Welcome To Theinquisitor Podcast

Pinpointing why your customer buys is critical to eliminate waste, inefficiency and lost sales. Only by aligning with your customer and the context in which they exist will you be able sell consistently and predictably to your customers. Recognising the buyer archetypes you attract as a brand will drive systemic growth. As salespeople, it's incumbent upon us to adapt to our customers and prospects. If you're hiring and onboarding new salespeople, expose them to buyers; have them listen to their story, listen to the language they use, learn their preference for detail or big picture, fast or slow pace, people or result orientation. Listening is a creative act. Speak to your customers to understand what it's like to be them, what matters to them, what pressure they are under, what they consider important. Make it mandatory for your CEO, your CFO, your COO, your CMO, your CRO, your CIO, you middle managers, your marketers and your salespeople speak to your customers to eliminate the errors that creep into your t

Let's pretend it is possible to implement 100% of your change programmes successfully! #IanDodds has been a champion and practitioner of #inclusiveness and #diversity for the past 50 years. He started out life on a council estate in the North of England, and early on he realised he was different from others at school. He earned a place at Oxford University and quickly became inspired to create inclusive work environments as a manager within ICI. He was working in one of the worst performing factories in all of ICI. He realised that there was a void in communication between managers and employees. A branch of the Communist party had been established, industrial conflict, high staff turnover, low productivity were all symptoms of this symptomatic failure. Ian started talking to workers without judgement or prejudice. The very fact they were being heard opened them up to trusting him. He did the same with management, eventually managing to get both sides to listen to each other. In under 5 years he turned the wo

Public sector innovation in Sweden is a shining example of what's possible with a small team of committed innovators, a modest budget and a mandate to make things better when government works in partnership with its citizenry. There are powerful lessons in this interview on #leadership, #management, #inclusiveness, #diversity, #hiringoutsiders, #accountability, #agilethinking, #agileteams, and #teambuilding every business leader and manager can learn from. #PatrickLinqvist is chief innovation advisor for the city of Helsingsborg in Sweden. He's been tasked to make his city a centre for innovation and I am very much looking forward to 2022 when they host their innovation expo. Patrick and his team are asking the questions any modern city should be asking but probably isn't. The city government is investing SKR250bn (£21m) in thinking differently. They are tackling the toughest questions around education, transport and an ageing population. They have been given permission to experiment and they are allowed to f

#JodyWilliamson discusses the surprising aspects of #SalesEthics with me. We debate when you have no right not to sell, and it's not in a time of crisis. Covid has made a lot of salespeople squeamish about selling and that is a HUGE mistake. There are people out there in your market who need help. Who the hell are you not to help them? We are seeing companies pull their foot off the pedal which is going to result in problems downstream if they aren't already killing companies. Great managers will let you fail but will not let the business fail. There are a lot of managers who are in danger of doing precisely that, letting their businesses fail. They giving terrible direction and advice to their salespeople, they didn't use the lockdown to train and coach their salespeople, they encouraged stupid, damaging behaviours like premature, unnecessary discounting; they've let negative thinking take over and are moving the target instead of modifying their salespeople's behaviour. Jody is one of the people I respect t

#DavidDavies, the Cod Father, former #1 frozen fish salesman and international DJ has spent the past 35 years helping small technology businesses. Dave and I co-wrote #MakingChannelSalesWork #MCSW which has quickly become the go to bible for turning around and/or building successful #SalesChannels, #Alliances and #Partnerships. Lack of Boardroom congruence, misalignment and an unhealthy focus only on empirical data, silos and empire building instead of focusing on having the biggest positive impact. Dave introduces the idea of developing a #ValueProvocation instead of a #valueproposition. This is only possible if you have a clear, singular vision. A failure to have that cohesive vision and aligned focus, means that teams you will suffer from organisational Chinese whispers. People step as led. Executives often send unintended messages with how they behave and what they measure but these fly in the face of their stated intent. In the channel, this is amplified and the positive or negative impact is even greate

