Most B2B deals don’t end in “no”.

They die quietly. No decision. No movement. No momentum.

In this episode, Marcus Cauchi speaks with Carl Schmidt, one of the original researchers behind *The Challenger Sale*, about what’s really broken in modern B2B selling, and what replaces it.

Buyers now do most of their thinking before they ever speak to a salesperson. Buying committees have doubled. Information is everywhere. Confidence is not.

This conversation explores why traditional sales approaches struggle in this reality, and why the best sellers are no longer pushing solutions. They’re helping buyers make sense of risk, complexity, and internal politics. You’ll hear:

• Why decision confidence matters more than solution confidence

• The fears that quietly kill deals

• How sellers unintentionally strip buyers of agency

• Why “no decision” is the real competitor

• What framemaking looks like in real sales conversations

If you’re a founder, CEO, sales leader, or an aspiring top performer, this episode will change how you think about discovery, deal reviews, and what it really means to help a customer buy. This is not about tactics. It’s about leadership in the buying process.

Are you settling for "good enough" while your sales organisation invests in an 85% loser rate?

In this episode, Marcus Cauchi sits down with David Brock, author of "Is Good Enough Good Enough? Mindsets and Behaviors for Sales Excellence," to challenge the traditional "metrics madness" that keeps founders and sales leaders trapped in cycles of mindless activity.

Dave shares his pragmatic, scientific approach to performance, revealing how top performers achieve their goals by being "intelligently lazy" and cutting out the "dead work" that consumes the average workday.

They explore the "Three-Pile Strategy" for auditing tasks, the high cost of customer churn, and why personal accountability is the ultimate differentiator between top performers and those who make excuses.

A major highlight of this conversation is David’s contrarian take on AI. Having used Claude AI as a "thought partner" and "debate partner" to co-author his book, David explains why AI is a "profound amplifier" that makes deep thinkers better but makes "lazy idiots" fail at scale.

Learn how to use discovery-based prompting to internalise strategic ownership and why curiosity remains the foundational behaviour for the next generation of leaders.

Key Topics Covered:

• The Trap of Activity vs. Outcomes: Why being "busy" is often a mask for underperformance.

• The Three-Pile Audit: Examine tasks and reclaiming 40% of your team's capacity. • Retention vs. Acquisition: Why the obsession with new logos is a recipe for wasted effort.

• AI as a Debate Partner: Moving beyond automation to elevate your strategic thinking.

• The Sacred Habit: Why scheduling 20 minutes of reflection daily is non-negotiable for excellence

Contact David Brock on linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davebrock/

Email: dabrock@excellenc.com

Website: http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/

Read the book: https://amzn.to/4brvQku

Contact Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcuscauchi/

Why do so many sales teams stumble despite talented hires?

In this episode, Peter Wheeler, serial entrepreneur and expert in scaling revenue velocity for early-stage organisations, explores the decline of apprenticeship in modern sales and the impact it has on team performance and long-term growth.

We examine why the traditional player-manager model often fails, how role siloing prevents junior staff from learning the ropes, and why leadership needs to move beyond administrative tasks to actively coach and support teams in the field.

Peter highlights the systemic dysfunctions caused by shareholder primacy and short-term thinking, including the hidden costs of high sales turnover, conflicting departmental metrics, and the erosion of trust and integrity in organisations. He explains why senior executives, not just salespeople, must engage with customers to understand real-world challenges and make informed strategic decisions.

We also discuss practical solutions to restore apprenticeship and learning in sales, including aligning teams around customer outcomes, leveraging AI as a personal coaching tool, and fostering a culture of trust, integrity, and long-term thinking.

Listeners will gain insights into how to build high-performing teams, reduce churn, and develop sustainable business growth, even in times of uncertainty or economic turmoil.

Whether you’re a founder, sales leader, or executive looking to improve team performance, this episode offers actionable advice, fresh perspectives, and strategies to thrive in a sales environment that too often sacrifices learning for short-term results.

Key Takeaways:

• The hidden costs of high sales turnover and short-termism

• How role siloing and player-manager models stunt growth and learning

• Why senior leaders must be actively engaged with customers

• Strategies for aligning departments and prioritising customer outcomes

• Leveraging AI for coaching, personal effectiveness, and customer-centric entrepreneurship

• Thriving through market uncertainty by focusing on what you can control

Contact Peter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterledgrowth/

Contact Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcuscauchi/

or email team@principledselling.com

For busy leaders who want growth without the burn

Modern sales is not about hunting trophies. It is about helping customers make good decisions. Sometimes that decision is not you. That is not weakness, it is credibility.

If sales feels combative, high churn is the price you are paying.

Boiler room tactics and hire-fast-fire-faster cultures look productive until you check the retention numbers. Low trust, internal conflict and customers who regret buying are all symptoms of the same thing.

You can hit target while quietly eroding the business. That is what going broke on the instalment plan looks like.

1. Always tell the truth Lies compound. You stop selling and start managing fiction. Everyone loses, including your future self.

2. Serve everybody Service is not closing at all costs. It is pointing people in the right direction, even when that direction leads elsewhere. Referring a bad fit to a competitor can be the most profitable decision you make.

