Chris Orlob

Grew Gong from $200k to $200M+ | Online Courses for SaaS Sellers (pclub.io) | Solving Revenue Hiring (QuotaSignal)

"You can have anything you want if you master every aspect of selling." My mentor told me that over a burger when I was 22 years old. Having only $40 to my name, along with a wife and my first child to support, I took that seriously. I made a commitment to master every aspect of selling, and to earn more money than I could imagine. And I was going to do it in SaaS.

When I first became an account executive, I struggled to find repeatable, consistent success. Some months I did well. Some I missed by a mile. After reading hundreds of books (literally) and debriefing every one of my sales calls (thousands) in a journal, I started to crack the code, little by little. 

Soon, things started to go incredibly well. I started to earn multiple six figures a year, which helped me launch my first business. Not too long later (after plenty of mistakes!), I joined forces with a little company called Gong.io, while they were doing less than $200,000 a year in ARR. Figured I'd help them grow to $10M and be done.

5.5 years later, we grew from $200k to $200 million in ARR and a $7.2 billion valuation. I was fortunate enough to earn my first seven-figure income. A decade pursuit of mastering every aspect of sales had come to fruition (though I'm still not done). That felt amazing. 

I kept finding myself telling people, "You can have anything you want if you master every aspect of selling," just like my mentor had told me all those years ago. Because I experienced it first-hand.

My passion for mastering every aspect of selling started to extend to helping OTHER people do it. Soon, I started pclub.io - a business dedicated to helping B2B tech salespeople master every aspect of selling (and earn more money than they've ever dreamed of). 

Since starting, I've helped over 11,000 sales professionals and leaders. Many of which have gone on to turbo charge their sales success:

“Exceeded 245% of my target." -Christian Allen, AE at ZoomInfo

"CLOSED the most ARR in company history” -Marshall Weil, AE at Freewill

"Made 152% of my number” -Jasi Johnson, AE at Gartner

"I made it to Club One - the new program rolled out for the top 1%. -David Rosenstein, AE at LinkedIn


Many of these stories included people who started out thinking, "Maybe this is possible for other talented people, but not for me." But selling is nothing more than a series of skills. Anyone can master it, and I can teach you how.

Like I always tell people, "you can have anything you want if you master every aspect of selling."

Begin writing YOUR success story by visiting www.pclub.io

Co-Founder & CEO

pclub.io is the #1 skill transformation platform for revenue teams. We work with the top 0.01% of sales earners, practitioners, and leaders to create top-rated online courses that help you grow your sales skills to life-altering levels. Instead of spending years mastering sales through trial and error or going through stodgy ‘one size fits all’ sales training, you’ll get to the steal the playbooks, frameworks, and skills of the top 0.01% sales earners on the planet, accelerating your mastery curve, income, and revenue to unrecognizable levels.

I watched a rep lose a $400K deal in 30 seconds. Not because of price. Because of one sentence: "So, uh, what do you think we should do next?"

The buyer paused.

Then said: "Let me think about it and get back to you."

That deal never closed.

Here's what happened:

The rep gave away all their power by asking the buyer to lead.

I see this constantly.

AEs end calls with:

- "What are your thoughts on next steps?"

- "Where do you want to go from here?"

- "What makes sense to you?"

They think they're being collaborative.

But they're actually communicating:

"I don't know what we should do. You figure it out."

The best AEs?

They ALWAYS know the next step.

Before the call even starts.

They end calls with:

"Based on what we discussed, here's what I recommend we do next. We should schedule 45 minutes next Thursday with you and your VP of Sales to walk through how this impacts your Q2 plan. I'll also bring my CRO to speak to the executive-level implications. Does that feel like the right next step?"

Notice the difference?

One is asking.

One is leading.

Here's the truth:

You've sold your product 100+ times.

Your buyer has bought it 0-1 times.

Who should be leading?

You.

Selling is an act of leadership.

If you don't know the WHAT (next step), WHO (involved), and WHY (reasoning), you're not leading.

You're following.

And followers don't close deals.

Leaders do.

The question:

Are you leading your deals or following your buyers?

