Sales Signals

Naomi Wallis shares how modern business development blends signal-led selling with thoughtful human outreach. From engagement tracking and long sales cycles to false intent signals, AI workflows, and the psychology of consultative selling, this episode explores how to cut through noise and build genuine prospect relationships that convert over time.

Philip from G2 joins us to unpack why reply rates are declining, how AI-generated "slop" is killing email as a channel, and what smart sellers should be doing instead - from cold calling to LinkedIn InMail.

Kevin Beales, CEO and founder of My Sales Coach, joins the Sales Signal podcast to unpack why sales coaching remains one of the most overlooked levers in sales performance. Despite clear data showing a 60% performance difference between frequently coached and uncoached reps, most managers spend less than 5% of their time on true coaching. Kevin shares what the data really shows, why experienced re...

Most sales teams invest in training, but see little change in results. In this episode, Mark Wills explains why performance is driven by behaviour, not knowledge. From discovery and client centricity to leadership and system-level thinking, this conversation unpacks how to turn sales methodology into real, repeatable performance. Find Mark and his team here: www.perceptionselling.ai

When someone joins a company, they don’t just bring experience, they bring change. In this episode, Johnny breaks down how he uses job change signals to break into accounts, build relationships with new stakeholders, and create pipeline from day one. From SDR to AE, we unpack how identifying the right moment to reach out can be the difference between being ignored… and starting a deal.

In this episode of Sales Signals, we sit down with Darius, former Cognism and HubSpot sales performer turned founder, to unpack the real signals behind modern selling. After closing deals, making mistakes, building a LinkedIn presence from scratch, and now launching his own outbound-as-a-service business, Darius shares the data, insights, and actions that shaped his journey.

What happens when buyers are 90% through the journey before sales even shows up? In this episode of Sales Signals, Kyle shares the data behind declining quota attainment, the collapse in formal sales training, and why today’s reps must evolve from sellers to coaches. The signal is clear: the old playbook is broken. The question is, what replaces it?

Many leaders will happily talk for 45 minutes about their product… and struggle to talk for two about their prospecting engine. In this episode of Why Did It Fail?, Gabe Lullo, CEO of Alleyoop, joins Shivan to unpack why that gap quietly kills startups and stalls growth in mid-market and enterprise sales teams. Gabe shares stories from decades in the trenches: SDRs who couldn’t make it past lunch,...

In this episode of Why Did It Fail?, Stuart Taylor, CRO at The Lennox Academy, opens up about a failure most people only talk about in whispers: staying at a company too long after an acquisition… and being made redundant as a result. He talks candidly about what it felt like in the moment, the shock, the hit to his identity and much more. Stuart and Shivan dig into the uncomfortable truth about l...

When Ayah joined Cognism, she didn’t know what an SDR was, but she knew how to hustle. Her first few months were a blur of spray-and-pray dialling: huge lists, minimal research, mass calls… and 400% of target in month one. It worked. Until it really didn’t. In this episode of Why Did It Fail?, Ayah sits down with Shivan to unpack the dark side of spray and pray: the stress, the lack of control, th...

In this episode of Why Did It Fail?, Gearoid Cox, Founder and CEO of Sales Pipeline, shares the story of a deal that looked like a win on paper, but turned out to be a brutal lesson in discovery. As a young enterprise rep, Gearoid was laser-focused on getting the PO signed. He closed what he thought was a big hardware sale… only to find out later it was the tiniest slice of a huge, multi-layered p...

Sales coach Bryan Mulry joins Shivan to break down a failure most sellers secretly recognise: talking too much, listening too little, and trying far too hard to impress. Bryan shares the painful moment he realised he’d spent 87% of a call pitching to a VP of Sales who didn’t even have the team he was selling to, and how that single conversation exposed a habit that had been costing him deals for y...

When James Greene first stepped into sales, cold calling hit him harder than he expected. Every dial came with shaking hands, spiralling doubt and the pressure to prove he belonged. Rejection felt personal, missed targets knocked his confidence, and one complaint from a prospect nearly convinced him to walk away from the job entirely. Now Global Business Development Manager at Bounce Insights, Jam...

