Garry Ridge is the CEO of WD-40, and has turned "oil in a can" into "Creating positive customer memories". That's not a marketing tagline, it's a visionary mantra. Thus, it creates a lot of virtuous cycles. Everyone in the company understands how their role creates those memories. Every decision is filtered through that standard, and if an idea doesn't create those memories, it gets jettisoned. The company is one tribe, one purpose, not a collection of departments/silos/sub-tribes engaged in internal range wars. Oh, and this culture keeps its happy workers when all around them are suffering from "the great resignation". THere's a lot to learn here, and a lot to emulate. Thanks Garry!

Chris Kneeland is the CEO of Cult Collective (https://cultideas.com). His company has studied what makes a brand a cult, and why consumers become so dedicated to some brands that they become unpaid salespeople. He talks about marketing engagement in ways far different than most marketing departments have turned into practice. I love his focus on his clients' customers, and what it takes to make them evangelize for you. Great conversation, Chris. Thanks!!

Ian Bower leads Graphic Rhythm (https://www.graphicrhythm.com), a graphic design agency that serves as a resource for companies without sophisticated graphic departments of their own. He has built a company on the premise, that "The way your company appears visually -- in website, social media, content, etc. -- is like dressing for a job interview."

Eric Miller Is a Managing Partner at PADT, who serves mechanical engineers with sophisticated tools and service to help them build THEIR businesses. We talked about how engineers hate to be sold to, and trust fairly slowly. Those characteristics of his primary customers forced PADT into a business model of becoming a trusted resource and co-creation partner for his customers. It's something many organizations aspire to do, and I was excited to have him share those exceptional value-focused behaviors that PADT thinks are table stakes. Thanks, Eric!

Adrian Walker and his wife Natalya founded Boataffair to fill a gap in the boat rental/charter market. Boataffair provides a highly personalized rental/charter experience between regular mass boat rentals and super yacht charters. Boataffair differentiates their customer experience by paying attention to all of the details. When that's your business model, you need to develop skills in listening and getting feedback to constantly improve. Adrian provides some great guidance for others to follow.

Scott Jordan started SCOTTeVEST for the purpose of simplifying a traveler's life through more and better pockets. This sounds almost amusingly simple, but like any simple-at-first idea, true expertise is a hard-won prize that takes a long time. SCOTTeVEST is the pre-eminent travel convenience garment company, and Scott has become a pocket scientist. But it isn't about pocket features: Scott personally reviews his customer interactions to take more lessons and continuously improve. It's simple, but remarkable at the same time. Thanks for sharing some powerful insights, Scott!

Dr. Amy Czyz (pronounced "Chez") is an eye doctor turned consumer product entrepreneur. We discussed how she operated her medical practice with patients at the core...and how that became a great foundation for her newest venture: Intent, a vehicle for helping people be their best throughout the day...that looks like a set of beverages engineered for balancing the wake/sleep cycle. Amy doesn't call her business a circadian rhythm beverage -- she knows it's about that customer outcome. It's brilliant, and I predict that focus is going to serve her and her company well.

Tyler Hayzlett is the Chief Marketing Officer of the C Suite Network (www.c-suitenetwork.com), where he is in charge of marketing strategy and execution for a the world's largest B2B media network, and for a membership organization devoted to growing members' businesses. We talked about making sure that marketing focuses on customer outcomes, and on building a tribe of followers to close loops in customer feedback, innovation, service and more. He also teased his organization's new e-book (https://click.c-suitenetwork.com/the-insider)!

Chris Van Timmeren is the head coach of the ACHA national champion Hope College Hockey team. You probably haven't heard of Hope College... just like you haven't heard of a lot of small companies who have carved out dominance in their niche. Chris talks about recruiting (a combination of sales and hiring), and how he approaches his competitive environment (here's the concept, here are some optional actions to take, but players need to read and react). Most interestingly, he talks about how his players have changed over the 22 years he's been in charge, and how his management style has had to change in order for him to stay on top. Thanks Chris!

Kara Goldin is the founder of Hint Inc...as in Hint Waters. Now, the company has expanded into sunscreens, lip balms, deodorants. Through the founding of her company until now, she's learned lessons on entrepreneurship that she shares in her book, "Undaunted". As I read it, her focus on improving peoples' health was the purpose at every stage, and the principle that guided her decisions. We talked about how combining her curiosity, drive, creativity, and outsider's perspective with that focus on Hint's value was proved to win in an unlikely product category.

Fares Ksebati (pronounced "se BAH tea") and MySwimPro came on my radar when they were pre-revenue and I was a mentor at the accelerator whose wing they were under. I've had a seat to their growing and maturing through some tumultuous years, and I've watched as the value focus has become more robust through the years. Now, MySwimPro isn't just a training app for adult swimmers (the #1 such app in the world), it's a community of dedicated members, all trying to co-create a better experience that improves performance, physical health, mental health, and enjoyment of a group of like-minded people. That community has become a strategic advantage.

Michelle Cirocco has been a key executive at Televerde for many years. Currently, she's the chief social responsibility officer. At Televerde, that's not a fluff title. Televerde's mission is social responsibility, in the form of providing great customer value by employing highly committed, dedicated, motivated people as outsourced lead gen, sales, and marketing experts. When you hire a superior class of BDR or SDR, you deliver better business results...and oh, yeah: you build careers for people who really appreciate them. What a virtuous cycle! Thanks, Michelle.

Nikolaus Kimla founded and leads PipelinerSales, a full featured CRM solution built for sales person success first. Thus his software drives salesperson utilization by rewarding use for great selling, not forcing compliance, the way many CRMs do -- the ones built for sales manager monitoring first. We talked about incorporating methodology into CRM, and a great innovation: opening the environment up to ALL of the roles that touch a customer, especially in a key account management scenario. I was impressed with the salesperson-first focus: one that gives sales managers the benefit of reports based upon high system utilization. Thanks Nikolaus!

C. Lee Smith leads Sales Fuel, a company that helps sales organizations build sales capability in talent, hiring and coaching. Lee has written several books, most recently "Sales Credibility", to help sales forces build that credibility foundation. We had a great discussion talking about how he focuses his company on client outcomes, and invests the greatest resources on clients who he can deliver outcomes to most effectively and profitably. HIs focus on profitable customers is a great one. Give it a listen.

Aric Faber heads SalesPage Technologies, a software and solutions company serving part of the financial services industry. His software competes with the likes of the big four consulting firms, down to DIY efforts by IT departments. SalesPage differentiates based upon customer focus...and Aric describes his business as "growing our clients' business by helping them understand THEIR customers better". Aric and I had a great conversation about wrapping your entire company around a customer to have expert-to-expert relationships at all levels, and how he leads an organization to superior customer outcomes.

Steve Sundberg leads MedTorque, a company that machines precision instruments for surgeons. One of the finest leaders I've ever met, Steve is highly attuned to pointing everyone in his company toward expanding customer-perceived value. As you can imagine, we're kindred spirits, and we had a great conversation about value, how COVID has affected his business, key employee retention, and more.

Eric Rollins helps medical professionals grow their practices. Doing this, he helps them sell their now-more-valuable practices. His consulting is about helping doctors become more patient-centric, learning more about their daily lives, and helping patients see better in every aspect of their lives. This isn't selling -- or doesn't feel like it. It's being of greater service. The examples and stories Eric gives are ones we can all apply in our own businesses.

Duncan Blowers is the Managing Director for Henkelman USA (https://www.henkelman.com/us/), who is the major producer of commercial grade vacuum sealers, used mostly in food service. Before the pandemic, Henkelman was engaged in changing hearts and minds about extending food shelf life. The pandemic shook the food industry deeply, and the same product became a solution to a much larger set of problems, which Henkelman had to become adept at articulating. In addition, they use a complex channel of manufacturers reps, distributors, and dealers who also need to articulate additional value. What a great lesson in learning the importance of finding all the wins for all the players. Thanks Duncan!

Robert Bendetti is the CFO for LifeCycle Management, an engineering services firm. I was thrilled to get him on the podcast to talk about the sometimes fraught relationship between sales and the CFO, and how the two should be partners in profit. Robert shared his perspective on the difficulty of sales, but that elite salespeople create healthier businesses for both the buying and selling companies. What a great conversation!

Pete Romano (pete@segwik.com) founded Segwick to be something other than just another CRM. In fact, he consultatively helps his clients achieve success by building a solution around THEIR customer's buying process, or customer journey. Pete has staked the claim as being a pioneer in CJM, or customer journey management. This is true value focus, and I wanted to share it with you. Nobody buys a CRM for its features...OK, people who end up having failing CRM initiatives do...People buy CRM to help every one of their sales people walk a customer through a buying process. This was the aspiration of CRMs, but it has largely failed. Pete and Segwick want to change all that. Even if you aren't on the market for a CRM, listen to his focus on customer outcomes. It's powerful stuff.

Evan Dash and his wife Sarah founded Storebound in 2010 as the "anti-supplier" of home goods...being the vendor that solved retailer problems rather than creating them. Their Dash appliance brand is a huge success, and they've grown rapidly in a market dominated by giant firms. Their secret has been relentless focus on their consumers AND their retail partners. Oh, and incessant creativity and agility in how they respond to the many dramatic changes in their business environment. Evan and Storebound are a shining example of that value focus as the guiding principle of their business story.

Repeat guest Jerry Gowen is back. This time, he's telling a story about how he dealt with a common sales situation: being called upon to assist a customer in "value engineering"....often a fig leaf for "grinding you for a price reduction". In this case, there was actually an opportunity for engineering cost out of a product, but only after winning a piece of business that his company had failed to win for seventeen years.

Bob Truxes runs American Liberator Aerospace, an injection molding company that sells to...well...aerospace. And over a dozen other industries. As a US company, he's always had to compete with foreign suppliers, especially in Asia; China in particular. An outsider would think that's a tough uphill battle, but Bob's company has been doing it successfully for about 15 years. The trick is adding value: delivering an outcome to a customer that a price-based competitor can't.

I was struck by the similarity between the premise of my book, "Radical Value", and the ideas of Peter Drucker, who is famous for many things, including "the purpose of a business is to create a customer"...except that he went on to say some important things after that pithy gem. I wanted to share my thoughts on the rest of that quote, as well as some thoughts on famous business books of the past.. and today's business priorities and metrics. Here's a link to the article I quoted: https://www.forbes.com/2006/06/30/jack-trout-on-marketing-cx_jt_0703drucker.html?sh=3fdc64f3555c

This is the third episode with my old colleague, Jerry Gowen. He's got a lifetime's worth of value selling stories, and we focused mostly on the value of RELIABILITY. Many products or services differentiate by being more reliable in some way, but few sellers are good at selling all of the value that reliability delivers to their customers. As a result, they don't sell as successfully, or at the prices they could. Jerry's stories are pure gold, and I encourage you to listen to them.

Scott Newsome is the CFO and a board member at Dexwet (https://dexwet.com), an Austrian company which has patented and developed an air filtration technology that 1) operates at both high and low airflow rates that are difficult/impossible for conventional media filters to handle, 2) has much lower maintenance requirements and costs than traditional media filters. Dexwet has concentrated on markets it can easily dominate, and Scott is making sure that his entire organization is engaged in engaging every part of his customers to maximize value delivery. There are lessons here for every company.

Nathan Kievman runs Linked Strategies, which has grown from a LinkedIn lead gen shop to something far more valuable -- and far more successful. He's evolved his business into "Accelerating the Growth of Conscious and Transformational Companies and Individuals". To achieve that customer outcome, Linked Strategies has had to offer more services, rethink its talent strategy, and create a highly engaged culture. This is an extra-length episode, because Nate keeps dishing out insights.

Season two of the ValuClarity podcast featured some major executive themes, and Gayle Keller helped me cover one of the most important. Gayle has been a successful woman in a STEM-related business,..isn't it sad that she's an anomaly? Gayle is committed to helping women find their voice and their confidence. WE had a great conversation about it. Thanks, Gayle!

From the Israeli Army to running her own business, Dr. Karen Jacobson has learned leadership lessons that she shares with her clients in her leadership practice. She Aligns leaders and their teams, helping them achieve high performance. We talked about what leadership means in the post-Covid environment, and with workers of all levels. We went deeper than than the glittering generalities around what effective organizations do; we dove into the hard financial impacts that an aligned team achieves. Thanks Dr. Karen!

Kurt Shaver is with Vengreso, who helps sales teams become adept at using sales tools from THIS century (Kurt's expression). They are masters at LinkedIn and now, one-to-one video messaging. The blessing of these tools is also that they are simple and powerful. The curse of these tools is that they are so simple and powerful that it's easy to misuse them: approaching people and immediately selling. We had a great conversation about selling in the modern world. Thanks Kurt!

Jerry Gowen has retired from a career as one of the best value sellers I've ever come across. We agreed to sit him in front of a microphone to share some of his approaches to sales, punctuated by a few of his experiences in selling highly engineered products. We spent most of this episode talking about understanding the customer, doing your homework, as well as finding and developing internal advocates, This episode is not only instructive for sellers, but corporate leaders should listen to the example of the customer/project focused team.

Lee Salz is a best-selling author (check out "Sales Differentiation") and sales strategist. As kindred spirits on Sales and value, we always have great conversations, and decided to have one with the microphone turned on. Lee shared some great stories about his work with his clients on helping them differentiate how and what they sell. Thanks, Lee!

Jerry Gowen is a former colleague...and one of the best salespeople I ever worked with. We'll be having a whole series of conversations together. In this first conversation, we talk about selling value, but I tried to steer the conversation to that foundational skill: understanding your customer, their world, and their business. Part of what makes Jerry a great seller is that he's also an old-school renaissance man: he reads widely and deeply on multiple topics.

Kevin Dixon, founder and CEO of Boxxstep (www.boxxstep.com) led sales organizations in the "high consideration B2B" space for years. Like me, he's found that buying committees have grown, and with that, decision complexity has grown -- and "no decision" has become by far the dominant competitor. In response, the average company's selling approach has become more mechanized and seller-centric: exactly the wrong approach. We had a great, wide-ranging conversation about what's needed by today's selling organizations.

Alan Brunton has been an "audio guy" for decades, as a performer and more often, as a sound engineer. In his quest for understanding how humans are impacted by the sounds around us, he discovered some physiological quirks of the human aural (sound-processing) system, and founded a company whose software takes advantage of -- and improves attention and retention of -- the audio tracks you listen to. HIs company, Cymatrax, is a sponsor of the ValuClarity podcast, and we're a beneficiary of his sound processing.

Jim Hardwick has led sales organizations for decades, and now does it as an outsourced CSO for companies in scale-up phase. He loves setting up the selling system in companies, and clients get to use a high-end skillset on a part-time basis, allowing them to ramp up more skillfully, rapidly, and scalably (is that a word?) than otherwise. Part of what makes Jim special is his mature outlook on the profession of selling, and how it is an act of servant leadership...Jim's true gift.

Steven Zylstra leads the Arizona Technology Council, a trade organization that promotes the interests of all kinds of tech companies in Arizona. The council is one of the most impactful organizations in the state. I wanted Steven's take on the future: the future of work, technology, and how tech companies go to market. It was a great conversation!

Mark Hinderliter is a HR professional who helps corporations develop leaders and cultures that outperform. He knows that some culture types have higher growth ad profits, while others stagnate. Building those cultures requires great leadership. Mark and I talked about those issues, and how they are becoming even more important now, and will become keys to survival in the future.

Kris SV is the Chief Customer Success Enabler at WINsights, a company that helps sales teams elevate sales conversations by providing deep background into a customer's world. I teach sales teams to arm themselves with deep customer insights, but Kris and WINsights can do an in-depth profile as a service. We talked about the value of differentiating how you sell, and using customer insights to do it. Thanks, Kris!

Per Sjofors specializes in helping customers discover the optimal prices for their products and services. He uses a customer-perceived value methodology, unlike most consultants in the pricing optimization space -- who analyze historical sales data. This is a HUGE difference and a huge advantage for his clients. We talk about all of this ...and finish off with a discussion of how sales capability builds the value in the customer's mind, so sales is the key to actually realizing value-based pricing.

Gerhard Gschwandtner is the publisher of Selling Power magazine, and the CEO of Sales 3.0 conferences. He's been completely plugged in to the sales performance scene for decades, He and I talked about the state of sales, and how technology and tools are not improving sales performance by themselves. He is adamant that the secret to success is the right mindset, and we had a lively discussion on the topic. He also gave a coupon code for a free subscription to Selling Power magazine. Listen for that!

Steve Lishansky is one of the wisest men I know. He helps corporate leaders, and teams of leaders, make better decisions. His background includes writing a book about value-focused sales, so his leadership and decision making work aligns perfectly with my philosophy. There is no such thing as a conversation with Steve that isn't illuminating and inspiring. You must give this a listen.

Jeffrey Hayzlett, former CMO of Eastman Kodak, and now the Chairman and CEO of the C-Suite Network, led his organization through a tumultuous 2020. From a primarily face-to-face events business, Jeffrey helped steer a rapid transition to virtually-delivered set of experiences to connect C-Suite executives and advisors. It involved rapid iteration and brutally honest redirection. The thing that didn't waver is the focus on the value: being the most trusted network. The conversation covered a little bit of everything besides...thanks, Jeffrey!

Bradley Hartmann was a purchasing executive for one of the nation's largest homebuilders, and has moved into helping salespeople deal more effectively and positively with purchasing professionals. His company "Behind Your Back Sales" got its name from the idea of understanding what buyers think of sales people when they walk out the door. Bradley and I are kindred spirits, and I loved getting his perspective on selling value in a way purchasing people want to buy it.

Tom Williams has wide-ranging experience as a salesperson, sales leader, and CEO. Thus he's been on both sides of the procurement/sales relationship, and has a wealth of valuable insights. Tom and I spent some time talking about what it takes for sellers to deal effectively with procurement groups. I always enjoy time spent with Tom, and know you will learn something listening in to our conversation.

Jeroen Corthout is co-founder of Salesflare ( https://salesflare.com), a CRM focused on small businesses. To succeed in that crowded market, Salesflare needs to have a clear differentiation strategy -- which they do. That strategy extends to an operational practice that I found creative, simple, and effective. We talked about Salesflare's differentiation, but also how he keeps customer value front and center in the development team's mind, forming the core of his company's development and innovation strategy. I am very impressed with what he shared. I think you will be too.

David Petts has been a CRO with organizations large and small, and has a strong point of view on how to overcome "silo dysfunction" in an organization. I have my own multifunctional expernience at companies of all sizes as well. We had a great conversation about how to grow customer relationships, especially those with major accounts. It was fun sharing ideas and different perspectives. Thanks David!

Rob Hartnett has been a high performer in business, in sales, and in sport. He is a student of self-leadership, high performance, and corporate leadership. Rob and I worked together as sales performance consultants, and our conversation ranged from his leadership practice to how sales is leadership and change management. I enjoyed this conversation and hope you do too.

Jamie Baxter is a serial entrepreneur, mostly in the Human Resources tech area. His current company, Qwick, served a market in the hospitality industry...and then Covid hit. We talk about his platform, and how he re-aimed it at new markets. I also asked him to share HOW he fashions an agile, responsive company that can adapt to wild shifts in markets.

Steven Amiel runs a digital marketing agency, a pretty crowded market space. HIs differentiation is customer focus: this business model requires great discovery skills, strong "customer's business acumen", and innovative problem solving. Steve and I shared some of his stories about how he approached a major sales challenge...by reimagining the solution to a major customer business challenge.

Chicke Fitzgerald is a seasoned tech executive whose company made a product for the travel space. When Covid-19 hit the world, travel halted, and her company faced an existential challenge. With some creative thinking and a super-supportive board, she put her initial business plan on pause, and figured out how to point a powerful technology at a new set of customers. We explore what that was like, and how to take a step back from working in the business to working ON the business.

Sue Bingham and her company, HPWP, create high-performance work places. We had a great conversation about the value of her work to her clients...personally, for every employee, and financially or the company and its executives. We then talked about the workplace of the future, and the future of work in the post Covid world. I'm glad she spent the time talking with me, and am excited to share this episode with you.

Gary McGrath started a life journey studying leadership at a young age, and has been honing his skills as a leader, leadership coach, and mentor for...a long time. Gary now runs a leadership development academy for entire leadership teams at a variety of organizations. I could talk to Gary for hours about his perspective, but wanted to share this brief conversation with you.

Dan Silberberg has been an innovative leader of companies for decades, and has studied leadership for that entire time. He is an out-of-the-box leader, who has a track record of achieving dramatic growth...not just incremental growth. I had a great time talking with him about some of his experiences and some of the principles he tries to develop with his clients.

Shadi Ireifej is a veterinarian/entrapreneur. He's the co-founder of vettriage.com, an innovative veteranary service that helps pet owners "figure out how freaked out they need to be" when their pets have that inevitable midnight emergency. I was impressed with how he combined a few straightforward services into a highly differentiated service. I was even more impressed with how the service brings differentiated value to pets, their owners, their regular veterinarians, and even to emergency 24 hour vet clinics. Thanks for a great conversation, Shadi!

Tom Williams is one of those sales training and consulting experts who's carried a bag, been a VP of Sales and Marketing, and even CEO. Currently, he focuses on sales performance, which means that sales training is one of the components of most of his client engagements. He and I have both seen countless successes and failures in sales training initiatives, and Tom and I thought it would be great to go through some of our experiences -- the good, the bad, and the truly disappointing.

David Petts has served as VP of Sales, as well as Chief Revenue Officer for companies small and large. As CRO of a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, he's been charged with making sure the customer is sold, stays sold, and deepening the customer relationship. David is very process-oriented and a true systems thinker, and it was fun talking through his approach to company-side value focus.

A while after Bill Higgs left the Army Rangers, he founded Mustang Engineering, an engineering services company that started out competing in the oil & gas industry, and kept growing. From the outset, Bill and his co-founders wanted to differentiate their company culture...and it worked incredibly well. We talk culture, customer value, silo-busting, company-wide customer orientation, and that "value culture eats sales methodology for breakfast".

Bill left Mustang, and the culture continues to thrive, a testament to legacy-building. Now, as author of the #1 best-selling book "Culture Code Champions" he's a globally-recognized expert on building winning cultures.

Enjoy! I sure did.

Keith Campagna is passionate about selling value...so much so that he joined the founders of the ROI shop, where he was a client, to part of the leadership team. His company helps sellers guide conversations all the way to customer value--quantified. This behavior is what elite sellers do. The time flew by as we talked about selling value, pricing value, avoiding discounts, and avoiding the tar pit of "the dreaded ROI calculator spreadsheet". What a great conversation!

B2B sales professionals and purchasing professionals....we aren't in the same tribe, are we? Over decades of working with procurement people, I've learned that they are just as serious about their role as sellers are about theirs. Jens Hentschel has been a procurement professional for decades, and now runs a consulting firm that 1) professionalizes procurement 2) teaches sales professionals how to deal with--align effectively with -- their purchasing agent. We had a great conversation about the second, which is based upon an article he wrote on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-your-buyer-love-dear-supplier-please-reduce-price-jens-hentschel/?trackingId=RR6GA3rLvLmPQ1qqV9OQVA%3D%3D

Steve Hollingsworth and I are both sales performance consultants who believe in chasing customer value...so we consider each other kindred spirits. Steve's path has driven him to be relentless about analyzing and improving selling systems. I often start my engagements looking at customer value focus, where Steve is an authority in system. His engagements dig into all of the processes in sales and marketing that make up the selling system, finding gaps and weaknesses, and building a plan to fix them in order of impact. It was great to get his perspective since we both want our clients to get to the same place.

Gary White is the founder and CEO of White Springs, a UK-based, but North America-centric company who has served pretty much all of the major sales methodology (sales training) companies in the world. White Springs helps integrate the sales tools of each major methodology in each major CRM platform. As a result, Gary and his company have a unique perspective on CRM, making it work for companies, sales methodology/Intellectual property companies, and how they are differentiating today. I really enjoyed his perspective, and know you will too.

Mike Maynard, Mikey to his friends, runs the human capital practice for a commercial real estate consulting firm, Keyser Company. While other parts of the company deal with their clients' real estate spend, Mike's expertise is in human capital. He's passionate about identifying the secret sauce of top performers in all kinds of roles...we talked mostly about sales roles. Not only does Mike have some surprising insights on what it takes to hire a great seller, he also talks excitedly about "Talent Share" making sure a company is able to source a sufficient share of the available pool of high-potential talent.

Alvin LeBourgeois is a sales performance expert who equips growth-oriented leaders to have believable confidence in their commercial strategies. He's asked me to collaborate on some of his past client engagements, and we talk about how each of our journeys have taken us to complementary views on value, leadership, culture, and sales performance.

Stephen Shapiro is a world-class speaker, but his true gift to the world is his commitment to helping organizations innovate. Innovate by asking better questions from a wider set of vantage points and perspectives. Steve defines innovation as the pursuit of relevance, or in the language of this podcast: value. Steve and I had a great conversation, sharing points of view, and I gained a lot from his.

Justin McCarthy has been a seller, sales leader, and sales excellence (AKA sales enablement) leader. That rich experience colors his point of view on sales performance, sales automation, sales tools, and the need to build a flexible, responsive sales system...responsive to changes in your environment from, say, a pandemic. What a great conversation with a truly servant leader.

Christine is a veteran of enterprise software sales, and has learned a few things about selling both on-prem and cloud-based solutions. She shares her insights and experiences in selling both. Even if you don't sell software, listen to this session. Cloud-based solutions were innovative not because of a different software architecture, but because they became about business outcomes. What a great lesson for any seller!

In season two of the ValuClarity podcast, we will be covering major themes of interest to company leaders and executives. Christine Gilroy will be my co-host this season, interviewing some great guests. In this episode, we discuss some of this season's big themes: The digital enterprise, the sales organization of the future, how agility is the new imperative, and corporate culture. Then, we spend a few minutes taking a short dive into one topic, diversity...not because it's the right thing to do, but because it gets business results.

Adam Kipnes coaches his clients through a focused strategic planning exercise that engages all stakeholders, and develops innovative plans by asking better questions. This approach makes the plan a living document, with some contingency planning built in. In our conversation, we talked about the challenges of making a long-term plan during periods of rapid, extreme change -- specifically a global pandemic.

Steve Melanson helps clients distill their differentiation down into a single, simple concept. Then, he helps them align everything in their business to that simple, clean brand promise: their graphic/media presence, marketing, operations, service...everything. He and I are kindred spirits in that regard. I really enjoyed our conversation, and of course (egotistically), how much we agree.

Joe Swinger confesses that he used to be the "manager from hell" until he received a wake-up call from his management after the results of employee surveys. He quickly figured out that getting results from your team actually gets easier when you motivate and coach them. This revelation led him on his own journey of coaching and helping mid-career professionals figure out how they can live lives of "Vibrancy, Impact, and Purpose"...I can think of no better charter for anyone in any management/leadership role.

VAluClarity goes global: Alessandro Duringon joined me from his home just outside of Milan, Italy. Alessandro is a sales leader with experience in a variety of technology product companies. We talked about selling value, and how small-seeming differentiation can lead to selling success, even earning a price premium.

Tim Rethlake is leads sales team training for the world's largest fireplace and hearth company. He shares his wisdom extensively on social media, in clever, pithy posts. Tim and I talked about differentiation, value, and how sales organizations adapt to change. I always enjoy spending time with Tim, and hope enjoy this conversation.

Bob Pizzini enlisted in the navy, ultimately becoming an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) specialist. Upon leaving the service, he had to learn to lead young people who had not benefitted from the US military's extensive leadership training infrastructure. Through some trying times, he's developed his own style of leadership that starts with a heavy dose of self-management, then goes on to team management. I love what he has to say about all of it.

