Cosmo Tech | The Decision Twin Platform for Supply Chain, Finance & Asset Leaders at Fortune 500 Scale | Simulate Tomorrow. Decide Today.

Over the past 30 years, I’ve led sales teams at fast-growing Tech & SaaS companies — to rebuild and refine the strategies and systems so sales teams can scale and drive revenue growth.

In recent roles, I was able:

- double revenue while EBITDA grew 400%
- drive a +34% YoY revenue growth

Today I’m working with Cosmo Tech to help enterprises simulate the future for faster decisions, better systems, and maximum opportunity.

That means: 

- Quantum-level decision making
- Complex system resiliency
- Future-proof roadmap

“Steve is “Instant Offense” for sales. This is very rare and very valuable. He’s truly world class at quickly creating and running strategic, data-driven sales teams to drive growth. Great at strategy and wading into the minutiae to uncover and fix and optimize the team and process.

He’s a great leader with great judgment who makes it fun to work on the most difficult challenges. He and I have worked together on two companies that were great successes.”

— Jeff O'Mara, General Manager EKAHAU/ CEO, Healthentic.

Feel free to join my newsletter below — you’ll get all my best systems and strategies for scaling sales into the future. 

Join my newsletter at www.salesgss.com/newsletter

Trying to figure out where to start to double sales in 2025? Click on my "FREE Sales Accelerator Assessment" www.salesgss.com/assessment

Steve Litzow

A 17-year-old enterprise tech company went from $25M to $65M in revenue without changing their team, market, or product strategy.

Here's what actually drove the transformation:
Revenue: $25M → $65M (160% growth) 
Recurring Revenue: $5M → $30M (6× increase) 
EBITDA margins: 20% → 50% 
Product velocity: 1 release every 4 years → 4 per year

When I ask CEOs what they think enabled this kind of growth, they usually say: 
"Better talent? Bigger pipeline? New market positioning?"

None of the above.

It was implementing a High-Intensity Rhythm of Business (HI-ROB).

Here's what it looked like in practice:
Daily 15-minute standups focused on:
- Pipeline movement (what changed overnight)
- Yesterday's activity vs. plan
- Today's activity commitments
- What's closing today + backup options

Weekly cross-functional reviews where every team reports using the same metrics, same format, same cadence.

The insight most teams miss: Elite execution isn't about having better people. 

It's about building systems that surface problems in 24 hours instead of 30 days.

That time compression is what separates:
- Forecast accuracy from CFO discounts
- Pipeline visibility from month-end surprises
- Revenue growth from revenue hope

The companies scaling predictably right now aren't necessarily the ones with the best talent. 

They're the ones with the best operating systems. 

salesgss.com/newsletter

Your sales team has 200+ hours of PMF intelligence.
Your product team sees maybe 5% of it.

That gap is killing your velocity.

Sales hears every objection, every “not yet,” every competitive blindside.
Product never sees most of it.

That’s where PMF actually erodes — in the gap between Sales intelligence and Product velocity.

And the fix isn’t another roadmap meeting.

It’s a bi-weekly execution ritual:
Sales brings: Top 3 deal blockers
Product maps: Clear ship windows
CEO enforces: Ruthless scope discipline
15 minutes. Twice a month.

This loop eliminates the three silent killers:
- Roadmap drift
- Ship-date ambiguity
- Competitive feature surprises

One company I worked with went from 1 release every 4 years → 4 releases per year using this exact loop.

Result: 2× revenue and expansion from a niche tool to a mainstream IT platform.

The data backs it up:
Elite product teams ship with 76% success  --  Average teams sit at 51%

That 25-point gap compounds into years of competitive advantage (or decline).

With Q1 planning six weeks away, now is the moment to fix your Sales → Product loop before you lock next year’s roadmap.

Product-market fit isn’t a milestone — it’s a 90-day referendum.

Full framework + the Q1 implementation plan is in this week’s SalesGSS newsletter.
Link in comments. 👇

Couldn’t agree more with Phillip — the ability to anticipate, not just react, is what separates leaders today.

Simulation is already helping our customers cut decision cycles, reduce risk, and move with confidence.

