Keiichiro (Kay) Yano

The #SAAS revolution of ever growth of sales & market cap is not working for most users The impact of unspent licenses and unused tools are becoming an eye sore The use it or lose it philosophy with users are being used for many IT tools by business focussed IT departments I see decommissioning of SAAS tools becoming a trend as many companies see taking out systems that are just protecting old ways of doing work a value driver Those providers that try to arm twist customers into staying may succeed in the very short term, but are well served to remember that SAAS was sold on " pay per drink", rip and replace and their ilk #Salesforce #Microsoft

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Thanks Santosh Sharan. Another (novel) idea would be to increase R&D and improve features of product (Obviously, massive inclusion of A.I.). As you mentioned, saturation of the CRM market and the CFO at Enterprise are identifying unused licenses and using their leverage to push prices down. However, there are some solid competitors in the market now and Enterprise is willing to move to significantly improved technology at a lower cost.

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Salesforce lost $50 billion in market cap. Sales in 2024 = smaller + longer deals. Is "Signal-led sales" the saviour? Here's how to stay afloat 👇 Build a system that looks at strategic value, not volume. If you think AI and fully automated SDRing will land you more deals, you're wrong. Everyone else is doing it. It only adds to the noise. There are 28 moments of influence on the buyer's journey, 4 of them have to do with your company directly... so if you're just blasting those 4 channels, you'll quickly exhaust anyone who even remotely cares. Instead? Consider this workflow: 1) Leverage a tool like Common Room to identify community, product, social, marketing, website, engagement and more from potential buyers. 2) Enrich contact data with tools like Apollo.io - 3rd party data is still critical to building out your CRM and getting high-level details. 3) Identify a partner presence with Reveal to further prioritize accounts based on partner signals. 4) Consolidate this into Clay and run the plays based on how you've aggregated all of your data and prioritized accordingly. 5) Bring everything into Aligned while you're actively selling to deliver the right relevancy. Examples of signals: - Marketing webpage visits - Increased social engagement - New customer won by partners - Recent community engagement - Visiting your partner's marketplace - Activity status within the tool (if free) - New opportunities opened by partners - Attending a webinar (ideally partnered) Examples signals we use internally. We: - Have a tiered free user base - Leverage real-time platform usage data - Aggregate marketing engagement (content + events) - Use 3rd party data like "recent funding announcement" - Generate reports + messaging for good health customers of partners - Pull in partners' data right into our CRM, like module purchases, account health, account activity, etc. Here's your old world vs new world comparison: 𝐎𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐯𝐞 = spray and pray, maybe getting a lead list of super high-level market signals, and likely using automated personalization with no real relevancy. 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐯𝐞 = specific targets that are actually showing intent, have already engaged with your ecosystem, and you target them with a well-defined message of relevant value. Who would you rather buy from? And realistically... how would you prefer to sell? Conversations that MAYBE convert? Or high quality, relevant calls much more likely to convert? BTW - Catch Superglue's latest newsletter about partner signals? If you're in #partnerships the same applies. Route signals to the right people at the right time with the right information. I'm a big fan of Superglue for partner teams to stay on-trend with signal-led selling. If you don't leverage signals, you'll be left behind & you'll be delivering less value to clients. The customer is your boss. Treat them accordingly. #sales #nearbound

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𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹: This is how SDRs of Germany achieves this using targeted signal outreach ⬇️ SDRs of Germany—one of the largest German sales communities—does more than connect sellers. They educate, organize events, and create valuable learning sessions. In their target market alone, Honeysales generated a staggering 4,173 buying signals. Out of these, our AI identified 358 as highly relevant—highlighting exactly which companies and leads to prioritize. Here’s where it gets interesting: Of the 166 signals being read, 157 messages were sent. That’s a near-perfect hit rate thanks to strict filtering designed to surface only the best, most actionable leads. 80% of these sent messages were from warm contacts, resulting in an 5 times higher CVR. In terms of sales logic, this is a great example of how targeted outreach works much better than broad-based mass outreach. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀: ➡️ Few Messages, More Precision Lea sends only 1-2 messages daily via honeysales. Why? She prioritizes timing and context, making each message highly effective. Sell smarter, not harder! ➡️ Narrow Down Your Signals They receive only 50% of 18 possible signal categories, allowing their sellers to fully focus on the most relevant opportunities. ➡️ Job Openings and Conferences Work Best Signals from open job posts and conference mentions align perfectly with the SDRs of Germany’s product and audience. Identifying the most relevant signal categories is essential for achieving optimal CVRs efficiently. With honeysales, selling smarter isn’t just a strategy; it’s your competitive advantage. Big thanks to the SDRs of Germany team for their work! And shoutout to Lea A Buecker for sharing a video yesterday on how they’re using honeysales (link in comments 🔗). #SalesAI #honeysales #signalbasedselling

