CEO Sales Strategies

Hosted by Doug C. Brown

Business Entrepreneurship

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Episodes

254

Latest episode

Aug 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Do you want to dramatically increase your sales revenue and have faster company growth? Do you want your business to run smoother, lessen your stress, and be a happier owner or executive? If you are an entrepreneur who wants to scale your business sales by millions, this show is for you! Welcome to the CEO Sales Strategies Podcast, where America's number one sales revenue expansion expert, Doug C. Brown interviews CEOs with $5M plus companies to uncover and share actionable tips and strategies behind their bulletproof sales strategies. Is your current sales growth frustrating you? Are your sales numbers so imprecise that you cannot make accurate sales forecasts? Do you think your sales teams or salespeople could do better in finding prospective clients and/or selling more with higher profitably? Want to enhance your hiring process to consistently produce top sales performers for your teams? Do you wish you could sell more to clients with larger revenues? If you have experienced any of these problems, you are not alone. Many companies find themselves stuck in a futile struggle to gain more revenue and profit, get frustrated with their salespeople and sales teams, and find themselves mired in stress, burnout and even hopelessness. You may already own or run a multi-million-dollar business, but it takes quite another leap to turn your company into a major industry player worth tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Could there be something you can do about your pitching strategies? How is your sales process looking? Are you hiring the right people in your sales teams? How is your internal talent development? What does your company culture look like? Are your salespeople accountable enough for their numbers and performance? Most importantly, are you in the right mindset to be able to scale your business exponentially? There are but some of the numerous factors in your business that may be holding you back from growing your company beyond its current worth. How badly do you want to finally see a change in your quarters? Will you do whatever it takes to get out of that bind and take your business on a trajectory to become something bigger? Are you sick of waiting at the back of the line to be on par with the A-players in your industry? Are you willing to challenge your beliefs, change your mindset, and take steps to optimize your processes? If you are, then you have come to the right place. There is no better way to learn how to increase your sales than to take it from the people who have gone through the process themselves and succeeded. In this podcast, Doug sits down with owners and CEOs of top-performing companies, who share their failures, struggles, secrets, and processes that are all part of their phenomenal rise beyond the $5 million marks. This is your chance to take these loads of insider information and apply them to your own business! There is no better person to lead you through this learning process than your host, Doug C. Brown. Doug is a business consultant, coach, advisor, author, speaker, and Sales Optimization and Revenue Expansion Expert of Business Success, LLC. He specializes in helping CEOs, executives and business owners recognize their blind spots, discover untapped revenues and profits from within their business, and take positive steps to drive their sales forward. He has been involved in starting over 35 companies and in helping clients ranging from the likes of Tony Robbins, Intuit, Chet Holmes, and CBS Television, to small and medium business owners increase their sales – by up to 862%! There is one thing about the people who have gone past the $5 million dollar mark and keep it growing. They just happen to have learned and used sales strategies that really work! There is no doubt that you have the potential to be next in line – if you have the courage to follow the path they took, one hack at a time. Start your journey here and now!

Listen to episodes

60 recent

August 18, 202642 min

At 8 Figures, 80% of the CEO’s Time Still Goes to Sales

At 8 figures, the CEO’s calendar can fill with everything except sales. The company looks more sophisticated while the revenue engine gets less executive attention. More people, systems, meetings, and priorities create a dangerous assumption: the CEO can finally move away from sales. But growth doesn’t make revenue less important—it creates more places for leadership attention to disappear. When revenue stops being the filter, activity can outrank impact. Sales friction survives, inefficient processes spread across a larger team, and problems that were tolerable with fewer people become embedded as the company grows. The question isn’t whether the CEO should still close every deal. It’s whether the company can scale without losing the commercial intensity that got it there. That’s where “the new scrappy” becomes a different conversation: what should remain non-negotiable when the business is no longer small? Josh Mastel, President and Founder of Innovien Solutions, shares the perspective behind growing the technology consulting and staffing company beyond eight figures while still spending 80% of his time focused on sales and thinking about sales. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

August 11, 202629 min

How 1 Department Handoff Quietly Drains Your EBITDA

How much EBITDA is disappearing when one department hands work to the next?The process can look right inside every department while money is still leaking between them. Marketing hands a lead to sales. Sales hands a customer to operations. Operations hands execution to the next function. Each team can be doing its job while delays, missed information, and weak handoffs quietly create gaps across the business. Those gaps become more consequential as the company grows. What worked at one size may not hold at the next, and growth can expose weaknesses in both the operation and the leadership behind it. By the time the problem becomes obvious, the business may already be carrying the cost. Christopher Barnard, founder and CEO of Dedicated Logistics Partner, operates logistics businesses where hundreds of time-critical handoffs have to work every day, bringing an operator's perspective on what happens when complexity scales faster than execution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

August 4, 202638 min

Every Department Touches Revenue. Only 1 Gets Sales Training.

Your sales team may not be your biggest revenue problem. Every day, customers decide whether they'll buy again based on interactions that have nothing to do with your salespeople. Most CEOs invest heavily in sales while assuming the rest of the organization simply supports the process. But every customer interaction either builds confidence or quietly weakens it. The cost rarely appears as a single lost deal. It shows up over time through slower growth, lower customer lifetime value, fewer referrals, and opportunities that never fully develop. If that sounds uncomfortable, it should. The real exposure often isn't inside the sales department at all. Mark Kapczynski of Control Media works with private equity portfolio companies and mid-market businesses to help align sales, marketing, and customer-facing teams around revenue growth. His perspective challenges a common assumption many CEOs don't realize is limiting the business until the numbers begin reflecting it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

July 28, 202638 min

Raise Prices 35%—Why Sales Suddenly Accelerate Instead

What if raising your prices is the fastest way to sell more? The real cost of underpricing isn't fewer sales. It's the buyers you attract. Most business owners assume lower prices reduce risk and make selling easier. In reality, they can make your product easier to compare, compress your margins, and quietly reduce the value of your business. The conversation shifts from why your solution is different to why you're cheaper. Premium pricing creates a different buying experience. Instead of comparing numbers, prospects begin asking better questions. That change affects more than revenue. It influences profitability, positioning, customer behavior, and ultimately the long-term value of the company. Tom Kubiniec is a serial entrepreneur who has built three successful companies by challenging conventional thinking. He shares why his company dramatically increased prices and watched sales accelerate instead. His experience challenges one of the most common assumptions founders make about pricing and reveals why the cheapest path can become the most expensive business decision. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

July 21, 202635 min

The 18-to-36 Month Exit Runway: Fixing Key-Person Dependency Before M&A.

Most founders think their business determines its valuation. The 1 hidden valuation driver costing founders millions is often the founder themselves. By the time a buyer expresses interest, much of your valuation has already been established. Systems, leadership, and operational independence aren't built during due diligence—they're revealed by it. Waiting until an offer arrives often means negotiating from a position that took years to create, but only weeks to evaluate. The bigger risk isn't always EBITDA or revenue growth. Buyers are also assessing whether the business can thrive without the founder, whether transition expectations are aligned, and whether hidden dependencies will create pressure on valuation after the deal begins. Those conversations can quietly reshape enterprise value long before the purchase agreement is signed. Cece Lung from Rich & Sassy Wealth Strategies shares why founders often become the biggest hidden valuation driver in their own business—and why waiting until buyer interest appears can quietly cost millions before negotiations even begin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

July 14, 202640 min

70% of Your Team Is Probably Underperforming Today

70% of your team may not be underperforming. They may be underutilized. The cost isn't payroll. It's the EBITDA you're already leaving behind. Most CEOs assume AI becomes valuable when it replaces people. That assumption quietly pushes attention toward cost cutting while a much larger financial opportunity goes unnoticed. Every week spent treating experienced employees like expensive administrators instead of economic assets compounds into slower execution, lower operating leverage, and pressure on future valuation. The real exposure isn't whether AI arrives. It's whether your competitors redeploy thousands of productive hours before you do—and widen a gap that's difficult to close once it becomes embedded in the business. Dejan Nenov, Founder and Chairman of Panaton, shares lessons from more than three decades building technology companies across software and healthcare, explaining why the companies creating the most value from AI may look remarkably similar on the org chart—but dramatically different on the income statement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

