Steven Kang

Did you know that: - 96% of GTM leaders found it challenging to meet revenue targets in 2003? - ONLY 20% of GTM leaders are feeling confident about growth in 2024? - Opportunity-based selling is now a top GTM motion? These data points and more can be found in the 2024 State of GTM Efficiency Report which is NOW LIVE! Dive into how revenue teams are taking on challenges, prioritizing their efforts, and seizing opportunities in a time when efficient growth is relevant more than ever.  This report is brought to you by LeanData , Cognism , Modern Sales Pros , Qualified , UserGems 💎 , and Welcome . Read the full report ➡️ https://bit.ly/3RlUMPv #GTM #Revenue

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The importance of outbound and how it is evolving. Tailored, well-crafted messaging is the secret sauce for cutting through the noise, especially in the AI sales landscape of 2024. This episode of 20SALES with AJ Tennant is all about outbound, selling AI, and building killer sales teams and is gold #sales #outbound #AI #tailoredmessaging

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Want to elevate your sales game and win over C-suite executives? 📈 Learn from the best with ZoomInfo's top sales tips, including insights from our CEO and Founder, Henry Schuck!  Discover the definitive guide to selling to the C-suite in 2024: bit.ly/4aSCL3i

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If you're a CSM struggling to close deals, here are some tips that might help: 💰 Lead with value: When introducing a new product or service, start by asking questions to identify its value. Flip it around and ask the customer what they could achieve with it. 🚫 Address objections early: Find out objections early on, understand what would make them say yes, and learn their sign-off process. Ask questions like, "Is there anything you don't like about this?" and "What does your sign-off process look like?". ⏲ Set a timeline: Get a timeline from the customer as soon as possible. Ask when they plan to make a decision and how they chose that date. Avoid setting ultimatums, as they often lack substance. ⏪ Handle late objections: If objections arise late in the process, find out their source. Say something like, "Let's go back to where we started to go off track" or "Let's go back to where you started to feel this wasn't right for you". This helps rewind the process rather than complicating it. What other tips do you have? #customersuccess #saas #upsell

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While I loved selling in the 90's, B2B sales methodologies have to evolve. Personally I prefer a blend of SPIN Selling (as it focuses on the customer's problems), Customer-centric selling (as it focuses on the customer's needs), and Challenger Selling (as if forces the salespeople to think about focusing on the customer). As far as methodologies are concerned, I think the SPICED methodology from Winning By Design is the closest I have found to a more agile, customer-first approach. I am often asked what is wrong with the dated approaches with BANT and MEDDIC the two I come across the most, often with people with religious levels of zeal. My summary of why we should put these two to bed once and for all follows. BANT is easy to leave behind, with 70% of a buying process being complete before engaging with sales, and 60%+ of buyers not having a budget allocated before talking to sales, then there is no Budget (yet), there is no one decision-maker in a modern B2B buying process (and even if there is, they are not going to tell a salesperson who it is), and if you don't have Budget and Authority, you cann't have a Timeframe. That leaves you with Needs which equate to SPIN Selling problems. The MEDDIC framework, while once effective, struggles to adapt to the digital, dynamic, and complex, nature of modern B2B buyer-centric selling. Shift in buyer behaviour: The traditional linear sales process MEDDIC outlines no longer aligns with the buyer's journey. Buyers are more informed, conducting extensive research online before engaging with sales. This means the sales cycle is longer and more complex, requiring a deeper understanding of the buyer's needs and challenges. Complex decision-making: MEDDIC primarily focuses on identifying a single economic buyer. B2B buying decisions involve multiple stakeholders with varying priorities and influence. This necessitates a broader approach to understanding the decision-making unit. Digital transformation: The rise of digital channels dramatically changed how buyers interact with businesses. MEDDIC doesn't adequately account for the importance of digital engagement, content marketing, and social selling in building relationships and generating leads. Customer experience: Modern buyers prioritize experience over everything else. MEDDIC is primarily focused on the sales process, not the overall customer journey. A holistic view of the customer experience is crucial for long-term success. Speed and Agility: The pace of business has accelerated significantly. MEDDIC's rigid structure hinders sales teams' ability to adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs. A more agile approach is required to win in today's competitive landscape. To effectively navigate the complexities of the modern B2B sales environment, sales organizations must adopt more customer-centric and data-driven methodologies that account for the digital transformation of the buyer's journey.

