Sales Talk for CEOs

CEOs, do you want to unlock the secret to sky-high sales? Your loyal customers might just have the answers you seek. Barry Trailer from Sales Mastery Advisors highlights a goldmine of opportunity: diving deep into repeat and referral sales. Believe it or not, expanding within your existing customer base can yield better returns than braving new territories. Furthermore, while data is crucial, it's...

In the age where traditional sales tactics seem obsolete, CEOs and founders are shifting to innovative strategies. Lloyed Lobo, co-founder of Boast, accentuates the importance of community-led growth.  His journey, from an engineer to a salesperson, and ultimately, to the co-founder of a company aiding businesses in accessing R&D funding, underlines the value of community. Lloyed divides...

Wouldn’t you love to get into the mind of your sellers and understand exactly what they are thinking? Wouldn’t you love to know what they are struggling with most? If you could read their minds, or if you asked, what would your sales leaders say it is and what would your sellers say?   Spencer Wixom from The Brooks Group says that his research shows the answer you likely will get if you ask i...

Product. Sales. Marketing. Customer Success. If you want to grow your business, your entire go-to-market team has to be in perfect alignment. Providing a seamless experience makes such a huge difference to customers, but it’s often hard to achieve. Luckily, you’ll get plenty of ideas and inspiration in this Encore Episode on the Sales Talk for CEOs podcast. My guest for this interview is Pouyan Sa...

From FBI prodigy to HR tech disruptor, meet Joanna Riley, the extraordinary CEO revolutionizing talent acquisition. Joanna's secret agent aspirations led her down a unique path, guided by her parents' unwavering support.  Her undergraduate years were a whirlwind of cutting-edge courses in the psychology and geometry of crime, fueling her passion for espionage. Joining the FBI right out of col...

Hiring high-performing teams is no easy feat for CEOs, but when it comes to sales teams, the stakes are exponentially higher.  Achieving your organization's business objectives hinges on building and scaling a successful sales force that drives predictable revenue growth. But what do you do when sales are stagnant and results fall short of expectations?  It's time to examine how we, as C...

Connection is everything. When your marketing message resonates with your customers, selling becomes easier, retention becomes easier, and your customers become powerful evangelists who market and sell for you. To achieve this, you have to find the right words that make your customers lean in . You have to create marketing that is music to your buyer’s ears. In this episode of the Sales Talk for C...

From youngest CEO on the Nasdaq to an industry he never dreamed he’d be in. You’ll want to dive into this exclusive interview with CEO Michael Katz, founder of mParticle, with a mission to unify and organize customer data, unlocking its untapped potential. mParticle  was born from Michael’s triumph at Interclick, where data-driven approaches led to business success.  Recognizing the grow...

The CEO's role in sales is vital to the growth and success of any company. But many are unclear on what that role should be. In this episode, Alice outlines clearly 3 roles the CEO needs to consider. The CEOs role with existing customers and prospects  The CEOs role as an evangelist  The CEOs role on social media  Alice starts by talking about the role with existing customers. Typic...

Are you a CEO perplexed by your company's stagnant sales?  The solution may lie within your own actions. According to the insightful Larry Mandelberg, renowned author of "Businesses Don't Fail, They Commit Suicide," CEOs often become detached from the sales process and unknowingly hinder their team. The consequences of this disconnect are substantial, forcing CEOs to look at things differentl...

Being a first-time female entrepreneur in a male dominated space is no easy feat, and Tracy Young's journey starting a tech company in the construction industry is truly inspiring.  She co-founded PlanGrid after recognizing the inefficiencies of paper blueprints and digitized them with tablet-friendly software that streamlined construction processes.  Tracy's innovative solution caught f...

If CEO, Julian Lumpkin, learned one thing from his sales career it was to follow what the most successful sellers were doing and do that. It paid off. Before starting SuccessKit, he learned to use case studies to sell and realized that his company didn’t have a way to produce these. All of the successful salespeople had collected these stories, memorized them and used them over and over.  Kno...

