The Audible-Ready Sales Podcast

As the year winds down, many sales professionals hear the dreaded phrase: “Not right now.” But what does that really mean? Is it truly a timing issue, or something deeper? In this episode, Rachel Clapp Miller sits down with Antonella O’Day to unpack the real reasons behind this common objection and share actionable strategies to keep deals warm without being pushy. Antonella explains why “not righ...

As the year winds down and Q4 ramps up, sales professionals face the pressure of closing strong. In this episode, Rachel sits down with John Boney to discuss how sellers can maintain focus, prioritize effectively, and execute with clarity and discipline during the final stretch of the year. Whether you're managing stretch deals, navigating procurement hurdles, or trying to re-engage quiet accounts...

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with John Kaplan, who explains the importance of owning your success and shares tips on how to put yourself in a position to succeed as a sales rep. Plus, as promised, here is the definition of a floppy disk for our younger listeners: a thin plastic disk coated with magnetic material on which data for a computer can be stored (Merriam-Webster). If you have any...

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with John Kaplan. Preparing for your deal is critical. Preparing others for your sales call has equal impacts on your success. If you want someone to join you on a call (product engineer, manager, etc.), you have to be able to provide them with fluency about the deal and clarity on their role in the conversation. John Kaplan covers what information you need to...

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with John Kaplan. Discover the mantra you can use to successfully navigate opportunities that require you to move up and down in organizations. Hear John Kaplan’s tips for continually building a business case that maps the technical capabilities of your solution to the required capabilities for different decision makers in an organization. He explains what the...

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with John Kaplan. As a seller, you need to communicate effectively with people throughout an organization - both on the economic and technical levels. That means adjusting your sales conversation to what’s relevant to the individual in front of you. In this episode, John Kaplan shares insights that will allow you to swiftly adapt to any type of sales conversati...

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with Brian Walsh. If you’re selling a new technology, it may be difficult to align to a pain point. How do you align to pain the customer doesn’t even know they have? Many AI startups have this challenge. How do you get the customer to see a new way of doing old things?  In this episode, Brian Walsh breaks down ways you can think about your sales conversation s...

Becoming elite as a sales organization demands a culture of accountability. A great sales planning process combined with a voracious qualification process builds an ecosystem of accountability across large-scale sales organizations. John Kaplan shares what these companies implement to foster a culture of accountability, detailing key steps for leaders and reps to take.  Here are some additional re...

In today’s episode, John Boney joins Rachel to share his best advice on time management as a sales rep. He highlights the importance of operating with a mindset of ownership over your territory, discusses the calendar management habits of elite sellers, explains how to balance current deals with pipeline generation, and urges reps to sell proactively rather than reactively. He also advises manager...

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with John Kaplan. One common scenario that all sellers are likely to face, especially when joining a new company, is inheriting others’ accounts. In some cases, you’ll follow someone who did a stellar job, and other times, you’ll have to pick up the pieces of someone not as successful. Both circumstances pose their own set of unique challenges. John Kaplan shar...

Enjoy this episode, which was originally aired in August 2022, with John Kaplan. Solution requirements are a critical component of every deal you sell. These are things that must be in place in order for a buyer to achieve their desired outcomes, and they exist with or without your solution. In today’s episode, John Kaplan explains the importance of recognizing your customer’s solution requirement...

In this episode, John Kaplan joins Rachel to talk about bouncing back from losses as a seller. For reps, he sheds light on the key factors to reflect upon after losing, the importance of maintaining transparency with management in order to get appropriate feedback, the decisive benefits of early qualification, and applying the lessons learned from a loss to succeed in similar accounts. John also a...

Today, John Kaplan joins Rachel to explore the many elements involved in building a healthy pipeline, and doing so in a purposeful manner. He talks about prioritizing strategy during pipeline generation as opposed to merely chasing a number, pinpointing an Ideal Customer Profile, articulating your value by tying technical requirements to business outcomes, and the art and skill of getting the cust...

For today’s episode, Tim Caito joins Rachel to share his insights on what reps can do to consistently elevate their sales conversations and get higher in organizations. Tim talks about recognizing the giveaways that you are too low in a company, prioritizing influence over org charts, keeping track of shifting priorities over the course of a deal, preparing in advance for successful sales calls, a...

In this episode, Antonella O’Day joins Rachel to discuss best practices on managing the transition of prospects from initial interest to buying intent. Over the course of the conversation, Antonella touches on the need for sellers to approach early sales calls with a mindset of curiosity, shares strategies for testing a prospect’s intent in order to qualify deals early on, advises reps to make use...

In this episode, John Boney and Rachel speak about the need for sales leaders to coach based on value. They explore ways in which leaders can endeavor to make every conversation with reps an opportunity to drive growth, not just hit a number. You’ll learn how to ask questions that uncover your reps’ motivations and struggles, differentiate solving and coaching, and lead in a way that builds trust...

In this episode, Rachel and John dive into a critical moment every seller faces: recognizing when it's time to pause, reassess, and reset a deal. They explore how to identify red flags, reframe conversations, and re-engage buyers without losing credibility. Visit these other episodes for more on this topic. Go High, Go Low – Adjusting Your Sales Conversation Learn how to shift your conversation up...

In today’s special episode for those selling to government agencies, John Boney joins Rachel to discuss how to respond and adapt to changing federal priorities in the current landscape. He explores the concept of “value drivers” and explains how reps can uncover them with effective, mission-oriented questions. John also talks about the need to align with the client’s procurement process, focus on...

Today, Brian Walsh joins Rachel to talk about the mindset sellers need to have when their company launches a new product. He walks through key considerations for reps to weigh during the enablement process, such as figuring out what problems the product solves and the outcomes it can drive, determining your ideal customer profile, staying honest to avoid overpromising, and discussing technical fea...

In today’s episode, John Kaplan joins Rachel to talk about the steps necessary to be an elite seller. He goes through and explains the habits and behaviors consistently exhibited by the most elite reps, including disciplined and intentional execution, preparing insightful questions to aid discovery, shifting the conversation from their own solution to the customer’s business pain, and influencing...

Today, Force Management facilitator Jim “Pouli” Pouliopoulos joins Rachel to talk about finding the right mindset as a new sales rep. He advises prioritizing process over outcome when starting out, maintaining a growth mindset, and staying focused on trying to help prospects personally and professionally. Pouli also shares tips on overcoming common struggles faced by new sellers, such as a lack of...

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with John Kaplan. Sellers often hear from prospective customers that they have too much going on and thereby cannot take on a solution. When you’ve got numbers to hit, how do you get a prospect to prioritize your solution over the other initiatives they are considering? John Kaplan joins us to share how best to align your solution with the business issues that...

Today, Antonella O’Day joins Rachel to discuss questions that reps can ask themselves to maximize their ability to qualify deals. These questions, among other benefits, will provide reps with clarity on whether you understand the customer’s business problem, whether the customer understands your solution’s differentiation, and how best to make use of your Champion in the qualification process. Her...

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with John Kaplan. There’s not a salesperson out there who doesn’t want more wins and bigger deals. The most elite salespeople are strategic about how they align their solution’s differentiation to their buyer’s needs and as a result, they’re able to win more, high-value accounts. John Kaplan shares, where most reps are challenged when it comes to differentiatin...

Today, Tim Caito joins Rachel to discuss how to communicate the needs of the customer internally, centering the conversation around three high-level concepts: the external sale, the internal sale, and achieving an ideal outcome using two-way guidance. In the course of the episode, he shares best practices on gathering necessary customer and internal requirements, finding the right balance between...