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If your CEO says "double the business," what has to be true to actually get there?  Michael McConnell, COO of Bird Electric, tells Dennis Sorenson why sales should be the leading edge of the business, and why "operating at comfort" is a critical risk.  Dennis and Michael explore the relationship between ambition and strategy, including how understanding the real potential of a customer or market creates a stronger foundation for deciding what has to be true to reach the next level of growth. They discuss why businesses can get stuck living in "play," and what it takes to build a scalable growth capability. Michael shares why leaders should view sales as part of the operation, not simply another department. His advice to the next generation? "You don't have to know everything."  This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation with Michael McConnell.  In This Episode:  (00:00) Meeting teams where they are to build commercial rigor  (05:07) Real versus realistic and the discipline of ambition  (09:12) Building strategy backwards from a billion-dollar goal  (15:47) Finite games, infinite games, and living in play  (19:18) Pointing the team toward strength and innovation  (24:10) Scalable growth capability and lessons for the next generation  Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes!  About the Show  Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process.  The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time.  Resources:  Produced by Castos Productions  Michael McConnell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-mcconnell-mba-40a46a1b8/  Process-Driven Sales Substack: https://processdrivensales.substack.com/   Dennis Sorenson LinkedIn Chapters (00:00:00) - Introduction and Part Two Welcome(00:01:10) - Revisiting the Rigor of Growth(00:03:14) - The Four Ps: Plan, Prepare, Practice, Play(00:05:03) - Ambition as a Discipline(00:06:43) - Strategy, Doctoral Studies, and What Has to Be True(00:09:12) - Building Strategy from Real Potential(00:13:22) - Earning Trust to Unlock Customer Growth(00:15:47) - Distinguishing Strategy from Activity(00:17:09) - Balancing Short-Term Delivery with Long-Term Strategy(00:19:12) - Deliberately Choosing Growth Opportunities(00:20:20) - Innovation as a Growth Imperative(00:22:37) - Advice for CEOs on Viewing Sales Strategically(00:24:10) - Assessing Leaders and Scalable Growth(00:25:13) - Personal Growth, Leadership, and Legacy(00:26:52) - Closing Remarks and Sign-Off

In Episode 19 of Think Big, Win Bigger, Dennis Sorenson is joined by Michael McConnell, Chief Operating Officer of Bird Electric, to explore the leadership lessons Michael carried from his ten years in the U.S. Marine Corps into his career in the infrastructure industry. Michael shares how his military experience shaped the way he approaches leadership, accountability, communication, and developing the next generation of leaders. What does it take to lead nearly a thousand professionals? His answer: "to be a good leader, you have to develop more leaders." Michael introduces the OSMIAC framework he learned in the Marine Corps: Orientation, Situation, Mission, Execution, Administration & Logistics, and Command & Control. He explains how he applies it to business today, connecting it to clear communication, repeatable processes, accountability, and trusting teams to execute. Dennis connects these principles to Ambition, Strategy, and Execution, as well as Plan, Prepare, Practice, Play. What happens when growth depends too heavily on the founder? They discuss developing people, building sales as a strategic asset, and creating the systems needed to scale beyond one leader. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation with Michael McConnell. In This Episode: (00:00) From Vermont to the Marine Corps to the power grid (04:29) What the Marine Corps teaches about leadership (09:34) The OSMIAC framework for planning and execution (16:19) Field-first decisions, KPIs, and accountability without bureaucracy (20:52) Why growth by reputation alone hits a ceiling (24:34) Building sales as an asset to the business Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes! About the Show Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process. The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time. Resources: Produced by Castos Productions: https://castos.com/productions/ Michael McConnell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-mcconnell-mba-40a46a1b8/ Process-Driven Sales Substack: https://processdrivensales.substack.com/ Dennis Sorenson LinkedIn Cove Group Horizons West Chapters (00:00:00) - Introduction and Podcast Welcome(00:01:14) - Mac's Background: From Vermont to the Marine Corps(00:02:18) - Joining the Marines and Entering the Power Line Industry(00:03:44) - From PAR/Quanta to COO of Bird Electric(00:04:18) - Marine Corps Leadership Lessons(00:06:04) - Developing Leaders and Training Officers(00:07:48) - Leading Through People and Succession Planning(00:09:07) - Transitioning Military Discipline into Business(00:10:49) - Breaking Down the OSMIAK Framework(00:14:42) - Command and Control as Leadership(00:16:15) - Field-First Decision Making and Accountability(00:18:09) - KPIs, Backlog, and Sales Strategy Metrics(00:19:59) - Avoiding Bureaucracy While Staying Accountable(00:20:36) - How the Infrastructure Industry Has Viewed Sales(00:21:37) - Founder Limitations and Scaling Beyond Reputation(00:24:31) - Reframing Sales as a Growth Asset(00:26:23) - Closing Thoughts and Part One Wrap-Up

