In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Adi Klevit, founder and visionary behind Business Success Consulting Group, to expose a powerful truth many CEOs and Founders don’t face, your sales success often lives in someone’s head instead of in a scalable, repeatable system.
Adi walks through her proven approach of documenting, optimizing, and implementing processes so companies can finally scale sales reliably, empower their teams, and free the founder to work on the business, not in it. By the end of this episode, CEOs will have a clear roadmap to turn messy, inconsistent sales behaviors into a documented playbook that produces consistent results.
💡 CEO Action Steps
- Block 2 hours this week to think deeply about why you need documented sales processes.
- Sketch out your full sales cycle from lead discovery to closing and onboarding and circle the single task with the biggest drag or inconsistency.
- Record yourself doing that task live (screen + audio), and generate a written procedure. Then schedule a rollout and training for your team with follow-up reviews in 90 days.
If the term “sales playbook” feels vague or overwhelming, don’t miss this deep dive on what a playbook really is and why you need one.
You’ll also want to think critically about how your salespeople are spending their time. Are they stuck in non-revenue-generating activities? Learn how to shine a light on hidden inefficiencies by checking out this blog on how CEOs can uncover time-wasting selling activities.
And if you’re still unsure whether you’re leading sales strategically, take a listen to this episode with David Dulany where he and Alice discuss the CEO’s pivotal role in driving a high-valuation sales organization.
Watch below or on our YouTube channel
Rapid‑Fire Picks
Books:
10X by Grant Cardone
The Power Questions by Jerold Panas & Andrew Sobel
The Go-Giver (and The Go-Giver Influencer) by Bob Burg and John David Mann
Podcasts:
Inspired Insider with Dr. Jeremy Weisz
Advise to the CEO: Focus on what they can control and let go of what they can’t, like the economy, market fluctuations, or global events. Instead, she recommends channeling energy into how you lead, operate, and continuously improve. Be a lifelong learner. That’s the mindset that keeps you agile, innovative, and successful no matter what the market throws your way.
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Transcript
Alice Heiman: Welcome to Sales Talk for CEOs. You all know that I talk to CEOs all the time about their sales process, their sales systems, their sales goals, and most importantly their sales strategy. But when I come into a company, typically I’ll start asking about the sales process. And although there is somewhat of a process there, it’s not systematized. Now I’m not just talking about startups because I work with companies that are 10 and 20 years old. So when I walk into a startup, I would expect they don’t have things systematized. But in a 10 or 20-year-old company, it’s always very interesting to see what is the sales process and what are the systems around it.
And they’re usually just not there. Or they’re broken. And part of the reason is because even after all that time, so much of the knowledge about sales and how it happens is in one person’s head. Usually it’s a CEO or a sales leader who’s been there a long time, or a salesperson who’s been there a long time.
So I’m super excited today to have an expert who’s gonna help us unravel all of this and figure out how to systematize our sales process and get all that information out of people’s heads and into a place where everyone can use it and learn from it.
I’m excited to have Adi Klevit on the show today because she is an expert in systemizing things. Welcome Adi.
Adi Klevit: Thank you. Thank you for having me. It’s great to be a guest on the show.
Alice Heiman: It was so fun because I got to be on your podcast not too long ago and we had a round, so we’re gonna do it again.
Adi Klevit: You’re gonna be a recurring guest. We had so much fun having our conversation that we decided to do part two because we had so much to talk about.
Alice Heiman: Absolutely. So that’ll be fun to look forward to. Well, before we jump into our topic today, which I know all the CEOs listening are gonna be very interested in, tell everyone a little bit about what you do, who you do it for, and the results that they get.
Adi Klevit: Yeah, so what we do is we create, document, optimize, and implement processes and procedures for fast-growing companies that are lacking consistency. That’s what we do, and the results that they get are freedom because it allows the founder, the owner, to step out of the business. Whether they’re in the business—not to work in the business but on the business—and create the freedom to create it.
It also empowers the teams to do their jobs correctly, know what they’re doing, and be able to replicate success every single time.
Alice Heiman: Yeah, and I think that’s the key, right? How do we replicate success? If everything’s in one person’s head and they’re just saying, “Well, just do it the way I do,” it’s really hard because I don’t know exactly what you do and I’m trying to figure it out. But we do need to document things. I always urge startups—CEOs always want to hire a salesperson as quickly as humanly possible, or a sales leader—and I tell them, “Listen, you are not set up for success in doing that. What you have to do first is document what you’re doing that works and how you do it.” And it would be more advantageous to hire a sales coordinator or an assistant, or even outsource someone like you to document all of that first, and then hire someone because now you can give them a playbook.
Adi Klevit: That’s exactly right.
Alice Heiman: Alright, so let’s go ahead and jump into this. So we walk into a company—not a startup—they’re 10 years old, maybe 20. And in my case, that CEO is always looking for an advantage. They’re always looking at how to grow even more and even faster. Many of them want to exit their companies eventually, or they want to bring on some debt or equity financing or do some acquisitions, but they’re just not ready yet because their sales is not where it needs to be. It’s not profitable enough, and it’s because they really don’t have the systems in place that they need. So Adi, where would we start?
Adi Klevit: Well, the first place where we start is with the mindset. As you mentioned, we don’t have the processes in place. We have to figure out why it’s important for the CEO, for the company, for the leadership team to actually have well-documented processes and procedures.
I always start there. If I’m not convinced that they have a why behind doing it—and a why is not “because I read it in a textbook” or “because Alice told me” or “because I know it needs to be done.” You really have to be convinced for yourself that you need it for a reason.
It might be because you want to sell the company and increase the price. It might be that you want consistency because you can see that your sales team is not doing the same thing every time. Or if you’re the CEO, you see across the board you’re not getting consistent results. It might be that your sales team is amazing, but then the operations are faltering. And then what happens is that you sell but you can’t deliver. And that reduces the confidence of the sales team.
That happens a lot. I’m sure you see that as well.
You can sell and sell and sell, but if you can’t deliver, it’s a problem. Let’s have systems.
Adi Klevit: So there are many reasons. It might be that the CEO wants to step out of the company, that it’s owner dependent. So that’s another way, another reason why to document so many reasons. But first of all, you got to be convinced that you want to do it and that there is a why behind it.
Alice Heiman: Yeah. You’ve got to be able to recognize what’s not happening the way you want it to. And then you have to understand what needs to happen, and then document it. And it’s a lot of work because you’re doing your regular job. Many CEOs run their company, but they’re also leading sales too, or leading another department, and the time just isn’t there.
So when I tell them, “You’ve got to document what you’re doing,” they’re just like, “How am I gonna do that?” So what are some of the ways that a CEO can document—not just the CEO, but the leaders, the people who’ve been there a long time and have all of that knowledge from years and years that needs to be shared with everyone? What are some of the ways they can start to just get that information out of their head and document it somehow?
Adi Klevit: Once you’re convinced why you’re gonna do it, then you need to decide where to start. A task can be overwhelming when everything looks the same. So it’s important to pinpoint one thing and take a step in that direction.
So how do you know where to start? My question is always: look at the entire department. We’re talking about the sales department. Look at everything that is being done. What area, if well-documented, will give you the biggest return on investment?
Maybe you’re spending a lot of time doing admin. One thing that salespeople really do not like is the admin—the paperwork, the reports. They just want to go get a sale and go to the next one.
So it might be getting a sales assistant or an administrative assistant. But as you mentioned, they might not know what to delegate. So start documenting there.
Alice Heiman: Yes! I’ve had CEOs sit with me and I draw a line down the middle of a paper: sales work vs. administrative work. Then further: sales work a CEO should do vs. sales work someone else should do.
Once you sort it, it’s like, okay, now we have to figure out how to tell someone and teach someone how to do all these things that you should not be doing. And even with sales leaders, especially if they’ve been, with the company a long time, they’re doing a lot of things they really shouldn’t be doing, and we have to just start literally listing out the things that they should do versus someone else should do. I think it’s just like, what are the instructions? What would you tell someone to do? How to do that.
Adi Klevit: Exactly. And the way to do it if you want to do it yourself is: as you do the task, start recording and explain out loud what you are doing. Show it on the screen and explain the rationale behind it. Why you are doing it. What are the successful actions. Best practices. What to look for.
Just start recording yourself and accumulate those videos. Then give it to someone. It may not be elegant, but it’s efficient if you’re doing it yourself.
Alice Heiman: Yes! If the only tool you have is Zoom, turn it on, hit record, share your screen, or just talk. Then at least we can hand that to someone. Maybe AI can help, maybe a human can help. But at least you’re further down the path.
Even if all you did was say, “I need you to do this task—here’s a video on how to do it,” you’re better off than now, which is: “Hey, can you go do this?”
Adi Klevit: Exactly. One of the things that you could do, you have to have it organized. ’cause otherwise it’s just all over the place. So let’s say for instance, you identify that you want to do, give me a task, Alice, give an example of a task.
Alice Heiman: Well, I think a lot of the follow up, even in founder led sales in the early days. Anytime A CEO is doing any part of the sales process, whether it’s in the early days or 10 years out or 20 years out, someone else should do all of the follow-up, right? The CEO should have a way to give that instruction to someone. They would make the follow-up appointments; they would get all of the data into the CRM. They would prepare any documents that were promised to be sent. They would do all of that work. So completely relieving the CEO or sales leader of that work.
Adi Klevit: Exactly. And you have to have it organized, otherwise it’s all over the place. Let’s say, for instance, you identify that you want to delegate follow-up. So write the key points for yourself of how to do the follow-up. Have that structure.
Whenever we work with clients, we take it in levels. Level one is the concept of what needs to be documented: follow-up, proposal writing, qualifying the lead, nurturing the lead, discovery calls, proposals, follow-up, etc.
Then pick where to start. You start with follow-up. Good.
Then you can go to ChatGPT or any AI and start dictating: “Here are the steps.” If you organize it ahead of time, you can dictate it and get a written procedure.
You can also use a tool like Loom, which generates a transcript. Then you can run the transcript through AI—but make sure to review it.
Alice Heiman: Yes, because sometimes AI writes crazy things! And you’re like, “Where did that come from?!”
Adi Klevit: Exactly. And you can have AI interview you: “What’s missing?” “What’s unclear?” “What else would someone need to know?”
It’s not perfect, but it gets you ahead. At least you have something in writing.
Alice Heiman: Yeah, absolutely. So I do think though that most CEOs are not gonna slow down enough or take the time to actually do this. And that is a big problem, right? They wanna do it and they know that we need to do it, but they don’t necessarily remember to record when they’re doing something or jot down the notes or any of that. And so some of the things that I’ve suggested in the past are, there’s tools. I can’t even think of the names of them right now, but you can just turn on your note recorder anytime or leave it running all day and it will pick up some of the things that you’re doing. But I don’t think that’s super efficient either. So I recommend hiring someone like you, either outsourcing it or hiring someone literally to sit next to you and follow you around to document all this stuff, because you’re just probably not gonna do it. But it is so critically important and if you slow down, you’ll be able to speed up later. Right? So let me get all of this outta my head and out of the heads of the other people who have been here a long time. And I think too, with sales process, it’s not just the people on the sales team that need to be interviewed or the CEO. There are so many other people that impact sales. And I think that we have a big miss when we don’t bring all of them into the sales process also.
