Why Salespeople Skip Discovery
Building Your Sales Engine
Summary: Master the discovery call by learning why salespeople fall into pitch mode -- and how to stay focused on qualifying, not convincing. Discovery calls are where deals are won or lost, yet most salespeople skip real discovery and default to pitch mode. In this episode, Mark McGraw and Josh Pitchford break down why sellers fall into the pitch trap -- from bait questions to being too "I-centered" -- and what to do instead. Learn the Sandler behavior-attitude-technique framework for running better discovery: pre-call planning, setting the dial to "no," using reversing to redirect bait...
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Don't Wimp: Achieve Your Goals This Year
Building Your Sales Engine
Master WIMP Junction—the Sandler concept that separates top sellers from those who give away leverage—with a 5-step framework to stay in control of every deal. WIMP Junction is the Sandler concept every seller needs to master: that fork in the road where you either follow the buyer's system and lose leverage, or maintain control of your sales process. When prospects say "Can you send a quote?" or "Can we get a demo?"—these are danger zones, not buying signals. In this episode, Mark McGraw and Josh Pitchford share five practical strategies to overcome WIMP Junction: pre-deciding your...
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Inversion Thinking: How to Fail Before You Fail
Building Your Sales Engine
Inversion thinking helps sales professionals anticipate failure before it happens, creating prevention rules that guarantee goal achievement. What if the secret to hitting your sales goals was visualizing failure instead of success? In this episode, Mark McGraw and Josh Pitchford explore inversion thinking, a powerful three-step framework that flips traditional goal-setting on its head. Instead of imagining success, you imagine failing at your goal and work backward to identify what went wrong. The process is simple but transformative: First, set your goal. Second, imagine it is the end of the...
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The Six-Point Sales Checklist: Start Your Year Strong w/ Josh Pitchford
Building Your Sales Engine
Mark McGraw and Josh Pitchford reveal the six essential checkpoints every seller needs to crush their goals and start the new year with confidence. Are you ready to hit the ground running in the new year? In this milestone 50th episode, Mark McGraw and Josh Pitchford break down the six critical areas every sales professional must address to start strong and finish stronger. From setting stretch goals you'll only achieve 25% of the time (yes, really) to building your "cookbook" of controllable behaviors, Mark and Josh share the exact framework they use with clients to transform overwhelming...
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Stop Failing at Goals: The REACH Method w/ Dustin Schadt
Building Your Sales Engine
Summary: A proven 5-step framework for setting and achieving goals—from removing clutter to celebrating success along the way. Description: Most people fail at goals because they start without a foundation. Dustin Schadt has developed the REACH method—a framework that helped him mentor 18 people, with 16 earning promotions, raises, or recognition as top performers. As a sales leader with 27 years in packaging, Dustin breaks down the REACH framework: Realize greatness and remove clutter, Evaluate your mission and execute your plan, Account for your time and acknowledge failures, Celebrate...
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ReRun: 7 Lies Salespeople Tell Themselves
Building Your Sales Engine
Summary: The 7 biggest lies that keep salespeople stuck—and how to replace them with a winning mindset that closes more deals. Description: Mark McGraw sits down with Josh Pitchford to break down the 7 biggest lies that keep salespeople from reaching their full potential. From believing your job is to educate prospects to thinking you need to win every deal, these mindset traps are costing you sales—and you might not even realize it. In this episode, Mark and Josh reveal why discounting is lazy selling, how to handle price objections like a pro, and why there's never a bad time to call...
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Winning With Indirect Sales: Driving Results Through Third-Party Partners w/ John Rosati
Building Your Sales Engine
How to build a repeatable channel sales engine—from partner selection to enablement to metrics—with a 30-year channel sales veteran. Selling through channel partners without a system feels like that old vibrating football game—everyone's running around hoping to score. John Rosati has spent 30 years building channel sales engines that create predictable revenue, and in this episode, he reveals exactly how he does it. As a channel sales leader at Motorola with experience across distribution, manufacturers reps, and two-tier channels, John knows what separates successful channel programs...
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Dissolving Limiting Beliefs: The Neuroscience of Getting Unstuck Fast w/ Rochelle Carrington
Building Your Sales Engine
Why traditional therapy can make emotional triggers worse—and how neuroscience-based techniques dissolve limiting beliefs in minutes, not years. What if reliving your past trauma actually makes it stronger? Rochelle Carrington explains why traditional approaches to emotional healing can deepen the very patterns you're trying to break—and reveals a faster, neuroscience-based alternative. As a coach specializing in subconscious emotional patterns, Rochelle works with CEOs, business owners, and high achievers who look successful on the outside but are burnt out inside. In this episode with...
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Beyond Your Main POC: Build New Relationships That Protect Your Accounts w/ Josh Pitchford
Building Your Sales Engine
How to expand relationships in your accounts, identify all the influencers, and protect yourself before your main contact leaves or competitors wedge in. If you're only talking to one person in your account, you're one resignation away from losing everything. Josh Pitchford reveals why the "best defense is a good offense" when it comes to account relationships—and shares practical frameworks for expanding higher, deeper, and wider. As a Sandler trainer and coach at Sales Engine, Josh helps sales teams protect and grow their key accounts through strategic relationship building. In this...
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How to Lead When You Don't Manage: Influence, Trust & Career Growth w/ Darryl Stromberg
Building Your Sales Engine
How to build influence and lead without a title—from an individual contributor to recognized leader in your organization. Can you be a leader without managing anyone? Absolutely. Darryl Stromberg reveals exactly how to position yourself as a leader even when no one reports to you. As a Sandler Coach at Sales Engine with 30+ years of experience, Darryl knows what separates people who get promoted from those who get stuck. In this episode, he shares the strategies that helped him mentor 18 people—16 of whom earned promotions, above-average raises, or recognition as top performers. You'll...
info_outlineInversion thinking helps sales professionals anticipate failure before it happens, creating prevention rules that guarantee goal achievement.
What if the secret to hitting your sales goals was visualizing failure instead of success? In this episode, Mark McGraw and Josh Pitchford explore inversion thinking, a powerful three-step framework that flips traditional goal-setting on its head. Instead of imagining success, you imagine failing at your goal and work backward to identify what went wrong.
The process is simple but transformative: First, set your goal. Second, imagine it is the end of the year and you have failed. Third, create prevention rules that eliminate those failure points before they happen. This pre-mortem approach leverages our natural tendency toward negative thinking and turns it into a strategic advantage.
Mark and Josh dive into practical applications, from shortening sales cycles to building prospecting habits. You will learn how to "pre-decide" your actions to remove willpower from the equation and why public accountability can leverage your need for approval to keep you on track. As the Sandler rule states, you have to learn to fail to win, and this episode shows you how to fail before you fail.
About Josh Pitchford: Josh Pitchford is a Sandler trainer and coach at Sales Engine, where he helps sales professionals and teams build predictable revenue systems. With extensive experience in enterprise sales and account management, Josh specializes in teaching relationship-building strategies, account planning, and the Sandler methodology.
đź”— Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-pitchford-6163274/
Host: Mark McGraw — Building Your Sales Engine
In This Episode:
- The three-step inversion thinking framework for goal achievement
- Why imagining failure works better than visualizing success
- How to conduct a pre-mortem before things go wrong
- The concept of pre-deciding to eliminate willpower in the moment
- Creating non-negotiable prevention rules
- Common reasons salespeople fail to hit goals: not prospecting enough, extended sales cycles
- Getting to the ultimate decision maker to shorten sales cycles
- Finding the buyer's compelling event instead of relying on your own
- Why humans are wired for negative thinking and how to leverage it
- The importance of clear next steps in every sales conversation
- Bulletproofing your deals to mitigate risk
- Public accountability and leveraging need for approval
- Bringing future pain into the present moment to drive action
- Never let how you feel determine how you act
- Building rumble strips as guardrails toward your goals
Links:
- Sandler: https://www.Sandler.com
- Episode page: https://www.BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/
- Show links: https://linktr.ee/buildingyoursalesengine
- Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-pitchford-6163274/