Series 2 of our podcast takes us in a new direction and with a new name. SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER: The Truth About Sales is being re-branded: The Sales Talent Podcast: GROWTH. PROFIT. VALUE. The new series will focus on those 3 words.Host Paul Owen will welcome guests with proven track records of success in scaling teams through the improvement of the sales function. His questions will unlock the secrets of their success and will reveal ideas, structures, processes and insights that you can take into your career and your company. Join us to find out how to scale teams, increase sales revenues and accelerate company value. 

SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER. The Truth About Sales

Re-start. Re-brand. Re-launch. Series 2

Dominic Cotton, former BBC broadcast journalist and now co-founder of fast-growing start-up Cyclo Technology, hosts this final episode of Series 1 to ask Paul Owen to review the ups and downs of 24 episodes of the first series. What went well? Best guest? Who turned down an invitation to appear? Has the podcast gone global and has it changed negative perceptions around sales? Finally, Dom asks Paul ‘So What Now?’ and hears about plans for the next series of the podcast, taking it up a level or two. Interested guests with interesting points of view on sales are invited to get in touch to appear in the next series; more details coming soon. NB. We’re still recording online right now due to the Coronavirus pandemic so please forgive the slightly lower quality of sound. Our engineers continue to do a great job but it’s hard to have studio quality sound over an online call. 

EPISODE 24 – So What Now?

Our first guest from the USA, Dr Cindy McGovern joins host, Paul Owen, to talk about her journey from academia to sales and why she believes Every Job is a Sales Job (the title of her book, a Wall Street Journal bestseller). Based in San Francisco and working with clients across the world, Cindy now specialises in helping companies grow their business through the improvement of their sales performance with much of her work focused on non-salespeople. In this episode, she explains why sales is much more than a business skill and why she is devoting her life to teaching everyone how to do it well. Tune it to hear how this academic with 3 degrees moved from her first job as a university professor to her role today as a global evangelist for sales, helping everyone sell better at work and at home. We also couldn’t resist asking her how sales is viewed in the US.  NB. This episode was recorded online as we are all working at home currently due to the Coronavirus pandemic so please forgive the slightly lower quality of sound, mostly at the beginning. Our engineers did a great job but it’s hard to have studio quality sound over a phone line! *Series 1 of our podcast - Episodes 1-24 - was branded differently and so might initially confuse you if you start listening anytime from March 2021. A quick explanation for you: the first series was based on the bestselling book of our company founder, Paul Owen: SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER. The premise of the book and podcast series 1 is this: 3.5 million Brits work in sales and almost every job requires sales skills at times, yet we don’t teach people how to sell. Not only do we fail to teach it but we fail to introduce it as a business skill, a life skill or a career because our culture considers sales a dirty word. Based on a bestselling book, this podcast shatters the myths around sales and introduces everyone to sales as a skill to use in business and in life, and to consider it as a potential career. For series 2, the podcast was re-branded to better reflect future content around sales leadership and how it enables you to grow your business.*

EPISODE 23 – Business Leader Profile: Dr Cindy McGovern

50 years of sales experience is shared in this episode as host Paul Owen explores the art of closing with guests, Maz Ahmad and Angus Buckle. (NB. Recorded online during the Coronavirus pandemic, the sound in this episode is occasionally less clear than usual but please stick with us – 99% of the content is loud and clear, with thanks to our technical team!). Maz, Angus and Paul dedicate a large proportion of this episode to the mindset of closing conversations well, including how to be confident and clear in your aims when closing, before moving on to analyse the benefits of repeatable structures. As always, the conversation goes off at tangents (often the case when salespeople start to discuss sales as every bit is linked to others!) and includes the benefits of waking up at 4.30am, of setting objectives for each day and of having visible focus points at your desk (was it an M3 or M4 for Maz?!). 

EPISODE 22 – The Death Of Maybe

Joining host, Paul Owen, in this episode is Emily Macdonald who started her successful business career in the world of wine in her home city of Auckland before leaving for a 2-year experience of travelling in Europe. A couple of decades later and she’s still here, still selling wine and still having a ball! Having pitched herself into her first job in sales, she faced the old-fashioned world of wine and hospitality which was not always particularly welcoming to women in those times. She explains how this was both a help and a hindrance and takes us through her journey from retail assistant in a wine shop to Sales Director of one of the best-known names in the wine world, selling millions of bottles of wine every year. NB. This episode was recorded online as we are all working at home currently due to the Coronavirus pandemic so please forgive the slightly lower quality of sound. Our engineers did a great job but it’s hard to have studio quality sound over a phone line! *Series 1 of our podcast - Episodes 1-24 - was branded differently and so might initially confuse you if you start listening anytime from March 2021. A quick explanation for you: the first series was based on the bestselling book of our company founder, Paul Owen: SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER. The premise of the book and podcast series 1 is this: 3.5 million Brits work in sales and almost every job requires sales skills at times, yet we don’t teach people how to sell. Not only do we fail to teach it but we fail to introduce it as a business skill, a life skill or a career because our culture considers sales a dirty word. Based on a bestselling book, this podcast shatters the myths around sales and introduces everyone to sales as a skill to use in business and in life, and to consider it as a potential career. For series 2, the podcast was re-branded to better reflect future content around sales leadership and how it enables you to grow your business.*

EPISODE 21 – Business Leader Profile: Emily Macdonald

Passionate salespeople want to share the wide range of benefits their products or services offer but the danger is that verbal diarrhoea is the result. They talk, they list, they explain and they prove. Or so they think! What actually happens is that they lose their audience and run the risk of losing the deal. In this episode, Paul Owen is joined by successful sales leader, Patricia Tosi, and one of most outstanding young salespeople Paul has met, Alex Roberton, to explore ways in which to keep sales conversations interactive. What are they? How do you put them into practice? How do you avoid the default behaviour of over-talking and, therefore, over-selling? It&apos;s one of the most important skills in sales and, yes, you can learn how to do it better. *Series 1 of our podcast - Episodes 1-24 - was branded differently and so might initially confuse you if you start listening anytime from March 2021. A quick explanation for you: the first series was based on the bestselling book of our company founder, Paul Owen: SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER. The premise of the book and podcast series 1 is this: 3.5 million Brits work in sales and almost every job requires sales skills at times, yet we don’t teach people how to sell. Not only do we fail to teach it but we fail to introduce it as a business skill, a life skill or a career because our culture considers sales a dirty word. Based on a bestselling book, this podcast shatters the myths around sales and introduces everyone to sales as a skill to use in business and in life, and to consider it as a potential career. For series 2, the podcast was re-branded to better reflect future content around sales leadership and how it enables you to grow your business.*

EPISODE 20 - My Turn. Your Turn

Having worked for media giants Newsweek, Bloomberg and CNBC, John Pentin has had an amazing career and a fun-filled life. Now Head of Sales at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council, he connects the world&apos;s most powerful and influential business leaders to share ideas and discuss issues shaping the future. His sales career started at 19 when his father kicked him out of the house, telling him to come back later when he’d found a job. After a day in the pub, he got a job from a call on the journey home though only because the first-choice candidate dropped out. That stroke of luck opened a door into sales that changed his life. In this episode, John shares stories from a life well-lived, full of interesting people, fascinating work and some great weekends away!  *Series 1 of our podcast - Episodes 1-24 - was branded differently and so might initially confuse you if you start listening anytime from March 2021. A quick explanation for you: the first series was based on the bestselling book of our company founder, Paul Owen: SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER. The premise of the book and podcast series 1 is this: 3.5 million Brits work in sales and almost every job requires sales skills at times, yet we don’t teach people how to sell. Not only do we fail to teach it but we fail to introduce it as a business skill, a life skill or a career because our culture considers sales a dirty word. Based on a bestselling book, this podcast shatters the myths around sales and introduces everyone to sales as a skill to use in business and in life, and to consider it as a potential career. For series 2, the podcast was re-branded to better reflect future content around sales leadership and how it enables you to grow your business.*

EPISODE 19 – Business Leader Profile: John Pentin

When the time comes to sell, we can be tempted to jump into a description of how our product or service will solve the problems uncovered but buyers don’t just buy a product or service; they also buy the company offering it. In sales conversations, it’s important to make sure our company’s qualities are clear before we talk about the products and services we offer, yet many salespeople don’t sell their company – it’s a huge omission. Why don’t we do it? And, if we accept we should, how do we add it to our sales conversations right now? Joining Paul Owen in this episode to discuss these points and many more, we have an entrepreneur and sales leader with 20 years’ experience – Ben Rowland – a professional salesperson with 8 years’ experience – Alex Avery – and a 17-year-old school student who is considering a career in sales – Alex Harwood.  

