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Sales conversations are not production or get it done projects.

In this episode of The Sales Pulse Podcast, I’m Marla Koupal, the Sales Conversation Architect, and we’re talking about why the “get it done” attitude quietly wrecks sales—especially for good-hearted sellers who genuinely care.

I call it the production mindset: the moment the seller starts trying to complete the conversation instead of staying with the buyer’s thinking.

Here’s what changes when “done” becomes the goal:

• The seller starts steering with directive questions… and the buyer stops thinking out loud.
• The buyer says, “I need to think about it”… and the seller hears, “I’m losing.”
• The buyer feels managed… and retreats (often politely… then disappears).

We’ll walk through what better selling sounds like, how to protect the buyer’s “thinking space,” and the simplest shift you can make today:

Stop asking questions designed to advance your process.
Start asking questions that advance the buyer’s clarity.

You’ll also hear my favorite follow-up question that keeps things moving—without being pushy, weird, or chase-y.

Subscribe on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify—and share this with someone who’s selling with a good heart… but a “done” mindset.

#TheSalesPulsePodcast #MarlaKoupal #SalesConversationArchitect #Seth Godin #SalesConversations #SalesFluency #BuyingSpace #SoftSelling #ConsultativeSelling #OpenEndedQuestions #EmotionalIntelligence #FollowUp #EntrepreneurSales #DirectSelling #CoachingBusiness

Welcome to The Sales Pulse Podcast, where selling isn’t a performance,,,it’s a conversation. I’m Marla Koupal, your Sales Fluency Guide. After decades in sales, here’s the truth: the close isn’t where the sale happens—it’s where the buyer lands after a strong beginning. We’ll focus more on how you open the conversation and connect with how your buyer thinks so that closing never feels like a wrestling match.

Support the show

🔁 Key takeaways: buyer pacing styles, real-life sales stumbles, and how timing builds trust.
💛 Love the podcast? Support it for just $3/month: [Insert Your Buzzsprout Support Link]
📲 Connect: https://successwithmarla.com | https://www.facebook.com/marla.koupal | https://www.linkedin.com/in/marla-m-koupal-sales-and-ai-fluency-skills-facilitator-125372126/

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In this episode of The Sales Pulse, Marla Koupal explores a question inspired by a recent blog from Seth Godin: Are you terrible at sales? And more importantly—what do you do once you realize it?

This conversation is not about blaming yourself or trying to become a “perfect” seller. It is about awareness. Many sales conversations fail quietly, not because the seller lacks motivation or product knowledge, but because they rush, react, fill silence with words, or rely on scripts instead of presence.

Marla connects this idea to the skills she has been teaching all year—remaining calm, staying neutral, and managing yourself inside the sales conversation. She explains how subtle behaviors like over-talking, avoiding follow-up, struggling with uncertainty, or reacting emotionally can quietly erode trust with buyers.

You will learn why sales is built through multiple conversations, not immediate outcomes, and how small promises, thoughtful follow-up, and self-honesty build credibility over time. This episode will help you recognize where you need structure, where you need support, and where it is time to stop pretending.

If you want to sell without pressure, stay calm in uncertain moments, and build real sales fluency instead of relying on tactics, this episode will give you a grounded place to start.

#SalesFluency #SalesConversations #SellingWithoutPressure #CalmInSales #SalesSkills #BuyerPsychology #SalesCoaching #TheSalesPulse

Want more...connect with Marla to talk about your "terrible" https://successwithmarla.com

Welcome to The Sales Pulse Podcast, where selling isn’t a performance,,,it’s a conversation. I’m Marla Koupal, your Sales Fluency Guide. After decades in sales, here’s the truth: the close isn’t where the sale happens—it’s where the buyer lands after a strong beginning. We’ll focus more on how you open the conversation and connect with how your buyer thinks so that closing never feels like a wrestling match.

Support the show

🔁 Key takeaways: buyer pacing styles, real-life sales stumbles, and how timing builds trust.
💛 Love the podcast? Support it for just $3/month: [Insert Your Buzzsprout Support Link]
📲 Connect: https://successwithmarla.com | https://www.facebook.com/marla.koupal | https://www.linkedin.com/in/marla-m-koupal-sales-and-ai-fluency-skills-facilitator-125372126/

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How to Sell While in Neutral: The Discipline That Keeps Sales Conversations Alive

In this episode of The Sales Pulse Podcast, Marla Koupal explores one of the most misunderstood and underdeveloped skills in selling: neutral.

Neutral is not a mood, personality trait, or passive stance. It is a disciplined presence that allows sellers to stay engaged without reacting too soon, assuming intent, or hijacking the buyer’s decision-making process. Most sales conversations do not collapse because the seller lacks confidence or courage. They fall apart because the seller reacts prematurely to a buyer’s words, tone, pauses, or perceived attitude.

This episode breaks down how neutrality allows sellers to understand how buyers process information, compare options, and reach clarity—without pressure, persuasion, or scripts. Marla explains why buyer pauses are often signs of thinking rather than resistance, how assumptions accelerate conversations at the wrong moment, and why rushing creates disengagement rather than momentum.

You’ll learn how neutral listening keeps conversations alive, prevents ghosting, protects relationships, and reduces buyer’s remorse. This conversation is for sales professionals, leaders, coaches, and direct sellers who want cleaner yeses, honest no's, and decisions that stick.

You are invited to have a conversation with Marla...https://successwithmarla.com

#NeutralSelling #SalesDiscipline #SalesConversations #BuyerDecisionMaking #SalesLeadership #SellingWithoutScripts #SalesFluency #ListeningSkills #BuyerFocusedSales #SalesTraining #Discipline

Welcome to The Sales Pulse Podcast, where selling isn’t a performance,,,it’s a conversation. I’m Marla Koupal, your Sales Fluency Guide. After decades in sales, here’s the truth: the close isn’t where the sale happens—it’s where the buyer lands after a strong beginning. We’ll focus more on how you open the conversation and connect with how your buyer thinks so that closing never feels like a wrestling match.

Support the show

🔁 Key takeaways: buyer pacing styles, real-life sales stumbles, and how timing builds trust.
💛 Love the podcast? Support it for just $3/month: [Insert Your Buzzsprout Support Link]
📲 Connect: https://successwithmarla.com | https://www.facebook.com/marla.koupal | https://www.linkedin.com/in/marla-m-koupal-sales-and-ai-fluency-skills-facilitator-125372126/

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Sales teams rarely fall apart because of bad strategy, weak motivation, or lack of product knowledge. More often, sales chaos starts quietly — at the leadership level.

In this episode of The Sales Pulse Podcast, sales conversation architect Marla Koupal breaks down how a leader’s internal regulation — or lack of it — directly shapes team behavior, buyer experience, and sales outcomes.

When sales results wobble, leaders often respond with urgency disguised as support: more check-ins, more direction, more pressure. But urgency narrows thinking. It shuts down curiosity. And it quietly trains sellers to rush conversations instead of building real connection with buyers.

You’ll learn:

• Why calm is not a personality trait — it’s a leadership discipline
• How emotional contagion creates sales pressure without anyone saying a word
• Why sellers mirror a leader’s tolerance (or intolerance) for uncertainty
• How urgency shows up as “help” — and why it actually damages sales conversations
• The difference between managing results and setting conditions for results

If you lead a sales team — or influence other sellers — this episode will help you see why buyer resistance often starts long before price, timing, or objections ever appear.

Calm leadership doesn’t remove pressure for results.
It contains pressure — so sales conversations can mature instead of collapse.

🎧 Subscribe to The Sales Pulse Podcast for real sales skills, not scripts.
📩 If this episode reflects what’s happening on your team, connect now for a conversation with Marla no pitch, just clarity on possible new directions. successwithmarla.com

Welcome to The Sales Pulse Podcast, where selling isn’t a performance,,,it’s a conversation. I’m Marla Koupal, your Sales Fluency Guide. After decades in sales, here’s the truth: the close isn’t where the sale happens—it’s where the buyer lands after a strong beginning. We’ll focus more on how you open the conversation and connect with how your buyer thinks so that closing never feels like a wrestling match.

Support the show

🔁 Key takeaways: buyer pacing styles, real-life sales stumbles, and how timing builds trust.
💛 Love the podcast? Support it for just $3/month: [Insert Your Buzzsprout Support Link]
📲 Connect: https://successwithmarla.com | https://www.facebook.com/marla.koupal | https://www.linkedin.com/in/marla-m-koupal-sales-and-ai-fluency-skills-facilitator-125372126/

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How Calm Becomes the Operating System for Sales Teams

Description:

Most sales teams don’t struggle because they lack effort.
They struggle because they lack regulation.

In this follow-up episode of The Sales Pulse Podcast, Marla Koupal expands Tuesday’s conversation on calm as a personal sales skill—and shows why calm is the operating system for high-functioning sales teams.

You’ll learn why sales teams don’t copy strategies first—they copy emotional states. And how a leader’s urgency, anxiety, or steadiness quietly sets the ceiling for sales maturity, decision-making, and buyer trust.

This episode explores:

• Why most sales breakdowns are self-regulation problems, not motivation problems
• How leadership urgency creates rushed conversations and scripted selling
• What happens when calm (or chaos) becomes the ambient condition of your sales culture
• Why teams cannot outperform a leader’s tolerance for uncertainty
• How calm leadership lowers buyer resistance before conversations even begin

If you lead a sales team—or plan to—this episode will change how you think about performance, pressure, and results.

🎧 Listen to Tuesday’s episode first for the full framework on calm as self-leadership, then come back to this conversation for the team-level application.

Call to Action (Soft, Direct):
If this episode sharpened how you think about selling, subscribe to The Sales Pulse Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And if you’re noticing this exact breakdown inside your sales conversations or team dynamics book a call with Marla...see what is possible..."https://successwithmarla.com/book-a-conversation-with-marla"

Welcome to The Sales Pulse Podcast, where selling isn’t a performance,,,it’s a conversation. I’m Marla Koupal, your Sales Fluency Guide. After decades in sales, here’s the truth: the close isn’t where the sale happens—it’s where the buyer lands after a strong beginning. We’ll focus more on how you open the conversation and connect with how your buyer thinks so that closing never feels like a wrestling match.

Support the show

🔁 Key takeaways: buyer pacing styles, real-life sales stumbles, and how timing builds trust.
💛 Love the podcast? Support it for just $3/month: [Insert Your Buzzsprout Support Link]
📲 Connect: https://successwithmarla.com | https://www.facebook.com/marla.koupal | https://www.linkedin.com/in/marla-m-koupal-sales-and-ai-fluency-skills-facilitator-125372126/

Send us a text

How Calm Sets the Standard for Sales Leaders

Selling doesn’t improve when you talk louder.
It improves when you become steadier.

In this episode of The Sales Pulse Podcast, Marla Koupal explores why calm is not a personality trait — it’s a sales skill.

Most sales struggles aren’t effort problems.
They’re self-regulation problems.

When a seller loses calm, curiosity collapses. Listening narrows. Urgency sneaks in. And buyers feel it before they ever evaluate the offer.

This conversation breaks down:

• Why calm expands perception in sales conversations
• How pressure weakens judgment and listening
• What happens internally when buyers hesitate
• Why confidence doesn’t close sales — regulation does
• How unsettled energy signals risk to buyers
• The difference between managing the conversation and regulating yourself

Calm is your ability to stay present when outcomes are unclear.
It’s the capacity to tolerate uncertainty without filling space, forcing resolution, or over-explaining.

If your sales conversations feel rushed, awkward, or draining, this episode gives you a new standard to measure your effectiveness — not by urgency, but by steadiness.

🎯 This episode focuses on self-leadership in selling.

#SalesLeadership #SalesSkills #CalmInSales
#SalesPsychology #EmotionalIntelligence #SalesConversations
#BuyerDecisionMaking #SelfRegulation #SalesFluency
#TheSalesPulsePodcast

Welcome to The Sales Pulse Podcast, where selling isn’t a performance,,,it’s a conversation. I’m Marla Koupal, your Sales Fluency Guide. After decades in sales, here’s the truth: the close isn’t where the sale happens—it’s where the buyer lands after a strong beginning. We’ll focus more on how you open the conversation and connect with how your buyer thinks so that closing never feels like a wrestling match.

Support the show

🔁 Key takeaways: buyer pacing styles, real-life sales stumbles, and how timing builds trust.
💛 Love the podcast? Support it for just $3/month: [Insert Your Buzzsprout Support Link]
📲 Connect: https://successwithmarla.com | https://www.facebook.com/marla.koupal | https://www.linkedin.com/in/marla-m-koupal-sales-and-ai-fluency-skills-facilitator-125372126/

Send us a text

What if the biggest lie in sales isn’t pressure—but pretending you have none?

In this episode of The Sales Pulse Podcast, Marla Koupal challenges one of the most common (and costly) myths salespeople tell themselves: “I’m not trying to influence anyone.” Drawing on a powerful inversion from Seth Godin—and an unexpected lesson from Spider-Man—this conversation explores why denying influence doesn’t make selling ethical… it makes it unclear.

You’ll hear why avoiding responsibility leads to scripts, rushed decisions, and surface-level conversations—and what responsible selling actually looks like when curiosity, pacing, and presence lead the way. This episode is for sellers, leaders, coaches, and advisors who want to sell without pressure, pitching, or psychological tricks—and still create real momentum.

If you believe selling is about clarity, trust, and helping people think—not forcing outcomes—this episode will shift how you show up in every conversation.

Buzzsprout Hashtags

#SalesSkills #ResponsibleSelling #SalesConversations #SalesLeadership #CuriosityInSales #EthicalSelling #BuyerPsychology #SalesTraining #SalesMindset #TheSalesPulse #Seth Godin

Welcome to The Sales Pulse Podcast, where selling isn’t a performance,,,it’s a conversation. I’m Marla Koupal, your Sales Fluency Guide. After decades in sales, here’s the truth: the close isn’t where the sale happens—it’s where the buyer lands after a strong beginning. We’ll focus more on how you open the conversation and connect with how your buyer thinks so that closing never feels like a wrestling match.

Support the show

🔁 Key takeaways: buyer pacing styles, real-life sales stumbles, and how timing builds trust.
💛 Love the podcast? Support it for just $3/month: [Insert Your Buzzsprout Support Link]
📲 Connect: https://successwithmarla.com | https://www.facebook.com/marla.koupal | https://www.linkedin.com/in/marla-m-koupal-sales-and-ai-fluency-skills-facilitator-125372126/

Send us a text

Selling Urgency Has a Place. December Isn’t It.

December selling exposes one of the most misunderstood tools in sales: urgency.

In this episode of The Sales Pulse Podcast, Marla Koupal breaks down why urgency often backfires during the holidays—and how using it too early erodes trust, creates resistance, and gets sellers ghosted.

Urgency helps people act.
It does not help them decide.

December buyers aren’t avoiding decisions—they’re processing. Emotionally full. Financially stretched. Reflective, not reactive. When sellers push urgency during this season, it feels like pressure, not leadership.

You’ll learn:

• Why December urgency damages long-term sales momentum
• Where urgency actually belongs in a sales conversation
• How trust—not countdowns—creates January follow-through
• Language that preserves relationships instead of forcing decisions

If you sell services, coaching, network marketing, or lead sales conversations of any kind, this episode will help you sell with timing, not tension.

🎙️ Selling isn’t about speed. It’s about timing.

#SalesFluency
#SellingWithoutPressure
#SalesConversations
#HolidaySelling
#BuyerPsychology
#SalesTiming
#SalesLeadership
#TheSalesPulsePodcast

Welcome to The Sales Pulse Podcast, where selling isn’t a performance,,,it’s a conversation. I’m Marla Koupal, your Sales Fluency Guide. After decades in sales, here’s the truth: the close isn’t where the sale happens—it’s where the buyer lands after a strong beginning. We’ll focus more on how you open the conversation and connect with how your buyer thinks so that closing never feels like a wrestling match.

Support the show

🔁 Key takeaways: buyer pacing styles, real-life sales stumbles, and how timing builds trust.
💛 Love the podcast? Support it for just $3/month: [Insert Your Buzzsprout Support Link]
📲 Connect: https://successwithmarla.com | https://www.facebook.com/marla.koupal | https://www.linkedin.com/in/marla-m-koupal-sales-and-ai-fluency-skills-facilitator-125372126/