Think Big. Win Bigger.

Ep 21 – Building a High-Performance Revenue Organization with Mark Dorsey and Mike Weinberg

Dennis Sorenson — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 04:00:00 +0000

What does it take to build a high-performance revenue organization? Host Dennis Sorenson welcomes Mark Dorsey, a senior sales executive and Chief Revenue Officer for a publicly traded company, alongside sales coach and author Mike Weinberg. Mark learned to sell renting Boston apartments with no salary, then became IBM’s America Software Sales Rep of the Year and went on to lead global sales teams. His philosophy is blunt. Leaders exist to help their teams win. “Our job is to drive growth and to increase sales. Everything else is just nonsense.”

The conversation walks through Mark’s rules of engagement, starting with return to customer and large strategic deals, and why building business cases with strong ROI is a game changer. Why do good strategies break down in execution? Mark’s answer is one word: “Focus.” The three unpack tying the knots across compensation, recognition, and communication, making SKO count, positive accountability, and monthly RPA meetings at every level. And after years leading sales organizations, what matters most? “It’s all about the team.”

In This Episode:

(00:00) Why sales leadership must be a force multiplier

(02:01) Mark Dorsey’s path from Boston real estate to IBM

(03:53) The $2 million deal and the Tiger team

(09:15) Hiring for the inner will to win

(14:16) Return to customer and large strategic deals

(20:45) Why good strategies break down in execution

(23:52) Tying the knots with scoreboards, rewards, and recognition

(29:19) Turning SKO into new sales motions

(34:22) Why the CRO’s number one job is building the team

(36:46) Embrace the grind, have fun, and take your vacation

(41:06) What healthy accountability looks like

(45:51) Pipeline is the lifeblood of sales

(51:47) Developing the next generation of sales leaders

(57:42) The one thing that matters most

Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes![Text Wrapping Break]About the Show

Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process.

The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time.

Resources:

Produced by Castos Productions

Mike Weinberg, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeweinberg2024/

Mike Weinberg, website: https://mikeweinberg.com/

Mark Dorsey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-dorsey-8a45711/

Dennis Sorenson LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisdealsorenson/

Cove Group https://www.linkedin.com/company/covegroup/posts/?feedView=all

Horizons West http://horizonswest.com

Ep 20 – What Has to Be True to Scale Sales Growth: w Michael McConnell (Part 2)

Dennis Sorenson — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 08:00:00 +0000

If your CEO says "double the business," what has to be true to actually get there?

Michael McConnell, COO of Bird Electric, tells Dennis Sorenson why sales should be the leading edge of the business, and why "operating at comfort" is a critical risk.

Dennis and Michael explore the relationship between ambition and strategy, including how understanding the real potential of a customer or market creates a stronger foundation for deciding what has to be true to reach the next level of growth. They discuss why businesses can get stuck living in "play," and what it takes to build a scalable growth capability. Michael shares why leaders should view sales as part of the operation, not simply another department. His advice to the next generation? "You don't have to know everything."

This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation with Michael McConnell.

In This Episode:

(00:00) Meeting teams where they are to build commercial rigor

(05:07) Real versus realistic and the discipline of ambition

(09:12) Building strategy backwards from a billion-dollar goal

(15:47) Finite games, infinite games, and living in play

(19:18) Pointing the team toward strength and innovation

(24:10) Scalable growth capability and lessons for the next generation

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About the Show

Resources:

Produced by Castos Productions

Michael McConnell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-mcconnell-mba-40a46a1b8/

Process-Driven Sales Substack: https://processdrivensales.substack.com/

Dennis Sorenson LinkedIn

Cove Group

Horizons West

Ep 19 – Lead Like a Marine, Grow Like an Operator with Michael McConnell (Part 1)

Dennis Sorenson — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 04:00:00 +0000

In Episode 19 of Think Big, Win Bigger, Dennis Sorenson is joined by Michael McConnell, Chief Operating Officer of Bird Electric, to explore the leadership lessons Michael carried from his ten years in the U.S. Marine Corps into his career in the infrastructure industry. Michael shares how his military experience shaped the way he approaches leadership, accountability, communication, and developing the next generation of leaders. What does it take to lead nearly a thousand professionals? His answer: "to be a good leader, you have to develop more leaders."

Michael introduces the OSMIAC framework he learned in the Marine Corps: Orientation, Situation, Mission, Execution, Administration & Logistics, and Command & Control. He explains how he applies it to business today, connecting it to clear communication, repeatable processes, accountability, and trusting teams to execute. Dennis connects these principles to Ambition, Strategy, and Execution, as well as Plan, Prepare, Practice, Play. What happens when growth depends too heavily on the founder? They discuss developing people, building sales as a strategic asset, and creating the systems needed to scale beyond one leader. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation with Michael McConnell.

In This Episode:

(00:00) From Vermont to the Marine Corps to the power grid

(04:29) What the Marine Corps teaches about leadership

(09:34) The OSMIAC framework for planning and execution

(16:19) Field-first decisions, KPIs, and accountability without bureaucracy

(20:52) Why growth by reputation alone hits a ceiling

(24:34) Building sales as an asset to the business

Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes! About the Show Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process.

Resources: Produced by Castos Productions: https://castos.com/productions/ Michael McConnell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-mcconnell-mba-40a46a1b8/ Process-Driven Sales Substack: https://processdrivensales.substack.com/ Dennis Sorenson LinkedIn Cove Group Horizons West

Ep 18 – The Role of the Sales Leader: Winning Through Your People

Dennis Sorenson — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Why doesn't the process-driven sales system execute itself?

Dennis Sorenson draws on lessons from a barbershop and a restaurant floor to show sales leaders what it actually means to point, arm, and monitor their teams — and why culture must be taught, not just defined. "A great system requires great leadership," he explains, arguing that hands-in, hands-on engagement — not oversight from a distance — is what turns a framework into real, repeatable performance.

Sorenson unpacks two real relationships — with Fletch, "The Proper Barber," and Tyler, a restaurant manager he calls "the hospitality leader" — to illustrate engaged leadership in practice. Referencing Mike Weinberg's Sales Management Simplified, he breaks down the discipline of pointing, arming, and monitoring a team, and draws a sharp line between micromanagement and genuine investment in people. "Great leaders do not lead from a distance," he says, closing with a challenge: connect ambition, strategy, and execution back to leadership itself, because the system does not execute on its own.

In This Episode:

(00:00) Recap: the four Ps and three disciplines of process-driven sales

(01:14) Great leadership is what makes the whole system work

(02:21) Meeting Fletch, "The Proper Barber"

(06:30) Tyler, the hospitality leader

(08:42) Mike Weinberg's framework: point, arm, and monitor the team

(12:12) Hands-on leadership versus micromanagement

(14:51) Closing: look for leadership lessons everywhere

Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes![Text Wrapping Break]About the Show

Resources:

Produced by Castos Productions[Text Wrapping Break]

Process-Driven Sales Substack: https://processdrivensales.substack.com/

Dennis Sorenson LinkedIn

Cove Group

Horizons West

Ep 17 – Leading Disciplined Execution with Matt Reubendale (Part 2)

Dennis Sorenson — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:32:26 +0000

Why do the same sales problems show up in every industry, from staffing to steel?

Dennis Sorenson continues with Matt Reubendale, Senior Advisor for Enterprise Growth at Horizons West, for part two of their discussion on execution. Where part one covered Reubendale's own journey with GOST as a seller, this episode follows his move into sales leadership, learning to win through his people rather than around them. "The wonderful thing about GOST is that it's insanely simple," Reubendale says, "but they are the rules." He unpacks how he taught, coached, and inspected GOST plans across teams managing anywhere from a few accounts to two hundred.

The conversation covers what makes a GOST objective "binary, yes or no," why the first plan is always wrong yet still directionally useful, and the weekly ghost call that keeps teams accountable. Reubendale shares how leading a team with 50 to 100 accounts each forced him to apply tiering inside GOST, and why Horizons West teaches the same system to every rep regardless of territory size. Why does the system solve the same problems everywhere? "That's been the biggest lesson," Sorenson says. This episode closes the three-part execution series.

In This Episode:

(00:00) From individual contributor to leading through your people

(03:00) Understanding what your people actually want before building the plan

(05:45) Where sellers struggle first: making goals and objectives binary

(11:22) Why the first plan is wrong, and still directionally correct

(13:23) Living in the plan: how a leader puts their hands in GOST

(15:23) Build once to use many, and the weekly ghost call

(20:32) What a leader gains from sitting in on ghost calls

(23:45) Managing 50 to 100 accounts with tiered GOST plans

(28:31) Closing the three-part execution series

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Resources:

Produced by Castos Productions Watch Part I with Matt: https://youtu.be/3GP9M2wPJlg Matt Reubendale LinkedIn Process-Driven Sales Substack: https://processdrivensales.substack.com/ Dennis Sorenson LinkedIn Cove Group Horizons West

Ep 16 – Learning to Execute with Discipline with Matt Reubendale (Part 1)

Dennis Sorenson — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0000

What happens when you stop managing activity and start managing outcomes?

Dennis Sorenson welcomes longtime friend Matt Reubendale, Senior Advisor for Enterprise Growth at Horizons West, for part one of a two-part conversation. Reubendale spent nine years as an account executive, hitting 90% of quota and closing the biggest deal of his career at Teradata before meeting Sorenson in 2016. He shares how Process-Driven Sales and Sorenson's blunt question, "Do you own your house?" pushed him past managing activity toward playing for real potential. "You can't unsee it," Reubendale says of the shift disciplined execution brought to his career.

The conversation traces Reubendale's journey from treating GOST as a bulleted task list to mastering it as a discipline that connects every meeting to a real goal. He and Sorenson revisit the hundred-million-dollar whitespace analysis, the "elephant off the toothpick" account turnaround at Teradata, and a spring-break outage that tested a disciplined plan under real pressure. Why does execution matter more than activity? "It's not about doing more," Sorenson says, "it's about knowing what matters." Part two continues the story in the next episode. (84 words)

In This Episode:

(00:00) Meet Matt Reubendale and his career before process-driven sales

(03:24) The Midwest Misfits and a new kind of sales leader

(05:47) Playing for potential, not quota, and the mortgage story

(08:40) Introducing GOST as the execution discipline

(13:16) Plan, prepare, practice, and connecting every action to the goal

(17:19) A crisis call, an outage, and disciplined execution paying off

(19:51) The elephant on the toothpick and transforming a major account

(24:13) Why the customer's outcome has to matter

(28:42) Matt's pitch on ambition, execution, and accountability

(32:00) Disciplined execution is about what matters, not doing more

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About the Show

Resources:

Produced by Castos Productions Matt Reubendale LinkedIn Dennis Sorenson LinkedIn Cove Group Horizons West

Ep 15 – Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

Dennis Sorenson — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Could a simple four-letter framework fix your entire sales forecast?

In Episode 15 of Think Big, Win Bigger, host Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, goes solo for the third pillar of his Process-Driven Sales System: execution. Building on the ambition and strategy work from earlier episodes, Dennis introduces GOST, a framework built on Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics. His core argument: a plan that lives "up here" in a seller's head isn't real. As Dennis puts it, "If it's not written down, it's not real." This episode is a practical playbook for turning strategy into daily, repeatable action.

Dennis breaks down how GOST creates a parent-child hierarchy connecting big-picture goals to the daily tactics that move deals forward, and why minimal, well-dated plans outperform bloated ones. He explains backward planning from deadlines, the "gap rule" for spotting missing tactics, and why forecasting accuracy depends on disciplined execution. Dennis also shows how GOST doubles as a discovery tool, helping sellers map a customer's own goals and objectives. What's the real difference between activity and accomplishment? And how do you keep from confusing the two?

In This Episode:

(00:00) Recapping the process-driven sales series so far

(02:03) Execution: where strategy becomes daily action

(06:23) Introducing GOST: goals, objectives, strategies, tactics

(09:47) Sales math and the gap rule

(11:50) Backward planning and setting realistic dates

(14:25) Forecasting accuracy and why deals slip

(18:49) How to actually build a GOST plan

(23:15) GOST as your written close plan

(25:53) Staying focused on what matters each week

(28:00) Using GOST in customer discovery

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About the Show

Resources:

Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn

Cove Group

Horizons West

Ep 14 – Fear, Ego & the Point of Friction with Blaine Sibby (Part 2)

Dennis Sorenson — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:47:40 +0000

What if the biggest thing killing your deals isn't the market, but your own fear and ego? Dennis Sorenson returns with Blaine Sibby, Chief Revenue Officer at Zenith Roofing, for part two of their conversation on friction in the sales process. Where do fear and ego show up in a seller's day? Blaine traces it to what he calls the sales AI trap, arrogance and ignorance, sparked by rereading Mike Weinberg's Sales Simplified. His core belief: sales is a profession, and like any muscle, it atrophies without deliberate work. For Blaine, planning, preparing, and practicing are the antidote to the fear that stalls sellers in the room. The conversation moves through building sales muscle, writing out discovery questions in advance, and Blaine's story of carrying a legal pad of questions into client meetings early in his career at NCR. Dennis introduces Professor Loren Nordgren's fuel versus friction framework from his Kellogg course, and the two map system, method, and motion as three layers every sales organization must integrate. They close by unpacking what fuel means at the individual seller level, more meetings and proposals, and why chasing volume without removing friction just creates a pipeline of wasted energy. In This Episode: (00:00) How fear and ego create friction for sellers (03:17) Building sales muscle so it does not atrophy (06:32) Writing out discovery questions before the meeting (10:39) Fuel versus friction: the Loren Nordgren framework (16:42) What fuel means at the individual seller level Share with a sales leader or seller who's ready to build something that lasts. Subscribe to hear all future episodes!