CEO at Cosmo Tech I Global Business Leader I Chief Technology Officer

Enterprises today face a simple truth: disruption is no longer an occasional event, it’s a constant. Supply shocks, market volatility, and regulatory 

Open article: From Intelligent to Autonomous: How AI-Simulation Unlocks the Self-Learning Enterprise by Phillip Hazen • 2 min read

From Intelligent to Autonomous: How AI-Simulation Unlocks the Self-Learning Enterprise

The new advantage isn’t faster outreach — it’s faster proof.

✅ Days 0–7 (Sales): Define success metric + provision sandbox
✅ Days 8–21 (Product): Automate setup + guide onboarding
✅ Days 22–30 (CS): Deliver one-page ROI snapshot

Track what matters:
• TTFV (Time-to-First-Value) — leading indicator of conversion
• Activation → Expansion Ratio (≤60 days) — proof that value sticks

The teams that show ROI inside 30 days stay alive in deals CFOs can’t kill.

Read the full playbook → salesgss.com/newsletter

#SaaS #SalesStrategy #RevenueGrowth #SalesGSS

Great insight, Philipp.
Transforming Weibull and other reliability models into continuously learning systems through AI simulation is where asset management becomes truly prescriptive. It’s exciting to see this thinking gain momentum across the SAP ecosystem.

Yesterday I shared my first impressions on sessions about Predictive Maintenance, RCM, Asset Maintenance 5.0, and deep dives into data acquisition and diagnostic hardware at the Asset Performance conference. Today, I want to share one idea that really stuck with me—something that could be transformational if applied across the entire asset lifecycle:

Weibull distribution.
It’s a statistical tool that uses failure data from operations—data that’s often easy to get. It doesn’t need huge datasets, and because it’s based on probability distributions, it provides interpretable confidence intervals. That means maintenance experts can use it with confidence.
Of course, it comes with challenges: modeling expertise and thorough data cleansing are essential.

But the opportunities are huge. Startup Cosmo Tech showed a very innovative approach how operational data (e.g. failures, financials, risk) can be used to simulate different maintenance policies and predict their impact on CAPEX, OPEX, or any custom risk KPI you define is relevant for your business. This enables to test strategies before implementing them—using models they can actually understand.

My takeaway: Weibull distribution shouldn’t be a one-time tool for investment decisions. It should be part of a continuous loop:
- Define strategies based on simulations
- Implement and measure performance of such strategies
- Learn from cases where the policies been violates or fails, e.g. when using CBM or RUL predictions missed a failure beyond what is to be expected from a statistical model.

With continuous closed loops to monitor, improve, and optimize your maintenance strategies and operations, it would be possible to unleash the full power of Weibull distribution—or, as a matter of fact, any AI or model-based tool.

Thanks Olivier Blancke & Steven Coates for the insightful demo and nice discussion we had during the conference.

This is how leading utilities are using AI Simulation to prioritize investments, balance risk, and accelerate the energy transition.
Join Cosmo Tech and Groupe E on Dec 2 to see it in practice.

Join us for an insightful webinar with Cosmo Tech and Groupe E on December 2nd.

Ana Nazaré, Strategic Asset Manager at Groupe E, and Maxime Le Pendeven, Key Account Director at Cosmo Tech, will explore how Cosmo Tech AI Simulation empowers Groupe E to 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴, 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘺, 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦-𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 - 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.

Whether you’re managing renewable energy plants, large industrial fleets, or complex infrastructure, this session is for you.

👉 Register here: https://hubs.ly/Q03Rxpwj0

#ai #simulation #assetmanagement #aip #digitaltransformation #innovation #energy #utility

Buyers don’t wait 90 days for ROI anymore.

The window for proof has collapsed — from quarters to weeks.

▪ 78 % of B2B buyers now expect measurable ROI within six months (G2)
▪ Deal slippage nearly doubled year-over-year (Kluster)
▪ Interactive demos lift conversions ≈ 25 % (Navattic)

If your product still takes three months to prove value, you’re already behind competitors who do it in 14 days.

👉 Stop selling platforms. Start selling proof.

This week’s SalesGSS issue breaks down how to:
• Re-engineer your first-value moment
• Turn demos into ROI trials
• Track the 3 KPIs boards now watch

Read here → salesgss.com/newsletter

#B2BSales #SaaS #SalesLeadership #GrowthStrategy

Most B2B tech CEOs think they have a meeting problem.
But the data says something very different.

Only 37% of meetings have an agenda.
Executives say 67% of them fail.
Teams waste 392 hours a year sitting in them.

But here’s the truth:

Meetings aren’t the problem.
Visibility lag is.

If you’re still discovering slippage at the end of the month, you’re already 30 days behind the teams you’re competing with.

Across the $25M–$65M companies I’ve worked inside, the pattern is identical:

Elite teams surface deal risk in 24 hours.
Average teams: 7–14 days.
Struggling teams: after the month closes.

This one gap explains revenue misses more than pipeline size, talent, or marketing.

The companies that scale consistently run a tight Rhythm of Business (ROB):

Daily (15 minutes):
• Pipeline movement
• Yesterday’s activity
• Today’s targets
• Deals closing today
• Backup if #1 slips

Everyone stands.
Cameras on.
Pipeline open.

Weekly:
Every function reports progress on the same goals, using the same metrics, in the same format.

No silos.
No spin.
No surprises.

Slippage is a visibility problem — not a talent problem.
Fix the cadence → fix the outcome.

If you want more on operating cadence, forecasting accuracy, and mid-market sales strategy, subscribe to my weekly newsletter - salesgss.com/newsletter.

The earliest sign your deal is slipping?
A single stakeholder goes silent for 11–14 days.

Across the teams I’ve led and advised, this Silent Thread Indicator is the #1 early warning signal.

When even one stakeholder goes dark for 14 days:
• Decision momentum breaks
• Champion confidence drops
• Parallel blockers emerge
• CFO/IT lose context
• Legal quietly resets the evaluation

Probability of stall increases 6–8X —
even if your champion absolutely loves you.

This is why single-threading kills Q4 forecasts.
You don’t lose because someone said “no.”
You lose because someone stopped saying anything.

Monday rule:
Any deal with a silent thread = at-risk deal.
Don’t wait for the stage to slip.
Re-engage immediately.
––
Full breakdown (and the Q1 2026 multi-threading plan) is in the new SalesGSS Newsletter issue.

linkedin.com/company/getdatabees/

JSESSIONID

li_at

Your prospects aren’t waiting 379 days because your category is complex.
They’re waiting because they can’t see momentum.

In 2025, PMF isn’t something you “achieve.”
It’s something your market re-evaluates every 90 days.

When you go two quarters without visible product news, buyers assume:
“Are they still investing?”
“Are they falling behind competitors?”
“Will this product still matter in 12 months?”

One quiet quarter doesn’t kill deals.
Two quiet quarters trigger the PMF death spiral:
longer cycles → lower win rates → silent champions → stalled pipeline.

Quarterly updates aren’t nice-to-have.
They’re your only defense against ambiguity.

If your deal cycles are extending while your roadmap isn’t shipping visibly every 90 days, that’s not a market problem — it’s a product velocity problem.

If you want the full framework, my latest SalesGSS newsletter is live - www.salesgss.kit.com

Most stalled deals don’t die in competition.

They die in conference rooms you’ll never enter.

Here’s what’s happening across $5M–$50M SaaS teams:
• Buyers spend 83% of the journey without you
• Buying committees: 10–11 stakeholders
• Only 9% of deals are multi-threaded
• Champion turnover: 81%
• Champion leaves → 80% deal loss rate

This is the Single-Thread Death Spiral:
One relationship in a 10-person committee is a gamble — not a forecast.

The simplest diagnostic I know:
How many unique stakeholders are engaged right now in your top 10 opportunities?

Benchmarks:
• 1–2 threads: Critical risk
• 3–4 threads: Baseline safety
• 5+ threads: Elite execution (6X win rate)

Thread count is now a leading indicator — not a “nice to have.”
If half your late-stage pipeline has fewer than 3 threads…
your Q4 number isn’t slipping — it’s already gone.
––
Full breakdown is in today’s SalesGSS newsletter -  https://lnkd.in/gZJeATBP

Who I Help & How

If you're a sales professional, leader, or entrepreneur looking to:
✔ Exceed your targets consistently
✔ Close larger deals, faster
✔ Shift from transactional selling to becoming a trusted advisor
✔ Build resilience and long-term success in sales

I think we should talk.

With 30+ years of experience across four countries, I’ve helped struggling sales teams achieve 15-25%+ performance growth, increase individual earnings by $250K+ over five years, and build sustainable sales careers.

B2B Sales Mastery Defined

🏆 B2B Sales Mastery = (🔥 Mindset + 🛠 Skillset + ⚙️ Process) × 🎯 Execution

✅ Mindset – Confidence, resilience, emotional intelligence, and the ability to handle rejection.
✅ Skillset – Prospecting, consultative selling, negotiation, and closing strategies.
✅ Process – A repeatable, scalable framework that optimizes sales execution.
✅ Execution – Turning knowledge into action, adapting, and delivering results under pressure.

What Makes My Approach Different?

✅Personalized Roadmap – Using DISC & FinxS Sales Competency Assessments, we identify strengths & blind spots for tailored coaching.
✅Sales Psychology & Behavioral Adaptability – Master influence, connect with diverse buyers, and handle objections like a pro.
✅Resilience for Longevity – Sales is a marathon, not a sprint. I help you thrive under pressure and maximize career earnings.
✅Proven Results – From sales professionals at Fortune 100s to SaaS leaders, my coaching delivers measurable growth.

Real Transformations
✅Senior IT Sales Consultant → Promoted to VP within a year.
✅Fortune 100 Sales Pro → 20% salary boost & better role after four months.
✅SaaS Sales Leader → Fast-tracked learning & given ownership of a major account in five months.
✅Strategic Advisor to early-stage Founder-led organizations → Focus, mind-set, road-map validation and GTM strategy. Equity participation in a few organizations for long-term support and engagement.
✅Reduced Sales Friction → Process engineering and Sales Playbook alignment to return 18% time to the Enterprise sales team and improve win-rate by 4%.

The noble profession of sales rewards those who take action. If you're ready to break through barriers and achieve results, let’s connect.

📩 Direct Message me to schedule a consultation or use the 'book an appointment' button above. 

Your next breakthrough is one conversation away.

Deepak Bhootra (Dr)

🚀 It’s here. 'RISEUP: Your Career Reclaimed' is live on Amazon.
You’ve done the work. Solved the problems. But recognition and balance still feel out of reach. This guide helps you grow results and well-being simultaneously.

What makes RISEUP different?

Besides it being 520 pages long, it was built as a field guide. Short workplace scenes followed by tools you can use the same day.

Research meets action. Every idea ends with a 24–48 hour step.

Two frameworks you’ll remember under pressure: RISEUP for the long game and COACH for the moment you’re in.

RISEUP, letter by letter
R — Recognize what’s draining energy and joy
I — Interrupt overwork, people-pleasing, perfection loops
S — Strengthen boundaries, systems, and resilience
E — Expand influence with clear, strategic moves
U — Uplift your identity so your value is visible
P — Propel everything into sustainable rhythms

COACH when pressure hits
C — Clarity: What problem am I really solving?
O — Options: What else could work besides my first instinct?
A — Action: What can I do in the next 24 hours?
C — Confidence: What proof shows I can do this?
H — Help: Who or what can support me right now?

Who will benefit?

- Early-career pros proving themselves without burning out
- New managers balancing delivery and team health
- Senior leaders and founders seeking lasting impact without the grind
- Anyone ready to lead, grow, and succeed without losing themselves

How it’s designed

- Relatable scenes that feel like your workday
- Scannable pages, checklists, and one-page models
- Clear prompts and sample language you can copy and use

A mentor voice you can hear when the stakes are high!

👇 Grab your copy:
Amazon USA: https://a.co/d/0wyK18Z
Amazon Germany: https://amzn.eu/d/ewIBOwM
Amazon UK: https://amzn.eu/d/4edcNyf
Amazon France: https://amzn.eu/d/7r3RAZt
Amazon India: https://amzn.in/d/b7VXF3i

If this sounds like a friend or teammate, tag them. Let’s help more people RISEUP with clarity, calm, and real momentum.

#RISEUP #Career #Leadership #Wellbeing #NewRelease #COACH #BurnoutPrevention #Managers #PerformanceWithoutBurnout

Yves Cabanac Dhananjaya Nair Isaac Asendele Drishti Kataria Nilesh Kataria Prabhat B. Pranay Bhootra Vanshikha Taparia Luke Nicholas Kevin McBride Frank (Han) Pan

Deepak Bhootra

💬 Today, I’m holding the paperback proof of RISEUP: Your Career Reclaimed.
It’s one thing to write about ambition. It’s another to hold years of conversations, coaching sessions, and human stories in your hands.

This guide was born from watching brilliant, hardworking professionals chase success so relentlessly that they lost sight of themselves. 

I’ve seen ambition turn from fuel into fire. The kind that quietly burns through joy, relationships, and health.

RISEUP is a call to pause and rebuild.
 It’s for those who’ve done everything “right,” yet feel something is quietly breaking inside.

The book blends research, real stories, and coaching tools to help you grow without grinding yourself down. 

It challenges the idea that success requires sacrifice, and offers a path to lead, grow, and thrive sustainably.

Each step of the RISEUP framework helps you:
R – Recognize what’s draining your energy
I – Interrupt pressure-driven habits
S – Strengthen confidence and resilience
E – Expand with clarity, not chaos
U – Uplift your purpose
P – Propel sustainable success

Writing it was a shared journey with my brilliant co-authors Vanshikha Taparia and Pranay Bhootra, who pushed me to write for a generation that measures success differently: Not just by titles, but by truth.

📘 RISEUP: Your Career Reclaimed --> Coming soon.

 Lead. Grow. Succeed. Without losing yourself.

#CareerGrowth #Leadership #Wellbeing #Coaching #RISEUP #BookLaunch #SustainableSuccess Yves Cabanac Isaac Asendele Vaibhav Taparia Prabhat Bhootra Drishti Kataria Nilesh Kataria Salman Anwar Maheen Chaudhry Kevin McBride Frank (Han) Pan Dhananjaya Nair

Your career doesn’t need a restart. It needs a rise.

I’m looking forward to joining Nilesh Kataria on Wednesday, Nov 26, from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM CST for a live session on RISEUP: Your Career Reclaimed. 

If you’ve been feeling stuck, under-recognized, or sensing that you’re capable of more but unsure where to begin, this conversation is for you.

We’ll unpack the real patterns that silently stall careers: overcommitment, hidden self-doubt, unclear direction, and the quiet exhaustion ambitious professionals carry. More importantly, we’ll talk about how to rise differently--- with clarity, grounded confidence, and strategies you can use the same day.

One of my favorite early reviews came from Isaac Asendele, Founder & CEO of Lexasens, who said: “If I could go back in time, this would be the career guide I would read. It would have saved me many sleepless nights.” That’s precisely the kind of shift we hope this conversation gives you.

Join us live. Bring a notebook. Bring your questions. Bring the part of you that’s ready for your next chapter.

Business Consultant | Personal Branding Expert | Helped 1500+ Job Seekers & Entrepreneurs Grow | Specialist in Lead Generation & Marketing Strategy

Your career doesn’t need a restart it needs a rise.

I’m excited to share that Deepak Bhootra and Nilesh Kataria are coming together for a powerful live session titled “RISEUP YOUR CAREER RECLAIMED.”

This session is designed for professionals who feel stuck, under-valued or simply ready for the next chapter in their career.

 Expect insights, clarity, and real strategies you can start using immediately.

If you’re ready to grow, this session is for you.

#session #riseup #LinkedIn

Most sales teams are obsessed with the wrong 5 percent.
 The scripts. The KPIs. The dashboards.

But in my conversation with Dr. Javier A. Carlin this afternoon for the next episode of the "Sales Uncharted" podcast, which comes out next week, something became painfully apparent.

The real game is happening where most sellers never look.
 Inside the 95 percent, which alludes to the subconscious patterns that quietly shape our identity, emotional state, and behaviors long before we ever enter a sales conversation.

