Maggie Maloney

To all SDRs or anyone entering B2B sales, read this post to avoid falling into common traps. 1. The most successful AEs I have met were the best SDRs. 2. SDRs who didn’t excel in the role and are now AEs are still struggling to generate their own pipeline. 3. AEs who skipped the SDR role, often due to an MBA or strong interview skills, fear switching jobs and roles without inbound leads. They’ve never faced the grind of building a pipeline from scratch, filled with rejections. 4. AEs who have never been an SDR majorly rely on their SDRs or Inbound leads from marketing to help them build pipeline and if any Quarter they don't get inbound or enough meetings from SDRs they sh** in their pants. 5. When these AEs become managers, they often question their team—"Where are the numbers?" or "Why isn’t there a pipeline?"—instead of guiding them on building it. Lacking experience in pipeline generation, they fail to lead by example and eventually lose the respect of their team. Learn the art and science of being an SDR and excel at this job at any cost, you will never have to look back or depend on anyone for pipeline EVER. Prospecting and Generating Pipelines is fundamental to Sales whether you are an SDR, AE, Sr Manager, or VP if you don't know how to do OUTBOUND you will continuously live a sales life of fear and anxiety. So SDRs ask yourselves do you want to be such AE and Managers in the future who depend on others to determine their performance and faith or would you like to own your job? #sales #prospecting #outbound #pipeline #sdr #ae #b2b #saas

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Multi-threading... A skill that's fast becoming the most critical in a sales reps arsenal. Why? 🤔 The market is tough at the moment. 🤔 Buyers are more budget conscious. 🤔 CFOs are asking teams to reduce spend and cut back on investment. 🤔 Prospects that once had buying power and sign off capability now have to get approval from C-Suite. It sounds like an uphill battle 🏃‍♂️‍➡️⛰️ but the truth is, multi-threading is not as daunting as you might think. ⭐️ Here's some tips that have worked well for me in the last 6 months ⭐️ 🗺 Map out your accounts. Org charts are critical for multi-threading. You need to understand who your prospects are, who they report to, and who holds decision making power. Tip - LinkedIn SalesNav let's you build drag and drop org charts! 🗣️ Check with your your champion. Confirm your org chart is correct. Ask them what the process is for bringing on a new vendor. If they don't know, 🆘 they are not a true champion. 📧 Share content early. Begin introducing yourself to key stakeholders quickly. Tip - Connect on LinkedIn with a short and sweet connection request, something like "Wanted to put a face to a name following some great conversations I've been having with (champion name) re (challenge). I'll send over some content via email shortly. I look forward to hearing your thoughts." 🎺 Make sure your content is personalised, engaging, and stands out. TOP TIP - Using a tool like trumpet 🎺 (digital sales room) is a sure fire way to encourage stakeholder engagement. Upload clear and concise value props, how you can solve their businesses challenges, client case studies and more. Ask these contacts to bookmark the page as you will regular update it with content as the deal progresses. And, track their engagement, so you can meet them in the moment. So far, my prospects have been LOVING it! 📞 Pick up the phone. Once you've connected on LinkedIn and sent content, call prospects to ensure that they have seen it. Ask what questions they have and tell them about next steps. By doing the above, when it comes to negotiation these stakeholders will be informed and aware of the entire process to date, and you and your product will be top of mind 🧠 Tenured AE's in my network (I know there are a lot of you), what do you do to successfully multi-thread? P.S. You can guess what I'll be doing in the office today :😉 #multithreading #sales #digitalsalesrooms #dsr #aestrategies

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SALES, SALES, SALES - Let's meet & work together for the rest of your sales career - Account Executive Opening$ 💘 Revenue Tool - SaaS Series B $125- $150k base $1m- $1.2m quota $7k- $500k deal size selling into #saas #sales #gtm teams actual inbound $$ growing their sales team from 5-12 SDR support (one on one for now) for #startup rep$ only 💘 Direct to Healthcare Tool - SaaS Series B $900k quota Some SDR support ideal candidate has worked with #insurance and has #saas background 💘 Manufacturing ERP Account Executive & Implementation Consulting org $95-$110k base. $200k++ OTE $200k+ deal size Must MUST MUST have sold #erp to manufacturing companies this is NOT a platform, or a RESELLER, this is a CONSULTING ORG that sources, refines fit and works with the customer throughout a very long up to 2 year implementation process - you will be the #csm #am NO COLD CALLING OR SALES EMAILS you will work DIRECT with JUST the founder open to seeing #sdrs who have sold #erp to manufacturers who want to get out of software, and into consulting - SDR Opening$$ 💘 Direct to Healthcare Tool - SaaS Series B 10+ qualified attended meeting a month selling into #hr mostly within #nonprofits and #homehealthcare $55-$65k base, up to $200+ per qualified, attended meeting do not contact me if you aren't going to take my coaching seriously :) cold call me 10x in a row text me send me a blind invite do what you got to do <3 #sales #salesrecruiter #gtmsales #founderledsales #saleshiring #salesjobs

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SDR Dashboards - what do you want to see? Gimme your top 3 stats/charts/reports you like to see on YOUR dashboard for pipeline gen. There's the obvious activity levels and SQL/SAL volumes but what else do you like to see.....

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Dear fellow salespeople: If you have friends, family, clients, or colleagues in the LA area, please extend a little extra kindness right now; they’re likely not doing okay. Press pause on calling your California prospects and instead take a moment to check in with them. A quick message or thoughtful gesture can go a long way in offering support during tough times. Let's prioritize empathy and genuine connections in our work. After all, sales is not just about closing deals; it's about building relationships that matter. Stay safe, everyone 💜

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If you want to get promoted to AE, You need to have AE skills. And, unfortunately, most SDRs don't have them. Why? Because the SDR role and the AE role are very very different. If you just focus on developing your skills as an SDR and expect to get promoted to AE, You're kidding yourself. You'll get better as an SDR (which is table stakes for promotion), But you won't show you're ready for the next step. So how do you develop AE skills? By doing AE work. This means running calls. And it doesn't have to be customer calls right off the bat. Here's a strategy that worked for me: Schedule a mock call with a different person internally every week. There are 3 big advantages of this: 1️⃣ You get experience running calls and then get quick feedback on where you can improve 2️⃣ You get to work with different personalities and get different perspectives on how to best run a call 3️⃣ Word will get around internally that you're working on your AE skills, which will improve your internal personal brand This is how you take control of your own development. There are a lot of competition for these spots, So you need to make your promotion a no-brainer. There's no better way to do that than to do the job before you actually get it. #sdr #bdr #ae #sales #growth

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HIRING NOW: ENTERPRISE & COMMERCIAL AE - SaaS - Automation - $ALES & MARKETING account signals and insights SaaS tool 💸 Commercial Account Executive: $125k base 50/50 split - $1m quota 💸 Enterprise Account Executive: $150k base 50/50 split- $1.2m quota Actual inbound leads - $20k - $500k deal sizes - 6 months sales cycle You keep account in your book of business for upsells while CSMs are responsible for renewal #seriesbstartup, working under one of our longer term #vpofsales who JUST started - you must have experience - at an earlier stage org of less than 200 employees - selling a complex solution - ideal experience selling into #gtm #salesleaders or desire to Selling into other SaaS orgs! work with clients like GitLab Notion MongoDB and MORE - providing insights on how their #gtm can do more with less, and make more $$ In a world of tech, where everything is connected it is more possible than ever before to build connections between your current clients, and your ideal prospects This solution combines Sales, Marketing, Community and Operations and uses AI to enrich, score and analyze intent - $ignals are one of the most important aspects of monitoring what is working, and the best way to target, support and optimize every account. An ideal rep understands sales strategies including #productledgrowth and #productledsales MUST BE HUNGRY, LOVE BUILDING PROCESSES and have experience working in a startup get on my schedule! 206 747 9724 #accountexecutive #commercialaccountexecutive #enterpriseaccountexecutive #gtmsaas #gtmsales #salesjobs #salescareers #bestfootforward #softwaresales #saassales #salesdevelopment

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🤯 “Ramping up SDRs, AEs and CS people  takes us no less than 6 months.” 💣 🙈 This is what I heard on a recent demo from  a CRO of a rapidly scaling tech business. 📈 Time to efficiency is a struggle Heads of Sales Enablement and Customer Success are going through across their commercially-driven teams… 📖 At the moment, they expect internal  sales and CS decks, call recordings,  business pitches, etc. should do the job. 🙄 But it doesn’t! 🗓️ They're wasting too much time for people to start performing, closing deals, effectively onboarding customers, reducing churn & upselling… ❌ Sometimes, they still don’t perform... And then guess what? Off leaders go through to recruiting mode again starting from ground 0. 🎯 Hence the need for action-based learning.  Not just passively reading through PDFs  and listening to call recordings. 👨‍💻 Below are some use cases we see our customers here at UJJI AI ✨ leveraging our tech for: 🔸 Business-specific lead gen and outbound 🔸 Pitching quick and easy over the phone 🔸 Delivering demos and answering queries 🔸 Effectively onboarding new customers 🔸 Efficiently implementing product features 🔸 Practising great customer support 🔸 Guiding customers to upselling 🚀 Ultimately, growing tech businesses comes down to predictable new business development, high customer retention and low churn. 💬 So, DM me if you want to see examples  of AI-powered. easy to build and consume knowledge equipping experiences. 👇 Anything to add to this, Sales and CS leaders? Gautam Rishi Rohan Dickinson George Heron Russell Mitchell Callum Hartley Jon Teale James Dixon Seán Colfer Caroline L. Guy Rubin Jake Carter David Muscat Arun Raveendran Steve Eveleigh Ayo Kukoyi,

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If you want to get promoted, you can’t rely solely on quota attainment to land the job. Imagine you’re part of a 100-person SDR org. People are eagerly waiting for an SDR Manager role to open up. Now let’s say 60% of your org is overattaining against quota. That’s 60 SDRs who are just as hungry, driven and qualified as you are. Out of those 60, maybe 10% want to go the SDR Manager route. That means you’re competing against 6 strong candidates. All of whom have surpassed quota. (Not to mention the external candidates) If it was just about quota attainment, then the choice would be obvious... The person with the highest quota attainment would get the job. But that’s not how it works. Now imagine you’re somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of quota attainment. But throughout the year you’ve: - Mentored new SDRs and helped them be successful. - Regularly networked with leadership to get feedback and guidance - Earned recommendations from your field team - Led team trainings and initiatives - Built a positive internal brand Even though your attainment wasn’t the highest… You’ve set yourself apart from the other candidates who rely solely on numbers to make their case. While it might not guarantee you the job. You make it easier for the hiring team to picture you succeeding in the role. So if you want to stand out, focus on what you can control beyond the numbers. It helps you go from being one of many, to the one they choose.

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Many SDR managers fall into the trap of making 1:1s all about the numbers: - Chasing activity targets - Tracking how many leads were added to sequences - Focusing on quota progress - Pushing solely for more activity But the real impact of a 1:1 comes from shifting the focus to what genuinely drives success: - Clearing roadblocks - Coaching for skill development - Genuinely checking in on their wellbeing - Understanding their personal ambitions - Recognising achievements—big or small 1:1s should be about people, not just numbers. Fixate solely on metrics, and you risk losing trust and connection with your reps.

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I first read about this notion in the book #ChiefCustomerOfficer 2.0 in 2015. The book discussed company Power Cores and how, for organisations to fully pivot to a 'Customer-Led' model, Power Cores need to shift from a traditional Sales-led Power Core to a Customer Power Core. The book is pretty clear on ensuring readiness but also how to: 👉 Earn the right to growth (expansion isn't a given it takes work and focus) 👉 Create customer-driven growth architecture (to support the expansion there has to be a carefully created framework to make it easy) 👉Honour and manage customers as assets to your business (the same goes for your people 😁) 👉Recognising Customer Experience Development is as important as Product Development 👉Build the revenue erosion early warning process by understanding the intersection points that impact customer decisions to stay, leave, buy more, and recommend you to others. #CustomerSuccess and the quality of the frameworks on which it is built in your organisation are at the centre of this. Instead, what did the majority of companies do? They either gave the CRO the CCO title and changed nothing or (worse still) created a #CCO role, changed nothing operationally, yelled about how badly this role fails, and went back to traditional sales models. All over, CSMs are still underappreciated and over-burdened. #CSM

