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In this episode of The Art and Science of Complex Sales, Paul Fuller is joined by Steve Reid, CEO and founder of Venatas. With over three decades of experience in marketing, sales, and revenue leadership, Steve brings deep experience in helping venture-backed and scaling companies build buyer-led, high-performing sales organizations.
Together, they explore why so many go-to-market teams underperform and what it really takes to fix it.
The Three “Incorrects” Holding Sales Teams Back (10:32)
Steve identifies three root causes of underperformance:
By addressing these “incorrects,” organizations can finally achieve sustainable, predictable growth.
Designing for a Buyer-Led Journey (20:41)
Modern buyers want autonomy. They will engage with salespeople only when those sellers help them make confident decisions. Steve explains how sales teams can shift from CRM-driven checklists to buyer-focused conversations, helping customers connect product value to strategic business outcomes and navigate internal consensus.
Buying Isn’t Linear, and Your Pipeline Shouldn’t Pretend It Is (29:07)
Buyers don’t move from stage one to stage five during their buying journey. Instead, they loop, pause, and revisit decisions. Steve argues that the most effective sellers embrace this nonlinearity, using trust, credibility, and strategic influence to guide the process rather than forcing buyers into a fixed process.
From Training to Transformation (39:57)
Workshops don’t change behavior, reinforcement does. Steve highlights how lasting transformation requires an integrated system of ongoing coaching, deal reviews, enablement alignment, and process refinement over time.
Listen to the full conversation with Steve Reid to learn how to build a truly buyer-aligned sales organization that replaces outdated assumptions with clarity, capability, and measurable results.
Paul Fuller’s stated mission is to help others maximize their gifts by using his.
Paul has been a pioneer in the sales process and training, sales as a service, content marketing and CRM. As a previous founder and owner of multiple successful growth organizations in these spaces, Paul has effectively trained and led sales and marketing teams across the world to focus on and achieve dynamic growth.
He firmly believes sales is defined best in three categories:
• Service - helping other get what they need
• Leadership - guiding others toward their vision
• Wayfinding - navigating the path to success together
He is firmly committed to elevating the sales profession through coaching, leading, and empowering others through systems that enable strong performance.
Currently Paul leads revenue growth at Membrain.com - the top sales effectiveness CRM in the world. Working with his team, and a group of over 100 top sales consultant organizations across the globe, they are focused at creating scalable growth through sales excellence in companies and teams in over 80 countries.
Schedule a call with him here.
Find out more about Paul Fuller on LinkedIn
From north to south, east to west, Membrain has thousands of happy clients all over the world.
