219.2K
Downloads
557
Episodes
Business Insights & Strategies From Experts: Unveiling Simple Truths Behind Success.
I’m always grateful for Reviews and remember to Subscribe
Episodes
2 hours ago
2 hours ago
In this episode of The Inquisitor, host Marcus Cauchi sits down with Scott Aaron, co-founder of The Time to Grow, to explore the power of authenticity in marketing and sales. Scott helps coaches, consultants, and service professionals scale their businesses by prioritizing connection over competition, and this conversation is packed with actionable strategies for growing your presence on LinkedIn while staying human-first.
From leveraging AI ethically to optimizing your LinkedIn profile for inbound leads, this episode offers practical insights you can implement immediately.
Key Takeaways
1. AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement
-
AI is in its early stages and should be used as a tool to enhance, not replace, human work.
-
Scott and his team use personalized GPTs to help members craft high-engagement LinkedIn content.
-
Avoid “scaling idiocy at volume”: always use AI with a human-centric approach.
2. The Warm Touchpoint Messaging Strategy
-
Dedicate 20–30 minutes daily to active networking on LinkedIn.
-
Automation tools violate LinkedIn’s rules—all messages should be sent manually.
-
Use the Warm Touchpoint Checklist to identify opportunities:
-
Accept connection requests
-
Engage with posts and content
-
Comment or vote in polls
-
Subscribe to newsletters
-
-
Craft your first message:
-
One warm, friendly paragraph
-
Include a relatable connection point
-
Use the word “support” to build rapport
-
Avoid pitching or hard-selling
-
-
Test your CTAs: Compare direct questions (e.g., “Do you have time for a Zoom this week?”) versus open-ended statements for one month to see what drives more booked calls.
3. High-Impact Content Strategy
-
LinkedIn content increasingly acts as a lead generator.
-
Combine Thought Leadership (expert positioning) with Storytelling (relatability).
-
Keep content simple and digestible, avoiding technical overload.
-
Prioritize practice over perfection and give tangible tips for free to build trust and credibility.
4. Content Types & Scheduling
| Content Type | Frequency | Key Tips |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Newsletter | Weekly (Fridays) | Best for building subscribers and external traffic. Requires 150+ connections. |
| LinkedIn Live (Video) | Twice a week (Mon & Thu, 10 a.m. ET) | Build trust over time. Include a CTA to convert viewers into subscribers. |
| Carousel Posts (PDF) | Every other week (Saturdays) | Use PDF format to allow scrolling. Share quick, actionable tips. |
| Articles | Only if under 150 connections | |
| Resharing | Occasionally | Always add your perspective to highlight expertise. |
5. Profile Optimization
About Section (Summary)
-
300–500 words, written in first person
-
Share your personal story, what you do, who you serve, and how you serve them
-
Include 15–20 skill keywords for SEO
-
End with a clear CTA
Experience Section
-
List at least three roles, with your most relevant first
-
Include short 2–4 sentence descriptions
-
Use title formatting with totem poles to highlight expertise
-
Example:
Co-founder of The Time to Grow | Marketing | Sales | Branding
-
Whether you’re looking to grow your LinkedIn presence, craft content that converts, or use AI ethically in your business, this episode gives you the tools to start today. Implement one tip, test it, and watch your connections, and your opportunities, grow.
Connect with Aaron on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottaaroncoach/
Join the Expert Content Society : https://www.thetimetogrow.com/expert-content-society
14 hours ago
14 hours ago
Most founders lie to themselves long before they ever pitch an investor. They convince themselves their story is clear, their deck is solid, and their passion will carry them through. The truth? Investors can smell self-deception a mile away.
In this episode of The Inquisitor Podcast, Marcus Cauchi sits down with Ben Wiener, venture capitalist, author of the novel Fever Pitch, and someone who knows what it’s like to fail spectacularly before finding the formula for investor resonance.
Ben’s first fund didn’t just flop, it crashed. He pitched over 27 investors, was rejected every single time, and even received a few profane ejections. But instead of walking away, he dissected every misstep and built a structural narrative that now underpins the most persuasive startup pitches.
Despite being fiction, Fever Pitch hit #1 in multiple non-fiction categories because it teaches a painful truth: most founders don’t lose funding because their idea is bad, but because they fail to tell their story truthfully, empathetically, and structurally.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
1. Storytelling Isn’t Manipulation. It’s Communication
Many founders, particularly those with technical or analytical backgrounds, resist storytelling. They see it as emotional fluff or manipulation. Ben argues the opposite: stories are how human brains process truth.
He explains how a well-structured narrative, rooted in the hero’s journey, helps investors understand what’s at stake, where the opportunity lies, and why this team is the one to back.
As Ben puts it, the goal isn’t to cram everything into your pitch. It’s to decide what not to say. Founders who “firehose” investors with data end up obscuring their brilliance. The art lies in compression: crushing a lump of charcoal into a diamond.
