The Secrets of How to Win Billion-Dollar Sales That Start Long Before the RFP with Shari Begun

How do you align global stakeholders and still keep price from dominating the conversation? In this episode, I sit down with Shari Begun, Vice President of Sales at GlobalFoundries. She leads strategic accounts in the semiconductor industry and manages several billion dollars in annual revenue. She takes us behind the scenes on what it actually means to close complex, high-stakes deals that take two to five years to materialize. Shari provides insight on orchestrating global teams, aligning engineers with executives, and navigating customers spread across continents. We explore how to articulate value when price is always on the table, but rarely the true decision-maker. Shari discusses how supply chain reliability, geographic diversity, engineering investment, and speed-to-market become powerful value levers in enterprise sales. She also reveals how executive business reviews are carefully engineered, along with how consistency builds trust over years, not weeks. We later unpack how curiosity can transform complex negotiations into long-term strategic partnerships. Topics covered during this episode include: Why semiconductor deals involve enormous investment before revenue appears. How global customer teams add complexity across locations and functions. The way technical experts support early enterprise sales conversations. Why different customer stakeholders need carefully tailored and consistent messaging. How simple organization charts can reveal decision-making power over time. Why transparency helps secure access to senior customer decision-makers. The role of roadmap alignments and executive reviews in relationship building. How executive meetings focus on future investment and faster market entry. Why pre-reads and alignment prevent surprises in high-stakes meetings. How customer value depends on understanding the problem being solved. How delivery flexibility can create huge customer revenue opportunities. Why consistency and follow-through build trust before formal opportunities appear. How AI supports onboarding, summaries, and faster internal knowledge searches. Why sales intuition still develops through observation, coaching, and curiosity. How blank-slate thinking can unlock creative moves with existing customers. Listen now to hear how billion-dollar sales are really built long before the final negotiation begins!   Shari Begun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharibegun/