Welcome To Theinquisitor Podcast

5 times #bestsellingauthor #HilmonSorey and co-founder of #ClozeLoop is back on #TheInquisitorPodcast. Hilmon spends his life helping tech scale ups in #SiliconValley achieve rapid, sustainable sales growth. We explore the power of #SalesPlaybooks to drive #ontarget performance especially in the middle of bell curve, the mistakes to avoid and the best practices to maximise ROI from hires & your #CRM system, by creating a meaningful, dynamic feedback system. We discuss scale ups and how to prevent poorly or unplanned #hypergrowth turning into turnaround. We explore why the current private equity land-grab model is broken and the bubble on unprofitable, unsustainable #TechScaleUps is likely to burst. Hilmon shares his insights into the do's and don'ts of raising funding. There is plenty of money available in the market today. He offers clarity on how to raise it and make it work for you so you and your investors don't lose your shirts and you focus on execution, sales and the right personas. We dive into Cl

#IanBrodie chats to me about #ValueBasedMarketing. We discuss why so much marketing misses the mark, why #LinkedIn is drowning in spam (when will LinkedIn introduce spam filters??), what makes #GreatMarketing great and how delivering genuine value to your audience in your marketing differentiates you from your competition's selfish, bland, valueless marketing. Good value based marketing pays dividends over time because it positions you as the expert in your field and the go-to person when people are ready to buy. We explore the imperative of delivering value in your #marketing not only to help fill the top of the funnel but to focus on the #MiddleOfTheFunnel where it can really make the difference to sales. Then we delve into how value based marketing impacts #CustomerExperience by supporting the #CustomerJourney. This interview is packed with refreshing perspectives on original marketing that you can implement in your business. Ian’s LinkedIn Profile linkedin.com/in/ianbrodie Websites ianbrodie.com/welcome-

#ChrisMurray of @vardakreuz, author of #SellingWithEase and #TheExtremelySuccessfulSalesmansClub discuss what's broken in #sales and #salestraining. Chris introduces a really powerful concept from Portuguese, #Saudade. It doesn't translate directly into English easily but it means a sense of knowing something is missing but you can't put your finger on exactly what that is. For salespeople this is a genius attack. It is exactly what you should be tapping into in your prospecting and sales activities. Find people who think they're well and scratch the scab until you uncover a little bit of hurt. Keep probing until you diagnose they're sick. Dig deeper and understand why they're in need of help. Offer a glimmer of hope - a better future. We don't pull our punches, get right down to what is wrong with prospecting, sales, selling, management, leadership. Chris makes the point that "We're on the third generation of sales manager who doesn't know how to prospect" We identify why amateur salespeople get kicked out o

#MattMcDarby, author of #TheCadenceOfExcellence and I explore the key habits, beliefs and values of excellent sales managers. Matt's distinguished career as a top performing salesman and sales manager; he cut his teeth and evolved into a world class sales manager at #Huthwaite under #NeilRackham, creator or the #SPINsellingsystem. He trains, coaches and offers interim sales leadership to his tech and professional services clients and is often brought into turnaround situations. This interview is dripping with usable insights and practical advice from start to finish. Make sure you have a pen and paper handy and listen more than once. We discuss why to role of sales manager is precarious, and why sales managers are so depressingly undertrained and exposed by senior leadership. We explore recruitment, onboarding, training, coaching and accountability with a no holds barred. We discuss the toughest and most common challenges managers face routinely; some self-inflicted, some inflicted upon them by leadership who

#SteveNorman had a long and eventually successful career in sales and sales management for the like of Dell and Targus in APAC. He opens up about the challenges he faced when he failed and what it taught him about managing his own career and making himself recession proof as a salesperson. We move on to the lessons that helped him learn as a manager and how behaving counterintuitively helped him develop a reputation for being the manager top sales performers wanted to work for. We cover recruitment extensively because both of us have seen the destruction to companies and personal catastrophes that come about because of bad or lazy hiring practices. We explore the impact of structured vs unstructured interviews, career pathing and the impact of not building your bench for all your key positions. He answers the critical question, "What do I do when I realise I have found a superstar?" We dig deep into why and how to codify your sales process so that you can hold people to account and then we dig into why MoFu m