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I agree with my Silicon Valley buddy, Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight on this. ⚙ Why? One of the things I always say is that, "It all starts with sales." 🤔 Without sales, there is no company. The better the sales org operates, the better the company will do. So why not optimize and unify the sales organization by having the CCO report to a CRO (rhetorically asked). 📈 It's a great way to ensure that customers are delighted post-sales and that they keep coming back. 🤝I've seen this configuration foster a cohesive strategy for maximizing customer satisfaction and revenue growth. This alignment ensures that customer-focused initiatives are deeply integrated into the organization's broader revenue strategy, enhancing the effectiveness of both functions. 🙌 It seems to promote a unified approach to identifying and capitalizing on customer insights, ensuring that customer needs are addressed proactively. This reporting structure also facilitates better communication and coordination, leading to more comprehensive customer engagement and streamlined decision-making processes. 💪 I believe this configuration strengthens the organization's ability to enhance customer experiences and drive sustainable revenue growth, contributing to long-term business success. #leadership #management #sales #innovation #venturecapital

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In 3 months, we’ve seen a 20% increase of pipeline in validation stage or greater. And here’s why… ✅ We’re aggressively training all SDRs on exactly what the full sales cycle looks like for our prospects. 👉 Driving stronger alignment with AEs. 👉 Supporting the team's development into closing roles. 👉 Allowing us to compensate our SDRs for activity further down the funnel. If you’re looking to improve the retention rate of your team, remove the disconnect, and build better pipeline, don’t cut SDR enablement at just the initial meeting. This approach will have a strong impact on pipeline - yes. But more importantly, it’ll have a huge impact on the development of SDRs 🏆

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SDRs & BDRs sometimes have to play in Shitty Conditions 💩 🐌You’ll have slow lead days 🐌 🫠 questionable lists 🫠 🤞 or processes that feels like it was put together with duct tape and vibes🤞 So, how do you stand out? You figure it out. The top SDRs aren’t the ones who sit around waiting for perfect leads or a manager to hand them a magic playbook. They’re the ones who roll up their sleeves and get creative. 🔥 Leads not flowing in? That’s your cue to experiment. Try hitting up a new channel, tweaking your messaging, or diving into old leads to see who’s ready now. In the Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck - He calls this the "Do Something Principle" - just do something, if that doesn't work do something else. It will lead to something. And will always be more effective than doing nothing ⏰ Squeeze more from your day. Start 30 mins early or stay 30 mins late. Take your lunch off hour so you can try catch these people when you know there not in meetings. Follow up on leads the second they come in 📨. Send a creative email on the weekend while vegetating on the couch (yes, some people actually respond! 📆). The small stuff stacks up fast. 🥷 Steal!!! Picasso said "Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal". Look around your team, find the person who's killing it and watch them. Join calls, listen to the questions they ask, listen to how they open conversations, watch their body language. Then do that! Keep what feels good and works, drop the rest. The truth is, everyone’s going to deal with the same bad lead days, slow periods, or process headaches. What separates the top performers is how they respond. You can either sit there and complain 🥱—or you can get scrappy 💪, have some fun experimenting 🎨, and find ways to pull ahead 🏆. The SDRs who figure it out don’t just hit quota—they learn how to be indispensable. Managers notice. 👀 Teams notice. ✅ Future employers will notice 💼 On the flip side. - they all notice the reps who need all their problems solved for them as well 😳 #sdr #bdr #simpsonsfriday #DoSomethingPrinciple

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Renewals are the lifeblood of every SaaS company. However, we don’t talk enough about what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals. Since there are so many lists on what makes a great AE, I thought I’d take a stab at what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals: 1/ They prioritize the renewals that move the needle Renewal rate comes down to simple math. What renewals are going to move the needle for them? Great AMs/CSMs spend their time where they’ll get the most bang for their buck. 2/ They prepare 6 months in advance Average AMs/CSMs prep 3 months in advance. Great ones plan 6 months in advance. This includes asking hard questions well ahead of time during a mid-year QBR, so they know where to spend their time. 3/ They can re-sell the product Stakeholders change. Priorities change. Competitors try to break in. Great AMs/CSMs can sell the product as well as their AEs and know how to position their value props and handle objections. 4/ They know how to negotiate I don’t know any procurement person in the post-ZIRP era who doesn’t try to negotiate their contracts. A great AM/CSM knows how to turn negotiations into win-wins. 5/ They know the difference between procurement and decision-makers Similar to point four, they know how to negotiate and with whom. Negotiating with procurement is much different than negotiating with a key stakeholder. Each party wants something different, and it’s important to recognize what that is. 6/ They know how to rope in their AEs or extended teams Just like the best AEs know how to “quarterback” deals, a great AM/CSM knows how to rally resources to help with renewals. AEs, Execs, SEs, and Professional Services can all be brought in to help show the customer extra love. 7/ They develop a renewal champion We always talk about champions in the presales process, but not enough about champions during renewals. A great AM/CSM knows how to develop champions to help push renewals through. An AM/CSM who knows how to do these things is worth their weight in gold. Keep them happy as long as you can!