And as we enter Thanksgiving week, many B2B sellers will pause, reflect on family, and quietly calculate where they stand as the calendar year draws to a close.

That pause is powerful.
 Because it exposes truths we don’t usually say out loud.

In our discussion, Javier and I dug into three truths that every seller and every sales leader needs to hear:
  1. Your identity always shows up before your pitch does
  2. Your emotional state explains your inconsistency better than any metric
  3. And your “performance problem” is often just an unresolved internal belief you never knew was running the show.

It’s basic
 Yet barely understood across the entire B2B landscape.

This upcoming episode (and this teaser warms you up for it) shows what happens when you stop “fixing” your tactics and start understanding the machinery that drives them.

If you want the full conversation, the moment it drops
 And if you want weekly, timely, thought-provoking angles that live up to the "Sales Uncharted" name, then subscribe to the Sales Uncharted Newsletter:
https://lnkd.in/dnaMRaSK

#salesuncharted #b2bsales #sandler #hiddenrevenue

Sales Uncharted is where we ditch traditional sales playbooks, scripts, and dive deep into ideas that help you sell!

This post is not for people who want conventional sales advice ❌
  It is not for anyone satisfied with recycled tactics and predictable playbooks ❌
  It is not for sellers who wish to stay inside the lines ❌
It is for the small group pushing the edges of what B2B selling can become.

That is what the 'Sales Uncharted Podcast' 🎙️ was built for.
 This is where the real conversations happen. Raw, honest, unscripted dialogues with founders, sellers, operators, educators, and builders.

And the 'Sales Uncharted Newsletter' is where I distill those conversations into clean 700-to-900-word write-ups and pair them with the episode itself.
Together they create a unique combination, a straightforward way to capture big ideas in both written and visual form, easy to access, easy to absorb, and built for people who want to think deeply about B2B selling✨.

A small taste from recent conversations
 • Turning adversity into personal and commercial strength
 • Rethinking GTM through genuine human relationships
 • How people learn and why sellers communicate poorly
 • The mental pressure behind selling, building, and staying in the game

If you want that thinking in your feed, you can subscribe here:
🔗 https://lnkd.in/dnaMRaSK

And if you have a story worth telling. If a story intersects with B2B selling in an honest, unusual, or deeply human way, I want to hear from you.   
Specially, founders, entrepreneurs, coaches, anyone with something tangible to teach about products, people, or the soft underbelly of selling.

And remember, I can help filter and sharpen your story, so it lands with power and connects it back to b2b sales.

And if you know someone who would bring fire and chemistry to the 'Sales Uncharted Podcast,' tag them in a comment 🔥.

If they accept the invitation to join the Podcast, I will gift you a Kindle ebook of my new book 'RISEUP: Your Career Reclaimed' 🎁
More on the book here: https://a.co/d/at8JMKR

Happy selling 🚀

#salesuncharted #b2bsales #b2bselling #riseupcareerstudio

Sales Uncharted (Podcast) is where we ditch the playbooks, sales scripts, and dive deep into ideas to help you sell!

🎯 Your buyer said "yes," but their brain said "no" — here's how I knew.

$3.2M deal. Fortune 500. Verbal commitment on a Tuesday.
Dead by Friday.

I should have seen it coming. Actually, I did. Their brain told me everything I needed to know. But post facto.

Here's what 20 years in B2B sales has taught me about the neuroscience of false commitments:

When someone says yes while feeling no, their brain's conflict detector \[anterior cingulate cortex\] fires up. It's like an internal alarm system that can't be silenced.

You can't see inside their head, but you can read the signals:

🧠 Signal # 1: The 48-Hour Email Decay

Watch their response time. Genuine excitement maintains velocity.
Tuesday: "Absolutely! Let's move forward!" $replied in 20 minutes$
Wednesday: "Reviewing with the team..." $replied in 4 hours$
Thursday: One-line response $replied next day$
Friday: Radio silence

Their brain is literally avoiding the discomfort of the internal conflict.

📧 Signal # 2: The Incredible Shrinking Email

Paragraph → Sentences → Phrases → Ghost

When the decision-making part of the brain \[the prefrontal cortex\] clashes with the fear center \[the amygdala\], communication breaks down. They're not being rude. Their brain is exhausted from the internal war.

🎯 Signal # 3: The Specificity Vanish

"We'll start implementation next quarter" becomes...
"We're looking at timelines" becomes...
"Let me circle back."

Vague language = brain buying time to resolve the conflict.

After losing that $3.2M deal, I developed my 3-Question Commitment Test:

1️⃣ "What specifically excites you most about moving forward?"

If they can't articulate enthusiasm, they don't feel it. The brain can't fake specific excitement about something it's rejecting.

2️⃣ "Walk me through what happens after you sign. What do the first 30-60-90 days look like?"

When you ask them to visualize the future \[hippocampus activation\], buyers who haven't truly committed will struggle. They can't see what they haven't bought.

3️⃣"What could go wrong that would make you regret this decision?"

This seems counterintuitive, but it works. Acknowledging fears calms their fear center and reveals what's really blocking them.

The uncomfortable truth?

Most "yes" responses are just a form of conflict avoidance. The buyer's brain wants to end the discomfort of saying no, so it says yes to escape. But that internal conflict doesn't disappear; it amplifies.

Since implementing this framework:
- False positives down by half
- Forecast accuracy up 2X
- My sanity: Restored 😅

Stop celebrating the verbal yes. Start reading the neurological NO!

Your buyer's words might lie, but their patterns never do. The brain can't fake genuine enthusiasm any more than you can fake a genuine smile $different muscles, different signals$.

Next time you get that "yes," run the 3-Question Test.

Better to uncover the "no" in the room than discover it in your forecast.

Repost and follow if this resonates. Thanks!

AI can transcribe every word of your sales call.
But it missed the 3 moments that actually killed the deal.

AI gives you a perfect transcript. 10,000 words. Zero context.
It captured what was said. Not what was meant.
It logged the conversation. Not the conviction.

I've reviewed hundreds of call recordings with transcripts.
The deals that died? The warning signs were never in the words.

They were in the spaces between words.

Moment 1: The Loaded Pause
When you said "$50K annually," they went quiet for 3 seconds.
AI transcript: "[pause]"
Reality: They're calculating political capital, not ROI.

Moment 2: The Energy Dip
When the implementation timeline came up and their voice flattened.
AI transcript: "That timeline works for us."
Reality: They're already exhausted from the last failed rollout.

Moment 3: The False Agreement
When they said "makes total sense," but their tone said otherwise.
AI transcript: "Makes total sense."
Reality: They're being polite while mentally checking out.

These aren't random reactions. They're neurological responses AI can't decode.

Micro-expressions flash across their face for 1/25th of a second. Their pupils dilate slightly when stressed. Studies show we make trust decisions in under 200 milliseconds—faster than any AI can process context.

Mirror neurons in your brain pick up their emotional state before you consciously process it. And even more heightened in seasoned sellers!

Judgment calls are made in milliseconds that no algorithm can replicate.
This is Augmented Intelligence at its best. 

"Real-time insight is always with the seller" -- These aren't transcript problems. They're human problems.

The most expensive deals I've lost weren't because I missed what was said.
They died because I missed what wasn't.

The sharp intake of breath before a concern.
The enthusiasm disappeared after bringing in the CFO.
The momentum stalled when we shifted from vision to logistics.

Train your human sensors for what the transcript will never capture.
Because deals don't die in words, my experience says they die in the moments between them.

And until AI can transcribe doubt, exhaustion, and unspoken resistance?
Your augmented intelligence, which is human insight enhanced by AI data, remains your most valuable sales tool. 🎯

What subtle signal has saved (or killed) your biggest deal? Do you have anything to share?

#B2BSales #SalesLeadership #AugmentedIntelligence #SalesCalls #HumanConnection

Please feel free to follow and repost if this resonates with you.

🚨 The number of “Open to Work” posts I’m seeing is not normal
In the past week alone, I have seen fifteen.
 I have reshared five.

Account Executives. Sales Managers. Sales Leaders.
 Talented people. Now between chapters.

