ValuClarity

Bill Baer runs Baerclaw Productions, a video production company. As a former news-guy, with crews drawn from the news business, Baerclaw is driven by high quality, but has a production mindset. Bill and I talked about how he helps his clients figure out which videos they should produce themselves (and how to produce them better) and also helps them understand why and when they need professionals d...

Jeb Blount's new #1 Best Seller responds to our current rising prices environment with timely tools and research meant to help sellers and sales leaders achieve price increases without losing business, and while causing minimum harm to the relationship. Jeb shared some of his thinking about several types of price increase, and how to approach each one. Great Stuff, Jeb! Thanks for stopping by the...

Michael Walters is an old friend who I've attached climb in the Commercial Real Estate Business for a few decades now. I was in a business adjacent to that for one of those decades, and I've always found it interesting. This is a very relationship-driven business, but I wanted to unpack that term "relationship driven". So many people think that it's about personal affinity or the "liking" in "Know...

Mickey O'Callahan has been building sales and commercial excellence in companies for decades, and Oceaneering International brought him on board to do it for them as an insider, not a consultant. Since coming on board just over two years ago, he's been applying his expertise to a widely diversified global company. We talked about his journey, and what's next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...

Jennifer Blowers has left the comfort of corporate America to start her own consultancy. I Her energy and passion for changing things in the healthcare industry comes right through the microphone (the sound quality is my fault, sorry!). She also realizes that market access teams can't be a simple product push function, but need to be full service change management consultants. Learn more about you...

Tina is a long-time therapist who helps clients in all fields master their stress levels to perform at their highest. We all have a level of stress we can handle and perform well under. We also each have an overload level of stress, at which we start shutting down, and no longer perform well. Tina helps clients raise their "overload level". We talked about that, mindset, and more during this great...

Every once in a while, someone shares their skepticism that everyone in a company can be made to understand how their job connects to customer value creation or realization. I wanted to share my experience, which states that it can in fact, be done. In fact, achieving this goal means that you can achieve something even more important: an entire sales force who is expected to sell at an elite level...

Mediocrity isn't bad...it just isn't good either. It' good enough...for some. I have become a student of mediocrity in the workplace, and will be shepherding a book on sales leadership mediocrity to the market at some point. In this episode, I tackle four major areas where I see mediocrity in sales and sales leadership. Training, use of scripts, "show up and throw up" demos...and discounting. Enjo...

Denise Meridith led the Bureau of Land Management as the first black woman the Bureau had hired back in the day. Her journey has given her a unique perspective on leadership. In addition, she used her job as an opportunity to build Arizona's economy by using public lands as resources for tourism. Her expertise in managing diversity has been sought by companies like Hewlett Packard. Listen to her p...

Cristina DiGiacomo, philosopher, and I spent some time talking about mediocrity in the world an workplace. There is no area of human endeavor safe from the corrosive effects of "doing just enough", or being satisfied with average...or even someone else's strategy which we label "best practice". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Mulvin owns and operates Pac-Biz, a provider of outsourced customer care services. That means he operates a call center in the Phillipines with customer service agents for a couple of industries. He helped me see that his business model helps elevate his clients (he has a heavy concentration of taxi companies around the world) customer service by bringing CX domain expertise into an industry...

David Buchanan is the CEO of Voith Paper in the US. His company is a full-spectrum supplier for paper makers, making complete paper mill machines, parts, services, engineering, supplies, wear parts, etc. This a tight-knit industry with a stable universe of customers, but one that is capital-intensive, and very technologically intense. Voith is a premium supplier that supplies more reliable, effici...

Ken Flood looks at sales like a change management engagement, which is true...when the customer is buying something they feel is new, risky, or complex. Thus, we end up agreeing about a lot of things, but coming at them from different directions, which I find refreshing. I hope you agree. This conversation went almost 50 minutes, so I cut it into two episodes. Here's part two. Learn more about you...

Ken Flood combines sales expertise with change management consulting experience. He looks at sales like a change management engagement, which is true...when the customer is buying something they feel is new, risky, or complex. Luckily, that's my world too, so we end up agreeing about a lot of things, but coming at them from different directions, which I find refreshing. I hope you agree. This conv...

Jose Palomino consults with sales and marketing clients, helping them focus on their differentiation. Because his approach is so similar to mine, I wanted to share his thoughts on differentiation and value. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard Steinau leads all customer-facing everything for Bellwether, a major events house. He's been in the business for decades, but came to Bellwether, because they were one of his favorite companies to work with before, and he's learning why. WE talked about how his company positions itself as trusted experts -- really only taking business with customers who value what they do best. We also tal...

Tom Williams is a published co-author of two great sales books, is a successful sales consultant, and has held positions including CEO of a hospital. He's been on the selling and the buying side of major B2B transactions, and when Tom talks about purchasing/procurement...make some time to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marcus Cauchi (Pronounced COW-key) is an irreverent expert in sales and marketing. He and I always have great conversations about marketing, sales, and here...selling value. I hope you enjoy this talk as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Groeger is Vice President, Group Commercial & Specialty Sales at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. While employee healthcare benefits may seem like a pretty standard commodity, I learned that small differences can drive big differences in customer outcomes. During "the great resignation", benefits can impact employee retention, a huge concern for companies, helping customers make that connec...

John Morgan is the Dan of the School of Career and Technical Education for Yavapai College, a community college in rural Arizona. They have programs for 3D printing...houses. They have cutting edge virtual education to keep some of the country's best educators working from where they want to live, to where Yavapai's students are living. They have implemented new curricula for employer needs in a m...

Craig Jackman Is the CEO of Paragon IT professionals, who is a tech recruiting and contract outsourcing firm. That means Craig is in the middle of the great resignation, and all of the tech employee issues in today's market. We talked a lot about Paragon's differentiation, which is interesting, but we talked about something every company leader needs to be aware of: the many hidden costs of replac...

Julie Cane is the CEO of a young financial company, Democracy Investments ( www.democracyinvestments.com) offers the Democracy Fund (Symbol: DMCY.). In a mind-numbingly crowded universe of Global Index funds, DMCY has done something different: They have taken the vanilla global fund, but have weighted investments in the fund by how democratic the home country of a company is. Think of taking a van...

Webcheck Security helps clients protect themselves, and in some cases, win new clients. Greg Johnson, the CEO, focuses his company on translating tech speak like "penetration testing" into customer outcomes. We talked about the importance of that kind of translation for the success of even the most technically advanced business. I was impressed with how well his company does at that, and am thrill...

Krister Ungerbock was the CEO of a successful technology company, but after leaving the company, realized that while he successfully articulated a vision, he didn't successfully attract followers. He's learned that what leaders do to be effective is centered on what leaders say, and the questions they ask. We talked about his Talk Shift principles and applied them to leadership, sales...and life L...

Doug Gordon is an experienced executive in the financial services industry. In our discussion, Doug shared some of the lessons he learned over a career of building businesses. While he shares some sales tactics, he has a lot to say about leading an organization make sure that everyone is focused on delivering great outcomes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices