If your Sales Manager asks you to create a Closing Plan, you're using James Muir methodology (even if you're not aware of this).

James is the author of 'The Perfect Close' and the recent published 'Unsticking Deals - Why deals stall, how to unstick them and how to prevent them from sticking in the first place', one of the most compelling sales books ever written.

What makes James different (other than his achievement as an author, his books are always best-sellers) is that he works as a Senior Vice President of Sales for UnisLinks, a Revenue Cycle Management company helping ambulatory improve financial performance, gain access to top-tier talent and lower total cost to collect.

In other words, James is a practioner - so he writes about what he practices every day on the field.

This practical attitude is what sets James and his last book apart, and he came back on the show to tell us something more about 'Unsticking Deals'.

If there's one name to be associated with Value Selling and Outcome-Centric Selling, that name is Bob Apollo.

After more than 25 years spent in the corporate world leading successful organizations, Bob founded Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners, a leading wordlwide B2B Sales Consultancy & Training firm and the home of Outcome-Centric Selling.

In our recent conversation, I asked Bob why Critical Thinking is so important in sales and why salespeople should master it.

The answers were straight to the point, and I'm sure they'll lead you to question the way you are working.

I recently had the chance to have a chat with Danilo Zatta about Pricing and TopLine Excellence and or conversation blew my mind.

We had the chance to deep dive into Pricing management, Pricing Strategies and Pricing Innovation - in all his answers Danilo was able to pricde suggestions and step-by-step advices for the companies who want to improve their Pricing Management practices.

Danilo is one of the world's leading management consultants and thought leaders in Pricing and TopLine Excellence.

The Financial Times called him 'one of the world's leading pricing minds' and he has also been recognized as one of the 'Top 5 Pricing Thought Leaders' on LinkedIn, that is, as one of the most engaging and impactful pricing thought leaders globally.

According to Sole 24 Ore 'Zatta is the most authoritative voice on pricing in Italy and one of the most recognized monetization authors in the world.'

Danilo has written more than 20 books, including 'The 10 Rules of Highly Effective Pricing (Wiley 2024)', the international best seller 'Pricing Revolution' (translated into more than 10 languages), 'At the Heart of Leadership' (translated into 3 languages) and 'The Basics of Pricing'.

I recently had the chance to talk with Andy Paul about his last book: "Sell Without Selling Out: A Guide to Success on Your Own Terms" and several other topics.
Our conversation was refreshing.

Andy Paul has been active in sales since his young age and nowadays he's one of the most relevant Sales Coach, Sales Trainer, Podcaster and Strategic Consultant out there.

He wrote more than one best-seller ("Zero-Time Selling" and "Amp-Up your Sales") but in his last book he took a different approach, focusing on the human being rather than the salesperson.

His words are clear: every salesperson should achieve success at her own terms and find her way.

GenAI is a mix between a technology and a buzzword: everyone talks about it, only a few know how to handle the conversation.

Among these group there's Usman Sheikh, CEO and Founder of xiQ, a Personality-Driven Sales & Marketing Acceleration Platform involved in GenAI since 2018.

I had the chance to discover Usman's work a year and half ago and we decided to have a conversation about how GenAI can change our job.

I asked him one simple question:

• How GenAI can help salespeople avoid fear-based sales tactics?

 This and other answers are all in today's podcast - enjoy.

Lots of sales methodologies are focused on the idea that salespeople could control the sales process throughout its lenght.

This idea clashes with the reality and human nature, and this is most evident in the moments of tension which arise as a result of this excessive control by the salespeople.

In these moments friction increases, prospects and customers want the control back and want to drive the conversation: any attempt to reverse this dynamic can backfire.

But how to get rid of this tension?
How do we avoid it develops?

I talked about this with Tom Stanfill, author of "unReceptive: A Better Way to Sell, Lead, and Influence" and founder of "ASLAN Training & Development."

A few months ago I had the chance to meet and interview Patrick Tinney, trainer, coach, consultant and author of several sales books.

At that time we talked about 'Unlocking Yes,' a book that Patrick published in 2015 (first edition) which is still one of the few books ever written on sales negotiation.

Patrick has recently published 'Nothing Stops Me,' an extraordinarily intimate book on sales: unlike previous writings that focused on a specific topic, 'Nothing Stops Me' has a totally different structure.

In the book Patrick opens himself to the reader talking about his life, the challenges he faced and the ups and downs of the profession by giving extremely practical advices.

Because of that, 'Nothing Stops Me' is one of the most 'intimate' sales books ever written and I wanted to have a chat with Patrick to understand what prompted him to write this book and how difficult it was to open up with readers.

One of the biggest problems that sales teams face is definitely the transition of one or more salespeople to the competition.

Very often what generates this transition is what we call the 'Belonging Problem': salespeople (both internal and external) don't feel part of the company they represent.

But what can sales managers do to reinforce this sense of belonging and prevent the best resources from moving to the competition?

I talked about this with Brad Deutser, President & CEO of Consulting Firm Deutser, the Clarity Institute and the Belonging Rules Institute and author of "Leading Clarity: The Breakthrough Strategy to Unleash People, Profit, and Performance" and "Belonging Rules: Five Crucial Actions That Build Unity and Foster Performance."

In 2021 Dave Kurlan (author of 'Baseline Selling' and founder and CEO of Objective Management Group and Kurlan & Associates) wrote an article that resonated within the sales world.

The title of the article is "Why I Believe We Should Blow up the Business Development Rep (BDR) Role in Sales" and is quite emblematic.

In the article Dave focused on why leaving pipeline generation to the BDRs/SDRs is a mistake and what alternative methods exist to generate new business opportunities.

I wanted to explore this topic with Dave, trying to get his view regarding this hot topic.

In the early 2000s a major revolution happened in sales: most companies switched from a full sales model led by the A.E. to a split model, in which more junior workers (SDR/BDR) were in charge of prospecting and the salesperson was in charge of closing the sale.

Although this model is considered scalable by most companies there are conflicting opinions about it, especially from the perspective of customer-centricity and profitability.

I had the opportunity to discuss this topic with Darius Lahoutifard, creator of the M.E.D.D.IC. methodology, Founder of the Meddic Academy and author of the book 'Always Be Qualifying: M.E.D.D.I.C.'.