Podcast
AI Sales Podcast
Hosted by SalesDuo · EN
Tune in to SalesDuo's podcast, where we share the latest AI sales strategies designed for B2B businesses to accelerate their sales pipeline and close more deals!
salesduo.substack.com
salesduo.substack.com
10episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Future of Outbound Sales
Mar 800:36:29Tap to summarizeEpisode SummaryIn this episode, Anuj Kapoor, the Director of Business Development at Finmo, discusses the evolution of outbound sales, the impact of AI, and the importance of building relationships in sales. Anuj shares his experiences in the sales landscape over the past decade, highlighting the changes in buyer behaviour and the tools available for sales professionals today. He emphasises the need for a multi-channel approach, including cold calling and leveraging LinkedIn, while also discussing the cultural differences in sales across the APAC region. Episode Chapters* 00:00 Introduction to Anuj Kapoor and Finmo* 03:02 Outbound Sales Methodology and Evolution* 05:53 Challenges in Modern Outbound Sales* 08:43 The Role of AI in Sales* 11:36 Multi-Channel Outreach Strategies* 14:40 Localising Sales Efforts in APAC* 17:47 Future of Sales: AI and Human Interaction* 20:40 Final Thoughts and Advice for StartupsMore About Anuj KapoorAnuj Kapoor is the Director of Business Development, Pre-Sales & Onboarding at Finmo. He’s worked on local and cross-border solutions across APAC, EU, UK, and US.His work sits across business development, GTM strategy, presales, and implementation, giving him a unique view of the entire customer journey.Connect with Anuj Kapoor* Connect with Anuj on LinkedIn* Visit Finmo’s website This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit salesduo.substack.com
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Why A People-First Sales Approach Outperforms
Feb 2200:45:36Tap to summarizeEpisode SummaryIn this episode, Liam Zajdlic, Head of Sales at Plerion, shares his extensive journey in tech sales, highlighting his transition from startups to enterprises and the unique challenges and strategies involved. He discusses innovative go-to-market strategies, the importance of partnerships, and how AI is reshaping the sales landscape. Liam emphasises the value of startup experience and the need for a people-first approach in sales, while also exploring the future of AI in enhancing productivity and efficiency in sales processes.Episode Chapters* 00:00 Liam’s Journey in Tech Sales* 06:21 Transitioning from Startups to Enterprises* 12:22 Innovative Go-to-Market Strategies* 20:17 Leveraging Partnerships for Success* 28:44 The Role of AI in Sales* 40:37 Quickfire Questions and Final ThoughtsMore About Liam ZajdlicLiam Zajdlic is the Head of Sales at Plerion, and has over 14 years of tech sales experience.He has successfully built and led high-performing cloud security sales teams in both in startup and enterprise environments, even helping to lead a startup to a significant acquisition.Connect with Liam Zajdlic* Connect with Liam on LinkedIn* Visit Plerion’s website This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit salesduo.substack.com
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Navigating Sales with a Technical Background
Jan 3000:53:21Tap to summarizeEpisode SummaryIn this episode, Jozsef shares his extensive journey from a technical background in IT to a successful sales career in the technology sector. We discussed the nuances of transitioning from technical roles to sales, the importance of understanding market dynamics, and how AI has transformed his approach to selling. He emphasises the significance of cultural nuances in different markets, the importance of building relationships, and effective research strategies for engaging with executives. Jozsef concludes with insights on the importance of intent in sales and offers valuable advice for those looking to thrive in the sales landscape.Episode Chapters* 00:00 Journey from Tech to Sales* 02:58 Navigating the Sales Landscape* 05:50 Understanding Market Dynamics* 08:48 Role Evolution at ESGpedia* 11:43 Strategizing for Expansion* 14:37 Cultural Nuances in Selling* 17:34 Leveraging AI in Sales* 20:49 Building Relationships in Sales* 30:37 Leveraging AI for Sales Efficiency* 38:38 Researching for Effective Meetings* 46:12 The Importance of Understanding Clients* 46:56 Advice for Navigating Startup EnvironmentsMore About Jozsef AcaboJozsef Acabo is the VP of Regional Sales at ESGpedia, with 19+ years of experience in technology, governance, and sustainability with prior roles in companies like Oracle and Diligent.Currently, he’s leading the growth and partnerships in the region to help enterprises accelerate their sustainability journey.Connect with Jozsef Acabo* Connect with Jozsef on LinkedIn* Visit ESGpedia’s website This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit salesduo.substack.com
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Our automated email campaigns booked us 8 meetings in 14 days
Jan 2600:08:03Tap to summarizeIt’s been 16 days since I last reviewed my stats, and this is how we’ve fared since then:LinkedInTotal outreach: 59Total positive replies: 4Positive reply rate: 6.78%Meetings booked: 4No. of clients: 0My LinkedIn numbers have dropped because I've been spending more time on client delivery, as well as the limitations on my first-degree connections.EmailTotal positive replies: 13Meetings booked: 8No. of clients: 1We secured our first client through email.InboundTotal positive replies: 3Meetings booked: 2No. of clients: 0Haven't prioritised content for inbound, but might need to ramp up efforts soon.Thankfully, even though my LinkedIn prospecting efforts have dipped, our email campaigns are picking up.It’s the only reason why I still have a decent pipeline.As I reflect on the decent traction on our email campaigns, 2 key factors come to mind:1. Good TargetingWe have a better idea of our ICP now, and we make sure we're only reaching out to the most qualified prospects.There's still things we need to work on here, but it's a good start.2. Good Lead MagnetThis is the biggest differentiator in my opinion.Our offer is intriguing enough for people to want to find out more.Interestingly, people that didn't respond to me on LinkedIn replied me via email instead.We still haven't incorporated signals into our campaigns, which we expect to improve our results even further.Now, our priority is to continue improving our client delivery, while exploring alternative channels like WhatsApp DMs to improve our pipeline.Have you tried it before? Would love to get your thoughts if you have! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit salesduo.substack.com
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How Mark Deacon Used AI to Achieve 50%+ Demo Win Rates
Jan 1300:45:17Tap to summarizeEpisode SummaryIn this conversion, Mark Deacon, Chief Commercial Officer at Canibuild, shares his entrepreneurial journey from door-to-door sales to leading a tech company. Mark discusses the importance of AI in sales, how it can enhance efficiency, and the balance between human and AI roles in sales teams. He emphasises the need for businesses to focus on specific customer segments and the evolving landscape of sales strategies as technology advances. The conversation concludes with practical advice for entrepreneurs and sales leaders.Episode Chapters* 00:00 Introduction to Mark Deacon’s Journey* 06:02 From Architecture to Entrepreneurship* 10:46 Current Role and AI Integration at Canibuild* 20:19 Balancing AI and Human Sales Teams* 21:28 Identifying Pain Points for AI Solutions* 24:01 Implementing AI: A New Approach to Sales Challenges* 26:54 The Organisational Shift: AI and Sales Teams* 29:18 Future Trends: Embracing AI in Sales* 32:16 Leadership in the Age of AI* 33:53 Continuous Learning: Staying Ahead in Sales* 35:51 Final Thoughts and Quickfire RoundMore About Mark DeaconMark Deacon is the Chief Commercial Officer at Canibuild, with a proven track record scaling SaaS, AI, and Digital Marketplace businesses across PropTech, MarTech, VR/XR, and the AEC sectors.With deep experience in go-to-market strategy, commercialisation, and cross-functional leadership, Mark has helped businesses scale from zero to nine-figure valuations — leading diverse teams across sales, marketing, customer success, operations, and product.His notable achievements include being nominated as a top 40 GTM leader, SmartCompany Hot 30 Under 30, and Business News Australia Top 40 Under 40.Connect with Mark Deacon* Connect with Mark on LinkedIn* Visit Canibuild’s website* Listen to Mark’s podcast This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit salesduo.substack.com
