Software Sales On Fire

Your VP wants to leapfrog your champion and go straight to the CFO — and you know it will backfire. Challenge the move respectfully: anchor to the shared goal, explain the buyer impact with evidence, and bring a...

Quota feels arbitrary until you run the math backward: your own conversion rates, your own average deal, your own sales cycle. Build the coverage plan from your numbers — not the three-pipeline rule of thumb — and know...

Most business reviews are usage reports nobody acts on. Structure yours around achieved outcomes, remaining gaps, and the customer's next priorities — and the review itself becomes the discovery meeting for your next...

Your best prospect is the company that already bought from you. Turn a successful deployment into relevant introductions and separate business cases across departments — without assuming what worked in one place...

An announcement is not an opening — it's a map. Turn earnings commentary, expansion news, acquisitions, and leadership priorities into a specific account-entry strategy: who feels the pressure, where your solution fits...

A bonus interview with sales engineering leader Dave Murphy: the preparation great reps do, how credibility is won and lost with a technical buyer, protecting the demo flow, and the SE superpower most teams underuse.

No budget is a diagnosis, not a verdict. Learn to tell genuinely unavailable funding apart from low priority, unclear ownership, and a business case that hasn't earned investment — because each one has a completely...

No compelling event, no close date worth believing. Reset your discovery around the four questions that reveal whether the buyer has a real reason to act: the current process, the consequences of staying with it, the...

The AI build question deserves a real answer, not a defensive one. Guide a balanced build-versus-buy discussion across delivery time, ownership, integration, maintenance, security, and ongoing costs — and help the buyer...

A badge scan is a contact record, not a conversation — and it converts at nearly zero. Set event goals around substantive conversations, real qualification, and confirmed next steps with a date, then run the follow-up...

An accepted connection request is permission to exist in someone's feed — not permission to sell. Build a deliberate progression from connection to conversation: the reason you connected, visible relevance, a question...

A business case that adds up on your slide can still be unfundable. Separate cash savings, capacity gains, risk estimates, and revenue assumptions — label what each one is, and get the owner inside the customer's...

A Saturday deal clinic: the committee loves your solution, but one person you may never have met can end the deal. Identify the real objection, the influence, and the personal and operational stakes — then build the...

A special bonus episode. Executive recruiter Rich Diekmann has spent 40 years placing enterprise software and SaaS salespeople. He explains what recruiters actually do, how your resume and LinkedIn profile are really...

An RFP you never helped write lands in your inbox. Before committing weeks of your team's time, assess fit, access, evaluation rules, incumbent advantage, and response cost — then decide between a full response, a...