Sales Talk for CEOs

In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman talks with Gavi Wolf, CEO and Founder of IndieWalls, about how he scaled a creative business, turning an art marketplace into a commercial art consultancy serving major brands. Gavi discusses founder‑led sales, when and how he realized it was time to build a sales leadership function, and the hard lesson about motivating and compensating a high‑performing sales team.

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Stop wasting money on lead generation that doesn’t work. In this solo episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman delivers a powerful, no-nonsense rant every B2B CEO needs to hear. She challenges the outdated playbook of cold calling and SDR-driven outreach, revealing why it's costing you more than it’s delivering and what to do about it.

Alice shares real examples and modern strategies to generate high-quality leads that fill...

What happens when a math major turned cold-caller gets frustrated with broken sales systems? He builds a better one, then builds a company around it.

In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Ryan Reisert, the co- founder of Outbound Operators and CallBlitz, to trace his journey from burned-out rep to process-driven founder. Ryan reveals how years of trial, error, and dialing taught him that sales doesn’t s...

What if your sales team is focused on the wrong thing?

Brent Adamson and Karl Schmidt, co-founders of A to B Insight and co-authors of The FrameMaking Sale, reveal why traditional B2B tactics like BANT are outdated and how to win by building buyer confidence in their own decisions.

Connect with:

• Brent Adamson: LinkedIn | A to B Insight
• Karl Schmidt: LinkedIn | A to B Insight
• Alice Heiman: LinkedIn | Website
• Link to The FrameMaking Sa...

From hockey stick growth to flat on your face, it hurts and Collin Stewart can tell you firsthand. He had one customer before he left his full-time job, the problem was he still had one customer 18 months later. In his first endeavor this entrepreneur built what he thought everyone needed and kept showing them and expecting them to say how great it was, but they didn’t. “I was building my idea. I wasn’t building what the customer’s...

When CEOs struggle to connect with customers, teams, or investors, it's rarely a strategy problem, it’s a storytelling problem. In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Jeff Abracen, Founder of Disruptive Influence and storytelling coach to tech leaders, to uncover why a great story is a terrible thing to waste.

Jeff shares how he turned a high school “disruptive influence” label into a superpower for...

There are two key ways to get in front of the people most likely to buy from you and Alice believes you may be overlooking them. 

The first is something she talks about all the time. So if you haven’t started expecting your team to do it, now is the time. 

Referral selling. Yes, you get a few referrals here and there but why not make it a regular occurrence. Alice explains briefly in this episode but for more details listen to episod...

Imagine if your sales team could rehearse complex deals before ever meeting the buyer, just like elite athletes pre-game. That’s exactly what Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (CEO) and Alix Berry (COO) of ExpertTheory make possible.

In this episode, Alice Heiman dives into how ExpertTheory helps companies simulate real-world sales situations through AI-powered, custom-built games. These immersive experiences go far beyond traditional trainin...

What happens when a seasoned marketer reimagines everything she knows about agencies, on a beach, notebook in hand, while her kids play nearby? Brittany Trafis, CEO and co-founder of Soarion Digital, shares how she built an AI-powered agency that challenges everything about traditional marketing models.

In this episode, Brittany walks Alice Heiman through the rapid sales growth of Soarion: from early experiments to real client resul...

If you’re still posting jobs and hoping A-players apply, you’re already behind.

In this high-impact episode, Alice Heiman sits down with Jamie Crosbie, founder of ProActivate and TEDx speaker with over 1 million views on The Power of Your Mindset, to reveal what every CEO needs to know to hire top revenue-generating talent.

Most hiring processes are built for convenience, not performance. That’s why companies end up with B-players or...

In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Paige McPheely, CEO of Base, to explore how she turned a niche remote executive assistant service into a tech-enabled platform that now supports top leaders across the country.

When Paige and her co-founder first launched, they were fueled by referrals, so much so that they had a waiting list of eager clients. But as demand surged, they hit a breaking point: the ref...

In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Todd Caponi, sales historian and author of The Transparency Sale, to explore the forgotten history of sales and why understanding it could completely change how your company grows revenue.

We’ve moved from serving buyers to selling at all costs and it’s hurting your sales team, your customer relationships, and your bottom line. Todd takes us back to the early 1900s,...

When Wesley Portegies left the pharmaceutical world to work in automotive, he didn’t expect it to lead him back, but it did. Armed with a new perspective, he returned with a mission, disrupt how pharma companies communicate with doctors.

In this episode, Wesley shares how he co-founded MedComms Experts with no outside funding, no traditional sales team and still built a multi-million dollar agency. He reveals how they landed their f...

People don’t trust ads. Or brands. Or even experts.
Brian Miller joins Alice Heiman to explain how CEOs can cut through the noise and earn trust, fast.

In this episode:

• Why the trust recession is killing your pipeline
  
  
• The 3-part message that builds instant engagement
  
  
• How to make your talk (or pitch) follow the hero’s journey
  
  
• The #1 reason your message doesn’t spread and how to fix it
  
  

K...

Vibe selling. AI hype. New sales buzzwords. Alice Heiman isn’t buying it.

In this candid solo episode, she calls out the noise and brings the focus back to what matters most for B2B CEOs: knowing your customer, building the right team, and aligning sales to how your buyers buy.

Looking for clarity in a world of sales chaos? This episode is for you.

Advice to CEOs: “Slow down and think deeply about how your buyers want to buy, then ali...

Elatia Abate left a successful corporate career to answer one bold question: What do I really want to create? Now a leading futurist, she helps CEOs shift from outdated, past-anchored strategy to future-led leadership that thrives in a world of quantum change.

In this episode, Elatia joins Alice Heiman to share how CEOs can design strategy around what they truly want to build, run simultaneous approaches that balance today’s executi...

Sumner Vanderhoof, CEO & Co‑Founder of Propensity, shares how he transformed an idea into a nimble, niche-focused account-based marketing platform. In just two years, Propensity achieved remarkable growth and retention by combining founder-led sales, month-to-month agreements, and an “opt‑in” SDR outreach model.

His approach shifted the sales game, targeting only in-market buyers with verified contact data and it’s something any...

What if your anxiety could make you a better leader? In this episode, David H. Rosmarin Phd., Harvard professor and founder of Center for Anxiety, shows CEOs how to transform anxiety into a hidden advantage.

He breaks down his proven four-step framework to move from paralyzing fear to powerful action and why ignoring your anxiety might be the most dangerous move you can make as a leader.

Listen to learn how to stop fighting your anxi...