B2B Sales Trends

A sales strategy shouldn’t depend on a handful of superstar sellers. Lisa Maderer, SVP of Sales, Data Management at Dun & Bradstreet, explains how leaders can make strong sales performance more repeatable through clear processes, coaching, accountability, and a culture that enables people to do their best work. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 – Why sales success shouldn't depend on superstar sellers 03:37 – L...

In B2B sales, showing customers how much they could save isn't always enough to win the deal. So how do you make the case for investing now? Joseph Gnorski, President, Americas at Glory Global Solutions, explains how outcome based selling can strengthen your B2B sales strategy by connecting solutions to business outcomes and showing customers what waiting could cost them. ⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00 | Wh...

AI in sales is moving fast. But when everyone uses different tools, data and processes, does it actually make your sales team more effective? Rick Hanson, President of Go to Market at Forcepoint, calls this “random acts of AI”. In this episode, he explains how Forcepoint brought structure to AI adoption, cut deal preparation from around two days to 30 minutes, and why sales leaders have a crucial...

Outcome Based Selling should help turn sales training into revenue. So why do deals still stall even when salespeople know the methodology and customers are interested in the solution? ⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00 – Why sales training doesn't translate into revenue 04:43 – The difference between a customer request and a business outcome 09:30 – Why interested customers still don't buy 13:54 – The Nugget o...

AI in sales promises greater productivity, but more tools don't automatically lead to better results. Brian Benfer, CRO at Salesloft, explains why the real opportunity is turning revenue insights into action while keeping human judgment at the heart of selling. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 – AI in sales: Closing the gap between insight and action 02:40 – Why AI sales tools are recreating the SaaS sprawl pr...

A subscription based business model can make a business stronger over time. But during the transition, the numbers can look worse before they improve. Luis Brito, former CRO of ALLPLAN, explains why moving from perpetual software licenses to subscriptions requires far more than a pricing change. It means rethinking sales compensation, team structures, KPIs, and how the business delivers ongoing cu...

Outcome based selling starts before customers have fully defined what they need. In this episode of the B2B Sales Trends Podcast, host Harry Kendlbacher speaks with Stefan Hartge, Global Head of Strategic Accounts Management at GE Vernova, about how sales teams can engage earlier, influence customer requirements, and build strategic partnerships instead of simply responding to requests. How can sa...

Outbound sales is not always a headcount problem. In this episode, Harry Kendlbacher speaks with Adam Roberts, SVP of Sales at Simpli.fi, about how a smaller BDR team can outperform a much larger one through better targeting, tools, processes, and AI. The conversation explores what makes an outbound engine actually work, how to identify the right customers through a stronger ideal customer profile...

A strong go to market strategy starts with how customers buy, not how your company is organized. Ryan Carpentier, Chief Commercial Officer at NAMSA, shares how he's rethinking Medtech sales, unlocking growth within existing accounts, and building a more strategic commercial model. ⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00 – Why Medtech needs a new go to market strategy 01:51 – When OEMs start buying innovation instead...

Relationship selling starts with understanding your customer beyond the transaction. Jelani Rucker, General Manager of Commercial Sales at Armstrong World Industries, explains why becoming a trusted advisor requires more than virtual meetings, and why meaningful time with customers can change the relationship. ⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00 – Why transactional B2B selling makes you replaceable 01:34 – Becom...

Value-based selling starts with thinking like an investor, not just selling a product. What changes when enterprise sales teams stop leading with features and start focusing on business outcomes, value, and long-term impact? Nathan Marsh, EMEA Regional Executive and Senior Vice President at Bentley Systems (https://www.bentley.com), joins Harry Kendlbacher to explore how sellers can move from tran...

B2B sales discovery is not about asking more questions. It is about helping buyers see what they cannot see yet. When buyers arrive with a preferred vendor, established assumptions, and AI assisted research, traditional discovery can become a confirmation exercise. In this solo episode, Harry Kendlbacher explores sales discovery, striker questions, stakeholder alignment, and the shift from informa...