Can you imagine saying goodbye to confusing spreadsheets and emails that track partner relationships and sales? Imagine the possibility of your team instantly identifying sales opportunities in your partners' networks?  Cassandra Gholston, CEO of PartnerTap,  joined me on the podcast to share her journey building a data sharing application that allows companies to leverage the stren...

What if you could keep your customers for years and continue to grow with them? What if everyone in your company was responsible for customer retention? What if everyone in your company sold? When a culture of caring permeates your company everyone takes responsibility for the customer’s success and helps to solve for customers so they buy - sales.  If the answer to every question about build...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. Will your sales organization utilize it or will they be left behind? AI is having a big impact on B2B sales by empowering salespeople to focus on what they do best: building meaningful relationships with their prospects.  But wait, don't worry about AI replacing human sales reps!  Usman Sheikh, Founder and CEO of xiQ, a Silicon Valley-based A...

This episode dives into how large organizations scale their sales teams. But do these approaches work for smaller organizations? Absolutely! Radhika Shukla has worked in a sales leadership role at some of the largest tech giants including Microsoft and IBM. She takes us through the entire gamut of building high performance sales teams. From an ‘Always be learning’ mindset to customer focus, hiring...

Leading indicators, lagging indicators, qualitative data, and quantitative data might sound like boring topics for your sales meetings. Quite the contrary, Michael Ingram of SalesOps.io explains the role that each one plays in achieving predictable revenue growth. Sales revenue is a lagging indicator of success. By the time you know it, it’s too late. You need data daily and weekly that tells you...

It's not surprising that Bronwyn Spira, after trying many different sales strategies, landed back on the founder-led model. In mission-driven companies, founders often deliver the most compelling pitch. She then set about recruiting a sales and marketing team to support the sales process across the entire customer journey. Stick with us to the end where Bronwyn leaves us with her three growth tips...

LeanData’s sales organization’s head count might seem too costly to some.  It was derived out of a constant quest to map internal resources to support customer success - not revenue, yet it is highly profitable.   One example, split the customer success manager role into two positions. One checking in to monitor the account health and ensure renewal. The other, a coach to provide on...

Is your sales team struggling to have conversations with the right buyers?  Better prospecting is the most direct path to increase sales conversations. Wendy Weiss takes us through the four steps to improve your sales team's ability to schedule sales calls. Her four steps are 1. The right list, 2. Great skills, 3. Strong process and 3. The right software.  What can your team add to impro...

How do you balance growth with quality service delivery?  With no background in sales, Kevin Warner, Co-founder, and CEO, originally decided to hire someone who knew sales and put his focus on delivery. He realized quickly it wasn’t working and took the lead sales role.  Once sales picked up, he built a sales team and grew exponentially but he watched  the quality of service deliver...

Most CEOs have a hard time running one successful company. Veronica Buitron runs two! Her secrets boil down to simple, hard won lessons. First, you need a process for everything to be successful and to scale. Second, you need to trust and empower your teams. Every CEO can learn from her episode. Chapters: 00:00  - Introduction 2:26 - Tango Code: Redefining Software Development 0 03:53 - Autom...

Ariel came from engineering, he had been a product leader for quite a few years and then made the transition into sales.  Initially when he moved into sales, he was running product marketing. And he thought sales was so easy, you just get all of the factsheets and  battle cards and the information on the features and capabilities and share that with the prospects that they will buy it. O...

Samantha McKenna, a former employee of On24, was recruited by LinkedIn for her mastery of building a powerful brand on the platform. She started posting on LinkedIn in 2011, leading to recognition and a promotion. After two years, she broke her 13th record and decided to pursue her passion for making a positive impact. She left LinkedIn to start her own company, #SamSales, initially intending to w...

Sean Doyle applies behavioral science to marketing and the sales funnel. His model is called Centricity and he shares important lessons about alignment between sales, marketing and customer success to move deals through the funnel.  Sean says, “Deals stall in the middle of the funnel because we aren’t giving the buyer what they need to make a decision. If you are still feeding them informatio...