Sales Process Optimization

The disconnect between sales managers and reps in 2025 is wild. Manager: "Just pick up the phone!" Rep: *sends 47 emails, 12 texts, 3 LinkedIn messages, and a carrier pigeon* Sound familiar? 😅 After 20+ years in sales, I've watched this communication gap grow wider every year. But here's what both sides are missing: It's not about choosing ONE channel. It's about understanding WHICH channel works WHEN. The most successful reps I've seen? They've cracked the code: **First 24 hours:** • Email → Sets professional tone • LinkedIn → Shows you've done homework • Text → Only if they've given permission **Days 2-5:** • Phone call → NOW it's time (they know who you are) • Voice note → Personal touch that stands out • Video message → Shows real effort **The truth?** Your manager's right - calls DO convert better. You're also right - cold calling blind is dead. The magic happens when you warm them up FIRST. Think of it like dating: You wouldn't propose on the first date. So why are we calling strangers without context? **My top 3 strategies that actually work:** 1. The "Permission Play" End every email with: "Would a quick call tomorrow at 2pm work to discuss?" (They expect it now = higher answer rate) 2. The "Multi-Touch Warm-Up" Email → LinkedIn view → Call within 48 hours (They recognize your name = 3x more likely to answer) 3. The "Context Creator" Reference their LinkedIn post before calling "Saw your post about X, had a thought..." (You're not a stranger = conversation not pitch) Here's the brutal truth: Managers: Your reps aren't lazy. They're adapting to how buyers ACTUALLY buy in 2025. Reps: Your manager isn't wrong. The phone still closes more deals than any other channel. Bridge the gap. Use both. Win more. What's your take - Team Phone or Team Omnichannel? P.S I'm running a FREE 6-week LinkedIn Social Selling Bootcamp starting Monday 15th Sept, grab a free spot here https://lnkd.in/eVmxsMbM

My client fired their entire SDR team on Tuesday By Friday, their pipeline had grown by 60% This sounds impossible It's not After auditing 50 B2B sales organizations over 10 years, I've uncovered the most expensive myth in modern selling: → The belief that MORE activity at the TOP of your funnel will fix conversion problems at the BOTTOM Let me share what actually happened: This mid-market software company was spending $350,000 annually on their 4-person SDR team - 100+ cold calls per rep daily - 17 meetings booked weekly - "Incredible metrics" according to leadership - But their close rate? A devastating 1.2% The VP of Sales was convinced they needed MORE outreach, MORE automation, MORE top-of-funnel I suggested something different: pause all prospecting for 7 days Instead, we had their account executives do something radical - engage with the 215 prospects already in their pipeline who'd gone cold after initial meetings Using a framework we developed: - 65 prospects responded within 24 hours - 41 booked follow-up meetings - 23 re-entered active buying cycles - 6 closed within 14 days (total value: $212K) The shocking revelation? - Their pipeline wasn't empty - It was overflowing with neglected opportunity. This company didn't have a lead generation problem. They had a lead nurturing catastrophe. By reallocating resources from mindless prospecting to strategic engagement, they've now: - Reduced CAC by 60% - Shortened sales cycles by 30% - 2x their close rate The counterintuitive truth: Sometimes the fastest path to growth is to stop chasing new opportunities and start converting the ones you've already earned. What percentage of your marketing and sales budget is focused on prospects who've already shown interest vs those who haven't? That ratio reveals everything about your future growth trajectory P.S. If you need help with your sales, send me a message