July 7, 202626 min

The 1 Comp Plan Mistake Delaying Profitable Growth

Your sales team may be creating revenue patterns your business cannot afford. The wrong compensation structure can turn growth into a profitability problem. Revenue does not always equal value. The quality of the revenue, the timing of deals, and the behaviors rewarded inside the sales organization determine whether growth strengthens or weakens the business. A compensation plan is a signal to your sales team about what matters most. When incentives and company economics are disconnected, CEOs can see unexpected deal timing, lower-value revenue priorities, and pressure on profitability. The challenge is that these issues often remain hidden until leadership examines margins, cash flow, or the long-term value of the company. Mike Brunnick from Valor Advisors shares the hard-earned lessons behind aligning sales incentives with profitable growth, including why compensation plans influence behavior long before CEOs see the financial impact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June 30, 202623 min

Impatience Kills 80% of Go-To-Market Strategies

Your revenue problem may not be your sales team. It may be the go-to-market strategy behind them. The fastest-growing companies can still lose months of revenue when urgency replaces buyer clarity. Many CEOs push harder when growth stalls: more activity, more pipeline, more hiring, more pressure. But when the market message, buyer definition, and revenue process are not aligned, additional effort can amplify the wrong direction. The cost is not just missed deals. It shows up in wasted sales capacity, longer cycles, unpredictable forecasting, weaker EBITDA performance, and valuation pressure when future growth is questioned. Revenue engines become difficult to diagnose when leadership cannot see where demand breaks down or why opportunities stop moving.\ Mike Brunnick, CEO of VALR Advisors, shares the hard-earned perspective gained from years leading revenue growth and helping companies understand where go-to-market strategies lose momentum—and why impatience can become one of the most expensive decisions a CEO makes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June 16, 202646 min

1 Compensation Plan Mistake That Kills EBITDA Growth

Most CEOs think compensation drives performance. What if it's quietly destroying EBITDA instead? Revenue growth can hide a lot of mistakes. Weak customer segmentation. Transactional selling. Pricing based on competition instead of value. Compensation plans that reward activity while leaking profit. The problem isn't usually effort. The problem is incentive alignment. When sales teams are compensated against the wrong metrics, companies often create more revenue while leaving cash flow, margins, and valuation behind. The damage compounds because growth makes the problem harder to see. The real exposure isn't whether a compensation plan is perfect. It's whether the plan creates behaviors that increase value—or embed costs that surface later when EBITDA, cash flow, or valuation come under scrutiny. Eric Wiklendt from Speyside Equity spends his time evaluating and improving manufacturing and distribution businesses between $50M and $500M in revenue. His perspective comes from seeing how operations, pricing, customer economics, and compensation influence enterprise value long before most CEOs recognize the connection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June 9, 202639 min

The $30,000 Difference Was Only The Story

Most CEOs think buyers choose on logic. The companies winning premium pricing know that's rarely true. Every sales process has a hidden narrative. Every proposal, case study, customer interaction, and buying decision is shaped by a story buyers are already telling themselves. The problem is most companies leave that narrative unmanaged and then wonder why deals stall, margins compress, and prospects compare them on price. A buyer doesn't need more information. They need enough confidence to make a decision. The companies that create trust, reduce uncertainty, and shape perceived value often outperform competitors offering nearly identical products, services, or outcomes. That gap shows up in close rates, pricing power, customer retention, referrals, and ultimately company valuation. The surprising part is that many CEOs already own the asset creating those outcomes—they just aren't using it deliberately. Robert Kennedy III shares why storytelling isn't a marketing exercise. It's a business mechanism that influences trust, buying behavior, premium pricing, and how customers perceive value long before they make a purchasing decision. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices