Sales Talk for CEOs

According to Mei Siauw, CEO of LeadIQ, a tool that helps sales teams with smarter prospecting, building an outbound sales motion is the key to growth. Start early, stick with it; if you do it right, outbound sales will produce amazing results. In this episode, we talk about the outbound motion Mei built, how Ryan used the piano to book conversations with prospects and how Mei built a global, remot...

Nancy Duarte is the CEO of Duarte, a company that specializes in the art of persuasive communication. YShe’s known as “the Storyteller of the Valley” and the author of six best-selling books, including Resonate and slide:ology. Her famous TedTalk has had over 3 million views. What you may not know is that although her business was founded in 1988, she is only now growing an outbound sales team. Th...

Jonathan Siddharth is the CEO of Turing, an AI-backed Intelligent Talent Cloud that helps companies source, vet, match and manage software developers remotely. There are currently 1.5 million software developers on Turing, and the platform is used by huge companies like Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi, Dell, Disney, Coinbase, and more. The reason for Turing's wild success? Jonathan has strategically...

Here's the reality: you'll make mistakes at every stage of building a company, especially when building a sales organization. But it's what you do with your mistakes that will determine your success. Entrepreneurs who catch the error, identify the problem, and correct it quickly are those who go on to build profitable, long-lasting businesses. Making mistakes—and learning lessons from them—is part...

Every salesperson today wants to have more sales conversations. But they're difficult to get because it's become so hard to get the buyer's attention. Want to break through the noise? Try storytelling. Learning how to effectively use story in your messaging can dramatically increase the number of sales conversations and conversions. This is a big topic, and I know CEOs are eager to learn more abou...

Angela Saunders is the CEO of Vorum, a company that provides digital workflow solutions worldwide for the design and manufacturing of custom prosthetics and orthotics. Started in 1989 by Angela's father, the company has seen big changes since Angela became CEO two years ago. She's not starting from scratch, though. Angela is taking the trust her father built over decades and strategically leveragi...

People are bombarded with emails and sales messages. Response rates have plummeted. The number of quality interactions with prospects has declined. As a result, each interaction is more valuable than ever before. By using sales discovery to truly understand the prospect, you can build a relationship and partner with them to solve the challenges they’re facing. In today’s world, every CEO should be...

Lars Grønnegaard is the CEO of Dreamdata, a SAAS company that gathers, joins, and cleans revenue-related data to help B2B businesses understand what is driving sales so they can focus on what works. Like most new companies, Dreamdata started with founder-led sales to get their first customers, but within 18 months Lars realized he needed a professional sales team. In this Sales Talk for CEOs episo...

Dr. Barbara Kinnaird is CEO of Response Biomedical, a point-of-care testing solution helping to diagnose acute diseases. A microbiologist by trade, Barb stepped in as CEO after a significant company downsize, and she soon discovered there were many other problems in the business that needed fixing.  One of the big ones? Lack of clarity on who the core customer is.  Research in this area...

On this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Steve Benson, CEO of Badger Maps, joins me as an Expert to talk about what CEOs can (and should!) be doing to level up sales at their company. Now hold on a moment before everyone goes, "Wait a minute, I have a sales leader who does that. I have a CRO in place. I have a VP of sales." Yes, I'm sure you do. But CEOs always have a role in sales, regardless of w...

Many CEOs struggle to find sales leaders, including sales managers and VPs of sales. Not Patrick Parker. Patrick is the CEO of SaaS Partners, which helps early-stage entrepreneurs and builds in-house products to start new companies. Patrick is launching new businesses all the time, yet he never struggles to find sales leaders. His secret? Patrick has identified the exact traits to look for in new...

Lead generation is often ranked as one of the biggest challenges of growing a business. That’s why I invited expert Brian Carroll to the Sales Talk for CEOs podcast to discuss what CEOs should know about generating leads for complex sales. Brian is the founder of Markempa, an empathy-based marketing company, and the author of the bestselling book Lead Generation for the Complex Sale . In this epis...

Amy DuRoss is the co-founder and former CEO of Vineti, an enterprise software platform for personalized cell and gene therapies. Personalized medicine—designing custom therapeutics for each patient to cure diseases like cancer—is a whole new terrain in the pharmaceuticals industry. So, what’s it like to start and build a company in a brand new category? In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Amy...

Account-based marketing is one of the hottest growth strategies right now (note: it's not new, just hot), with companies in all industries looking to create a personalized buying experience for targeted accounts. If you're a CEO who wants to unleash the power of account-based marketing in your own business, you'll want to listen to this episode of the Sales Talk for CEOs podcast. My guest, Blake W...

Darren Dixon is the founder and CEO of Fyxify, a software platform for the home services industry that connects consumers and contractors. He describes Fyxify as "the most energy-efficient software in the world" because the company's vision is to address the problem of global warming by equipping homeowners and service providers with the information they need to handle home maintenance in an energ...

Brent Keltner is the founder and President of Winalytics LLC, a go-to-market and revenue acceleration consultancy. His upcoming book, The Revenue Acceleration Playbook , teaches CEOs and go-to-market teams the importance of having authentic conversations with potential buyers. In this episode of the Sales Talk for CEOs podcast, we dive into the topic of authentic conversations: what they are, how...

Voice of the customer research is more than just sending out a customer survey or asking for a review. It involves conducting strategic interviews, often handled by a third party, to get targeted insights for your business. Every CEO should be looking at voice of the customer research, which is why I invited expert Tonya Bjurstrom, founder of Dirby Group, a voice of the customer research company,...

Leeatt Rothschild is the CEO of Packed with Purpose, a specialty corporate gifting company that sources from minority-owned companies with superior products that make a social impact. Social mission affects everything at Packed with Purpose—from how they market and package products to the people they hire. In fact, Leeatt has worked hard to build a mission-aligned sales team, which has greatly con...

Torrance Hart is CEO of Teak and Twine, a corporate gifting company that works with sales, marketing, and HR teams to use strategic gifting to accomplish goals. Once Torrance embraced her role as sales leader, there was no turning back. She now loves her work leading sales and credits her involvement in the sales process as one of the primary reasons for the rapid growth of Teak and Twine. Her sto...

The startup industry is littered with failed businesses that didn’t reach the five-year mark. It’s a shame because there are a lot of great products, ideas, and services out there that never make it because these early-stage startups don’t get the help that they need. That’s why I’m excited to welcome my guest for this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs: Craig Zingerline, CEO and founder of Growth Uni...

According to Orrin, the three stages of business growth are as follows: Stage 1: You’re scrappy and entrepreneurial with a ‘let’s just get it done’ kind of attitude. As for sales, you do most of the work yourself. Stage 2: ‘Let’s get some kind of management in here!’ becomes your mission. You start to grow your sales team and add people in layers into the organization. You may even start to get so...

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...

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 the latest Sales Talk for CEOs podcast. My guest for this interview is Pouyan Salehi, CEO of Scr...

If there is one thing to take away from this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, it’s that CEOs should be making connections. If you’re not reaching out to customers, employees, peers, and mentors, you are missing out on opportunities to learn and grow. I understand that this doesn’t come naturally for everyone, but when you hear about the benefits of networking, evangelizing, and building relationshi...

Hiring the right sales leader is something that every CEO has challenges with, so this episode of the Sales Talk for CEOs podcast is a great opportunity to improve your strategy and avoid some common mistakes. By hiring the right sales leader for your company, you’ll be able to build the kind of sales organization that really supports your business, and that allows you, as CEO, to take on the role...