Cole Baker-Bagwell is the founder and Chief Kindness Officer at Cool Audrey, a consulting firm that teaches companies how to put kindness to work in business. In this conversation we discuss how to thrive in a 21st-century company requires building a new set of core competencies based on awareness, meaningful connection and a shared commitment to kindness. Then we dive into why kindness isn't an intangible soft skill but something that can be quantified in the impact it has on people and busines...
Feb 16, 2021•54 min•Ep. 879
Vishal Sunak is the Founder and CEO of LinkSquares. In this conversation we dive into an important (and often overlooked) topic for sales teams: Contract Lifecycle Management. We explore why it’s important to write better agreements, why companies don’t truly understand the agreements they're signing, why that’s a problem and how to avoid it. We also get into why contract management departments are such an essential function. From both a strategic and tactical standpoint. And why too few growth ...
Feb 12, 2021•40 min•Ep. 878
Luigi Prestinenzi is the Founder and Head of Growth at the Sales IQ Global. In our conversation we talk about essential mindsets for sellers. I know, I know. This topic can make your eyes glaze over. But stick with me. Most don’t fully understand what mindsets are and how important they are for sellers. Most people think of mindset as determination or hustle. That’s not it. I call those attitudes. Mindsets are the lens through which people filter and process how they experience the world. And in...
Feb 11, 2021•55 min•Ep. 877
Nick Kane is the Managing Partner of the Janek Performance Group. This is such a fun conversation. We dig into three important topics. First and foremost, we talk about Nick’s passion for bourbons. In fact, he posted a list of what he considers the very best bourbons to help you celebrate a big sales win! Then we dive into what's required, to develop a good salesperson and how to engage the empowered B2B buyer.
Feb 09, 2021•52 min•Ep. 876
Christine Lagorio-Chafkin is a senior writer at Inc. Magazine. In this episode we discuss her recent article, "Business Leaders Spoke Up After the Capitol Riot. Will Their Voices Remain Strong?" and the response of the business community to the events of January 6. As Christine puts it, these dramatic events cause a real surge in activism among business leaders (or at least stop them from hiding behind a professional curtain of non-partisanism). So we dig into the issue of what the appropriate r...
Feb 05, 2021•35 min•Ep. 875
Andrew Sykes is the Founder of Habits at Work, and author of an excellent book titled, "The 11th Habit: Design Your Company Culture to Foster the Habits of High Performance." This is such a fun conversation. I love it when I have the chance to talk with people who I believe really get it. Who live in reality, not the fake world of so many sales trainers, and understands what it takes to connect with other people and help influence the choices and decisions they make to achieve the business outco...
Feb 04, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 874
Gopkiran Rao is the Chief Strategy and Marketing Office at MindTickle. In this episode we discuss why now it is more important than ever for organizations to effectively and appropriately – engage their customers and prospects in conversation, not in sales cycles. We explore what that means in terms of the business acumen and agility that sellers need to possess to effectively engage in today’s environment. Plus, we dig into what it means for sellers these days to be sales ready.
Feb 02, 2021•56 min•Ep. 873
Zorian Rotenberg is the CRO at Infotelligent. In today's episode we dive into how and why a CRO is different than a VP of Sales. Titles are thrown around pretty easily these days. But as we dig into, there are substantive differences between the two roles and Zorian shares some details about how they should be viewed. Which includes his very interesting perspective that good CROs are like a "Hedge Fund Portfolio Manager" So we talk about the steps CROs can take to hedge their risks as they scale...
Jan 29, 2021•58 min•Ep. 872
Ralph Barsi is the the VP of Global Inside Sales at Tray.io and one of my favorite people in this sales universe. In this episode we talk about Ralph’s music career. As in rock and roll. His band has been together for 30 years. They toured in the past, still play gigs, and are getting ready to record a new album. I watched some videos online and they rock! No conversation with Ralph ever takes place without talking about books. Ralph reads as much as I do. And he always has interesting book reco...
Jan 28, 2021•44 min•Ep. 871
Rob Johnson is the Managing Director for Onit, leader in the enterprise legal ops space. Rob sent me one of the more interesting pitches to be a guest on this show. He said he wasn't trying to promote anything. He just wanted to talk about the challenges people face when they have dyslexia and the opportunities it presents for sellers. In this episode Rob shares his story about developing into a top sales professional and sales leader despite having dyslexia.
