Daniel Palay

TXT. XML. CSV. These are just some of the three-letter file formats that can cause healthcare benefits teams' carrier onboarding process to grind to a halt if they don't have a process to ingest them. It's been an issue for benefits teams for a long time. It usually takes months to solve, too. Watch the video below to find out how you can regain that precious time and make your carriers happy.

12

Before diagnosing missed revenue targets Many B2B SaaS companies only look at: - Overall CAC - General LTV - Surface-level metrics To dig deeper, here's what you should track: • Time to impact • Pipeline velocity • LTV by segment • Sales cycle length • Lead quality score • Expansion revenue • Net revenue retention • Feature adoption rates • CAC by customer segment • Customer acquisition cost payback period These metrics reveal hidden insights. Combining these metrics give you the deeper meaning.

4

8 Comments

The transition from founder led sales -> a repeatable GTM motion is hard... Extremely hard. There are so many things to consider to mitigate risk and get as many repetitions on closed loop feedback as quickly as possible. -> what profile of a rep should I hire -> how to assess the right talent -> SDR or AE or growth hacker type or both -> what channels should we be testing -> what does good look like? What does great look like? -> how do I know if we’re making progress? And so much more… We’re discussing all this live next Tuesday at Kiln. If you’re in Utah, come check it out: https://lnkd.in/eQ9dyJK4

41

6 Comments

"When is the right time to hire your first sales leader?" I sat down with Eric Boduch, Founder of 24 and Up, CEO of Revcast, and co-founder of Pendo.io, to discuss the key signals every founder should look for before making this critical hire. Check out Episode 449 of The Full Ratchet for his expert insights! Link to the full episode is in the comment section below.

7

1 Comment

SDRs, you're not fooling prospects with your title. SDRs in the fintech space aren't finance experts SDRs in the insurtech space aren't insurance experts. SDRs in the payments space aren't payments experts. SDRs like to use every title except... SDR. We are experts in other things, like... -Prospecting -Cold Calling -Relationship Building -Uncovering Pain -Portraying Value SDR doesn't have to be a dirty word. Let's embrace it. ❤️

112

24 Comments

Normalizing to meet market demand isn’t the same as dying… Rightsizing to meet market demand is what happens when companies need to earn a profit vs inflate valuations. If the growth projections aren’t based in reality nothing you do based on it will be either

4

5 Comments

Good morning, especially to #founders. Missed the buzz about Brian Chesky's "Founder Mode" speech? And #PaulGraham's essay distilling it? The Cliff Notes thoughts, extracts, and links follow. 🗨️Conventional wisdom about how to run larger companies is mistaken... people advised him [Brian] to run the company in a certain way for it to scale..."hire good people and give them room to do their jobs." He followed this advice and the results were disastrous.💣💬 Enter #FounderMode. The thesis is that "Founder Mode is not Manager Mode". More from Paul: 🗨️Hire good people and give them room to do their jobs. Sounds great when it's described that way, doesn't it?... One theme I [PG] noticed both in Brian's talk and when talking to founders afterward was the idea of being gaslit. Founders feel like they're being gaslit from both sides — by people telling them they have to run their companies like managers, and by the people working for them when they do. VCs who haven't been founders themselves don't know how founders should run companies (❗), and C-level execs, as a class, include some of the most skillful liars in the world.💬 Sages and snarksters more experienced than I in dissecting management theory, founding startups, and writing viral essays have all boarded the Founder Mode buzz train. Catch some of the chatter in the comments. In the five years that I've been close to the #insurtech founder world, I've watched this play out: 😤the frustrations created when founders and investors don't have a Venn diagram on mission or financial expectation; ❎the bad advice given and taken & ✅the good guidance given and taken; 📈the focus on scaling, on return, on exit leading to 😕diversion from mission and purpose 🙄the stereotype around founders having "bright shiny object syndrome" 💟the community that founders are now creating around best practices, as collectively we enter the next phase of startups. Bobbie Shrivastav, MBA, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM Colby Tunick, PMP Zechari T. Michelle Bothe Judson Norton Sri Ramaswamy Jerry W Willis Chrysa Jones Cassandra "Cassie" Hand-Gallegos, AIC ​Amrit Santhirasenan Pat West Valkyrie Holmes Jamie Luce https://lnkd.in/eVYAFZkc

16

13 Comments

"In this post, we have shown how you can troubleshoot go-to-market problems by splitting the funnel in two and focusing on two questions: Are we giving sales the change to hit the number each quarter, as measured by pipeline coverage. Is sales converting enough of the pipeline to hit the number, as measured by pipeline conversion." https://lnkd.in/gebuNrRs

4

If you sell in the Digital Health space, don't walk, RUN to listen to this episode. 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️💨💨💨 "I didn't realize that I was missing purpose in selling until I had it." This week I sit down with the incredible Brook West the CCO of Carrum Health! We cover so much ground!! Brook's career journey, sales advice, approach, and scaling sales organizations and creating high-performing teams. What made this episode especially interesting was that Brook and I have built teams together so it was awesome to discuss the mentality of hiring with Brook. I think what makes her have such a spectacular eye for talent is her no-stone-unturned approach which I have seen first hand be so effective. From the importance of relentless improvement in hiring, to removing bias from the hiring process. Brook even shares the key traits of successful salespeople in the benefits market. *Spoiler alert* 🌳resilience, 🔝 drive, 💪thick skin, and 💞belief in what they do. Relentless improvement is key to creating a team of A players. Continuously adapt the hiring profile and learn from each interview to find the right fit. 📈📈 Learn about the amazing things Carrum is doing for their patients and explore the onboarding process for new employers using Carrum and the future plans for the company! Quality is TRULY the foundation of everything at Carrum, from the product to how they behave and deliver services. Tune in to learn more about the amazing impact they are having in the Digital Health world partnering with employers across the country to address surgical care, and cancer care delivered at lower costs, improving healthcare outcomes, and ultimately ensuring a superior experience one patient at a time. https://lnkd.in/dRPUez7v

72

5 Comments

Do you think AI will replace insurance brokers? 🏴‍☠️ A producer recently asked me that question. My take: no Derek Sivers famously said, “if more information was the answer, then we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs”. We can already Google our way to most employee benefit answers. AI can now help us synthesize information faster, with more accuracy and less training data. Output is becoming indiscernible from a human. So why not replace the broker? There are slices of every professional services industry that will be replaced, or supplemented, and in truth this applies to the benefits broker too. Repeatable tasks like spreadsheeting proposals, merging claim files, financial reporting, billing audits, and commission statement reconciliation ought to be run through an AI workflow first. Tolerance for errors is low — trained benefit professionals should keep their hand on the wheel, but these execution-oriented tasks are not what employers are paying a brokerage $200-$300 per hour for. They’re paying for 𝚊̲𝚍̲𝚟̲𝚒̲𝚌̲𝚎̲. A small employer spends a small fortune on their health plan (hundreds of thousands), and a mid-to-large sized employer spends even more (millions). These decisions have a real impact on employees, drive the overall budget, and can have a long tail — taking calendar years to shift strategies. Maybe this bias will evolve over time, but our perception of advice from a human versus a computer is not the same. We trust algorithms to make reversible decisions like selecting the next TV show or song, but when making important, long-lasting business decisions we want guidance from other humans — rooted in their judgment, creativity, and hard-won knowledge. A benefits advisor embodies this. As a business owner with a benefits background myself, I can’t help but feel that while I have access to all the information in the world I still want guidance when making big ticket benefit decisions. Am I asking the right questions? Am I applying the answers to my specific situation in the optimal way? How does this decision fit into a multi-year strategy? Presumably others ask themselves the same. Whether that credibility is real or perceived, we feel better about the decision – it’s hard to replicate that feeling with a computer. AI is poised to make the industry smarter and more efficient, but I don’t believe it will replace the bespoke advisory services that brokers provide. Those who blend cutting-edge tech with human insight (and a personal touch) will continue to deliver the best outcomes for their clients. Hat tip to Jake Saper and Jessica Cohen of Emergence Capital for helping me see some of these ideas through the lens of their ‘Death of the Big 4’ post. Link in the comments.