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Customer Success is harder than Sales. CSMs have to: ▪️ Resell the value of the product/solution every single day. ▪️ Ask the tough questions. ▪️ Set realistic expectations (even the ones clients don’t want to hear). ▪️ Drive expansion and renewals—all while keeping relationships strong. According to the EG SaaS difficulty scale (by yours truly), it’s 4x harder than selling net new. So why isn’t CS the natural next step from sales? SDR → CSM or AE → CSM It often looks like this instead: SDR → AE → Sr AE→ Management Why? It's about the day-to-day responsibilities more than it is about the money (though that plays a role). Great AEs are hunters—focused, driven closers. Some are hunters and farmers. Great CSMs are business operators—they understand the entire customer journey, from pre-to post-sale. They bridge the gap between sales and support and work wth the product team on priorities. That’s what makes CSMs so critical—it’s a skill set that adds tremendous value to multiple areas of the business. So why isn't CS the natural next step? CS is a completely different world. To every CSM out there: we appreciate you more than you know 🙏 🦜

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Have you ever tried leaning back on your cold calls? 📞 No, I'm not talking about physically leaning back (you might fall out of your chair) I mean using a more casual and humorful tone with your prospects. Almost every new SDR/BDR thinks they need to be 1000% serious when talking to exec-level prospects and I'm here to say that's just not the case. In fact, I began seeing more success when I first started cold calling the moment I let my funny bone flex a little. Taking cold calling too seriously is just going to burn you out and bore your prospects. You got to have a little fun with it. Not to mention, your prospects are humans just like you! Sure they may have a big fancy title and wear a suit on their LinkedIn pic but I guarantee you they are human beings (most of them anyway). If you're going to be cold calling today and still don't believe me this is a real quote from a VP of Sales I spoke to last week. ⬇ Me: So what do you have planned for the 4th, any illegal firework action or taking it easy? Prospect: "Nothing too illegal just going to rip a slip n' slide with a pack of Coors light and hope to god my wife doesn't see..." 🤷‍♂️ Your prospects are humans Don't be too serious Happy Dialing ☎ #coldcalling

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Most outbound processes suck. Why? Because too many companies are still chasing quantity over quality. They push the idea that more activity = better results, and then they throw SDRs into the deep end without proper training (and then complain they’re not hitting target). Here’s the truth: it’s broken. Instead, companies need to: - Get laser-focused on their ICP - Craft messaging that actually brings value to prospects - Focus on targeted, research-driven outreach - Train their SDRs as thoroughly as they do their AEs Focus on value not just the numbers!

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Most sales leaders focus on their top performers. But your best reps will crush quota whether you help them or not. Here's the uncomfortable truth about scaling revenue... Your top 10% will succeed despite you. They'll figure out how to sell your product and close deals even if you give them zero support, no collateral, and an undefined ICP. But you can't build a scalable revenue engine on top 10% talent alone. It's just math. Even with a rigorous interview process and strong recruiting brand, our 12-month retention rate at Levelset was around 55%. And that was GOOD. The key to scaling isn't finding more unicorns. It's raising the floor for everyone else. That means writing down exactly what success looks like. Not just hoping good people will "figure it out." I learned this the hard way. For the first 4 years (or so), we closed deals almost in spite of ourselves. No real sales playbook. No defined process. Just talented people working hard. When we finally documented our exact process - from first touch to close - our ramp time plummeted and consistency shot up. The uncomfortable truth? Most founders spend way more time recruiting than preparing to train and support their hires. Your playbook doesn't need to be fancy. Start with one document: "How to Run a Demo." Make it painfully detailed. Your top reps will hate it. Your new reps will love you for it.

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