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Bits about Books episodes
- Bizcast: Lynn Hidy on her book, “Mastering Inside Sales Leadership”, in conversation with Subhanjan Sarkar
Lynn Hidy, founder of UpYourTeleSales.com, helps inside sales leaders build confident, high-performing virtual teams without losing their minds (or their humour). Known for her clarity, candour, and results-driven style, her book Mastering Inside Sales Leadership delivers practical strategies that actually work in today’s inside sales world.
Lynn HidyMastering Inside Sales Leadership- Lynn Hidy identifies a core industry paradox: while inside sales has become a dominant force in global business, especially with the rise of virtual selling, it remains a neglected and often misunderstood discipline. She notes that the role is frequently treated as a transient starting point in a sales career rather than a strategic function, leading to teams that feel undervalued and lack structured support.
- There is a necessity for inside sales leaders to move from reactive fire-fighting to proactive, vision-driven leadership. The author contends that planning is often seen as a “luxury” or “fantasy” due to constant external changes, but it is precisely because of this volatility that a clear structure is essential. Hidy advocates for establishing a 12-month vision—the “picture on the puzzle box”—and then methodically working backwards to define quarterly, weekly, and daily priorities.
- The author criticises metrics-driven cultures that track “everything” but value nothing, advocating instead for key performance indicators centred on genuine “customer connection” as the foundation for revenue. True leadership, she suggests, involves allowing room for mistakes and conducting constructive debriefs rather than blame-oriented reprimands.
Run time – 00:49:10 mins.
Links for Subhanjan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar
50 min - Bizcast: Art Fromm on his book, “Making SEAMless Sales”, in conversation with Subhanjan Sarkar
Art Fromm is the Founder of Team Sales Development, helping client-facing teams, especially SEs and AMs, to focus on client success by being more consultative and strategic as a team. Art is a dynamic speaker and workshop facilitator who equips sales teams to boost revenue, win rates, margins, and client satisfaction. With a career spanning engineering, software, and sales leadership, he brings deep industry insight and proven strategies. As the founder of Team Sales Development, Art has helped B2B companies transform their sales results, in one case boasting a 22% increase in bookings and a 16-point increase in win rate. His engaging seminars and workshops are backed by real-world success and two decades of client trust. Art’s practical experience and results-driven approach make him an impactful speaker and facilitator for organisations looking to elevate their sales performance.
Art FrommMaking SEAMless Sales- In this episode, Art Fromm talks about his book “Making SEAMless Sales”, which reflects his unique journey and learnings through multiple roles, including presales and sales. Art had been collecting notes from his learnings and the many workshops that he conducts for his clients. He realised that while the workshops were high touch, many more could benefit from the learnings, which is why he decided to write a book.
- In this episode, Art discusses the buying process and why it is critical to making a sale. Since the buying process involves many stakeholders and decision makers, it is crucial to understand how to get buy-in from the various parties involved, and the corresponding roles of sales and pre-sales teams in ensuring success, as well as customer success.
- Art explains how in the world of subscription buying, revenue earnings have changed from a one-time sale situation to continuously ensuring customer happiness to keep earning revenue. These and many other important selling fundamentals are discussed in this episode.
Run time – 00:56:11 mins.
Links for Subhanjan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar
Links for Art Fromm:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artfromm
Published Book: https://teamsalesdevelopment.com/making-seamless-sales-book/
Articles and Events: https://teamsalesdevelopment.com/articles-and-events/
Website: https://www.teamsalesdevelopment.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeamSalesDev
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teamsalesdevelopment/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TeamSalesDevelopment
Twitter: @teamsalesdev
57 min - Bizcast: Ramli John on his book, “Eureka”, in conversation with Subhanjan Sarkar
Ramli “RJ” John is the founder of Delight Path and author of the bestselling book Product-Led Onboarding. With 40,000 copies sold worldwide, his book has become the go-to guide for thousands of B2B leaders looking to build an onboarding strategy that turns their users into lifelong customers. Ramli has worked with companies such as Zapier, Leadpages, Appcues, Vidyard, Bynder, and other fast-growing B2B companies to level up their onboarding experience.
He lives in Toronto, Canada, with his wife Joanna, their two-year-old toddler Zane and their 5-year-old dog – Ro.
Ramli JohnEureka- In this episode, Ramli John talks about his latest book, “Eureka”, which is about crafting the perfect Onboarding experience in the B2B context. He discusses his process of writing the book, and how he not only got feedback from an early readers’ club but also buy-in from the group because it was a paid exercise.
