Welcome To Theinquisitor Podcast

  Most sales leaders invest in process, technology, and training. Almost none of them invest in the one lever that silently controls all three: the language their people use — out loud and in their own heads. Andy Weins has spent 20+ years in the military as a mass resiliency trainer, built a business from scratch, and studied the neuroscience and psychology of how the words we choose wire our behaviour. In this episode, he and Marcus Cauchi go deep on the specific phrases that signal avoidance, underperformance, and self-sabotage, and the language patterns that drive ownership, execution, and results. If you lead a sales team or run a company, this is not a soft conversation about mindfulness. It is a diagnostic tool. By the end, you will recognise the exact words your team uses when they are not going to close the deal, and you will know what to replace them with. Why This Matters Every sales team has what looks like a pipeline problem, a skills problem, or a market problem. Often it is a language problem i

In this episode of The Inquisitor Podcast, Marcus Cauchi and Ryan Burman discuss procurement in B2B sales, buyer psychology, total cost of ownership, and how sales teams can build trust with procurement instead of fighting it. The discussion reframes procurement as a risk management function rather than a price cutting function. Ryan explains that successful sales teams focus less on persuasion and more on aligning with how procurement evaluates suppliers, especially around risk, reliability, and total cost of ownership. This episode is relevant for sales leaders, account executives, and commercial teams working in complex B2B sales environments where procurement plays a key role in decision making. Key Topics Covered * Procurement in B2B sales and how it influences buying decisions * Buyer psychology and how procurement evaluates supplier risk * Total cost of ownership (TCO) vs ROI in procurement decisions * Sales and procurement alignment in enterprise and mid-market deals * How to build trust with procurem

What does it actually mean to be a trusted adviser and, how would you know if you were one? Most customer-facing professionals believe they're trusted. Their customers largely disagree. That gap is the problem Rowly Hirst has spent his career trying to solve. Rowly is CEO of Relate.US and the creator of Sandy, a generative AI analyst that measures trust in real time using the Maister-Green-Galford Trust Equation: Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy ÷ Self-Orientation. In this conversation, Marcus and Rowly go deep on what trust actually looks like in practice, why the most popular sales frameworks quietly destroy it, and what it takes to become a genuine ally rather than an accomplice, or worse, an adversary. If you spend your days in complex, high-stakes conversations, this episode is for you. What We Cover Why trust is defined not by what someone says about you, but by what they do when they could stay vague, delay, or protect themselves, and choose not to The difference between an ally, an accomplice, a

  The Honest Conversation Nobody Else Is Having Every founder reads the analyst reports. Every sales leader nods along in the conference sessions. Partnerships are the future. Ecosystems are everything. Co-selling is the key to unlocking faster growth, bigger deals, and stickier customers. And yet, ask those same founders and sales leaders whether they're actually banking on partner-sourced revenue to hit their number this quarter, and the answer is almost always the same: no. Why? Because it's never been reliable. Because it's always been treated as a nice-to-have. Because nobody actually knows how to make it work. That's the conversation this episode is built around. Alex Buckles has spent 20 years in enterprise sales, in the SAP ecosystem, the Adobe ecosystem, running and exiting two professional services companies, and figured out early in his career that if he wanted deal flow from partners, he had to earn it. That realisation eventually became Forecastable, a company whose only measure of success is pip

  If you run a business with a sales team, this episode will make you uncomfortable. That's the point. Marcus Cauchi and Andy Hough have a no-holds-barred conversation about why sales has become distrusted, what's causing it, and what founders and CEOs can actually do to fix it. Andy has spent decades in the field, from Lloyds and Barclays to 16 years at EMC (now Dell), and has since sat through hundreds of hours of sales meetings as a researcher. He knows where the bodies are buried. What we cover in this episode: Why sales has shifted from a relationship-driven profession to a numbers and technology treadmill, and what that's costing you in customer trust, revenue quality, and staff retention. How shareholder pressure flows down through leadership, management, and sellers, and arrives in front of your buyers as inauthenticity, shallow discovery, and unwanted pressure. Why the best sales interactions are built on understanding how your customer makes money, protects margin, and carries risk, and why most sa

In this episode of the Inquisitor Podcast, host Marcus Cauchi  talks with LinkedIn expert Graeme Riley, a platform user since 2004 and business development consultant since 2012, to cut through the noise and get practical about what actually works on LinkedIn. Graeme shares why most people are using LinkedIn wrong, how the platform's algorithm has evolved, and what separates the salespeople who consistently hit their targets from those who burn out in 18 months. Topics covered include: building a LinkedIn strategy tied to revenue goals, curating your ideal client network, optimising your profile for today's audience, the right content mix for dwell time and reshares, the difference between free, premium and Sales Navigator accounts, and why most companies are wasting their investment in the platform. Whether you're a solo entrepreneur or leading a sales team, this episode will challenge your assumptions and give you actionable steps to stop being a well-kept secret. Find Graeme Riley on LinkedIn https://www.l

Stop leaving money on the table. In this episode, sales historian and author Todd Caponi reveals why traditional negotiation tactics are destroying trust, eroding margins, and creating unsustainable business models. Todd shares the revolutionary Four Levers framework that helped him close a $7.5M deal when the customer demanded 35% off - and they ended up with only 15% discount while paying upfront for three years. What You'll Learn:

Most B2B deals don’t end in “no”. They die quietly. No decision. No movement. No momentum. In this episode, Marcus Cauchi speaks with Karl Schmidt,one of the leaders of the research teams that helped 100s of companies take advantage of the insights from The Challenger Sale. Buyers now do most of their thinking before they ever speak to a salesperson. Buying committees have doubled. Information is everywhere. Confidence is not. This conversation explores why traditional sales approaches struggle in this reality, and why the best sellers are no longer pushing solutions. They’re helping buyers make sense of risk, complexity, and internal politics. You’ll hear: • Why decision confidence matters more than solution confidence • The fears that quietly kill deals • How sellers unintentionally strip buyers of agency • Why “no decision” is the real competitor • What framemaking looks like in real sales conversations If you’re a founder, CEO, sales leader, or an aspiring top performer, this episode will change how you t

Are you settling for "good enough" while your sales organisation invests in an 85% loser rate? In this episode, Marcus Cauchi sits down with David Brock, author of "Is Good Enough Good Enough? Mindsets and Behaviors for Sales Excellence," to challenge the traditional "metrics madness" that keeps founders and sales leaders trapped in cycles of mindless activity. Dave shares his pragmatic, scientific approach to performance, revealing how top performers achieve their goals by being "intelligently lazy" and cutting out the "dead work" that consumes the average workday. They explore the "Three-Pile Strategy" for auditing tasks, the high cost of customer churn, and why personal accountability is the ultimate differentiator between top performers and those who make excuses. A major highlight of this conversation is David’s contrarian take on AI. Having used Claude AI as a "thought partner" and "debate partner" to co-author his book, David explains why AI is a "profound amplifier" that makes deep thinkers better but

Why do so many sales teams stumble despite talented hires? In this episode, Peter Wheeler, serial entrepreneur and expert in scaling revenue velocity for early-stage organisations, explores the decline of apprenticeship in modern sales and the impact it has on team performance and long-term growth. We examine why the traditional player-manager model often fails, how role siloing prevents junior staff from learning the ropes, and why leadership needs to move beyond administrative tasks to actively coach and support teams in the field. Peter highlights the systemic dysfunctions caused by shareholder primacy and short-term thinking, including the hidden costs of high sales turnover, conflicting departmental metrics, and the erosion of trust and integrity in organisations. He explains why senior executives, not just salespeople, must engage with customers to understand real-world challenges and make informed strategic decisions. We also discuss practical solutions to restore apprenticeship and learning in sales,

For busy leaders who want growth without the burn The bottom line Modern sales is not about hunting trophies. It is about helping customers make good decisions. Sometimes that decision is not you. That is not weakness, it is credibility. If sales feels combative, high churn is the price you are paying. Why this matters Boiler room tactics and hire-fast-fire-faster cultures look productive until you check the retention numbers. Low trust, internal conflict and customers who regret buying are all symptoms of the same thing. You can hit target while quietly eroding the business. That is what going broke on the instalment plan looks like. The rules of sustainable selling 1. Always tell the truth Lies compound. You stop selling and start managing fiction. Everyone loses, including your future self. 2. Serve everybody Service is not closing at all costs. It is pointing people in the right direction, even when that direction leads elsewhere. Referring a bad fit to a competitor can be the most profitable decision you

In this episode, I chat with Tom Stearns, a consultant to CEOs and CROs, about how mentorship helped him redefine and scale his business.   Tom shares how he gained clarity, focused on the right clients, shortened sales cycles, increased deal sizes, and walked away from boring work, all while achieving a four-day workweek. Whether you’re a founder, sales leader, or consultant looking for practical strategies to grow your business and work smarter, Tom’s story offers actionable insights and inspiration.   Contact team@principledselling.com Contact Tom https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomstearns/    

Steve’s journey was marked by sheer graft and some brutal personal blows. His first five years were, in his own words, madness. Eighteen to twenty hour days, six days a week. Then came a messy divorce, COVID and throat cancer. The Founder Dependency Trap Like many founders, Steve found himself in the classic trap. Everyone relied on him to make every decision. He sought help because his sales team was struggling and he realised he needed to learn how to step out of the way so his business could run without him. The Uncomfortable Mentorship: Facing the Tormentor Steve brought in Marcus and very quickly discovered this was not a cosy training course. He describes it as counselling for sales, full of uncomfortable moments, direct questions, and role plays that forced him to confront his own habits. The turning point came when he learned to challenge and filter prospects properly. At first he thought it was rude to push back or walk away. In reality, detaching from the outcome stopped him wasting hours on buyers

Why Trust Breaks Down and What To Do About It In this episode, Marcus talks with Charles Green, one of the genuine heavyweights in the world of trust and commercial relationships. If you lead a mid market scaling tech firm and you suspect your sales or GTM function is underperforming for reasons no dashboard can explain, this conversation will feel uncomfortably accurate. Together they explore how fear, uncertainty, and internal pressure quietly poison performance. Forget the usual talk about activity ratios and pipeline hygiene. This is a candid look at the human drivers behind buyer reluctance, stalling, and ghosting, and why most attempts to “solve” these problems only make them worse. Charlie argues that instead of trying to measure trust, leaders should focus on spotting and removing the behaviours that actively destroy it. If you are grappling with the tension between short term targets and long term customer value, this episode will challenge how you think about leadership, incentives, and your culture

In this episode, Jordan Corn and Marcus Cauchi dissect the deeply flawed traditional approach to employee performance evaluation, the "Annual Festival of Fiction". They challenge the idea that reviews serve their intended purpose and share actionable frameworks for leaders to build continuous growth systems, rather than just checking boxes. Key Themes for Leaders and Managers 1. The Broken System: Checking Boxes vs. Driving Growth Traditional performance reviews are often theatre: they replace truth with formality and create anxiety instead of growth. When managers simply mark a three on a scale to avoid justification, they are "checking a box". The problem is systemic: reviews often exist as a paper trail for pay decisions and compliance, not for meaningful reflection or planning. Some reflection is better than none, but if the process isn’t valuable or valued, it won’t change much. 2. Relationships Come First Effective performance management starts with the manager-employee relationship. Reviews fail if the