2. The H-E-A-R-T Framework: How to Win Investor Attention
Ben developed the H-E-A-R-T framework to help founders design pitches that resonate instead of repel. Each letter corresponds to a psychological trigger that maps to how investors make decisions:
| Element | Focus | Founder Insight |
|---|---|---|
| H – Hypothesis | Start with why. | Throw down a belief statement that calls out something broken in your market. |
| E – Enormous Stakes | Make it matter. | If the problem isn’t big, neither is the opportunity. |
| A – Alternatives Are Grossly Inadequate | Build tension. | Show that the current state is “totally effed up” so your solution feels inevitable. |
| R – Radically Differentiated Solution | Deliver the hero. | Your idea must be a leap, not a tweak. Investors crave paradigm shifts, not feature lists. |
| T – Traits and Skills of the Team | Prove capability. | Investors don’t buy ideas—they buy the hacker, the hustler, and the hipster. Prove you’re all three or have them in your team. |
3. Empathy: The Secret Weapon in Pitching and Sales
The best founders sell like the best salespeople: they start where the buyer is, not where they wish they were.
Ben and Marcus explore why empathy isn’t softness, it’s strategic. When you meet the investor where they are mentally, you can anticipate objections before they surface, disable the “red neurons” of doubt, and guide them toward clarity instead of confusion.
And remember: being invited to pitch doesn’t mean you’re trusted. You still need to prove your credibility through behaviour, not biography.
4. Balancing Ambition and Reality
Entrepreneurship is lonely, and founders must live between two worlds: belief and reality. You need enough delusion to keep pushing against the odds, but enough realism to recognise when something’s broken.
Ben and Marcus talk about how to use rejection as a diagnostic tool, not an emotional wound. Sometimes, the strongest negative reactions mean you’re onto something non-consensus but right. The trick is to refine your structure, not abandon your conviction.
As Marcus says, “Run to the sound of gunfire. Find people who’ll prove you wrong, that’s where the gold is.”
For Female Founders
Ben’s framework levels the playing field by focusing on traits and roles rather than pedigrees and logos. It values demonstrable ability over image.
The episode also redefines selling and leadership as acts of service: helping others make the best decision for themselves. For founders juggling ambition, life, and sanity, this conversation offers a grounded, practical guide to staying both bold and real.
Resources and Next Steps
-
Get the Framework: feverpitchbook.com
-
Free Tools: Access the interactive playbook and the H-E-A-R-T pitch generator.
-
Learn More About Ben’s Work: Visit jumpspeed.com, his venture fund investing exclusively in one geographic area.
-
Support a Good Cause: All proceeds from Fever Pitch go to charity.
- Buy the book: https://amzn.to/4nxFEMv
Why Listen
This episode will sting, in a good way. It’s not about investor psychology, pitch decks, or persuasion tricks. It’s about truth, empathy, and building the credibility to lead others.
If you’ve ever wondered why your story doesn’t land, or if you’ve secretly feared you’re the one holding your business back, this conversation will hold up the mirror and show you why.
Listen now. Face the ugly mirror. And learn to sell your truth.
Thursday Oct 23, 2025
Thursday Oct 23, 2025
If you think your growth problem is about tactics, targets, or team structure, this episode might sting, in the best way.
I’m joined by Emma Thompson, The Sales Therapist, who helps founders, leaders, and sales teams uncover the real issue: the story they’re telling themselves. She helps people face the thought behind their behaviour, not just the behaviour itself.
If your go-to-market team feels stuck, scared, or sabotaging progress, this one’s for you. Expect a few uncomfortable moments, the kind that lead to growth.
You Can’t Out-Strategise Your Nervous System
Emma doesn’t fix symptoms, she finds causes.
Procrastination, burnout, and perfectionism aren’t strategy problems, they’re protection mechanisms. Until you find the thought behind your behaviour, you’ll keep reacting and calling it leadership.
You’re not short on tactics. You’re short on insight.
Meet The Sales Therapist
Emma became a hypnotherapist and coach after confronting her own childhood conditioning. Her work helps clients separate who they were taught to be from who they choose to be.
Her process is built on one structure:
Thought → Feeling → Behaviour → Identity
Working backwards:
-
Identify the behaviour causing friction.
-
Find the feeling underneath it.
-
Trace it to the root thought or story you’re still running.
-
Question that story, mark it in red, and rewrite it.
Why “Not Enough” Runs the Show
Every human Emma works with carries some form of “I’m not enough.” Those stories form early, between ages 0 and 7, and quietly dictate your adult life until you rewrite them.
Perfectionism? A response to shame.
Control? A response to fear.
People-pleasing? A response to rejection.
Even a stable, loving childhood can script unrealistic expectations for how life and leadership “should” look.
