Steve Lowndes on What’s Going Wrong in Sales: Stop Pitching, Start Challenging, and Create UrgencyIn this podcast episode, returning guest Steve Lowndes explains his credibility as a sales trainer through 30+ years in sales, 15 years working with businesses and sales teams, experience with tens of thousands of salespeople, and co-authoring Transformational Selling with Bryn Thompson. The discussion critiques lazy, high-volume automated outreach and argues for targeted, human-to-human selling supported (not replaced) by tools like AI. Steve outlines five common sales mistakes: pitching too soon instead of being truly consultative; trying too hard to please and losing balance of power (including preventing proposal “ghosting” by requiring meetings); focusing on ROI without emphasizing cost of inaction to create urgency; lacking transparency by pretending solutions are perfect; and making pitches about the company rather than the buyer’s problem and outcomes.00:00 Welcome Back Steve00:38 Sales Trainer Credibility03:14 Why Skills Slip Live04:35 Automated Outreach Rant07:01 Human First Selling09:50 Five Sales Blockers11:51 Mistake One Pitching Early14:50 Why We Pitch Too Soon19:14 Mistake Two People Pleasing21:26 Stop Getting Ghosted25:50 Proposal Pushback Story29:22 ROI Without Urgency32:22 Creating Urgency Now32:41 Cost of Inaction Framework35:47 Lottery Ticket Lesson37:23 Ask COI Questions39:26 Transparency Beats Hype44:22 Sell Trust Not SEO47:43 Stop Talking About You52:24 Better Outreach Emails55:19 Thread That Ties It57:09 Closing ReflectionsThe Episode was recorded by Recognise Media for ⁠Manchester SEO⁠