Paul Higgins Podcast

Still treating your closed lost pipeline as a graveyard, chasing new leads while old quotes gather dust in your CRM? In this episode, I break down two AI revenue plays most SaaS and platform partners are missing completely: winning back business you already quoted and lost, and turning your best internal systems into a new revenue stream. I share how a Zoho partner turned a hundred and fifty thous...

If your business is fully booked and still can't grow, the problem is not capacity and it is not systems. It is that everything still runs through you. In this episode, I share the question I ask every SaaS partner I work with: what would have to be true for you not to be needed in delivery tomorrow? Not next year, tomorrow. I walk through how a Zoho partner who was doing delivery on nearly every...

Why you should listen Chris Widmayer took Penrod from a generalist Salesforce shop to one of the top five healthcare partners at Salesforce, and lifted gross margins by about 15% (now sitting between 47% and 55%) by committing to a single vertical. Learn how he built productized packages and SaaS products on top of his services so the business earns at high margin without him in every delivery, no...

The hardest thing you do, you price at zero. The configuration anyone with a certification can deliver gets quoted down to the hour, then the integration thinking the platform was never built for, the architecture, the judgment, you throw in for free because it doesn't fit on a line item. In this episode, I break down the WHAT decision keeping most SaaS partners billing commodity hours while the p...

You finished the week proud of the automation, the agent, the tool you finally shipped. Then the quieter thought lands: not one conversation with anyone who could actually buy from you. In this episode I name the trap that catches most SaaS partners who came from corporate or delivery, where building feels like measurable progress and selling feels like exposure. I break down why one more tool nev...

You keep telling everyone the business is fine, and your pipeline, your LinkedIn profile, and your bank balance at the end of the month keep telling the truth. In this episode I go back to the years I spent saying "great" to anyone who asked, while my body was in kidney failure and everyone around me could see what I refused to. I see SaaS partners doing the exact same thing, using AI to make thei...

Why you should listen Gideon Shalwick built Vubli after nearly 20 years in online video and software, and he breaks down why your personal brand channel outranks your company channel in both search and AI results every time. Learn how to structure a short-form video so viewers stop scrolling and watch to the end, including why the hook is the one element worth 80% of your effort. Discover how to t...

A buyer in your niche just picked their SaaS partner. It wasn't you, and you never knew the deal was happening. In this episode I break down what Jay McBain, the most quoted channel analyst in the world, told me about the 28 moments that now decide every considered purchase, and why the deal is usually won or lost at moments 10 through 12, long before a salesperson knows it exists. I explain why w...

A client called you last week. The report used to take an hour. Now it takes five minutes. They want to know why they're still paying for the hour, and the honest answer is you don't have one. In this episode, I break down why AI didn't break your pricing model, it just exposed what was already broken the day you started selling time instead of outcomes. I walk through what's happening across Sale...

Working hard on the wrong thing and you can feel it, but you can't see it from inside the jar. In this episode, I break down the Decision Call format, what it is, why it works, and the pattern showing up across four very different SaaS partner businesses I ran calls with recently. One was a Microsoft partner at $800K running two business models pretending to be one. One was a Salesforce solopreneu...

Why you should listen Jay McBain breaks down the data behind why 51% of partners are in double-digit profit decline while the industry grows at 10.2%, and what separates the partners winning from the ones quietly falling behind. Learn the specific positioning shift that gets you found by large language models, buyers, and vendors, including why "I sell to midsize banks in Perth and do compliance"...

Your clients keep asking you about AI, and you keep talking about tools. That's the problem. In this episode, I break down why most SaaS partners are giving away the most valuable conversation they could be having, AI readiness diagnosis, for free. I share Jay McBain's latest research showing 82% of channel partners don't feel prepared to deliver AI services, and I unpack the real reason it's not...

