Dale Zwizinski

🤝 Chief GTM Officer | YOUR GTM Special Ops Team | Founder enabled GTM Strategy -> Data vs. Gut | Give > Receive | Recovering Coder | Extending Runways for Founders | Must haves 💪 Grind 🧠 Integrity 🎯 Coachability

An energetic, top performing sales professional, leader, and coach who is passionate about the Cloud based technologies.  More than 20 yrs experience with enterprise sales and known for my ability to grow and enhance businesses.   Working with innovative technologies and platforms to make customer successful wakes me up in the morning!
 
A self-starter who is happiest when helping customers enhance their business with innovative technologies.  It is important to stay ahead of trends and looking for ways to help a customer grow their business and improve their products/services.  The sales environment has changed dramatically over the last 5 years, the next 5 years will be a monumental shift --> Sales, Marketing and Service are on a collision course.

The pursuit of sales and maintaining customer satisfaction has taken me around the globe.  Establishing contacts and a track record of success in the financial service market throughout China, Asia, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, just to name a few.  Every sales person should be well versed in cultural differences and knows that paying attention to such details can make or break a sale.

SALES is changing and utilizing every available channel is important - if you are reading this you know what I am talking about!  To understand more about the sales evolution come read and listen to content here: www.thesaleschangeagent.com
 
Entrepreneurship and education is a deeply ingrained with a MBA from the Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.  and an undergraduate degree (with a double major in Management and Finance) at Merrimack College. Living in Lakewood Ranch, Florida (outside of Tampa), with my wife and 2 children.   For fun I enjoy traveling with his family, play/coach soccer, workout, ski, and golf.

Dale Zwizinski
Mobile: 401.952.9231
Email: dzwizinski@gmail.com

Strategic Sales Advisor

Collaborating with the CEO on all thing revenue, including:
✅ Go to Market
✅ Aligning to the Buyers Journey
✅ Pricing Strategies
✅ Sales Pipeline Growth

Our mission is to empower Customer Success teams to build great relationships with their customers.

We work with early and growth stage B2B SaaS companies to help them scale Customer Success outcomes.  Everything we do is devoted to removing the overwhelm of back-to-back customer meetings so that CSMs can focus on the bigger picture: building relationships.

UpdateAI is the first meeting assistant built specifically for CS.

73% of AI startups are stuck automating emails.

Meanwhile, their competitors are building Autonomous GTM Engines.

The trap? 

Founders skip GTM Foundations and jump straight to "scale."

Here is what the 4 stages actually look like:

Stage 1: Task automation (emails, summaries)
Stage 2: Process augmentation (CRM updates, reporting)
Stage 3: System orchestration (connecting data silos, proactive alerts)
Stage 4: AI as a teammate closing complex workflows

Most never escape 

Stage 1. Not because the tech is not ready. Because leadership is not ready.

What is your:
1. Value Proposition 
2. Ideal Customer Profile
3. Buying Persona

Where is your team right now?

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revenue-in-a-box

Managing Partner | GTM Operating Partner to CEOs | Developed The GTM Gap™ Framework | AI-Executive Whisperer | Revenue Leader | GTM Strategy - Data vs. Gut | AI Enabled GTM | Recovering Coder | Extending Runways

Stop blaming your sales team for a "growth problem" when you actually have a fragmented systems problem.

I see it every single week. Leadership teams get in a room, draw up a beautiful strategy, pat themselves on the back, and then hand it off to a team that is fundamentally misaligned at the ground level.

On the latest episode of Bridge the Gap, Nicole Brownell  (Managing Director at Novo Advisors) joined Adam and me to pull back the curtain on why execution fails even the best strategies.

Here is the cold, hard truth:
Alignment isn’t a feeling. It’s a shared scorecard.

Nicole dropped some serious gems that every C-suite leader and RevOps pro needs to hear:

1. Revenue isn't just a Sales KPI.

If you are only holding Sales accountable for revenue while Marketing is chasing "brand awareness" and "MQLs," you’ve already lost. If the departments aren't speaking the same language or sharing the same metrics (like OKRs that roll up to a single goal), you don't have a team—you have silos.

2. The Product/Sales Gap is killing your retention.

This one hit home. Nicole pointed out that sales teams often sell a version of the product that doesn't actually exist in reality. When the "value delivered" doesn't match the "value promised," you don't have a sales problem—you have a retention crisis waiting to happen 30 days after the contract is signed.

3. RevOps is your Playbook.

Strategy is the "where" and "how" of winning. RevOps is the actual playbook that dictates how you play the game. Without RevOps holding the line, your systems stay fragmented, your data stays dirty, and your execution stays sloppy.

We spend so much time talking about strategy because it’s the "fun" part. Execution is the hard part. It’s the daily grind of making sure the front-line narrative matches the back-end delivery.

If your GTM motion feels like it’s grinding gears, stop looking for more leads. Start looking at your alignment.

Are your teams actually aiming at the same target, or are they just sitting in the same meetings?

Check out the full episode for more on how to bridge this gap.

https://lnkd.in/eZ-8EADf

Most teams do not have a strategy problem.

They have a handoff problem.

This week I watched a solid plan lose 10 days in execution.

Not because people were lazy.

Because ownership got fuzzy after kickoff.

Here is the operator fix:

The 3 line handoff

1) Owner: one name, not a team
2) Outcome: what done looks like in plain English
3) Clock: next checkpoint date, on calendar before the meeting ends

That is it.

If you cannot write those 3 lines, the project is not ready.

Actionable takeaway:
Before your next launch, run every workstream through the 3 line handoff.

You will spot drift before it becomes delay.

What is your most common handoff failure right now?

Most founders hire their first sales leader too late.

Then they hire the wrong one.

Here is what actually happens:

You scale to $1M ARR on founder-led sales. 
You think you need a VP of Sales to take it from there.

So you hire someone who has scaled from $10M to $50M. 

They walk in expecting a repeatable process, a trained team, and clean data.

They find none of that.

Within 90 days they are frustrated. 

Within 6 months they are gone. And you are back to square one, except now you are $300K lighter and 6 months behind.

The hire was not wrong. The timing was.

Your first sales leader should be a builder, not a scaler. 

Someone who can create the process from scratch, not someone who needs one handed to them.

Conversely you can also look at Operating Partners to ensure that you  have everything stabilized and foundation built before bringing a VPS sales hire, and ensure that they have all of the right things in place for success.

Get the stage right before you get the person.

Most companies think they're doing AI because they have a chatbot. 

That's Stage 1 maturity
-> Task automation. It's the equivalent of a faster typewriter.

The real competitive advantage is the jump from Stage 2 to Stage 3. 
-> System Orchestration.

Stage 2 is process augmentation. 
-> You've added AI to existing workflows. It's better, but it's still siloed.

Stage 3 is where the magic happens. 
-> This is where AI isn't just a tool in the workflow. It is the workflow. 

Data flows from marketing to sales to customer success without human intervention. 

The system identifies a lead, qualifies it based on real-time intent data, assigns it to the right rep, and drafts the personalized outreach.

If your team is still manually moving data between tools, you're stuck in the past. 

Stage 3 isn't about working harder. 
It's about building a system that works for you. 

The jump to Stage 3 is where the 7x conversion rates live. 

Stop automating tasks. 
Start orchestrating systems.

Everyone needs a board or advisors to help you, try this:

"You are building a high-fidelity AI advisor for Dale Zwizinski’s Personal Board of Directors. This advisor must operate as a Chief of Staff-level strategist, not a generic assistant and a team of advisors.

Use the following structure to define their core logic. 

Do not write a 'personality description.' Write a 'Reasoning Engine.'"

────────────────────

1. The Core Identity
[ADVISOR NAME] – [ROLE, e.g., Chief Revenue Officer]
Lane of Genius: [One paragraph. What is the specific territory this person owns? What problems do they see that others miss?]