3. Make things easier Remove friction. Psychological, commercial, procedural. Buyers do not need pressure, they need clarity.

Know your Anti-ICP Not every customer is worth having. Some drain time, energy and morale, then leave unhappy anyway. The courage to say no early protects margin and culture.

Risk beats reassurance Ken shares how a 30-day performance guarantee removed buyer risk so completely that a physical showroom became unnecessary for 16 years. When risk disappears, hesitation follows.

Self-awareness is not optional When a deal derails, the common factor is often the seller’s own reactions, assumptions or emotional immaturity. Sales capability without self-control is a liability.

Radical transparency works Glass walls, literal or metaphorical, show customers how you operate when no one is watching. Executive buyers spot theatre instantly. They trust what feels calm, open and boringly consistent.

Your job is not to be the hero. It is to help the customer become one.

When buyers feel safe, informed and respected, loyalty follows. Sustainable revenue is a by-product, not the goal.

Book: Selling Sustainably: The Ethics of Decision Facilitation by Ken Ward Concepts: The Trust Equation by Charlie Green, Relational Emotive Behavioural Therapy by Dr Albert Ellis

Connect:

www.educarlabs.com

or find Ken Ward on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-ward-1761016/

Steve’s journey was marked by sheer graft and some brutal personal blows. His first five years were, in his own words, madness. Eighteen to twenty hour days, six days a week. Then came a messy divorce, COVID and throat cancer.

Like many founders, Steve found himself in the classic trap. Everyone relied on him to make every decision. He sought help because his sales team was struggling and he realised he needed to learn how to step out of the way so his business could run without him.

Steve brought in Marcus and very quickly discovered this was not a cosy training course. He describes it as counselling for sales, full of uncomfortable moments, direct questions, and role plays that forced him to confront his own habits.

The turning point came when he learned to challenge and filter prospects properly. At first he thought it was rude to push back or walk away. In reality, detaching from the outcome stopped him wasting hours on buyers who were never going to buy.

The discomfort paid off. In spades.

• Efficiency: He went from putting in 100 percent effort to about 25 percent, yet was selling four times as much.

• Asset Growth: Between 2020 and 2024, while battling both COVID and cancer, the company’s net worth grew from £750k to £2.5m.

• Profitability: Pre tax profit rose from nearly £200k to just under £500k.

• Final Win: He closed his career with a £1.7m order. As he puts it, he started selling paper yachts and ended selling a battleship.

• Personal Return: The negotiation skills he picked up even saved him hundreds of thousands in his divorce settlement.

When he sold in February 2025, Steve felt absolutely floating. The win was not just financial. He had finally proved the business could run without him.

If you are a founder trying to build a saleable asset and escape founder dependency, Steve’s story is well worth your time. It is honest, hard won, and full of lessons for anyone walking a similar path.

Contact Steve on Linkedin

In this episode, Jordan Corn and Marcus Cauchi dissect the deeply flawed traditional approach to employee performance evaluation, the "Annual Festival of Fiction". They challenge the idea that reviews serve their intended purpose and share actionable frameworks for leaders to build continuous growth systems, rather than just checking boxes.

Traditional performance reviews are often theatre: they replace truth with formality and create anxiety instead of growth. When managers simply mark a three on a scale to avoid justification, they are "checking a box".

The problem is systemic: reviews often exist as a paper trail for pay decisions and compliance, not for meaningful reflection or planning. Some reflection is better than none, but if the process isn’t valuable or valued, it won’t change much.

Effective performance management starts with the manager-employee relationship. Reviews fail if the manager is a bully, a micromanager, or insecure.

• Psychological Safety and Vulnerability: Managers must earn the right to tell the truth by showing vulnerability, asking where staff need help and seeking their advice.

• Bidirectional Feedback: Feedback should flow in all directions. Employees need to feel safe critiquing management, and managers must be willing to listen without defensiveness.

Waiting a year is too long. Annual reviews without ongoing feedback are "like washing once a year". Real performance management is continuous, like adjusting a plane mid-flight.

• Agile Coaching: Regular micro check-ins: monthly 15–30 minutes or daily three-minute updates keep everyone aligned.

• Focus on Strengths: Lean into what people do well. Reviews should energise, not dwell on weaknesses.

• Separate Compensation: Tying pay to reviews is "absolutely inane" and undermines their value.

Problems often start at recruitment. High turnover results from compromise, or searching for mythical “purple unicorns,” creating systems built to reject rather than select the right fit.

• Self-Awareness: Reviews can become "behavioral reviews," helping employees understand how they show up and how others respond.

• Preparation Over Ambush: Managers should prime employees a week in advance and encourage reflection from both sides. The goal is to synchronise reality, not sanitise it.

If you can’t run a review rooted in honesty, psychological safety, and growth - or if you limit them to once a year - Jordan Corn says, "throw the whole thing out". Instead, leaders should redesign the process around the human being first, then fill in whatever is required for compliance.

For teams stuck in the "Festival of Fiction," Marcus shares systemic models to "model and scale human judgment" and even measure trust as a hard metric, helping embed learning, dignity, and accountability into management practices.

Connect with Jordan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-corn/

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcuscauchi/

And if you'd like to be a guest contact me https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannecauchi/