Alan Ruchtein

CEOs: Broken pipeline & poor performer sales reps? I fix both for you in <60 days. You’ll hate how fast it works. | Modern Seller Program Founder

Your ability to book meetings, negotiate, and close deals with potential clients will determine how far you’ll thrive as a sales rep and leader.

This will allow you to:

📈 Build a career
📈 Hit your quotas
📈 Get recognition
📈 Get a promotion
📈 Get better offers
📈 Land sponsorships

However, booking meetings and closing deals it’s harder than ever:

❌ Prospects don’t return your calls
❌ Prospects don’t stop ghosting you
❌ Prospects don’t answer your emails
❌ Prospects don’t trust you as a seller
❌ Prospects don’t believe in your offer 
❌ Prospects don’t accept your LinkedIn Invite

All of these makes you feel miserable

You feel your manager’s pressure on your shoulder

And you start thinking that sales might not be for you.

Do you relate with this? Because I do - I’ve been there

This happens because the “old way” of doing sales doesn’t work anymore.

Sending 1000s of generic emails and praying they get back to you will kill your sales career.

Now, imagine having a proven system that allows you to systematically:

✅ Book more meetings
✅ Handle all the objections
✅ Move deals through the pipe
✅ Close higher tickets in less time
✅ Run discovery and demo calls like a pro

And, hitting your sales quota.

Wouldn't this be the scenario you would like to be in?

The good news - I can help you get there with:

➝ My weekly Newsletter with actionable sales tactics
➝ My daily sales practical examples in my Content
➝ My sales personalized program
➝ My 1-on-1 Coaching Sessions
➝ My team Coaching Sessions

Now, how serious are you about building your Sales Career?

Let's make it happen.

👉🏼 Shoot me a DM, or head over to my Featured section.

I'll see you at the top!

Founder

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77 AI Use cases every seller should know:

These are the workflows that separate average sales teams from elite modern ones, the real levers behind faster pipelines, cleaner forecasts, and higher close rates.

I put together a 77-point Sales AI Cheatsheet covering every stage of the revenue engine:

✅ Identify ideal buyers fast.
✅ Protect forecast accuracy.
✅ Automate RevOps workflows.
✅ Enable buyers to move faster.
✅ Personalize outreach at scale.
✅ Automate outbound with context.
✅ Turn every call into a coaching loop.

Whether you're an SDR, AE, SDR, Sales Director, VP Sales, or CEO, this cheatsheet shows exactly where AI adds revenue, not noise.

Want the full hig-res PDF version?

Like this post.
Connect with me.
Comment “AI SALES” and I’ll send it to you.

Follow Alan Ruchtein for more sales systems, AI workflows & revenue frameworks.

How I book +70 meetings/mo for clients at 20% of the cost of having 4 reps performing at full capacity:

OLD WAY

-4 SDRs
-Multiple salaries
-Bloated tool stack
-Manual research
-Manual emails
-Manual follow-ups
-20–30 meetings/month (team)

NEW WAY

-1 Modern Seller (AI-powered)
-Lean, precise, high-output
-Modern tool stacks
-60+ meetings/month (one rep)

(Partial) Techstack used:

Maildoso: Email infrastructure
Clay: Enrichment & Research at scale
ChatGPT: Personalization & Messaging
FullEnrich: Waterfall enrichment for emails/phones
DeBounce: Data validation
Instantly.ai: Sending tool

And +10 other tools to complete the full tech stack and strategy ;)

You don’t need a better product, or a fancy new feature.

You need (and deserve) the right modern GTM AI sales system that relies on intent, data, information and relevant insights.

That’s how you book meetings at scale in 2025, not by spamming prospects.

If you want to build a real process once and for all, DM me “system” and let’s do it together.

You won’t believe how fast your calendar gets hammered with qualified meetings. (I’m not cheap, but I’m good!)

+32% of your inbound calls go unanswered.
And +80% of those callers never call back.
Here’s how to solve it:

Last week, I shared that stat with a founder. Small team, lean setup, SDRs booked solid.

Midday calls were basically a roulette wheel: if someone was free, great. If not? Lost revenue.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth nobody says out loud:

If you can’t answer fast, you’ve already lost.

