Helped 60+ B2B SaaS scaleups increase their sales | @Netigate +185% outbound meetings and @Ebbot +83% in closerate | SaaS Sales Leader Report 2024 dropping soon | ADHD Advocate

Omsätter ditt tech eller scaleup 10-70 miljoner ARR?

Då tappar du 10-30 miljoner i värdering om ditt säljteam inte kan:

1. Bygga Cost of Inaction cases med kunden
2. Facilitera komplex tech-försäljning
3. Skala enhetligt (inte hero-dependent)

Det jag pratar om är ditt Sales Operating System.

Det ska kunna ta dig från 10M till 150M+ ARR utan att 5x:a säljteamet.

Är du inte 100% säker att ditt SOS kan göra det?

Då kan du ta hjälp av mig.

Innan du läste det här har jag:

✅ Hjälpt 65+ tech & scaleups bygga sina säljprocesser
✅ Har personligen sålt för över 100 miljoner
✅ Ökat winrate med 50%+ flera gånger

Bolag jag jobbat med: Stratsys, Trapets, Compilelt, Wint, Visma, Position Green, Intro, Screens, HeyTilda, Adviscent med flera.

En scaleup-VD sa efteråt:

"Det är första gången den ekonomiska köparen och business usern pushar igenom det tillsammans utan några riktigt invändningar."

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VD eller grundare på tech/scaleup 10-70M ARR?

Vill skala säljorganisationen utan att anställa fler?

DM:a mig "COI"

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Sök inte:
🚫 Ett mirakel
🚫 Ny finansiering
🚫 Att ekonomin ska vända

Ta kontroll över din försäljning idag.
Eller låt bli. Ditt val.


Theo Zätterström 🎉

Imorgon 07:00 lanserar jag min nya podd.

18 sätt jag ifrågasatt mig själv 😂


 1. Har jag rätt personer? 
    
 2. Vill dessa personer ens prata med mig?
    
 3. Varför har jag väntat såhär länge?
    
 4. Har jag väntat FÖR länge nu?
    
 5. Är det här en shiny object? 
    
 6. Borde jag fokusera på annat istället?
    
 7. Tycker jag ens att det här är kul? (Jo. Det gör jag.)
    
 8. Men ska jag fortsätta ändå?
    
 9. Hur många måste jag intervjua innan jag kan lansera?
    
10. Är det här tillräckligt?
    
11. Fan, nu har jag intervjuat för många.
    
12. Nu MÅSTE jag lansera snart.
    
13. Kommer folk bli arga för att jag har sponsorer?
    
14. Shit, har jag intervjuat för många så vissa avsnitt kommer dö?
    
15. Vad kommer gästerna tycka om jag skriver det här om dom?
    
16. Vad kommer de tycka om hur jag skriver om dem på LinkedIn?
    
17. Kommer dom skriva att jag ska ta ned avsnittet?
    
18. Fuck, jag måste ju ha bilder också.


Alla doubts. 
Alla frågor. 

Allt som kan gå fel.

Men imorgon 07:00 lanserar jag ändå.

Och är så jävla pepp!
Det får gå som det går 😂

Hjälper tech-VD:ar & grundare skala från 10M→70M ARR utan att 5x:a säljteamet | 65+ bolag, 150M+ i ARR | Sales Operating Systems”

För 6 månader sen såg över 20 000 människor min post om hur otroligt dåligt jag hade sålt ↓


Det var jävligt jobbigt att skriva den posten. 

Att stå mitt i skiten och berätta om det öppet när hela mitt företag går ut på att hjälpa andra öka sitt sälj. 

Jag fick sälja aktier och ta från mitt sparkapital för att hålla mig flytande privat. 

Men jag tror stenhårt att dela både upp och nedgångar. 
I posten skrev jag även vad jag skulle göra:

• Fokusera på det jag kan kontrollera
• Träna, prospektera, boka, utföra
• Jobba med mitt mindset

Och jävlar vad jag har gjort det.
 
Men viktigast av allt: 
Jag jobbade om mitt erbjudande.

Under Q3 började det skapa traction. 
Under Q4 började det ge frukt. 

Mitt Q4 blev mitt bäst säljande kvartal i bolagets historia. 

Men det hade aldrig hänt utan smärtan under Q2. 
Ibland är det bra att det är jävligt dåligt. 

För det är då man faktiskt gör viktiga förändringar.
Sanningen är ju att: 

Smärtan är inte problemet.
Smärtan är signalen.

Den säger: "Något måste förändras."

När du lyssnar på den signalen och gör förändringen. 
Det är då magin händer.

Mitt Q2 var helvetet.
Mitt Q4 blev mitt bästa.

Det har gjort mig grymt taggad på 2026.  

Vad är du mest taggad på?

Det finns 50+ podcasts om entrepreneurship i Sverige.
 
0 om sales management för tech/SaaS/AI.
 
Så jag startade en.
 
Sales Management Room lanserar om 2 veckor.
 
Varje avsnitt:
 
• Säljchefer och VD:ar som skalat från 0 till 50M+
• Vad som faktiskt funkar (och inte funkar)
• Ingen bullshit, bara sales ops
 
Lanseras om två veckor!
 
Följ nu på Spotify så du inte missar: 

https://lnkd.in/eS2Z7jzH

På tisdag 07:00 lanserar jag Sales Management Room.

Och jag tänker inte smyga igång ↓

Jag vet att du inte vill vänta vecka för vecka.

Därför släpper jag inte bara ett avsnitt utan en hel "miniserie" med tre avsnitt på en gång.


Här är vad som landar i din feed på tisdag morgon:


1. Siffrorna med Sofia Alexus 

Hur vänder man ett bolags marginal från -17% till +15%? 

Sofia (VD på Verified, f.d. Kundo) berättar ocensurerade storyn om turnarounden, varför säljare måste äga sin pipeline och hur hon ställde om bolaget från Inbound till Outbound.



2.Verktyg (Soloavsnitt) 

Vem har mest inflytande i ditt team?

Spoiler - Det är inte alltid du som ledare eller din bästa säljare.

Jag går igenom Resultat vs. Inflytande-matrisen. Du får lära dig identifiera dina "Charismatic Underachievers" och varför din trevligaste säljare kan vara den farligaste för kulturen.



3. Mindsetet med Anders Nilsson 

Vi kräver att säljare ska prestera som elitidrottare, men vi behandlar dem sällan så. 

Anders är mental coach med OS- och VM-meriter. Vi pratar om Zmartrest och hur du bygger hållbar högprestation utan utbrändhet.


Tre perspektiv: Strategin, Ledarskapet och Prestationen.


Vill du ha en notis så fort de släpps? 

Länk till podden: https://lnkd.in/d7PjkQF3
Klicka på Följ och slå på klockan.

07:00 på tisdag - var där!

3 månader sen: 0 AI-piloter. 0 poddavsnitt.
 Idag?
 
𝗔𝗜-𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘁:
 
4 piloter igång med Design Partners.
Fokus: Bygga en produkt som de älskar.
Sikte: Lansera hårdare om 1-2 månader.
 
𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻:
 
4 avsnitt lanserades den här veckan.
Tack för alla sms, DMs, samtal och hejarop.
Trodde aldrig feedbacken skulle vara så bra:
 
"Svinbra podd!! Kom upp på min Spotify"
 
"Grymt bra avsnitt. Gillade verkligen motivation och att aldrig säga vad man inte vill vara, bara fokusera på det man vill uppnå."
 
"Spännande podd! 🔥"
 
Det har varit mycket svett, men jävligt roligt!
 
Happy Friday!


Bygger du på något särskilt just nu? 😃

2026 är inte 2024.

Mina 5 förändringar i B2B-tech sales:


1. “Seeing is believing” har tagit över

Prospects vill ha 2-4 veckors pilot.

Inte bara demo. 
De vill TESTA själva.

ROI calculators (på hemsidan) har aldrig funkat.

Men bra Cost of Inaction cases funkar fortfarande när de skapar urgency.

Men sen vill prospects SE att din lösning faktiskt löser det problemet.

Proof > promises.


2. Färre säljare = varje hire är kritisk
Du behöver 3 säljare istället för 10 (tack AI/automation).

Förr: 1-2 av 10 failar = 10-20% miss rate.
Okej.

Nu: 1 av 3 failar = 33% miss rate. 
Katastrof.

Rekrytering tar längre.
Inte för att du kör 57 assessments.
Utan för att du har inte råd att faila.


3. LinkedIn proficiency blir viktigare
Det är inte mandatory ännu.

Men fler VD:ar söker säljare med LinkedIn-närvaro.

Job ads i UK/US börjar fråga efter det.

“Social selling” (ja, jag hatar termen också) blir en del av jobbet.


4. Ribban för “good selling” har höjts (igen)
För ALLA.

Även SMB-säljare måste sälja som enterprise sellers nu.

Säljer du 2-3K MRR deals?

Du behöver börja:

    ∙    Bygga business case
    ∙    Facilitera komplex försäljning
    ∙    Koppla till bolagets övergripande mål

“Good enough” sales funkar inte längre.
Standarden har höjts.


5. Generic pitchar är döda
“Vi hjälper företag med X” funkar inte.
Eller generiska PDFer och PPTer.

Du måste vara hyper-relevant:

    ∙    Deras specifika problem
    ∙    Deras specifika outcomes
    ∙    Kopplat till deras company goals

Och varför JUST nu!
Annars är du bara noise.


Vad ser du under 2026?

Det bästa på LinkedIn 2025 var inte något jag gjorde. 

Det gjorde Kundo ↓


När de bjöd in till Kundservicedagen gjorde Sofia och Amanda en jävligt rolig hypevideo. 

Vi snackar i avsnittet om att många bolag är en snarkfest och vad du kan göra för att liva upp det. 


Det och mycket mer släpps på tisdag ✊




ps. Sa ju fel om Amanda när jag sa tech säljaren, ska ju vara tech säljchefen ✊

Finns det något som heter överträning? 

Tydligen inte! ⬇️ 

Det är underåterhämtning.

Vilket var bara ett av väldigt många perspektiv som skiftades i mitt samtal med Anders!

Han har själv varit elitidrottare.

Men som mental coach har han varit på OS, VM och EM!

Däribland EM-guldet för U21-landslaget i fotboll.

Vi pratar om hur vi som ledare kan ta atleternas disciplin till näringslivet. 

Vilket Anders själv gör med sitt bolag Zmartrest AB!

Avsnittet släpps imorgon bitti!


Har du varit underåterhämtad någon gång?

3 miljoner impressions på LinkedIn 2025.

Men 2026 kommer jag få färre: ⬇️


Inte för att LinkedIn ändrar algoritmen.
Det spelar ingen jävla roll. 
Bara att acceptera. 


2025:

- 218 posts totalt 
- Fokus på VD & grundare
- Få videos och 15% försök till virala poster


2026: 

- Fler poster överlag
- Fler videos från min nya podd
- Kommer antagligen bli läger % ”viralt”


Med fler poster totalt går impressions per post ned.

Samtidigt som jag kommer köra mer video dyker nog impressions ned också.

Men högre relevans för min målgrupp.


Impressions är en vanity metric.
Men fortfarande kul att tracka 😃


Men företagsmässigt tycker jag inte frågan ”hur många ser det?" är rätt. 

Utan "ser rätt personer det?"

Hellre 10K impressions till rätt personer än 100K till fel.

2026 = mindre reach, mer relevans.


Är impressions overrated? 


Ps. Ändå stolt att nå 3 mil utan en engagemangspodd 🥳

Jag har hört så många säljledare säga: 

"Vi tränar på säljmöten" 😱 


Det är inte samma sak!

Säljmöten = Tävling

Siffrorna säger tydligt hur viktigt säljträning är. 
När jag intervjuade 70 SaaS säljledare:

66% gjorde säljträning färre än 2 gg/månaden.
34% gjorde det 2 ggr/månaden eller mer. 

Av de 66% tog bara 20% sitt target. 
Av de 34% tog 67% sitt target. 

Vill du att ditt bolag ska ta era säljtargets?
Då är säljträning en viktig del. 

Eller hur tänker du?

ps. Från mitt Soloavsnitt publicerades exakt nu!

Preboarding av din nya säljare börjar inte dag 1. 

Den börjar när:


Din nya säljare har skrivit på kontraktet. 


Väntar du med preboarding till startdatumet så förlänger du rampup-tiden med månader. 

Det är sjukt dyrt. 


𝗛𝗮̈𝗿 𝗮̈𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘁𝘁 𝗴𝗼̈𝗿𝗮 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗮𝗴 𝟭: 


1. 𝗚𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗔𝗜 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀

Låt personen titta genom kundmöten. 

Se till att skicka specifika länkar till: förstamöten, gruppmöten, demos, case-möten med mera. 

Ett antal för varje stage som är bra.

Be säljare ta notes med frågor och feedback. 
Sen tar ni allt det på en session under rampup. 

(När jag börja på Karma lyssnade jag på 60+ st).


2. 𝗙𝗶𝘅𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗻

Logins, hårdvara, CRM-access. 
Allt fixat INNAN dag 1.

Så de inte spenderar första veckan på IT-support. 🤡

Bonus: Köp ett laptop-stativ för 240 kr.
Professionell video setup = professionell säljare.


3. 𝗕𝗼𝗸𝗮 𝗮𝘃 𝘀𝗮̈𝗹𝗷𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗸𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗻 𝗻𝘂

Där tillkommer:

• Onboarding möten med personer från organisationen
• Säljträningar och coachingmöten med dig
• Dagsstrukturen för säljarna

Här kan jag raljera, men beroende på senioritetsnivå hos säljaren. 

Dagsstrukturen handlar om när säljaren ska:

• Prospektera
• Ringa kalla samtal
• Planera att ha sina säljmöten

Kan kännas löjligt, men det har ökat rampuptakten sjukt mycket för mig, mina säljteam och mina kunders säljteam. 


Preboarding är skillnaden mellan 3 månaders rampup och 6 månaders.


Vilket betyder ca. 300 000 kr i skillnad per säljare.
🤯🤯🤯

Det största misstaget jag ser säljteam göra när de bygger sitt cost of inaction case ⬇️

Sättet de ställer frågor om prospektets siffror.


För att räkna på ett COI-case behövs oftast 3-9 frågor besvaras.

Exempel rekryteringsverktyg:

• Antal rekryterare
• Kostnad extern rekrytering
• Minuter på sourcing/rekryterare


Exempel prospekteringsverktyg:

• Antal säljare
• Minuter på prospektering
• Genomsnittsförsäljning per säljare


Misstaget är dubbelt:


1. Auktoritet
   
Det krävs pondus att gå in på de här frågorna.
Prospektet exponerar sina svagheter.

Utan förtroende kommer de aldrig svara ärligt.

Att våga dyka in i frågorna som en jämlik är kritiskt.


2. Anchoring
   
Hur säljaren ankrar sina siffror.
Ta rekryteringsexemplet:

Säljare: "Vad lägger ni per rekrytering hos extern part, 200 000 kr?"

Om prospektet lägger 175 000 kr försvinner smärtan.
De känner sig under snittet.


Men säljaren som ankrar strategiskt:

Säljare: "Vad lägger ni per rekrytering hos extern part, 150 000 kr?"

Plötsligt känner prospektet att de betalar FÖR mycket.

Missnöjet skapas.
Samma produkt.
Samma kund.

Olika anchors.
Stor skillnad i resultat.

Har du använt anchoring?

Sales & Marketing Executive

First things first: All joy in the world comes from wanting others to be happy; all suffering in the world comes from wanting oneself to be happy.

Secondly: I am a CRO who still picks up the phone and cold calls - even with > 25 team members. Because it is fun and rewarding. 

In the first 10 years of my BtoB Sales career, I helped several startups in Europe to grow from < 500k ARR to > 10 Mio. ARR within < 5 years as AE, VP of Sales, CSO and CRO, with one Exit so far. More to come.

I went from full-cycle AE to CSO within 6 years - without having a clue about sales the first 2 years.

When I started in BtoB back in 2014, I really sucked at it. I did not reach my targets - not even close.

What did I do wrongly?

👉🏻 ...travelled 8 hours to a 1-hour meeting without prior discovery
👉🏻 ...never picked up the phone. Did everything via Email
👉🏻 ...asked on average 2 questions per meeting
👉🏻 ...did not know any Sales methodologies
👉🏻 ...had no clue how the sales process looked like
👉🏻 ...never booked a follow-up meeting right away
👉🏻 ...thousand of other mistakes 

I was lucky my company brought in two trainers, Max and Mike who helped me tremendously. I was able to completely change the way I sold - but not without heavily resisting that change at first.

I did not believe in discovery calls or asking too many questions - and had done sales too long without.

But I managed to change. And it was the best transformation I could have wished for.

In year no. 3, I reached 158% of my sales target (1.58 Mio. ARR) with a 2-month holiday during summer.

Since then, I have learned a lot more and realized that learning is the most important activity in our profession.

Patrick Trümpi

Hiring a job hopper can have a big advantage. 

Because I strongly believe:

If I had not worked for four different companies, I would not be half as good as I am now. 

Let's say someone started as an SDR. 

They cold call, they follow a script, and eventually, they nail it (or not).

Let's say the company is not doing well, so there is no promotion after 1.5 years.

They move on.

New company, same role. 

Sounds easy from the surface.

Just reuse the already learned script.

Except… it doesn’t work as well as before.

And suddenly, they’re forced to think deeper:

Why did that old script work? 
Was it the problem statement? The phrasing? The timing?

This is when they level up.

They stop being a “script user” and start becoming a “script designer”

At least mentally.

They learn how to translate a message from one company to another.

They also learn new things in their new environment they can think about and adapt.
 
How positioning, tone, and value props need to be changed to the new audience.

And also what does NOT need to be changed. 

They learn which sales approaches work almost everywhere. Are repeated by different teams. 

They can learn from the best in different companies, which is huge.

If that happens 3-4 times in an early career, it can definitely be worth a lot.

People start to think one level higher.

That is the underrated edge of job hoppers.

They have seen multiple environments, products, and buyer types.

They don’t just execute. They understand. At least better than before.

They learned not only how to sell, but how sales works.

In case you hire salespeople from startups:

Don't judge them by their quota attainment.

Startup sales is extremely hard:

👉🏻 No brand
👉🏻 Broad ICP
👉🏻 No inbound leads
👉🏻 Not many references that can be used
👉🏻 Little to no market readiness for the product
👉🏻 A product that can only solve 10% of the challenge

In the last 15 years, I have seen 5-10% achieve their targets in many different startups.

And there were a lot of great talents.

Most of the time it was not about them.

The conditions were simply too hard.

Or the product was not sellable at all.

If you are looking to find a startup/scalup you can work for without the risk of not having product-market fit:

Apply for blp right now. 

I talk a lot about them because I would genuinely go there. They do not pay me to post this. 

Incredible product. 
Fantstic team. 
Great coaching (yes, we will launch our AI Sales Coaches with them).

That is going to be a killer start or continuation of your sales career.

I help SaaS sales leaders coach their teams on autopilot.

Sales reps: 

When you talk to your manager, make sure NOT to say one of these three sentences.

1️⃣ "The prospect is really interested"

What your manager understands: 

You didn't discuss the impact or delve into a challenge in a way that truly demonstrates your understanding of the case. You have to imply interest from the way the prospect talked. With happy ears, prospects always sound interested. 

👉🏻 Don't use the word "interested". Say whether there is a good use case with a significant impact, or a business initiative you can support. 

2️⃣ "The prospect does not answer my follow-up emails"

What your manager understands:

You did not book the next meeting in the last call, and now you have to run after the prospect with follow-up emails.

👉🏻 Follow-ups are for low-performing sales reps. Book that damn meeting right in the call. Don't leave without a calendar invitation. Ever.

3️⃣ "The prospect was talking a lot. I got so much information"

What the manager understands: 

That is going to be a lousy champion. You probably have to look for a better champion. 

👉🏻 People who talk a lot rarely are doers, and also within their own company, likely not perceived as such. Don't spend too much time with them because you won't get anything done. Ask for other people who want to be involved in the case you are discussing. That will also be a good test of whether they actually help you.

Some Sales organisations have their SDRs do discovery calls, instead of the AEs. 

I find that model really interesting and feasible, but there might be a few things to consider: 

The discovery is the most difficult part of the sales process. 

Most sales reps struggle with it. 

If you have your SDRs do the hardest part, you have to seriously think about: 

👉🏻 Paying them the same amount as AEs.

👉🏻 Top notch discovery training.

👉🏻 Still measure AEs discovery ability. Discovery is usually not just a meeting, but something that should be done throughout the process.

What I love about SDRs doing discovery?

👉🏻 It makes the job MUCH more interesting and long-term. 

👉🏻 It elevates the job to the same level as AEs. SDRs are no longer below AEs in their career.

👉🏻 They start to learn discovery very early in the career, because it takes the longest to be good at. 


And do me one favour if the above is how you approach things: 

DON'T have your SDRs do a full blown SPICED qualification. 

That is absolutely ridiculous.

Doing a SPICED qualification with outbound generated leads is just so far from reality.

These things need to be developed over time and not found in the first meeting.

Have them find a use case, and evaluate the priority of that use case. 

That is it.

One of the hardest things to do in the sales process: 

Getting Access to the Economic Buyer. 

I struggled with that years on end. 

And nobody taught me a smart way to do it.

After a few years, I started to use this strategy, which works extremely well: 

We are in a discovery or demo meeting.

At some point, we will say: “typically a few more people are involved in a collaboration like this one. Who would that be in your org?”

Them: "My boss. He will need to sign off the funds"

Us: "Ok. Do you already have an idea how what we discussed could tie to your boss' goals?"

Them: "Not really, I have to think about that."

Us: "I can make some well educated guesses what they will ask: 
'What is the quantified ROI of this for their business'. 
'How does that tie to an initiative they are pushing'. 
'Is our option save in terms of GDPR?' (welcome Germany). Do you think these are off?"

Them: "No, that sounds very much like my boss"

Us: “Can I suggest next steps?”

Them: "Yes"

Us: "Your boss likely wants to see a thorough case, ideally quantified with all the impact we expect from the case as well as a budget proposal and timeline of the project. I suggest we put this together the two of us and then schedule a meeting with your boss so that we can present it to them together. They will likely have lots more questions in that meeting that are hard for you to answer and I do not want to leave you alone with those. Anything off about this this plan?"

Them: "No, sounds reasonable"

Us: "Great, let's schedule the next two meetings to finalise the business case and the second to discuss it with your boss."


Access to EB granted.

Just show them why it makes sense for them to have you in the call.

The "I am not interested" objection is probably one of the hardest to takle. 

When I asked our AI Sales Tutor, I got the following answer: 

The "not interested" objection is a classic in cold calls, and how you respond depends on when it comes up.

**1. If it comes right after you ask for 30 seconds (very early in the call):**

You need to respond quickly, honestly, and with a touch of self-awareness. 

Try this (speaking at a fast pace):

"That’s okay. Before you hang up, I know it’s not your job to help salespeople. Is it that you’re happy with what you have, that you’ve got more important things on your plate, or you just hate getting cold calls as much as I hate making them?”

This approach is light, non-confrontational, and has the highest chance of continuing the conversation, even if the overall success rate for such early objections is generally low.

**2. If it comes during the cold call, after you've delivered your challenge-focused pitch:**

If you've already explained a relevant challenge, and they still say "I'm not interested," you can mirror their statement with a downward, curious tone:

"Not interested?"

This will often prompt them to give you more information or context, allowing you to understand the real reason for their disinterest and potentially address it.

**Important Note:** 

If you're hearing "not interested" frequently after your pitch, it's a strong indicator that your pitch itself needs improvement. 

A product-focused pitch often triggers disinterest, while a well-crafted, challenge-focused pitch tends to spark recognition and engagement.

Would you like to refine your challenge-focused pitch, or discuss other common cold call objections?

--

I think that answer is more balanced than most sales coaches would give. 

What do you think?

How to detect a sales leader who has only surface knowledge?

They tell their reps to use open vs. close ended questions. 

Because that is one of the first tactics trained in many sales trainings.

One of my reps had a fun encounter with a sales leader on a cold call the other day.

Sales Leader (at the end of the call): "You should have asked an open question like "what are your challenges" at the beginning.

My rep: "Ok, so what are your challenges?"

Sales Leader: "I cannot tell you yet. I started a few months ago"

My rep: "If I asked you an open question like that, the problem often is that people tell me about challenges I cannot solve. That is a waste of time for both of us"

And he is right.

There is no point hearing from a sales leader that they struggle hiring sales reps when your tool solves forecasting.

But it does not stop there. 

Let's assume we ask a bit more specific: 

"When it comes to forecasting, what are some issues you currently encounter?"

Problem with that? 

👉🏻 You have not earned the trust to ask such a question yet. 
👉🏻 They still have to think quite a lot (cognitive load too high) and likely come up with "all good there at the moment"

How do you solve that?

By asking a close question:

"When I talk to sales leaders, they often have two main challenges when it comes to forecasting: Reps put deals on commit that lack critical qualification such as understanding the decision and paper process or they do not even have a mutual action plan in place and secondly that sales leaders often just spend time reminding the reps of these basics. Are you familiar with any of these two?"

You show that understand their challenge better than they do.

That builds trust. 

And you take their cognitive load by giving them options. 

So much better. 

And by the way: 

Many sales leaders now say the client only says "no" or "yes".

Based on my experience, that is definitely not the case. They almost always give more context. 

But in case they only say "no", ask this: 

"Does that mean that your reps almost always hit 100% of their forecast?"

And in case they said "yes", ask this:

"Can you elaborate?"

Next time your sales leader tells you to use open ended questions, ask them: 

When is the best time to ask open questions?

Their answer should not be "always"

It is way more nuanced.

New Year. Welcome back everyone! 

I see a lot of posts about setting goals. I am not a huge fan. 

I once put this massive goal in front of me: 

Want to be retired by the age of 40. 

Nowadays it bothers me more than it helps to think about that.

Goals often are too far away and have no impact on the now.

But: There is one huge benefit of goal setting: 

Increase self-awareness. 

If you already put some goals down, here is what I would do: 

Let’s assume you said you "want to earn $100’000 in 2026" 

(money goals are probably the worst).

Then ask yourself: 

Why do you want that? 

The answer you come up: 

I want to buy a 20k watch. 

Ok, good so far. 

Now, ask yourself again, why you want that watch? 

And here, it becomes increasingly difficult because you have to be honest with yourself. 

Try not to judge yourself for whatever answer you come up. 

Possible options: 

"I really love that one watch." 
"My friends have all such watches." 
etc. 

Ok, well done.

But you are not done yet. 

It becomes much harder now. 

You have to further increase the level of honestly with yourself. 

Why do you actually love watches? 

Think about it. 

You will get deep down to your motivations.

You can find out if buying a watch will actually make you any happier. 

And it might, but very rarely.

If you do it for your friends, for being accepted or for some other fragile reason, as soon as you have that watch, you will want something more. Or your friends get an upgrade and you feel worthless again. 

Do that exercise to actually learn about yourself from the goals you set.

Here is what I like much more than setting some yearly goals:

Build a system (yes, got it from the book Atomic habits). 

A system basically consists of really really small daily habits. 

(which technically you can call goals as well). 

My current ones are: 

👉🏻 Write journal (this post comes from my journal and own thoughts)
👉🏻 Write one LinkedIn post. 
👉🏻 Run for 30 min. 
👉🏻 Read 30 min. 
👉🏻 Talk 30 min to ChatGPT (from which I will produce more content). 
👉🏻 Max 30 min of LinkedIn and Substack a day (my only social media). 

The rest of my time is dedicated to my family and work.

I once wrote a full list of things a perfect day would contain. 

I pick some of those that fit my current life style and try to follow. 

I do not manage to get everything done every day. 

And that is fine too. 

But this system will make me much happier than a goal I set in the distant past.

Last year, a very seasoned CEO of an 8 figure ARR business reached out to me and asked: 

Can you help me hire an Account Manager? 

So we put together an Ideal Rep profile and a job description. 

We defined the hiring process and put together a case study. 

Then we posted it on LinkedIn with two posts. 

We head a steady supply of candidates. 

The CEO did the first interview. 

I participated in the assessment, the seond one, in order to test for the sales skills we needed. 

After a few weeks, we had two good candidates and made a decision. 

And after a few months, the new AM already signed >400k in new revenue. 

--

Many founders and sales leaders who have little hiring experience find themselves hiring for high-stakes sales jobs. 

They have hardly an idea what questions to ask, but even less so what kind of answers to expect. 

What are "good" answers and what are answers that show something you do not want in the company?

This is really really hard to evaluate if you have not hired a decent number of reps. 

Therefore my tip: 

Involve a sales expert in at least one of the calls, ideally the assessment. 

It will save you TONS of money and frustration. 

And in case you start from scratch, you can find my hiring process and all necessary information with the Notion link in the comments. 

Good luck!

The issue with SPICED and SPIN is that they start with "situation". 

Yet a really good sales conversation rarely starts with that. 

Because situational questions are inherently ego-centric questions:

The sales rep gains some information from having them answered but the prospect has no idea what the sales rep is going to do with it.

These questions require the prospect to trust the sales rep.

However, many prospects actually have a different experience:

The sales reps use situational questions to create a "gottcha" moment. 

An example:

Salesperson: "Thomas, thanks for taking the time today. I would like to dive into a few questions first. How does your onboarding process with new hires work today?"

Them: "We have several onboarding modules in notion that people go through in the first days. Also, they get a buddy in the company that helps them with everyday questions"

A guess from my side what the sales rep thinks right after hearing this:

"Yesss, they are using Notion for the onboarding. That is so inefficient. Our tool is much better. That will be a good opportunity."

And in the next moment, these sales reps make the buyer feel trapped. 

"I think you can probably improve by...."

This completely errodes trust, if done terribly.

The opposite is the case if sales reps use customer centric questions at the beginning: 

"What is the actual reason you take time today?"

"When it comes to the hiring process, anything you feel like is not working right now as you think it should?"

"We usually see problem A, problem B or problem C. Anything familiar for you as well?

Buyers know exactly the intention behind the questions. 

The questions are inherently transparent. 

And they ask for the emotion, rather than some boring factual topics. 


