Why Identical Comp Plans Produce Wildly Different Results

• Sindre's core observation: two reps can work under the exact same comp plan and produce completely different results, which means money alone isn't the daily driver of performance.
• Comp plans set the structure and tell a rep what they need to do to get paid, but engagement is what determines whether they actually do it consistently.
• An engaged rep will outperform a disengaged one with the identical incentive on the table, every time.

Know Your Sales Math

• Sindre's first question to any rep: have you actually broken your quota down into what you need to do today, not just what you need to hit by year end?
• Reps who treat sales as a series of repeatable, data-driven daily activities have a far more predictable path to their number than those relying on charisma alone.
• Even with a full pipeline of data, the numbers only matter if a rep has the motivation to actually execute the plan. That's the gap gamification is built to close.

The Four Player Types on Every Sales Team

• Sindre borrows a framework from game theory to describe four types of sales reps: killers, achievers, explorers, and socialites.
• Killers are driven by being number one and seeing their name at the top of the leaderboard. Achievers care about personal bests, regardless of where they rank against everyone else.
• Explorers enjoy the process itself, testing new tools and new angles. Socialites, the majority of most sales teams, are driven by recognition, visibility, and feeling like their effort is seen.

The TV and Music Moment That Changed Sindre's Career

• Sindre described watching a sales floor the first time his team replaced a whiteboard with TVs that played music and visuals every time a rep closed a deal.
• People were jumping on their desks. That reaction is what convinced him sales motivation itself, not another feature, was the real business to build.
• A rep's win becoming a shared, visible, celebrated moment does something a quiet bank deposit never will.

Three Rules for Running a Contest That Moves the Needle

• Timing matters more than most leaders assume. Contests started on a Wednesday consistently outperform ones started on a Monday, since early-week motivation has usually faded by midweek.
• Shorter is better. Month-long contests tend to create a "valley of disengagement," with excitement in week one, a dead middle, and a scramble at the end. One-day sprints create urgency without the letdown.
• Change the format so more than the top performer has a real shot. A lottery-style contest, where every meeting booked or deal closed earns a ticket, gives the middle of the pack a genuine "I might actually win this time" feeling.

Get Creative: Pairing, Envelopes, and the White Elephant Game

• Pairing a high performer with a lower performer on a team-based contest naturally creates coaching and mentorship, without ever calling it that.
• Simple physical mechanics work too: envelopes on a wall that reps can pick from after hitting an activity, some holding a dollar, some holding a bigger prize.
• Sindre's favorite: a white elephant style game where prizes range from real rewards to silly forfeits, and reps can steal from each other until the contest ends, creating genuinely memorable moments on the floor.

The Recognition Stat That Proves the Point

• Sindre shared data from a 153-person sales team where they measured how often each rep received recognition in a month.
• The 37 reps who received the least recognition averaged 62 percent quota attainment. The team average was 107 percent.
• Recognition and quota attainment move together closely enough that Sindre treats recognition frequency as a leading indicator, not just a nice-to-have.

Where to Start as a New Sales Leader

• Sindre's starting point for anyone new to this: interview your top performers and find out what they actually do every day, not just what the official process says they should do.
• Frequently, top performers are doing things nobody explicitly asked them to do, or doing an already-known behavior far more consistently than everyone else.
• Cross-check those behaviors against the rest of the team. Wherever the gap is real, that's where a leader's next contest or incentive should be aimed.

"A motivated person will do better than a disengaged one, even with the same comp plan." — Sindre Haaland

Resources

• Connect with Sindre Haaland on LinkedIn.
• Visit SalesScreen, the world's leading sales gamification platform.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.
• Visit Blue Mango Studios for help creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

That stat comes from Leslie Venetz, who audits thousands of sales messages every year and just released her USA Today bestseller, Profit-Generating Pipeline. She broke down what real relevance looks like, and the exact method she uses to build it.

What Relevance Actually Means (And Why Most Sellers Miss It)

• Leslie defines relevance simply: a message has to be relevant to the person receiving it, not to the seller sending it.
• The biggest problem she sees is that most outreach centers on the seller's process, product, and company goals instead of the buyer.
• When she audits sales messaging, and she reviews thousands of messages a year, only about 10 percent actually explain why a piece of information should matter to the prospect.

The Mail Merge Era: When "Fake Personalization" Felt Like Magic

• Back around 2012, Leslie ran a basic mail merge strategy that felt groundbreaking at the time. Prospects were genuinely impressed just to see their name and company pulled into an email.
• That tactic hasn't disappeared. It's evolved into things like mentioning a prospect's new job title or congratulating them on a funding round.
• The problem is the same one it's always been: something can be true about a prospect without being relevant to them right now.

Personalization Versus Relevance

• Leslie draws a clear distinction: personalization is a fact about the prospect. Relevance is why that fact should matter to them today.
• I shared my own experience of digging through my inbox after the pandemic and realizing most pitches weren't even relevant to my actual role, let alone my actual problems.
• The real gap, in Leslie's words, is that most sellers never get into the buyer's emotional state, the specific pressure a person is under right now, not just their job title or industry.

The Earn the Right Philosophy: De-Centering Yourself From the Pitch

• Leslie's core philosophy is called Earn the Right: before asking for a meeting, a call, or a contract, a seller has to earn the right to that person's attention.
• That means shifting language away from "I'm an account executive at [Company] and we sell [Feature]" toward messaging built entirely around the buyer's specific situation and outcome.
• The shift shows up in something as simple as word choice. Leslie says the biggest difference she sees in client messaging is emails that stop being about I, we, and our, and start being about you and your.

The Five-Filter Segmentation Method

• Leslie's starting point for anyone new to territory planning is the five-filter method: four firmographic filters plus one demographic filter, layered together to turn a broad list into a hyper-specific one.
• She recommends starting with the demographic filter first, since narrowing a title, like going from "IT executives" down to just "CIO," forces a seller to ask what that exact role actually cares about.
• That one change alone, narrowing from a broad title to a specific one, has increased reply rates by more than 12 percent for her clients.

A Real Client Example: Narrowing a Healthcare IT List

• Leslie walked through a real example from a global software company: a list originally aimed at "IT executives in healthcare" got narrowed down using all five filters.
• The firmographic filters included US-only, hospitals specifically, revenue between 100 million and a billion dollars, and customer service departments over 100 people.
• They also added a signal: whether the hospital had missed a recent best-of list. That detail alone reframed the entire pitch around better patient outcomes and service rankings, instead of generic product features.

Shorter Emails, Longer Cadences

• A common mistake Leslie sees even after sellers embrace outcome-focused messaging: trying to cram everything they want to say into a single email.
• Her fix is to trust the cadence. Spread the story about a buyer's likely outcomes across multiple touches instead of one dense pitch.
• That shift also means holding off on a hard call to action early in a sequence, and letting later touches carry more of that weight.

Why "More" Isn't a Strategy

• When results slow down, Leslie sees most teams reach for the same lever: hire more reps, send more emails, make more calls.
• Her pushback is direct: more is never the answer on its own, because it skips the harder work of understanding who you're actually talking to.
• Good segmentation is what makes every other activity, calls, emails, cadences, actually worth doing in the first place.

The Marriage of Art and Science in Sales

• Leslie pushes back on using AI as a way to fully remove the seller from the process. If a prospect is expected to give their time and attention to a reply, the seller owes them a message that was actually written with care.
• The science side is the data: confirming you're talking to the right person, at the right account, about the right thing.
• The art side is judgment: knowing that just because something is technically personalized, like mentioning a promotion, doesn't mean it's the most relevant or human thing to say next.

One Thing to Do Right Now to Get More Relevant

• Leslie's starting point for any sales leader: audit your current sales messaging and count how often it uses I, we, my, and our instead of you and your.
• That audit gives you real data on how self-centered your outreach actually is, even if it doesn't feel that way from the inside.
• From there, use AI for research instead of mass automation. Learn what a specific persona at a specific type of account actually cares about, then build that into the message.

"More is not a strategy." — Leslie Venetz

Resources

• Grab Leslie's book, Profit-Generating Pipeline: A Proven Formula to Earn Trust and Drive Revenue.
• Visit Leslie's company, The Sales-Led GTM Agency.
• Connect with Andy Paul, Leslie's mentor and host of The Win Rate Podcast, on LinkedIn.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.
• Visit Blue Mango Studios for help creating podcast production content.

Credits

As 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.

Pieter walked me through exactly how they pulled it off, and it wasn't magic. It was math, structure, and a relentless focus on the front end of the pipeline.

Why Their Sales Cycle Was So Long To Begin With

• Tax Guard's solution was new to the financial institutions they sold to, so reps had to spend real time educating buyers before those buyers even understood why they needed it.
• That education requirement, combined with deals that stalled out with the wrong contacts, created a long sales cycle and a lower close rate.
• Fixing it started with the pipeline itself, not with pushing reps to work harder.

Give Every Rep the Right Size Pipeline, Not Just More Deals

• Pieter's team found that around 120 opportunities was the right pipeline size for most of their account executives, though the number flexes based on how efficient a rep is.
• Instead of leaving reps to self source every opportunity, the team loads a portion of that pipeline for them, so reps spend more time working real opportunities and less time hunting for net new business.
• Their market of five to ten thousand financial institutions is well defined, which makes it possible to plan pipeline size with real precision instead of guessing.

Split the Pipeline: 70 Percent Pre-Handraiser, 30 Percent Post-Handraiser

• Of those 120 opportunities, about 70 percent sit in the pre-handraiser stage, where reps are still working to connect with people.
• The remaining 30 percent sit in the post-handraiser stage, where there's already an active, ongoing conversation with the customer.
• That split keeps reps focused on outreach without starving the deals that are already moving.

Marketing and Sales Load the Pipeline Together

• Pieter is careful to point out that loading the pipeline isn't a sales-only effort. It's a collaboration between sales leadership and marketing leadership.
• Marketing helps identify and prioritize which accounts and departments actually fit where Tax Guard's solution applies.
• That partnership is part of why the team can hand reps a healthier mix of fast cycle and slow cycle opportunities instead of leaving it to chance.

Why They Kept AEs on the Full Buyer Journey Instead of Handing Off to BDRs

• Because their solution requires ongoing education, Pieter's team decided against using BDRs or SDRs to book appointments and hand off to AEs.
• The same person a buyer starts talking to needs to stay with them as a trusted advisor through the entire education process.
• Pieter is clear that this only makes sense because of how complex and unfamiliar their solution is. A more transactional sale can absolutely work with a BDR handoff.

The Cadence: 17 Touches Over 70 Days

• Each opportunity in the pipeline follows a defined cadence, roughly 17 touches over 70 days, with three to five contacts tied to each account.
• That structure turns follow-up into a math exercise. Once you know the number of opportunities, steps, and contacts, you know almost exactly how many activities a rep needs to complete each day.
• The cadence isn't automated. Reps still show up and do the work themselves, which keeps the process personal instead of robotic.

Personalization Is What Makes the Math Work

• Pieter gets five to six hundred pitches a day himself, so he knows exactly what gets ignored: generic, unpersonalized outreach.
• His team uses AI to gather background information quickly, but the personal touch, referencing where someone went to school or what they care about, still has to come from the rep.
• That combination of structure and personalization is what actually breaks through the noise instead of just adding to it.

How They Catch Reps Who Are Gaming Activity Numbers

• To catch reps who rack up huge activity numbers without real substance, like hanging up before voicemail or blasting the same email to everyone, Pieter's team looks past raw activity totals.
• They review call recordings and email engagement to see whether real conversations are actually happening, not just whether the activity got logged.
• The goal isn't to catch people doing something wrong. It's to find the reps who are getting real engagement and figure out what they're doing differently so the whole team can replicate it.

Weekly and Monthly Rhythms Keep the Team Accountable

• Every rep gets a weekly one on one that covers both big strategic issues, like what's happening in the market or with competitors, and specific opportunities that need a plan to close.
• Once a month, Pieter's team reviews the front end metrics as a group: how many people are in cadence, how many emails are opening, how many real conversations are happening.
• They also track Net Promoter Score to measure how the sales experience actually felt to the buyer, not just whether a deal closed.

Their Tech Stack: Salesforce, Gong, Gong Flows, and Delighted

• Salesforce is their core CRM, and Pieter says most of what makes it powerful is what gets plugged into it.
• Gong records and analyzes sales conversations, which lets the team track things like how often pricing objections come up and coach reps faster than they could otherwise.
• Gong Flows adds structured outreach sequences with AI built in, and Delighted measures NPS so the team can see how the buying experience felt from the customer's side.