I often coach my clients that sometimes you can achieve high-value uniqueness by being the only one to combine two familiar (not-well-differentiated) ones. Aneesh Chaudry has created a business that differentiates by Integrating two well-known disciplines into a unique new one: A creative differentiation method. By integrating eastern and western healing traditions, a high-value, different service was created. While I am personally interested in integrative medicine, there are some value and differentiation lessons to be learned from Aneesh.

Mike Skrypnek found himself at a crossroads after the crash of 2008, and took advantage of an opportunity to reimagine his business, his life, and his career. He dove into hundreds of hours of self-examination, guided by experts in the field, and developed his own "Grow, Get, Give" ethos, where companies grow through customer value focus, and share that success philanthropically. We talk about it in a great interview which has some powerful parallels to any business or sales person.

George Brontén: is a thought leader, author, and the CEO of a CRM company who finds that CRMs often don't do what they should. We talk about what sales leaders should be getting their teams to do instead of logging activities, about the importance of coaching (not managing) and his book, which helps sales people -- and the coaches coaching them -- avoid those simple mistakes that are high-frequency deal-killers.

Tricia Benn, Executive VP with the C-Suite Network serves as the guest host for this episode. She interviews Mark Boundy as the guest. We talk about the vision of a value-focused organization, and some of the tools we use with clients to help simplify and clarify that process.

Bryan Wright is a video master, who has run state-of-the-art video production departments for major silicon valley firms, and now does it as his business. Video has become a key tool for companies to communicate their value...and like any tool, can be used expertly or incompetently (and anywhere in between). We discuss how to communicate value, brand, etc.

Dr. Rachel MK Headly -- author, scientist, and speaker and I talk about leading change, including an introduction to her approach to understanding how the people on your team want to work with each other. Knowing this allows a team to figure out why they drive each other crazy even though they know why they need each other....and how to break the cycle of dysfunctional teams.

I met Steve Sundberg when he was a global sales leader of over 150 customer-facing professionals...the most value-conscious sales force I've ever encountered. Since then, he's led or owned several small-to-medium sized contract manufacturers, and has grown them by making sure that the entire company knows how their role contributes to customer value. He's living proof that de-siloing by putting customer value (not simply "the customer") in everyone's sights makes everyone more successful.

Martyn Lewis focuses his client engagements around their customers' journey. He helps sales forces design their process around a customer buying, which ultimately results in more revenue. His book, "How Customers Buy...and Why they Don't" distills what he does nicely. We talk about what it means to help customers buy...a great conversation

Cristina DiGiacomo helps business leaders seek greater wisdom. Using the thoughts of history's greatest thinkers, she brings fresh, brilliant perspectives to the most modern problems, but using the world's giant minds to help ask the right questions. I love talking with Cristina, and thought I'd have a conversation with her in front of a microphone. I think you'll enjoy it.

Arjun Sen has consulted with a who's who of consumer brands, and continues to advise executives at major brands on strategy. We talk about value in the consumer space, some of the differences vis-a-vis business-to-business marketing and sales...and the even stronger parallels.

Greg Williams, the Master Negotiator, is a noted speaker and trainer on body language and negotiation. We agreed that tough negotiations in sales often means that the selling organization failed to build sufficient value early in the customer's buying process...but that negotiation skills, including an understanding of your counterpart's body language, is often a key skillset.

David Newman is the Author of "Do It! Marketing" and more recently "Do It! Speaking". He helps professional speakers (independents and executives who speak as part of their jobs) grow in all aspects of the business, especially marketing and selling this very intangible service. We talk about the process of building personal credibility and brand to build value that deserves the prices you need.

Christine Gilroy has been a sales leader selling sales performance technology for many years. She's sold CRM and bought all kinds of sales training and technology. Through it all, she's seen that the differentiator isn't more/cooler tech, it's selling customer outcomes...She is adamant that tools that help sellers do that are what sales leaders really need, now more than ever.

Lee Smith, founder and CEO of SalesFuel talks about his specialties: hiring great people, coaching them well, and dealing with the different toxic employee types. His book "Hire Smarter, Sell More" captures his learning and his company's special sauce in helping their clients become more successful in selling.

Kak Varley is a highly experienced sales professional and sales leader. We talk about the essence of sales and value: The company's value to the salesperson, the salesperson's value to the company, the value of the company's products/services to customers.

Rich Blakeman is the sales leader's leader. He's personally grown and led sales forces, and has helped clients transform their sales forces. His experience with sellers covers a broad range of industries, and he's successfully gone deep into sales organizations to build sales excellence. We talk about how nothing moves without great discovery: understanding the customer, their world, and their aspirations.

Holly Duckworth is an accomplished speaker and mindfulness practitioner. Her most recent book, "Sell More, Stress Less" is a guidebook with 52 weekly affirmations on mindfulness in sales. We talk about mindfulness and intention to be of value to your customer/client is foundational to performing discovery in a truly customer-centric way. THAT enables sellers to uncover value gaps and to co-create innovative solutions with clients.

