Why Should Customers Choose You?
Sales Today
Why should a customer choose you over your competitors? If the answer is “because we’re innovative, experienced and provide great service”… there’s a good chance your competitors are saying exactly the same thing. In this episode of the Sales Today podcast, Fred Copestake is joined by , author of and founder of UVP Solutions, to explore what really makes a Unique Value Proposition unique. They discuss why being different isn’t enough - your difference has to matter to the customer - and how businesses can connect their strengths with the problems customers need solving and...
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Telephone selling made simple
Sales Today
Why do perfectly confident people suddenly become nervous when they pick up the phone to sell? In this episode of the Sales Today podcast, Fred Copestake is joined by sales trainer and coach Anna Bates to explore how to make telephone selling simpler, more natural and far less intimidating. Anna shares her straightforward approach to phone conversations — from getting your mindset right before the call, to using tone effectively, asking better questions and actually asking for the sale. They also explore Anna's "corridor" analogy: rather than pushing someone towards a decision, your...
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Selling is like tracking serial killers
Sales Today
Why complex sales are won by great investigators, not great presenters. Most salespeople think they've found a champion. In reality, they've found a friendly contact. In this episode, Fred Copestake is joined by Tom Stearns, go-to-market consultant and co-author of the bestselling book Graphic Sales, to explore one of the biggest reasons complex B2B opportunities stall. Together they discuss why relationship building alone isn't enough, how to identify a genuine champion, and why mapping buying teams is remarkably similar to investigating a crime scene. If you sell technical,...
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Training vs Coaching
Sales Today
Why telling people isn't enough to change behaviour Sales organisations spend millions every year on training, yet many still struggle to see lasting improvements in performance. In this solo episode, Fred Copestake explores one of the biggest misconceptions in sales development: the belief that training and coaching are the same thing. Using questions supplied by Bec Turton from My Sales Coach, Fred shares his approach to diagnosing sales performance, explains why "one and done" training rarely works, and introduces a simple distinction that can transform how organisations develop...
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Salespeople Can't Be Trusted to Run QBRs!
Sales Today
Why Quarterly Business Reviews should be about customer value, not sales pitches Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) are supposed to strengthen relationships, demonstrate value and identify future opportunities. Too often, however, they become little more than product presentations. In this episode, Fred Copestake is joined by Celia Sanchez Garcia (Celia SGAR), Founder of Vendor Manager Hub, to discuss why many QBRs fail and what salespeople can do differently. Drawing on over 16 years of supplier and vendor management experience, Celia shares why customers should often take the lead in...
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What Can Sales Learn From Customer Success?
Sales Today
Take the free Collaborative Selling Scorecard Winning new customers is only half the story. The real commercial advantage comes from helping customers achieve the outcomes they were promised, long after the contract has been signed. In this episode of Sales Today, Fred Copestake is joined by customer success expert Anika Zubair to explore what sales professionals can learn from one of the fastest-growing disciplines in modern business. Together they discuss why customer success isn't simply account management, why discovery remains the most valuable commercial skill, and how focusing...
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A Smarter Way to Sell in Engineering Businesses
Sales Today
Free Collaborative Selling Scorecard If you would like to assess how your sales approach aligns with today’s buying environment, you can take the free Collaborative Selling Scorecard: In this final episode of the Sales Today mini series, Fred brings the threads of the series together and explains the deeper issue sitting underneath many of the challenges explored in the previous episodes. Deals stall. Price becomes the focus. Conversations stay too low in the organisation. Teams struggle to engage senior stakeholders. Sales training makes sense, but behaviour doesn’t...
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Why Most Sales Training Fails Engineering Teams (And What Actually Works)
Sales Today
If you would like to assess how your sales approach aligns with today’s buying environment, you can take the free Collaborative Selling Scorecard: In this episode, Fred explores a frustration shared by many engineering and technical businesses: You've invested in sales training. The team enjoyed it. The ideas made sense. But six months later… very little has actually changed. Fred explains why the problem is rarely the quality of the training itself. More often, it's the gap between understanding new ideas and applying them in real sales situations. In this...