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When RevOps is really just SalesOps (And the CRO is really just the VP of Sales) 𝗦𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗦 𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗘 - Closing deals should work - Clear pipeline management process - Forecasting is as accurate as possible - But everything before & after is an issue 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 - Has different goals - Maybe the target is MQLs - Has their definition of MQLs - And their definition of SALs, SQOs - Has systems with different metrics - Their reports don't match sales' reports - Leads routed from one system to the next - With lots of things falling through the cracks - Classic case of marketing/sales misalignment 𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 - Do SDRs report to marketing? - If so, we're misaligned there too - The goal may be meetings booked - So AEs have lots of leads and meetings - But maybe not the ones they really need - The ones that convert to pipeline/revenue - We have more misalignment & finger pointing - Do SDRs report to sales? - What content do they have? - What events and assets do they share? - What visibility do they have into engagement? - How does marketing align with their outreach? 𝗢𝗡𝗕𝗢𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 - Sales is paid to close deals - How do they hand off customers? - What is the onboarding process? - Who builds/maintains that process? - What is done if sales drops the ball? - What is done if sales overpromises? - How are incentives and comp aligned? 𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 & 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡 - Which customers are easiest to retain? - Which customers are most likely to churn? - Which customers are the easiest to expand? - How is this data used to improve sales targeting? - How do we maximize NRR if sales is in their own silo? For me RevOps drives value by getting into the weeds and finding ways to generate more revenue with the resources available. That includes SalesOps and optimizing the sales process to close more deals. However, if we stop there we end up with an expensive and inefficient revenue engine with high CAC, high Churn and low LTV. We end up with different departments chasing different goals in different systems with different reports and different definitions of success. What would you add to this? Anything I missed? ✌️

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+$100M B2B SaaS company doesn't know how many leads & how much pipeline they have. 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘆𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆. They just signed with us. They have:  - ICP/Buyer Personas barely defined  - No definition for an MQL  - No definition for an SQO  - No Sales Methodology  - No Sales Process  - No Forecasting  - Salesforce IS Implemented  - But no real usage of Salesforce  - No (accurate) reports in Salesforce (Kudos to them for having such a great product they broke $100M despite all this though, right?) It could take months, or years, to define the process, drive the team to adopt the process correctly, iterate it until it's right. We have 1-2 weeks! How are we going to do it? Here's how: 𝟭. 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰𝘀  - Every demo request is an MQL  - Every demo delivered is an SQO  - Build basic lead and pipeline reports  - Build a basic Revenue Metrics Dashboard Is this why I founded this company?  - To hack together some sloppy metrics?  - Absolutely not! But is this better than what we have today?  - Absolutely! This gives us a start, some basic visibility.   - It's also easier to populate historic data if desired  - Can't really do that with a methodology like MEDDIC 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗡𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁  - We'll skip ICP/Personas for now  - It's "good enough" but needs attention soon  - We'll start defining the lead and sales process  - This could take us a few more weeks or months  - But by EOQ we'll have FAR more accurate metrics We want to get to "good" as fast as possible. Then we can worry about getting from "good" to "great" 𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗲'𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗦 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱  - The basics need attention there too  - They also want this done "yesterday"  - But we have to take it one step at a time  - We'll nail ICP/Personas, other basics across GTM  - This sets a solid foundation across their entire GTM 𝟰. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀  - They already bought CPQ  - They already have accounting integrated  - They DESPERATELY want to forecast accurately  - They want to drive more revenue from each channel  - But these things take FAR more time  - We need the basics first We can't start with CPQ and ignore deals we're losing that we shouldn't, that we could win in just a few weeks if we get the right foundation in place. That's how we're tackling this. How would you tackle it? 🤔