- He discusses the three pillars of successful B2B onboarding, and how success must be defined under various circumstances, and even though the core idea remains customer success, how the customer will ultimately measure success in terms of functional, social and emotional success, and the internal frictions that hinder such success.
- He explains “Everboarding”, where companies are continually onboarding customers onto newer features, or even newer products, i.e. upselling or cross-selling. He imagines a world of hyper-personalisation through AI, and believes that the possibilities are limitless, although there is reason to be scared of the world that is coming.
Run time – 00:59:10 mins.
Links for Subhanjan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar
Links for Ramli John:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ramlijohn
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramlijohn/
Appcues: https://appcues.com/
Book Links:
Product-Led Onboarding
Details: Released June 8, 2021
Book website: http://onboardingbook.com/
Amazon + Kindle: https://amzn.to/3csEb8h
1 hr - Bizcast: Tahira Endean on her book, “Our KPI is Joy”, in conversation with Subhanjan Sarkar
Tahira Endean is the Author of Intentional Event Design, “Our Professional Opportunity” and Our KPI is Joy, Using Live Events to Catalyse, Happiness, Productivity and Trust. She is also the Co-founder of Strategy Table – helping companies Transform Team Dynamics Through Expert Meeting Facilitation.
Tahira is a curious event designer and education curator for the MICE industry. She is passionate about global travel, intentional event design and the integration of technology into our lives and events to enhance the human experience. Tahira wore her “Association Hat” as Head of Events for SITE from 2019 through the pandemic and until we returned to events fully in 2023. Change is inevitable, and in 202,3 Tahira put her passion for life-long learning into practice to earn an MSc in Creativity and Change Leadership. Tahira continues to educate the next generation, teaching Event Strategy and Design at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
Tahira EndeanDeeply committed to the industry, Tahira has been recognised for a range of contributions, including 2022 Influencers with Northstar Meetings, SmartMeetings – Women in Meetings Visionary (2021), MeetingsToday Top 20 Trendsetter (2018), a MeetingsNet Changemaker (2016), the MPI BC Chapter Mentor of the Year (2018), among others. In 2015, Tahira was inducted into the Meetings Canada Hall of Fame in the Big Idea category.
Driven by a fascination with what we are learning about neuroscience and the power of the five senses to enhance memory, knowledge retention, and improve connections, she is continually seeking appropriate ways to design the most relevant incentive, meeting and event environments.
Tahira also loves travel, cooking, time with her family, and anything with bubbles!
Our KPI is Joy- Tahira speaks to Subhanjan about why humans connect and that the experience of attendees and participants at events should be the paramount criterion for event design. Ultimately, people want to connect and experience empathy and joy at such gatherings. This is the subject of her book “Our KPI is Joy”.
- Events are costly, and when organisers plan them, they typically look at factors such as display effectiveness, website functionality, technological efficiency and a host of other such criteria. But they ought to spend at least a tiny amount of their resources on thinking about the human experience.
- The customer journey starts with the anticipation phase, when they start packing for the journey to the event. Great events should make the arrival, the registration, and the welcome- all of these memorable experiences for the attendee. After all, out of three or four-day events, most people tend to remember only six minutes of the entire engagement after a while.
Run time – 01:02:18 mins.
Links for Subhanjan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar
1 hr 3 min - Bizcast: Enrico Gallorini on his book, “In-Person”, in conversation with Subhanjan Sarkar
Fascinated by the “how” and, most importantly, the “why” behind unforgettable live events that have the power to change lives, Enrico Gallorini has dedicated his life to decoding the profound impact that in-person experiences at large human gatherings have on individuals, society, and the world at large.
His most significant finding is the unique ability that only live events have to inspire and drive human evolution. Through his research, he has uncovered remarkable and enduring patterns dating back to the very origins of humanity; insights that remain relevant today and will become even more vital in the future.
Enrico GalloriniDescribed as a forward thinker with a rare intellect and a distinguished expert in the events industry, Enrico is a Strategic Researcher specialising in Visitor Experiences and Author of the book: “In-Person: A Journey Through the Unstoppable Evolution of Events”. He has captivated audiences across 20 countries, delivering keynote speeches at prestigious universities and international conferences, where he explores the transformative power of in-person events.
As the Co-Founder and CEO of GRS Research and Strategy (www.grsnet.it), a cutting-edge boutique multinational research firm headquartered in Venice, Italy, Enrico brings a unique blend of business intelligence, creativity, positivity and passion to the Human-to-Human industry.
