TheInquisitor Podcast with Marcus Cauchi

How Are You Exploiting Adaptation And Innovation To Solve Your Toughest Problems?

Curt Friedel is the Director, at the Center for Cooperative Problem Solving at Virginia Tech. We discuss adaptation and innovation in people, in business and in teams. We explore the implications of people who operate at each end of the spectrum, and the power of having a team who can offer both qualities.

We use my profile as a baseline to explain the implications of being a strong innovator (139/160!!) and why I got into so much trouble throughout my career.

Curt can be contacted via linkedin.com/in/curtfriedel

Websites

• alce.vt.edu/people/faculty-staff/friedel/friedel-bio.html  (Personal Website)
• alce.vt.edu/signature-programs/problem-solving/problem-solving.html  (Company Website)
• aggregate.info  (RSS Feed)

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If you found this helpful then please think of at least one person who would benefit from listening and share it with them directly

 

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To contact me email marcus@laughs-last.com and if you know someone, perhaps you, who would make an interesting guest for #TheInquisitorPodcast, please connect us via LinkedIn or over email

Why Understanding Risk Helps You Sell More, More Often

Bradley Paster helps his clients understand and mitigate risk throughout your entire supply chain. He makes the important distinction between suppliers and vendors. We dig into the levels of exposure even marquee organisations like Apple face because their sub-tier supply chain is vast and opaque.

Problems with a tiny specialist supplier of a commodity that is vital to enable you to ship your product. Loss of such a supplier can prevent you going to market. or bring our economy to a grinding halt. Careless, broad sweep cuts by finance may put your business at risk.

Bradley and I explore the crucial importance to understanding and managing risk. As sellers, understanding your prospects' risk, arms you with powerful leverage and the raw material to develop pain by numbers which can be personalised for the person you are selling to today. We uncover why the levels of complexity in the supply chain require technology to understand it because you cannot hire enough qualified people to do the job.

Contact Bradley via LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/bradleypaster

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Please share this episode with someone who really needs to understand the risks of their prospects where supply chain risk and understanding is key to solving their customers' problems and deliver heroic outcomes

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Contact me via marcus@laughs-last.com

 

Panel Discussion: Why Sales Training Doesn't Work & How To Fix It

A very experienced panel of trainers, sales leaders and consultants made up of Bob Moesta, Ian Moyse, Tom Williams, Fred Copestake, Zach Selch, Ken Pearson, David Masover, Ian Hillyard, Simon Bowen and Marcus Cauchi.

We explored:

1. When sales training works ...

2. Factors that contribute to successful engagement and implementation

3. Common mistakes when commissioning training

4. Common mistakes when delivering training

5. Common mistake when evaluating training

6. Common mistakes post-training

7. Current trends for assessment for learning in the lesson

8. How to fix these mistakes?

9. Who needs to be on side for training to succeed?

The conclusions around commissioning and planning mistakes were very telling, as were the observations about management, coaching, measurement, reinforcement. This is the first of several panels Sales: A Force For Good #SAFFG will be hosting to tackle the endemic problems that exist in sales, sales management & leadership, sales recruitment, sales compensation, sales culture.

Your input, suggestions, criticism and feedback are very welcome. We are committed to making sales the noble profession it should be, and your views are valued even if we don't agree with them. We get better not by listening to ourselves but by inviting a range of opinions and experience.

If you want to get in touch with me marcus@laughs-last.com

Please share this episode with your sales leadership, L&D, HR, your trainers and your coaches. We'd love to hear from them

What Lessons From The Emergency Room Apply In Sales?

You can learn a lot from working on a trauma unit in a hospital.  A thriving sales operation requires many of the same skills. Identifying the real problem quickly, prioritising and triaging where attention is required and administering treatment where and when it is needed most. All whilst remaining calm and overriding the temptation to focus on who is shouting the loudest, and all with limited resources.

Sarah Downs, former trauma nurse, has transitioned from A&E to sales leadership. She shares her insights on sales, and the parallels between the sales environment and the transferable skills she picked dealing with emergencies and traumas.

