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Enterprises have poured money into AI, and most of it is still doing research. The return comes when agents start taking action inside real systems, and that’s where most companies get stuck. If no one can say who authorized an agent to take a specific action, across specific systems, at a specific time, that agent never leaves the pilot. Arcade, fresh off a $60 million raise, was built to answer that question. Ben Sabrin, an open source pioneer who built early sales teams at JBoss and MongoDB, leads its go-to-market. He explains what it takes to sell a category this new, why repeatability has to come before scale, and how he runs his own sales team on AI.   Ben Sabrin is the GTM Lead at Arcade.dev and a former CRO at ngrok and ScaleFT who has spent more than 20 years building early sales teams at companies including JBoss, MongoDB, and Okta.   Connect with Ben: LinkedInArcade  Resources mentioned: Wall Street Journal article on Arcade’s $60M to Secure AI AgentsThe Sales Learning Curve, Mark Leslie and Charles Holloway, Harvard Business ReviewSPIN Selling by Neil RackhamReo.DevSumbleLemlist  Key takeaways from this episode: 00:00 - Why an AI agent has to be taught the shaky finger a human feels before pressing delete all.03:19 - The one question every enterprise has to answer before an AI agent is trusted to act.12:40 - What leaders often overlook about selling into a platform shift, and why asking buyers to rebuild their governance would have been dead on arrival.23:00 - A look inside the week Arcade nearly launched a rival to MCP, and the promise OpenAI asked for first.27:52 - What it really takes to hire sellers when your product does nothing until someone builds on top of it.42:37 - Why scaling a sales team before repeatability quietly sets the CRO up to fail.44:29 - Ben Sabrin’s perspective on letting AI coach his reps, and the pricing model he built with Claude in a single day. Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Strong technology alone does not earn access to a hyperscaler. Partner leaders must understand the company’s internal products, supply dependencies, power structure, and competing priorities before they can build an agreement that gains support. In this segment, Alan Chhabra explains how Cerebras aligned its offering with AWS Trainium, why complementary architectures can overcome internal resistance, and how political judgment and organizational mapping help leaders build champions inside complex partner accounts.   Alan Chhabra is the Executive Vice President of Worldwide Partnerships at Cerebras Systems, where he leads global partner expansion across hyperscalers and the broader AI ecosystem. He previously spent nearly a decade building MongoDB’s global partner network and held senior leadership roles at BMC Software.   Connect with Alan: LinkedIn  Other Revenue Builders episodes with Alan: The Ideal Partnership with Alan Chhabra  Listen to the full episode: Why Partner Leaders Must Master the AI Landscape with Alan Chhabra Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Most sales leaders coach the outer game: pipeline, routing plans, pricing, KPIs. That’s maybe 15 percent of performance. The rest sits under the surface in self-doubt, fear of other people’s opinions, and the stories reps tell themselves about who they are. Collin Henderson was a two-sport Division I athlete who developed a stutter at 11 and once pre-recorded his answers to a pharma sales evaluation, so he knows what happens when that layer goes untrained. In this one, he breaks down why talent plus skill minus internal interference equals execution, and walks through the three-step influence system from his book The Oz Method.   Collin Henderson is a mental performance coach, keynote speaker, and founder of Master Your Mindset, LLC who has trained teams at Nike, Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce, and shares how to connect with him and get his new book, The Oz Method, at the end of the episode.   Connect with Collin: LinkedInInstagramWebsite  Resources mentioned: The Oz Method by Collin HendersonThe Brain That Changes Itself by Norman DoidgeThe Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der KolkPsycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell MaltzPositive Intelligence by Shirzad ChamineEmotional Agility by Susan DavidBuilding a StoryBrand by Donald MillerToastmasters International  Key takeaways from this episode: 00:00 - Why leaders who only coach the business side are training two of the three things that drive performance.05:24 - The equation Collin uses to explain execution, and the one variable most sales organizations never train.10:28 - A look inside the stutter Collin hid from teammates, managers, and customers for more than a decade.21:22 - What it really takes to spot the fear holding you back when you can’t name it yet.37:34 - Why worrying about your next line quietly pulls you out of the customer conversation.49:03 - Collin’s perspective on why the first step of influence takes the pressure to perform off the seller.1:01:00 - What leaders often overlook about storytelling, and how a buyer’s own words make a story stick. Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Pressure often takes over before a leader realizes it. In this segment, former professional hockey coach and mental performance coach Greg Poss explains how shallow breathing, frustration, and blame can reveal a shift into what he calls a lower-brain state. He shares a simple breathing practice for restoring focus, outlines the structure behind his 21-day training program, and explains why accountability begins with asking what needs to change in your own execution.   Greg Poss spent decades coaching professional hockey in the United States and Europe, including leading the Mannheim Eagles to a championship and coaching the German national team. He now works with athletes, coaches, and business leaders to strengthen mental resilience and improve performance under pressure.   Connect with Greg: LinkedInWebsite  Resources mentioned: The Peter Attia Drive Podcast, Ep. #399 ‒ The evolution of Alzheimer's disease and dementia care: how early detection, personalized treatment, new therapies, and a multimodal approach are changing the landscape | Gayatri Devi, M.D.Greg Poss's 21-Day Brain Training Program  Other Revenue Builders appearances: ”The Most Important Reward Is The Process” with Greg Poss  Listen to the full episode: Training for Pressure with Greg Poss Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Many leaders spend their careers chasing a scoreboard someone else set. It works until the how stops working, and nobody ever trained them on the why. This conversation picks up our Rethinking Success series dissecting the definition of success and failure for yourself while inviting real risk into your life. John McMahon connects a study of high school valedictorians to the sellers who win complex enterprise deals, and John Kaplan opens up about how fear of failure shaped his own path. Doug Holladay explains why the people who embrace setbacks build the most, and how leaders can start examining their own story before a crisis forces it.   Doug Holladay is the founder & CEO of PathNorth, a Georgetown MBA professor, a former Goldman Sachs senior officer and White House Special Ambassador, and the author of Rethinking Success: Eight Essential Practices for Finding Meaning in Work and Life.   Connect with Doug: LinkedInWebsite  Resources mentioned: Rethinking Success by Doug HolladayLives of Promise by Karen ArnoldThe Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent AdamsonSwagger by Jimmy Johnson Cradles of Eminence by Victor and Mildred GoertzelJohannes Haushofer's CV of FailuresDie Broke by Stephen Pollan and Mark LevineEpisodes mentioned: Forgiveness as a Leadership Advantage with Doug Holladay, Author of Rethinking Success  Key takeaways from this episode: 00:00 - Why the most accomplished parents shield their kids from the exact hardship that made them great06:43 - What leaders often overlook about the scoreboard they never chose to play to19:13 - Why straight-A valedictorians so rarely become the standouts in their field27:27 - John McMahon's perspective on which seller profile wins long enterprise deals, and which one quietly falls behind33:13 - A look inside the 1962 study of 400 eminent people and the thread most of them shared46:59 - The mistake many leaders make when they call a meeting to find answers after losing a big client54:08 - What it really takes to know which version of yourself shows up each morning Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Most organizations structure territory planning around guesswork and political compromise. But Meghan Gill learned at MongoDB that territory strategy starts with operational discipline. In this clip, she walks through how to build field operations that run the operational cadence on the ground, structure territories so leaders have real data to work with, and use centralized dashboards to enable smart decisions at scale. If you're heading into Q4 or finalizing 2027 territory and resource allocation, this is the actionable framework your sales leadership needs.   Meghan Gill was employee #8 and the first GTM hire at MongoDB, where she scaled sales operations alongside the company's journey from pre-revenue to a $2 billion public company. Today she advises growth and early-stage companies on sales, marketing, and revenue operations strategy through Ansa Capital and independent consulting.Connect with Meghan: LinkedIn  Resources mentioned: Download the CRO Strategy ChecklistWatch Force Management’s Panel Discussion on AI in Sales Leadership  Listen to the full episode: Scaling Sales Operations with Meghan Gill Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Most deals die quietly in discovery, champion development, or economic buyer misalignment. But what actually separates consistent closers from perpetual stallers? In this replay, Anne Gary sits down with John McMahon and John Kaplan to reveal the blind spots in your sales process – and the coaching framework your leadership team needs before you finalize your 2027 plan. From preparation rituals to multi-threading strategy to navigating proof of value, Anne walks through the entire deal architecture that most teams get wrong.   Anne Gary is Managing Director at Force Management and a member of the founding team of the MEDDPICC qualification methodology. She's spent 25+ years coaching thousands of sales professionals and leaders on building repeatable, predictable deal strategies across Fortune 500 companies and high-growth startups.   Connect with Anne: LinkedIn  Key takeaways from this episode:  00:00 - Why Anne returns for a third time with one question every revenue leader should answer03:41 - What really takes to connect feature conversations to business impact11:42 - Why metrics during discovery reveal everything about your team's coaching gaps19:02 - What leaders overlook about earning trust before champions emerge32:57 - Why multi-threading quietly becomes your deal insurance policy39:54 - A look inside how deal patterns expose your sales methodology46:33 - What economic buyers need that most sellers never provide54:46 - The POV mistake that looks strategic until your deal stalls01:02:39 - Why momentum shifts when your coaching approach changes Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

