Close The Deal Podcast

You're spending money on Google Ads, but are those leads actually becoming customers?

For many business owners, the problem isn't simply getting more leads. It's what happens after someone clicks an ad, visits your website, or calls your business.

In this episode of Close The Deal Podcast, Ewell Smith sits down with John Sanders, founder of RevKey, to discuss three areas that can make or break your Google Ads results.

John shares lessons from managing advertising for mental health practices, dentists, and other service businesses. He explains why your website needs to match what customers are searching for, why speed to lead matters, and how to determine whether your advertising is actually profitable.

One of the biggest takeaways? You can spend money generating leads all day long, but if your office isn't answering calls or following up quickly, those potential customers may already be going somewhere else.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Make sure your website is ready before investing in Google Ads.
• Build service-specific pages that help potential customers find what they need.
• Respond to leads within hours, not days.
• Prepare your back-office team to handle new inquiries.
• Evaluate Google's AI advertising recommendations based on your business goals.
• Measure success by leads that become clients, not just clicks.

MEMORABLE MOMENT

John explains the urgency of lead response:

"Those leads that come into your inbox, they age in matter of hours, not days."

ABOUT JOHN SANDERS

John Sanders is the founder of RevKey, a Google Ads marketing business working with approximately 150 clients, primarily in the mental health industry. He also has experience advertising for dentists, lawyers, and other service businesses.

CONNECT WITH JOHN

Website: https://revkey.com
More podcast appearances: https://revkey.com/podcast

CLOSE THE DEAL PODCAST

Follow Close The Deal Podcast for practical conversations about business growth, marketing, sales, and entrepreneurship.

If you know a business owner who's spending money on ads but struggling to turn leads into customers, share this episode with them.

More episodes and resources: https://CloseTheDeal.com

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Visit www.CloseTheDeal.com to see all episodes.

The Close The Deal Podcast is where decisions and broken promises to oneself  get made.

Hosted by Ewell Smith, this show features real conversations with high achievers - entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and competitors who are at a crossroads facing the decision they’ve been putting off. 

This isn’t about theory, tactics, or surface-level advice.
Every episode is built around one thing:

👉 A clear decision
👉 A real commitment

If you’re building something, you already know the truth -
there’s a decision in front of you that matters.

This show is where you face it.

🔥 CALL TO ACTION 

Want to be part of it?

Go to CloseTheDeal.com and put your name on the board.

You're collecting leads, booking appointments, and staying busy. But are you actually closing deals?

Sales trainer and author Lisa C. Laird, known as The Closer, joins Ewell Smith on Close The Deal Podcast to tackle one of the most persistent problems in sales: poor follow-up.

Lisa explains why sales teams can become obsessed with prospecting numbers while overlooking the opportunities they've already created. She shares three practical ways to improve your follow-up process and turn more activity into productive sales conversations.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Qualify leads and identify decision-makers before making your approach.
• Build a step-by-step follow-up plan for prospects who respond and those who don't.
• Use a simple, non-pitch follow-up within 72 hours of meeting someone at a networking event.
• Track appointment reschedules as a signal that your sales approach may need work.
• Train sales reps on follow-up expectations instead of measuring prospecting activity alone.

MEMORABLE MOMENT

Lisa challenges the idea that prospecting automatically means productivity:

“But they're not making any money because they don't go back.”

It's a reminder that collecting contacts and closing deals are two different things.

ABOUT LISA C. LAIRD

Lisa C. Laird has worked in sales since 2006 and has trained sales representatives since 2008. She's a speaker, sales trainer, and author of The Closer: Winning the Game of Sales. Her work focuses on prospecting, follow-up, appointment setting, relationship building, and practical sales skills.

CONNECT WITH LISA

Website: https://lisaclaird.com

LinkedIn: Lisa C. Laird

Instagram and YouTube: Lisa C. Laird Speaker

Book: The Closer: Winning the Game of Sales — available on Amazon.

Enjoy the episode? Follow Close The Deal Podcast, share it with a sales professional who needs a better follow-up system, and visit https://CloseTheDeal.com for more practical conversations about growing your business and closing deals.

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Visit www.CloseTheDeal.com to see all episodes.

The Close The Deal Podcast is where decisions and broken promises to oneself  get made.

Hosted by Ewell Smith, this show features real conversations with high achievers - entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and competitors who are at a crossroads facing the decision they’ve been putting off. 

This isn’t about theory, tactics, or surface-level advice.
Every episode is built around one thing:

👉 A clear decision
👉 A real commitment

If you’re building something, you already know the truth -
there’s a decision in front of you that matters.

This show is where you face it.

🔥 CALL TO ACTION 

Want to be part of it?

Go to CloseTheDeal.com and put your name on the board.

AI is changing how we sell. But are we sacrificing the human connection that actually closes deals?

In this episode of Close The Deal Podcast, Ewell Smith talks with Christopher Hughes, a sales professional with more than 25 years of experience, about the growing dependence on artificial intelligence in sales.

AI can speed up research, improve writing, and automate repetitive work. But Christopher warns that when everyone relies on the same technology, sales communication starts sounding the same.

And when that happens, building real relationships becomes even more important.

Christopher shares practical insights into how sales professionals can use AI without losing their human advantage. He also breaks down the importance of understanding negotiation, recognizing different types of "yes," and discovering why a customer's "no" can open the door to a better conversation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Use AI for research and support, not as a substitute for relationships.
• Avoid becoming another automated message in your customer's inbox.
• Understand why "no" can reveal the real objection.
• Learn the difference between counterfeit, confirmation, and commitment yeses.
• Recognize how timing, money, authority, and perceived value affect buying decisions.
• Strengthen negotiations through deliberate empathy, mirroring, and labeling.

MEMORABLE MOMENT

Christopher reminds salespeople to keep the human element in the process:

"There's no way to build a relationship with an AI because the AI is trying to mirror what you want it to say."

ABOUT CHRISTOPHER HUGHES

Christopher Hughes has more than 25 years of sales experience across several industries, including medicine, technology, staffing, and in-home sales. Through High Stakes Scaling, he helps businesses navigate vendor markets, negotiations, and growth.

CONNECT WITH CHRISTOPHER

Website: https://highstakesscaling.com

Visit https://CloseTheDeal.com for Christopher's additional episode resources and course information.

If this conversation helped you think differently about AI and selling, follow Close The Deal Podcast and share the episode with someone on your sales team.

More episodes and resources: https://CloseTheDeal.com

Be intentional. Make today a great day. Aim high.

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Visit www.CloseTheDeal.com to see all episodes.

The Close The Deal Podcast is where decisions and broken promises to oneself  get made.

Hosted by Ewell Smith, this show features real conversations with high achievers - entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and competitors who are at a crossroads facing the decision they’ve been putting off. 

This isn’t about theory, tactics, or surface-level advice.
Every episode is built around one thing:

👉 A clear decision
👉 A real commitment

If you’re building something, you already know the truth -
there’s a decision in front of you that matters.

This show is where you face it.

🔥 CALL TO ACTION 

Want to be part of it?

Go to CloseTheDeal.com and put your name on the board.

A private equity buyout can deliver a big check. But what happens after the deal closes?

For business owners, private equity offers a chance to monetize years of hard work and address succession challenges. But the payout may come with a loss of control, staffing pressures, and an uncertain timeline for future returns.

Ewell Smith welcomes John Scott, a partner at Anders CPA in St. Louis, to Close The Deal Podcast for a practical conversation about the risks and opportunities of private equity transactions.

John shares what he's observed in professional service firms, including law firms and accounting firms, and explains why founders need to think beyond the initial buyout. They also discuss private equity interest in franchising, rollover equity, and what makes a business financially attractive to buyers.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why private equity is attractive to founders facing succession challenges
• How buyouts can affect employee salaries, hiring, and development
• Why owners should think carefully before giving up majority control
• What a delayed second payout could mean for sellers
• Why clean financials and reliable forecasts matter before a sale
• How financial maturity assessments can identify areas to improve

MEMORABLE MOMENT

John Scott:

ABOUT JOHN SCOTT

John Scott is a partner at Anders CPA in St. Louis. He discusses private equity transactions, business financial readiness, and the firm's financial maturity model for identifying areas of improvement.