Jaques Sciammas Demonstrate value in the first 2 minutes or the #CXO will be needed elsewhere, urgently. #CSuite executives welcome great salespeople and have NO TIME TO WASTE with peddlers and product pushers. They don't care who your investors are, how long you have been in business and they don't care to see PowerPoints of your ugly kids (your product range). They have problems. Can you help fix them? If you can't, get lost. -- If you are the owner or CEO of a technology company in the £10m-50m revenue range, and your goal is to grow your business and achieve real, sustainable hypergrowth with highly engaged and highly productive employees and clients who stick with you year after year, let’s schedule time for a brief conversation. 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   And if you want to become part of our g

This is THE #HeadTrash episode #PaulLanigan is a failed software engineer, failed salesman, raconteur, photographer, film maker, confused father, middling husband and all round good egg. He is the author of SoftTalesHardAsses and the longest serving international #Sandler Franchisee. I first came across Paul in 2003  We discuss head trash in all its glory - attachment, demotivation, limiting beliefs, mismanagement - and our journeys through it, facing it today and the work we do with our clients to help them through theirs. If I'm being honest, I quickly realised the best way to deal with my own head trash was to find someone who was just as messed up as me in a particular area of sales, and then get paid to fix us both. Turns out this is a good business model. I want to thank all of my early client in particular for the lessons you taught me and the help you afforded me to better understand the human condition, and for funding my decadent lifestyle. Paul and I argue about whether it is possible to motivate a

#MarioMartinezJr has been selling B2B for the past 22 years. He has recently merged 5 companies to form #Vengreso which is quite a feat. This interview is about digital selling. In a world where many senior executives are still holding back their business because they are stuck in traditional sales, Mario's message is a call to action for ambitious salespeople and business leaders. Last year 70% of the 220+ senior executives he met, still had serious doubts about the value of internet based technology to help drive sales. Many were still focused on activity based metrics like number of dials, presentations made, demos given instead of leading indicators that allow salespeople to know for sure where they are going right or wrong. We explore the idiocy of the battle between the silos in business. Marketing, sales, customer success, customer experience, customer service, service delivery, finance and operations are all, one in the same to your customer. Drop the ball anywhere along the way and your business will

#DaveMattson, CEO of #SandlerTraining, multiple best selling author and 30+year veteran (I know he doesn't look it!!) of the #SandlerSellingSystem chats to me about what works and what doesn't in training. We explore the mistakes we've made, the bad choices leaders and L&D folks make, why training succeeds and why it fails. Dave talks about technology, sales enablement and we raise some uncomfortable questions about the criminal waste and missed opportunities because training is poorly delivered, poorly planned and not reinforced. Dave is spearheading the transformation of Sandler from an #ILT #InstructorLedTraining operation to one that utilises ILT, audio, video #microlearning, #gamification, voiceapps, #voiceskills. If you would like to get the #MySandler #skills app pop along to the Skills & Games on the #AlexaApp dropdown FOR FREE, go get it now -- If you are the owner or CEO of a technology company in the £10m-50m revenue range, and your goal is to grow your business and achieve real, sustainabl

#AlTepper founder of #TepFu is a master of #lazymarketing. Self-styled as the Barry White of marketing, 2 portly old geezers discuss the difference between #disruption and #innovation. Disruption is aligned to innovation but they are different. Innovation is enhancing what already exists. Disruption is doing something completely new. You win battles by not fighting the battle but by picking the terrain. In business you can out-spend or out-position your competition Al has developed a 3 step process called conversation mastery: Brand Mastery - developing the most incredible story is about winning the first mile Content Mastery - bring imagination to your content. Don't be bland. Stand apart Campaign Mastery - weaponise your brand and your content strategies into effective campaigns that will attract the people you want to come towards you Meet your prospective customers where your objectives meet their objectives. Know your "WHY". Why you do what you do. Know why they care - their Why. Where they cross over is

