Prospecting is the lifeblood of your sales force, your sales pipeline, and the compensation plan of every commission-based salesperson. How do you build a healthy sales force?

Stop listening to people explain why prospecting does not work and start doing something about it.

Our guest, Patrick Baynes, Founder of PeopleLinx, has some advice that will help you deliver more value to and generate more value from your salespeople. Don’t miss this call to action and Patrick’s powerful solution.

In this podcast, James speaks with fractional CRO, Kyle Mealy about how to do it right, whether you’re hiring your first sales person or growing a successful team. Giving that new hire a laptop, a comp-plan, and saying "Go get 'em tiger" is a recipe for burning cash and time. It takes 12-18 months to turn a new hire into a top producer. And if you are doing it right you can be successful more than 90% of the time. Save yourself the lost salary, headaches, and setbacks. Give them deeper insights into the problems you solve, the buyers you engage, and the metrics that matter. Also, teach them higher order sales skills beyond "BANT". After you listen, let us know what you think and check out this accompanying article that exposes the global shortage of skilled salespeople.

The truth is, as leaders experience success they become less flexible, less curious, and lose their ability to anticipate and respond to change. Instead of seeking data to understand what is happening and how to respond, they prefer to rely upon gut instinct honed over years of practice. Unfortunately, this can cause leaders to look at new events through old eyes. What’s needed is an operating model that allows sales and customer-facing teams to leverage what they know (their experience) and what they don't (new data and insights) to ensure they can sustain the success their leaders, investors, and board members expect.

It's one thing to reach success. It's another to sustain it. Can you take new ground with and for your team, hold it, and then add to it by taking more ground again? Can you muster the courage to not trick yourself into the blinds or shadows that take advantage of your complacency? In this episode, we wrap up our series with a discussion about where we are investing or spending our energy as leaders. We've got a finishing piece to put in place for you. It's a piece you need, because if you are not ready when the time comes that opportunity could be lost.

Culture is not defined by words. It’s defined by the decisions, actions, and outcomes of an organization’s leaders, people, and systems. Growth cultures are unique in that their leaders, people, and systems have been purposely identified and developed to optimize their readiness and alignment to change. As we like to say, growth is the mastery of change. Cultures that are not prepared for change are not prepared for growth. Join us as we dig into what it means for an organization to achieve readiness and alignment, and expose some of the blindspots that catch leaders off guard.

Companies that create best-in-class products and services, establish themselves as market leaders, and earn the loyalty of their customers deserve to be considered “great.” Today, many of these companies are stalling. Leaders realize that what got them to where they are won’t get them to where they want to be. What does it take for emerging and mature companies to get from great to growth? Join us as we discuss observations of the companies we have engaged with, as well as our own experiences over the years.

Are you ever really ready to lead a startup? When you hear her story, you will recognize that Kathy Peters and her partner Rich Figallo are absolutely the right people at the right time to lead their market. Not just because of the expertise they bring to the table, but because of the readiness and resilience that allows them to effectively anticipate and respond to change. Join us for a fascinating introduction to what is absolutely a company to watch.

Is running a sales force and achieving higher annual growth targets a sprint or a marathon? When you are starting out, you recognize that in order to make it to the long term you have to survive the short term. So, you commit to the high gear. Maybe your highest gear. Of course, it doesn't take long to recognize the pace you have set is unsustainable. You want to have access to bursts of power when you need them during the race, and you want enough energy to finish strong. The enthusiasm that gets you up in the morning has to be tempered with the knowledge that not every hill is worth dying on. Join us as we discuss the topic and explore its implications for building and retaining successful leaders and teams.

As leaders, so many of us earned that title by being supremely committed to a goal and continuously elevating our own execution in pursuit of that goal. What do you do with this ‘hero's mindset’ when you can't work any harder and there are no more hours in the day to sacrifice? How do you take yourself and your team to the next level? In this episode, we’re talking about letting go. Why is this an essential leadership trait? Eventually, we all get to a point where taking our (and our team’s) performance to the next level requires a new approach. It’s about more than time management. It’s about leadership.

As a leader, knowing your next best course of action requires you to make sense of what’s going on around you as well as within you. Awareness has two sides and is one of the benefits that comes with the experience and maturity you gain over time. In this episode we discuss how leaders develop awareness and perseverance in the face of change. And we introduce you to the four seasons of change to help you navigate the process like an experienced pro (or master).