Selling Intelligence (formerly Selling the Cloud)

Mark Petruzzi, KK Anderson
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Selling Intelligence is the evolution of Selling the Cloud and designed for revenue leaders who are navigating the AI era. Hosted by Mark Petruzzi and Kristin "KK" Anderson, the show brings candid conversations with C-suite leaders across sales, marketing, and customer success on how AI is reshaping the way companies grow, sell, and compete. From agentic GTM strategies to AI-powered pipeline and revenue execution, each episode focuses on what’s actually working and how leaders are turning intelligence into performance. If you’re responsible for growth and trying to lead through the fastest shift in go-to-market we’ve ever seen, this podcast is for you.

  1. Ep. 121 - AI-Driven Buyer Behavior, Trust, and the New Sales Playbook with Sabrina Parsons - Part 2

    4D AGO

    Ep. 121 - AI-Driven Buyer Behavior, Trust, and the New Sales Playbook with Sabrina Parsons - Part 2

    General Episode Description: In this continuation of Selling Intelligence, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software, to explore the human side of leadership, trust, and AI adoption in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. Sabrina shares her perspective on diversity in leadership, the realities of building a career as a working parent, and why creating an “integrated life” leads to stronger teams and better business outcomes. The conversation also dives into how trust has become the ultimate differentiator in an AI-driven world, and how companies must rethink how they show up as human, credible, and authentic. The episode closes with practical insights on how leaders should approach AI, where it delivers real value, and how to use it as a tool for thinking, not replacing human judgment.  What You’ll Learn: Diversity as a Competitive Advantage: Why different perspectives lead to better decisions and stronger organizations.The Integrated Life Approach: How flexibility and trust improve retention, loyalty, and performance.Human Trust in an AI World: Why authenticity and real human interaction are becoming the new moat.Practical AI Usage: How to use AI for preparation, critique, and efficiency without losing credibility.Leading Through AI Disruption: How leaders can guide teams to experiment with AI while setting the right guardrails.Key Topics: The impact of diversity and inclusion on business performanceSupporting working parents and creating flexible, human-centered workplacesThe myth of “doing it all” and redefining success in leadershipWhy trust is harder to earn in a world of AI-generated contentReal vs artificial experiences in customer interactionsThe role of influencer trust and community platforms like RedditUsing real people and authentic content to build credibilityWhere AI overpromises and where it delivers real efficiencyAI as a tool for critique, feedback, and preparationUnderstanding how LLMs perceive your product and brand through consensus signalsThe shift from SEO authority to AI-driven consensus and reputationGuest Spotlight: Sabrina Parsons Sabrina Parsons is the CEO of Palo Alto Software, makers of LivePlan, and a leader with deep experience across sales, marketing, and executive leadership. She is a strong advocate for women in leadership and brings a unique perspective on building resilient organizations, fostering trust, and navigating multiple waves of technological change.  Resources & Mentions: Palo Alto SoftwareLivePlanConcept: AI trust gap and authenticity in digital interactionsConcept: Integrated life vs traditional work-life balanceConcept: Consensus-driven reputation in AI search and LLMsBook: Into Thin Air by Jon KrakauerBook: Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom🎧 Listen now and follow Selling Intelligence for more insights on leadership, AI adoption, and building trust in modern go-to-market teams. Mark Petruzzi (00:31) So Sabrina, you're a strong advocate for women in sales and leadership. In your experience, what do women bring to the sales equation that often gets undervalued? And what does the data actually show? Sabrina Parsons (00:43) Yeah, that's a great question. I think that we've, well, hopefully people have, there's been a lot of data over the years that just shows a few things, I know these days, you know, talking about diversity is, you know, a hot topic and not something everybody wants to hear. But if you actually go and look at the data, Any time you're bringing different viewpoints in, it actually turns out the data shows that that's really good for an organization. That when you have six people who all come from the same background, who went, you know, got similar educations, have the same experiences, you're missing out. You're not getting some of these other alternate viewpoints that... could actually give you different insights and make your company better. So from that perspective, be it women or people of color, people from different cultural backgrounds, every time you have different people in a room, you're gonna win because they're gonna bring different information to the table. And then I think that, you know. Even though it's 2026 and I wish we were in a different place with women in leadership, the reality is that we still live in a world where, you know, there aren't as many women in technology. ⁓ And the numbers just show that and there aren't as many women in technology and leadership. And so women who are there and have made it all the way through, particularly in a leadership role, have probably worked really hard to get there. and probably have some really good insights. From my perspective, one of the things that I think is most powerful and I think can bring a lot of value to a company is recognizing particularly working moms and working parents, but as a working mom, I'm not a working dad, so I won't talk for working dads, that You know, there's a lot of very motivated, super smart women who want to work for a place. They don't want to have to jump from job to job to job. And if you can give them an opportunity to stay in one place, to continue to move up, if you can be the kind of boss that recognizes that there's going to be some peaks and valleys that a woman with young kids might have some issues with my kid is sick, my kid is going to the doctor, but at the end of the day, if you help them with flexibility, not making their job easier, not giving them less job, but giving them the ability to be flexible and do their job when they can, you're actually going to retain women longer. They're going to be more loyal. if, you know, loyalty and retention, we all know is, you know, There's nothing better for your bottom line, particularly in software and tech sales where people are your biggest asset. KK Anderson (03:36) You preach into the choir. Could not agree, could not agree more. I would love to hear about some of your, know, pursuits with women in sales and leadership and would love to, AGS would love to support you in those as well. Really cool. Sabrina Parsons (03:38) Thank you. Mark Petruzzi (03:47) for Sabrina Parsons (03:48) you. I appreciate that. it's been a really, it's interesting. I think when Mark and I first caught up prior to the podcast, we talked about it a little bit, but being a Gen Xer and having grown up in the 80s and early 90s, I am of the generation that watched the women's lib movement, And watched all these really strong women come out of the 70s and early 80s, the Gloria Steinmans, This very powerful. movement and we were kind of fed this idea that like you can do it all women can be super women and you can do it all and I bought it I was like I am gonna be superwoman I am gonna do it all and didn't really think anything of it until I had my first child and that's when like the brakes come on and you're like wait what what does this actually mean? And you know, just this reality that like, wait a minute, this is a myth. Like you can't do it all, right? And there's a reason why very successful men were never expected to do it all. And yet we still have this place in 2026 where there's still a lot of judgment with women as mothers, like, you know, Why aren't you there at drop off? Why aren't you there at pick up? Somehow you're a bad mother and all these kind of, know, guilt woven into, you know, being this working parent and how do you deal with it? And what does that mean? And as I had one child and then two and then my third as I was running the business for me really understanding that my KK Anderson (05:14) Guilts. Sabrina Parsons (05:32) take on this, my approach is very much about leaning into who I am, not leaning into the structure that exists today, which I think a lot of us were still being told even 10 years ago when Sheryl Sandberg came out with her lean in ⁓ kind of autobiography, it was all about leaning into the current structure, right? It wasn't, wait a minute, does that actually work? And for, KK Anderson (05:54) Mm-hmm. Sabrina Parsons (05:59) from for me what's worked and what I like to mentor and what I like to, you know, really. do here at Palo Alto Software is to say that doesn't work and I have what I call an integrated life and my kids are older now and I've got two in college but when they were little that meant bringing kids on business trips with me and my mom would come with me. That meant kids in the office after school or on a snow day. It meant having appropriate places in the office. so that they could have coloring books and homework areas. you know, I mean, we often laugh because we have a very old, ⁓ I think it's a Nintendo PlayStation, but it's a very old one. I don't even know if it's called a PlayStation, but it's a very old one where it isn't actually wireless. The console that the game console, like the player that the kids, the controller that the kids play with is actually plugged into the gaming. console. Well, kids love the old thing ever when they come in. but they always break it because they keep unplugging the controllers because they're like they're charged. And it's like, no, these are old school. And they don't even get that, which is always funny. I mean, from my perspective, that's what I've done for myself and for people here in the company is to say, KK Anderson (06:57) Now Super Mario Brothers. Mark Petruzzi (07:11) Hahaha Sabrina Parsons (07:20) I'm not going to pretend you don't have kids. I'm not going to make you apologize for having kids. I'm also not going to pretend that if you've got a kid who's sick, that you're actually going to be at the office doing any sort of productive work because I made you come in. Like, okay, you can come in and you're not going to like me and you're not going to be productive and you're going to be worried about your kid. And so why don't we treat people like humans and say, you know what, your kid is sick, go home. Be