A refreshingly fresh perspective offering some valuable insights sales leaders and salespeople can implement quickly and simply.

Contact Sarah via linkedin.com/in/sarahdowns-doqaru

Websites

• doqaru.com  (Company Website)
• linktr.ee/SarahDowns  (Portfolio)

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If you know someone who'd benefit from listening to this episode please share it with them or tag then on LinkedIn

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Contact me via marcus@laughs-last.com or via DM on LinkedIn. WOuld you be an interesting guest? Do know someone else who would? Is there an author or revenue leader you'd like me to interview?

The Art, Science And Psychology of Negotiation

Graham Botwright is CEO of The Gap Partnership. He specialises in the commercial psychology of #negotiation.

We start by exploring the importance of internal alignment when #negotiating. Winging it is lethal. We dig into what makes for good negotiation, why price is almost never the real issue, what drives good deals, builds long term strategic relationships and value.

Graham explains the power of intangible value. We delve into the importance of understanding the implications and moving parts behind the decision. Buyers RENT outcomes, they NEVER buy products or services. 

We point the spotlight at what buyers actually care about and what drives buyer's drivers.How do you get inside their heads?

Contact Graham via linkedin.com/in/graham-botwright-0374561

Website: thegappartnership.com  (Company Website)Email: graham.botwright@thegappartnership.comTwitter: g_botwright

 

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Please share this with someone you know who needs help with their negotiations or needs to improve their discovery and qualification

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If you want to get in touch with me marcus@laughs-last.com. Perhaps you'd be an interesting guest or can recommend someone who would be

Why Your Customer Journey Is Vital To Define A Great Strategy?

"Strategy should be simple", says Gary Mitchell. He has never had a transformation programme fail to meet its desired goals in 35 years. Gary explains why starting with your customer journey is the foundation of great, #executablestrategy. He explains why failing to start with your customer sends you off target from the start.

We break this down in a blow by blow approach to developing customer insights, mapping the customer journey, extracting the knowhow and real world experience from your people to define the 3-8 bets you are going to make that will get you 80% of your intended end point.

We discuss who should be involved? When? Their roles? What will cause this process to fail? The role of leadership? And the importance of hitting the 6 month milestones to cement the credibility of your strategy across your entire organisation.

Gary helps #PrivateEquity backed companies build strategies that deliver the growth and exit ambitions of their shareholders, their leaders and their employees by putting the customer at the heart of everything you do.

Contact Gary via linkedin.com/in/garymitchellgmc

Websites

• gary-mitchell.com/blog  (Blog)
• gary-mitchell.com  (Company Website)
• hqi-connect.com  (Company Website)

Email: gary@gary-mitchell.comTwitter: Gary_Mitch--Please share this episode with someone you know who is struggling with their strategy, of a contact in Private Equity who has investments that are underperforming--To contact me marcus@laughs-last.com or DM if you would like to be a guest, or you want to scale your technology business without losing control or giving away ownership to investors

Why Is Most Digital Marketing Total Horse Shit?

"Why Is Most Digital Marketing Total Horse Shit?" Marcus Hemsley is co-founder at The Fountain Partnership. Marcus and I met 14 years ago when I advised him to get some experience of life and business before becoming a coach. Thankfully he listened and spared the world another NLP coach and established a fantastic agency which to date is the only ever winner of Google’s Global Award for Growing Businesses Online.

Marcus and I discuss why so much money is squandered on bad digital marketing, and what causes businesses to keep throwing good money after bad. We explore why you need to think as your customer and put in the hard miles of research, planning, testing, speaking to and listening to customers to make your marketing timely, relevant and valuable enough to drive buyer desirable behaviour at each stage of the funnel.

We question why vanity metrics are prioritised over outcomes for clients, and discuss how Digital Marketing can work exceptionally well for some businesses when they go back to the first principles of business growth. We also explore the interplay between marketing and sales, leadership and management culture, the power of collaboration and the critical importance of building your business around your customer's success and delivering their outcomes.

Marcus is also a committed environmentalist and we discuss his initiative to encourage individuals and businesses to plant 1 million trees each. Having only launched in April they already have 23 million trees pledged with 2.5million already planted.

Contact Marcus via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcushemsley/ or marcus@fountainpartnership.co.uk Websites fountainpartnership.co.uk/ (Fountain Partnership ) milliontreepledge.org/ (Million Tree Pledge Site)

 

If you found this episode helpful then please think of one person who would also benefit from it and share it with them

 

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Contact me via DM or email marcus@laughs-last.com

Marketing, What Is Open Banking And Why Should You Care?

The big question is why should retail marketing professionals care about #OpenBanking? With the removal of 3rd party cookies, many brands and retailers are scrambling to find workarounds to replace them.

Andries Smit is CEO and co-founder of Upside. Upside provide consumers with instant #cashback paid straight into their savings account. Apart from the obvious benefits to consumers of not having to wait weeks or jump through hoops to get their cashback, consumers get to take advantage of highly targeted and personalised offers from brands and retailers.

Andries explains how open banking enables retailers to grow spend from existing customers, map exactly how much their customers are spending with competitors, and use those insights to target offers to grow #walletshare, attract competitors' customers and build brand loyalty. 

This represents the start of a renaissance in marketing and is possibly the biggest evolution in data driven marketing we've seen in our lifetime.

If you know a finance director or CFO in a brand or retailer, or brand or retail CMO, please make sure you share this episode with them.

 

I've seen the detailed insights Upside can offer them through open banking and they really do deliver #MarketingCertainty. This puts true precision into consumer marketing based on real world buying behaviour, not intent data which is unreliable in comparison.

 

Andries can be contacted via LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/andriessmit

Twitter: DriesSmit

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If you want to contact me, marcus@laughs-last.com 

Are You Making Every Sales Call A Teachable Moment?

Kevin Beales is CEO of Refract. Kevin has taken refract from start up to being acquired by Allego. Kevin eats his own dog food. He and all his team use their conversational AI to analyse every call, improving incrementally on a daily basis. Everyone one of their salespeople listens to at least one of their own calls every day so they can experience what is like to be a buyer buying from them.

Refract helps salespeople understand exactly how they're performing, and compare their performance on every call with millions of other calls. Ambitious, growth minded salespeople love this kind of technology. Closed minded and brittle salespeople complain its "Big Brother" gone mad. Great salespeople practice on purpose. The rest practice in front of the customer.

We discuss the power of incremental learning, self reflection and self assessment of performance. We explore the many challenges of building a fast growing technology business in a new category. We discuss the joys of dealing with staff, investors, being acquired. A frank, funny and honest conversation with a genuinely decent leader. Well worth a listen.

Contact Kevin linkedin.com/in/kevinbeales

Website: refract.ai  (Company Website)Email: kevin@refract.aiTwitter: kevinbealesKevin is always on the look out for top sales talent and potential. Drop him a line with a message that makes him want to call you back!--Think of someone who'd find this episode useful. Share it with them. And if you feel the urge to leave an honest review on Apple or Google podcasts, please do--If you want to be a guest on the show or can recommend someone you feel I should interview email me at marcus@laughs-last.com

The Art of Selling to Procurement

There is both Art and Science in procurement. Phil Ideson helps purchasers and sellers form more effective partnerships. Phil says, "Procurement doesn't make decisions. Procurement does have any money. They influence decisions."

The number one problem 600 procurement leaders said they have "is the perception of procurement". Their capability is misunderstood internally as simply providing cost savings, and by sellers as blockers and adversaries. We explore how procurement is measured and compensated, the mistakes made when tactical procurement treats low spend as low importance.

Phil appeals for greater communication and collaboration to avoid the breakdown in human relationships which ultimately hurt the business.

Contact Phill via LInkedIn linkedin.com/in/philipideson

Website: artofprocurement.com  (Company Website)Email: philip@artofprocurement.comTwitter: pideson--Make sure you share this with your own procurement team if you have one, with your entire sales team and your senior management. Think of one person you can share this with immediately.--Contact me at marcus@laughs-last.com