The Numbers Pieter's Team Watches Every Week

• Close rate and pipeline velocity are the two headline numbers Pieter checks first, since they show whether the whole system is working.
• Underneath those, his team tracks how long deals sit in each of their seven pipeline stages, with alerts when something sits too long.
• They also watch the quality of the opportunities reps are given and how well each rep prospects into the right people, since strong activity numbers mean nothing if they aren't pointed at the right accounts.

"Activities create opportunities, opportunities create sales. The only thing we control is our activity level." — Pieter Leenhouts

Resources

• Connect with Pieter Leenhouts on LinkedIn.
• Learn more about Tax Guard, a Cogency Global company.
• 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.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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, Imagine doubling your close rate and cutting your sales cycle in half. That's not a hypothetical. It's exactly what Pieter Leenhouts and his team did at Tax Guard, a Cogency Global company that sells to banks and financial institutions.

Pieter walked me through exactly how they pulled it off, and it wasn't magic. It was math, structure, and a relentless focus on the front end of the pipeline.

Why Their Sales Cycle Was So Long To Begin With

• Tax Guard's solution was new to the financial institutions they sold to, so reps had to spend real time educating buyers before those buyers even understood why they needed it.
• That education requirement, combined with deals that stalled out with the wrong contacts, created a long sales cycle and a lower close rate.
• Fixing it started with the pipeline itself, not with pushing reps to work harder.

Give Every Rep the Right Size Pipeline, Not Just More Deals

• Pieter's team found that around 120 opportunities was the right pipeline size for most of their account executives, though the number flexes based on how efficient a rep is.
• Instead of leaving reps to self source every opportunity, the team loads a portion of that pipeline for them, so reps spend more time working real opportunities and less time hunting for net new business.
• Their market of five to ten thousand financial institutions is well defined, which makes it possible to plan pipeline size with real precision instead of guessing.

Split the Pipeline: 70 Percent Pre-Handraiser, 30 Percent Post-Handraiser

• Of those 120 opportunities, about 70 percent sit in the pre-handraiser stage, where reps are still working to connect with people.
• The remaining 30 percent sit in the post-handraiser stage, where there's already an active, ongoing conversation with the customer.
• That split keeps reps focused on outreach without starving the deals that are already moving.

Marketing and Sales Load the Pipeline Together

• Pieter is careful to point out that loading the pipeline isn't a sales-only effort. It's a collaboration between sales leadership and marketing leadership.
• Marketing helps identify and prioritize which accounts and departments actually fit where Tax Guard's solution applies.
• That partnership is part of why the team can hand reps a healthier mix of fast cycle and slow cycle opportunities instead of leaving it to chance.

Why They Kept AEs on the Full Buyer Journey Instead of Handing Off to BDRs

• Because their solution requires ongoing education, Pieter's team decided against using BDRs or SDRs to book appointments and hand off to AEs.
• The same person a buyer starts talking to needs to stay with them as a trusted advisor through the entire education process.
• Pieter is clear that this only makes sense because of how complex and unfamiliar their solution is. A more transactional sale can absolutely work with a BDR handoff.

The Cadence: 17 Touches Over 70 Days

• Each opportunity in the pipeline follows a defined cadence, roughly 17 touches over 70 days, with three to five contacts tied to each account.
• That structure turns follow-up into a math exercise. Once you know the number of opportunities, steps, and contacts, you know almost exactly how many activities a rep needs to complete each day.
• The cadence isn't automated. Reps still show up and do the work themselves, which keeps the process personal instead of robotic.

Personalization Is What Makes the Math Work

• Pieter gets five to six hundred pitches a day himself, so he knows exactly what gets ignored: generic, unpersonalized outreach.
• His team uses AI to gather background information quickly, but the personal touch, referencing where someone went to school or what they care about, still has to come from the rep.
• That combination of structure and personalization is what actually breaks through the noise instead of just adding to it.

How They Catch Reps Who Are Gaming Activity Numbers

• To catch reps who rack up huge activity numbers without real substance, like hanging up before voicemail or blasting the same email to everyone, Pieter's team looks past raw activity totals.
• They review call recordings and email engagement to see whether real conversations are actually happening, not just whether the activity got logged.
• The goal isn't to catch people doing something wrong. It's to find the reps who are getting real engagement and figure out what they're doing differently so the whole team can replicate it.

Weekly and Monthly Rhythms Keep the Team Accountable

• Every rep gets a weekly one on one that covers both big strategic issues, like what's happening in the market or with competitors, and specific opportunities that need a plan to close.
• Once a month, Pieter's team reviews the front end metrics as a group: how many people are in cadence, how many emails are opening, how many real conversations are happening.
• They also track Net Promoter Score to measure how the sales experience actually felt to the buyer, not just whether a deal closed.

Their Tech Stack: Salesforce, Gong, Gong Flows, and Delighted

• Salesforce is their core CRM, and Pieter says most of what makes it powerful is what gets plugged into it.
• Gong records and analyzes sales conversations, which lets the team track things like how often pricing objections come up and coach reps faster than they could otherwise.
• Gong Flows adds structured outreach sequences with AI built in, and Delighted measures NPS so the team can see how the buying experience felt from the customer's side.

The Numbers Pieter's Team Watches Every Week

• Close rate and pipeline velocity are the two headline numbers Pieter checks first, since they show whether the whole system is working.
• Underneath those, his team tracks how long deals sit in each of their seven pipeline stages, with alerts when something sits too long.
• They also watch the quality of the opportunities reps are given and how well each rep prospects into the right people, since strong activity numbers mean nothing if they aren't pointed at the right accounts.

"Activities create opportunities, opportunities create sales. The only thing we control is our activity level." — Pieter Leenhouts

Resources

• Connect with Pieter Leenhouts on LinkedIn.
• Learn more about Tax Guard, a Cogency Global company.
• 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.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

That contradiction sent her down a research rabbit hole that turned into a 29-year career studying sales call reluctance. Connie broke down for me why being too nice is one of the most expensive habits a seller can have, and what to do about it instead.

The Napping Salesperson Who Became a Call Reluctance Expert

• Years ago, Connie was a highly motivated, highly goal-oriented seller who kept finding herself taking naps at two in the afternoon instead of prospecting.
• That contradiction led her to a book called The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance, written by two behavioral scientists, and eventually to their fear-free prospecting workshop and eight weeks of coaching.
• She's been a licensee with that research organization for 29 years, and still uses the same assessment to diagnose call reluctance in sellers today.

Being Too Nice Is a Real, Named Problem: The Yielder

• Connie's research identifies 16 types of sales call reluctance, and the most costly one is called the yielder.
• Yielders are great with people. They can open a conversation and build rapport easily, but they struggle to move a conversation past that rapport into the next real step.
• The belief driving it: the nicer I am, the more they'll like me, and the more likely they are to buy. Connie is direct that this isn't true, and it leads yielders to back off and hope the prospect closes the deal for them.

The Three Types of Yes You'll Hear in a Sales Conversation

• A committed yes means the prospect is genuinely engaged and agreeing to a real next step.
• A counterfeit yes sounds positive but has nothing behind it, things like "send over some information" or "call me in two months."
• A confirmation yes happens when a prospect confirms something concrete, like who else is involved in the decision. Yielders are the most likely to accept counterfeit yeses at face value and build their forecast on them.

Nice Versus Kind Aren't the Same Thing

• Connie draws a clear line: nice is agreeable and comfortable. Kind is asking a question the prospect has never considered, and actually working to solve their problem.
• Her definition of selling is solving people's problems for a profit, and staying kind means keeping the conversation pointed at the actual problem instead of just keeping things pleasant.
• If there's no real problem to solve, no amount of niceness changes that. The relationship alone was never going to be what closed the deal.

Stop Overinvesting in Rapport

• Spending too much time on small talk, weather, sports, general connection, feels productive to a yielder, but it isn't what closes business.
• Connie points out that most people don't buy because a rep shares their taste in baseball. They buy because the rep solved a real business problem.
• Her fix: be friendly, be kind, but get to the point quickly, and have real, prepared questions ready to move the conversation rather than lingering in rapport building.

Understand the Objection, Don't Just Try to Overcome It

• Connie's approach breaks from the standard sales training instinct to power through and overcome objections. Instead, she teaches getting curious about the objection itself.
• Yielders tend to treat objections as conflict, and conflict is exactly what they're trying to avoid, so they steer around it instead of naming it directly.
• Her technique borrows from Chris Voss's negotiation work: label the emotional component behind the objection out loud, which takes practice but opens up a much deeper conversation.

Get Curious to Go Beyond the Surface-Level Problem

• It's easy to stop at a surface-level answer, like a prospect saying they need a new CRM, and move straight to a quote without digging further.
• Connie recommends calibrated what and how questions, prepared in advance, to get past the surface answer to what's actually driving the frustration.
• Her rule of thumb: curiosity isn't intellectual, it's emotional. The best sellers can set aside their own agenda long enough to keep asking, sometimes with something as simple as "what else?"

How to Actually Fix This in Yourself

• Connie's advice starts with getting genuinely curious as a practice, not just a technique, including reading about curiosity and noticing how much more interesting curious people's lives tend to be.
• She recommends writing the actual inner dialogue down on paper: naming the specific fears behind the hesitation, like fear of pushback on price or fear of a difficult implementation.
• The goal isn't to lose the warmth that makes yielders likable. It's pointing that same personality at pulling out the truth instead of avoiding it.

"My definition for selling is solving people's problem for a profit." — Connie Kadansky

Resources

• Connect with Connie Kadansky on LinkedIn. She publishes an article on sales call reluctance about once a week.
• Visit Connie's company, Exceptional Sales Performance, to learn more about her coaching and the SPQ assessment.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.
• Visit Blue Mango Studios for help creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Adam built his first sales skills knocking on doors selling exterior cleaning services, and today he coaches founders and sales teams on turning conversations into paying clients.

We talked about why overthinking kills deals, how the first five minutes of a call sets the frame for everything after, and the two-call process he uses to close more business.

Stop Overthinking and Take Action

• Adam's biggest message: sales gets overcomplicated. Most people already have enough information to move, but they stall out gathering more instead of acting on what they have.
• People stuck in analysis paralysis are the ones who need every detail mapped out before they'll take a single step, and that costs them in a fast moving environment like sales.
• The reps and leaders who win aren't the ones with the perfect plan. They're the ones who execute, look at the results, and adjust from there.

Think Like an Archaeologist, Not an Architect

• Adam's framework, borrowed from his mentor: an architect needs total certainty before building, since every measurement has to be right before anything gets built.
• An archaeologist works the opposite way. They dig in one spot, see what's there, and adjust based on what they find, since nobody knows exactly what's underground until they start.
• Sales works like archaeology, not architecture. You have a general idea of where to focus, then you test, learn, and adjust instead of waiting for certainty that never comes.

There's No One Right Sales Process

• Adam pushes back on the idea that there's a single correct sales methodology to follow, whether that's MEDDIC, Challenger, or anything else.
• What matters is consistently doing the fundamentals: finding the real issue, talking to the right person, and building enough value that price stops being the objection.
• Getting stuck choosing the "perfect" framework is its own form of analysis paralysis, and it keeps people from ever getting real reps in.

The First Five Minutes Sets the Frame

• A call handled poorly in the first few minutes can cost the entire sale, because that's when the frame and the agenda get set.
• Whoever asks the questions controls the call. Without setting that frame early, a buyer with a strong personality will take over the conversation entirely.
• Adam learned this the hard way early in his career, watching experienced buyers steer his calls before he had a structure in place to prevent it.

Three Parts of Opening a Call: Icebreaker, Frame, Agenda

• The icebreaker is genuine, unscripted small talk. It should feel like a normal conversation, not a routine, and it should be dropped if the other person clearly isn't in the mood for it.
• The frame reminds the buyer why the call is happening and how they got connected in the first place, since a call booked weeks ago often gets attended on autopilot without that context.
• The agenda tells the buyer exactly how the call will run, before a single discovery question gets asked. Adam explicitly tells prospects he'll ask questions first, then invite them to a second call if it's a genuine fit.

Always Book the Next Meeting From the Meeting

• Adam uses what he calls BAMFAM, book a meeting from a meeting. If a prospect says they'll "arrange something" later, that call almost never happens.
• The second call needs to get booked on the calendar before the first call ends, since people get busy and forget otherwise.
• This is a small habit that protects momentum on every deal in the pipeline.

Build a Personalized Game Plan Before the Second Call

• Between the two calls, Adam reviews the discovery call transcript and notes, then builds a plan using the prospect's own language and specific pain points.
• On the second call, he walks through that plan, framed as free coaching rather than a pitch, which is what makes prospects want to see more detail instead of feeling pitched to.
• The transition into the actual offer is simple: he tells them the plan isn't quite as simple as the summary, offers to show them more detail if they want it, and lets the prospect self-select into hearing the pitch.