So we did what ELITE teams do: We tested AI.

Not to replace reps. To protect revenue.

Here’s what we built using CloudTalk:

→ An AI receptionist that picks up every call
→ Instantly qualifies the lead with high quality
→ Routes the hot ones to sales, or books them straight into Calendly
→ Logs everything to HubSpot automatically

No IVRs or “hold on” music. No “sorry, we missed your call.”

Results in 14 days:

- 57 new inbound calls captured
- 19 auto-qualified and booked
- 0 reps added

It runs in the background, 24/7. No “we’ll call them back later.” 

And the funny thing? Reps actually prefer it, because all the noise disappears and they can focus on real selling.

Here’s the principle I teach every team: AI shouldn’t replace reps. It should replace the tasks reps should’ve never been doing.

AI handles repetitive stuff. Humans sell.

The phone stack is the AI stack.

If you’ve got reps wasting time on “just checking” calls… or worse, missing them entirely, test this: https://lnkd.in/dHKteqHJ

PS: Tell CloudTalk you came from me and you’ll get an extra $100 in AI Voice Agents credits on your subscription.

I’ve helped +84 sales teams to “go AI”. Here’s why 99% of companies fail at doing it:

Over the past few months, I’ve reviewed sales setups from SDR teams to VPs of Sales and the same 4 mistakes show up every single time.

Here are The 4 Layers of AI Sales Mistakes 👇

1️⃣ Prompt-Level Mistakes:

You ask for “better emails” and get generic ones.

- No info
- No ICP
- No tone
- No details
- No context
- No insights

No nothing.

AI writes like it doesn’t know who it’s talking to because it doesn’t.

2️⃣ Process-Level Mistakes

No sync between ChatGPT, CRM, and outreach tools.

No detailed process on how your team should operate.

Without a connected workflow, every rep builds their own system and that kills consistency.

3️⃣ Strategy-Level Mistakes 

You measure “output,” not “impact.”

More prompts doesn’t mean more pipeline.

More calls made or emails sent doesn’t mean more revenue.

AI doesn’t fix bad messaging or a broken sales motion, it amplifies it.

4️⃣ Offer-Level Mistakes

Your prompts don’t connect to real buyer pain. You get “personalized” fluff that sounds clever but lands flat and AI can’t sell what you don’t understand deeply.

AI doesn’t replace good selling.

It scales it, if you build it right.

DM me if you want to solve these 4 layers and stop suffering from the AI FOMO! I’ll teach, train and help you build a powerful AI sales system.

Outbound didn’t suddenly get hard. Buyers got smarter and you didn’t.

You “use AI” sure but when I look under the hood, it’s still the same manual guessing game.

The teams actually getting replies?
 
They treat AI as infrastructure, not a shortcut and they nail all 10 of these 👇

1️⃣ Are you letting AI track buying signals before you even start outreach?
If you’re not… you’re basically guessing. That’s not prospecting.

2️⃣ Are leads enriched instantly so reps aren’t flying blind?
Because nothing kills relevance faster than missing data.

3️⃣ Does every outbound message actually start from a real POV?
AI should give you context → you turn it into clarity → that’s what gets replies.

4️⃣ Is your messaging adapting to behavior, or are you still running static sequences?
If it doesn’t react, buyers ignore it. Simple

5️⃣ Are reps still doing manual research?
They shouldn’t be. Intel briefs should hit their inbox automatically.

6️⃣ Are your emails rewritten for clarity and mobile?
Buyers skim. Most reps write novels. You already know how that ends.

7️⃣ Are you analyzing wins with AI to see what’s actually working?
Because “my gut says…” is not a strategy.

8️⃣ Is AI doing the grunt work so reps can spend their time on actual conversations?
This one alone frees up 5–10 hours a week. Every week.

9️⃣ Are objections being handled before the prospect even raises them?
Top teams don’t react. They prevent it.

🔟 Are reps trained to operate AI as a workflow, not treat it like some shiny tool?
This is the real separator between “using AI” and actually winning with it.

If you're not answering “yes” to at least 8 of these, you’re not AI-native, you’re just an AI simple user.

If you want to solve this, DM me “AI” and let’s see if we can work together on building a robust Sales-AI-driven process together

AI is tracking more about your pipeline than your reps are. Here are 15 metrics AI catches that humans ALWAYS miss (and why it matters):

Save this. Your competitors will.

1. Deal Stagnation Alerts

AI flags every opportunity that has been idle for more than 14 days and scores the risk based on the stage and silence duration.

2. Velocity by Persona

Know exactly how fast VPs, Directors, or Managers move between stages. Different personas have different speeds.

3. Pipeline Leakage Detection

AI shows where deals die (after demo, proposal, negotiation) and why they die using call transcripts and CRM analysis.

4. Sentiment Shifts in Calls

Tracks tone, pauses, hesitation, interest.  Buyers tell you everything without saying it.

5. Email & DM Emotion Tracking

NLP scores every reply as positive, neutral, or skeptical. You’ll know who’s actually leaning in.

6. Content Interaction Heatmaps

Which links, PDFs, and messages does your ICP click, read, or ignore.

7. Reply Rate by Value Prop

ROI vs. efficiency vs. cost savings: AI reveals which angle hits hardest.

8. Objection Type Frequency

Automatically tags “budget,” “timing,” “not a priority,” and trends it across calls. You’ll see patterns your reps never notice.

9. CTA Conversion Rate

“Quick reply” vs “Deck?” vs “15 minutes?” AI tells you which CTA closes by persona.

10.  Talk-to-Listen Ratio

Tracks rep talk time vs buyer talk time and correlates it with win rates. Top reps talk less. Always.

11. Discovery Question Depth

Score questions by quality, layering, and intent. This stops surface-level discovery.

12. Follow-Up Timing Impact

Same-day vs next-day. AI knows which timelines close faster (hint: timing leads to conversion).

13. Deal Confidence Scoring

82% close probability? AI calculates it using:
→ call signals
→ response patterns
→ champion strength
→ engagement

14. Risk Heatmap by Stage

Missing champion. No urgency. Budget unclear. AI surfaces risk BEFORE the deal stalls.

15.  Rep Forecast Reliability

Compare "rep gut feeling" vs reality. You’ll see who’s overconfident and who’s accurate.

AI isn’t replacing reps. It’s replacing every blind spot they’ve had for 20 years.

Join +6218 heroes at The Modern Seller FREE & TACTICAL newsletter: https://alanruchtein.com

And DM me if you want me to help you build high-performance sales & revenue systems.

2 emails, 1 meeting booked in 10 minutes.
The Email Forward Strategy (explained below):

Most cold emails get ignored.

But there’s a play that flips the script — and books meetings fast.

I call it The Forward Strategy.

Here’s how it works:

You’re targeting a mid-market SaaS org. Their CRO just posted on LinkedIn about missing revenue targets.

In the comments: pipeline quality comes up.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 1: 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗥𝗢

“Saw your post on rev targets. Teams in your space are tightening up pipeline quality by doing X, might be worth a look.”

You’re not expecting a reply.
You’re planting a signal.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 2: 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗣 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀

With one sentence on top: “Saw this from [CRO Name], figured you might want eyes on it.”

Why it works:

→ It looks internal. Like the CRO passed it down.
→ It feels relevant. No pitch, just intel.
→ It uses social proof sideways. Exec is the signal. VP takes action.

It doesn’t feel like outreach.
It feels like context.

Here’s how to run it:

Find a CRO public trigger tied to a pain you solve. 
Send them a cold email with a sharp POV.
Forward it to their VP with that one-line intro.

No faking. No fluff.
Just smarter sequencing.

It’s not mass automation.
It’s surgical outbound.

Want to make it land? I use FullEnrich to get all the right emails and data.

Because even the best play flops if you’re emailing the wrong (or no) person.

#fullenrichpartner

Brand partnership • CEOs: Broken pipeline & poor performer sales reps? I fix both for you in <60 days. You’ll hate how fast it works. | Modern Seller Program Founder

Denis Acia

Co-Founder at SaasFluence | B2B Influencer Marketing for SaaS Brands

I’m Denis, Co-Founder of SaasFluence

We’re an influencer marketing agency helping B2B tech brands drive demand and visibility by partnering with LinkedIn influencers.

