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

Helen Yu

CEO @Tigon Advisory Corp. | Host of CXO Spice | Board Director |Top 50 Women in Tech | AI, Cybersecurity, FinTech, Insurance, Industry40, Growth Acceleration

As the founder and CEO of Tigon Advisory, I help tech companies of all sizes multiply their growth opportunities by leveraging AI, cybersecurity, IoT, supply chain, and customer experience. With over a decade of technology industry experience, I offer CXO-as-a-service and guidance to organizations through digital transformation, strategic planning, enterprise risk management, go-to-market optimization, and influencer marketing.

I have worked with enterprise clients such as SAP, IBM, Salesforce and Microsoft, as well as B2B SaaS, Fintech, Insuretech, and Martech startups. I also serve as an independent board director and a venture capital advisor, where I bring a unique perspective on technology thought leadership, cybersecurity risk management, go-to-market strategy, and customer experience. I am a certified cybersecurity expert from MIT Sloan School of Management, an MBA from Loyola University of Chicago, and a respected industry thought leader, a Wall Street Journal best selling author, a keynote speaker, and a host of CXO Spice podcast. I am passionate about empowering and mentoring the next generation of technology leaders, especially women and minorities.

Director Board of Directors

CEC is a security service integrator with focus markets in manufacturing, healthcare, SLED and Corporate Campus.  Customers with complicated organizations and physical plants rely on CEC as extensions of their teams in making strategic investment and management decisions related to their technology and infrastructure. I serve as Culture and Compensation Committee Chair. 

How do you ensure autonomous vehicles are safe when you can't possibly test every real-world driving scenario?

At NVIDIA GTC, I explored AI-powered autonomous vehicles and discovered NVIDIA Halos, a comprehensive safety system that's redefining how we approach this challenge.

Here's how Halos solves this challenge:
✅ Photorealistic virtual simulations generate countless driving scenarios
✅ AI-powered contingency plans activate when anomalies are detected
✅ Continuous monitoring ensures safety and reliability

Three-Pillar Validation Approach:
✅ NVIDIA DGX for AI development with advanced curation workflows that filter out undesirable behaviors before they ever reach the road
✅ Omniverse with Cosmos for photorealistic simulation, generating massive variations in our safety test data
✅ DRIVE AGX for deployment, where modular redundancy ensures safety even when AI models show uncertainty

Industry Recognition:
✅ First AI systems lab to earn ANAB and TÜV certification
✅ Internationally certified technology for end-to-end AV safety

Complete Safety Stack:
✅ A2le-decertified Drive OS and automotive-grade hardware
✅ Modular redundant architecture with third-party validation
Every layer designed to handle critical driving tasks safely

The future of autonomous vehicles is certified and validated safety systems.

#AutonomousVehicles #AI #Safety #NVIDIAGTC #AVDevelopment #Innovation 

To stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation, Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg Or 👉 
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What will separate AI leaders from AI laggards in 2026?

Pleased to contribute to the 2026 DATAcated Trends & Predictions Report, and the insights from 14 data and AI leaders point to a transformative year ahead.

My prediction? AI agents evolve from tools to true workplace teammates.

In 2025, we saw AI become multimodal - processing text, images, and voice simultaneously. Agentic AI systems began handling complex multi-step tasks autonomously, with reasoning models showing dramatic problem-solving improvements.

Here's what I see for 2026:
✅ AI agents as colleagues - Independently managing projects and workflows end-to-end
✅ Real-time data processing becomes critical - AI systems require continuous learning from live streams
✅ Synthetic data generation explodes - Addressing data scarcity for specialized training
✅ Federated learning scales - Training across distributed datasets without compromising privacy
✅ Data governance intensifies - Lineage tracking under regulatory pressure
Organizations treating data as dynamic fuel will be the ones that thrive.

Special thanks to Kate Strachnyi and DATAcated for assembling perspectives from Cassie Kozyrkov, Marinela Profi, Bernard Marr, Lara Sophie Bothur, Stijn (Stan) Christiaens, Christina Stathopoulos, MSc, Serena H. Huang, Ph.D., Helen Yu, Pascal BORNET, Jess Ramos ⚡️, Kristen Kehrer, Andreas Kretz, Sadie St Lawrence.

👉 Download the full report FREE: https://lnkd.in/eMevgwDH

What are you most excited about for AI in 2026?

#AITrends2026 #CIO #CTO #CEO #BoardDirectors #Data #AI

To stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation, Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg Or 👉 #CXOSpiceYouTube here https://lnkd.in/gnMc-Vpj

2026 AI Trends & Predictions

How do you deploy AI infrastructure before the AI systems even arrive?

Schneider Electric's new reference designs, co-engineered with NVIDIA, provide the answer.