About the Show Think Big. Win Bigger is hosted by Dennis Sorenson, CEO of Cove Group, a strategic partner for companies seeking to optimize sales performance and achieve sustainable growth. With deep expertise in enterprise sales and fractional CRO leadership, Dennis specializes in addressing challenges at the point of friction—where inefficiencies, misalignment, or resistance occur within the sales process. The podcast is built on Process-Driven Sales and the three pillars of Ambition, Strategy, and Execution. Each episode breaks down the systems and operating rhythms that drive predictable performance, giving leaders and sellers practical insights they can use immediately. This is for professionals who are ready to stop improvising, start operating with intention, and build repeatable success over time.

Resources: Blaine Sibby LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaine-sibby-mba-b5ba3935/ Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisdealsorenson/ Cove Group https://www.linkedin.com/company/covegroup/posts/?feedView=all Horizons West http://horizonswest.com

Ep 13 – The Point of Friction with Blaine Sibby (Part 1)

Dennis Sorenson — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Is sales really about relationships, or is it just math in disguise? Host Dennis Sorenson sits down with Blaine Sibby, Chief Revenue Officer at Zenith Roofing, for part one of a two-part conversation on friction — the invisible force that stalls deals before they start. A former Marine Corps lieutenant, Blaine traces the concept back to MCDP Tac1, a Marine Corps warfighting publication, and applies it directly to sales: "friction is anything that makes the seemingly easy very difficult." What's really slowing your pipeline down? Blaine's answer: it's rarely the market. It's the self-imposed friction sellers create for themselves.

The two dig into where friction actually hides — in weak qualification, in white space on a calendar, in comp plans that reward the wrong activity. Dennis introduces his "sales is just math" framework, and Blaine counters with his own CRM dilemma: how do you actually quantify relationship-building? They close on the deepest friction point of all — trust — with Blaine's take that "people do business with those that they like," but the real work starts once you have to earn something deeper.

In This Episode:

(00:00) Welcome guest Blaine Sibby

(01:08) Where the concept of the point of friction comes from

(05:49) Removing friction as an individual seller versus a sales leader

(12:07) Sales is just math: pipeline coverage and relationships

(18:25) Inspect what you expect: the power of quality activity

(22:23) Maintaining initiative and earning trust in the sales process

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About the Show

Resources:

Blaine Sibby LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaine-sibby-mba-b5ba3935/ Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn

Cove Group Horizons West

Ep 12 – Making Strategy Real with Lee Paries

Dennis Sorenson — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Are you still being seen as the vendor, or have you earned trusted partner status?

Host Dennis Sorenson welcomes back longtime friend and business partner Lee Paries, co-founder of Horizons West, for part two of this strategy deep dive. Paries built his career scaling enterprise accounts at NCR and Teradata, pushing teams past quota into 10 to 20x territory. His core belief? Sellers cap their growth the moment a customer sees them as a vendor instead of a partner. "You always get capped a little bit," he warns, arguing ambition only happens once it's paired with disciplined planning and the courage to execute without shortcuts.

What does it take to grow an account 10 to 20x? Dennis and Lee break down "high, wide, and deep" account mapping, the discipline of earning trusted-advisor status instead of vendor status, and why monopolizing top talent for a client pays off. They discuss prioritizing opportunities with an 80-15-5 effort split, proving value through customer references, and applying strategy across an entire territory, not just one account. The episode closes with the origin story of Horizons West and Lee's challenge: stop, find your moment of inflection, and execute.

In This Episode:

(00:00) Welcome back for Part II with Lee Paries
(01:49) The 10 to 20x ambition mindset across industries
(03:38) The high, wide, and deep account mapping strategy
(08:07) Earning the right to expand beyond a single use case
(14:00) Repositioning as a fifteen million dollar strategic partner
(18:38) Applying strategy across an entire sales territory
(21:13) The top third, middle third, bottom third prioritization method
(22:41) Why Dennis and Lee built Horizons West
(24:43) The system, method, and motion framework
(27:18) The key takeaway for sellers and sales leaders
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About the Show

Resources:

Lee Paries on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeparies/ Horizons West (co-founded by Lee Paries and Dennis Sorenson): https://horizonswest.com/ Dennis Sorenson: LinkedIn

Cove Group Horizons West