24

8 Comments

Engaging a larger buying committee can accelerate deal velocity and win rates. Buying committees can also slow down and kill deals. Here's the difference. If you let the buying committee play out over time, that will absolutely slow down your deals. For example, you've had three meetings with a key decision maker and they start inviting new people into meetings. Especially if those new people are in different departments, they're starting the conversation from scratch so you're likely going backward not forward. A better best practice is to ask your champion up front (in the first call) who else has a vested interest in the outcome. Help them brainstorm and uncover who along the entire buying journey will likely have a say and need to be addressed (directly or indirectly) to keep your deal on rails and moving forward. An example of this: the CFO (or finance in general) is ALWAYS in the buying committee, whether they're on calls or not. Have a story, early and often, that addresses their needs and narrative. Another factor in driving buying committee velocity is role identification. Not every committee member is equal, not everyone needs to be on every call. Clarifying who is a decision maker vs influencer vs technical reviewer can help you orchestrate conversations better, make best use of everyone's time, respect how THEY prefer to engage and buy. The more complex the buying process, the more likely cohorts of the buying committee engage at different points to combine lowercase "yes" decisions that culminate in a faster, more enthusiastic all caps YES at the end. These are disciplines that marketing and sales can operationalize together to increase your funnel efficiency and conversion rates.

40

3 Comments

Insurtech for small business insurance is broken. Small business owners looking for insurance coverage have long been underserved. We solved this with a new offering powered by machine learning. Some highlights I'm particularly proud of the team for: 💥 Compares rates across 20+ insurance carriers to help customers make informed choices 💥 Offers over 10 different types of small business insurance coverage 💥 Takes just 10 minutes to buy small business Insurance through InsurePro (on average) 💥 Currently services over 20,000 professional categories We've got an elite tech team and with $10+ Million in written premiums within a short time, we're just getting started. 🚀 #insurtech #ml #machinelearning

34

5 Comments

If you are in manufacturing, the stakes are high when it comes to choosing a customer platform that can make or break business success. Antiquated systems and integration issues have stifled innovation forcing businesses into a continuous loop of operational inefficiencies. In this on-demand webinar, experts from DealHub.io, Wendt Partners and HubSpot share their insights and expertise on driving greater efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Check it out > https://lnkd.in/d-iYC_sw

290

23 Comments

Here's a crazy Monday stat...say you're a GTM leader at a startup, looking to implement AI into your process / team. Well, you're in luck because there are 1200+ AI tools built SPECIFICALLY for sales teams right now...🤯 My brain hurts just thinking about what that equates to in time / money on demos, testing, and (in many cases) churn. To save everyone some time, we hosted a roundtable with The GTM Circle last week where we talked about the tools sales teams at early-stage startups are ACTUALLY using today, here are some of them. What did we miss 🤷🏼‍♀️? 🤖 General Anthropic / Claude Google / Gemini Meta / Llama 3 OpenAI / ChatGPT Perplexity 🎨 Content & Personalization at Scale Bardeen Beautiful.ai Copy.ai Clay Octave Omneky TOPO YC 24 Unify 📇 CRM & Customer Engagement Apollo.io Copilot Chatbase HubSpot Copilot ZoomInfo Copilot ⚙️ Automation & Productivity Fathom Grain Momentum.io Read AI Salesroom superwhisper 📈 Analytics & Reporting Roadway Zebra BI 🎥 Video Creation & Editing Loom Midjourney OpusClip Soul Machines Synthesia

61

20 Comments

It’s funny, every technology has adoption curves. Like any technology, whether it be string, steel, software, or hydrogen-fuel- the limitations are on the business model and implementation, and cross-domain ingenuity. Short-term thinking is a real hazard. A big issue today is that people think we are somehow in a different place than we were 100 or 1000 years ago. The past is much closer than modern Americans realize. Things like software, which are magic-tools, are just a domino in the long line of dominos that is human invention.

5

4 Comments

4 more months in 2024 (!!). 4 more months to build pipeline. We teamed up with Kyle Poyar and polled our network of GTM leaders to surface what’s actually working and crowdsource ideas driving more pipeline through the end of the year. Here are 4 themes that emerged: 1️⃣ 𝐁𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 Both large and intimate. In-person and virtual events are making a comeback. Companies like Carta and Jellyfish are seeing fantastic ROI from dinners, sporting events, and more. “𝑂𝑢𝑟 𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑 28𝑥 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦 ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑎𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑙.” - Kyle Lacy 2️⃣ 𝐎𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭-𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 It’s not just marketing and sales anymore. The most successful teams are aligning efforts across product, customer success, and ops for a unified account-based strategy. “𝑂𝑢𝑟 𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 30+ 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝𝑠 𝑢𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡.” - Eric Gilpin 3️⃣ 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 From SDR personal pages to deep dives into relationship data, teams are finding creative ways to cut through the noise. “𝑆𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟, 𝑤𝑒’𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑑 80 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑒𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑆𝐷𝑅 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑠, 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 $340,000 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑖𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒." - Brandon Redlinger 🌶️ 4️⃣ 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 Revenue leaders are exploring pilot programs and pricing strategies to drive land-and-expand success. “...𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑢𝑝𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 3𝑥 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓-𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 65% 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑒.” - Alex Poulos For more details and ideas for driving pipeline through the end of year from brands like G2, Miro, and Superhuman, check out the full newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gm3DBiqD Thanks to all GTM leaders who provided feedback on how they're driving pipe 🙌 Let us know if your company's focus is one or more of these themes, or if you're focused on alternative strategies.

52

6 Comments

Traditional funnel metrics haven't made sense for a hot minute. Kyle Poyar shares a new way to measure GTM effectiveness and it's on the money. Our customers are too specific, and our resources too limited to cast a wide net. Here’s why ICP focus makes sense: // Efficient resource allocation: We don’t have VC millions, so every dollar spent needs to move the needle instead of chasing prospects who won't convert. // Clear market segmentation: It forces us to define our niche—no hiding behind vague TAM estimates or fuzzy market definitions. // Faster sales cycles: When prospects fit the ICP, sales cycles shorten because the pitch resonates with their exact needs. // Retention driver: ICP-fit customers stick around longer and are more likely to expand usage, unlike one-off customers. // Product-Market fit: Zeroing in on your ideal customers helps you get constant feedback that matters to refine your product. While big players can afford to play the numbers game, we can’t—and honestly, we shouldn't want to. Our strength lies in our niche, and this model amplifies that strength. Let's be honest: Are we truly clear on who we're serving? Traditional metrics let us hide behind vanity metrics. This approach forces us to confront the hard truths about our market position. It requires honesty and guts to pass on opportunities that don't fit.  Knowing when to say no is just as important as knowing when to say yes. The real test? Staying the course when things get tough. It’s tempting to chase any revenue when cash is tight, but losing focus is a fast track to irrelevance. I’ve watched solid startups crumble by trying to please everyone. This approach doesn't just help improve your marketing—it serves as a north star. Every decision becomes clearer when viewed through the lens of your ICP. Have you shifted to an ICP-centric approach? 💬 Click 'Follow' for your regular dose of insightful micro SaaS content. For the love of the game... 🏴‍☠️⚡ #Marketing #Strategy #Metrics #Startups

67

2 Comments

Sequence is absolutely *crushing* its GTM content engine. Worth checking out their most recent report "Sequence Principles" detailing tactical revenue lessons from 100+ B2B companies. Some highlights: 1. Clear ICP messaging (B2B sales leadership) 2. Easy scrolling/skimming ability across sections 3. Real-time founder testimonials (like Sasha Orloff) 4. Highly tactical advice (i.e. packaging, bundling, metrics) 5. Simple design without overwhelming folks w/ dense content Highly recommend taking a look - big s/o to the Sequence team ⚡

85

13 Comments

The most common thing I'm hearing from companies right now is low 'early stage' deal conversion. TOFU stagnation. If you are speaking to companies within your ICP and struggling to translate demand into pipeline, there's one thing I'm seeing more than anything else that is the root cause of why. You're finding pain.... but you're not building on it. Certainly not quantifying it. It's not enough to just find it. It'll end up with no action.

4