Sales Today · 2026-07-09 · 8 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
23 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Fred Koepstake examines why sales feels harder than it should in engineering businesses, tracing persistent problems like deal stalling, late-stage entry, and price-focused negotiations back to one fundamental issue: misalignment between vendor sales processes and customer buying journeys. Rather than treating these as separate problems, he argues they're all symptoms of selling operationally to mid-level stakeholders while customers have already progressed through their own thinking. The core framework revolves around five linked elements: targeting the right opportunities, conducting thorough research, having relevant conversations, shaping appropriate solutions, and delivering measurable outcomes. Koepstake emphasizes that customers buy outcomes, not products - they're trying to move from point A to point B - so successful selling means entering the conversation earlier, becoming a sense-maker for the customer's decision process, and shifting from reactive tendering responses to proactive thinking-shapers. He introduces the Collaborative Selling Scorecard as a diagnostic tool for assessing whether teams are entering too late or positioning value too low, aimed at sales leaders and operations teams in B2B technical environments.
Misalignment between how companies sell and how customers actually buy. Sales teams enter conversations too late, position value operationally rather than at senior stakeholder levels, and aren't matched to where customers actually are in their buying process.
The right opportunities, the right research, the right conversations, the right solutions, and the right outcomes - each building on the other sequentially to create alignment with customer needs.
Rather than reacting to tenders and proving expertise with product detail, teams should step into the customer's world earlier, understand what's driving their need, and position themselves as sense-makers helping customers move from where they are to somewhere better.
The Collaborative Selling Scorecard, a free diagnostic tool that helps assess whether teams are entering conversations too late, positioning value too low, or missing opportunities entirely.
When conversation becomes relevant, value becomes clear, and decision support is present - rather than vendors pushing products - customers experience the process as natural and aligned to their actual outcomes and goals.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode presents a coherent framework (five core elements of selling, customer outcomes focus) that is sound but largely repackages established sales wisdom. The core insight - that misalignment between how companies sell and how customers buy is the root problem - is sensible but not novel. Most of the content is explanation and reinforcement of this single idea with minimal new data or counterintuitive claims to justify an operator's 8-minute investment.
There's one core issue. Misalignment. It's misalignment between how we sell and how customers buy.
Customers don't buy products, they buy outcomes. They're trying to move from where they are now to somewhere better.
The episode recycles widely-circulated B2B sales concepts (outcome-focused selling, customer-centric buying, getting in early, moving from product to value) without offering fresh angles, contrarian takes, or first-principles reframing. The 'five core elements' framework is presented as novel but reads as a repackaging of standard sales funnel thinking.
The right opportunities, the right research, the right conversations, the right solutions, and the right outcomes.
Rather than responding to tenders, we can shift to shaping the thinking earlier.
This is not an interview. The episode is a solo monologue by Speaker A with only a host introduction and outro by Speaker B. There is no guest, no practitioner with demonstrated operating experience at scale, and no evidence of real-world implementation success to validate the claims.
You're listening to the Sales Today podcast and I'm your host, Fred Koepstake.
The episode contains zero named companies, metrics, case studies, dollar figures, or concrete examples to anchor its claims. All advice is delivered at the principle level with no data or real-world proof points. The reference to 'previous episodes' suggests examples exist elsewhere, but none are provided here.
We talked about getting into the conversation too late because they've done a load of thinking.
We talked about positioning value too low. It's where we've been talking operationally rather than about the stuff that more senior stakeholders need.
This is a monologue with no guest interaction, no follow-up questions, no productive disagreement, and no real dialogue. The host merely bookends the episode with promotional copy. There is no evidence of sharp questioning, exploration of counterarguments, or genuine conversational push.
Thank you for listening to the Sales Today podcast with me, your host, Fred Koepestake. I hope you've enjoyed what you heard today.
Why not take our free collaborative selling scorecard to see how your sales approach suits today's environment?
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Free Collaborative Selling Scorecard If you would like to assess how your sales approach aligns with today's buying environment, you can take the free Collaborative Selling Scorecard: In this final episode of the Sales Today mini series, Fred brings the threads of the series together and explains the deeper issue sitting underneath many of the challenges explored in the previous episodes. Deals stall. Price becomes the focus. Conversations stay too low in the organisation. Teams struggle to engage senior stakeholders. Sales training makes sense, but behaviour doesn't really change. At first glance, these can look like separate problems. Fred argues they are not. They are symptoms of one core issue: Misalignment between how we sell and how customers buy.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: If you've listened to the previous episodes, you might be starting to see a pattern. If you haven't, well, why not go back and have a listen? They're deliberately recorded as being short and easy to consume. The pattern that I suspect that you'd be picking up on is Sales feels harder than it should. Deals stall, conversations sit too low. Price becomes a focus. Teams struggle to engage at the right level. And over time, it can start to feel like things are slightly out of your control.
Speaker B: You're listening to the Sales Today podcast and I'm your host, Fred Koepstake. On this podcast, we explore how sales professionals can develop a modern approach to winning business. The application of virtual selling techniques, how to create meaningful business relationships, and much more. Why not take our free collaborative selling scorecard to see how your sales approach suits today's environment? You'll find a link in the show. Notes.
Speaker A: No one likes to be out of control, but when you step back, what we've been looking at, uh, isn't a set of separate problems. There's one core issue. Misalignment. It's misalignment between how we sell and how customers buy. That's it. Everything we've talked about ultimately connects back to that. We talked about getting into the conversation too late because they've done a load of thinking, uh, and they're at a point where it's pretty much all they're going to do. We've talked about positioning value too low. It's where we've been talking operationally rather than about the stuff that more senior stakeholders need. We've talked about deal stalling. Why? Because we're not matched to where they're actually at. Stalling's our word. It's actually just going along at the pace it was going along anyway. We talked about conversations missing the mark. We make it about us. We give too much detail, try to prove our expertise, rather than trying to get clarity. For the customer becoming the sense maker, they are all symptoms of that same gap. And this is where things can start to shift. Because if the issue is alignment, well, the opportunity is obvious, huh? No, it's to realign. It's not by doing more, but it's by doing things differently. It's by stepping into the customer's world earlier, really understanding what's driving their need, aligning your approach to their thinking. A simple way to think about this is through the five core elements of selling. Five core elements. The right opportunities, the right research, the right conversations, the right solutions, and the right outcomes. Each one builds on the other, if you focus on the right opportunities, you can do the right research. That in turn leads to better conversations. That's going to shape a better solution. And, um, ultimately it's going to deliver the outcomes the customer is actually looking for. Because basically they pay us for outcomes, they pay us for results. And I'd argue we can then flip that back and go, well, that's where the right opportunities are. Because we're looking for people who we can deliver that kind of outcome for. That's the key. Customers don't buy products, they buy outcomes. They're trying to move from where they are now to somewhere better. When you start with that in mind, everything else falls into place, everything else aligns. The conversation becomes more relevant to them, the value becomes more clear to them, the decision becomes easier for them. This is the shift from reacting to what's in front of you to influencing what comes next. So rather than responding to tenders, we can shift to shaping the thinking earlier. Rather than trying to explain solutions in great depth and impress with our expertise, we can focus on creating clarity. When that happens, sales starts to feel so much different. Much less, less forced, much more natural. It's more aligned. So if sales has felt harder than it should, it's not about pushing even harder. I'd say it's about just stepping back, realigning your approach. Because when you align to how customers actually buy, you become the sense maker. You are there as decision support. Everything becomes simpler. If you're listening to this and thinking, you know what, this probably does reflect where we're at. A useful next step is to get a clearer view of how aligned your current approach really is. I've put together, uh, a simple collaborative selling scorecard. It'll help you assess whether you're entering too late, whether the value is sitting too low, what opportunities are being missed. You can access it below. Use it as a starting point. Use it to kickstart your own thinking. Use it for more focused internal conversations. How do we go about doing this? Beware. They'll often be a yeah, but this is how we do things around here. Resistance. But is how we do things around here actually working as effectively as we'd like? Collaborative selling scorecard. It'll kick start your thinking, as will if you haven't listened to these already the previous episodes, or if you've listened to them and thought, yeah, this stuff is making sense. Use that, uh, to distill your thinking into action.
Speaker B: Thank you for listening to the Sales Today podcast with me, your host, Fred Koepestake. I hope you've enjoyed what you heard today. If you did, please get in touch and hit subscribe. And remember, you can take the Collaborative Selling Scorecard for free to check out how your sales approach works in today's environment. You'll find it in the show Notes.
Other episodes covering the same guests and topics, from across The B2B Podcast Index.
The "Ah" Moment That Changes Every Sale36 / 100
Why Being Too Technical Can Cost You Deals41 / 100
Why Sales Teams Struggle to Reach Senior Decision Makers (And What to Do About It)37 / 100
Why Most Sales Training Fails Engineering Teams (And What Actually Works)
You've Got a Great Product So Why Aren't You Winning More Deals?
