Henry Dubin

If your AEs are being asked to self-source opportunities, don't pull a list of accounts and go outbound cold. Instead have your reps focus on targets where you have already done account profiling. This makes a ton of sense! AEs get paid a lot more than SDRs. AEs also tend to be rusty at cold calling or other outbound prospecting methods. AEs say, "Isn't that the job of the SDRs?" Why would you have an expensive resource like this doing something that they are not generally as good at? Yes AEs need to self-source 33% of their deals. It's just a question of how they do it. One entrepreneur mantra is to put people in roles that play to their strengths. Once you've had one or more first scheduled conversations with an account, you probably know if it's a good fit or a waste of your time. All too often those initial discovery calls don't go anywhere. No opportunity comes from them. The people you talk to are friends that give you information, but don't have influence over any other members of a potential buying group. Conventional wisdom is to recycle these accounts to marketing to nurture. I'll argue something entirely different. If you know that the account profile is good because they have the right underlying organizational structure, potential use cases, technologies they use, or other firmographic information, it's time to DOUBLE DOWN. These accounts are where your AEs should focus all of their prospecting energy. If they do and figure out there is no ability to create consensus amongst the stakeholders for what they fix, accomplish, or avoid, then pull the plug and go to the next account. I'd way rather have my AEs going after fish that they know are good vs. ones they might have to throw back. Thank you to Roger Zacapa for this gem. #selfsourcingopportunities #salesprospecting #aeprospecting #salespipeline #saleshunting #sales

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Your inbox is leaking revenue. The average SMB loses $200K+ annually in deals that get buried in email. Leads are missed. Follow-ups are delayed. Opportunities slip through unnoticed. It’s difficult to stay on top of your inbox. And manual tracking isn’t sustainable. Every unanswered thread is a potential deal that might have been closed. This problem builds up slowly. But over time, it turns into real revenue loss. That’s where EVE comes in. ↳ It’s an AI Operator that connects directly to your inbox. → Finds potential leads hidden in your emails → Flags missed deals automatically → Helps you follow up at the right time with the right message EVE helps you turn forgotten conversations into active revenue. ↳ Most businesses recover $50K to $500K+ in their first 90 days. ↳ Without hiring more people or changing how they work. ⚡ Here’s what makes EVE stand out: 24/7 Lead Tracking → Constantly scans your inbox for new or stalled deals Smart Opportunity Detection → Spots signals like “Need demo,” “Budget approved,” or “Send pricing” Revenue-Based Prioritization → Scores each lead by potential value so you know where to focus AI Response Drafts → Prepares personalized replies based on your writing tone Unified Team View → Connects multiple inboxes for a clear company-wide picture 🎯 Here’s how to get started with EVE: Step 1: Schedule a demo at joineve .ai Step 2: Connect your Gmail or Outlook account in minutes Step 3: EVE scans your inbox and identifies hidden opportunities Step 4: Review and respond with one click If your inbox is full but your pipeline isn’t, it’s time to fix that. 📩 Try EVE today → joineve.ai 🔄 Repost to help others find deals in their inbox — #AI #Email #Inbox #Sales #EVEPartnership #SponsoredByEVE

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Executives won't open cold emails, but they will open a package. This is my best advice for breaking into Tier 1 accounts... When we were trying to break into big enterprise accounts at Levelset, there was one approach that consistently worked. We sent our top prospects a gift in the mail. Most teams never try this. They send another cold email, another LinkedIn message, or another voicemail. Then they sit around wondering why nothing converts. When you’re going after companies that can change your trajectory, you have to operate differently. Start with the person you are trying to connect with. Before you buy anything, spend time learning about the prospect. Look at what they post. Notice what they care about. Listen for the problems they’re trying to solve. You’d be surprised how often people leave clues out in the open. AI is really helpful at pulling this together for you. It's important to understand what would actually matter to them. Pick a gift that shows you pay attention. It takes more effort to pick something thoughtful than it does to spray a thousand people with the same sequence. But you’re not going after a thousand people. You’re going after the handful who can meaningfully move your business forward. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It needs to be personal. Somewhere in the $25–75 range is enough to show you cared without feeling transactional. Include a handwritten card. Keep it simple. Three or four sentences. Tell them why you chose the gift. Tell them what it made you think about in their business. Then make a clear, easy ask. When everything else in their stack is automated, a handwritten note stands out. Send it in a bubble mailer. Nothing fancy. USPS works fine. A bubble mailer gets opened. People are curious. Just make sure the address is right. We double checked every single one. Full up after it arrives. Don’t assume they saw it. Don’t assume they connected the dots. Send a short email. “Just shipped you something. Should arrive this week.” Then follow up again after it lands. The follow up is where the meetings get booked. Did this work? At Levelset, this was our most reliable way to break into large accounts. The response rates were dramatically higher than anything we did through email or phone alone. And it wasn’t because we were clever. It was because we were willing to put in more effort than everyone else. Most reps won’t spend thirty minutes researching a prospect or writing a card. That’s fine. The ones who do will win the meetings with the best prospects. The Reality This work doesn’t scale. It’s not supposed to. You don’t run this play for your entire TAM. You run it for the hundred companies that would meaningfully impact your business if you earned their trust. For those accounts, a thoughtful gift is a small investment compared to the upside. And if you’re willing to do the work, you’ll end up in conversations your competitors never even get close to.

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Your AE closed the deal Friday at 4pm. Your CSM found out about it Tuesday morning via Slack notification. By the time the CSM reaches out, the customer's already confused. The AE promised them a "white glove onboarding experience." The CSM is scrambling to figure out what that even means. Twelve months later, they churn. And everyone acts surprised. Churn happens for a bunch of reasons, but a big one is because the post-sale experience straight up betrayed the pre-sale promises. The handoff from AE to CSM determines whether that customer renews. And most companies treat it like an afterthought. Here's what actually happens: - AE over-promises to close the deal. - CSM inherits those promises with zero documentation. - Customer realizes they were sold a vision, not a roadmap. - CSM spends 6 months firefighting instead of driving value. - Renewal comes up. Customer ghosts. The mistake is thinking the handoff is a "moment." It's not. It's a PROCESS that should start the second the deal hits Stage 4. Here's how to fix it: 1. Make AEs document the buying committee before close. Not just "VP of Sales signed the contract." You need: - Who was in the buying committee? - What role did each person play? - Who's going to be using the product day-to-day? - Who's going to judge success 90 days from now? If the AE can't name at least 3 people in the account, all they probably did was sold to one person who might not even be the user. 2. Require a documented handoff meeting within 48 hours. Not "I'll intro you via email." An actual meeting where: - AE walks through what was promised. - Customer shares what they expect in first 90 days. - CSM confirms the success plan. This meeting should happen BEFORE the contract is fully executed if possible. Get everyone aligned while the AE still has leverage. 3. Map renewal risk factors during the sale. AEs should be documenting renewal risk factors during the sales process: - Budget constraints that might impact Year 2. - Internal politics that could derail adoption. - Competing priorities that might take focus away from implementation. CSM should inherit a deal with a risk profile, not just a revenue number. 4. Tie AE comp to post-sale outcomes. If AEs get paid 100% at close and never think about that customer again, they'll over-promise every time. Try this: - 80% commission at close. - 20% commission when customer hits first success milestone (defined during handoff). 5. CSMs should ghost-write the close plan. In the final stages of the deal, the CSM should be helping the AE build the close plan. Why the CSM? Because they know what successful onboarding actually looks like. The AE-to-CSM handoff is the most important moment in the customer lifecycle. Because that 48-hour window determines the next 12 months. Get it wrong, and no amount of CSM hustle will save the renewal. Get it right, and you just turned a one-time deal into a long-term customer.

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I’ve reviewed 100s of discovery calls. The #1 difference between AEs converting 40% and AEs converting 70%+ of first calls is the number of problems discussed. And the top reps discuss fewer. Average reps cover a lot of ground in their discovery calls. They go wide, trying to find anything and everything to tie their product to. The logic makes sense: “The more problems I find, the better chance I have of solving some of them.” The best reps aren’t trying to uncover a lot of problems. They understand that: - No company has the capacity to take on a bunch of priorities at once - Discussing a bunch of problems leaves your prospect overwhelmed and not wanting to book more time - Deals are won by solving the biggest priority, not by solving a bunch of annoyances So they focus on finding and attaching to a problem worth solving. Monday morning, I’m sharing the exact question you need to ask in all of your discovery calls to validate you’ve found the right problem. I’m also sharing my “Discovery Capture Sheet” - a resource you can use to: - Know exactly what you need to uncover on a discovery call - Example questions to ask to uncover valuable insight If improving discovery is on your personal development plan for this quarter, you won’t want to miss my next newsletter. Join (no cost) at salesintroverts.com!