Offline General Trade does not give you second chances easily and every false start sets the brand back by couple of years And as more and more digital first brands go offline, it is important for them to expand in a phased manner Here is how I suggest brands do the phasing: There are only 3 levers of growth in offline 1. Market Expansion 2. Reach Expansion in Existing Markets 3. Improvement in Extraction If you keep opening new markets, keep increasing number of counters in every market and keep increasing throughput, volumes will keep growing Of these levers, market expansion is the easiest way to get short term growth, And I have seen many brands take this shortcut under the pressure of delivering immediate revenue( find a distributor in a city and bill a first lot) But I strongly suggest that unless you have all the resources to win in a market( right manpower, right partners, right sellout strategy and enough management bandwidth allocation etc ), do not open that market Specially for newer brands just starting, it is very important for them to stick to only 1-2 markets till the time the GTM is fine-tuned and there is proof of Product Price Channel Market Fit Opening new markets is also costly. You will need to incur fixed manpower cost and also have to allocate marketing budget to drive sellout. The worst case situation for brands is( and it happens way too often) - Start a new market - Open few counters - Unable to drive sellout - Counters return stock - Distributor gets disengaged and stops business When the team now goes to find another distributor, there is already a reputation in the market that this brand does not sell, and it goes into a vicious cycle as the brand is unable to find either good distributor or good manpower So, unless you have infinite resources, a better and more sustainable way of growth would be to focus on few markets, get good reach and extraction from those markets and reach a certain scale. You also get invaluable learnings from these markets( type of distributor that works, how to drive sellout, what kind of distribution model works, what kind of manpower works, which products sell the most etc) And from there on, select few markets to open every year. You might end up taking 5-6 years to reach the entire country, but you control the spends and also chances of success goes up significantly For investors evaluating omnichannel consumer brands, do double click on the quality of offline revenue Throughput/Extraction from counters present is the single most important metric in my opinion to judge chance of future growth If there are 2 similar brands X and Y each doing 100 crs & - Brand X does it from 5 cities and 1000 counters - Brand Y does it from 25 cities and 3000 counters While it might seem that Brand Y has stronger distribution, but Brand X might have a better chance of future growth

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 😁

Most problems in GTM can be solved with one thing: a better understanding of your customers. Sounds simple, right? It’s not. Especially if your systems are siloed and you don’t have an analyst on your team. Here’s the good news: It’s something AI is phenomenally good at – if it has the right data. If you’ve used ChatGPT’s deep research feature, you know how good it is at analyzing vast amounts of data and producing detailed insights. If you’ve used HubSpot, you know that it unifies structured and unstructured data and has full context across the customer journey. Today, I’m super excited to share that HubSpot is the first CRM to launch a deep research connector with ChatGPT. That means you can now do advanced analysis of context-rich customer data – and immediately take action on those insights. The result? Better experiences for your customers. Better outcomes for your business. Here are some use cases: - Marketers, you could ask for a list of 'VP' and 'C-Level' leads who opened an email in the past week but have no next activity scheduled – then run a hyper-targeted follow-up campaign. - Sales leaders and reps, you could pull up a summary of why your high-potential deals are stalling – then create an email sequence that addresses the most common objections. - Customer success leaders, you could generate a list of at-risk customers and a unique renewal plan for each one – then take proactive steps to retain them. I can’t wait to see what our customers achieve with the power of deep research and unified data, right in their flow of work. If you’re a HubSpot customer with a paid ChatGPT plan (Enterprise, Team, Pro, Plus, or Edu), you can get started now!

