Todd Caponi, CSP®, fell into sales and fell in love with the decision science and history behind it. He’s held multiple sales leadership roles, helping build one company into Chicago’s fastest growing, another to an IPO and nearly $3B acquisition, and earning a Stevie Award as Worldwide VP of Sales. Todd is the author of The Transparency Sale, ranked by Book Authority among the best sales books of all time, and the award-winning The Transparent Sales Leader. His latest book, Four Levers Negotiating, was released on January 27th. He now speaks and teaches revenue teams worldwide and hosts The Sales History Podcast.

• Todd Caponi, in his book “Four Levers Negotiating”, emphasises that transparency builds trust and consistency. In other words, negotiation should not rely on tactics or keep information hidden from the buyer. Instead, openly sharing how pricing has been calculated, as well as the applicability of the product, builds trust and reduces anxiety amongst customers. In the era of abundant information, transparency and AI, opaque or manipulative negotiation approaches simply do not work.
• Negotiations should be anchored on four business levers, which are core drivers: volume, timing of cash, length of commitment, and timing of the deal. All pricing and negotiation should revolve around these levers. By grounding discussions on these levers, sellers can move away from arbitrary discounting towards structured, value-based negotiation, enabling customers to co-create fair deals.
• Many negotiation methods still mirror 1970s-era tactics focused on win-lose dynamics and psychological manoeuvring. The author believes these are incompatible with today’s “as-a-service” economy, where long-term relationships matter. Modern negotiation must prioritise collaboration, service, and long-term customer value over short-term wins, and thus reject such outdated negotiation tactics.

Run time – 00:49:34 mins.

Links for Subhanjan

subhanjan@pitch.link

https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar

Todd Caponi’s links:

LinkedIn – https://linkedin.com/in/toddcaponi

Twitter – https://twitter.com/toddcaponi

Todd Caponi’s Sales History Podcast – https://podcast.link

Fred Copestake is the founder of Brindis. Over the last 25 years, he has travelled around the world 14 times, visiting 38 countries, working with 10,000 salespeople. Using this to understand the challenges salespeople face, he has taken what makes a difference in modern selling and explored this in his book ‘Selling Through Partnering Skills’. These ideas form the basis of his work with sales professionals involved in complex B2B sales to develop their approach and ensure it is up to date and has maximum impact. Aware of the unprecedented speed of change in the world of sales in his second book, Hybrid Selling, he addressed how salespeople can adapt and evolve their approach to avoid becoming irrelevant. This quickly went to number one on Amazon after its launch.

Fred’s third and latest book is ‘Ethical Selling’, which we are here to talk about today. He also hosts the popular “Sales Today” podcast. When Fred is not delivering training to UK or international clients, he can be found enjoying rugby, cricket and time with his wife and cats.

• Fred Copestake reveals that rapid change in buyer behaviour—accelerated by the pandemic has ensured that customers are further along the buying cycle before engaging sales, and they increasingly distrust traditional “salesy” tactics. The core issue is poor selling practices that fail to add value. Buyers are better informed, less patient, and therefore expect meaningful, insight-driven conversations rather than superficial persuasion attempts from salespeople.
• Fred positions “ethical selling” as practical, tactical behaviour—not abstract morality—focused. His principle focuses on a “win-win-win”: for the customer, the company, and also the personal conscience. Transparency, active listening, and collaboration are effective techniques for building trust and improving outcomes. Rather than reinventing sales, he emphasises returning to proven fundamentals to create better conversations, stronger relationships, and more sustainable commercial success.
• The author believes that sales have “stretched the elastic too far” by overusing clever tactics, eroding trust and relevance. To recover, sellers must demonstrate value through curiosity, insight, and honesty—even leading with flaws to build credibility. Trust and collaboration form more quickly when sellers prioritise helping customers think clearly rather than pushing solutions, ultimately making sales more human and thereby more effective.

Run time – 00:45:29 mins.

Links for Subhanjan

subhanjan@pitch.link

https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar

Donna McGeorge is a speaker, bestselling author and productivity provocateur who has spent her career helping people and organisations stop drowning in complexity and start focusing on what really matters.

Donna’s journey is as eclectic as it is impactful. She began her career managing theatre and concert tours across the UK, where she learned the art of engaging audiences, telling compelling stories and keeping the show moving no matter what. From there, she shifted to the corporate stage, leading organisational development for global giants like Ford in Shanghai. It was here she saw first-hand how leaders and teams overload themselves with unnecessary effort, systems and processes that do little more than drain energy.

Today, Donna works with organisations around the world, with a trademark blend of no-nonsense practicality and good humour. She has a knack for making complex ideas feel not only simple but also irresistibly doable.

She is the author of more than a dozen books, including her acclaimed It’s About Time series, the bestselling ChatGPT Revolution, and her latest work, “Red Brick Thinking”.

Donna’s insights have been featured on Channel 9’s Today show, Channel 7’s Sunrise, and in respected publications including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, Smart Company, The Age and Boss Magazine.

Clients who trust Donna with their people include L’Oréal, Unilever, Jetstar, Ernst & Young, Seek, Xero, and the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood.

• “Red Brick Thinking” emerged serendipitously from her LEGO bridge workshop, where participants instinctively added a brick to fix an uneven structure instead of removing one. This revealed a deep “addition bias”—the reflex to solve problems by adding more. The red brick became a metaphor for questioning that instinct and asking: what could we remove instead, to solve problems?
• The author positions Red Brick Thinking as a mindset manifesto rather than a traditional how-to guide, organising the book into emotional, structural, and cultural “red bricks”. Each chapter invites readers to examine hidden habits shaped by consumerism, inherited scarcity, and workplace norms, and to rethink how subtracting entrenched behaviours can solve problems, restore energy and balance through intentional living.
• Donna believes that subtraction is at one level simple to contemplate, but perhaps harder to execute, especially with “big red bricks” embedded in identity, systems, and relationships. She recommends starting with small removals to build momentum, creating space for transformational change. Ultimately, the movement aims to help people reclaim time and meaning—making decisions today that their future selves will thank them for.

Run time – 00:51:02 mins.

Links for Subhanjan

subhanjan@pitch.link

https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar

Links for Donna McGeorge:

d@donnamcgeorge.com

www.donnamcgeorge.com

• Donna McGeorge – LinkedIn
• Red Brick Thinking Book
• The One-Day Refund Book

Connect with Donna McGeorge

• LinkedIn