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761 outreach, 8.54% positive reply rate, 8 clients
Jan 1000:08:34Tap to summarizeMy last update was on 19th December, and our channels have diversified since then.LinkedInTotal outreach: 761Total replies: 120Total positive replies: 65Reply rate: 15.77%Positive reply rate: 8.54%Meetings booked: 26Booking rate: 40%No. of clients: 3Conversion rate: 11.54%(dropped from 6 because some deprioritised the project and are pending reactivation)EmailTotal positive replies: 8Meeting booked: 3Booking rate: 37.5%No. of clients: 0We only just kickstarted our email campaigns, so I haven't pulled the positive reply rates.Some of the meetings are scheduled for the upcoming week as well, so the conversion rate is irrelevant for now.InboundTotal positive replies: 14Meeting booked: 7Booking rate: 50%No. of clients: 5Conversion rate: 71.43%This is our best-performing channel by far.However, it's unpredictable so we're taking inbound leads as a bonus.PipelinePending Opportunities: 17Our LinkedIn conversion is relatively low now because a lot of discussions are still ongoing, so we're hopeful that it will increase when some of the deals convert.Current ChallengesWhile we’re getting some good initial traction, I'm running out of first-degree connections to send voice notes to. That's why my outreach volume is dropping.To tackle this, I'll be:1. Testing Loom video outreach via Sales Navigator2. Improving my connection request sequence (better targeting and adding "active on LinkedIn" filter to boost acceptance rates)We're also ramping up on our email campaigns to see if we can replicate our manual efforts in a more automated fashion.Reflecting on Initial TractionI'm thankful we're starting to build a bit of momentum, and I believe a huge part of it was gaining clarity on our ICP:* B2B SaaS* $1-5 million* 10-50 employeesOur pitch is simple: we set up your outbound system for free. No retainers, no hidden fees. You own it after we build it.We want to deliver value first, before exploring longer-term partnerships.If you're keen to explore, DM me "outbound system" for more details. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit salesduo.substack.com
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FREE Outbound System Setup *Christmas Giveaway*
Dec 2500:05:01Tap to summarizeMerry Christmas! To celebrate this festive season, we’re offering to help B2B SaaS and Services firms build their outbound sales systems for FREE.Option 1: SDR/BDR System OptimisationThis is best for companies who are already doing outbound.The goal here is to make your BDRs and SDRs more efficient and effective with their outreach.(watch the video at 00:20 for full details)Option 2: Automated Outbound CampaignsThis can be implemented for your Tier 2 and 3 target accounts, to automate outreach sequences via email and LinkedIn.We will help you set up everything — from the strategy, to tech stack infrastructure, to messaging and sequences.Why Are We Doing This?Justin and I realised that we're best at helping companies set up systems, instead of providing services like most agencies do.We get bored of the repetitive tasks very easily, and we believe companies should own their outbound system instead of relying on agencies.That's why we're offering to help companies set up their system for free, to prove that we can bring value before exploring longer-term partnerships.Who Is This For?* B2B SaaS or Services* 11-50 employees OR $1-5M revenue* Preferably already doing outbound* If not doing outbound yet, at least have a working channel that's not referralsOur Projects So Far:* HR Services* YouTube Services* Recruitment Services* Recruitment B2B SaaS* Construction B2B SaaS* Insurtech B2B SaaS* HRMS B2B SaaS* CX B2B SaaSThis offer will stay available until we cap out on our capacity (around 3-5 more clients).If you're interested, DM me "outbound system" and let's see if we'll be a good fit.Merry Christmas! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit salesduo.substack.com
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23 days, 21 meetings, 6 clients