How to Actually Start Taking Action

• Adam's advice for anyone stuck in analysis paralysis: first figure out what's actually driving the hesitation, whether it's fear of rejection or something else, since you can't fix what you haven't named.
• After that, find the smallest possible action you can take today, not the biggest.
• Small wins build confidence, and that confidence compounds until the actions that felt out of reach start to feel normal.

"Think about what is the smallest action you can take today. Gain confidence from every action you take, and it compounds." — Adam Mark Louther

Resources

• Connect with Adam on Instagram: @adammarklouther. He offers a free 45-minute discovery call to talk through where your sales process may be losing deals.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.
• Visit Blue Mango Studios for help creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Jordan went from a bored kid who got into trouble to a Wall Street attorney to the host of one of the biggest interview podcasts around. And the thread running through all of it is relationships. The principles here haven't aged a bit. This episode explores all of it.

Why Jordan Started Studying This in the First Place

• Jordan assumed people with strong networks were either born into them or got there through some elite club or school connection.
• That changed on Wall Street, when he realized everyone around him was just as smart and just as hardworking. Being the smartest or the hardest worker in the room was no longer a real advantage.
• A partner at his firm who was rarely in the office turned out to be out generating business through relationships, not hiding from work. That single conversation changed how Jordan thought about his entire career.

Relationships Are the Foundation, Not the Finishing Touch

• Jordan compares skipping networking to building a house without a foundation. You don't add the roof and windows first and figure out the foundation later. It doesn't work that way with a business or a career either.
• The most common mistake people make is pushing networking to later. Entrepreneurs tell themselves they'll focus on relationships once the website, the product, and the ads are all dialed in first.
• By the time most people realize they skipped it, it's already cost them. Jordan points to the classic moment of watching someone else get promoted to become your boss, when the real difference often wasn't skill. It was who built relationships along the way.

Skip Networking Events That Aren't Curated

• Jordan's rule: avoid any networking event open to the general public. If anyone can walk in, there's a strong chance the room is full of people looking to take, not give.
• He describes his own experience at open mixers: a rotating cast of financial planners, car salesmen, and life coaches all working the room for a stale cookie and a captive audience.
• A curated event, like a real chamber of commerce meeting full of actual business owners, is worth your time. If you can't get invited to one, Jordan's advice is simple: build your own.

Why Giving First Actually Scales Better Than Closing

• Jordan contrasts the old "always be closing" mindset with what he calls ABG, always be giving. Closing limits you to the handful of people in a room who happen to need exactly what you sell.
• Giving opens up nearly everyone in the room, because you're looking for what they need instead of trying to match them to your offer.
• Jordan's example: instead of pitching graphic design services to someone who doesn't need them, he'd ask what they're working on, then connect them to someone in his network who can genuinely help. That's scalable in a way that chasing a single sale never is.

Don't Keep Score

• Giving only works if it's not secretly transactional. Jordan warns against what he calls keeping score: doing favors while quietly expecting something back later.
• He illustrates this with a story about a friend who drove a neighbor to the airport repeatedly, expecting it to eventually turn into a relationship, then got upset when it didn't. The resentment showed up in every interaction afterward, and the other person had no idea why.
• The same pattern shows up constantly in sales. A rep gives a free tip, then pitches the very next interaction. That turns a relationship into a quid pro quo, and people can feel it immediately.

Dig the Well Before You're Thirsty

• Jordan's core advice: build relationships long before you need them. Waiting until you need a job or a referral to start networking is like keeping a spare tire in the trunk and only thinking about it after you're already stuck on the highway.
• His practical exercise: write down the ten people you'd call if you lost your job tomorrow, then reach out to them this week, while you don't need anything from them.
• That single habit, reaching out with nothing to ask for, is what separates people with a real network from people scrambling to build one under pressure.

"You have to give first, not just because it's a great Zig Ziglar quote or a Brian Tracy principle. It's because it's logistically easier for me to find a need that you have than it is to match a need you have with a service that I provide." — Jordan Harbinger

Resources

• Listen to The Jordan Harbinger Show, wherever you get your podcasts, or visit JordanHarbinger.com.
• Check out 6 Minute Networking, Jordan's free course on building real relationships.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.
• Visit Blue Mango Studios for help creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

This episode is brought to you in part by HubSpot.

You don't become the world's most valuable women's sports franchise by accident. Angel City Football Club did it with a little help from HubSpot, unifying their website, email, and fan experience in one platform, and growing their database 300 percent in two years. Visit hubspot.com to hear how HubSpot can help your team grow better.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator uses AI-powered recommendations and real-time account insight to help you spend less time searching and more time selling, all powered by LinkedIn's network of over 1.2 billion professionals. Try it free for 60 days at linkedin.com/sell.

This episode is brought to you in part by Blue Mango Studios.

Imagine using a podcast as a lead generation source, attracting your ideal customer while getting qualified leads. Find out more at bluemangostudios.com.

Credits

The Sales Evangelist Podcast is created by the Sales Evangelist Sales Training Organization. It is produced by TSE Studios. Our podcast production manager is Nancy Paul. Our audio engineer is Jerchin Obyale. Our video engineer is Dasan Kunado. Guest management is done by Jill Vito and Christy Vertus. Our content writer is Carlisa Galbreath. Our graphic designer is Urvish Savalia, and Donald C. Kelly is your host and executive producer.

Why Most Cold Emails Never Get Opened

• People are buried in email. I was already at 67 messages by mid-morning when I recorded this, and I expected to hit 100 by the end of the day. Executives at bigger companies get even more.
• Less than ten percent of even a highly targeted email actually gets opened.
• If you want to land in that ten percent, everything starts with standing out immediately, not with writing a longer pitch.

Your Subject Line Has to Earn the Open

• The subject line is the first thing anyone sees, so it has to catch attention completely on its own.
• A common mistake, according to MailChimp, is a subject line that doesn't actually reflect what's in the email. Whatever you promise in the subject line has to match the message inside.
• The subject line also needs to spark curiosity instead of pitching outright. It should raise a question in the reader's mind that makes them want to open it.

Personalize the Subject Line With Real Research

• I referenced an example from Sales Hacker where a rep researched a prospect's Twitter, found out he was a Manchester United fan, and wrote the subject line, "Why a Man U fan is the best fit for sales enablement?"
• That kind of specific, researched detail makes a prospect stop and think the email is actually about them, not a mass blast.
• The goal is to find something real about the person, then build a question around it that gets them thinking before they've even opened the email.

Your Opening Line Has to Deliver on the Subject Line's Promise

• Once someone opens the email because of the subject line, the first sentence has to immediately pay that off.
• In the Manchester United example, the email opened by comparing Manchester United fans to sales enablement leaders, tying the personal hook directly into the pitch.
• Whatever personal detail earned the open needs to connect naturally to the product or service being pitched, right from the start.

Write Your Email Like the Letter F

• I picked this up from The Sales Development Playbook: structure the email so it looks like the letter F. A longer first line, a shorter second line, and lines that keep tapering down after that.
• Long emails are one of my biggest pet peeves, especially when people pitch me to be a podcast guest. I'm upfront about it: I won't read a long email, and it's likely to get deleted or ignored.
• Keeping an email close to the length of a text message makes it far more likely the prospect actually replies.

Keep the Call to Action Simple and Direct

• Every email needs a clear call to action that asks for a specific response, not something vague.
• Simple questions work best, like asking which day works best or whether the topic is something they'd be interested in.
• The easier the ask, the easier it is for the prospect to just hit reply, which is the entire goal of a cold email in the first place.

Skip the Fake Personalization

• I can spot a scraped, auto-generated email immediately. My LinkedIn profile reads "Donald C. Kelly," so any email that uses that exact version instead of how I'd actually be addressed gives itself away.
• Prospects notice the same thing. Sending "Hi Barbara S. Smith" instead of "Hi Barbara" is an instant tell that the email isn't personalized.
• Real personalization means using the way someone would actually be addressed, then tying the rest of the email back to something specific about them.

Tie Your Pitch to What Actually Matters to Them

• The best cold emails connect directly to whatever the recipient actually cares about. For me, that's downloads and value for my audience, so a strong podcast pitch speaks directly to that.
• Figure out the real business driver for the person you're emailing, then show how what you're offering moves that number, instead of just describing your product.
• Combine that with the F-shaped structure and a simple call to action, and the email does its one job: move the person to reply and take the next step.

"Keep it simple. The simpler it is, the better. The easier it is for me to hit reply and give you a quick answer, I'm game, and I'm all in it." — Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• Check out The Sales Development Playbook by Trish Bertuzzi, the book behind the F-shaped email structure.
• Join TSE Hustlers League this semester to improve your win rate and move deals through your pipeline.
• Visit Blue Mango Studios for help creating podcast production content.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

The problem is that most reps don't stop prospecting because they don't know how. They stop because meetings, active deals, and everything else on their calendar slowly take over. A few missed prospecting sessions turn into a weak pipeline, and then the scramble begins.

In this solo episode, I break down the discipline framework I coach sales reps to use: set a specific goal, work backward from the number, protect the time needed to hit it, and create accountability around the activity. Once you know your numbers, you can stop guessing whether your pipeline will be full next month and start building toward it.

Why Busy Reps Still End Up With Empty Pipelines

• Most reps who fall off on prospecting aren't too busy, they have a discipline problem.
• The common pattern is a quick sprint, a day or two of hard prospecting, then tapering off once meetings and existing opportunities take over.
• Fixing that starts with three things: a clear goal, a real plan, and accountability.

Set a Clear, Specific Goal

• Start with a real number, not a vague intention. If the goal is three appointments a week, that's twelve a month.
• Work backward from that number to see what it actually produces. If thirty percent of those appointments convert and the average deal size is ten thousand dollars, that goal turns into real revenue you can calculate.
• This has to come from prospecting specifically, not from marketing leads or referrals, since those sources aren't predictable enough to plan around.

Build a Real Plan Around the Numbers

• Once the goal is set, break it into the actual outreach required to hit it. Twelve appointments might take 150 meaningful outreach activities across LinkedIn, phone calls, and email.
• Spread that number across the week and it turns into a simple daily target, for example twenty outreach activities a day over five days.
• The plan only works if those activities are aimed at the right people. This isn't random outreach. It's outreach to an ICP with a real trigger and a problem the rep can actually solve.

Block the Time and Protect It Like a Client Meeting

• Set aside dedicated prospecting time on the calendar every day, and treat it as sacred, not something that gets bumped for anything less than a real emergency.
• Vary the time of day across the week, since calling the same people at the same time every day just means catching them at their busiest moment more often than not.
• Putting it on the calendar is what keeps prospecting from quietly disappearing once the day fills up with meetings and existing deals.

Track Every Activity As You Do It

• Physically tracking each activity, even something as simple as a tally on paper, turns prospecting into a game instead of a chore.
• Watching the count climb toward the daily target builds momentum, because hitting that number becomes the signal that the appointment is on its way.
• There's a psychological win here too. Even on a day when the outcome hasn't shown up yet, finishing the activity gives a real sense of accomplishment, which matters in a job that includes a lot of rejection.

Add Accountability On Top of the Plan

• A goal and a plan aren't enough on their own. There has to be a return and report, some way the rep has to answer for whether the work got done.
• This can be as simple as a one-on-one check-in or a message in a group chat confirming the day's activities are complete.
• Giving a rep the latitude to manage their own day works best when it's paired with a clear expectation that they report back on it.

Pearson's Law: What Gets Measured Improves

• Pearson's Law says that when performance is measured, performance improves. When it's measured and reported to someone else, the improvement happens even faster.
• None of this requires reaching out to people randomly. It means knowing your numbers, knowing your KPIs, and running the same plan every single day.
• Do this consistently, and there's no version of this where a rep doesn't build the pipeline they need. This is what separates top sellers from everyone else.

"When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of performance increases dramatically." — Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• Grab the Sales Evangelist Sales Planner on Amazon to help you set your goals, plan your activities, and stay accountable.
• 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.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Most Sales Are Won After the Fifth Contact

• According to Salesforce, less than 20 percent of sales happen in the first few points of contact.
• 82 percent of sales happen between the fifth and twelfth point of contact.
• Most sales reps stop following up long before they reach that window, which means they're walking away from the majority of their pipeline.

Know Where Your Buyer Really Is in the Buying Cycle

• Before you follow up, figure out where the buyer actually is. Some people aren't even aware they have the problem you solve yet.
• Corrie says salespeople often compete with a purchase in a completely different category, not just a direct competitor.
• Understanding that stage changes how, and how often, you should be reaching out.

The Four Types of Follow-Up: Information, Education, Entertainment, and Service

• Corrie breaks follow-up into four categories, and they have to happen in order: information, education, entertainment, then service.
• Skipping the order, especially jumping to entertainment before you've built credibility, makes a rep look unprofessional instead of likable.