When I was CRO of a $200M SaaS, doing POCs almost destroyed us—months wasted, team exhausted, buyers constantly delaying. Until my VP Sales said, “Kill the POC. We’ll validate value clearly in 3 hours flat”. Here's exactly how we rebuilt our sales process and cut our sales cycle by 50%: BACKGROUND: We were selling 100% enterprise. POCs were the automatic default: Heavy, technical validation lasting 1-3 months. It was painful… - Sales Engineers were overloaded - Buyers kept delaying due to resource issues - Buyers kept wanting more “just one more test” Initially, I thought: It’s Enterprise, that’s the game right? Until our VP Sales, Idan Arealy, joined. Two weeks in, he tells me: “No offense—but these POCs are total overkill.” “Buyers don’t need these endless tests.” “They’re not doubting the tech.” “They’re doubting the value.” “And we don’t need this complexity to prove value.” So he suggested a simpler, smarter alternative: The 'Use Case Workshop'—and it changed everything. Here’s the step-by-step: —— 1. Kickoff (45 min) - AE positions the workshop immediately post-demo: “Here’s what we typically do next to help validate real-world scenarios in just hours—no heavy lift needed. Shall we set it up?" - SE runs deeper disco into problem root causes in a kickoff call - AE sets clear Mutual Action Plan (MAP) 2. Internal Alignment (60 min) - SE & AE clearly define and build initial use-case solutions - Output: Slides outlining impactful solutions & open questions 3. Use Case Co-Design (45 min) - Live session with buyers walking through scenarios - Collaboratively refine solutions LIVE (e.g. Miro, slides): “Walk me through this problem in more detail—we’ll map exactly how solving it looks." 4. Prioritization & Wrap Up (30 min) - Jointly prioritize top 3 impactful use cases clearly: "Which scenarios, solved, would immediately solve [Problem]?" - Lock down committed next steps ↳ Result? - 3 focused hours (instead of months) - Clear, confident buyers ready to champion - 100% faster sales cycles & higher win rates —— POCs are NOT mandatory. Buyers don't want endless tests. Don’t default to what most buyers ask. Design what will solve what they need— With as little friction as possible. That's: Sales Process Design 101. P.S. We built Aligned to help manage the chaos of Complex Sales. 100% FREE Deal Room used by 40K AEs to run POCs, MAPs, etc. Try it https://lnkd.in/d_49kHZE

Forget the $32B exit, Wiz’s meteoric rise to $500M+ ARR is a masterclass in enterprise GTM blitzscaling👇 Wiz entered a very crowded Cloud Security market in 2020 after a pivot. Then they flipped conventional wisdom, rewrote the playbook, and built a juggernaut in record time 📈 I dug into the Go-To-Market engine behind Wiz’s rise—here’s what stood out: 👉 Product-market fit is obvious when it hits. In the early days, Wiz spoke to 10-15 customers daily. They heard polite feedback at first, but the game changed when prospects asked for pricing and sent POs. Founders and early leaders closed millions in ARR themselves—leaning on their industry credibility. 👉 Top-down sales, done right, can scale fast. No freemium. No self-serve. Wiz sold directly to CISOs—high stakes, high-touch, and high ACVs. The kind of enterprise motion everyone assumes takes years. Wiz broke that rule. 👉 They avoided the mid-market-first trap. Straight to the Fortune 100—who bought, fast. That’s remarkable in cybersec, known for 12-18 month sales cycles and endless POCs. Their ACVs? Into the seven figures. When the pain is urgent and the product hits right, big fish don’t nibble. They bite. 👉 Time-to-value became their superpower. Agentless. Minutes-to-deploy. Immediate visibility across risks. A rare enterprise product that promised to deliver impact from Day 1. That’s not luck—it’s intentional design. Founders - find a critical, underserved pain point, and deliver value lightning-quick 👉 They blitzscaled—with precision. Once solid PMF was clear, Wiz didn’t tiptoe. They hired CXOs, numerous sellers, sales ops fast—before the revenue caught up. Many GTM hires came from outside the usual playbook—creativity and fresh thinking followed. 👉 They went where the customers buy. Wiz went to cloud marketplaces and resellers and made them allies. 99% of Wiz sellers closed at least one deal through AWS, Azure, or GCP marketplaces. That’s not just channel strategy—it’s budget strategy. By aligning with cloud hyperscalers, they unlocked enterprise dollars already earmarked for cloud. 👉 Great enterprise marketing can manufacture momentum. Wiz proved that in enterprise tech, savvy marketing and PR can create an outsized lead. They masterfully created an aura through ARR announcements, weekly threat research publications, and even quirky CISO meditation apps. Marketing was a strategic weapon that generated FOMO among buyers and competitors alike. 💡 Timing, of course, was perfect. Cloud security turned into a boardroom priority post-2020. Wiz showed up with the right product, right GTM, and right team—at exactly the right moment. $32B is a wild number. But what’s rarer is how they got there: speed, scale, and ruthless focus. Hats off to the Wiz team! For enterprise founders, the message is clear: when a large market’s ready, the only ceiling is how hard you’re willing to lean on the GTM throttle.

