1st Sales Lead for early-stage AI startups. Main focus right now is on Procurement.

Originally from Bremen, Germany, I have also lived in the US (Twin City area), Portugal (Lisbon), and spent a longer period in my beloved Brazil (Rio).My background is in communications, which I’ve transferred in an eclectic way into 0 to 1 GTM for early and growth stage enterprise startups.Personally fond of Brazilian music, Oasis, and Werder Bremen football club. Recently picked up MMA again. Reading and watching all things related to investigative journalism and intelligence work.

Dennis Sprute

Serial entrepreneur and B2B sales enthusiast with a great passion for people development, sales and tennis. 

Started my career in the IT/Telco business at Siemens AG, where I fell in love with and started working in tech sales. Following my entrepreneurial urge, pursued an MBA in the US specializing in entrepreneurship. Having started 4 tech companies in the US and Germany since then, I have always been in the role of chief salesperson and managing director building heavily customer focused and sales driven organizations. 

In those roles I have learned that there is a severe lack of sales talent in the market - making both sales hiring and effectively scaling sales teams extremely challenging. This experience has culminated in the start of hyrise in 2021 allowing me to combine my passion for sales, entrepreneurship and people development. 

hyrise is now building the next generation of sales talent for tech companies via two pillars. 

Pillar 1: We grow the pool of qualified salespeople by placing talent from all walks of life based on their soft skills and effectively training them on-the-job afterwards. 
Pillar 2: We upskill existing sales teams by continuously training them in their day-to-day using an innovative pedagogy based on individual 1-on-1 training.

Feel free to reach out anytime.

Dominic Blank

Workation is a lie.

You either work.
Or you take a vacation.
Trying both at the same time?

❌ You’re not doing either well.

I’ve learned this the hard way – running hyrise as remote company for 5 years.
Yes, remote enables you to work from anywhere.
But that doesn't mean you should blur the lines.
You NEED the right setup.

Right now, I’m working from Mauritius.
Sounds dreamy.

But here’s the truth:
→ Did 3 weeks of proper family vacation.
→ Now I’m back to work. 100%. Not 60. Not "in between."
→ We flew in my mother-in-law to help with our 2 kids so I can actually focus

Sure, I can jump into the pool after work.

But until then I'm working. Fully present. Fully committed.

Real vacation means real distance.
That distance creates perspective.
New thoughts. Fresh energy.
Better decisions.

That’s the value of time off.

So please:
Don’t dilute your work.
Don’t dilute your rest.

When you take time off – go all in.
When you come back – go all in.

Everyone wins.

How do you feel about this?

🏗 Helping software companies hire and train great sales talent I 🔥 Passionate sales entrepreneur I 🎙️Podcast host Sales Expressed

How to define which qualification framework is right for you?

MEDDIC (or others) won’t fix your pipeline.
❌ Not if your team can’t agree on what “qualified” even means.

The “best” framework doesn’t exist.
But the right one for your business is usually obvious.

If you stop debating acronyms
✅ and start listening to your lost deals.

I’ve seen this pattern over and over:
Teams roll out MEDDIC / SPICED / BANT / whatever.
They add fields to their CRM.
They run pipeline reviews.

And then?
Conversion stays flat.
Slippage stays high.
Forecast stays noisy.

Because the problem wasn’t “wrong framework”.
❌ The problem was: no shared definition of qualified.

A qualification framework mainly does 2 jobs:

-> Create a shared language across the team.
-> Enable great discovery around:
Pain.
Implication.
How they buy.
Who needs to be convinced.

So how do you choose the right one?

Start here:

1️⃣ Go into Closed-Lost reasons.
Not just the dropdown.
Ideally post mortems, deal notes.

Look for patterns.

Lost to competition?
Then you probably need a competition dimension.

No access to Economic Buyer?
Then you need something that requires
Champion strength.
Path to EB.

Went dark / no decision?
Then you need stronger validation on:
Impact.
Urgency.
Mutual action plans.

Your losses will tell you what your framework must catch early.

2️⃣ Ask the people doing the work.

AEs. SDRs. CS.
Team leads. 

Two questions:
Where do deals actually slip?
What do we keep “assuming” that later bites us?

If your team can’t say it simply, 
no framework will save you.

3️⃣ Analyze your best wins.

Pick 5 of your strongest deals.

Ask:
What was the real trigger?
What made them move now?
Who blocked it?
Who unlocked it?
What proof points mattered?

This is your “winning pattern”.
Your framework should make that pattern repeatable.

4️⃣  Match depth to deal complexity.

Deal size.
Buying centers / Stakeholders involved.
Sales cycle length.
Velocity.

If you’re SMB high-velocity, 
a lightweight framework that enforces clarity beats a heavy one that slows reps down.

If you’re enterprise complex, you need explicit rigor around:
Stakeholders.
Power.
Process.
Mutual action plans.
Risk.

5️⃣ Define the goal before you pick the letters.

Better forecasting?
Higher conversion from Stage 2 → 3?
Less slippage in late stage?
Higher win-rate vs competition?

Different goals = different emphasis.

And one more thing:

You don’t have to “adopt” a framework.
You can compose one.
Steal 80%.
Rename a letter as it works better for you.
Add one dimension.
Remove two that don’t matter.

Frameworks only add value when actually used. 

How have you gone about introducing or creating a qual framework?

___
Disclaimer: Image credit goes to newbreedrevenue.com/blog

"Borrow energy, don't force motivation".

We all hit motivational lows - ICs, leadership. Everyone. 
It's the number one killer to performance. 

🤐 Usually, especially senior leaders just don't talk about it. 

Michael Rap is different. 

In my conversation with him on the last episode of Sales Expressed he not only shared that he was "done" and felt zero motivation to keep going, but he shared what exactly he did to work his way out of it. 

As senior revenue leader.

Motivation comes in waves.
At work, in sports, in relationships.

And when the wave is low, most people do the wrong thing:
They isolate.
They “push through” alone.

Michael shared a better question.
Not: “How do I get motivated?”
But:
“Who can I "steal" energy from?”

What helped him reset: 
-> He stopped pretending and started sharing – especially with his team 
-> He "borrowed energy" from co-working out of customers' offices 
-> He made small changes to his environment and routines

Via the podcast, I spent the last 12 months talking to senior revenue leaders about concrete challenges they have and how they solved them. 

This episode is by far the most personal - and therefore likely the most powerful. 

🙏  Thanks again for opening up like that Michael.

May it also inspire you and your teams. 

What do you do to regain motivation?

taplio

The Battle

Dennis Sprute

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