Sales Tales - A podcast sharing epic stories that get you through your sales adventure.

Josh Shirley
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Business
  • Weekly

Introducing Sales Tales - a podcast for people who want to: Grow their sales performance Increase their income Learn to cope with failure Challenge the traditional-selling mindset This is for sellers, those who manage sellers, or those who lead organizations toward future revenue outcomes.

  1. 6d ago

    Episode 96 - 3 Places Your Buyers Are Using AI in the Sales Process

    In the early 2000s, baseball teams still signed players the way they always had: experienced scouts watched them play and made the call. Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s changed that. They started evaluating players by on-base percentage and cost, and built a roster out of players other teams had passed over. The data became the decision maker nobody in the scouting room saw coming. Jonah Hill’s number-crunching character in Moneyball was the AI of his day. Now your buyers have the real thing. In this episode, we break down the three places it’s already weighing in on your deals: The decision step. Why AI is a decision maker you’ll never get to meet, the window replacement story that shows what happens when buyers are left to sort out features and benefits on their own, and learn a "Let’s Pretend" tactic that puts the AI objection on the table earlyThe budget step. How AI widens a buyer’s view of budget past your price to ROI, time, and people, what the ERP horror stories teach us about full cost, and how AI can work in your favor when a competitor’s bid looks too cheapThe pain step. What to do when a buyer who’s done all their research with AI shows up demanding a presentation, why asking “why” keeps you in control, and learn a two-bucket statement for buyers who only want a price AI can make qualifying harder, and it still won’t stop you from finding someone in pain. Sales Tales is the sales training podcast built on real stories, real tactics, and zero fluff. New episode every week.

    Episode 96 - 3 Places Your Buyers Are Using AI in the Sales Process

  2. Oct 22

    Episode 95 - 3 Moments Sellers Talk Themselves Out of a Sale

    By 1971, Blue Ribbon Sports had spent years building an American market for Onitsuka’s Tiger running shoes. Then Onitsuka came to Phil Knight with an ultimatum: sell us a controlling stake in your company, or we take our shoes to another distributor. Knight held his response, bought time, and got on a plane to Japan to find a new factory. By 1972, Blue Ribbon was selling shoes under its own brand. They called it Nike. The objection that created Nike opens up a bigger idea: you can never listen your way out of a sale, but you can talk your way out of one. In this episode, we break down the three moments it happens most: After asking a great question. Why sellers rescue buyers from silence, how to tell a buyer who’s thinking from one who’s checked out, and why multiple-choice questions hand prospects pain they don’t actually haveAfter hearing an objection. Why “your price is higher than we expected” gets heard as “you’re too expensive,” and the clarifying question that finds what’s really behind itAfter the buyer says yes. Why “send the contract” is still a statement, how the Parent, Adult, and Child ego states drive a buyer’s excitement, and why you should never be more excited than your prospectSales Tales is the sales training podcast built on real stories, real tactics, and zero fluff. New episode every week.

    Episode 95 - 3 Moments Sellers Talk Themselves Out of a Sale

  3. Oct 15

    Episode 94 - 4 Questions That Expose a Fake Sales Opportunity

    In April 2020, Quibi launched with $1.75 billion raised, Jeffrey Katzenberg (Disney, DreamWorks) as founder, Meg Whitman (eBay) as CEO, and a lineup of short, Hollywood-produced shows built for your phone. Six months later, Katzenberg and Whitman announced they were shutting it down. By December, the service was gone. On paper, Quibi had everything a strong deal in your pipeline seems to have: money, executive sponsorship, a firm deadline, and plenty of activity. We use this example to break down why opportunities like that still fall apart, starting with a LinkedIn poll Josh ran asking sellers why their last deal didn’t close. 47% said they had the wrong person in the room. 33% said the timeline was never real. Only 13% lost to a competitor. Everything else traced back to qualification. Dave brings four questions that tell you whether you actually have a deal: What happens if you do nothing? A gut check for pain, and how to tell real consequences apart from interest and curiosityWhat are the consequences of missing your deadline? Why “sometime in Q4” is a non-answer, why the date has to come from the buyer, and the follow-up question that tests itIf you had to find it, is there money available to solve this? What to do when the answer is “I don’t know,” and how a price range opens the conversationIf you decided to move forward, what would actually have to happen on your side? Why asking about the process gets you further than asking who the decision maker is Sales Tales is the sales training podcast built on real stories, real tactics, and zero fluff. New episode every week.

