Ben Pruden

Tired of losing hard-earned deals? Solve for Revenue Leak. In Clari’s 2024 Revenue Leak Report, RevOps leaders said leak happens at every stage of the funnel. - Creating: Poor and slow upsell pipeline tracking - Converting: Unsure where pipeline is dropping off - Closing: Slipped deals Don’t let Revenue Leak drag down another quarter – or another year. Download the Revenue Leak Report for more: https://lnkd.in/g9gnGrdz  

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GTM exemplified. When a love ❤️ brand like Gong gives an emphatic high-five for your solution across their GTM teams it's a story worth telling...Shantanu tells it better, his smile is contagious, so watch at your own discretion 😁 watch here >> https://lnkd.in/dY3VWYKw #salesprocess #scale #GTMevolution

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Pipeline Heroes use scripts in cold calls. Scripts that induce: Curiosity Dont target the meeting as the only purpose of the call Scale follow-ups and next actions for those in ICP, but not in market Treat conversations as reconnaissance and a cornerstone of a relationship with a stranger PipelineHeroes use scripts because they are professionals and want to be Accountable Measurable Scientific

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📊 It’s not just about having data; it’s about having the *right* data. That’s what Hive found by adopting Gong Engage and Gong Conversation Intelligence. This powerful duo surfaced insights and next steps for John Furneaux and Hive’s sales team. They can now breeze through deals, navigate discovery calls with ease, and uncover more opportunities. The result? A 44% increase in meetings booked and 30% rise in sales opportunities. And that’s not even the full extent of Hive’s wins! Read about the rest here: https://lnkd.in/gh-7X7jG 

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The first version of the SaaS GTM playbook was written twenty years ago. Salesforce championed it. Mark Roberge published The Sales Acceleration Formula about Hubspot’s journey. Over the next two decades, we analyzed, quantified, instrumented, & optimized many aspects of the SaaS GTM. Account executive to SDR ratios, sales cycle lengths, conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, customer lifetime values, net dollar retention. The new software GTM playbook has yet to be written. But the companies who figure it out will become the next wave of massive businesses. On Tuesday, Theory held an event with [Dave Morse] formerly at Hebbia & Scale AI, Flo Crivello from Lindy, Paul Yacoubian from Copy.AI, & Chris Changfrom Gradient to discuss how AI changes these practices. These were my take aways : - Selling AI is being discovered because the technology is new. Buyers don’t know how to use it or how to buy it. - Because the sales motions are new, we can’t apply the previous playbook to the new sales process. The CEO/founder should hire a sales leader that they fully trust who focuses on ultimate success. The sales process is a part of the product : using both the customer’s language & the ultimate use of the product through success efforts - Between PLG vs sales led, more companies were sales-led. If starting with PLG, the template sells the product. Fight the empty box problem with great concrete templates that demonstrate how to use AI. If selling top-down, most of the conversations today are at the C-suite rather than the mid-market predominantly because the buying process is new. - Figuring out how to consistently produce wow moments with non-deterministic software is essential. - The room was split on pricing model : seats, usage, or some hybrid. Ultimately, pricing captures 15-30% of the value the software/AI creates. Developing a strong case for this with buyers will be key because the ROI question from buyers is real especially as the broader software market feels pressure. - Only VCs care about the word agents / agentic : for most enterprises, agents mean a customer support agent. Many teams don’t care about the underlying technology, they seek a solution to their problem. Tomorrow, we’ll be publish the results of the 2024 GTM Survey which we’ll reveal at Saastr in which we dig into the use of AI on sales processes & the impact to efficiency. Thanks to the panelists & attendees for a great discussion.

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Speed to lead might sound simple, but the architecture behind it is anything but. ZoomInfo's demo routing is powered by Zoominfo Enrich, which we used to create a system of models and workflows for SDRs to connect prospects with closers (AEs). As always, our goal is to optimize outcomes while maintaining equitability for reps. Let's break it down: ⚖️ Balancing Model: Designed within Salesforce, this system prioritizes demo allocation by evaluating the number of eligible events over their event quota over a rolling period to ensure a fair distribution of leads among AE cohorts. 📏 5 Tier Prospect Scoring Model: Dynamically assesses and assigns prospects to a tier based on channel, segment, win rate model, and title department rating collected and enriched at the time a prospect fills out a form via ZI form complete.. 🏆 Win Rate Model: Leveraging ZI enriched data points, this model refines demo allocation by categorizing prospects and accounts into win rate cohorts based on thousands of ZoomInfo’s industry-specific and title data points, such as # of sales employees and recent funding activity all help pinpoint the best meeting. ✅ AE Tiering Eligibility: Based on segment and ACV quota, AEs are eligible from anywhere from 1 to 4 tiers of demos. The demo router matches eligible AEs to a prospect tier to determine whether or not an AE is best suited for this particular meeting. 🗓️ Availability Integration: Through direct integration with Google Free/Busy API, we prioritize speed to lead by matching AE availability with the time the SDR coordinated with the prospect. This way we can book more same-day and next day meetings. The magic is that an SDR simply has to hit a button to initiate this process and schedule a meeting, making the handoff and tracking practically seamless We're continuously refining our model to adapt to nuances like PTO, market changes, and shifting demands to keep our leads flowing as quickly and smoothly as possible. See what Steven Bryerton, our SVP of New Sales has to say about Speed to Lead 👉 https://lnkd.in/gSQ5JyrD 

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For Revenue Operations Directors, staying on top of market trends is essential. With the rapid growth of sales technology, evaluating RevOps tools has become more important than ever. A valuable resource for this is the HG Insights IT Spend Report, which helps identify spending trends and make data-driven decisions. In this article, key takeaways from the Sales and Marketing section of the report are highlighted, emphasizing the importance of investing in RPM software like Xactly. Read on: http://spklr.io/6043Q0w1

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This is a must attend webinar to see how MaxAI can help supercharge your account planning process to help you get to revenue growth faster!

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Churn rates in SaaS are often taken for granted. A 5% churn rate? Sounds manageable until you unpack the numbers. If you're losing customers at that rate every month, you're left with less than half of your original users by the end of the year. The average B2B churn rate might be lower due to the methodical decision-making process, but there's no getting around the fact that B2C companies are more susceptible to quicker exits. Voluntary churn is where the real battle lies, as buyers pull the trigger on cancellations for reasons ranging from budget cuts to outright dissatisfaction. So, what's the play? You need to visualize your churn as a strategic battleground. Whether it's by tightening your onboarding processes, identifying churn indicators early, or even tailoring your cancellation offers, the aim is simple: keep the customers you’ve worked hard to acquire. Churn isn’t just a metric—it's a mindset. Let's debate: Is it smarter to accept a higher churn as a given in a rapidly changing market, or is the focus on reducing churn at all costs a more sustainable strategy? Keep it civil, folks. https://lnkd.in/ehMpvWed

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There is often considerable overlap between Revenue Operations (RevOps) leadership and the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) roles due to the interconnected nature of strategy and execution in driving revenue growth. This signifies a move toward a transformation in Revenue executives where decision-makers combine strategic foresight with operational expertise that drives sustainable revenue growth. The opportunity for senior RevOps professionals to take on these executive roles is more relevant than ever. Here is my advice on considering this move: https://lnkd.in/eEp263QR

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As CS is getting increasingly aligned with the revenue function, this conversation is happening a lot... CRO: "I just took over customer success, can someone explain to me what our CSMs do?" VP CS: "We make sure that our customers are getting value from the product..." CRO: "OK, what does that mean?" VP CS: "We answer all of their questions and log support cases." CRO: "Isn't that support?" VP CS: "Well no, because we have QBRs" CRO: "OK, well what do we talk about in the QBRs?" VP CS: "All the tickets we fixed and the features that we rolled out" CRO: "Ok, what other things do our CSMs do?" VP CS: "We help with implementations and continuous improvement!" CRO: "Isn't that professional services?" VP CS: "Well we read an article that says that we shouldn't charge for services, so our CSMs just do it." CRO: " 🤯 " VP CS: " 🤯 "

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A wave of consolidation is sweeping through the sales tech industry. I recently listened to a brilliant episode from the Topline podcast, featuring Salesloft CEO David Obrand, that shed light on the current state of the GTM tech landscape. As highlighted in the episode, key players like Clari, Gong and Outreach are expanding their offering to boost their TAM and offer more comprehensive solutions. Whilst the trend is understandable, the danger is long-standing partnerships start to fray as overlapping functionalities emerge - partnerships that were once the lifeblood of the sales tech ecosystem. For us, it begs the question. In a world of all-encompassing GTM suites, is there still a place for specialized, best-in-breed solutions? I believe the answer is a resounding yes - but only if they can offer extraordinary value. To thrive in this new era, point solutions must not only deliver great results but also seamlessly integrate into a company’s core tech stack and existing workflows. At MultiplyGTM, we’re laser-focused on providing planning intelligence that complements rather than competes with the everyday solutions revenue teams rely on, and goes deep in addressing a critical need - empowering revenue leaders with the confidence and clarity to achieve their goals. Whilst we may lack the resources of larger players, our goal is to provide unparalleled planning intelligence and insights that drive revenue, while growing sustainably and delivering immense value to our customers with our domain expertise. We're on the cusp of announcing some game-changing partnerships too that will extend our reach and impact, while maintaining our focus on delivering the revenue planning capabilities that drive profitable efficient growth. Stay tuned! 🚀

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Intelo.ai allies are expanding. Demo our Customer Discovery ally inside Hubspot during INBOUND 2024. Selling is all about connecting your customer pain points to your solution capabilities that make your solution obviously awesome. Customer Discovery ally inside Hubspot tells you exactly which use case and KPI make you obviously awesome for the customer you are selling to.