Therefore my advice: 

When you use SPIN or SPICED, start with the P and ask necessary situational questions at the very end of the first call. 

Because that is when you likely have built the most trust (if you do a decent job), which is going to be crucial for receiving good answers.

A few weeks ago, my product team approached me with a very difficult question: 

"How many of our most advanced deals use Salesforce, Hubspot and all those other tools you keep mentioning?"

They had to decide, based on data, which integrations to prioritise.

If I had been asked that question a few months ago, I would have shivered.

Because I had a "Tools in use" field in Hubspot, but relied on sales reps to fill that in. 

And that never works. 

Reps (including me) just never do it. 

Additionally, a field that allows reps to pick those technologies from a list is also usually a very bad option. Because there are an almost infinite number of tools and you can hardly keep an up to date "pick from list" field. 

I am sure you know that pain. 

So what did I do?

I introduced Kickscale as our recording tool. 

Made sure Kickscale automatically fills the tools the clients mention into a "multi-text" field (see below 👇🏻 - Kickscale makes that SO easy)

Then, I simply asked Hubspot's AI Assistant (Breeze) to give me an overview of all the tools in deals that are beyond the "Power Agreement" sales stage. 

And I got the result you see in the picture below 👇🏻

A perfect overview of which tools are in use with how many of our advanced deals, including all the deal names.

Just sent that screenshot to our product team. 

It has never been easier to give reliable data to other teams. 

We also automatically fill several other fields: 

👉🏻 Detailed deal source (the one in the example was a referral from Julius Dany from REP - Revenue Excellence Partners. Thanks JD!)

👉🏻 Pain

👉🏻 Use Case/ Pain Priority

👉🏻 Impact of not solving the Problem

Reps don't have to do anything. 

All on autopilot.

This is what AI is really good for.

Today start the strategy days with the Taskbase team. 

We are going to celebrate a huge success:

Q4 was the best quarter in our history. 

Despite a slight pivot and massive changes internally. 

Sometimes I ask myself how people can get through so many changes. That is probably the most impressive thing about our team. 

I always actually liked it personally because it kept things interesting. 

But I also think it can be tiring and unsettling. 

We will not stop to change, that is for sure. 

With two goals: More focus for the team, more value for clients. 

We are on the most fun path I could have dreamed of. 

Thanks everyone for the support.

One other spot you should NOT use genuine open questions:

At the beginning of an eMail. 

It literally screams: 

I would like to have some information from you. 

That is the OPPOSITE of the famous reciprocity principle in psychology. 

The principle says: 

Give first, then ask. 

So basically: Don't do it the other way around, especially in cold outreach. 

You have literally zero trust of the person you write an email to.

Do you really think they are going to answer an open question?

Psychology says: Likely not. 

Except if you posted value on LinkedIn before.

Or liked and commented some of the receivers posts. 

But not otherwise. 

Even the data shows you should only ask one question. 

And that is the CTA:

"Interested?"

"Want to learn more?"

Does that sound interesting?"

That is it. 

I also posted another Substack article on this:

https://lnkd.in/ep2N7zQv


PS: Sorry, I accidently posted the an article on substack this week I already posted in the past. Was not my intention. Sorry especially to those who pay for my content - and thanks so much for the support!

I often get the question: "How is selling AI different than selling Software?"

My answer: It is not different in a meaningful way. 

They have the most important things in common: 

👉🏻 You need to build a case to get from an undesirable "current state" to a meaningful "desired state".

👉🏻 Many people have had their bad experiences with either. People know that AI does not "just produce great results" - similar to software integrations that don't "just easily work". Buyers scream for PoCs with both these days.

👉🏻 In sales, we always discuss challenges and use cases first, rather than technology. This is the most important reason why there is not much difference in selling the two. 

👉🏻 Selling >50k deals you need a solid business case no matter the technology. 

👉🏻 > 5-10 people will be involved in your deals, whether it is software or AI does not differ too much. Ok, you might have one new persona in there: The Head of AI.

The things that might be different: 

👉🏻 Sales reps need to understand a bit more of the technical side than with software. It used to be ok to just know the features really well, but not necessarily how things work. In order to build trust with AI use cases, sales reps have to understand more of how AI works. They need to be able to explain why the way they approach AI use cases works better than with others. 

👉🏻 The internal IT still believes they can build everything themselves. That was already the case with software but with AI, the differentiation is harder. You need strong arguments for IT organisations why it is difficult to build what you have.

Anything else you experienced that differs?

taplio

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