    Episode 94 - 4 Questions That Expose a Fake Sales Opportunity

  4. Oct 8

    Episode 93 - 4 Brutal Truths Sales Managers Don't Want to Face

    On January 28, 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger sat on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on a cold January morning. The people closest to the problem had already raised the alarm. Engineers at contractor Morton Thiokol had seen O-ring erosion on earlier flights, testing showed the seals got worse in the cold, and they recommended against launching below 53 degrees. NASA managers pushed back, Thiokol management reversed its position, and the Rogers Commission later found that the engineers' continuing objections never reached the senior people who made the launch decision. Earlier missions had come home safely, so a known problem had slowly become acceptable. Sales leaders fall into the same pattern. The warning signs are usually there, and your reps often see them first. A process that keeps producing results is easy to excuse, and an answer you don't like is easy to wave off. In this episode, we cover four brutal truths that sales managers can see coming and would rather not face and unpack each one. In this episode you'll learn: Your best rep is going to leave. Most managers know it could happen and plan for nothing. The episode covers why a client should belong to the company and not to one rep, how to build bench strength, and why "always be recruiting" beats writing a job posting after the resignation.Your forecast is probably telling you what your reps think you want to hear. This is the O-ring problem in your pipeline. The close date slides to October, nobody asks why, and the bad news arrives in December. We cover the questions that test whether a deal is real.The problem you keep coaching might actually be you. When several reps keep struggling with the same thing, that's a signal about leadership. This covers supervising versus coaching, promoting your best seller with no leadership training.Eventually you have to let someone fail. Stepping in to fix things keeps this quarter's results looking fine while your team stops growing. Failure is where the learning happens and how to start with low-stakes situations. Three questions to take back to your team: If your number one rep left on Friday, what breaks on Monday? Have you created a culture where it's easier to move the close date than kill the deal? Are you coaching your reps, or becoming their best sales rep? Sales Tales is the sales training podcast built on real stories, real tactics, and zero fluff. New episode every week. 🎙️ Hosted by Josh Shirley with co-host Dave Doherty🔗 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

    Episode 93 - 4 Brutal Truths Sales Managers Don't Want to Face

  5. Oct 1

    Episode 92 - Four Emails Every Salesperson Should Have Ready to Send

    On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 hit a flock of Canada geese minutes after leaving LaGuardia and lost both engines. Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles had about three and a half minutes to get 155 people on the ground somewhere over New York City. Skiles worked the engine restart checklist. Sully worked the question no checklist could answer: where can this plane actually land? He chose the Hudson River, and everyone on board survived. Years of practiced procedures handled everything predictable, which freed Sully to focus on the one thing nobody could have planned for. Sales communication works the same way. Every time you rewrite the same pre-call email, referral intro, or meeting recap, you spend brainpower your customer conversations need. On this episode, Josh reads four short emails he actually sends: The meeting confirmation, which gives the buyer an easy out days ahead and doubles as an upfront contract for the callThe referral introduction, a template his referral sources personalize and send on his behalfThe meeting recap, which confirms the next meeting and gives the buyer a reason to show upThe breakup email, the "have you found another way?" message most sequences save for last, sent earlier He walks through why each one works and how to write your own versions, so you can prepare the predictable and save your attention for the unpredictable. Sales Tales is the sales training podcast built on real stories, real tactics, and zero fluff. New episode every week.

