Sales Traction

Oliver Tuffney
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  • Entrepreneurship

Talking with Founders, EOS Implementers & specialists about scaling sales in B2B SMEs by installing structure & systems.

Episodes

  1. Sep 30

    Kate Hesk: How Founders Get Out of Their Own Way

    Oliver sits down with Kate Hesk, Vistage Chair, former senior leader across pharmaceutical and healthcare businesses, and the founder of two coaching organisations. Kate breaks down why the first question every growing founder has to answer is "who do I become as a leader?", why really smart founders still make poor decisions, and how deep listening changes the pace and quality of every call a leader makes. Essential listening for any founder between 1M and 20M who suspects they have become the bottleneck in their own business. Takeaways Who do I become as a leader? The early business runs on the founder's personal effort. As it grows from one to five to 20 million, the job moves to judgement: who to bring in, how to build the strategy, and the operating system around you that helps you make the best decisions. Mindset starts with self-awareness. Get clear on your values, your beliefs and what you want from the business, ideally with a thinking partner, then turn each value into behaviours. That becomes the operating system for you first and for the culture later. IQ gets you the job. EQ keeps you in it. Smart founders make poor calls when they stop managing how they show up and stop seeing things from the other person's side. Trust gets built in the relationship, beyond the knowledge and the expertise. Question the assumptions you're holding. Ask which assumptions are serving you and which are limiting you, and who else should be part of the decision. Certainty built on years of experience can quietly shut out the new thinking a growing business needs. Deep listening is the most underrated leadership skill. The leader who doesn't listen moves faster and often decides worse, and the whole business feels it. Pausing long enough to notice what is emerging is where the better decisions come from. Chapters 00:00 From corporate boardrooms to founder coaching 03:23 Mindset: who do I become as a leader? 05:14 Self-awareness and finding your values 09:06 Decision-making when you don't have all the answers 11:35 When your team would have decided differently 14:23 How to open up a founder who won't listen 17:29 Why smart founders still make poor decisions 20:13 The assumptions that serve or limit you 21:29 Confidence versus certainty 27:49 The most underrated leadership skill 31:33 The lonely founder and the growing divide 33:16 How a founder gets out of their own way 35:46 Vistage: peer advisory for founders and CEOs 38:44 Where to find Kate

  2. Aug 27

    Andrew Stevens: Building the Sales Engine Your Company Runs On

    Oliver sits down with Andrew Stevens, Certified EOS Implementer and a sales leader whose career runs from salesperson number one in a small business to the systemised world of Adobe. Andrew breaks down why founder-led sales breaks the moment you try to scale it, how the ego that makes a great salesperson cost him his biggest deal, and why your proven process is really just your playbook: the recipe that wins more business every time you follow it. Essential listening for any founder between 1M and 20M who suspects the engine only runs when they drive it. Takeaways A sales engine is a company engine. Everybody in the business touches it, and like any engine it is a set of components that each need tuning. Bolt it together and hope, and you get misfires. Sometimes it won't start at all. Founder-led sales is an engine built for one driver. It purrs for the founder because the knowledge lives in their head. Hand the keys to a sales team and it turns back into a kit box of nuts and bolts they don't understand. That's where it breaks, pretty much every time. Ego is a double-edged sword. The cockiness that makes a great salesperson lost Andrew the deal he'd guaranteed to the board, to a competitor running a methodology. The energy has to come from within; the winning comes from knowing where to tune and tweak. Your proven process is your playbook. It's the way you do business that wins more every time you repeat it, it's never finished, and the best people to iterate it are the people on the ground. A sales manager in a small team has to carry a number. Until the team is big enough for a manager to multiply its performance, hiring someone who only manages puts their whole salary on the bottom line and the number still gets missed. Chapters 00:00 A sales engine is a company engine 03:20 Why founder-led sales breaks at scale 05:40 From bag carrier to systemised selling 09:14 Ego: the double-edged sword 11:36 The lost deal that changed everything 14:58 Hitting the ceiling past 1M 18:18 Your proven process is your playbook 24:25 From lone wolves to a sales team 29:18 The player coach: why sales managers must sell 35:10 Define the seat before you hire it 37:13 Gino Wickman comes to Birmingham: EOS European Conference

  3. Jul 15

    Philipp Maucher: How an exited founder built TWO sales machines

    Oliver sits down with Philipp Maucher, co-founder of Success.co, the repeat founder who scaled a SaaS business to tens of millions in revenue on EOS, sold it, and is now doing it again with the next generation EOS platform. The conversation explores what it takes to engineer a sales machine inside businesses turning over between one and twenty million. It examines why referrals feel like luck to most founders and how to turn them into a system that can be worked every month, the role of super-connectors in carrying a new product into a community, and what help-first looks like when it is a long game rather than a lead magnet. It also delves into the living sales playbook, the conversion metrics that tell a founder when to leave the sales seat, and how to make the first sales hire with a scorecard rather than a gut feel. A practical masterclass in engineering repeatable growth. Takeaways Referrals are a controllable variable. 95% of people will help if you ask, so ask. Bucket the partner list into unaware, aware and referring, and work each bucket every month with a different play. Ten over-invested partners beat a hundred lukewarm ones. Super-connectors carry your name further and higher than any volume of average contacts. Tier the list and over-invest at the top. Help first is a long game, not a lead magnet. The implementer report and the practice-builder podcast gave the community real value with no immediate ask, and the introductions followed. A playbook is a living beast, not a milestone. Positioning groundwork, a script road-tested over hundreds of calls, founders sparring on each other's calls. A document written once a year ago adds zero value. Leave the sales seat on the numbers, not the calendar. When conversion rates hold steady against a proven playbook, it is time to hire, and hire with a scorecard: prior success in your motion, coachability, adaptability. Chapters 00:00 Why Build Another EOS Tool in a Crowded Market 01:22 Scaling on EOS: 100 to 350 People on Spreadsheets 03:46 Burnout, a Restart, and a Licence Deal in 24 Hours 06:10 Getting Users to Switch: Simplicity as the Wedge 10:36 The Go-to-Market Plan: 50 Implementers Before Launch 14:55 Making Referrals a Controllable Variable 17:15 Tiering Partners: Ten Over-Invested Beat a Hundred Lukewarm 20:53 Help First: The Implementer Report That Opened Doors 24:27 Getting Out of the Sales Seat 27:49 Being Scientific About When It Is Ready 30:23 What a Living Playbook Actually Looks Like 36:03 The First Sales Hire: Scorecard Over Gut Feel 39:32 The Coachability Test 40:54 Where to Find Philipp

  4. Jun 25

    Adrian Lomas: How To Build and Sell a Business That Doesn't Depend on You

    Oliver sits down with Adrian Lomas, EOS implementer, Tony Robbins-trained coach, and the founder who built and sold the digital agency Blueleaf over a 20-year run. Adrian breaks down how niching down made the business sellable, why the accountability chart was his single biggest unlock, and how to get a sales team to own its numbers instead of having them forced from the top. A practical masterclass in turning vision into traction. Takeaways Vision without traction is just hallucination. A big number with no plan to reach it is a daydream. The work is building the traction, the right people, seats, and rigour, that actually moves you toward it. Niche down to scale up. Going narrow and deep, even when it meant turning away good but off strategy work like Red Bull, is what made the agency famous in its lane and ultimately sellable. Don't hand someone a number, help them own it. The most powerful target is the one the salesperson arrives at themselves. Co-create it and they carry it; impose it and they quietly check out. A red scorecard is a gift, not wallpaper. Treat an off-track number like the warning light on your dashboard, an early signal to solve the problem, not something to tape over and hope past. Chapters 00:00 From Blueleaf to exit: a 20-year journey 05:10 Niche down: how narrow and deep led to the sale 10:37 Rock bottom, Traction, and rebuilding the business 13:40 The accountability chart: right people, right seats 16:21 Vision without traction is hallucination 17:57 Building a business that sells without the founder 25:28 The scorecard: taking gut feel out of sales 28:04 Get the team to own the number 36:42 A red scorecard is a gift, not wallpaper 38:35 The why guy: leading the person, not just the number 43:52 Where to find Adrian

  5. Jun 10

    Adam Cooper: The Financial Blind Spot in Scaling Sales

    Adam Cooper: When Cash Flow Kills The Growth Plan The conversation explores the intersection of finance and sales within businesses turning over between one and 20 million. It examines why founders relying on their bank balance as a financial plan are operating with a false sense of security, and how that gap between knowing what has happened and knowing what is going to happen creates the conditions for growth to stall or collapse. It delves into the role of a fractional CFO in providing forward visibility through cashflow forecasting and client profitability analysis, and the importance of building a collaborative relationship between finance and sales leadership. The conversation also covers compensation design for sales teams, the risks of designing pay structures for one hire rather than a future team, and why the CFO should be co-owning sales metrics rather than operating as a blocking function. Takeaways Your bank balance tells you what has happened, not what is going to happenA 13-week cashflow forecast is the single highest-impact financial tool for scaling foundersClient profitability analysis often reveals surprises, particularly above the five million markThree months of operating cash is the recommended minimum runway before the red flag fliesCompensation plans should be designed for a future team of six, not for hire number oneThe CFO and sales director should share KPIs to stay aligned rather than working in oppositionFinancial guardrails need senior sponsorship and co-creation to actually get followedAlways plan your business as if you were preparing to sell it in three years Chapters 00:00 Where Finance Breaks Past One Million02:07 Bank Balance vs Cashflow Forecast05:02 The Financial Health Check06:04 Seeing Fire for the First Time09:08 Investing Ahead of the Curve13:05 The Three Month Cash Rule14:47 Managing the Visionary Founder16:55 What Great Looks Like from Sales20:50 Before and After a CFO in the Sales Cycle23:25 Rolling Out Financial Best Practices27:20 CFO and Sales Director Collaboration31:17 Shared KPIs Between Finance and Sales35:12 Designing Compensation Without Creating a Rod40:05 The One Lever That Makes the Biggest Difference