Valerie Bertrand consults on wealth and investments, but that's the tip of the iceberg that is her offer. She dives deep into clients' motivations, desires, and mental blocks to help them realize true wealth. What she does feels like so much more than your run-of-the-mill investment advisor, and also much more than a counselor....by combining a unique blend of two pretty standard professions, she has developed a highly differentiated, highly valuable service. We talk about that, and how significant her discovery and differentiation is in her business.

Tricia Benn of the C-Suite Network talks about her work with the C-Suite Network and that organizations Hero Club. Tricia is in charge of building strong communities of business leaders. We talk about "the 5 Keeps for right now": Keep customers engaged , Keep employees focused keep cash flowing , Keep showing Continuity, Keep your spirits up.

Steve Lishansky and I are kindred spirits. Like me, he helps organizations transition from sales forces to teams of trusted business consultants. We talk about understanding the outcomes beyond what a customer knows to ask for. Steve says that "the ability to facilitate [customer] clarity about what is most important to them is the ultimate differentiator".

David Veech knows leadership, from his time in the armed forces, to being a leadership coach, trainer, and facilitator. We talk about his work, about creating meaning for people, about aligning everyone in the organization around customer value.

Tina Greenbaum is a psychotherapist with a "performance under pressure" practice. Her clients include top athletes and executives. She comes onto the ValuClarity Podcast to discuss how every sales professional in the world could stand to increase their window of stress tolerance.

Kerri Salls, best-selling author of Multiply Your Business Value in 3 Steps, specializes in helping clients grow the value of their businesses. She starts with internal value: people, process and values that operationalize best practices into a business. This results in increased external value: value to a buyer of the business.

We also discussed what this means in the context of the current COVID-19 (at least when we recorded this episode), and how the lockdown exposes the truly important in our businesses...what may have been a back-burner initiative is now critical.

Darrell Amy, Author of the upcoming book, "Revenue Growth Engine" and I talk about putting customer value at the center of Sales and Marketing Alignment. Rather than settling inter-department disputes in favor of either sales or marketing, the "winner" should always be customer value focus.

Darrell believes that value (and articulating it in the form of messaging and then dialogue) is the fuel of the sales and marketing engine. Your technology stack, processes, playbooks might be great engine components, but without value....they amount to a powerful engine without anything to power it.

Times have made this episode's topic more important than ever.

Lisa Levy has combined project management with change management...with continuous improvement disciplines to help her clients build a critical business capability: corporate agility. She calls it Adaptive Transformation, and is about to launch a book...to go with her successful consulting practice, LCubed Consulting.

We talk about the general need for corporate agility, but go into applying it to quarantines, working virtually, and tease the most important thing you can do: understand your customer value -- then build your strategy and processes around that.

I'm the guest on this episode, interviewed by Kelly Cordes in Minneapolis. We go through why I wrote the book, and a thumbnail of what's in it.

Bill Higgs, former Ranger and founder of Mustang Engineering, talks two sides of the same coin: leadership and culture. We discuss his experience with culture, his seven step process for building a culture (from his book, Culture Code Champions), that customer value is the reason business exists, and the importance of using customer value as your "where" alongside your leadership/culture "how".

Mark Stiving of Impact Pricing and the Impact Pricing podcast and I talk about value-based pricing. We agree on how important it is for sales, marketing, and product management organization to have a coordinated approach to building value in the customer's mind, so that a value-based price is possible

We talk about how customer value and customer experience are intertwined. I ask JJ to react to my customer experience classification system.

Stories are getting big in the sales world...but why, and how can you get those benefits? And what else can you use stories for. Bonnie Harvey and Michael Houlihan built Barefoot wines into the world's largest wine brand, by building a culture focusing everyone at Barefoot on value; on the customer. They have started a venture focusing on using the best in storytelling to help companies build the right culture.

Companies have formed silos to help them perform their operations more efficiently and effectively, but that siloed structure often fails organizations trying to execute major buying decisions. Sales organizations need to be effective guides, saving their prospects from their own dysfunctions.

Value propositions are a monolithic statement in a world that requires personalization.

Value messaging is telling, not selling.

Value networks help companies build a suite of value hypotheses tuned to individual buying personas

Myth 1: Price should be calcuated from your costs

Myth 2: Dropping price will increase demand

Myth 3: Price is just another feature

Myth 4: You can "Make it Up On Volume"

Myth 5: There's Such a Thing as Limited-time Discount

Bonus Myth 6: When a Customer Says "Your Price is Too High", believe it.

Our First Episode! What the ValuClarity Podcast is all about, and why we're here. First order of business: define value...the same as customer-perceived value, because value doesn't come in any other flavors.

Special thanks to Craig Theorin for the theme music: The Know Value Blues.