Adi Klevit: Absolutely. No, that’s actually why I started my company in 2011. First, I was doing general business consulting because I’m a very good strategist. I was helping people with their strategy. But one of the things that I would say is, you have to document your processes because otherwise how are you gonna grow your business? Week after week, yeah, we know we need to do it, but as you said, they’re not gonna, they just weren’t doing it. It’s just not doing it. And then I go, okay, well how about if I do it for you? Really? You can? I said, yeah. So I started with one client doing it, and the results were amazing. And then I realized that there is a niche, there is a need for it. And that’s where my company grew. And we have consultants, technical writers. It takes a lot of expertise and time to do that. But one of the things that I would also recommend is that it’s not just documenting what you are doing. That’s not enough. It’s the start, but the key is to also extract the rationale behind it, the why behind it. As you can see, I’m really big into the why and understanding things because if you don’t really understand the reason why you are doing different things, people can look at it and go, oh yeah, Alice, you are doing it that way, but I’m gonna do it another way. So it’s fine. But the truth is it might not be because it might be that you are successful at what you are doing. You are asking that question at that specific time during your sales presentation for a reason. Because it was successful to do it over and over, or you don’t follow up until three days later because of a reason. I’m just throwing it. It’s not a real example maybe.
Alice Heiman: But you found over time that this works better. And that’s why you’re saying, I know you may have done it another way in the past, but here’s what we found. Now that doesn’t mean that can never change, but that’s why we’ve documented it to do it this way, because it has worked very successfully.
Adi Klevit: That’s exactly right, and that’s why it’s so important to also document best practices. Also, think about what frustrates you the most about this process, because those are the points that the process is not working as it should. So when you are recording yourself or you are thinking about writing that process, what frustrates you about that process? Oh yeah, this, this, and that. Okay, good. So this is a good time to think about how to overcome that, or what do we need to improve in order to make this process better so then it doesn’t frustrate you or becomes more efficient. So that is a great time to also improve the process.
Alice Heiman: Yeah, you can figure out what can be automated. While you’re writing this down, you’re like, Oh, I wish I didn’t have to enter here, here, and here. Oh, well maybe that could be automated. Or maybe it’s just connecting two things together so they can communicate. So I agree with you. Writing down those frustrations are important too. I also feel like once you have written out your process, all of the people who are involved in that process — could be customer success, could be engineering, could be some other departments — they should look at that and say, well, you forgot that when you do that, you always call me and I have to get on the call with you.
Adi Klevit: I forget that, totally. Because the next step — okay, so we talk about documentation, about optimization — but implementation is the most important part. And I tell my clients, if you’re not gonna implement those processes, don’t bother spending the time writing them because what’s the point? So it’s better to write less of those processes but make sure that they’re being implemented. And when I say implemented, I mean roll it out to your team. Exactly what you are talking about. You have to roll it out to anyone that is touching that process and get their feedback, have them read it. Send a survey with the feedback so they can tell you what’s missing or what they see that might not work, or maybe you’re doing it in a different way. So you roll it out and you make sure that everyone is aware of those processes and procedures, and then use them in day-to-day management. Don’t just let them sit there. You have to be able to use them and also review them on a regular basis. Because if you don’t review them on a regular basis, they can become stale and it’s enough that one thing in that process is inaccurate that people will start thinking, oh, well if this step is not done anymore, probably the rest of the steps are not valid anymore. And then you get into a situation where you say, yeah, I know we have that process documented, but we don’t do it anymore, so this is the way we do it. And then the confusion starts all over again. And all your hard work of trying to put all these instructions in place basically goes to nothing.
Alice Heiman: This just happened yesterday when I was talking to a team and we were doing a funnel review and we were talking about one of the opportunities in the funnel — whether it was in the right stage — and somebody said, well, that’s all documented. And I know because I helped them document it. And so we went to the document to see what it said, and sure enough, the document needed to be updated. Because things change and that’s why it’s not static. You don’t write a process once and leave it forever. And especially in sales, I feel like it’s so important to update frequently. And one of the things you might have documented and have a playbook on is how to do a sales sequence, a sequence of emails, calling and LinkedIn to try to get a prospect engaged. Well, we both know that the way we were doing this even three years ago — certainly 10 years ago — doesn’t work anymore. But I keep opening up playbooks at companies where they’re running the same plays that worked 10 years ago, even three years ago.