I just deleted 147 cold emails without reading them. Here’s what they all got wrong: Every morning, my inbox looks the same. A flood of pitches from people trying to sell me something. Most days, I just mass delete them. But this morning, I decided to actually read through them first. Within 5 minutes, I spotted a pattern. Everyone was making the exact same mistake. They were all trying to close the deal. ALL IN THE FIRST MESSAGE 🥵 Let me show you what I mean (with two small examples): APPROACH A: "The Wall of Text" Send 100 cold emails with full pitch, calendar link, and case studies. • 3 people open • 0 responses • 0 intros This looks exactly like the 147 emails I just deleted "Hi [Name], I noticed your company is scaling fast! We help companies like yours optimize their marketing stack through our proprietary AI technology. Our clients see 300% ROI within 90 days. Here's my Calendly link to book a 15-min chat: [LINK]. Looking forward to connecting! Best, [Name]" BORING!!! APPROACH B: "Micro Conversations" Same 100 prospects, broken down into micro-convo's. Email 1: "Do you know [mutual connection]?" • Send 100 • ~40 open • ~20 respond Email 2: "They mentioned you're scaling your marketing team. I'd love to connect about [specific thing]." • Send to 20 who responded • ~15 continue engaging Email 3: "Would you mind if they made an intro?" • Ask 15 engaged prospects • ~10 intros Final score: • Approach A: No intros • Approach B: 10 intros How to Apply These Lessons (Tactical Summary): 1. Focus on Micro-Conversations: Break your cold outreach into smaller, manageable steps. Build rapport before making any asks. 2. Personalize Everything: Reference mutual connections, specific company milestones, or shared interests in every message. 3. Play the Long Game: Aim for replies in the first message.. not conversions. If you’ve been struggling with cold outreach, you might just need a new approach. Give this one a try and lmk how it goes.

Every sales process has a major flaw And nobody talks about it We tell sellers to think like the customer And then we give them a sales process Which brings the focus back to the seller This is a major mindset misalignment And a pervasive problem among sales ops Remember, it’s the 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 journey And it doesn’t end when the contract is signed It ends when the customer receives value Which is why they are doing this in the first place Keep the focus on a world class buying experience It's not Qualify, Discover, Propose, Negotiate, Close. It’s 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝, 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡, 𝐄𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. Put this in a word doc or excel Call it the “Evaluation Process” Please don’t call it a close plan Ask the customer when they want to deliver value Put this date as the go-live date at the end Work backwards from there They will realize they are already behind Which will drive urgency Incorporate the customer’s steps too Share it with everyone regularly Not just your coach/champion Use it as a guide to uncover potential roadblocks ————————— 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝 -       Discovery meeting -       Vendor point of view and demo -       Meeting with business sponsors -       Overview of evaluation process 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 -       Custom demo to business -       Solution Day / whiteboard session -       Demo to IT -       Overview of Customer Success program -       High level pricing -       Initial infosec review -       Meeting with executive sponsors 𝐄𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 -       Complete use case analysis -       POC to validate solution fit -       Develop business case -       Deliver SOW and proposal -       Executive sponsor meeting 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 -       Vendor decision is made -       Procurement and sourcing discussions -       Legal and compliance meeting -       Legal redlines -       Security review complete -       Legal review complete -       Business terms complete -       Final offer presented for approval -       Commitment from lines of business -       Funding approved -       Contract signed 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 -       Project kick-off -       Design -       Develop -       Certify -       Test -       Communications -       Training -       Go-Live

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.