B2B sales strategy changes when a company gets bigger. But can one salesperson really maintain customer intimacy and deep industry expertise at the same time? Vasily Sizov, Chief Revenue Officer at Grid Dynamics, thinks there is a better way. In this B2B sales strategy podcast episode, he explains why Grid Dynamics pairs client partners with practice sales specialists instead of expecting one pers...

A B2B sales strategy built around a bigger sales pipeline sounds logical. But is more pipeline actually better? Andrew Fleming, SVP, Global Head of Sales and Enterprise Client Solutions at Labcorp, has a different way of looking at it: which opportunities are actually worth pursuing? In this conversation with Harry Kendlbacher, Andrew shares how he thinks about pipeline health, the customers worth...

Customer centricity in B2B sales starts with one question: are your processes helping the customer, or just helping your business hit its KPIs? Hasancan Ozyurt, Director of Sales Americas at CHT Group, joins Harry Kendlbacher to challenge how we think about customer centric selling and B2B sales strategy. Why does he believe sales should be the “voice of the customer”? What is the “Club Principle”...

AI in sales can expose opportunities but it can’t create execution. So what actually separates the sales organizations that act on the information from those that simply talk about it? Jacob Harris, Chief Sales Officer at TestEquity, is leading a company wide sales transformation focused on customer segmentation, territory management, and sales performance. In conversation with Harry Kendlbacher,...

A strong B2B sales strategy is not about chasing more leads or more partners. For Ben Cronsberry, it is about knowing which relationships are worth investing in, building them patiently, and knowing when to walk away. What happens when you stop treating partnerships as a quick source of referrals and start treating them as a long-term sales ecosystem? And how do you decide which relationships actu...

B2B Sales is getting more complex, but Lauren Cursiter believes the answer is not simply more information. The best sellers know how to listen, stay curious, and understand what is really happening in the customer's world. What if an objection is not a rejection, but a piece of information you were missing? Originally published in March 2025, this Best Of conversation brings Lauren Cursiter, Inter...

B2B Sales is changing fast, but NVIDIA’s Ari Capogeannis believes sellers don’t need more AI tools. They need AI to work quietly in the background. Originally published in September 2025, we’re revisiting this conversation from the B2B Sales Trends archive because the question Ari raises remains highly relevant: what should AI actually do for sellers? So what happens when you stop asking sellers t...

Performance thinking sales enablement is about more than training sellers. JD Singh argues that sales strategy only matters when it changes what sellers actually do. So how do you turn strategy into daily sales behavior? JD Singh, SVP & Global Head of Sales, Enterprise Solutions at S&P Global, joins Harry Kendlbacher to unpack how sales leaders can scale these behaviors without relying on a handfu...

Outcome Based Selling is becoming more important as AI makes technology services faster. But according to Luiz Cieslak, faster execution creates a problem: neither fixed scope nor time and materials necessarily rewards both sides fairly. If AI can turn a six-month project into three months, who actually benefits? In this conversation with Harry Kendlbacher, Luiz Cieslak, SVP of Healthcare & Life S...

Building client trust in sales conversations is changing in the age of AI. But according to Casey George, trust itself isn't going anywhere. If buyers have already made much of their decision before they speak to a seller, and AI can give everyone access to increasingly powerful tools, what actually makes someone worth buying from? In this conversation with Harry Kendlbacher, Casey George, Chief R...

The B2B buying journey starts before the first sales meeting. By the time you get in the room, the buyer may already have an opinion about your company, your competitors, and what they think they need. In this solo episode, Harry Kendlbacher explores Day Zero and why the first meeting is really just the point where sales enters a conversation that has already started. Buyers are researching, compa...

How to build a relationship while selling has become one of the biggest challenges in modern B2B sales. Brian Porter believes AI isn't replacing great salespeople. It's making them more valuable. AI can write emails. It can build prospect lists. It can even start conversations. But according to Brian Porter, Chief Customer Officer at Ernest, every new technology makes authentic human connection ev...

Cyber Resilience isn't just an IT challenge anymore. It's changing how the best B2B sales teams sell. Companies are racing into AI, but Tim Pfaelzer believes many are overlooking the foundation that determines whether it succeeds. Harry sits down with Tim Pfaelzer, SVP & GM EMEA at Veeam, to explore why successful companies don't simply adapt their products. They retrain their sales teams to speak...