Hi Reader, I hope you had a great week! Summer has really arrived in Auckland, the Pōhutukawa trees are all blooming. They look like Christmas trees! Pōhutukawa trees at Long Bay Park This week has been busier than usual—between networking events, running sales training for a major network vendor, and promoting my Maven course. Maven is running a special promotion until Monday: $300 off the course. If you've been thinking of joining my cohort, send me an email and let's chat about whether...
15 days ago • 6 min read
Last Friday evening, I started writing. Forty-five minutes at my desk, cursor blinking—nothing. I'd planned to write about the half-marathon, but the words wouldn't come. So I closed my iPad, walked to our village bar, and ordered a mojito—my first drink in three months. While training for the half-marathon, I'd avoided alcohol entirely. Now it's Sunday evening, and finally I'm able to write something that I hope you guys will get a lot from. I'd love if you can tell me how I did today and...
28 days ago • 3 min read
⏱️ 7 min read Morning! I woke up today with butterflies in my stomach—I hope it's more excitement than nervousness. I'm running a half-marathon tomorrow. While this isn't my first race, it's the first time I've really trained hard for it. I've run 5 half-marathons over the last 5 years, and the goal was always just to finish and not get hospitalised in the process. Seriously. This time, I used the Runna app and trained for 22 weeks, racking up 537 km. I'm aiming to finish under 2 hours, which...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Last Friday, I had a blast running a Lightning lesson: Build Shorter Sales Cycles and Create Higher Win Rates. You can watch the replay here. Also, check out my upcoming cohort of Elite Sales: Win High-Value Enterprise Deals—it starts November 19, 2025. Have questions? Hit reply... Morning! It’s Saturday morning. I’m sitting at my dining table with a flat white, my notebook, and a head full of reflections from a massive week. Honestly, I’m exhausted. My new term, “I’m “peopled-out”😅 . Which...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
After spending more than 25 years in sales, you start to see patterns. You notice what separates the good from the great, the average performer from the elite. One of the most powerful traits I’ve seen is the ability to provide genuine thought leadership. Elite performers aren't just selling a product; they are respected for their sales insights. They enter every conversation as an expert first and a salesperson second. Their primary goal is to provide valuable insights that help their...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader, Top performers convert fewer deals from Qualifying phase to Propose, not more. However, they also experience less late-stage deal slippage. This makes their forecasting more solid. While on the other hand most sales teams are encouraged to: → Build volume of sales funnels because the assumption is a hit rate is less than 10%, ending up with stale deals. → Weak deals are pushed forward with the hope they'll warm up, even with no reasons to change and unknown client's decision...
2 months ago • 1 min read
I recently received a question from a former CTO of a tech company who had just left the corporate world to start his own consulting practice. He asked: "How do I turn initial conversations into paid work? "How do I price my consulting to ensure I'm profitable and avoid scope creep?" Drawing from my 3+ years of experience as an independent consultant, I'd like to share what I've found works—and what doesn't—in this field. One of the biggest hurdles for any consultant or freelancer is moving...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Last week I introduced a client to one of my sales champions. She works at one of the global IT distributors in Australia. What are “sales champions”? After years of experience working on enterprise, large services, and telco deals, I've learned that buying decisions happen when I'm not in the room. This reality taught me that I always need to find my "sales champion". In enterprise sales, the most critical conversations often happen when you're not in the room. Large, complex deals involve...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Reading time: 7 mins This morning, I sat across from a B2B SaaS founder, helping her prepare for her upcoming client meetings. We were able to book meetings with big logos! B2B SaaS founder: "How do you do this, Ren? I am overwhelmed. I don't know how to start. Should we write a script?" Me: "Noooo!!!" When you rely on a script during sales calls, you sacrifice the authenticity that builds real trust. I've seen it countless times - salespeople reading from scripts end up having these stiff,...
3 months ago • 5 min read