Over the past 20 years, Jamal closed multiple $50m deals as an individual contributor enterprise seller, authored the best selling book, Mega Deal Secrets, coached hundreds of ambitious sellers to sell the largest deals of their lives, and founded the Enterprise Sellers Community, a community of practice for individual contributors.

If you’re selling into mid-to-late-stage SaaS and you’re not framing your POV around the Rule of 40, you’re already behind.

Every CEO, CFO, and COO is being judged on this metric - and 99% of sellers have no idea how to use it to win deals. 

Here’s how to catch up.


This shorthand metric tells you how efficiently a company balances growth and profitability. It's used by investors and boards to evaluate software or subscription business performance. 

Think of it like your blood pressure: one reading that tells you instantly whether things are balanced or out of whack.

The formula is simple:

Rule of 40 = Revenue Growth Rate (%) + Profit Margin (%)

A healthy SaaS company should hit 40% or higher.

Based on which "side" of 40 the company is on, the Rule of 40 creates two different but predictable buying environments:

1. Prioritize Growth

2. Prioritize Margin

Let’s do both roleplays: 

Scenario A: Company at 20 points below the benchmark (10% growth + 10% margin)

What most sellers do: "Our tool drives 25% productivity improvement"

What the CFO hears: "Another vendor asking for budget when I'm under pressure to cut costs”

What elite sellers do: "You need to add 20 percentage points to hit the 40% benchmark. Based on your recent earnings call, you mentioned 'operational efficiency', which signals you're prioritizing margin expansion over growth.

Our solution helps companies reduce operating expenses by 5-7% by consolidating 3 expensive tools you're currently paying for. That's 5-7 percentage points added to your profit margin. Which means your Rule of 40 score moves from 20 to 25-27 without having to accelerate growth"

What the CFO hears: "They’re talking about moving a number I'm being measured on by the board. NOW I’m listening"


Scenario B: Company at 55 above the benchmark (45% growth + 10% margin)

What most sellers do: "We improve efficiency and save costs"

What the CFO thinks: "Things are working. Why would I add friction to a machine that's already humming?"

What elite sellers do: "Your Rule of 40 score is 55, which is excellent. But sustaining that depends on 2 things: maintaining CAC efficiency as you scale, and keeping net retention high. We've seen companies at your stage lose 15 percentage points on their Rule of 40 score when unit economics deteriorate. Our solution protects your growth rate by ensuring every dollar you spend on sales actually converts efficiently"

What the CFO hears: "This person understands we're optimizing to sustain our performance"

-

If you don't connect your solution to how it moves their Rule of 40 number, you're forcing the CFO to do that translation work themselves.

And they won't.

They'll approve deals that clearly connect to their mandate. 

-

{EDIT} Register here: https://lnkd.in/dg9HSFfm

Jamal Reimer

Talks about #saas, #sales, and #enterprisesales

I help enterprise sellers find and close the biggest deals of their career through coaching and a community of ambitious sellers | Hit the 🔔 to be notified of my latest posts

I snuck away with my family to Rome last week. Slow mornings and long dinners where work simply didn’t exist.

Silas discovered the best pizza spot.
Nuria hunted down the best tiramisu in the city.
And we walked over 20 miles taking in every corner of history.

So much pasta, so little time.

Now- outside of Thanksgiving- it's go time.

As tough as this year has been for many, 

there’s $100M+ in live deals across my coaching students and members of Enterprise Sellers

And hundreds more across the greater B2B sales community.

This is your moment.

Pull out all the stops.
Do the unscalable.
Give your champions everything they need to win.

You are in the arena.
The crowd is watching.
Finish strong. 💪

Sellers, don’t take this wrong: But if you're still pitching your product in executive rooms, you’re unintentionally capping your career. I’ve closed three $50M+ deals. None of them would have happened if I walked in selling “efficiency” to a CFO. My unfair advantage? A Deal Map.

Here’s what a Deal Map looks like for NVIDIA (attached image):

Whether you’re selling to NVIDIA or a mid-market SaaS company, the framework stays the same.

And that single view unlocks three advantages that instantly separate elite sellers from everyone else:

1. It eliminates generic discovery (and earns you the meeting)

Most sellers skim LinkedIn, glance at news, read one earnings report, and think they’re prepared.

Then they open with: “Tell me about your business.”
 
And the exec mentally writes the “thanks but we’re all set” email.

The NVIDIA Deal Map shows exactly what they're managing right now:

- Supply Constraints
- Market Share Defense
- Regulatory Pressure
- Innovation Pipeline

When you walk in already speaking to these, your credibility jumps instantly.

Generic questions kill deals before they begin.

2. It reveals the real business outcomes behind every initiative

Most sellers pitch to the surface-level initiative:

“We help optimize supply chain operations.”

But NVIDIA’s real drivers aren’t “supply chain.”

They’re defending market share and protecting margins while scaling demand.

Without a Deal Map, those connections stay invisible

Or take hours/days to build manually.

With a Deal Map, you stop sounding like a vendor 

and start sounding like a strategic partner.

3. It lets you pre-empt objections before they hit the table

Companies aren’t just trying to grow.

They’re trying to defend what they’ve already built.

NVIDIA is defending against supply constraints and regulatory friction.

That’s protection mode.

If you propose something that adds complexity, you tank the deal instantly.

But if you show how you fit within their constraints or help them absorb risk,

you earn trust - and control the narrative.

-

This is the same intelligence I used to close those $50M deals.

It once took me weeks to compile manually.

Now Whyzer Elite builds it in minutes.

And here’s why Whyzer is different from every other “sales tool” you’ve seen:

When you join Whyzer Elite, you get the intelligence engine plus the entire Vault

the exact frameworks, templates, and playbooks used by reps closing 7- and 8-figure deals:

- Pipeline Flywheel System
- Elite Sellers Playbook
- MDA Masterclass
- Executive Outreach Course
- Top / Middle / Bottom Funnel Playbooks
- Live Monthly Sessions with me

You don’t just get a tool.

You get the system elite sellers use to dominate their market.

And if you’re chasing a Q4 close, the intelligence you build this week is what drives December wins.

{EDIT} Register here: https://lnkd.in/dQ_hNVAK

Here are 12 things an executive actually wants to hear from a seller during a mega deal sales cycle:

1. Context on successful approaches (not products) to fix business problems they may not be aware of —> “Here are specific approaches companies like yours are doing differently to win right now.”

2. Risk - "Let me walk you through three failed projects we were brought in to clean up and how to avoid their mistakes."

3. Revenue and cost drivers —> “This isn’t about your tech stack - it’s about how you restore free cash flow this year."

4. Straight talk —> “I won’t waste your time. If this doesn’t make sense for you, I’ll tell you.”

5. Competitive intelligence —> “This is what your competitors are doing that you might not see yet."

6. How to make their life easier —> “I’ve already mapped out how this fits into your team’s priorities.”

7. They fear disruption —> “We'll handle the heavy lifting - your team won’t be stuck with implementation headaches.”

8. Operational pain points —> “This will eliminate [X] friction your team is dealing with daily.”

9. Clear ROI framing —> “With the business assumptions we have agreed on, if you do this project with us you can expect X amount of ROI in Y time frame with Z chance of success based on 1, 2 and 3 cast studies similar to your business.”

10. The cost of doing nothing —> “This is the situation of companies like yours that have not acted soon enough.”

11. Proof from people they trust —> “Don’t have to take my word for it - here are what your peers are experiencing.”

12. Help them think critically —> “If I were in your shoes, I’d be asking these 3 questions before moving forward.”

What would you add?

Last quarter I interviewed a seller who quietly closed a $32M TCV deal. What struck me wasn’t their gravitas, their presentation style or their product knowledge. It was the way they used AI. While most sellers drop prompts into a single LLM and pray for something usable, this seller treated AI like a surgical team. Which is LIGHT YEARS ahead of the pack. 

Market observation: Sellers who don’t get past the first meeting are using AI like a monolithic tool. 

Usually Chat GPT. 

Sometimes Gemini, Claude, etc.

But it's still one LLM for one narrow purposes, mostly email copy and company research. 

And it shows in the recycled messaging executives get bombarded with every hour.

It’s not that AI doesn’t work.

It’s that sellers are using it in the flattest, most surface-level way possible. 

Meanwhile, the sellers consistently breaking into strategic accounts are doing something entirely different: 

Running engineered AI workflows. 

They use 4-6 AI tools, each one for a specific purpose: 

- One to extract deep account research intelligence
- One to pressure-test and refine POVs
- One to turn insights into customer facing assets that interrupt patterns 
- And another to role play against multiple stakeholder types, rehearse objections and simulate boardroom-level pressure

Your entire account strategy succeeds or fails based on how well you use the first tool.

Here’s what forensic account research actually looks like:

1. Strategic direction analysis

You break down 10ks, earnings calls, investor notes, and market signals to map the company’s initiatives that will define the next 12-24 months.

2. Current executive priorities 

You identify the underlying business problems executives are actively trying to solve: stalled initiatives, underperforming segments, cost centers under scrutiny, missed targets, competitive threats.

3. Real power mapping

You identify the informal power network: who shapes decisions, who blocks them, who carries political capital, who owns high-stakes metrics, and which rising leaders are quietly becoming kingmakers.

4. Business impact translation

You convert account priorities into quantifiable impact levers: revenue lift, cost savings, risk reduction, margin expansion, operational acceleration. This is how your POV earns credibility.

5. Insight extraction

You synthesize everything into 3-5 crisp insights that reveal something the account didn’t realize you could know. The insights become the spine of a company-specific POV no competitor can replicate.

-

Most sellers don’t dig this deep because they think it takes too long.

With Whyzer, it takes under 30 minutes and costs only $10 for your first month. Use code WHYZER10 at checkout: https://lnkd.in/dNJjsX2d

The 7 Step Point of View That Earns You the Second Minute

The first minute with a customer executive decides everything.
In those sixty seconds, they decide if they will lean in or tune out.

Data won’t save you.
A logo slide won’t either.

The only thing that earns you the second minute is a Point of View that carries weight, not volume.

A structure that moves from fact > friction > insight > value > conversation: 

Here’s a summary of what’s in the attached deck:

1. Observation: start with an undeniable fact
Lead with a truth they can’t dispute: their data, their CEO’s words, their market reality. If it’s arguable, it’s forgettable.

2. Implication: explain why it matters
Translate the fact into business pressure. What’s at stake if nothing changes? Gravitas comes from consequence.

3. Strategic Tension: name the friction
The gap between ambition and capability. Say the thing everyone feels but no one says. That’s where authority lives.

4. Insight: deliver the reframe
Reveal a truth they’ve half-seen but never articulated. Reframes earn respect faster than statistics.

5. Value Hypothesis: quantify the upside
Executives think in deltas. Show the shift in points, basis points, or unlocked capacity.

6. Enabling Approach: describe how the value happens
Mechanism, not marketing. How change happens, not who delivers it.

7. Bridge Close: end with a call to conversation, not a call to action
Let the line linger. A question that reopens the room instead of closing it.

“The question is how fast you can pull those margin points forward before growth caps reinvestment….”

Seven moves. 

Ninety seconds. 

One shift in how they see the world.

That’s how you earn the second minute

and the right to the third.

-

But here's the reality: building a POV like this requires something most sellers don't have.

Financial fluency.

- You can't construct an Observation without reading their earnings call
- You can't name the Implication without understanding what metric the board is tracking
- You can't create Strategic Tension without knowing the trade-off the CFO is defending
- And you can't quantify the Value Hypothesis without connecting your solution to their financial pressure

If you want to learn how to read financial statements, find board mandates, and turn them into POVs that executives actually lean into, I'm teaching the full methodology in this week's Financial Fluency session.

{EDIT} Register here: https://lnkd.in/dxdASueM

How to build strategic povs

It’s Q4 and Procurement is the biggest unknown between closed/won and closed/lost.
Here are all the ways they can still sink your deal:

- Cut your deal price by 30-50%
- Extended your timeline by 3+ months
- Killed the deal entirely after Finance approved it
- Forced scope reduction that made your solution useless
- Demanded you match a competitor's price (who's selling something completely different)
- Required you to split a multi-year deal into annual contracts
- Added contract terms that gutted your margin
- Forced you into a "pilot" when you had enterprise approval
- Brought in a cheaper alternative at the last minute
- Made you re-justify ROI you already presented to Finance
- The consequence? If any one of these hit, you’re likely set back 6 months or you lose half your deal size. Either way your fiscal year is screwed.
To work with procurement you have to understand procurement.
Here’s what’s actually happening in the rooms you’re not invited to.

Room 1: The Business and CFO
“Margins are compressed. We need automation to drive efficiency and reduce headcount.”

Your ROI deck gets reviewed. The math makes sense. The business sponsor says yes.


Room 2: Procurement and CFO
“We must consolidate vendors and cut spend by 35% this year. Every approved purchase goes through you using that filter.”

Procurement receives your “approved” deal and their job is now to protect cash, not fund growth.

They’re evaluating you through three financial lenses.
1) Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
- Not “does it deliver ROI?” but “are we paying 30% more than market when we include implementation, training, support, and switching cost?”
- If your TCO looks inflated, your price gets cut.

2) Vendor Viability
Not “is this strategically valuable?” but “what happens if this company fails or can’t deliver? What’s our exit plan?”

If your stability looks risky, Procurement adds terms that protect them and crush your margin.

3) Spend Mandate Alignment
Not “is this the right solution?” but “does this purchase help us hit the CFO’s $10M vendor-reduction target?”

If it doesn’t, you’re fighting a hidden mandate.

How to win both rooms:
Build for both business and procurement before you present. Finance wants ROI. Procurement wants TCO and risk protection. Show both.

Connect your price to Procurement’s cost-reduction mandate.
“Your CFO tasked Procurement with cutting $10M in vendor spend. This project consolidates three redundant tools and delivers $500K toward that goal.”
Now you’re not negotiating price, you’re helping them achieve their KPI.

De-risk yourself before they can weaponize risk.
Show financial stability, flexible contract terms, and an exit strategy before they ask. When they feel safe, they stop cutting.

This is what we’ll cover in next week’s Financial Fluency Session:
How to translate the CFO’s cost-control mandate into deal language that wins in both rooms.

Comment ‘procurement’ in the chat and we’ll send you the details.

It’s Q4. And it’s all about closing. Executive-to-executive conversations can cut your close time by 50%. Right now, that's the difference between a December close and a Q1 maybe.

Most sellers are trying to close their biggest deals alone right now.

Your champion is supportive but can't get traction internally. You're sending a lieutenant to answer the CFO's financial questions only a general can address at this stage. So the decision keeps getting pushed.

Meanwhile, your competitor just got their CEO on a call with the prospect's CEO. General to general.

And suddenly they are miles ahead of you. 

Here are the 2 barriers that stop sellers from mobilizing their own executives:

1. You think you need to grovel or justify why you deserve their time

You don't. But you do need to show them why it's worth theirs.

Any executive worth their salt will engage when they see it’s a good use of time:

- Building relationships with executives at strategic accounts (this call opens a door they want open)
- Hitting metrics they report to their board (strategic account wins, competitive win rate, pipeline in key segments)
- Maintaining competitive positioning (if your competitor's CEO is engaging with the prospect's CEO and yours isn't, they're losing ground in that relationship)

So the ask isn't "hey, can you help me close this deal?"

The ask is: '[Executive name], I've got [Company] at [$X] - one of our target accounts. Their CFO has concerns about vendor stability that would carry more weight coming from you peer-to-peer. This call positions us competitively and opens the door to a strategic relationship. I’d really like to get you on a 20-minute call if you’re up for it’

2. Prep your executive

“The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win” – Vince Lombardi

Your executive will not show up to a call unprepared. They also will not spend an hour figuring out who they're talking to.

That's your job.

Send them a one-pager:

- Who the company is, what stage the deal is in, why this account matters
- Who their executive is, what pressure they're under, what they actually care about
- And this is the part most sellers miss: you need to give them a point of view

Not "here's what our product does."

Like this: 'Their CFO has vendor stability concerns because they're consolidating from 15 vendors to 8 as part of a board mandate to improve margins. The concern isn't whether our solution works. It's whether we'll be around long enough to matter as a consolidated, long-term partner. The message is: we've been profitable for six years, we're not dependent on VC funding, and we've supported customers through 5-7 year contracts without acquisition risk.'

That's a point of view. Not a pitch.

Then you give them three key messages, a simple call structure, and you're done.

-

{EDIT} Register here: https://lnkd.in/df7UzDEW

How to Crack Unbreakable Strategic Accounts for $10

While many sellers are spending $200 per month on multiple AI tools just to get minimal results, here’s what Whyzer.ai has achieved since its launch in June: 

1. Helped three hundred sellers start conversations with C or C-1 level customer executives. 

2. Helped find and close two 7 figure deals (and one 8 figure deal is in flight) from scratch.

3. Landed two sellers new enterprise roles sellers couldn't crack before - They walked into interviews with deal maps that made hiring managers drop their jaws, stop interviewing and start negotiating.

4. Cut deep research for all users from hours to minutes: 10+ hours per account back on their calendar for actual selling.

5. Resurrect dead deals - Uncovered new initiatives that made stalled opportunities suddenly urgent.

And as I started seeing Whyzer’s impact, I realized the strategic path to mega deals is becoming more doable but for a smaller number of sellers… 

- Only for those sellers who learn how to articulate:

- The right pain (not symptoms, but threats to outcomes the board cares about)
- With the right decision maker (the one with budget authority and career risk on the line)
- In the right financial terms (in exec's native language)
- At the right moment (when their strategic initiative creates urgency)
- With the right defensibility (addressing what they're protecting against)
- Anchored to the right outcome (what gets them promoted or fired)

Whyzer is becoming an easy button for enterprise sellers.

Every win that hits my DMs makes my day.

And I want an avalanche of them.

That's why until Friday, November 29th, you can access your first month of Whyzer for $10 (originally $97/month).

Get your hands on it. See what it does.

Every seller gets a strategic guide on how to use Whyzer to research accounts, build executive-ready POVs, and finish 2025 strong.

{EDIT} Register here: https://lnkd.in/dhhhZB5w

Use code WHYZER10 at checkout to get your first month for just $10.

You have 24 hours to turn $10 into 10 enterprise advantages you can use to hit quota in 2025 and build pipeline in 2026: 

Whyzer will:

1. Save hours on deep account research without sacrificing depth, accuracy, or strategic insight.

2. Uncover where your target accounts have recently invested time, money, and executive attention so you can align with real budget gravity.

3. Identify the financial metrics your target leadership is being judged on - revenue gaps, margin targets, cost pressures - so you can align your POV to real executive pain.

4. See the entire vendor landscape your prospect is comparing you against and craft angles that neutralize them.

5. Understand the account’s stakeholder map so you can customize messaging to every key player and find supporters and neutralize detractors early.

6. Build a living deal map in seconds that reveals decision drivers, internal tensions, and cross-functional priorities shaping the buying path.

7. Convert complex account updates into a short, digestible podcast so you can understand an account's latest wins, problems, and priorities on your commute.

8. Build a sharp, account-specific POV in minutes grounded in the exact pressures and priorities your buyer cares about.

9. Get real-time account updates without hunting for filings, reports, or press releases (Whyzer delivers the signals straight to you)

10. Grant you access to a complete library of frameworks, videos, templates, and deal tools built to eliminate any blocker you hit in the enterprise cycle - from first touch to closed-won.

Whyzer will upgrade how you operate as a seller, giving you a repeatable strategic framework you’ll use for every major deal in 2025, 2026 and beyond.

All of this for just $10 your first month.

The clock is ticking.

Use code WHYZER10 at checkout and leave the run rate of transactional selling today: https://lnkd.in/dshRh5K4

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