Think Like a Sales Practitioner with Robert Herbst

In this episode of The Art and Science of Complex Sales, our guest Robert Herbst, CEO of Spire Selling shares why great selling starts with identity, honesty, and a genuine desire to help people.

Drawing on more than 40 years in sales and the life-changing mountaineering accident that led him to start his company, Rob explains why sales is not about pushing products, but about uncovering problems and helping customers see value they cannot yet see.

He explores why salespeople should think of themselves as practitioners, how identity shapes confidence and persistence, and why real human conversation matters more than ever in a world shaped by digital convenience.

“We Are Competing To Lose 80-85% Of Our Deals!”

Imagine a CRO presenting to the exec or investor team. This CRO is presenting their GTM strategy, and a key statement in that strategy is, “We are competing and hoping to lose 80-85% of the deals we invest in!”

We Just Updated and Expanded Our Most-Referenced Article: Here’s What Changed

In 2017, I wrote a piece about complex sales that soon became one of our most-referenced resources on the Membrain website. The piece, titled “What is a complex sale?” strove to provide a clean, compact, useful definition to help us, as a profession, understand the difference between complex and transactional sales.

You Can’t Scale What You Don’t Practice: The Case for AI Role Play

Very few sales professionals like role-playing. And very few actually do it. Nor do managers, for that matter. It’s embarrassing, time-consuming, and often feels pointless. After all, your people know what to do, why can’t they just do it?

Building a Winning Sales Culture with Thomas Waites

In this episode of The Art and Science of Complex Sales, our guest Thomas Waites, CRO of TW Sales, shares what it really takes to build a winning sales team culture in high-growth environments.

Drawing on his experience scaling teams across solar, proptech, SaaS, and startup sales leadership, Thomas explains why strong performance starts with team culture, not just individual quotas.

He explores why winning together creates stronger teams, how belief and coaching outperform pressure, and why a few clear metrics matter more than overwhelming dashboards.

Here’s Why You Need to Waste More Time

A couple of years ago, there was a boat show near my home, and I happened to have some free time. I’d been thinking about buying a boat for a while, and I thought it would be fun to wander a bit and see what was out there.