Socket

You use open source software? Do you know if the direct and transitive dependencies in those packages are safe? No? You need Socket. 

At Socket, we’re transforming how organizations protect their applications from the rising threat of software supply chain attacks. Founded in 2021, Socket offers a developer-first platform that proactively detects and blocks malicious packages in real time, securing the open source ecosystem that powers modern software. Socket is backed by a16z, Abstract Ventures, Elad Gil, South Park Commons, Village Global, Unusual Ventures, WndrCo, and dozens of CISOs and world-leading business leaders.

Account Executive

2024
Q4 - 102.5% to ramp ACV target and 248% to pipeline target  

Other contributions in 2024:
2nd ranked attainment achiever on sales team (#1 in ramping class) 
Closed first deal 3 months ahead of ramp goal
Helped lead interview process for first US SDR role

Founding US Account Executive

Drata

Consistent top achiever (in the top 10 of reps QoQ in a sales org of 30+).

Quota Achievement: 

2024 - 100.5%
Q2 - 114% (got things back on track) 
Q1 - 87% (took a minute to get pipeline built coming back from paternity leave) 

2023 - 89% 
Q4 - Paternity leave 
Q3 - 102%
Q3 - 82% (a top 10 rep during this time)
Q2 - 82% (a top 10 rep during this time, top overall rep in May for entire business) 
Q1 - 89% (a top 10 rep during this time)

2022 - 115% 
Q4 - 112% (top 5 rep)
Q3 - 117% (top 5 rep)

All-time Stats:
- $1,180,997 new business won 
- Attainment 99%
- 89 net new customers 
- Sold deals up to $135k in size

Other contributions:
- Selected to mentor new AEs and SDRs
- Given special projects to work with the product team
- Selected to join task force to improve POC process

What I sold and who I sold to: 
- Compliance automation SaaS platform to help companies achieve compliance faster, pass audits with flying colors, and win more business. 
- Highly technical and non-tehcnical personas. Founders, CTOs, COOs, VP of Engineering, and other IC-level operations, engineering, and compliance folks.

Censys

Quota Achievement: 

2022
Q1 - 148% (#1 achieving rep in sales org)
#1 overall rep for attainment on the Mid-Enterprise team 

Other Achievements: 
- During tenure in closing roles I closed 22% of the entire customer base adding $1.2M in ARR.

What I sold and who I sold to: 
- Helped CISOs sleep better at night by closing the gaps in their external digital attack surface with a SaaS platform. 
- Sold to highly technical CISOs, Heads of Security, Attack Surface Managers, and IC-level security team members like security engineers.

Mid-Enterprise Account Executive

Quota Achievement: 
- #1 Rep in sales org for attainment during tenure (95%)
- Deal sizes up to $125,000
- Average deal size $51,000
- Won 16 enterprise logos (Some logos include the likes of Deloitte, Crowdstrike, Nubank, Swiss Life, Carhartt, Coinbase, Falabella)

What I sold and who I sold to: 
- Helped threat hunting teams discover forgotten, rogue or newly acquired internet assets using our SaaS internet data scanning platform. 
- Highly technical buyers CISOs, VPs of Threat Detection, Threat Analysts, and other IC-level security team members like security engineers and threat hunters.

Top achiever - Promoted twice in first year 

Quota Achievement:
- 85% all-time (Top Performer to quota in sales org)
- $177,461 new ACV closed won
- 11 new logos won

ISR + SDR

Employee #40 and first full-time BDR

Quota Achievement:
- All-time - 95%
- 265 meetings set

Other Achievements:
- Created a campaign that generated 32 additional meetings over the course of quarter
- Set company records for most meetings set in a day and month

Founding Enterprise SDR

Cisco

Quota Achievement:

All-time: 100%

Other achievements: 
- Only Duo BDR to be promoted from SMB directly to an Enterprise BDR role (skipping Mid-Market)
- Over $1.2 million in pipeline sourced

What I sold and who I sold to: 
- Simplified the multi-factor auth process for Enterprise companies with easy and affordable MFA software.
- Worked with CISOs, Heads of Security, Directors of Authentication, and the IC-level security team

Enterprise Sales Development Rep

2019
121% - All time (highest on team)
$4.2M pipeline sourced (highest on team)
500+ opportunities sourced (highest on team)
Top achiever's club '19

What I sold & who I sold to: 
- Simplified the multi-factor auth process for SMB companies with easy and affordable MFA software. 
- Worked with highly technical personas: CISOs, Heads of Security, Directors of Authentication, and the IC-level security team

SMB/MM Sales Development Rep

Duo Security

Hired at Duo during the acquisition by Cisco.

Sales Development Representative (Acquired by Cisco for $2.35B)

For over 6 years, I've been involved in the infosec community helping engineers solve challenges in identity access management, threat hunting, attack surface discovery, compliance and supply chain security. 

Trust between sellers and engineers is broken and needs to be restored. 

I've been focused on this restoration since the early days at my first security startup. 

I've spoken with hundreds of security pros and business leaders and helped them solve challenge after challenge in their security stack. 

From stealth mode startups to Fortune 10 organizations, I've worked with them all. 

My passion isn't to just close deals. It’s to help connect engineers and leaders with tools that make their lives easier, make them look good, and protect their teams and assets. 

I'm obsessed with earning and keeping this trust.

When I'm not working I:
🏌🏼‍♂️  Play golf
🥾  Hike with my wife
📚  Read (at least 10 pages a day)
🎥  Watch movies (400+ reviewed on IMDB)

Nick Bontrager

Building sales teams and delighting customers at early stage hyper growth startups.

Mike Gallardo

My best outbound sequence structure. 
 
Here's the breakdown:
- 4 Emails 
- 6 Cold Calls 
- 3 LinkedIn Messages 
 
All sent over a couple weeks.

Feel free to adjust it so it works for you and your style.
 
♻️ And then try again 30 to 90 days later with new messaging. 

 
𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆: 
 
This is all you need, I promise.
 
Gone are the days of 20+ touches over 20+ days [including break up emails]. 

Keep it simple.
Keep it valuable.
And try again later if it doesn't work.

Your SQOs and email domain health will thank you.
 
 
What would you change? 
 
- Mike G 
 
 
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I've been in sales for 10+ years.

Here's my biggest piece of advice:


1. Make as much money as you can. Max out your comp plan. Change companies if quota's not reasonable. Etc.

2. Don't buy expensive things; especially big ticket items like cars, houses, vacations etc.

3. Invest as much money as humanly possible. Ideally 20% of what you make before taxes. ie your OTE is 200k then you invest 40k.


Your goal should be to max out your 401(k) and also invest a lot outside of that in a brokerage account. 

Make this your #1 goal and thank me when you're 40.


- Mike G

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She always hits 150% more of quota.

Here's how:

She asks the hard questions:

1. "I know you and I are aligned, but for this to actually get signed, what's the most common reason deals like this usually get paused or killed internally at your company?" Gets your champion to share potential hurdles or internal challenges that you can partner on solving and/or getting ahead of.

1. "Let's say everything goes perfectly on our side. Is there anything on your side that could possibly prevent us from moving forward?" Uncovers internal risk factors and political landmines you can help them navigate.

2. "When was the last time your team successfully implemented a new system or vendor like this? What were the key lessons learned from that process?" Great question to learn their history with change and potential internal inertia or pain points related to adoption that they've experienced before.

3. "Out of all the priorities you're juggling right now, where does solving this particular problem rank? Is it a 'must-solve-now' or a more 'nice to have eventually?" Dives into the genuine urgency and whether the problem is painful enough for immediate action.

4. “You mentioned [X date] as a goal. What’s driving that timeline, and is that date firm?” Verifies whether the timeline is real or aspirational.

5. "Based on what you’ve seen so far, is there anything that’s giving you pause about moving forward with us?” Invites honest feedback to surface objections early.

6. “How does our solution compare to others you’re evaluating?” Tests competitive positioning and whether you're the frontrunner.

7.“Who else on your team needs to feel good about this before a decision is made?” Pushes beyond your main contact to build a map of the buying committee.

8. “If [insert key stakeholder] were here, what concerns would they raise?” Forces your champion to think on behalf of other decision-makers.

9. “Have you ever purchased something like this before? What did that process look like internally?” Surfaces potential red tape or hidden decision criteria.

10. “What needs to happen between now and [target close date] for this to actually happen?” Pushes them to co-create the buying journey and surface risk.


What's your favorite hard question to ask?
- Mike G

👉 Black Friday Special: Get $53 off The Best Sales Course (this week only!) https://lnkd.in/gEkPHuZ7

One of my best AEs crushes quota.

Steal her demo questions.

 
 
𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸: 
 
1. Does that make sense? 
2. Any questions? 
 
 
𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝘀: 

1. "Last time we spoke you mentioned [context]... Has anything changed since we last spoke?" Great way to confirm priorities, challenges and see if anything's changed.

2. I listened back to our last conversation and noticed [context]... one thing I forgot to ask about was [question]?" Great way to dig into priorities, challenges or key areas you want to learn more about.
 
3. "What was running through your mind as I was sharing that?" Great question to ask after showing an important feature. 
 
4. "Before I show you how to X can you walk me through your process step-by-step?" Great question to ask before showing a key feature so you can really compare and contrast. 
 
5. "When you need to X what happens?" Great process question for learning their step-by-step process for key workflows. 
 
6. "Who else on your team would benefit from being able to X?" Ask this to multithread. Ideally, you do some research ahead of time and can drop some names in there. 

7. "I noticed we have about 8 minutes left in our call today. If it's alright with you I'd like to chat through pricing and next steps. Does that work?" Always watch the clock and save enough time to discuss/recommend what happens next.
 
 
Bonus tip: Stop your screen share when asking these questions and have a face to face conversation. 
 
- Mike G 
 
 
👉 Black Friday Special: Get $53 off The Best Sales Course (this week only!) https://lnkd.in/gEkPHuZ7

li_at

JSESSIONID

(99+) Jonny Edmondson | LinkedIn

Talks about #sales, #startups, and #leadership

Sales Director at Deel

We're hiring A LOT of remote SDRs! 🥳 

Need to backfill all the ones I'm promoting to AEs :)

Here's the scoop:

If you're looking to join an amazing company, with an awesome product and a ridiculous amount of opportunities for AE promotions... Then you should join Deel ASAP!

Here's why:

1. Explosive growth 

Deel's one of the fastest growing startups of all time; and we're firing on all cylinders! It's still very early in our story too. So I legit can't think of a better time to join than now.

2. We're winning BIG 

We're the clear market leader in an explosive category that's not slowing down. We have a huge product and customer experience edge. High performance high success culture.

3. TONS of career opportunities

We do promotions every 3 MONTHS at Deel. I've promoted 18 SDRs in 2025. And this train isn't slowing down, if anything it's speeding up! 


Sound like what you're looking for?

👉 Then apply here: https://lnkd.in/gRfb6gR4

Wishing you the best of luck!
- Mike G

Me: Update salesforce please.
AE: Sorry Mike, too busy closing deals.
Me: Roger that.

Let's be real.

Spending time with customers and driving revenue should always be the #1 priority as a seller.

10x better to be crushing deals and not have salesforce up to date than the other way around. 

And if you do both? Well then, you've just won my heart forever and always.

- Mike G

PS. I know people will say that AEs should do both. That AEs should be perfect. And that they should have no problem keeping salesforce immaculate, crush all the deals, and be the #1 AE always. But that's just not my experience. My experience is that we are all human beings. And sometimes we get busy. Or sometimes life hits us with a curveball. And it's way more reasonable to say it's OK to not be perfect all the time. And give AEs the permission to make decisions for themselves vs expecting perfection 24/7.

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3 hot takes that I believe in:

1. All remote > than in office and hybrid
2. Almond milk > oat milk
3. Demo on the first call


𝗣𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝟭.
Nobody can afford to live in big cities anymore. A lot of great talent is in the middle of the country. Commuting is the worst.

𝗣𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝟮.
Health reasons only. Oat milk is loaded w/ sugar. I'm sorry to break the news to you. Please forgive me.

𝗣𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝟯.
Learn their priorities and challenges. Demo one thing that can help with that. Build interest for scheduling a longer more in depth demo.


What's your hottest take?

- Mike G

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I'm hiring AEs! 🥳

Here's why you should apply today:

𝟭.𝗤𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗮 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁
Our North Star is over half the team hitting quota every month. Most months we outperform that. Last month over 70% of the team exceeded quota and our top performers consistently run at 200% or more. Huge earning potential here.

𝟮. 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵
You will work closely with high performing AEs who truly want each other to win. The bar is high at Deel and the team is open, collaborative, and supportive when it comes to sales strategy, deal execution, and leveling up fast.

𝟯. 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁
Deel is the clear product leader in this space. It is not close. You get to sell a full suite of solutions and you'll definitely get deals that feel more like mid market than SMB because of the complexity and size.

𝟰. 𝗟𝗼𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀
Inbound makes up the majority of your pipeline. You will still outbound your own opportunities, but you will have a strong flow of warm leads to build and scale pipeline quickly.

𝟱. 𝗧𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀
We run promotions every 3 months. I'm approaching 100 promotions at Deel in under 5 years. We have seen AEs move into mid market, enterprise, SDR leadership, and sales leadership. Real career acceleration exists here.

𝟲. 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲
Deel is remote forever and always. For this role you must be based in the United States or Canada. Work from anywhere while selling globally.

𝟳. 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀
Our managers go above and beyond to support their AEs. They are deeply invested in your growth, your performance, and your long term career. You will not find better sales leaders to learn from.

Interested?
Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gB2xPVNy

Questions? 
Let me know in the comments!

- Mike G

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Every cold call opener you could ever need.

All in one place for you.

1. "Hey [name], This is [name] with [company], I know you didn’t expect me to call you this afternoon, do you mind if I take one minute to tell you why I called you specifically, and then you can tell me whether or not it makes sense to speak?"

2.“Hey [name], this is [name] from [company]. I know you’re not expecting this call, so I’ll keep it very brief.”

3. "Hey [name] - I noticed [context]. This is a cold call but it's a well researched one. Have a moment? I promise to be brief."

4. "Hey [name] - You might hate me because this is a cold call. But it's a well researched one about [context]. Have a quick moment to hear why I called you specifically?"

5. "Hey [name], this is [name] from [company]. I know you weren't expecting my call. Do you have a moment? I promise to be brief."
 
6. "Hey [name] - This is a cold call but it's a well researched cold call. Can I have 30 seconds to tell you why I specifically called you?"
 
7. "Hey [name], this is [name] with [company]. Good morning. I’m reaching out about X. Do you have a quick moment?" 
 
8. "Hey [name] - This is [name] with [company]. I know I probably caught you in the middle of something. Do you have minute for me to tell you why I’m calling and you can let me know if you’d like to keep chatting?" 
 
9. "Hey [name] - This is [name] with [company], I know you didn’t expect me to call you this afternoon. Do you mind if I take one minute to tell you why I called you specifically, and then you can tell me whether or not it makes sense to speak?" 
 
10. "Hey [name], this is [name] with [company]. I know you weren’t expecting my call. Do you have a minute for me to explain why I’m reaching out, and you can decide if it’s worth continuing the conversation?” 
 
11. "Hey [name], this is [name] from [company]. I’m calling to see if you’re open to discussing how we can help you X. Do you have a quick moment?" 
 
12. "Hey [name], [name] here from [company]. I’m reaching out about X. Is now a good time to have a brief chat?"
 
13. "Hey [name], [name] with [company] here. I noticed you’re [insight] and might be interested in X. Do you have a moment to discuss?" 
 
14. "Hey [name], this is [name] from [company]. I’m calling because we’ve helped companies like yours [value prop]. Can we chat for a couple of minutes?" 
 
15. "Hey [name], [name] here with [company]. I understand your time is valuable, but do you have a minute to hear how we’ve [value prop]?" 

16. "Hey Jill - It's Mike at Acme. Was hoping to make your day with a cold call this Friday. Have a moment to hear why I specifically called you?" 

17. "Hey Jill - You're gonna hate me but this is a cold call. Do you have a sec so I can tell you why I called?" 
 

Which one's your favorite?

- Mike G

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He closed a $1,000,000 deal at Deel 🥳

I listened to every single call.

Here's how he did it:

1. He built the plan with the buyer.

He created a clear roadmap. It detailed every milestone and required action for both sides. “I’ve put together a proposed mutual commitment plan for us. I'd love for us to spend the first 15 minutes aligning on this together...”

2. He obsessed over decision criteria. 

He knew precisely what mattered to the buying committee. Every feature discussion was framed as a path to a key business result. “Let’s talk about the final evaluation. What criteria will be most important to your team? What does a 'win' look like for the internal stakeholders?”

3. Each call had a clear objective

Instead of assuming, he checked in to ensure the meeting's purpose was aligned with the buyer’s current needs. This built trust and made sure he was focused on the right things. “Here's my objective for this call... [objective]. Is there anything you'd like to add?”

4. He preemptively addressed roadblocks

He brought up common implementation or organizational hurdles before the client could. He then shared proof of how they were successfully mitigated by others. “In other global expansion deals, we often see [mention common hurdle]. Is that a potential wrinkle you’re anticipating here, or is there anything else we should make sure to think through?”

5. He leveraged Internal expertise. 

He knew when to step back and let a specialist take the lead. Key stakeholders were introduced based on their specialized knowledge. “Knowing this is a complex integration, I've asked [name], our [role], to join. They’ll walk you through X, and will be a great internal resource you can leverage at Deel moving forward.”

6. He maintained a disciplined structure

Every meeting was tightly managed and executed with professional precision. He never let the time or agenda run away. He always began with: “For our time today, I propose a quick 5-minute review of last steps, a deeper dive on the integration process, and then we'll save the last 10 minutes to schedule our next official check in. Does that sound good?”

7. He used "before & after" narratives. 

He didn't just rattle off case studies. He told compelling stories focused on transformation, framing the client's past pain against their future success. "Take the example of a [client name]. Before working with us, they were struggling with [pain point] every quarter. Now, after implementing our solution, they've been able to [action] leading to an overall improvement in [details]."


What tip would add for your biggest deals?

- Mike G

👉 Black Friday Special: Get $53 off The Best Sales Course (this week only!) https://lnkd.in/gEkPHuZ7

How to go from SDR to AE.

In 4 simple steps:


𝟭. 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆
If you're not working somewhere that does a lot of SDR to AE promotions it's going to be hard to make the jump. I've been at places where 15 SDRs are applying for 1 AE role once a year. At Deel I will promote 20+ SDRs to AEs this year. Big difference.


𝟮. 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲
Hustle and tenacity is the 80/20 of succeeding in sales. This applies to SDRs, AEs and Managers alike. Everyone is different obviously but hard to be a top performer if your schedule is not on point and you're consistently operating at a high level. 


𝟯. 𝗕𝗲 𝗮 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗿
If I had to pick one habit that drives top performance it's getting and applying feedback. Seek out how you can be better proactively with your manager. Be self aware. Study top performers.


𝟰. 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗔𝗘 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘀
Don't wait for the interview process to learn what it takes to be a successful AE. Take the time to study the fundamentals and use every resource (like your AE buddy) at your disposal.


𝟱. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱
Once you're a top performer share your knowledge with the greater team. Shoot no ask messages that are valuable to Sales Managers and Sales Leaders. Don't assume people know who you are. Go out there and build the narrative yourself. Take full responsibility of this.


What would you add?

- Mike G

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We crushed it in October.

- Almost everyone hit quota 
- People hit 300% attainment
- New logo record
- ARR record
- Bookings record
- New product sales records

And now we're going through our promotion cycle.

And a lot of people are going to get promoted.

- SDR to AE
- SMB1 to SMB2
- AE to Manager
- SMB AE to MM AE

We're firing on all cylinders at Deel baby.

And I couldn't be more bullish for November, December and 2026.

- Mike G

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SMB is underrated. 

1. A lot of at bats. Endless opportunities to learn, test things out, and hone in your sales craft. Practice makes perfect in SMB.

2. Product market fit. SMB customers always get the most value out of your product (in the early and even middle days). You don't lose deals because you simply don't have what they need.

3. Super fast paced and fun. SMB is full of changes while going 100mph. Things are always exciting. They're never boring. And you're always engaged.

4. You can make great money. This depends on the company and comp structure. But you should be able to exceed quota, hit accelerators, and get paid 200k or more if you're a top performer.

5. Inbound leads. You actually get them haha.

What'd I miss?

- Mike G

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Hot take: Cold calls should be 5 mins or less.
 
As soon as you have interest...

𝗦𝗮𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀:
 
"Hey Jill - Sounds like there's potential to help with [context] here. Would you be open to taking a quick look and seeing how it all works?" 
 
That's it. 
 
Short, sweet and to the point.

Here's the thing: 
 
The entire point of a cold call is to book a meeting. 

So there's no real point to having long conversations where someone might all of a sudden have to go. 
 
Bonus: You get more dial time with this strategy too.
 
 
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: You're really really good and are highly confident longer calls do not increase the risk of not booking the meeting. More the exception than the rule in my experience.
 
- Mike G 
 
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I'm doing so many internal interviews right now.

SDRs to AEs
SMB AEs to MM AEs
AEs to Manager

Nothing gets me more fired up!

- Mike G

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Last July I promoted 4 SDRs to AEs.

And now they're all the top AEs on the team.

Literally no better feeling than that :)

- Mike G

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I took a 60% pay cut joining Zenefits.
I took a 10% pay cut joining Flexport.
I took a 6% pay cut joining Deel.

I know this seems crazy.

But it's not really

1. Making 10 Year Moves. 

I was focused on the long game. Every decision was measured against the next decade, making me comfortable with smaller, short term setbacks if they pointed toward massive future growth.

