Sales Process Management

To be a great sales manager, you have to be a great coach. But coaching often slips through the cracks — especially when there are big deals to close. Now, AI is making it possible for every manager to not just coach more, but coach better. When I was in sales, I saw many new managers fall into the same trap: putting on their superhero cape to rescue deals instead of coaching their reps through them. I was guilty, too! We all knew coaching was important — but we had no time and no tools to scale. With AI, sales managers can now deliver highly targeted coaching at scale. It’s now possible to analyze multiple call transcripts in minutes and pull in unstructured data to understand what happens between calls. You can: 1. Review each rep’s recent calls, emails, and conversations to get a complete picture of how they’re selling — and give them targeted recommendations for improvement. 2. Analyze calls from a specific segment and compare what’s working in closed-won versus closed-lost deals to pinpoint the messaging and strategies that perform best. 3. Generate summaries of how top performers handle objections, communicate ROI, and build a business case — and share those insights with new reps as they ramp. Many HubSpot customers (and our own sales managers) are already using these insights to send regular, personalized coaching to reps — and improve the productivity of their teams. Being a sales manager used to feel like you’re a “super rep” — jumping between calls, rescuing deals, trying to fit in some coaching along the way. Now, it feels like you’re a “super coach” — spotting trends, sharing insights, and helping your whole team scale their impact. Exciting times!

You can’t scale what you can’t measure. Sales growth doesn’t start with hiring more reps or buying more tools. It starts with setting up the right sales process - from OKRs to the last call logged in your CRM. Most businesses track numbers, but few truly understand them. They set revenue goals but never connect those goals back to what’s required in the pipeline - how many leads, how many qualified leads, how many demos, and how many quotations you actually need to close those numbers. Without this clarity, every target is just a guess. In this video, I break down the foundations of a scalable sales process that every business can adopt: - How to set the right OKRs and monthly revenue targets that align teams around measurable outcomes - How to calculate your ideal pipeline size (leads → qualified → demos → deals) so your goals are backed by math, not assumptions - How to structure your sales team hierarchy - from presales to closures - with clear roles and accountability - How to define each sales agent’s daily process so every activity directly contributes to revenue outcomes When you put this structure in place, your CRM stops being a tracker, it becomes your growth engine. Because predictability in sales doesn’t come from hustle; it comes from process. #SalesOperations #SalesStrategy Kylas #RevenueGrowth #ProcessDrivenSales #SalesLeadership

Enterprise Sales is a different beast. You’re thinking about it all wrong. The difference between a $50K and a $500K deal is NOT fancy Negotiation skills or Disco tactics. You need to learn BUSINESS ACUMEN like a VP. I’ve worked 100s of $6-7 fig deals. Here are the 5 hardest lessons I wish I knew before going upmarket: 1. AEs Don’t Close Deals—They Rally The Troops Lone wolves don't close 7-fig deals. Enterprise AEs are like film directors—connecting champions, execs, and influencers across both companies, so the deal feels inevitable. It’s never about one hero; it's about orchestrating every player: CEO who shares the vision, VP Product who tackles tough questions, Exec Sponsor who secures buy-in. High-stakes deals demand the best your company can offer. Great AEs know how to get it. 2. Complex Sales = World Class Project Management In enterprise deals, you’re more PM than a seller. Big deals die in the details: missed tasks, unaligned stakeholders, and endless email threads. New people jump in mid-cycle, each needing context. Your job: bring order to chaos. Protect momentum, keep everyone aligned, and ensure nothing slips. Top AEs co-create timelines, organize materials in Deal Rooms and tailor every detail. 3. AEs Master Buying (not Selling) My biggest breakthroughs came not from sales training but from buying software and interviewing CXOs. That’s when I realized: If you understand how budgets, approvals, and internal priorities work, you don't need sales tactics. Empathy becomes your superpower because you know what each stakeholder needs (financially and politically) to say YES. Want to excel at enterprise? Study how companies justify ROI, CFOs think, and champions navigate approvals. 4. There’s No Sales Process—Only a Buying Process Your buyer doesn’t care if you’ve hit Stage 3 in your CRM. They care about their own maze of priorities, budgets, and internal politics. Top AEs ‘dance’ around the sales stages. They choreograph moves based on what the deal needs next—like looping in a board member to champion them behind the scenes or going after end-users to outshine a competitor who started at the top. 5. AEs Think Transformation, Not Pain Points Execs won’t write $1M checks to fix a clunky spreadsheet workflow. They need to see a solution driving company-wide impact—like a strategic pivot or entering a new market. If you’re only uncovering small headaches, expect a small deal. But connect those symptoms to a transformation—and the CFO listens. —— Enterprise sellers think and act like business leaders. Not salespeople who want to close deals. Yes, they know the fancy sales tactics. But that's not the point… When buyers see you think like them. When you work a deal like it’s their internal project. You unlock trust that deserves 6-7fig budgets. P.S. We built Aligned to help manage the complexity of Enterprise Sales. A 100% FREE Deal Room used by 40K sellers. Try it https://lnkd.in/dwX_Zizk