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Visit www.CloseTheDeal.com to see all episodes.

The Close The Deal Podcast is where decisions and broken promises to oneself  get made.

Hosted by Ewell Smith, this show features real conversations with high achievers - entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and competitors who are at a crossroads facing the decision they’ve been putting off. 

This isn’t about theory, tactics, or surface-level advice.
Every episode is built around one thing:

👉 A clear decision
👉 A real commitment

If you’re building something, you already know the truth -
there’s a decision in front of you that matters.

This show is where you face it.

🔥 CALL TO ACTION 

Want to be part of it?

Go to CloseTheDeal.com and put your name on the board.

Think you have a time management problem?

Amanda Van Der Heiden says the real problem may be your priorities, communication, or leadership.

In this episode of Close The Deal Podcast, Amanda joins Ewell Smith to break down why productivity hacks alone often don’t solve the problem—and what busy professionals can do instead.

Amanda explains why your calendar is one of the clearest indicators of your priorities. If an important goal never gets scheduled, the demands of the day can quickly take over.

She also explains how to identify the work that truly moves the needle and why unclear communication between leaders and employees can turn a simple assignment into hours or even days of wasted effort. 

Key Takeaways

• A time management problem may actually be a prioritization problem.
• Important goals need dedicated calendar time.
• Urgent and noisy tasks aren't necessarily the work that creates progress.
• Your most productive schedule depends on your own energy and circumstances.
• Clear expectations can eliminate significant amounts of wasted work.
• Leaders and team members share responsibility for confirming understanding.

About Amanda

Amanda Van Der Heiden is a chief learning consultant with a master’s degree in industrial and organizational psychology. She works in learning and development and has helped skill up thousands of people around the world. 

Connect With Amanda

Free goal development workbook: https://gtdscorp.com/go/

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Visit www.CloseTheDeal.com to see all episodes.

The Close The Deal Podcast is where decisions and broken promises to oneself  get made.

Hosted by Ewell Smith, this show features real conversations with high achievers - entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and competitors who are at a crossroads facing the decision they’ve been putting off. 

This isn’t about theory, tactics, or surface-level advice.
Every episode is built around one thing:

👉 A clear decision
👉 A real commitment

If you’re building something, you already know the truth -
there’s a decision in front of you that matters.

This show is where you face it.

🔥 CALL TO ACTION 

Want to be part of it?

Go to CloseTheDeal.com and put your name on the board.

You have the knowledge. You have the experience. But can you get what’s in your head across to someone else in a way that actually makes an impact?

That’s the communication problem Andrew Hurteau helps professionals solve.

Andrew spent the first half of his career as a professional actor, performer, acting teacher, and coach. He eventually shifted that experience toward professionals who may never have signed up to be performers—but suddenly find themselves presenting to teams, clients, boards, and audiences.

Andrew joins Ewell Smith to explain why one of the most common presentation habits can work against you: writing everything down first and then trying to deliver those written words naturally.

The problem? We don’t speak the same way we write.

Andrew explains how to get back to your authentic speaking voice, why a presentation deck should illustrate your ideas instead of becoming the presentation, and how stories can turn dry information into something people understand and remember.

Key Takeaways:

• Start with the most authentic version of yourself
• Translate written material back into the way you naturally speak
• Use bullet points and visuals as triggers rather than scripts
• Let your deck illustrate your wisdom instead of trying to contain it
• Use stories to give information context and meaning
• Recognize communication as a core part of leadership

Memorable Moment

Andrew shares the example of a leader who had spent years delivering a required rules-and-regulations presentation. By replacing a rules-first approach with relevant stories, the leader told Andrew that instead of feeling like a “traffic cop,” he finally felt like a coach and a leader.

About Andrew Hurteau

Andrew Hurteau is based in Oakland, California. After working as a professional actor, acting teacher, and coach, he shifted toward helping professionals bring their ideas to audiences in ways that are impactful and meaningful.

Connect with Andrew:
www.butterfieldspeaks.com/andrew

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Visit www.CloseTheDeal.com to see all episodes.

The Close The Deal Podcast is where decisions and broken promises to oneself  get made.

Hosted by Ewell Smith, this show features real conversations with high achievers - entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and competitors who are at a crossroads facing the decision they’ve been putting off. 

This isn’t about theory, tactics, or surface-level advice.
Every episode is built around one thing:

👉 A clear decision
👉 A real commitment

If you’re building something, you already know the truth -
there’s a decision in front of you that matters.

This show is where you face it.

🔥 CALL TO ACTION 

Want to be part of it?

Go to CloseTheDeal.com and put your name on the board.

Are you using AI in your business without thinking about what happens when it touches employee data, hiring decisions, terminations, or critical business systems?

AI can make a business faster and more efficient, but small business owners also need to understand the risks they may be creating along the way.

Ewell Smith sits down with Sara Skowronsk, who brings 25 years of multi-state employment law and HR experience to the conversation.

Sara explains why businesses need simple guardrails around AI rather than blindly adopting every new tool. That includes deciding which AI platforms employees can use, protecting sensitive information, keeping humans responsible for HR decisions, and maintaining backups of the AI assets your company depends on.

Key Takeaways:

• Don’t rely on AI alone to make hiring, disciplinary, or termination decisions.
• Establish clear guidelines for which AI tools employees can use.
• Protect Social Security numbers and other sensitive personal information.
• Consider company-sponsored AI accounts so the business controls its data and workflows.
• Keep external backups of important prompts, agents, and automations.
• Continue applying human judgment instead of automatically accepting an AI-generated answer.

Memorable Moment

That warning captures one of Sara’s central points: AI may assist the process, but the business still has to be able to explain and stand behind consequential decisions.

About Sara Skowronsk

Sara brings 25 years of multi-state employment law and HR experience to her work with small businesses. Her work explores the intersection between HR and AI and how businesses can adopt AI while creating appropriate guardrails around its use.

Connect

AI Clarity Roadmap: aiclarityroadmap.com
Email provided during the episode: [email protected]
Sara also invites listeners to connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Visit www.CloseTheDeal.com to see all episodes.

The Close The Deal Podcast is where decisions and broken promises to oneself  get made.

Hosted by Ewell Smith, this show features real conversations with high achievers - entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and competitors who are at a crossroads facing the decision they’ve been putting off. 

This isn’t about theory, tactics, or surface-level advice.
Every episode is built around one thing:

👉 A clear decision
👉 A real commitment

If you’re building something, you already know the truth -
there’s a decision in front of you that matters.

This show is where you face it.

🔥 CALL TO ACTION 

Want to be part of it?

Go to CloseTheDeal.com and put your name on the board.

You know what you need to do—but you still aren’t doing it.

What’s actually keeping you stuck?

Army veteran and executive coach Mark Reynolds joins Ewell Smith to unpack a problem almost every entrepreneur, executive, and business owner encounters: knowing something needs to change but failing to execute.

Mark breaks the problem into what he calls the Three C Framework: clarity, competency, and character/courage.

First, do you actually know what you want? Second, do you have the skills required to accomplish it? And finally, if you know what you want and know how to do it, what’s preventing you from acting?

The conversation also explores why information is increasingly cheap, why working harder eventually stops being the answer, and how shortening your timeframe can help you move forward when a big goal feels overwhelming.

Key Takeaways

• Get specific enough about your goal to know when you’ve achieved it.
• Determine whether your obstacle is clarity, competency, or courage.
• More information isn’t necessarily the answer when you already know what to do.
• Bring the timeframe closer when the bigger goal feels overwhelming.
• Treat creating a great day as an active process.
• Recognize when working harder is no longer enough to reach the next level.

Memorable Moment

About Mark Reynolds

Mark Reynolds is an Army veteran, executive coach, entrepreneur, author, and international award-winning speaker. He works with executives, entrepreneurs, and small business owners who are ready for change but need clarity and confidence about how to move forward.

Connect With Mark

ReynoldsCoaching.com
[email protected]
Mark is also active on LinkedIn.

Follow or subscribe to Close The Deal Podcast and share this episode with someone who knows what they need to do—but hasn’t done it yet.

Learn more at CloseTheDeal.com.

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Visit www.CloseTheDeal.com to see all episodes.

The Close The Deal Podcast is where decisions and broken promises to oneself  get made.

Hosted by Ewell Smith, this show features real conversations with high achievers - entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and competitors who are at a crossroads facing the decision they’ve been putting off. 

This isn’t about theory, tactics, or surface-level advice.
Every episode is built around one thing:

👉 A clear decision
👉 A real commitment

If you’re building something, you already know the truth -
there’s a decision in front of you that matters.

This show is where you face it.

🔥 CALL TO ACTION 

Want to be part of it?

Go to CloseTheDeal.com and put your name on the board.

What if your high-ticket offer isn't the problem?

Esther Stewart, CEO of Cottn Owl, joins Ewell Smith on the Close The Deal Podcast to explain why struggling offers often come down to positioning, messaging, and an unnecessarily complicated sales funnel.

Esther breaks down how to better communicate the value of your offer, differentiate yourself in a crowded market, and simplify the path that moves someone from prospect to client.

She also explains why she prefers premium offers and shares the story of a therapist who launched a $7,500 coaching offer with $20 per day in ad spend. By the third month, according to Esther, the client needed to decrease the ad spend because she was getting too many booked calls to keep up with.

Key Takeaways from Esther

In this episode, you'll discover why positioning matters, what a sales funnel really needs to do, how your personal story can strengthen your marketing, and why simplifying your funnel may help you generate better opportunities.

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Visit www.CloseTheDeal.com to see all episodes.

The Close The Deal Podcast is where decisions and broken promises to oneself  get made.

Hosted by Ewell Smith, this show features real conversations with high achievers - entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and competitors who are at a crossroads facing the decision they’ve been putting off. 

This isn’t about theory, tactics, or surface-level advice.
Every episode is built around one thing:

👉 A clear decision
👉 A real commitment

If you’re building something, you already know the truth -
there’s a decision in front of you that matters.

This show is where you face it.

🔥 CALL TO ACTION 

Want to be part of it?

Go to CloseTheDeal.com and put your name on the board.

James Trawick built one of the most ambitious rodeo and music festivals in America.

But despite the success, there was still a commitment he'd been postponing.

In this episode of Close The Deal, James shares the story behind Hondo Rodeo Fest, the challenge of launching in New Orleans, and the personal goal that kept getting pushed aside.

The conversation ultimately reveals something many entrepreneurs face:

When does building the dream start crowding out the things that originally gave life meaning?

Key Takeaways

• Launching large-scale events in new markets
• Building relationships through community
• Family-first leadership
• The importance of intentional recreation
• Why personal commitments deserve deadlines

James Trawick is the Founder and CEO of Hondo Rodeo Fest and a lifelong advocate for rodeo culture, family values, and community experiences. 

🎙 KEY MOMENT

CTA

Subscribe, share, and visit CloseTheDeal.com.

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Visit www.CloseTheDeal.com to see all episodes.

The Close The Deal Podcast is where decisions and broken promises to oneself  get made.

Hosted by Ewell Smith, this show features real conversations with high achievers - entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and competitors who are at a crossroads facing the decision they’ve been putting off. 

This isn’t about theory, tactics, or surface-level advice.
Every episode is built around one thing:

👉 A clear decision
👉 A real commitment

If you’re building something, you already know the truth -
there’s a decision in front of you that matters.

This show is where you face it.

🔥 CALL TO ACTION 

Want to be part of it?

Go to CloseTheDeal.com and put your name on the board.