful preparation, genuine rapport, and attention to detail leave a stronger impression than a polished sales pitch. Working for strong, market-leading organizations can create greater career growth and reduce the effort spent defending your value. Recognizing what you do well, letting go of poor-fit pursuits, and building on your strengths leads to greater confidence and effectiveness.   "You only have one life to live, so you should always work for the best possible company.” — Glenn Poulos   About Glenn Poulos: Glenn Poulos is a three-time entrepreneur and seasoned strategist leading ProgUSA, a long-standing power industry supplier focused on equipment and tools supporting today's grid and tomorrow's data center power needs. He previously built and exited two successful companies, including Gap Wireless, which grew to more than $80 million in sales before its eight-figure exit. He is the multiple international award-winning author of Never Sit in the Lobby and is known for blending sharp sales discipline with a human, rapport-driven approach to leadership. Outside of work, Glenn is an in-demand charity DJ under the name Phossl.   Connect with Glenn Poulos:   Website: https://glennpoulos.com/ Book: Never Sit in the Lobby: https://glennpoulos.com/book/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@glennpoulos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennpoulos/ X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/GlennPoulos Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/glenn.poulos/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glenn.poulos/     See Dean's TedTalk “Why Business Needs Intuition” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEq9IYvgV7I Connect with Dean:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgqRK8GC8jBIFYPmECUCMkwWebsite: https://www.mfileadership.com/The Mission Statement E-Newsletter: https://www.mfileadership.com/blog/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannewlund/X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/deannewlundFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/MissionFacilitators/Email: dean.newlund@mfileadership.comPhone: 1-800-926-7370 Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Sales and marketing are supposed to work together, but in most companies, they don't. Not to the level your revenue actually needs. In this episode, I sat down with Mark Kapczynski, co-founder of Kontrol Media and author of Everyone Sells, to talk about practical, sometimes unconventional ways to get these two teams pulling in the same direction.Why Sales and Marketing Still Don't Work TogetherTraditional marketing was built around brand awareness, not revenue. That history still shapes how a lot of teams operate today.Marketing budgets are getting cut because leadership now expects marketing to prove its impact on revenue, not just visibility.Sales and marketing need to see each other as one team working toward the same goal, not two departments with separate scorecards.Give Sales and Marketing One Shared GoalMost companies still measure marketing on traffic and awareness, while sales is measured strictly on closed revenue.Mark says both teams need a shared goal tied to revenue, whether that's new logos, higher customer lifetime value, or overall revenue growth.Marketing pay structures need to change too. Straight salary with a small year end bonus doesn't give marketers the same stake in closing deals that commission gives salespeople.Meet on the Pipeline Two or Three Times a WeekSales and marketing can't just hand off leads and hope for the best.Mark recommends meeting regularly, two or three times a week, to review the pipeline together.These meetings should cover what made one lead higher quality than another, and what's holding up deals that are stuck.Track the Metrics That Actually MatterCustomer acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV) should be shared numbers between sales and marketing, especially for enterprise deals.Return on ad spend (ROAS) shows whether marketing's paid spend is actually working. Mark looks for four to five times return.Time to close and number of touch points are also worth tracking together.Let Marketing Support the Close, Not Own ItMarketing shouldn't be responsible for closing deals. Contracts, legal terms, and pricing sit outside their lane.But marketing can stay involved right up until the customer gives a verbal yes, supporting the salesperson the whole way.Use What Marketing Is Already Great AtMarketers are natural storytellers. Salespeople tend to be more transactional and want to close fast.Marketing can help build trust and consistency across every touch point, so a prospect hears the same story from sales, marketing, and leadership.Nurturing is another area marketing can own. Not every prospect is ready to buy today, and marketing has the tools and patience to stay engaged until they are.The Big Takeaway: Everyone SellsMark's core message ties back to his book, Everyone Sells. Every person in a company plays a role in the sales process, not just the sales team.When only one department is expected to carry the entire revenue goal, the business underperforms."Sales and marketing are peanut butter and chocolate. They have to work well together, otherwise you just have two silos going two different directions with two sets of goals." — Mark KapczynskiResourcesLearn more about Mark's company, Kontrol Media.Connect with Mark Kapczynski on LinkedIn.Check out Mark's book, Everyone Sells (Including AI): How to Influence Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime.Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.Keep track of your sales activity and boost your results with the Prospect Pro sales tool.Step up your sales game with Sales Mastermind. Get accountability, stay motivated, and tackle the blockers keeping you from hitting your goals.Visit Blue Mango Studios for help creating podcast production content.Sponsorship OffersThis episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot.With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and turn prospects into pipelines. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com/sales.This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn.Are you tired of prospective clients not responding to your emails? Sign up for a free 60-day trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator at linkedin.com/tse.This episode is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Foundation.Improve your connection on LinkedIn and land three or five appointments with our LinkedIn prospecting course. Go to the salesevangelist.com/linkedin.CreditsAs one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We'd love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and produced by Brightseed and Hill.

What does it take to go almost 20 years in real estate without a single broke month? In this episode, Erin sits down with Dan Rochon — real estate veteran, founder of the Consistent and Predictable Income (CPI) Community, host of the No Broke Months podcast, and author of the new book Teach to Sell: Why Top Performers Never Sell — And What They Do Instead. Dan's story starts on his bathroom floor in 2005, the morning he got sober after nearly two decades of struggle. Two years later, a friend's question — "You ever think about real estate sales?" — set him on a path from waiting tables in D.C. to buying the Keller Williams brokerage he worked for, and to a track record most agents only dream of: no broke months since 2008. The best part? Dan insists there's no magic to it. He walks us through the exact framework: waking up every morning "unemployed," spending 1–3 hours a day finding business no matter how busy you get, the 11 activities that actually make you money, and his Teach to Sell method — guiding clients through predictable problems before they happen so you become trusted, wanted, and referred instead of chasing and convincing. If you're tired of the feast-or-famine rollercoaster, this conversation is your way off. Listen in as Erin and Dan discuss: Dan's rock-bottom morning in 2005, getting sober, and discovering real estate as his path to entrepreneurship Why he leaned into the 2008 crash — and how "there's always a reason to look at the suck" The 5 daily activities in your business, the 5 on your business, plus the one habit Dan never skips: visiting his money every morning How to break the feast-or-famine cycle: 1–3 hours a day, 5 days a week, no matter what The four pillars of a business owner — belief, finding business, leverage, and leadership What Teach to Sell really means: consulting clients through predictable problems before they happen (including the home inspection story every agent needs to hear) Why "the circumstances change, the technology changes, but the fundamentals never do" Where to grab Teach to Sell and unlock the four-pillar bonus course (formerly a $10,000 program) About Dan Rochon is on a mission to help 1,000,000 people sell without selling by teaching them how to think through Teach to Sell. Founder of the Consistent and Predictable Income (CPI) Community and host of the No Broke Months for Salespeople podcast, Dan is a master of human behavior, influence, and the psychology of success, and a certified practitioner of Humanistic Neurolinguistic Psychology and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Dan doesn't just teach theory — he lives it. Since 2008, he has maintained a flawless track record of No Broke Months in real estate sales, averaging ten sales a month, all while building and selling a Keller Williams brokerage he led as operating partner for a decade. He is the author of Teach to Sell: Why Top Performers Never Sell — And What They Do Instead and Real Estate Evolution: The Ten-Step Guide to CPI. A TEDx and keynote speaker, his expertise has been featured on The Nightly News with Brian Williams, The Today Show, CNBC, and The Washington Post. How to Connect With Dan Rochon Website: https://www.TeachtoSellBook.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danrochon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danrochonx/ Podcast: No Broke Months for Salespeople — https://nobrokemonthspodcast.simplecast.com/ Recommended Resources Teach to Sell: Why Top Performers Never Sell — And What They Do Instead by Dan Rochon (released June 23, 2026) — get the book plus the free four-pillar companion course (a former $10,000 program) at https://www.TeachtoSellBook.com Happiness & Fulfillment Assessment: https://pursuingfreedom.com/happiness Pursuing Freedom Collective: https://pursuingfreedom.com/collective Get a copy of Pursuing Freedom on Amazon: https://amzn.to/46o7m7z Subscribe to the Pursuing Freedom podcast on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pursuing-freedom/id1385086390) or Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/59YFf0QJ64o35Wc53JGcbi) for weekly inspiration and strategies.

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Claude Lemieux's son claims his dad relapsed into sex addiction prior to his death. Rover is shocked by the new salespeople. Old man slaps young guy in the back of the head after he didn't stand for the National Anthem. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Claude Lemieux's son claims his dad relapsed into sex addiction prior to his death. Rover is shocked by the new salespeople. Old man slaps young guy in the back of the head after he didn't stand for the National Anthem. 

What does the crew do after the show? Bride's best friend died at her bachelorette party in St. Barts. Would you move your wedding date if your best friend died? Claude Lemieux's son claims his dad relapsed into sex addiction prior to his death. Rover is shocked by the new salespeople. Old man slaps young guy in the back of the head after he didn't stand for the National Anthem. Cease and desist letter prank on Duji. An 8-year-old girl is distraught after no one showed up to her birthday party. Drivers are still using a bridge in Greece that was damaged due to storms rather than using a detour. MLB Athletics player is put on the injured list after he is hit in the genitals with a baseball. Leopard in a liquor store.

What does the crew do after the show? Bride's best friend died at her bachelorette party in St. Barts. Would you move your wedding date if your best friend died? Claude Lemieux's son claims his dad relapsed into sex addiction prior to his death. Rover is shocked by the new salespeople. Old man slaps young guy in the back of the head after he didn't stand for the National Anthem. Cease and desist letter prank on Duji. An 8-year-old girl is distraught after no one showed up to her birthday party. Drivers are still using a bridge in Greece that was damaged due to storms rather than using a detour. MLB Athletics player is put on the injured list after he is hit in the genitals with a baseball. Leopard in a liquor store.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.