Doing what’s right or not doing it at all Datapoints are forgotten, but stories stay with us. And when it comes to Infosys, I share stories through #TheInfyway to show you what shapes our brand and people. Speaking of showing, how does anyone really get to know someone? By how they behave, right? Especially under stress. In that moment, are they polite? Helpful? Honest? It's no different for a company. How the company and its leaders operate, under stress, is a good way to tell what really lies under the carefully finished veneer. Leaders, in corporations, you’ll agree, are often very stressed. Juggling customers, aspirational goals, teams, and risks isn’t easy. And, when amidst it all, a large deal is being negotiated, the decision down to just your company and another formidable competitor - the anxiety is crushing. It’s that moment when the salesperson is ready to give it their all to get to the finish line - first. And that’s exactly where Anant R Adya was. The deal was worth millions, the decision maker leading the proposed project had warmed up to him over the past months, and when he was invited to what seemed like a decisive meeting with the executive, Anant was more than hopeful. Everything went well, the solution was applauded, pricing didn’t pose a hurdle, and the leaders seemed set to shake hands. This client executive then, however, insisted that, as part of the solution, we use an open-source model that, in turn, contained an embedded portion linked to another open-source model – which was, at that time, available only for non-commercial use. It didn’t take a long conversation to figure out that if we didn’t turn a blind eye to the bending of rules to get to a solution that he believed worked best – there may be no deal. A multimillion-dollar deal. A dogged pursuit, at the risk of slipping away over what seemed like an infraction unlikely to be noticed. Even if it were uncovered, the legal obligation to comply was with the client. Anant had a choice to make – painful, but also clear. To do what’s right or not doing it at all. Infosys walked away from the deal. This story has played out for many of us, over the years, in many ways. Different contexts, different people, different scale – but always the same ending. I can explain why, but Sudha Murty – wife of Infosys founder N. R. Narayana Murthy, who addressed a group of us employees recently, does it so much better. She shared, ‘I once asked Mr. Murthy how do you want Infosys to be remembered? And he said, Infosys is like a family with good values. The simple ask is that we live these values. Infosys must be synonymous with great work done with great honesty. Every Infoscion inherits this family value and preserves it in thought and action. Only then are they Infoscions’. What do you think of this simple advice? If you’ve been a part of the Infosys journey and have a story of your own to share, I’d love to hear. #purposefulbrands #Infy4Decades #navigateyournext

Testing and piloting AI for sales and marketing can be frustrating. That’s why Jomar Ebalida and I came up with the practical AI roadmap for marketing and GTM ops pros. This roadmap helps you figure out where to start, what to focus on, and how to scale AI initiatives in a way that’s grounded in operational reality. It’s structured in 3 phases: PREP: Evaluate your organization’s current state across data, tools, team skills, and funnel performance. PILOT: Select and test AI use cases based on your actual readiness data. (Diagram shows samples) Avoid guessing by letting the assessment drive decisions. ACTIVATE: Scale the pilots that show promise and embed them into core processes. Here are select projects worth walking through: 🔹 AI Readiness Assessment This project includes evaluating data quality, the state of your CRM, the maturity of your tech stack, and your team’s readiness to work with AI tools. It also includes a bowtie funnel analysis to help identify where your customer journey is breaking down. The outcome is a clear picture of which AI use cases are both valuable and feasible for your team to pursue. 🔹 AI SDR Agent: Outreach and Prospecting This agent is designed to support outbound sales by identifying high-potential accounts, generating personalized outreach messages, and helping SDRs scale without sacrificing relevance. It can help teams boost pipeline without overloading headcount. 🔹 AI QA and Compliance: Brand, Legal, Regulatory This workstream ensures that every piece of AI-generated content or decision logic meets the necessary internal standards. It supports brand consistency, regulatory requirements, and risk mitigation. This process should run in parallel with pilots and activations to ensure safe implementation. 🔹 AI Agents for Ops: QA Checks, Routing, and Campaign Setup This includes AI agents built to handle operational tasks such as verifying UTM links, auto-routing requests, or creating campaign templates. These agents are ideal for improving workflow speed while reducing manual errors and team bottlenecks. At the foundation of all of this is change management. Each phase of the roadmap includes a focus on enablement, training, adoption, metrics, and governance. Tools don’t generate value unless people are set up to use them properly. Which parts resonate with you? What would you change or add? PS: To learn more & access templates, subscribe for free to The Marketing Operations Leader Newsletter on Substack https://lnkd.in/g_3YC7BZ and to Jomar's newsletter at bowtiefunnel(dot)com. #marketing #martech #marketingoperations #ai #gtm

For my first 16 years in tech sales, I averaged 240K/year W2 income. In my last 4 years, I averaged 720K/year. In order to triple my income, I had to change my sales approach entirely. Here's what I changed: I started using a new approach that I now call Yo-yo selling: 🪀 Yo-yo selling emphasizes starting at the executive level, conducting thorough discovery within the organization, and then returning to the executive with a tailored business case. Like holding a yo-yo, you are constantly in communication with the Executive Sponsor and updating them as you collect information and conduct deep discovery lower down in their organization. You are literally going up and down the organization, but always taking everything back to the Executive Sponsor to surface your findings along the way. Here's a breakdown of the framework: 🎯 𝐈𝐚𝐧 𝐊𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐤’𝐬 “𝐘𝐨-𝐘𝐨 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠” 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 This strategy involves a three-step process: 1. Start at the Top (Executive Engagement) Initiate contact with a senior executive to understand their most pressing challenges, the reasons behind the need for change, and the consequences of inaction. If your solution aligns with their needs, secure their sponsorship for further discovery within their organization. To secure the Executive Meetings, it's essential to create a tailored POV (point of view) on where you think you may be able to help them based on your initial research of their highest level goals and priorities. Chat GPT has made this research a LOT faster now. 2. Conduct In-Depth Discovery (Middle Management) Engage with department heads and key stakeholders to uncover the day-to-day challenges they face. Focus on understanding their processes, pain points, and the implications of current inefficiencies. Gather direct quotes and insights to build a comprehensive view of the organization's needs. 3. Return to the Executive (Present Findings) Compile the insights gathered into an executive summary and business case. Present this to the executive sponsor, highlighting how your solution addresses the identified challenges. Tailor your demonstration to focus solely on relevant aspects that solve their specific problems. 🚀 Why It Works 1. Accelerates Sales Cycles: Engaging executives early ensures alignment and expedites decision-making. 2. Builds Credibility: Demonstrates a deep understanding of the organization's challenges and showcases a tailored solution. 3. Facilitates Internal Buy-In: By involving various stakeholders, you ensure that the solution meets the needs of all parties, increasing the likelihood of adoption. I'm pleased to share that that Yo-yo selling was recently awarded as a Top 15 Sales Tactic of All Time by 30 Minutes to President's Club, and I received a cool plaque for entering the 30MPC Hall of Fame. Since I have no chance of entering the Hall of Fame for my baseball or golf game, this is a nice consolation prize 😁

Spicy take by Maja Voje 🔥 "B2B hill I'm willing to die on: personas are bullshit. Here's another reason why:    Most of the time, you're not dealing with a persona, but a decision making unit (DMU).    It's really hard to think of an exception, isn't it?    If you are selling a complex, expensive and hard-to-onboard product/service that requires multiple stakeholders in a company to buy, implement and use...    You are most likely selling to DMU, which consists of:    ✅ Initiator: first thinks of a purchase  ✅ Influencer: influences decision  ✅ Gatekeeper: can say no to the decision  ✅ Decider: actually decides what to buy  ✅ Buyer: actually makes a purchase  ✅ User: uses or consumes the purchase    This is how DMU looks like in practise.   Why sould you care?    B2B selling is hard because your GTM efforts needs to speak and sell to this whole group.    You need different USPs, messaging and marketing materials for different members for DMU members.    If you do not understand their interests, concerns and constrains - game over.    No matter how much the end-user loves your product, if you don't get buy-in from the DMU, that sweet big account that you are chasing is off the table.    The solution (as always) is to know your customer(s) as much as possible:    ▶️ Interview your customers and ask them to describe the buying process    ▶️ Ask existing customers to send you info on how they chose you    ▶️ Offer a workshop or webinar about your technology/service and see who shows up    ▶️ Find out from prospects what else do they need to support internal decision making and who participates in this decision    Customer insights ftw.    Who is in your decision making unit? " -- 👋 P.S. Make sure you give Maja a follow & check out her GTM Bootcamp released yesterday

I watched a company lose a $1.2M deal last quarter because they were still running MEDDPICC like it's 1996. They identified a Champion and an Economic Buyer. They documented Pain points. They were textbook perfect. The problem in 2025 is that no single Champion can get a deal done. Sales methodologies from the 90s weren't built for today's buying committees, consensus-driven decisions, and distributed authority. The modern sale requires a complete methodology upgrade. No more obsessing over a Champion. You need relationships with the entire team. No more chasing generic Pain points. You need Numerical Priorities linked to business outcomes. No more vague "Compelling Event". You need documented, financially-validated trigger points. No more hoping for Decision Criteria. You need to shape it with objective benchmarks. The best sellers still run a methodology, but it's evolved. They're identifying group priorities, mapping out competing initiatives, and anchoring everything in provable ROI. Try this on your next deal…instead of asking "What's keeping you up at night?" ask "What are the top 3 numerical priorities for your department this quarter?" Watch how quickly you can separate real deals from wishful thinking.

