Paul Higgins Podcast

Why you should listen

1. Cyril Louis shares how Mavericx transformed from a typical Salesforce implementation partner into a trusted CX advisor, offering a proven blueprint for boutique firms looking to escape the commodity trap.
2. Learn how building and leading local communities for 10+ years became a powerful lead generation and recruitment strategy that costs nothing but delivers exponentially.
3. Discover practical AI implementation strategies across retail and financial services, including the step-by-step maturity model that prevents costly AI pilot failures.

If you're tired of competing on price with every other Salesforce partner and watching the big SIs walk away with the strategic work while you get stuck doing configurations, this episode will change how you think about positioning. Boutique after boutique races to the bottom, begging for leads from AEs who now expect you to bring them business instead of partnering with you. That's exactly where Cyril Louis from Mavericx was heading until his clients started asking him a different question: "What's next after Salesforce?" Instead of just implementing CRM, Cyril repositioned his firm as the CX strategy partner who happens to know Salesforce inside out. We break down his 10-year community play that's generated more qualified leads than any marketing campaign, his three-stage AI framework that prevents those expensive pilot disasters, and the hard lesson about saying no to bad-fit clients earlier.

About Cyril Louis

Cyril has 17 years of experience in digital and cultivates a dual skill by focusing on CRM topics & customer knowledge as well as on engagement & digital marketing aspects.

He worked on numerous missions aimed at defining new strategies as ‘Customer Centric Company‘ and ‘Data Driven Company‘ via customer journeys for a better engagement. These new customer journeys involve many reflections on organization, methodologies, data urbanization and IT architecture. 

Cyril regularly shares thoughts and best practices on topics around the omni-channel customer experience, whether in publications or at diverse conferences.

His expertise has been recognized by Salesforce with his awards as Salesforce MVP, Salesforce Lightning Champion and Salesforce User Group Leader.

Resources and Links

• Mavericx.ch
• Cyril's LinkedIn profile
• ChatGPT
• Claude.ai
• Cursor
• Onyx
• Previous episode: 627 - SMS Isn’t Spam: It’s Your 98% Open Rate Gold Mine with Chris Brisson
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Free Training for AI & Tech Consultants Ready to Stop Trading Time for Money
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resource

Why you should listen

1. Chris Brisson reveals how SMS achieves 98% deliverability rates compared to declining email open rates, giving tech consultants an unfair advantage in client communication.
2. Learn the "Textize Your Business" framework that turns every touchpoint in your client journey into a conversation starter, from lead generation to getting reviews and referrals.
3. Discover real case studies including how one speaker converted 150 event attendees into $25,000+ of lead value using simple QR codes and SMS automation.

You're probably still over-relying on email and LinkedIn to reach prospects and clients - and missing out on the channel with the highest engagement rates. As a tech consultant, this could be costing you deals and dragging out your sales cycles. In this episode, I talk with Chris Brisson, who's been in SMS marketing since 2009 and built SalesMessage to help businesses "textize" their operations. We dive deep into how SMS integrates with platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive, plus the AI-powered agents that can handle responses 24/7. Chris shares the exact frameworks for turning cold leads into warm conversations, reducing no-shows, and scaling client communication without adding overhead.

About Chris Brisson

Chris Brisson is the founder and CEO of Salesmsg (read as “sales message”), a leading AI-powered SMS platform designed to help businesses engage, qualify, and convert leads at scale through two-way text messaging. A serial entrepreneur and seasoned SaaS operator, Chris has bootstrapped Salesmsg into an 8-figure ARR business while maintaining strong profitability and a high-performing team culture.

Previously, Chris founded Call Loop, one of the earliest voice and text broadcasting platforms, and has spent over 15 years building direct response marketing systems and SaaS products. 

Today, he’s at the forefront of AI-driven customer engagement, leading the charge to “Textize Your Business”—a methodology that empowers companies to turn messaging into their most effective conversion channel.

Chris is also an EOS-driven founder, speaker, and growth strategist who’s passionate about helping fellow entrepreneurs unlock scalable systems, dominate niche markets, and design companies that are both profitable and purposeful.

Resources and Links

• Salesmessage.com
• Chris' LinkedIn profile
• Claude.ai
• Previous episode: 626 - Are You Building a Business or Just Buying Yourself a Job?
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Free Training for AI & Tech Consultants Ready to Stop Trading Time for Money
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resource

As a tech or AI consultant who's built your business to mid-six figures, you might think you're sitting on a valuable asset. But here's the brutal reality: if your business wouldn't survive without you, you don't have a business—you've bought yourself the world's most expensive, stressful job.

In this episode, I share the exact framework buyers use to value tech consultancies and reveal why most smart, passionate founders are unknowingly destroying their business value every single day. You'll discover the three strategic shifts that transformed one of my clients from a 60-hour-week bottleneck to building a systemized, scalable business that gave him his life back—whether he ever sells it or not.

This isn't about preparing to sell your business. It's about escaping the owner dependency trap that's keeping you trapped at the center of everything, working harder instead of building something truly valuable.

Resources and Links

• Watch the FREE Training: The 3P System for Profitable Consulting
• Previous episode: 625 - The Salesforce Partner's AI Dilemma with Sanjeet Mahajan
• Check out more episodes of The Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources

Why you should listen

1. Sanjeet Mahajan shares his journey building AgentForce agents and custom AI solutions, revealing the critical prompt engineering techniques that eliminate hallucinations and deliver real ROI.
2. Learn the decision framework for when to use AgentForce versus building custom agents with LangChain and CrewAI, plus real case studies from hospitality and real estate showing measurable results.
3. Discover how to create your own "Content Crafter" AI agent that generates marketing ideas in 10 minutes instead of 3-4 weeks, based on your unique business journey and client data.

As a Salesforce consultant, you're watching competitors struggle with AgentForce implementation while others race ahead with custom AI agents. The hallucinations, pricing concerns, and lack of clear guidance on when to build versus buy has left many of you spinning your wheels. I see this frustration constantly - talented consultants who know their platforms inside-out but feel lost in the AI maze. In this episode, I talk with Sanjeet Mahajan from Kizzy Consulting, who's spent months in the trenches building both AgentForce and custom agents. We dive deep into the prompt engineering techniques that actually work, the decision framework for choosing platforms, and proven case studies that show real ROI. If you're tired of AI hype and want practical implementation strategies that work, this conversation will give you the roadmap you need.

About Sanjeet Mahajan

Sanjeet Mahajan is the Founder & CEO of Kizzy Consulting, a Salesforce Ridge and ISV Partner helping nonprofits, real estate, and homecare teams grow with clean data, smart automation, and human-first design. A seasoned Technical Architect with a deep curiosity for AI, Sanjeet is building intelligent systems that think, act, and adapt—so businesses don’t just keep up, they leap ahead.

Resources and Links

• Kizzyconsulting.com
• Sanjeet's LinkedIn profile
• LangChain
• CrewAI
• N8N
• NotebookLM
• Napkin.ai
• Previous episode: 624 - How to Turn Client Cloud Platform Pain Into Profitable Migration Projects with Jon Topper
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Free Training for AI & Tech Consultants Ready to Stop Trading Time for Money
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resource

Why you should listen

1. Jon Topper reveals how to transform client cloud platform complaints into profitable migration projects, including access to substantial AWS funding programs most consultants don't know exist.
2. Learn the real truth about AWS partnerships - why they don't deliver leads as promised and the relationship strategy that actually works to generate opportunities.
3. Discover how to build authority in the cloud space that gets you noticed by platform sales teams, using the same approach that led to Jon's acquisition by a 400-person company.

As a tech consultant, you've probably heard clients complaining about their current cloud platform costs, performance issues, or vendor lock-in nightmares. What if I told you there's a way to turn those complaints into profitable migration projects - and there's significant funding available to help them migrate? In this episode, I talk with Jon Topper from The Scale Factory, who shares exactly how to position yourself as the hero who solves their biggest cloud headaches. We dive into the real economics of cloud migration, when to recommend the move, and how to build the authority that gets platform sales teams to notice you.

About Jon Topper

Jon Topper is the founder of The Scale Factory, an award-winning AWS partner, now part of Ten10. His team helps SaaS companies and other businesses get more from their cloud platforms by providing consulting, engineering, and support services to design, build, operate, and scale their infrastructure. In his career spanning two decades, Jon has worked on infrastructure problems for both Fortune 500 companies and startups across various market sectors.

Resources and Links

• Scalefactory.com
• Jon's LinkedIn profile
• Jon on Bluesky: ‪@topper.me.uk‬
• Amazon Bedrock
• Claude.ai
• Incident.io
• CTO Craft Community
• RANDS Leadership Slack community
• Previous episode: 623 - Struggling to Pick a Niche?
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Free Training for AI & Tech Consultants Ready to Stop Trading Time for Money
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resource

If you think Jon and his team could help with your AWS platform, visit scalefactory.com and book a call with one of their experts!

As a tech consultant, you're probably exhausted from chasing every opportunity that comes your way - bouncing between industries whenever a referral pops up. You know you need to specialize, but choosing a niche feels risky when you're already pulling in decent revenue and worried about leaving money on the table. The truth is, staying a generalist is what's keeping you stuck doing $15K implementations instead of leading $50K+ transformations. In this episode, I share the exact 4-filter system that separates profitable niches from time-wasters. You'll learn how to identify niches with urgent problems, real budgets, and scalable potential - the same approach my clients use to stop competing on price and start commanding premium rates for their expertise.

Resources and Links

• Watch the FREE Training: The 3P System for Profitable Consulting
• 605 - You Can't Own a Niche You Don't Understand
• 420 - The Riches Are in the Niches with Alison Strickland
• 388 - Super Niche to Scale Faster
• Previous episode: 622 - Why Your Clients are Still Stuck in CRM Hell at 10PM (And How AI Fixes It) with Gaurav Bhattacharya
• Check out more episodes of The Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources

Why you should listen

1. Gaurav shares how Jeeva.ai is revolutionizing sales automation by making AI-powered outreach as simple as ChatGPT, without the complexity of tools like Clay.
2. Learn how to cut through the noise of generic AI outreach with personalized, multi-channel strategies that actually improve deliverability and response rates.
3. Discover the future of sales technology and why natural language interfaces will replace complex CRM workflows - plus get insights from a Forbes 30 Under 30 founder backed by Mark Benioff.

Your clients' sales teams are drowning in CRM busywork, spending hours on data entry and lead research instead of actually selling. Meanwhile, their cold outreach campaigns are getting lost in the noise of AI-generated spam, delivering terrible conversion rates despite all the time invested. If this sounds familiar, you're not alone - and there's finally a solution. In this episode, I sit down with Gaurav Bhattacharya, CEO of Jeeva.ai, who's built the AI sales automation platform that's changing everything. Gaurav is a repeat B2B SaaS founder who went from creating a radiology tool adopted by the Indian government at age 17 to raising over $20M and hitting $7M revenue in just 12 months with his latest venture. We dive deep into how Jeeva.ai eliminates the biggest pain points in modern sales - from automated lead research and data enrichment to personalized outreach across multiple channels. You'll discover why most outbound tools are actually making the spam problem worse, how to improve email deliverability in an AI-saturated market, and why the future belongs to natural language interfaces that work where sales teams actually spend their time.

About Gaurav Bhattacharya

Gaurav Bhattacharya is a repeat B2B SaaS founder and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree who’s built, scaled, and exited startups before most founders finish their MVP. Currently the CEO of Jeeva.ai, he’s leading the charge in automating outbound AI-powered SDR agents — helping B2B teams 2x their pipeline in half the time (and cost).

Before Jeeva, he co-founded involve.ai, a customer intelligence platform that grew to 500+ companies and 1.1M users globally. He raised over $20M from top investors like Sapphire Ventures, Stanford University, and Gokul Rajaram — and hit $5M ARR in under 9 months with just 11 people.

But Gaurav’s story starts even earlier — at 17, he co-built a radiology tool that the Indian government adopted nationwide to fight sex-selective abortions. 

He’s been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, LA Business Journal, and top startup podcasts — and he’s not here to preach theory. Gaurav brings real-world operator lessons, raw founder stories, and tactical GTM frameworks that listeners can steal and ship the same day.

When he’s not building, he’s probably over-caffeinating, mentoring founders, or geeking out on outbound psychology.

Resources and Links

• Jeeva.ai
• Gaurav's LinkedIn profile
• Get Jeeva at 90% off on your first year
• Elevenlabs.io
• Captions.ai
• Heygen.com
• Chatgpt.com
• 593 - The Tech Consultant's Guide to AI: What's Actually Working in 2025
• Previous episode: 621-Why ‘Giving First’ Beats Funnels and Ads for Consulting Success with André van Kampen
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Free Training for AI & Tech Consultants Ready to Stop Trading Time for Money
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resource

Why you should listen

1. André van Kampen reveals how his 9-year hospitality background became his secret weapon for delivering exceptional client care in Salesforce consulting, going the extra mile that sets him apart from competitors.
2. Discover how building and nurturing the ISV community in Europe created multiple revenue streams while establishing André as a thought leader in the Salesforce ecosystem.
3. Learn practical strategies for leveraging networking and community involvement to build a sustainable consulting business without relying on paid advertising or traditional marketing tactics.

Differentiating yourself in an increasingly crowded consulting market while building genuine client relationships feels nearly impossible. In this episode, I sit down with André van Kampen, a Salesforce consultant from the Netherlands who has built his business through exceptional client care and community leadership. We explore how his hospitality background shaped his consulting approach, why he focuses on the most challenging manufacturing projects, and how he's created multiple revenue streams through ISV partnerships and event organization. André shares insights on navigating AI adoption challenges, the importance of data quality, and why networking remains the most underrated lead generation channel for consultants.

About André van Kampen

Andre van Kampen is a seasoned Salesforce consultant and founder of KampKonsult, ISV Forum, and YeurDreamin’. He specializes in Service Cloud and Community Cloud, holds multiple Salesforce certifications, and has been recognized as a Salesforce MVP (2021–2024). Andre is active in the Salesforce community as an Amsterdam User Group co-leader and is fluent in Dutch and English.

Resources and Links

• Kampkonsult.com
• André's LinkedIn profile
• Previous episode: 620 - The Death of Billable Hours
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
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As a consultant, you're probably feeling the ground shift beneath your feet right now. While everyone's celebrating AI's promise to make us 10x more productive, I'm seeing a darker reality unfold. Your biggest clients are starting to question why they should pay $200 an hour for work they know AI can handle in minutes. Fortune 1000 CEOs aren't waiting six months for insights anymore—they want them yesterday, and they're willing to cut you out if AI can deliver faster. In this episode, I reveal why the traditional billable hour model is becoming a death trap and share the exact framework I use to help consultants escape the time-for-money cycle. I'll walk you through my 3P system that helped one client slash their working hours in half while nearly tripling their revenue. The consultants who make this shift now will dominate—those who don't will become AI's assistants.

Why you should listen

1. Trevor reveals how Myko solves the age-old problem of sales reps not entering data into Salesforce by using voice technology to eliminate the 53-click process down to 15 seconds
2. Learn how poor CRM data entry is blocking your AI initiatives and downstream analytics, and discover a practical solution that integrates seamlessly with existing workflows
3. Gain insights into the future of voice-first technology in sales and how early adopters are leveraging this to dramatically improve rep ramp time and territory handoffs

As a Salesforce partner, you know the challenge of implementing CRM systems that don't fit into the natural flow of how sales reps actually work. Your clients struggle with data gaps that prevent meaningful reporting, AI initiatives get stalled because there's insufficient data to analyze, and you're constantly looking for solutions that bridge the gap between CRM capabilities and real-world sales activities. I've experienced this firsthand - watching robust Salesforce implementations underperform because the data entry process doesn't align with how field reps actually spend their time.

In this episode, I talk with Trevor Lee from Myko who has built a voice-first solution that finally addresses this fundamental workflow challenge. We discuss how his tool transforms the complex 53-click mobile process into a simple 15-second voice interaction that fits naturally into a rep's day, why this breakthrough is critical for AI initiatives, and how partners can leverage this technology to unlock previously impossible downstream projects for their clients.

About Trevor Lee 

Trevor is the Cofounder and CEO of Myko - the language interface for teams to interact with Salesforce. Trevor started his career in finance and met his cofounder and Zheng at business school. The two of them worked together on a financial modeling solution Genius Sheets that they eventually sold. 

Resources and Links

• Myko.ai
• Trevor's LinkedIn profile
• Schedule a demo
•  Try voice to Salesforce - Myko Test Drive
• Previous episode: 618 - Why 86% of Cyberattacks Now Hit SMBs First and How to Protect Them with René-Sylvain Bedard
• Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoring
• Join our newsletter
• Suggested resources