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

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

Brian LaManna

Most painful (lost) deals I remember.

-One that had a DocuSign out for signature around March 15th, 2020. The team took a few extra days to look it over... COVID hit... and they never ended up signing.

-6 month evaluation, decided they were going to move to us from a larger competitor, and then not realizing they had an auto-renewal. I take fault for not pressing harder on this.

-21 month deal cycle that continued to push quarter after quarter for a variety of excuses, despite promising interest. Nothing as painful as a super long deal cycle with twists and turns. Eventually turned it Closed Lost.

-Running a successful evaluation with someone who told me "I am the decision maker and signer on this" ... when it came to sign, someone else blocked it from happening. Lesson learned... if someone blurts out "I am the decision maker" .... they are most definitely not the decision maker 🤣


Quickly learned to never celebrate a deal until it's signed.

Time really does kill deals sometimes.


P.S. Redesigned the website around Closed Won Club at https://closedwon.xyz/ ... how do we like it?

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

Leading International @Personio | Building community @Pavilion | Architecting Growth @Winning By Design | Showing revenue teams what’s next @GTM OS

Over the past 12 years in SaaS, I’ve seen firsthand where most Founders and Revenue leaders fail: 

- No structured Go-To-Market strategy → Running multiple GTM motions at once. Growth stalls, especially beyond the home market.
- No consistent sales process → Relying on individual performance instead of repeatable systems. No scalable growth engine.
- No clear revenue insights → Looking at blended metrics instead of pinpointing what drives conversions. Low rep productivity, declining ARR per FTE.

I get it. Day-to-day operations take over, and revenue inefficiencies stack up.

The bad news? You’re responsible for fixing it.

The good news? I can help you and your SaaS business.

How I help B2B SaaS teams ($5M-$25M ARR) scale faster:

- GTM & Sales Strategy – Structuring inbound, outbound, and partner strategies across SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise.
- Sales Process Optimization – Improving conversion rates and reducing reliance on top performers.
- Playbooks & Execution – Building structured systems, coaching frameworks, and checklists for consistent revenue growth.
- High-Performing Teams – Hiring, developing, and structuring commercial teams with clear accountability.

Results I’ve helped drive:

→ Increased sales team efficiency by 2X through scalable sales team structuring and skill development frameworks.

→ Improved win rates to 25% by implementing structured tactical and operational Go-To-Market tactics.

→ Built GTM playbooks that accelerated ARR growth for early-stage and scaling SaaS companies to $10M ARR.

How we can work together: 

1. Coaching & Advisory – Hands-on support to build a scalable sales engine.
2. On-Demand Sessions – Solving your biggest sales execution challenges.
3. GTM Playbooks & Frameworks – Proven templates for predictable growth.

Scaling isn’t about luck. It’s about building the right systems.

What’s blocking your revenue growth today? Let’s fix it.

DM me and let’s chat.

Koen Stam

Anita has made President's Club 3 years straight. Last year she hit 183% of target while spending Q1 as interim sales leader. Earlier this month, she told 500 colleagues exactly how she does it.
 
It disappointed half the room.
 
If it were up to her, she would keep it quiet. She even called me out on stage. 
"Koen is going to put this on LinkedIn."
 
She was right.
 
Half the room wanted a template. A single tactic. A checklist they could copy.
 
Anita gave them something harder. Pure execution rigor.
 
Here are five things she does consistently that most reps skip.
 
1. She qualifies out early. And she never stops running discovery, even deep into a deal.
 
2. She maps every internal stakeholder. The blockers, the influencers, the people who show up late and kill deals.
 
3. She brings peers and leaders into deal reviews to pressure test risk. Not to show off. To find what she is missing.
 
4. She pulls in partners and customers to validate quality. Social proof from people who are not on her payroll.
 
5. And the thing that ties it all together. She runs every deal through trumpet 🎺, builds a Mutual Action Plan, and uses video to stay present when she is not in the room.
 
No shortcut. No magic script.
 
Just a rep who refuses to wing it on a single deal.
 
That is what 183% looks like up close.