Why doesn't the process-driven sales system execute itself?   Dennis Sorenson draws on lessons from a barbershop and a restaurant floor to show sales leaders what it actually means to point, arm, and monitor their teams — and why culture must be taught, not just defined. "A great system requires great leadership," he explains, arguing that hands-in, hands-on engagement — not oversight from a distance — is what turns a framework into real, repeatable performance.  Sorenson unpacks two real relationships — with Fletch, "The Proper Barber," and Tyler, a restaurant manager he calls "the hospitality leader" — to illustrate engaged leadership in practice. Referencing Mike Weinberg's Sales Management Simplified, he breaks down the discipline of pointing, arming, and monitoring a team, and draws a sharp line between micromanagement and genuine investment in people. "Great leaders do not lead from a distance," he says, closing with a challenge: connect ambition, strategy, and execution back to leadership itself, because the system does not execute on its own.  In This Episode:  (00:00) Recap: the four Ps and three disciplines of process-driven sales  (01:14) Great leadership is what makes the whole system work  (02:21) Meeting Fletch, "The Proper Barber"  (06:30) Tyler, the hospitality leader  (08:42) Mike Weinberg's framework: point, arm, and monitor the team  (12:12) Hands-on leadership versus micromanagement  (14:51) Closing: look for leadership lessons everywhere  Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes![Text Wrapping Break]About the Show  Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process.  The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time.  Resources:  Produced by Castos Productions[Text Wrapping Break]  Process-Driven Sales Substack: https://processdrivensales.substack.com/   Dennis Sorenson LinkedIn  Chapters (00:00:00) - Intro: Hands In, Hands On Leadership(00:00:25) - Recap of the Process Driven Sales System(00:02:08) - Learning Leadership from Outside Sales(00:03:30) - Fletch the Proper Barber: Teaching Through Doing(00:06:17) - Building Culture Through Coaching(00:07:11) - Tyler the Hospitality Leader(00:08:38) - Sales Leadership Principles from Fletch and Tyler(00:09:23) - Mike Weinberg's Point, Arm, Monitor Framework(00:11:39) - Winning Through Your People and Hero Makers(00:13:00) - Micromanagement vs Hands In, Hands On Leadership(00:14:12) - Connecting Leadership to the Sales System(00:15:25) - Closing Thoughts and Sign Off

Why do the same sales problems show up in every industry, from staffing to steel?  Dennis Sorenson continues with Matt Reubendale, Senior Advisor for Enterprise Growth at Horizons West, for part two of their discussion on execution. Where part one covered Reubendale's own journey with GOST as a seller, this episode follows his move into sales leadership, learning to win through his people rather than around them. "The wonderful thing about GOST is that it's insanely simple," Reubendale says, "but they are the rules." He unpacks how he taught, coached, and inspected GOST plans across teams managing anywhere from a few accounts to two hundred.   The conversation covers what makes a GOST objective "binary, yes or no," why the first plan is always wrong yet still directionally useful, and the weekly ghost call that keeps teams accountable. Reubendale shares how leading a team with 50 to 100 accounts each forced him to apply tiering inside GOST, and why Horizons West teaches the same system to every rep regardless of territory size. Why does the system solve the same problems everywhere? "That's been the biggest lesson," Sorenson says. This episode closes the three-part execution series.  In This Episode:  (00:00) From individual contributor to leading through your people  (03:00) Understanding what your people actually want before building the plan  (05:45) Where sellers struggle first: making goals and objectives binary  (11:22) Why the first plan is wrong, and still directionally correct  (13:23) Living in the plan: how a leader puts their hands in GOST  (15:23) Build once to use many, and the weekly ghost call  (20:32) What a leader gains from sitting in on ghost calls  (23:45) Managing 50 to 100 accounts with tiered GOST plans  (28:31) Closing the three-part execution series  Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes! About the Show  Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process.  