Bizcast: Fred Copestake on his book, “Ethical Selling”, in conversation with Subhanjan Sarkar

Fred Copstake Fred Copestake is the founder of Brindis. Over the last 25 years, he has travelled around the world 14 times, visiting 38 countries, working with 10,000 salespeople. Using this to understand the challenges salespeople face, he has taken what makes a difference in modern selling and explored this in his book ‘Selling Through Partnering Skills’. These ideas form the basis of his work with sales professionals involved in complex B2B sales to develop their approach and ensure it is up to date and has maximum impact. Aware of the unprecedented speed of change in the world of sales in his second book, Hybrid Selling, he addressed how salespeople can adapt and evolve their approach to avoid becoming irrelevant. This quickly went to number one on Amazon after its launch. Fred’s third and latest book is ‘Ethical Selling’, which we are here to talk about today. He also hosts the popular “Sales Today” podcast. When Fred is not delivering training to UK or international clients, he can be found enjoying rugby, cricket and time with his wife and cats. Ethical Selling Fred Copestake reveals that rapid change in buyer behaviour—accelerated by the pandemic has ensured that customers are further along the buying cycle before engaging sales, and they increasingly distrust traditional “salesy” tactics. The core issue is poor selling practices that fail to add value. Buyers are better informed, less patient, and therefore expect meaningful, insight-driven conversations rather than superficial persuasion attempts from salespeople. Fred positions “ethical selling” as practical, tactical behaviour—not abstract morality—focused. His principle focuses on a “win-win-win”: for the customer, the company, and also the personal conscience. Transparency, active listening, and collaboration are effective techniques for building trust and improving outcomes. Rather than reinventing sales, he emphasises returning to proven fundamentals to create better conversations, stronger relationships, and more sustainable commercial success. The author believes that sales have “stretched the elastic too far” by overusing clever tactics, eroding trust and relevance. To recover, sellers must demonstrate value through curiosity, insight, and honesty—even leading with flaws to build credibility. Trust and collaboration form more quickly when sellers prioritise helping customers think clearly rather than pushing solutions, ultimately making sales more human and thereby more effective. Run time – 00:45:29 mins. Links for Subhanjan  [email protected]  https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar