Automation. Funnels. AI-generated content. Scale at all costs. New leads.

You’ve been sold a load of garbage about what it takes to grow a business today. And in this episode of Aggressively Human, we’re getting back to the truth about sales.

Max Traylor—agency churn physician and LinkedIn truth-teller—joins us to break down why so much of what passes for “sales strategy” today was never actually working. (It just didn’t matter when money was cheap.)

We talk about how most of us have never learned (or needed to learn) real sales skills, why AI and automation are actually doing you a favor by making real humans stand out, and why your best sales strategy is still a damn phone call.

We also dive into what real client expansion looks like, how to expand your existing relationships (hint: the word you’ll stop using is “done”), and how agency owners and soloists can rebuild around human relationships instead of implementing software and tools that take us farther away from connections in search of "scale".

* The sales myths we’ve been sold by venture-backed tech startups

* The difference between "participating in a buying process" and actually selling

* The missed opportunity of existing clients and why client expansion is the sales strategy no one talks about

* How to start expanding your engagement from day one

* Why quarterly business reviews aren’t admin—they're about getting invited to the adult table

* How bad automation is making it easier for real humans to stand out

* Why we need to become indispensable partners—and how do we do that

* The sales "crisis" that was never new—it just used to be easier to hide bad sales processes when the market was hot

* Max’s philosophy on LinkedIn: do it for yourself, not for the likes—and why IP creation > audience chasing

About our Guest

Max Traylor: LinkedIn, Website

1,000 Routes with Nick Bennett Podcast Appearance

Resources Mentioned

Becoming an Indispensable Partner featuring Steve Lishansky (Beers with Max podcast)

Connect with Us

Listen on Spotify

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Connect with Meg and Jessica

Meg Casebolt

Jessica Lackey

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aggressivelyhuman.substack.com