Maybe my feed is off.
 Or maybe something real has shifted.
 AI disruption. Tariffs. End-of-year blues.
 Whatever it is, it feels heavier than usual.

Each “open to work” post hits hard because I have been there. Twice.
 No need to read between lines.
 Each post carries a real story.
 I see shame, fear, nervousness, hope, and requests for access, advice, and connection.

A LinkedIn image consultant told me to stop resharing job-seeker posts because it “messes up your LinkedIn wall.”
 My answer was simple. I do not care.

When someone is struggling, your brand can wait.
 Helping another human being comes first.

Fifteen months ago, after coaching a few clients through job loss and career transition, I began to see a pattern.
 People needed structure, not slogans.

So I created one.
It became the REBUILD Framework. A practical guide to rise again with clarity and calm.

R stands for Reflect. Learn from what happened. Take the lesson, not the guilt.

E stands for Evaluate. Redefine what truly matters before chasing what is next.

B stands for Build. Find your people. Community is oxygen during transition.

U stands for Update. Refresh your story and show the market who you are becoming.

I stands for Invest. Use this time to strengthen skills that shape your future.

L stands for Launch. Treat your search as a focused campaign, not a reaction.

D stands for Develop. Resilience is the final piece. The comeback is built one day at a time.

If you are in transition, please remember this.
 You are not starting over.
 You are starting from experience.

I am sharing the REBUILD Playbook again with this post and offering my time to anyone who wants feedback on their resume, LinkedIn profile, or interview approach. No strings attached.

No hesitation. No judgment.
 Just a thoughtful conversation with someone who can help you distill, focus, and rebuild.

Besides my "Sales Uncharted Newsletter," I am also launching a free community on Circle for B2B sales professionals who want support, structure, and momentum.

If you would like to join as a founding member, comment JOIN below, and I will add you personally.

We rise faster when we rebuild together.
 Let’s do that.

#b2bsales #jobsearch #salesleaders #salesjobs #careertransition #rebuild

REBUILD JOB SEARCH PLAYBOOK

Every few years, someone declares B2B sales is dying.
First it was the phone.
     Then email.
           Then social selling.
                 Now, it’s AI.

I’ve been tracking research in sales for over three decades and here’s the irony:  Sales has always had an extinction problem.

It’s always “dying” from the next shiny thing. And yet, here we are.

Because what actually kills sales isn’t technology. It’s forgetting fundamentals.

That realization drove my doctoral research on salesforce sustainability. I wanted to know why so many talented salespeople burn out, lose confidence, or simply leave.

And what I found wasn’t about motivation or incentives. It was about design.

When systems are built on poor assumptions, even the best automation will scale the wrong behavior.

If your process is broken, AI won’t fix it. It’ll just make you more efficient at being wrong. You cannot out-engineer gravity or human nature.

My research showed that when territory design, readiness systems, and coaching quality were misaligned, engagement and commitment plummeted.

Those findings echoed Vincent (Vini) Onyemah’s work on Sales Force Control Systems, which revealed that misalignment between behavioral, output, and capability controls doesn’t just reduce performance, they actively destroy trust.

And that’s the real issue.

We’ve been rebuilding sales teams from scratch every year due to astronomical departure rates. We call it “attrition” when it is self-inflicted blood letting.

But what we’re really facing is something that Suresh Madhuvarsu CEO of SalesTable calls 'institutional amnesia' >> A loss of experience, learning, and belonging that no tech stack can replace. Should that not give pause to reflect?

The fundamentals haven’t changed.
- People still need clarity, fairness, and confidence in how they sell.
- They still crave meaning and mastery.
- And leadership still matters more than any tool.

AI can make us faster but, honestly, only readiness, reflection, and fairness make us better.

If your system is stupid, automation just scales your stupidity.
If your system is smart, AI amplifies your intelligence.

Sales doesn’t need saving.  It needs remembering.

As always, I am here for you to talk, share or help. Reach out via a DM. 

And, if this message resonates then feel free to repost and follow.

Happy selling everyone!

#b2bsales #sandler #sales #salestable #babsoncollege

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Deepak Bhootra (Dr)

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The Battle

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Deepak Bhootra (Dr)

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Steve Litzow's LinkedIn Performance

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