by Josh Shirley
Introducing Sales Tales - a podcast for people who want to: Grow their sales performance Increase their income Learn to cope with failure Challenge the traditional-selling mindset This is for sellers, those who manage sellers, or those who lead organizations toward future revenue outcomes.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
3/1/2023
See how your podcast performs across key metrics
Recommendations available
Unlock the full report to see detailed tips
Recommendations available
Unlock the full report to see detailed tips
Unlock comprehensive insights including:
See how your show performs across every key metric
High authority scores make your podcast more attractive to industry leaders and influencers who want to appear on credible shows.
Sponsors look for podcasts with proven authority and engagement. Your score demonstrates your podcast's value to potential partners.
Understanding your strengths and weaknesses helps you make data-driven decisions to expand your listener base effectively.
Pitch yourself as a guest, propose sponsorships, or reach out directly to the host.
June 23, 2026
<p>Some deals don't die with a rejection. They just disappear.</p><p>Everything looks right. The conversations were good, the fit was real, the buyer seemed engaged. And then one day you check on it and it's just floating there. Nobody on board. Nothing happening. A ghost ship in your pipeline.</p><p>In this episode of Sales Tales, Josh Shirley and Tom Niesen decode the four phrases buyers use instead of saying no, and what to do when you've already gotten one of them and the deal has gone quiet.</p><p>Opening with the true story of the Mary Celeste, the merchant ship that vanished without explanation in 1872 with cargo intact and crew gone, Josh draws one of the sharpest parallels in Sales Tales history: the ghost ship in your pipeline looks just like a real deal, until you get close enough to see that nobody's home.</p><p>In this episode, you'll learn:</p><ul><li>What "send me some information" actually means, and why buyers ask for something they already found on your website</li><li>Why "circle back next quarter" is almost never a timeline and almost always a polite exit</li><li>What's really going on when a buyer says "I need to think about it," and the invisible fence story that explains it perfectly</li><li>Why "let me ask internally" means the seller is missing from the deal, not just the decision maker</li><li>The upfront contract move that makes buyers comfortable enough to tell you no, before they disappear</li><li>How to re-engage a ghost ship deal without putting the prospect on the defensive</li><li>The breakup voicemail formula that gets a real answer when nothing else will</li></ul><p>Tom Niesen brings one of the best reframes of the episode: it's not just about you being okay with no. It's about making the prospect comfortable enough to give you one.</p><p>Sales Tales is the sales training podcast built on real stories, real tactics, and zero fluff. New episode every week.</p>
June 16, 2026
<p>Most deals don't die because of bad products, bad pricing, or bad timing. They die because of what the seller did, or didn't do, in the room.</p><p>In this episode of Sales Tales, Josh Shirley and David Doherty break down five seller behaviors that make the buying process harder on buyers, drawing on a LinkedIn poll result that revealed something most salespeople already know but rarely act on: when a prospect says "sometime in Q3," they almost never mean it.</p><p>From failing to read the room to selling to the wrong people entirely, these five patterns show up in every sales environment, and they're more common than most sellers want to admit.</p><p>In this episode, you'll learn:</p><ul><li>Why reading the room isn't just about personality, and what DISC profiles tell you about how to actually show up</li><li>How forcing your sales process onto buyers slows deals down and creates friction you can't see</li><li>What "transferring pressure" really means, and how the pressure you feel becomes the obstacle your buyer creates</li><li>Why presenting too much doesn't just overwhelm buyers, it invites competition and analysis paralysis</li><li>How selling to the wrong people traps you in a loop of comfortable conversations with people who can never say yes</li></ul><p>Josh and David bring real stories from the field, including a furnace sale that ended perfectly because one guy had zero stake in the outcome, a five-year dinner relationship that never became a deal, and a window salesperson who explained Argon gas to someone who just wanted new windows.</p><p>This is the Sales Tales episode for anyone who has ever left a meeting feeling great, and then watched the deal quietly disappear.</p><p>Sales Tales is the sales training podcast built on real sales stories, real tactics, and the Sandler selling methodology.</p>
June 9, 2026
<p>Your pipeline is full. Your metrics look great. So why isn't anything closing?</p><p>In this episode of Sales Tales, Josh Shirley and Tom Niesen, aka the Conjurer, take on one of the most overlooked problems in sales leadership: the vanity metrics that show up in forecasting meetings, create false confidence, and quietly distort how salespeople behave.</p><p>There is a sharp distinction that changes everything: the difference between a sales funnel meeting and a pipeline meeting. One is full of hopes, dreams, and optimism. The other is short, factual, and built on what's actually about to close. Most teams are running funnel meetings and calling them pipeline meetings, and it's costing them.</p><p>In this episode, you'll learn:</p><ul><li>The difference between a sales funnel and a pipeline, and why getting it wrong leads to bad forecasting, bad coaching, and bad culture</li><li>Why number of quotes sent can actually create more quoting behavior, not more revenue</li><li>How credit applications become a feel-good vanity metric that appease salespeople and mislead managers</li><li>Why demos shown is only a meaningful metric when it's tied to a specific next step, and how AOL accidentally explains why</li><li>What conversations as a metric gets right, what it gets wrong</li><li>Why meetings booked is the metric most SDR teams get wrong, and how chasing it produces bad meetings</li><li>Tom's number one: why measuring sales instead of customers is the most expensive habit in the business</li></ul><p>Josh also shares a story about a deal he closed with an urgent care clinic that he absolutely should not have closed, and exactly what went wrong when the implementation team showed up.</p><p>Tom Niesen is a 30-year Sandler franchisee based in Texas. He is also, not coincidentally, a magician. This episode is both.</p><p>Sales Tales is the sales training podcast for salespeople and sales leaders who want real sales tips and strategies, not theory. No fluff. Just the stuff that actually works.</p>
Discover related shows you might enjoy
Have a different question and can't find the answer you're looking for? Reach out to our support team by sending us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
Introducing Sales Tales - a podcast for people who want to:
Grow their sales performance Increase their income Learn to cope with failure Challenge the traditional-selling mindset
This is for sellers, those who manage sellers, or those who lead organizations toward future revenue outcomes.
This podcast updates bi-weekly.
This podcast is available on 9 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
Pod Engine is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected with any of the podcasts displayed on this platform. We operate independently as a podcast discovery and analytics service.
All podcast artwork, thumbnails, and content displayed on this page are the property of their respective owners and are protected by applicable copyright laws. This includes, but is not limited to, podcast cover art, episode artwork, show descriptions, episode titles, transcripts, audio snippets, and any other content originating from the podcast creators or their licensors.
We display this content under fair use principles and/or implied license for the purpose of podcast discovery, information, and commentary. We make no claim of ownership over any podcast content, artwork, or related materials shown on this platform. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
While we strive to ensure all content usage is properly authorized, if you are a rights holder and believe your content is being used inappropriately or without proper authorization, please contact us immediately at hey@podengine.ai for prompt review and appropriate action, which may include content removal or proper attribution.
By accessing and using this platform, you acknowledge and agree to respect all applicable copyright laws and intellectual property rights of content owners. Any unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or commercial use of the content displayed on this platform is strictly prohibited.
