Surviving Sales Leadership

AI in Sales Leadership: Where the Hell Do I Start?

Most sales leaders know AI is changing how teams sell. The ones falling behind aren't short on ambition - they're short on a starting point. Research shows sales reps spend 75-80% of their time on admin rather than selling, and AI is the fastest route to flipping that ratio. The three highest-impact places to start are prospect research, personalised outreach, and call analysis. 📥 Download the Modern Revenue Leader's Sales Coaching Manual: https://bit.ly/3QTbqsJ [https://bit.ly/3QTbqsJ] Tom Ridley is a Sales Coach at MySalesCoach with deep expertise in sales leadership transformation, AI-enabled performance, and GTM strategy. Richard Smith is Head of Growth at MySalesCoach and brings a practitioner's honest perspective on where most sales teams actually are with AI adoption. In this episode, host Ollie Whitfield sits with them to discuss the three AI use cases sales leaders should prioritise right now - and exactly how to start. You'll learn: * Why 71% of employers now prioritise AI skills over experience - and what that means for your team * How sales reps are spending 75-80% of their time on admin, and how AI closes that gap * How to use Perplexity for prospect research that used to take 15-20 minutes per account * How to build a personalised outreach engine using tools like Reggie.ai, Tuesday, or ChatGPT projects * Why call transcripts are the most underused data asset in most sales teams * How to use call transcripts to build meeting prep slides in under a minute * How to pull prospect language from call transcripts and turn it into your best prospecting messaging Tom Ridley is a Sales Coach at MySalesCoach specialising in sales leadership transformation, AI-enabled performance, and GTM strategy. He works with B2B sales leaders across SaaS and technology businesses to build high-performing teams and coaching cultures that scale. Connect with Tom Ridley [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomridley/] on LinkedIn 🔗 Rich Smith is Head of Growth at MySalesCoach and an experienced B2B sales leader who posts daily on LinkedIn about sales, leadership, and what's actually working in modern selling. Connect with Rich Smith [https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-smith-mysalescoach/] on LinkedIn 🔗 Surviving Sales Leadership sessions help sales leaders tackle their biggest sales challenges in short, focused bursts - we aim to get most episodes done in 30 minutes or less.  New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe so you don't miss one.  Watch this on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/SCXTO5V0H3E Brought to you by MySalesCoach. Follow MySalesCoach [https://www.linkedin.com/company/mysalescoach-com] on LinkedIn

How Sales Leaders Are Using LinkedIn to Build Their Own SQL Machine

Most sales leaders treat LinkedIn as a brand exercise. Post a few times a week, get some likes from colleagues, move on. But the reps who are actually self-sourcing pipeline are using it completely differently - they're building their own SQL machine, turning engagement signals into warm conversations before they even pick up the phone. 📥 Download the Modern Revenue Leader's Sales Coaching Manual https://bit.ly/3QTbqsJ [https://bit.ly/3QTbqsJ] Will Aitken built his entire outbound motion around LinkedIn across three different companies. Niraj Kapur has done 220+ videos and converts inquiries directly from them. Between them and host Tom Boston, there are over 170,000 LinkedIn followers on this episode. In this episode, Will and Niraj sit down with our host Tom Boston to get into what that actually looks like in practice - the content strategy, the video outreach, and the personal vs professional balance that most reps get wrong. In this episode: * Why LinkedIn personal brand is an MQL list you build yourself - and take with you when you leave * How Will uses LinkedIn content to warm up prospects already in his pipeline between stages * Niraj's video outreach approach that generates direct inquiries and how he converts them * The 80/20 rule for personal vs professional content and what happens when you get it wrong * Why the algorithm matters far less than most people think * How to use LinkedIn strategically for named accounts, not just broadcasting to the masses * The one question to ask before posting anything: would your CEO share this? About Surviving Sales Leadership: Surviving Sales Leadership sessions help sales leaders tackle their biggest sales challenges in short, focused bursts - we aim to get most episodes done in 30 minutes or less. New episodes fortnight. Subscribe so you don't miss one.   🌐 Episode page: https://www.mysalescoach.com/surviving-sales-leadership-home/how-sales-leaders-build-sql-machine-linkedin [https://www.mysalescoach.com/surviving-sales-leadership-home/how-sales-leaders-build-sql-machine-linkedin] 🔗 Connect with Tom Boston [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-boston/] on LinkedIn 🔗 Connect with Will Aitken [https://www.linkedin.com/in/justwillaitken/] on LinkedIn 🔗 Connect with Niraj Kapur [https://www.linkedin.com/in/nkapur/] on LinkedIn 🔗 Follow MySalesCoach [https://www.linkedin.com/company/mysalescoach-com] on LinkedIn About Will Aitken Will Aitken is a sales content creator and coach based in Canada, originally from Milton Keynes. He built his personal brand while working as an account executive and used it to generate his own pipeline - taking that audience with him across three different companies. He's known for honest, direct content about what actually works in sales. About Niraj Kapur Niraj Kapur spent 25 years in sales before founding Everybody Works in Sales, a coaching business working with teams across the UK, Europe and North America. He's done over 220 LinkedIn videos and converts them directly into coaching clients.

