BDR Academy

Co-Founder

Gridin Consulting

Founder

I guide sales and marketing teams to win the biggest deals faster.

My approach is based on 5 pillars:

1) Assessment. Choose best opps and expansion scenarios within the target accounts based on a unique set of criteria backed by math modeling.

2) Research. Combine best practices from martech and OSINT to reveal the insights and build a slam-dunk business case.

3) Messaging. Craft highly-relevant value propositions, engaging content pieces, and outreach cadences with a 70% reply rate.

4) Mapping. Get the whole team around progress and challenges in the deal. Plan future steps based on relevant data.

5) Scaling. Сreate marketing and operations exoskeleton that allows top sales performers to increase their bandwidth by up to 50%.

Few fun facts:

 - Switched to full-time consulting during the 2008 recession  
 - Trained more than 200 enterprise sales and marketing teams.
 - Worked with 50+ b2b niches, ranging from Cybersecurity and IoT platforms to self-rescuers for the coal mining sites.
 - Conducted projects in the US, EU, UK, MENA, South Africa, and Mid-Asia.

Recent war stories:

 - Doubled the ARR from a strategic account with an elaborate multi-step expansion campaign
 - Engaged board members of the Biggest Gold Mining Conglomerate in Mongolia with a zero-tech ABM campaign
 - Darth Vader direct mail campaign targeting enterprise CISOs with an 80% conversion rate. 
 - Fresh AE does 84% of the yearly quota in Q1 with zero marketing support.
 - Simultaneous engagement with 18 stakeholders that led to a 10 million crane equipment deal
 - Engaged the “unreachable” exec of top EU Telecom in 24 hours.
 - 300-word email and one spreadsheet put the product on the shelves of Saudi Arabia's largest retailer
 - Revived the stalled deal with Dubai’s ministry of digital transformation

Want to learn more?

1) Check out The Big Deal Talks Podcast (Itunes, Spotify or, even better, youtube - we have really nice production)
2) Read some posts from the featured section
3) Follow me and "ring the bell" to get notified about the new tips (I try to post daily).

If you want to discuss a consulting project or training gig for your sales/marketing team, feel free to DM me or drop a line at dan@dangridin.com

Cheers!

Dan (Daniil) Gridin

Andrei Zinkevich

Co-founder @Fullfunnel.io| ABM & full-funnel marketing for B2B tech companies with high ACV and long sales cycle

We transform B2B Tech and Service-based companies from siloed sales and marketing to full-funnel account-based marketing and demand generation. 

We help your team develop an ABM strategy, launch pilot programs, operationalize and scale the programs without ramping up budget or depending on external agencies.

Here is how.

1. ABM STRATEGY.

We go together through a 3-week initial strategy sprint that includes: 

- Deep assessment of current marketing and sales processes
- Challenges both teams face and the root reasons behind them
- Revenue and channel analysis to identify focus markets and ICP for the ABM campaigns
- Custom ABM strategy development including detailed:
- Marketing and sales alignment with ICP, strategy and playbooks

2. LAUNCH PILOT ABM PROGRAM.

Within a single quarter, we’ll work with a pilot team to implement a minimal viable full-funnel program, without pausing existing processes. The pilot team usually consists of one marketer and one sales development rep.  

When we hit the target KPIs, we move to the operationalization and scaling stage.

3.DEVELOPING FULL-FUNNEL ABM FUNCTION.

At this stage we combine ABM with demand generation function to create a holistic model that creates awareness, generates demand and activates accounts that are already engaged across the full funnel.

SPRINTS INCLUDE:

-> Account-Based Marketing

-> LinkedIn demand generation and social selling

-> GTM strategy

-> Sales enablement

-> Demand generation and accounts warm-up

Why Work With FullFunnel.io?

1. 30+ years of niche experience

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge.

2. Knowledge transfer.

Your team gets consistent support and training, including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack, and process maps.