2. Core Frameworks & Mental Models
List 5–8 named frameworks this person uses to process reality. These are the "rules of the game" for this advisor.
• [Framework 1]: [Brief description of how it works]
• [Framework 2]: [Brief description of how it works]
• [Framework 3]: [Brief description of how it works]

3. Non-Negotiables (The "Edge")
What are the hard constraints this advisor would never compromise on? What makes them push back? This section prevents the AI from becoming "too nice."
• Constraint 1: [e.g., Never accepts incremental 5% growth; only 10x shifts.]
• Constraint 2: [e.g., Allergic to 'consulting-speak'; demands direct, plain English.]

4. The Decision Filter
When Dale presents a problem, what is the exact sequence this advisor uses to analyze it?
1. Filter 1: [What is the first question they ask?]
2. Filter 2: [What framework do they apply next?]
3. Filter 3: [What is their final stress test?]

5. Voice & Delivery
Describe the tone and format. 
• Constraint: No fluff, no "I hope this helps," no summaries. Direct insights only.
• Style: [e.g., Blunt, visionary, sardonic, or data-driven.]

This is a start to how your can incease your effectiveness and efficiencies!

My research into 2026 GTM trends shows three massive, concrete shifts that revenue leaders are failing to navigate.

Here is the first one!

The Agentic Chasm
You don't have a talent problem. 
You have an orchestration problem.

Most revenue leaders think "AI Maturity" means giving their sales team a better prospecting tool. 

That's Stage 1 thinking, it just helps you fail faster.

The real gap in 2026 is the Agentic Chasm.
It’s when you hire AI agents to do the work, but your GTM process is still built for humans from 2019.

If your AI agent is just "automating the spam," you’re destroying your brand at scale.

The shift isn't from human to AI. 

It’s from Task Execution to System Orchestration.

Stop hiring tools. Start building the engine.

The "SaaSpocalypse" is the trending topic for a reason.

Marc Benioff and the Databricks CEO are both signaling the same thing: The old SaaS model of "seats and screens" is under massive pressure.

Why? 
Because AI agents don't need a UI. 
They need an API.

If your GTM strategy is still based on selling "more seats," you are fighting a losing battle against efficiency.

The new GTM foundation:
1. Outcomes over activities.
2. Systems over seats.
3. Autonomous engines over manual workflows.

The GTM Gap is no longer just about sales and marketing alignment. It is about the gap between your legacy software and the autonomous future.

We are moving from a world of "software you use" to "software that does the work for you."

If you are a founder or revenue leader, your job is no longer to manage people using tools. It is to orchestrate systems that deliver results.

The SaaSpocalypse isn't an ending. 

It is the beginning of the Autonomous GTM Engine.

**The Pivot Point.**

Most people think a breakthrough is a loud, celebratory moment.

It isn't.

It's usually a quiet, terrifying realization in the middle of the night that everything you've been building... might be pointing in the wrong direction.

That's the pivot point.

Not the press release. 
Not the rebrand. 
Not the announcement post.

The pivot point is the moment *before* all of that, when you're alone with the truth, and you have to decide what to do with it.

We aren't selling a podcast. 
We're selling a transformation.

And transformation always starts in the dark, before anyone else sees it coming.

Technical debt kills your product. Revenue debt kills your company.

Most founders are unknowingly accumulating massive revenue debt. It happens when you scale sales before you've stabilized the GTM Gap.

You hire three reps because you have a little traction. 
You haven't defined the ICP beyond "anyone with a budget." 
You haven't nailed the value prop. You just want volume.

Now you have:
1. Inconsistent messaging that confuses the market.
2. High churn because you closed the wrong customers.
3. A sales team that's guessing instead of executing.

This is revenue debt. 

And like technical debt, the interest rate is compounding. 

You can't hire your way out of it. 

You have to go back and fix the foundation. 

Stabilize. Foundation. Repeatability. Scalability. 

Don't skip the sequence. 

The debt will always come due.

80% of your buyer's journey is happening while you're asleep.
And they aren't filling out your forms.

The "MQL" is dead.

In 2026, if you're waiting for a "lead" to hit your CRM, you've already lost the deal to someone who was orchestrating the account months ago.

GTM leaders are still obsessed with activity metrics.
- How many calls?
- How many emails?
- How many LinkedIn touches?

The market doesn't care about your activity. It cares about its own problems.
The winners in this cycle aren't the ones with the loudest outbound.
They are the ones with the most intelligent Intent Orchestration.

Move your focus from "The Lead" to "The Signal."

That's how you close the GTM Gap.

Melissa Gaglione✨

AE @ Deel 🚀 Video Prospecting👸🏻| 100 Powerful Women in Sales ‘23 | Check out my VP Course | Strategic Advisor | Speaker | OneUpClub | Former On-Air News Reporter & School Teacher | Yogi

I built a $200K+ creator side hustle on LinkedIn from 0 to 40K followers in under 2 years. 

Now I help you do the same👇🏼

Most B2B professionals create great content but never get paid for it. 

I change that through Citrine Creator Accelerator and Citrine Talent Agency.



Here's what I do:

✨For aspiring creators:
The Creator Accelerator teaches you to position yourself as a paid creator, create branded content, and land your first $500-$3,000 partnership. After you graduate, you'll have an established portfolio, rate kit, network, and everything you need to land consistent brand partnerships. 


⭐️ For established creators:
Citrine Talent Agency takes over your partnership management. I renegotiate your rates, handle all contracts and payments, and advocate for you with brands using data!

You just create content. 

My team does everything else from content strategy, timeline management and handling all comms. 


❤️ Why creators work with me:
I've been where you are. 
Posting casually about my corporate experience landed me my first brand partnership while I was an Account Executive. That deal funded side projects while I climbed to Head of Sales. 

💵 In under two years, I generated over $200,000+ from LinkedIn brand partnerships, events, and services all while helping 30+ creators land their first deals, and proving that this model works. 

Now I'm scaling what worked for me: a system that trains and develops corporate creators AND represents them professionally.



💫The bigger picture:
B2B creators are becoming the next wave of founders. 

Content creation is one of the most underrated ways to earn $2,000-$5,000+ per month. 
We're still early.



💰Our average creator: 12K followers, $3,000/month in brand income, full-time job intact.

If you're ready to monetize your LinkedIn presence, consider applying to join an agency or accelerator. 



📩 DM me or apply on our website! 

I'll review your application and see if the Creator Accelerator or Talent Agency is the right fit.


melissa@citrinecreators.co

Account Executive

First dedicated Account Executive selling our newest offering. 
Responsible for building sales process and execution. 
Deel helps businesses hire anyone, anywhere. It’s global payroll for employees and contractors from around the world, all in one place.

I'm a professional quitter... and I'm proud of it.
I quit teaching... with a master's degree.

The hardest question I got on my way out was "but what about the kids?"
And it gutted me... 

Truth is, when I was teaching, I felt confined. 

So I chased the childhood dream I was never allowed to chase.

News reporter 

Longer hours. Middle of nowhere. $9 an hour.
Still lost.

... Then tech sales
.... Then leadership
......Then a layoff that forced my hand.

And then one day I walked into my own office.
Just me. 
My dream. 
My decisions.

Day one... it immediately felt right.
Because this is what I've been training for.

Every quit.... Every exit.... 
Every person who told me I was throwing my life away...
It was all training.

I'm building Citrine. 
And this is a role I'll never quit. 

Quitting the wrong things is how you find the right ones.

What have you quit that you're glad you walked away from?