    Episode 92 - Four Emails Every Salesperson Should Have Ready to Send

  6. Sep 24

    Episode 91 - The Kodak Rule: Why Sellers Hold On to Deals They Should Let Go

    In 1975, a Kodak engineer built the first digital camera. Kodak had the invention, the knowledge, and the cash, and still shelved it because it threatened the film business that was making them so profitable. This leads to a hard question in sales: which deals in your pipeline are you refusing to see clearly? In this episode, we walk through four signs it's time to let a deal go: pain that never gets past surface-level interesta champion who can't get you access to the people who can say yesno believable path to fundinga buyer who isn't taking any steps on their own We'll discuss why you should stop asking "Are you the decision maker?", how to tell an unfunded problem from an unfundable one, and why a deal with no pain belongs back at the qualify stage. The episode closes with a simple four-point scorecard for deciding whether to work a deal, diagnose it, stop forecasting it, or let it go. Sales Tales is the sales training podcast built on real stories, real tactics, and zero fluff. New episode every week.

    Episode 91 - The Kodak Rule: Why Sellers Hold On to Deals They Should Let Go

  7. Sep 17

    Episode 90 - The Four Types of Bad Sales Emails (That We're Still Sending)

    Some sales emails are bad because they're too long. Others are bad because they're too salesy. And some are bad because they act like you and the prospect are old friends—even though you've never met. In this episode of Sales Tales, Josh and Dave break down four real sales emails that landed in Josh's inbox and diagnose exactly where they went wrong. You'll meet The Pitch, The Novel, The Fake Friend, and The Ransom Note—four common approaches that sellers use every day, often with the best of intentions. In this episode, you'll learn: Why leading with your product and value proposition can make an email all about you Why cold emails should usually stay around 75 words The difference between professional rapport and pretending you already have a relationship Why researching a prospect doesn't give you permission to diagnose their problems How third-party stories can surface pain without telling a prospect what's wrong with them Why relevance matters more than friendliness What to do when you've sent five emails and find yourself writing, "Just following up..." Plus, Josh tells the bizarre story of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o and the girlfriend who didn't exist—and explains why some prospecting emails can feel a little like getting catfished. If your prospecting emails aren't getting responses, don't just send more of them. Take a look at what you're actually putting in their inbox. Sales Tales shares epic stories that get salespeople talking.

    Episode 90 - The Four Types of Bad Sales Emails (That We're Still Sending)

  8. Sep 10

    Episode 89 - The Attention Budget: What Apollo 13 Taught Josh About Cold Calls

    In 1970, Apollo 13 was heading home with a problem. To re-enter the atmosphere, the crew had to power the command module back up, but they had an extremely limited electrical budget. Flip the wrong switches in the wrong order, and they'd blow it before they ever made it back. Every cold call has the same problem. A prospect who doesn't know you has an extremely limited attention budget, and most sellers try to flip every switch at once: who they are, what they do, why they're calling, all in the first ten seconds. The system shuts down before it ever gets a chance to work. Josh and Dave break down the sequence that keeps a prospect's attention budget intact instead of spending it all at once. It starts with a pattern interrupt that tells the truth instead of following the script the prospect is bracing for, moves into a mini upfront contract that stops the clock the prospect is silently running, and lands on a 30-second commercial that's about the prospect's world instead of a features-and-benefits dump. In this episode, we cover how to find a reason to keep the conversation going without going into full sales mode too early, and how to recognize the exact moment to stop talking and book the next meeting before the energy runs out. By the end, you'll have a three-part way to earn the right to a real conversation instead of hoping one of your words happens to land. Sales Tales is the sales training podcast built on real stories, real tactics, and zero fluff. New episode every week.

    Episode 89 - The Attention Budget: What Apollo 13 Taught Josh About Cold Calls
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Introducing Sales Tales - a podcast for people who want to: Grow their sales performance Increase their income Learn to cope with failure Challenge the traditional-selling mindset This is for sellers, those who manage sellers, or those who lead organizations toward future revenue outcomes.

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