P.S. We’re opening an “early access” VIP list to our coming Black Friday annual enrollment event to get in before the rush crowd. Join here: https://lnkd.in/g6ntF9Xb

JSESSIONID

li_at

CEO at pclub.io - helped grow Gong from $200K ARR to $200M+ ARR, now building the platform to uplevel the global revenue workforce. 50-year time horizon.

Sales leaders: After working with 5,000 revenue orgs, I've seen 5 patterns in every great sales team.

From InsideSales, to Gong, to pclub.io – my career has been in the walls of revenue teams.

5 things the best do:


1. They know where they win.

They don’t chase the market.

They chase the segment where they have unfair advantage.

They define a surgical ICP and stop wasting cycles on deals that never close.

They’re obsessed with:

• Where they win
• Where they lose
• Where win-rate is too low

Then they operationalize it.

They don’t just "know" where they win.

They run the business around it.

One CRO I talked to said this:

“If you want higher close rates, stop chasing bad deals.”


2. They’re obsessed with narrative.

Once they know the territory, they design the narrative that unlocks it.

They refine messaging until buyers think:

“They understand my world better than I do.”

Narrative isn’t a marketing exercise.

It’s fuel that drives revenue.

When you nail it, everything is easier.

Whether it’s the CMO, CRO, or even CEO, someone holds this job:

“Chief Narrative Officer.”


3. They build a performance culture.

The best sales teams take a page from Netflix:

“We’re not a family. We’re a pro sports team.”

• Camaraderie? Yes.
• Psychological safety? Yes.

But also:

We’re here to perform.

If someone isn’t pulling their weight, the culture addresses it.

Elite teams balance two forces:

A) High standards
B) High safety

The paradox:

The more transparent you are about:

• Performance expectations
• PIP criteria

…the less fear exists.

Performance expectations create short-term fear.

But ambiguity creates permanent fear.

Open expectations remove "wondering."

Reps know where they stand.

That frees them.


4. They build rock-solid stages & exit criteria.

Great teams don’t use vague stages like Discovery → Demo → Proposal.

They design a sales process that exposes the reality of a deal.

• Clear stage definition
• Binary exit criteria
• Aging discipline

This clarity drives predictability:

• Reps stop guessing
• Managers coach w/precision
• Forecasts stop lying

Process definition is the compass.

But here’s the trap:

Having a clean process still isn't enough for consistency.

Sales stages and exit criteria only define what to do.

They do not equip reps with how to do it.


5. They treat skills like a performance system.

Strong leaders don’t just tell reps what to do.

They build the skill capacity to do it.

Once you define a great process, a hard truth emerges:

Many reps don’t have enough skill capacity to do it.

Great teams systematize skill excellence.

They treat skill capacity like a monetizeable asset.

These teams don’t view skills as “our people should already have these.”

They design skill profiles, measure them, train them.

Process without skill is academically strong, commercially weak.

Skill without process is chaos.

Do both?

You unlock revenue excellence.

Which of these 5 stood out most?

If you work in sales and you're not locked in, focused, maximizing your productivity during working hours? You're wasting the reason to be in the profession.

Sales is the highest paid hard work and the lowest paid easy work.

You can half-ass your way to a decent living in sales.

But $300K? $500K? Seven figures?

That game only rewards the serious.

A multimillionaire once told me: "Rule #1: Thou shalt not f*** around."

He smiled when he said it. 

But I could tell he wasn't joking.

Here's what I see most reps doing:

They show up. 

They take calls. 

They send emails.

But they're not locked in.

They're distracted. 

They're coasting. 

They're treating it casually.

And then they wonder why they're stuck at $150K while their peers are clearing $400K.

The difference?

The top reps treat sales like a performance job.

Because it is.

They manage their time like a CEO.

They manage their energy like an athlete.

They invest in their skills like their income depends on it because it does.

If you're in sales for the money, act like it.

Lock in. 

Focus. 

Maximize every hour.

Or get out and do something easier.

Because if you're going to treat it casually, you're in the wrong profession.

P.S. If you want the exact 50 questions I use to build pain, urgency, and desire in deals, grab the full list here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/g2giY-ab

The BEST sales lesson I ever got came from a billionaire's head of sales: "Are we lying, cheating, or stealing? I've never seen growth this fast."

That was Charlie Munger asking Chet Holmes.

Chet had just taken a magazine from dead last (15th out of 15) to #1 in market share.

In 3 years.

Here's what he did:

He identified 167 accounts that represented 95% of industry revenue.

Then he STOPPED pursuing the other 1,833 accounts.

Completely.

Cold turkey.

Instead, he focused 100% of his energy on those 167.

Mailed them every 2 weeks.

Called them every 2 weeks.

Faxed them every 2 weeks.

For 4 months: Zero responses.

But he didn't quit.

Month 5: Landed Xerox (biggest deal in company history).

Month 6: Had 28 of the 167.

3 years later: Had all 167.

Every. Single. One.

Here's what this taught me:

Most AEs spread themselves too thin.

They chase every lead.

They respond to every inbound.

They try to close everyone.

And they end up closing no one.

The best AEs?

They identify their top 20% of accounts.

Then they ignore the rest.

They run a relentless, multi-month campaign on their dream accounts.

Not one email.

Not one call.

A drumbeat.

I did this at Gong:

We had Tier 1 accounts.

Every rep could answer: "What are you doing to break into [Tier 1 account]?"

Not "I sent an email last week."

But "I've been running a 6-month campaign with executive outreach, direct mail, and strategic touches."

The lesson:

Stop chasing everyone.

Start obsessing over the accounts that matter.

Then run a campaign so persistent they can't ignore you.

That's how you go from 15th to 1st.

P.S. Are you a seller who refuses to be average? We’re opening an “early access” VIP list to our coming Black Friday annual enrollment event to get in before the rush crowd. Secure first-access here: https://lnkd.in/g6ntF9Xb

The biggest shift in B2B sales that no one is talking about:

Sales is becoming PROFESSIONALIZED.

The old era was simple:
• Charisma
• Dinners
• Being good with people

That era is fading fast.

The new era is different:
• Precision
• Strategy
• Engineered deal process
• Skill depth

The old era was revenue backslappers.

The new era is revenue athletes.

The teams who embrace this shift will dominate the next decade.

Buyers who decline calendar invites... but then offer up several available times to reschedule... You are a hero to salespeople everywhere.

Tech sales is one of those rare careers that breaks social classes, fast.

People in lower class backgrounds can quickly break into the upper class.

And with a much lower barrier to entry than other careers.

I've seen people go from $40k to $200k in about 18-24 months.

I've seen people in their mid 30s become seven-figure earners.

Tech sales is truly an economic equalizer. 

#techsalesforpresident

"You have no ****ing idea what my day looks like."

The VP Sales practically YELLED that at me.

Spiraling me into a 37 minute depression.

I was running a sales demo early in my sales career.

This hard-nosed VP Sales was my potential buyer.

And that's what he blurted out at the end.

Right after I asked him how the demo was resonating.

No doubt this guy was tough.

You could even call him a jerk.

But sensing he just crushed the soul of a new AE just trying to figure things out, he softened up:

"Look, you didn't do a bad job. You know your product well," he said.

"But you're the one who asked for this meeting. And you showed me 7 or 8 things. Only one of them would even somewhat help me," he went on.

"The rest of them? I'm not even sure what they solve." He said bluntly.

"You could have left those other 7 things out of this demo entirely."

Those words hung in the air like cigar smoke floating out of this mouth.

I stewed on this every night for a few weeks.

Seeing the same thing happen to my peers, I came up with a new rule:

Every feature had to EARN its spot in my demo.

To make the cut, I'd need to be able to finish one of these sentences:

FIRST:

"Earlier, you shared you were struggling with X. Let me show you how we address that."

SECOND:

"Many of our customers struggled with Y. Is that the case with you? [If yes]: Ok. Let me show you how we address that."

If I couldn't finish one of those?

Then that feature was "cut from the team."

At least for THAT particular demo.

The lesson?

Solve your buyers' problem exactly.

No less.

But also: No more.

Ok.

P.S. If you want the exact 50 questions I use to build pain, urgency, and desire in deals, grab the full list here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/g2giY-ab

Be the kind of salesperson that it would suck to compete against.

Most AEs get the first 5 minutes of a discovery call wrong. They either don't set the stage at all or they overcomplicate it (and sound weird).