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Sales Efficiency is not (only) driven by "AI, CRM, ABM & (no) SDRs"? 🤯💡 But these components are becoming table-stakes for success - fast. AI: "Staying still is falling behind" here. If your competitors invest, you must as well to - well, remain competitive. Not building your own tech, but leverage it. CRM: This should be a no-brainer in 2024 - but isn't. Still so many (to be) great companies with Excel, Asana & "brains" as "CRM. Or unsustainable choices that are either not flexible or do not scale with you. So yes, taking a stand here for HubSpot as #1 CRM for B2B entrepreneurs. ABM: Account-Based-Marketing > "Spray & Pray". Your Target Accounts & Buyer Personas want to be & feel understood. Conversions from outbound sales are at an all-time low (if you don't do this). (No) SDRs: Qualified Pipeline is future revenue -> cash is "oxygen". So Pipeline Generation is more important than ever before. Just junior talent mass-spamming prospects is not. "Pipeline Generation Yes / Junior SDRs: No/Hard? 👉 Join me at DACH's #1 B2B SaaS event ARRtist Summit to discuss? (PM me for one of the few last Founder / CxO tickets if you like? ---- Julius Göllner Matthias Ernst Jannis Bandorski Dominic Klingberg thanks for having me again as a speaker and since Day as a Co-Host with SalesPlaybook.

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Blended CAC Ratio has plummeted in recent years. Despite ruthlessly cutting costs, CFOs see the ROI on sales and marketing dropping significantly. Why? It's simple: GTM Bloat - Prior to the crash, we wasted money on ineffective GTM motions. - Then CFOs cut spending without fixing the underlying problems. Customers were harder to sell and expand and simply cutting headcount and spending wasn't enough to address this problem. The underlying inefficiencies in Sales and Marketing remained. Here are some specific examples: 1. Shitty MQLs At the top of the funnel, companies continue to ask marketing for more leads and spend money on people and ads to generate shitty MQLs that don't convert. Marketing hits their MQL target and sales misses their revenue target. 2. Poor Lead Routing At the same time, the best leads, those that request a demo, get mixed in with all the other MQLs and get neglected. Vendors that follow up within 5 mins have exponentially higher chances of converting these leads and vendors that wait days, or even hours, often don't even get a reply. 3. Poor Pipeline Management Sales teams do not actively follow a sales methodology and process so they lose deals they shouldn't and waste a lot of time chasing deals they could never win. 4. Outbound Isn't Working Press "Send All" in Outreach on generic messaging that doesn't resonate with buyers and then say Outbound is Dead. As response rates plummet, activity quotas are raised further in a vicious race to the bottom of quantity over quality. 5. AEs don't Prospect The "best" sales reps don't prospect. This creates numerous problems. SDRs have no one to guide them and AEs can't control their pipe gen so they waste precious time chasing deals they can't close. They are at the mercy of SDRs and marketing instead of leading the charge to get in front of the right people in the right companies with the right messaging. 6. CS is neglected There's been a significant push to improve NRR but still not enough. Many companies lack basic processes to onboard new customers, monitor and address health issues and get ahead of the renewal. 7. Lack of Strategic RevOps Most companies are hiring SFDC admins instead of data-driven, process-driven strategic RevOps leaders so all of the problems above fall on revenue leaders to fix. They don't have the time or skills to architect these processes or analyze the data to see these problems. What would you add? 🤔

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How to close enterprise deals:  • Salman Mohiuddin: My biggest blunder came at Salesforce on a $400,000 upsell → https://buff.ly/4a4OTNW • Jordan Novak: 2 of the scariest words in enterprise sales → https://buff.ly/3Kexnf5 • Mike Fiascone: Breaking into enterprise accounts is hard → https://buff.ly/3wOQLfv • Brandon Fluharty 🐝: Winning nine 7-figure deals in 19 months taught me this → https://buff.ly/4bvQg9f • Gavin Kowalski: The 5 commission killing mistakes we make trying to sell to the C-Suite → https://buff.ly/3KeORIg • Shivam Sandilya: Enterprise Selling is a Team Sport  → https://buff.ly/3QZ9tYF • Cassy Olson: Success isn't about winning every deal → https://buff.ly/4bHeHk0 • Kevin Meyer: Balancing strategy and daily tasks in enterprise sales → https://buff.ly/3KiEeE4 • Dom Urniezius interviews Nikita Balanov: Unlocking Enterprise sales success → https://buff.ly/3Kg2RkQ • Simon Tort: Find your champion → https://buff.ly/3wUze5x • Christi Civalier: 3 Keys to Becoming a Top Enterprise Account Executive → https://buff.ly/3UWbXbs • Jamal Reimer: 4-step process for working with SDRs as an enterprise seller → https://buff.ly/3UUpvnT • Debasish Mishra: Dear enterprise sales people… → https://buff.ly/3US2OAO • Roy Itzhaki: how we're booking meetings with top-tier firms → https://buff.ly/3URGlUj • Nate Nasralla: Here's the 1 exercise I give new enterprise AE’s. → https://buff.ly/4bqSOp6 • Ian Koniak: When it comes to Enterprise sales, less is more. → https://buff.ly/4bunVAg • Vugar Nadzhafov: What really makes a good enterprise seller? → https://buff.ly/3USgX0P • Raja Singh: Enterprise salespeople are spending too much time selling internally → https://buff.ly/3QWqRNG • Jacob Karp: I’ve never closed a strategic deal that didn’t include multi-threading → https://buff.ly/4bwUjCg • Jen Allen-Knuth: COI is agnostic of our product/solution. → https://buff.ly/3SQcUB6 • Zeb Couch 🤜🤛: Walkthrough of an example we used last year to win a $160,000 deal → https://buff.ly/3KdL8e4 • Patrick Sheehan: they are like kids in a candy store… → https://buff.ly/3QSMEpK • Damian Tommasino: You don’t sell to one person in the enterprise…ever. → https://buff.ly/3QYmX78 • James Thompson: Toughest challenge in Enterprise Sales? → https://buff.ly/3yvMJtb • Dan (Daniil) Gridin: My new step-by-step framework for engaging tier-1 accounts → https://buff.ly/3URZp54 • Mark Phinick: Pick up the phone. → https://buff.ly/3UNxGSW • Bob S. Key strategies to keep your reps focused & deals moving forward. → https://buff.ly/3Kcy48v • David Ooley: Two “big deal” realities you can leverage → https://buff.ly/3UPnAB7 ********************************************** Get daily sales tips with my newsletter: https://buff.ly/3SgnwJo  **********************************************

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4 tips for running better discovery calls +1 bonus tip +1 one give-away [last line] Discovery isn’t just a stage in the sales process. We've all heard this. Yet, too many reps walk away without truly understanding the pain or the cost of doing nothing. Here’s how to fix that: 1. Start with curiosity. Don’t dive in with generic questions. Instead, open with something thoughtful: → “What made you take this call?” → “When did this challenge first show up for you?” Simple, yet effective. 2. Go deeper. Surface problems aren’t enough. Your job is to dig into the why. → “What’s causing this issue?” → “Who else is impacted?” → “What happens if it doesn’t get fixed?” Get them talking about the ripple effects. 3. Tie pain to metrics. No impacted metrics = no urgency. Find out what matters most to their business: → “Is this impacting win rates, pipeline coverage, or forecast accuracy?” → “What’s the cost of missing those targets?” You’re not just finding pain. You’re quantifying it. 4. Call out the cost of inaction. Paint the picture of staying as is. → “If this isn’t fixed in 6 months, what does that mean for your team?” → “How does this impact hitting revenue goals for the year?” They need to feel the pain now. Bonus tip... 5. Know when to walk away. Not every problem is urgent. If the impact isn’t big enough, qualify out. Save your time. And theirs. Great discovery isn’t about pitching. It’s about listening, digging, and connecting the dots. Get it right, and you’ll build urgency without ever needing to offer a discount. Which number could you be doing more of? ------------------------------------------------------- 🔔 Follow me for more on sales James Bissell ♻️ Repost and I'll send you a Discovery Call talk track.