3. Revenue alignment.

We align marketing and sales teams around revenue, ideal customer profile, target accounts and lead scoring criteria which helps to consistently hit your revenue quota and operate as one Revenue Operations team.

OUR CASE STUDIES INCLUDE

- $300k from a pilot ABM campaign with a software development company

- 9 qualified sales opportunities and 3 new contracts, 10x ACV from an account-based demand generation campaign with AdTech development company

- 7 sales-qualified opportunities from a pilot ABM campaign in the Nordics region with a cloud solutions vendor

- 76% response rate, 36% accounts engaged, 5 opportunities from a pilot ABM campaign

Co-founder

At Fullfunnel.io we are growing B2B companies with long and complex sales cycles since 2006.

We were and still are “in trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, and bring to the table our 30+ years of combined experience and knowledge. 

I live and breathe B2B marketing since 2006. 

Before launching Fullfunnel.io, I spent 8 years in the enterprise segment working for Kimberly Clark and Biosphere Corporation.

What makes Fullfunnel.io different?

1. Ins and outs of selling to enterprise

Coming from the mid-market and enterprise world, I know all the ins and outs of selling to these segments: the research and evaluation processes, decision-making procedures inside the buying committee and the approval workflows. 

We’ve been there, done that, and know how to generate opportunities with these segments and influence the decision-making processes.

2. Niche experience

While we could help many B2B business, since 2007 we focus exclusively on two verticals: high-value B2B tech (enterprise SaaS, blockchain technology, hardware) and service-based companies (software development, consulting, cybersecurity, DevOps as a service, etc). 

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge. 

3. Knowledge transfer and in-house operations

We believe that the real growth can only be driven in-house. You need to have people who are in the trenches every day, talking to customers, experiencing the sales hurdles, refining the messages and positioning.

We join your team as external marketing advisors, provide consistent support and training including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack and process maps.

As a result, you get an evergreen in-house growth engine.

My favorite way to explain B2B marketing for long sales cycles is by showing demand generation from the buyer perspective:

I. I WANT TO LEARN.

Individual buyers are exploring topics, upskilling themselves, and discovering best practices and industry trends. They're not actively looking for solutions yet—they're in learning mode.

At this stage, buyers might:

- Discover good content from a brand and start following them
- Share good content with colleagues
- Consume educational materials like podcasts, webinars, or articles
- Build awareness of different approaches and vendors

This is the foundation stage where you get noticed, build trust, and awareness before a specific business need emerges.

II. WE WANT A SOLUTION.

The buying group has agreed on the top-priority challenge and the consequences of not solving it now. They start looking for different solutions.

The vendor that was able to clearly articulate that their solution (not a product) is the best fit for this type of challenge, wins an opportunity to be considered during the next round.

Here is an example.

Our enterprise pipeline declined in 2025 by 27%. Despite multiple attempts and efforts, neither marketing nor sales knows how to fix it. We need a solution.

At this point, Champions might consider multiple solutions:

- Invest in sales training
- Hire SDRs and AEs with a proven track record of selling to enterprise
- Launch an account-based marketing program
- Invest in outreach scripts...

The list is endless.

III. WE WANT A SOLUTION LIKE YOURS.

After evaluating multiple solutions by fit, resources and budget, the buying group makes a decision to select one of them. At this point, they start looking at different vendors and book discovery calls to learn more.

Example: We want to start an account-based marketing program.

Alternatives:

- Buy an ABM platform and launch a program based on the playbooks provided by that vendor
- Hire an ABM agency
- Buy an ABM course or workshop
- Hire an experienced consulting company

Guess what you should do as a vendor?

IV. WE WANT YOUR SOLUTION.

After selecting the best-fit solution, the buying committee presents it to stakeholders to get consensus and support for the vendor evaluation.

This is where you start seeing high-intent signals and generate opportunities.

Example: We want to hire you as our consultant partner to implement a pilot ABM program. What is the scope, budget, and resources needed?

You need to invest in fully personalized buyer enablement.

