Eddie Reynolds

Union Square Consulting

Union Square Consulting is a GTM Strategy & Operations consulting firm. 

I spend the majority of my time:
1. Managing our Sales and Marketing Team
2. Managing our VPs of GTM Strategy & Operations Consultants
3. Providing GTM Strategy & Operations Consulting to Customers

We work with high-growth companies, primarily B2B SaaS companies to help them in five areas:
1. GTM Strategy and Planning
2. Go To Market Process
3. GTM Metrics and Insights
4. Systems Implementation and Ongoing Optimization
5. User Training and Enablement

We do this to help companies execute their Go To Market Strategy by:
1. Making sure your systems are working
2. Making sure your revenue team is using the systems properly
3. Making sure they are executing the right process to attract and retain customers
4. Analyzing the metrics to see what's working, what's not and what to do about it
5. Creating a strategy and a roadmap for all of the above to actually get it done

CEO and GTM Strategy & Operations Consultant

RevOps Corner

RevOps Corner is a podcast we produce at Union Square Consulting to share best practices for Strategic Revenue Operations. 

We do this by interviewing amazing guests, ranging from Revenue Operations Professionals to Revenue Leaders to Venture Capitalists and many other experts in the B2B SaaS community. 

We also share what we're seeing in the trenches every day in our work as Revenue Operations Consultants here at Union Square Consulting.

Listen to the Podcast on:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1CM3rmelcdtm6gJVL0PtMK?si=00aae750ea7a4937
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revops-corner/id1619571311

Host

Pavilion

Executive Member

Trumid

Trumid is a Unicorn Fintech Startup that has raised over $650 million in funding to date. 

I joined Trumid right when they had achieved Product Market Fit and relaunched their application. 

My role was to manage all our Revenue Operations:

1. Systems Implementation and Management
 - Sales, Marketing, Service and Data Analytics

2. Enablement
 - Provided training and enablement to the customer facing revenue team

3. Insights
 - Worked directly with the Co-CEOs to provide daily insights on revenue metrics

4. Process Mapping
 - Mapped our sales, marketing and service processes prior to architecting systems and data

5. Strategy and Planning
 - Planned, managed and executed our revenue operations roadmap

VP of Revenue Operations

Salesforce

My role at Salesforce was to work with current and prospective customers to explore opportunities to leverage technology to find more prospects, win more customers, keep more customers and enable their business to scale.

We helped customers accomplish this by improving business processes in marketing, sales, customer service and other departments, centralizing their data in one place and building operational efficiencies. This enables them to grow faster and gives leadership more visibility to make better strategic decisions.

I accomplished this by beginning consultations with the objectives of the business and only then discussing technology. My role was to quarterback a number of resources within Salesforce and the client's team to work together to uncover the best business processes to help them overcome obstacles and reach their goals. Then, we would map out how Salesforce and related technologies could be used to execute those business processes.

Account Executive

CrossBay Capital Partners

CrossBay Capital Partners is a boutique placement agent. We raise capital for established alternative investment managers with a primary focus on private equity.

 - Sourced investments by soliciting private equity firms seeking to raise a fund
 - Distributed investments by building relationships with institutional investors
 - Designed and implemented Salesforce.com to support these efforts for the entire team

Vice President - Institutional Sales

Altvia

Altvia Solutions provides a solution, built on the Salesforce platform, for institutional investors and fund managers to manage investing and fundraising processes.

 - Managed sales process from initial prospecting to negotiation and close for new business
 - Acted as my own sales engineer to provide highly customized and tailored presentations
 - Oversaw marketing efforts by working closely with CEO and our advertising agency
 - Worked closely with implementation team to scope project 
 - Helped implementation team customize solution for each new client

Account Executive - Private Equity Solutions

Yen Capital Management LLC

YEN Capital Management assists operating companies raising capital from private equity investors.

 - Built healthcare platform from inception by growing relationships with private equity investors and healthcare companies
- Closed mandates to raise $25 million and $40 million for two pharmaceutical manufacturers

Head of Advisory Services – Healthcare Banking Team

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo Business Banking provides lending and deposit solutions to small and medium-sized businesses.

- Solicited and built relationships with hundreds of independent businesses across all industries
- Achieved sales production in the top 1% of bankers in the company

Business Banking

Over +20 years in sales, customer success and marketing, I’ve developed a passion for data-driven strategy and process. I’ve always been fascinated by the edge it can give an IC or an entire company. 

Ten years ago, I joined Salesforce as an AE covering high-growth, VC-backed B2B SaaS companies. I met with hundreds of executives and revenue leaders and they all wanted this edge. They wanted to hear how Salesforce and my other customers operated, not how the software worked. 

Our consulting partners, however, were solely focussed on the software, often missing the broader strategy. This inspired me to start a unique consulting firm, merging system implementation with data-driven GTM strategy. 

Since then, I’ve seen some of the deepest ingrained revenue growth problems plaguing B2B SaaS – and we’ve developed a system to solve them.

𝘾𝙍𝙊𝙨, 𝘾𝙈𝙊𝙨, 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙑𝙋𝙨:

Does this sound familiar?

💭“I don’t understand what my data is telling me. I’m not even sure it’s accurate.”
💭“We’re getting tons of leads but they’re not converting enough to outpace churn.”
💭“We’ve spent so much money on tech, marketing, training, etc. – but there’s no ROI.”

Or maybe even…

“I don’t want to end up like those guys ☝️ How do I get in front of this?”

𝙔𝙊𝙐’𝙍𝙀 𝙄𝙉 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙍𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏 𝙋𝙇𝘼𝘾𝙀

I founded Union Square Consulting to help B2B recurring revenue brands increase profitability by targeting the source of their revenue engine issues (not just the symptoms).

𝙒𝙃𝘼𝙏 𝙒𝙀 𝘿𝙊

Fractional RevOps that delivers both systems implementation and go-to-market strategy.

𝙒𝙃𝙊 𝙒𝙀’𝙑𝙀 𝙃𝙀𝙇𝙋𝙀𝘿

High-growth brands from Series A to C and beyond like Techstars, Luminate, and Federato.

𝙂𝙀𝙏 𝘼 𝙁𝙍𝙀𝙀 𝘾𝙊𝘼𝘾𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙎𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙊𝙉

Sit down with one of my Senior Revenue Strategists for a personalized Revenue Operations Coaching Session. Walk away with advice you can use immediately.

👉 CLICK HERE: unionsquareconsulting.com/workshop

𝙎𝙐𝘽𝙎𝘾𝙍𝙄𝘽𝙀 𝙏𝙊 𝙊𝙐𝙍 𝙍𝙀𝙑𝙊𝙋𝙎 𝙉𝙀𝙒𝙎𝙇𝙀𝙏𝙏𝙀𝙍

Get actionable and practical tips on optimizing your marketing, sales, and customer success engines.

👉 CLICK HERE: unionsquareconsulting.com/newsletter

It costs $2.07 to grow ARR by just $1
 - In 2021, it was $1.24 per $1 ARR. 
 - For the median public SaaS company

And $2.67 to grow gross margin by $1
 - That’s a payback period of 32 months!

We’ve seen GTM Efficiency plummet
 - Despite cutting S&M spending by 20%!
 - Down to ~33% of ARR from ~40% in 2021

In other words, growth is stalling for two reasons:
 - Less spending on Sales and Marketing
 - Less ARR growth from each $1 of spend

We could break this down even further:
 - Less spending on Sales & Marketing
 - Bringing in few dollars from New Biz
 - And/or losing on Net Revenue Retention

I hate to break this to CFOs
 - Cost cutting alone isn’t enough
 - You can’t cut your way to profitability
 - You have to cut the things not working
 - But double down on the things that are
 - And most CFOs cannot see the difference
 - Because they don’t have the data to see that
 - The GTM Engine doesn't provide the right data
 - To get visibility into efficiencies and inefficiencies

We’re not looking at CAC Payback here.

We’re looking at…. 

𝙂𝙏𝙈 𝙀𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙮 𝙍𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤
 - What are we spending to grow $ARR?
 - All sales, marketing, CSM expenses
 - To grow total total $ARR by $1

and…

𝙂𝙏𝙈 𝙀𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙮 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙣
 - What are we spending to grow Gross Margin?
 - All sales, marketing, CSM expenses
 - To grow total Gross Margin by $1

David Spitz at BenchSights posted about this recently and shared this Q2 data set with me in the image below. 

We broke it down in an article in tomorrow’s newsletter.
Then we went a step further to discuss what to do about it. 
And how to identify inefficiencies in GTM and then fix them. 

If you want the high-res image….

𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 #𝟭: 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄
1. Like and comment “Hi res” below
2. Send me a LI connection request
3. We’ll send it over to you asap!

𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 #𝟮: 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲
1. Subscribe to our newsletter
2. You’ll get it in your inbox tomorrow (Sat)

(𝗢𝗿 𝗱𝗼 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵!)

And give David Spitz a follow!

We’ll go deeper in tomorrow’s 📰 𝙂𝙏𝙈 𝙎𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙛 📰
(Formerly the 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙊𝙥𝙨 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙡𝙮)

We'll explain in detail how to use this framework.

Subscribe to get it here: https://bit.ly/49RCm0h

✌️

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #sales, #revops, #outreach, #salesops, and #salesforce

Founder, BenchSights | Former SaaS Investment Banker | Providing the premier SaaS metrics benchmarking platform

BenchSights

CEO | GTM Strategy & Ops for B2B SaaS CROs

Me: What's your top priority?
Almost every CRO: More Pipeline!
Me: You sure?

My convo the other day:

Me: What's your Close Rate?
CRO: 10%
Me: Uh huh

Me: What's your sales cycle?
CRO: 100 days

Me: How many deals in pipe today are 200 days?
CRO: Probably about 50%
Me: Uh huh

Me: What's your Close Rate after 200?
CRO: Probably < 1%
Me: Uh huh

Okay, so let's recap:

1. Salespeople aren't prospecting
2. They're chasing deals they can't close
3. And probably losing deals they can close
4. As a result, you cannot trust your pipeline
5. But your top priority is to generate more pipeline?

Here's what will happen:
 - We'll tell salespeople to prospect
 - They'll generate a little more pipeline
 - Then they'll have no time to prospect
 - The pipeline will be just as bad as today
 - And they will have even less time per deal
 - So they'll lose more deals you could have won
 - And we'll see limited and temporary revenue growth

This is unsustainable. 

Here's a more sustainable approach:
 - Define the sales process
 - Get rid of half the pipeline
 - Reps have half their time back
 - More time to work each good deal
 - And a better process to work pipeline
 - Which means a higher Close Rate, ASP
 - And a shorter sales cycle, better forecast

Here's what also happens:
 - Reps have time to prospect
 - And can see lack of pipeline
 - No longer fooled by Zombie pipe
 - They know they need to build more
 - To have any chance of hitting target

What's the downside?

Someone has to tell the CEO:
 - "We had $120M in pipeline yesterday."
 - "And today we have $60M in pipeline."

I didn't say this would be easy.

But the alternative is to waste an incredible amount of time and money across all GTM. 

It's Q4. 

There will never be a better time to fix this problem!

✌️

I got a call from an AE about my renewal 
 - Didn't know anything about me or my business
 
Here's how the call went: 
 
"Hello" 
 
"Hi, who's calling?" 
 
"This is so and so from Big Tech Co calling about your renewal." 
 
"Awesome. What's up?" 
 
"I wanted to ask if you needed anything for your renewal." 
 
"I think I'm good. Thanks though." 
 