Here's the framework I've used to set up thousands of sales calls and avoid friction with your buyer:

STEP 1: Transition from small talk.

After spending a few minutes on rapport, you need a smooth way to transition to business.

Best phrase I know to do it?

"Mind if we talk through the agenda?"

STEP 2: Set the objective.

This is NOT the agenda.

The agenda is the LINE ITEMS of things you'll discuss.

The objective is the OUTCOME of the meeting.

Complete this sentence:

"Here's what I have in mind for the objective of this meeting. Let me know if you have anything else in mind? This meeting will be successful if _______________."

Notice the 'softening language.'

You're making a firm suggestion wrapped in soft language.

That gives your buyer a sense of control and autonomy.

Plus, it eases any initial 'sales resistance' they have.

STEP 3: Set the agenda.

With the outcome of the meeting defined, NOW you can set the agenda.

Here's the key:

Propose 2-3 topics that SERVE the objective you just established.

"The way we can accomplish the objective is by talking through a couple things. First, _______________. And then, _______________.

Does that feel right?"

STEP 4: Set the DECISION to be made at the END of the call.

Let your buyer know you'll want both of you to be in a position to make some sort of decision at the END of the call.

That makes it FAR easier to secure next steps (or disqualify if it makes sense).

"By the end of the meeting, it would be a win if we're both in a position to decide either it makes sense to schedule a next logical step based on what we learned, or that it doesn't, and we can revisit another time."

STEP 5: Gain alignment with the 'F-Word'

End your talk track with:

"Does that feel like a fair way to approach the call?"

This accomplishes two things:

- They're aligned and feel ownership
- They are likely to agree (hard to disagree with 'fair')

Put all those together in a concise, 30-second sound bite.

You've got a formula for better sales calls.

P.S. Hey AEs — your comp plans isn’t the problem. Your skill gaps are.

Take this 2-minute quiz to see exactly how much income you’re missing out on.

Average results: $39,392 left on the table.

Where do you stack up: https://www.pclub.io/quiz

Being an account executive is better than getting an MBA.

You will become better at:

- Sales
- Writing
- Finance
- Leadership
- Negotiation
- Business acumen
- Time management
- Managing difficult people

It's truly a real-world MBA.

I can't think of any other profession where you can make multiple six-figures in your 20s without an Ivy League degree.

The problem?

Most salespeople "fell into" sales.

They don't take it seriously.

So they squander the opportunity.

And instead use their commissions to live a drunken existence on the weekends.

But if you lean in to this opportunity?

Like... TRULY lean in and master it?

You can write your own check.

And maybe even retire before you're 40.

P.S. If you want the exact 50 questions I use to build pain, urgency, and desire in deals, grab the full list here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/g2giY-ab

19 sales cheat codes I wish I knew when I started out:

1. Buyers will spend more to relieve pain than to achieve gain. Stop obsessing about product benefits. Start obsessing about customer problems.

2. The biggest opportunity your competition is probably not leveraging is deep multi-threading.

3. The demo flow your product team teaches you never works. They mean well, but they are too interested in making customers aware of every feature. Only show the features that solve problems. Leave off the rest.

4. One of the best sales hacks is responding fast. Responding fast to inbound leaders. Responding fast to prospect emails. Buyers mirror your speed.

5. Personalization will help you book more outbound meetings. But there are diminishing returns. Adding way too much personalization creates a lot of work and doesn’t add to conversion.

6. Offering an 'end of month' discount only ever works if your buyer has total control over pulling the trigger. If they have to get approval from others, go through legal, procurement, etc. it’s not going to move the needle.

7. Spend more time getting new influencers up to speed on past conversations you’ve had with their colleagues.

8. A great question will always have more influence power than a great statement.

9. People don’t buy because of ROI. ROI doesn’t create demand. It justifies demand. Position your ROI accordingly.

10. Your perfect sales technique will not close the deal if you're talking to the wrong person. I still remember the best discovery call I've ever run. I didn't close the deal. Wrong person.

11. Social selling isn't better than cold email. Cold email isn't better than cold calling. These channels work together. Leverage them as 'land, sea, and air.' Stop thinking binary.

12. If you can describe your buyer's problem better than they can describe it, their light bulbs will turn on. It's a beautiful thing. Buyers favor the seller that can best articulate their problems.

13. Get to know your market like the back of your hand. If you know your buyers so well that you can peer into their soul, you'll rarely lose.

14. Buyers never reveal the real problem after the 1st or 2nd question. Uncovering the 'need behind the need' is the closest thing to a magic bullet in sales.

15. Executives want to know you've done your homework. If you show up to a sales call with a C-SUITE exec and ask a generic question, you'll lose them forever.

16. Never negotiate price until it's the last open issue. If agreeing on price doesn't close the deal, it's too early to negotiate.

17. Every time you demo a feature, preface it with the problem it solves. You'll double your demo effectiveness with this change alone.

18. Stop blaming buyers for falling short. If they said they were going to sign last month, and they didn’t, that’s your fault. Not theirs.

19. The best product demos are more about the customer than they are about the product.

P.S. Early VIP access: https://lnkd.in/g6ntF9Xb

The fastest path to time, location, & financial freedom for non-technical people: Remote tech sales.

I’m not sure people realize how wild the moment is.

I know 23–28-year-olds making $200K–$300K a year.
• Working remotely.
• 40 hours a week.
• Sometimes 35.
• No degree.
• No code.
• Just the right role and a dialed-in sales process. 

If you zoom out, it’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

For ambitious non-technical people, tech sales is the new American dream.

The fastest way I’ve ever seen someone change their entire socioeconomic trajectory in under 12-24 months.

If tech sales changed your financial life, tell your story in the comments.

PSA for Sales Leaders: MEDDPICC is not a sales methodology. MEDDPICC is a deal health framework.

If you tell your reps "do MEDDPICC" without giving them the skills to do it?

You're destined for some disappointing pipeline reviews.

8 (painful) differences between the best and worst SaaS Sellers ⤵⤵

1. Pricing.

The best salespeople can quote you $350,000 with a straight face. Totally casual. Zero hangups. Calm, cool, collected.

The worst salespeople tremble and shake when they talk big money. They’re uncomfortable talking about price and it shows.

2. Discovery.

The best salespeople uncover the ‘need behind the need.’ They don’t stop with surface level need. They go deep, but in a conversational way.

The worst salespeople show their product at the slightest hint of a need they can solve. Discovery be damned.

3. Prospecting.

The best salespeople know that’s it’s too early to sell the benefits of their product. So they do something different. They agitate the problem. They articulate the buyer’s pain better than the buyer can.

The worst salespeople focus their outreach on the product. It’s benefits. How it works. It’s features. The ROI.

4. Discounts.

The worst salespeople lob huge discounts “if you sign this month.” Even if the buyer is nowhere near a decision.

It’s not that the best salespeople never use discounts. But they only give ‘qualified discounts.’ The ask why the buyer is asking for it. They qualify whether the buyer has the authority to act on it. Only then do they consider it.

5. Next Steps.

The worst salespeople “pencil in” a meaningless calendar invite as a next step. Or worse, they schedule nothing and follow up via email.

The best salespeople know what the next step should be, who should be involved, and why. Plus, they see around corners. They are thinking about the next THREE steps. Not just the next one.

6. Demos.

The worst salespeople show you ever feature. The more they show, the more value they build, they think.

The best salespeople “solve exactly.” They show you exactly what pieces of their product solve your problem. They leave out everything else.

7. Negotiation.

The worst salespeople don’t negotiate. They haggle. The only tool they have in their negotiation kit is to give something away and ask for something in return.

The best salespeople treat negotiation as problem solving. They ask about the buyer’s underlying need behind the concession request. They find creative ways to address it.

8. Skill Acquisition.

The worst salespeople think sales is a born trait. You have it or you don’t.

The best salespeople know that “sales” is just a collection of skills. Each one can be learned, practiced, reinforced, and mastered. So they build their skills accordingly.

These are 8 key differences.

The good news?

You can move from “worst” to “best” with new skills.

You’re not YEARS away from anything you want.

You’re SKILLS away from anything you want.

New skills are how you collapse a decade into a year.

P.S. We’re opening an “early access” VIP list to our coming Black Friday annual enrollment event to get in before the rush crowd. Secure first-access here: https://lnkd.in/g6ntF9Xb

Hey tech salespeople:  What inspired you to get into tech sales to begin with?

I want to hear your story in the comments!

Here's mine:

I spent 5 years pursuing a dream of being a pro drummer.

But by age 20, I had practiced so much I got tendinitis (and scar tissue) on both elbows, effectively ending that as a career option.

So I made a vow:

"If I can't be a pro drummer, then I'm at least going to find a way to make as much money as possible."

That led to a conversation with my college roommate:

"If you want to do well for yourself economically, focused on becoming great at selling."

He then encouraged me to look into a local SaaS company called InsideSales.com.

I joined as an SDR and the rest was history. 

What's your story?

InsideSales.com

Last year, an AE told me she wanted to earn $350,000 a year.

“Best advice on how to get there?” she asked.

So I told her a story.

Years ago, I had dinner with the CEO of Gong.

I asked him a question no CEO should be able to answer:

“How do you build a billion-dollar company?”

But he had an answer anyway.

He said:

“First, build a product so good a weak sales team could sell it.

"Second, build a sales + marketing machine so good it could sell a weak product. Do both and you’re on your way.”

Then I told her:

“Becoming a high-earning salesperson works the exact same way.”

Step 1 → Break into a company with a killer product that practically sells itself.

Step 2 → Build elite-level sales skills so you could sell anything if you had to.

Do both?

You’re unstoppable.

Here’s what most aspiring high-earners get wrong:

They apply to the “hot” companies…

But those companies only hire people with the skills to match their reputation.

Great product + weak skills = no interview.

Great skills + weak company = low ceiling.

You need both:

• The right company
• The right skills

That’s the $300k+/year formula.

That’s how you get your shot at big money.

And that’s how you turn that shot into a career-defining year.

You aren’t “years” away from your dream life.

You’re just a few skills (and maybe the right company) away.

And if you want help with both…

I’m opening Early Access to our Black Friday program next week.

Inside it is our brand-new January training:

BREAK INTO THE BIG TIME

How to land interviews — and offers — at high-earning companies with world-class products. 

The tech companies where sellers routinely earn $300k+.

Plus: the income acceleration platform that helps you capitalize once you’re in.

Bad news? First 200 people only.

Grab your early access spot here and get an enrollment invitation before everyone else here: https://lnkd.in/g6ntF9Xb

Drop an “IN” in the comments if you're looking forward to hearing the updates about it.

Your dream job + elite skills = a different life.

Making $300,000+ a year in tech sales is dead.

Unless you follow these two rules:

Years ago, I had dinner with the CEO of Gong.

Here’s what I asked him:

“How do you build a billion dollar company?”

What he said has influenced me ever since:

“First, build a product so good a weak sales team could sell it.”

“Second, build a sales team so good they could sell a weak product.”

“Do both, and you re-write history.”

Mic-drop line.

And here’s what I realized:

That’s also the key to making $300k (or more) in tech sales:

First, sell a product so good, you could sell it even if YOU weren’t very good.

Second, become so good at selling that you could sell a weak product.

Do both?

That's your only shot at a 7-figure W2.

This morning, we announced the system that helps you do BOTH.

Our annual Black Friday enrollment event opened.

It’s your path to cracking $300k+ in 2026.

Here’s how:

First, master every aspect of tech sales with the world’s top skill transformation platform.

🔥 Learn from the top 1% revenue experts
🔥 Master skills that impact your income
🔥 Become an elite seller 

As I’ve said:

You’re not years away from everything you want.
You’re skills away from everything you want.

Second, our Black Friday bonus:

🎁 Free admission for our Break Into the Big Time live training in January.

This isn’t a skills training.
This isn't a process training.

This is how to break into companies where earning $300k+ is possible.

You’ll learn to identify, interview with, and join the hottest tech sales teams on the planet.

Because there are only two paths to great money in tech sales:

➡️ Wait for the “perfect” company
➡️ Or become the seller every company fights for

The highest paid salespeople don’t choose.

They insist on both.

They build the fuel reserves (killer skills).

Then they choose the rocketship (killer company).

If you refuse to sit on the sidelines and watch others win in 2026?

👉 Enrollment is open now for Black Friday: https://lnkd.in/gSpnHq7y

Become the most formidable version of yourself.

