Welcome To Theinquisitor Podcast

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. It's a tough role, and is so much more than a VP of Sales. If you are a new CRO or aspire to become one, this is a must listen. If you are planning to hire one or they're not delivering what you expected, also listen and bring a pen and notepad to the party. Contact Warren about #TheCROCollective or to have a chat about he can help you advance your career or performance as a a #CRO via linkedin.com/in/warrenz Websites zennaconsulting.com  (Company Website) thecrocollective.com  (Company Website) Twitter: warrenzenna--.If you are the owner or CEO of a technology company and your goal is to grow your business and ac

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, triangles and squares you have all the drawing ability you need to start on this powerful approach to communicating memorably and effectively. Don't be fooled by the simplicity. To distil your message in such a way that you can explain your genius in a few minutes takes a huge amount of deep thinking, refinement and effort, but the outcome is worth the sweat and tears. Imagine being able to take a new salesperson and have them able to communicate your message effectively in days. Picture eliminating weeks of product knowledge training and having your salespeople able to engage C-suite executives in meaningful conve

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 effective for every 33 dials unless ... you're calling senior IT Execs But only 1:46 dials to effectives for senior IT execs 41% of those have 2 or more layers to navigate. Each layer takes 2 minutes and 45 seconds to navigate on average This means your highly paid reps could take as long as 3 hours between effective calls Gerry and I discuss why cold calling is still relevant and powerful. We explore ways to make your salespeople more effective. And we ask the question, why is it that the MOST important sales activity is placed in the hands of the most junior people in your sales operation? Gerry can be contacted via lin

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 customers achieve their outcomes. We dig deep into what makes for success in sales, management, leadership and partnership. We discuss how the channel has helped customers take on the challenges of Brexit and fill the chasm that was left when China's supply dried up and adapt to Covid. This is a masterclass in strategic sales leadership, customer centric selling and how to build a market leading sales culture. Bring a pen and pad to this episode. Packed with practical advice, real world lessons and some entertaining stories along the way. Grab a coffee, a slice of cake and enjoy. Alex can be contacted via LinkedIn at

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. #AvnerBaruch discusses the importance of immersing sales enablement in some critical areas to deliver a series of multipliers: Skills Simulations Strategy We explore what needs to happen in the #preonboarding, #onboarding, training and development phases. Avner gives examples of #salesbestpractices from the best sales teams in the world. In simulations and role plays, the salesperson MUST get to play both seller and buyer. Avner shares 6 ways sales enablement needs to change. You can contact Avner via linkedin.com/in/avner-baruch Project Moneyball: https://www.projectmoneyball.com/     --   To book a 1 to 1 with me

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 as a coach. She understands the power of mindset, values and motivation over tactics and technique. Technique without these principles has the finesse of a heavy stick. Understanding yourself, your buyer, their desired outcomes, their culture, environment, political landscape, how they are measured, scrutinised, promoted, rewarded, coupled with giving them a damned good listening to, is equipping your salespeople with a razor sharp sword that can cut a hair along its length. Few salespeople attain that level of mastery of human understanding, so their tactics are used to bludgeon buyers into buying whether it's right

Dan Oblinger is a hostage negotiator by night and commercial negotiation coach by day. His partner Allan Tsang has been helping companies and individuals negotiate complex deals, secure promotions or get discretionary effort from colleagues for the past 25 years. Both have been mentored by the legend Gary Noesner who headed up the FBI's hostage negotiation unit. Allan was trained by the legendary #JimCamp. Their pedigree is impeccable and what they have to say will open your eyes to how often you are in a negotiation and probably not aware and worse, not prepared. We cover the power of listening, empathy, preparation, mission and purpose. Listen intentionally, take notes, apply what you learn. Allan and Dan run the #NegotiationTribe which is a free LinkedIn community, they run courses to help with commercial negotiations, negotiating your career, and together they offer negotiation coaching on a group and 1-on-1 basis.   Contact Allan via linkedin.com/in/allantsang Website: 88owls.com  (Company Website)Twitte

#StephenDenny is at the forefront of the new frontiers of marketing. He rips up the old ways of doing things in favour of adapting to how B2B buyers now expect to be treated and are behaving based on leading edge research on how customers actually behave in the real world. He spends his life at the intersection between culture & technology: The future of the brand/consumer relationship The future of the digital footprint The future of work Crowded digital markets mean buyers are filtering through the noise. Few brands really manage to differentiate and fewer still have humanised their relationships with customers. We discuss his new book, #UnfilteredMarketing, co-authored with his business partner, #PaulLeinberger that uncovers the data and the insight to help drive bottom-line results. Contact Stephen via inkedin.com/in/stephendenny Websites stephendenny.com  (Personal Website) dennyleinbergerstrategy.com  (Company Website) Twitter: Note_to_CMO       --   To book a 1 to 1 with me or check out my 250

Matthew Dashper-Hughes has rapidly built his personal brand and his business through effective social selling on LinkedIn. Both he and I have learned through trial and error, getting help and relentless experimentation , what works and what doesn't. We've had spectacular failures and huge successes on the platform. We discuss the power of a well-crafted profile and the negative impact of a badly prepared one. We discuss outreach and prospecting, content, groups, personal messages, video and voice messages, introductions and much more. Matthew is a rising star on LinkedIn and in the Sandler network. A master relationship builder with a wealth of commercial experience, having worked at enterprise C-level in his previous incarnations. Contact Matthew via linkedin.com/in/matthewdashper-hughes Website: m6.sandler.com/content_section/show/32443  Email: MDH@sandler.comTwitter: sandler_MDH--To book a 1 to 1 with me or check out my 250+ podcast interviews with some of the best salespeople, sales leaders, sales psychol

My guest, Martin Lucas is rocking the boat a lot in this episode. He believes that marketing today is a house of cards which is long overdue a shake up. Better still he is doing something about it. His company, #GapInTheMatrix routinely saves client up to 26% on their advertising spend without any loss in performance. In fact, open rates on email campaigns average 150% higher than industry average and as high as 986% higher. Revenues for even $billion companies are up by 3-21%. Precision marketing is possible when you understand why customers buy. Few marketers really understand this. Same goes for salespeople. We are creatures who behave irrationally when others observe our behaviour, but to us, our decisions are perfectly reasonable and rational. Martin and his team have unlocked this arcane knowledge using data, psychology, mathematics, economics and behavioural science. We discuss the gaps in #BigData #EDP #CRM #Advertising #programmaticadvertising #creative #communication the #attributionmodel, the #sent

Alex Rawlings recruits top performing executives for fast growth, venture capital & private equity backed companies. To a great extent we disagree about the merits of the VC/PE but his approach to recruitment is exceptionally sound and reliable. Bad hires are the single highest hidden cost in any business. When you consider that 2 in 5 executive hires usually fail within the first year and Alex's model has a 100% success rate, it makes sense to listen to what he has to say.   We discuss good and bad practices in recruitment, candidate design, onboarding.   A good executive hire can deliver £millions to the value of your business. The right executive team usually means the difference between success and failure.    linkedin.com/in/alexrawlings Website: raw-selection.com  (Company Website)Email: Alex.Rawlings@Raw-Selection.comTwitter: ARawlingsRec   --   To book a 1 to 1 with me or check out my 250+ podcast interviews with some of the best salespeople, sales leaders, sales psychologists, founders and entrep

James Sale, founder of #MotivationalMaps discusses what motivation is and what it isn't. We explore the power of understanding your own and other people's motivation as a management tool, for leadership and to drive personal achievement. Too many managers misunderstand how motivation works. This is a powerful deep dive into the reality of motivation. If you want to get the best from your people consider using Motivational Maps with your team If you want to learn more about Motivational Maps drop me a line at marcus@laughs-last.com   Contact James via LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/jamesmotivationsale Websites motivationalmaps.com  (Motivational Maps) jamessale.co.uk  (James Sale) profile.typepad.com/1215095820s15205  (Motivational Memos) Email: james@motivationalmaps.comTwitter: jamessalemotiv8--To book a 1 to 1 with me or check out my 250+ podcast interviews with some of the best salespeople, sales leaders, sales psychologists, founders and entrepreneurs, trainers, coaches and authors click here - https:/

@Mike Adams is author of #7StoriesEverySalespersonMustTell and heads up global partnerships at #Anecdote, Story Powered Sales We revisit the subject of story telling by looking at the stories required by buyers at each step of the buying cycles. We focus on memorable story telling through channel partner sales and the use of story to help prospects diagnose their own problems. We dig into several story types that create trust Personal story Company creation story Insight story Success story We also rip apart why company stories produced by marketing departments are not stories; they're just a series of often boring, unrelatable facts. Mike explains the anatomy of great stories sequence of related events start, time, date, place unpredictable turn of events a central character usually a successful client experiencing the hero's journey the reason behind the story makes a business point We do a live story workshop to develop an effective success story using Mike's 6 steps   Contact Mike via LinkedIn: linkedin

Scott Ingram is a top sales producer who has carried a personal quota for the past 20 years. He's led sales teams and bridged the gap between sales and marketing. He is a massive proponent of customer advocacy and hosts 2 successful podcasts, #SalesSuccessStories and #InspiredMarketing. We discuss what top performers do that the rest do not. We explore hiring, onboarding, training, management, accountability, career pathing and building a management runway to avoid the top performer to bad manager trap.  I'm disappointed we didn't fight more as we found a lot of common ground around what excellence looks like and and what bad looks like. Packed full of practical tips, this episode is a must listen. Scott has interviewed 100+ of the top 1% sales producers in technology. He is a wealth of insight and pragmatic ideas you can apply in your team. Contact Scott via LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/scottingram Websites relationshipone.com  (Relationship One) top1.fm  (Sales Success Stories) Email: scott@top1.fm--To

Susanne Jacobs spent 20 years at the top of professional services when she realised that her focus was out of kilter with her values and what really matters. Since then she has been researching and training leadership teams to understand their people, what matters to them, what makes them tick and how to get the best out of them. Our conversation is frank, uncompromising and pragmatic. Every leader should pay heed to what Susanne is telling you. Her research is definitive, her experience vital.  What passes for the natural order of things is a perversion of what really drives performance. A 300 year decent into the mechanisation of human beings is patently ineffective and inefficient. The measurement of the wrong things has become a cultish obsession with measurement of lagging indicators, the dehumanisation of your people. Buckle up for a dose of the cold, hard uncomfortable truth. And if you have investors, use this as a call for some tough conversations about their misguided priorities and your complicit a

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it" Upton Sinclair This roundtable is powerful, as you'd expect with Dr Mark Goulston, Todd Caponi and Michael Brody-Waite as my guests. We explore self-deception, self-limiting beliefs and self-sabotage. And we look at the remedies. We practice some radical honesty. And we dig deep into the power of transparency, authenticity and empathy. Dr Mark Goulston is the world's foremost authority of empathic listening, teenage suicide prevention and author of #JustListen (the book I have most frequently recommended), #TalkingToCrazy and his latest book, #WhyCopeWhenYouCanHeal (about healing from the stress of being a frontline worker in the fight against Covid or any other trauma), Todd Caponi author of #TheTransparencySale and Michael Brody-Waite, author of #GreatLeadersLiveLikeDrugAddicts. Contact Information: Dr Mark Goulston linkedin.com/in/markgoulston Website: markgoulston.com  (Company Website)Twitter: MarkG

Americans and Brits, Europe is NOT a country. Germany is made up of several different regions. the north is different to the south. Straight translations into German don't translate sentiment or what matters most to your various German speaking audiences. The Swiss are very different to the Austrians, and Austrians are different to Northern Germans. DACH buyers don't do business in the same way that buyers from New York, California, Salt Lake City, London or Scunthorpe do. Localisation is critically important not only in your marketing and collateral but also adapting to local cultures and business preferences A fast talking seller from Brooklyn will probably struggle to sell to a buyer from Louisiana or Georgia. Given that Europe is made up of 27 nation states and many hundreds of regional groups why do you think it might be any different in the DACH region. My interview with Tobias Kopp is a full frontal exposure of what British and US companies get wrong culturally, in their communication and in trying to

Imagine you are riding high, publishing 34 of the world's In-flight magazines, then covid hits. Your clients are on their knees, no one is flying and your revenues have dropped from well over $100m to nearly nothing overnight. What would you do when there are no f'ing sales? Simon Leslie is the author of a fun and fabulous sales book called "There's No F In Sales". He also happens to be the founder at Ink, the company that actually published 34 in flight magazines who saw his revenues plummet because of the pandemic. Did he roll over and die? Not a bit of it. Simon is a survivor, a fighter and indomitable. Just because he got served a lot of rather bitter lemons in quick succession, he seized the opportunity to minimise the impact, partner more closely with his customers, and despite all the grief and many setbacks, is finishing 2020 in profit. It hasn't been easy, and hanging on to as many of his team as he could has proven nigh on impossible, but Simon is driven by his values and loyalty. We discuss the low

"I was 12 when lego sued me, then they offered me a job", says Martin Lindstrom Martin humanises marketing and product development like no one else on earth. He spends time in hundreds of homes, observing thousands of people interacting with products on behalf of his global clients. He is passionate about making the user experience the best it can possibly be. Renowned globally as the foremost authority on #CustomerExperience he is author of #Buyology, #Small Data, #BrandSense, #BrandWashed, #BrandChild and his forthcoming book, #TheMinistryOfCommonSense. We dig into the human psyche, buyer behaviour, why products fail, why sellers and marketers fail, and what it takes to become a keen observer of the human condition by taking note of the small data. Contact Martin via linkedin.com/in/lindstromcompany Websites MartinLindstrom.com  (MartinLindstrom.com website) martinlindstrom.com/ministry-of-commonsense/  (Check out my latest book) Twitter: MartinLindstrom     --   To book a 1 to 1 with me or check out m

Dave Abbott is the author of #HowToPriceYourPlatypus which is an outstanding book on how to price your products and services so you get to keep a decent profit. In this episode we explore how to understand different pricing models around: Inputs Outputs Outcomes We explore why many businesses don't understand their pricing and end up making no profit or worse, paying to work for their customers. We delve into pricing with partner channels and explore strategies to help you make more and keep more money.   Contact Dave via linkedin.com/in/diabbott Websites insight-bp.co.uk  (Insight Best Practice) consultyorkshire.com  (Consult Yorkshire) david-abbott-speaker.co.uk/  (David Abbott Speaker) Email: david@dabbott.co.ukTwitter: davidatinsight      --   To book a 1 to 1 with me or check out my 250+ podcast interviews with some of the best salespeople, sales leaders, sales psychologists, founders and entrepreneurs, trainers, coaches and authors click here  https://linktr.ee/marcuscauchi