This episode of The Inquisitor Podcast features Parker Mills, Account Executive at ServiceNow and author of State and Local Government Sales: Beyond the Bid. Parker exposes the systemic dysfunction created when short-term sales culture sabotages long-term public value. With 11 years in U.S. state and local government (SLG) sales, he dissects the brutal misalignment where enterprise is the tail that wags the dog, corporate GTM strategy, incentives, and collateral all built for the wrong customer profile. For founders and C-suites, Parker calls out the dangerous internal pressure that fuels “optimism theatre” and quietly corrodes integrity and trust. His challenge: treat forecast accuracy as a measure of integrity, not compliance. Give your sellers the freedom to protect relationships from the distortions of quarterly panic. Why? Because government sales aren’t built for sprints. The average deal runs 18 months, often tied to state fiscal calendars or biennial budgets. The only winning strategy is one built on

Why do brilliant professionals consistently underprice themselves? In this conversation, Marcus and Matthew Dashper-Hughes dissect the psychological barriers that prevent founders, executives, and elite salespeople from commanding their true market worth. This isn't motivational rhetoric, it's a diagnostic exploration of the childhood money scripts, trust mechanics, and conversational architecture that determine whether you capture value or leave millions on the table. Critical Insights for Leaders The Pricing Psychology Paradox "You will only ever be paid as much as you really think you are worth." This isn't inspiration, it's diagnosis. The least you'll accept becomes the ceiling, not the floor. Underpricing isn't strategic humility; it's emotional armor inherited from childhood money scripts that prioritize comfort over worth. Trust as Operating System Forget tactics. Trust is the operating system for every revenue conversation. The episode unpacks the David Maister Trust Equation, revealing that intimacy,

In this episode of The Inquisitor, host Marcus Cauchi sits down with Scott Aaron, co-founder of The Time to Grow, to explore the power of authenticity in marketing and sales. Scott helps coaches, consultants, and service professionals scale their businesses by prioritizing connection over competition, and this conversation is packed with actionable strategies for growing your presence on LinkedIn while staying human-first. From leveraging AI ethically to optimizing your LinkedIn profile for inbound leads, this episode offers practical insights you can implement immediately. Key Takeaways 1. AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement AI is in its early stages and should be used as a tool to enhance, not replace, human work. Scott and his team use personalized GPTs to help members craft high-engagement LinkedIn content. Avoid “scaling idiocy at volume”: always use AI with a human-centric approach. 2. The Warm Touchpoint Messaging Strategy Dedicate 20–30 minutes daily to active networking on LinkedIn. Automati

Most founders lie to themselves long before they ever pitch an investor. They convince themselves their story is clear, their deck is solid, and their passion will carry them through. The truth? Investors can smell self-deception a mile away. In this episode of The Inquisitor Podcast, Marcus Cauchi sits down with Ben Wiener, venture capitalist, author of the novel Fever Pitch, and someone who knows what it’s like to fail spectacularly before finding the formula for investor resonance. Ben’s first fund didn’t just flop, it crashed. He pitched over 27 investors, was rejected every single time, and even received a few profane ejections. But instead of walking away, he dissected every misstep and built a structural narrative that now underpins the most persuasive startup pitches. Despite being fiction, Fever Pitch hit #1 in multiple non-fiction categories because it teaches a painful truth: most founders don’t lose funding because their idea is bad, but because they fail to tell their story truthfully, empathetic

If you think your growth problem is about tactics, targets, or team structure, this episode might sting, in the best way. I’m joined by Emma Thompson, The Sales Therapist, who helps founders, leaders, and sales teams uncover the real issue: the story they’re telling themselves. She helps people face the thought behind their behaviour, not just the behaviour itself. If your go-to-market team feels stuck, scared, or sabotaging progress, this one’s for you. Expect a few uncomfortable moments, the kind that lead to growth. You Can’t Out-Strategise Your Nervous System Emma doesn’t fix symptoms, she finds causes. Procrastination, burnout, and perfectionism aren’t strategy problems, they’re protection mechanisms. Until you find the thought behind your behaviour, you’ll keep reacting and calling it leadership. You’re not short on tactics. You’re short on insight. Meet The Sales Therapist Emma became a hypnotherapist and coach after confronting her own childhood conditioning. Her work helps clients separate who they