Industry-First Controls Framework Bridges OT and IT systems through standardized MQTT architecture, enabling seamless interoperability between power management, liquid cooling, and NVIDIA Mission Control. Real-time optimization across every layer of the stack.

NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 Reference Design Supports rack densities up to 142 kW with validated frameworks for the next-generation Blackwell Ultra architecture. Digital twin capabilities through ETAP and EcoStruxure IT Design CFD enable pre-deployment simulation.

The focus on redundancy, power quality monitoring, and validated engineering directly addresses the industry's deployment bottleneck.

I look forward to attending Schneider Electric's Innovation Summit in Las Vegas next Tuesday and Wednesday, touring their switch data center and examining these solutions firsthand.

Watch the keynote: https://lnkd.in/gxuRQGjm
#Energy #Tech #AI #Grid #Automation #DataCenter

To stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation, Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg Or 👉 #CXOSpiceYouTube here https://lnkd.in/gnMc-Vpj

How prepared is your organization to bounce back when an AI-driven disruption hits?

That’s the focus of my latest CEO newsletter, following Commvault Shift Virtual, where I outlined why AI resilience is becoming a top priority for executive teams and boards.

AI is accelerating decision-making, increasing identity complexity, and tightening the margin for recovery. Resilience is a strategic imperative.

In the newsletter, I break down the shift toward Commvault Cloud Unity and Resilience Operations (ResOps), and why unifying security, identity, and recovery is essential for organizations building on AI.

👉 Read the full newsletter for the board-level perspective and what this means for the years ahead. Watch the replay here: https://lnkd.in/gN6WmZ9C

What’s the biggest AI-resilience concern on your radar right now?

#CommvaultSHIFT #CyberResilience #CISO #CIO #CTO #CEO #BoardDirectors

Stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation, Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg Or 👉 #CXOSpiceYouTube here https://lnkd.in/gnMc-Vpj

A Message from Sanjay Mirchandani, CEO, Commvault “The question we’re addressing today is simple: how fast can you recover in a world where breaches a

Open article: Commvault Shift Virtual: The Dawn of AI Resilience by Helen Yu • 4 min read

Commvault Shift Virtual: The Dawn of AI Resilience

What's it like watching the Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifications from the T-Mobile Magenta tower?

Unforgettable.

Huge thanks to T-Mobile for hosting such an incredible experience—the views from the Sphere Magenta Club were unmatched, and the magenta glow fit right in with The Sphere's spectacular light show. Started the evening with my first-ever aura reading, then tried on a racing suit and helmet. My AI-generated racing persona? Nano Banana 🍌.

Finished the night watching qualifications light up The Sphere while hanging out with a creative bunch—turning online connections into real ones, surrounded by the T-Mobile team and fellow F1 fans.

Sometimes the best experiences come from saying yes to the unexpected. 🏎️

#LasVegasGP #F1 T-Mobile For Business #SphereMagenta 

To stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation, Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg Or 👉 
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What’s Driving AI from the Lab to the Real World?

Bridging the gap between experimental AI models and industry-scale applications became the theme of my time exploring NVIDIA’s presence at Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent; from a VC Startup breakfast at Osteria di Brera to hands-on demos across the Expo floor.

NVIDIA unveiled several breakthrough technologies this week:
✅ NVIDIA DRIVE Alpamayo-R1: The world's first open, industry-scale reasoning vision-language-action model for autonomous mobility
✅ Mistral Large 3: Now 10x faster on NVIDIA infrastructure
✅ Nemotron models on Amazon Bedrock: Bringing specialized agentic AI for text, code, images, and video directly to AWS customers
✅ Cosmos Cookbook: Practical resources for scaling physical AI development

The convergence of cloud infrastructure and AI is accelerating. NVIDIA's focus on open models, optimized performance, and accessible tools is democratizing AI development, making sophisticated applications available to startups and enterprises.

My conversation with Dave Salvator, Director of Accelerated Computing Products, reinforced how NVIDIA is addressing the entire AI lifecycle, from data generation to deployment.

We're witnessing a pivotal moment where physical AI, reasoning models, and open-source approaches are creating possibilities that seemed impossible just years ago.

I am thrilled about the opportunity to interview two startups founders from the NVIDIA Inception program: Diligent Robotics and Distributional, where we'll explore how they're leveraging these technologies to solve real-world challenges.

#Startup #Inception #AWSreInvent #NVIDIAPartner

Stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation,
Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg
Or 👉 #CXOSpiceYouTube here https://lnkd.in/gnMc-Vpj

Building the future of AI but struggling to access the compute power and expertise you need?

That's exactly why NVIDIA created Inception and the Inception Tour was my favorite part of Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent this year.