Your revenue is inconsistent and you already know why you haven't made the decision yet. In this episode, I break down the WHO problem most SaaS partners mistake for a skills problem, why serving more industries makes you the best option for no one, and the audit I run on every client's last twelve months of revenue to find their real signal. I share what Jay McBain's data shows about the fastest-...

You didn't lose that deal in the proposal. You lost it six months earlier, before the prospect ever found your name. In this episode, I break down why the buyer's journey for tech business owners has shifted, why AI is accelerating it, and why most owners are still showing up only at the last two touch points and wondering why win rates feel random. I walk through the channel analyst data from Jay...

Why you should listen Donald runs one of the top B2B sales podcasts in the world, heard in over 155 countries, and breaks down the exact LinkedIn-first sequence he uses to turn cold prospects into booked calls without paid ads or cold spam. Learn the three-step system Donald uses to move a prospect from stranger to conversation: engage on their content, send a personalised connection request tied...

Watched your vendor's share price lately, or noticed the quiet changes to partner fees, commissions, and cloud service minimums? In this episode, I break down why Wall Street is pricing in the collapse of the per-seat model, and why platforms restructure partner economics long before they touch executive pay. I share the pattern I've seen across 670 tech business owners, including what happened to...

Most tech business owners hitting mid-six figures aren't stuck because they're not working hard enough. They're stuck because they're running a business built on assumptions nobody has ever tested. In this episode, I walk through the exact audit I did on my own business when activity was high and revenue wasn't moving. I share what the data revealed: a newsletter that warmed but never converted, a...

Why you should listen Molly launched the world's first AI-focused content membership in 2021, two years before ChatGPT, and has generated content that reached over 39 million views. She brings hard-won perspective on what separates human-first AI strategy from AI zombie content that erodes trust. Learn the SAAVE framework: a five-part method for identifying what makes you a uniquely weird human, s...

Platform agnosticism made sense when software budgets were small. That era is ending. In this episode, I break down why the "death of SaaS" narrative is the wrong read, and why the tech business owners who believe it are about to miss the biggest software wave in a decade. I walk through what Monday.com's CEO said on the 20VC podcast about the budget equation flipping from headcount to platforms,...

Using AI to diagnose your own business is like Googling your blood test results and treating yourself. In this episode, I share what seven years of post-transplant care taught me about pattern recognition, and why the same principle applies to the WHO and WHAT decisions most tech business owners are avoiding. I walk through the difference between a tool that helps you execute and someone who has s...

Most tech consultants building their first team make the same mistake. It's not the hire. It's what happens on day one. In this episode, I walk through the exact 10-item induction call checklist I use with every new hire, whether they're based in the Philippines, Australia, or North America. I cover the questions that flip the dynamic from day one, the ones most consultants skip entirely, and why...

Working 60-hour weeks and still watching your revenue flatline? In this episode, I break down the two strategic decisions most tech consultants have never made: WHO to target and WHAT business model to run. I share how one consultant went from competing on commodity rates with payroll anxiety every month to building a specialist practice, hiring a team, and clearing over $30K a month without chang...

Why you should listen Angie scaled from an 18-year marketing agency to leading AI adoption for 600-person corporations, giving her a rare ground-level view of exactly where companies get stuck and what actually moves people from fear to fluency. Learn the "people-first" sequencing Angie now uses before any AI tool deployment, including how she frames corporate AI training as "recess" to sidestep r...

You're at mid six figures, your calendar is full, and you're still grinding for $20,000 projects. Meanwhile, there are enterprise and mid-market contacts sitting in your CRM right now who could write $200,000 checks, and you haven't called them because the small deals feel safer. In this episode, I walk through the exact WHO decision that keeps most tech consultants stuck in the project grind, and...

Clients aren't pushing back on your rates, so you assume you're priced right. That's the most expensive assumption in consulting. In this episode, I break down how one consulting partner discovered she was leaving $55 to $95 per hour on the table because she priced based on confidence instead of market value. I walk through the exact sequence she used to move from $40,000 per month to $63,000 per...