In-Person- Enrico Gallorini discusses the writing and content of his book, “In-Person, A Journey Through the Unstoppable Evolution of Events”. His book is the result of his research into the past, present and future of events and the events industry. He writes about how the earliest events evolved into the present-day events.
- He predicts that the future of events, while aided by AI and cutting-edge technology that will help to transform the experience, at the core, the need to make human connections will keep driving the industry, and even more as we, as humans, feel increasingly isolated.
- He also concludes that events have driven globalisation, and globalisation has also driven the global events industry, the two acting in tandem in a virtuous cycle.
Run time – 00:52:13 mins.
Links for Subhanjan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar
53 min - Bizcast: Charles H. Green on his book, “The Trusted Advisor”, in conversation with Subhanjan Sarkar
Charles H. Green is an author, speaker and world expert on trust-based relationships and sales in complex businesses. Founder and CEO of Trusted Advisor Associates, he is the author of the critically acclaimed Trust-based Selling, and co-author of the classic The Trusted Advisor and its practical follow-up – The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook, a comprehensive toolkit for leading with trust.
Charles works with complex organisations to improve internal trust within and between organisations and trusted advisor relationships with external clients and customers.
Charles H. GreenCharles spent 20 years in management consulting before founding Trusted Advisor Associates in 1997. He majored in philosophy at Columbia and has an MBA from Harvard. A widely sought-after speaker, he has published articles in Harvard Business Review, Directorship Magazine, Management Consulting News, CPA Journal, BusinessWeek, Forbes.com, and Investments and Wealth Monitor.
Charles has worked with over 100 companies to develop trust-based leadership and sales.
Included in his portfolio of clients are blue-chip companies such as PWC, Prudential, Cisco, American Express, Intel, Deloitte, Accenture, Ernst & Young, HP, Shell, UBS and Oracle.
The Trusted Advisor- In this episode, Charles H. Green talks about his book “The Trusted Advisor”, which he co-authored with David H. Maister and Robert Galford. The book lays out what trust is, and the kind of people we are likely to trust. Charles explains that most of us are likely to have a very few trusted advisors- in fact, they are possibly in the single-digit count. These are people from whom we are likely to take advice.
- Charles explains how we are likely to gain trust and the process of gaining trust. While there are several important factors and a few frameworks, Charles believes that the single most important advice he can give is to listen intently to people whose trust we wish to gain and make them feel heard. The only way to gain trust is to trust the other person.
- Charles discusses other aspects of business, such as getting hired or Cross-Selling, and how trust affects these. He discusses an equation that measures how people can assess their trustworthiness, based on factors such as credibility, reliability, and intimacy.
Run time – 01:01:05 mins.
Links for Subhanjan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar
1 hr - Bizcast: Brad David Ball on his book, “The Algebra of Sales and Persuasion”, in conversation with Subhanjan Sarkar
Over the course of his career, Brad David Ball has been to every corner of the world, selling technology and competing for multi-million-dollar projects.
A B2B sales and marketing expert, he has delivered sales presentations (in-person) in over eighty countries and closed millions of dollars of business on six continents.
Brad David BallBrad is a Senior Partner and Vice President of Sales and Marketing at GlobalSim, Inc., a technology company that manufactures and sells high-end simulators throughout the world.
He is also the founder of Blazer Sales and produces a variety of sales, training, and leadership materials.
Brad holds an MBA from Brigham Young University and an executive certificate from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
When not travelling, Brad enjoys boating and skiing with his family, along with hiking, pickleball, classic rock, and ’80s music. Brad also enjoys creating and producing travel content on YouTube.
The Algebra of Sales and Persuasion- In this episode, Brad David Ball talks about his book, “The Algebra of Sales and Persuasion”, and the two important frameworks he has used to arrive at his method. This was the result of his collection and compilation of notes that he had kept throughout his career.
- It was initially developed as a course that would be simple to teach to aspiring students of sales, which brad later decided to write as a book that could be used as a guide for the course.
- Brad talks about the buyer journey ARC, which is an acronym for Awareness, Research, and Choice, and marrying it to the framework of the centuries-old idea of Ethos, Logos and Pathos, attributed to Aristotle.
Run time – 01:01:05 mins.
Links for Subhanjan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar
1 hr 2 min - Bizcast: Stu Heinecke on his book, “How To Get A Meeting With Anyone”, in conversation with Subhanjan Sarkar
Dubbed by the American Marketing Association the “Father of Contact Marketing,” Stu Heinecke is a Wall Street Journal cartoonist, hall of fame-nominated marketer and the bestselling author of How to Get a Meeting with Anyone and Get the Meeting! Stu is also the founder of Cartoonists.org, a group of WSJ and New Yorker cartoonists who donate their art to help charities raise funds.