Three Blind Spots: Money, Conflict, Identity
Money: Childhood exposure to financial stress or “be humble” messaging leads to founders who fear being “too much.” They either hoard or overspend, both are control responses.
Conflict: We’re wired to see discomfort as danger. In business, it’s a growth signal. The more you face discomfort, the stronger your neural pathways for courage become.
Identity: Marcus and Emma explore five traps:
-
Confusing your role with your identity.
-
Performing self-awareness while staying defensive.
-
Worshipping willpower instead of rewiring the subconscious.
-
Waiting for perfection before acting.
-
Using trauma as fuel until it burns you.
Response Over Reaction
A feeling lasts about 90 seconds. The thought beneath it keeps it alive.
When the wave hits, stop, breathe, and scan your body. Let the feeling fade before you think. Then ask: what thought started that?
You’ll notice logic always arrives second.
Rebuilding Internal Validation
External praise bounces off if your internal narrative rejects it. Emma teaches clients to build an Evidence Shelf:
-
External evidence: moments of positive feedback.
-
Internal validation: self-statements in your own language (“I handled that well,” “I’m capable”).
Journaling reinforces these new beliefs. Handwriting engages more of the brain. Emma’s “I Am” prompts and Marcus’s favourite ABCDE model (by Dr. Albert Ellis) help rewrite the script:
-
A: Activating event
-
B: Belief
-
C: Consequence
-
D: Dispute
-
E: Effect
From Protection to Purpose
The voice that says “this is woo-woo” is the voice keeping you small.
Improve by 0.1% a day and you’ll be 43% better in a year. That’s the compound effect of facing what’s uncomfortable.
Ask yourself:
-
What belief am I defending that no longer serves me?
-
Am I living by choice or conditioning?
-
What’s the emotional cost of staying the same?
-
Am I leading or just reacting with authority?
-
What part of me needs to heal so I can lead cleanly?
Recommended Resources
From Emma:
-
Tell Yourself a Better Lie by Marisa Peer
-
Podcast: The Six Minute Mind with Emma Thompson
-
Guest: Dr. Tara Swart, neuroscientist
From Marcus:
-
How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything, Yes Anything – Albert Ellis
-
How to Keep People from Pushing Your Buttons – Albert Ellis
Join the Event: Founder Dependency Unlocked
Emma and I will be running Founder Dependency Unlocked on 31st October 2025 (Halloween, 10 a.m. GMT).
The mindset that got you through startup survival won’t scale your company. Time to upgrade your emotional operating system, starting with the story you tell yourself.
Connect with Emma on LinkedIn or at www.emmathompsontherapy.com.
If this episode hit home, share it with someone who needs to hear it.
Stay safe, and happy selling.
Tuesday Sep 23, 2025
Tuesday Sep 23, 2025
In today’s fast-moving VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) businesses can no longer afford to confuse motion with progress. In this high-impact episode, we sit down with Ron Brumbarger, American entrepreneur and founder of Struinova, an “innovation-as-a-service” firm helping organisations unlock new products, services, and processes that genuinely delight customers.
Ron delivers a candid exploration of why companies stall, the dangers of systemic blind spots, and what it really takes to build a sustainable culture of innovation. With decades of experience and sharp, real-world insights, he challenges leaders to confront the uncomfortable truths holding them back, and offers tools to navigate the complexity with clarity, confidence, and creativity.
Whether you're a founder, executive, or innovator inside a large organisation, this conversation is your blueprint for staying relevant in an increasingly unforgiving market.
What You’ll Learn:
Confronting Organisational Blind Spots
-
Why waiting for permission kills innovation, and how to lead with urgency of agency
-
How inattentional blindness sabotages even high-performing teams
-
Where middle-management friction stalls progress, and how to refocus on issues, not egos
-
The myth of "guaranteed revenue" and why G-A-R-R is a dangerous illusion
Building a Strategic Innovation Portfolio
-
A practical definition of innovation: net new or enhanced value that delights customers
-
How to assess the real value of your innovation portfolio, and why most leaders don’t
-
TAM vs. SOM: Why chasing Total Addressable Market is a distraction
-
How to create your own "Purple Cow" in a Blue Ocean" and avoid the commodity trap
-
Why innovation lives in the estuary between your team and your customers
Leading Change with Core Disciplines
-
Why humility is a superpower in the innovation game
-
The role of trust, not just with clients, but within your team
-
Practicing empathetic curiosity to unlock customer insights
-
Plus: Marcus Cauchi’s powerful insight “Think as your customer, not about them.”
🗣️ Notable Quotes:
"There’s no such thing as a guaranteed run rate, especially if your top customer walks away." – Ron Brumbarger
"The closer you live to your customer’s reality, the more innovation you’ll find."
"Middle management is often where innovation goes to die, because risk is seen as a threat, not a tool."
🎯 Ideal For:
-
Business leaders navigating change
-
Innovation teams & product strategists
-
Founders scaling new ventures
-
Anyone seeking practical tools to drive real organizational transformation
🔗 Resources & Links:
-
Stranova – Visit Website
-
Connect with Ron Brumbarger https://www.linkedin.com/in/brumbarger
-
Book: Purple Cow by Seth Godin https://amzn.to/3Kg5tCM
-
Learn more about VUCA Leadership Models https://hbr.org/2014/01/what-vuca-really-means-for-you
- Mattress Interview: https://jobstobedone.org/radio/the-mattress-interview-part-one/
📩 Subscribe & Share:
If this episode resonated with you, don’t forget to subscribe, share with your team, and leave a thumbs up to help more leaders build the courage to innovate.
Sunday Sep 07, 2025
Sunday Sep 07, 2025
Marcus welcomes Rob Israch, President of Tipalti – a late-stage, fast-growth SaaS company in the finance sector. Rob shares his extensive experience from NetSuite, Intuit, and GE, detailing his unique journey from marketing to president, and the "fun ups and downs and pitfalls" of scaling a global business. The discussion delves into the critical aspects of building and leading a company through various growth phases, adapting to market changes, fostering effective communication, and understanding what truly drives sustainable success in a rapidly evolving economic landscape.
Key Discussion Points:
- From Marketer to President
- Rob’s background as a marketer and his career trajectory from CMO to President at Tipalti.
- The importance of embracing "grey space" – taking on challenges beyond one's immediate job scope and being willing to learn.
- Why getting results, being humble, and executing, even on "unsexy things," are crucial for career advancement.
- Advice for CMOs Aspiring to Leadership
- The necessity for marketers to be analytical, capable of marrying creativity with metrics, and speaking the language of finance and the board.
- Avoiding sounding "too much like a marketer" by focusing on truth-finding and problem-solving with numbers, rather than just storytelling.
- The Evolution of a Scaled Business: Tipalti's Journey
- Insights into Tipalti's growth from 25 employees to over 1,000 in 11 years.
- Changes in hiring, talent acquisition, and leadership skills needed at different stages of growth.
- The increasing importance of communication and alignment as a company scales.
- The Critical Role of Middle Management
- The immense impact of a strong middle management layer on a successful operation.
- The challenge of selecting the right leaders, maintaining a high bar, and knowing when to promote from within versus bringing in outside talent.
- Detecting leaders who "talk a good game but can't actually get results".
- Operating Rhythms and Communication at Scale
- The necessity of formalising company values and mission as a business grows, moving past initial cynicism.
- Examples of operating rhythms, including quarterly leadership offsites, cross-functional business leader meetings, and CEO roundtables.
- The importance of one-to-one conversations and cross-functional SWAT teams to break down silos in larger organisations.
- Detecting Hidden Issues (Rot Under the Floorboards)
- Using a balanced scorecard as a metric system to avoid people gaming a single goal and to gain comprehensive insights.
- The value of early indicators and actively listening to employees and customers to uncover problems not captured by metrics.
- What Investors Should Ask (But Rarely Do)
- The need for investors to dig deeper into a company's identity, target market segments, and differentiators to understand the "why" behind the metrics.
- Dangers of Misguided Scaling Assumptions
- The common mistake of assuming that simply hiring "top talent" from prestigious backgrounds will solve all issues, without considering their fit and ability to adapt and execute at all levels.
- The continuous need for leaders to adapt and evolve every six months as the business changes.
- Holistic Business Growth vs. Deal Momentum Theatre
- Protecting against "deal momentum theatre" where new wins are celebrated, but cash flow, retention, and loyalty lag.
- The shift towards a healthy, holistic approach with happy, advocating customers as the most profitable way to grow, even if it feels uncomfortable.
- How Tipalti re-emphasised customer centricity through values, committees, and new metrics when growth challenged earlier informal approaches.
- Regrets in Institutionalising Processes
- Regretting a period of too much focus on new business conversion at the expense of the entire customer lifecycle.
- The tricky balance between investing in product vision and addressing immediate customer needs.
- Balancing Investor Pressure with SaaS Reinvestment
- The importance of a smart LTV to CAC model to balance short-term gains with long-term sustainability and profitability.
- LTV to CAC as a filter that guides investment decisions and helps communicate strategy to investors.
- Rethinking Customer Health: NPS vs. Net Value Score
- Rob's advocacy for NPS as a humbling and valuable metric for customer-centric culture, though acknowledging its limitations in directly linking to business results and long-term value.
- Marcus introduces his concept of a Net Value Score which ties customer outcomes directly to revenue retention and margin for a more honest and predictable measure of future relationship value.
- Loyalty as the North Star
- The distinction between renewal, repeat purchases, and customer loyalty.
- Loyalty as the ultimate aspiration for a business, which naturally drives the other two, and serves as a vital "North Star" for employee motivation.