Dec 2000:08:13Tap to summarizeToday is day 23 of our “$10k in 30 days” challenge — 19th December 2025.Here’s the breakdown of our inputs so far:* Day 1: 100 voice notes sent* Day 2: 100* Day 3+4: 21* Day 5: 11* Day 6: 32* Day 7: 22* Day 8: 72* Day 9: 25* Day 10: 0* Day 11: 63* Day 12: 36* Day 13: 3* Day 14: 41* Day 15: 17* Day 16: 15* Day 17: 11* Day 18: 3* Day 19: 2* Day 20: 20* Day 21: 33* Day 22: 4* Day 23: 39 (today)Total no. of outreach: 670Total no. of replies: 94Reply rate: 14.03%Total no. of positive replies: 50Positive reply rate: 7.46%Total no. of meetings booked: 21Booking rate: 42%Total no. of clients: 6Conversion rate: 28.57%As we started onboarding clients and having to take more calls, my outreach numbers dropped. Surprisingly, my reply rates have gone up (watch the video at 01:25 for the stats comparison between days 1-8 and days 8-23).I can confidently say we've made more progress in these past 3 weeks than the previous 3-6 months, so here are my top 3 lessons I've learned from this period:Lesson 1: Focus on actions over resultsIn the past, I got too caught up with trying to get the perfect business model and results, than I ended up not taking much action.Now, I just focus on taking fast actions instead of overthinking things.For example, I would spend hours writing my outreach script before reaching out to anyone in the past. Now, I just whip something up in 5mins, start my outreach, and fix it on the fly.I've probably only done 3 revisions since my first script and I'm still getting 7.46% positive reply rate (industry average is probably 1% or less).Lesson 2: Importance of a good offer / lead magnetOur current initiative involves us building outbound sales systems for companies for FREE - no monthly retainers, no hidden fees, and they own the system after we help them set it up.We're doing this to gather more case studies, while validating the use cases for our product.Sure, it's not scalable, but it's already given us a ton of market feedback that's helping us iterate our solution.We're optimising for speed, not scale.Lesson 3: Standing out from the marketOne prospect I reached out to mentioned he receives 50-100 LinkedIn DMs a day, yet mine was the only one he replied to (and we hopped on a call within 30mins).That's because I spent the time to send a personalised voice message (and it happened to be the right timing).We adopted the same approach for our service offering - while others are charging monthly retainers, we're offering to help businesses set up a system they can own.Now, we've even extended it to our list building product.While others are paying monthly subscriptions and hiring GTM engineers to stitch together different tools, we're offering an on-demand, fully-custom, credits-based model where people just tell us:* What list they want to build* What data points they need* What data points they already haveAnd we’ll return them the exact list they need, wherever they want it (CRM, Clay, n8n etc...)It’s all about standing out in the market.Now, it’s figuring out how we can 10x this! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit salesduo.substack.com
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How we booked 8 meetings in 8 days
Dec 400:04:29Tap to summarizeToday is day 8 of our “$10k in 30 days” challenge — 4th December 2025.Here’s the breakdown of our inputs so far:* Day 1: 100 voice notes sent* Day 2: 100* Day 3+4: 21* Day 5: 11* Day 6: 32* Day 7: 22* Day 8: 72 (today)Day 3 and 4 were the weekends, so numbers dropped.Day 5 I had a summit, so the whole day was gone.Day 6 and 7 I struggled with the lists.Today is day 8, and I failed to hit 100 as well.And here are the results:* 21 positive replies* 8 meetings* 1/10 free setup confirmedThe complete numbers breakdown is as such:* 358 voice notes sent* 21 positive replies (5.9% positive reply rate)* 8 meetings booked (38% booking rate)* 1 client onboarded (3 pending)Experimenting with New OffersInitially when we first started the challenge, we reached out with the proposition to help B2B sales teams set up their outbound sales systems for free, in exchange for a case study.Over the weekends, we went to revisit the initial traction we got for our product when we first pivoted months ago, and realised list-building was the one thing we hated the most during our agency days.So we spun up a list-building offer towards agencies and reached out to agencies to validate the offer.Interestingly, the responses have been pretty encouraging with 6/21 positive replies coming from this segment even though the volume is way lower.We even had one immediate enquiry, which is a good sign.My hypothesis on this is because we felt the