The Questions You're Not Asking That Kill a Forecast in 5 Minutes

Most sales leaders have sat across from a rep who's fully convinced a deal is closing.  Champion engaged.  Proposal out.  Close date locked. And they're wrong. Richard Smith sits down with Chris Lingenfelter (VP Sales & CS, Level Up) and Nigel Arthur (former MD and SVP Sales, enterprise SaaS - now coach at MySalesCoach) to show exactly what separates pipeline from forecast - and how fast the difference becomes obvious when you ask the right questions. They cover why emotion is the single biggest killer of forecast accuracy, what entry/exit criteria your CRM stages are probably missing, and why a rep who "feels really good" about a deal is a red flag, not a green light. The session ends with a live deal review. Richard plays the rep. Nigel and Chris ask five questions.  The deal doesn't make the forecast. Find out which questions did it.

We Analysed 5117 Sales Coaching Calls - Here's Why Your Deals Are Stalling

Want to be a great coach for your team and drive results in the time you DO have for coaching? Download the Modern Revenue Leader's Sales Coaching Manual [https://www.mysalescoach.com/the-modern-revenue-leaders-sales-coaching-manual?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=] --- About this episode: Ever had that feeling where your pipeline looks busy… but nothing’s actually moving?  Yeah. Turns out, you’re not alone. Sales leaders think stalled deals are a pipeline problem. Sales reps are experiencing something very different. In this episode, Ollie Whitfield sits down with Steve Myers, and John Richardson to unpack insights from analysing 5117 real sales coaching calls and what they reveal about why deals lose momentum. The conversation exposes a gap between what salespeople ask for in coaching and what’s actually holding performance back.  While most conversations focus on pipeline, deal progression, and “tips and tricks,” the real blockers often sit deeper—in decision process clarity, mindset, and how sales teams think about control in the deal.  The episode explores why decision process dominates coaching conversations, why “closing” is often misunderstood, and how over-reliance on tactics masks underlying behavioural and mindset challenges.  It also highlights the disconnect between prospecting responsibility and pipeline ownership, and how this impacts quota attainment and sales velocity. This episode is essential listening for: VPs of Sales, Heads of Sales, Sales Managers and Revenue Leaders who are trying to improve sales coaching effectiveness, increase deal velocity, and build a stronger coaching culture that goes beyond surface-level tactics. Brought to you by MySalesCoach. Learn more about how we support leaders in building elite sales teams with our Sales Coaching Operating System: www.mysalescoach.com

The Comp Plan Mistakes That Push Good Reps Out

Simple comp plans are easy to explain. Bad comp plans are easy to regret. This episode gets into the real damage sales leaders create when compensation becomes unclear, unfair, too clever, or easy to game. Want to be a great coach for your team and drive results in the time you DO have for coaching? Download the Modern Revenue Leader's Sales Coaching Manual [https://www.mysalescoach.com/the-modern-revenue-leaders-sales-coaching-manual?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=] In this sales leadership lesson, Mike Pritchett of BuzzTrail and David Wilkins unpack what actually happens when comp plans drift away from the behaviours the business needs. * Reps disengage fast when they cannot clearly see how they make money * Changing comp after overachievement destroys trust and pushes good people out * Complex plans create confusion, politics, and arguments over who deserves what * Poorly designed incentives drive sandbagging, bad meetings, gaming, and low-value activity * Too much disparity across reps creates distraction, resentment, and “why are they getting more than me?” conversations * Team-based targets can hide poor performance and pull everyone toward mediocrity * Commission-only setups sound attractive in startups, but make it harder to judge fit and build real team energy * Small non-cash rewards can sometimes motivate better than taxed cash incentives * Public recognition, competition, and simple scoreboards still matter because sales is hard and momentum matters The core message is straightforward: compensation is not just about paying people. It shapes behaviour, trust, culture, focus, and performance. When leaders get it wrong, they do not just create payroll problems. They create distraction, resentment, short-term thinking, and a sales team that starts working the plan instead of working the market. This episode is for VPs of Sales, Heads of Sales, SDR leaders, and founders trying to build comp plans that stay simple, reward the right actions, reduce internal friction, and help good reps perform without creating avoidable chaos. * (00:00) - Start Timestamps 00:00 Why simple comp plans outperform clever ones 08:35 The hidden damage of changing comp mid-year 16:42 Incentivising the wrong behaviour and how reps game the system 27:18 SDR and AE comp, quotas, territory fairness, and startup trade-offs 39:46 Why communal targets and uneven comp create resentment 48:58 Non-financial rewards, surprise incentives, and recognition that actually lands Brought to you by MySalesCoach. Learn more about how we support leaders in building elite and consistent sales teams: www.mysalescoach.com