The outcomes take care of themselves. 

Let me know in the comments if you're in (or if you have questions).

SaaS sellers that will make $300,000+ in 2026 know these 7 things:

1. Their desired W2 (annual income), down to the dollar.

2. Every lever in their comp plan so they know how to get there.

3. How much ARR they need to close to reach their target income, based on their comp plan.

4. Their ACV, and how many deals they need to close to reach their target.

5. Their personal close rate, and how many new opps they need to find to close their target revenue amount.

6. The daily activity they need to execute to find the new opps they need to find to reach their goals.

7. The new skills they need to improve the entire system.

Clarity is power.

After that, it's just about working the system.

P.S. Are you a seller who refuses to be average? We’re opening an “early access” VIP list to our coming Black Friday annual enrollment event to get in before the rush crowd. Secure first-access here: https://lnkd.in/g6ntF9Xb

Last week, I met with the SVP of Sales at a $1B company.

Here's what he said about a "must win" deal they lost:

“Our relationship with this customer was amazing,” he said.

“Our rep even stayed overnight at their house during the sales cycle. They became close friends.”

And yet… they still lost to a competitor.

Why?

Because the competitor simply out-sold them:

• A tighter business case
• Better articulated differentiation
• A sharper understanding of the problem
• They built consensus, not just relationships

Then he said the line that stuck with me:

“We had the relationship acumen. They had the sales acumen.”

3 lessons I took away:


1. In 2025, buying decisions and relationships are decoupled.

Being liked isn’t enough.
Being trusted isn’t enough.
Win­ing and dining isn’t enough.

Not when your competitor has:

• A more formidable skillset
• A winning deal strategy
• A killer sales process

Those beat relationships every day.


2. Sales is becoming professionalized.

Sales used to be the least “professional” profession.

Charisma. Charm. Relationships.

The Wild West. No shared standards of excellence.

That era is dead.

Modern sales cycles are won by teams who run a more skilled, more strategic, more engineered process.

This is no longer about personality.

It’s about precision.


3. Skill capacity is the CRO’s new competitive advantage.

Teams with higher skill IQ win more deals. 

Full stop.

We’re now seeing early data to back this up:

Nine of our business customers in the last 90 days have correlated their pclub.io Skill Adoption in Gong with CRM outcomes.

The uplift is unmistakable.
• Higher win rates
• Faster cycles
• Bigger ACVs

That data is telling us that skills are money in the bank.

It shouldn’t be surprising:

When products blur, and relationships alone can’t carry you…

Skill becomes the moat.

It’s easy for competitors to copy your features.

It’s hard for them to match a tightly trained revenue team.

The companies who grasp this will dominate the next decade.

P.S. If you're a leader and want to see what the revenue lift can look like when you go all in on this, DM me.

Sriharsha Guduguntla

Hyperbound

YCombinator Summer 2023, Building the first virtual sales gym to upskill your SDRs & AEs on the phones

Modern Sales Pros

Member

RevGenius

Sales Enablement Collective

The Sales Enablement Collective exists to create a space to help individuals and organizations drive company-wide alignment around sales enablement as the scalable, sustainable source of business growth. Join our Slack community and never miss out again!

Bloom

Bloom (YC W21) teaches people how to start building wealth and financial literacy early by investing in the stock market. Helped launch and scale full-stack web applications and a React-Native based mobile app that has over 500,000 downloads (Top 25 finance apps in the App Store)

Founding Engineer

Easy Loop

Pioneered an open-source Chrome Extension serving 20,000+ high school students across the country. Streamlined the grade calculation process, saving students 5 hours of otherwise lost time every week. Designed a product site, started a Facebook page with 400+ followers, and earned school press coverage

App Link: http://tinyurl.com/easyloop, Press Link: https://bit.ly/2oBab3m

Founder

Berkeley RISE Lab

Worked in the ERDOS/Pylot autonomous driving team under the guidance of Prof. Joseph Gonzalez, Peter Schafhalter, and Sukrit Kalra. Building a streaming dataflow system for self-driving cars and robotics applications.

