TheInquisitor Podcast

Andy Shaw is a CEO. He spills the beans in what he loves, hates when salespeople try to sell to him. He explains what his role entails, his priorities, his pressures, the fires he's got to put out, the demands on his time. We explore what he is looking for when being sold to and what causes him to buy and what guarantees you get shunted or never get a second meeting. If you sell to senior executiv...

Karen Mangia and Jill Robbins discuss how sales and selling need to adapt to to keep up with the shifting context in which customer and professional buyers have taken the buying journey. This is a masterclass in understanding the customer. Karen is one of the world's leading experts in the #VoiceOfTheCustomer and Jill is one of the world's leading minds around seller-procurement partnering. They s...

Sales: A Force For Good is a a global community set up to: 1. Make sales the powerhouse of the economy and lead the global recovery. 2. Identify & drive success for customers, partners and sellers. 3. Reward ALL who contribute to that success 4. Raise standards of behaviour, ethics and skill in our profession 5. Build future leaders. Give them the tools & skills to make sales a force for good 6. M...

Sean Coyle CEO of Peak Performance Management in Pittsburgh. We discuss accountability, and the transition from getting the result to not letting your team mates down as you mature. We explore tough love in accountability and need for a mutual agreement around what you are trying to accomplish. These accountability forums give you access to best practices. Sean makes the point that you need to lea...

Joseph Skursky helps companies predict who will succeed and will not BEFORE you hire them in sales, sales management and leadership roles. We discuss the critical importance of hiring and why hiring well is so challenging. I've experienced Joseph's work first hand which is why I wanted him on the show. His profiling of candidates is uncannily insightful and his nuanced interpretation of those resu...

Jill Robbins was at the top of the procurement function in corporate America for the past 25 years. Now she teaches salespeople how to sell to procurement and be effective. In this episode Jill lifts the lid on the different roles and functions in procurement, how they are compensated and measured, and the differences between a truly strategic procurement function and a tactical reactive purchasin...

Fred Copestake's book #SellingThroughPartneringSkills is essential reading if you are going to establish yourself as a viable long term supplier to your customers. Showing up as a talking catalogue in a suit or worse, doing a drive by shooting whenever a renewal conversation is due was never good but now makes you look and feel like a dinosaur. Your days are long gone and you deserve to be extinct...

Cauri Jaye is CTO and CSO at #Sesh. Sesh is developing AI that recognises people's emotions, #EQOnDemand with a product called #Empath. It's heavily based on the research of #LisaFeldmanBarrett. In this fascinating conversation we explore the future of AI-Human partnerships. We discuss the limits and pace of development, AI ethics and the applications of AI recognising emotions. Today this is a co...

Bevis Moynan helps CEOs take teams to peak performance levels. He uses #MotivationalMaps to understand the individual and group dynamics. His coaching drives cohesion and alignment with teams and across all functions of the business. We dig deep into motivation. What it is and what it isn't? How to encourage it and how to kill it? If you are a #CEO, #CHRO, #CPO, lead or manage a team. department o...

Amy Rowlinson discusses the power of the "Why?" behind your business. A lively discussion that digs into motive, cause and intent as drivers behind your business. Your motivations for doing what you do are key to sustaining the energy and drive you need to sustain your effort in the tough times, raise the bar and be relevant to your customers. We explore purpose, values, and fulfilment in this epi...

Adam Gordon nurtures talent. Whether it's graduates or veterans, potential new hires or building the bench, companies waste an obscene amount of money and waste countless hours of people's time duplicating work they have already paid for in their recruitment process.   We explore what candidate nurturing is and how to build a rock solid pipeline of past, current and future candidates. Building rel...

Selling is a thinking profession. It's not about techniques and manipulation. Unless you understand people, you are going to find selling a tough occupation. Moeed Amin is a neuroscientist and practitioner of good behavioural psychology. We get deep into the subject of why people buy, and why they don't. We explore the crimes against customers salespeople perpetrate and their managers encourage wh...

"Never put the financial cart before the building a better future horse", says Gary Mitchell, #TransformationExpert. On this episode of #TheInquisitorPodcast I have #Futurist and #Collaboration expert Professor Eddie Obeng and #Innovation chief for #Helsingborg Patrick Lindqvist. A lively, rowdy and insightful conversation packed with some uncomfortable home truths about why innovation, change and...

Mat Sweezey says, "Using new technology with old thinking is worse than useless". The context changed in 2009 with the arrival of the internet in mainstream business. The problem is many marketing departments, CFOs and sales leaders are trying to apply old paradigms to new ways buyers are buying. Mat's excellent book #TheContextMarketingRevolution is one of the top 3 marketing books available toda...

"Never assume you are in relationship with someone", says Barnaby Wynter, author of #TheBrandBucket. "The power base has shifted to the buyer", he continues since the advent of the internet and the smart phone. 88% of buying journeys start online in consumer sales, but that is being mirrored in B2B.  The Brand Bucket process: Raise awareness Image match Define your value to them Give them a test d...

David Perry has sold #enterprisesolutions for major corporations including Adobe, Amazon, Google and IBM. He is the author of #GameOfSales. We discuss the truths and myths about winning complex deals with major #enterprisecustomers.  A seasoned sales veteran, Dave has picked up a lot of scar tissue, earned a few stripes and has condensed 20 years experience into his book. Well worth a read and ver...

Workplace stress is the 5th highest cause of death globally. Mental health is a hot topic in the world of sales and selling, but many are blithely ignoring it, brushing it under the carpet or paying lip service to it. Chris Hatfield, CEO of Sales Pyche, believes it is too important to ignore. I agree. We discuss the causes, effects and solutions to mental health problems in our great profession of...

Alex Moscow helps you tell captivating stories that make your customer the hero. He takes your genius as a business, and brings it to life through the experience and outcomes you deliver to your clients. We explore why stories are so powerful, what makes them work and what makes so much corporate communication fall flat. Packed with usable insights, this episode will open your eyes to the power an...

Gary Mitchell transforms companies, government departments and complex organisations. In 25 years he's never had one of his complex change projects fail. Not one. Zero. Nul. Nada.  Why? Because he starts with the story. He makes sure the right people are leading each element of the progamme. By following principles learned in the crucible of complex transformations, he eliminates the risk of techn...

Warren Zenna is founder of the #CROCollective. He trains, develops and helps hire #ChiefRevenueOfficers #CROs. A good CRO can make your business. The wrong one can kill it. Hire in haste, repent at leisure! CROs should be a founder or CEOs closest ally. They bring your vision to life, building and aligning your marketing, sales and customer success operations to deliver your customers' outcomes. I...

Simon Bowen is one of top 3 freshest thinkers in modern selling today. His simple mental models enable you to communicate the most complex ideas in minutes to an audience who can then take your message and sell them internally on your behalf. I'm one of Simon's students and cannot begin to tell you how positive the impact working with him is having on my own selling. If you can draw lines, circles...

Gerry Hill leads a team of battle hardened sales veterans who help your highly paid, valuable salespeople have 5-6 effective calls with named target prospects an hour. His company makes about 40,000,000 cold calls per year for their clients. They've done the analysis and these are the stats on cold calling: On average, reps making manual dials achieve a dial rate of 15 dials per hour With 1 effect...

Understanding their partners' businesses is the foundation of #Westcoast's success. Since Alex Tatham took the helm as CEO 6 years ago he's led the business through 1000% growth. He is regularly found in conversation with customers and partners. In 2020, Alex led Westcoast through an £800m explosion in sales taking then to £3bn turnover. We discuss why the channel is leading the way in supporting...

Many #salesenablement practitioners have lost a lot of credibility in recent years. Now is the time to rethink the role and purpose of sales enablement. Leadership and Tier 1 sales managers need to shift their attitude towards sales enablement, coaching and rehearsal/simulations. Working harder whilst remaining dumb and doing the wrong things when on a call with a prospect simply isn't effective....

Leigh Ashton went from successful salesperson to befuddled and confused sales leader. After her early success, Leigh was promoted to sales manager where she discovered selling and managing salespeople require a massively different skillset.  Leigh has spent her career researching and applying sound psychological principles in her development of sales people and teams, as a manager, a trainer and a...