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EVERY ZoomInfo customer can connect Claude and ZoomInfo together right now- but how about in Slack ? With Claude? Here’s how to build a targeted prospect list and account plan without leaving Slack. (In <5 minutes) Step 1: Ask Claude directly inside Slack to build you a list I asked for… “25 CROs and VPs of Sales based in Boston, at software companies between 500–1k employees, with $100M+ in funding. Name, title, email, mobile, total funding.” It taps straight into your Zoominfo database and all comes back right there in the channel. It even flags who is on your do not call list. Step 2: Pick an account. Ask Claude to prep you for the call, directly in Slack. It uses Zoominfo to pull every conversation you've had with them - calls, emails, pain points they've raised, products they use. It comes back with the leadership you NEED to know, what's happening at the account right now and specific angles that could help you win. This works inside Claude too when you connect it up to our MCP server - you can even ask it to build you a custom interface to sort, edit, and work the data however you want. Zoominfo is going to show up EVERYWHERE. Slack, Claude, wherever you're doing GTM work, your data should follow you there. Every ZoomInfo customer already has access to this - connect ZoomInfo to Claude here: https://lnkd.in/eM-UbCJt

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Most BDR teams don’t have a pipeline problem. They have an activity addiction. More emails. More calls. More sequences. None of it matters if it doesn’t convert. What actually drives pipeline: • Targeting the right accounts • Reaching the right people • Saying something that actually matters I’d take 20 high-quality touches over 200 generic ones every time. Because pipeline isn’t created by volume. It’s created by relevance. Most teams just haven’t made that shift yet.

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Live look at a seller pouncing into a demo after hearing a prospect say something remotely related to a problem they solve despite missing 3 deal red flags and 4 opportunities to do deeper discovery on the problem and it's implications. Slow down so you can speed up. 2 books to help with this: - Qualified Sales Leader (great chapter on discovery) - Gap Selling by Keenan .

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A CMO’s weekly/monthly insights cadence part 2. Next up: Pipeline Progression Call: Weekly. This is a Sales X Marketing X Ops call. Each pipeline generating team: marketing, partner, outbound SDR, outbound BDR, fills out a memo style overview of pipeline week on week progress as well as highlighting any challenges. Initially it felt like a weekly call to track pipeline may not yield much because it would be a little too frequent to uncover impact from initiatives the week prior, but actually this intense discipline and focus on weekly pipeline generation by team has been a big unlock. Cross functional issues get surfaced much earlier and get unblocked much faster. Ownership and accountability has improved tenfold. It got everyone focused on discussing the same data vs relying on different views on separate dashboards that made threading the needle of the problem more difficult to diagnose. Importantly this is not a call for marketing to defend their pipeline position and lay blame on coverage gaps with other teams. I see this call as the time to work out how Sales, Marketing & Operations can pick the next best set of actions that will improve our chances of hitting that weeks budget pipeline target & close any gaps that may have built up. Pipeline Monthly Review: Monthly. The set-up for this call is similar to the weekly cadence, but the focus is on looking and uncovering monthly trends that require correction in order to remain on track for that quarters budget number. Are we generating in month pipeline at the same rate as we previously were? Is there a pipeline generation team that has built up a gap? If so what’s the gap, what are the 1-2 biggest causes of that gap and importantly what is our plan for correcting it? For issues identified in the previous monthly pipeline review are we seeing corrective trends in the data as a result of the actions we prioritised in month? Budget Committee: Monthly. This is a marketing leadership call where we build our monthly budget deployment plan. We'll reconcile the previous months spend and performance and use this alongside trending historical data and required deeper investigations to provide the detailed rationale for how we allocate spend for the month ahead. I like these calls to be lively debated. I want my leaders to bring forward strong business cases for how the $ are best allocated in order to hit our goals and how the data shows this is the best approach. It should take us a few iterations before we land on a plan that everyone is aligned on and happy to proceed with. If there is no discussion or debate then I question if my leaders are challenging the data and the approach enough. LinkedIn limits mean I can't fit a review of our final meeting cadence, which is: Quarterly full business review. This call is a deep dive into all of our create and capture demand activities by region and segment. More on that another time. #demandgeneration #b2bmarketing 