Information Follow-Up Covers Your Product and Company

• This is the follow-up most reps already do: spec sheets, product comparisons, and warranty details.
• Corrie also uses this stage to introduce the buyer to the service team they'll work with after the sale, so promises made during the pitch feel real.

Education Follow-Up Turns You Into an Advisor

• Education follow-up gives the buyer something useful whether they buy from you or not, like an honest guide to navigating your industry.
• Corrie points to the movie Air, where Nike won over the Jordan family by telling them exactly what to expect from competitors before ever pitching a shoe.
• This step also means telling buyers the hard questions they should ask your competitors, even when it makes your own company look more exposed.

Entertainment Comes After You've Earned Trust

• Entertainment, things like memes, a pizza delivery, or a Rubik's Cube with a clever note, only works once you've already built credibility.
• Trying to build rapport before trust exists makes a buyer more suspicious, not less.

Service Follow-Up Closes the Loop

• Service follow-up means offering something small and free, like a low cost version of your product, a free workshop, or a discounted service, to prove your competence before the big ask.
• It comes last because you don't want to give away value to buyers who are still early in the process.

Physical Follow-Up Beats Digital

• Every digital follow-up competes with hundreds of unread emails and notifications already on a buyer's phone.
• A physical card, book, or package sits on someone's desk with no competition, and Corrie treats that as one of the most underused tools in follow-up.

Play the Long Game With Every Prospect

• Some deals will close this month, some in three months, and some won't close for a year. Reps need to plan follow-up around that reality instead of giving up early.
• Corrie's rule: do something today that your future self will thank you for.

"Don't expect him to spend fifty grand with you if you won't spend fifty dollars on him." — Corrie George

Resources

• Learn more about Corrie's sales trade school, YESA.
• Learn more about Corrie's home security company, Canada First.
• 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.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

I sat down with Anthony Reeves, a former global executive at Amazon, WPP, LVMH, and Airbnb, to talk about the real reason executives ghost you. It's not what most sellers think.

Executives Aren't Ghosting You, They're Protecting Themselves

• Executives get to their position by protecting their career and their company, and staying out of trouble.
• The number one question running through their head in a pitch is whether this decision could embarrass them personally or embarrass the company.
• If a sales conversation doesn't address that fear directly, it gets pushed to the back burner, which looks a lot like ghosting.

Slow Down. You're Probably Over-Preparing

• Anthony spent years as the final decision maker at companies like Amazon and WPP, with back to back thirty minute meetings from morning to night.
• By the time a deal reaches an executive's desk, it's often already been vetted by their team. They just want confirmation, not a full pitch from scratch.
• Sales reps who try to sell all the way through the meeting are working against how executives actually make decisions.

Get to the Point in the First Few Minutes

• Anthony has sat through pitches that took twenty five minutes to get to the point. At his level, he needed the point in the first few minutes.
• He recommends opening with a short greeting, then moving straight into what you're there to talk about: the product, the plan forward, the price, and the benefit to their organization.
• That structure resets a busy exec's mind fast, since they're usually jumping straight from a completely different meeting into yours.

Let Data Do the Convincing

• One of the best lessons Anthony learned at Amazon was to make decisions with data, not opinion.
• Jeff Bezos's rule was that seventy percent of the data is usually enough, with the rest filled in by good judgment.
• Data driven pitches remove the office politics and personal bias from a decision, which makes it easier for an executive to say yes.

Data Levels the Playing Field for Junior Sellers

• At the enterprise level, a purchase usually has to clear procurement, legal, compliance, and IT, four teams that rarely speak the same language.
• Data is the one language all four of those teams can agree on.
• Anthony says a junior sales rep with strong data can out argue the most senior person in the room, because the data doesn't care who's presenting it.

Think Like the Person You're Pitching

• Executives are jumping from meeting to meeting all day, often with almost no gap in between.
• Anthony suggests opening with a quick, genuine greeting, then naming exactly what the meeting will cover so the buyer can mentally reset.
• That small structure change respects their time more than small talk does.

Don't Hide the Facts, Especially the Price

• Every fact in a deal comes out eventually, so there's no reason to delay the ones that matter most, especially price.
• Anthony compares a slow sales pitch to a used car lot that won't just tell you the price. Buyers respect a rep who's upfront, even about the tough numbers.
• Getting to price early doesn't kill a deal. It builds the trust that keeps the conversation moving.

Build a Set of Principles You Won't Cross

• Anthony points to Amazon's leadership principles, especially customer obsession, as an example of a rule that guided every decision regardless of the revenue on the table.
• He's turned down revenue in the past because saying yes would have gone against a personal or company principle, and it paid off long term.
• Reps who define their own non negotiables ahead of time make faster, more confident decisions in the room.

The Real Reason Executives Ghost You

• If you push a short term sale that embarrasses or overwhelms the buyer, you lose the long term relationship, and most future business comes from existing customers.
• Sometimes the right move is to say no to a deal, because protecting the relationship is worth more than the transaction.
• Thinking long term, and putting the buyer's reputation ahead of the sale, is what keeps executives responding instead of disappearing.

"Sometimes saying no and not embarrassing the customer is actually a really good thing. It'll benefit you in the longer term." — Anthony Reeves

Resources

• Connect with Anthony Reeves on LinkedIn.
• Visit Anthony's website.
• 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.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Why Going Upmarket Takes More Than A New Sales Pitch

• Everyone wants to go upstream because that's where the bigger checks are.
• But most of what determines success in that move has nothing to do with the sales team specifically.
• The nuance that gets missed is making sure the entire company is aligned before sales even starts prospecting.

Get The Full C-Suite Aligned On What Upmarket Means

• Executive alignment is one of the most overlooked pieces of any strategic pivot.
• Allie shared an example of a European tech company acquired by a US private equity firm. They were winning in mid market, but got pushed to chase enterprise names without ever redefining their tech stack, competitive positioning, or pricing for that new buyer.
• Alignment starts with reassessing the ideal customer profile, setting clear timelines, and agreeing on sales goals across the entire executive team, not just sales and marketing.

How To Start The Alignment Conversation

• Sit down with every executive individually and ask them to walk through their view of the strategy, the priorities, and what they'd sacrifice to hit the top priority.
• Comparing those individual answers is what surfaces the alignment gaps.
• These gaps aren't a sign that someone doesn't understand the business. They show up naturally as a company grows.

Build The Internal Narrative Before You Move

• Once the executive team is aligned, someone needs to pull all of that input together into a clear story: why now, what this means for the business, and where the company expects to be in six, twelve, and eighteen months.
• Every function needs a clear answer to what they will start doing, stop doing, and continue doing to support the shift.

What Changes Across The Company When You Go Upmarket

• Operations often need a new delivery and onboarding model, since enterprise buyers expect dedicated implementation, service level agreements, and stronger security and compliance.
• HR has to rethink hiring and compensation to attract account executives with enterprise level experience.
• Finance has to shift pricing from mid market volume discounts to value based enterprise pricing, and plan for margin drag from longer sales cycles and bigger discounts.

Why Passive Agreement Kills The Shift

• Leaders often nod along when a strategy shift gets presented, but never work out the specific details for their own function.
• Allie calls this passive agreement. Everyone agrees at the 30,000 foot level, but nobody has actually mapped out their piece of the work.
• Companies without full alignment still make progress. It just takes longer and feels less cohesive.

Build The Roadmap And Reinforce It Constantly

• The roadmap breaks the strategy down into specific actions for each function, plus a communication plan for cascading the message through every level of the company.
• One message or one town hall is not enough. Allie points to research showing it can take twenty to twenty five repetitions for people to grasp a more complex concept.
• Consistency is what keeps people on track. The message people hear today should be the same message they hear next week and two months from now.

How To Spot An Alignment Gap On Your Own Team

• Ask your team what the strategy is and what goals you're working toward.
• If everyone gives close to the same answer, your team is aligned.
• If the answers are vague or different, you've found your alignment gap, and that's exactly where to focus next.

"If everybody gives you the exact same answer, you have your alignment. If you're getting vague or varied answers, you've unearthed your alignment gap." — Allie Disken

Resources

• Connect with Allie Disken on LinkedIn. She shares her free alignment diagnostic and productivity drag calculator there.
• 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.
• Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Why Sales and Marketing Still Don't Work Together

• Traditional 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 Goal

• Most 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 Week

• Sales 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 Matter

• Customer 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 It

• Marketing 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 At

• Marketers 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 Sells

• Mark'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 Kapczynski

Resources

• Learn 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 Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Never Pitch First

• The fastest way to kill a new LinkedIn conversation is to pitch right away.
• When someone replies to you, keep the conversation focused on them before you bring up your product or service.

Make The Conversation About Them

• One of the easiest ways to find something to talk about is to look at what the person posts on LinkedIn.
• I'll drop a prospect's profile link into Claude or ChatGPT and ask for ideas on how to start a natural conversation with them.
• If they post about something like running marathons or self improvement, use that as your opener. Ask a real question about it.

Use Voice And Video Messages

• Voice and video messages inside the LinkedIn app get far better replies than plain text.
• Record them natively in the LinkedIn app, not through Loom or another video tool. It feels more real, and prospects respond to that.
• Always end your voice or video message with a question. That question is what pulls the reply out of them.

Give It A Day Or Two

• Don't ask for anything the same day someone replies to you.
• Wait a day or two, then ask a permission based question tied to something specific about them or their company.
• This is what turns small talk into a real business conversation.

Message The Right People

• None of this works if you're messaging random people.
• Build your outreach around people who fit your ideal customer profile. Target the accounts and titles you actually want to work with.
• Relevant messages get relevant replies.

Turn It Into An Appointment

• Once someone shows interest, ask if they're open to a five to seven minute conversation.
• If you can't explain what you offer in five to seven minutes, that's a sign to tighten up your pitch first.

"If you can't explain what you offer in five to seven minutes, you don't have a right to ask for someone's time." — Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• Learn the full system inside the LinkedIn Prospecting Course.
• Email Donald directly at donald@thesalesevangelist.com to ask about joining the next cohort.
• 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 Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

In this episode of the LinkedIn Response Series, I am sharing how to turn profile views into meaningful conversations that can lead to appointments and new business.

Instead of ignoring those notifications or sending an immediate sales pitch, I'll show you a simple process that helps you engage interested prospects the right way.

Why Profile Views Matter

• A LinkedIn profile view is often a sign that someone is interested in learning more about you or your business.
• They may have found you through your content, received a connection request from you, or be researching your company before reaching out.
• In many cases, prospects are doing their homework before booking a meeting. That makes profile views an early buying signal that should not be ignored.

Avoid the Wrong Response

• It is tempting to react in one of two ways: send an immediate sales pitch or do nothing at all.
• Neither approach is effective. Instead of rushing the conversation or letting the opportunity pass, use the profile view as a reason to start a genuine connection.
• The goal is to build a relationship before discussing your product or service.

Start the Conversation Naturally

• A simple, honest message can open the door to a meaningful conversation.
• If someone views your profile, take a moment to review theirs. If they look like a good fit, send a connection request with a friendly message acknowledging that they visited your profile.
• Asking why you are not already connected feels natural and often encourages a response without sounding salesy.
• Once they accept your request, continue the conversation by asking what prompted them to visit your profile. Their answer may reveal a need, an opportunity, or an interest in working together.

Focus on People Showing Interest

• Not everyone who views your profile will become a customer, and that's okay.
• Some people will decide you are not the right fit, while others are already interested in what you have to offer.
• Focus your time on the people who are engaging with your profile, content, or connection requests. Those are the conversations that are most likely to turn into appointments and future business opportunities.

Make Profile Reviews a Weekly Habit

• Following up on profile views does not have to take a lot of time.
• Set aside time each week to review who has visited your profile.
• Reconnect with people you've already engaged with, and send connection requests to new prospects who fit your ideal customer profile.
• A consistent follow-up process helps you start conversations before your competitors have the chance.

"The profile view gets overlooked, and it is a critical spot." — Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

A strong headline tells prospects immediately how you can help them, increases profile views, and encourages more conversations before you ever send a sales message.

Why Your LinkedIn Headline Matters

• Your headline is more than a job description. It helps prospects quickly decide whether you're relevant to them.

A well-written headline can:

• Increase profile views by making your profile stand out in LinkedIn searches.
• Encourage more inbound conversations from interested prospects.
• Clearly communicate the value you provide before someone reads the rest of your profile.
• Improve your visibility by using keywords your ideal buyers are already searching for.

Stop Leading With Your Company Name

• Most buyers don't care where you work unless your company is already widely recognized.
• Instead of using your company name or job title as the main focus, use your headline to explain the problem you solve. When prospects immediately recognize a challenge they're facing, they're far more likely to view your profile and engage with you.

Focus on the Right Audience

• A great headline only works when it's seen by the right people.
• Rather than trying to appeal to everyone on LinkedIn, narrow your focus to your ideal buyers. This could include people who:
• Recently changed jobs.
• Are active and posting on LinkedIn.
• Match your target industry or decision-maker profile.
• The more relevant your audience, the more effective your headline becomes.

Use a Simple Formula

One effective approach is to build your headline around three parts:

• Identify a specific problem your ideal customer is experiencing.
• Make the problem feel immediate and relevant.
• End with a question that points toward the result they want.

This approach sparks curiosity and encourages prospects to learn more about you.

Keep Your Message Simple

• Avoid technical language, company jargon, or long descriptions.
• Your headline should be short, easy to understand, and immediately clear. Prospects should know within seconds whether your profile is relevant to them.

Real Results From a Better Headline

• Even small changes can make a noticeable difference.
• After updating one team member's LinkedIn headline to focus on customer pain points instead of company information, connection requests began turning into real conversations.
• Prospects started asking buying questions and booking appointments without being pitched directly.
• The change wasn't in the outreach. It started with the headline.

What's Next?

In the next episode of the LinkedIn Response Series, I explain how to increase LinkedIn profile views so more qualified prospects actually see your profile and your headline.

"Address the problem your prospect is already thinking about, then show them the outcome they're looking for."

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

I'm revisiting a conversation from the archive with Anthony Iannarino to share practical ways to keep admin work from taking over your day. While this conversation first aired in 2020, the principles are still relevant today, especially when AI can help streamline many everyday tasks.

Busy Is Not the Same as Productive

• A full calendar does not always mean meaningful progress. As sales professionals become more successful, more requests, emails, client issues, and internal tasks naturally compete for their attention.
• The challenge is learning to separate work that creates opportunities from work that simply keeps you busy.
• Staying productive means focusing on the activities that move deals forward instead of constantly reacting to every request.

Protect Your Most Important Work

• The best time and energy should be reserved for activities that directly contribute to sales.
• Instead of starting the day by checking emails or responding to client requests, block uninterrupted time for prospecting, nurturing relationships, and preparing for important sales conversations.
• Administrative work can be handled later without sacrificing the work that drives results.

Create Boundaries Around Client Requests

• Being available for clients does not mean responding to every request immediately.
• Many transactional tasks, such as correcting invoices, retrieving reports, or resolving operational issues, belong to other departments.
• While it is important to make sure customers receive the help they need, those responsibilities should be delegated whenever possible so selling remains the priority.

Use Time Blocks to Stay Focused

• Switching between emails, CRM updates, prospecting, and meetings throughout the day makes it difficult to stay focused.
• Working in dedicated time blocks helps eliminate distractions and improves productivity.
• Setting aside uninterrupted periods for prospecting, project work, and administrative tasks makes it easier to complete each activity without constantly changing focus.

Batch Administrative Tasks Together

• Administrative work is unavoidable, but it does not have to interrupt the entire day.
• Grouping similar tasks together, such as updating the CRM, replying to emails, or completing reports, helps reduce time lost through constant task switching.
• Completing these activities during scheduled blocks keeps them from interfering with revenue-generating work.

Let Your CRM Work for You

• A CRM should be used as a tool to support future conversations, not as another task to avoid.
• Recording important notes after meetings makes it easier to remember customer goals, previous discussions, and next steps.
• Instead of relying on memory, use the CRM to capture details that strengthen future interactions and improve follow-up.

Confidence Matters More Than Endless Research

• Many sellers delay prospecting because they believe they need more research before making a call.
• Research has its place, but it should never replace meaningful outreach.
• A clear value proposition, confidence in the conversation, and consistent follow-up have a much greater impact than spending hours gathering information that may never be used.

Prioritize Opportunity Creation Every Day

• Sales success comes down to creating opportunities and winning them.
• Administrative work supports the sales process, but it does not replace it.
• Protect time for prospecting, client conversations, and relationship building before tackling lower-value tasks.
• Consistently doing the most important work first creates better long-term results.

"Do what's most important first every day without failure, and don't negotiate with yourself." — Anthony Iannarino

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

In this solo episode, Donald C. Kelly shares three practical strategies for talking about competitors with confidence and credibility. Instead of attacking another company, he explains how to use customer stories, thoughtful questions, and your prospect's own insights to position your solution as the better fit.

If you're in a competitive sales environment, this episode will help you navigate competitor conversations in a way that builds trust and moves deals forward.

Episode Breakdown with Timestamps:

Why You Should Prepare for Competitor Conversations (00:00:31 – 00:01:30)

• Donald explains that prospects are often evaluating multiple vendors at the same time.
• Rather than being surprised by competitor questions, sales professionals should prepare their messaging ahead of time and understand where their solution stands out.
• He emphasizes that preparation gives sellers confidence when those conversations arise.

Lead With Your Strengths Instead of Attacking Competitors (00:01:31 – 00:02:30)

• Donald shares his first strategy for handling competitor discussions.
• Instead of naming competitors or criticizing them directly, he recommends emphasizing the areas where your solution performs best while subtly addressing gaps that prospects may experience elsewhere.
• The goal is to keep the conversation focused on solving the customer's problem rather than attacking another company.

Let Customer Stories Do the Talking (00:02:31 – 00:07:30)

• Donald introduces his favorite approach: using customer success stories to explain why buyers switched from a competitor.
• Drawing from his experience competing against Laserfiche in the document management industry, he demonstrates how to acknowledge what a competitor does well before explaining why customers ultimately chose a different solution.
• He explains that customer experiences carry far more credibility than sales claims because they come from real users rather than the salesperson.

Use Reviews and Testimonials as Third-Party Validation (00:06:01 – 00:07:30)

• Donald encourages sales professionals to study customer reviews on platforms like G2 and Google Reviews.
• Instead of making negative claims yourself, use publicly available feedback to understand common concerns and position your solution accordingly.
• This approach allows prospects to hear criticism from existing users instead of from you.

Let Prospects Voice Their Own Doubts (00:07:31 – 00:10:30)

• The third strategy is to ask thoughtful questions.
• Donald recommends asking prospects what concerns they have about other vendors instead of volunteering criticism yourself.
• Once they share their doubts, you can validate those concerns and explain how your solution addresses the issues they're most concerned about.
• This creates a more natural and trustworthy sales conversation.

Three Strategies to Handle Competitor Questions with Confidence (00:10:31 – 00:11:39)

Donald wraps up the episode by summarizing his three-step framework:

• Build your sales conversation around your strengths.
• Use customer stories to explain why buyers switched from competitors.
• Let prospects express their own concerns before responding with customer proof and relevant examples.

Themes Discussed

• How to discuss competitors professionally
• Positioning your solution without badmouthing others
• Using customer stories to build credibility
• Leveraging online reviews in sales conversations
• Asking better questions during competitive deals
• Building trust through evidence instead of opinion

Key Quote from the Episode

"How you can talk about your competitor without badmouthing them is to have your customer do so."— Donald C. Kelly

Resources Mentioned

• G2 Reviews
• Google Reviews

Follow Donald on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldckelly

Credits

As 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.

In this episode, Donald sits down with Brandon Fluharty, enterprise SaaS sales leader, speaker, and author of The Seven-Figure Millennial. Brandon shares the mindset, systems, and practical strategies that helped him become a seven-figure earner without subscribing to hustle culture.

Throughout the conversation, Brandon explains why success in enterprise sales comes from slowing down. Choosing the right opportunities. Building meaningful customer relationships. creating a personal operating system that supports consistent performance.

If you're selling into enterprise accounts, leading complex deals, or looking to improve your sales career without burning yourself out, this episode is packed with actionable insights.

Episode Breakdown with Timestamps:

Brandon's Journey Into Enterprise Sales (00:06:03 – 00:06:56)

• Brandon shared how he transitioned from DJing while starting his sales career to eventually becoming a seven-figure enterprise SaaS seller.
• According to Brandon, reaching seven figures happened much faster than expected and taught him that success is about enjoying the process rather than chasing a destination.
• He explained that falling in love with the daily work mattered more than the financial milestone itself.

Why Slowing Down Helps You Sell More (00:06:56 – 00:09:32)

• Brandon introduced the philosophy that changed his career: slow down in order to speed up.
• He explained that constantly hustling and chasing every opportunity drains both time and energy.
• Instead, he focused on becoming intentional about where he invested his effort and chose accounts where he could create the greatest impact.

Protecting Your Time and Energy (00:09:32 – 00:12:57)

• The discussion shifted to why focus is one of the most valuable skills in enterprise sales.
• Brandon explained his Diamond Standard framework for identifying ideal accounts instead of trying to sell to every large company.
• He also shared why understanding the customer's experience gave him credibility when speaking with executive buyers.

The Three Truths About Seven-Figure SaaS Sales (00:14:18 – 00:17:09)

• Before explaining his framework, Brandon outlined three realities every seller should understand.
• According to Brandon, seven-figure earners typically sell to enterprise organizations, develop confidence through experience, and remain patient during long sales cycles.
• These three foundations make the rest of his seven-step framework possible.

Find the Right Sales Environment (00:17:09 – 00:20:00)

• Brandon explained why choosing the right company matters as much as developing sales skills.
• Rather than joining the largest organization, he recommends finding a company that's mature enough to support enterprise deals while still allowing individual sellers to make a meaningful impact.
• He also encouraged sales professionals to focus on industries creating long-term transformation, such as AI, cybersecurity, and cloud technology.

Build a Transformation Mindset (00:20:00 – 00:21:32)

• Brandon believes the best enterprise sellers don't sell products.
• They sell transformation.
• Instead of focusing conversations around features and pricing, he encourages sellers to help customers rethink how their businesses operate and prepare for long-term change.

Be Strategic About Your Target Accounts (00:21:32 – 00:26:49)

• Brandon explained how the Japanese concept of Ikigai helped him rethink account selection.
• Rather than accepting every opportunity, he prioritized companies that aligned with his interests, expertise, motivation, and ability to create meaningful change.
• According to Brandon, purpose creates the motivation needed to navigate long enterprise sales cycles.

Create Your Diamond Standard (00:29:02 – 00:30:34)

• Brandon shared the five criteria he uses to identify his ideal accounts.
• His Diamond Standard focuses on opportunities that are personally interesting, industry-leading, aligned with his expertise, capable of moving quickly, and large enough to justify significant investment.
• He explained that every seller should create a personalized framework rather than copy someone else's.

Turn Imposter Syndrome Into a Strength (00:30:53 – 00:33:01)

• Brandon discussed why imposter syndrome becomes more common as sales professionals advance.
• He shared how embracing his introverted personality allowed him to become a better listener and deeper strategic thinker.
• Instead of viewing personality traits as weaknesses, Brandon encourages sellers to turn them into competitive advantages.

Win Bigger Deals Through Collaboration (00:33:01 – 00:35:18)

• According to Brandon, seven-figure deals are never won alone.
• He explained why successful enterprise sellers build strong partnerships with legal teams, solution consultants, executives, and marketing instead of trying to control every part of the process.
• Collaboration, not ego, leads to larger opportunities.

Step Seven: Build a Personal Operating System (00:35:18 – 00:39:29)

• Brandon concluded by introducing two personal frameworks: DFC (Discipline, Flexibility, Curiosity) and PREP (Plan, Rest, Effort, Perform).
• These systems help sales professionals prepare effectively, adapt during conversations, reflect on performance, and avoid the burnout caused by hustle culture.
• According to Brandon, consistent performance comes from operating intentionally rather than simply working harder.

Themes Discussed

• The seven steps to earning seven figures in SaaS sales
• Why slowing down leads to better sales performance
• Building a transformation mindset in enterprise selling
• Creating a strategic target account list
• Overcoming imposter syndrome
• Collaborating to win enterprise deals
• Developing a personal operating system for long-term success

Key quote from the Episode:

"It's not a destination. It really is falling in love with the process." — Brandon Fluharty

Connect with Brandon Fluharty on Linkedin:

linkedin.com/in/brandonfluharty

Signup for Brandon’s Newsletter:

Be Focused Live Great

Visit Brandon’s website: brandonfluharty.com

Connect with Donald C. Kelly:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldckelly

Sponsors:

• HubSpot: hubspot.com
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Start your 60-day free trial at [linkedin.com/sell
• Blue Mango Studios: Turn your podcast into a lead generation machine at bluemangostudios.com

Featured Resources:

• Be Focused Live Great: Brandon’s newsletter for insights on professional growth.
• The Seven Steps to Earning Seven Figures: Brandon’s upcoming book on the "anti-hustle" guide to million-dollar SaaS sales.
• Mistakes That Made Me podcast

Credits:

As 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.