When Junis Seger stepped into his first Head of Sales role, he thought he was ready for anything. After all, he’d just come off back-to-back President’s Club wins, smashed targets as an AE, and built a reputation as one of the best in the business. But leading a fast-growing startup was different. Suddenly, he was juggling investor targets, founder expectations, team management, and his own imposs...

Imagine landing your first sales job and losing it just months later. That was the reality for Shiwam Singh, now an SDR at Cognism. In this episode of Why Did It Fail?, Shiwam opens up about the sting of his first big setback in tech sales, how it shook his confidence, and the lessons he carried into his second chance at Cognism. From rebuilding his mindset to learning the power of listening, disc...

When tech companies expand into Europe, most assume their home-market success will follow them across borders. But for Rick Pizzoli and his team at Sales Force Europe, one lesson has repeated itself over 500 launches, a vague ideal customer profile can quietly derail even the best go-to-market plans. In this episode of Why Did It Fail? , Rick unpacks how unclear ICPs lead to wasted spend, internal...

As an SDR-turned-AE, Sonya Kuci thought she’d landed the dream opportunity, an inbound ICP lead with the decision-maker on the first call, smooth comms, and a live trial underway. But just before close, everything unravelled. In this episode of Why Did It Fail? Sonya unpacks the hard lessons from losing a “can’t-miss” deal: the hidden risks inside inbound opportunities, how to spot green flags dis...

What happens when you leave a role you actually loved? In this episode, Nia Secker, SDR Manager at MySalesCoach, opens up about the moment she left sales to pursue a more “traditional” path, only to realise just how right sales had been all along. Nia and Shiavn unpack: Why the pull to “use her degree” felt strong enough to walk away What she thought she’d find in healthcare that sales lacked The...

After 23 years in corporate London, Niraj Kapur left to start his own coaching business - only to discover that the world didn’t care about his past awards or big-name employers. In this candid conversation, he shares the struggles of rebuilding from scratch in his mid-40s, navigating divorce, health challenges, and a global pandemic. Niraj opens up about resilience, why sales success is more mind...

In this episode, Shivan is joined by Sian Taylor, Sales Manager at Klaviyo, for a candid conversation about one of the most overlooked responsibilities in leadership, understanding your reps before you coach them. Sian shares a pivotal early management mistake: focusing on performance metrics instead of the person behind them. The result? A damaged relationship, a loss of trust, and a painful rebu...

In this episode, Shivan chats with Johnny Stiffell, Commercial AE at Cognism, to talk about his first real dip in performance, and the lessons it left behind. From moving up into a new role without a ramp period to juggling longer sales cycles, self-generated pipeline, and the return of daily cold calling, Johnny shares what it’s like to navigate that tricky adjustment period. They dig into prospe...

In this episode of Why Did It Fail?, Shivan is joined by Joe Stubbs, VP of UK Sales at Cognism, for a brutally honest look at what happens when a new process sounds smart, but doesn’t entirely stick. They dig into the early months of Joe’s leadership, where the pressure was high and the ambition was huge. But a well-intentioned rollout exposed some tough truths about enablement, alignment and oper...

In this episode, Shivan is joined by Lauren Reeves, Senior BDR Manager at Swap, who shares the emotional weight of building a sales career without ever being internally promoted. From imposter syndrome to self-belief, Lauren opens up about the frustration of being overlooked and the resilience it took to succeed anyway. They dive into the myths around internal progression, the pressure to prove yo...

In this episode, Shivan is joined by Brontë Mulvany, Head of Business Development at ComplyAdvantage, who opens up about the high-pressure reality of hiring her first team. From navigating imposter syndrome to learning how to trust her gut, Brontë shares the hard-earned lessons that shaped her leadership style. They talk about clue gathering, courageous conversations, and why copying someone else'...

This week on Why Did It Fail?, sales coach Shivan Pillay sits down with Isa Sher, Sales Manager at Cognism, to unpack one of the most pivotal failures of his early sales career. Isa shares how losing a major deal reshaped his approach to qualification, champion building, and managing a high-performing sales team.