Research Assistant

Salesforce

Revamped Einstein AI Bot Builder Setup UI/UX with end-to-end testing & new backend API integrations (ES6 JavaScript, Java). Fostered feature discoverability through cross-team collaboration & integrating In-App Guidance features with bot builder to help customers learn about key AI features (LWC, Aura, ES6 JavaScript, Java, HTML, CSS)

Software Engineer Intern

Calypso

Spearheading Calypso Finances, a modern loan servicing platform:
- Skydeck HotDesk Accelerator
- Blockchain at Berkeley Accelerator
- SCET Collider Cup 2019 Top 3 Startups

Co-Founder

Transitioned the Einstein AI Bot Builder team’s Map View feature into GA by being the first to introduce modern ADA compliant web accessibility features to Salesforce’s popular flow builder component. Presented two live demos to 100+ employees and executives — sparked interest in many other teams for adoption (Aura, LWC, ES6 JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Jest)

CEO at Hyperbound (YC S23) | Helping marketing leaders build pipeline with AI at scale

Call me Sai! I'm a YCombinator Founder and alumni (S23) who's interested in startups and the intersection of AI and sales and marketing. Currently building next-generation GTM tools at https://hyperbound.ai. 🚀 

I'm a self-learned full-stack engineer and designer with experience building software for 10+ years.

http://sriharshaguduguntla.com

🚨URGENT: We're hiring 2 Strategic Mid-Market Account Executives in San Francisco --> $240K OTE + quarterly accelerators + growth opportunities at Hyperbound (NOT remote). 

Both our current AEs, ☠️ Belal Batrawy and Isaac Hong have SURPASSED quota with a quarter still left in the fiscal year. They've both had $1M months and they're closing the biggest logos of their careers, hitting accelerators and making tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses. 

In the last 20 months since we launched Hyperbound, we've
- Been entirely inbound with word of mouth being our strongest growth channel
- Raised a $15M Series A
- Hit 2 back-to-back $1M months last quarter
- Closed Fortune 10 and Fortune 100 enterprises on massive thousand seat rollouts
- Grown from $0 → 7 figure ARR in 2024 in just 11 months, founder-led sales with a team of 4
- Have a 90%+ win rate in competitive head-to-head deals
- Invented a new category of sales tech that wasn't even possible before January 2024
- Scaled from 9 people at the start of this year to 20+ and on pace for 30 by EOY

Who we're looking for:
- Someone with 3-5 years of closing experience with a consistent track-record closing mid-market deals
- Hungry to make the jump to enterprise and just waiting for an opportunity
- Thinks outside the box and helps design sales strategy in the office, alongside the founders, Atul and I
- Wants to be part of the next category-defining moment in sales tech
- Relocate to SF (if not in the bay area)

**This is not a remote role! 5x/week at our SF office. 

We will have both roles filled before the end of the calendar year. DM me and apply here: https://lnkd.in/gzXyJ6rx

CEO at Hyperbound (YC S23) | Building AI Sales Roleplay Simulations to upskill GTM teams

The system of record is dead. 

The system of action is taking its place.

Data isn't your competitive advantage anymore. How fast you act is.

"I don't need another dashboard. I need direction."

That's what a senior sales leader told me this morning, and it hasn't left my head since.

"I can tell you our conversion rates, our sales cycles, who's performing well, who's not. What I can't tell you — is why."

They have more dashboards than they can count. More trackers, reports, and metrics than they'll ever need in Gong and their CRM. 

But when they go looking for why performance changed, it turns into a scavenger hunt. 

We have a saying at Hyperbound: "Insights die in dashboards."

That's exactly what they were suffering from. 

On top of that, their team just launched a new, more complex product, but leadership still expects the same short sales cycle.

"Do we shove everything into one demo? Or slow down and risk losing velocity?"

It's not just a tactical question. It's about how fast a company can learn and adapt.

"We can see deal velocity shift. But we never know why until weeks later."

These so-called insights sit buried under layers of charts and filters, inaccessible in the exact moment someone needs them.

Here's the reality: 

Data is a commodity now. Every company has it.

The advantage isn't knowing. It's acting fast and at the right time. 

The leaders who win next year won't be the ones staring at dashboards.

They'll be the ones who are using AI systems that filter through the noise to suggest action. 

At Hyperbound, that's what we're building, tools that help sales leaders stop reacting to data and start compounding on insight.

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