  "If you don't like change you are going like irrelevance even less" - Eric Shinsake #AnthonyIannarino is the author of 3 best selling books #TheOnlySalesGuideYoullEverNeed #TheLostArtOfClosing and #EatTheirLunch. He is also author of TheSalesBlog. Anthony speaks a world of uncommon sense. We discuss the many and significant shortcomings of many modern sellers who are well intentioned but misdirected. At 25, Anthony experienced a serious illness that prevented him from driving for over 2 years which gave him time to study everything he could about selling and sales. His book "Eat Their Lunch" is a masterpiece for every salesperson who occupies a place in a crowded, competitive, commoditised market and wants to displace incumbent competitors.  Anthony discusses the importance of uncovering what your customer values and shows you how to elevate your selling significantly so you engage  with them where they are. His message pares away the distractions salespeople create to have conversations with prospects abou

#SteveHall has carved a place for himself by helping others sell to the C-suite. He helps CEOs unblock the bottleneck to growth when sales have stalled. We explore why ineffective salespeople so often get stuck in sales Siberia, the traps many create for themselves by over reliance on one or other social media channel and why so many have bloated pipelines full on non-opportunities, stalled deals, prospects who tell them they need to "think it over" and why forecasts are little better than a finger in the air. He shares excellent ideas on how to break this pattern and reverse your sales fortunes by engaging with the people in your target accounts who can make things happen and find budget where none currently exists. Steve is another grizzled old sales veteran of complex, high ticket international sales, helping solve strategic problems for C-suite executives.  We discuss why most salespeople behave like a drunk travellers back from Magaluf who insist on showing photos of their holidays to unwilling strangers

#NickJones has gone from start up to exit in the past 15 years. He built his business entirely through #internationalsaleschannels. The #alliances and #partnerships he built allowed him to scale and grow fast, establishing highly influential relationships through the Middle East and Africa within governments, education systems and infrastructure. He focused on working with a small group of special forces partners. He helped them sell, to make money and they have been loyal, highly productive and taken him into their best accounts. He invested time in making them successful, teaching them how to sell what his company produced. His early days in channel sales were held back by managers who thought like everyone else, lacked imagination and actually harmed the trust he'd built up with him partners who then refused to take him into their end customers. That was the catalyst that drove him to set up his own business. From humble beginnings to $hundreds of millions in annual revenues, Nick learned to scale a busine

#DaveBrock, former theoretical physicist, author of best selling #TheSalesManagerSurvivalGuide and globally renowned sales and growth expert discusses what's wrong with sales and how to fix it. Be prepared for a trip into the world of Schrödinger's sales manager! #SalesManagers receive less than 5% of the investment in their training than salespeople receive. Yet their negative impact on a business can easily be 10x the negative impact of a bad sales hire. And a bad sales hire can easily cost a business 35 to 125x their salary. Let that sink in for a moment! Sales Managers can cost a business 350x to 1250x their salary! It doesn't make sense to be HIGHLY selective in who you hire as a sales manager, does it? Think about it, if you hire a bad manager, who is most likely to leave - your weakest or your strongest salespeople? And when they go, who will they take with them to your competition? Your best customers. Is that what you really want? Dave and I discuss in depth the problems with #salesleadership, #sales

Warning: Some salty, impassioned language, fuelled by fury and rage! What's wrong with sales? What's wrong with sales management? What's wrong with the intent of salespeople and their bosses? The quest for magic dust and #commissionbreath! Everyone wants to be a rock star - fame and fortune - without putting in the graft. The Beatles were an overnight success only after playing 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for 7 years in a Hamburg cellar. Lack of patience, failure to coach, confusing coaching with telling, lack of leadership, unstructured sales, lack of planning, failure to rehearse, winging it are topics we dig deep on. Imagine what would happen if everyone in your sales team was held account to practice, plan and prepare. And what the hell is going on with the failure to invest in your managers? It's lunacy that senior leaders in business refuse to invest in sales management or veteran salespeople. #SalesManagers are in the most precarious management position there is, and according to #JonathanFarrington

