SBI, The Growth Advisory

In this episode, SBI’s Ray Makela sits down with Kelly Lewis, Co-Founder of The Revenue Insiders, to unpack why this is the year AI becomes truly operational inside sales organizations.

From shortening ramp time and modernizing onboarding to enabling frontline managers with AI role play and real-time coaching, Kelly shares practical strategies for moving beyond AI hype and into measurable impact.

They explore:

• Why six-month ramp times are becoming obsolete
• How AI role play is transforming frontline manager coaching
• The shift from “one-size-fits-all” training to personalized nudge enablement
• Where organizations are getting stuck — and how to start small for quick wins
• Why EQ, empathy, and critical thinking will matter more than ever in an AI-powered world

If you’re a revenue leader looking to cut through the noise and turn AI into a competitive advantage, this conversation is your roadmap.

In this episode, SBI's Ray Makela sits down with Christopher Kingman, Board of Directors & Founding Member of Revenue Enablement Society (RES), to explore how the RES is transforming professional development through their groundbreaking Certified Revenue Enablement Professional Program.

Chris shares how a four-year collaboration with 15 diverse practitioners and Florida State University Sales Institute created the industry's first comprehensive certification program that bridges practical field experience with academic rigor.

Together, they discuss the program's focus on human skills over technology, its design for both newcomers and veterans seeking to fill critical skill gaps, and the long-term vision to establish enablement as a recognized profession with standardized education pathways from undergraduate degrees to MBA programs.

In this episode, SBI Managing Director of Talent Development Ray Makela sits down with Emilia D'Anzica, Founder & Managing Partner of Growth Molecules and Customer Success Expert, to explore how SBI transformed customer success training through acquiring Growth Molecules' proven curriculum.

Emilia shares how customer success professionals often lack the sales skills needed to drive expansion revenue, the critical importance of seamless sales-to-CS handoffs, and why creating safe practice environments builds team confidence.

Together, they discuss how SBI is taking Growth Molecules' customer success training to the next level, the metrics that matter most for CS teams, and why emotional intelligence and relationship building remain irreplaceable even in an AI-driven world.

In this episode, Ray Makela sits down with Caldwell Hart, Principal, Procurement and Supply Chain Management at Avetta, to explore how sales and procurement teams can transform adversarial relationships into strategic partnerships.

Caldwell shares insider insights on how leading procurement organizations prepare for negotiations, why total value trumps lowest price, and the critical importance of involving procurement early in the sales process.

Together, they discuss common misconceptions salespeople have about procurement, proven negotiation tactics that focus on solutions over price wars, and how AI is reshaping procurement processes to create more collaborative, value-driven business relationships.

In this episode, SBI Managing Director of Talent Development Ray Makela sits down with Mark Magnacca, President and Co-founder at Allego, to explore how organizations are transforming sales performance through digital enablement and AI-powered coaching.

Mark shares how companies can move beyond static playbooks to create dynamic, rehearsal-based learning experiences that drive real behavioral change, and how AI role play technology now provides lifelike coaching feedback when it's most effective.

Together, they discuss the evolution from traditional training to continuous skill development, the power of digital sales rooms in reducing buyer friction, and how AI tools can augment sales manager coaching by handling routine development while freeing managers to focus on strategic, deliberate coaching that drives lasting performance improvement.

In this episode, host Mike Hoffman sits down with Noel Goggin, multi-time CEO and AI implementation veteran, to explore how executives can navigate the stark reality of AI adoption where 70-95% of projects fail despite widespread claims of success.

Noel shares hard-won insights from five years of AI initiatives, revealing why companies must shift from internal process automation to product transformation and why traditional delegation approaches doom AI projects from the start.

Together, they discuss the critical need for founder mode leadership with dedicated cross-functional teams, how AI accelerates destructive political behaviors in organizations, and why the entire commercial model—from SaaS pricing to customer value delivery—requires fundamental rethinking in the AI era.

In this episode, SBI's Nick Toman sits down with Craig Riley from SBI Research and Dan Harmeson from QuadSci, to explore how SaaS companies are engineering predictable account growth through AI-powered product usage analytics. Craig and Dan share groundbreaking insights from their analysis of 160 billion data points across 9,100 accounts, revealing how companies can predict churn with 90% accuracy up to 12 months in advance and identify expansion opportunities through natural customer cohorts. Together, they discuss the alarming decline in Net Revenue Retention across the industry, the six critical customer cohorts that emerge from usage patterns, and how the SBI-QuadSci partnership within the WaveForge AI ecosystem is helping commercial teams coordinate around data-driven insights to achieve 5% boosts in NRR performance.

In this episode, Mike Hoffman sits down with Jeff Kiesel to explore how Restaurant Technologies Inc. transformed its operations and sales strategy through AI-powered optimization and strategic partnership. Jeff shares how their 8-year collaboration with SBI helped Restaurant Technologies achieve a 30% reduction in distribution costs through route optimization, maintain consistent mid-teen market share despite double-digit growth, and leverage AI for micro-segmentation that allows sales teams to start conversations at stage 2-3 rather than basic discovery. Together, they discuss the evolution from traditional "hunter" sales models to "hunter-farmer" approaches, the implementation of WaveForge platform for talent assessment, and how human intuition combined with AI intelligence drives sustainable growth in complex go-to-market environments.

In this episode, SBI Growth Advisory Managing Director of Talent Development Ray Makela sits down with Phil Putnam, a seasoned sales enablement leader with over 20 years in tech, to explore how sales organizations can master strategic negotiations without sacrificing value or margins.

Phil shares how SBI's Value-Driven Negotiation program helps sellers understand that negotiation isn't just an end-stage activity, but an extension of value-based selling throughout the entire process.

Together, they discuss the critical importance of preparation, understanding the "why" behind buyer positions, and how to effectively trade rather than concede when facing today's complex buying committees of 12+ stakeholders.

They reveal proven techniques for equipping internal champions to co-sell effectively and maintaining contract sizes in an increasingly price-sensitive market.

In this episode, SBI Managing Director of Talent Development Ray Makela sits down with Bart Freedman, Vice President of Sales at Biamp, to explore how Biamp transformed its global sales organization through a value-driven selling program. Bart shares how partnering with SBI helped BiAmp navigate a hyper-competitive market, elevate sales conversations from technology features to business value, and embed continuous improvement across global teams. Together, they discuss the impact of customized, real-world training, SBI’s collaborative learning platform, and the leadership behaviors that turn skill-building into lasting performance change.