Host Richard Ellis and guest Brayden Young (co-founder of Slash Experts, formerly of Sendoso) discuss why B2B buying signals look contradictory (Forrester’s view that ~90% of executives want to buy without talking to sales versus AI-native firms hiring SDRs) and what this means for sellers and leaders. They argue buyers increasingly research via reviews, backchannels, and pilots, and mainly avoid unhelpful reps. AI and avatars can compress the traditional SDR/AE/SE chain so one technical AE can do more, shifting roles toward technical SDRs and go-to-market engineers.

They predict consolidation of point tools into all-in-one platforms while CRMs persist due to security and reliability. Practical advice includes partnerships (especially with consultants/agencies), in-person events, ignoring LinkedIn noise, and staying close to customers; they close by sharing personal fitness goals.

Soundbites

• "Every day there's a new B2B AI tool that someone vibe coded or created. It's amazing how fast the space is moving."
• "They bought you and all your competition, and they're testing all of you and seeing which one sticks. And then at the end of that pilot phase, they leave you."
• "I think the line's 10 grand. If it's over 10 grand, you need a human in the loop."
• "It's not that they don't wanna talk to a rep, it's that they don't wanna talk to a bad rep." (Richard, paraphrasing the buyer shift)
• "You've talked to six people, and the deal size is 24K. That's too many. Your AE, your SDR, and your SE needs to be one person."
• "I think the traditional SDR will go away. But the more technical SDR will be a new job that folks will have."
• "If you have your own CRM that you built with AI and it goes down, it's on you. That's why I don't think it's gonna happen anytime soon."
• "Selling through consultants and agencies is the best, 'cause they are far more trusted than your sales team. They talk about you on a phone call you're not on."
• "Try to do something crazy that's athletic at least once a year. When you're healthy and post-workout, I think way clearer, and that'll only help the company grow faster."

Host Richard Ellis interviews Jack Siney, co-founder of Front Race, on why AI needs activity/interaction data instead of biased “opinion” data entered by reps, and how rigid, linear CRM workflows miss the nonlinear reality and micro-details of sales, including timing between actions. Jack warns that automating only documented steps can fail because top performers execute additional undocumented steps, and that LLMs can mis-join data and hallucinate without hard metrics. He recommends leaders: consolidate and standardize company data, map the real end-to-end process (including losses), and use a measurement layer to benchmark and evaluate changing AI tools.

Soundbites

• "All the LLMs are using the same open data set. The magic is in your data. You have the answers. If you have a couple of years of legacy data, you've had some success, you've had some failures. The magic is in that data: uncovering what works and what doesn't."
• "We've been measuring metrics for four decades that have no direct correlation to whether we hit the goal."
• "We get rid of our SDRs to automate 20 steps. But the SDRs are actually doing 32 steps. We train the agent on 20 because we don't even know the other 12 exist. Then we wonder why the pilot failed."
• "The magic's in the micro details. Everyone knows the big things: the culture, the pitch, the pricing, the demo. That's not what separates your best reps from your average ones. It's 20 little things."
• "As soon as you rely on the sales rep to put the data in, we're in trouble. Their job depends on having a good pipeline. They're biased. Garbage in, garbage out."
• "Automate the interactions and you get what really happened. It's not someone's opinion."
• "Some of the magic is the time in between the steps. Letting it breathe. I don't know a system out there that tracks the time between each call."

The episode argues that relational capital is a strategic resource, citing a 2026 Forbes Human Resources Council article linking trust-based networks to stronger collaboration, faster decisions, and resilient teams. Host Richard Ellis interviews Eddy Arriola, founder of Apollo Bank (2009) and former chairman/CEO until its 2022 acquisition by Seacoast Bank, now a Seacoast board director and author of It’s All About Relationships. Arriola explains his realization that career successes and failures often hinged on relationships, distinguishes true relationship-building from mere charm, and emphasizes meeting people where they are by understanding their pressures and incentives. He introduces his CARPE framework (“seize the relationship”), highlighting “connect” and “prioritization,” including avoiding comfort-zone conversations.

Link to Eddy’s book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TPQ1Y?tag=scribemedia0a-20&th=1&psc=1&geniuslink=true

Soundbites
"It's all about relationships." (the book title, and the line "that's resonated with people because so many of us have used that a zillion times")
"I really got things done through people... when I started to reflect even on the things that didn't go right in my life... it was because I didn't have the right relationships. I didn't have someone to help me, someone to fall back on."
"It's usually the people that really don't understand sales and marketing that say, 'Oh, that's the relationship guy.'"
"People that are really good at relationships just so happen to be really good with people. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're good with all people."
"Carpe diem, seize the day, and I'm like, 'Seize the relationship.'"
"All your competitors have really, really, really good products... but it's really about a relationship that you build around."
"All sales is a process. One step logically follows another, and relationship building is very similar."
"You will go to your comfort zone. You will go to the easier conversations or the more fun relationships, and you'll be missing out on others."
"The best thing you can do is be a good listener and a good student and follow up."
"Dig a little deeper... just scratch, keep digging a little deeper and you're gonna get the right information."
"What relationships aren't serving you right now? What are just taking up too much of your time?"
"You are where you are because someone else helped pave the way."