AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 5x President's Club

Creating raving fans @ Gong. Founder of Closed Won. Dad to Monty 🐾 

Brian LaManna

"If you keep your nose to the grindstone and work hard and you've got the right people, anything's possible."

You don't have to Google him anymore.

🌹 Rose Bowl
🍑 Peach Bowl
🏆 National Champions.

I debated whether or not to go to the last game. Grateful for the people that pushed me to 'take the trip.'

Will forever be one of the most special times in my life. 

We work to live, not live to work. 

Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!!! 🥹

AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 7x President’s Club

Until further notice, this is an IU Football + Mendoza fan account.

We are here in Miami and ready for the National Championship.

I have never anticipated a game more in my life.

Full butterflies. Pit in my stomach.

But confident as ever.

Predictions?


P.S. No matter how it ends… I’m sad this season will be over. A magical run and some of the most fun I’ve had traveling + reuniting with college friends. But we don’t go to war with warm milk & cookies. Time to win.

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I now have 12 free resources built for 2026, all of them below.


𝟭. 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 - Organized way to keep track of all your prospecting efforts and people you're going after.

https://lnkd.in/gwjX9Nya


𝟮. 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦 𝗔𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘆𝗺 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Terms I never knew existed until I got into tech sales. 

https://lnkd.in/g9R9WH53


𝟯. 𝗠𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻 - Template to keep you and your champion fully aligned through a deal cycle. Also, helpful to navigate security, legal, and who the signer ends up being.


https://closedwon.xyz/msp/


𝟰. 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄 - Top 12 discovery questions to follow a typical first call flow.

https://lnkd.in/g75tkxRM


𝟱. 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Agenda slide to cut the 2 minutes and show a visual instead. Buyers love visuals. This is it.

https://lnkd.in/gD5vaXf7


𝟲. 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 - Grab a Google Doc template of my exact resume. 2 pages on other best practices, tips, and dos/don'ts.

https://lnkd.in/gESuWPBW


7. 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 - 8 proven openers to get the call started hot.

https://lnkd.in/gdPP_D8J


8. 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 - Actionable sales tips (and some B+ memes) delivered to your inbox every Monday. Trusted by 11,200+ sellers and counting. Read in 2-3 min.

https://lnkd.in/gjeVd_U8


𝟵.  𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Quick reverses for the most common objections and methodology on how to 'handle' them.

https://lnkd.in/g36efdAw


10. 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 on Closed Won.

https://lnkd.in/gVY8Xpxc


♻️ Please consider resharing if it'd help others in your network.

📌 Sellers - what (free) resource should I build up next?

Joined Gong in 2021 to sell a -hot- product that (it felt like) everyone already knew. Then June 2023 happened...

We launched Gong Engage with 0 customers.

Suddenly, I wasn't selling just the #1 conversation intelligence platform anymore. 

I was selling an unproven sales engagement tool in a crowded market.

Here's the problem we hit immediately:

Every prospect asked: "Who else is using this?"

We had no case studies. Very few Beta references.

And burning through our early adopters on every single deal? 

Not sustainable when you're trying to get to 1,000+ customers fast.

That's when we started using UserEvidence.

Instead of manually tracking down customers for references, UserEvidence automatically captures product reviews, pulls verified stats, and creates battle cards we can actually use.

Now when a prospect asks "who else uses Engage?" - I can instantly share:
* Real customer quotes
* Specific use cases
* ROI metrics from similar companies

No begging customers for time. No stale case studies from 6 months ago.

As we've grown into a true multi-product platform, UserEvidence has become essential. 

Different products, different personas, different proof points - all organized and accessible.

If you're scaling a new product or expanding your platform, you need proof at scale.

Give UserEvidence a look: https://userevidence.com/


P.S. Will be partnering with them closely in 2025 to share other ways I am leveraging them. Thanks all for the support!

Brand partnership • AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 7x President’s Club

Tell tale sign of junior sellers is trying to avoid risk in their deals. 

And getting defensive about risk in forecast / pipeline reviews.

Risk is uncomfortable and junior sellers often try to ignore it and 'hope' that it doesn’t come to fruition. 

When in reality the opposite is best.

Get comfortable knowing risk exists in every deal and it doesn't mean it's your 'fault.'


I write out the biggest reasons why I will lose the deal. 

Then 'the action' of how I will get in front of it.

Here’s a (real) scenario of a deal I had earlier this year:
-12 month evaluation and we were named vendor of choice. Fit perfectly to their initiatives. Great critical event with a competitor renewal in 2 months but we aren’t speaking directly with the decision maker on it (CRO). Have 5+ champions advocating for us.

What most sellers would think:
- Wow, we are in a really strong spot! We have so many champions and fit perfectly with their goals. Bummer the CRO isn’t more directly involved but my champ will get it done.


Here’s how I’d approach it instead.

Risk:
- Work/effort to migrate over to a new platform
- CRO not having direct involvement
- Their current vendor will try to save this renewal with aggressive pricing.
 
Action:
- Call out the risk of both next call
- Recommend a 30 min call with implementation to discuss migration
- Recommend a 2nd, 30 min call with CRO and main POC to review one-pager exec business case we will build for them.