Adi Klevit: Even three months ago. It wouldn’t work anymore, but it’s still being taught to their salespeople.
Alice Heiman: Yeah, I know.
Adi Klevit: So that’s why what I recommend is, for processes — depending on the maturity of the processes and how often they change — I recommend putting it on the calendar to do a process review once a quarter. And if you do it once a quarter, it doesn’t have to be very thorough because you are already reviewing it constantly, but then you know where to go and you ask yourself, am I still using those scripts? Did the script change? And then it’s just a matter of changing a word here and there, or whatever changed, but you make sure that you actually look at it. The process review has two things. It’s either event-driven or time-driven. Time-driven meaning you are gonna have regular process reviews so you can make sure that everything is up to date and in the right sequence and functioning. Event-driven meaning you decided that you are going to change the script or something is not working. You change it or you got a new software or something happened.
Alice Heiman: Oh yeah, we buy a new tool, and now we’re gonna use the tool. It’s gotta be integrated.
Adi Klevit: It has to be integrated. So you always have to remember to say, okay, I now have a new tool. I need to review my processes and add it to the processes that I have documented.
Alice Heiman: Right. Exactly. I think that’s really wise — event-driven or time-driven — and every quarter you should review it anyway. But anytime we purchase a new tool or change something, or somebody has a great idea, we try it, it works — go back and change the playbook. But we do forget to do it. And I think that’s probably just a really hard thing. Most people don’t even have well-written playbooks to begin with, but then updating them if they do just doesn’t happen. I work with a company who sells intranet systems to banks and engineering firms and a couple of others, and these intranets house all of this information and playbooks so that it’s easy for people to find them when they need them. And we were working with one of their clients and they told me this story that she was like, I don’t know how to clean this up and get this old stuff out. I’m searching through here and I find some information about how to do it on your Blackberry. When was the last time you saw a Blackberry? She’s like, it was completely wrong. That was not helpful at all. And so I think it just proves the point, right? You have to clean this up because someone’s now searching for how to do something and the only thing they can find is from the ’90s. And it’s not gonna be helpful.
Adi Klevit: I think we might have listeners right now that go, why is she mentioning, what is a Blackberry? Like the thing we eat? No, it used to be a phone that was called Blackberry. So look it up.
Alice Heiman: Google it if you don’t know what a Blackberry is. Blackberry phone. Blackberry device. Blackberry phone. Yeah. Anyway, so that was very funny, but it’s kind of sad because the person who needed that information needed it. And all they could find is this very old document. And so I think especially in sales where we’re changing pricing, we’re changing process, we’re changing our decks around — all these things that are not static. And salespeople need the most updated version at the moment that they need it. And it can’t be like, oh, oops, we forgot to update that. But it’s kind of how it appears.
Adi Klevit: Totally. I agree.
Alice Heiman: Yeah, so let’s just review, because I think it’s so important. If you are a CEO or a leader out there who feels like, okay, it’s time. We have a little of this and a little of that, but we really need to have our process documented. Not cemented so much that we never change it, but documented. It’s easy to find. It’s updated on a regular basis. If you are there and you’re ready to get started, let’s go through these steps again. So number one—
Adi Klevit: Number one is having the right mindset. For you and for your team. So there has to be a session about why are we doing it? What results do we wanna get? What is our goal? And then, okay, we are all in alignment and agreement on that. Step number two will be to map all the key processes in the department. And then step number three will be to decide where to start. What will give you — if you had well-documented processes and procedures in that area — the biggest return on investment. Then step number four, you start documenting. However that works for you: you extract the information, record videos…
Alice Heiman: Get an assistant to help you, outsource it. Whatever you do, let’s get moving on one process and get it documented.