My thoughts on this: 
 - My renewal? When? Of What? 
 - How would I know if I need something? 
 - You're a big tech company with +100 products 
 - You're acquiring new companies every two weeks 
 - You're updating features, pricing, everything constantly 
 - Between the two of us, it's your job to think about my needs 
 
I did give him some feedback: 
 - He hadn't visited my website 
 - He didn't know the business we're in 
 - He just got a notification and called me 
 - I suggested he bring a point of view/idea 
 
He could share: 
 - What other customers in my industry are doing 
 - What other customers in my role are doing 
 - What new products my be relevant for me 
 - What events, content, resources they have 
 - Other ways for me to get value from them 
 
I'll give him some credit, though. 
 
My account is healthy, so at least this isn't an issue he ignored. 
 
My renewal is in a few months, so kudos for getting ahead of it. 
 
But he missed an opportunity to potentially expand an account simply because he's expecting me to do my own research and discovery to identify opportunities to buy more, or at least get more value and engagement with them as my vendor. 
 
This is one primary reason NRR is down in many companies. 
 
✌️

The SDR role as we know it is dead.

It's completely unsustainable.

3,000 to 6,000 outbound activities to win a customer.
5,000 to 10,000 "inbound" follow ups to win a customer.
And AI agents that are now 100x better than Inbound SDRs

Every study shows different conversion rates but they all land in this ballpark. It's completely unsustainable.

- CAC is sky high
- SDRs have insane activity quotas
- Prospect lists are very unfocussed
- Messaging isn't relevant or valuable
- Outbound conversion rate is near zero
- We burn our best leads on inbound SDRs
- The other 99% of MQLs aren't worth calling
- It costs a fortune to train them and they leave
- Many of the SDRs promoted to AE don't make it
- They don't learn how to sell, only to book meetings
- Many of these meetings do not convert into revenue
- And they don't have visibility or influence on sales cycle
- So they're not building skills to grow in their sales careers

On the flip side, other studies show focussed, personalized outbound with...

100 to 200 activities to win a new customer.

There's a better way:
- Set SDR revenue goals
- Have SDRs actually sell
- While AEs also prospect
- Partnering with their AEs
- With visibility to the close
- Working later into the cycle
- Running the initial discovery
- Helping to sell the value prop
- Actually learning sales process
- Setting well qualified meetings
- Narrow focus on outbound lists
- Less, better companies/contacts
- Inside narrow industries/segments
- With far far more relevant messaging
- Eliminate the "Inbound" SDR altogether
- AI Inbound SDR for transactional leads
- Route the best inbound leads to the AEs
- Leave other MQLs for marketing to nurture
- And surface the most engaged to outbound

AI will work at low price points 
More effort will pay off when ASP and LTV are high.

Then again, these SDRs look and act a LOT more like AEs.

So the distinction between the two is far less. 

What would you add to this?

🤔

CRO and RevOps roles are failing. 
The vision isn't materializing. 

The CRO was meant to lead all revenue, to break down silos, to align goals, strategies, process, metrics across the entire revenue engine. 

How often is this actually happening? 

RevOps was meant to help these CROs actually make this happen. As the CRO works with the CEO, ELT and Board to set the vision and build the team, RevOps was meant to build the tactical plans, processes, reporting and systems to help the CRO execute. 

How often is this actually happening? 

How many CROs can say they have:
 - Oversight of all sales, marketing, AND CS?
 - Aligned all these teams on a set of shared goals?
 - Visibility into metrics from Lead to Close to NRR?
 - Clearly defined processes across the revenue team?
 - Insights from data on what's working and what's not?
 - A real target and annual plan built on real historic data?
 - RevOps that brings insights and ideas to drive revenue?

How many RevOps teams can say they have:
 - Clear company level OKRs?
 - Clear big priorities to tackle?
 - Time and space to focus on them?
 - Time and space to actually be strategic?
 - The resources to find better ways to GTM?
 - And not just a flood of one-off random request?

As a result, both the CRO and RevOps titles are being rebranded. 

They've become meaningless terms for the above reasons. 

So we're now debating what to call these roles instead. 

Forgive me for being a Debbie Downer. 

I LOVE GTM!

And we're getting there. 

One small step at a time. 

One company at a time. 

But most companies have a long way to go. 

✌️

Easy wins in GTM without AI. 

It feels like all we talk about is AI.
Yet, no one can figure out how to use it. 
We have little incremental improvements.
And we're constantly iterating, trying things.
But it's not moving the needle in revenue yet.

Here are 5 things we can do without AI. 

Super easy layups many GTM teams are neglecting. 

𝗣𝗜𝗣𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘

1. Killing Zombie Pipeline
 - Stop fooling ourselves
 - We know these wont close
 - They have been dragging on 
 - Taking up precious selling time
 - And messing up our sales forecast

2. Manual Forecasting
 - Weighting is risky
 - Unless all our deals
 - Look exactly the same
 - And we have a LOT of them
 - Pure math isn't enough here

3. Pipeline Inspection
 - Review pipeline
 - Coach reps in/out
 - Of each deal they have
 - So we can trust the pipeline
 - And trust our pipeline metrics

4. Dedicated Analysis
 - Dedicated time to
 - Analyze our metrics
 - See what is working
 - And what's not working
 - And form an opinion on it

5. Pipeline Council
 - Get ELT together
 - Discuss the pipeline
 - And how it's generated
 - What's working and not
 - Then make actual decisions
 - On what to do about findings

Wow.....I ran out of space.

Guess I have a few more of these to do.

Haven't even touched on:
 - Inbound
 - Outbound
 - Partners
 - Onboarding
 - Customer Health
 - Renewals or Expansion

While we're all chasing AI magic bullets.

Let's not neglect the fundamentals here. 

More on this in our 𝗣𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸

Get it here: https://bit.ly/4gPpM54

✌️

We tried spray and pray.
We even tried to do it well.

I hired an Outsourced SDR firm
We created a curated target list
I personally helped craft messaging

We sent thousands of DMs
Through my own LinkedIn profile

I thought this was stupid
But I'd never actually tried it
I was screaming "This doesn't work!"
Without ever actually testing it myself 

So we did 

And it failed miserably
Thousands of messages
Got almost zero response
A couple meetings, that's it.
Mostly people saying "No TY"  

That was 2021 

Just met with one of them this week 

We had tried again
We put out our best marketing
He interacted with that content
We reached out with tailored msgs
Not me, not my LI, but our new salesperson
And it worked, we booked and held a meeting 

He's booking 5 mtgs per week
With just 100 messages per week
Super tailored and personalized msgs
To an extremely curated list of prospects

This is a lot of work
But this actually works
Even in 2025, even with AI

It's easier to template 1,000 msgs
But when you book 2 meetings from it
And then you have to spam the next 1,000
And then the next 1,000, and the next 1,000
Just to book 10 meetings
With ill-fit prospects

Well........that's a lot more work. 

Lots of meetings that don't convert
With far less ideal companies and people
That take far longer to close when they do
And close for smaller deal sizes when they do
And then churn much more frequently if they close

It's a race to the bottom. 

All because.....
The best prospects
Aren't getting the best from us

✌️

𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀.
It’s not a lead problem.
It’s an operational failure.

We’ve all seen it:
- Marketing generates leads
- But sales doesn’t follow up
- Leads go stale in the CRM
- Hand-raisers get ghosted
- CAC goes up across GTM
- No one owns the gap

This isn’t about “bad leads.”
It’s about broken systems.

There are two possible causes:
1. The MQLs aren’t good enough.
2. The follow-up isn’t good enough.


Both destroy trust between sales and marketing.
 
We’ve also seen a simple fix change everything.

One of our clients went from.... 
𝟬.𝟮% 𝘁𝗼 𝟱.𝟬% 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻.


That’s a 25x lift in lead close rate.
- No new campaigns.
- Just a process that actually worked.

Most teams chase volume.
Few track efficiency.


They’re not measuring 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀.
 - Flying blind
 - Unable to see what’s working
 - And what’s not working to drive revenue

We’ll break this down in tomorrow’s newsletter:
- How to audit your follow-up process
- How to calculate CAC Payback by segment
- How to redefine what “qualified” actually means

More on this in tomorrow’s 📰𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳 📰
(Formerly the 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙊𝙥𝙨 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙡𝙮)

Subscribe to get it here: https://bit.ly/49RCm0h

✌️

I've had ice cream almost every night and lost 20 lbs this year. 

