Make It Happen Mondays - B2B Sales Talk with John Barrows

The Apple Store almost didn't happen. Not because the idea was bad, because it was too big for anyone but Steve Jobs to say yes to.

In this episode, John sits down with Ron Johnson, the retail executive who built the original Apple Store and Genius Bar alongside Steve Jobs, led Target's design transformation, and later served as CEO of JC Penney, to talk about why he turned down a scaled down test of the Apple Store concept, what ac...

AI didn't kill the sales fundamentals. It just made everyone forget what they actually are.

In this episode, John sits down with Kristie Jones, Author and Founder of Sales Acceleration Group, to talk about why the buyer now wants to talk to a human 80 to 90 percent of the way through their own research, why the post-mortem meeting needs to be replaced with a pre-call meeting, and why AI is forcing sales leaders to teach objective ju...

AI is not replacing customer success. It's turning it into the most important revenue function in the business.

In this episode, John sits down with Elizabeth Salmoun, Head of Customer Success at Otter.ai, to talk about why products and tooling have become table stakes in the AI era, why the sales to CS handoff decides whether a client renews inside the first 90 days, and why AI is turning CSMs into AI advisors and workflow consulta...

AI is not going to replace real sales. It's going to expose who was never really selling in the first place.

In this episode, John sits down with Jeff Kirchick, author of Authentic Selling and a sales leader who has closed multi-million dollar contracts without ever going through formal sales training, to talk about why AI made personalization easier to fake and easier for buyers to spot, why authenticity is not the same as being li...

Buyers have more information than ever, but that does not mean they have more confidence.

In this episode, John sits down with Zachary Gropper, Founder and CEO of Insight Revenue, to talk about Challenger, platform sales, AI research, buyer validation, and why old sales motions are breaking under modern buying pressure. Zachary brings a practical lens from his years around CEB, Gartner, Challenger, Pavilion, and the teams now trying...

AI role-play is not another tool to dump on your sales team.

In this episode, John sits down with Neha Gupta, Founder and CEO of Breakthrough AI, to talk about why traditional role-play fails, why managers are often asked to coach without the tools or time to do it, and how AI can help reps practice hard conversations before the pressure hits. Neha breaks down what makes AI role-play feel realistic, why audio can be more effective t...

Charisma is not just something you either have or do not have. It is a skill buyers can feel before the pitch even starts.

In this episode, John sits down with Olivia Fox Cabane, bestselling author of The Charisma Myth, to talk about the science of charisma, presence, body language, curiosity, manipulation, and why real connection still matters in sales.

If you are in sales, leadership, or any role where trust matters, this conversat...

Sales reps who cannot speak the language of business are going to get exposed fast.

In this episode, John sits down with Kevin Cope, founder of Acumen Learning and co-author of Business Acumen for Sales Success and See the Big Picture, to talk about why business acumen is now one of the most important skills in sales. Kevin shares lessons from his time at the Covey Leadership Center, the start of Acumen Learning, and 25 years helpin...

AI can speed up the work, but it still cannot replace the human connection that moves trust forward.

In this episode, John sits down with Katrin Gurvich, a GTM Strategy & Operations leader at Navan, to talk about networking, referrals, AI, hiring, and what modern sales teams need to protect as the go-to-market world gets more automated. Katrin shares how she built connection as a skill, why referrals have lost meaning when they ...

CRM is finally moving closer to where sellers actually work.

In this episode, John sits down with Ryan Braastad from Microsoft to talk about agentic CRM, AI adoption, productivity tools, and why the old system-of-record model has created so much friction for sales teams. Ryan shares lessons from Forrester, Yammer, Salesforce, his own startup, and Microsoft as he explains how the next wave of CRM can move closer to the flow of work.

I...

More revenue does not always mean a healthier business.

In this episode, John sits down with Cruz Gamboa, founder of Ascend Growth Venture and Scaling CFO, to talk about profitability, cash flow, working capital, financial literacy, and why founders can grow revenue and still create a weaker business if the model underneath is not healthy.

If you are a founder, sales leader, or rep trying to sell into executives, this episode gives y...

AI is everywhere in sales right now, but very little of it is actually moving the number.

In this episode, John sits down with Gabe Larsen, CRO of Atonom, to dig into what is real, what is hype, and where AI is actually creating measurable ROI. Gabe walks through the SaaS golden age, the false positives it created, the rise of digital employees, and why most teams are still confusing efficiency with results.

If you are trying to figu...

The world is getting faster, but your nervous system still has to make the decision.

In this episode, John sits down with Ishan Shivanand, a yogic scholar, Vedic educator, and mental health researcher born into a 21-generation lineage of yogis, to talk about stress, focus, resilience, meditation, and what it really takes to stay regulated under pressure. From growing up inside a monastery to building research-backed protocols for mo...

Stress is shaping more of your decisions than you realize.

In this episode, John sits down with Bryan Post, one of America’s foremost child behavior experts and co-founder of The Post Institute, to talk about fear, love, stress, trauma, parenting, leadership, active listening, and why people often react from survival instead of clarity.

If you are a sales leader, manager, parent, or anyone trying to communicate better under pre...

AI will not fix a business that does not understand itself.

In this episode, John sits down with Julie Averill, founder of Gold Thread and former CIO of lululemon, to talk about real transformation, AI adoption, technology leadership, and what companies need to understand before they rush into the next big platform shift. Julie also shares lessons from her time leading technology through major growth at lululemon, digital transforma...

AI agents are not just changing sales tools. They are changing the job of the seller.

In this episode, John sits down with Kris Billmaier, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Agentforce Sales and Growth Products at Salesforce, to talk about Agentforce, headless software, AI-native sales workflows, and what happens when sellers start managing teams of agents.

If you are in sales, sales leadership, enablement, or GTM strate...

IQ is a commodity now. AI can out-think, out-research, and out-process almost anyone in the room. So what is left?

In this episode, John shares a conversation with Colleen Stanley, bestselling author and founder of Sales Leadership Development, to talk about the two things that AI cannot replicate — emotional intelligence and meaningful mentorship. Colleen has spent decades proving that EQ is not a soft skill, it is a revenue ...

AI already knows your buyer better than most sales reps do. The question is — what are you going to do about it?

In this episode, John is joined by Scott Gillum, author of The Hidden Buyer Journey, to unpack seven years of research on how buyers actually make decisions — and why our sales and marketing tools are barely scratching the surface of what's possible. From personality profiling and corporate culture mapping to ...

The sales playbook is being rewritten and product-led growth is at the center of it.

In this episode, John sits down with Adam Carr, CRO at Apollo.io, to dig into how PLG has evolved, what AI is doing to the sales rep's role, and why the best sellers today need to think less like closers and more like go-to-market architects. From hiring smarter to building SDR programs that actually stick, this one's packed with real talk from two ...