Meet Jason VanDevere

• Jason VanDevere is the author of the bestselling book Dream Driven and the founder of the Goal Crazy platform, which helps entrepreneurs set goals, manage their time, and actually follow through on what matters most.
• After leaving his family’s successful car dealership business, Jason went on to build a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio and create the Goal Crazy Planner, now used by tens of thousands of people to stay focused and hit their goals.
• He lives in Akron, Ohio with his wife and four children, and also shares insights as the host of the Goal Crazy Podcast.

The Power and Process of Dreaming Without Limits

• How do you know which dreams actually matter? Jason shares that when he left his family’s successful car dealership, many people saw it as a mistake. But he trusted his system and his vision enough to move forward anyway.
• For him, dreams are the space where your heart gets to express what it really wants without limitations. Goals are more structured and specific, but when your goals are connected to your deeper dreams, they carry real meaning and purpose.

Why Do We Limit Our Dreams

• Most people don’t struggle with goals, they struggle with dreaming.
• We spend so much time focused on bills, responsibilities, and staying afloat that we slowly shrink what we believe is possible. Survival mode becomes the default.
• That’s why Jason intentionally creates space for dreaming. He’ll turn on music, step away from distractions, and spend about ten minutes visualizing the life he actually wants to build.

Setting Breakthrough Goals That Stretch You

• After getting clear on your long-term dreams, the next step is choosing a yearly goal that currently feels slightly out of reach. Not impossible, but uncomfortable enough that it requires you to level up.
• The goal should be exciting, but also demanding. It should push you to learn new skills, face fears, and step outside what feels familiar.
• Jason draws from Tony Robbins’ philosophy here, emphasizing that the real value is not just hitting the goal, but becoming the person who is capable of achieving it.
• If it already feels easy or fully within reach, it is not a breakthrough goal. It is just another task on a checklist.
• The purpose of this approach is growth. You are constantly stretching, evolving, and aligning your actions with a bigger vision of what you are capable of becoming.

“A problem with goal setting is that many people skip the dreaming step. You can still set goals without dreams, but they lack direction and meaning. Without that, people end up in survival mode, just working to stay afloat. When goals are tied to real dreams, they become meaningful and bring purpose back into your life.” — Jason VanDevere

Resources

• Connect with Jason VanDevere on LinkedIn and visit GoalCrazy.com to explore his planners, resources, and coaching opportunities.
• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Meet Yiannis Gavrielides

• Yiannis Gavrielides is the co-founder and CEO of Covve, a lead capture and relationship intelligence platform helping sales teams and professionals turn every meeting into a real pipeline.
• Covve is used by over 2 million people across 130+ countries, from solo founders to global companies like Delta and Prudential.
• A serial founder across technology, media, and hospitality, Yiannis built Covve on one core belief: in an AI-first world where emails, decks, and even calls can be automated, trust is still the one thing technology cannot replace.
• Before Covve, he worked in consulting and banking in London. Today, he focuses on helping sales teams turn human connection into their most defensible competitive advantage.

Basics of Building Trust in Sales

• We’re living in an era where everything is being automated, from emails to scheduling to large parts of the sales process.
• But even in a digital-first world, very few people can walk into a room and naturally connect with everyone by the end of an event. Shout out to my good friend Jared for being able to do this.
• Connection is everything in sales. Instead of focusing on selling right away, the real shift is learning how to stay curious about people.
• Yiannis shares insights from anthropologist Professor Robin Dunbar. When we meet someone new, we immediately start looking for shared signals.
• Things like accent, humor, interests, or communication style. These small cues help us decide, often subconsciously, whether a connection is forming. That first layer of recognition is what builds trust.

Re-Booking Meetings for Success

• Successful trade show follow-up starts before the event even happens. The key is identifying the right people you want to meet and setting meetings in advance whenever possible.
• Use LinkedIn and AI tools to research key attendees so you can connect over shared industry insights instead of leading with a sales pitch.
• The goal is simple. Build relationships first, and let business conversations follow naturally.

Finding the Right Trade Shows & Preparation

• Start by clearly defining your ideal customer profile so you know exactly who you are targeting, including companies, roles, and regions.
• From there, use tools like 10times and Evensi, along with AI, to research and organize trade shows. This helps you evaluate events based on timing, size, and relevance to your audience.
• Bigger is not always better. The most effective events are the ones where your ideal buyers are actually present in meaningful numbers.
• The real advantage comes from preparation. The most successful sellers are already identifying attendees and starting conversations before they ever arrive at the show.

“When we show up as human and treat the other person like a human being with curiosity and genuine interest, we start finding what we have in common. That’s what builds trust, and that trust can then grow into something more meaningful and useful.” — Yiannis Gavrielides

Resources

• Get 20% off Covve business plans with code TSE26
• The Networker: free newsletter and podcast on relationship building
• Connect with Yiannis Gavrielides on LinkedIn.
• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

The Power of Memorable Experiences

• Brand evangelists are not created by accident. They are built through intentional experiences that feel thoughtful and immersive.
• Some of the best examples of this come from companies like Disney, where every detail is designed to fully immerse guests in the experience.
• Chick-fil-A, where every interaction is grounded in gratitude and positivity. And the Ritz Carlton, where employees are empowered to solve problems quickly and go above and beyond for guests.

Small Gestures, Big Impact

• You do not need massive systems to create loyal customers. Often, it is the small things that make the biggest difference.
• Simple actions like handwritten notes, birthday messages, or personalized videos can go a long way. Taking time to actively listen and truly acknowledge customers also helps them feel seen and valued.
• Even recognizing milestones like one-year anniversaries or highlighting loyal customers can strengthen the relationship.

The Four Levels of Buying

• Customers typically move through four stages in their relationship with a brand.
• It starts with a buyer, then a repeat buyer, followed by a loyal customer. The highest level is an evangelist, someone who not only stays with your brand but actively refers others and speaks positively about your business in places like podcasts, social media, and conversations.

“Usually it's not taking a huge fix to be able to switch and get people to become evangelists. It's just the little things. And I can tell you those little things are what make a difference.” - Donald C. Kelly.

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Pillar 1: Exceptional Onboarding

• Strong customer success starts the moment a client says yes. Onboarding should feel seamless, intentional, and personal, using things like welcome emails, videos, and thoughtful check-ins to make customers feel valued right away.
• This stage is also where buyer’s remorse can show up, so a strong onboarding process helps reinforce that they made the right decision. Even small personal touches like a handwritten note or a public shout-out can create a deeper connection early on.

Pillar 2: Consistent Communication

• Retention depends heavily on staying visible. Customers should not feel forgotten after the sale, which is why consistent communication matters.
• This can be done through newsletters, social media updates, or ongoing educational content that helps them get more value from what they purchased. Over time, this kind of communication builds familiarity and creates a sense of belonging with your brand.

Pillar 3: Deliver Unexpected Value

• One of the most powerful retention tools is giving customers more than they expect. Small, thoughtful gestures can leave a lasting impression and strengthen loyalty.
• This might look like surprise gifts, unexpected discounts, or sharing insights that would normally be behind a paywall. Exclusive content, private access, or special events can also make customers feel like they are part of something unique.

Pillar 4: Focus on Customer Success

• Customer success is not just about satisfaction. It is about results.
• Instead of simply asking if customers are happy, the focus should be on whether they are actually achieving their goals. When they are struggling, it becomes the responsibility of the business to step in with guidance, support, and hands-on help to get them back on track.

Pillar 5: Referral and Advocacy System

• Many customers are willing to give referrals, but very few businesses actually ask for them in a structured way.
• Building a system around referrals means making it easy, natural, and consistent. This includes asking at the right moments, encouraging testimonials, and recognizing customers who refer others. Over time, this turns satisfied customers into active advocates for your brand.

“91% of customers say they would be willing to give a referral, but only 11% of salespeople actually ask. That gap represents a major misalignment in the sales process.” — Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Why Customers Leave

• Many people assume customers leave because of price or missing features, but it often goes much deeper than that.
• A big reason customers walk away is because they feel forgotten after the initial sale. The relationship starts strong, but once the “honeymoon phase” is over, communication drops off.
• Others leave because they stop seeing ongoing value. If they no longer feel like they are getting something meaningful from the relationship, their interest fades over time.
• Inconsistency also plays a major role. When service starts strong but becomes unreliable, trust breaks down quickly.
• And sometimes, it is as simple as attention. If a competitor is showing up more consistently and staying top of mind, customers will naturally drift in that direction.

Shifting to a Lifetime Value Mindset

• To improve retention, sellers need to move away from a one-time transaction mindset and focus more on Customer Lifetime Value.
• Instead of thinking about a single sale, it is about what that relationship can grow into over time. A small purchase can turn into long-term value when trust and consistency are built into the relationship.
• The key shift is learning to see customers as ongoing relationships, not one-time transactions.

Strategies for Success

• Strong retention comes from staying present and intentional.
• One approach is using tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to keep track of customers, note changes in their careers or life events, and use those moments as natural ways to reconnect.
• Another is staying proactive instead of reactive. That can look like weekly tips, helpful content, or even simple handwritten notes that remind customers they are still valued beyond the initial sale.
• At the core, retention comes down to consistency, attention, and showing up even when nothing is wrong.

“It’s cheaper to keep a current customer than get a new one.” - Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Sales isn't easy, but success often comes down to staying committed when things aren't going your way. I'm sharing why determination matters, how to push through rejection, and why the sellers who keep going are often the ones who eventually succeed.

Why Determination Matters in Sales

• Early in my college years, I found myself stranded in California with a friend during a business trip.
• We had no transportation, limited options, and needed to get back to our hotel. Instead of giving up, we stayed focused on finding a solution. Because we were determined to make it back, we noticed opportunities that we might have otherwise overlooked.
• That experience reinforced a lesson I've carried with me ever since: when your reason for succeeding is strong enough, you'll find a way through obstacles that might stop other people.

Stop Letting Fear Hold You Back

• One challenge many sales professionals face is the fear of rejection. Too often, sellers hesitate to follow up because they worry about being annoying or reaching out too many times.
• But if you genuinely believe your solution can help someone solve an important problem, then it's your responsibility to start the conversation.
• Most buyers won't remember how many times you called or emailed. They'll remember the value you helped them create.

Use AI to Prospect Smarter

• Persistence is important, but that doesn't mean wasting time on the wrong opportunities.
• Today's sellers have access to AI tools that can help identify companies experiencing specific challenges and uncover prospects who are more likely to engage.
• Instead of blasting generic messages to thousands of people, you can narrow your focus and spend time with the accounts that matter most.
• The goal is simple: become more relevant and intentional with your outreach.

Take a Multi-Channel Approach

• Prospecting works best when you meet buyers where they are. That's why I encourage sellers to combine phone calls, emails, and LinkedIn outreach.
• Some prospects may respond to email, while others prefer social engagement or a direct conversation. Using multiple channels increases your chances of reaching the right decision-maker at the right time.

Get Back to the Fundamentals

• At the end of the day, sales success still comes down to the basics.
• Believe in your solution. Build a targeted list. Stay focused on the people you can help. Most importantly, remain relentless when obstacles appear.
• The sellers who succeed are often the ones who keep moving forward long after everyone else has decided to quit.

“If you have a reason strong enough, no obstacle can stop you.” - Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• Ready to transform your prospecting strategy? Check out Episode 1996 to learn a powerful new method for using Claude to achieve a refined focus.
• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Meet Tom Stearns and Peter Cleary

• Tom Stearns and Peter Cleary are the co-authors of Graphic Sales: How to Build a Prospecting Playbook, a book designed to help sales professionals build more effective prospecting strategies through visual storytelling and practical frameworks.
• Tom is a consultant who has worked with companies across dozens of industries, helping sales teams improve performance through data-driven prospecting. His work focuses on building prospecting playbooks, analyzing sales metrics, and helping organizations identify the behaviors that lead to consistent results.
• Peter previously served as a Director and Senior Director of Engineering. He believes great salespeople focus on solving business problems and that success comes through collaboration and teamwork.
• Together, Tom and Peter combine sales strategy, data analysis, and real-world business experience to help organizations create more focused and effective prospecting processes.

Building a Strong Ideal Customer Profile

• One of the biggest lessons from this discussion is the importance of knowing exactly who you should be selling to.
• The best way to build an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is by studying your most successful customers. Look at the clients who stay the longest, get the best results, and genuinely enjoy working with your company.
• From there, you can identify the traits that predict success and use those insights to guide your prospecting efforts.
• We also talked about creating a "hell no list." While many organizations focus on ideal customers, it's just as important to recognize the types of accounts that consistently create challenges, consume resources, or simply aren't a good fit.