Stu HeineckeHow To Get A Meeting With Anyone- In this episode, Stu Heinecke talks about the updated edition of How to Get A Meeting With Anyone. First published in 2016, the book remains highly popular and helpful. However, many things have changed, and Stu felt the need to update the book with new information.
- The key ideas in the book remain the same, with contact marketing being the focus. Deep personalisation and persona-based marketing are distinct approaches to reaching out and forming human connections in the age of spam.
- Even with AI, which can, in fact, help to create better researched dossiers on people with whom we want to connect, ultimately, people need to know that they are connecting with another human. This remains the core idea behind the techniques described by Stu Heinecke in his book.
Run time – 00:43:05 mins.
Links for Subhanjan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar
54 min - Bizcast: Peter Cohan on his book, “Suspending Disbelief”, in conversation with Subhanjan Sarkar
Peter Cohan is the founder and principal of The Second Derivative and the author of the Great Demo! and Doing Discovery methodologies, focused on helping software organisations improve their presales, sales and marketing results – primarily through improving organisations’ demonstrations and discovery skills.
Before The Second Derivative, Peter founded the Discovery Tools® business unit at Symyx Technologies, where he grew the business from an empty spreadsheet into a $30 million per year operation. Prior to Symyx, Peter served in marketing, sales, and management positions at MDL Information Systems, a leading provider of scientific information management software. Peter currently serves on the Board of Directors for Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc., is an advisor to IN2SV, Inc. and a mentor to StartX, the Stanford University start-up accelerator. He holds a degree in chemistry.
Peter CohanSuspending Disbelief- In this episode, Peter Cohan talks about Suspending Disbelief, a collection of stories that wrap important sales methodologies in them. The advantage of telling a story is that retention is much higher, and stories are repeatable, making them spread.
- While Peter’s earlier books were extremely data-driven, this book has anecdotal evidence. The truth is that often “facts” do not resonate as well with the audience as stories do. And hence the need for such a collection. Most of these are drawn from the author’s personal experience or from the experiences of colleagues.
- The author hopes that readers will learn easily from the book methodologies that, in many cases, took the author decades to figure out.
Run time – 00:43:05 mins.
Links for Subhanjan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar
44 min - Bizcast: Ted McKenna on his book, “The Activator Advantage”, in conversation with Subhanjan Sarkar
Ted McKenna is a best-selling co-author of The JOLT Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision and The Activator Advantage: What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently, and is a sought-after speaker and advisor to sales, business development, and customer experience teams around the world.
An accomplished researcher with work appearing frequently in the pages of Harvard Business Review, Ted is now Co-Founder and CEO of Selling Innovations, which provides research-based training, enablement and advisory support to B2B commercial organisations. Ted is also a founding partner of DCM Insights (DCMi), a company that uses data and research-backed frameworks to help professional services firms improve business development. Before co-founding DCMi, Ted held numerous executive leadership positions in product, strategy, research, advisory, and enablement for Tethr, Russell Reynolds, and CEB (now a part of Gartner).
Ted McKennaThe Activator Advantage- In this episode, Ted McKenna talks about his book, The Activator Advantage: What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently,” which he co-authored with Karen Freeman, Matthew Dixon and Rory Channer. Research into the buying of services in today’s current scenario threw up interesting data that is the subject of this book. Buyers of services, unlike earlier in the day, do not mind shopping around for services. Long-term relationships and delivery of quality are no longer a guarantee of continued patronage.
- The Activator is a profile that manages to get more business in today’s service industry contexts. These are people who are driven to create connections and continuously engage with their buyers. They believe that engagement, creating contacts, and providing support are key functions of their business. So, say for example, while lawyers ultimately do have specific roles to fill in, Activators are likely to spend more time talking to their clients and trying to understand their problems.
- There are four other profiles that the research also distinguishes, namely the Expert, the Confidant, the Debater, and the Realist. But the Activator is by far the most successful in terms of securing new business in a world where “brand loyalty” is no longer a reality.
Run time – 00:56:43 mins.
Links for Subhanjan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar
Links for Ted McKenna:
https://www.sellinginnovations.com
https://www.dcminsights.com
57 min
About Bits about Books
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Business Podcast Network produces podcasts for B2B brands, Sales and Marketing Teams, SAAS products, Startups and HR teams, helping organizations to connect with audiences and build brand stories.