PS: I share all the lessons in my free "Monetized by Melissa" Newsletter 
Here: https://lnkd.in/e_9DEEcF

Melissa Gaglione ⭐️

CEO & Creator 45k+ followers | 50M impressions✨ Founder of Citrine ⭐️ I help you get paid to post on LinkedIn

These 16 Creators are taking over LinkedIn!! 
Here is why you should follow them 👇 

⭐ Emilie Schario - Building Kilo while sharing real life playbooks and her own built apps for work, parenthood and life!

⭐ 🐜 mike haimowitz 🐜 - an SDR who shares the real life work behind booking meeting while having sooo much fun! Killer newsletter too! 

⭐ Breanne S. - The B2B sales leader who also teaches women about hormone optimization, fitness, and health after 30. 

⭐ Surina Sandhu - a Digital marketer who shares the campaign frameworks, lessons and hot takes in the b2b world! 

⭐ David Wilkins - Runs the LARGEST SDR Leaders community in the world and is hosting global events! (Next one is in Austin on 3/5)

⭐ Lauren Sharpe - an AE who believes in health-hustle and in sharing her experience as an entrepreneur in her sales journey.

⭐ Meghann Misiak 🔮 Misiak- our sales witch who coaches sales reps on burnout prevention and anti-hustle culture. 

⭐ Jared Wexler - bridges the gap between new product launches and sales education! highly practical and structured process! 

⭐ Morgan (Shelly) Erazo 🌱 (Shelly) Erazo - a Head of Sales documenting the journey of her leap to leadership! 

⭐ Emma Sturtevant - A sales career coach helping women land their dream roles with empowerment, strategy and heart! 

⭐ ⚡️Francisco Oller Garcia, MBA Oller Garcia, MBA Oller Garcia, MBA - daily inspiration and practical steps to preventing customer churn with intuition and analytics!

⭐ Maclaine Scher - The VP who is transforming her hilariously and practically transforming her dad's "boomer business" into the new age

⭐ Malisa Nguyen - a mental performance coach and paid speaker sharing her original FLOW framework to help sales reps perform! 

⭐ Monica Stewart - coaching founders and sharing the hard truth that founders need to hear about scaling SaaS sales in the $1M -$10M range

⭐ Elena Mita - Ai transformation and user researcher who is educating and helping teams adopt through content + she's helping her mom find her next role! 

⭐ Eric Maida - the VP of Growth and speaker who teaches AI safety and sales strategy! 


These 16 creators are growing rapidly and are Citrine Certified Creators! 

They are working with brands, creating content, UGC, event attendance, educational videos and so much more!!

With over 200 applicants, we narrowed it down to these 16 who are taking over LinkedIn in their own unique way... 

Give them a follow!! 
I am betting BIG on these creators!! 

❤️ Who are YOU betting on??? 



PS: Hi i'm Melissa Gaglione ⭐️ and I help linkedin creators get paid to post, monetize their brand and grow together! 

Apply for the March Cohort or Talent Agency here: https://lnkd.in/eRVhk9HE

Cycle 18 Certifications 

Who will be next?? Next week is the next Creator Accelerator Cohort where I work closely with rising creators to accelerate their brands & monetization paths! 

I can't believe we have... 

one. spot. left. 

This will be the 3rd cohort in a row where we've sold out!! 

If you want to monetize your brands as a 
- linkedin creator 
- corporate UGC creator
- monetize your service/offering 

You can apply to accelerate for that LAST SPOT here: https://lnkd.in/eTBYYuGG


PS: Who is your favorite rising star right now?? Linkedin is growing so quick and I LOVE finding the new upcoming talent!

They keep telling me to charge for this… but I’m keeping my newsletter free

If you are a corporate creator and want to monetize your LinkedIn… I’m sharing all the secrets in my free newsletter 👇🏼



Each newsletter comes with multiple resources.

From infographics to complete guides… 



And honestly could I charge for this? 

Absolutely… 

But I want to help as many creators as possible and that means creating accessible resources ⭐️

Check out Monetized with Melissa… 
The newsletter for LinkedIn creators ✨

https://lnkd.in/e64aR5TD

No alternative text description for this image

Everyone wants more brand deals... 
But if you say “yes” to the wrong ones, you’ll spend the year stuck in low-budget campaigns that drain your time (and your energy).

Here’s the secret most creators miss:
You don’t need more brands...
You need the right ones!

The creators who grow fastest have a filter

They know which pitches to ignore, which deserve a conversation, and which are worth building a partnership with.


PS: Hi i'm Melissa Gaglione ⭐️ and I help creators from 1,000 followers to 100,000 followers get paid to post! 

My next creator accelerator starts in MARCH! 
We have 2 more spots.. apply here: https://lnkd.in/eRVhk9HE

CEO & Creator 45k+ followers | 50M impressions✨ Founder of Citrine ⭐️ I’ll help you get paid to post

Pipeline anxiety is so real... all of a sudden you remember that email you were suposed to send? spiraling... 

Ever since I got Mixmax AI my pipleine anxiety has gone down! 

Because it lives in my inbox... 
it send the follow ups I forget... 
it reminds me of my next steps... 

And the AI copilot? 

It builds sequences and tells me what to do next so I'm not guessing.

Pipeline anxiety doesn't mean you're bad at sales.

It means your system isn't built to support how fast you move.

Fix the system and watch the deals close.



Sooo... anyone else spiral like this or just me?

Brand partnership • CEO & Creator 45k+ followers | 50M impressions✨ Founder of Citrine ⭐️ I help you get paid to post on LinkedIn

Today's newsletter: I share my entire LinkedIn story... from sending videos as a news report to get a job on LinkedIn to mass layoffs in tech sales. 

How, in 5 years, I went from $9 an hour to a multi-6-figure business owner. 

In the newsletter, you'll get the full story and 2 free resources!! 
- the 30-minute video framework 
- 6 LinkedIn Lessons from Broke to Booked 

FREE on Substack: https://lnkd.in/gTgD9rK7

You don't need 100K followers to make money by posting on LinkedIn...
I've seen creators with 10K followers land $1,500 brand deals 👇 

Meanwhile, people with 50K+ are still waiting for "the right time" to monetize 

The difference isn't audience size... It's strategy!!



Here's what actually works 👇

⭐ Post for leads, not likes
If LinkedIn removed the like button tomorrow... would your content still bring you clients? 

⭐ Pick your monetization path
Services? Products? Brand partnerships? 
You don't need all three to start... You need ONE clear offer 
(I learned this the hard way...)

⭐ Turn your profile into a sales page
Stop treating it like a résumé... Your headline, about section, and featured links should make it obvious how to work with YOU!

⭐ Create content that starts conversations... Not just content that gets likes Content that makes the right people DM you!!

⭐ Move engagement into the inbox...
Because deals don't happen in the comments... 
They happen in the DMs!!!
Reply personally. Follow up promptly... Make it easy!

⭐ Track what actually matters!!!
Profile views from your target audience.... DMs that lead to calls... Calls that lead to deals. 

That's it..


Swipe through the carousel for the full breakdown ✨

And if you want help putting this into action?

⭐️ Comment STAR and I'll send you the application to my creator accelerator ⭐




-------------------------------------------------------------------
PS: Hi I'm Melissa Gaglione ⭐️ and I help linkedin creators get paid to post!

Check out my creator accelerator and creator talent agency! 

Free resources are here: https://lnkd.in/e32nK8mh

How to make money on Linkedin

For my Linkedin Corporate Creators!!! I created a resource guide with 3 free newsletters and 9 downloadable guides and resources! 

- storytelling frameworks
- winning on linkedin in 2026
- how to write brand partnership content 

and so much more! 

Grab it here: https://lnkd.in/e32nK8mh

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The Battle

Dale Zwizinski

Melissa Gaglione✨

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Performance ScoreDale Zwizinski's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Dale Zwizinski

Melissa Gaglione✨

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

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);}Dale Zwizinski's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreDale Zwizinski's LinkedIn Performance