- Systematising Referrals and Customer Expansion (GoToBase)
- Using data science and data mining to correlate customer behaviors with LTV to CAC, expansion rates, and product usage.
- The observation that customer expansion and "GoToBase" motions are often immature in many organisations, with a heavy focus on new logos.
- The argument that referrals should be a systematised engine, not an accident, and that happy customers are the foundation.
- Adapting to the New Economic Reality and the Power of Trust
- The shift from an environment of cheap money and growth at all costs to one demanding profitability and sustainable metrics.
- The need for go-to-market leadership to adapt or be replaced, with increased importance of customer success, account management, and marketing/channel functions.
- In an age of decreasing trust due to AI and media, companies that build around trust within their customer and partner base will thrive, making trust a powerful, measurable "operating system" and "North Star".
- Rob's Best Mistake:
- Being naive and taking chances in "grey spaces," which doesn't always work out but consistently leads to valuable learning and experience.
Connect : You can find Rob Israch on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/robisrach/
Don't forget to like, comment, and share this episode! If you're a leader navigating rapid growth, this conversation is for you.
Stay safe and happy selling!
Friday Aug 15, 2025
Friday Aug 15, 2025
Wednesday Jul 23, 2025
Wednesday Jul 23, 2025
Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness - Selling with Relevance, Integrity, and AI
Key Themes and Takeaways
🔹 Use AI to elevate, not replace, your thinking
Ryan explains how he uses tools like Claude to extract specific language from a prospect’s online footprint. LinkedIn posts, articles, podcasts and craft bespoke messaging. It’s not about pumping out generic templates. It’s about using AI as a research and ideation partner to move faster and personalise better.
🔹 Ditch mass outreach. Embrace hyper-personalisation.
Spraying generic messages doesn’t build trust. Ryan shares how a handful of well-crafted, highly relevant outreaches can beat a thousand emails. Loom videos, thoughtful angles, and sharp research help him connect with hard-to-reach buyers.
🔹 Sell to the solution-aware
Why waste time with prospects who don’t even know they have a problem? Ryan suggests targeting those already looking the ones who’ve tried other solutions, failed, and are ready to buy something better. Focus on intent, not just interest.
🔹 Stop bulking up your pipeline to look busy
A bloated pipeline might make dashboards look good, but it hides weak deals and wasted effort. Ryan advocates for qualifying with integrity walking away early from bad-fit opportunities rather than clinging on and discounting to win.
🔹 Be customer-centric, not submissive
Being buyer-first doesn’t mean saying yes to everything. Ryan holds his line on pricing by anchoring the conversation in unique value and clear outcomes. He explains how long-term thinking and strong qualification eliminate the need for last-minute discounting.
What’s Broken in Modern Sales (and How to Fix It)
Ryan and Marcus also dig into the systemic issues plaguing sales and marketing:
-
Me-too messaging: Large Language Models regurgitate what’s already out there, so unless you feed it something original, you’ll end up sounding like everyone else.
-
Misused metrics: Activity-based KPIs (dials, emails, sequences) drive volume, not outcomes. Ryan calls this “ludicrous maths” too many inputs, not enough impact.
-
Marketing irrelevance: Most messaging lacks relevance, timeliness, or personal value which is why it gets ignored.
Strategies That Actually Work
-
Speak directly to your buyer’s real-world problems — avoid “expert language”
-
Define your ICPs very specifically (e.g. startup CEO vs enterprise CTO)
-
Use storytelling, curiosity hooks, and polarising opinions to stand out
-
Create marketing that guides the buyer through their journey: from problem-aware to root-cause aware to solution-aware
-
Build a unique methodology that makes you a "category of one"
What Drives Ryan - Beyond Sales
-
Take faster, imperfect action
-
Stop overthinking pitches and outcomes
-
Ask for help, personal and professional
This episode is ideal for sellers, marketers, and founders who want to:
-
Cut through digital noise
-
Sell without chasing
-
Use AI responsibly
-
Build long-term buyer trust
Contact:
Tuesday May 27, 2025
Tuesday May 27, 2025
In this episode of The Inquisitor Podcast, host Marcus Cauchi speaks with Michael Davis-Marks, a veteran of the Royal Navy who commanded a nuclear-powered submarine and now focuses on leadership development and advocating for the veteran community. They discuss decision-making under pressure, the unique transferable skills veterans bring to civilian life, and the critical differences between traditional and effective leadership models like servant leadership. The conversation highlights the importance of training, teamwork, delegation, building trust, and fostering a culture where people feel valued and empowered to do their best work.