same pain ourselves, so our messaging resonated with the agencies themselves.3 Lessons I Learnedi. The list is the most importantWith a targeted and qualified list, it’s way easier to both craft messaging for outbound campaigns, or to do manual outreach.Without a proper list, more time is spent on cleaning the list than on prospecting itself.ii. It’s easiest to solve your own pain pointsWhen we came up with the messaging to agencies, it was easy because we felt the same pain.I believe that’s why it’s translating into better results from our outreach to that segment.iii. Follow-ups are importantMany of my replies came from the follow up messages, not the initial voice note.Currently, I’m manually recording the first voice note, before pushing them into HeyReach for the automated follow-up campaigns.The early signs are encouraging, but we need to do a better job with our own list-building to improve our efficiency and effectiveness with our prospecting efforts.If you hate list-building like us, check out our website for our new approach and angle to list-building. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit salesduo.substack.com
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$10k in 30 Days
Nov 2700:11:43Tap to summarizeThe past month has sucked.I fell sick on 2 separate occasions — once with HFMD, another with influenza.It made me spiral into a cycle of self-doubt (and little action).Circumstances have made me need to prioritise revenue generation over product development.So here’s what we’re planning for the next 30 days:$10k in 30 DaysGiven that I have financial commitments to fulfil, we need to prioritise profitability and cash flow. That means that I can’t wait for our product to be ready.Therefore, I’m pivoting back into a services model.(I’m saying “me” because Justin will still continue building the product)It’s funny how we pivoted away from our initial services model into building the product, but now we need to get back into the service model.(s**t happens…)“AI Sales” / “AI Outbound”Given our expertise, it only made sense that we focused on “AI sales” or “AI outbound”.However, my priority will be to build outbound engines that B2B companies can own as assets, not so much the lead generation model we were doing previously.With our limited exposure in this field, I want to make sure we’re able to deliver results and have solid case studies to back us.To get us off the ground, I will be running FREE offers to help 10 B2B companies set up or optimise their outbound pipeline generation engine.At that point, we should have good case studies that we need to secure paid clients.Back to Basics — Outbound Prospecting + ContentI’ve got a habit of overthinking and over-systemising things before they’re required.This time, I’m making sure I’m prioritising the right actions.From an acquisition standpoint, I’m focusing on:* Cold outreach via LinkedIn and email* Inbound via LinkedIn contentEveryday, my goal is to hit 100x manual outreach messages — initially with voice notes via LinkedIn.I’m not expecting much traffic or inbound interest from LinkedIn at the beginning, so I will only do it when I have spare time after I’ve hit my 100x outreach.Building-in-Public & Documenting My JourneyAgain, I don’t want to overcomplicate things here.My main objective with these content is to keep me accountable, and have a record for me to look back on.Secondary would be lead generation.I hope that by sharing my journey in public, it will:* Keep me accountable (most important)* Audience can learn from my lessons* Audience recognises commitmentI know the authority will only come after I’ve posted use cases and case studies, and given that we don’t have any now, the leads won’t come yet.So I’m not pinning too much on the content bit.Next StepsI’m writing this post after my first day of this new commitment.And I’m proud to say that I’ve already sent out 100 voice notes.Now I just need to stay consistent and let the results compound.If you run a B2B company and outbound is one of your acquisition channel, feel free to reach out if you’d like our help to audit and optimise your system for FREE, in exchange for a case study.Otherwise, I’ll do my best to keep up these updates and keep stacking those actions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit salesduo.substack.com
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