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The “Ah” Moment That Changes Every Sale
Sales Today
Free Collaborative Selling Scorecard If you would like to assess how your sales approach aligns with today’s buying environment, you can take the free Collaborative Selling Scorecard: In this episode of the Sales Today Podcast, Fred explores one of the most important moments in any sales conversation. It's not when the customer agrees to a meeting. It's not when they ask for a proposal. And it's not when they say yes. It's that subtle moment when they pause and say: "Ah... right, that makes sense." Fred explains why this seemingly small moment represents a major...
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Why Being Too Technical Can Cost You Deals
Sales Today
Take the Collaborative Selling Scorecard: In this episode of the Sales Today Podcast, Fred Copestake explores a pattern he often sees in engineering-led sales organisations: What he calls The Engineering Super Ego. Despite the provocative name, this isn't a criticism of engineers. In fact, it comes from one of their greatest strengths: deep expertise, technical excellence, and the ability to solve complex problems. The challenge is that, in sales conversations, this strength can sometimes become a weakness. Fred explains why customers don't necessarily need more...
info_outlineIn this episode of The Sales Today Podcast, Fred Copestake is joined by Sebastian Hidalgo, co-founder of DURINDAL and creator of the SWAT method - a sales framework influenced by hostage negotiation principles.
Fred admits he’s often sceptical when crisis negotiation gets blended with commercial sales, so this becomes a lively, grounded conversation: what genuinely transfers, what doesn’t, and how to use “hostage” techniques ethically to improve trust, discovery, and positioning.
What you’ll hear in this episode
- Sebastian’s unusual origin story: becoming a certified hostage negotiator at 18
- The persistence it took to get accepted into training as a civilian and young applicant
- How later PSYOPs (psychological operations) training triggered an “aha” moment:
he’d been applying negotiation principles in business without realising it - Why Sebastian believes there’s a gap between negotiation books (e.g. Never Split the Difference) and practical sales structure
- Fred’s perspective: crisis negotiation ≠ commercial negotiation - and why that matters
The SWAT Method in a nutshell
Sebastian explains SWAT as a four-stage sales method designed to:
- Earn trust faster
- Create positioning in real time - not just against competitors, but against the buyer’s past failed attempts with similar solutions
The four stages are:
- Influence
- Diagnosis
- Failure Mapping
- Value Alignment (what most people would call “the close”, though Sebastian avoids that framing)
Influence + Diagnosis + Failure Mapping sit mainly in what traditional sales calls “discovery”, but with more emphasis on trust, relevance, and reducing friction.
Where the “hostage” skills show up (without the Hollywood nonsense)
Sebastian’s view: you don’t need dramatic tactics - you need fundamentals executed well.
Key transferable skills include:
- Listening (with intent - often reinforced by taking notes)
- Active listening + mirroring (what intelligence work calls elicitation: helping people talk themselves deeper into the real issue)
- Staying calm under pressure
- Reading the person in front of you (tone, pacing, reactions) rather than hiding behind slides
He also highlights the need for flexible creativity - adapting your knowledge to the buyer’s reality in the moment.
Key takeaway
The value isn’t “hostage negotiation theatre.”
It’s using proven human skills - listening, trust-building, uncovering blockers early, and positioning through relevance to make sales feel less “gross” and more like service.
Connect with Sebastian
· LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastian-dp-hidalgo
- Email: sebastian@durindal.com
- Website: https://www.durindal.com
Follow Fred: https://linktr.ee/fredcopestake
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-IP6Z7zU9Rg
Watch Fred’s FREE YouTube Course: Sales Mastery for Engineers: https://bit.ly/Sales-Mastery-For-Engineers
Useful resources
- Take the Collaborative Selling Scorecard – free
Check how well your sales approach fits today’s buying environment https://collaborativeselling.scoreapp.com/