- Michael Davis-Marks: Spent 36 years in the Royal Navy, primarily as a submariner, including commanding a nuclear-powered submarine. Served in the British Embassy during 9-11. Since leaving the Navy 13 years ago, he has focused on leadership development and culture. He is also the managing editor of TheVeteran.uk, a publication that gives voice to the veteran community. His mission is to amplify the lived experience of veterans, challenge outdated stereotypes, and advocate for what armed forces veterans can offer to organisations, employers, and society.
Key Discussion Points:
- Veterans as a Valuable Asset: Veterans possess extraordinary transferable skills such as leadership, teamwork, discipline, and commitment, which can be enormously helpful to organisations and society as a whole. There are approximately 2.2 million veterans in the UK, about a million of whom are of working age, representing a significant pool of talent.
- Challenging Stereotypes: The common stereotype of military people as "Colonel Blimp" or a "shouty sergeant" is inaccurate for the vast majority of veterans.
- Veteran Mindset: Many veterans, including Michael, don't initially realise how much they have to offer civilian life due to a self-effacing mindset developed through military training that prioritises the team over the individual.
- Decision Making Under Stress: The military trains individuals to remain calm and think clearly in high-pressure situations. The ability to make good decisions under stress is crucial and can be developed through training and building resilience.
- Leadership Defined: Leadership is not about telling people what to do. It's about motivating and inspiring people, helping them become better versions of themselves.
- Servant Leadership: This model posits that the leader is there to serve the people subordinate to them, helping them realise their full potential. It's about looking after the people in your charge, not just being in charge.
- Delegation vs. Abdication: Leaders who spend their time "doing" are stealing learning opportunities and growth from their people. Empowering people to work things out for themselves, rather than always providing the answer, is crucial for development. Michael's rule was "don't bring me problems, bring me solutions". Allowing people to "have a go," even if they make mistakes in a safe environment, fosters learning.
- Creating Conditions for Trust: Trust begins with the leader's self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and empathy. It is developed by assigning low-risk tasks initially, being a mentor and coach, gently nudging rather than directing, and providing encouragement and positive feedback.
- Leadership is Trainable: While some may be "born leaders," leadership skills can be taught and developed through training and practical experience. Openness to feedback and the realisation that one is not perfect are key to improvement.
- The Staircase of Learning: This concept describes the progression from unconscious incompetence (not knowing what you don't know) through conscious incompetence and conscious competence to unconscious competence (second nature). Training and repetition are critical to moving through these stages and building resilience.
- Continuous Improvement: In the military, standard operating procedures were changed "all the time" because you can't stand still; "every day is a school day". Agility of thought is essential because plans often don't survive first contact.
- The Leader's Role: The leader's job is to create the conditions for their people to do their best work. Delegating tasks to competent people allows the leader to step back, maintain a strategic view, and avoid becoming a bottleneck or single point of failure.
- The Importance of People: People are the most important asset in any organisation, not just numbers on a spreadsheet. Treat them as people. A high staff retention rate is often a sign of a happy and well-led company. People frequently leave jobs because of their boss, particularly if the boss prevents them from doing their best work. Beating people does not improve morale.
- Advice for New Managers: "Get Off Your Arse" (GOYA) is crucial advice. New managers should spend their initial time listening, walking around, asking curious questions about what people do, what they like/dislike, and what can be improved. Taking notes shows you are listening and helps you remember. Getting out and talking to people makes them feel important and that they belong. This approach should be routine, not just for the first few days.
- Lesson for a Younger Self: Michael would tell his 23-year-old self that he knows much less than he thinks and is surrounded by people who can help. He would advise working on relationships with others to learn and grow together as a team, emphasising that people are the most important aspect in everything.
Recommended Resources:
- "Turn the Ship Around" by David Marquette (Discusses an "I intend to" model of leadership empowering the team).
- "Always Start With Why" by Simon Sinek.
- "Leaders Eat Last" by Simon Sinek (Highlights the principle of leaders serving those who rely on them).
- TheVeteran.uk: Publication giving voice to the veteran community.
- Connecting with Michael Davis-Marks on LinkedIn
Monday May 26, 2025
Monday May 26, 2025
In this episode of The Inquisitor podcast, host Marcus Cauchi interviews Edward Ingham about his journey from traditional, product-focused sales to a more customer-centric approach. The conversation delves into the real-life moments that shaped Edward's shift and the practical impact it has had on his career and well-being.
Guest: Edward Ingham, Senior Sales professional (biopharm-bd.com)
About Edward: Edward is a dual national British-Spanish salesperson based in Madrid, with 10 years of experience selling into enterprise pharma and startups. He has observed recurring sales themes across different company sizes and has learned significant lessons from his experiences.
Key Discussion Points:
- The Epiphany Moment: Edward realised the need for change about five years into his sales career. This shift occurred when he stopped focusing on the technical aspects of the product and the prospect's role (like CBO or CEO) and instead looked inward, considering how his own actions were affecting the other person, viewing them as human beings. He began to think about how he would feel if someone was doing what he was doing to them. The second part of this transition was spending time to truly understand the prospect's world, recognising that they don't make impulse purchases and need to "sell" internally within their own organisation to get things done.
