The Audible-Ready Sales Podcast

Being able to execute memorable and impactful presentations is an often-overlooked sales skill. John Kaplan shares the key steps you can take to prepare and execute a buyer-focused presentation, even when you’re talking about yourself.  Here are some additional resources: Purpose Process Payoff  Align with the Buying Process: The Power of the Mantra  Prepare and Practice to Confidently Execute Sal...

The last two years have exposed some flaws in salespeople’s approach to customer meetings. If you want to be successful, you can’t go back to the way you secured or conducted on-premise meetings before the pandemic. Tim Caito shares the overlooked reasons customers prefer virtual meetings (besides convenience) and how to differentiate your approach to ensure you land and execute impactful meetings...

Responding to RFPs is often inevitable in many selling organizations. How do you respond in a way that gives you an edge? Brian Walsh joins us to share the importance of assessing your position and details how to determine an impactful response. He covers what to ask yourself as you qualify the opportunity, define your competitive position, and strategize around the right next steps.  Here are som...

Segment's Chief Revenue Officer, Joe Morrissey, joins John Kaplan to discuss how Segment implemented a value-based sales motion to scale their organization’s product-led growth (PLG), increasing Annual Recurring Revenue by 150% over two years. They discuss: Elevating the go-to-market approach Key challenges when scaling product-led growth and how to overcome them The right time to invest in distri...

The time period after your sales kickoff is a pivotal one. You spend countless hours planning and executing the SKO, but what’s the plan to maintain that momentum that’s created? What can you focus on as it relates to your day-to-day activities? Force Management Facilitator Antonella O’Day joins us to share the actions sales leaders, managers and reps need to commit to immediately following the SK...

Defining metrics demands company alignment. Getting buyers to map to and define how they’ll measure success as it relates to your solution isn’t always easy. People may hesitate when it comes to being measured.  John Kaplan discusses the role both companies and their salespeople play in ensuring their solutions get the credit they deserve for driving significant customer outcomes. Here are some ad...

To celebrate our 100th episode, Brian Walsh joined us to interview Force Management Co-Founders John Kaplan and Grant Wilson. They discuss the journey from starting Force Management to celebrating nearly 20 years in business. We are joined by a special guest halfway through the episode - and he shares how John Kaplan almost quit sales for Krispy Kreme.  Here are some additional resources How Do Yo...

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 share and how help ensure those joining you are best pr...

A montage of the funniest sales stories covered during our Lessons Learned in Sales series. Catch up on these highlights that you might have missed and share your funny stories with by leaving us a comment or tagging us on LinkedIn: The Audible-Ready Sales Podcast. Here are the full episodes featuring the stories we shared  Patrick McLoughlin  Antonella O’Day  Tim Caito   Brian Walsh  Kamonte McCr...

Any salesperson can tell a good story. Styles may differ, but your message is what matters.  A great story helps your buyers understand what’s possible and how they can achieve their desired outcomes. Understand how to improve your storytelling skills and what to focus on to have a bigger impact on your buyer. John Kaplan shares a few storytelling tactics you can use to elevate your approach and m...

In this episode, we cover key steps to make sure you hold to your committed forecast.  Force Management Senior Partner Paul DeMore has conversations with sales leaders nearly every week around enabling salespeople to hold to their committed forecasts. He joins us to share what’s top-of-mind right now for sales leaders looking to reduce slipped deals and improve win rates. He also shares actionable...

Front-line sales managers this one’s for you!  Your job is difficult. Often top sellers, who were promoted to managers, can find it challenging to coach the skills they excelled at. Being a great player of the game doesn’t directly translate into being a great coach of the game. The coaching skill set is completely different. If you find yourself often taking over deals for your reps, or are unsur...

Our podcast series “Lessons Learned in Sales” continues this week as John Kaplan talks with Force Management’s new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Kamonte McCray. They discuss:  How feeling too comfortable in a big account put his company in a dangerous position, costing him the deal A deal negotiation that involved a language barrier and a lesson he’ll never forget A tricky negotiation tactic that...

Ever advance a deal too quickly, only to find out you need to back up the sales process? John Kaplan joins us to discuss how to step back and work with your customer to ensure you’ve got all of the information you need to reassess and progress your deal. He walks through examples of how to back up your deals and get your customer to demand your help with solving an urgent business problem. Here ar...

As the end of the year approaches, how are you going to make your plan next year? What do you want to deliver? If the answer is on-time-earnings and beyond tune in.  Maybe you’ve had your best year yet and are wondering how to repeat that success or you’re looking for ways to improve next year. Whatever your goals are, now is the time to put in the work and ask for what you need to make it happen....

High-performing sales organizations don’t just know why deals are won and lost. These teams have a systematic way to leverage those insights to impact and improve future sales opportunities. In this episode, Force Management Facilitator and Senior Partner Tim Caito shares how to pull insight on lost deals into future sales activities to create more wins and less late-stage losses. He covers the co...

Sales is a game of inches. How you make your approach stand out from the competition (including do-nothing or do-it-internally options) can set you far ahead, or behind.  There is as much differentiation in how you sell as there is in what you sell. But how exactly do you differentiate your approach? Tune in to hear five key steps you can take to make yourself stand out from the competition and br...

You know the deals you need help on, but how do you get the help you need? John Kaplan shares the best practices for getting the help you need on every deal. If you’re in a tight spot or find yourself needing similar support from deal to deal, this is a must-listen episode. Hear the best practices you can use to get the support you need and improve outcomes on future opportunities. Here are some a...

Our podcast series “Lessons Learned in Sales” continues this week as John Kaplan talks with Force Management Facilitator Dale Monnin. They discuss:  When Dale learned just how critical it is to always be audible-ready. What led him to dramatically pivot the way he sold and the success he drove because of that shifted approach. An incident where fire dancing went awry.  Here are some additional res...

Get back to the basic sales fundamentals that help ensure great sales conversations and improved win rates. John Kaplan provides five things to execute after your next prospect call to own and improve your next steps. Here are some additional resources: 5 Things to Do Before Your Next Sales Conversation  https://apple.co/3ajqZB8 Overcoming Sales Challenges: A Buyer Focus on Seller Deficit Disorder...

Get back to the basic sales fundamentals that help ensure great sales conversations.  John Kaplan provides five things you can practice before you jump into that next prospect call.  Here are some additional resources: Purpose Process Payoff [Article] https://bit.ly/3spMjgA Improve Your Active Listening Skills [Podcast]  https://apple.co/3md3HUO Maximize the Effectiveness of Proof Points [Podcast]...

Our podcast series “Lessons Learned in Sales” continues this week as John Kaplan talks with Force Management Senior Director of Facilitation Brian Walsh. They discuss:  One experience that showed Brian how to effectively drive urgency in his deals. What the best sales leaders he worked with did How to recruit A-players and secure them from their existing organizations. The time his client was read...

If you’re finding yourself new to a selling role and trying to sell to more experienced executives and professionals - this is a podcast for you. If you’re leading a team of greener reps, share this one with them.  John Kaplan shares how to prepare for conversations with experienced buyers in a way that will drive success and help you feel less intimidated going in. Great selling, is great selling...

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 mantra is, how you can build it through customer conver...

Sales kickoffs can take many different forms -- the good, the bad, and the game changers. The Force Management team has helped countless sales leaders execute meaningful Sales Kickoffs that launch organizational change and impactful results. What separates the best from the rest? What are the steps leaders can take to make their SKOs a game changer? Facilitators Brian Walsh and Antonella O'Day sha...