3 years ago I bet on async selling. This week my face was on a Times Square billboard.
 
Let me rewind.
 
In 2022 we started using Digital Sales Rooms. The belief was simple. We needed to digitalize how we collaborate with buyers.
 
Mutual Action Plans became the core of every deal. One shared workspace. One URL. Every resource, every next step, every stakeholder aligned in one place.
 
We chose trumpet 🎺 as our platform. 12 months ago I became a Brand Ambassador. And across 1,000+ LinkedIn posts over the last 36 months, async selling has become the concept I return to more than any other.
 
Because I see what it does to pipeline every single week.
 
The numbers tell the story. Win rates across all deals were 67% higher when trumpet was used. Average deal value increased by 57% (amazing enablement work done here by Aaron and the wider enablement team led by the amazing Gesine.
 
Those are not industry benchmarks. Those are ours.
 
What Nick and Rory have built at trumpet goes beyond a Digital Sales Room tool. They are building a category. And the speed of their progress has been remarkable.
 
This week they put my face on a Times Square billboard alongside Brian LaManna, Hailey Linz, and Aoife Coburn from Gong, HubSpot, and Stripe.
 
Proud product user. 
Proud ambassador. 
Proud band player.
 
3 years of betting on async. The data did the talking. The billboard was just the receipt.

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Co-chapter Lead the Netherlands 🇳🇱 at Winning by Design Growth Institute!

In 2017 I implemented Winning by Design at Teamleader and something clicked.
 
Bowtie. 
Data model. 
RRR emails. 
Compelling event. 
Emotional vs Rational impact. 
Critical event. 
First impact. 
SPICED. 
SP3V.
 
Every framework made sense. Not because it was trendy. Because it was grounded in how buyers actually buy.
 
I walked out thinking: this is how it should work everywhere.
 
Eight years later, I still think that. Every company I have touched got better when I applied these fundamentals. Every single one.
 
And I have watched enough companies do the opposite. More tools. More headcount. More complexity. Still wondering why growth feels broken.
 
The ones that win have better systems underneath their growth. Better process design. Better architecture across the entire revenue engine.
 
That is what Winning by Design called Revenue Architecture. Now it has evolved into Growth Architecture.
 
Together with André, my partner in crime for over five years and a true operator who lives this work every day, we are launching the Dutch community for the Winning by Design Growth Institute.
 
15+ founding members are already in.
 
On Thursday March 26th we are hosting our first informal introduction here in the Netherlands.
 
This is for founders who are done guessing. 
For GTM operators who want proven systems. 
For fractional leaders who want real frameworks behind their work. 
For investors who want their portfolio companies to scale with structure.
 
If any of that sounds like you, DM me "Growth Institute" and I will send you the details.

I’m grateful that I was named one of Sprouts.ai’s 20 GTM Evangelists to Watch in 2026.

If there’s one thing I’m convinced of heading into next year, it’s this:

Go-to-market in 2026 will reward focus, not noise.

Buyers are more informed.
Sales cycles are less predictable.
AI is raising the output bar for everyone.

In that environment, activity is easy.

Clarity is rare.

The teams that win will not be the ones launching more initiatives or stacking more tools.

They will be the ones who:

• Define the ICP with precision
• Run tight cross-functional feedback loops
• Build scalable systems with clear ownership
• Use AI to amplify output, not replace judgment

I’ve seen too many teams dilute impact by chasing five priorities at once.

Growth rarely stalls because of a lack of effort.
It stalls because of misalignment.

The fundamentals still compound.

We’ve seen this firsthand while scaling regional GTM engines and building AI-amplified teams.

1. Clear positioning.
2. Disciplined pipeline management.
3. Shared revenue ownership.
4. Relentless iteration grounded in customer reality.

Grateful to be included alongside operators who live this every day.

Congrats to Stephanie Valenti, Steph Reck and my friend Jonathan Moss.

And great to be on this list with Dale Zwinzinski, Sophie Buonassisi, Sarah Allen-Short, Andrew Ettinger, Joshua Bruton, Alice Wyatt, Sonali S.., Beau Brooks, Matt Schalsey, Jessica Kao, Joon Choi, Alex Richards, Kiva Kolstein, 🐰 Jen Igartua, Marcus Bening and Elizabeth McCalley.eth 🦋.

Strong company to be in.

If you’re building GTM for 2026, double down on what compounds.

The market is getting louder.

The leaders who bring clarity will be the ones worth watching.

Yesterday I interviewed Stefaan, CHRO of efficy in front of 1,500+ colleagues. He reminded me again what actually drives long-term growth.

In times of AI, leaner teams, and constant change, he came back to something simple:

Hire the right people.
Retain them.
Develop them.

That’s the foundation.
 
When I reflect on Personio and our Benelux and International journey, that’s what made the difference.
 
The day before Valentine’s feels like a good moment to recognize three leaders who are celebrating four years with us.
 
Four years of building teams and developing talent.
 
Iteke, our Country Manager for Benelux.
 
Yes, she has driven consistent new logo growth. But what stands out more is the team she built. Average tenure well above three years. SDRs growing into AEs. AEs becoming some of the most consistent performers in our international organization.
 
That only happens when a leader spots talent early, invests in it, and stays committed.
 
Julia, who leads our Account Management and CSM team.
 
She started as an Account Manager and quickly set the standard for what great looks like. When we combined AM and CSM into one team, she stepped up. Seeing her grow into leadership and raise the bar across the team has been great to watch.
 
Most of her team is internally developed talent. That’s not luck. That’s focus.
 
And Romy, our People Business Partner.
 
From day one, she has been a true partner to the business. Supporting leaders. Challenging us. Helping us develop talent the right way. Since January, we’re officially working together across our international organization.
 
I honestly believe the impact of a strong People Business Partner is underestimated in many companies. Retention and development do not scale without it.
 
These three are a reminder of something I strongly believe:
 
You don’t scale markets. 
You scale people.
 
Retention is a growth strategy.
 
Thank you for four years. I’m grateful to work alongside you and look forward to building a lot more together.

I'm excited to announce the launch of Winning by Design Growth Institute in the Netherlands together with my buddy in crime André.

Most SaaS companies are adding more tools, more headcount, more complexity. And wondering why growth still feels broken.
 
I have spent eight years watching this pattern repeat.
 
The companies that win do not win because they have more. 
They win because they have better systems underneath their growth. 

Better process design. 
Better architecture across the entire revenue engine.
 
That belief started in 2017 when I first applied Winning by Design's frameworks at my time at Teamleader. 

Bowtie.
Data model.
RRR emails.
Compelling event.
Emotional vs Rational impact.
Critical event.
First impact.
SPICED.
SP3V.

And that transformed into Revenue Architecture.
And that has transformed now into Growth Architecture. 

The systematic approach to how customers actually buy and how teams should be built around that motion.
 
I remember thinking: this is how it should work everywhere.
 
And every since I can't let it go. 
Not because it was trendy. 

Because the fundamentals were so practical, so grounded in real buyer behavior, that every company I touched got better when I applied them.
 
Eight years later, I am turning that conviction into something bigger.
 
Together with André, my partner in crime for over 5+ years and a true operator who lives and breathes Revenue Architecture, we are launching the Dutch community for Winning by Design Growth Institute.
 
15+ founding members are already in.
 
In a month from now (mid March, watch the event invite) we are hosting our first informal introduction here in the Netherlands.
 
• This is for founders who are done guessing. 
• For GTM operators who want proven systems. 
• For fractional leaders who want real frameworks behind their work. 
• And for VC, PE, and investment firms who want their portfolio companies to scale with structure.
 
When everyone has access to the same AI tools, your systems become the last compounding advantage you control.
 
André and I would love to see you all for the first meetup in Amsterdam. 
Reach out to either of us for details.

PS. Thanks to the entire team of Winning By Design and especially Jacco van der Kooij for the trust, empowerment and above all bringing Growth Architecture to everyone who wants to grow smarter in the Netherlands.

3 years of ChatGPT. Thousands of prompts.
 
And I still had to explain who I am every single time.
 
That was the moment I knew it was over.
 
Here is what broke it for me.
 
I write LinkedIn posts, a Substack newsletter, and GTM playbooks every week. Content is how I build trust with founders and GTM operators.
 
And for 3 years, every time I opened ChatGPT, I started from scratch.
 
Pasting my tone of voice. Explaining my audience. Describing what I do and do not write.
 
And still the output read like it could have come from anyone.
 
I tried Claude on a random Wednesday. Built my first project.
 
Uploaded my writing instructions. What to write. How to structure. What to avoid.
 
Then I uploaded 20 previous LinkedIn posts, a few newsletters, and two GTM playbooks I had already written.
 
Something shifted.
 
I recorded a voice note on a walk. Raw thoughts, unfiltered. Pasted it into Claude.
 
And what came back read like me. My words. My rhythm. My edge. No cleanup needed.
 
That never happened with ChatGPT. Not once in 3 years.
 
Here is why it works:
 
1. The instructions tell Claude how I write. My rules, my formatting, my voice.
2. The uploaded content shows Claude what my writing actually looks like in practice.
3. Memory compounds. Every conversation makes the next one sharper.
4. My voice input is always the starting point. The raw thinking stays mine. Claude shapes it, it does not replace it.
5. It pushes back. Questions my structure. Challenges a weak hook. ChatGPT just said yes to everything.
 
The workflow is simple. I think out loud. Claude builds with me.
 
The output sounds like a human who has done the work. Because the input came from one.
 
If you want to try this, start here.
 
Create a project. Upload your best previous work. Write clear instructions on who you are, who you help, and how you talk.
 
Then give it a voice note and see what comes back.
 
Most GTM operators are still using AI the same way they did 12 months ago.
 
Are you?

Saturday morning. 45 minute walk. No music. Just me and something my CRO told me in January that I keep coming back to.

“How you start Q1 defines how your full year gets shaped.”

We had a rough start. Pipeline was slow. Energy was off. The kind of January where you tell yourself there is still time.

Fast forward to today. Halfway through Q1. Almost at 100% year to date. Last week was one of our best weeks for new business all year.

What changed?

Not a new playbook. Not a new hire. We stopped drifting and started correcting. Early.

Here is the thing most operators miss in Q1. You get pulled into execution fast. Day to day takes over. Deals move. Fires start. You feel productive.

But the big programs that define your year need to get shaped in Q1. Delay those and you delay pipeline. Delayed pipeline means delayed conversion. Delayed conversion means your new customer cohort shows up late. And late adoption compounds into a weak H2.

A strong Q1 sets up a strong H1. A strong H1 carries momentum into H2. The math is simple. The discipline is not.

This morning I went out with the dog (she is lovely to babysit André 🐶) and the kids first. Then I kept walking. Alone. 45 minutes, maybe 60. No agenda. Just letting my brain process the week, the last 7 weeks, and the 6 weeks we have left in Q1.

What do I need to keep doing. What do I need to stop. Where do I need to course correct.

You do not have to do this weekly. You do not even have to do it monthly. But some cadence of structured reflection is the difference between operating with clarity and just being busy.

I have started using Claude as my reflection partner. Not for answers. For structure. Every reflection compounds on the last one because it remembers context. It turned scattered thinking into a system.

Busy calendars will always win if you let them. Reflection is how you take back control.

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I scaled a SaaS company from 2M to 10M in under 3 years.
 
The playbook that worked was the opposite of what most teams attempt.
 
We narrowed instead of expanded.
 
Netherlands first.
 
Belgium could wait. The book of business was not large enough and I did not care.
 
We trimmed our ICP from "50 to 500 employees" to something so specific it included industry, desk vs non-desk ratio, and tech stack attributes.
 
We gave our CSM veto power over new pipeline.
 
If we could not make a customer happy, we did not accept the deal.
 
Pipeline went down.
 
Win rates hit 34%. ACV went up. Cost of acquisition dropped.
 
Every growth ceiling I have hit in the last decade taught me the same thing.
 
The answer was never more channels, more headcount, more spend.
 
The answer was better execution, better focus, better discipline on what actually moves pipeline.
 
I spent the last months turning that lesson into a system.
 
The GTM Channel Reset Playbook.
 
12 steps across 3 phases. Built on 10+ years of GTM leadership and backed by 100,000+ signals from operators and founders.
 
It includes a self-assessment, a full workbook, an implementation timeline, and a cadence pack to keep the system running.
 
I am publishing it in 3 parts this week on my Substack.
 
Part 1 and 2 are free. Monday and Wednesday.
 
Both designed so you can take what you read and apply it in your day to day immediately.
 
Part 3 drops Friday exclusively for paid subscribers, including the full workbook, implementation timeline, and cadence pack.
 
Part 1 drops today.
 
This playbook is also the foundation of my first GTM OS Cohort.
 
12 weeks. Weekly office hours. All the learnings from 10+ years of scaling SaaS companies, packaged into one program.
 
Starting April.
 
Keep an eye on my posts in the coming weeks.
 
Link in the comments.

We have run 100+ deal reviews over three years.
 
The ones that actually moved deals forward all share one thing. 15 minutes per deal. Here is the system.
 
45 minutes. Three deals. 15 minutes each. Hard stop.
 
Before the session, nobody prepares a narrative. Gong already captured the calls. MEDDICCC (yes 3 C's) fields are populated. The data is there before anyone walks in.
 
We don't ask "how is the deal going." We open with the qualification score and go straight to the weakest field.
 
One field. One gap. One action.
 
The AE doesn't defend the deal. The AE owns the takeaway. They close the loop before the next review. If the gap is still open, we know exactly where the deal stands.
 
No storytelling. No 30 minute walkthroughs. No manager rescuing deals on Friday because nobody caught the weakness on Tuesday.
 
This changed how our team closes.
 
In 2026, pipeline is shrinking. Win rates are dropping. Buying committees are growing. You cannot afford deal reviews that hide structural gaps behind narratives.
 
Deal reviews are one piece of a bigger system.
 
I spent the past weeks building a full Deal Progress and Closing playbook. Structured discovery. Weighted qualification scoring. Stage gates built on evidence. Multithreading protocols. Momentum tracking. Forecast governance.
 
Every component comes with an implementation timeline and the infographics to run it.
 
The full playbook is on my Substack.

In the last 3 years, I’ve written more than 1,000 LinkedIn posts. 

They brought likes and reach. 
But DMs brought the real revenue. 
Now my DMs are broken as I know it is for you too. 

LinkedIn helped me grow. 
Build a network of 34,000+ connections. 
Connected me with brilliant people globally.

But here’s the truth: 
None of my best relationships started with a post. 
They started in the DMs.

I used to think writing daily was the best way to create opportunities. 
And it does work. 

But in B2B SaaS, real conversations starts 1-on-1. 
Not in the feed. 
But in private conversations.

• Founders pitch investors
• Leaders connect with peers
• SDRs open new outbound accounts
• AEs follow up with all stakeholders after demos

All in the LinkedIn inbox.

And that inbox? 
It’s chaos.
 
Unread threads. 
Missed follow-ups. 
Leads lost in noise.

LinkedIn never built a smart inbox. 
And for years, I worked around it.

Then Nick Broekema pointed me to @Mitchell Tan 📮. 
Founder of Kondo: Superhuman for LinkedIn DMs, the inbox LinkedIn never built.

Now I can:
• Archive clutter
• Label messages
• Surface hot leads
• Move fast, stay organized

Kondo feels like a superhuman for LinkedIn DMs. 
Kondo is a superhuman for LinkedIn DMs. 
I’ve used it for 6+ months now. 
It’s a game-changer.

If your inbox is overflowing try it. 
It brought clarity to my chaos.

Try it for fore here.

taplio

The Battle

Brian LaManna

Koen Stam

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The Battle

Brian LaManna

Koen Stam

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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);}Brian LaManna's LinkedIn Performance

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