The war on talent isn't won by matching OTE. Sam Costello knows this and in this segment, breaks down his evolved interviewing approach -- separating stories from facts, owning the dialogue -- and explains why candidates actually stay long-term. It comes down to rare ingredients most companies never get right.   Sam Costello is CRO at Harness, where he's spent 7.5 years scaling the platform from sub-$1M to $100M ARR. He interviews ~400 candidates annually and partners closely with co-leader Carlos to build what he calls an 'execution machine', recruiting elite talent, running disciplined sales processes, and developing a culture of radical candor and coachability.   Connect with Sam: LinkedIn  Listen to the full episode: Why Great CROs Stop Managing Numbers and Start Building Systems Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Most SKOs are packed with inspiration and breadth – 30 topics, motivational speakers, CEO talks – but when reps walk out on Monday, they don't know what's different. In this episode, John McMahon and John Kaplan break down how to build an SKO that actually answers the question reps need answered: what do I need to do differently tomorrow?   Key takeaways from this episode:  00:00 – Why inspiration without execution quietly kills your SKO momentum02:50 – What it really takes to focus your training on what actually moves the needle03:09 – Why reps tune out when you forget to tie it back to deal-winning04:52 – The mistake many CROs make when they cram 30 days of content into 3 days05:51 – How to build an SKO that sticks beyond the first week back28:22 – Why manager training isn't optional, it's the entire ballgame30:23 – What leaders often overlook about reinforcing new behaviors after SKO30:43 – A look inside why your best sellers challenge weak product messaging34:55 – How showing what elite looks like changes everything for your team Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Buyers rarely make decisions on logic alone. In this minisode, Randy Riemersma breaks down the six emotions that influence how deals progress and explains why elite sellers know how to create urgency, build confidence, and sustain momentum throughout the buying journey. Randy shares his perspective on the role of fear, curiosity, hope, desire, confidence, and urgency in complex sales, along with why subject matter expertise and genuine curiosity remain essential for earning trust and guiding decisions.   Randy Riemersma is the founder of Sell with Precision, where he helps sales leaders improve execution, leadership effectiveness, and go-to-market performance through battle-tested systems and coaching. With more than 35 years of B2B sales, leadership, and executive development experience, he works with organizations to build more predictable and scalable revenue engines.   Connect with Randy: LinkedInWebsite  Resources mentioned: The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos - The Hidden Beliefs That Shape Your Happiness with Shawn Achor  Listen to the full episode: The Hidden Cost of False Velocity with Randy Riemersma Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Proprietary data, not the software, is the long-term value driver. On this episode, Ann Davis, CRO at Crunchbase, walks through how knowing which customers to pursue drives 2x pipeline growth in six months, why sellers need to stay in control of the conversation, and how she built a headless AI interface that connects Salesforce, Gong, and private market data so reps know exactly what to focus on each day.   Ann Davis is Chief Revenue Officer at Crunchbase, where she leads their shift from product-led to enterprise; she spent five years at Google Cloud running data and analytics and led sales at Looker (acquired by Google), and earlier configured camera systems on Sidewinder missiles for the F14 fighter program.   Connect with Ann: LinkedIn  Resources mentioned: SEC 10-K Search ToolOfficial Crunchbase MCP  Key takeaways from this episode:  00:00 – What Ann's path from configuring missile systems to running enterprise sales reveals about building revenue infrastructure04:33 – Why most CROs invest in the wrong asset when building competitive advantage in an AI-powered sales org08:04 – A look inside the private market dataset that competitors cannot replicate, no matter how much they spend09:58 – The concrete business impact when data-driven targeting replaces guesswork in account selection20:51 – Why the transition from product-led to enterprise motion fails for most organizations, and what changes when it works32:19 – The five readiness factors that separate companies prepared for enterprise motion from those that aren't51:52 – Why enterprise sellers are becoming more essential (not obsolete) as AI reshapes sales infrastructure Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Hiring mistakes often happen when leaders focus on capability and experience without understanding whether a candidate is truly energized by the realities of the role. In this clip recorded earlier this year, Jason Forget, then President and CRO of Cockroach Labs, shares the interview question he uses to uncover long-term fit, why startup environments demand a different type of motivation, and how honest self-assessment can help leaders avoid costly hiring mistakes. The discussion offers a practical framework for evaluating energy, adaptability, and alignment before making critical hiring decisions.   Jason Forget is President and CRO of Resolve AI, an enterprise AI platform for production operations, and has spent his career building revenue organizations from multiple vantage points, including finance, RevOps, sales, and executive leadership. Previously, he served as President and CRO at Cockroach Labs, where he led the go-to-market organization during a period of hyper-growth. His uncommon path across different functions has shaped his approach to predictable growth, helping companies scale from early-stage startups to enterprise revenue organizations through operational discipline, coaching, and repeatable sales systems.   Connect with Jason: LinkedIn  Resources mentioned: "The Locker Room is Not for Sale" by Coach Brian White  Listen to the full episode: How Revenue Leaders Scale Beyond Hero Sellers with Jason Forget, CRO Behind Multiple Startup-to-Scale Journeys Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

