Sales Talk for CEOs

In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman talks with Gavi Wolf, CEO and Founder of IndieWalls, about how he scaled a creative business, turning an art marketplace into a commercial art consultancy serving major brands. Gavi discusses founder‑led sales, when and how he realized it was time to build a sales leadership function, and the hard lesson about motivating and compensating a high‑performing sales team.Rapid‑fire picksBook: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara.Podcast: Freakonomics with Stephen Dubner.CEO Advice: If you want top sales talent, they need to see a clear path to earning real money. Show them others are winning, give them a comp plan they can believe in and the right people will come and perform. Connect WithGavi Wolf: LinkedIn | WebsiteAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

Stop wasting money on lead generation that doesn’t work. In this solo episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman delivers a powerful, no-nonsense rant every B2B CEO needs to hear. She challenges the outdated playbook of cold calling and SDR-driven outreach, revealing why it's costing you more than it’s delivering and what to do about it.Alice shares real examples and modern strategies to generate high-quality leads that fill your pipeline without burning out your sales team. From leveraging marketing properly, to holding the right kind of events, to mining your customer base for referrals, this is the wake-up call CEOs need to redesign their go-to-market motions.Connect with Alice Heiman: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceheimanWebsite: https://aliceheiman.com

What happens when a math major turned cold-caller gets frustrated with broken sales systems? He builds a better one, then builds a company around it.In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Ryan Reisert, the co- founder of Outbound Operators and CallBlitz, to trace his journey from burned-out rep to process-driven founder. Ryan reveals how years of trial, error, and dialing taught him that sales doesn’t scale on brute force, it scales with math, process, and precision.This is the inside story of how a rep-turned-CEO rebuilt outbound from the ground up - more than once.Connect WithRyan Reisert: LinkedIn | CallBlitz | Outbound OperatorsAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

What if your sales team is focused on the wrong thing?Brent Adamson and Karl Schmidt, co-founders of A to B Insight and co-authors of The FrameMaking Sale, reveal why traditional B2B tactics like BANT are outdated and how to win by building buyer confidence in their own decisions.Connect with:Brent Adamson: LinkedIn | A to B InsightKarl Schmidt: LinkedIn | A to B InsightAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | WebsiteLink to The FrameMaking Sale 

From hockey stick growth to flat on your face, it hurts and Collin Stewart can tell you firsthand. He had one customer before he left his full-time job, the problem was he still had one customer 18 months later. In his first endeavor this entrepreneur built what he thought everyone needed and kept showing them and expecting them to say how great it was, but they didn’t. “I was building my idea. I wasn’t building what the customer’s wanted.” The lesson, it’s all about the customer, what they need and want. Rapid-Fire MentionsBook: Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard RumellPodcast: Acquired FMAdvice to CEOs:  Lead with relationships and real value. Outbound still works, but only if your product-market fit is strong. If you’re early-stage, skip the pitch and focus on helping first. Connect WithCollin Stewart: LinkedIn | WebsiteCollin’s book: The Terrifying Art of Finding a CustomerAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

When CEOs struggle to connect with customers, teams, or investors, it's rarely a strategy problem, it’s a storytelling problem. In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Jeff Abracen, Founder of Disruptive Influence and storytelling coach to tech leaders, to uncover why a great story is a terrible thing to waste.Jeff shares how he turned a high school “disruptive influence” label into a superpower for transforming leaders into magnetic storytellers. With a focus on the Disruptive DNA framework, Jeff teaches CEOs how to own the stage, captivate their audience, and get results, whether it’s on LinkedIn, in a boardroom, or at a major conference.🔑 What you’ll learn:How to use storytelling to increase sales, alignment, and executive presenceThe Disruptive DNA Framework: Differentiate, Narrate, ActivateWhy preparation, not memorization, is the secret to confidence and clarityJeff doesn’t just talk about storytelling, he lives it. You’ll hear actionable advice and real coaching examples from working with SaaS founders and technical executives. If you’re a CEO or founder who needs to inspire action, this episode will help you turn information into influence.Mentioned in the Rapid-Fire:Book Recommendation: The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick RubinPodcast Recommendation: Diary of a CEOAdvice for CEOs: “Facts tell, stories sell. Get into people's hearts before you worry about getting into their minds and their wallets.”Connect with:Jeff Abracen: LinkedIn | Disruptive InfluenceRequest the Disruptive DNA framework: DM Jeff on LinkedIn and mention this podcastAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