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This popular discovery call question falls flat: “You mentioned that AEs aren’t prospecting. How does that impact your quarterly goals?” Why? Because the answer is obvious. Of course it impacts the number. It’s like asking, “When your car won’t start, how does that affect your commute?” There’s nothing to uncover. No new insight. Just a confirmation of what everyone already knows. Want to get somewhere more useful? Try asking this: “You mentioned that AEs aren’t prospecting. What’s your theory on why that is?” Or this: “When AEs say they don’t have time to prospect, it’s usually one of three things: too many demos, rusty muscles, or fear of rejection. What do you think’s actually going on?” Now you’re not just asking. You’re showing you understand the job. The pressure. The patterns. Stop asking to confirm what you already know. Start asking to discover what you don’t.

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If your CSM doesn't talk to the customer until implementation is done, you've already lost half the renewal. 𝟳𝟯% 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝟵𝟬 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀. I pulled this from our State of Retention report, and it tracks with what I saw at a $40M SaaS company last month. Their CSMs were running QBRs at 60 days like clockwork. But by then, half the at-risk accounts had already mentally checked out. Most CS teams don't have a system that flags when an account goes quiet in week 3. Or when a champion stops logging in. Or when adoption stalls before the first value milestone. So they default to calendar-based check-ins instead of signal-based intervention. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘇𝘆: Some CS orgs don't even start the clock on check-ins until implementation is done! Yeah, I get it if it's a short little install, but if you've got a six-to-nine-month implementation, that means you're going half a year without a single strategy conversation. By the time the CSM shows up, the customer's already decided whether this was worth it. Here's what actually works: Build a 90-day early warning system that starts at contract signature: 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝟏-𝟐: 𝐎𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 Did they complete setup? Hit first use case? Add team members? If no movement by day 10, trigger outreach. 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟯-𝟲: 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗽 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Track login frequency, feature adoption, support ticket volume. If engagement drops 40%+ week-over-week, flag it. 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝟕-𝟏𝟐: 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐭 Did they hit the outcome they bought for? If not, you're heading into renewal with a problem, not a relationship. This isn't theoretical. I've operationalized this exact workflow in HubSpot Service Hub for clients moving off Gainsight and ChurnZero. It runs automatically, no CSM lift required. What would you instrument first: onboarding velocity, engagement drop, or value realization? And if you're trying to build this in your CRM and want a second set of eyes on your setup, drop a comment or DM me "90-DAY" — I'll tell you what I'd change.

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And here it comes.. The most 1-sided & non-strategic enterprise sales tactic Is about to be unleased by thousands of AE's over the next 2 weeks It's time to close deals for Q4 So sellers need to create a sense of urgency for their prospects REMEMBER... If there wasn't a sense of urgency following that Discovery Call you held 3 months back And there wasn't a sense of urgency when you sent out that proposal last month... There's likely no sense of urgency bc your quarter is coming to a close... So no matter how much pressure you're getting from your Sales Manager - the too little too late is often the reality Keep building pipeline & discover a sense of urgency at the early gates of your sales cycle - not at the last quarter mile... #sales #saas #saassales #enterprisesales #startups #pricedrop #salestactic #salesstrategies #softwaredevelopment #complexselling #proposals #salesleadership #urgency #salescycle #salespipeline #salesteams #salestraining #discovercalls #closingdeals #startups #salescoaching #salestips #softwaresales #startupsales #ae #bdr #sdr #customercentric #customersuccess #clientfirst #businessdevelopment #senseofurgency #salespeople

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AEs & SDRs -- don't overthink outbound this week after a long weekend. Try this: Step 1: Use the 5X5 Method -Pick 5-10 accounts and 3-5 prospects per account to focus on this week -SDRs & High-Velocity AEs → increase the volume. Or, use your sales math to determine the number! How? Use Sales Navigator and these filters: -Job change in the last 90 days (especially from former customers) -Job function + seniority -TeamLink connections Step 2: Know your prospect’s business inside out. -Before reaching out, check: -LinkedIn insights - headcount growth, AccountIQ -Past opps in your CRM, closed/lost notes, email & phone convos -Gong Calls -10Ks, funding, stock price, ChatGPT prompts -Podcasts, press releases, and recent hires (try listennotes) -Competitors & mutual customers -Intent data, Google news, -RepVue, Glassdoor, G2 Reviews Step 3: Sequence all 5 contacts using persona-based outreach. -Having a set number holds you accountable. -Build your sequence/cadence based on persona, not volume. -Use a 14 day mini sequence instead of the 28 day sequences that cause piles of overdue tasks. -Front-load your touches across channels Step 4: Personalize every message using this structure: 1️⃣ Relevance: Why you're reaching out 2️⃣ Problem Statement: One of three key challenges 3️⃣ Solution: How others solve it 4️⃣ CTA: Interest-based, not pushy No tool can help you if your messaging is off—make it buyer-centric and problem-focused. Bonus step: -Send 1 email to each contact -Send 1 connect request to each contact -Comment on 5 LinkedIn posts per day -Send 1 LinkedIn video / voice note after each connect request - not pitching just building problem awareness -Cold call :) -- We can't control a lot in sales, but we can control our effort & systems! Give it a go.

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I just cut our BDR onboarding plan in half to accelerate ramp time. Day 6 and they can now go fully outbound. Here’s how I spoke to 5 BDR leaders. They said they onboard BDRs for 3-4 weeks before going outbound 😱 When I looked at their programs it was info overload. We only retain 10% of this So I broke it in half to get them to start eaely, fail early, learn early 1️⃣ Focus on being great things that do not require skill - Personas - Pain points - Value hooks - Social proof - Cadencing - Data enrichment 2️⃣ Focus on a few skills that maximise outputs - Calling - Social selling - High impact gifting - Personalised emails We practice calling on AI bots 🤖- this means they are actually calling in week 1 and simulating a parallel dialler without having to burn through accounts A lot of email generation can be done with AI. BDRs need to know what good looks like and be in the loop So calling, gifting and social selling are the main areas The goal is to make their outreach Unforgettable

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CSM's, if You Don't Have Executive Sponsors at Your Top 5 Accounts by March 1st — Your Renewal Is Already at Risk. 🔥 Here Are 5 Relationship-Building Tactics I've Used to Help Save Millions. Let me be blunt: If you're waiting until Q3 to figure out who's going to fight for your solution, you're toast. 🧨 Renewals aren’t driven by reminders—they’re driven by trust built long before anyone talks about the next contract. Here's what actually works: 𝟭. 𝗘𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. Platform owners. Executive stakeholders. The people who own the value. The ones who wrote the check. Get on their calendars regularly — not just when something's broken. Let them know you give a damn. 𝟮. 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 — 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗹𝘆. Understand the bets your sales rep and SE are making. Make sure you can stand behind them long-term when the handoff is complete. Relationships aren't just about your customers, internal alignment matters just as much, if not more. Most CSM's fail to recognize this basic truth. 𝟯. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘀. Facilitate executive-to-executive relationships between your company and your clients. Make your customers feel valued and give them access to key leaders at your company. Most CSMs fail at this due to a confluence of fear and imposter syndrome. Others realize this is the cheat code for establishing executive sponsors for their own careers. 🏅 𝟰. 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲. Bring real insights. Real experts. Real relationships with your product team or leading strategists. Give them access to things they can't get anywhere else. Give them reasons to keep showing up and partnering with you. Build memorable customer experiences that they are eager to take part in. 𝟱. 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻. ✈️ Their offices. Steakhouses. Wherever necessary. Don't hide behind a desk. Executives remember faces, not calendar invites. This is what separates vendors from true partners. March 1st isn't arbitrary. That's when the clock starts ticking. If you don't know who's going to bat for you at renewal, you're already playing a dangerous game. Get on a plane. Make the phone call. Build the relationship. Earn the sponsor. Your renewals might depend on it. ✈️🥩🔥 What's your go-to advice for building executive relationships? Drop it below. 👇 ⸻ 📖 More on relationship-building in my book, Success Plan For Life — available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/du9IBvW 💪 Want help in 2026? DM me about limited coaching slots. 🚀 #CustomerSuccess #CSM #ExecutiveSponsor #Renewals #RelationshipManagement