For any fans of the book 'The Obstacle is the Way.'

'The risk is the way' in your deals cycles.

Don't avoid it, go through it.


P.S. Closed Won Club goes live 1/26. Be the first to hear about it here: https://closedwon.xyz/

Data Protection + Honesty-as-a-Service I Enterprise Sales at Rubrik

I am fortunate to spend my days helping people to solve problems that positively impact their professional lives and their organizations.

When I am not working, you can find me with my family at the beach or in the mountains. I enjoy camping, snowboarding, fly fishing and attempting to golf.

Jacob Karp

I am pumped to announce that I am moving into the role of VP, Sales here at Schellman.

The last 7+ months have been an amazing experience and I am excited to continue working alongside Preeya Voss and our entire sales, GTM, delivery and leadership teams. 

I am grateful for the trust in me and the opportunity that has been provided.

From the top down Schellman operates in transparency and in a way that continuously prioritizes what is best for our clients, prospects and the people who work here. 

2026 is poised to be a big year for Schellman and we are hiring for multiple roles across sales and GTM. Check out our careers page and shoot me a message if you are interested. 

In the meantime, I am looking forward to continuing to help global businesses to meet cybersecurity compliance requirements that fuel their GTM growth. 

Onward and upward.

Sales Leadership at Schellman I Cybersecurity Compliance and AI Governance + Honesty-as-a-Service

I’m a 40-year-old seller who has generated +75% of my own pipeline over the last 10+ years. 

I say this because it’s come to my attention that there’s a misconception that longer tenured or higher segment sellers don’t prospect. 

This couldn’t be more wrong. 

No matter my age and tenure, the need to self source pipeline has not changed.

Because I’ve yet to meet a seller who regularly exceeds their number relying on others to bring in the majority of their pipeline.

Pipeline generation never stops. 

But I do think it starts to look different the longer you are in this role.

Heres how I strategically prospect after 12 years:

- Deep account research and lower level converstions to create a POV to send to VP and C-suite 

- Writing ghost notes for my executives to send to prospect execs for alignment 

- Enabling partners to sell on my behalf, by helping them understand our value prop and my POV on accounts 

- Seeking out referrals and warm intros anywhere I can 

- Finding past customers or users in my prospect orgs to engage with 

- Working with my marketing and sales dev org to focus on key targets and operate in tandem to generate pipeline 

- Coming up with creative campaigns and personalized gifts to send to execs 

- Trying to get people out to events and in person 

- Attending industry events and conferences and tracking people down Iive

- Sharing relevant industry insights, articles, podcasts and learning opportunities 

None of that is rocket science. 

The reality is, while I may have far less volume in my outreach, my intent is still the same: set meaningful meetings with key stakeholders that lead to pipeline that will convert and revenue that will close.

And that doesn’t change regardless of age, tenure or segment.

Here is a full breakdown of how I generate pipeline: https://lnkd.in/g7hTH77r

Each time someone on my team books a meeting, I call it out in our team channel as fast as I can. 

A shoutout, some info and details around who, what, where, how. A learning, a nugget or tidbit on what worked and why. 

It is one of the first thing's I put in place in my new role. 

Not because I am a genius sales leader (lot's of learning and work to do to figure out how to be that, if ever). 

But because I did that job for 12+ years. I know how hard it is to book a meeting. 

I know what it takes to do the research, create the messaging, find the right people, respectfully and professionally reach out to them across channels, follow-up with added value. 

And then to do that at scale, day in and day out. Often in the quiet, by yourself, with your mind working against you.

So every chance I get I want to celebrate the little wins. 

That momentum matters for the person who booked the meeting as well as the team. 

And honestly I enjoy doing it, it is the least I can do for a job well done.

Onward and upward.  

#karpediem

A couple weeks ago I received some much needed coaching. 

Not in regards to my new role, but instead for the one I had spent 12+ years doing and working to perfect. 

A role I considered myself pretty capable and experienced in. A role I am now tasked with leading.   

The coaching was completely valid, deserved and timely. 

As I was transitioning out of my role as a seller, I was still overseeing some strategic sales cycles. One in particular had been ongoing for months and wasn't moving as fast or quite like I would like. 

My outreach started to get lazy and I began doing things I knew I shouldn't. Things like "checking in" and "just following up" and asking for their time. Things I have long known I shouldn't do in that way. 

Me focused activities, with no value add for the prospect. Just ask after ask. 

And so, the coaching and feedback was: "think about the give, give, give...then ask." 

Or as I had been taught previously: "deposit, deposit, deposit...withdrawal."

All I could say was that I totally agree, I knew better and appreciated the reminder. And then we course corrected. 

Even after 12 years I still need reminders of how to do this job the right way. And it was perfectly timed as I transition into my new role and think about the way I want to lead. 

No matter how long we do these jobs, the fundamentals don't change. And neither should our ability to receive coaching, regardless of tenure or level in an org. 

Thanks to Preeya Voss for holding me accountable and the coaching. 

If you want to work in an org that prioritizes this type of leadership, we are hiring. 

#karpediem

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