Brutal Honesty: Why Are They Buying?

President’s Club performance is rarely about talent alone. It is built on discipline, preparation, curiosity, and the ability to lead without authority in complex, high-stakes sales environments. In this episode, Bob Kocis joins John McMahon and John Kaplan to unpack what truly separates perennial President’s Club winners from the rest of the field. Drawing on decades of enterprise sales leadership and insights from interviewing top performers across tech, Bob breaks down the habits, mindset shifts, and behaviors that drive consistent elite performance. These include agenda-free listening, proactive selling, building champions, neutralizing enemies, and staying adaptable as markets evolve.

Bob Kocis is the author of The President’s Club Mindset, released in December 2025. He has held senior revenue leadership roles across global enterprise organizations for more than 20 years and has spent his career studying what drives sustained excellence in sales.

Connect with Bob:

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Buy The President’s Club Mindset by Bob Kocis

Resources:

• Join our live discussion with Bob Kocis on February 10, where he’ll break down President’s Club performance and answer your questions.
• Wondering how to drive consistent President’s Club-level performance across your entire org as a leader? Check out Force Management’s Predictable Revenue Framework.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• 02:00 – Why attitude and effort are table stakes, but curiosity is what separates elite sellers from average performers over time
• 04:20 – How resilience and persistence create unfair advantages in long sales cycles, and why most reps quit one call too early
• 06:00 – Why top performers attract internal resources naturally by leading without authority and acting as the quarterback of the deal
• 14:25 – How agenda-free listening and deep preparation unlock better questions, stronger discovery, and more credible leadership with customers
• 25:20 – Why elite sellers move at a different pace, understand their own conversion math, and operate with extreme self-awareness
• 29:30 – How great reps turn skeptics into champions by connecting pain, solution, and personal win -- not by pushing for the close
• 41:00 – Why the best sales leaders focus on serving their people first, and how that mindset leads to long-term success and legacy

Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. 

This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. 
 

Connect with Us: 

• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Force Management