Make It Happen Mondays - B2B Sales Talk with John Barrows

AI didn't kill the sales fundamentals. It just made everyone forget what they actually are.In this episode, John sits down with Kristie Jones, Author and Founder of Sales Acceleration Group, to talk about why the buyer now wants to talk to a human 80 to 90 percent of the way through their own research, why the post-mortem meeting needs to be replaced with a pre-call meeting, and why AI is forcing sales leaders to teach objective judgment for the first time in their careers.If you are in sales, sales leadership, RevOps, or GTM, this conversation gives you a practical way to think about writing a role brief for the AI tools on your team, replacing the post-mortem with a pre-call meeting, testing for objective judgment instead of just tactical skill, and why the old playbook is dead even though playbooks aren't.Want to build a sales team that can think critically in the AI era? Visit www.jbarrows.com and learn how you can Make It Happen.What You'll LearnWhy the buyer now wants to talk to a human 80 to 90 percent of the way through their own research, and what that means for how a rep opens the callWhy the post-mortem meeting needs to be replaced with a pre-call meeting built around objective judgmentWhy every AI tool on your team needs a role brief, the same way every hire needs a job descriptionWhy Kristie tests candidates by making them argue with an AI generated plan live, not just use oneWhy the four skills sales leaders need now are systems thinking, workflow design, decision leadership, and accountability clarityKristie Jones is the Author and Founder of Sales Acceleration Group, where she works with sales organizations on hiring, training, and leadership development. She's the author of Selling Your Way In and the upcoming The Sales Leadership Gap, releasing October 2026, which looks at how AI is forcing a fundamental rethink of how sales leaders hire, coach, and make decisions.Visit kristiekjones.com to learn more about Kristie's work and get updates on The Sales Leadership Gap.Connect with Kristie Jones: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kristiekjones Website: kristiekjones.com Instagram: instagram.com/kristiejones.sales YouTube: youtube.com/@kristiekjonesJohn Barrows is a sales trainer, speaker, and founder of JB Sales with over 25 years of experience in the industry. He has made hundreds of cold calls a week, led startups to acquisition, and trained high-performing teams at companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Okta. Through JB Sales, John focuses on practical sales execution, helping reps fill pipeline, close deals, and build trust with buyers in today's AI-driven sales environment.Connect with John Barrows: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows Instagram: instagram.com/johnmbarrows TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnmbarrowsCheck out John's Membership: https://learn.jbarrows.com/pages/individual-packages Join John's Newsletter: https://www.jbarrows.com/newsletter

AI is not going to replace real sales. It's going to expose who was never really selling in the first place.In this episode, John sits down with Jeff Kirchick, author of Authentic Selling and a sales leader who has closed multi-million dollar contracts without ever going through formal sales training, to talk about why AI made personalization easier to fake and easier for buyers to spot, why authenticity is not the same as being liked, and why disqualifying the wrong buyer matters more than qualifying the right one.If you are in sales, sales leadership, enablement, or RevOps, this conversation gives you a practical way to think about AI-generated outreach, hiring for coachability over polish, the give and get scorecard behind real qualification, and why a smooth call is not always a good sign.Want to build a sales team that stays authentic as AI changes the job? Visit www.jbarrows.com and learn how you can Make It Happen.What You'll LearnWhy AI made personalization easier to fake, and easier for buyers to spotWhy authenticity is about being trusted, not being likedWhy Jeff hires SDRs on exactly two traits, work ethic and coachabilityWhy a smooth sales call without objections is a warning sign, not a good signWhy disqualifying the wrong buyer matters more than qualifying the right oneJeff Kirchick is the author of Authentic Selling and a sales leader who built his career without formal sales training, closing multi-million dollar enterprise contracts through intuition, empathy, and direct relationship building. He hires his team on two filters, work ethic and coachability, and has built his own sales org's AI infrastructure in house, including deal scoring and call coaching.Visit jeffkirchick.com to read more of Jeff's writing on sales, authenticity, and AI.Connect with Jeff Kirchick:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeffkirchick Website: jeffkirchick.com John Barrows is a sales trainer, speaker, and founder of JB Sales with over 25 years of experience in the industry. He has made hundreds of cold calls a week, led startups to acquisition, and trained high-performing teams at companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Okta. Through JB Sales, John focuses on practical sales execution, helping reps fill pipeline, close deals, and build trust with buyers in today's AI-driven sales environment.Connect with John Barrows:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows Instagram: instagram.com/johnmbarrows TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnmbarrows Check out John's Membership: https://learn.jbarrows.com/pages/individual-packagesJoin John's Newsletter: https://www.jbarrows.com/newsletter

AI role-play is not another tool to dump on your sales team.In this episode, John sits down with Neha Gupta, Founder and CEO of Breakthrough AI, to talk about why traditional role-play fails, why managers are often asked to coach without the tools or time to do it, and how AI can help reps practice hard conversations before the pressure hits. Neha breaks down what makes AI role-play feel realistic, why audio can be more effective than distracting avatars, and why adoption depends on structure, leadership energy, and deliberate practice.If you are in sales, leadership, enablement, RevOps, or any role responsible for improving rep performance, this conversation gives you a practical way to think about AI coaching, realistic role-play, feedback loops, remote sales teams, and the communication skills that still separate good reps from average ones.Want to help your team practice before the pressure hits? Visit www.jbarrows.com and learn how you can Make It Happen.What You’ll LearnWhy traditional role-play feels awkward, subjective, and hard to scaleHow AI role-play can help reps build realistic muscle memory before live conversationsWhy sales managers are often expected to coach without enough tools, time, or trainingHow leadership energy and structure can make AI training adoption actually workWhy remote teams lost some of the bullpen learning that used to happen naturallyWhy communication skills need deliberate practice before the pressure moment hitsNeha Gupta is the Founder and CEO of Breakthrough AI, a practice-first AI coaching platform helping teams master the high-stakes conversations that shape performance, client relationships, and career growth. With more than twenty years of experience across client management, strategic marketing and sales, growth strategy, brand marketing, product marketing, and business development, Neha is focused on helping teams spot communication blind spots, strengthen feedback processes, and build stronger practice loops.Visit https://joinbreakthrough.ai/ to see Breakthrough AI in action, including a demo comparing weak versus strong responses to price objections.Connect with Neha Gupta:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehagupta/John Barrows is a sales trainer, speaker, and founder of JB Sales with over 25 years of experience in the industry. He has made hundreds of cold calls a week, led startups to acquisition, and trained high-performing teams at companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Okta. Through JB Sales, John focuses on practical sales execution—helping reps fill pipeline, close deals, and build trust with buyers in today’s AI-driven sales environment.Connect with John Barrows:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnmbarrows/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johnmbarrows Check out John's Membership: https://learn.jbarrows.com/pages/individual-packages?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=podcast Join John's Newsletter: https://www.jbarrows.com/newsletter

Sales reps who cannot speak the language of business are going to get exposed fast.In this episode, John sits down with Kevin Cope, founder of Acumen Learning and co-author of Business Acumen for Sales Success and See the Big Picture, to talk about why business acumen is now one of the most important skills in sales. Kevin shares lessons from his time at the Covey Leadership Center, the start of Acumen Learning, and 25 years helping companies close the gap between functional expertise and real business understanding.If you are in sales, leadership, RevOps, enablement, or any role where you need to speak with executives, this conversation gives you a practical way to think about cash, profit, assets, growth, people, discounting, cashflow, AI, and how to connect your solution to the business results buyers actually care about.Want to build stronger business acumen and sell with more executive relevance? Visit www.jbarrows.com and learn how you can Make It Happen.What You'll LearnWhy business acumen is one of the first skills sales reps need to buildWhy round-number discounts can signal weak negotiation and weak business understandingHow a small discount can create a much larger hit to profitabilityWhy cash, profit, assets, growth, and people give reps a clearer business lensHow salespeople affect cashflow before and after a deal closesWhy AI research only matters if reps can translate it into business relevanceHow curiosity helps reps use AI as a learning tool instead of a shortcutKevin Cope is the founder of Acumen Learning and co-author of Business Acumen for Sales Success and the bestselling See the Big Picture. He built his career at the Covey Leadership Center, joining just before the release of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and later served as president of international for the combined organization following its 1997 merger with Franklin Quest to form Franklin Covey. Through Acumen Learning, Kevin helps organizations close the business acumen gap and connect everyday decisions to cash, profit, assets, growth, and people.Connect with Kevin Cope on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinrcope/) and grab his book, Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company, at https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Big-Picture-Business-Credibility-ebook/dp/B07DPWFK7T?ref_=ast_author_mpb, to build the business acumen that earns you a seat at the table. Learn more about Acumen:Website: https://www.acumenlearning.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acumenlearning/Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AcumenLearningFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/AcumenLearning/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/acumen-learning/?viewAsMember=trueJohn Barrows is a sales trainer, speaker, and founder of JB Sales with over 25 years of experience in the industry. He has made hundreds of cold calls a week, led startups to acquisition, and trained high-performing teams at companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Okta. Through JB Sales, John focuses on practical sales execution—helping reps fill pipeline, close deals, and build trust with buyers in today’s AI-driven sales environment.Connect with John Barrows:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnmbarrows/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johnmbarrows Check out John's Membership: https://learn.jbarrows.com/pages/individual-packages?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=podcast Join John's Newsletter: https://www.jbarrows.com/newsletter