Sales Talk for CEOs

Win more high stakes deals. In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Yvonne Lines, a strategic presentation expert, to unpack exactly how B2B sales teams can win their most important, high-stakes sales presentations, the ones that make or break deals.Yvonne shares her proven process for creating audience-centric, story-driven presentations that drive decisions and close business. This episode is packed with actionable strategies for CEOs, founders, and sales leaders who want their teams to win by making customer centric presentations.  Connect WithYvonne Lines: LinkedIn | WebsiteAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

Events create demand. In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Jonathan Kazarian, Founder & CEO of Accelevents, the all‑in‑one event management platform that’s redefining how organizations run events from 20‑person dinners to 30,000‑attendee conferences.Jonathan didn’t start in events tech, he came from finance. But when he couldn’t find software powerful enough to run a 900‑person fundraiser for his cousin, he built his own. That event was a smash success and the demand for the tool he created sparked the beginning of Accelevents.Want to get better results from your events? Check out these expert tips from Alice (Our Internal Links)📌 Pre-Event Preparations for Networking Success📌 How to Make Sure Your Event Follow-Up Doesn’t Suck📌 How to Get in Front of the People Who Can Buy From YouBooks & Podcasts Mentioned: 📚 Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara 🎙️All-In Podcast💡Advice for CEOs:  “Talk to customers to listen, not to talk.” Connect WithJonathan Kazarian: LinkedIn | WebsiteAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Websitehttps://www.trykondo.com/

In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with trust‑selling pioneer Ari Galper to reveal why traditional sales techniques are failing in today’s climate and what CEOs, Founders, and Sales Leaders must do instead. Ari argues that trust isn’t a byproduct of selling; it’s the core of it.Actionable takeaways for leaders:Train your team to lead with questions, listen until they share the full context of their problem.Replace “follow up” emails with “feedback” outreach.Always end meetings by scheduling the next appointment, don’t leave it to chance.Ari’s insights build on a theme we’ve heard from several standout guests, trust isn’t just part of the sales process; it is the process. If you found this episode valuable, you’ll also want to hear how other CEOs and experts are scaling by leading with trust:👉 Barb Betts’ system to scale sales through trust👉 How to scale with trusted partnerships👉 Why relationships win over sales pitchesConnect with Ari and Alice below to learn how to transform your sales model into one built on clarity, empathy, and trust.Rapid‑Fire PicksBook: 80/20 Sales & Marketing by Perry MarshallPodcast: The Diary of a CEO Advice for CEOs to Win Today’s Market: Shift from being the “pharmacist” handing out pills to being the “doctor” diagnosing pain and eliminate any sales behavior that feels salesy or forced.Connect WithAri Galpert: LinkedIn | WebsiteAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Adi Klevit, founder and visionary behind Business Success Consulting Group, to expose a powerful truth many CEOs and Founders don’t face, your sales success often lives in someone’s head instead of in a scalable, repeatable system.Adi walks through her proven approach of documenting, optimizing, and implementing processes so companies can finally scale sales reliably, empower their teams, and free the founder to work on the business, not in it. By the end of this episode, CEOs will have a clear roadmap to turn messy, inconsistent sales behaviors into a documented playbook that produces consistent results.Rapid‑Fire PicksBooks:10X by Grant CardoneThe Power Questions by Jerold Panas & Andrew SobelThe Go-Giver (and The Go-Giver Influencer) by Bob Burg and John David MannPodcasts: Built to Sell RadioInspired Insider with Dr. Jeremy WeiszAdvise to the CEO: Focus on what they can control and let go of what they can’t, like the economy, market fluctuations, or global events. Instead, she recommends channeling energy into how you lead, operate, and continuously improve. Be a lifelong learner. That’s the mindset that keeps you agile, innovative, and successful no matter what the market throws your way. Connect WithAdi Klevit: LinkedIn | WebsiteAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman talks with Gavi Wolf, CEO and Founder of IndieWalls, about how he scaled a creative business, turning an art marketplace into a commercial art consultancy serving major brands. Gavi discusses founder‑led sales, when and how he realized it was time to build a sales leadership function, and the hard lesson about motivating and compensating a high‑performing sales team.Rapid‑fire picksBook: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara.Podcast: Freakonomics with Stephen Dubner.CEO Advice: If you want top sales talent, they need to see a clear path to earning real money. Show them others are winning, give them a comp plan they can believe in and the right people will come and perform. Connect WithGavi Wolf: LinkedIn | WebsiteAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

Stop wasting money on lead generation that doesn’t work. In this solo episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman delivers a powerful, no-nonsense rant every B2B CEO needs to hear. She challenges the outdated playbook of cold calling and SDR-driven outreach, revealing why it's costing you more than it’s delivering and what to do about it.Alice shares real examples and modern strategies to generate high-quality leads that fill your pipeline without burning out your sales team. From leveraging marketing properly, to holding the right kind of events, to mining your customer base for referrals, this is the wake-up call CEOs need to redesign their go-to-market motions.Connect with Alice Heiman: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceheimanWebsite: https://aliceheiman.com

What happens when a math major turned cold-caller gets frustrated with broken sales systems? He builds a better one, then builds a company around it.In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Ryan Reisert, the co- founder of Outbound Operators and CallBlitz, to trace his journey from burned-out rep to process-driven founder. Ryan reveals how years of trial, error, and dialing taught him that sales doesn’t scale on brute force, it scales with math, process, and precision.This is the inside story of how a rep-turned-CEO rebuilt outbound from the ground up - more than once.Connect WithRyan Reisert: LinkedIn | CallBlitz | Outbound OperatorsAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

What if your sales team is focused on the wrong thing?Brent Adamson and Karl Schmidt, co-founders of A to B Insight and co-authors of The FrameMaking Sale, reveal why traditional B2B tactics like BANT are outdated and how to win by building buyer confidence in their own decisions.Connect with:Brent Adamson: LinkedIn | A to B InsightKarl Schmidt: LinkedIn | A to B InsightAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | WebsiteLink to The FrameMaking Sale 

From hockey stick growth to flat on your face, it hurts and Collin Stewart can tell you firsthand. He had one customer before he left his full-time job, the problem was he still had one customer 18 months later. In his first endeavor this entrepreneur built what he thought everyone needed and kept showing them and expecting them to say how great it was, but they didn’t. “I was building my idea. I wasn’t building what the customer’s wanted.” The lesson, it’s all about the customer, what they need and want. Rapid-Fire MentionsBook: Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard RumellPodcast: Acquired FMAdvice to CEOs:  Lead with relationships and real value. Outbound still works, but only if your product-market fit is strong. If you’re early-stage, skip the pitch and focus on helping first. Connect WithCollin Stewart: LinkedIn | WebsiteCollin’s book: The Terrifying Art of Finding a CustomerAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

When CEOs struggle to connect with customers, teams, or investors, it's rarely a strategy problem, it’s a storytelling problem. In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Jeff Abracen, Founder of Disruptive Influence and storytelling coach to tech leaders, to uncover why a great story is a terrible thing to waste.Jeff shares how he turned a high school “disruptive influence” label into a superpower for transforming leaders into magnetic storytellers. With a focus on the Disruptive DNA framework, Jeff teaches CEOs how to own the stage, captivate their audience, and get results, whether it’s on LinkedIn, in a boardroom, or at a major conference.🔑 What you’ll learn:How to use storytelling to increase sales, alignment, and executive presenceThe Disruptive DNA Framework: Differentiate, Narrate, ActivateWhy preparation, not memorization, is the secret to confidence and clarityJeff doesn’t just talk about storytelling, he lives it. You’ll hear actionable advice and real coaching examples from working with SaaS founders and technical executives. If you’re a CEO or founder who needs to inspire action, this episode will help you turn information into influence.Mentioned in the Rapid-Fire:Book Recommendation: The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick RubinPodcast Recommendation: Diary of a CEOAdvice for CEOs: “Facts tell, stories sell. Get into people's hearts before you worry about getting into their minds and their wallets.”Connect with:Jeff Abracen: LinkedIn | Disruptive InfluenceRequest the Disruptive DNA framework: DM Jeff on LinkedIn and mention this podcastAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

There are two key ways to get in front of the people most likely to buy from you and Alice believes you may be overlooking them. The first is something she talks about all the time. So if you haven’t started expecting your team to do it, now is the time. Referral selling. Yes, you get a few referrals here and there but why not make it a regular occurrence. Alice explains briefly in this episode but for more details listen to episode 147 For more on this listen to episode 147 https://aliceheiman.com/use-the-power-of-referrals-to-close-more-deals/ You must train your team to ask for referrals and then expect them to do it by measuring it and reporting on the results. But Alice shares another great way to get in front of the right people, one that is tried and true and has been working and continues working, events. And in this episode she talks about a very specific type of online event, a Round Table. You invite your target audience and they reason they attend is because they will get to share and learn. Rather than a webinar with talking heads, you invite your target audience to share about something that is happening in their marketplace. Not only are great ideas shared, they all get to meet each other and network. As Alice exclaims, “It’s a win, win, win, win.” Win 1 - You win because you get in front of the right peopleWin 2 - You win again because you have the right people to follow up withWin 3 - They win because they share and hear all the ideas sharedWin 4 - They win because they meet people in their industry they might not have otherwiseAlice explains that she discovered an unexpected side benefit of holding the round table. She had no idea all of the conversations she would have from responses to the invitations. She had so many conversations with people who couldn’t attend. Just what salespeople want, conversations with people who can buy. Alice shares the example of a round table she did recently where she invited CEOs to share, “What CEOs need to know to win in this market.” She’s done 2 others since then and shares those below. You can gather those most likely to buy at a round table and have a win, win, win, win, too. Here are the insights from 3 of the Round Tables Alice has held recently.CEO to CEO: What You Need to Know to Win in This MarketCEO to CEO: What is Actually Working in B2B Lead Generation NowCEO to CEO: How CEOs Are Rethinking Hiring GTM Talent: Insights from the C-Suite RoundtableConnect with Alice Heiman: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceheimanWebsite: https://aliceheiman.com

Imagine if your sales team could rehearse complex deals before ever meeting the buyer, just like elite athletes pre-game. That’s exactly what Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (CEO) and Alix Berry (COO) of ExpertTheory make possible.In this episode, Alice Heiman dives into how ExpertTheory helps companies simulate real-world sales situations through AI-powered, custom-built games. These immersive experiences go far beyond traditional training, replacing static roleplay with dynamic, scenario-based learning that strengthens team performance, decision-making, and competitive strategy.Connect withDaveed Gartenstein-Ross: LinkedIn Alix Berry: LinkedInExpertTheory: WebsiteAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

What happens when a seasoned marketer reimagines everything she knows about agencies, on a beach, notebook in hand, while her kids play nearby? Brittany Trafis, CEO and co-founder of Soarion Digital, shares how she built an AI-powered agency that challenges everything about traditional marketing models.In this episode, Brittany walks Alice Heiman through the rapid sales growth of Soarion: from early experiments to real client results, through founder-led sales and how boldly saying “the agency model is broken” helped them break into a noisy market as they prepare to scale.Rapid-Fire Picks:Book: Multipliers by Liz WisemanPodcast: Business WarsAdvice to CEOs: Don’t get lost chasing what’s next, focus on timeless principles. Technology evolves, but people still crave connection and community. Stay grounded in what doesn’t change.🔗 Connect with Brittany & AliceBrittany Trafis: LinkedIn | WebsiteAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

If you’re still posting jobs and hoping A-players apply, you’re already behind.In this high-impact episode, Alice Heiman sits down with Jamie Crosbie, founder of ProActivate and TEDx speaker with over 1 million views on The Power of Your Mindset, to reveal what every CEO needs to know to hire top revenue-generating talent.Most hiring processes are built for convenience, not performance. That’s why companies end up with B-players or worse, just to fill a seat. Jamie shares exactly how CEOs can stop mis-hires before they happen and build bench strength that supports real growth.If you’re a CEO of a B2B company under $100M, this episode is your blueprint for hiring right, every time.📚 Rapid Fire FavoritesBook: The Pivot Year by Brianna Wiest Podcast: Sales Talk for CEOsAdvice to CEOs: “Proactively protect and grow your #1 asset, your people.”🔗 Connect WithJamie Crosbie: LinkedIn | WebsiteJamie’s TEDx Talk: Liar, liar, life on fire: Breaking through your lies to your truthAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Paige McPheely, CEO of Base, to explore how she turned a niche remote executive assistant service into a tech-enabled platform that now supports top leaders across the country.When Paige and her co-founder first launched, they were fueled by referrals, so much so that they had a waiting list of eager clients. But as demand surged, they hit a breaking point: the referrals kept coming, but they weren’t the right fit. It forced a strategic shift from a referral-dependent business to a focused outbound sales approach.Today, Paige leads a lean team that gets most of its customers not from ads or cold outreach, but from storytelling. By consistently showing up on LinkedIn, YouTube, and in conversations like this, Base now plays the long game, building trust with CEOs long before they’re ready to buy.✅ Learn how Paige:Transformed referral overload into an effective outbound sales strategyUses LinkedIn and storytelling to fill the funnel with high-intent buyersBundled software + services to create a sticky, high-value offering CEOs trustThis episode is a must-watch for CEOs who need to stop doing it all themselves and start allowing the right support, like an exceptional EA. to help them lead more effectively.📚 Rapid-Fire PicksBook: The Lion Trackers Guide to LifePodcast: FoundersCEO Advice: Be authentic and stop trying to do it all alone. Getting help, whether through an EA, software, or support network, isn’t a luxury, it’s a strategic advantage. Give yourself permission to invest in the support that helps you lead more effectively.🔗 Connect with:Paige McPheely: LinkedIn | WebsiteBase HQ: WebsiteAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Todd Caponi, sales historian and author of The Transparency Sale, to explore the forgotten history of sales and why understanding it could completely change how your company grows revenue.We’ve moved from serving buyers to selling at all costs and it’s hurting your sales team, your customer relationships, and your bottom line. Todd takes us back to the early 1900s, when trust, service, and even high school sales classes were the norm.What CEOs will learn:How sales was once respected, admired and taught in schoolsWhen and why we moved from service to high-pressure tacticsWhat today’s sales orgs can learn from 100-year-old best practicesWhy “buyers know more now” isn’t new and never wasTodd brings powerful historical context, rare quotes, and practical examples that challenge how modern sales is built.🤝 Connect With…Todd CaponiWebsite: toddcaponi.comLinkedIn: Todd CaponiPodcast: The Sales History Podcast@SalesHistorian https://instagram.com/saleshistorian/ The Transparency Sale on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2BxenrFThe Transparent Sales Leader on Amazon:  https://www.amzn.com/1646870646📘 Preorder Todd Caponi’s New Book - The Four Levers of NegotiatingOut January 27, 2026Learn how to stop discounting by default and start leading pricing conversations with clarity and confidence.Todd’s Four Levers, Volume, Payment Timing, Commitment Length, and Deal Timing, help sellers create win-win outcomes without racing to the bottom.Alice HeimanWebsite: aliceheiman.comLinkedIn: Alice Heiman

When Wesley Portegies left the pharmaceutical world to work in automotive, he didn’t expect it to lead him back, but it did. Armed with a new perspective, he returned with a mission, disrupt how pharma companies communicate with doctors.In this episode, Wesley shares how he co-founded MedComms Experts with no outside funding, no traditional sales team and still built a multi-million dollar agency. He reveals how they landed their first client (Baxter), grew through inbound leads and referrals, and structured the business so sales happens through trust, not tactics.Bio: "Wesley is an entrepreneur who founded his first company at 19 and has built multiple successful businesses, with over 15 years’ experience in the medical industry. In 2012, he launched MedComms Experts in Zurich, later expanding to the US, now employing 50+ professionals. An MBA graduate and active MAPS contributor, Wesley is a strategic, innovative leader recognized for building strong teams and driving industry innovation, and currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer at MedComms Experts."📚 Wesley’s Rapid-Fire PicksBook: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight Podcast: Diary of a CEO Advice to CEOs: “Hold up high standards consistently, people notice the difference.”🔗 Connect with Wesley & AliceWesley Portegies: LinkedIn | WebsiteWesley’s Podcast: Transforming Medical CommunicationsAlice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website

People don’t trust ads. Or brands. Or even experts.Brian Miller joins Alice Heiman to explain how CEOs can cut through the noise and earn trust, fast.In this episode:Why the trust recession is killing your pipelineThe 3-part message that builds instant engagementHow to make your talk (or pitch) follow the hero’s journeyThe #1 reason your message doesn’t spread and how to fix itKey takeaway: If people can’t repeat what you do, they won’t talk about you.ShownotesGet his new book: https://keynotedesignbook.com  The 10 Questions Every Speech Must Answer (and the order you must answer them in):Will this be worth my time?Is this urgent?So, what is this talk really about?Why should I listen to you?Do I already know how to solve this problem?So, what should I do instead?How do I start?Is this really worth it?Can I go now?Wait, what was this all about again?🔗 Connect with Brian Miller:LinkedIn: Brian Miller - Clarity UpInstagramYouTube PodcastCompany Website🔗 Connect with Alice Heiman: LinkedIn: Alice Heiman Website: aliceheiman.com

Vibe selling. AI hype. New sales buzzwords. Alice Heiman isn’t buying it.In this candid solo episode, she calls out the noise and brings the focus back to what matters most for B2B CEOs: knowing your customer, building the right team, and aligning sales to how your buyers buy.Looking for clarity in a world of sales chaos? This episode is for you.Advice to CEOs: “Slow down and think deeply about how your buyers want to buy, then align your entire sales effort to that.”🤝 Connect with Alice:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceheiman/ Website: https://aliceheiman.com

Elatia Abate left a successful corporate career to answer one bold question: What do I really want to create? Now a leading futurist, she helps CEOs shift from outdated, past-anchored strategy to future-led leadership that thrives in a world of quantum change.In this episode, Elatia joins Alice Heiman to share how CEOs can design strategy around what they truly want to build, run simultaneous approaches that balance today’s execution with tomorrow’s vision, and use AI with purpose, not pressure.📚 Book: Mastering Change by Ichak Adizes 🎧 Podcast: The Telepathy Tapes and Moonshots with Peter Diamandis💡 Advice: Slow down and be present, your brain alone won’t get you through what’s coming.👉 Connect with Elatia: https://elatiaabate.com/ | LinkedIn 👉 Connect with Alice: aliceheiman.com | LinkedIn