I'm joined this week by David Meerman Scott, he's the co-author of the new Wall Street Journal bestselling book 'Fanocracy' which he co-wrote with his daughter, Reiko. He's a multi bestselling author. If you've ever heard the term 'Newsjacking', that's one of his other books.

Part of our conversation was around the joy of writing a book in collaboration with his daughter, the experience of becoming best selling authors together, but we also covered so much more from the book that you can apply to your organization straight away that combines David's experience with Reiko's background in neuroscience and medicine.

I'm sure you'll agree that we had a fascinating conversation. You'll learn a ton from the talented David Meerman Scott.

This week's guest is Michael Bungay Stanier, the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Coaching Habit. He sold about three quarters of a million copies and it's one of a few business books that actually makes you laugh.

We're talking about his new book, The Advice Trap, which is out very soon. The book has some really interesting insights about what Michael calls the 'Advice Monster', which hides behind well meaning people who give advice to others who may not want it. We also discuss the notion of fake questions and fake listening that we often fall into, even when our intentions are good.

It's always a fun and fascinating conversation with my friend Michael Bungay Stanier.

Our guest this week is Hall of Fame speaker Stephen Shapiro, and we're talking about innovation and solving problems. Stephen led a 20,000 person innovation practice at Accenture. Since then he's written six books on innovation, including 'Best Practices Are Stupid', which was named the best innovation and creativity book of the year.

We're talking about his latest book, 'Invisible Solutions, 25 Lenses that Reframe and Help Solve Difficult Business Problems', which launches March 3rd.

Stephen shared so many insights that you can use right away. I'm certain you will learn a lot.

In this solo episode I talk about what information people typically share with clients in proposals and email follow-ups that drive results and why that matters to your client.

I introduce the proven model that allows you to ensure you're recording all of the right details from your meetings and then enables you to follow up successfully. 

If you're looking to improve how you help clients make decisions and create a process for creating effective follow-up emails, then learn in this episode how the Concise Business Case can help.

I'm joined this week by Bill Cates to discuss his latest book, Radical Relevance.

Bill started and sold two companies before turning his attention to help other businesses grow. He's written four best selling books, Get More Referrals Now, Don't Keep Me a Secret, Beyond Referrals and now Radical Relevance. He's my go to person when people want to improve how they handle referrals. Bill has delivered his business growth message to over a half a million professionals across five continents and he's a member of the professional speaker hall of fame.

You're going to learn a ton from Bill Cates.

Listen and Discover:
- Why you should only focus on three personas in your marketing.
- How features and benefits don't make a compelling value proposition.
- Why name-dropping can be risky.
- How to make your introduction memorable and shareable.
- And much more...

I'm joined this week by Likky Lavji. Likky is an expert when it comes to finding and overcoming your blind spots. 

In this episode we talk about the greatest misconception when it comes to blind spots. How to identify yours and who to surround yourself with and who to exclude from that group. Plus the most common blind spots, and then how you can specifically overcome those by asking some really insightful questions.

I learned a ton. I hope you will too.

Listen and Discover
- Why we check our blind spot when we're driving, but not everywhere else in life.
- The power of a strong inner circle.
- The most common blind spots that we miss.
- The key questions to ask when you want to overcome blind spots.
- Why it's so important to listen to feedback - both positive and negative.

And much more...

Our guest this week is Lisa Magnuson of Top Line Sales. Lisa spent years in sales executive positions for Fortune 50 Companies. We’re speaking about her latest book, The TOP Sales Leader Playbook: How to Win 5X Deals Repeatedly.

In this episode, we talk about the greatest misconception about sales leaders, the one thing that moves the needle for top performing sales teams and how to build a culture around big deals that are 5x your average sale.

You're going to get some great ideas from Lisa as she shares her findings!

Listen and Discover
- Why many leaders don’t have a process of their own for how they manage and mentor their team members.
- How pre-call planning is something that top performers do consistently.
- Why War Rooms are the single greatest tool to move the needle for strategic growth
- The best way to rate accounts and the most important considerations for War Rooms
- And much more...

Discover more at https://www.ianaltman.com/same-side-selling-podcast/

One of the most common sales questions: how can you best evaluate opportunities? There may be deals that have been sitting in your pipeline for a while and there may be relatively new opportunities. You may be wondering which of these deals are worth pursuing and which are not? Many forecasts are filled with hopes and prayers. The problem is that if you invest an equal amount of effort on every opportunity, then you are likely spending time on some deals that are just not worth your time at the expense of the ones that are a great fit for you.

In this episode, I share a proven framework that I use with companies that will help you evaluate opportunities and deals to see where you should and should not invest time.

Listen and Discover

- How to put finger on the pulse of which opportunities need a little more attention and which ones should be just handed off to your least favorite competitor and let them chase their tail around it.

- Seven questions to answer to help determine if an opportunity is real or not real.

- How to accelerate your revenue grow with the Same Side Selling harsh honesty framework

Discover more at https://www.ianaltman.com/same-side-selling-podcast/

Gessie Schechinger is passionate about helping organizations leverage technology and automation to surpass revenue targets so he can help protect the golf and bar time for salespeople. He labels himself as the laziest salesman in America as well as the Vice President of Sales for the OnCourse, a sales engagement platform. OnCourse has a pretty interesting approach to CRM and sales engagement.

In this episode we talk about the biggest misconception when it comes to CRMs, the difference between a sales engagement platform and a CRM and how you can actually make it so that the platform your organization adopts is something that reps want to use rather than something that they feel like they have to use.

You're going to get some great insight from Gessie!

Listen and Discover
> What's the biggest misconception when it comes to CRMs.
> The difference between a sales engagement platform and a CRM.
> A strategy for finding a platform that best fits your organization’s needs and goals.
> What role software should play in the sales process.
> How to ensure the CRM or sales engagement platform is something that your reps want to use rather than something that they feel like they have to use.

Discover more at https://www.ianaltman.com/same-side-selling-podcast/

I'm joined in this episode by Jay Bonansinga. Jay is the New York Times bestselling author of the Walking Dead novels, as well as 20 other fiction and nonfiction books and really one of the most imaginative writers of thrillers according to the Chicago Tribune. We're going to talk about the biggest misconception people have when it comes to storytelling in business. Jay shares insight into how you capture someone's attention and imagination.

You're going to learn a ton, no suspense necessary with Jay Bonansinga.