How the Deal was Done | Enterprise Sales Podcast

Matthew Klingner | Andrew Kappel
  • 4.6 (8)
  • Business
  • Updated Monthly

How the Deal was Done: Fast-paced interviews with top sellers & leaders. Each week we sit down with the best enterprise sales executives and Founders to unpack transformational deals & discuss the mindsets, strategies, and actions of world class performers.

  1. Sep 8

    S2 Ep 13: Machiel Kunst, From Sales Leader to CEO of Europe's Largest AI & SaaS Recruitment Org

    Machiel Kunst built one of Europe's most successful B2B SaaS and AI sales recruiting firms on a premise almost no one else was willing to act on: hire ex-sellers to recruit sellers. He went from number-one AE out of 65, to building teams of 40+, to co-founding Bluebird — now 35 people, offices in Amsterdam and Sydney, on track to be the largest recruitment firm in its niche in Europe by revenue this year. This episode covers the playbook behind Bluebird's growth — including a nine-month nurture campaign to Sequoia that landed a 16-AE placement mandate — and the decade-refined framework Machiel uses to qualify sales talent.Key QuotesOn why deep market knowledge beats raw sales talent:"I knew exactly what was going on with all of these organizations, the dynamics in the market. And then I stepped into an account executive role — and I think that really gave me a massive advantage." On booking his own cold meetings as CEO: "Literally today I booked two meetings with VCs cold. I booked three meetings with companies cold. It's a skill set you should never let go if you possess it." On the most underrated career mistake in B2B sales:"I sometimes wonder whether people are aware of how important it is to be able to assess whether a company is possible of going sky high — because simply the vast majority of companies don't." On AI creating genuine personal connection:"I got a meeting prep from Claude and it said they have this one-liner at the bottom of every email. It was an Enzo Ferrari quote — it probably means this person is a bit of a petrol head, so you could start the conversation with that. And I did, and it actually opened up the conversation really nicely." The Tactical Breakdown Score candidates on characteristics, not just competencies — Machiel adapted Mark Roberge's framework from The Sales Acceleration Formula, scoring candidates on coachability, curiosity, work ethic, and intelligence. He tracked each hire's actual performance against their score for years and continuously refined it.Separate three evaluation lenses — Characteristics (the scoring model), competencies (deal size, stakeholder level, industry), and cultural fit. Cultural fit is an art, competencies are a checklist — characteristics are where you differentiate.Run a nine-month nurture before asking for business — Machiel emailed Sequoia's head of talent monthly with company milestones for nine months before getting a referral. That referral turned into 16 AE placements in Germany.Engineer premium events to make BD easy — Bluebird runs dinners for 20 founders with Ottolenghi catering and Dermot Duggan (CEO coach of Klaviyo, Databricks, Grammarly) speaking. The event does the work; the team closes in the room. The Sales Acceleration Formula — Mark Roberge — data-driven hiring framework with scoreable candidate characteristics; the foundation of Bluebird's qualification modelFireflies — AI meeting recorder; transcripts feed automatically into Bluebird's CRM — fireflies.aiClaude — meeting prep, post-call follow-up, presentation building, cold outreach via Claude Cowork — claude.aiGlassdoor — recommended for vetting company culture before accepting a role — glassdoor.comRuben Hassid — LinkedIn creator focused on AI automation workflowsDermot Duggan — Founder of 10XCEO USA; CEO coach to Klaviyo, Databricks, GrammarlyZoe Jervier Hewitt — Former Head of Talent Acquisition, Sequoia CapitalUniversal Cultural End Index — Bluebird's internal framework defining the characteristics that make someone a fit for a specific company, built before any hiring beginsGiving an A — Annual team exercise: write a letter to yourself from year-end explaining why you earned a 10/10 — not based on hitting number, but on who you becameConnect with Machiel LinkedIn — Machiel Kunst, Co-Founder & CEO, Bluebird

    S2 Ep 13: Machiel Kunst, From Sales Leader to CEO of Europe's Largest AI & SaaS Recruitment Org

  2. Jun 3

    S2E12: Sarah Thomas, Closing The Biggest Deal in Company History

    How the Deal Was Done | Sarah Thomas, Strategic AE at Verkada Sarah Thomas closed the biggest deal in Verkada history. 1,000 retail franchise locations, a skeptical new champion, a botched proof of concept, and a three-party sell across customer, integrator, and Verkada internally. The deal nearly died over a scope miscommunication that put her integrity on the line. She revived it by owning the mistake, renegotiating the structure, and rebuilding trust at every layer. In this episode: How to run parallel prospecting threads across a channel dealWhat to do when your pilot surfaces a broken promiseHow to beat a cheaper competitor on total cost of ownershipWhy selling year four matters more than winning year oneHow to structure staggered licensing around implementation realityKey Quotes "The customer said we had communicated one thing in the sales process — and during the POC it looked different. My integrity was challenged. But we owned our part of it." "How do they trust us year two, year three, year four? Not just buying equipment — truly partnering." "Can you even spend this money? It's uncomfortable asking, but maybe not as soon as I should." Resources MentionedFanatical Prospecting — Jeb BlountGong — deal intelligence and call reviewGemini — prospecting and account research Connect with SarahLinkedIn: Sarah Thomas, Strategic Account Executive, Verkada How the Deal Was Done | Host: Matthew KlingnerFor senior AEs, founders, and GTM leaders who want to close bigger, more complex deals.

    S2E12: Sarah Thomas, Closing The Biggest Deal in Company History

  3. May 19

    S2E11: Philipp Klein: From Legal Threats to a $1M Win

    How the Deal Was DoneEpisode: Philipp Klein, From Legal Threats to a $1M WinGuest: Philipp Klein, Enterprise Account Director Companies: Blinkist | CoachHub Industry: Learning & Development / HR TechEpisode SummaryPhilip Klein joined CoachHub as one of its first five employees in 2019. In this episode, he walks through one of the most dramatic enterprise deals in the company's history — a nearly seven-figure coaching platform sale to Booking.com that spanned two years, survived a legal threat, and navigated a global pandemic.Key Moments in the Deal1. The Lead Came from an SDR Philipp credits the shared-room culture of celebrating every small win as the foundation that made the deal possible. That buzz and collective energy often makes up for what early-stage teams lack in formal training. 2. Qualifying for Transformation, Not Just Interest CoachHub's calendar was full of the wrong meetings — coaching enthusiasts who wanted to coach 10–15 people. Booking.com's team was different: they asked how CoachHub could scale and weren't scared of big numbers. 3. Reframing the Demo Request Rather than handing over access to an immature product, Philipp asked prospects to articulate what they actually needed to evaluate. That unlocked 4–5 additional stakeholder meetings that competitors — who just sent the login — likely never got. 4. The Legal Crisis Days after signing the pilot, Booking.com went dark, then sent a formal email threatening legal action over a data privacy dispute. Philip's response: mapped stakeholders on LinkedIn, escalated to senior management, and brought in the CEO and Chief Legal Officer to a recovery meeting. The CLO's command of data privacy law reestablished credibility and broke the impasse. 5. COVID as an Unexpected Catalyst When the pandemic froze Booking.com's business, CoachHub kept dialing. They proposed a small global pilot — 15 senior decision-makers at HQ — to stay relevant and transition from vendor to strategic partner. When budgets unfroze, they were first in line. 6. Closing the Big Deal By late 2020, the close was — in Philip's words — the easier part. Financial incentives pulled the deal from December to November, and implementation meetings were already in stakeholders' calendars before the signature. The deal closed itself through the gate they'd built.Quotable Moments "The signature is basically just a gate the customer has to go through. Otherwise they cannot get to the next room.""You don't build confidence from successes. You build it from a mixture of successes and failures." "The difficult groundwork is what we did before. The big close was actually the easier part."Resources & LinksConnect with Philipp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippklein/Case study video: Search "CoachHub Booking.com" to see the video he negotiated into the contractHow the Deal Was Done drops weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts

    S2E11: Philipp Klein: From Legal Threats to a $1M Win

  4. May 11

    S2E10: Ron Masi, Orchestrating a 7-Figure Deal to Perfection

    Ron Masi - Linkedin Ron spent 10 years selling ink on paper before moving into SaaS in 2015. He built his enterprise game the hard way — through coaches, mentors, and a lot of swing-and-miss — until he had a system for running deals at a level most AEs never reach. This episode is about a deal he's never forgotten. Not because of the size, but because of the execution. Every piece moved on purpose. The research, the internal alignment, the mind maps, the 90-minute demo that didn't show a single feature — it all came together and they walked out knowing they'd won. What you'll take away: How to build a deal dossier that actually changes how you sell, how to run an internal team across a complex opportunity without being in every room, and what it looks like when a demo stops being a demo and becomes a story. On research: "We highlighted every page of the CEO's book. We knew everything about them first." On internal selling: "Some people want to run really fast with you. Some people want to go slow. You have to think about how you're going to set this up." On not connecting the dots for the customer: "Never let the customer have to connect the dots. You need to connect them as much as possible." On the demo: "We didn't show the platform. We told them a story. We maybe clicked on four things. Maybe." On the win: "There was no possible way the people coming next were going to do that." On the feeling: "It's like an energy you don't even understand. Like if you played sports and you're in the zone — the basket was as big as the ocean." People Mentioned: Jamal Reimer — Mega deal coach, mentor to RonBrian Burns — Sales coach, introduced Ron to mind mapping & "map to money"Dennis Sorensen — Mentor, taught Ron how to unpack annual reports & 10-KsMind mapping — Core tool Ron used to organize deal strategy and move pieces as the deal evolved

    S2E10: Ron Masi, Orchestrating a 7-Figure Deal to Perfection

  5. May 5

    S2 Ep 9: Scott Knights, Global Top Performer at Proofpoint

    Scott Knights — Major Account Manager at Proofpoint The Episode Scott Knights is a Major Account Manager at Proofpoint in Melbourne, managing some of the company's largest enterprise accounts across ANZ. This episode centers on how Scott inherited an account where the platform was "just working" — a comfortable situation that most AEs leave alone — and turned it into a full-scale platform transformation by convincing 30+ stakeholders across a parent organization to adopt a new vision for human-centric security. The account had been running the same Proofpoint deployment since the mid-2010s, nearly a decade without strategic evolution. You'll walk away with a clear picture of how to re-enter a dormant account, build a vision-led business case, and orchestrate internal and external stakeholders without losing anyone along the way. Key Quotes: On the most dangerous thing a customer can tell you: "The first bit of feedback was, hey, everything's great, but there's not really any further opportunity here. And that's kind of really interesting because I think that's the place that AI cannot disrupt." On qualifying out before the customer falls in love with the solution: "I said, look, we can definitely solve this. But it's going to cost approximately X. Are you comfortable and confident that your executive or senior leadership are going to sign off on this? And in the end, you could sort of see that that particular individual hadn't kind of really thought through the commercial value of what they were trying to achieve." On what the job actually is: "It's as much of a orchestrator as it is as a technology evangelist. If I look at one of my customers, there's 30 odd stakeholders within the parent org — from security and strategy and architectural teams, through to operational teams, through to legal and vendor managers and procurement." On the culture that quietly kills deals: "If the culture between teams kind of goes a bit off and starts to become even a little bit dysfunctional — people getting agitated with one another, blame or frustration being vented on calls — the wheels can very quickly fall off after that." On what to do when a stakeholder pushes back: "Seek first to understand and then be understood. What's going on for that person? What's the concern? What's the gap they're trying to solve for? And then once I understand that, I can go, okay, well, how do we solve this together?" On the mindset behind everything: "I'm just a very average guy. There is nothing exceptional about who I am or what I bring. But it's determination or diligence or just putting in that little bit of effort every day — it adds up. The success is just a natural outcome of that value creation." Referenced in the episode: Strategic Coach — Dan Sullivan's entrepreneurial mindset framework; Scott studies his work extensively — strategiccoach.com Eat That Frog! — Brian Tracy — tackling your single most important task first; Scott keeps this on his desk The Dip — Seth Godin — when to push through hard seasons and when to move on Books by Kazuo Inamori — Founder of Kyocera; philosophy of asking "what is the right thing to do as a human being?" in every business decision; most titles in Japanese, English translations available Servant Leadership — Robert K. Greenleaf — Scott's explicit North Star for how he approaches customer relationships Enterprise Sales Community — Founded by Jamal Reimer; global network of senior enterprise sellers — referenced as transformative to his own career Connect with Scott: LinkedIn — Scott Knights, Major Account Manager, Proofpoint, Melbourne

    S2 Ep 9: Scott Knights, Global Top Performer at Proofpoint

  6. Apr 20

    S2 Ep 8: Merel Roest, Mastering Internal and External Storytelling in Strategic Sales

    Episode Speaker Notes: Merel Roest — Head of Sales at Guardey, Founder @ Blackbird GTMThe Episode:Merel Roest spent her first five years in marketing before moving into enterprise sales — and that background became her edge. At Freshworks, she closed a three-year, group-wide customer service transformation deal with a 5,000+ employee American organization, selling a product that wasn't fully built yet.Getting to yes meant running two parallel sales motions at the same time: one across multiple client stakeholders all the way up to their CEO, and one internally — working level by level through a hierarchical American HQ she could barely get face time with from her satellite office in the Netherlands. She won both.Now Head of Sales at Guardey, Merel is building the sales org from the ground up — rewriting the pitch, cleaning the CRM data, and using custom-built GPTs to accelerate her team's learning curve. What you'll take away: How to build a deal story that actually lands, how to run an internal sale when the product isn't ready, and what it really takes to go from President's Club rep to first-time leader. Key QuotesOn ditching the standard deck:"It was me talking at you, not me talking with you. I shaped it completely around them — about solving their problem, not about us."On demos that keep people awake:"A lot of account executives click through buttons. That's where people fall asleep. We created personas — this is your customer, this is their problem, this is how they'd use the tool."On the most powerful moment in any demo:"Based on what you've now seen, how would this help you? Let them say it."On social proof that actually works:"Everyone has a logo slide called 'Our Customers.' I hate it — it says nothing. What problem did you solve for them? That's the story you should focus on."On conviction in the deal:"I already knew from my gut from the beginning — I don't know why, but I just felt it. This one's ours."On product belief as a prerequisite:"I would never be able to sell something I don't feel is actually going to help. Your product needs to be good."On the internal sale:"I didn't just have a pitch deck for the customer. I had a pitch deck for our internal stakeholders — one for my line of reporting, one for the solution engineers. Everyone needs to know the ins and outs of why we think this could work."On sales culture:"If your employees are happy, your customers are going to be happy. Culture is very underestimated in high-pressure SaaS sales environments."On moving from rep to manager:"I wanted to earn this person's respect before going into coaching mode. And I told him: I'm going to make mistakes. If I do something that doesn't sit well with you, I hope you'll tell me."On perfectionism at a startup:"Done is better than perfect. I have to tell myself that every single day." Resources & Links Referenced in the episode: Winning by Design — Jaco van der Kooij's demo methodology; Merel cites his video on keeping buyers engaged throughout a demoThe Maverick Selling Method — Brian Burns — top performers throw out the standard scriptSPIN Selling, MEDDIC, SPICED — frameworks Merel used to build custom GPTs for her team's discovery and coachingTrustPilot & Google Reviews — used by Merel to benchmark client performance and build compelling before/after storytellingGlassdoor — recommended for vetting a company's culture before accepting a role Connect with Merel:⁠LinkedIn — Merel Roest⁠

    S2 Ep 8: Merel Roest, Mastering Internal and External Storytelling in Strategic Sales

  7. Apr 13

    S2 Ep 7: Mike Sullivan, From $80K Debt to $70M Closed

    Mike Sullivan is Executive Director of Sales at TriNetX, where he sells into top-20 pharmaceutical companies. This episode centers on his career-defining deal - a $3.55M ARR, two-year enterprise contract with a Fortune 500 pharma company that took nearly two years to close, ran 20+ use cases across 5 business units, and required Mike to get high in the account at month 20 of 24. This came at a time of great personal challenge and difficulty - balancing debt and obligations, while threading the needle of an incredibly difficult strategic sale. This deal flies in the face of almost everything we're taught in enterprise sales — and it worked because Mike refused to take shortcuts. He was 39 years old with $80K in debt when he joined TriNetX. This deal changed everything. Connect with Mike: LinkedIn: ⁠Mike Sullivan⁠Website: ⁠mikesullivan.co⁠Mike offers free 30-minute coffee chats for anyone navigating sales challenges or working to turn things around — reach out directly on LinkedIn or via his site.On getting high in the account: "I wasn't high in this deal until month 20 of 24. That goes against everything we're taught in enterprise sales — but I couldn't get there no matter what I tried." On running the pilot: "Rather than you as the customer pointing and clicking, we ran the use cases in our software for you and presented back the output. We did the upfront heavy lifting ourselves." On co-creating the business case: "We were building the business case with the customer throughout the entire deal cycle. So when we had the readout meeting, it was crystal clear — here's where you are today, here's what tomorrow looks like." On commission breath: "If you're making it about you and your commission check, you're putting your deal at risk. You'll subconsciously say the wrong thing at the wrong time." On patience: "Aggressive patience. You've got to be aggressive in the right way — persistent, following up — but patient as hell. If you squeeze an egg too hard, it breaks." On the internal sale: "A lot of times the internal sale is harder than the external sale. We know in our gut which deals have huge potential even when the pipeline doesn't reflect it." On transformation: "I didn't feel like I was selling at all during that deal cycle. It was more just project management — co-creating the process, co-creating the business case, really partnering with them." On mindset: "It's you against you. Are you doing the best you can do every single day? You can only control your attitude, your actions, and your effort. Literally nothing else." Books mentioned: The Gap and the Gain — Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin HardyThe Four Agreements — Don Miguel RuizEgo Is the Enemy — Ryan HolidayTake the Stairs — Rory VadenConnect with Mike: LinkedIn: Mike SullivanWebsite: mikesullivan.coMike offers free 30-minute coffee chats for anyone navigating sales challenges or working to turn things around — reach out directly on LinkedIn or via his site.

    S2 Ep 7: Mike Sullivan, From $80K Debt to $70M Closed

  8. Apr 6

    S2 Ep 6: Kishan Patel, Closing a 8-Figure Deal in 27 Days

    Kish Patel: Closing an Eight-Figure Deal in 27 Days Kish Patel is a Strategic Director of Accounts with 15 years in enterprise selling, the last five in cybersecurity and confidential computing. In this episode, he unpacks how he displaced a seven-year incumbent — who was also that competitor's number one customer — and closed a multi-year, eight-figure contract in 27 days. The key wasn't the product. It was financial intelligence, executive alignment, and a two-line proposal engineered directly to the CFO's bonus metrics. Sell the financial gap, not the feature. Kish spent 30 days researching the account before a single pitch — mapping EBITDA pressures, analyst questions, and hiring signals to understand what the business actually needed to achieve.Use the DEF 14A. Pull executive comp structures from public SEC filings and build your proposal around the two metrics that drive their bonuses. The CFO opened the DocuSign and signed in 30 seconds.Orchestrate from the outside in. Kish connected his Morgan Stanley team to the prospect's banking team to create legitimate pressure before ever getting in front of executives. The intro came with weight.AI is the trailer, not the movie. Use AI tools to accelerate research, but listen to the earnings calls yourself. You'll hear what the execs are proud of, what they're dodging, and what the analysts keep hammering — none of which shows up in a summary.Solve bigger problems, close bigger deals. If you're closing six-figure deals, you're solving seven-figure problems. Find the eight-figure problem and your deal sizes follow.Books The JOLT Effect — Matt Dixon & Ted McKinnonBrutal Truth About Sales — Brian BurnsTools Whyzer - Incredible deep research platform, geared toward financial fluency NotebookLM — Google's AI research tool; used to synthesize job postings into tech stack diagrams and generate audio summaries of analyst reportsGemini Deep Research — Used for comprehensive account research before uploading to NotebookLMSEC EDGAR — Search DEF 14A proxy statements and 10-K filings for any public companyPeople & Podcasts Referenced: Brian Burns — Brutal Truth About Sales Podcast (treasure map vs. treasure hunt framework)Nate Nasralla — Peer advisor referenced during a pivotal deal moment Fluint.ioLinkedIn — Kish Patel ______________________________________________________ How the Deal Was Done hosted by Matthew Klingner. New episodes every week.

    S2 Ep 6: Kishan Patel, Closing a 8-Figure Deal in 27 Days
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How the Deal was Done: Fast-paced interviews with top sellers & leaders. Each week we sit down with the best enterprise sales executives and Founders to unpack transformational deals & discuss the mindsets, strategies, and actions of world class performers.

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