The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time.  Resources:  Produced by Castos Productions Watch Part I with Matt: https://youtu.be/3GP9M2wPJlg  Matt Reubendale LinkedIn Chapters (00:00:00) - The Discipline of Execution and the Ghost Framework(00:01:21) - Matt Rubendale on Think Big Win Bigger(00:01:58) - The Sales Manager Who Changed My Career(00:06:34) - The Process Driven Sales Coach(00:08:37) - In the Elevator With Philanthropist(00:10:03) - The Process of Execution at Salesforce(00:18:38) - Have Ghost and Execution Made a Difference at Teradata?(00:20:58) - Describing the Ghost Plan(00:24:16) - The Future of Teradata's Strategy(00:27:28) - Teradata's Vision and Strategic Plan(00:30:10) - The Importance of Execution and Ghost

What happens when you stop managing activity and start managing outcomes?  Dennis Sorenson welcomes longtime friend Matt Reubendale, Senior Advisor for Enterprise Growth at Horizons West, for part one of a two-part conversation. Reubendale spent nine years as an account executive, hitting 90% of quota and closing the biggest deal of his career at Teradata before meeting Sorenson in 2016. He shares how Process-Driven Sales and Sorenson's blunt question, "Do you own your house?" pushed him past managing activity toward playing for real potential. "You can't unsee it," Reubendale says of the shift disciplined execution brought to his career.  The conversation traces Reubendale's journey from treating GOST as a bulleted task list to mastering it as a discipline that connects every meeting to a real goal. He and Sorenson revisit the hundred-million-dollar whitespace analysis, the "elephant off the toothpick" account turnaround at Teradata, and a spring-break outage that tested a disciplined plan under real pressure. Why does execution matter more than activity? "It's not about doing more," Sorenson says, "it's about knowing what matters." Part two continues the story in the next episode. (84 words)  In This Episode:  (00:00) Meet Matt Reubendale and his career before process-driven sales  (03:24) The Midwest Misfits and a new kind of sales leader  (05:47) Playing for potential, not quota, and the mortgage story  (08:40) Introducing GOST as the execution discipline  (13:16) Plan, prepare, practice, and connecting every action to the goal  (17:19) A crisis call, an outage, and disciplined execution paying off  (19:51) The elephant on the toothpick and transforming a major account  (24:13) Why the customer's outcome has to matter  (28:42) Matt's pitch on ambition, execution, and accountability  (32:00) Disciplined execution is about what matters, not doing more  Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes!  About the Show  Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process.  The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time.  Resources:  Produced by Castos Productions Matt Reubendale LinkedIn  Dennis Sorenson LinkedIn  Chapters (00:00:00) - The Discipline of Execution and the Ghost Framework(00:01:21) - Matt Rubendale on Think Big Win Bigger(00:01:58) - The Sales Manager Who Changed My Career(00:06:34) - The Process Driven Sales Coach(00:08:37) - In the Elevator With Philanthropist(00:10:03) - The Process of Execution at Salesforce(00:18:38) - Has Ghost and Execution Made a Difference at Work?(00:20:58) - Describing the Ghost Plan(00:24:16) - The Future of Teradata's Strategy(00:27:28) - Timothy Teradata on the Vision(00:30:10) - The Importance of Execution in Ghost

Could a simple four-letter framework fix your entire sales forecast?  In Episode 15 of Think Big, Win Bigger, host Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, goes solo for the third pillar of his Process-Driven Sales System: execution. Building on the ambition and strategy work from earlier episodes, Dennis introduces GOST, a framework built on Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics. His core argument: a plan that lives "up here" in a seller's head isn't real. As Dennis puts it, "If it's not written down, it's not real." This episode is a practical playbook for turning strategy into daily, repeatable action.  Dennis breaks down how GOST creates a parent-child hierarchy connecting big-picture goals to the daily tactics that move deals forward, and why minimal, well-dated plans outperform bloated ones. He explains backward planning from deadlines, the "gap rule" for spotting missing tactics, and why forecasting accuracy depends on disciplined execution. Dennis also shows how GOST doubles as a discovery tool, helping sellers map a customer's own goals and objectives. What's the real difference between activity and accomplishment? And how do you keep from confusing the two?  