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B2B SaaS has really changed over the past 10 years. Especially in terms of how customers are valued. More companies are hitting their net new ARR targets right now than they were a year ago. BUT It's only thanks to *existing customers* that they're able to do so. Most of us working on the go-to-market (GTM) side are witnessing a couple of key trends: ▶ Existing customers are spending more with the same companies. (Yay!) ▶ It's harder than ever to acquire new logos. (Boo!) So why are we seeing this pattern? Here are 5 macro reasons. ⤵ (1) Product completeness is more common. Many B2B SaaS platforms have become more robust and can now solve more problems for their customers than ever before. (2) We have reached peak tool proliferation. Tons of SaaS start-ups sprung up over the past decade, each solving for a slightly different niche in the market. Or in some cases, for the same niche, just funded by different investors who saw a "hot new segment" they didn't want to miss out on. (3) Everyone focused way more on growth than on profit. With a focus on accelerating growth, many teams purchased tools that did the same or similar things, even within the same company (sometimes even in the same department!) Finance teams were prioritizing growth over profitability too, so naturally, budget holders were using their resources with growth as their primary north star. (4) Profitable growth is now the name of the game. There's no way investors are letting go of growth targets. But the post-pandemic focus on profitability means companies are now cutting out systems that are even partially duplicated. They can only do this *because* products are more complete now, and finance is far more likely to pressure teams to do so (as they're getting pressured by investors too). I'll be the first to admit it. Migrating off of tools is a pain in the neck. It burns up internal resources and time. Most of us would prefer not to have to do it. But when using your budget wisely becomes a priority? It's a must to get rid of them. And, it feels great afterward... like a spring clean-up! (5) Consolidation is real... and will continue. After any over-proliferation of vendors in any market, you start to see consolidation and roll-ups start happening. In some cases, this is beneficial to customers. It also represents cross-sell opportunity and opens up options to expand revenue with an existing install base. So what does all this mean for the B2B SaaS customer? It took us a decade, but... Customers are back in center view. Finally! Sure, land and expand has always been a thing in SaaS. But there is far more focus on *expand* now than ten years ago. And I suspect it will only get bigger. Because with the macro trends listed above, it's more likely and more possible than it used to be. It's the advent of a new day ahead, in which B2B SaaS can be more customer-driven than ever before. #SaaS #customersuccess #customerservice #GTM

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How do you measure the ROI of RevOps? How do you measure “Revenue Efficiency?” I think about this a lot. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲? 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀: - More headcount - More marketing budget - More resources to execute 𝗔𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝟭. 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗖𝗔𝗖 𝘁𝗼 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗔𝗥𝗥 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼 - Close bigger deals - Close our deals faster - Improve our Close Rates - Improve our Conversion Rates - Generate more inbound revenue - Generate more outbound revenue - With the same headcount we have - Or on the same $$ cost of headcount 𝟮. 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗡𝗥𝗥 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗦 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼 - Improve onboarding - Have healthier customers - Improve our renewal process - Improve our gross retention rate - Improve our overall expansion rate - On a CS dollar basis That’s my view, but this is also an oversimplification. - These numbers change a lot as revenue grows - Sales, Marketing and CS blend across these lines - Sales and marketing affect retention and expansion - CS can even have an effect on new customer acquisition What do you think? 🤔 I dove into this with 𝗕𝗲𝗻 𝗠𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘆 “𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦 𝗖𝗙𝗢” to ask his view on our last episode of 🎙𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙊𝙥𝙨 𝘾𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙧🎙 podcast. Check it out here: 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆: https://spoti.fi/3RNMKiL 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲: https://apple.co/3RNU8ui ✌️

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50 Million reasons why AI SDRs are about to f**** everything up 👇 SOLVING THE WRONG PROBLEM If you’ve never done the SDR job, your assumption is that the issue is scaling conversations. This is true, somewhat. The reason for the issue however, is not what people think. Investors and the founders assume that people struggle to talk to one another and that AI will outperform them. They also assume that data quality, both in terms of accurate contact information and finding prospects who actually are open to buying is a non issue. Further, they assume that the channels (phone, email and LinkedIn) do not play a major role in SDR success. They are wrong. 1% of the problem is what to say 99% of the problem is getting through LEGALITIES AND DISTRIBUTION It’s completely illegal to AI / Robo call someone in the U.S., which is the biggest market in the world for most companies. Enough said. Further, the channels for contacting a prospect are largely owned by a handful of companies: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo (Email and LinkedIn) and then major telecoms providers. There is 0 incentive for these companies to let your AI SDR function on their platforms. In fact, you will actually land up turning people away from using those platforms by harassing them non stop. CREATING THE DEATH TRAP This then puts us in the vicious cycle that mass email for example got in, which is that abuse of a channel renders the channel ineffective as a means of contacting prospects. Imagine 1000s of companies using AI to reach out to millions of prospects a day on all channels. They will burn the channels and the brand. EXECUTION WILL BE HORRENDOUS Most Marketers or SDR leaders are going to default to the worst way possible of approaching buyers, which is to simply turn the volume of activities right up on the AI spam machines until the campaigns stop performing and then they will move on. These leaders can barely build an effective plan to use the phone, email or LinkedIn to talk to prospects today. They certainly won’t become AI experts any time soon either. BUYERS WILL HATE IT For some reason, we assume closing a deal is the end goal. It’s the beginning. People buy based on trust and spamming people with AI when they haven’t opted in to be spammed is probably the worst way to begin a partnership and says a lot about how you view your clients. $50,000,000 was wasted this week on a solution to the wrong problem. There will be a lot of positive PR from people who don’t use the tool. But you will be hard pressed to find a lot of positive feedback from customers. Come back to this post in 2026 to see if I called it. 🤖

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Sales Leaders - Avoid this Mistake! Please don’t give your SDRs access to Smartlead/Instantly and ask them to manage multichannel workflows like LinkedIn touchpoints and cold calling. It doesn’t integrate well with your CRM, dialler or data provider meaning it will make a simple workflow very complex. You might actually be better off with a traditional sales engagement platform like Outreach, SalesLoft, or even Lemlist (even though you're hearing something else from Linkedin.) Instead you should think of SmartLead/Instantly as an additional SDR on your team that can send emails at such a high volume and low cost. Use it to reach out to your Tier 3 and some Tier 2 prospects where the average deal size doesn't justify having a dedicated SDR. ----------------------------- Hi, I am Leo, former head of sales now agency founder of the The Playbook Agency

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Scaling from $5M to $50M ARR: Strategies for SaaS Growth As a SaaS company, reaching $5 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is a significant milestone. It demonstrates market validation, product-market fit, and a solid foundation for growth. But how do you scale from this point to $50 million ARR and beyond? Here are some strategies to consider: 1. Focus on Customer Success: Prioritize customer satisfaction and retention. Happy customers are your best advocates and contribute to long-term revenue growth. Implement proactive customer support, gather feedback regularly, and iterate on your product to meet evolving needs. 2. Expand Your Market Reach: Identify adjacent markets or industries where your solution can provide value. Invest in marketing and sales efforts to penetrate new segments while continuing to serve your existing customer base effectively.   3. Invest in Sales and Marketing: Build a scalable sales engine by hiring and training top sales talent. Experiment with various marketing channels to find what works best for your target audience. Utilize data-driven approaches for lead generation, nurturing, and conversion optimization. 4. Enhance Your Product Offering: Continuously innovate and add new features to stay ahead of the competition. Explore opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, and expanding your product line to increase Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). 5. Optimize Operational Efficiency: Streamline internal processes and workflows to improve productivity and reduce costs. Leverage automation and technology solutions to scale without exponentially increasing overhead. 6. Foster a Strong Company Culture: Cultivate a culture of innovation, collaboration, and accountability. Hire employees who align with your company values and provide opportunities for professional growth and development. 7. Secure Strategic Partnerships: Form partnerships with complementary SaaS providers, resellers, or industry influencers to extend your reach and access new customers. Collaborate on co-marketing initiatives, integrations, or joint product offerings to create mutual value. 8. Stay Agile and Adaptive: Remain flexible and responsive to market dynamics and customer feedback. Continuously monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and adjust your strategies accordingly. Scaling a SaaS company from $5 million to $50 million ARR requires a combination of strategic planning, operational excellence, and relentless execution. By focusing on customer success, expanding your market reach, investing in sales and marketing, enhancing your product offering, optimizing operational efficiency, fostering a strong company culture, securing strategic partnerships, and staying agile and adaptive, you can position your company for sustainable growth and long-term success. What strategies have you found most effective for scaling your SaaS company? Share your thoughts in the comments below! #SaaS #GrowthStrategy #Scaling #Entrepreneurship

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Hello #RevOps Leaders .... have you built a Revenue Forecast for 2025? Wait, what? Why should I do that? The CFO does that! Most 2025 Revenue Targets will be top down - handed down from the CEO/CFO and Board. Remember most CEO and CFO's sit on the Board. It goes something like this. In 2024 we achieved 20% growth over 2023 - with the increasing maturity of our sales team, plus a 10% increase in sales headcount, plus the successful adoption of our marketing demand gen machine, we feel confident we can grow revenue by 30% in 2025. And a stretch target of 35%. So the "number" grows from $50M in 2024 to a $65M target for 2025. (PS - the stretch is what the Board eventually decides - so $68M) Seems reasonable? Who knows? That's why it's super important that the RevOps Leader guides his or her CRO to develop a bottom-up plan. This could be Sales Headcount Capacity based - based in actual rep attainment with ramping for new hires or replacements, due to exits or promotions. It could be based on pipeline build (from sales, marketing, channel), plus expected net retention of renewals. It could be based on expansion programs such as upsell from a new product, geo-based expansion in new territories, etc. It probably should be based on all of the above. And more. BUT ... it is super important that RevOps provide a sanity check for what is possible or realistic. I am here to help if anyone needs some help on this topic. Don't be the CRO or RevOps Leader who just "accepts" the 2025 number. Be the trusted advisor to your boss. Hey the top down number might be the eventual target, but at least tire kick what is possible, with your own modeling. #sales #CRO #forecasting

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Prospecting strategies from 30 pros 👇 • Marcus Chan: If you're struggling to generate ENOUGH pipeline → https://buff.ly/3zuxkcU • Mike Gallardo: 13 of the best outbound metrics to measure. → https://buff.ly/3zuxT6v • Morgan J Ingram: How I generated millions in pipeline → https://buff.ly/4cuNRfy ******* Get my collection of 120 cold call openers: https://buff.ly/3LbOLBF ******* • 👨‍🍳 Elric Legloire: How this Enterprise SDR sourced $5.86 million in pipeline → https://buff.ly/3zuxSzt • Cipriano Martins: My favorite prospecting strategy right now → https://buff.ly/4crtShT • Joe Mason: Nothing by itself will work → https://buff.ly/4cxi9OL • Debdutta Saha 🧘‍♂️: Three-step approach to building an effective list → https://buff.ly/4cqhm2d • Richard Smith: Timeless prospecting tips → https://buff.ly/4crXqvO • Yusuf Calvin: “can you call me back later?" → https://buff.ly/4coZdSc • Alexander Stefansson: 8 reasons why you suck at prospecting → https://buff.ly/4cyaQXi • Koen Stam: 6 basic tactics that are underestimated  → https://buff.ly/3W6mVNs • Brian LaManna: Had my best prospecting month  → https://buff.ly/3XMCr27 • Mandy McEwen: How do you generate high-quality leads? → https://buff.ly/3zruzsS • Troy Munson: Prospecting on multiple channels → https://buff.ly/3W8tX47 • Richard Hankins: "You better be on the leaderboard for activity and pipe-gen." → https://buff.ly/4cmXCfI • Chris Cozzolino, PharmD: Using LinkedIn for research/sending InMails is only the tip of the iceberg → https://buff.ly/4cHIk5D • Oliver Johnson: I booked 7 meetings last week.  → https://buff.ly/3zqEpLz • Jake Harry: Use this ONE simple phrase to book more meetings → https://buff.ly/4cObyPO • Aaron Reeves: 7 meetings through email in 1 month, here's how → https://buff.ly/3Wa0AOY • Harry Monkhouse: I got a meeting from this email → https://buff.ly/3VYnMP8 • Roel Cozijnsen: Some human touches are irreplaceable → https://buff.ly/3xG9WbZ • Elliot Kircher: Quick reminder on sales outreach → https://buff.ly/3zuxSPZ • Mike Andras: Prospects will say no more often than yes → https://buff.ly/4coZqos • Candyce. Edelen: Is a reply always a win with your email sequences? → https://buff.ly/4cIJOvM • Oliver Knowles: Sales reps often waste time on prospects... → https://buff.ly/4cQZs8F • Jason Bay: pro tip for prospecting around national holidays → https://buff.ly/4ctKdm5 • John Barrows: My cold outreach process that drives about a 17% response rate →  https://buff.ly/4cMvNNF • Mark Kosoglow: Our cold call connect rate plummeted from 7% to 1.4% → https://buff.ly/3W87jc6 • Sana Shah: Unlocking the Secret to Successful Prospecting → https://buff.ly/4eSNZab • Artem Kalugin: having a refined ideal customer profile (ICP) is a MUST. → https://buff.ly/4eQrjHF P.S. Get the best social selling and prospecting tips from LinkedIn in one free ebook: https://buff.ly/4ctKAgt