#GeoffBurch is back! Geoff's childhood was unorthodox. His parents escaped the Gestapo in Vienna in 1938. They were out with friends at the opera, and at the end of the performance one of his officer friends warned him not to go home as he was going to be arrested. A Viennese Jewish psychiatrist, Geoff's father taught him about the bizarre, self destructive, delusional nature of people with stories of his patients. Geoff grew up to be a maladjusted, troubled youth who naturally fell into sales. His stories will make you howl with laughter whilst making the point about why people do what they do, even though it is rarely rational. We explore #TransactionalAnalysis in detail, discuss its application in sales and management, and generally have a rip roaring time. If you ever have need to a belly laugh at your sales or management kick off, Geoff is your man for the job. -- Contact him via: Geoff’s LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/geoff-burch-73754821Websites geoffburch.com  (Company Website) geoffburch.com  (B

#JeffJHunter has a background in developing virtual teams, serving founders of tech start ups to develop their personal brand and become known as experts in their field. Jeff describes branding as intentional transactions. He describes the 4 elements to your personal brand Connection - how are you really connecting with your target audience? Omnipresence - where are you and how do you show up? Relevance - why should people listen to you? How are you of value to the people you serve? What problems do you help solve? Engagement - what's the evidence that you are helping people? How are you helping them achieve their desires? We discuss the importance of genuinely paying attention, listening to hear what another person is saying, understanding to the other person's satisfaction. If you focus on making your clients the hero, there must be a villain. The villain is the problem your clients are trying to defeat. Be very careful not to make yourself the hero. Your job is to be your clients' guide. Jeff makes the po

**** This is a MUST LISTEN episode if you are on my sales training programme **** This is a masterclass in pricing genius. #DavidAbbott, author of #HowToPriceYourPlatypus, shares 4 simple psychological pricing strategies to help you get paid what you're worth. He spills the beans on how to get buyers to negotiate in £1's, £10's and £100's instead of £1000's, £10,000's and £100,000's. Whether you are selling products or services, your house or your company these strategies work in the real world. We explore the power of pricing techniques by starting from a better position before you ever negotiate. The better your starting point, the better your ending point. We discuss the importance of making the decision to proceed at the start of the sale, then make dozens of little agreements instead of making one big decision at the end. David also explains how you can use your win-lose ratio as a trigger to raise your prices. You'll find yourself slapping yourself on your head when you realise how simple getting pricin

#CarynKopp has been opening doors by phone for her business clients for nearly 3 decades. She has built a team of experienced door openers, accumulating 300+ years of lessons from cold calling. We discuss why the phone is still relevant and an incredibly powerful route to market. We role play various common scenarios and offer up some better alternatives to traditional prospecting strategies. The phone is an incredibly powerful sales tool which is underused and underestimated. Its power lies in the intimacy a phone call creates. The buyer is letting you right into their personal space, speaking directly into their ear. Many salespeople have grown up with the myth that prospecting by phone doesn't work any more. This is a bullshit fabrication of social media "gurus" trying to peddle their programmes to suckers. Bad telephone prospecting doesn't work. It NEVER worked. A great prospecting mindset, with great technique and the right intent can be super effective. And as part of a mix of prospecting activities, it

#PaulAlexandrou is a seriously effective storyteller. Founder and CEO of #ModernEquivalent, Paul helps fast growth companies adapt to moments of deep change. Pivots, strategic change, outrageous growth are often very uncomfortable. Managed well, those moments can deliver incredible competitive advantage. Mismanaged and they can sound the death knell for your business or a life of mediocrity swimming with all the other fish in your pond. The danger of being feature obsessed is that you paint yourself into a box as a commodity provider. MinimumViableBrand (#MVB). Story and brand are misplaced in marketing departments. Founders are so close to the narrative and that informs decisions at a product and culture level. Paul believes it's imperative to position brand and story in the C-suite for them to use them as a lens, especially at moment of change. Your story is the narrative of why you exist. It's the bridge that connects who you are as a business and what matters most to the people you serve. Story is too imp