Currently — with over 200 influencers, we manage influencer marketing programs for B2B sales tech companies like Maildoso, Icypeas, Saleshandy, Fowla, and others.

Why We Started SaasFluence

Before SaasFluence, I ran an outbound agency, Applus Leads. Through that experience, we worked with some incredible B2B tech brands — companies with fantastic products and real value to offer. But despite outbound efforts (cold calls and cold emails), they weren’t getting the traction they deserved.

A big reason?

Their LinkedIn presence and engagement were minimal. Most had only a few hundred page followers and very little visibility in the market.

That lack of recognition made it hard to convert cold leads. Without social proof or brand mentions, prospects were hesitant to engage — especially in the highly competitive sales tech space.
What they really needed was a new approach — one that would:

1. Build credibility
2. Earn trust
3. And drive demand by establishing them as trusted solutions in the market.

That’s where SaasFluence comes in.

Our mission;
To help B2B tech brands leverage influencer marketing to drive demand, increase sales, and grow.

How We Can Help

☑ If you’re a B2B tech founder or business leader with an influencer marketing budget of at least $10K/month,
 ☑ And you don’t have the time to run campaigns or manage influencer partnerships,
We’ll handle it for you.

We’ve launched thousands of LinkedIn-sponsored campaigns, and our clients are seeing exceptional ROI.

If you’re curious, DM me and I’ll share a few of our client case studies so you can learn more about our systems and results.

Or, visit our website to explore further:
 👉 www.saasfluence.co

Lead Generation Partner - Outbound

Here are 5 Linkedin comment frameworks I use to get more profile clicks:

(You won't like these if you think LinkedIn is a resume)

1. "Yes And"

Don't just agree - agree and add one smart thing.

Example: "Fr! And I think people also forget that you need to fix your offer first. Good point."

2. "Friendly Fight"

Disagreement gets attention but don't be rude. Be nice about it.

Example: "Hmmm I see where you are coming from. But in my experience small creators convert better than big ones. 

Maybe it depends on the niche?"

3. "Mirror"

Tell them a quick story about how this happened to you.

Example: "Lol this happened to me last week. I sent the wrong link to a client and I wanted to disappear haha!”

4. "Specific Hype"

If you want to compliment, point out exactly what you liked.

Example: "Thisssss 💯. Especially the part about the onboarding email that is genius man!"

5. "Curious Cat"

Ask a question that shows you read the whole thing. The creator will answer you.

Example: "Wait… does this strategy work if you have zero budget? Or do you need ads?"

Do you notice something? These 5 templates all have one thing in common:

They are human.

Which style do you use the most?

Commenting Frameworks

I stalk my prospects after I send them a proposal…

(but not in a creepy way)

Sending a file attached to an email is the worst feeling in sales because you are just throwing your PDF into a black hole.

You never know if they opened it or if they hated the price and deleted it immediately…

So I started using send.co

It gives me a specific link I can share with a specific prospect. 

And I get a notification on my phone the exact second they open it.

Maybe I see they spent 30 seconds on the 'Offer' page but they spent 5 minutes staring at the 'Pricing' page.

“Hmm… they like the offer but they are worried about the money.”

Now, I do not call them and say "Hey I saw you looking at the price!"

That is weird, don't do that.

I just wait a day or two and I send an email asking if they have any questions about the budget.

It helps me know who is serious and who is just window shopping.

Do you track your proposals or hope for the best?

JSESSIONID

li_at

LinkedIn

I visited a SaaS website today and I instantly got a headache. 

It said: 

“Empowering teams to elevate operational excellence through intelligent workflows.”

I read the headline and I stared at my screen for a full minute trying to figure it out.

What does that even mean?

Do you sell a project management tool? Do you sell a chat app? A CRM?

I have zero clue.

It hurts to watch because I know this company spends thousands of dollars on ads and influencers. They send humans to this page every single day.

And I'm pretty sure most people leave in five seconds because nobody has time to solve a riddle.

Of course I am not an A-list copywriter. 

But you don't have to be an expert to see why this is killing their business.

Now compare that to the website headline from Aimfox.

"Supercharge Your LinkedIn Pipeline. At Scale."

And then the subhead says:

"Reach thousands of leads per day with an end-to-end tool that gives you access to unlimited LinkedIn profiles for scale."

You read that and you instantly understand what you get.

The #1 rule of marketing is that you need to be understood.

Did AI make us forget that?

Please don't replace yourself with AI if you care about your followers.

(I see people do this every day…)

They go to ChatGPT and ask it to "write a post on 5 ways to boost email reply rates."

And the AI spits out the same generic advice that thousands of other people have already posted.

So here is how I use a tool called MagicPost without repeating the same redundant ideas.

1. I hunt for the winning topic.

I go into the "Inspiration" tab in MagicPost. Maybe I see that a post about "Why Cold Emails Fail" is going viral.

I don't do cold email. I do LinkedIn.

So I think "Okay, I will write about Why LinkedIn DMs Fail." The logic is the same.

2. I copy the structure.

I click "Generate Draft" based on that topic… but I don't post what it gives me. I look at the structure. It uses a list of 3 examples? Good structure.

3. I inject "pain."

The AI writes: "Don't be too salesy in your message."

I delete that immediately.

I replace it with: "I sent 500 DMs last month. The ones where I pitched in the first line got X replies. The ones where I asked a question got a X reply rate."

That is how you use these tools. 

You let them build the skeleton because they are fast but you have to put the meat on the bones.

If you want to try this workflow, magicpost.in has a free trial.

Replace yourself or clone yourself?

I sell B2B influencer marketing services.

Here are 5 reasons you should not hire me:

1. Your product is not ready yet.

If your current users are confused, or they are not happy, you have a product problem. 

Marketing a confusing product will just make more people confused faster. 

2. You need sales today.

Influencer marketing is for building trust and being seen over time. It is not a "get demos now" button. 

If you need to sign five clients to make payroll next week, you should run ads or do aggressive outbound instead.

3. It's hard to understand what your product does.

If it takes you a 30-minute demo to explain what your tool does... a creator cannot explain it in a one-minute video. 

You need to simplify your message first. 

4. You just want to test it out with a tiny budget.

This one is tough but I've seen it a lot. A founder wants to "dip their toe in" with one creator but this never works.

It's like doing a single exercise and expecting to be fit. More creators in your industry = more reach.

5. Everyone in your market already knows who you are.

If you are already the big, famous name in your space, like a HubSpot or a Slack, a big campaign to spread awareness wouldn't be as effective.

Influencer marketing is a great tool but you have to use the right tool for the right job.

Can you explain what your SaaS does in one simple sentence?

I think most SaaS marketing teams are sitting on a goldmine and they don't even know it.

I see marketing teams locked in a room trying to brainstorm the perfect headline for their next campaign.

Meanwhile, down the hall, your sales team is on a Zoom call and they are hearing the exact words your customers use to talk about their problems.

They hear:

→ Honest frustrations. 
→ Honest objections.
→ Moments when a prospect goes from confused to "aha, now I get it."

And yes, I know an AI can give you a summary of the call. But it cannot grasp the excitement when they finally understand your solution.

Give your marketing people the headphones and let them listen to one call a week.

The angles they will find are a thousand times more valuable than anything they could brainstorm on their own.

Now, would you rather guess what your customers are thinking or hear from them?

You are the most valuable asset on LinkedIn if you fit this description.

We call this the "Golden Creator."

Brands are desperate to find people who look exactly like this:

1. You held a job title in the industry.

A former VP of Sales with 8,000 followers is gold to us. A generic "business coach" with 200,000 followers is often a gamble.

The VP speaks the specific language of the buyer while the coach usually shares general advice that appeals to everyone. There is a big difference in trust.

2. You teach specifics instead of motivation.

We love creators who teach. They share how-to guides and specific playbooks on how to solve a problem.

3. Your comment section is full of buyers

If the comments are full of random fans saying "Great!" that is okay.

But the Golden Creator has comments from potential buyers. You see other VPs asking specific questions about the tool.

4. You post enough to be part of a daily routine.

Posting once a month is not enough to build a relationship. They show up 3 or 4 times a week and become part of their audience's daily routine.

Which one of these is the hardest to build?

SaaS founders… please stop trying to turn a creator into your sales rep.