Why Every Sales Team Needs a Playbook

• A sales playbook provides structure and consistency for an organization.
• It helps teams document what works, align around proven processes, and create repeatable success. More importantly, a playbook should never be treated as a static document.
• Markets change. Buyers change. Strategies evolve. The most effective sales teams regularly review and update their playbooks to reflect what's happening in the real world.

Become a Student of the Market

• For individual sales reps, one message stood out throughout the conversation: pay attention to the data.
• Successful sellers study their market, analyze which conversations move forward, and look for patterns in their results. They don't abandon a strategy because of a bad week or a few difficult prospects.
• Instead, they remain consistent while gathering enough information to determine whether adjustments are truly needed.

Winning in the Modern Sales Environment

• Sales has always been about helping people solve problems, but today's environment requires a more disciplined approach.
• The sellers who thrive are the ones who combine curiosity, consistency, and data-driven decision-making. When you understand your ideal customer, follow a proven process, and continually learn from the market, you put yourself in a much stronger position to succeed.

"Don't think of it as a project; think of it as a discipline." — Tom Stearns

"If you try to do it alone, you'll probably fail. Sales is a team effort, and success requires a lot of open communication and collaboration." — Peter Cleary

Resources

• Buy the guests' new book, Graphic Sales: How to Build a Prospecting Playbook, which is available globally through online retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
• Visit the website stearns.io to read the first chapter of their book for free.
• Reach out to Tom Stearns and Peter Cleary on LinkedIn to stay updated on their latest sales insights.
• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

That’s why I wanted to bring back this conversation with Jeff Koser, founder and CEO of Zebrafy. Even though this episode originally aired during the pandemic, the principles still apply today, especially when it comes to standing out in crowded markets and building trust with buyers.

Why Surface-Level Selling Doesn’t Work

• Jeff explained that too many sales reps stop at surface-level conversations.
• Customers do not buy because your product has more features. They buy because they believe you understand the real business problem they are facing and can help them solve it.
• That requires deeper research, better questions, and understanding the customer’s world before pitching a solution.

The Importance of “Voice of the Customer”

• One idea that really stood out to me was Jeff’s concept of “voice of the customer.”
• Instead of only relying on your company messaging, Jeff encourages sellers to learn directly from customers by understanding:
• the problems customers believe were solved
• the value created after solving those problems
• and the measurable business impact the solution delivered
• That insight helps sellers communicate in a way that feels more relevant and customer-focused.

Why Respectful Outreach Matters

• Jeff also shared why thoughtful outreach matters more than ever.
• Buyers are overwhelmed with emails, automated messaging, and generic pitches. Sellers who take the time to personalize their communication and genuinely understand customer priorities immediately separate themselves from the competition.
• At the end of the day, the best sales conversations happen when customers feel understood, not sold to.

“We have to recognize that what we’re selling may not be everyone’s priority right now, which is why every sales conversation should give people a respectful and simple out.” - Jeff Koser

Resources

• Connect with Jeff Koser’s website to learn more about customer-focused selling strategies, and grab a copy of Voice of the Zebra by Jeff and Chad Koser for additional insights on identifying and reaching your ideal prospects.
• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Honestly, I get it. Selling today feels different than it did a few years ago. Cold outreach is harder, inboxes are crowded, buyers are more cautious, and deals take longer to close.

When the wins slow down, it can start feeling like you’re just grinding through the motions instead of enjoying the work. But I truly believe you can get that excitement back.

Start With Your Why

• One of the biggest things that helped me was reconnecting with my purpose.
• At different stages of life, your “why” changes. Early on, mine was helping my family avoid financial struggles we experienced growing up. Today, it’s creating experiences with my wife and kids and building something meaningful through the work I do.
• Your why might be freedom, travel, financial goals, family, or building your own business someday. Whatever it is, you need something bigger than quotas pushing you forward.

Make Sales Fun Again

• Another thing that helps is creating milestones you can work toward.
• Maybe it’s reaching a certain income level, landing a leadership role, joining a startup, or eventually building your own company. When you give yourself goals beyond just surviving the quarter, sales become more exciting again.

The People and Industry Matter Too

• The environment around you matters more than people realize.
• Working with great people and selling in industries that are growing and transforming can completely change your energy. Spaces like AI and emerging technologies are creating opportunities that feel exciting again because you’re learning, growing, and helping shape something new.
• At the end of the day, you have more control over your future than you think. Sometimes finding joy again starts with deciding you’re ready for something better.

“You have control of your future. Don’t give that up to anyone else.” - Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• If you’re feeling stuck or burned out in sales, read Man's Search for Meaning to help reconnect with purpose, fulfillment, and the deeper “why” behind your work.
• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Meet Erika Chestnut

• Erika Chestnut is a transformational leader with more than 25 years of experience in the tech industry.
• She is passionate about helping individuals and teams rethink leadership, communication, and workplace culture to create stronger performance and long-term success.
• Through coaching, leadership development, and strategic guidance, Erika equips professionals with practical tools to build confidence, strengthen relationships, and lead more effectively.

The Confidence Gap Holding Women Back

• Erika shares how often women underestimate their readiness for leadership opportunities.
• She explains that many women feel like they need to accomplish every requirement before applying for a promotion, while others are comfortable taking the leap much earlier.
• Erika also shares an exercise she uses with clients where they compare their current responsibilities to the role above them. In most cases, women are already doing 50% to 75% of the next position without realizing it.
• Many women feel pressure to constantly prove themselves through performance while still struggling to advocate for their own advancement. Erika explains how this mindset can keep high performers stuck, even when they are already operating at the next level in their careers.

Why Leaders Need to Better Understand Communication Styles

• Communication styles also play a major role in career growth. Erika explains how many leaders unintentionally overlook talented women because they communicate differently from more outspoken employees.
• She also shares how some employees naturally focus on details while leaders are often focused on outcomes. When communication styles do not align, high performers can easily be misunderstood or overlooked.

Treat Your Career Like A Business

• Erika shares advice on how women can become more intentional about career growth by treating their career like a business.
• Set goals, build relationships with mentors and stakeholders, and develop a strategy for long-term advancement instead of waiting to be noticed.

“Success doesn’t come by copying somebody else. Success comes when you know who you are.” — Erika Chestnut

Resources

• Connect with Erika Chestnut on LinkedIn or visit her website to learn more about leadership development, career strategy, and building confidence as you grow into your next role.
• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

You also need to understand how businesses make money and how different decisions impact success. The problem is that many salespeople still lack strong business acumen.

That’s why I brought in Kevin Cope, CEO of Acumen Learning and author of Business Acumen for Sales Success. He shares how salespeople can strengthen their business knowledge and become more valuable business advisors during the sales process.

Meet Kevin Cope

• Kevin is the CEO of Acumen Learning, an organization that helps companies improve business acumen across their teams.
• Over the past 24 years, Acumen Learning has worked with many of the world’s largest organizations to help employees better understand how businesses grow, make money, and create long-term value.

Why Business Acumen Matters in Sales

• Too many sellers lead conversations with features and benefits instead of understanding the real business challenges buyers are facing. Kevin explains that strong salespeople think like business leaders.
• That shift changes how you prepare for meetings, ask questions, and position your solution. Instead of simply selling a product, you begin helping customers solve problems tied to revenue growth, profitability, efficiency, and cash flow.

The Five Business Drivers Every Seller Should Understand

• Kevin introduces his five business drivers framework: cash, profit, assets, growth, and people. These drivers help sellers understand how organizations measure success and make decisions.
• Once you understand what matters most to the business, it becomes easier to connect your solution to real outcomes instead of generic product messaging.

How Top Sellers Prepare Differently

• One way to improve business acumen is by spending a few minutes reviewing a company’s financials and earnings calls before a meeting.
• Kevin explains how top sellers use that information to identify challenges, understand priorities, and position themselves as trusted advisors instead of transactional sales reps.

“Business acumen is understanding how a company makes money and making good decisions around that money-making process.” — Kevin Cope

Resources

• Connect with Kevin Cope on LinkedIn and check out Business Acumen for Sales Success to learn how stronger business acumen can help you build trust, speak the language of business, and close more meaningful deals.
• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

I sat down with Gearoid Cox, CEO of SalesPipeline, to share advice on how sellers can build healthier pipelines, qualify deals more effectively, and stop wasting time on opportunities that are never going to close.

Meet Gearoid Cox

• Gearoid is the Founder and CEO of SalesPipeline, a revenue growth partner that helps SMBs build and run effective sales operations.
• With nearly 15 years of experience across startups and Fortune 500 companies, he has led teams of more than 100 people.
• He saw that many SMBs lacked the structure, talent, and systems needed to scale their sales efforts, so he built SalesPipeline to solve that problem by hiring, training, and managing high-performing sales and marketing teams.
• Originally from Ireland and now based in Tbilisi, Gearoid specializes in building high-performing sales systems that drive revenue growth.

Why Qualification Starts Earlier Than Most Sellers Think

• Qualification doesn’t always begin on the discovery call. It often starts with the outreach itself.
• Gearoid explains why sellers need to stop chasing volume for the sake of activity and focus more on understanding the actual problems buyers are facing.
• Instead of trying to book as many meetings as possible, the goal should be booking meetings with people who are genuinely qualified and have a real reason to buy.

How Bad Pipeline Data Hurts Sales Teams

• When dead deals stay in the CRM too long, it creates a false picture of what’s really happening inside the business.
• Sales leaders struggle to forecast accurately, reps waste time chasing stalled opportunities, and teams lose focus on deals that actually matter.
• Gearoid shares why sellers need to become more ruthless with pipeline management and honest about which deals are truly moving forward.

The Best Sellers Think Like Consultants

• The strongest salespeople are not simply trying to move prospects through stages. They take time to understand the buyer’s situation, the pressure they’re under, and the risks they’re trying to avoid.
• That shift changes everything. Instead of sounding transactional, sellers become trusted advisors who actually understand the customer’s world.

“People don’t need to hear that your product is perfect. They need to know what happens if something goes wrong.” — Gearoid Cox

Resources

• Connect with Gearoid Cox on LinkedIn and learn how SalesPipeline helps businesses build stronger sales systems, improve qualification, and create healthier pipelines that actually convert.
• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Why Speed Matters More Than Ever

• Today’s buyers expect answers immediately. They don’t want to wait days for a follow-up email or a scheduled demo. I break down how the rise of AI, automation, and changing buyer behavior has made speed one of the biggest competitive advantages in sales today.
• I also share how organizations are improving conversions simply by responding to leads faster and using AI to personalize outreach at scale instead of relying on outdated “spray and pray” tactics.

Discovery Wins Deals

• The best salespeople are not the best closers. They are the best at discovery. I explain why understanding operational challenges, emotional stakes, and organizational risks matters more than pushing features or rushing into demos.
• Discovery has become its own process, and the sellers who know how to diagnose real problems are the ones winning deals today.

Why Relevance Beats Volume

• Cold outreach looks completely different than it did years ago. Buyers are overwhelmed with emails, which means generic messaging gets ignored fast.
• I talk about how AI can help sales teams create more relevant outreach, improve response rates, and focus on the people who actually have the problems they solve instead of blasting messages to everyone.

The Future of Sales Is Human

• Even with AI transforming the industry, trust and human connection still matter. Buyers are researching online long before they ever talk to sales, which is why content, social selling, and in-person relationships are becoming more important than ever.

“The best closers aren’t closers. They’re world class at discovering challenges and uncovering real problems.” — Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Wesleyne Whittaker, sales professional and author of Sales Reset, joins me to challenge how most teams run demos and discovery and why it might be the reason deals are stalling. She also shares practical frameworks from her book Sales Reset to help you run more effective discovery calls.

Meet Wesleyne Whittaker

• Wesleyne Whittaker is a sales strategist, coach, and author of Sales Reset. She’s known for helping sales professionals rethink how they approach conversations so they can stop going through the motions and start actually closing deals.
• What makes her approach stand out is how she blends mindset with real sales execution. She does not just talk about what to do. She shows you how to do it in a way that feels natural and effective.
• She works with sales teams across different industries, helping them run stronger discovery calls, ask better questions, and create demos that actually connect with buyers.
• At the core of her work is a simple idea. Sales is human to human. And when you focus on understanding people first, everything else starts to fall into place.

Why Discovery Should Come First

• Wesleyne believes deals begin to close during the discovery call. If that conversation is weak, your pipeline will reflect it.
• Instead of jumping straight into a demo, she explains that discovery should focus on listening. You should be talking about 20 percent of the time while your prospect does the rest.
• That is how you uncover the real problems, not just surface level requests.

What an Effective Discovery Looks Like

• A strong discovery call starts before the meeting even begins. Research the company, understand their environment, and come prepared with one key opening question.
• From there, let the conversation guide your follow ups. The goal is to identify three to five real challenges your solution can solve.
• When both sides are learning from each other, the conversation becomes valuable.

How to Deliver a Demo That Converts

• Once you understand the problem, your demo becomes simple. Connect each challenge to a specific feature.
• Avoid showing everything. Focus only on what matters to that buyer.
• When your demo feels tailored instead of generic, it becomes easier for prospects to see the value.

“Don’t do your discovery and demo in one meeting. It’s better to cut a 30-minute call into 20 minutes and say, ‘Let’s reconnect so I can tailor this for you,’ than try to cram everything in.” — Wesleyne Whittaker

Resources

• Grab a copy of Sales Reset to learn how to run stronger discovery calls and close more deals, and don’t forget to connect with Wesleyne Whittaker on LinkedIn.
• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Leverage Intent and Relevant Data

• A big part of prospecting comes down to timing. You want to reach out when buyers are already looking for a solution.
• That is where intent data comes in. Tools like ZoomInfo and 6sense can help you identify prospects who are actively researching solutions like endpoint protection.
• When you do reach out, make it relevant. Speak directly to their industry and back it up with a recent success story from a similar company. That is what helps build credibility early.

Utilize Advanced LinkedIn Searching

• Instead of reaching out to everyone, focus on a smaller group of people who are more likely to respond.
• You can build a list of 30 to 40 individuals by narrowing your search. Look for people who are new in their roles or who have been active on LinkedIn in the past 30 days.
• You can also look at who they are connected to, especially if they follow industry influencers or are part of specific associations. That gives you a stronger starting point for outreach.

Systematize Referrals

• Referrals are one of the most overlooked opportunities in sales.
• Most prospects are open to giving referrals, but very few salespeople actually ask for them. That is a missed opportunity.
• Start making it part of your process. When you are working with a client, ask if they know others who are dealing with similar challenges. A simple ask can open the door to warmer conversations.

Target Niche Local Events

• Not every opportunity comes from online outreach. Smaller, more focused events can be a great way to connect with people directly.
• Think industry meetups or informal gatherings where conversations happen more naturally.
• These settings make it easier to build relationships and lead to introductions that feel more genuine.

The Fortune Is in the Follow-Up

• Even when you get in front of the right people, it does not mean much if you do not follow up.
• A large percentage of event attendees have the authority to make buying decisions, yet most leads never receive any follow-up at all.
• That is where the real opportunity is. Following up within 12 to 24 hours and staying consistent with your outreach can be the difference between being remembered and being forgotten.

“Nine out of ten prospects are willing to give a referral, but only about 11% of salespeople actually ask.” - Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• Do you need help on getting more referrals? Check out episode 1976.
• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Identifying Time-Bleeding Tasks

• Let me show you what’s really taking up their day. A lot of it comes down to necessary work that just takes way too long. Think about the time spent digging for information before a call. That can easily turn into 45 minutes of manual research for one prospect.
• Then there’s building proposals and assessments. Reps are sitting there formatting documents, choosing layouts, and putting together decks when that time could be spent in front of a customer.
• On top of that, you’ve got CRM updates, data entry, and internal meetings that keep pulling reps away from actual selling. It all adds up fast, and before you know it, the day is gone without much time spent with buyers.

Leveraging AI and Process Optimization

• So how do you fix it? It starts with getting rid of the work that does not need to be done manually.
• AI is making that a lot easier. Instead of spending close to an hour researching a prospect, reps can pull together key insights in just minutes. CRM updates can be automated. Meeting notes can be summarized without lifting a finger.
• And when it comes to proposals and documents, this is where better systems come in. Instead of starting from scratch every time, teams can use templates or even hand off parts of the process so reps can stay focused on selling.
• The goal here is simple. Take as much off the rep’s plate as possible so they can spend more time doing the one thing that actually drives results.

Actionable Steps for Leaders and Reps

• If you want to fix this, both leaders and reps have to take a hard look at how time is being used.
• Start by tracking it. Spend a week writing down exactly where your time goes. Prospecting, emails, research, meetings. When you see it on paper, it becomes a lot clearer where the gaps are.
• From there, leaders need to step in and protect selling time. That means cutting back on unnecessary meetings and making sure reps have systems that actually support them.
• And finally, simplify the tools. When everything is scattered across different platforms, it slows everyone down. Bringing those tools into one place makes it easier to work faster and stay organized.
• At the end of the day, this is about making sure your reps are spending more time in front of customers and less time stuck in the background work.

“Time is ticking and time is money.” - Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Maximizing Efficiency in Prep and Prospecting

• AI is taking a lot of the busy work off a seller’s plate, especially when it comes to prep and prospecting.
• Instead of spending 45 minutes digging into a single prospect, sellers can now pull together key insights in just minutes using tools like ChatGPT or Claude. That kind of time savings adds up fast.
• And it changes how sellers spend their day. When you’re saving 30 minutes or more per prospect, that time can go back into higher-value activities like engaging on LinkedIn or actually reaching out to prospects.
• AI is also making personalization easier to scale. Sellers can quickly find relevant details about a prospect and use that information to craft more thoughtful, tailored outreach without starting from scratch every time.

AI as a Sales Coach

• AI is not just helping with research. It’s starting to act like a built-in sales coach throughout the deal cycle.
• Sellers can use it to think through different scenarios before a call ever happens. By plugging in meeting notes or past conversations, AI can highlight potential risks and help them prepare more effectively for discovery.
• It’s also useful when it comes to handling objections. Instead of guessing how to respond, sellers can use AI to brainstorm different approaches, especially when they’re up against a specific competitor.
• And before a deal moves forward, AI can help pressure test it. Sellers can ask it to find gaps, weak points, or anything they may have missed so they can tighten their approach before presenting a solution.

"You're shrinking the busy work so you can focus more on selling." - Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

1. Show Them What It’s Costing to Wait

• When deals stall, it’s easy for companies to pause spending and focus on what feels urgent right now. But waiting comes with a cost.
• Instead of pushing harder, help them see what happens if nothing changes. What does it cost the business to delay? What risks are they taking on by doing nothing?
• When you lay that out clearly, the conversation shifts. It is no longer just about spending money. It becomes about avoiding a bigger loss.

2. Ask What Needs to Change, Not “When”

• Most sellers follow up with one question: “When can we move forward?” That question does not move the deal.
• A better approach is to ask, “What needs to happen for this to become a priority again?”
• Now you open up a real conversation. You start to understand what is actually blocking the deal, whether it is budget, timing, or internal pressure. Once you know that, you can position yourself to help move things forward.

3. Stay Present So You’re First When It Opens Back Up

• Sometimes there is nothing you can do at the moment. The deal is simply frozen. That does not mean you disappear.
• Stay in motion. Check in, share insights, and send relevant updates that keep you top of mind without being pushy.
• When things start moving again, the seller who stayed present is usually the one who gets the deal.

“Delays don’t kill deals. Ignoring the cost of waiting does.” - Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Why Deals Stall Even When You Do Everything Right

• You’ve done your research. You ran a solid discovery. The demo went well. And then the deal just sits there.
• A lot of times, it’s because you didn’t know who was really involved in the decision.
• On top of that, buyers are spending less time talking to sellers. They’re doing their own research and only bringing you in for a small part of the process.
• That means if you’re not connected to the right people, you can lose the deal without even realizing it.

Build a Champion Toolkit

• If you have a champion inside the company, you need to set them up to win when you’re not in the room.
• That means giving them the right information to speak to different stakeholders. Think about what the CFO cares about. Think about legal, procurement, and leadership.
• Give your champion the tools to answer those questions so they can confidently represent your solution.

Map Out the Buying Committee Early

• Don’t wait until the deal slows down to figure out who’s involved. Work with your champion early to identify everyone who has a say in the decision.
• Then figure out what matters to each person. When you understand their priorities, you can tailor your approach instead of guessing.

Multi-thread Your Way Into the Deal

• Your champion can’t carry the entire deal on their own. Ask for introductions to other stakeholders. Get in front of people like the CFO or anyone else influencing the decision.
• Speaking directly to their concerns, makes it easier for the deal to move forward and take pressure off your champion.

“The first thing you need to recognize is that there are a lot more people involved in deals today than there used to be.” - Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Why Q1 Feels So Difficult for Sellers

• Most sellers wonder why Q1 feels so tough, and a big part of it comes down to this. By the time you’re getting in front of a buyer, they’re already about 67% through their decision-making process.
• They’ve done their research, explored options, and in many cases already have a shortlist before you even show up.

The Buyer’s Shift: The Dark Funnel

• This is what I call the dark funnel. It’s everything happening behind the scenes before a buyer ever talks to you. And here’s the reality. A lot of buyers prefer it that way.
• Gartner found that 61% of B2B buyers want a seller-free experience early on, and 43% of executives are discovering solutions through social media. If you’re not visible during that stage, you’re already behind.

Content Is How You Show Up Early

• So how do you get ahead of that? You’ve got to start thinking like a content house. If you’re not consistently showing up with insights, you’re invisible while buyers are forming their opinions.
• This isn’t about posting just to stay active. It’s about sharing content that actually helps your ideal customer think through their challenges.

What to Share to Stay Relevant

• If you’re in something like cybersecurity, think about the kind of content your buyers care about.
• Break down major breaches and what companies can learn from them. Explain new compliance changes in a way that’s easy to understand.
• Share real-world insights based on what you’re seeing in the field. This is the kind of content that builds trust before a conversation ever happens.

Consistency Over Virality

• You don’t need to go viral to win. You need to be consistent.
• Aim for about three quality posts a week that speak directly to your ideal customer profile. Over time, that consistency is what keeps you top of mind.

Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You

• And while you’re doing all of this, don’t overlook your LinkedIn profile. That’s often the first place buyers go when they come across your name.
• Make sure your headline clearly shows how you help clients. Use keywords they’re searching for, and back it up with real credibility in your experience section.

"Sales professionals who master social selling, create 45% more opportunities and are 51% more likely to hit their quota." — Donald Kelly

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

1. Tariff Uncertainty Is Freezing Decisions

• A lot of companies are hitting pause right now because of tariff uncertainty. When businesses don’t know what’s coming next, they delay decisions.
• In fact, 82% of U.S. firms reported declining sales after tariffs took effect, which is leading to a lot more hesitation.

2. Buyers Are Cutting Costs

• Prospects are being more cautious than ever. Budgets are tighter, spending is under more scrutiny, and even existing contracts are getting reduced.
• Around 78% of business buyers say they’re being more careful with spending, and it’s starting to show in lower win rates.

3. The Global Economy Is Slowing Things Down

• There’s a broader slowdown happening, and it’s affecting how businesses spend. B2B spending is contracting, and global GDP growth is cooling, which is stretching out buying cycles across the board.

4. Sales Reps Aren’t Spending Enough Time Selling

• A big chunk of a rep’s day is going toward admin work, internal tasks, and switching between tools.
• On average, reps are only spending about 28% of their time actually selling, which makes hitting targets a lot tougher.

5. Buyers Are Doing Their Homework Without You

• By the time a sales rep gets involved, buyers have often already done most of their research.
• Around 67% of the buyer’s journey is completed independently, meaning prospects are forming opinions long before sales has a chance to step in.

6. Deals Are Getting Stuck in Committees

• More deals now involve multiple stakeholders, sometimes seven or more people. That naturally slows things down and makes it harder to build alignment and move decisions forward.

7. Prospecting Is Taking Too Long

• Reps are spending a huge portion of their time just trying to find the right people to talk to. Roughly 40% of their time goes into prospecting, and even after events or outreach, follow-up rates can still fall short.

8. Quotas Don’t Match Today’s Reality

• Many quotas were set based on a completely different market environment. Right now, average attainment is sitting around 43%, which shows just how far expectations are from reality and why burnout is becoming more common.

9. The AI Gap Is Turning Into a Performance Gap

• Teams that are using AI are moving faster and seeing better results. About 89% of revenue organizations are now using AI, and those teams are consistently hitting quota at higher rates than those who aren’t.

10. Turnover Is Slowing Everything Down

• Sales teams are dealing with high turnover, with around 25% of reps leaving each year.
• On top of that, new hires take time to ramp up, which can slow productivity if teams don’t have the right support in place.

“Sales reps are burning out and leaving because they’re chasing quotas built for a market that no longer exists.” - Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• 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 in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Credits

As 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.

Meet Karen Kelly

• Karen Kelly is a sales trainer, coach, and speaker who has spent over 20 years helping sales professionals improve how they show up and sell.
• Having experienced the challenges of sales firsthand, she understands what it feels like to navigate uncertainty, missed opportunities, and stalled deals.
• Her approach is centered on rehumanizing the sales process. Instead of relying on scripts and surface level tactics, she teaches how to build genuine conversations that create trust and move deals forward.
• Through her training, coaching, and workshops, Karen helps sales professionals shift their mindset, take intentional action, and build stronger, more meaningful relationships with their clients.