Sales leaders: After working with 5,000 revenue orgs, I've seen 5 patterns in every great sales team. From InsideSales, to Gong, to pclub.io – my career has been in the walls of revenue teams. 5 things the best do: 1. They know where they win. They don’t chase the market. They chase the segment where they have unfair advantage. They define a surgical ICP and stop wasting cycles on deals that never close. They’re obsessed with: • Where they win • Where they lose • Where win-rate is too low Then they operationalize it. They don’t just "know" where they win. They run the business around it. One CRO I talked to said this: “If you want higher close rates, stop chasing bad deals.” 2. They’re obsessed with narrative. Once they know the territory, they design the narrative that unlocks it. They refine messaging until buyers think: “They understand my world better than I do.” Narrative isn’t a marketing exercise. It’s fuel that drives revenue. When you nail it, everything is easier. Whether it’s the CMO, CRO, or even CEO, someone holds this job: “Chief Narrative Officer.” 3. They build a performance culture. The best sales teams take a page from Netflix: “We’re not a family. We’re a pro sports team.” • Camaraderie? Yes. • Psychological safety? Yes. But also: We’re here to perform. If someone isn’t pulling their weight, the culture addresses it. Elite teams balance two forces: A) High standards B) High safety The paradox: The more transparent you are about: • Performance expectations • PIP criteria …the less fear exists. Performance expectations create short-term fear. But ambiguity creates permanent fear. Open expectations remove "wondering." Reps know where they stand. That frees them. 4. They build rock-solid stages & exit criteria. Great teams don’t use vague stages like Discovery → Demo → Proposal. They design a sales process that exposes the reality of a deal. • Clear stage definition • Binary exit criteria • Aging discipline This clarity drives predictability: • Reps stop guessing • Managers coach w/precision • Forecasts stop lying Process definition is the compass. But here’s the trap: Having a clean process still isn't enough for consistency. Sales stages and exit criteria only define what to do. They do not equip reps with how to do it. 5. They treat skills like a performance system. Strong leaders don’t just tell reps what to do. They build the skill capacity to do it. Once you define a great process, a hard truth emerges: Many reps don’t have enough skill capacity to do it. Great teams systematize skill excellence. They treat skill capacity like a monetizeable asset. These teams don’t view skills as “our people should already have these.” They design skill profiles, measure them, train them. Process without skill is academically strong, commercially weak. Skill without process is chaos. Do both? You unlock revenue excellence. Which of these 5 stood out most?

Your sales managers are drowning in data—but starving for clarity. I was on a call last week with a VP of Sales who showed me his dashboard. 47 different metrics. I asked him : "Which number, if it moved 20% this month, would change everything?" Silence. Here's what I see happening: Leaders know *something* is off. Pipeline isn't converting. Reps are busy but not productive. Deals are slipping. But they can't pinpoint the actual behavior or skill gap that's causing it. Here's how to actually diagnose what's broken (and fix it fast): —— Step 1: Pick ONE North-Star Metric Not 10. Not 5. One. What's the single number that, if improved, would cascade into revenue growth this quarter? Could be: → Connect rate → Discovery-to-demo conversion → Demo-to-proposal rate → Close rate Pick the constraint. Ignore the rest for now. —— Step 2: Work Backward to the Behaviors Metrics don't move themselves. Behaviors move metrics. Ask: What are the 3–5 specific actions that directly influence this number? Example—if your North-Star is close rate: • Multi-threading (are reps building champion + EB relationships?) • Next-step clarity (is every call ending with a concrete commitment?) • Objection handling (are reps folding on pricing or timeline pushback?) Now you have a target. You know exactly what behaviors to inspect and improve. —— Step 3: Inspect the Work, Not Just the Outcome Most managers live in lagging indicators. They see the deal lost, the pipeline gap, the missed forecast—after it's too late. Top leaders inspect leading behaviors weekly: → Listen to 2–3 discovery calls per rep. Score them on your behavior checklist. → Review pipeline hygiene: Are next steps clear? Are close dates realistic? → Check activity quality: Are reps reaching the right people, or just burning through volume? You'll spot the gap in week one. You can course-correct in week two. —— Step 4: Use BIPSY to Diagnose the Root Cause When a behavior isn't happening, most managers assume it's a skill problem and throw training at it. But the issue might be: B – Behavior: They don't know they should be doing it. I – Issue Diagnosis: We don't know the CAUSE of the problem. P – Process: There's no clear standard or it's not reinforced. S – Skill: They know what to do but can't execute it well. Y – You (Impact): YOU as the leader aren't doing the right things. Diagnose correctly, and your fix is 10x faster. Don't guess. Diagnose. —— Step 5: Coach the Behavior Until It Sticks One conversation won't change anything. Great managers build a weekly rhythm: Monday: Inspect the work (calls, pipeline, activity). Tuesday–Thursday: Coach the gap in 1:1s with real examples. Friday: Measure early proof (did the behavior improve?). Rinse and repeat. This is system force, not brute force. The Bottom Line: Your team doesn't need more dashboards, more meetings, or more motivation. They need clarity and specific actions.