Since my Marketo days, I've been passionate about scaling startups. As an advisor, I've had the privilege of guiding several from early stage to exit. The most thrilling part is watching founders create something that solves real pain points and finding that repeatability to scale.

In my book "Ascend Your Startup," I talk about conquering 5 disconnects to accelerate growth with principles that are relevant to startups building what's next in AI.

At the NVIDIA Inception Pavilion, I got to interview two incredible #startups leveraging the Inception program:
✅ Adam Allevato from Diligent Robotics
✅ Scott Clark, CEO of Distributional

Stay tuned for their stories to see how they're scaling their innovations.

My key takeaway: NVIDIA operates like a startup when it comes to innovation. They've built an incredible ecosystem and genuinely care about giving back to the community. That's what sets them apart.

Inception gives startups access to:
✓ State-of-the-art GPU computing
✓ Direct collaboration with NVIDIA engineering specialists
✓ Invitations to GTC conferences worldwide
✓ Connections to NVIDIA's venture arms
✓ A community of 30,000+ startups globally

The only criteria is that your company must be less than 10 years old. No equity required. No cohort limits. Just continuous support as long as you're building.

Heartfelt appreciation to the NVIDIA team for making this experience possible: Hanako Tonozuka, Daman Oberoi, Ashutosh Joshi, and Amy Kaplan.

Is your startup ready? Join 15,000+ innovators: https://nvda.ws/48xgtEh

#NVIDIAPartner #AWSReInvent #Startups #Inception #Founders

Stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation,
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The gap between data and AI success? Context.

SaaS brought agility but broke cohesion. Enterprises now have powerful data islands that don't speak the same language.

On November 18, discover how SAP Business Data Cloud unifies data across finance, supply chain, HR, and procurement—creating the semantic layer your AI models need to deliver real business value.

Register 👉: https://lnkd.in/g5VYih_7

Hear from Accenture's Terje "T" Sorlie and SAP's Justin Ham & Orla Cullen on building AI-ready data foundations, plus live demos:
✅ Intelligent applications in action
✅ Agentic AI with SAP Joule
✅ Predictive planning powered by AI-ready data

SAP and SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP #Event #AI #Data

To stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation, Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg Or 👉 
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Want to know what kills most transformations?

After sitting through 82 acquisitions at Oracle, I learned it's not strategy. It's not talent. It's not even budget.

It's legacy infrastructure that no one wants to talk about.

I keep seeing the same pattern in boardrooms:
CEOs are betting big on AI. But most are burning 35% more on cloud than they should.

Here's why:
Data platforms built 20 years ago were designed to store information.
Today you need to access data instantly, wherever it lives, to drive AI outcomes.
That fundamental shift broke the old model.

I've lived this.
In a previous role scaling a SaaS company, our infrastructure costs outpaced revenue growth. We upgraded systems. Added capacity. Getting smarter about how we accessed data was the secret source.

Companies like Zetaris are solving this differently.
Intelligent systems that optimize how data gets accessed and processed.
The impact:
✅ Cloud costs drop 30-60%
✅ Performance improves
✅ Data becomes an advantage, not a drain

Is our infrastructure investment aligned with our AI strategy or working against it?

Explore more: https://bit.ly/4mGo0W4 or Follow Zetaris

#DigitalTransformation #AIStrategy #Governance #DataAnalytics

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What's the one thing you can't teach in business? Experience.

In the final part of my conversation with Richard Howells, VP of Solution Management at SAP, we talked about what sets SAP apart after 50 years in the industry.

That’s Earned trust through experience.

SAP offers 400+ pre-built models, so companies don't have to start from scratch. Plus, with 300 million users in the community, you have access to a wealth of shared knowledge from companies at every stage of their supply chain journey.

And here's Richard’s advice for those just starting out: Think cloud first.
When you're in the cloud, you can leverage the latest AI innovations, keep up with evolving regulations automatically, and stay current without constant manual updates. As Richard put it: "The time is now for cloud."

In times of business uncertainty, you need a foundation built on decades of experience and a platform designed for tomorrow's challenges. That's how you Pivot Fast, Run Lean, and Grow Strong.

Ready to build your future on proven experience and cutting-edge innovation? Explore how SAP helps you navigate uncertainty: https://lnkd.in/gzkffikz 

Thank you, Richard, for sharing these invaluable insights on the future of supply chain and business transformation.

#SAP #CloudFirst #SupplyChain #DigitalTransformation #Innovation
 
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Can AI infrastructure be both sovereign AND scalable?