  6. May 21

    Simon Adcock: Navigating Early Sales Hires

    The conversation delves into the transition from business owner to EOS implementer, highlighting the challenges and insights gained from this shift. It explores the importance of accountability and structure in sales, the challenges of making early hires, and the impact of imposter syndrome on hiring decisions. Additionally, it discusses the connection between VTO and the sales function, as well as common pitfalls in hiring salespeople. The conversation delves into the design and management of the sales function, emphasizing the importance of clarity, structure, and strategic planning. It explores the challenges of first hires, budget constraints, onboarding, and the psychology of sales. The role of the accountability chart as a planning tool, understanding the sales process, and the decision-making process for letting go of a sales hire are also discussed. Takeaways Transition from business owner to EOS implementerChallenges with hiring and making early hiresLack of clarity in business and salesAccountability and structure in salesCore values and expectations in hiring Designing the sales functionClarity and structure in sales management Chapters 00:00 Transition from Business Owner to EOS Implementer07:11 Challenges with Early Hires13:49 Connecting VTO with Sales Function19:25 Hiring Salespeople and Common Pitfalls26:45 De-skilling the Sales Function31:55 The Accountability Chart as a Planning Tool38:44 Setting Expectations and Clear Understanding of Sales Process43:45 Marketing Support for Salespeople

  7. May 7

    Mark Bentley: How To Increase Your Exit Multiplier With Sales

    The conversation explores the topic of business exit strategies and the role of sales in the process. It delves into the challenges, risks, and opportunities associated with selling a business, providing valuable insights for founders and entrepreneurs. The conversation explores the strategic steps a business owner can take to maximize the saleability and value of their business over a three to five year period. It covers topics such as reducing owner dependence, managing customer concentration, and the value of recurring revenue. Takeaways Exit strategy planning is essential for business owners, even if they are not currently looking to sell.Reducing risk and demonstrating future growth potential can increase the value of a business in the eyes of potential buyers. Reducing owner dependence is crucial for maximizing the saleability of a business.Customer concentration and recurring revenue play a significant role in determining the value of a business. Chapters 00:00 The Role of Sales in Business Exit Strategies09:03 Valuation and Perception of Business Worth16:33 Risk Mitigation and Impact on Business Valuation22:10 Strategic Planning for Saleability28:21 Managing Customer Concentration33:53 Value of Project vs. Recurring Revenue

  8. Apr 22

    Jason Green: Creating Accountability in Sales

    The conversation delves into the challenges of sales leadership within businesses turning over between one and 20 million. It emphasizes the importance of healthy accountability as a byproduct of effective leadership and management, and the integration of a visionary and an integrator for maintaining balance and focus within a business. Takeaways Accountability is a byproduct of being a great leader and manager.Healthy accountability is not something you do to people, but it is a result of effective leadership and management.The integration of a visionary and an integrator is crucial for maintaining balance and focus within a business.

  9. Mar 13

    Julia Walsh: Exiting The Sales Seat

    The conversation delves into the challenges faced by founders in transitioning out of the sales seat, emphasizing the need for structure, defined processes, and effective delegation. It explores the interconnectedness of business functions, the role of the visionary post-transition, and the importance of hiring the right people for the sales seat. Takeaways Founder's struggle to get out of the sales seat due to the intuitive nature of sales and the challenge of operationalizing the process.The need for a clear structure, defined process, and effective delegation to successfully transition the founder out of the sales seat. Chapters 00:00 The Challenge of Exiting the Sales Seat19:15 Hiring the First Salesperson25:28 Founder's Role Post-Transition

  • 9 Episodes

About

Talking with Founders, EOS Implementers & specialists about scaling sales in B2B SMEs by installing structure & systems.

Information

  • Creator
    Oliver Tuffney
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    9
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Oliver Tuffney
  • Show Website
    Sales Traction