V. WE ARE READY TO BUY FROM YOU.

The buying committee has approved the budget and the resources, you're moving to the procurement and POC phase.

---

These stages represent a typical buyer journey. The first three stages could take 9-12 months and often define if you're getting into the consideration set. 

Most B2B companies ignore it and try to capture the demand from in-market accounts, and this is the exact reason why the pipeline dries up.

Co-founder @Fullfunnel.io| ABM & full-funnel marketing for B2B SaaS with long sales cycles | Author

Account-based content strategy shouldn't be complex. Here is the breakdown:  
( sign up for deep dive here: https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c).

1: MANY.

We target the entire ICP cluster, accepting the fact that most of them are not in the market now and there is no buying intent.

- Daily LinkedIn thought leadership: ABM, Full-Funnel Marketing, B2B demand generation.
- Weekly email newsletter
- Weekly live podcast
- Quarterly step-by-step webinars
- Annual Full-Funnel Summit

1:FEW.

The level of intent is medium, and these accounts could become a future pipeline. The goal is to generate demand and get into the consideration set.

- Cluster + Jobs-To-Be-Done Specific content (e.g. How to successfully replicate your pilot ABM program with the regional teams).

- Detailed industry case studies with our clients: video interviews + content summary, where we review specific ABM programs in detail.

1:1.

We want to accelerate the sales cycle and influence the purchase decisions of the accounts with the high intent:

- Fully personalized business cases and solutions for a specific account
- Arguments for multiple stakeholders (e.g. how sales will benefit from ABM, etc).

---
We'll share the deep dive at our virtual Full-Funnel Summit. 
Sign up for free here: https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

There are 2 companies that dared to challenge the absurdity of B2B marketing with video content: Cognism feat. Todd Clouser (The Worst Marketer in The World) and Dapper - the demand agency feat. Tycho Luijten and Steven van Marle (see one of my favorite videos they created).

Two companies stood out because they were not afraid to:

- innovate
- differentiate
- challenge the status quo

Ask any B2B sales team about their challenges, and in most cases you'll hear:

Our target accounts don't know us.

Most B2B companies are invisible to their buyers.

Not because they lack budget. Not because their product is bad.

Because they sound exactly like everyone else. They play safe.

Same gated whitepaper "10 trends in our market in 2026". Same pictures from the conference. Same narrative according to the "tone of voice".

B2B shouldn't stay for Boring to Boring. 

Even if you are not going to produce video content, you can stand out with:

- Insights and data (e.g. Kerry Cunningham doing a constant research for 6sense)

- Infographics explaining complex B2B marketing (we and Pierre Herubel took that pass)

- Actionable templates (cudos to Jen Allen-Knuth , Nate Nasralla, Rob Kaminski)

It's just a choice.

I've invited Tycho to our Full-Funnel Summit to stress-test his framework in an enterprise B2B.

Join us to learn:

* How to become the first brand your buyer thinks of — even with a 2-person content team, zero video capability, and a CEO who wants you to "go broad"
* The actual process, resources, and costs behind viral B2B content — and how to prove ROI when your CFO calls brand "a nice-to-have"
* How to make "niche famous" work in enterprise with 18-month sales cycles and 500 target accounts

Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

No B2B buyer ever said:

"Hey, I'm interested in being your MQL. 

Please, send me your automated email nurturing cadence and transfer my email and phone number to your Sales Rep.  I'd love to spend a few hours on a qualification call and then hang out with your Account Executive."

B2B buyers don't engage with marketing content, sign up for webinars or field events, because they are READY to buy.

They engage because the topic resonated with them, and they'd like to learn more.

We have a fundamental problem here.

Because of siloed sales and marketing, marketers are under the pressure to generate leads.

Nobody even questions the LEAD definition.

Hence, marketing collects any engament (sign-ups, downloads, email link clicks) and handovers it to sales. If, eventually, sales generate an opportunity, this opportunity is presented as marketing-influenced.

But in the most cases, it ends up with blaming each other at the next board meeting.

