In this episode, Dave Irwin sits down with Paul Butterfield, CEO of Revenue Flywheel Group, to unpack what it really means to enable enterprise teams around the customer’s journey.  

Paul shares insights from decades in sales leadership and enablement, showing why traditional demo-first approaches fail and how the best account teams co-create value with their buyers…well before a formal initiative even exists.  

From stakeholder mapping and discovery depth to trust-building, Paul makes the case for a shift toward insight-driven selling that prioritizes customer impact over pitch decks. 

Guest: 
Paul Butterfield, CEO, Revenue Flywheel Group 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbutterfield/

Key Points: 
- Why sales enablement must expand across the entire customer journey 
- The power of insight-driven discovery vs. check-the-box qualification 
- How to move from selling a product to enabling outcomes 
- Why most messaging fails: it's about features, not the customer's reality 
- Strategies for engaging multiple stakeholders with tailored discovery 
- How to co-create initiatives with buyers vs. reacting to defined RFPs 
- The importance of stakeholder-specific impact and how to reflect it back 
- Using “Opportunity Qualification Meetings” to align buying groups internally 
- How to lead with business acumen, even if you’re not the domain expert 
- Why post-sale visibility and implementation planning builds pre-sale trust 
- A three-part framework for buyer trust: Authenticity, Competence, Empowerment 

Your internal hero isn’t just a “champion”… they are your best chance at unlocking the rest of the buying center.   But ONLY if you know how to elevate them.  

In this episode, Dave Irwin sits down with Brynne Tillman, CEO of Social Sales Link, to explore how top-performing account teams use social selling, not to pitch, but to map influence, build trust, and expand from the inside out. 

You’ll hear about how to turn one trusted relationship into many, avoid single-threading risks. Brynne also breaks down the right way to ask for introductions (and what not to do), how to become the person your client brags about internally, and the three rules that set elite sellers apart. 

Whether you’re managing one strategic account or trying to scale across a territory, this conversation will change how you think about proximity, permission, and growth. 

• What social selling is (and what it’s not) 
• Using LinkedIn for mapping influence across buyer centers 
• The “Hero vs. Champion” mindset 
• Avoiding single-threaded relationships 
• Elevating internal advocates without pitching 
• Tactics for internal and external referrals 
• How to be a connector, not just a closer 
• Using reverse referrals and soft asks 
• 3 rules for landing, expanding, and retaining

Guest:
Brynne Tillman, CEO, Social Sales Link
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brynnetillman 
https://socialsaleslink.com 

The role of account leaders and insight strategists in driving relevancy, customer engagement, and account growth. 

Current State & Problem Identification 

• Organizations are stuck in outdated, product-driven playbooks. 
• Account teams are overwhelmed, myopic, and misaligned with buyers. 
• Significant gaps exist between what buyers need and what sellers provide. 

Expert Context 

• Brian Shea advises CEOs and revenue leadership teams on overcoming growth barriers. 
• Emphasizes the transformation from indirect to direct go-to-market strategies and the importance of aligning teams to new buyer realities. 

Key Insights from Conversation 

• Importance of understanding buyer-driven change post-pandemic and digital acceleration. 
• How outdated approaches cause confidence gaps at all levels (CEOs, leadership teams, frontline sellers). 
• The growing complexity of executive buying teams and why traditional product pitches no longer resonate. 

Strategic Recommendations 

• Elevate conversations to an executive level by deeply understanding customer problems. 
• Clearly align capabilities to customer financial metrics and outcomes. 
• Differentiate account leaders through executive-level acumen, financial understanding, and trusted advisory presence. 
• Adopt a "Batman and Robin" model: Account leaders paired with insight strategists to maximize effectiveness. 

Real-world Examples and Success Stories 

• A billion-dollar client transformed by flipping go-to-market strategy (indirect to direct) through strategic alignment. 
• Tangible impacts of relevancy: rapid customer acknowledgment and increased engagement. 

Suggested Action Items 

• Implement self-reflection for account managers to assess relevancy and customer insight levels. 
• Build internal dialogues with executives (CFO, COO) to sharpen customer-centric approaches. 
• Establish a dedicated insight strategist role to continually feed actionable insights to account leaders. 

Closing Takeaways 

• True differentiation in enterprise sales is now achieved through strategic relevance, deep customer insights, and advisory-level interactions. 
• Account leaders must shift from product-centric to problem-centric strategies, continually validated by executive-level buyer engagement. 

Guest: 
Brian Shea 

Principal, Lucrum Partners 

[email protected] 

lucrumpartners.co 

In this episode of Selling What’s Possible, host Dave Irwin and guest Dave Brock dive into why traditional, product-pushing sales methods no longer resonate with today’s buyers. They discuss how most customers complete the majority of their buying cycle on their own—and why sales teams must engage earlier by understanding and solving customer problems. Dave Brock explains how adopting a “business focused selling” mindset, including using customer focus and problem focus questionnaires, not only builds trust but also dramatically improves win rates, shortens buying cycles, and increases deal sizes. Real-world examples and actionable advice offer account executives a roadmap to transform from transactional sellers into strategic problem solvers.

Guest:
David Brock, Author “Sales Manager Survival Guide”, CEO at Partners in Excellence 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davebrock/
https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/

Key takeaways:

Changing Buyer Behavior:

• Over 80% of buyers prefer a “rep-free” buying environment.
• Customers now navigate most of the buying process on their own. 

Early Engagement & Pre-Intent:

• The importance of engaging before solution selection.
• Intercepting the buying process early to shape outcomes. 

Business Focused Selling:

• Transitioning from a product-pitch mindset to a problem-solving approach.
• Building trust by understanding customer challenges and industry metrics. 

Sales Transformation & Metrics:

• Doubling win rates, reducing “no decision” outcomes by 25%, and cutting buying cycles by 30–40%.
• Real-world examples demonstrating dramatic increases in average deal size. 

Tools & Tactics:

• Using customer focus and problem focus questionnaires to build business acumen.
• Leveraging modern tools (e.g., AI like ChatGPT) to simulate customer conversations. 

In this episode, Dave Irwin sits down with Keenan, author of Gap Selling, to explore why traditional sales approaches fail in enterprise account management. Keenan explains why buyers don’t act unless their current state is untenable and how account teams can drive change by focusing on diagnosing problems instead of pushing solutions. They discuss the psychology behind decision-making, the importance of business acumen, and how account teams can become trusted advisors. If you’re in sales or account management, this episode is packed with actionable insights to elevate your approach.

Guest: Keenan, CEO and Founder of A Sales Growth Company

Key takeaways:

1. People buy when the pain of staying the same is greater than the effort to change—salespeople must highlight this gap. 
2. Enterprise account teams need to map decision-makers, including those who can say “no” but not “yes.” 
3. Trust is built by deeply understanding the customer’s business, not just selling a product. 
4. Many buyers don’t fully understand their own problems—great account executives help them figure it out. 
5. Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) should focus on whether the customer is achieving business goals, not just product usage metrics. 

In this episode, Craig Nelson and Dave Irwin explore how AI is transforming sales and account planning. The discussion focuses on foundational strategies, key use cases, and actionable insights for optimizing workflows and enabling enterprise growth. 

Key takeaways:

• Start with Foundations: Establish clear governance and foundational use cases for AI adoption. 
• Focus on High-Value Wins: Identify and implement a few impactful AI-enabled workflows to demonstrate success quickly. 
• Break Silos: Integrate AI into cross-functional strategies to ensure company-wide benefits. 
• Leverage AI for Hyper-Personalization: Utilize AI to align deeply with customer needs and enhance sales relevance. 
• Treat AI as a Teammate: Incorporate AI thoughtfully to augment and accelerate workflows, not just as a standalone tool. 
• Prepare for Long-Term Gains: Build a foundation now to capitalize on data-driven insights for strategic growth in the future. 

In this episode of Selling What’s Possible, host Dave Irwin chats with Dave Lewark, Enterprise Sales Director at Infinity SPM, about the challenges and strategies for delivering consistent value to enterprise accounts. From bridging the gap between sales and account management to leveraging empathy and alignment, they explore what it takes to build trust, sustain engagement, and manage the complexity of large-scale enterprise relationships. Key takeaways include the importance of benchmarks, knowledge sharing, and working backwards from the customer’s priorities to create lasting value. 

Welcome to Selling What's Possible, a podcast dedicated to enterprise accounts. I'm Dave Irwin, founder and CEO of Polaris I.O. And for over 30 years in my role as a CSO, CMO, and CEO, interfacing with hundreds of other revenue leaders and account teams, I've always been fascinated by the economy of key accounts, the global 2000, and the outsize role they play in every business. There is always a top 10 or top 20 that drives the vast majority of revenue and profits. 

Join us for each episode where we will explore these different topics and ways to quickly move past obstacles and old and outdated approaches to become faster, more nimble, more adaptive and collaborative. You'll hear from some of the best in the business, revenue leaders, account team leaders and strategists and other thought leaders sharing real stories and game-changing insights. Let's redefine together what modernized account research, planning and execution looks like when it comes to growing, expanding and retaining enterprise accounts that spend the most.

In this episode, host Dave Irwin welcomes Ron Hubsher, CEO of Sales Optimization Group, to discuss the art of account negotiations through the lens of co-creating value. Ron shares his expertise on business-to-business (B2B) sales negotiation, emphasizing the importance of being the buyer's number one choice by minimizing both business and personal risk. Ron and Dave discuss the concept of "Blue Space" – focusing on solving customers' problems instead of white space, which is very product-centric and all about the seller. The conversation highlights key strategies, including building trust with executive stakeholders, quantifying value, and maintaining continuous relevance in customer relationships. If you're looking to strengthen enterprise account negotiations and drive meaningful customer relationships, this episode is packed with insights to elevate your approach. 

• Lowering both business and personal risk makes you the buyer’s number one choice. 
• Quantifying the value you create helps command a price premium and grow relationships. 
• Co-create value by solving customer challenges expansively, not just selling products. 
• Stay relevant with regular customer engagement to uncover new opportunities. 
• Practice Ron’s three principles—lower risk, quantify value, and expand relationships—to negotiate success. 

Guest: Ron Hubsher, Negotiation Expert, CEO of the Sales Optimization Group

Topic:
Focusing on Your Customer Needs for Your Next Account Growth Planning Cycle

In this episode of Selling What's Possible, Dave Irwin is joined by Ted Corbeill, Director of Revenue Enablement and a former Marine Intelligence Officer, to explore the evolving dynamics of account planning and where account teams should focus on for their 2025 account planning cycle. Ted brings a data-driven, disciplined approach to revenue enablement, emphasizing the importance of aligning account planning with customer growth strategies. Together, they discuss the pitfalls of traditional account plans, which often focus on internal targets rather than customer needs, and advocate for dynamic, customer-centric strategies that leverage real-time data and insights. They highlight the significance of understanding customer initiatives, integrating siloed team efforts, and creating living account plans that evolve continuously. Ted introduces the concept of the "analytical line" for ongoing assessment and alignment, stressing that true growth stems from teamwork, execution, and aligning with the customer's goals. This episode is a must-listen for account teams looking to modernize their strategies and unlock expansive growth opportunities.

Guest:
Ted Corbeill, Director of Revenue Enablement

Key takeaways:
Account teams should shift from internally-focused, static plans to dynamic, customer-centric strategies that leverage real-time data, align with customer growth goals, and emphasize teamwork and execution for unlocking expansive growth opportunities in 2025.