The Audible-Ready Sales Podcast

Force Management
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Oct 28, 2025 • 11min

Prepping Others for Your Sales Calls

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with John Kaplan. Preparing for your deal is critical. Preparing others for your sales call has equal impacts on your success. If you want someone to join you on a call (product engineer, manager, etc.), you have to be able to provide them with fluency about the deal and clarity on their role in the conversation. John Kaplan covers what information you need to share and how help ensure those joining you are best prepared.Here are some additional resourcesHow to Ask for Help on Your Deals5 Things to Do Before Your Next Sales ConversationKey Things to Do After Every Sales CallCheck out this and other episodes of The Audible-Ready Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
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Oct 21, 2025 • 15min

Moving Up and Down in Organizations

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with John Kaplan. Discover the mantra you can use to successfully navigate opportunities that require you to move up and down in organizations. Hear John Kaplan’s tips for continually building a business case that maps the technical capabilities of your solution to the required capabilities for different decision makers in an organization. He explains what the mantra is, how you can build it through customer conversations, and leverage it to get champions to sell on your behalf.Here are some additional resourcesAlign with the Buying Process: The Power of the MantraWhy You’re Struggling With Metrics in the Sales ConversationNavigating the Decision Process With Multiple Buyers [Podcast]Check out this and other episodes of The Audible-Ready Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
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Oct 14, 2025 • 15min

Go High, Go Low – Adjusting Your Sales Conversation

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with John Kaplan. As a seller, you need to communicate effectively with people throughout an organization - both on the economic and technical levels. That means adjusting your sales conversation to what’s relevant to the individual in front of you. In this episode, John Kaplan shares insights that will allow you to swiftly adapt to any type of sales conversation. He gives advice to help you:Prepare for conversations at the executive table.Manage meetings wherein both technical and business buyers are present.Overcome Seller Deficit Disorder.Use the Mantra framework to narrate a story that every decision-maker involved in your deal can get behind.Here are some additional resources:Subscribe to Ascender: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparisonAscender Sales Topics - Positioning Yourself against the Competitionhttps://youtu.be/YayJtT22TEgAscender Course: Getting to the Economic Buyerhttps://bit.ly/3U6dObHCheck out this and other episodes of The Audible-Ready Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
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Oct 7, 2025 • 22min

Selling in a New Category

Enjoy this replay of a great episode with Brian Walsh. If you’re selling a new technology, it may be difficult to align to a pain point. How do you align to pain the customer doesn’t even know they have? Many AI startups have this challenge. How do you get the customer to see a new way of doing old things? In this episode, Brian Walsh breaks down ways you can think about your sales conversation so you’re able to drive urgency, even when you’re selling in a new category. He also runs through how to set up a test project, in order to build credibility with the customer. Check out this and other episodes of The Audible-Ready Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
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8 snips
Sep 30, 2025 • 16min

Building an Accountable Culture

John Kaplan, an experienced sales leader and consultant, shares insights on creating a culture of accountability in sales organizations. He discusses how accountability impacts predictability, trust, morale, and performance. Kaplan introduces the franchise mindset, encouraging sales reps to take ownership of their territories. He highlights the importance of strong qualification processes and quarterly reviews to maintain alignment. Lastly, he emphasizes the role of meritocracy and consequences in fostering accountability across teams.
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5 snips
Sep 23, 2025 • 15min

Tips for Managing Your Time

John Boney, a seasoned sales practitioner and trainer, shares invaluable insights on time management for sales reps. He emphasizes treating your territory like a business by adopting an ownership mindset. John reveals effective strategies for balancing current deals with pipeline generation, highlighting the importance of weekly goals and time blocking. He advocates for proactive selling through strategic planning and offers advice for managers on how to effectively coach teams without micromanaging, fostering a culture of accountability and support.
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Sep 16, 2025 • 16min

Action Steps When You Inherit Accounts

John Kaplan, a seasoned sales leader specializing in account transitions, shares invaluable insights on inheriting customer accounts. He emphasizes the importance of thorough preparation before first calls and developing genuine relationships. Listeners learn tactics for handling customer skepticism, highlighting the need for listening and vulnerability. Kaplan warns against complacency, encouraging ongoing engagement and re-establishing rapport, regardless of past successes. His practical advice makes navigating the complexities of account management both manageable and effective.
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Sep 9, 2025 • 15min

Influencing Your Customers’ Solution Requirements

Enjoy this episode, which was originally aired in August 2022, with John Kaplan. Solution requirements are a critical component of every deal you sell. These are things that must be in place in order for a buyer to achieve their desired outcomes, and they exist with or without your solution. In today’s episode, John Kaplan explains the importance of recognizing your customer’s solution requirements and what to do with that knowledge. You will learn how to:Bridge the customer’s current state to their desired future state.Position your value in a way that influences the customer’s requirements.Ask great discovery questions that show your customer how your solution is needed to solve their business issues.Here are some additional resources:How to Stack Customer Requirements in Your Favorhttps://bit.ly/3AMo4z3The Missing Link Between Your Differentiation and Your Buyershttps://bit.ly/3dVvQ0HCheck out this and other episodes of The Audible-Ready Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
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Sep 3, 2025 • 15min

What to Do When You Lose

In this episode, John Kaplan joins Rachel to talk about bouncing back from losses as a seller. For reps, he sheds light on the key factors to reflect upon after losing, the importance of maintaining transparency with management in order to get appropriate feedback, the decisive benefits of early qualification, and applying the lessons learned from a loss to succeed in similar accounts. John also addresses managers, highlighting the need to foster an environment that promotes continuous learning and empowers sellers to take risks.Here are some additional resources:Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!Win/Loss Review | Ascender CourseKey Questions for Managers to Ask in Deal Reviews | Ascender ArticleAscender’s Best Content on Decision Criteria | Ascender ArticleClose the Excuse Department | Ascender VideoTake Ownership of Your Success | Ascender VideoAsking for Help | Ascender VideoPrepping for Your Deal Reviews | PodcastAttaching to the Biggest Business Problem | PodcastVisit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison
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11 snips
Aug 26, 2025 • 14min

Building Purposeful Pipeline

Joining Rachel is John Kaplan, a B2B sales effectiveness expert passionate about building healthy sales pipelines. They discuss strategic pipeline generation, highlighting the importance of quality over quantity in leads. John emphasizes defining an Ideal Customer Profile and aligning technical solutions with business outcomes. The conversation dives into mastering customer pain points and introduces the MEDIC sales qualification framework. John also shares insights on proactive pipeline management and the personal accountability necessary for sales success.

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