Stop thinking about conversions at each touchpoint. 

Start doing this: 

1. UNDERSTAND YOUR BUYERS.

- What do my best customers have in common? 
- What triggers their research? What attracts their attention? 
- Where do they learn? Hang out? Whom do they follow?
- What are their jobs-to-be-done and their daily challenges?
- What questions do they ask? 
- Which evaluation criteria do they use? 
- What do they value the most? 

2. BE PRESENT IN THE CHANNELS WHERE YOUR BUYERS ARE.

Clicks and downloads doesn't matter. Account awareness and nurturing matters.

Stop:

1. Dropping links to your website in every social post.
2. Create mediocre articles based on high-volume keywords
3. Producing low-quality PDFs to collect MQLs and transfer them to sales

Start:

Create top-notch content optimized for native consumption in the channel.

3. CONNECT AND ENGAGE WITH YOUR BUYERS.

In complex B2B the relationship is what drives the revenue aside from a strong brand and content.

Enable your marketing and sales to be active on target social platforms and communities to connect and engage with the target buyers, not pitching them.

4. DISTRIBUTE CONTENT.

Creating great content without making sure your target audience consumes it is a waste of time.

Develop a content distribution workflow through:

- Own assets: newsletter, social profiles, etc.
- Sharing in communities
- Paid and 1-1 distribution to target accounts

5. CAPTURE THE DEMAND.

Sales-ready buyers will reach out to you. Here's what to do with the rest:

- Remove friction from the buying process
- Do a progressive profiling to personalize further nurturing and activation.
- Add target accounts that hit an engagement threshold to ABM playbooks
- Deveop personalized warm-up and activation activities to generate sales opps

---
"LEADS" are the consequence of brand awareness, demand generation, joint marketing and sales nurturing, customer advocacy, and great product.

We'll dive deeper at our Full-funnel summit. 

Sign up for FREE here: https://lnkd.in/dnw37WvF

Most know me here as B2B marketer writing about ABM and B2B marketing for long sales cycles. Here is what almost nobody knows:

I've been playing footbalI (soccer) and been in love with it my entire life. 

After creating our dream marketing consulting company FullFunnel.io with Vladimir Blagojević, I want to fulfill another dream - launch a football academy.

Not someday. Actually build it in public.

So I'm writing it all down.

Here's the problem I want to solve:

A lot of parents whose kids are playing football chase the wrong things despite the best intentions.

They obsess over getting their kid into the "best" academy. They pay for extra training. They stress about playing time, rotation to the B team, comparing their 10-year-old to other kids.

Then their kid quits at 14-15.

Burned out. Frustrated. Done with football.

I've watched it happen dozens of times across Poland, Croatia, and Spain over the last 10 years with my two sons. I even got the UEFA C licence to start training kids, but combining this with Fullfunnel was impossible :)

The questions I keep hearing from parents:

"Should we switch to a bigger academy?" 
"How do I find a good individual coach?" 
"Why isn't my kid getting playing time?" 
"What skills should they work on?" "How do I know if the training is actually helping?"

These are the wrong questions.

The right question: How do I help my kid still love football at 18 and become a good athlete?

Because here's what nobody tells you:

- The club logo doesn't matter. Technical foundation built between 7-14 does.
- Status at 12 means nothing. The player at 18-19 is what matters.
- Progress is seasonal, not weekly. Comparing kids destroys development.
- Getting rotated to the B team? That's often where real development happens.

The "best" academy is the one with coaches who actually develop players, not the one with the biggest name.

My older son is 19, playing his first senior season after ACL recovery. My younger is 11, last year of 8v8.

Different journeys. Different challenges. Same principles.

I'm documenting everything in a newsletter called The Football Dad: https://lnkd.in/eBRKrYSf

Topics include:

- How to choose the right academy (spoiler: it's not about the name)
- What actually drives development vs. what looks impressive
- How to evaluate if training is working (seasonal progress, not weekly panic)
- How to support without pressure (so they don't quit at 15)
- How to find a good coach for individual trainings (my first post: https://lnkd.in/eMXexFCJ)

This isn't a career pivot 😁 My love to B2B marketing and football is equal 😁

It's just the other dream which I want to make true.

If you have kids playing football (or any sport), join me on my journey: 

https://lnkd.in/eBRKrYSf

Here is a 6A framework we use to orchestrate ABM playbooks:

Pre-requisites:

- Cross-functional ABM team (ABM lead, SME, BDR, content + revops)
- Confirmed responsibilities and time commitment
- Defined program goals (new logo, expansion, acceleration)
- Confirmed success criteria + program KPIs with leadership
- Selected cluster or vertical
- Cluster win/loss deal analysis

6 playbook pillars.

1. ACCOUNT QUALIFICATION: https://lnkd.in/diePETma

- Firmo and technographics
- Qualification criteria / signals
- Disqualification criteria
- Tier segmentation
- Buying committee structure

2. ACCOUNT SEGMENTATION: https://lnkd.in/dkYBZN7X

Segment all accounts by Tiers, Vendor Awareness, Relationship and Product-Need Evidence signals.

1. Cluster ICP accounts (Not aware of us & product need is unknown).
2. Future Pipeline accounts (Aware of us & product need is unknown).
3. Active Focus accounts (Aware of us and the product need is known).

4. ACCOUNT RESEARCH.

Define information you absolutely must know about an account to create a personalized offer:

- Strategic initiatives and priorities
- Challenges
- Jobs-to-be-done & KPis of target buyer persona
- Other account enrichment information

Split it into desk and 1-1 research.

4. ACCOUNT AWARENESS: https://lnkd.in/esXKq2xc

Define core activities and content to create awareness among buying committee members.

5. ACCOUNT DEVELOPMENT & NURTURING: https://lnkd.in/dFhrbBN6

Define key activities to engage buying committee members and build a relationship with them.

6. ACCOUNT ACTIVATION: 

Personalize your offer and define bridge activities to book discovery meetings.

The last 3 pillars (awareness, nurturing and activation) incorporate time-based and signal-based playbooks to enable continuous nurturing for 12-18 months.
----
I see a lot of ABM advice on LinkedIn:

- Buy an enrichment software (e.g.  Clay or Zoominfo)
- Run an automated account research
- Set up personalized outbound cadences
- Run LinkedIn ads to the same accounts

Technically, you can call it ABM, and no doubt it might work for low ACV product . But it works because the risk to purchase and try the product is miserable.

The problem though is that this playbook cracks like peanuts in the enterprise world and long sales cycles. 

According to HockeyStack, it takes 417 touchpoints and 5,493 impressions to generate >$100k deals. 

Important nuance: value-added touchpoints, not only "here is how we can help you -> book a demo".

Most ABM playbooks account for maybe 5-10% of necessary touchpoints. If you want to land enterprise deals, be ready to roll up your sleeves and do the necessary work.

P.S. This Friday we'll publish on our Substack a practical example of creating a playbook for one of our accounts. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dSje9cKc

LinkedIn and organic reach are down. Our pipeline quality is up 20x. Here’s what's happening and what works today:

- In Q3 2025, organic reach hit its lowest point ever (down 65% from peak feat Will McTighe)
- Company pages falling from 7% to just 2% visibility in feeds (feat. Iternum Digital)
- Typical reach for content published from personal profiles is: 167 views for people with <1k followers and 5372 views for people with 50k-100k followers.

All of these means one simple fact:

Publish on the company’s page and wait for clicks is not working anymore.

My best guess:

LinkedIn is fighting with AI slop and low-quality content by trying to increase relevancy.

90% of LinkedIn feed is AI-generated content and selling-first posts. The signal-to-noise ratio has never been worse.

We’ve experienced this ourselves at FullFunnel.io. Our LinkedIn reach dropped 5-7x compared to two years ago. But our pipeline quality improved 20x over the same period.

Why?

Again, my best guess is because we never tried to chase the reach and always focused on jobs-to-be-done of our target buyers.

We ran an analysis with Vladimir Blagojević to find what works today. 

Here are 6 content formats that cut through the noise and generate awareness today.

1. Entertainment-first video (feat. Tycho Luijten).

Why it works: 

Humor is massively underused on LinkedIn. People are on social media to laugh or to learn. If you only do the second, you’re competing with thousands of identical videos. Add entertainment, and you break the pattern entirely.

2. Infographics (feat. Pierre Herubel).

Why it works: 

Infographics have the highest dwell time, save rates and profile click-through rate. Basically, what LinkedIn wants.

3. Carousels (feat. Sara Stella Lattanzio).

Why it works:

Same reasons as for infographics, with the difference that in carousels you can add more text and visual examples + provide step-by-step playbooks.

4. Proprietary research.

Why it works:

Any piece of content can be created in seconds. What can’t be created by AI is the data nobody else has. Your proprietary data.

When you publish research from real interviews or client data, your research becomes cited and shared on social, communities, newsletters, and sales decks.

I'll share the links to our favorite examples below.

5. Practical templates (feat. Jen Allen-Knuth and Nate Nasralla).

Why it works:

Templates are immediately applicable. Buyers don’t just read them, they save them, use them, and share them with colleagues. You deliver value upfront.

6. “How leading companies do it” case studies (feat. Elric Legloire).

Everybody is interested in how leading companies became “leading” :) 

What do they do differently? 
How do they do it? 
What processes and tools do they use? 
How do they structure their teams?
---
The entire breakdown with visuals, ideation process and how to make the necessary shifts is here: 

https://lnkd.in/eY4r-bU9

The 7th virtual Full-Funnel Summit (March 24-26) is live — get your free ticket: https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c. Here is the format and agenda:

→ 15 live keynotes (virtual, you can attend from anywhere)
→ Live Q&A and chat with the speakers. 
→ No vendor pitches. 
→ Recordings locked for registered attendees only.

Three tracks.

DAY 1: ABM TRACK: Why your ABM isn't generating pipeline (and what actually works in 2026)

With Leanne Chescoe, Davis Potter, Steve Armenti, Lauren Goodell, me and Vladimir Blagojević.

DAY 2: CMO TRACK: How to run marketing when leadership wants results yesterday and sales complaining about marketing leads.

With Tim Rutten, Ashley Lewin, Matt Heinz, Ashley Faus.

DAY 3: GTM TRACK: Getting attention, creating awereness and generating deman in the AI era.

With Shlomo Genchin, Tycho Luijten, Sara Stella Lattanzio, Diandra Escobar, Justin Rowe, Thibaut Souyris.

---
7 years ago we started this summit because we couldn't find a B2B marketing event that was honest about what actually works in complex, long-cycle enterprise sales.

Not the new shiny AI automation. Not the new narrative about generating meetings on autopilot.

But how to solve the real challenges every B2B marketing team faces today:

→ How to drive pipeline when your sales cycle is 12-18 months and leadership wants results this quarter 

→ How to prove marketing's contribution to revenue when early influence disappears in your CRM and last-touch attribution gets all the credit 

→ How to run ABM with a lean team and a limited budget 

→ How to get the attention of buyers who ignore cold outreach, unsubscribe from nurture sequences, and do 70% of their research before ever talking to sales
---

We keep it free because we believe this content should be accessible to every B2B marketing and sales team, not just the ones with a $5K event budget.

All we ask in return:

if this looks valuable to you, help us spread the word.

→ Grab your free ticket: https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c 

→ Tag one colleague in marketing, sales or RevOps who's dealing with any of the challenges above

See you at the summit.

taplio

The Battle

Dan (Daniil) Gridin

Andrei Zinkevich

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The Battle

Dan (Daniil) Gridin

Andrei Zinkevich

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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);}Andrei Zinkevich's LinkedIn Performance

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