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How much retention would go up? If... - The Customer Success org starts with Solutions - There's a Chief Solutions Officer on the board - AEs consult with SEs on all ongoing deals - Customers talk 80% in conversations - Focus is on adoption, not renewals I'm guessing by A LOT. That's the GTM SaaS world I envision. P.S: True customer adoption nearly guarantees renewals. #presalesevolution #customersuccess #saas

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How do you set Gen Z sellers up for succes? Calling all sales leaders! This is a must-listen to cap off your week: https://lnkd.in/gj9izm8M In case you missed it, we've just launched a new season of the Redefining Sales podcast. Listen to our first episode with our fantastic guests Lucy Lee and Danielle Dacunha-Howarth from PurplePatch, and stay tuned for new episodes dropping soon. #Sales #Podcast #AIinSales #Prospecting #SalesEnablement #SalesStrategy #SalesTraining

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“Lack of visibility is the enemy of revenue.” Joe Vitalone (Strategic Advisor, Extreme Networks) said this on a recent Clari webinar. And I couldn’t agree more. Without visibility, CROs and revenue leaders: - Miss critical deal insights that could help prevent slippage or loss. - Struggle to set accurate forecasts because they don’t have a full view of the pipeline. - Lose alignment as marketing, sales, and customer success aren’t operating from the same data. - Fail to spot revenue leaks early, allowing problems to grow unnoticed. Visibility isn’t optional for revenue professionals — it's a must-have.

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Sales Leaders, listen up. We need to shift the narrative. "CSO’s must become leaders of selling, rather than leaders of sellers”. It makes sense - shift the focus from managing people to managing processes, as the processes drive performance. But it also misses a deeper point. We should be talking about ENABLING the buyer, not the sales process. How can sales leaders make it easy for customers to buy their solution. Buyers increasingly want to self-educate, self-serve and determine ROI before engaging salespeople. And when they do engage salespeople, they want to be guided, not sold to. 86% of the buyer journey is completed without engaging a salesperson. 77% of B2B buyers say purchasing is complex or difficult. So we need: 1) Reduce friction in the process. 2) Provide buyers with the relevant info and support to make better buying decisions offline. Switching from “selling” to “enabling buying” is the catalyst to spark that shift in mindset.  Don’t underestimate the power of language. P.S Dimmo 🦖 and trumpet 🎺 are two of our favourite tools in the buyer enablement space. Check them out.

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My feed is flooded by how to SDR Lead Gen with people selling services tech stack training Yet, barely anyone talks about how hard it is to go through a difficult enterprise level sales engagement. Dealing with Legal, Procurement, writing RFPs, defending proposals. Being someone with high integrity and why that matters in the sales cycle.... WHY? because it is really really hard. Yes, there are people who were once enterprise SaaS sellers in the golden era between 2012-2016 Selling a name brand product with little competition off an incoming lead. And yet in 2024...selling their platform , training etc services for an incredible amount. My LinkedIn feed has become a grifter LinkedIn Lunatic land for sales. What is the right way then? I don't know. No one knows. Except stick to the basics. The Sandlers, the Meddicpp . Read the classics on sales : negotiations, influence etc But be a good human who does the right thing. There is no magic here. You have enough magic to do this yourself without buying anything minus a few books you can check out of a library. my 2 cents #tiredofllinkedin go ahead. flame me and tell me you made $2 million off the backs of others who desperately needed help. don't care #sales

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Fixing the leaky sales funnel should be your top priority. Many revenue teams are struggling to hit their targets and the main reason may be a leaky sales funnel. We spoke with leading revenue experts to uncover the reasons behind this trend and discover what they are doing to improve their sales teams' conversion rates. The result is a comprehensive ebook filled with deep insights and practical advice on how to improve conversion rates at every stage of the sales process and enable your average reps to perform like top sellers. In this ebook, we explore: 👉 The problem of the leaky sales funnel and how it affects conversion rates 👉 Why enablement initiatives fail to have the desired impact on sales effectiveness and win rates 👉 How to ace revenue execution with the right use of technology A huge thank you to GTM Buddy, our incredible partner in this project. We’d also like to express our appreciation to all the Revenue Executives who contributed to this ebook: Dini M.., Dustin Deno, Eric Choronzy, Jim Koepke, Josh Roth, Latané Conant (she/her), Laura Tormey, Mark Kosoglow, Nate Broome, Steve De Marco, Yair Areli. Link to the ebook in the comments. This is available in our Member Resources within the Member Hub for Pavilion Members.

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Here are four signs your GTM alignment is out of whack: 1. Fragmented Customer Lifecycle View If your team lacks a comprehensive view of the customer lifecycle, you're likely missing key opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, and customer retention. A unified perspective is essential for seamless customer experience and strategic decision-making. 2. Disparate Data Sources When every department has its own ops person with different data sets, it creates a fragmented picture of your business. Without a single source of truth, your strategies will be inconsistent and less effective, leading to misaligned goals and metrics. 3. Inconsistent Terminology If the same terms (e.g., "SQL," "MQL," "Funnel,") mean different things to different people, communication breakdowns are inevitable. This inconsistency can lead to misaligned expectations and strategies, undermining your overall GTM efforts. 4. Unclear ICP Definition and Belief If your team is frequently questioning, “Should we sell to this company?” it indicates a lack of confidence and clarity in your ICP. I like to think of it as who is my "Market of 1?" Can I define a single person who I know is the absolute best market? Then I build my ICPs off of their persona. 5. Sales & Marketing are sending inconsistent messaging to the same people every week. Your sales team is going to work the MQLs, your marketing team is going to work them too. If the messaging is disjointed - you're setting yourself up for failure. Start there. Or you can take our Revuhnew GTM Assessment to get a crystal clear view of where you're at right now! https://lnkd.in/gb936XbN

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At ZoomInfo, we don’t settle for fool’s gold. Or bad data. And you shouldn’t either. With ZoomInfo Copilot, unrivaled buyer data and signals, tailored engagement recommendations, and AI-powered personalized outreach mean you’ll strike gold every time. 💰 Fueled by ZoomInfo’s best-in-class B2B data, ZoomInfo Copilot has the power to turn every seller into your best seller. DM me to learn more or visit our landing page 👉 https://lnkd.in/gJbMg4WZ #ZoomInfoCopilot 

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"We are now able to gain deep insights into the inner workings of our team and organization, providing a whole new level of understanding of our global workforce.” Learn how BDR Thermea is transforming the employee experience: https://w.day/3zUsea3

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After a decade in sales, here's the truth about deal management VS sales methodology. Here's what I consistently see: ☠️ Under-performing teams: 👉 Bad deal management - can't align internal teams, miss handoffs between departments, lose track of customer commitments 👉 Compensate by rolling out rigid sales methodologies, thinking "if everyone just followed MEDDIC/SPIN/etc., we'd solve our problems" 🚀 High-performing teams: 👉 Insane deal management - they run deals like projects, with clear ownership, next steps, and ruthless alignment across teams 👉 Zero methodology consistency - their top performers each have their own patchworked approach: some Challenger here, some MEDDIC there, whatever gets the job done The reality is clear: deal management is the foundation. Great teams nail the basics first: tracking commitments, managing handoffs, maintaining alignment. The best reps figure out their own methodology along the way. Want better sales performance? Fix your deal management. Everything else is secondary. https://lnkd.in/e6UUqTdX

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Ever wonder what separates top sales performers from the rest? In 2015, I set out to answer this question. Through interviews and surveys with over 75 top performers across different fields, I uncovered fascinating insights about what the best of the best have in common—and where there’s room to grow. This research became the foundation for my With Intention work, and three key themes stood out: 1. Planning & Preparation: The best owned their preparation. They didn't just "wing it". 2. A Growth Mindset Top performers saw every challenge as a chance to improve. They embraced the discomfort of growth. 3. Fueling for Performance They were intentional about managing their energy—prioritizing sleep, eating to fuel performance, and creating boundaries to stay present with family and loved ones. These principles are timeless, and I’ve seen them transform how individuals and teams approach their work and their lives. If these insights resonate with you, let’s connect. I’d be happy to share more about what I’ve learned and how it could help your team in 2025.

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Partner enablement is not typically partner-centric and that’s why it rarely drives partner performance and often is under funded. This is not to say that partner enablement is not key, but that to make it impactful, a fresh approach is often required. The problem is that partner enablement is almost always vendor-centric - focused on what the vendor wants the partner to do for them. It is rarely oriented around a holistic understanding of the partners’ needs or orientation. Here’s a fresh approach to making partner enablement partners-centric & getting funding to drive it: 1️⃣ Focus enablement on driving revenues, not just building competency - Use MDF/BDF to fund this. 2️⃣ Start with the partner business model and needs in mind and re-cast enablemet to solve the partner’s problem, not the vendor’s problem. 3️⃣ Build assets that speak to the win/win/win for the customer, the partner, and the vendor, in that order. 4️⃣ Micro target enablement assets against specific partner challenges and automate the real-time distribution of these assets to reduce partner time to revenue. 5️⃣ Build investable partner maturity models and elevate partner enablement to be the driver of partner confidence & competence. Partner enablement needs to be strategic, so lets make it so. #partnerenablement

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Sales people make the money. Sales Ops / Rev Ops / Biz Ops count the money. Sales Enablement explain the missing money 😏 . Building and leading a Sales Enablement function from the ground up is extremely challenging for C-Level Executives who succumb to the mainstream practices because of lack of time and understanding of what the role is all about. Doing more of the same doesn't fit today's economic climate, especially for early-stage startups with limited resources and high demands for fast outcomes. Put simply, Leaders today have a shorter runway. Don't waste it on trial & errors. I've introduced the Moneyball approach back in 2017 and have implemented it successfully ever since. Project Moneyball in a nutshell is a Revenue Intelligence approach to Sales Enablement, exactly what scaling businesses need in times of uncertainty. Hit "Book an appointment" and let's take it from here.

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