In This Episode:  (00:00) Recapping the process-driven sales series so far  (02:03) Execution: where strategy becomes daily action  (06:23) Introducing GOST: goals, objectives, strategies, tactics  (09:47) Sales math and the gap rule  (11:50) Backward planning and setting realistic dates  (14:25) Forecasting accuracy and why deals slip  (18:49) How to actually build a GOST plan  (23:15) GOST as your written close plan  (25:53) Staying focused on what matters each week  (28:00) Using GOST in customer discovery  Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes!  About the Show  Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process.  The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time.  Resources:  Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn  Cove Group  Horizons West  Chapters (00:00:00) - The Process Driven Sales System(00:02:01) - 3 Discipline of Execution(00:09:46) - Execution Plan: Strategic Planning and Goals(00:14:58) - Ghost Plan: The Sales Process(00:18:06) - Ghost Plan(00:22:06) - The Ghost Plan: What's Its Application

What if the biggest thing killing your deals isn't the market, but your own fear and ego? Dennis Sorenson returns with Blaine Sibby, Chief Revenue Officer at Zenith Roofing, for part two of their conversation on friction in the sales process. Where do fear and ego show up in a seller's day? Blaine traces it to what he calls the sales AI trap, arrogance and ignorance, sparked by rereading Mike Weinberg's Sales Simplified. His core belief: sales is a profession, and like any muscle, it atrophies without deliberate work. For Blaine, planning, preparing, and practicing are the antidote to the fear that stalls sellers in the room. The conversation moves through building sales muscle, writing out discovery questions in advance, and Blaine's story of carrying a legal pad of questions into client meetings early in his career at NCR. Dennis introduces Professor Loren Nordgren's fuel versus friction framework from his Kellogg course, and the two map system, method, and motion as three layers every sales organization must integrate. They close by unpacking what fuel means at the individual seller level, more meetings and proposals, and why chasing volume without removing friction just creates a pipeline of wasted energy. In This Episode: (00:00) How fear and ego create friction for sellers (03:17) Building sales muscle so it does not atrophy (06:32) Writing out discovery questions before the meeting (10:39) Fuel versus friction: the Loren Nordgren framework (16:42) What fuel means at the individual seller level Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes! About the Show Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process. The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time. Resources: Blaine Sibby LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaine-sibby-mba-b5ba3935/ Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisdealsorenson/ Cove Group https://www.linkedin.com/company/covegroup/posts/?feedView=all Horizons West http://horizonswest.com Chapters (00:00:00) - Think Big, Win Bigger(00:01:20) - Build Sales Muscle: The Sales Training(00:05:14) - Questions to Ask in the Sales Meeting(00:10:22) - The Formula of Fuel for Growth(00:13:11) - A Process-Driven, Fully Integrated System(00:16:15) - Sales Cycle: Fuel at the Organization Level(00:18:39) - The Conversation

Is sales really about relationships, or is it just math in disguise? Host Dennis Sorenson sits down with Blaine Sibby, Chief Revenue Officer at Zenith Roofing, for part one of a two-part conversation on friction — the invisible force that stalls deals before they start. A former Marine Corps lieutenant, Blaine traces the concept back to MCDP Tac1, a Marine Corps warfighting publication, and applies it directly to sales: "friction is anything that makes the seemingly easy very difficult." What's really slowing your pipeline down? Blaine's answer: it's rarely the market. It's the self-imposed friction sellers create for themselves.  The two dig into where friction actually hides — in weak qualification, in white space on a calendar, in comp plans that reward the wrong activity. Dennis introduces his "sales is just math" framework, and Blaine counters with his own CRM dilemma: how do you actually quantify relationship-building? They close on the deepest friction point of all — trust — with Blaine's take that "people do business with those that they like," but the real work starts once you have to earn something deeper.  In This Episode:  (00:00) Welcome guest Blaine Sibby  (01:08) Where the concept of the point of friction comes from  (05:49) Removing friction as an individual seller versus a sales leader  (12:07) Sales is just math: pipeline coverage and relationships  (18:25) Inspect what you expect: the power of quality activity  (22:23) Maintaining initiative and earning trust in the sales process  Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes!  About the Show  Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process.  The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time.  Resources:  Blaine Sibby LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaine-sibby-mba-b5ba3935/     Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn  Cove Group    Horizons West  Chapters (00:00:00) - Think Big Win Bigger(00:01:48) - Blaine Civbey(00:03:11) - "The Point of Friction"(00:06:09) - Multiple Points of Friction in the Sales Organization(00:09:28) - Points of Friction in the Sales Process(00:13:02) - Pipeline and Sales: Just Math(00:14:18) - The Process of Sales Math(00:16:35) - Inspecting the Process of the Sale(00:20:59) - Compensation Plan(00:23:42) - Exercising Trust: The First Meeting

Are you still being seen as the vendor, or have you earned trusted partner status? Host Dennis Sorenson welcomes back longtime friend and business partner Lee Paries, co-founder of Horizons West, for part two of this strategy deep dive. Paries built his career scaling enterprise accounts at NCR and Teradata, pushing teams past quota into 10 to 20x territory. His core belief? Sellers cap their growth the moment a customer sees them as a vendor instead of a partner. "You always get capped a little bit," he warns, arguing ambition only happens once it's paired with disciplined planning and the courage to execute without shortcuts. What does it take to grow an account 10 to 20x? Dennis and Lee break down "high, wide, and deep" account mapping, the discipline of earning trusted-advisor status instead of vendor status, and why monopolizing top talent for a client pays off. They discuss prioritizing opportunities with an 80-15-5 effort split, proving value through customer references, and applying strategy across an entire territory, not just one account. The episode closes with the origin story of Horizons West and Lee's challenge: stop, find your moment of inflection, and execute. In This Episode: (00:00) Welcome back for Part II with Lee Paries (01:49) The 10 to 20x ambition mindset across industries (03:38) The high, wide, and deep account mapping strategy (08:07) Earning the right to expand beyond a single use case (14:00) Repositioning as a fifteen million dollar strategic partner (18:38) Applying strategy across an entire sales territory (21:13) The top third, middle third, bottom third prioritization method (22:41) Why Dennis and Lee built Horizons West (24:43) The system, method, and motion framework (27:18) The key takeaway for sellers and sales leaders Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes! About the Show Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process. The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time. Resources: Lee Paries on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeparies/ Horizons West (co-founded by Lee Paries and Dennis Sorenson): https://horizonswest.com/ Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn Cove Group Horizons West Chapters (00:00:00) - Think Big Win Bigger(00:01:25) - The Mission of NCR: Ambition(00:10:53) - Bill Gates on Privatization(00:18:38) - Do More With Less?(00:22:41) - Horizons West: Why We Built It, Why We're Doing(00:26:16) - Horizons West: Matching the Business to the Industry(00:27:18) - The Importance of Strategy

"It's only your limitation if you impose it on yourself." — Lee Paries Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group and host of Think Big, Win Bigger, welcomes co-founder of Horizons West and longtime sales leader Lee Paries for Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Lee built his career from a $19,000-a-year first job in healthcare, earning early mentorship from sales leader Hugh McBride, who saw in him an intensity and drive to eliminate the competition entirely — not just win some of it. Lee went on to lead national sales teams, close a $350 million contract representing 50% company growth, and build multi-million dollar enterprise books at Teradata with accounts including eBay, PayPal, and T-Mobile. His conviction? "That doesn't mean that's your limitation. It's only your limitation if you impose it on yourself. This episode covers the full arc of strategic selling — from the dangers of transactional thinking to the discipline of narrowing your focus to win bigger. Dennis and Lee discuss how they moved their teams beyond chasing transactions toward building long-term enterprise relationships at accounts like Wells Fargo, MGM Casinos, and Visa. What does it take to shift from a 12-month sales mindset to a three-to-five-year strategic account plan? How did a two-word email subject line — "coffee" — generate an 85–90% executive meeting acceptance rate? And how did the Lunch VITO and Coffee VITO strategies evolve into the frameworks Lee and Dennis now deploy through Horizons West? All of that, and more, in this episode. In This Episode: (00:00) From hustle to strategy — Dennis introduces Lee Paries and their 28-year partnership (07:06) A $19,000 salary and a $350 million contract — Lee's early career and Hugh McBride's mentorship (12:22) Do more with less — redirecting teams from transactions to strategic opportunities (17:20) Removing self-imposed limits — how to help sellers think beyond their quota (22:23) The personal lesson — how narrowing focus at Teradata turned into a $35–50 million business (28:54) Building a business, not just making sales — the shift to a three-to-five-year strategic plan (34:01) The Lunch VITO, the Coffee VITO, and a meeting with the CIO of MGM Studios (40:31) No shortcuts — why preparation, planning, and practice are the price of the executive meeting Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes! About the Show Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process. The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time. Resources: Lee Paries on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeparies/ Horizons West (co-founded by Lee Paries and Dennis Sorenson): https://horizonswest.com/ Chapters (00:00:00) - The Process Driven Sales System(00:01:21) - Lee and I: A Partner in Success(00:05:45) - Dennis and Lee on the Podcast(00:06:13) - NCR President: Hugh McBride and Dennis Sorensen(00:09:35) - Bridge from NCR to iCRM(00:11:37) - Importance of Process Driven Sales at Ncr(00:20:37) - Sales Cycle: The Need to Spread Out(00:27:54) - How to Build a Business with Sales Leaders(00:30:43) - The 4 Ps of Strategic Plan(00:32:36) - Coffee veto and strategy(00:41:20) - Building a Bridge Statement(00:43:45) - Think Big, Win Bigger

Are your sellers busy — or are they actually executing a strategy?  In Episode 10 of Think Big, Win Bigger, host Dennis Sorenson — CEO of Cove Group and architect of the process-driven sales system — makes the case that strategy is the pillar that changes everything. Drawing on his own evolution as a seller, from door-to-door beauty supplies in college to strategic account selling at NCR Corporation and Teradata, Dennis delivers a framework that is direct, personal, and immediately applicable. His central question is sharp: "If they're busy, but are they busy operating from a strategy or are they just busy simply reacting to what's in front of them?" This episode breaks down what strategy actually is — and what it is not. Dennis draws a clear line between transactional sellers and strategic sellers, covering how strategy transforms prospecting, discovery, and relationship building. He unpacks the danger of becoming single-threaded in accounts, the power of relationships built high, wide, and deep, and why writing your strategy down is the moment it becomes real. He also references the foundational selling disciplines of his good friend Mike Weinberg — New Sales Simplified and Sales Management Simplified — and explains how Horizons West layers intentional growth strategy on top of those fundamentals. Whether you sell paper rolls or enterprise infrastructure, the principles, as Dennis puts it, are all the same. In This Episode: (00:00) Strategy is the second pillar of the process-driven sales system (03:00) Ambition discovers the opportunity — strategy creates the path (05:30) What strategy actually is and what it is not (07:00) From hustle to strategy — lessons from NCR Corporation and Teradata (11:30) How strategic sellers think differently than transactional sellers (15:00) How strategy changes prospecting and discovery at every level (19:00) Building relationships high, wide, and deep inside customer accounts (23:01) How strategy gets built — writing it down makes it real (28:00) Strategy forces prioritization and creates leverage (29:54) Stop sounding like a vendor and start competing as a partner Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes! About the Show Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process. The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time. Resources: Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn Cove Group Horizons West Chapters (00:00:00) - How to Think Big Win Bigger(00:00:51) - The Process Driven Sales System: Strategy & Execution(00:03:00) - What is a Strategy in Sales?(00:09:39) - The Importance of Strategic Selling(00:14:38) - Strategy in Sales: Prospecting and Discovery(00:19:13) - Strategic Selling: High, Wide and Deep(00:20:54) - As sales teams become more strategic, relationships expand(00:22:32) - How Strategy gets Built: Writing Things Down(00:27:23) - What Strategic Sellers Need to Know(00:29:09) - Strategic Selling: What Strategy Can Change(00:32:18) - Think Big, Win Bigger Podcast

