Xceede Solutions Inc

At Xceede Solutions, I'm responsible for building the strategy and the infrastructure needed for the firm to grow. This entails all Marketing & Sales functions and systems.

Principal Consultant

Category Thinkers

Category Thinkers is the free community that brings category designers together. Whether you’re already an expert or just “category curious,” you’re welcome to join the hundreds of others who strive to be radically different.

Ambassador

dailyNLP

Modeling is the ultimate skill-building discipline. Using modeling projects, I've drastically cut down my clients' skill development time. My primary focus is helping entrepreneurs and solopreneurs who have zero sales DNA become effective salespeople in 90 days or less by leveraging the power of modeling.

Key Highlights:
- Designed and delivered the world’s first behavioral modeling training program to solopreneurs who want to develop their selling skills in record time
- Attracted over 5,000 subscribers to dailyNLP through SEO and content marketing
- Secured top 5 spots in Google for competitive keywords

Modeling Coach

Toca da Empada

Built a chain of bakeries specialized in empadas from scratch, up to an 8-store group with revenues above $1M, tightly focused on the customer experience.

Key Highlights:
- Bootstrapped a 7-unit chain of bakeries to yearly sales of over R$1.5 million for 12 consecutive years
- Systematized the company to operate as a franchise prototype while being the sole owner, allowing us to manage at one point 7 units as a husband and wife executive team
- Crafted the company’s complete financial and logistics system using free internet software, leading to yearly savings of R$ 51,157
- Designed a customer-first service delivery program
- Designed and optimized the onboarding process for our employees for both skill and motivation
- Onboarded over 150 employees during my tenure of the business
- Orchestrated the launch of 8 stores
- Negotiated and secured co-marketing partnerships with other local businesses, leading to a rapid expansion of our brand
- Defeated 3 national competitors who tried to enter our local market (they aren't here any more!)
- Designed and implemented duplicatable processes for attracting, selecting and training new employees
- Oversaw a team of 21 people
- Managed relationships with suppliers and partners

Messier Productions

Showtime! I managed the career of a musical artist, conceived and produced artistic events.

Key Highlights:
- Wrote and won 4 grant proposals
- Sold and managed R$1.2M in sponsorship deals
- Led the artist I managed to win two most prestigious awards in her genre
- Developed and implemented a comprehensive marketing plan to support the regional and national touring of the artist under my management, involving print media, social media campaigns and A-Z event management
- Managed the production and release of two music albums, both within budget
- Managed one regional and one national concert tours, both within budget
- Contracted, coordinated and supervised production assistants, set designers, costume designers, sound engineers, musicians, roadies, technicians, lighting experts, photographers and videographers for musical projects
- Managed strategic relationships with the media, government authorities, venue managers and sponsors

Career Manager

Desafiando Brasil

Desafiando Brasil was the company I first started when arriving in Brazil. It was the first coaching company in the city where I lived and a little ahead of its time, so I had a hard time making it profitable. It taught me the importance of carefully screening for demand before starting a business.

Key Highlights:
- Delivered keynote speeches to over 30,000 people throughout Brazil
- Wrote and published a book for high school students
- Researched, designed and delivered an advanced customer service program to 11 companies based on identifying a massive pain point in the market
- Researched, designed and delivered consultative sales methodology training to 5 sales teams
- Developed and delivered the coaching180 program for entrepreneurs, a blended coaching methodology involving emails, tasks and periodical in-person meetings
- Designed and executed innovative education programs for youth, including city-wide treasure hunts and the construction of giant sandcastles

Consultant and Trainer

Jiva Technologies

Elaborated strategic plans for the company. Marketed seminars to future entrepreneurs and students. Developed a four-fold curriculum and delivered seminars throughout the country and in Brazil. Mentored and coached individuals. Handled general office duties.

Key Highlights:
• Developed the 3DO business model based on 2-year research and 100-volume literature review
• Trained over 50 individuals in integrated conditioning
• Reviewed and studied over 30 business systems

Consultant

Nupremis

Integral member of the product development team. Presented product solutions to clients. Led 10-member cross-functional teams. Managed product development projects. Designed sales training documentation and training.

Key Highlights:
• Designed and spearheaded the launching of the Managed Hosting Services product, which generated $2 million in yearly revenue
• Trained over 150 employees in corporate strategy
• Participated in venture capitalist meetings to present product and competitive analyses
• Collaborated with a Spanish client in the implementation of its Internet Marketing strategy

Manager, Product Strategy

NETtel Communications

Integral member of the Marketing Strategy team. Evaluated new billing platforms for the company. Participated in the design of the corporate Knowledge Management system. Conducted weekly conference calls with sales force to support business development efforts. Presented eServices at client sites. Conducted telepresentations to clients via the Internet. Designed sales force documentation and training.

Key Highlights:
• Developed and launched four eServices, which reduced monthly billing costs by $100,000
• Redesigned the corporate website
• Elaborated the online integration strategy for the website, customer extranet, and corporate intranet
• Implemented the online integration strategy
• Trained 100-member sales force on eServices strategy

Internet Marketing Specialist

Are you looking to implement (or re-implement) Salesforce without headaches? Are you looking for a firm that understands business just as much as they understand technology? Let's talk about it: https://calendly.com/xceede/martin

It's not easy to implement a CRM that your team will rave about.

In order to build a tool that enables performance and puts your sales team on steroids, you need to put in place a well-thought out implementation strategy.

You can't simply hand people a piece of technology and think that this will instantly turn you into a billion-dollar company.

For your project to be successful:
🟢 you must take into account behavioral change challenges and phase implementation accordingly
🟢 your technology must faithfully mirror your business processes
🟢 the solution you put in place must drive business outcomes

Without these three pillars, no technology on the market will drive results for you and your team.

With that said, how can you tap into Salesforce to drive your company's growth? How can you leverage it to empower your top performers? And how do you ensure that it helps you deliver career-altering results?

That's what Xceede can do for you.

𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗪𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗣 𝗬𝗢𝗨?
🔅 Formalization of business processes: We help you formalize sales processes that hit the growth drivers of your business.

🔆 Process enablement in Salesforce: We deliver a fully-functional CRM that enables your growth-driving processes with greater efficiency.

𝗪𝗛𝗢 𝗗𝗢 𝗪𝗘 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛?
Ambitious executives at B2B companies who have already reached $50-200M in revenue who want to drive growth and scale the company.

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗨𝗦?
Because we deliver end-to-end solutions. We handle the management consulting AND implement the technology that enables it at a fraction of the cost you'll pay for at one of the big consulting firms. We are just as fluent in business speak as we are in IT language. And because you'll fall in love with our personable, direct and BS-free approach to human relations.

𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗪𝗘 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞?
Contact me by direct message here on LinkedIn or by email at martin.messier@xceedesolutions.com

Martin Messier

I've watched companies spend $200K on a Salesforce implementation and still run forecasting in a spreadsheet Dave built in 2019.

You think that's going to fly in the age of AI?

I also noticed one thing... the companies that get massive value from their CRM share one habit.

They answer one question before they sign the SOW: "What decisions will this system help us make?"

When leadership treats implementation as a revenue growth decision, everything clicks.

I've worked with a 20-person sales org that got more value from their CRM in 90 days than most enterprise rollouts deliver in two years. They knew exactly which three reports their VP needed every Monday morning and which dashboards their reps needed to execute efficiently. So that's what got built first. Adoption was immediate because the system solved a problem the team already felt.

The best implementations I've been part of start with conversations like:

"When you sit down Monday morning, what do you wish you could see?"

"When your board asks about pipeline, where do you pull that number from?"

"When a deal slips, how does your team figure out why?"

Every answer becomes a design requirement, and every requirement becomes something the team actually opens and uses. Adoption in month one predicts ROI in year one.

If you're planning an implementation, start with the decisions. The technology follows.

#Salesforce #CRMImplementation #RevOps #SalesLeadership #RevenueGrowth

Customer journey strategist | Service design + Salesforce enablement

The most underrated way to align Sales + Finance: make the plan pipeline-native.

Before we started building PLNR - Sales-Driven Planning®, a pattern kept punching us in the face:

Most companies plan like this:
1. Finance builds a plan.
2. Sales runs the quarter.
3. RevOps plays interpreter.

Every week, everyone meets to reconcile the story.

At first, it looks like alignment. Truth is, it’s really two systems trying to duct tape themselves together.

The moment pipeline reality shifts (and it always does):
- deals slip
- stages stall
- new pipeline shows up late
- “commit” becomes a vibe, not a view of risk

…your plan can’t absorb it.

What happens next is painfully predictable.

RevOps gets pulled into the worst kind of work, like chasing “quick updates,” running forecast call theater, translating pipeline chaos into something Finance can digest, and getting blamed when the number surprises someone.

Somewhere in the middle of developing PLNR - Sales-Driven Planning®, we had a simple (but kind of uncomfortable) realization: if the plan lives outside the pipeline, Sales and Finance can’t actually share it.

They can only argue about it.

That was the breakthrough.

So we started designing it around a different premise:

The plan should be pipeline-native.

Not merely “connected to the CRM" or “fed by dashboards.”

Pipeline-native as in:
1. The plan updates as pipeline changes.
2. Assumptions are explicit, shared, and inspectable.
3. Forecasting is not a weekly ritual, it is an always-on feedback loop.
4. RevOps is no longer the human API between teams.

Sales + Finance alignment results from a plan that can keep up with reality. Way more effective than meetings...

So... do you have alignment… or do you just have really good reconciliation habits?

#RevOps #RevenuePlanning #Forecasting #PipelineManagement #GoToMarket

6 things your CEO expects that nobody told the Salesforce implementation team

Your #CEO signed off on a Salesforce investment with a very specific picture in mind. More often than not, that picture almost never makes it into the SOW. 

For instance:

1. A live revenue (not deals or bookings) forecast they can pull anytime
Your CEO wants to know exactly where the business stands against plan on any given Tuesday morning. A well-built Salesforce org should deliver this instantly, with a forecast that updates as deals move, close, or slip, giving leadership a board-ready number without asking three people to reconcile a spreadsheet first.

2. Plan-to-actual visibility across the entire go-to-market
Your CEO expects to see what was planned against what's actually happening, broken down by territory, segment, or product line. Your Salesforce org should surface this in real time, inside the system their teams already use every day.

3. Quota and capacity alignment that can be trusted
When your CEO asks "do we have the right coverage to hit the number?", they expect a solid answer. Your Salesforce org should show headcount, quota distribution, and pipeline coverage in one place, all connected to the same data reps are updating.

4. Scenario modeling for board-level conversations
"What happens if we miss pipeline targets by 20%?" "What does it look like if we add two reps in Q3?" Your CEO needs to walk into the boardroom with ranges and probabilities. Your Salesforce org should support these conversations with real data and adjustable assumptions, so leadership can model outcomes on the spot.

5. Governance and version control that builds cross-functional trust
CEOs need Sales, Finance, and Ops working from the same plan. Your Salesforce org should provide structured plan versions, timestamps, and clear ownership that shows who changed the forecast, when, and why. For public companies, this is a compliance expectation. For growth-stage companies, it's how you get Sales and Finance aligned and keep the board confident.

6. A planning layer that makes the #CRM more valuable every quarter
Your CEO expects the Salesforce investment to compound. Every quarter, the system should deliver more insight, more adoption, and more alignment across teams. When planning lives inside the CRM, that's exactly what happens.

Do you want to significantly upgrade your Salesforce org so you can deliver all the above? Check out PLNR - Sales-Driven Planning®. It adds the planning layer #Salesforce needs to help you align #Sales, #Marketing, #Operations, and #Finance.

#SalesforceImplementation #RevOps #SalesLeadership #RevenueGrowth

The most underrated reason forecasts “miss”: planning latency.

When we were building PLNR - Sales-Driven Planning®, we kept hearing the same complaint from RevOps: “Our forecasts aren't accurate.”

And yeah… sometimes that was true.

But the more we looked at what was actually happening week to week, we realized something uncomfortable:

Most teams don’t have an accuracy problem. They have a speed problem.

Their plan updates too slowly for the reality it’s supposed to govern. See if this resonates with your reality... Pipeline changes on Tuesday. The “plan” acknowledges it two weeks later. Finance re-forecasts in a monthly cycle. Sales revises commit in a Friday call.

Everyone walks around with numbers that are technically “official”… and practically useless.

That’s planning latency for you.

It creates this weird second-order chaos:
- #RevOps spends their life reconciling versions of the truth
- #Sales starts treating the plan like a suggestion
- #Finance starts treating pipeline like a fairytale
- Forecast calls turn into negotiations instead of decisions

Here’s what clicked for us during PLNR development:

Accuracy is a lagging indicator. Latency is the upstream driver.

If your planning system can’t absorb slippage the day it happens and surface risk without a human chasing fields, show what changed and why, and make assumptions explicit...

…then “improving accuracy” is just lipstick on a slow process.

So we started optimizing for a plan that moves at the speed of pipeline.

When the plan updates fast enough, a bunch of things stop being “meetings” and start being signals.

Your forecasting process is only as good as your planning latency.

So… how old is your plan by the time you’re looking at it?

#RevenuePlanning #Forecasting #GoToMarket #PipelineManagement

5 #forecasting habits that keep sales teams stuck in spreadsheets

Every sales org on the planet wants better forecasting. Most of the ones we've seen already have the #CRM to support it. The issue is almost always the same five habits.

1. Running the forecast on a quarterly cycle
A quarterly planning cycle is outdated by week three. The best sales orgs run rolling forecasts that update continuously inside Salesforce, so the numbers always reflect what's actually happening in the pipeline. When a deal slips or a new opportunity lands, the forecast adjusts the same day.

2. Consolidating territory data by hand
Somewhere in your org, someone is pulling data from Salesforce into Excel, rolling it up by territory, and emailing it to a VP every Monday. The teams that move past this build territory rollups directly inside the CRM, so every manager sees their numbers live and the VP gets a dashboard that's always current.

3. Keeping the forecast in a file only one person understands
You know the file. Dave built it in 2019. It has 14 tabs, a few hidden columns, and a formula that breaks if you look at it wrong. The teams that win at forecasting move the model into Salesforce where every assumption is visible, every version is tracked, and the whole team can see how the number was built.

4. Treating the forecast as a finance exercise
When forecasting lives in a spreadsheet owned by Finance, reps never see it, and managers only engage with it once a quarter during the review. The best orgs make forecasting part of daily sales execution, so reps can see their gap-to-quota, managers can adjust targets, and Finance gets the live number they need without chasing anyone for updates.

5. Rebuilding the forecast from scratch every cycle
Starting over every quarter costs weeks of effort and loses all the context from the previous cycle. Teams that forecast well carry context forward, rolling over plans that build on what happened last quarter, with assumptions that evolve as the business evolves. Every cycle gets sharper because the last one didn't disappear into an archive folder.

Where does this leave you?

If your team is forecasting in spreadsheets and your CRM is already Salesforce, the fix is closer than you think. You can bring planning into your CRM using PLNR - Sales-Driven Planning®, and these five habits take care of themselves.

#Salesforce #SalesForecasting #RevOps #SalesOps #RevenueGrowth

We. Land. Clients. >>> Finally… know exactly what to say in the DMs *and in your posts* to land juicier clients🌹Join THE GARDEN🌹

Look, you're probably leaving money on the table with your DMs. 

Not because you're an idiot...

But because you're treating them like an afterthought instead of what they actually are: your most direct line to closing deals. 

You want to set more calls and close more clients.

But you don't want to...

- Hand over your DMs to a cookie cutter call setting agency 
- Trust your untrained VA with the task
- Give prospects the "ick" or come across as salesy

Maybe you’ve felt the pain of hiring an "affordable" DM setter in the past. 

- Leads fell through the cracks
- Fumbled conversations with great prospects 
- Incalculable lost revenue in missed opportunities 

You learned the hard way that "winging it" in the DMs led to infinitely more money in lost potential revenue. 