- Breaking Point: The old way of selling became unbearable, particularly during lockdown, when facing constant rejection alone in an apartment led to self-doubt. This coincided with him starting to listen to The Inquisitor podcast, which offered a new perspective on questioning people to understand their situation. The sense of rejection was the most difficult part of the old approach.
- Understanding Buyer Behaviour: Marcus highlights that buyers don't reject the salesperson, proposition, or product itself, but rather the uncertainty and lack of safety associated with the decision. Buyers want to make the right decision effectively and know that a purchase will deliver the intended outcome. Creating false urgency creates distrust.
- Learning and Improvement: Edward learned from ghosting experiences that prospects are not necessarily "mugging you off," but often have internal issues or priorities that take precedence. The key is to probe and ask tough questions (nicely) to understand the prospect's reality and qualify or disqualify opportunities early. This prevents "bulking up" pipelines with uncertainty, which can negatively impact forecasting up to the board and investors.
- Becoming an Ally: The moment of realisation that his job was to be the customer's ally, not their accomplice or adversary, came from slowly implementing client-centric approaches and seeing immediate positive results. Switching the tone in emails or meetings led to responses from non-responders, positive reactions, and feeling appreciated in the room.
- The Power of Client-Centricity: Edward found that adopting a client-centric approach, treating prospects as human beings with emotions, helps overcome imposter syndrome, especially for those without a deep scientific background in technical industries like pharma. This approach serves as a unique differentiator against salespeople who product push. Clients appreciate honesty, like direct answers to questions such as "Who is better, you or your competitor?".
- Improved Results: A major difference seen is that very little unqualified opportunity enters the pipeline. By asking questions and understanding the client's position and internal readiness, opportunities are typically only added at a later stage (like "submit proposal"). This results in a very high close rate for opportunities that do enter the CRM. This certainty is valuable for communicating upwards within the company.
- Prospecting for Life: Shifting the mentality from transacting or booking meetings to prospecting for a customer for life changes the entire conversation tone. The focus is on genuinely understanding the other human being and their pressures.
- Client Reaction and Referrals: When this shift occurs, people actually want to spend time with you and become just as invested in the conversation. The feeling of needing to chase disappears. Edward receives messages directly from prospects on their personal phones. He finds he needs to do less work on accounts because internal people know he isn't difficult to work with and will help them internally. People who were historically bombarded may reach out, demonstrating that less work structured differently leads to inbound interest.
- Activities Eliminated: Edward no longer wastes hours with "tire kickers" or spends time on "just checking in" follow-up emails. This time is reinvested in self-improvement or sales enablement. The customer-centric approach reduces waffle and uncertainty in pipeline discussions.
- Doing the Right Thing: A principled approach includes the absolute minimum gesture of honesty, such as advising a prospect that a competitor might offer a better, cheaper, or quicker solution if their request is out of scope. This is uncommon but helps differentiate a salesperson and build long-term memory with the prospect.
- Impact on Self: Being human-centric makes you a lot happier. You go home feeling like you've helped someone, which is often the antithesis of traditional sales. Done well, sales is about facilitating good decisions and empowering people.
- Engaging Broadly: Edward aims to engage with around 12 or more people within an account over the medium term, having interactions not solely focused on the sales process. It's important to get in touch with key people (like procurement or legal) before you need something from them.
- Working with Procurement: Edward learned that engaging with procurement with purely their interests at heart is pivotal. They are trying to save the company money and have specific KPIs; understanding these can help make their life easier and create internal advocates.
- The Power of Mentorship: A critical move was seeking mentorship from people he had previously interacted with, particularly those he might have "pissed off" as a salesperson, or people in roles like procurement. He crafted concise LinkedIn messages asking for 15 minutes a month of mentorship with "no strings attached" and a promise not to abuse the goodwill. The response rate has been incredibly high (above 90%). This provides invaluable insight into the customer's world, their internal pressures, and the emotional factors influencing decisions.
- No Need to Discount: Edward learned that discounting feels insincere and is effectively "lying to people". It should be avoided at all costs unless value has been clearly delivered and the prospect understands they need the product. Discounting hurts cash flow, forces more prospecting, and procurement remembers suppliers who are quick to discount.
- Owning Your Development: Edward advises people who are waiting for company training to stop pointing the finger. It is the individual salesperson's responsibility to train themselves. Finding role models (through podcasts, content, reaching out) and making yourself vulnerable by seeking feedback are key.
- How You Sell Matters More: Both Edward and Marcus agree that how you show up and how you sell matters more than what you sell. The intent behind the interaction will be remembered, not the technical details of the product.
- The Real Issue: The fundamental issue in sales is often time and relevance for the prospect at a given point in time, not the product itself.