You can have the best product in the world, perfect messaging, and market timing on your side… but if you don't have elite people in your sales organization, none of it matters. Brad Scott has built sales teams at Snowflake, Veza, and now Glean – three of the most different growth trajectories in tech. In this conversation, he breaks down how to hire for the traits that actually predict success: intellectual curiosity, resilience, self-awareness. He also tackles the complexity of selling AI-native products in a market flooded with AI-bolted hype, and why the fundamentals of recruiting, onboarding, and process discipline are your only anchor when everything around you is changing every 90 days.   Brad Scott is VP of Worldwide Sales at Glean, where he leads a 350-person sales organization through explosive growth. Before Glean, he built sales teams at Veza from an early stage and at Snowflake during its historic scale-up, giving him rare visibility into what it actually takes to build elite sales organizations across three radically different company sizes and growth phases. Brad also chairs the Work AI Institute at Glean, exploring what future organizational structures look like in an AI-driven world.    Connect with Brad: LinkedIn  Resources mentioned: Atomic Habits by James ClearWork AI InstituteGlean:GO 2026  Key takeaways from this episode: 00:00 – Why the caliber of people in your sales organization matters more than your product, your messaging, or your market timing.05:15 – How the questions you ask during recruiting reveal whether someone will actually stay curious about customers – or just go through the motions.06:36 – Why salespeople who've faced real hardship or adversity early in their careers tend to outperform everyone else when things get hard.24:34 – How to educate prospects on the difference between AI-native and AI-bolted products (and why it matters for their ROI).36:57 – Why your proof-of-value process must map customer workflows and business outcomes before diving into technical integrations.45:25 – Why automating your daily drudgery is the one move that separates future-proofed salespeople from ones who'll get left behind by AI. Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Most first-line managers are trying to do everything at once – recruit, develop, forecast, and hit their number – all in 62 working days. But Scott Rudy has learned through building teams at high-growth companies that what separates managers who make their number from those who don't isn't effort; it's operating rhythm. In this clip, Scott breaks down how second-line managers should coach first-line managers on weekly accountability, how to set clear expectations that cascade through the organization, and why most companies misalign their manager responsibilities. If your managers don't have clarity on how to execute week to week, your reps won't either.   Scott Rudy is the Founder of Rudy Advisory, bringing extensive sales and leadership experience from high-profile tech companies including Zywave, PTC, Salesforce, SAP, and Paycor. He's led sales organizations through explosive growth, taking companies from 80 sales reps to 400 over eight-year periods, and is known for building championship sales cultures and creating scalable leadership frameworks, including the Frontline Sales Leadership Playbook developed with Force Management.   Connect with Scott: LinkedIn  Resources mentioned: Watch Force Management’s Panel Discussion on AI in Sales LeadershipDownload the CRO Strategy Checklist  Listen to the full episode: The Critical Role of Sales Managers in Driving Growth with Scott Rudy Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Most companies spend September and October planning for 2027, but they skip the part that actually matters: figuring out how their teams will execute on it. That's why we're revisiting this episode with Dr. Chuck Bamford, who walks through how to align strategy from the boardroom all the way down to compensation plans, daily activities, and the conversations your reps have with customers. He covers what separates strategy that gets executed from strategy that sits on a shelf, and why most execution failures have nothing to do with the strategy itself. If you're mapping out your revenue goals for next year, this episode is a must-listen before you finalize your plan. Dr. Chuck Bamford is the Managing Partner at Bamford Associates and an adjunct professor of strategy at both Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business. He's worked with more than 170 organizations to design and implement strategy that actually drives behavior, and he's the author of many books, including The Strategy Mindset 2.0. Connect with Chuck: LinkedIn Website Resources mentioned: The Strategy Mindset 2.0: A Practical Guide to the Design and Implementation of Strategy Key takeaways from this episode: 00:00 – What it really takes to build strategy that doesn't fall apart the moment it hits the sales floor. 05:01 – Why most CROs treat strategy like a one-time event instead of the ongoing discipline it needs to be. 16:02 – What leaders often overlook when converting corporate KPIs into the specific daily activities their people actually execute. 18:40 – The mistake many CROs make when compensation plans quietly undermine everything their strategy is designed to accomplish. 54:43 – Why narrowing your competitive set to 3-5 competitors dramatically changes how your teams sell. 01:00:52 – A look inside how differentiation dies in strategy decks but comes alive in the three-foot conversation between your rep and a customer. Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results. This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale. Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management