ValuClarity

I was struck by the similarity between the premise of my book, "Radical Value", and the ideas of Peter Drucker, who is famous for many things, including "the purpose of a business is to create a customer"...except that he went on to say some important things after that pithy gem. I wanted to share my thoughts on the rest of that quote, as well as some thoughts on famous business books of the past....

This is the third episode with my old colleague, Jerry Gowen. He's got a lifetime's worth of value selling stories, and we focused mostly on the value of RELIABILITY. Many products or services differentiate by being more reliable in some way, but few sellers are good at selling all of the value that reliability delivers to their customers. As a result, they don't sell as successfully, or at the pr...

Scott Newsome is the CFO and a board member at Dexwet (https://dexwet.com), an Austrian company which has patented and developed an air filtration technology that 1) operates at both high and low airflow rates that are difficult/impossible for conventional media filters to handle, 2) has much lower maintenance requirements and costs than traditional media filters. Dexwet has concentrated on market...

Nathan Kievman runs Linked Strategies, which has grown from a LinkedIn lead gen shop to something far more valuable -- and far more successful. He's evolved his business into "Accelerating the Growth of Conscious and Transformational Companies and Individuals". To achieve that customer outcome, Linked Strategies has had to offer more services, rethink its talent strategy, and create a highly engag...

Season two of the ValuClarity podcast featured some major executive themes, and Gayle Keller helped me cover one of the most important. Gayle has been a successful woman in a STEM-related business,..isn't it sad that she's an anomaly? Gayle is committed to helping women find their voice and their confidence. WE had a great conversation about it. Thanks, Gayle! Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

From the Israeli Army to running her own business, Dr. Karen Jacobson has learned leadership lessons that she shares with her clients in her leadership practice. She Aligns leaders and their teams, helping them achieve high performance. We talked about what leadership means in the post-Covid environment, and with workers of all levels. We went deeper than than the glittering generalities around wh...

Kurt Shaver is with Vengreso, who helps sales teams become adept at using sales tools from THIS century (Kurt's expression). They are masters at LinkedIn and now, one-to-one video messaging. The blessing of these tools is also that they are simple and powerful. The curse of these tools is that they are so simple and powerful that it's easy to misuse them: approaching people and immediately selling...

Jerry Gowen has retired from a career as one of the best value sellers I've ever come across. We agreed to sit him in front of a microphone to share some of his approaches to sales, punctuated by a few of his experiences in selling highly engineered products. We spent most of this episode talking about understanding the customer, doing your homework, as well as finding and developing internal advo...

Lee Salz is a best-selling author (check out "Sales Differentiation") and sales strategist. As kindred spirits on Sales and value, we always have great conversations, and decided to have one with the microphone turned on. Lee shared some great stories about his work with his clients on helping them differentiate how and what they sell. Thanks, Lee! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...

Jerry Gowen is a former colleague...and one of the best salespeople I ever worked with. We'll be having a whole series of conversations together. In this first conversation, we talk about selling value, but I tried to steer the conversation to that foundational skill: understanding your customer, their world, and their business. Part of what makes Jerry a great seller is that he's also an old-scho...

Kevin Dixon, founder and CEO of Boxxstep (www.boxxstep.com) led sales organizations in the "high consideration B2B" space for years. Like me, he's found that buying committees have grown, and with that, decision complexity has grown -- and "no decision" has become by far the dominant competitor. In response, the average company's selling approach has become more mechanized and seller-centric: exac...

Alan Brunton has been an "audio guy" for decades, as a performer and more often, as a sound engineer. In his quest for understanding how humans are impacted by the sounds around us, he discovered some physiological quirks of the human aural (sound-processing) system, and founded a company whose software takes advantage of -- and improves attention and retention of -- the audio tracks you listen to...

Jim Hardwick has led sales organizations for decades, and now does it as an outsourced CSO for companies in scale-up phase. He loves setting up the selling system in companies, and clients get to use a high-end skillset on a part-time basis, allowing them to ramp up more skillfully, rapidly, and scalably (is that a word?) than otherwise. Part of what makes Jim special is his mature outlook on the...

Steven Zylstra leads the Arizona Technology Council, a trade organization that promotes the interests of all kinds of tech companies in Arizona. The council is one of the most impactful organizations in the state. I wanted Steven's take on the future: the future of work, technology, and how tech companies go to market. It was a great conversation! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....

Mark Hinderliter is a HR professional who helps corporations develop leaders and cultures that outperform. He knows that some culture types have higher growth ad profits, while others stagnate. Building those cultures requires great leadership. Mark and I talked about those issues, and how they are becoming even more important now, and will become keys to survival in the future. Learn more about y...

Kris SV is the Chief Customer Success Enabler at WINsights, a company that helps sales teams elevate sales conversations by providing deep background into a customer's world. I teach sales teams to arm themselves with deep customer insights, but Kris and WINsights can do an in-depth profile as a service. We talked about the value of differentiating how you sell, and using customer insights to do i...

Per Sjofors specializes in helping customers discover the optimal prices for their products and services. He uses a customer-perceived value methodology, unlike most consultants in the pricing optimization space -- who analyze historical sales data. This is a HUGE difference and a huge advantage for his clients. We talk about all of this ...and finish off with a discussion of how sales capability...

Gerhard Gschwandtner is the publisher of Selling Power magazine, and the CEO of Sales 3.0 conferences. He's been completely plugged in to the sales performance scene for decades, He and I talked about the state of sales, and how technology and tools are not improving sales performance by themselves. He is adamant that the secret to success is the right mindset, and we had a lively discussion on th...

Steve Lishansky is one of the wisest men I know. He helps corporate leaders, and teams of leaders, make better decisions. His background includes writing a book about value-focused sales, so his leadership and decision making work aligns perfectly with my philosophy. There is no such thing as a conversation with Steve that isn't illuminating and inspiring. You must give this a listen. Learn more a...

Jeffrey Hayzlett, former CMO of Eastman Kodak, and now the Chairman and CEO of the C-Suite Network, led his organization through a tumultuous 2020. From a primarily face-to-face events business, Jeffrey helped steer a rapid transition to virtually-delivered set of experiences to connect C-Suite executives and advisors. It involved rapid iteration and brutally honest redirection. The thing that did...

Bradley Hartmann was a purchasing executive for one of the nation's largest homebuilders, and has moved into helping salespeople deal more effectively and positively with purchasing professionals. His company "Behind Your Back Sales" got its name from the idea of understanding what buyers think of sales people when they walk out the door. Bradley and I are kindred spirits, and I loved getting his...

Tom Williams has wide-ranging experience as a salesperson, sales leader, and CEO. Thus he's been on both sides of the procurement/sales relationship, and has a wealth of valuable insights. Tom and I spent some time talking about what it takes for sellers to deal effectively with procurement groups. I always enjoy time spent with Tom, and know you will learn something listening in to our conversati...

Jeroen Corthout is co-founder of Salesflare ( https://salesflare.com), a CRM focused on small businesses. To succeed in that crowded market, Salesflare needs to have a clear differentiation strategy -- which they do. That strategy extends to an operational practice that I found creative, simple, and effective. We talked about Salesflare's differentiation, but also how he keeps customer value front...

David Petts has been a CRO with organizations large and small, and has a strong point of view on how to overcome "silo dysfunction" in an organization. I have my own multifunctional expernience at companies of all sizes as well. We had a great conversation about how to grow customer relationships, especially those with major accounts. It was fun sharing ideas and different perspectives. Thanks Dav...

Rob Hartnett has been a high performer in business, in sales, and in sport. He is a student of self-leadership, high performance, and corporate leadership. Rob and I worked together as sales performance consultants, and our conversation ranged from his leadership practice to how sales is leadership and change management. I enjoyed this conversation and hope you do too. Learn more about your ad cho...