Beyond Product Management · 2026-07-02 · 9 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
17 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Heather Miller, CEO and co-founder of PDRM Consulting, confronts a founder's dilemma many don't articulate openly: knowing exactly how you can help a client, but freezing when it comes time to articulate and close the deal. She describes the gap between her natural strengths - asking probing questions, going deep in conversation, identifying where gaps exist in a business - and the performative, transactional version of sales that the online business world prescribes. Miller explains how this isn't a sales problem; it's a method-fit problem. For introverts or founders who built something they genuinely believe in, the traditional pitch can feel like it cheapens the work. She explores how this discomfort doesn't mean something is wrong with you - it means the approach is misaligned. Her emerging solution is simple but profound: staying in conversation, identifying the true thing she wants to say, and removing the fear of being perceived as pushy before speaking. This episode resonates with mission-driven founders, particularly those in consulting or strategic services, who struggle with the gap between expertise and articulation.
Founders often struggle because traditional sales methods feel inauthentic or transactional, especially for introverts or those who care deeply about their work. The discomfort signals a misalignment between the prescribed method and the founder's natural strengths, not a weakness in the founder or the offer itself.
It's a structured risk analysis that examines where your time is actually going and what that's costing you - it's not just a strategy session, but a way to understand the difference between carrying a plan alone versus having guidance to build one.
By grounding sales in what comes naturally to them - asking questions, going deep in conversation, identifying the true gaps, and then saying the genuine thing they want to communicate without forcing performative enthusiasm or fear of being perceived as pushy.
Performative sales relies on forced enthusiasm and predetermined pitches; authentic sales for founders is built on genuine conversation, asking probing questions, identifying where the client struggles, and then articulating the true value and next step without theatricality.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode is almost entirely personal emotional processing and soft self-promotion with a single semi-useful reframe buried inside it. There are no actionable takeaways, frameworks, or non-obvious ideas a B2B operator couldn't have already inferred.
The discomfort means the method is misaligned. Not the person, not the offer, the method.
I don't have this figured out and I want to be clear about that. I'm not giving you a five step framework for authentic selling because I'm still in the work myself
The 'authentic selling for introverts' narrative is one of the most recycled takes in entrepreneurship content; nothing here challenges assumptions or offers a first-principles perspective. The episode recirculates familiar coaching-world ideas without adding new angles.
Founders who built something they believe in so much that the transactional version of talking about it feels like it cheapens it.
The version of sales the online business world sells us doesn't fit everyone.
This is a solo episode with no guests. The host is the founder of a small consulting firm who explicitly states she has not figured out the problem she is discussing, limiting practitioner credibility significantly.
I don't have this figured out and I want to be clear about that.
What I can tell you is that the shift I'm trying to make is this stopping the moment the conversation becomes an ask and asking myself what would I say right now if I wasn't afraid of being pushy?
The episode contains almost no concrete data, named clients, metrics, timelines, or dollar figures. Service names like 'quiet Clarity Time audit' are dropped without explanation or evidence of outcomes.
It's a structured look at where your time is going and what's that actually costing you.
I've had so many conversations about the work we do at pdrm. Real conversations, good ones, where I'm not sure the person on the other side fully understood what I was actually describing
There is no interviewing at all - this is a solo meandering monologue that loses its thread multiple times and closes with a vague call-to-action. No questions are posed with intent, no claims are challenged, and the structure is unfocused.
What I'm learning, slowly, honestly, still in the middle of it, is that my version of sales is the conversation
Whether that's for the cybersecurity or the product business strategist, we are here to be your guide in your pocket. That's not a pitch. That's the truth.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Episode Summary Heather gets honest about the gap between knowing you can help someone and actually being able to say it out loud. This isn't a sales episode in the traditional sense. It's about the moment the ease disappears, what happens when the method doesn't fit the person, and what Heather is learning - still in the middle of it - about what her version of selling actually looks like. What We Cover Why the "hey girl" sales approach never fit - and what that discomfort is actually telling you The exact moment a great conversation shifts into an ask and what changes Why founders who genuinely care about their work struggle most with traditional sales methods What Heather wishes she could say in every conversation: there is another way What the Quiet Clarity Time Audit actually is - a risk analysis and strategic planning session, not just a strategy chat Key Takeaway The discomfort you feel around sales might not mean something is wrong with you. It might mean the method is misaligned. There is another way. You don't have to keep struggling to come up with the plan alone. Ready to Stop Figuring It Out Alone?
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: There is another way. That's what I wish I could say in the middle of every conversation where I can feel someone struggling, where I can see the risk they're carrying the plan. They don't have the weight of, uh, figuring out it out alone. And I know, I know that's what we do at pdrm, um, could change that for them. And I just can't find the bridge between the knowing and the ask. That's what this episode is about. Welcome back to Beyond Product Management. I'm Heather Miller, your host, CEO and co founder and product management strategist at ah, PDRM Consulting. If you caught Tuesday's episode, you know, I'm in a season of being really honest about what's actually going on. And this is more of that. This is the conversation underneath the conversation. M so let's talk about sales. Specifically why I hate it and why I've come to believe that, uh, what I actually hate isn't sales at all. I know. Totally doesn't make sense. Here's what I know about myself. I'm not a hey girl person. I never have been and I never will be. The performative pitch, the forced enthusiasm, the feeling of being watched, doing it. Even getting photos taken, A, uh, female's on fire. Or when I'm at conferences, or even just at other photo shoots, you can see it in some of them. The awkwardness is right there on my face because that version of showing up doesn't feel fit who I am. Um, and my nervous system knows it, even when my brain is trying to push through it. What I love is the conversation. I love asking questions. I love going deep. I love the moment when someone starts talking about what's actually going on in their business. And I can feel exactly where that gap is. It's why I love product management. I love using product thinking to help solve business problems in every facet. That part comes naturally to me. That part feels like me. M and then something shifts, right? The moment I go from I know I can help this person to now I have to figure out how to tell them that something changes. Whether I'm talking to them in the DMs or I'm talking to them on the phone or in person, the ease disappears. The awkwardness walks in and I either go quiet or I over explain, or I trip over my words or I soften my offer so much it stops being an offer at all. Has that ever happened to you? I've had so many conversations about the work we do at pdrm. Real conversations, good ones, where I'm not sure the person on the other side fully understood what I was actually describing, whether it was our strategic intensives or the new quiet Clarity Time audit isn't just a strategy session. It's really a risk analysis because that's, uh, at the heart of what we do. It's a structured look at where your time is going and what's that actually costing you. It's the difference between continuing to carry a plan you don't have and finally having someone help you build one. And, um, I didn't say it clearly enough. Not because I don't believe it, because I couldn't find the bridge between knowing I can help them and saying it so out loud without feeling like I became someone else in the process. A couple weeks ago, I talked about how I absolutely hate sales calls. I said this on LinkedIn to another founder who I actually really look up to. And we talk about other tech, uh, talk about tech bros. And that, you know, wanting me, wanting to be anti tech bros. But in this instance it's a male founder who I actually look up to. And I said, I don't like sales calls. I really don't. I'm not good at them. But this is what it truly means. I'm not good at this. I'm not good at this switching, this flip, this, this switch. I'm not good at figuring out when to go from, um, talking and asking questions and really digging in deep and really talking about how we can help them to really giving them the offer because it doesn't feel natural to me. I know what we can do and I know how we can help them. That's the thing about sales that nobody talks about enough. Especially for founders who are introverts or founders who got into this work because, because they genuinely care. Founders who built something they believe in so much that the transactional version of talking about it feels like it cheapens it. The version of sales the online business world sells us doesn't fit everyone. And when it doesn't fit, we don't just perform badly at it. We start to doubt ourselves. We start to wonder if this discomfort means something is wrong with us. It doesn't. The discomfort means the method is misaligned. Not the person, not the offer, the method. What I'm learning, slowly, honestly, still in the middle of it, is that my version of sales is the conversation, the questions, the going deep, the moment where someone says, yes, that's exactly what's happening. And I can say there is another way. You don't have to keep struggling to come up with the plan alone. There are people who are willing to help you, who will guide you. I can be that guide in your pocket. Whether that's for the cybersecurity or the product business strategist, we are here to be your guide in your pocket. That's not a pitch. That's the truth. And I'm practicing saying it like it is one. I don't have this figured out and I want to be clear about that. I'm not giving you a five step framework for authentic selling because I'm still in the work myself and honestly I probably never will. I will never be talking to you about a sales pitch. What my road and my area of expertise is is creating plans and I am going, I do give you ways to market yourself and product market fit. That is my area of expertise. But selling? No. What I can tell you is that the shift I'm trying to make is this stopping the moment the conversation becomes an ask and asking myself what would I say right now if I wasn't afraid of being pushy? What's the true thing? And then saying that it's not a perfect system, but it's mine and it fits who I am a lot better than the alternative. And if any of this is landing for you, if you've been in that moment where you know you can help someone and you just can't find the words I want to hear from you, whether that's on LinkedIn or Instagram or in my DMs, um, email, because I don't think I'm the only one sitting in this particular kind of stuff. Stuck. It's kind of a weird founder area that I know happens to a lot of us. And if you are one of those people that I've had this conversation with recently and something is clicking right now, reach out. Seriously, there's another way and I would love to be part of helping you find it. Thank you for being here more soon and we'll have guest episodes very shortly.
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