What I Wish I’d Known About Sales with Steven Birdsall

In this episode, Owen Cole, Director at Paragon Marketing Projects, joins host Martin from Lead Forensics to cut through the noise on what actually makes outbound work in today’s B2B landscape. From two decades in sales to running a team of nearly fifty SDRs across multiple industries, Owen has seen the patterns that separate teams who scale consistently from those who stay stuck chasing their tail.

In this episode, Andy Laws, Sales Development Leader at Databricks and Founder of Rev Rocket, joins host Martin from Lead Forensics to challenge some of the biggest assumptions in sales development right now. From scaling the BDR function at Braze through to IPO, Andy's seen what works at speed and what quietly breaks teams when no one's paying attention. He shares the one structural mistake he sees companies making with their SDR comp plans, why the rush to replace reps with AI is backfiring for a lot of orgs, and a surprisingly simple signal most reps are completely overlooking when deciding who to reach out to. We also get into what Andy's professional cricket career taught him about performing under pressure, and the single piece of advice he wishes someone had given him on day one as an SDR. If you're building pipeline or leading a team that does, this one's worth your time.

In this episode, Charlotte Lloyd, Founder of The Client Acquisition Club, joins host Martin from Lead Forensics to unpack why most deals don't fail at the close, they fail on the very first call. She breaks down what "elegant selling" actually looks like in practice: getting buyers to diagnose their own problems, qualifying to disqualify, and why pushing for a "yes" is often the fastest way to lose a deal. We also dig into LinkedIn strategy, why you don't need a massive following to close business, how to tell if you're writing for supporters instead of buyers, and why voice-typing your posts beats prompting ChatGPT from a blank screen.