Jan 26, 2021•51 min•Ep. 870
Lars Helgeson is the Founder and CEO of GreenRope, developer of the Complete CRM. Today we discuss why managing data in a business is a leadership issue first, and a technology issue second. We also dive into why Lars believes traditional CRM systems are a giant waste of resources for companies that aren’t large enterprises, and why companies can’t treat their CRM as just a data utility but have to be proactive about establishing an effective data policy.
Jan 22, 2021•38 min•Ep. 869
Catie Ivey is the regional Vice President responsible for all new logo acquisition in the mid-market space for DemandBase. In this conversation dive into a number of interesting topics: (1) How she had an epic fail on her first sales interview, a s did I, (2) how she’s dealt with self doubt, (3) why she believes that working in sales has given her the ability to accomplish more than she ever dreamed possible. and (4) how she’s overcome the obstacles that are placed in the way of women in sales.
Jan 21, 2021•40 min•Ep. 868
U.S. Congressman Bill Foster is my guest on this special inauguration episode. Representative Bill Foster represents the 11th congressional district in Illinois (In the Chicago area) and serves on the House Financial Services Committee where he chairs the Task Force on Artificial Intelligence. He also serves on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus, which is examining the Federal government's response to the COVID-19 crisis. Before becoming a member of Congress, Bill worked as a high-...
Jan 20, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 867
Mike Smerklo is an entrepreneur, investor and author of the book, "Mr Monkey and Me". In this episode we hear the story of Mike's struggles with self-doubt as he grew from an entrepreneur and CEO at a small business that he grew into a category-leading publicly traded company. Plus, we dig into the SHAPE mindset framework that is at the heart of Mike’s fun book about conquering the self-doubt that plagues us all at one time or another,
Jan 19, 2021•48 min•Ep. 866
Dan Crum is author of the book titled "The CIA Method" about best practices in hiring and recruiting for sales. Dan has had one of the most interesting journeys into sales. He started as a polygraph examiner and special investigator for the CIA. He administered lie detector tests to people the agency was going to hire. From his experiences Dan learned that the key to effective hiring is to have a process that minimizes the subjectivity inherent in making hiring decisions. Plus, we dig into why D...
Jan 15, 2021•42 min•Ep. 865
Chris Anthony is the Vice President, US Consumer Goods and Marketing Cloud at Salesforce. This is another in a series of conversations I’ve been having on this show about mental health, sales, and business. In June 2020, on the 15th anniversary of his sobriety, Chris went public with his story for the first time. He took this step, publicly revealing a private story, in order to help end the stigma attached to sobriety and recovery in business. In our conversation Chris shares the story of his s...
Jan 14, 2021•54 min•Ep. 864
Nick Runyon is the CMO at PFL.com, a leader in the Tactile Marketing Automation space. In this episode we get into everything Tactile Marketing Automation. You know, sending things to prospects and customers as part of your playbook. We talk about how PFL got into this space. Normally I don’t spend a lot of time on founding stories but this one is very interesting. Tune-in to learn how PFL evolved from a small local print shop into an organization with global reach. Plus, Nick shares some ideas ...
Jan 12, 2021•43 min•Ep. 863
Vince Beese is the head of Enterprise Sales at Kustomer (which was just acquired by Facebook). Vince has been selling big deals into the enterprise and leading enterprise sales team in the SaaS space for a long time, so settle in for a great conversation about the big changes we’ve seen in enterprise sales this past year. We'll dive into which changes we think will be permanent and which were, or are, just temporary stopgaps. Plus, we dig into the topic of whether the whole “modern selling” move...
Jan 08, 2021•49 min•Ep. 862
Jake Dunlap is the CEO of Skaled. In this episode Jake and I discuss an article he posted on linkedin about 5 predominant myths in sales. You’ll really want to listen to this conversation because I think it’s safe to say that, well, I had a few issues with Jake’s myths. However, I really enjoyed sparring with Jake because this is the type of open discussion that needs to happen more frequently in sales. Because, quite honestly, B2B Sales is a mess. There are a lot of issues that need to be addre...
Jan 07, 2021•51 min•Ep. 861
Stephen Diorio is the Executive Director at The Revenue Enablement Institute. The pandemic has been an eye opener for business leaders, many are doubling down on changes made during the transition to remote selling in order to increase client access and coverage while retaining the cost savings. Stephen and I dig into whether it’s realistic to assume that remote selling can be a cure all and drive: (1) Revenue growth, (2) improved performance, and (3) improved productivity. I have to admit that ...
Jan 05, 2021•50 min•Ep. 860
Whitney Johnson is the author of the book: Disrupt Yourself. Master Relentless Change and Speed Up Your Learning Curve. Right off the bat, let me tell you that I love this book. If you’re in sales in any capacity and you’re struggling to Improve your performance, and perhaps need some additional motivation to make a change, then you need to read Whitney’s book. Whitney and I cover a lot of ground in this conversation. She explains how the S curve of innovative disruption, that was first populari...
Dec 30, 2020•50 min
Liston Witherill is B2B sales consultant, trainer, and host of the Modern Sales podcast, on which I was honored to be a guest. In this episode Liston and I dig into the topic of building better sales habits using the science of habit formation. This whole topic of habits is a favorite of mine. Where many people see skills, I see habits. Habits practiced over and over can become skills. The ability to connect with another person on a human level? That’s a habit. Curiosity is a habit. Work on your...
Dec 29, 2020•56 min•Ep. 859
Michael Bungay Stanier is the author of one of my favorite books The Coaching Habit. On this episode we talk about his new brand new book, The Advice Trap. Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever. Today we talk about the three main problems with giving advice: (1) your advice doesn’t work; (2) solving the wrong problem; and (3) proposing a mediocre solution. As a result, you risk becoming what Michael calls an Advice Monster. This episode was recorded in early 2020.
Dec 28, 2020•40 min
David Brock is CEO of Partners in Excellence and the author of the excellent book, The Sales Manager's Survival Guide. David is a self-described ruthless pragmatist and he joined me on this episode to talk about developing an effective sales execution framework. As Dave describes it "Increasingly salespeople and managers struggle to make sense of all the things they are being asked to do, and how these activities fit with each other.” So in this conversation we dig into Dave’s suggested sales ex...
Dec 26, 2020•56 min
Roger Connors is a 4x NYTimes and WSJ bestselling author. In this episode we talk about his latest book Get a Coach, Be a Coach. Roger believes that outdated, old-school, one-on-one professional coaching models make effective coaching scarce, expensive, and hard to justify for the masses. It works for a few, but not for the many. What’s the answer? Roger proposes a new model for coaching called Self-Directed Performance Coaching.
Dec 22, 2020•42 min•Ep. 858
David Priemer is the author of the new book "Sell the Way You Buy: A Modern Approach To Sales That Actually Works (Even On You!)" On this episode we discuss how salespeople can arm themselves with progressive strategies for connecting with modern buyers. Plus, we dig into why so many sellers find themselves executing tactics they sense are outdated, ineffective, and inconsistent with their personal philosophy. This conversation originally aired in early 2020.
Dec 21, 2020•48 min
Mark McInnes is author of the book Tactical Pipeline Growth: Winning the Outbound Battle for New Business. Mark’s a contrarian on the myths and bad practices that have built up around prospecting. It's why I liked his book. For openers we talk about why it’s better to have too few prospects in your pipeline than too many. I happen to agree with this. The low levels of quota attainment and win rates, that we all see and read about, are not a function of not having leads. It’s all about how ineffe...
Dec 18, 2020•57 min•Ep. 857
Tyler Lessard is the VP of Marketing and Chief Video Strategist at Vidyard. As you might expect, Tyler and I are going to spend most of our time talking about video messaging. However, before we get to that, Tyler and I talk about his time at Blackberry, and some of the lessons that he learned from that experience of seeing the king of the hill dethroned by smartphones. Then, we get into what it takes to get a sales team to embrace video messaging. Tyler share some compelling stats about why you...
Dec 17, 2020•47 min•Ep. 856
Jeff Santelices is the Chief Revenue Officer at MindTickle. In this episode we start with what it means for a seller to be sales ready. Then we delve into the topic of sales learning and the levers managers can pull to improve sales performance. Next, Jeff shares the KPIs that he relies on to manage his team and reveals the one KPI that everyone uses that is totally useless. Finally, we talk about QBRs and how to run an efficient one in the midst of this pandemic.
Dec 15, 2020•49 min•Ep. 855
Mike Weinberg is a consultant, speaker and author. His latest book is Sales Truth: Debunk the Myths. Apply Powerful Principles. Win More New Sales. Mike and I always have a ball talking about sales. And, I warn you, this episode runs a bit longer than normal because once we got started talking it was hard to stop. Today we're going to debunk some of the popular myths about sales that are popular online. We’ll dive deep into some of the key themes in Mike’s new book including: (1) Why sellers nee...
Dec 14, 2020•40 min
