Find My Catalyst Podcast

Prospecting - building your well before you need a drink. We have recently passed the mid-point of the year for most sales organizations. How does your pipeline look for the remainder of this year?  What about next year? Q2 has wrapped up, we are moving into what many see as the most financially active period of their sales year.  This week on the Catalyst Sale Podcast we discuss the importance of...

Carol Quinn, CEO of Hire Authority and the Founder & Creator of Motivation-Based Interviewing Hiring is one of the most important decisions you will make as a CEO, Founder, Leader, or Manager.  Carol Quinn joins us this week to discuss Motivation-Based Interviewing (MBI), the importance of hiring, common mistakes, and important considerations when working through the interview process. Carol Quinn...

Transitioning from Sales Enablement to Organization Enablement This week on the podcast we discuss sales enablement as a function and the different lenses that an organization may use to inform their approach.  We also discuss the idea of organization enablement and wonder if this will be the next evolution within organizations. Questions Asked Has your attitude about Sales Enablement changed? How...

Compensation, Building Business Acumen, and Networking Round 2 with Guest - Jennifer McClure - Speaker, Executive Coach, President of Unbridled Talent & CEO of DisruptHR Jennifer McClure, CEO Unbridled Talent & DisruptHR joins us for her second appearance on the Catalyst Sale Podcast.  We cover a number of topics this week, including the gender pay gap, building business acumen, and networking bot...

Listener Question - Tips for Making the Transition to Field Sales This week on the Catalyst Sale Podcast we have a listener question.  Chris from Ontario is the process of transitioning from an inside sales role to a field sales role, and he wonders if there are any best practices or tips to keep in mind when making the transition.  We discuss the importance of planning, building rapport, being aw...

Leadership Lessons from Dan Cockerell This week Dan Cockerell joins us on the Catalyst Sale podcast to discuss leadership, experience, doing work, and his next journey. Dan recently retired from the Walt Disney Company, as the Vice President of the Magic Kingdom, and has recently launched his consulting, public speaking, and virtual COO practice. Questions Addressed Did Dan say "Yes" too fast at t...

Failing to Plan is a Plan to Fail Part II in our series on common challenges that we see across our customer and prospect base is focused on planning.  Specifically developing the plan, adapting the plan, and execution.  One of the biggest challenges organizations we work with have relative to planning, is clarity around expectations, which leads to issues with focus & expectations around speed. ...

The Art & The Science of Sales - Leveraging Data to Take Action. This week Steve Will, Revenue Champion & SaaS Sales Leader, joins us to discuss sales, data, common challenges, dealing with conflict, and what's next.  We discuss Steve's background and experience, both as an individual contributor, and leading sales teams. Questions Addressed How does Steve define success in sales? How do you disti...

Coaching, Mentoring or Training - What's the Difference? On previous episodes we have discussed Mentoring in Sales (42), we have also discussed Coaching vs Training (79).  This week we discuss all three approaches in the context of personal development and improving capabilities. We share our thoughts on the differences between Coaching, Mentoring, and Training, why one approach may be better than...

Managing an Exit - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly This week on the podcast, Mike & Mike tackle the question of a startup exit or merger from the perspective of the employee within the organization, to the founder/leadership team, to the company who is making the acquisition.   Acquisitions & exits are tough, they become more complex as more information is shared, especially if too much of the wrong i...

Helping People Do Things Better - Learning, Sales, & Doing the Work This week Ryan Carson - Founder & CEO Treehouse joins us to discuss Learning, Sales, and Doing Work.  Ryan continues to build and run his third startup, and according to him, you would have to kill him before he stopped working on his mission at Treehouse.  He is passionate about helping people do things better. We discuss Ryan's...

Using Data to Improve Sales Performance, Management, and Leadership Rob Käll is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cein, Inc.   Rob is passionate about data, machine learning, natural language processing, and using these technologies to improve organizations.   We met Rob through a listener of the Catalyst Sale podcast, and we think you will enjoy getting to know him as well.  On this episode, we discuss m...

Infinite Learning - How Can You Apply It To Your Role? This week on the Catalyst Sale Podcast, we discuss Infinite Learning. Specifically, what is it, how you can apply it to your job, how it applies to sales, and how we apply it within Catalyst Sale. Mike Simmons first heard the phrase Infinite Learning on a recent Masters of Scale podcast with Reid Hoffman and Barry Diller. A link to that episod...

Storytelling, Entrepreneurship, and Lessons Learned from Working with Steve Jobs - Guest Anne Wolf Anne is the President & Founder of Wolf Communications.  She is a Chief Marketing Officer by trade, she has carried a bag, starting her career in sales.  Today, she works with entrepreneurs, many times in a Chief Strategy Officer role.   We met Anne through the TLDC18 conference. This week we cover a...

Be Careful What You Measure Mike Simmons started the year attempting a 10k steps a day objective.  Four to five days into the test he decided it would only be a 28-day experiment.  This week we will discuss how this test applies in business and in life.  We discuss the importance of choosing the right things to measure, choosing the right goals, and choosing the right tools to capture the data.  W...

Blindspots - We all Have them This week on the Catalyst Sale Podcast, we have a listener question from Ann in San Diego.  Ann asks - What is something you consistently find within organizations you work with? One of the most consistent things we see across all of the organizations we work with, are the blind spots they have created.  Many times these blindspots are a function of focus, attention,...

Personal Relationships - Do they help in Sales? Is this the first time Mike & Mike are going to have conflicting viewpoints on the podcast? This week on the podcast, Mike & Mike tackle the question of personal relationships in sales.  You may be surprised to see who takes which perspective. We hope you enjoy the discussion, and look forward to your feedback on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Ques...

Feedback Loops, including the OODA Loop & Leadership Lt Col. Retired, David "Chip" Berke is our guest this week.  Dave served 23 years as a Marine, mostly flying airplanes as a fighter pilot.  He is currently with Echelon Front as a Leadership Instructor. Dave shares his experience with the OODA loop as a pilot, forward air controller, and in the business environment.  We also discuss the science...

Listener Question - What is the difference between Training & Coaching? Matt's company is implementing a new sales process, some folks believe they need training, others believe coaching is a better fit.  He asks "what is the difference between Coaching & Training?" This week on the Catalyst Sale Podcast we discuss the difference between training and coaching, and the scenarios where training may...

GDPR & Cyber Security - The Human Element - Guest Oz Alashe MBE - CEO, CybSafe We are excited to have Oz Alashe on the podcast this week.  We talk about the forthcoming GDPR regulations, its global impact, as well as the impact of cyber security at both a personal and organizational level. Oz is a former Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army and UK Special Forces. He has a successful track record...

Initial Outreach to Prospects This week on the Catalyst Sale Podcast we discuss an initial outreach approach mentioned during the episode with Pam Boiros, and one that Mike Simmons first learned from Jeff Hoffman when Mike and Pam were at SkillSoft. This initial contact approach is based on a foundation of Why You (the customer), Why You Now.  Mike has had significant success over the years using...

To Discount or Not to Discount - What's the Risk? Discounting is a four-letter word. If you reduce your price, are you going to decrease the value of what you deliver, or decrease the impact that you will have on the customer? Think of some of the organizations you purchase goods or services from, but will never pay full price. Think of any conversation you have had with a customer where price has...

Guest - Anthony Iannarino - International Speaker, Author, Podcast Host & Consultant This week on the podcast Anthony joins us to discuss key concepts discussed in both of the books he has authored, we also touch briefly on his forthcoming book.   We discuss a number of different items, including discipline, doing work, why "price is a shield" - not a sword, and many other topics.  We hope you enj...

Curation vs Creation This week on the Catalyst Sale Podcast we discuss curation vs creation, the difference between the two, why it is important to your audience to do both, and some general best practices.  We would love to hear from the audience regarding Curation vs Creation & how you Create vs Curate. We would also love to hear some of the additional topics you would like us to discuss on futu...

Making Mistakes and How to Respond This week we have a listener question - Jason in NY, says we always talk about success, can you share some of your mistakes? Mistakes happen, but do they just happen?  Are all mistakes accidents?  A mistake can be an accident, a mistake can be intentional, a mistake can be a result of not knowing your situation. This week on the Catalyst Sale Podcast we talk some...