2. The New Financial Reality. 

Inflation and the cost of living are insane and it's dramatically harder for our generation than it was for earlier ones. You need to target a much higher income (and invest wisely) just to get ahead.

3. Joining a Rocket Ship. 

Joining a company during its rapid growth phase provides a ton of opportunity. If the business is scaling fast and you perform well, the promotions, raises, and opportunities practically create themselves.

4. Optimizing for Skill Acquisition. 

My priority wasn't just the paycheck; it was about becoming the strongest sales leader I could. I value maximizing learning about new business industries, business models, and new challenges.

5. Genuine Product & Market Fit. 

I genuinely believed in the mission. Being passionate about the problem the product solved, the company's competitive edge, and the customers we served.

6. Building an Equity Portfolio. 

Having options across multiple companies hedges risk. Joining early means you receive significantly more generous grants, and you only need one successful IPO to dramatically change your financial trajectory.

7. All Remote = Freedom. 

For me, being fully remote was non negotiable. That flexibility was key to getting a house and avoiding the crippling expense of living in tech hubs like San Francisco or New York.

8. Choosing Your Leadership.

I paid close attention to who I'd be reporting to and who was leading the company. You rise faster when your managers are genuinely invested in your career progression and success.


𝗠𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: Don't be afraid to bet big on yourself, take risk and make moves. Turned 40 recently and have really learned that life's too short to play small. 

- Mike G


👉 Black Friday Special: Get $53 off The Best Sales Course (this week only!) https://lnkd.in/gEkPHuZ7

I'm working on my next course:

How to get promoted.

I'm going to share everything I know about how to go from:

1. SDR to AE
2. SMB AE to MM AE
3. AE to Manager
4. Manager to Director

Also, how to get Senior promotions in all those roles.


I want to make sure this course is a banger.

So please leave a comment with any question you have on getting promoted. Not only will I answer it now I will do a super deep dive in the course!

- Mike G

👉 Get The Best Sales Newsletter delivered straight to your inbox for FREE: https://lnkd.in/g-dHTj7

6 signals my top AE tracks + the plays he runs on each to hit 222% of quota.

Steal them:

1. Signal: Someone views content for the first time.

The first time someone enters his deal room and views a specific piece of content for the first time, he reaches out with a short note tied to what they looked at. Meeting buyers where they are, when their attention is already captured increases response rates. This is also a great way to multithread early in the sales process.

2. Signal: Executive enters the room for the first time.

When an executive views content in the deal room, he brings in his equivalent executive. He has them send a short value based note to their peer. This creates instant credibility and increases the chances of securing an executive conversation.

3. Signal: A success plan step isn’t completed.

If a success plan step stalls, he reaches out right away. He checks in to see if they need help or clarification and offers to keep things on track. This prevents delays and shows you’re actively owning the process.

4. Signal: Team members viewing specific content.

When he knows what his champion’s team is viewing, he builds content that speaks to those interests. He helps his champion craft the internal story around what stakeholders care about most. This makes internal selling easier and more effective.

5. Signal: Key stakeholder stops viewing content.

If content views drop, re engage quickly. Send a short message tied to what they cared about most. A timely nudge often restarts momentum before the deal slips.

Bonus: A closed/lost opp starts viewing content again.

When a closed lost buyer starts viewing content again, he reaches out immediately. He acknowledges their renewed interest and offers a quick sync. These opportunities convert at high rates because value was already established.


And here’s his secret: 

He uses Aligned to surface and action all of these signals he couldn't see anywhere else in real time, making these plays super easy to run across all his opps.

Use his playbook in a free deal room here: https://lnkd.in/gqNS6GRW


How do you track mid-deal signals?

-Mike

Brand partnership • Sales Director at Deel

The best time to work on yourself, your game, and everything you're doing in sales is when you're winning.

That's when it becomes easy to:

1. Let good habits slip
2. Fall back into bad habits
3. Not work or try as hard as you were
4. Get complacent and stop improving yourself 
5. Hit a serious plateau and not realize it until too late


When you're failing or not doing well.
It's obvious that you need to change things.

But the biggest mistakes and step backs (that I see) often happen when people are too comfortable or on a winning streak.

Getting to the top of the leaderboard is one thing, but staying there consistently over time is a completely different beast.


- Mike G

👉 Get The Best Sales Newsletter delivered straight to your inbox for FREE: https://lnkd.in/g-dHTj7s

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Mike Gallardo

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The Battle

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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);}Mike Gallardo's LinkedIn Performance

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