“Put. That coffee. Down.” (Until you’ve read the below!) From objection handling, to prospecting tools and pipeline coverage, we’ll be covering all things sales right here…

Jordan Belfort’s famous “sell me this pen” exercise reinforces the notion that sellers aren’t best served by focusing on their own needs (to sell), but rather on those of their customers (finding a solution to their problem). It’s not about what the pen can do, of course, but what you the customer specifically need. With this as a North Star, sellers can create valuable connections with prospects. Storytelling is a crucial part of this tool kit, and is especially important in the era of AI workslop.

Author Don Yaeger is stressing the power of good storytelling in his new book, The Business of Storytelling, highlighting its importance for business leaders and founders as a way to break through the noise and make lasting connections. The book gives best practices of good storytelling and stresses the impact it can make as AI-powered automation threatens to make interactions stale and mundane.

Revenue Brew sat down with Yaeger to discuss his new book and how storytelling can improve a salesperson’s outcomes.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How did you come up with the idea for the book?

I was a freshman in college when I was home for the holidays when my father, a preacher and really great storyteller, and my mother used to invite hundreds of people over for Thanksgiving. He would always stand up and tell a story. That year, instead of watching him tell a story, I watched the room watch him tell a story and how they were riveted to every word. I thought, “Man, I would love to learn how to do that,” so I began the process of studying the best storytellers in the world, getting access to many of them…to get an opportunity to go sit with them and learn what it is they do to make their stories so time-stopping.

Read about storytelling and sales in the AI era.—LI

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CFOVILLE

Jeremy Hofmann

Whether it’s to shop apartment rentals or homes for sale, to ogle the McModern houses in a city’s affluent enclaves, or to find the Holy Grail of weirdest-looking houses, Zillow is often one of the first places people search.

Luckily, Zillow didn’t have to do much searching for its next COO. Its CFO was right there.

After close to nine years with the company operating the largest online real estate listing site, Zillow CFO Jeremy Hofmann took on the expanded role of COO/CFO in August. Hofmann told CFO Brew the new title feels like “a natural extension of a lot of what I’ve been doing,” and that Zillow has “gotten to a point where it made sense to extend the responsibilities.”

Hofmann, who was promoted to CFO in May 2023, said the main reason behind the title change was to see whether and by how much Zillow could speed up execution with a combined CFO and COO role. And amid a “super dynamic” housing market, Hofmann said, there’s a lot to learn.

“I’m about as excited as I have been, and I know that just because my brain is fried by the time I go to bed. Like I hit the pillow, and I am just out within two minutes,” he said. “I’m not doing the typical stay-up-late-ruminating-type stuff. I’m just ready to turn it off.”

Seeing double. Hofmann said that while the dual role may not work for every company, he’s seeing it “show up in more companies than not” because of how intertwined strategy, operations, and financial discipline are.

“If you have that good financial discipline, those in the CFO role and those in the finance roles can be really impactful to how you operate the business,” he said. “I’m pleased that we’re doing it here at Zillow, and not entirely surprised it’s happening in other companies as well, particularly in this dynamic an environment.”

Read about Zillow’s strategy for delivering customer value.—DL

      

active pipeline

Stat: $5.7 billion. That’s the fine Apple faces after a patent infringement verdict. (CNBC)

Quote: “There’s some amount of streamlining the team is doing, and Asha [Xbox CEO Asha Sharma] is doing, which is great to see. And then we have to invent the right sustainable business model that allows us to deliver gaming to more and more people.”—Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on recent changes at its Xbox business (IGN)

Read: How iced coffee sparked a generational debate. (the New York Times)

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Have you ever thought about heading back to school? Well, retailers certainly have, as fashion schools become their newest innovation labs. For fashion retailers looking for their next employee—or their next big idea—the classroom is becoming the place to look.

Bank CFO looks ahead to interest rate hikes and AI bots (CFO Brew)

Echoing comments he and his peers made the day before at a CFO panel in Las Vegas, Douglas Schosser, CFO of Ohio-based Northwest Bank, told CFO Brew that one of the biggest challenges he’s facing is “the level of uncertainty” surrounding macroeconomic events and the “velocity of change” in technology.

What founders should know about executive presence and personal style (Founder Brew)

When Asma Parvez met Poppi co-founder Allison Ellsworth, she was styling Ellsworth for the cover of Austin Woman Magazine.