    25 min
  2. Ep.120 - AI-Driven Buyer Behavior, Trust, and the New Sales Playbook with Sabrina Parsons - Part 1

    APR 1

    Ep.120 - AI-Driven Buyer Behavior, Trust, and the New Sales Playbook with Sabrina Parsons - Part 1

    General Episode Description: In this episode of Selling Intelligence, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software, to explore how AI is rapidly reshaping buyer behavior and forcing a complete rethink of how companies sell, market, and build trust. Sabrina shares how search behavior has fundamentally shifted toward AI-generated answers, reducing click-throughs and changing how buyers consume information. She explains why this creates new challenges in clarity, especially around the “build vs buy” decision, and why sales teams must now work harder to guide buyers through uncertainty. The conversation also dives into the growing importance of trust, the evolving relationship between sales and marketing, and how organizations can use AI effectively without losing the human connection that ultimately drives decisions.  What You’ll Learn: The New Buyer Behavior: How AI-driven search and LLMs are reducing clicks and changing how buyers gather information.The “Muddy Middle” Problem: Why AI has blurred clarity around what buyers actually need and whether they should build or buy.Selling in an AI World: How sales teams must adapt when buyers are more informed but also more uncertain.Sales and Marketing Alignment: Why tighter collaboration is critical to address buyer confusion and build trust earlier.Using AI Without Losing Trust: Where AI enhances the sales process and where it can damage credibility.Key Topics: Shift from keyword search to question-based search behaviorAI-generated answers reducing traditional website trafficAEO vs SEO: optimizing for AI engines, not just search enginesBuyers arriving more educated but with incomplete or misleading contextThe disruption of the “why change” conversation in salesBuild vs buy vs AI: a more complex decision landscape for buyersMarketing’s role in answering buyer questions upfront and building trustThe risk of poor AI experiences damaging brand perceptionUsing AI for preparation versus customer-facing interactionsTurning AI efficiency into better personalization and human engagement Guest Spotlight: Sabrina Parsons Sabrina Parsons is the CEO of Palo Alto Software, makers of LivePlan, a leading business planning and financial forecasting platform. With experience leading both sales and marketing, she brings a unique perspective on how companies build sustainable revenue engines. Sabrina is also a strong advocate for women in leadership and technology, and has guided her company through multiple waves of technological change.  Resources & Mentions: Palo Alto SoftwareLivePlanConcept: AEO (AI Engine Optimization) vs traditional SEOConcept: Build vs Buy vs AI decision-makingConcept: Trust equation in modern salesExample: Customer experience with AI chatbots (Oura Ring case)🎧 Listen now and follow Selling Intelligence for more insights on AI, modern buyer behavior, and building high-performing revenue teams. Mark Petruzzi (00:31) Welcome to Selling Intelligence. Our guest today is Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software, makers of LivePlan, one of the world's leading business planning and financial forecasting platforms. Sabrina has been the helm at the company, this company that has over four decades of history leading through multiple waves of technology disruption. Before stepping into the CEO role, she ran both sales and marketing, giving her a uniquely integrated view of how companies grow, how buyers decide, and what it really takes to build a revenue engine that lasts. She is a passionate advocate for women in leadership and technology, a thread we'll weave in throughout today's conversation as well. So three topics we'd like to cover with you and with Sabrina today. how AI is reshaping buyer behavior and what that means for how you sell. We've covered that many times on our podcasts already, but we really are excited about Sabrina's perspective and her experiences in that area as well. The second one is why the human element, why trust, story building and storytelling. And relationships are the only sustainable differentiators that we really can build in today's business climate. And third and finally, what sales and marketing leaders must do differently today and how that integrates into the CEO role and also the board of directors. What can the boards be doing to help their sales and marketing leaders evolve in the way that they need to? Sabrina, welcome to Selling Intelligence. Sabrina Parsons (02:13) Great, thanks Mark, I'm really happy to be here. Mark Petruzzi (02:15) All right, let's dive right into topic one. ⁓ Topic one, AI and the changing buyer. So Sabrina, you've described the buyer behavior online as having shifted more dramatically in the last 18 months than in the prior decade. What are you actually seeing? Why does it matter so much for how we sell and how we need to sell in the future? Sabrina Parsons (02:35) that's a great question. And I'm pretty sure as soon as I start talking, all the listeners are going to say, because we've all experienced, I think, a very similar change in how we interact online. In the last 18 months and even more so in the last 12 months, we have all seen the way our interaction on search has changed. particularly with these new AI synopsis that you see at the top of the page. And while there will be articles and sites that are cited in this AI, what's happened is that fewer people are clicking through because they go, they have a question, they type it into Google, and they're typing questions now into Google. used to be that we would type keywords, right? And then you'd see what happened. And now people are typing questions into Google and then the or whatever search engine, but, Google still probably the most used. And then what they're getting back, it scratches the itch for the most part. And so they're getting this information and then maybe they're moving on, right? So that's one huge change in behavior and we're all seeing it, right? You have interacted and chosen not to go forward because your question is answered or you found what you need. ⁓ So that new way that we're getting... all of this information displayed, it means fewer click-throughs, and so companies that are selling have to deal with that. The other thing is that search engines are really leaning on and preferring when you can put content out there that actually gives answers, because that's what people are looking for, right? It's how do I, those types of questions, how do I do this? How do I sell? How do I market? How do I, all of these how do I's, that's what people are doing. ⁓ And then the other thing that I think we all know is that people are for the most part, very familiar with LLMs, right? With all these AI chat box. And many people are using them instead of search engines, which I will say if you are, think about it because it's a very expensive search engine. It uses a lot of energy to do an AI query. And every time we're using AI when you could just use a search engine, we're wasting energy. So it's something that, you know, not everybody always knows, but there's an appropriate use for AI, but it doesn't matter, right? Behavior has changed, and we're all trained now in this new behavior. And it feels like it's just been like instant, like in the last 12 months, because changing behavior used to be a huge thing, right? From a sales perspective, people like you would teach salespeople how to help change behavior. And like we have seen behavior change just so quickly this time around. KK Anderson (05:23) overnight. so how does that change how we sell? Sabrina Parsons (05:27) So that's a great question. I mean, it has to, right? Because when you're selling, used to be that your marketing team could just make sure like, are search results going to come up on first page versus second page? And if not, let's just buy pay-per-click ads and make sure that they come up. in those results. And it's like that doesn't work anymore. So a lot of what you have to do in terms of how to change how you're selling is address this new way that content is consumed. So you really have to think through, am I providing answers? And it's not just content that fits keywords, right? It's content that's actually giving answers. And then in the way you format your content, if you want to be AEO forward, right? It used to be just SEO, search engine optimized. Now we're AI chat bot optimized. If you want to be AEO forward, you really have to rethink how you're putting your content together, what kind of sort of synopsis you have that's easy for AEO to grab. Do you have the right FAQ schema? It's just a, you know, it's a different way that the LLMs are crawling through information. And so you just have to make those changes. KK Anderson (06:46) Right. And I'll just add to that. It's all about that trust equation. Right. And so that's what our prospects for all of us, you who are running businesses and running sales organizations, they're all looking to, they're looking for value and that value is what's driving trust. And that trust equation ⁓ is going to what finally converts. And so when your buyers do get on the phone with you finally, They're going to be so much more educated. going to know so much more. They will probably have an LLM, create a table stack ranking, the three top options to solve their problem. And so they're going to be so much more educated when they get on the phone with your team as well, which is another, when you get sort of that sales process behavior that it just, all the changes at top of funnel are filtering down. into that as well. Everything changes. Sabrina Parsons (07:37) and I think that's important, right? And salespeople know this because they're getting confronted. It's like they used to have their process, the information, they've done their homework on the prospect. And now you have to be prepared to understand what are they seeing i

    19 min
  3. Ep. 119 – Running Uphill at Full Speed When AI Keeps Raising the GTM Bar with Sunil Rao – Part 2

    MAR 25

    Ep. 119 – Running Uphill at Full Speed When AI Keeps Raising the GTM Bar with Sunil Rao – Part 2

    In this episode of Selling the Cloud, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson continue their conversation with Sunil Rao, founder and CEO of Tribble, diving deeper into SaaS fatigue, agentic execution, and the challenge of scaling institutional knowledge in enterprise sales. Sunil breaks down how AI agents are reshaping the way work gets done by becoming the interface across systems, eliminating the need for constant tool-switching, and enabling teams to operate from a single layer of intelligence. He also shares how modern GTM teams can capture and scale expertise across conversations, documents, and internal knowledge to improve performance over time. The discussion closes with a look at the human side of selling, where trust, collaboration, and real customer engagement remain irreplaceable even as AI automates more of the workflow.  What You’ll Learn: SaaS Fatigue and the Shift to Agents: Why the future interface is not more tools, but a single AI layer that connects everything.Agentic Execution in Practice: How AI can capture context across calls, RFIs, and RFPs to generate smarter, more personalized responses.Scaling Institutional Knowledge: How to turn tribal knowledge, conversations, and documents into a usable system of intelligence.The Failure of Static Content Systems: Why traditional enablement platforms fall behind the speed of modern business.Human + AI Collaboration: Where automation should take over and where human judgment, trust, and relationships still win.Key Topics: “Kiss your apps goodbye” and the rise of agents as the new interfaceEliminating tool-switching and browser tab overload for GTM teamsCapturing context across the full sales lifecycle, not just at the RFP stageUsing AI to coach reps in real time during customer interactionsBuilding knowledge graphs from calls, documents, and internal conversationsDenoising and validating data from sources like Slack, Gong, and CRM systemsWhy knowledge bottlenecks exist due to limited subject matter expertsThe limits of traditional enablement programs and static content librariesDesigning AI systems with humans in the loop for approval and quality controlReallocating 30% of seller time from admin work to customer engagement Guest Spotlight: Sunil Rao Sunil Rao is the founder and CEO of Tribble, an AI-native platform that helps enterprise sales teams automate and optimize go-to-market workflows. With a background as an engineer at SAP and a leader at Salesforce, Sunil brings a unique perspective on both the technical and human sides of enterprise selling. At Tribble, he focuses on building systems that scale knowledge, improve response quality, and enable teams to operate more efficiently with AI.  Resources & Mentions: TribbleConcept: Agentic workflows in go-to-marketKnowledge graphs for sales and GTM intelligenceSaaS consolidation and interface shift to AIThe Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben HorowitzSuperintelligence by Nick BostromConcepts: “SaaS fatigue” and “tribal knowledge” in enterprise organizations🎧 Listen now and follow Selling the Cloud for more insights on AI-driven GTM strategy, enterprise sales transformation, and the future of work. Mark Petruzzi (00:31) So Sunil, let's talk about the SaaS fatigue problem. Companies are drowning in tools, licenses, and unused platforms. If you built a company in the enterprise software space going right at all of that overflow, how did you design Tribble to be part of the solution rather than be another product out there that's part of the problem and the challenges? Sunil Rao (00:54) I think from the very early days, one of the things we thought about deeply was, hey, where is this all going? If I think for two, three, five years, what do we think happens? And it was very clear to us that there's a consolidation that's going to take place across where people want to go to get their information. when we see what was happening with ChatGPT and you think about how this kind of AI can be pervasive across systems, this is one of the things I was telling someone recently. If you go back on the internet, you go to the Wayback Machine, which is a website that allows you to go back in time, you can go see the 2023 December page for Tripple. It says, kiss your apps goodbye at the very top. Say hello to agents. And that, I think, was very indicative of, this is what's going to happen. We probably did that message too early because no one knew what an agent was in 2023. But I think that's where we are right now, right? It's like, hey, there's this new interface, right? I can talk to an agent or I can talk to software and I can give it access to all the other systems I work with. So I kind of don't need to go to all those systems again, right? I can do the work through this proxy. And the way that we always describe it is like in the future, you know, when you onboard a new employee, what do you do? You say, here's your license to system one, system two, system three, system four. And they're sitting on their chair and their browser tabs and they're swiveling from one to another, to another, to another. That kind of all goes away. So I think when I think about SaaS fatigue, think agents actually are going to change and become the interface. And Trivel, for us, when we think about go-to-market technology, we want that to be the interface when we think about the respond process and the engage process. That's our bet. And underneath the hood, we have many systems we integrate with. But I had a prospect ask me this the other day. They're like, hey, if we're using your tool, do I need to go to these other systems? And the short answer is no, you don't. Get everything you need right over here. KK Anderson (02:35) So walk us through like what an agentic execution actually looks like in practice. So like when a sales team sends triple an RFP, what's happening behind the scenes? Like how much is automated versus augmented, if you will. Sunil Rao (02:49) Yeah, so I'll give you two examples, KK. I think one, let's think about a company that responds heavily to RFPs and that's a big portion of their business. The RFP coming to you isn't the first point of contact with the customer, right? And depending on the size of the organization and how big this engagement is, it might be something more like, hey, we've had an initial call with the team and they shared with us that they're going to issue an RFP. So there's some discovery being done. We learned some requirements. We learned some players at the table, the different business units that are relevant here. Fast forward a week, another call takes place. Different team members at both organizations are on a call. Information is shared. Then you get to another call and then they issue an RFI, which is the precursor to the RFP. So it's one document that gets sent over and then you got to answer a bunch of questions. Then you finally get to the RFP, which then ends up becoming a bigger proposal. But we think about the journey across all these touch points as opportunities to collect context. So one of the things we do is we show up on the call for each of these touch points. We collect context. We coach the folks live on the call on what data to collect. and how to think about this so that when it comes time to build the response, it's contextual on all the data we've collected for this specific prospect, but every other conversation we've had and where we've won bids and where we've lost them. And that way we can see, historically, when you've answered no to this question for this type of company, you've lost the deal. So one of two things, either explain you can do it because it's on your roadmap or actually put it on your roadmap. Right. And these are the kinds of insights we can glean because we're integrated to the the systems behind the scene, as we come across these insights, we can go write the data back directly. The agent will go and update a ticket in JIRA, or it'll go make an update in Salesforce directly. And it's done throughout the journey, throughout the process. So that's kind how we think about it across the lifecycle. Mark Petruzzi (04:30) that's excellent. Excellent. So let's go to topic three here, scaling institutional knowledge. We use this, the term kind of tribal knowledge and a lot of the work we do in engendric space ourselves. So yeah, let's dive into that. One of the most interesting things about Tribble, that it's not just about speed, it's about scaling the... the expertise, scaling the process, making those processes better over time as well. You've described the problem of a limited number of experts having the necessary knowledge. In your experience at Salesforce and now at Tribble, why is knowledge scaling such a massive bottleneck in most enterprise organizations, particularly within their sales function? Sunil Rao (05:15) Depending on how big the organization is and what products you sell, historically for me, one of the things that I've experienced firsthand, when you're selling a complex product or you're selling into a vertical where the business processes are very specific and non-standard and it's not something everyone knows, you usually will have a gap in terms of the understanding of the field team and what it is that the customer wants. So how do you speak the language of the customer is always a term that we used a lot in my career. And whether you're in financial services, health, whether you're in CPG, retail, manufacturing. There are processes that are very specific to that industry. So how do you enable the field teams to know what it is the customer's pains are and what they need? And how do you build the right software to meet those needs? So I think that ends up in, thinking back five, 10 years ago, how do you scale that within a company? Well, you create these enablement organizations. You create enablement programs. You take everyone to Vegas for kickoff, and you show them 800 bajillion

    22 min
  4. Ep. 118 – Running Uphill at Full Speed When AI Keeps Raising the GTM Bar with Sunil Rao – Part 1

    MAR 18

    Ep. 118 – Running Uphill at Full Speed When AI Keeps Raising the GTM Bar with Sunil Rao – Part 1

    In this episode of Selling Intelligence Podcast, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Sunil Rao, founder and CEO of Tribble, to explore how AI is reshaping enterprise sales, go-to-market execution, and the future of software itself. Sunil shares why AI-driven productivity alone is no longer enough to create advantage, how the rise of agents is changing what software should do, and why trust, personalization, and institutional knowledge are becoming even more important in a world flooded with AI-generated noise. The conversation dives into the productivity paradox, the coming consolidation of fragmented SaaS tools, and the shift from software that assists humans to systems that can actually take action on their behalf.  What You’ll Learn: The Productivity Paradox: Why AI makes everyone faster at the same time, raising the bar instead of creating instant advantage.AI and New Work Creation: How efficiency gains in one part of the workflow can create new review, oversight, and decision-making work elsewhere.Differentiation in an AI World: Why personalization, timing, and relevance matter more now that everyone has access to the same tools.From SaaS to Agents: What separates AI-assisted software from agentic systems that can actually do the work.Trust in Autonomous Systems: Why transparency, confidence, and clear decision logs are critical when AI operates inside core business systems.Key Topics: The treadmill problem in modern sales productivityWhy AI has upgraded everyone at the same timeThe flood of low-quality outbound and the need for precision engagementUsing digital exhaust and customer signals to guide better sales conversationsWhy traditional scaling models relied on people because software could not solve the problem yetHow fast-moving foundation models are changing product designThe coming consolidation of SaaS point solutionsWhy the future interface may be lighter, with more approvals and fewer manual workflowsBuilding AI-native products that can evolve with each new model releaseReducing SaaS fatigue by designing for orchestration, not more app sprawl Guest Spotlight: Sunil Rao Sunil Rao is the founder and CEO of Tribble, an AI-native platform built to help enterprise sales teams scale knowledge and automate critical go-to-market workflows. Before founding Tribble, Sunil began his career as a software engineer at SAP and later held leadership roles at Salesforce, including GM of Consumer Goods. Tribble was founded in 2023 and has quickly gained traction for helping companies automate RFP responses and improve GTM efficiency with AI-native workflows.  Resources & Mentions: TribbleSalesforce Ventures generative AI fundRFP automation and response workflowsAI agents versus traditional SaaS applicationsSaaS consolidation and platform orchestrationThe role of trust and transparency in AI adoption🎧 Listen now and follow Selling Intelligence Podcast for more conversations on AI, modern go-to-market strategy, and the future of enterprise sales. Mark Petruzzi (00:31) Welcome to today's episode of Selling Intelligence Podcast. I'm thrilled to welcome Sunil Rao, founder and CEO of Tribble, an AI native platform that's fundamentally changing how enterprise sales teams scale knowledge and automate critical go-to-market workflows. Sunil's journey has been fascinating. He started as a software engineer at SAP. moved into leadership roles at Salesforce, including and general manager of consumer goods, and then founded Tribble in 2023. Tribble was quickly added to Salesforce's ventures, $500 million generative AI fund, and has since revolutionized RFP automation, helping companies like Clary, Sword Health, and others slash response times by up to 80%. Today we're exploring a critical challenge facing every sales leader. AI is making us more productive, but the bar keeps rising. It's like running on a treadmill at full speed and just when you your stride, the incline keeps going up. How do you stay ahead when everyone else has access to the same productivity gains? We're gonna focus on four critical themes. The productivity paradox, why AI-driven efficient isn't enough to win anymore. From software to agents, building AI that actually does the work, not just assists, scaling institutional knowledge, the hidden competitive mode in enterprise go-to-market, and the human element, where AI should take over and where it must step back. Sunil. First off, we're really happy to have you here. Thank you for taking the time with us and welcome. Sunil Rao (02:10) Thanks for having me. It's nice to be with you all. Mark Petruzzi (02:12) Excellent. So topic one, the productivity paradox. Let's start with what you have called the treadmill problem. Every sales team now has access to AI tools, chat GPT, co-pilot, all these niche engagement and enablement platforms. And all sales teams are getting more productive, or at least the ones that are investing in this. But here's the thing, if everyone's running faster, you're not actually getting ahead. You're keeping up with the pack. And worse, buyers' expectations are rising because they know that you have these tools. So how do you think about this productivity paradox? Sunil Rao (02:47) Productivity paradox, it's interesting because I think there's a couple of ways that I like to think about it. You obviously have this tremendous technology. It's almost magical. It's been distributed to everyone almost simultaneously. And they're all able to see how much productivity it brings into all aspects of their job. But I back to beginning of when we started Tribble, and this is when Chat GPT has just come out, November of 2022. And everyone had that aha moment of, whoa, this thing can write coherently for such a long time. It can actually write code. It can write snippets of code. And it just started to become a way for you to use in your workflow versus going to Google, searching for information. This thing can synthesize knowledge. So when you look at that and that impact, It already was a tremendous time saver for a lot of smaller jobs. But I think what's been going on and what's been happening over the last few years with these foundation models getting better and better, it gets to the point now where these systems can run for hours on end and complete much more complex tasks. And that's where it's more interesting where, you know, what was not possible to solve with software three years ago. is possible today. And that's where agents come in and everything comes in. it's interesting because like you have that happening in one side and it's really magical technology. But then at the same time, you kind of create new work. when you have access to this technology, because now everyone's a creator. And I see this a lot in the engineering side. Everyone's writing more code, and then it's the question of who's reviewing it. If everyone's writing more content to go in documents, who is doing the human check? So you have this trade-off of, yes, there is efficiency in one part of the process, but you end up creating some work elsewhere. So I think it's the paradox, because it actually changes the distribution of where work is being done. KK Anderson (04:30) Really, really interesting. So when we think about it from, you know, a sales or revenue perspective, right? It's, you know, for, for so many years, it was, do you have this Salesforce CRM? Do you have this outreach, you know, program set up? Do you have this automation set up? And it was, you were always running to keep ahead and to keep up to pace with all of the different technologies that were available. And that was just sort of table stakes. Right? And now with AI, as you just said, like everybody has it. And so now it's how you use AI is, is, and how you become a, differentiator using AI is the new game. Because otherwise it's this, we, you know, ⁓ as Doug Landis, one of our good friends and colleagues says is we're in a culture of sameness right now. Sunil Rao (05:15) Mm-hmm. KK Anderson (05:16) an era of sameness, I think is what he says. So talk to us a little bit about that. So now here we are, we all overnight got Chappie, GBT and these amazing programs. How do we differentiate ourselves in this world of AI? Sunil Rao (05:30) it's an interesting way to think about it, right? It's almost like everyone got upgraded, but exactly to the same level. So then how do you differentiate is the It's how do you stand out from the pack? And, you know, and I take the example of outbound and emails. Like I think what's happened, it's both a gift and curse. KK Anderson (05:37) Yes. Sunil Rao (05:45) I mean, I'd it's more of a curse because now there's so much garbage when it comes to outbound, right? In terms of mass generation of emails that are not personalized, that are not targeted. And I still think that the age old, you know, what makes you really good about that style of top of the funnel engagement is when you are very personalized and targeted. think that just actually gets even more amplified as an important way to stand out, right? Don't, don't try to sell something to the masses. Really think about what signals. indicate that this may be a buyer that's interested and engage with them on the journey at the right time becomes way more important. Because otherwise, you're just feeding into the sea of noise that's being generated because we have these tools that can mass create this content. So I think there's that aspect of it. How can we be much more tailored on the engagement side? And I think about it at different parts of the funnel. For us at Tribble, we think deeply about this problem. when we talk about our customers using our products and how they engage with their customers. So we look at it from two sides of that coin. Mark, you'd shared our respond product, which is all about responding to RFPs, responding to customers. You have to be very particular about what it is you do as a business

    20 min
  5. Ep. 117 – Escaping the Crisis of Sameness in Modern Sales with Doug Landis – Part 2

    MAR 11

    Ep. 117 – Escaping the Crisis of Sameness in Modern Sales with Doug Landis – Part 2

    In this episode, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Doug Landis to explore why storytelling has become one of the most powerful skills in modern sales. From lessons learned in the film industry to practical strategies for enterprise selling, the conversation highlights how narratives help sellers build trust, create alignment, and close deals faster. Doug explains that buyers don’t actually buy products; they buy the story attached to the outcome those products create. When sellers focus on telling clear, meaningful stories rather than listing features, they make it easier for buyers to understand the value and communicate it internally.  The discussion also dives into the shift from traditional inside-out selling (focused on CRM data and internal information) to an outside-in approach, where sellers study the buyer’s business, strategy, and external signals to craft a more relevant narrative. What You’ll Learn Why storytelling is more powerful than product features in salesHow great stories help buyers remember your solution and sell it internallyThe difference between rambling and effective storytelling in conversationsWhy sellers should shift from inside-out CRM preparation to an outside-in perspectiveHow understanding your buyer’s business leads to stronger trust and bigger dealsWhy trust-driven selling can accelerate deal cycles and increase deal sizePractical ways sales leaders can build storytelling into their team cultureKey topics covered include: How great stories help buyers sell your solution internallyThe difference between rambling and structured storytellingWhy sellers should spend more time on outside-in researchHow AI tools can help sellers synthesize external insights fasterWhat leaders can measure to prove trust-driven selling worksRapid-fire insights on sales habits, books, and early lessonsDoug also shares a powerful reminder: people don’t buy features; they buy the outcome the story promises, whether that’s solving a problem, improving their business, or simply getting their Sundays back.  Mark Petruzzi (00:31) Now that is some, that's really, really great stuff, Doug. And I'm gonna share a little bit about how I use, how I've learned to use stories into my selling process. And not only my selling process, running companies, working with private equity firms, communicating with people in all kinds of ways. And it really came down to about 15 years ago, Doug Landis (00:45) Mmm, yes. Mark Petruzzi (00:56) I was involved with a couple of ⁓ and brought in by friends of mine in a couple of films and TV series. I invested in a couple of them for a little bit of a while. was like, forget about enterprise software and selling. And I'm going to be running around with Steven Spielberg soon. That didn't happen. But we did pretty well with these movies. And I'll give you an example. Somebody I've done work with is a filmmaker by the name of Michael Corente. And he's just one example of about a half a dozen that I got to work with. But he's a producer. That's what he focuses on. And in the entertainment industry, I learned there are no, well, there are, I found in my career, there are no better storytellers, not even than the writers. Of course they know how to tell stories. Doug Landis (01:20) So cool. Mark Petruzzi (01:44) but the producers that are out there getting investments and everything else. And man man, Michael was one of them. He's done some amazing things. He's created some really just incredible films that he made happen and he does a lot of stuff with Netflix now and Hulu and incredible stuff. So my point in this is for everyone in business, Doug Landis (01:48) Yep. Mark Petruzzi (02:09) Find your way of getting exposed to individuals like that. Now we all can't typically just call up and get to know a producer. I just happen to have some friends in the industry that I grew up with and got in that track. But maybe it's about writers. It's about different people who run businesses that you just look at. And just learn that side of the equation because It's as specific as you define it, in my opinion, and it's also as generic as just like if you learn how to be a good storyteller, you're going to be successful in business and life. Like I use these same skills with my two children. they love to hear stories. It's just incredible. good. Doug Landis (02:48) Amen. KK Anderson (02:49) People will like you, Yeah. Doug Landis (02:53) Well, I got a caveat to that. I have a caveat to that. Everybody loves somebody who is a good storyteller. Everybody despises somebody who not despise that's pretty aggressive, but it's not a big fan of the people who ramble. They think they're telling a story and they're just it's just one ginormous run on sentence that you never know where going to end. Because reality is it right like it's like no one wants to be the person stuck at the party with I ⁓ I got to sit next to them. ⁓ they never shut up. They always say KK Anderson (03:09) Yes. 1,000. Mark Petruzzi (03:17) Excel. you KK Anderson (03:23) Is there any time? Doug Landis (03:26) All they do is talk your ear off or they just talk about themselves, right? They don't ask, they don't treat it as a conversation, right? So like, this is what happens. I mean, this is why I always think selling is just a series of conversations. We're having a conversation to see if it makes sense for us to have another conversation. And if so, who else should be involved? What's interesting is in conversations in everyday life, we tell stories, right? So like, just get better at being really clear and succinct about the story that you're trying to tell. And I think it's hard. Mark Petruzzi (03:28) Yeah. ⁓ KK Anderson (03:45) Thank Mark Petruzzi (03:45) Yep. Yep. Doug Landis (03:52) Like I think it's hard to be able to do on the fly because you have to be really thoughtful. It's a muscle, like practicing your discovery muscle, just like practicing your negotiation muscle. These are muscles that you have to practice. ⁓ I love it. KK Anderson (04:06) And you gotta get good at telling stories on the Doug Landis (04:08) And so you need to know what stories you need to know what stories are the best stories to go tell for this particular audience in this particular moment. Right. And so that's why I say like, if it's a first conversation with a with a prospect or a buyer, I need to be really thoughtful about what stories do I want to tell? What stories do I want to bring in the conversation? I'm thoughtful enough about what questions I'm going to ask. I'm thoughtful about what about what products I might talk about or, or, or maybe infuse into the conversation. KK Anderson (04:26) Right. Doug Landis (04:34) Why don't I just spend the extra minutes to be thoughtful about the story or stories I might want to tell in the conversation. KK Anderson (04:39) and practice it. So I wanna also talk about what happens when we're not in the room as sellers with our buyers. We know that they have to turn around and very often, I mean, the last number I saw was like on average, anything over $25,000 would go to a CFO of all things. Like even people who've had buying authority and budget for... Doug Landis (05:01) Yeah. KK Anderson (05:04) most of their careers no longer do because of what's happening right now. And so who you're talking to, they have to turn around and sell it internally, they have to be your champion. And I will tell you, the stories are what they remember. So if they're gonna turn around and go talk to their coworker about it or get buy-in, they're probably going to be telling that story. Like, you told me the story, they'll be able to recite it. Whereas like you said, the multiple choice question, like they're gonna be like, can't remember. I don't really remember what it does, but it sounded cool. Doug Landis (05:32) I can't remember which vendor actually says they can integrate with Salesforce or with, with all of that. I can't remember. Like honestly, even if I'm looking at two solutions, I'm like, shoot, I don't remember which one actually is like, yeah. ASC 2019 integrated like, well, I don't remember. Right. Cause they're all saying the same thing. By the way, here's the, here's a little, here's a little tagline. You can share with everybody. Well, if everybody listening, people don't. KK Anderson (05:35) Yeah. Mark Petruzzi (05:44) Jesus. KK Anderson (05:47) Yeah. Doug Landis (05:58) buy products. They buy the story attached to it. Right. It's connected to an outcome. It's like, Oh, this, if I, this is one of my favorites. we, we do a lot of work with Salesforce and MuleSoft and it's like, do know how many people are in the API integration world are working on Sundays because all of a sudden integration went down on Friday. And if it's not up and working on a Monday, then guess what? They're not actually doing transactions. Oh no. So Imagine if you buy a solution like MuleSoft, you never have to work a Sunday again, now you can hang out with your kids. That's the story I'm telling you in my head as I'm trying to solve for this integration problem that I have. It's like, I want my Sundays back. Not like I want a faster integration solution. I mean, that's nice, but like, no, I want my Sundays back. KK Anderson (06:33) Right. Mark Petruzzi (06:41) And Doug, the way you just said that is great because some people would answer your question is, well, people want solutions. But no, I mean, that's a solution. You're giving them a solution, but it's the net effect of that solution on you and to your life and your response. Excellent. Let's, and your organization. Doug Landis (06:58) Yep. your organization and like your team and like the things that yeah, the things that you care about. Like this is how, this is how they're making decisions. It's the story that they're crafting in their head. And it's, what, by the way, like we've all done this, righ

    21 min
  6. Ep. 116 – Escaping the Crisis of Sameness in Modern Sales with Doug Landis – Part 1

    MAR 3

    Ep. 116 – Escaping the Crisis of Sameness in Modern Sales with Doug Landis – Part 1

    In this episode of Selling the Cloud, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Doug Landis, Co-Founder of StoryPath.ai and host of Sales Stories, to unpack how AI is reshaping the buyer seller relationship and why most sales teams are still playing by outdated rules. Doug shares why AI has enhanced the buyer’s world more than the seller’s, what he calls the invisible evaluation, and how today’s buyers are 80 to 90 percent through their decision process before ever speaking to a rep. The conversation dives deep into the crisis of sameness in modern sales, why traditional discovery no longer works, and how trust and story have become the last true differentiators in a crowded market. If you are leading a sales team, building a pipeline, or navigating complex enterprise deals, this episode will challenge how you think about first meetings, process, and positioning in an AI driven world. What You’ll Learn: AI and the Buyer Shift: Why 89 percent of B2B buyers are using generative AI and how 83 percent of the journey now happens without a seller.The Invisible Evaluation: How buyers are researching, comparing, and shortlisting vendors without leaving digital breadcrumbs.The Crisis of Sameness: Why AI tools are causing sellers to sound identical and how that kills differentiation.First Meeting Reimagined: How to show up with a hypothesis, point of view, and buyer language instead of running outdated discovery scripts.Trust and Story as Strategy: Why storytelling is not case studies and how narrative builds alignment across large buying committees.CEO of the Territory: Why modern reps must think like business leaders, not process followers.Key Topics: AI’s impact on B2B buying behaviorRethinking the traditional sales processDiscovery versus hypothesis led sellingBuilding trust through empathy and buyer ontologyStory as a tool for alignment and influenceCoaching sales teams in a new paradigmDifferentiation in enterprise SaaS and AI marketsGuest Spotlight: Doug Landis Doug Landis is Co-Founder of StoryPath.ai, an AI native guided selling and storytelling platform designed to help sellers show up with differentiated perspectives, not just better automation. He previously led global sales productivity at Salesforce, served as Chief Storyteller at Box, and was a growth partner at Emergence Capital. Doug is also the host of Sales Stories and a long time advocate for trust based, story driven enterprise selling. 🎧 Listen now and follow Selling the Cloud for more insights on modern go to market strategy, enterprise sales, and how to win in a one shot world. Mark Petruzzi (00:34) Welcome to Selling the Cloud. Our guest today is Doug Landis. We're very fortunate to have Doug, who is the co-founder of StoryPath.ai, host of the Sales Stories podcast. He's a storyteller and he's just successfully built early stage companies time and time again. Doug has led global sales productivity at Salesforce. He served as the chief storyteller at Box and spent seven years as a growth partner at Emergence Capital, helping SaaS companies scale smarter. He has sold everything from newspapers and ice cream to enterprise databases and cloud software. Today, he's really focused on and really enjoying building up StoryPath.ai. StoryPath is an AI native guided selling and storytelling platform that helps sellers show up with differentiated perspective, not just better automation. Three topics we'll cover today. How AI has changed buying behavior more than selling behavior. Why trust and story are the only real differentiators left. And how sellers can compare differently and win in a one shot world. Doug, we're so fortunate, as I said, to have you here, and welcome to Selling the Cloud. Doug Landis (01:50) Thank you. So great to be back. That was all I think I was on a long time ago. I don't even remember what we were talking about back then. And you know, it's interesting as you were doing the, you're going through the intro, I was thinking, I was like, well, given the fact that it feels like everything's shifting to be AI native AI first, everything's all AI. Just does the podcast shift to like selling AI instead of selling the cloud? Mark Petruzzi (01:53) Be back. Doug Landis (02:14) By the way, not yet. Just for a little side note, was on a webinar with about 250 operational leaders, sales and rev ops leaders. And I asked the question, Mike, what percentage on average of your entire go-to-market tech stack is still pure SaaS versus AI? And the answer was at least 85 % of their stack was still pure SaaS. So while we say everything is moving AI and it's moving fast, really fast. There's still so much that's already like fully baked in. so now everyone's been trying to figure out like, how do we actually, make it additive instead of completely rip and replace. But anyway, so the pod selling the cloud is still relevant for awhile. Mark Petruzzi (02:52) Yes and no, we're actually working on exactly that now, Doug. So you're hitting us right at the... KK Anderson (02:56) Your ears must have been burning, Dad, because we've been talking about a Doug Landis (02:57) really? sit in a space all the time like, hmm. Mark Petruzzi (03:01) No, no, you do, you actually put out these ideas without even saying it. Because I actually came up with this idea last night and shared it with KK. So I was waiting. you know, we'll talk more about that, Doug. And so maybe you influenced me without even knowing it. But there are things that are changing. There are things that we want to make sure our audience is changing with it. Doug Landis (03:10) No way, that's amazing. Mark Petruzzi (03:25) And it's just really, it's incredible to have you here and you keep getting smarter than even the last time we had you here. So we love it. a couple times you've said something that really stuck with us through your writing, through your podcast. It's all blurred to me because I've listened to all of it over time now. but that AI has enhanced the buyer's world more than the seller's. What do most sales teams misunderstand about what's happening right now? And how can they change their approaches and their processes to be able to really make sure that we are clicking and fitting with the new buyer's world that is out there? Doug Landis (04:06) Hmm. Such a great conversation to have. I love this. You know, when AI first hit the scene, I think everybody asked like, okay, what does this mean to me? What is this? How can I use this? And I think what the reality is for buyers and sellers, AI has dramatically changed how they engage with each other. The relationship between buyers and sellers is changing pretty dramatically. If you think about it for buyers, know, AI has actually become a real superpower for them. You know, they can aggregate data, they can run analysis, they can do things so much faster than ever before. They're just leveling up overnight. And so I'll share some statistics with you. think that are really, really important to understand how what's changing and shifting in this relationship. If you think about this, LLM traffic is projected to overtake traditional search by the end of 2026. So what that means is more than 50 % of your buyers are going straight to a chat bot to begin their buying journey. So think about that and why is that? And the reality is this as agents have gotten better, you know, it's really interesting is what they can do in minutes or hours is what it used to take buyers weeks and months. So the buying process used to be months long and now they can actually go through it in hours because what an agent is doing is an agent will actually look at their, they will form preferences. And they're going to do it in a way that like humans do. But what's crazy is the amount of information they can, they can analyze is stuff that buyers would normally think about over time. Things like, I don't know, think about the data points of like user reviews, right? Or community sentiment or tech, technical documentation or support quality or integration pricing, all of that. And agent can analyze all that in seconds. And a buyer would normally take, you know, weeks or months to go through that. So if you think about it, Statistically speaking, what is it? 89 % of B2B buyers are using gen AI in their purchasing process. The crazy thing is 83 % of the buyer's journey happens without a seller. So that means if a seller is only involved in 17 % of the buyer's activities, then sellers need to show up a little differently. They need to understand and almost anticipate the fact that the buyers are going through a buying process without them. We call this the invisible evaluation. They're evaluating solutions and they're evaluating ways to think about solving problems without any of us knowing. So if you think about like, we've all bought software, right? And so we normally would think about buying software, like maybe we'll go to a webinar, we'll go to a website, we'll talk to some people, we'll reach out to an SDR, we'll download a white paper. That is leaving signal. That's leaving breadcrumbs all over the internet. And solutions out there could pick up on that and be like, ⁓ hey, Doug is out exploring something to solve for forecasting. Awesome. I can reach out to him. can do some, you I can do some outbound now all that's happening in a chat bot and there are no more breadcrumbs. And so like how do sellers know how to marketers know how to brands know that their buyers are actually out there in market. It's really, really difficult. The problem is sellers show up. And I fundamentally think this is going to change the entire sales process. When you think about sales process, what do we think about the traditional sales process? We're going to take a buyer through like, you know, all these stages, discovery demo, you know, negotiation, more discovery, multi-threading, all of that buyer. like, no, I have two questions. I've wh

    27 min
  7. Ep. 115 - Building Repeatable Sales Success in Enterprise B2B with Glenn Poulos - Part 2

    FEB 24

    Ep. 115 - Building Repeatable Sales Success in Enterprise B2B with Glenn Poulos - Part 2

    In Part 2 of this conversation on Selling the Cloud, Glenn Poulos dives deep into what it really takes to scale a distribution business from startup to successful exit. From growing Gap Wireless from 1 million dollars in revenue to 84 million over 15 years, Glenn shares the strategic decisions, mindset shifts, and leadership disciplines that enabled sustainable growth in the telecom technology sector. Glenn unpacks the importance of franchise vendor relationships, why brand positioning determines sales velocity, and how to structure an organization with the right people in the right seats. He also tackles one of the most critical dynamics in distribution: building trust with manufacturers while managing the real risk of going direct. The episode closes with a practical and grounded perspective on AI in sales. Glenn explains how to use AI as a powerful assistant across departments without sacrificing the human connection that ultimately closes enterprise deals. Plus, stay for the rapid fire segment where he shares hard lessons from selling his first company, advice for his 21 year old self, and the sales habits he still practices today. What You’ll Learn: Scaling from Startup to Exit: The key inflection points that helped grow Gap Wireless from 1 million to 84 million in revenue.Brand Strategy in Distribution: Why representing top tier brands is essential for competitive sales positioning.Right People, Right Seats: How organizational structure and disciplined hiring drive long term growth.Manufacturer Trust Dynamics: Navigating co-selling, exclusivity, and the risk of vendors going direct.AI as an Assistant, Not a Replacement: How to use AI for research, prep, legal review, and financial insights without losing the human edge.Sales Discipline That Compounds: Daily habits that create visibility, opportunity, and long term career growth.Key Topics: Franchise distribution models in telecom and technologyRelationship first selling in enterprise B2BOrganizational design and leadership evolutionManaging vendor partnerships and channel conflictAI in sales operations, finance, marketing, and legalCareer defining mistakes and lessons learnedGuest Spotlight: Glenn Poulos Glenn Poulos is a sales expert, author, and serial entrepreneur with over 40 years of experience in complex B2B selling. He co-founded Gap Wireless and scaled it into a multi million dollar distribution company before its acquisition. Today, Glenn leads ProgUSA and is widely recognized for his thought leadership on sales growth, leadership, and the practical application of AI in business. 🎧 Listen now and follow Selling the Cloud for more conversations with leaders shaping the future of enterprise sales. Mark (00:31) So let's move to topic three, scaling a distribution business from startup to exit in the telecom technology sectors, as a whole. So let's talk a little bit about your journey building Gap Wireless. You co-founded it in 2007, hit a million dollars in revenue that first year. Glenn Poulos (00:33) Okay. Sure. Mark (00:51) and I believe it was 15 years later, sold to 10 WS. What were the major inflection points or really what were the decisions that enabled you to scale in the way that you scaled? Glenn Poulos (01:02) So numerous things. at the end, we were 1 million in the first year when we sold it to NWS and we did 84 million in revenue. So over the 15 year period, we grew from 1 to 84 million. And again, we were a small company, right? So I mean, was, you know, and at the, when we exited, there were 44 people. Right. So it was pretty good, pretty good growth. Right. So, in a distribution company or in many, I've been into the distribution my whole life. So really can't comment much on any other kind of company because I've never really experienced them. Right. But, it's the first thing is always focusing on the relationships before the transactions. Right. So that no need to really beat that to death. the people piece is very important. The relationships with the, the customers, the employees and the suppliers is critical, right? when you're a distributor, the key is having the key, the killer brands under your moniker, right? Like you need access, franchise to access. to the key brands, right? And the kind of world that we were in ⁓ and I've been in is one where it's kind of a, we'll call it monogamy based franchise relationship. Meaning I wasn't, I'm not the Rexel or Ingram Micro that has every brand and I'm a trillion dollar corporation, right? That's not what we are, right? We're a multimillion dollar company. And so, the screws, we would only represent this screw company. Right. There were other competitors, but our goal and our job was to get a franchise relationship with ABC screw and sell their screws and their screws only no competitive. Right. And so we would build the market for them. We were approached that company. They were maybe in Italy. They make the best screws in Italy. And we'd say we want an exclusive franchise relationship. with you guys in Canada, the US, North America, Central America, wherever it was we were selling, wherever the territory was available. And so you get that, you wanna build that relationship with the vendor early and that's the most important thing really because you wanna be having the best brands to present to the customers. Then it shifts and the customer becomes the most important, right? But if you, let's say you have the customers but you have the D, E and F brand. it's game over, right? Like I won't even, I challenge people, sales guys and gals that when they get a job, spend a few months and figure out where you are in the pecking order of the world of your market, right? Are you guys the number three, the number four, the number five, the number two, the number one? If you're below number two, I say quit and get a better job at a better company because you can't, you can't replace today, right? Once today's gone, it's gone. And so if you're trying to promote brands that are well down the stack of what people want to buy and what have you, you waste too much time selling the company and not enough time selling the solution and the product, right? So you want to have those vendor relationships. and so ⁓ some of the other things about about building the business, you know, is learning how to step back and put the right people in the right seats, right? So ⁓ structure first, people second. And everything has a process, right? So what do I need in order to be successful? And then do I have the right people in my organization to occupy those seats? And if not, I find the right person and put them in the right seat. I don't say, hey, our finance things are growing. We got more challenges in finance and we've got, Jack and Sally and you know Sally's been here longer and she's doing a good job and whatever let's give it to Sally. No it's like I need a director of finance now or I need a CFO what are the rules for the CFO? Does Sally or Jack have possessed that? Anyone else in the company? No I have to recruit out of the company. And I'm sorry, don't, it's nothing personal, right? You got to the right person in the right seat. And so, and that allows the founder to step back a bit and focus on the higher level visionary type functions of the running the company, right? And guiding the direction, knowing that the different, the different roles are well covered, right? so I'll just take a quick breath and see if there are any specific questions about that or KK Anderson (04:48) It's so, it's fascinating and so interesting. we do a lot of, and I do a lot of work with distribution companies and with manufacturers alike. And so one of the things that comes up a lot is trust, right? Distributors worry about manufacturers going direct. Manufacturers worry about losing control of the customer experience and conversation and getting to talk about their product. So from your perspective as the distributor. what actually builds that trust with the manufacturers? And is that, from your perspective as well, difficult to be able to trust the manufacturers with your pipeline, with your customer base, going, know, co-selling, if you will? Glenn Poulos (05:28) so yeah, that is like the key of it all. Like, I mean, that's really like, that's like a like a masterclass what you're just asking there, right? Like, you can go in so many different directions. But but ⁓ and I hear you so well what you're what you're asking me the the you have to be a little bit paranoid. You have to be pragmatic, and, sometimes you just have to, you you just have to let it be what it's going to be and accept it and, sometimes move on. Right. In the sense that, the company I'm in now, it's not a huge company. we have 11 franchise relationships. And so I have to balance the needs, wants and concerns of those companies, but some are bigger than others. Yeah. My main brand and what have you. And yeah, I I if I get them to a certain point, they might go direct, right? So it's a bit of a balanced mediocrity, right? If you grow them to a certain value, it's cheaper for them to open an office in that country and put in direct salespeople. But the thing is, it'll happen, right? And so you always want to be using that brand to leverage new brands coming on board. in the possibility that you might lose it. Because you can't defend against an inevitability, right? And so I sort of like trust. KK Anderson (06:36) to you before where lost like a manufacturer's gun direct Glenn Poulos (06:40) Yeah, so essentially we sort of, unless they're a company that's pure distribution focused, ⁓ where they only sell through distribution, it's just about doing a good job and stuff. But if when it's a difference between going direct and distribution, if they might go direct, then if they hit 5 million, you can, you can basically count your days until they go direct. because mathematically it's cheaper to go to rec at 5 mi

    22 min
  8. Ep. 114 - Building Repeatable Sales Success in Enterprise B2B with Glenn Poulos - Part 1

    FEB 17

    Ep. 114 - Building Repeatable Sales Success in Enterprise B2B with Glenn Poulos - Part 1

    In this episode of Selling the Cloud, Glenn Poulos joins Mark and KK Anderson to break down what truly drives success in complex enterprise B2B sales. With over 40 years of experience selling technical solutions across telecom, wireless infrastructure, and power utilities, Glenn shares the practical frameworks behind building trust, mapping decision processes, and creating repeatable sales performance. Drawing from his book Never Sit in the Lobby and decades of hands-on leadership, Glenn explains why buyers in complex sales are not simply purchasing products. They are buying safety, trust, and confidence that their decision will not backfire. The conversation explores how to slow down early, uncover real risk, build consensus across multiple stakeholders, and implement disciplined follow-up that keeps long-cycle deals moving forward. If you are leading an enterprise sales team or looking to scale predictable revenue in complex markets, this episode delivers actionable insight you can apply immediately. What You’ll Learn: • Why complex buyers prioritize safety and trust over price and specs • How to build trust early by slowing down and asking better questions • The importance of mapping decision makers and influencers in enterprise deals • How to prevent deals from stalling due to unseen stakeholders • The habits that create sales repeatability and predictable results • Why disciplined follow-up is a competitive advantage • How to coach sales teams before, during, and after every call • Glenn’s philosophy of greed-based learning and how it accelerates product mastery Key Topics: • Trust-driven selling in high-risk B2B environments • Mapping enterprise decision processes • Mutual action planning and consensus building • Sales discipline and behavioral consistency • Curiosity, preparation, and active listening • Scaling sales teams through repeatable behaviors • Coaching frameworks for enterprise sales leaders Guest Spotlight: Glenn Poulos Glenn Poulos is an award-winning author, sales expert, and serial entrepreneur with more than four decades of experience in complex B2B selling. He is the co-founder of Gap Wireless, which he scaled from startup to a multi-million dollar distribution business serving North America’s mobile broadband and wireless infrastructure markets. In 2022, Gap Wireless was acquired by the organization, where Glenn stayed on as Executive Vice President and General Manager to help integrate and grow the combined entity, now operating as NWS Canada. Today, Glenn serves as President of ProgUSA, supporting US power utilities and service firms with electrical test and measurement equipment. He is also the author of Never Sit in the Lobby, a practical guide to winning and sustaining success in complex sales environments. 🎧 Listen now and follow Selling the Cloud for more conversations with leaders shaping enterprise sales, go to market strategy, and revenue growth. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Mark (00:31) Welcome to today's episode of Selling the Cloud podcast. I'm excited to welcome Glenn Poulis, an award-winning author, sales expert, and serial entrepreneur with over 40 years of experience in complex B2B selling. Glenn is the co-founder of Gap Wireless, which he built from startup to a multi-million dollar distribution business serving the mobile broadband and wireless infrastructure markets. KK Anderson (00:57) and the infrastructure market. Mark (00:59) of North America. In 2022, GAP Wireless was acquired by Network Wireless Solutions, NWS, a portfolio company of green management. stayed on as the executive vice president and general manager to help integrate and grow the combined entity, which is now NWS Canada. Today, Glenn is president of Prague USA, a company that supports US power utilities and service firms with electrical test and measurement equipment. Thanks so much for joining us here, Glenn, and welcome. Glenn Poulos (01:31) Thanks, Mark. Great to be here. Mark (01:32) Cool, so today we'll explore four critical themes. First one, the core of complex B2B selling. How deals really get done and when the product is technical and the risk is high, how do you make sure that you build very strong efficiency into your selling model? Building sales repeatability. The habits and systems that make results predictable. Scaling and distribution business. We're gonna go a little deeper in that than we normally do. But really from startup to exit in the telecom and technology sectors. And then AI and technology and sales. Using tools without using the human connection. Topic one, just start with the B2B selling model as a whole. Glenn, your book, Never Sit in the Lobby, is full of field-tested wisdom from 40 years in technical sales. When you're selling complex products, whether it's wireless infrastructure, equipment, or power utility testing solutions, what fundamentally determines whether a buyer says yes or ultimately walks away? Glenn Poulos (02:32) Great question. So, and we're talking about complex sales, right? So, right. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, complex sales is a little different than just, you know, box selling or when you're just selling commodities like printers and computers or something. And, you know, when, when someone's buying something that's complex, right, they're not really buying a product. Mark (02:36) We are. Yes. Glenn Poulos (02:52) I always like to tell our people they're buying safety and solutions, right? Like they've got a problem. It could probably be solved in many ways with a complex solution, right? And it, and they're buying the safety that it, the, that decision will work, won't blow up in their face. No one's going to get fired. That's where the old, nobody got fired for buying IBM or Hewlett Packard came from, right? And that someone will stand beside them when things get hard, right? The specs matter. but trust matters more, right? That's the most important thing is the trust. And if a buyer doesn't feel safe saying yes, price doesn't become an issue, product doesn't become an issue, you're kind of dead in the water. And that's just a little, Looking back, it's like that's why a lot of times people would say to them, so I can't believe I didn't get the order. Like I had the best product, I had the best price, I had the best delivery, but they didn't trust you. rather, and again, I love saying, nobody got fired for buying IBM, right? They knew IBM was going to be there even if they were twice the price. And it's like, you know what? I'm going to buy IBM. Then I don't have to worry about it. I can say, Hey, I bought IBM. What do you want from me? Right? So that's kind of my first part of it. so the question is like, how do you build safety and trust, right? That's the key, you know, and so one of the key things that I always say is, you build it by slowing down early, right? You got to ask better questions. Listening more than talking the old God gave you two ears and one mouth you do the math, right and ⁓ the so listening more than talking, know, and you want to you want to be open honest and upfront about the risks, right and Challenge them with the risks a little bit so that they're out there and you're discussing the real risks that are in play and when the buyer you were trying to establish report to the point where the buyer feels feels you're helping them and not pushing them to buy Right. And so that's, that's, that's one aspect of it. Right. And, you know, some of the biggest mistakes people make are, you know, pushing price too early, trying to dive into specs for bigger, faster, wider, deeper, 20 % cheaper, you know, all those kinds of, you know, salesmen kind of things. Right. And pitching before understanding. And yeah. So. KK Anderson (04:53) So in a complex sale where it could go on for six to nine months and there's lots of dollars at stake as we were just discussing, what are some tricks or ways that you teach or talk about building consensus as you go through the sales process, as new people are added on into the conversation, as complexities increase? you know, everyone's got a different opinion. Like what are some ways that you build, build consensus, if you will. ⁓ Glenn Poulos (05:20) Okay, so or get to the order or whatever, right? I guess is yeah. So first, you got to understand the risk, right? Like that's the you got to present it to the customer, you got to present what the risks are to them and getting the job done. And you have to understand what the risks are to you and presenting your product at like your solution. You know, as being the as being the solution, right, you have to always remember early on and throughout it that buyers are not afraid of the price. And that proves itself out by just looking on the road and there's people that are driving Toyota Corollas and people that are driving Mercedes Benz S-Class, right? And so clearly some people just want to spend more on a car, right? And so they're afraid of being wrong, making the wrong decision. So you got to ask questions that uncover ⁓ what failure would look like if they make the wrong decision and who gets the blame if it happens, right? You're trying to identify that kind of stuff, right? And then second, This is so important, right? You wanna map the decision process, who influences, and there's many models and sales strategies out there. I don't teach these, but like the challenger model and what have you, where you're identifying the technical buyer, the financial influencer, the key decision maker and what have you. But you need to know, ⁓ especially the way I explain it to people is you have to look at the dollar value of the solution that you're selling. Let me, it's 50 K 500 K 5 million, 50 million. Right. And you have to say in the company that I'm selling it to who's signing that check, who's signing the PO, the authorization, the final, where does the buck stop? Rig

    25 min
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Selling Intelligence is the evolution of Selling the Cloud and designed for revenue leaders who are navigating the AI era. Hosted by Mark Petruzzi and Kristin "KK" Anderson, the show brings candid conversations with C-suite leaders across sales, marketing, and customer success on how AI is reshaping the way companies grow, sell, and compete. From agentic GTM strategies to AI-powered pipeline and revenue execution, each episode focuses on what’s actually working and how leaders are turning intelligence into performance. If you’re responsible for growth and trying to lead through the fastest shift in go-to-market we’ve ever seen, this podcast is for you.

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