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📈 76% BOOST IN REVENUE Verse.ai helps its customers convert leads by combining AI and human expertise, so it’s thrilling that Gong has helped them do the same! They were able to drive a 76% boost in revenue with Gong Engage and increase forecast accuracy by 25% with Gong Forecast. As Verse’s SVP of Revenue, Damien Swendsen, says: “Gong allows us to increase both the velocity and volume of deals while ensuring quality isn’t sacrificed.” That’s what it’s all about — being able to do more with less and ensuring that you’re still serving your customers at the highest level. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/giXtAVk4

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I've  interviewed around 75+ GTM leaders now ranging from small startups to unicorns like Clari & Gong and leaders at companies like Deloitte. There's somewhat of a common consensus that outbound sales and traditional marketing plays aren't delivering results like they used to. Lower success rates, rising CAC, longer payback periods. One play that most growth teams have seemingly started paying attention to is the results that come from getting founders and execs on board with posting 3x weekly thought leadership / personal brand style content on LinkedIn. Some (Clari, ColdIQ, trumpet 🎺, Lavender 💜, Salesloft, lempire) have taken it one step further and encouraged a big chunk of their team to post on LinkedIn consistently and it's become one hell of a pipeline generating activity. I heard about another CEO who predicted that in 5 yrs from now every company will train their entire team from the intern to the CEO in building an audience online. The reason that more teams haven't started this push already is due to the difficulties around getting the entire team onboard with creating and sharing quality + authentic content consistently. For example, Nehal Tenany at Clari spends a significant chunk of her day writing posts and repurposing them for several others to share on their personal LinkedIn. We're looking to really get to the core of the problem and ideate around how to build a solution that makes this strategy easier to execute. Beta launching in a few weeks! Any ideas on what's stopping more teams from rolling this strategy out and how to solve for this? 

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“𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀.” - Tim Strickland, Former CRO at ZoomInfo, now Advisory Partner at Summit Partners. This clip exemplifies to me what “Strategic RevOps” really means to me. In our last episode of 🎙𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿🎙we talked to Tim and his former VP of RevOps, Scott Sutton, about the relationship between the CRO and RevOps. Interestingly, RevOps didn’t report to the CRO - They both reported to the President Reporting aside, Tim had a third-party organization that "𝘄𝗮𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝗶𝗺 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲." To do this, they built a team covering: - Capacity Planning - Compensation Planning - Quota Planning - Territory Planning - Sales Process - Systems Architecture - And, of course, Analytics This to me is a perfect example of why reactive systems admin is not enough to help CROs hit their revenue goals. (And this is why we’ve built our RevOps team in a similar way.) RevOps was there to build the Revenue Factory - To industrialized best practices - To create (almost) an assembly line of sales - And to operationalize their overall Go To Market In other words, finding ways to generate more revenue beyond just adding more headcount. Scott is now the CEO at Later, a $70M B2B SaaS company, and we also dove into how to scale this down for companies much smaller than ZoomInfo. Check out the full episode for more: 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆: https://spoti.fi/3VvpKax 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲: https://apple.co/4aRQoiq ✌️

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After speaking with 100’s of Rev Ops Leaders over the past few weeks, a few key issue stuck out. Here are 3 of the areas I heard over and over: 1.   Aligning Sales and Marketing 2. Data Silos and Visibility 3. Resistance to Change What are you hearing? Comment Below Here is an article that address other issues Rev Ops Leaders are experiencing.  https://lnkd.in/ewhKQGJA.

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Outbound is moving in a new direction and revenue teams must keep up or get left behind. UserGems 💎 asked 100+ SaaS revenue leaders to weigh in on what's fueling their pipeline generation, what's breaking down, and how to navigate the road ahead. #marketingops #saasfounders #ceo #entrepreneurs #startupfounders #ai #playbook #techstack #bestpractices #expertadvice #b2bmarketing #saasmarketing #softwareindustry #softwarecompanies #outboundmarketing #saas #marketingtactics #marketingstrategies #cmo #marketingadvice #personalisation #marketingstrategy #marketingtips #growthmarketing #marketingdata #marketingpersonalization #martech #marketing2024 #marketingai #aipowered #aienabled #outboundstrategy #marketinginsights #saasbusiness #saasstartups #saasproduct #customervaluecreation #productvalue #valuecreation #successstrategy #gtmomentum #gotomarket #earlystagestartup #revenueboost #monetization #revenuegeneration #productgrowth #customerengagement #customeracquisition #gtmmotion #gtmplays #customerintelligence #marketingintelligence #gtmstack #revops #revenueoperations #revenueenablement #salesenablement #signalbasedselling #revops #revenueteams

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