“If we move too quickly from discovery to selling, the true discovery stops." - Dennis Sorenson Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group and host of Think Big, Win Bigger, brings decades of enterprise sales experience — from his years at Teradata to founding his own strategic sales consultancy — to Episode 9, dedicated entirely to one of the most underestimated disciplines in the profession: discovery. His framework is built on process-driven sales and three core pillars: ambition, strategy, and execution. In this solo episode, Dennis makes the case that discovery "is not a stage in what we do in sales" — it is a continuous muscle that runs through everything, and the difference between sounding like a vendor and becoming a true strategic partner. Dennis breaks down how discovery shapes ambition planning, sharpens sales strategy, and accelerates execution. Drawing on Dr. Bob Rotella's How Champions Think and John McMahon's The Qualified Sales Leader, he explores the discipline of arriving with perspective instead of a pitch, the value of going high, wide, and deep inside customer organizations, and why slowing down in discovery actually speeds the entire sales motion. He also introduces the GHOST framework as a tool for aligning discovery to customer goals and strategy — setting the stage for upcoming episodes on strategic account planning. In This Episode: (00:00) Discovery reveals the path to ambition, strategy, and execution (03:35) What elite performers notice that average sellers miss (11:17) Discovery before the engagement: research preparation and immersion (18:00) Arriving with perspective instead of a pitch changes everything (21:20) The power of slowing down and going high, wide, and deep (25:21) Using the GHOST framework to align discovery to customer strategy Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes! About the Show Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process. The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time. Resources: Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn Cove Group Horizons West Chapters (00:00:00) - Think Big, Think Win Bigger(00:00:49) - Approaching Discovery: The Path to Sales(00:04:03) - How Discovery Influences the Discovery Process(00:15:53) - The Future of Discovery Meetings(00:17:37) - Discovery is also important when we think about going high, wide

What would it mean for your business if your sellers stopped selling and started making an impact? Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group and host of Think Big, Win Bigger, brings back serial entrepreneur and Horizons West co-founder John Giese for Part 2 of their two-part Ambition series. In Part 1, John and Dennis broke down how leaders see opportunity that others miss and why structure and accountability are what separate ambition from results. Part 2 goes deeper. John's conviction here is simple: winning never sleeps, most people are afraid to tap into the frequency, and intent—real intent—is what separates the sellers who leave opportunity on the table from the ones who change the size of their companies entirely. From an unforgettable airplane story that proves ambition is a frequency you can live at, to the sales math that makes even 50% wrong still wildly successful, to what a martial arts master in Jacksonville, Florida taught John about discipline, etiquette, and building something that lasts—this episode ends with a direct challenge. What would you tell every seller to do differently starting tomorrow? And what does John say to the CEOs who still haven't formalized their revenue function? "Can you afford not to do this?" The answers are here. In This Episode: (00:00) Why companies and sellers keep missing the biggest opportunities right in front of them (01:53) Ambition as a frequency and the airplane story that proves it works (09:27) When preparation meets opportunity and why intent changes everything (11:51) Seeing total potential and why once you see it you cannot unsee it (13:44) The sales math that makes even 50% wrong wildly successful (14:52) What a martial arts master in Jacksonville taught about discipline and impact (20:46) Think bigger: direct advice for sellers and a challenge for CEOs Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes! About the Show Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process. The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time. Resources: John Giese LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-giese/ Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisdealsorenson/ Cove Group: https://www.linkedin.com/company/covegroup/posts/?feedView=all Horizons West: http://horizonswest.com Chapters (00:00:00) - Think Big, Win Bigger(00:01:17) - Why Do Companies Miss the Bigger Opportunity?(00:06:20) - "Ready to Meet the CFO?"(00:08:26) - The Moment When Preparation Met Opportunity(00:10:43) - What's Your Intent in Making Ambition?(00:14:18) - Karate Lessons From Masaharu Saki Mukai(00:19:32) - An Impact on the World(00:20:32) - What would you tell a seller to do differently in 2019?(00:23:04) - Revenue Functions

"I was the typical sales guy. Yeah, I'll just go get it. I know everything. And I was successful, but I would have been deadly had I had this operational framework." - John Giese Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group and host of Think Big, Win Bigger, sits down with serial entrepreneur and business partner John Giese in this first part of a two-part Ambition series. John has built and led multiple businesses as CEO from the ground up, served on several boards, and co-founded Horizons West alongside Dennis. His perspective is forged through decades of real enterprise sales and leadership—not theory. John's core conviction? Ambition without structure is potential left on the table. "I was the typical sales guy," he says. "I was successful, but I would have been deadly had I had this operational framework." What happens when an $8.5 million company decides to pursue a $900 million contract—and wins half of it in 24 months? That's where this conversation starts. John and Dennis break down why most companies operate off of hope instead of opportunity, why the companies John advises can't see what's possible in front of them, and how slowing down—really slowing down—is exactly what unlocks bigger outcomes. From guerrilla-warfare CEO instincts to the discipline of trusting the process, this is what ambition looks like when it has a plan behind it. In This Episode: (00:00) John Giese and the ambition series (03:50) John's consulting world in 2023 and the one problem every client shared (08:17) How companies fail to see the opportunity sitting right in front of them (15:32) The $900 million pursuit and the 24 months that changed everything (20:27) Why slowing down is the competitive advantage most sellers never develop (25:47) Why seeing the bigger picture gives you patience in any deal Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes! About the Show Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process. The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time. Resources: John Giese LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-giese/ Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn Cove Group Horizons West Chapters (00:00:00) - How to Think Big Win Bigger(00:00:55) - Think Big Win Bigger(00:03:37) - John Sorensen on Dennis Sorenson's Elevation(00:08:01) - The Need for Disruption in Utility Infrastructure(00:10:33) - The Future of Advisation(00:11:46) - Ambition and the Process Driven Approach(00:13:00) - Coach Dennis Knows About Ambition(00:15:21) - Bradley on Ambition(00:22:57) - What Led Me To The Acquisition

When was the last time your sellers stepped back far enough to actually see the full potential of their territory — or have they been too busy fighting uphill toward a number to ever look? Dennis Deal Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group and host of Think Big, Win Bigger, returns for Episode 6 with a practitioner's breakdown of one of the most underused tools in sales planning: white space mapping. A veteran sales strategist and fractional CRO who has coached sellers and teams through ambition planning work for years, Dennis knows what it costs when reps spread themselves thin. How do you stop chasing everything and start competing for what actually moves the needle? This episode is his answer. Building directly on the ambition thinking framework from Episode 5, Dennis moves from mindset into mechanics — walking through the exact white space exercise he uses with clients, the simple spreadsheet structure behind it, and why "writing things down makes them real." He covers the 80/15/5 account prioritization rule, how to identify hidden revenue across buying centers, and how the law of large numbers creates confidence in your ROI story. He also connects white space directly to the "go high, wide, and deep" relationship strategy that drives executive engagement and positions sellers as strategic partners — not vendors. In This Episode: (00:00) Why spreading yourself thin across accounts is a losing game (01:25) The 80/15/5 rule for prioritizing where your effort goes (03:02) A few big things done very well can change the game (06:23) How to build a white space map and see revenue hiding in plain sight (17:51) The magic of large numbers and what it means for your ROI story Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes! About the Show Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process. The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time. Resources: Dennis Sorenson: LinkedInCove Group Horizons West Chapters (00:00:00) - Think Big, Win Bigger(00:00:32) - Mapping White Space: Ambition Thinking and Results(00:03:55) - White Space Mapping: The Strategic Dimension(00:12:37) - White Space in Ambition Plan(00:19:42) - Episode 6: On Ambition