#JohnRosso inspires me. He's been an inspiration to me for the past 17 years and is someone all Sandler trainers and clients have been influenced by. His impact cannot be overstated within our community. John and I explore what's going on in the sales community under Covid-19. We investigate what's working and what isn't, what managers can do to help or hinder their salespeople. And what salespeople are doing to hinder themselves. He uses real world examples to show best practices and what the average salespeople and average managers are doing. If you are doing those things, take a hard look in the mirror and ask yourself why? Is it fear, apathy, ignorance, denial or ego that holds you back the most? If you are fan of qualifying for BANT (budget, authority, need and time) you are going to hate this interview because we put that ugly baby to bed once and for all when we discuss the importance of qualifying conceptually. Average (BAD) salespeople try to qualify for BANT because they've been taught to do that by

  At least 19 / 20 marketing attempts completely miss their mark if you lead with features and benefits or talk about the logical reasons why customers and prospects should buy from you. 95%+ of decisions are 100% emotional. Speak to your best customers. Your best customers will tell you what you need to know to sell to other people just like them. The most important player in your story is your audience. Are you killing sales, alienating loyal customers and failing to identify gaps in your competitors' offering because you don't understand your customer? Alex Moscow is CEO of 9mmPR and an expert at auditing the stories in your head and translating the voice of your customer into powerful stories that make them the hero. He gets you noticed by editors and has helped clients grow 13,000% Martin Lucas, is a mathematical psychologist, CEO of Gap In The Matrix, and the world's foremost modeller of why human beings really make decision for consumer and high tech brands. Gap In The Matrix has a blue chip and tech s

Did you know it takes 38 months to recover the sales you lose after you lose a salesperson? #Phill McGowan is a serial entrepreneur who has built 8 businesses and sold 5 of them. He left school at 15 and got a series of badly paid jobs until he eventually fell into sales. When his wife and business partner passed away, he decided to change his direction and chose to study sales as an academic. He gets his PhD in September. We discuss the link between control and motivation - the more control managers have the lower salespeople's motivation. In this outstanding discussion, you will learn how to so much. Bring a pen and paper! The best sales leaders are spending at least 40-60% of their time teaching? They are servant leaders in both directions - servant leaders internally and servant leaders on behalf of the customer. Phill and I discuss the 3 critical themes that his research covers that limit your success Failure of sales strategy Failure of salespeople Failure of sales management What is the price of winni

Tore Byström, Sales Director of #Celemi. He plays games for a living. Celemi is the world's leading experiential learning company and for the past 16 years Tore has been helping leaders, executives and manager in many of the world's biggest, most fast moving companies develop, retain and apply practical skills where people can see the consequences of their decisions in a low risk environment. We discuss the power of play for adults. We explore how it creates constructive conflict, cohesion and commitment. Tore shares examples of the impact this approach can have to repairing fractured teams, eliminate political infighting, pull down walls and break down silos, bringing unity, respect and understanding. A refreshing look at what is possible with great programme design coupled with the opportunity to fail repeatedly because these failures become teachable moments. What's most interesting is that the delegates teach each other, get to try out ideas, experiment and everybody, even your introverts get to be heard

#LisaMagnuson is author of #TheTopSalesLeaderPlaybook and #TheTopSellerAdvantage. Her expertise is helping tech companies chasing large, #complexenterprisesales win deals that are 5X their average deal size. We discuss the importance of planning and strategising, rehearsal and role play to iron out problems, preempt obstacles and objections and reduce the probability of chasing deal you cannot or should not win. Have you ever worked out the cost of an enterprise pursuit, win or lose? It can run into the £tens or £hundreds of thousands. If you have a low #winrate or a low order value it can mean you don't see a profit for months, even years. The second highest hidden cost in any business is the hidden cost of sales and one that bites deep into your bottom line. If you aren't clear about what's the intersection between what the customer wants and needs and your strengths you can find yourself wasting an eye-watering pile of cash, squandering scarce and costly resources and diverting them from high value, high r

