Inside Sales Expert

Taking new clients only on a referral basis.

Helping leaders at early stage tech companies avoid mistakes in all aspects of growing their sales team in the US.

CRO and Founder

SmartBound

Sales development is changing rapidly with the advent of artificial intelligence.

For most CROs and sales leaders, asking "How can I use AI to power my pipeline generation team" leaves more questions than answers.

The team at SmartBound have an answer.

SmartBound combine two powerful things that make pipeline generation easier and more consistent: AI tooling and a conversation-first methodology.

I'm excited to join them as a Strategic Advisor as they grow their business.

Strategic Advisor

It Happened on the Sales Floor-100 Sensational Stories About Sales Leadership Screw-Ups and Big-Wins

📢 Exciting News! 🎉 My audiobook "It Happened on the Sales Floor: 100 Sensational Stories About Sales Leadership Screw-Ups and Big Wins" is now available on Audible! 🎧📚

In this audiobook, I share 28 years of sales and sales leadership experience at tech startups. Learn from mentors, my countless mistakes, and the resilience that led to success in building sales teams. Topics covered include hiring, training, coaching, firing, sales processes, leadership challenges, and more.

This audiobook is an easy-to-read companion, not a heavy instruction manual. Pick it up with your morning coffee, read a couple of stories, and gain valuable takeaways for the day. I wish I had this book 20 years ago to avoid mistakes and achieve success quicker.

Get your copy on Audible and learn from my sales leadership mistakes: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0C6FRZ1MC/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-353065&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_353065_rh_us 🎧📖

#SalesLeadership #AudiobookRelease #SuccessStories

Author

IVP Paragons are hand-selected operating executives with unique skills and a willingness to advise IVP portfolio companies become enduring market leaders. Paragons are experts at their craft, have a desire to give back, and actively want to participate in the start-up community (anywhere from Series B to newly
public companies).

(Full Disclosure:  I do not work FOR IVP.  This is an advisory role for their portfolio companies)

Paragon Advisor

Trellis Research

Advisor

Schmoop, LLC

Managing Member

Wonderway

Boldr

SEON Fraud Fighters

Hirect App

Helping leaders at early stage tech companies avoid mistakes in all aspects of growing their sales team | Advisor

Kevin has made 1000s of mistakes but that has made him successful. After building, fixing and growing sales teams at 8 startups and 3 liquidity events, he loves sharing these mistakes and learning lessons from over 25 years at pre-IPO tech companies so that you can avoid these mistakes and see faster success.

With KG, you get experience, not inexperienced opinions.

✅ 3 startups I’ve been with have had liquidity events (none fire sales)

✅ Helped build 3 businesses into Inc 500/Deloitte Fast 500 companies (that means fast revenue growth)

✅ Built sales teams at 8 Startups since 1997

✅ Built teams of 30 salespeople - 550 salespeople with GREAT gross margins

✅ Built multiple Inside Sales, SDR/BDR, Account Management and Enterprise Sales teams.

✅ Been in Sales Leadership since 1997

✅ Started 3 of my own businesses (Recruiting, Advising, Real Estate)

✅ Named to the AA-ISP Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals 6 years in a row

✅ Made lots and lots of mistakes

Check out the recommendations section below to read what other people have said about me. 👇

Kevin Gaither

I hired this woman to sell for me and let me tell you, she absolutely sucked in her 1st 90 days.

But then she made President's Club 🎉

I was thinking, "Boy, I think I've made a hiring mistake with this one. Maybe I should let her go."

In her first 90 days, she wasn't ramping like all the rest. Wasn't nailing demos. Wasn't closing sales.

But she kept working at it. Hard. REALLY HARD. Following the playbook.

And she was unbelievably coachable. We listened to calls together. She listened to her calls by herself. Whatever I coached her on, she put it into place on the very next call.

And then it started clicking for her and by the end of the year, she made President's Club!

Learning Lesson: There's 4 types of salespeople:

➡️ Not coachable, not hitting goals. Term quickly. Like ASAP.

➡️ Not coachable but hitting or exceeding goals. Leave them alone and don't let anybody else on the team try to emulate them. These are naturals. They don't know why they're successful but they are.

➡️ Coachable and hitting goals. These are the examples you use for the rest of your team.

➡️ Coachable/Hard-Working but not hitting goals. Keep working with them in a defined, limited window. You'll be surprised how many will make it through when you give them good, solid coaching.

In your experience, how long would you work with a coachable salesperson who is not hitting their goals? 

But if you really want to start hiring A-player salespeople like this, check out my Interviewing and Hiring Bundle in the the first comment.

(2) Feed | LinkedIn

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #sales, #startup, #leadership, #insidesales, and #peoplehelpingpeople

CEO @ InsideSalesExpert.com Helping sales leaders avoid galactically ridiculous mistakes in all areas of building, fixing & growing their sales teams

6 of my sales reps forced me to hire a woman as their sales manager. 

Don't be so surprised. She was one of the best sales leaders I've ever had the fortune to work with.

But the way this all went down was crazy and a learning lesson for me.

We were ramping up our sales team and I started hiring a bunch of people from a failing daily deal site.

I personally do reference checks and I kept talking to this one sales leader, Lauren Delfino.

Finally, I had hired 6 reps that had worked for her and they finally came to me and said

"KG, you have to hire her. She'll be a game-changer for our sales team!"

And so I did. And she was. Grew one of our sales teams from 50 reps to over 150 reps. Helped open up a new sales office in AZ. Crushed it.

💡 Learning Lesson: When you're hiring for new sales leaders, ask your sales reps who were THEIR favorite former sales managers and start networking with them to recruit and hire them.

What are some creative tactics you've used to recruit sales leadership talent?

But if you really want to start hiring A-player salespeople, check out my Interviewing and Hiring Bundle in the the first comment.

This dude legitimately showed up to an interview with me for a B2B tech sales job with neck tattoos & sleeves. 

I actually hired them!

At first, I was shocked. Couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Really? This isn't very professional. AT. ALL.

But I stuck to the objective hiring process I had created. Asked all my questions and remained open-minded as I listened to the answers.

I was blown away. Behind all that ink was one of the most humble, hard working, positive and motivated people I had ever interviewed. Not cocky and assumptive.

I hired that person and they turned out to be one of the best salespeople I have ever hired in my entire career.

Good thing I didn't judge the book by its cover right?

💡 Learning Lessons: 

✅ Develop your salesperson hiring benchmark with objective characteristics, 

✅ judge them based on their answers and their actions and not by how they look. 

✅ Reserve judgement on the candidate for after the interview, not before.

Removing bias from the interview process is critical. You miss out on great hires when you introduce bias into the interview process.

But if you really want to start hiring A-player salespeople, check out my Interviewing and Hiring Bundle in the the first comment.

My rep laughed when she got hung up on. 🤣

I hired this rep whose only previous sales experience was selling lingerie at Nordstroms. No B2B. No phone sales. No tech.

But I observed that she scored very high on optimism, resiliency and coachability during the interview.

So I took a chance on her anyway to break into B2B tech sales. What a great hire!

We were all on an open sales floor. I had a low-walled cubicle right on the other side of hers. 

When she got hung up on, she would stand up, peer over the cubicle at me and laugh about how she got hung up on. "Their loss," she would say.

And then sit down and go right back to making more cold calls without skipping another beat. My word.

The learning lesson here: When you're a leader hiring for new reps, sometimes the ones with NO relevant experience can be your best reps if they are optimistic, resilient and coachable.

Make sure you build that into your interview scorecards.

But if you really want to start hiring A-player salespeople, check out my Hiring and Interviewing Bundle in the the first comment.

The last time this person worked for me was exactly 18 years ago and I just got this text from them a few months ago.

This kind of stuff makes me so happy to read. A salesperson who worked for me nearly two decades ago still wants to share their successes with me long after we worked together.

If you're a sales leader and you're having a rough time, getting messages like this from salespeople who used to work for you is extremely up-lifting.

Wanna share some messages former reps have sent you in the comments?

graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

I hired an "experienced" sales manager and boy what a mistake that was. 🙇

We were scaling my inside sales team and needed to hire a bunch of new sales managers.

And I was referred to a guy who was literally at a direct competitor.

Nearly the exact same product. Same sales cycle. Same inside sales motion. Same deal size. Why wouldn't that be a fit?

My word, what a mistake that was. This guy was a train-wreck.

👎 He was a micromanager

👎 Managed through fear and intimidation

👎 Wouldn't listen to me or any of his supervisors 

👎 Made excuses for why he behaved the way he behaved

I fired him in less than 90 days. 

💡 Learning lesson: Just because the sales manager came from a direct competitor don't assume that they will be a good fit for YOUR TEAM and YOUR CULTURE.

Include the cultural questions in your sales manager hiring benchmark such as...

"Tell me about the last time you had an underperforming rep, what did you do about it?"

But if you really want to start hiring A-player salespeople, check out my Interviewing and Hiring Bundle in the the first comment.

When I was an inexperienced sales leader, I used to think Urgency was something you could coach.

I don’t believe that anymore.

Urgency is either in someone’s DNA or it isn’t.
It shows up in their current and past actions.
It shows up in their business AND personal lives.
And you usually don't have to dig that deep to see it...when it's actually there.

The candidates who follow up without being told.
The ones who are closing for next steps at the end of the interview.
The ones who treat the job interview like a live deal, not some B$ chat.

You can’t fake that kind of pace.
And you can’t teach someone to care more than they actually do.

Yeah, you can force Urgency.
Riding the rep to get stuff done quickly.

But that's no fun, for anybody involved.

So if you’re hiring sales talent, I’ll say the quiet part out loud that many of you might object to (that's okay):

You’re better off hiring somebody with Urgency than hoping you can train or coach for it and then hope it shows up later.

That gamble will cost you revenue and it might even cost you your job.

My favorite interview question to test for it?

“Tell me about a time you were up against a tight deadline or quota. What did you do when it looked like you might miss it?”

What to listen for:

Do they take immediate ownership and problem-solve fast, or do they rationalize and delay?

Do they talk about proactive actions (calling prospects, re-prioritizing pipeline, staying late, asking for help) or passive reactions (“waited to see what would happen”)?

And then ask them to tell you about ANOTHER time.

Urgency, in the truly urgent, shows up consistently and recently. Not every once in a while.

If they can't show you that they already have urgency, you’ll end up begging them to BE urgent later.

And that’s not your job as a sales leader.

Lesson I’ve learned from tons of my own hiring mistakes?

Hire the people who already show Urgency. You can't train that.

For most sales leaders, you're not just in it for the titles and the money.

Heck, if you were in it for the money, might as well be an IC and not have to deal with all the BS of being a sales leader.

No, you're in it because you can really make a positive and indelible mark one someone's life for decades to come.

Go do that.

PS: he took a chance working for me too...

You don’t “own part of the company” when you join a pre-IPO tech startup and get stock options.

You own a promise.

And most promises never cash out....like 90% chance your stock options will be worth NOTHING.

To make matters worse, Founders rarely explain your stock options to you.

And most employees never read the fine print either and/or self-educate, that's on them. They just sign and cross their fingers. Stupid.

Stock options in that sexy new AI startup sound like magic. The next big rocketship in flight. The HUGE potential payday.

Of course, it's a story we all want to believe but it rarely happens and if it does, it's rarely material.

I've been at 8 startups. 3 have had liquidity events, but that means that 5 did not have liquidity events.

So from experience, here’s what actually happens:

The valuation is inflated.
The vesting schedule is brutal.
The exit timeline? You think they're going to tell YOU?

Liquidity? Don’t hold your breath. If you're lucky you have a 1 in 6 chance of a liquidity event and even then, it won't be helicopter money like you think it should be.

Oh and here's one you'll learn the hard way...

You still owe taxes...even if your shares end up being worthless.

And if you have vested stock options but leave before some sort of liquidity event...God help you....

You’ve got 90 days to buy them or lose everything.

So should you ever join a startup just for the equity?

In my experience and in my opinion, never.

Equity is a lottery ticket. It's the icing on the cake.

Your cash comp is critical. If you can’t live on the cash, don’t gamble on the stock option upside because the chances of it happening are slim to none.

And if the Founders can’t back up the value of the options with a real, competitive TOTAL offer, to me, that’s a red flag.

Join for the mission.
Join for the team.
Join because you love the work (because you'll be working your ASS off, no quiet quitting)

But don’t join because someone promised you 0.03% and told you it’ll be “worth billions one day.”

That's just a trick. Don't be a fool.

Learning lessons: if you're going to work at pre-IPO tech startups, you had better learn about Employee Stock Options so that you can assess if you're getting a good deal or not and manage them properly.

Which is why I created a FREE course on Employee Stock Options, How They Work. I took all my learnings and dumbed it down so even a 3-year old can understand it.

Check the link in the first comment to sign up for the free course.

I hired a stay-at-home mom / photographer with no B2B tech sales experience and I should have seen what happened next.

She CRUSHED IT!

We were interviewing for another large hiring class and at that time, I was really involved in the hiring process.

All hands on deck at another startup!

And I was tasked with interviewing this woman who was a single-parent, stay-at-home mom, side-gig photographer.

She hadn't been in sales for 12 years as she was focused on raising her kids. And even then, the "sales role" she had wasn't even B2B sales.

I thought: "Why did this person make it through to the in-person interview?"

But she crushed her interview! 

You see we were interviewing for behavioral characteristics like Coachability, Organization, Competitiveness, Need for Achievement, Optimism and not experience and she had lots of recent stories that demonstrated that she possessed those characteristics.

I made sure we hired her and I'm glad we did. She made President's Club several times!

💡 Learning Lesson: Especially for sales roles at startups, interview mostly for behavioral characteristics that you CAN NOT teach above experience. You'll find diamonds in the rough that others, who are only interviewing for experience, won't find. It will be your competitive advantage. 

Trust me.

What do you think? Does this apply to all sales roles? Even Enterprise?

But if you really want to start hiring A-player salespeople, check out my Interviewing and Hiring Bundle in the the first comment.

99 out of 100 salespeople have common sense. But most policies and rules aren’t written for them.

They’re written for the 1 who either
1) is too stupid even have common sense
or
2) is just smart enough to exploit the gray area.

And that ONE person ruins it for everyone else.

It always sounds like this:

“Well I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to do that...”

Or worse:

“Nobody TOLD me I couldn’t do that...”

Give me a frickin' break. 🙄

This is why we get 14-paragraph HR policies.
This is why companies build a handbook thicker than a Bible.
Not to guide the 99...
No, to make it stupid-simple clear to the 1.

Because when left alone, the 1 becomes a problem child.

