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
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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