There are two key ways to get in front of the people most likely to buy from you and Alice believes you may be overlooking them. The first is something she talks about all the time. So if you haven’t started expecting your team to do it, now is the time. Referral selling. Yes, you get a few referrals here and there but why not make it a regular occurrence. Alice explains briefly in this episode but for more details listen to episode 147 For more on this listen to episode 147 https://aliceheiman.com/use-the-power-of-referrals-to-close-more-deals/ You must train your team to ask for referrals and then expect them to do it by measuring it and reporting on the results. But Alice shares another great way to get in front of the right people, one that is tried and true and has been working and continues working, events. And in this episode she talks about a very specific type of online event, a Round Table. You invite your target audience and they reason they attend is because they will get to share and learn. Rather than a webinar with talking heads, you invite your target audience to share about something that is happening in their marketplace. Not only are great ideas shared, they all get to meet each other and network. As Alice exclaims, “It’s a win, win, win, win.” Win 1 - You win because you get in front of the right peopleWin 2 - You win again because you have the right people to follow up withWin 3 - They win because they share and hear all the ideas sharedWin 4 - They win because they meet people in their industry they might not have otherwiseAlice explains that she discovered an unexpected side benefit of holding the round table. She had no idea all of the conversations she would have from responses to the invitations. She had so many conversations with people who couldn’t attend. Just what salespeople want, conversations with people who can buy. Alice shares the example of a round table she did recently where she invited CEOs to share, “What CEOs need to know to win in this market.” She’s done 2 others since then and shares those below. You can gather those most likely to buy at a round table and have a win, win, win, win, too. Here are the insights from 3 of the Round Tables Alice has held recently.CEO to CEO: What You Need to Know to Win in This MarketCEO to CEO: What is Actually Working in B2B Lead Generation NowCEO to CEO: How CEOs Are Rethinking Hiring GTM Talent: Insights from the C-Suite RoundtableConnect with Alice Heiman: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceheimanWebsite: https://aliceheiman.com

Imagine if your sales team could rehearse complex deals before ever meeting the buyer, just like elite athletes pre-game. That’s exactly what Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (CEO) and Alix Berry (COO) of ExpertTheory make possible.In this episode, Alice Heiman dives into how ExpertTheory helps companies simulate real-world sales situations through AI-powered, custom-built games. These immersive experiences go far beyond traditional training, replacing static roleplay with dynamic, scenario-based learning that strengthens team performance, decision-making, and competitive strategy.Connect withDaveed Gartenstein-Ross: LinkedIn Alix Berry: LinkedInExpertTheory: WebsiteAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

What happens when a seasoned marketer reimagines everything she knows about agencies, on a beach, notebook in hand, while her kids play nearby? Brittany Trafis, CEO and co-founder of Soarion Digital, shares how she built an AI-powered agency that challenges everything about traditional marketing models.In this episode, Brittany walks Alice Heiman through the rapid sales growth of Soarion: from early experiments to real client results, through founder-led sales and how boldly saying “the agency model is broken” helped them break into a noisy market as they prepare to scale.Rapid-Fire Picks:Book: Multipliers by Liz WisemanPodcast: Business WarsAdvice to CEOs: Don’t get lost chasing what’s next, focus on timeless principles. Technology evolves, but people still crave connection and community. Stay grounded in what doesn’t change.🔗 Connect with Brittany & AliceBrittany Trafis: LinkedIn | WebsiteAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

If you’re still posting jobs and hoping A-players apply, you’re already behind.In this high-impact episode, Alice Heiman sits down with Jamie Crosbie, founder of ProActivate and TEDx speaker with over 1 million views on The Power of Your Mindset, to reveal what every CEO needs to know to hire top revenue-generating talent.Most hiring processes are built for convenience, not performance. That’s why companies end up with B-players or worse, just to fill a seat. Jamie shares exactly how CEOs can stop mis-hires before they happen and build bench strength that supports real growth.If you’re a CEO of a B2B company under $100M, this episode is your blueprint for hiring right, every time.📚 Rapid Fire FavoritesBook: The Pivot Year by Brianna Wiest Podcast: Sales Talk for CEOsAdvice to CEOs: “Proactively protect and grow your #1 asset, your people.”🔗 Connect WithJamie Crosbie: LinkedIn | WebsiteJamie’s TEDx Talk: Liar, liar, life on fire: Breaking through your lies to your truthAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website