NVIDIA and Amazon Web Services (AWS) proved it can.
At #AWSreInvent, they announced a partnership that redefines enterprise AI:
✅ NVLink Fusion on Trainium - massive model training, unleashed
✅ AWS AI Factories with Blackwell GPUs - your data, your control, infinite scale
✅ Nemotron on Bedrock - serverless agentic AI, no infrastructure headaches
✅ GPU-accelerated vector search - Amazon OpenSearch + NVIDIA cuVS = 10x faster indexing at 25% of the cost
✅ Physical AI at scale - NVIDIA Cosmos world foundation models now on AWS for robotics and simulation

I will be hosting Dave Salvator, Director of Accelerated Computing at NVIDIA, to unpack what this means on CXO Spice.
We're talking:
✅ Why sovereign AI infrastructure just became enterprise-ready
✅ What 20K+ Blackwell GPUs unlock
✅ How to protect your models while scaling fast

The AI infrastructure conversation just got rewritten.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gTUeW_hy
What's holding back your AI deployment—compute, sovereignty, or both? 👇

#NVIDIAPartner #AWS #AI #Blackwell #Enterprise

Stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation,
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What happens when intelligence becomes the most powerful fuel in energy?

We saw the answer unfold at #ADIPEC2025 where AI is transforming how energy is produced, managed, and delivered.

The AI Zone & Digitalisation Conference showcased ~10,000 products embedding intelligence into energy systems.

Key takeaways:
✅ AI reshaping leadership - driving efficiency, resilience & smarter capital allocation
✅ Industry leaders (SandboxAQ, Cisco, ENERSOL) calling for bold, coordinated AI investment
✅ Workforce shift: 92M jobs displaced, 170M created (Cisco) — reskilling is critical

Tech highlights:
🐕 Laika (MBZUAI) - AI robot dog
🖥️ G42's Project Stargate - UAE's hyperscale AI backbone
🏭 Accenture's Refinery of the Future
🌐 AREONEX, GeoCruiser, CleanConnect.ai, Senergetics

Energy delivered at scale requires AI deployed at scale. That’s pragmatism meets innovation.

#ADIPEC #Energy #AI #Sustainability

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What if you could scale your security program without expanding your team?

Most companies face a painful reality: as they grow, compliance becomes a resource black hole. 

75% of executives admit their security programs are too complex, stretched thin by thousands of controls and drowning in duplication.

Continuously hiring people doesn't scale.

Here's what's really happening:

Your InfoSec teams are burning out on manual evidence collection, juggling multiple frameworks with overlapping requirements, and struggling to give executives the visibility they need to make informed decisions. Meanwhile, 30% of employees don't even understand their role in maintaining your security posture.

I recently came across Sprinto, a platform that scales compliance through automation.  Here are some highlights of their capabilities:
✅ Pre-built framework overlaps remove duplication automatically
✅ Automated control monitoring, and evidence collection
✅ Real-time dashboards that give executives and security committees visibility
✅ Step-by-step guidance that turns compliance from a burden into a
shared responsibility

When you remove duplication, automate evidence, and give everyone visibility into risks, something remarkable happens: your security program becomes a competitive advantage.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/g4qDmvVD

#Cybersecurity #Compliance #InfoSec #Sprinto

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How do you find partners you can trust in #cybersecurity, #AI, and influencer marketing? 

I created these three curated directories with Clutch to help you cut through the noise:
✅ Go-To Cybersecurity Companies – Protecting your organization requires partners with proven expertise. These companies bring tested capabilities in threat prevention, security infrastructure, and risk management. Check out top 5: Sekurno | Cybersecurity, Foresite Cybersecurity Packetlabs Ltd. Software Mind and XRAY CyberSecurity https://lnkd.in/gzE4EDjc

✅ Top Innovators in AI – As AI reshapes business operations, choosing the right innovators is critical. These companies are at the forefront, helping organizations harness AI's potential while staying secure. Check out STX Next, BlueLabel, eSparkBiz, Quytech, and Neoteric
https://lnkd.in/gK5nZ_VP

✅ Influencer Marketing Agencies – Authentic engagement drives results. These agencies master the art of building genuine connections and delivering measurable brand impact. Check out top 5 Zorka.Agency | Influencer and Performance Marketing Agency, NinjaPromo: Your All-In-One Marketing Solution, PartnerCentric, Inc.,  Our Own Brand,  Fresh Content Society
https://lnkd.in/gTh8mzy9

What makes these directories different:
✅ Every company and agency featured has been vetted for performance, credibility, and consistent results. 
✅ My recommendations are backed by trust - helping you cut through the noise and make confident, informed choices.

Check out my directories and DM me if you want to add your company to those directories.

To stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation, Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg Or 👉 #CXOSpiceYouTube here https://lnkd.in/gnMc-Vpj

#AI #Cybersecurity #InfluencerMarketing #ClutchDirectory

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