- Becoming a Board Director: Edward's recent transition to a board director highlights the value of having frontline sales perspectives on boards, providing insights into market dynamics and customer reactions that senior execs might not have due to being removed from daily sales interactions.
- Final Challenge: Stop product pitching and focus on the prospect's world, their agendas, and their life. Treat them as human beings, understanding their needs and priorities, not just focusing on your own targets.
Recommendations for Further Learning:
- Books: Demand Side Sales by Bob Moesta, Trust-Based Selling by Charlie Green, The Other Side of Sales by Mark Schenkeus, How to Make Friends and Influence People.
- Podcasts/Content: We Have a Meeting (WAM guys), Benjamin Dennehy, Jerry Hill.
- Community: Veblen Community (Callum Lang).
- Networking: Seek mentors through respectful outreach. Consider Sellers Anonymous.
How to Connect:
- Edward Ingham: edward.ingham@biopharm-bd.com or reach out on LinkedIn.
- Marcus Cauchi: Get in touch regarding Sellers Anonymous or the Career Pathfinder.
The conversation highlights the transformative power of shifting to a truly human-centric and principled approach in sales, leading to increased effectiveness, personal fulfillment, and stronger customer relationships.
Saturday May 24, 2025
Saturday May 24, 2025
In this episode, Marcus speaks with Avner Baruch about the invisible costs of misalignment in go-to-market functions and why focusing on traditional sales metrics like ARR and conversion rates often misses the point.
Avner shares his journey into sales enablement and how it led him to develop a methodology called Project Moneyball, which digs beneath surface metrics to uncover the real issues. By factoring in soft skills, time management, and process adoption, this approach helps teams identify problems much earlier, often during onboarding, rather than waiting months for reports to catch up.
Key Themes Explored:
🔸 The Real Cost of Misalignment
Misalignment across sales, marketing, and customer success leads to noisy pipelines, stalled deals, wasted effort, and poor customer experiences. Avner explains how one company saved over $1 million a year by fixing inefficiencies at the top of the funnel. Marcus adds that leaving customer success out of the GTM strategy is a massive oversight that leads to direct and indirect waste.
🔸 Outdated Metrics and Misplaced Incentives
They challenge the use of legacy metrics like booked meetings and conversion rates for SDRs, which often encourage the wrong behaviours. Instead, the focus should be on quality meetings with Ideal Customer Profiles who are a genuine long-term fit.
🔸 Smarter ICP Design
Avner recommends using customer success data to define what a great customer actually looks like, then feeding that back to marketing. This creates a more focused ICP, a cleaner pipeline, and a more effective use of resources.
🔸 Leadership in Uncertain Times
When things get tough, leaders often make panic moves like reshuffling teams or jumping on automation tools without fixing broken processes. They also tend to reuse job descriptions from failed roles, which sets up new hires to fail. Avner argues for proper job design based on desired outcomes, with hiring managers involved from the start.
🔸 Managers as Multipliers
Managers should be hiring well, removing friction, building systems that work, and actively coaching. Enablement is not just a department, it’s a mindset. Research shows that operational coaching by frontline managers delivers strong ROI and better outcomes.
🔸 Cultural and Structural Blind Spots
They dig into leadership behaviours that hold teams back, including ego, resistance to feedback, fear of hiring strong people, and a desire to avoid conflict. These behaviours lead to bloated pipelines, poor handovers, low trust, and declining performance.
🔸 Spotting and Fixing the Gaps
Leaders need to put a number on the cost of the current way of working. That includes symptoms like pipeline bloat, poor onboarding, high churn, CS teams carrying too much weight, and inconsistent sales performance. Avner and Marcus outline practical steps like watching early-stage calls, examining handoffs, and separating SDR and BDR roles to allow for real skill development.
🔸 CRM and Forecasting
They question the value of traditional weekly forecasting meetings, which often provide little insight and lots of theatre. Tech should be used to provide real-time, actionable data, not just serve management dashboards. CRMs should make selling easier, not add friction.
🔸 The Human-Centric Leadership Advantage
The conversation ends with advice to listen, seek feedback, hire well, and drop the armour. Vulnerability and trust are not weaknesses. They’re essential for building teams that are resilient, motivated, and capable of delivering sustainable growth.
📚 Avner’s books The Top Sales Enablement Challenges and The Multiplier explore these topics in more detail. He and Marcus also talk about a potential collaboration to help private equity firms measure "alpha drift" caused by inefficiencies in go-to-market execution.
If you’re a sales or revenue leader tired of vanity metrics and poor alignment, this episode gives you clear, practical ideas on how to fix what’s broken and build a go-to-market function that actually works.
Contact
Avner
https://www.linkedin.com/in/avner-baruch/
Marcus
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcuscauchi/
or
Email team@laughs-last.com
if you'd like to know more about pipleline triage