The Shift Control Sales Podcast

The Shift Control Sales Podcast

Helping ambitious SMEs and sales leaders unlock performance through strategic coaching, sales training, and practical growth advice rooted in 20 years of real-world experience. I’m Paul McAnallen, founder of Shift Control, a consultancy that works with SMEs, sales leaders, and founders across Ireland to improve sales performance and leadership effectiveness. Over the last 20 years, I’ve helped hundreds of businesses accelerate sales through strategy, coaching, and leadership development. From creating go-to-market strategies to developing SDR teams and mentoring senior sales professionals, I bring a no-nonsense, high-impact approach to driving commercial growth. With deep cross-industry experience and a commitment to clarity and action, I work as a trusted growth partner — not just a trainer — helping businesses turn potential into performance.

Episodes

It's hard to fix what you cannot see

August 5, 2025 • 19 mins
I used to work with a business man who was as good at coaching as he was at growing a multi-million pound business. “I really pity the man that doesn’t know he doesn’t know.” He said to me one day, almost 20 years ago. It took a while to land but he was talking about that thing everyone is afflicted with – a blind spot. The phrase ‘blind spot’ comes from the Johari Window, a psychological model developed in 1955 by Joseph Luft an...
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Who do you trust?

July 29, 2025 • 11 mins
Having invited guests over last week, I found myself without some key ingredients for a vegetarian dish I had planned to make. Taking the list of ingredients I challenged CHAT GPT to create a recipe for a similar meal - and it did. At no point did I question the recipe and it made me realise how much trust I have placed in this technology in such a short space of time. Research suggests that almost 60% of people in sales believe ...
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Sales Isn’t About Activity — It’s About Awareness

July 17, 2025 • 31 mins
Plenty of the recent episodes focus on the importance of process, from pipeline management to presentation formats. We can get caught up with the lure of CRM, believing that data and data management is everything. It gets tiring, sat in another sales meeting, discussing pipeline and nothing has moved from the previous meeting. A slow agonising death. Data is important, process is important but when it comes to influencing sales ...
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Forecasting for sales success

July 9, 2025 • 26 mins
I was making plans for this coming weekend - Tyrone V Kerry in Dublin. Should I or shouldn't I? Weather isn't all that relevant but I looked at the forecast and found another reason to go. The importance of being able to predict something accurately. (It was in 2008 that Croke park was flooded after one of the quarter finals - so accurate is the operative word.) And so to sales forecasting - the devils business. So critical to all...
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You may ask yourself, how did I get here?

July 2, 2025 • 27 mins
I came across the following quote from a post on Instagram: “It doesn’t make sense to continue wanting something if you’re not willing to do what it takes to get it. If you don’t want to live the lifestyle then release yourself from the desire. To crave the result but not the process is to guarantee disappointment.” The journy of 1,000 miles doesnt begin with the first step - it begins with awareness. In sales performance that 'aw...
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Never meet your idols - the night I didn't meet Bernadette Devlin McAliskey

June 30, 2025 • 36 mins
A different episode to the usual - about going to a fundraiser for Palestine at the Dockers Club in Belfast, music supplied by Irish DJ, David Holmes, Roisin El Sherif and Bernadette Devlin McAliskey. At the age of 78, Bernadette can hold court now just as well as she did in 1969, on her maiden speech in Westminster. She read out some poetry on the evening from an Irish Poet, Dorothy Cullen from her book of poems "300 days and c...
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Lead generation is the new sales superpower

June 25, 2025 • 36 mins
According to Gartner research, only 17% of the buying process is spent with suppliers — that’s not much more than one-sixth of the journey. So if you're waiting for that 17% to come to you, you’re missing the 83% where the buyer is actually shaping the deal. That’s why proactive prospecting isn’t just good practice — it’s survival. In this episode there are some intended and unintended points for discussion - what started out as a...
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'The Process is the Goal' - Addendum

June 19, 2025 • 19 mins
I found myself a little hypocritical in the previous episode - trying to maybe make everything sound so easy when in truth getting into good habits in any part of your life can be anything but easy. I felt it important to reframe a few things - it is a struggle for me in loads of areas and I try hard to inject some stability and form rituals where i can in order to improve myself, in the margins. Small, steady improvements might m...
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The 'Process is the Goal' - Part II. Advice for everyone else.

June 17, 2025 • 24 mins
The second part of the podcast devoted to the importance of Process is itself broken down into 2 parts - the practical part of the process that impacts the physical work you do and the prices you have (or don't have) that helps you emotionally and mentally prepare for the work that you need to do. Sales is not an easy job and you can find yourself under pressure from a number of different angles day in day out. Having a process i...
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The 'Process is the Goal' - Part I. Advice for the sales leader.

June 10, 2025 • 30 mins
Episode 1 of 2, were I talk about the importance of disciplined process in sales management and leadership. It's all pretty straightforward and common sense and yet many sales leaders are fixated to the outcome - the revenue target for the month, quarter or year instead of having a clearly defined sales management process that offers you every qualitative and qualitative measurement to ensure that you can respond quickly to any war...
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A strategy to effectively onboard an internal sales person to sales manager

June 4, 2025 • 30 mins
Following hot on the heals of the last podcast - can a great sales person become a great sales manager - I had some feedback from listeners who had shared some of their own experiences and so I thought I would record this episode to focus on some tangible stuff that can be implemented quickly or at least can influence your thinking as you begin to consider recruiting from within. I have always followed the Rx3 model - recruit, re...
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A good sales person AND a good sales manager - can they be both?

June 2, 2025 • 22 mins
In life, some things can be both "good" and "bad" and in the middle of the drama to get things attended to we often only see them as simply 'bad' or 'good.' It's hard to find the time to work towards a balanced opinion and so we go for the position that seems the most logical at the time and with the evidence we have. Social media and smart phones are a decent example - they can be both a curse and at the same time extremely benef...
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How to prevent overthinking and under performing

May 28, 2025 • 12 mins
It hits everyone at some point along the sales journey - overthinking or self sabotage. Sales is hard enough due to market forces, economic turbulence and the competition without the added pressure of the inner critic giving you a kicking at the same time. It can be a problem but it can also be tackled relatively easily and quickly - as long as you put some work into it. Again the driver for success is about being able to focus o...
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Michael Ryan Nature of Man

April 28, 2025 • 38 mins
The previous episode (Nature of Man with Diarmuid Lyng) had generated more discussion and feedback than most other episodes. The feedback had been mixed in the sense that many people related to the content but as many were of the opinion that the retreat or the idea of a retreat 'wasn't for them.' The best way to continue the discussion is to literally do just that. This episode is with Michael Ryan, co-founder and facilitator of ...
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The Nature Of Man - interviewing Diarmuid Lyng

April 9, 2025 • 70 mins
In March, I found myself at a retreat in the Wicklow mountains, facilitated by Diarmuid Lyng and Michael Ryan. An entirely transformative experience and one that I felt the need to share through a discussion with Diarmuid - Wexford County Hurler, TG4 Commentator, retreat facilitator, husband, father and builder of a cultural facility in south Kilkenny. The podcast covers alot of ground but is centred around the Summer Nature of Ma...
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Taking control of unconscious behaviours

March 7, 2025 • 21 mins
In a number of conversations this last few weeks - on a personal and professional level - a common theme was the importance of taking time...time 'out', time to prepare, time to think and the benefits of not rushing. The control of our subconscious / unconscious in what we do and how we do things is evident but only when we stop to think. Take a breath, a moment too get some clarity and perspective. How often do you stop and think...
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The word on the streets

February 24, 2025 • 18 mins
A recent walk through Belfast city centre reminds me of a time when I lived in the city and encountered the homeless problem first hand. In 2013 there were a number of deaths on the streets in quick succession that should have sparked some deliberate action from local politicians and government. 9 years on and a new Rolex store will open up soon, directly opposite where Catherine Kenny died in March 2013. If there is room in our ...
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Shouting from the sidelines

February 8, 2025 • 16 mins
The shouts from the sidelines - and the media - at Ange Postecogolou over the last few months have been pretty clear. A coach sticking to his principles, lacking as many as 8 first team players is now deemed not good enough. Unless you've played or coached at that level, then it's hard to fully appreciate what is going on. A journalist only has a perception of what is going on, not the full picture. Never the full picture - and a...
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Amateur or expert - do you know the difference?

December 26, 2024 • 18 mins
How quickly do you filter out the expert buyer from the amateur buyer?
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The discipline of telling the truth

December 7, 2024 • 15 mins
The only thing that matters is making yourself understood. Good communication is critical to any aspect of our lives and despite the dominance of moving image, writing is an important aspect of good selling Take away exaggeration, superlatives, adverbs and adjectives you start to get close to the heart of good writing. Truth. Ernest Hemmingway said that it takes great discipline to write truthfully. And so to this podcast - memo...
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