#TonyJHughes is the most widely read sales expert on LinkedIn with over 100,000 followers, author of 2 bestselling books, #TheJoshuaPrinciple and #ComboProspecting, successful enterprise sales professional and serial CEO. We discuss #Attitude and #Mindset, we explore how to exploit traditional and modern #prospecting tools and tactics in combination to maximise #prospectingeffectiveness. We explore #salesleadership beliefs, behaviours, #salesbestpractices and #salesmisconceptions. To be an effective salesperson who differentiates in the minds of your prospects, you have to behave differently from the outset. Great salespeople understand that the heavy lifting needs to be done before you first speak to the prospect. Tony shares his 3 decades experience in #sales, #salesmanagement and #salesleadership to do the right things, in the right way at the right time, with the right people and the right intent. A refreshingly frank, pragmatic and practical conversation with all theory based in practice, Tony's insights

#DebCalvert @PeopleFirstPS is best selling author of " #StopSelling#StartLeading " and " #DISCOVERQuestions ", founder and President of People First Productivity Solutions and founder of #TheSalesExpertsChannel We have a very robust conversation about what good, bad and ugly look like in the area of sales and management questions. #Questioning and #listening are critical skills in sales and leadership that are often butchered by average practitioners. Average questions leave your prospects saying "Meh!" and leave your salespeople confused or no better off. Questions should deliver insight, demonstrate credibility and differentiate you from your rivals. Most are like being savaged by a damp sheep! Deb and I explore #SalesEnablement vs #SalesEnoblement, a long overdue conversation about #Values and #SellerIntent. Too many golden nuggets to mention here. You're just going to have to listen. And then we pronounce a death sentence on sales management mediocrity. If you own or run a business, this section is a must

Have you ever wondered what it's really like to be one of your customers? In the cutthroat world of technology, your customers' experience can mean the difference between winning or keeping £billions in lifetime customer revenues. #LeahanneHobson and her Vienna based company #AlineaPartners uncover the truth about buying from you. #CustomerExperience goes so much deeper than the simple transaction. Every touch, from their first visit to your website, to trying to find information, even as simple as your phone number, how long it takes to get an answer to questions, to aftercare and handling complaints determines who buys and who doesn't, how much they buy, how long they remain a customer and how often they will refer or damn you in the eyes of others. It's too important to leave to chance. Imagine a buyer having to make 27 attempts to get through to you or leave 23 messages before getting any response! Of course this doesn't happen often. Actually, such stories are all too common. Fighting so hard to get busi

#JayMcBain, lead analyst at Forrester coined the term #ShadowChannel in homage to a trend last decade called shadow IT or rogue IT. You brought your own devices to work and IT Directors had heart attacks. Well, the shadow channel simply refers to non-traditional partners who are becoming a powerful force in the technology market - professional services like accountants, SaaS ecosystem partners like media agencies, born-in-the-cloud, start-ups, systems integrators moving down into the mid- and small business market. It includes, Marketplaces, App Exchanges, the sale of IoT (Internet Of Things), hardware, software, Plug and Play Services  Why would you care? This shadow channel is experiencing explosive growth - #Salesforce is closing down its reseller channel and recruiting 250,000 new non-transacting partners over the next 4 years to exploit the $4.14 downstream revenue for every $1 Salesforce generates. Forrester is forecasting that ISVs (independent software vendors) will grow their tech alliance partnershi

#PaulLloyd has been involved in #channelsales for the past 35 years. He's made a lot of mistakes along the way. Failure is your best teacher - your own and the failures of others. Paul has developed a lot of scar tissue in that time, seen fads come and go and has learned that success in #partnerships happens when you have to focus on doing the basics well, consistently, over time and meaning them. He's worked in #VAR, #MSP, #Disti / #Distribution and #ITVendor. He's worked in small and medium operators, #scaleups, #startups and #turnarounds. Like me, his experience has made him suitably cynical and jaded because he sees so many acts of stupidity, self-sabotage and selfishness in the channel. We discuss some of them in detail * Why #DealRegistration is a bad thing for smaller partners and for customers * Why #partners suffer from vendor fatigue and frustration * Why partners aren't loyal * Why cultural lack of awareness kill opportunities and damages trust Paul has built a software vendor's channel sales into