They test boundaries.
Twist intent.
Weaponize ambiguity.
Then play the innocent card when caught.

I once had this clever salesperson who was allowed to work from home but when I learned she wasn't working her leads/accounts, HR and I met with her the next day she was in the office

😡 But she claimed she didn't know the different between "Working from Home" and "Out of the Office."

She played stupid because I hadn't made the difference crystal clear IN writing.

And that’s when leaders start writing policies to cover every angle.

Which restricts freedom for everyone else.

So now, instead of trusting the 99, we start managing to the 1.
Instead of enabling high performance, we’re policing edge cases.
Which sucks.

Every leader knows who their 1 problem child is.
And every minute they avoid dealing with their BS
Is another minute you're asking for trouble.

Want to be untouchable at work?

Stop playing the loyal employee game and start building a war chest.

Here are 3 money rules that saved my sanity when I still had a boss:

1️⃣ Six months of cash in the bank. If you can’t disappear for half a year, you’re not free.
2️⃣ Track every expense. Live way below your means. If your lifestyle’s eating your freedom, you’re doing it wrong.
3️⃣ Build a side gig. Something that generates a little bit of something something at first.

You do those 3 things and you'll breathe a sigh of relief.

You stop saying yes to stupid meetings.
You stop nodding along when a new commission plan comes out that you don't like.
You stop fearing layoffs, reorgs, or your CEO's mood swings.

Because now YOU hold the power.

And with ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) dead and Wall Street breathing down every CFO’s neck, companies are being forced to run real businesses the right way:

🔒 Profitable
🔧 Efficient
📈 Growing

So ask yourself: are YOU running your life like a real Profitable, Efficient, Growing business?

✅ Profitable: Expenses < Income. No excuses.
✅ Efficient: Cut dumb spending. Stack cash. Invest cash.
✅ Growing: Build other income streams. Anything. Something. Learning something new.

If your whole identity is tied to your job, you’re screwed the second it turns on you (not if...when).

Don’t wait.

Because the next round of cuts is already being planned and the people with options won’t beg, won’t cry, and won’t blink.

They’ll just leave and move on.

I've been laid off or fired 3 times in my career and my advice above has saved my bacon every time. And I've quit 2 high paying jobs quickly, with no job in sight when I knew it wasn't going to work out for the long haul.

Takeaway: If you're living paycheck to paycheck, you've let your employer take control over your life. Build the war chest that lets you walk the hell away on your terms.

I once hired a woman who crushed quota but had NEVER played a single sport in her life.

No soccer. No basketball. No volleyball.
But yoga? Oh, she dominated yoga.

She was a “front of the class” type. The kind who could hold poses others fell out of after 10 seconds.

But here’s the kicker.

While the rest of the class focused on breathing and balance...
She was peeking out of the side of her eye to see who was falling down.

She didn’t just want to master the pose just for inner peace.
She wanted to kick the other students asses and win.

But that’s when it hit me.

We keep throwing around this idea of hiring “sales athletes.”

We say bullshit things like:

"Find people who played D1"
"Look for team sports backgrounds"
"Only hire competitive athletes"

But it’s lazy logic.

Competitive doesn’t always look like cleats and sweat.

This woman was one of the fiercest reps I’ve ever hired.
Not because of her athletic background.
But because she had the Drive most reps don’t.

She was calm on the outside.
Cutthroat on the inside.

And she didn’t need a scoreboard to tap into it.

I've seen ex-athletes coast and non-athletes outgrind everyone.
The difference?
Real competitiveness is internal.

The best salespeople I’ve hired?
They don’t always talk the most.
But they are driven to win.

🔥 Lesson: Stop filtering your pipeline for sports. Start filtering for characteristics that you can't teach.

Leave room to be surprised. That’s where the killers hide.

But if you really want to start hiring A-player salespeople, check out my Interviewing and Hiring Bundle in the the first comment.

Every sales leader must HIRE for the "mindset" that they want. But don't be a fool.

You can teach skills, but mindset? That’s a whole different game.

I’ve learned this the hard way.

Every team has a few reps who need coaching.
That’s normal. It’s part of the job.
But when you're expected to be a therapist?
Something’s broken.

Truth is...
You can’t rewire someone who doesn’t WANT to change.
Mindset shifts don’t happen on Slack channels and daily standups and ice cream socials.

No, they happen when someone is open, humble, and ready.

And most people aren’t.

So yes, when you want to effect a big mindshift change on your sales team, roll it out!

Raise the bar. Give the training and coaching to those that are ready to change.

✅ But hedge your bets too.
Start HIRING people who already think the way you need your team to think.

Because trying to coach a salesperson into hunger, ownership, urgency, positivity or resilience...when they don’t even value those things?

Screw that. That’s a fool’s errand.

Mindset is not a module in onboarding.
It’s the foundation people walk in with.
Or they don’t.

And if they don’t?
You’ll spend a lot of time dragging instead of leading.

Lesson I’ve learned?
Train for skills
But when it comes to mindset, hire it.

You'll have a higher probability of success, in my experience.

PS: if you want to improve your changes of making a great salesperson hire, check out my Hiring and Interviewing Bundle in the first comment.

Google asked for my college transcript but I instantly knew I wasn’t getting the job.

They wanted to know my GPA. I gave it to them: 2.685 from UC Davis, class of '94 (If you want to see a screenshot of my transcript, ask me in the comments).

That was the first, and only, time in my 30-year career anyone asked for my grades.

Not when I became a VP. Not when I became a CSO. Not when I ran a 550 person sales team.

I’ve hired hundreds of salespeople (maybe 1000s). I’ve never once checked their GPAs from High School or College.

Why do we act like grades predict success ESPECIALLY in sales?

In my experience, they don’t. Drive does. Integrity does. Grit, effort, continual learning, coachability, taking action...that’s what matters.

Would a 4.0 have changed my career? Maybe I get that job at Google. But I wouldn't trade where I’ve ended up for anything.

💡 Here’s my advice to founders and sales leaders: stop overvaluing academic stats when hiring.

They don’t measure the things that actually help you win.

👀 Look for Drive, Need for Achievement, Competitiveness, Coachability, Continual Learning, Hunger, A bias for action, Self-accountability.

Those are the signals that really matter.

And you won't find those on some dumb transcript. 🎓

PS: If you want to start hiring like a real pro, check out my Hiring Bundle in the first comment.

Every sales hiring manager says the same thing: "We want to hire driven salespeople."

Cool. But what exactly does that mean?

Because in my experience, "driven" isn't on a resume. You can't really see "driven" on a resume. So here's the real question:

🤷♀️ Can you teach a salesperson to be driven?

Short answer: In my experience, with adults, no.

Drive isn't taught. It's uncovered. You find out if they have it already or not.

🟢 You can coach skills.
🟢 You can develop technique.
🟢 You can build confidence.
🟢 But drive? That comes from inside.

It's baked in. It's who someone is when no one's watching.

You want driven? Look for people who:

-Take action even when not being told to act
-Laugh at rejection and move on
-Ask for feedback before you offer it....and then IMMEDIATELY put that feedback into action
-Work their butts off without having to be whipped
-Go the extra mile without being told

You don't teach adults this. Drive is a character trait. It's WHO they are already!

If someone doesn't need the push, they'll probably go further than anyone you constantly have to motivate.

✅ The best reps I ever hired didn’t talk about how driven they were. They showed it.

They were always coachable.
They were always learning.
They continued to persist.

And when I asked where that came from?

It was never training. Never books. Never ME.

👉 It was always internal.

If you’re a hiring manager, stop asking outright if someone is driven.

Start asking them to tell you stories about how they persisted or worked theri butts off or went above and beyond or took initiative or incorporated feedback.

And if you're a rep trying to break out?

Don’t wait to be taught. Start proving it, daily.

Drive shows up in behaviors and real stories, not just words.

Founders, CEOs, Sales Leaders: What's your favorite question to ask to determine if you have a Driven salesperson on your hands?

PS: if you want to step up your Interviewing Skills and make better Sales Hires, check out my hiring bundle in the first comment.

When the CEO gives you massive goals for next year, don’t say:
❌ “We can’t hit that number.”

Say this instead:

✅ “Under what conditions could we hit that number?”

That one sentence changes everything and sends a pretty killer signal to the CEO...

It signals problem-solving instead of resistance.
It opens a door instead of slamming it shut.
And it shows you’re thinking like an owner, not a victim being handed unreachable goals.

I’ve been on both sides of this conversation.
The leader who says “this is impossible.”
And the one who asks, “what would make it possible?”

One shuts down conversations with their closed mindset.

The other starts a great conversation with their growth mindset.

CEOs don’t set easy goals. No. We all know they're crazy AF.

They expect you to test the limits of what's possible

But if you come back with a "now way we're gonna hit that" instead conditions that could exist that will help you hit that goal, the CEO is gonna be giving you the side-eye.

And then they start networking with other sales leaders.

Reframing the conversation with “under what conditions...”
makes you the person who can be reasoned with,
not the person who needs to be replaced.

It shows you’re solution-oriented, not just looking for easy street.

Lesson I’ve learned?
As the VP of Sales, you had better not be the "yes-person" and just agree to everything.
You BETTER challenge your CEO with diverse and divergent opinions.

But if you're gonna just say "there's no way we can hit those goals," instead of saying "under what conditions CAN we hit those goals," why are you even there?

Especially at a pre-IPO tech startup.

PS: if you want to quickly know if your VP of Sales is gonna make it or not, check out my free guide in the first comment.

"I can tell in one conversation if I'm going to hire someone."

Then why do only 30%-50% of your sales hires actually work out?

You can hire better if you stop thinking....

👎 I know what to look for in a sales hire but I haven't written it down

👎 I can hire successfully but I've never read a book on interviewing before.

👎 I'll ask them to "sell me this pen" and that's a good way to assess a salesperson (I saw it in the Wolf of Wall Street movie so it must be credible)

👎 Why would I measure my hiring success rate?

👎 "Do you hate to lose or do you love to win?" is one of my favorite interview questions.

Hiring successfully is a methodical process.

According to TopGrading, "The average mis-hire rate for companies ... is approximately 70% (if you want the source, ask me in the comments)

These aren't the only myths sales leaders believe when hiring salespeople.

But if you really want to start hiring A-player salespeople, check out my Hiring and Interviewing Bundle in the the first comment.

I had this one VP of Sales I worked for tell me to hire salespeople with a "sales personality." Here's what they meant by that:

Hire salespeople that are loud, extroverted and gregarious.

But I learned over time that if you're hiring "loud, extroverted and gregarious" salespeople, you're doing it wrong.

In fact, one time I hired this rep who the quietest salesperson on the sales floor but was also the #1 salesperson.

I could barely hear what this dude was saying to me during the interview. His answers were very brief. Yet his answers were solid and he knew his numbers and his track record of success was demonstrable.

Thankfully several people on the team referred him to me and told me to hire him. But he still went through my difficult interview process. No free rides here.

And I kept thinking 

"salespeople are usually more gregarious"

"salespeople are usually more talkative"

But instead of giving in to the stereotypes we lay on salespeople, I stuck to my hiring benchmark and hired him.

He quickly went on to become our #1 salesperson in no time at all. And I never heard him on the phones and yet he was always on the phones. LOL

Learning Lesson: Don't listen to the stereotypes that you think you have about great salespeople. Create and stick to your hiring benchmark, put the person through the full interview process without premature judgement and look at the whole picture of the candidate.

What are some other salesperson stereotypes us hiring managers should look to avoid applying when hiring salespeople?

But if you really want to start hiring A-player salespeople, check out my Interviewing and Hiring Bundle in the the first comment.

#Sales #Leadership #startups #InsideSales #ExperienceNotOpinions"

I once had to sit in front of HR and explain why I was trying to fire a rep who missed quota six months in a row...

…and HR wouldn’t let me.

Why? Because I made one of the most rookie mistakes a sales leader can make.

And the lesson I learned that day changed the way I lead forever.

Every CEO and Sales Leader thinks they’re clear with expectations.
I thought I was too.
Until HR proved I wasn’t.

I go deeper into this painful (but valuable) story, and two others, in my new Mini-Pod Series: “Sales Leadership Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make.”

🎧 It’s $4.99 and might save you from a $499,000 mistake someday.
👉 Listen today.

The link is in the first comment

SlyLeadz

Sly Leadz - Your Partner in B2B Sales Growth

TIRED OF SLUGGISH SALES GROWTH?

At Sly Leadz, we help B2B businesses like yours THRIVE by crafting compelling outreach systems that LAND ideal clients and FILL your sales pipeline!

OUR MISSION:
We're on a mission to revolutionize B2B sales by providing a personalized, results-driven approach to outreach and lead generation.

Founder

Konecte

Sales Director

Keeper Security, Inc.

Account Executive - SMB

Business Development Representative

BlueGrace Logistics

Carrier Sales Representative

Founder @ Slyleadz | I help startups build cold outbound systems that generate qualified meetings | 💌 slyleadz.us

STRUGGLING TO FILL YOUR PIPELINE WITH QUALIFIED LEADS?

I've been there. After testing 1000+ outreach campaigns, I cracked the code.

Now, I help B2B companies build outbound systems that:
→ Generate 20-30 qualified meetings/month
→ Convert cold prospects into warm conversations
→ Scale predictably without the spam tactics

Our secret?
- Multi-channel outreach that actually works
- AI-powered personalization at scale
- Follow-up sequences with 40%+ response rates
- Data-driven targeting that finds your ideal customers

Recent wins:
→ Helped a SaaS startup book 100+ demos in 60 days
→ Built a 7-figure pipeline for a tech company in 90 days
→ Generated 500+ qualified leads for enterprise clients

Want to stop guessing and start closing?
Book a strategy call: calendly.com/slyleadz/slyleadz-15-minute-meeting-clone

Nick Palasz

Every tool here replaced a mistake

And that’s why this system’s simple

We didn’t set out to build a “tech stack”

We just fixed what kept breaking...until the noise stopped

Here’s what stayed 👇

Clay – Aggregates 50+ data sources to find the right leads
Icypeas – Verified contacts + LinkedIn enrichment that actually holds up
Prospeo.io – Multi-signal scoring so we talk to buyers, not browsers
Writesonic – AI copy that still sounds human
Aimfox – Personalization at scale (without losing relevance)
Smartlead – Keeps campaigns consistent and inbox-safe
Instantly.ai – A/B testing + analytics that guide
Saleshandy – Smarter follow-ups that feel natural
Inframail – Infrastructure that keeps deliverability rock solid
MailReach – Protects inbox placement and reputation
HubSpot – The single source of truth that ties it all together

P.S Which tool is your favourite?

Repost ♻️ to inspire your network and 🔔

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30 outbound experiments you can run in the next 30 days

Save this post; these are the tests most teams don’t run but should

Inside you’ll find →
– ICP & targeting audits
– Trigger-based prospecting
– Deliverability reset sprints
– Messaging clarity rewrites
– Personalization depth tests
– Cadence density + velocity checks
– Human-first follow-up systems
– Sequence drift & hygiene audits

Plus 20+ more experiments to help you tighten your system, sharpen your messaging, and build predictable pipeline in 2025 and 2026

Comment “OUTBOUND” and I’ll send the full resource

Make sure we are connected 🙌

Your reps aren't lazy, they're exhausted

I used to think my outbound team just wasn't hungry enough

Then I realized, they were spending more time managing tools than actually selling

→ CRM over here
→ Email platform over there
→ Spreadsheets for tracking
→ Another tab for deliverability checks

By the time they're ready to hit send, half their energy is already gone 🤷

Sounds familiar, right?

So I put together 5 reasons why outbound teams burn out and how Saleshandy can help them

Swipe the carousel to learn more about it 👇

Saleshandy

5 reasons your outbound team feels burnt out

Why do agencies with $50K MRR feel more chaotic than startups at $500K ARR?

It's simple… startups build infrastructure before they scale

Agencies duct-tape tools together while juggling clients 🤷

And then reality looks like this 

→ Switching between 5+ platforms per client 
→ Managing dozens of logins 
→ Hunting for reports across different dashboards 
→ Triple checking you're in the right inbox before hitting send

This is not growth, this is pure survival

You don’t need more tools, you need better ones

One platform to manage leads, send cold emails, warm up inboxes, track performance, and handle multiple clients

And I prefer Saleshandy for it

No tool-switching problem 

No per-seat pricing nightmares

Just centralized client management that actually scales because clients don't care how many tools you use

They care about results

Swipe the carousel to learn more about it 👇

If you're managing clients in 5 diff tools 

AI didn’t help. It hid the mess.

Every founder rushes to plug AI into their outbound

Now the inbox feels like a copy factory

-Same tone
-Same structure
-Same fake personalization

AI didn’t make you better

It just made the chaos look cleaner

Because when your inputs are weak, AI just scales the weakness

Outbound isn’t about prompts

It’s about the process and knowing who you’re talking to and why they should care

AI can’t fix that

It only hides it

If your outbound looks polished but performs the same, it’s not the tool

It’s the system behind it

Repost ♻️ to inspire your network and 🔔

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I stopped hating rejection when I saw the pattern

Every “No” used to sting

Now it’s just another metric to study

Because not all No’s mean the same thing

Here’s how 👇

“Not right now” → timing data
“Not relevant” → ICP feedback
“We already use X” → positioning clue

Every rejection leaves a breadcrumb

You just have to be smart enough to trace it back to the system

The more I studied the No’s, the faster I fixed what actually mattered 
-Offer
-Targeting
-And message

The Yes’s came later

They always do

👉 Swipe the carousel to see the full breakdown

Follow Nick Palasz for more

rejection that pays you back

This is me explaining to my family what I do for a living and somehow it gets more confusing the longer I talk.

It always starts simple:

“I help startups book more meetings.”

Then someone asks, “So… you just send emails?”

 And suddenly I’m 10 minutes deep explaining:

 – inbox warmups
 – deliverability
 – intent signals
 – ICP accuracy
 – and why one wrong domain setting can ruin your entire week

This is the point when my whole family just gives me that Thanksgiving look
 
The one where they’re not sure if I’m explaining my job or about to impersonate the turkey

But hey it pays the bills, fixes pipelines, and keeps founders from panicking every Monday morning 😂

Late on the post but Happy Thanksgiving everyone 🦃

Hope you all had an amazing one

Follow Nick Palasz for more

AI took the excuses personally

Now it’s just you, the system and accountability 😬

And honestly, we weren’t avoiding the work before

It just took forever to get stuff done

Research dragged
Personalization dragged even more
Writing one email felt like a whole shift

So yeah the “no time” excuse used to make sense

But then AI showed up and suddenly all the slow stuff wasn’t slow anymore

Which means if outbound still feels inconsistent…

It’s not because of AI, it's because of your system

Swipe through the carousel to see what actually changed and DM me "AI" if your outbound needs help

Follow Nick Palasz for more

the moment ai removed all excuses

Did your voice crack on your first call too?

Because mine definitely did 💀

And honestly, that’s the part nobody tells you

Cold calling doesn’t start with confidence

It starts with sweaty palms, shaky intros, and questioning every life choice you’ve ever made

But give it a few months?

You go from “Uh… is this a bad time?”
To “Hey John, quick one got a sec?”

The work stays the same

But you don’t

You get better at the awkward pauses, the messy intros, the fast pivots all the stuff that felt like chaos on day one

P.S. Comment your first cold call memory let’s laugh or cry together 😂

Warning⚠️  

This list may cause emotional damage

Because every seller pretends they’re built different until you realize we all operate the same way under pressure

The mid-call Google searches
The enthusiastic intro no one asked for
The 11-day “I’ll follow up tomorrow” delay
The CRM blame-game Olympics

We’ve all done it

We just don’t admit it publicly

Drop the number that hurt your soul the most 👇

Follow Nick Palasz for more honesty in a world of sales delusion

The breakthrough wasn’t a tool… it was cleaning up the mess

And that’s when everything started working again

We didn’t try to “build a stack”

We just fixed what kept breaking until the pipeline finally stopped fighting us

Here’s what stayed 👇

PhantomBuster- Scrapes real buyers not random titles
LeadMagic - Finds the hidden visitors already showing intent
Clay - Turns raw signals into clean, usable lead intelligence
Icypeas - Verified emails + enrichment that doesn’t fall apart
Prospeo.io - Find business email addresses for outreach.  
Aimfox- Personalization at scale that still feels human
Writesonic - Context-aware copy that doesn’t sound robotic
Smartlead -Safe sending + consistent outbound volume
Instantly.ai - Sales Engagement & Lead Intelligence  
Saleshandy - Follow-ups that land naturally
Inframail - Protects deliverability from collapsing
MailReach -Keeps inboxes warm, clean, and trusted

P.S. Which tool are you keeping in your stack this year?

Repost ♻️ to inspire your network and 🔔

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Back at the starting line. Again.

Every salesperson knows this moment the quiet pause before another chase begins

Last month’s wins fade faster than they should

The deals closed, the high-fives, the end-of-month rush…

They all reset to zero overnight

And suddenly, it’s back to building

New leads. New follow-ups. New conversations

It’s equal parts thrilling and exhausting because starting from scratch never really gets easier

But maybe that’s what keeps it real

The clean slate forces a new version of yourself to show up 

One that’s hungrier, sharper, a little more grounded than before

So here’s to the rebuild 

The quiet part nobody celebrates

But the part that makes every win worth it

Repost ♻️ to inspire your network and 🔔

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Not every deal’s meant to close and it's okay

When I first got into outbound, I thought every ‘no’ was a reflection of me

Every Closed Lost felt like failure

I’d overthink the follow-ups, rewrite the emails, and convince myself I should’ve done more

But over time, I learned something that completely flipped my mindset 

A lost deal doesn’t mean you did something wrong

Sometimes it means timing’s off
Sometimes the fit isn’t right 
And sometimes it’s just not your deal to win 🤷

Those moments taught me more than any course or sales hack ever could

What worked? What didn’t?

Why did some people lean in while others ghosted?

That’s how growth happens, quietly, between all the no’s and not yets.

So if you’re just getting started, remember

You don’t need to close every deal

You just need to learn from the ones you lose

That’s how you stop taking rejection personally 

And start taking it professionally

Repost ♻️ to inspire your network and 🔔

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Outbound is entering its filter era

Where strategy starts to matter again

The problem isn’t that outbound stopped working 

It’s that everyone kept copying what they used to

Templates. Tools. Tricks.

All trying to sound “personal” and ending up sounding the same

Your prospects don’t need more messages

They need meaning

The teams that’ll win in 2026?

They’ll stop chasing open rates and start engineering systems that earn attention

One's built with data that flows, context that connects, and structure that actually scales

Outbound’s not a volume game anymore

It’s a systems game

This is outbound, evolved

See the cheatsheet to learn what’ll still work when everything else fails

Repost ♻️ to inspire your network and 🔔

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I once sat across from a founder who told me

“We can’t afford outbound right now”

And I understood that

Money was tight, growth targets were scary, and every dollar felt like life or death

But here’s what struck me:
-They were already losing more revenue every month by not building a repeatable pipeline
-Their Deals were slipping through the cracks. Conversations never happened
-And their team was waiting for inbound like rain in a desert

I didn’t say anything in that moment because I’d been in that same seat before

When you’re building a company, it feels safer to hold onto cash and hope the growth will show up somehow

But hope isn’t a strategy

And I learned the hard way that waiting costs far more than trying
 
It’s better to invest today for a structured pipeline tomorrow

Repost ♻️ to inspire your network and 🔔

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Your people notice the damage long before the numbers expose it

And once the numbers react, the damage has already spread

Because bad sales cultures don’t blow up your numbers first they blow up your team

And it starts quietly

Reps stop asking real questions
Managers start obsessing over quota
Buyers feel sold instead of helped
And suddenly every call feels like a pitch instead of a conversation

That’s when performance drops

Not because the reps don’t care but because the culture is working against them

I’ve watched teams with insane potential fall apart this way
Great product.
Great talent
But the environment kept breaking them long before the metrics showed anything was wrong

And here’s the part nobody likes admitting:

The fix isn’t a new script, a new cadence, or a new tool

It’s the environment
→ help the buyer
→ coach curiosity
→ reward doing it right not rushing the close

Because when a team actually believes in how they sell?

Everything else becomes easier

The results always follow

Follow Nick Palasz for more

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