Alice Heiman
Welcome to Sales Talk for CEOs, a show where Alice Heiman interviews successful CEOs who have successfully scaled their B2B sales organizations. In each episode, we get to know the sales background of each CEO, dig into the strategies they've used to build their sales organization and wrap it up with what the future holds. We cover the good, the bad and the ugly of scaling a sales organization in order to deliver to you: value and insights.
The Real Reason I’m Refocusing This Show on Female Founders
Listen on Apple or Spotify Hi Reader, It’s here. Sales Talk for CEOs is officially back, and in this first episode it’s just me, no guest, sharing why I paused for six months and why I’m now dedicating the show to female founder CEOs. Driving revenue has been my focus for 30 years. It’s what I help CEOs do, and it’s what must be done for any company to thrive. But here’s the thing: revenue shouldn’t be the hardest part. If it feels like the hardest part, that can be fixed. Once you know how...
Sales Talk for CEOs is back – with a new focus
Hi Reader, Didn’t notice we were gone? Ha, well, either way Sales Talk for CEOs is back after a 6 month, unintentional pause, and it’s refocused as part of my launch of something bigger. I find this season of my life both beautiful and challenging. My business requires me to stay focused on driving revenue and serving my clients and I want to spend time with my grandkids and elderly parents. As some of you know, I lost my beautiful mom, Thelma Matlin on April 2. She was 92 but it was...
Your Best New Business Is Already a Customer
Hi Reader, I’ll tell you something I see over and over again when I walk into B2B companies. Their pipeline is anemic and they’re out hunting for new logos through cold outreach while sitting on a goldmine of existing customers they’ve barely touched. It baffles me every time. And it has to stop. Last week I joined Andy Cunningham and Adam Miller, well, kind of joined Adam 😂, for Episode 2 of the Sell More Stuff webinar. (Adam had serious tech issues and kept dropping in and out on his third...
Why do B2B companies ignore the customers who already trust them?
Hi Reader, I was working with a client who had a good product, good team, and a long list of logos they were chasing to get an appointment. I asked, “What does your existing account strategy look like?” Silence. I asked, “How do you get more business from existing customers and get them to make introductions for you?” More silence. Turns out, there wasn't one. Marketing wasn't touching existing customers. Sales had moved on. Customer success did onboarding and took inbound but did nothing...
What actually works in B2B sales right now
Hi Reader, Excited to share what’s actually working in B2B sales after my conversation on LinkedIn Live with two people I deeply respect, Andy Cunningham, one of the best positioning strategists in the business, and Adam Miller, CEO of ELEVATE. Here are some things you need to know. 1. If you don't know who you are, neither does your market. Who is your company, and why should your market care? Andy's question is deceptively simple. If you can't answer that clearly, everything downstream,...
Your deals might be stalling because of your team, not your buyer
Hi Reader, How is your team winning complex deals before they “close?” Interesting question, right? Revenue predictability isn't optional at any stage, it's your basic survival. It will be very hard to scale until you have it. If your pipeline looks promising, and your team is working hard, yet deals that start hot go cold, cycles stretch, and buyers who seemed enthusiastic suddenly go quiet, keep reading. Here's what stings, most of that delay isn't the buyer's fault. It's happening because...
How Top Revenue Leaders Are Rethinking the B2B Buyer Journey. Free Webinar April 28
Hi Reader, I want you to sit with this for a second. Before your sales team ever gets on the phone, the average enterprise buyer has already completed roughly 70% of their research. They've asked AI. They've read your website, compared your competitors, and built a shortlist. In many cases, they've already started leaning somewhere, before a salesperson is even in the picture. With this type of prep, you’d think they’d be ready to buy but so many deals are stalling. And what do your sales...
The Women Who Taught Me Everything About Sales
Hi Reader, Some of the best sales advice I've ever received didn't come from a book. It came from women in sales. Women who picked up the phone when nobody thought they could get through. Women who closed deals while being underestimated, underpaid, and overlooked. Women who built entire methodologies that the rest of the industry now takes for granted. I've spent my career surrounded by men in sales and a few extraordinary women, and those women shaped how I lead, how I sell, and how I show...
Are You Positioned to Win Your Biggest Deals? (Quick Poll + Live Event)
Hi Reader, We’ve all watched a big deal stall at the finish line, you know how frustrating that is. But here’s the truth: by the time it stalls, it’s already too late. The real problem? Positioning, right from the very first conversation. I see it all the time. Your team is forecasting the opportunity, but then it slips away. You realize too late that your team wasn’t positioned well. It’s the job of leadership to coach these significant deals, make sure sellers are positioned well, and bring...
Know More. Win More.
Hi Reader, When was the last time you did a win/loss review with your sales team? And if you did, what did you learn? I’ve been having those conversations with my clients lately, and a few things keep standing out. The More You Know, the More You WinIn every win/loss analysis, one pattern jumps out, sellers know more buying influences in deals they win. In the losses, they knew an average of two. In the wins? More than five. We call that “multi-threading” today, but really it just means...
Welcome to Sales Talk for CEOs, a show where Alice Heiman interviews successful CEOs who have successfully scaled their B2B sales organizations. In each episode, we get to know the sales background of each CEO, dig into the strategies they've used to build their sales organization and wrap it up with what the future holds. We cover the good, the bad and the ugly of scaling a sales organization in order to deliver to you: value and insights.