I've had more cheeseburgers than I can count. 
I've had fries and cakes and cookies.

And not 1 minute of "cardio"
No boiled chicken breast
No steamed broccoli
Not counting carbs
Not counting fat
Not even a "diet"

I just ate what I wanted to eat
And kept the quantity of it in check

How?
 - Knowing my numbers 
 - Outlining a realistic plan
 - And sticking to it consistently

I burn about 2,500 calories per day
 - Just lifting weights 2x-3x/wk
 - Walking 10K steps w/ my wife
 - And doing absolutely nothing else

I eat about 2,000 calories per day
 - Eggs, toast, bacon
 - 1 or 2 Protein shakes
 - Steaks, burgers, pork chops
 - Potatoes, fries, pasta, veggies
 - And ice cream and other snacks

500 calories/day => 1 lb per week
 - I've lost 20 lbs in 40 weeks
 - Lost just half of what I could have
 - But I wanted this easy option here
 - And I'm very happy with the results

What does this have to do with GTM?

A few lessons here:

1. Create a realistic achievable plan
2. Know the numbers that contribute to it
3. Make it simple and easy to execute the plan
4. Be laser focussed on executing that plan daily

It doesn't have to be complicated or difficult. 

✌️

Why is AI radically changing GTM for a few teams…
but mostly failing for everyone else?

This is the trend I’m seeing.
A select few have found meaningful impact.
The vast majority of the rest are not seeing any. 

Why?

It’s the foundation.

Most teams layer AI onto a broken GTM:
- Vague ICP
- No process
- Lack of accurate data
- Inconsistent execution
- Managers coaching by gut

AI only amplifies this
 - More activity
 - To the wrong targets
 - With the wrong process
 - And inconsistent execution
 - Leads to the same mixed results

The tech is real.
But it can’t fix broken systems.

We’ve seen it again and again.
- AI forecasting on dirty CRM data
- AI messaging before defining ICPs
- AI routing before fixing the process

Meanwhile, the best teams?

They’ve done the work first.

Their pipeline stages are clean.
- Their CRM reflects reality
- Their reps follow the process
- Their managers coach with data

Only then does AI become magic.
- It spots early risk in deals
- Prioritizes the right accounts
- Automates admin work that slows reps down

AI doesn’t replace discipline.
It scales it.

For teams built on process,
It accelerates growth.
 
For everyone else,
it accelerates failure.

What has it done so far for you?

🤔

More on this in tomorrow’s 📰𝙂𝙏𝙈 𝙎𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙛 📰
Subscribe to get it here: https://bit.ly/49RCm0h

✌️

Hey Salespeople: Here's how to run your next interview. 

I've interview hundreds of salespeople
I've been underwhelmed by 99% of them
Bc they don't know how to sell themselves

Here's what most people say
 - On their resume
 - On their LInkedIn profile
 - And in the actual interviews

 - I was responsible for {insert JD}
 - I managed relationships with CXOs
 - I prospected, ran discovery, closed deals

Okay......

Every hiring manager on earth is looking for A-Players. 
This doesn't highlight any level of performance

Here's how I would/did present

 - I was a Top 10 AE at Salesforce
 - I was #1 in self-gen closed won ARR
 - I sourced & closed $X in the prev role
 - I was #1 in sales in a Fortune 500 before that 

This is not ego. 
These are objective facts. 

I'm amazed how rarely I see this
 - How rarely I see quota attainment
 - Or any kind of competitive ranking
 - Or even the $ARR actually closed won
 - Or just tangible measurable accomplishments 

When I left SFDC I interviewed for 6 ENT AE roles and got 6 offers, all for a +100% increase in base salary and OTE. So, I'm not just saying this. 

Here's how NOT to present. 

 - I'm a great salesperson
 - I'm really good at prospecting
 - You're going to be amazed at what I can do

This is ego
These are subjective opinions. 

It shouldn't feel like pulling teeth to get salespeople to tell me what they've accomplished without bragging. 

Like everyone, we're looking for A-Players. 

We're hiring an Enterprise AE to prospect and manage relationships with the biggest PE firms on the planet and source and close opportunities with their portfolio companies. 

Target Base: $150K
Target OTE: $300K
*Comp depends on experience. 

If you're an A-Player and can show it, DM me!

✌️

90% of companies have no clue what their Sales capacity is.

They try to look back at what reps sold last year, use that as this year’s capacity, and call it a day.

In reality, that metric is completely unrelated to Sales capacity.

𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗼 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮:
- How many leads your reps can handle
- Whether they’re over or under capacity
- The effects of this on your revenue
- The effects of this on your team
- When you need to hire

Up until things are already on fire.

In sales, capacity is the number of opportunities each rep can effectively manage at once without getting overwhelmed and seeing a decrease in their win rate or losing sufficient time to prospect.

In our newsletter, we explained how to get this number and what to do with it.

(For Marketing and Customer Success, too.)

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗽𝘁:

Once you have this number, you need to compare it to your sales cycle and win rate, then balance it against the amount of lead volume coming in.

For example; let’s say you have 2 reps, each with a capacity of 9 opportunities at any given time, with a 3 month sales cycle. If your lead volume is 6 new leads entering the pipeline per month, your reps are currently at capacity.

Now, when Marketing forecasts an increase of lead volume to 9 new leads per month, you know that you need to hire 1 more rep and have them trained up by the time that new lead volume starts hitting. 

Understanding your teams’ capacity allows you to be proactive instead of waiting for everything to be on fire before you step in.

Read the full newsletter in the 📰 𝙂𝙏𝙈 𝙎𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙛 📰 by clicking here ⬇️

🔗 https://lnkd.in/edkgp_ng 🔗

✌️

No alternative text description for this image

How do we get quick hits in GTM?
This is the question every CRO asks us. 

We’re often brought in by new CROs.
They have immense pressure to deliver, immediately.
By extension, that means we have this same pressure. 

How do we deliver tangible impact, fast?

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗱𝗼:

1. Run full GTM Diagnostic
2. Build a 12-month GTM Ops Roadmap
3. Build a fancy powerpoint presentation
4. Present findings 3-6 months into engagement

As they say....

𝗔𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁!

We have never met a revenue team open to this.

Sure, it’s what’s best for the long term, maybe
But we need to deliver value much faster than that
While also doing the long-term strategic work in tandem

𝗦𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗗𝗢:

𝟭. 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚

What’s the one thing in GTM with the greatest potential for improvement in revenue production? Is it New Business or Net Revenue Retention? Which has the greater opportunity right now?

Within that category, what’s next? Pipe Gen or Closing, Retention to Expansion? Then we peel back more layers. Inbound vs. Outbound. Onboarding vs. Ongoing Customer Success. 

We’ve outlined this in the GTM Ops Decision Tree. 

𝟮. 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚

For our one thing, we do a diagnostic, using our GTM Efficiency Pyramid across four stages of maturity, Fundamentals, Adoption, Optimization, and Acceleration. The first two are most important. Fundamentals are our basic definitions, like ICP and Buyer Personas, and processes, like our sales process. Adoption is getting our team to actually execute those processes consistently. 

This limited diagnostic can often be done in an hour or two. 

𝟯. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿

Next, we quickly translate the diagnostic into a roadmap for the next 1-3 months, outlining the very specific things we need to do to improve that one GTM Motion. Often, we have time to tackle 2 motions in a quarter, but it’s important to focus on a limited set of initiatives.

Then, most importantly, we get alignment with our CRO, the rest of revenue leadership, and get feedback and signoff on the plan and the priorities. 

This can also take an hour or two. 

𝟰. 𝗚𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗲

Then we execute, usually in bi-weekly sprints. 