Crises don't create weaknesses, they expose them. The Covid-19 crisis exposed massive deficiencies in many businesses: in their sales approach, their pipeline, in sales management, a lack of vision, lack of preparation, and highlighted serious talent gaps across the global sales profession. #CarlosGarrido is co-CEO of #SandlerMiami. He is a keen student of the human condition and psychology. In this frank conversation he admits how he had become comfortable, deluding himself into thinking he was doing a great job. When the lockdown hit, he realised that he'd allowed himself to become complacent. It was the shot in the arm he needed to get back to core principles. Unfazed by the noise, the doomsayers and the competitions' acceptance of their fate, Carlos went on a mission to thrive in the depressed, frightened economy. We discuss how we have both seized this, the BEST OPPORTUNITY almost every professional salesperson WILL EVER HAVE IN THEIR CAREER to get ahead. He shares real world tactics that are working tod

Prof #EddieObeng is CEO of #PentacleVirtualBusinessSchool and founder of #Qube. Eddie is the most famous business guru you've never heard of. An expert in facilitating lasting, effective change we tackle critical questions like: Should expensive CEOs be replaced by AI? Can virtual workplaces produce better results than physical office environments? Why do change programmes fail 75-80% of the time? How will others respond to the change you implement? How do you get your people to come up with the answers? How do you bed in new ways of working? What do most organisations overlook that lose them their intended competitive advantages? Why are your meetings boring and unproductive? How do you maximise effectiveness in a virtual business environment? Why benchmarking encourages terrible business practices & hides the truth about performance? Change doesn't happen in isolation. If you change one moving part, it affects other parts of the business, people or your model. Eddie shares his 5 step E.D.D.I.E. model t

#AmyWoodall is back for the 3rd time discussing why you must own your 50% of every interaction. We explore how to stay out of psychological games is possible if you own your 50. If you let your ego get hooked you will be dragged kicking and screaming into the #Drama Triangle, which describes every f**ked up, broken, dysfunctional relationship you can or will ever have. We explore what that means for leaders, managers, salespeople and customers. We delve into the #Winners' Triangle and how being vulnerably assertive can give you power and strength in the face of bullies, victims and micromanagers. This episode is a tour de force by a genuine master of #TransactionalAnalysis. Listen to Amy and then listen to the world's most famous #ChipDoyle in my interview with him about using #TA in the sale and how to stay unattached and egoless in the sale: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-8wfhf-d90b64 Together these interviews delivers the fundamental principles of #authenticselling and #authenticmanagement and help

If you don't understand the principles and underlying psychology of human interactions, people appear unpredictable, sales will be misunderstood as an art and you will regularly be disappointed. This episode is full of eye popping surprises you can take and apply in your selling, in managing salespeople and in your client relationships. "Selling is a science. It's a process. Sales are predictable. It's predictable just like finance or manufacturing" #ChipDoyle explains how #TA #TransactionalAnalysis plays out in every sale. We discuss the importance of applied transactional analysis to understand what is happening at every moment in every sale. I learn how to recognise when my child ego state is coming out to play and why it is so important to keep the child under adult supervision to prevent derailing your sale.  Chip explains how to sell, manage expectations and win referrals by applying TA. It will surprise many of you that Chip says, "I have made more money in the post sell step than any other part of the

#DrewDAgostino is CEO and founder of #Crystal. Crystal uses AI to give you insights into the preferred communication and behavioural style through their LinkedIn profile. It's between 80-85% accurate and the best $29 a month you can invest in your sales team. Drew and I discuss how being better prepared for every conversation you have with prospects and clients can positively impact your results. Understanding people with  We also explore the challenges and lessons from building 2 scale up businesses. Drew talks about investors and consequences for founders of taking the different types of money: Good money Dumb money Bad money