Adi Klevit: That’s right. Let’s get it documented and then roll it out. Roll it out to the team, get feedback from them, ask questions, be willing to accept the feedback. Does that work? Did we miss anything? How are you gonna use it? Just make sure you roll it out and then talk to the team about how you’re gonna use it in day-to-day management. So now that we have the processes, when you are doing your meetings, if there is an issue that comes up — let’s say somebody didn’t follow up with an important prospect — okay, let’s open the process. Let’s see what it says. Which step was not followed? Why wasn’t it followed? It’s always a people problem, a process problem, or both. Then you also schedule regular reviews on your calendar to review the processes and make sure that they are being used. And you develop a culture of accountability where people will refer to the processes and make sure that they use them and they’re accountable to execute what is being said in the process.
Alice Heiman: Yeah, absolutely. And I’m just gonna add: train and retrain. Because you think, well, we developed this process, oops, we forgot to train everybody on it. Everybody — everybody in the company that might touch that process in any way whatsoever. And maybe even if they don’t, if it’s an important process that everybody should know about. But definitely if they touch it, train them. But then retrain them in a period of time, whatever seems logical, and especially if you’ve reviewed the process and changed or updated it in some way, you have to retrain. You can’t just say, Hey everybody, we changed the process, and hope they go read it or watch the video. They might not.
Adi Klevit: That’s exactly why we say train and retrain. Very true.
Alice Heiman: Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for being on the show to share this. This is such valuable information. It’s gonna make a great post as well, because you’re very explicit about the steps and that’s what everybody really likes these days. They just wanna know, tell me how to do this so I can get started and get going on it.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I have three quick questions for you before we leave the show today. Okay. The first one is, what’s a book that you think every CEO should read?
Adi Klevit: That’s… there are definitely different books. I think that 10X by Grant Cardone is one of my favorite. I think that’s a mindset that’s very important. And I have a book here that I was just reading. I like this one — The Power Questions. It’s very good. It’s by Gerald Panas and Andrew Sobel. So it’s a great book. Bob Burg — The Go-Giver — is amazing. I interviewed him several times for my podcast and now he has a book called The Go-Giver Influencer, which every time he has a new book I interview him because I think it’s phenomenal. It’s easy listening. I listen to it on Audible and it’s easy listening. It’s a story, but it really gives you that mindset of how to treat others. So yeah, some books that I really like.
Alice Heiman: Nice, nice. And is there a podcast that you listen to and you really enjoy because it helps you think differently?
Adi Klevit: I listen to so many podcasts. Built to Sell Radio is really good. Inspired Insider is very good with Jeremy Weisz. Those are some of my favorites.
Alice Heiman: Very good. And the last question is, what do CEOs need to know to win in this market?
Adi Klevit: They need to know that there are things within their control and things that are not, and they have to identify what they can control and do more of that and become better at that. That is really what I think. I had a person once tell me that he refuses to participate in recession. He refuses to participate in it. And it’s refusing to participate in things that are out of your control. Look at what you can take control of and do more of that, become better. I do think that being a lifelong learner is very important in order to win in this market or any market, because you have to adjust. You have to adjust to the market, to what works, and you have to have knowledge in order to do that.
Alice Heiman: Yeah. Thrive in any market. That’s the key, right?
Adi Klevit: You do. Especially in sales, I don’t think — let’s say the market is down or something is happening — you’re not gonna call all your salespeople and say, okay, well, we’re not gonna do anything. No. It’s going to be the opposite. It’s going to be: how do we do more? What tools are out there to help us do more? And in order to succeed in that, you have to figure out… you have to have your systems well-documented for sure, so you don’t lose the knowledge and you are efficient and you can replicate your success. But you have to also innovate all the time to stay relevant.
Alice Heiman: Oh my gosh. Absolutely. Well, thanks so much for being on the show today. I really appreciate it. I can’t wait to record with you again on your show. We’re gonna have a lot of fun. But thank you so much for sharing with us exactly how we can start to make sure we have the right systems in place.
Adi Klevit: You’re very welcome, Alice. Thank you for having me.
Alice Heiman: If you enjoyed the show, please like and subscribe and we’ll see you next week.
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