The goal here is to identify 1-2 critical areas of GTM to focus, assess what specifically needs done, and then get to work on it as fast as possible. 

𝟱. 𝗕𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲

As we’re executing, we’re simultaneously running a broader diagnostic in tandem. This helps us balance the pressure to deliver immediate results with the need to be strategic and long-term. We have to do both at the same time. 

How is your team doing this?

Anything I'm missing here?

🤔

More on this in tomorrow’s 📰 𝙂𝙏𝙈 𝙎𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙛 📰

Check the comments for the link to subscribe!

✌️

GTM in 2025 => Anti-Customer?

This is what happens when we over-engineer GTM without thinking about the customer experience. 

At first glance this looks cool. 

But here are the problems I see:

𝟭. 𝗜𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱

Nowhere in this graphic is a customer asking to speak to sales, so there's wither no demand being generated whatsoever, or the team engineering this overlooked these potential customers. 

𝟮. 𝗠𝗤𝗟 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻

By definition, if we don't care about generating real demand, we will prioritize anything that generates "MQLs" so we can feed this engine. Marketing will actively work AGAINST anything that drives genuine demand in favor of clickbait. 

𝟯. 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗮𝗱

If an organization hasn't figured out how to generate real demand, layering expensive technology on top of a broken GTM motion won't fix that. It will just increase CAC and deliver diminishing results. 

𝟰. 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗗𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱

Whatever customer experience was before building this, it will get worse. People that DO NOT want to speak to sales will suddenly receive 10X the messaging from AI bots and not want to engaged with this brand again. 

HOWEVER.........

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗜𝗳...

This can be effective with established Demand Gen.
 - Marketing knows what content drives real demand. 
 - That demand converts to revenue at reasonable CAC
 - The AI has real data to use to help qualify scored leads
 - And AI messaging can be compared to human messaging

In other words, they know what good looks like. 

So they can design the AI to replicate it. 

But only IF they've built a demand gen engine that works. 

What do you think? 

🤔

Image Credit: Matteo Fois

✌️

graphical user interface, application, Teams

It's never been easier to do shitty outbound. 

We have all the tools now:
 - Limitless prospect data
 - CRMs and Sales Engagement
 - "Send All" buttons and automation
 - Templates, merge fields, and AI msging
 - And we even have automated AI SDRs now

But is this working for anyone?
Is it working for GTM Teams to generate revenue?
Is it working for you, as a buyer, to generate interest?

For the most part, the answer is no. 

The messaging isn't relevant.

Here's why:

1. ICP/BP not well defined
2. No Capacity Plans, Poor Territories
3. Lists are not segmented well enough
4. Sequences not well designed to segments
5. Lack of adequate enablement and training
6. Poor visibility into reporting and dashboards
7. No insights into what's working and what's not
8. Lack of a pipeline council to leverage data insights

In other words......
1. Spray and Pray
2. No focus at all
3. Generic messaging
4. No real outbound process
5. No visibility into what's working
6. No ability to leverage that visibility

So, we get messaging that doesn't resonate. 
And 1,000 activities to book a single meeting. 

Here's how to fix this:

Check out our 𝙊𝙪𝙩𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙀𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙮 𝙁𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠
Get it here: https://bit.ly/3WFJQQv

We also dove deeper into this on the 🎙 𝙂𝙏𝙈 𝙎𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚🎙 Podcast
Listen on Spotify: http://bit.ly/46jMIqS
Or on Apple: http://bit.ly/4nfDO3I

✌️

Do you have a beginners mindset?
Here's me learning Spanish with my 1 yr old. 
By watching children's cartoons

Funny thing, I already speak Spanish
My wife says I'm "fluent" but that's a stretch
I can find a way to say whatever I want to say
And I understand most things people say

But as I'm singing along to the cartoon...

My wife says......

You finally learned to pronounce the "J"

What?

Yeah, apparently I've been doing it wrong for +10 years. 

And I just needed to go back to the basics. 

Watching children's cartoons.

Oh well...

Not a terrible way to learn.

Taplio

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