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There was always going to come a day when organisations realised that wrapping more admin around their most profitable 20% delivering 80% was not optimising potential. And the monoliths of the business world can no longer function in a service-orientated fashion, because of red-tape, legislation and the rule of spreadsheets, which curtail creative, competitive and service advantage. SMEs always were the powerhouse of enterprise innovation and economic growth. Now with global collaboration, AI optimisation and a core goal of delivery they will increasingly become the future employers and contributors to the countries, customers and citizens where they operate. - The AI-ce Age is upon us! Countries, businesses (of all sizes), citizens, political parties and voters, across the globe, face a binary choice... #AIceAge David Aalok Piers Terry Kevin Judith Max Simon Ben Andy Janet Sir Nadhim Tony Nigel Lisa Jack Thomas Howe Nicky Vikas Mark Dipak Rajesh Olaf Barbara Matthew Fred Vikas Clare Af Ronald Amy Barbara Vijay Nayaz Ian Claire Joel Mary https://lnkd.in/eJf6KjMh

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Top performing AEs achieve 4.8x FASTER DEAL VELOCITY. Imagine 1 report & 6 Qs accelerating your Q3/Q4 deals! Every quarter feels like a short quarter. Q3 and Q4 are no exception. Summer getaways, mid-term breaks & the holidays. → Good AE performance is exiting H1 on 40%. → Most AEs need to close 60% + to hit quota. → Speed is everything in Q3 and Q4. If you can add 4.8x deal velocity, then it gives you a great chance to exceed quota! How do top performing AEs achieve 4.8x deal velocity? They prospect the best-performing personas. Here is the rub... You need to check the data first hand. Check the CRM for closed deals. → Run a report for closed deals in H1. → Run a report for closed deals last FY. Get a decent sample size. It can be deals closed in your patch. Deals closed by your team or wider org. It can be deals closed in your vertical globally. Run a report that fits your situation. Then check the Top 5: Q1. Top 5 Largest Deals Q2. Top 5 Shortest Deal Cycles Q3. Most common Personas? (Champions, Economic Buyers) Then take it a step further. Q4. What were the exact pains? Q5. What were the exact use cases? Q6. What were the desired outcomes? tldr: to achieve 4.8x deal velocity... hat tip to Ebsta for the data. → Pipeline Generation: Use this to prospect the right persona so you can find deals with higher velocity. → Progress Pipeline Get all the top personas involved in your deals. Make a concerted effort to have more stakeholders engaged. p.s. If you’re an Account Executive looking to fill your pipeline and exceed quota in 90 days or less, I've space for 5 AEs in August. Send me a DM saying "90" to find out more. 🔥 🍾

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