EPISODE 18 – Sorry, Do We Know Each Other?

Julian Miall is back with us, talking this time about his own career and the lessons he learnt in sales. Julian, along with his business partner, led a management buyout of Ad2One – a specialist digital sales company - when it was generating just £20,000 revenue a month and built it to annual revenues of $50 million and a team of 100. In 2016, they sold the company and exited the business. Going back to the beginning of his career, Julian found that the corporate bigwigs to whom he was applying were simply not interested in what he had to offer as a fresh graduate. At the suggestion of a friend, he took his first role as a Junior Telesales Executive with Reed Business Information. It turned out to be a life-changing move. What did he learn in those early days and how did those lessons help him to play his part in turning a struggling company into a thriving one with a multi-million-dollar turnover?*Series 1 of our podcast - Episodes 1-24 - was branded differently and so might initially confuse you if you start listening anytime from March 2021. A quick explanation for you: the first series was based on the bestselling book of our company founder, Paul Owen: SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER. The premise of the book and podcast series 1 is this: 3.5 million Brits work in sales and almost every job requires sales skills at times, yet we don’t teach people how to sell. Not only do we fail to teach it but we fail to introduce it as a business skill, a life skill or a career because our culture considers sales a dirty word. Based on a bestselling book, this podcast shatters the myths around sales and introduces everyone to sales as a skill to use in business and in life, and to consider it as a potential career. For series 2, the podcast was re-branded to better reflect future content around sales leadership and how it enables you to grow your business.*

EPISODE 17 – Business Leader Profile: Julian Miall

Learning how to ask sales questions is one of the most difficult things to do when you first start to sell because there are so many variables. In this episode, Paul Owen welcomes successful entrepreneur Julian Miall and sales leader and university lecturer Tim Chapman to discuss some of the fundamentals of sales questioning. How do you get started with your sales questions? What’s a good framework for assessing a client’s needs? With stories from their lives in media sales, big pharma and global tech, our guests share their expertise and their experiences from their first day in sales until the current day. *Series 1 of our podcast - Episodes 1-24 - was branded differently and so might initially confuse you if you start listening anytime from March 2021. A quick explanation for you: the first series was based on the bestselling book of our company founder, Paul Owen: SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER. The premise of the book and podcast series 1 is this: 3.5 million Brits work in sales and almost every job requires sales skills at times, yet we don’t teach people how to sell. Not only do we fail to teach it but we fail to introduce it as a business skill, a life skill or a career because our culture considers sales a dirty word. Based on a bestselling book, this podcast shatters the myths around sales and introduces everyone to sales as a skill to use in business and in life, and to consider it as a potential career. For series 2, the podcast was re-branded to better reflect future content around sales leadership and how it enables you to grow your business.*

EPISODE 16 – The Provocation Of Truth

Having had high hopes of becoming a pilot, Barney Stinton never meant to become a salesperson. However, 15 years later, he now works at the top level of sales with global names across many industries. His sales career began shortly after graduation with a Eureka moment whilst racing cars as a gamer. He ditched the game and landed his first sales job selling Ferraris for Joe Macari, a job that combined his passion for cars with his skills (then unknown) in sales. Host Paul Owen asks Barney questions about the lessons learnt in sales of course but also about the fun he’s had, the places he’s been and the people he’s met through his interesting and successful career. 

EPISODE 15 – Business Leader Profile: Barney Stinton

To become an outstanding communicator, you must ask questions and listen to the answers. They will tell you everything you need to know as you search for the most important thing in sales: the truth. Too often, though, people don’t find out the truth and their ability to satisfy their customer becomes a lucky dip. There are five key benefits to asking questions in sales conversations and these are discussed with sales leader John Pentin and entrepreneur Jamie Lester. With host, Paul Owen, they examine the importance of listening in sales, discuss the benefits of listening well and explore why people often fail because they’re simply not interested in any voice other than their own. 