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I’ve helped dozens of AEs and SDRs transition into SE/SC roles. There’s no doubt that you can earn a lot as an AE. AEs can make $1,000,000+ in a good year - a very lucrative career path. But the reality is most AEs don’t get there. It takes exceptional skill, timing, and a bit of luck to perform at that tier consistently. (I personally would be a terrible AE 😅) That’s why many folks choose to pivot into Sales Engineering - where the earning potential is still strong, but far more consistent. That’s what the data in the image shows: AEs: 36% SEs: 74% (Same company, similar OTEs) As an SE, you don’t always have the extreme upside that your AE counterpart will, but your income is more stable. (*there are some companies that pay SEs similar to AEs, with SEs able to clear $1M+ in a great year, though this is more of the exception than the rule) As an SE, there’s also less pressure to hit quota, quarter after quarter. The roles are different, with different responsibilities and varying degrees of risk (and upside). Both paths can provide tremendous opportunities, depending on your strengths and the type of work you enjoy. Hope this provides some perspective for those who are considering SE or AE career paths.

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If your CSMs think like Account Managers, you’ll retain revenue. If they think like CEOs, you’ll multiply it. Let me explain Most CSMs are trained to serve customers. Few are empowered to lead outcomes. Account Managers ask, “How can I help?” CEO minded CSMs ask, “What is blocking your growth this quarter?” The difference? One reacts to problems. The other shapes strategy. When your team starts thinking like CEOs  • They stop chasing renewals and start owning business impact.  • They connect customer goals to product investments.  • They turn every QBR into a boardroom conversation. That’s when Customer Success shifts from being a cost center to a growth multiplier. I once worked with a CSM who turned a renewal conversation into a co-innovation deal not by upselling but by reframing the value her customer was missing. That single move added $1.2M in expansion ARR. That’s what happens when your CSMs stop managing accounts and start running portfolios. The future belongs to commercially confident, product fluent, growth focused CSMs; the ones who lead with business acumen, not activity reports. If you are building your next gen CS org Are your CSMs being trained to think like operators or like CEOs?

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There is so much truth in this post, it's saintly! Thank you Julia Ormond The problem is she is soooo right. Most Revenue Operators are ex-Sales Operators in disguise. But it's not their fault. For the most part. The problem is Executive Leadership. The Board. And the Executive Team - CEO, CFO, CRO ... For 2 reasons. 1️⃣ New Logo fixation - the preso decks, compensation, conversation is ALWAYS around new logo's. Marketing spends 90% of their budget on New Logo's. Net Retention - aka growing the revenue from your installed base is talked about, but never a #1 priority in the company. 2️⃣ Too many Sales CRO's - the truth is that probably 80% plus of current CRO's have a sales resume. For many, leading Marketing and CS, it might be their first time. They focus on sales coz. that's what they are good at. So my challenge in the comments 👇 👇 is this... Any CEO or Exec Leader - please tell me that growing the installed customer base is a priority as high, if not higher, than new logo's. AND tell me that company-wide you are investing as much into existing customers as you are new customers. Truth moment??? #sales #revops #newlogo #upsell

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AEs,Reps, AMs. Stay strong and PLEASE remember: you're not defined by your quota. Sales targets are arbitrary and significantly slashed as you go up the sales org layers. Your first-line manager's quota doesn’t equal the sum of all quotas on her team. Same for her manager. Same for her manager. And so on... Your CRO very likely only needs you to hit 50% of your quota for him to hit his. I know it’s unfair, but that’s the game you signed up for. That said, your role is to catch up on modern sales frameworks… by yourself! This is not your manager’s role, not RevOps, not Enablement. 🫵🏼 It is your role as a Sales Rep to enable yourself. 🫵🏼 Free webinar: How many more deals could you have closed if you had been buyer-led? 170%! That’s the stat from Gartner. We've made our most popular webinar accessible for free on YouTube. It provides a ready-to-use framework to help you navigate 2026. 📣 Please comment, share, and repost this as much as possible so it reaches as many sellers on LinkedIn as possible. 78% of reps missed quota last year. This year could be even worse. We regularly share free frameworks that work like this one. Make sure you follow one of us.

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