(I see this happen in so many campaigns.)

As a founder you probably love your product so much. I get it. You spent a lot of money on the dashboard and the reporting and the mobile app.

So you want the creator to mention all ten features in a sixty-second video.

But this kills the campaign.

It makes the post feel like a sales demo…

And nobody goes to TikTok or LinkedIn to watch a sales demo.

Here is how I look at this:

Maybe your software has Feature X and Feature Y. And maybe you love Feature Y because a lot of effort was put into it.

But the creator runs their whole business using Feature X. They use it every single day. They don't even touch the other one.

And that is okay!

If you force them to talk about Feature Y, they will sound fake. They will look like they are reading a script. 

But if you let them just talk about Feature X…

They will speak with passion. They will show how it saved them time. They will sound like a friend recommending a tool they love.

It is better to be remembered for one thing than forgotten for ten things.

Explain everything or the “relevant” thing?

I want to tell you why sending a PDF as a lead magnet is a mistake in 2025…

I see so many people doing this. A prospect asks for your guide or your case study.

And you attach a PDF to the email or you send a generic Google Drive link.

Here's what happens:

The prospect opens it on their phone. The text is too small. They have to pinch and zoom. They get annoyed. They close it and they forget about you forever.

We stopped doing that. Now we use a tool called Flowla.

It lets us create a "Deal Room" which is basically a personalized webpage for that one prospect.

Here is exactly how we do it when a SaaS founder asks for our list of top influencers:

→ We go into Flowla and duplicate our template.

→ We change the room name. We name it "Influencer List For [Company Name]."

→ We customize the list. If they sell a sales tool we filter our database and only put sales-focused creators in there.

→ We add our simple process next to the list so they see how we work.

→ We put our Cal.com, Inc. booking page inside the same window.

They open a single link. They see a list made exactly for them. 

And if they like what they see, they can book a meeting with us without even closing the tab.

We give this away for free.

Maybe they take the list and run the campaign themselves. That is fine.

Maybe they see how organized we are and they hire us. That is also fine.

But we never send a PDF anymore.

Send a file or send an experience?

4 reasons why your LinkedIn DMs might not be booking meetings…

(I am not going to say it's because you are too salesy)

I have sent over 5,000 LinkedIn DMs and I booked I don't know how many meetings. But it is a lot.

Here are the 4 biggest lessons I have learned…

1. Don't try to be their friend.

They know why you are in their inbox. You know why you are there. They don’t want to hear empty compliments.

Can you help them? Can they help you? Good. Just say what you offer.

2. I book meetings months after the first message.

People who say you should disappear after 3 follow-ups aren't booking any meetings. 

Send a few follow-ups. If you don't hear back, set a reminder for a few months from now. 

Then follow up respectfully. 

A lot of prospects are too busy or the timing is off. They don't want you to give up on them.

3. Stop sending 100% AI messages.

This is cliche but it has gotten so bad. People just want to chat with other people here without talking to robots. 

Everyone has used so much AI that they can spot a bot instantly.

You can use AI for help, but please edit your message so you look like a human at least.

4. Use multiple touch points.

Don't just reach out to a single person in the company. Reach out to several of them. 

Even non decision makers because they will direct you to the right person. 

It is common sense but the more people you reach out to the higher your chances of booking a call.

What is your #1 linkedin advice? Tell us below 👇

Linkedin DM tips

If you want a brand to never want to fire you, keep shuffling between these 4 content formats…

1. "My Problem" Story

→ You talk about a struggle you had.
→ You do not talk about the tool yet.
→ You make the reader feel the pain.
→ The tool is the happy ending.

2. Screen Share

→ Record your screen.
→ Show exactly how you do one specific task.
→ Do not just talk about features.
→ Show the work happening.
→ This builds massive trust.

3. The Old Way vs The New Way

→ Show how hard you worked before.
→ Show how fast it is now.
→ Put them side by side.
→ People love to see the difference.

4. The Trojan Horse

→ You give a piece of amazing advice.
→ The tool is just the vehicle for the advice.
→ Example: "How to write better emails."
→ You show your strategy using the tool.
→ This gets the most shares.

Try one of these next time.