EPISODE 14 – Conversations And Why They’re Rare

With 20 years’ sales experience, Catherine Schalk is a certified coach, speaker and trainer for The John Maxwell Company. She also runs her own sales enablement business - Inkwazi Communications - and has been involved in over 3,000 sales enablement initiatives across the globe. In 2015, Catherine was named the Top Female Executive for Excellence in Professional Training and Coaching. In this episode, Paul Owen asks Catherine about the lessons learnt early in her sales career in South Africa (including the warning about 3 strikes and you&apos;re out!) and how those lessons enabled to build her own successful company working with sales professionals across the world. *Series 1 of our podcast - Episodes 1-24 - was branded differently and so might initially confuse you if you start listening anytime from March 2021. A quick explanation for you: the first series was based on the bestselling book of our company founder, Paul Owen: SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER. The premise of the book and podcast series 1 is this: 3.5 million Brits work in sales and almost every job requires sales skills at times, yet we don’t teach people how to sell. Not only do we fail to teach it but we fail to introduce it as a business skill, a life skill or a career because our culture considers sales a dirty word. Based on a bestselling book, this podcast shatters the myths around sales and introduces everyone to sales as a skill to use in business and in life, and to consider it as a potential career. For series 2, the podcast was re-branded to better reflect future content around sales leadership and how it enables you to grow your business.*

EPISODE 13 – Business Leader Profile: Catherine Schalk

The words you say matter most but the way you say them helps too. In this episode, our host, Paul Owen, is joined by entrepreneurs Josh Cohen and Dominic Cotton as they discuss the key factors to help present your stories (and your business messages) in the right tone of voice to create the right impression. How do you add credibility, gravitas and humanity to the words you use in business conversations?*Series 1 of our podcast - Episodes 1-24 - was branded differently and so might initially confuse you if you start listening anytime from March 2021. A quick explanation for you: the first series was based on the bestselling book of our company founder, Paul Owen: SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER. The premise of the book and podcast series 1 is this: 3.5 million Brits work in sales and almost every job requires sales skills at times, yet we don’t teach people how to sell. Not only do we fail to teach it but we fail to introduce it as a business skill, a life skill or a career because our culture considers sales a dirty word. Based on a bestselling book, this podcast shatters the myths around sales and introduces everyone to sales as a skill to use in business and in life, and to consider it as a potential career. For series 2, the podcast was re-branded to better reflect future content around sales leadership and how it enables you to grow your business.*

EPISODE 12 – It’s The Way You Tell ‘Em!

Having created and grown a company, BigHand, with his brother’s best friend, Gordon McAlpine sold it and is now an Executive Mentor and Coach plus a bestselling author. Despite being responsible for sales at BigHand, Gordon started his career with no interest in sales, only applying for marketing jobs. A quiet kid at school, he thought sales wouldn’t suit him yet soon discovered that salespeople are made, not born. In this episode, you’ll hear why Gordon believes his first job in sales was the most influential career step he took and why he recommends other people consider the same path into business. *Series 1 of our podcast - Episodes 1-24 - was branded differently and so might initially confuse you if you start listening anytime from March 2021. A quick explanation for you: the first series was based on the bestselling book of our company founder, Paul Owen: SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER. The premise of the book and podcast series 1 is this: 3.5 million Brits work in sales and almost every job requires sales skills at times, yet we don’t teach people how to sell. Not only do we fail to teach it but we fail to introduce it as a business skill, a life skill or a career because our culture considers sales a dirty word. Based on a bestselling book, this podcast shatters the myths around sales and introduces everyone to sales as a skill to use in business and in life, and to consider it as a potential career. For series 2, the podcast was re-branded to better reflect future content around sales leadership and how it enables you to grow your business.*

EPISODE 11 - Business Leader Profile: Gordon McAlpine

3.5 million Brits work in sales and almost every job requires sales skills at times, yet we don’t teach people how to sell. Not only do we fail to teach it but we fail to introduce it as a business skill, a life skill or a career because our culture considers sales a dirty word. Based on a bestselling book, this podcast shatters the myths around sales and introduces everyone to sales as a skill to use in business and in life, and to consider it as a potential career.

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SECRET SKILL. HIDDEN CAREER. The Truth About Sales

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