It’s time to increase conversions without compromising your voice or values. 

We will recruit, train, and manage your DM setting team...

And create a streamlined sales process to:

- Handle conversations with finesse
- Set qualified sales calls
- Never burn bridges by being salesy 

DM me “SALES SYSTEM” to learn more.

Justin Fowler-Lindner

Moving back in with my mom at 29 felt like failure. It saved me.

I'd always felt like I had "bad energy."

Like I needed to remove myself from people.

Take care of myself. Handle my problems alone.

But that year taught me something I'd never learned:

How to receive.

Love. Support. Help.

And here's the insight that changed everything:

If you can't receive love and support, it affects your ability to give it.

Most coaches are terrible at receiving.

They won't delegate.

They won't accept feedback.

They won't let anyone help.

They think doing it all themselves is strength.

It's not.

It's a limitation.

The ability to receive is a prerequisite for the ability to give at scale.

You can't grow a team if you won't let them help.

You can't improve your sales process if you won't accept input.

Where are you refusing to receive in a way that's limiting your growth?

I help coaches close their Soulmate Clients with less sales calls | Increase your close rate on sales calls & in the DMs | Anti-Bro Sales (still sell like h*ll) | Your Local DM Dopamine Dealer🍃

You're booking 15 sales calls a week and closing 3.

That's not a pipeline problem. That's a pre-qualification problem.

Here's what's actually happening:

You're not bad at sales.

You're just talking to the wrong people.

The problem isn't your close rate.

It's that nobody qualified the lead before they got on your calendar.

So you spend an hour on a call with someone who was never going to buy.

Then you do it again.

And again.

And you start thinking you need better objection handling, or a different offer, or maybe just more calls.

You don't.

You need someone in your DMs doing the work before the call ever gets booked.

Pre-qualify the conversation.

Pre-sell the outcome.

By the time they show up on your calendar, the decision is basically already made.

Fewer calls.

Higher close rate.

More revenue with less of your life on Zoom.

That's the shift.

What's your current call-to-close ratio? Drop it below. Curious where most coaches are sitting right now.

Kevin hit $50K/month.

Cool.

But here's what actually changed his life:

He took two weeks off.

Completely off. No DMs. No calls. No "just checking in."

His business made $47K while he was gone.

Same systems. Same setter. Same everything.

Just without him.

That's the point.

Not the revenue number.

The freedom to step away and have your business keep running.

Here's what most coaches get wrong:

They build businesses that can't survive without them.

Then they call themselves "successful" while being trapped.

Real success is a business that works when you don't.

Everything else is just an elaborate prison with good pay.

When's the last time you took a real vacation without checking your phone?

Your setter sent 100 DMs today.

(That number is meaningless.)

"I sent 100 DMs!"

Cool.

How many turned into conversations?

How many of those turned into productive sales conversations?

How many of THOSE turned into booked calls?

Here's what most coaches track:

→ DMs sent

Here's what actually matters:

→ Conversion rate between each step

100 DMs but only 2 conversations? Messaging is garbage.

10 conversations but 0 calls? Qualifying is broken.

10 calls but 1 close? Pre-selling needs work.

The numbers tell you exactly where the problem is.

But only if you're tracking the right numbers.

Stop celebrating activity.

Start measuring conversion.

Your setter should track:

→ DMs sent

→ Conversations started

→ Productive sales convos

→ Calls booked

→ Deals closed

Then look at the RATIOS between each step.

What's your setter's conversation-to-call ratio?

5 reasons your setter is booking calls that never close:

→ 1. They're optimizing for the booking, not the fit. A call on the calendar feels like a win. It's not. An unqualified call is just a future wasted hour.

→ 2. They're pitching too early. The moment a lead feels sold to, they go cold. Your setter's job is to make the lead want to get on the call, not convince them to.

→ 3. They don't know what problem you actually solve. If your setter can't articulate your offer in plain English, your leads can tell. Confusion kills deals before the call even starts.

→ 4. They're following a script when the conversation goes off-script. Which it always does. Scripts break the moment a real human says something unexpected.

→ 5. Nobody debriefed after a lost deal. Your setter has more intel on why leads go cold than anyone. If you're not reviewing conversations together, you're leaving the most valuable data in your business on the table.

Fix these 5 things and your close rate will go up without changing a single word of your sales call.

Which one of these is costing you the most right now?

My client cut her weekly sales calls from 12 to 5. Her revenue went up.

Same offer. Same price. Same leads. One thing changed.

She runs a high-ticket coaching program.

Leads were coming in consistently from her content.

But 90% of her calls were with people who weren't ready, weren't qualified, or were never going to buy.

She was exhausted.

And starting to hate sales.

We put a setter in her DMs with one job: have a real conversation before any call gets booked.

No script.

No funnel steps.

Just figure out if this person is actually a fit. If they are, make them excited to show up.

Six weeks later she was closing 1 in 3.

Same offer.

Same price.

Same leads.

The only thing that changed was what happened before the call.

She went from 12 calls a week down to 5.

And her monthly revenue went up.

She told me last week she actually enjoys sales calls now.

Which, honestly, felt like a miracle to her.

The bottleneck was never the call.

It was everything before it.

Has your pre-call process ever cost you a deal you should have closed? Let me know below.

I've spoken to 47 coaches this year who told me they were "almost ready" to hire a setter.

They're still answering every DM themselves at 11pm. I know because I did the same thing.

The idea of someone else in your DMs feels terrifying.

What if they say the wrong thing?

What if they come across as pushy?

What if the lead can tell it's not you?

So you keep doing it yourself.

All of it.

Every follow-up.

Every objection.

Every "let me think about it" that goes nowhere.

And slowly, the business that was supposed to give you freedom becomes the most demanding job you've ever had.

Here's the thing nobody tells you:

The fear isn't really about the setter messing it up.

It's about what happens if the setter doesn't mess it up.

Because then you have to admit you've been the bottleneck the whole time.

That's a harder thing to sit with.

But it's also the thing that changes everything.

What's the hardest part of your business to let go of? Genuinely curious.

Day 9 of my 30 day challenge to make $1k with my first sales MicroSaaS or I shave my beard.

I never planned to build an agency. I just listened to what clients wanted.

Started by landing my own clients through DMs.

People asked how I was doing it.

I shared. That turned into paid consultations.

Higher-level clients wanted done-for-you.

So I built that.

CallSetting.com wasn't a grand vision.

It evolved from listening.

Here's what most coaches get wrong:

They sell what they think clients need.

Not what clients are actually asking for.

They create elaborate offers based on imagination.

Then wonder why nobody buys.

Real businesses evolve by listening.

Your best product ideas don't come from your head.

They come from your clients' mouths.

Stop forcing a predetermined vision.

Start paying attention to what people are already trying to buy.

What are your clients asking for that you keep ignoring?

I'm giving away the exact DM Close Cheat Sheet we use at CallSetting.com to train our setters and coaches... for FREE.

Inside, you'll discover:

→ The complete DM closing framework that turns DM conversations into closed deals (not just booked calls)

→ How to run proper discovery in the DMs so you understand the prospect's real pain, their specific goals, and the deeper motivation behind both

→ How to present your offer in the context of the prospect's specific situation so price feels small compared to what they're getting

→ The "sell the next step" technique that gets prospects excited to invest, not pressured into it

→ When to close in the DMs vs. when to book a call (knowing the difference is a competitive advantage most coaches don't have)

This cheat sheet will help you:

- Close high-ticket deals without requiring a sales call for every prospect
- Dramatically improve your conversion rates by meeting buyers where they're most comfortable
- Give your setters a real sales process instead of "book calls and hope"
- Stop putting all your conversion pressure on your personal call performance

Want it?

1) Comment "CLOSE" on this post

2) Connect with me (DMs only go to connections)

Bonus: Repost this ♻️ and I'll include our real DM close conversation examples so you can study exactly how deals get closed without ever getting on a call.

taplio

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Martin Messier

Justin Fowler-Lindner

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taplio

The Battle

Martin Messier

Justin Fowler-Lindner

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Martin Messier's LinkedIn Performance

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