Which format do you like to use the most?

Content Formats

We said no to a prospect with a $5k marketing budget…

If you are a sensible human, you know it feels weird to turn away money.

But I looked at the math and it did not make sense.

If they pay our agency fee, they have almost nothing left for the creators. 

They would be paying us to manage a tiny budget and that is a bad deal for them.

So I told them to keep the money and run it in-house.

At $5k you can manage a few creators yourself using a spreadsheet. You do not need us yet. It is easy enough for you to handle.

I told them to come back when they are ready to spend $10k…

Because that’s when you need a team to manage the madness.

They were shocked we turned them away but they thanked us for the advice.

This is how B2B agencies work. We help you win even if it means we do not get paid today.

Honest advice or a quick sale?

If you are a LinkedIn creator, can I ask you something?

I see a creator's list of past brand deals and sometimes it makes me a little sad.

They show us this long, long list of all the brands they've worked with and it is impressive.

Then I look closer at the list and I see their audience is full of sales leaders. 

But they did a post for a tool that helps Shopify stores. Or a post for some crypto thing.

And this is the part that breaks my heart a little bit.

Because I know the best creators protect their audience like a fortress. 

They know their audience's trust is the only thing they have and it’s not surprising…

I think you would agree that a single bad recommendation can burn down years of work.

So when a creator who has only ever worked with sales tools for a sales audience... it tells me they have a deep understanding of one world.

And I’m 100% sure their followers trust them with their recommendations.

What's the one red flag that makes you run from a brand deal?

I want to show you the simple tech stack we use to manage a live campaign.

We have 150+ creators, different post dates, and a lot of money moving around.

And it can get really messy if you're not organized. 

Here's how we keep it from turning into a nightmare:

Airtable → This is our command center. It holds posting schedules, creator's payment info, and everything else. 

Slack → This is where we talk to the creators. It's so much faster than email. A quick message, a quick reply. 

Wise, Stripe & Deel → Getting creators paid on time is the most important thing. We use these to send money to anyone, anywhere in the world.

Google Docs → This is where we write the campaign brief. 

Favikon → Helps us track the performance of the posts after they go live. We can see the likes, the comments, and who is engaging.

Make → Sends automatic reminders to creators for invoices or sharing their post impressions. It saves us a ton of time.

What's the one tool you use to stay organized?

Why I scroll past 4K videos but watch the guy recording in his car on Linkedin…

I noticed something while scrolling my feed today. There are these creators who have a perfect studio setup. 

They have nice lights and an expensive microphone and the video is so crisp.

But I catch myself scrolling past them often.

It is not their fault. But my brain has this weird filter. In fact most of our brains have this filter…

When I see a video that looks too perfect, my brain immediately thinks "This is a commercial."

Unfortunately, we have been trained to think professional quality = corporate marketing. 

And nobody comes to Linkedin because they want to watch a commercial.

We try to avoid ads.

But then I see a creator recording a video in his car. The lighting is bad and the camera is shaking a little bit.

And I stop to watch and I can’t help it. It feels like he just Facetimed me to tell me an idea he had lol.

If you are Toyota or Apple, sure. It would be weird if a car company filmed a commercial on an old iphone.

But for the rest of us here, studio quality is just building a wall between you and the person watching.

Imperfection builds trust because it shows you are not hiding behind an edit.

Do you prefer watching studio videos or raw phone videos?

Should SaaS companies pause their influencer campaigns for the holidays?

I have been thinking about this a lot today…

A lot of people say B2B slows down now. They say decision makers are on vacation or they locked their budget until next year.

And they are right.

If you need to close a deal this week, December is tough. It is hard to get a sign when the CFO is skiing.

But think about what happens when work slows down.

People have more time. They scroll on LinkedIn and watch cat videos.

They are paying attention more because their boss is not bothering them every five minutes.

So here’s what I think:

Do not run a campaign if you need immediate revenue right now. You will be disappointed.

But if you want to be the first product they call in Jan/Feb... then you should definitely keep going.

Basically you are preparing for Q1.

What is your plan for this month? Pause or push?

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taplio

The Battle

Alan Ruchtein

Denis Acia

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Alan Ruchtein's LinkedIn Performance

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