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Greetings
Name: Mike Free Title: Enterprise Account Executive Industry: HR Technology Sales Goals I want to achieve: Building relationships with other hi potential sellers & Max out comp Hobbies: Hanging with Family and Friends One thing you want to get out of being an Ascender: Connect with other sales professionals
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Helping Your Sales Teams Use Their Solutions Engineers the Right Way
One thing I’ve learned across multiple teams and multiple companies is this: the partnership between Sales and Solutions Engineering can be a competitive advantage—or an underutilized asset. Rarely anything in between. When the relationship is aligned, intentional, and structured, deals move faster, customers feel…
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Everyone Owns Their Pipeline
In the current selling environment, deals take longer, buying committees are larger, and inbound isn’t what it used to be. That means pipeline creation can’t be delegated. Even top-performing sellers today are going back to basics — researching accounts deeply, building relevant outreach, nurturing stale leads with value,…
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Raising the Overall Discovery Standard
Enablement pros often see trends across deals that reps don’t — repetitive shallow questions, failure to follow up, or missing the chance to dig deeper. Raising your discovery standards is one of the fastest ways to improve pipeline health, deal velocity, and win rates across the board. Your reps need clear examples, safe…
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The Secret Sales Skill Hiding in Plain Sight
When we talk about sales skills, we tend to default to the usual suspects: discovery, qualification, negotiation, storytelling, objection handling, and all the frameworks that guide us through the motions of a deal. But there’s a force that sits underneath all of those skills—one powerful enough to transform not just our…
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Discovery in a Tougher Market
In this environment, every conversation counts. Customers are inundated with outreach and have little patience for sellers who don’t bring insight. That’s why great discovery questions are becoming a superpower. They help you stand out, build connection, and move the deal forward without force. Customers don’t want a…
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Wrapping Up Carefrontation: My Top 10 Moments (Number 1)
After counting down through ten incredible moments from our Carefrontation series, we’ve reached the most important takeaway—the one thing I hope every salesperson and leader carries with them long after the series is over. Number 1 is this: Carefrontation is a mindset, not a checklist. #1: Embrace the Mindset, Not Just…
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Handoffs That Build Trust Fast
In this market, the customer expects flawless execution the moment they sign. Their timeline is compressed. Their tolerance for misalignment is near zero. And they’re judging your entire company based on how you transition them from sales to the next team. A next-level handoff is the fastest way to prove that your company…
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November 14, 2025 - Ascender Insights: AI Skills to Future-Proof Sales Success [Event Recap]
The future is unclear, but one thing is certain: Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play a major role in every field. Max Elster, CEO at Minoa, joined Ascender Insights to talk about what skills you can focus on to help make your career better prepared for the AI waves to come. Talking points included: Level-Setting No…
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Wrapping Up Carefrontation: My Top 10 Moments (Number 2)
We’re getting close to the top of the list now. At number 3, we talked about how Carefrontation shapes your reputation as much as your results. For number 2, I want to highlight something that doesn’t always get enough attention in sales: the role of emotion in feedback. #2: Carefrontation Isn’t About Hiding Emotion—It’s…
