Dustin Parkinson

The role of the BDR Team needs to change pretty dramatically to support a successful, account-based GTM strategy. What was once a more transactional prospecting role 🤖 dialing-for-dollars ☎ , a grueling numbers-game of luck 🍀 and tenacity, is now about building quality relationships 👫 , intelligence gathering 🧠 , and using sales signals, social media interaction, and intent signals 🎯 to drive more meetings and SQLs. This article is a must-read in that it proposes all of the ABM metrics and goals that BDRs need to be measured....spoiler alert, it isn't just # of meetings! This is a pretty big paradigm shift. Let me know your thoughts! #bdr #sdr #gtmstrategy #revenuegrowth

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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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The #Salesblazer community is launching NEW biweekly coffee chats and would love for you to join! 🎉 💙 Up first on June 18: How to make outbound sales work for you in 2024. Jason Bay, CEO of Outbound Squad with 15+ years of sales experience, will be taking the mic, so make sure you attend! 🙌 Here’s how to participate: 1. Join the #june-18-coffee-chat channel in the Salesblazer Community on Slack. Not a member of the Community yet? Fix that here: https://sforce.co/June18CC 2. Ask your outbound prospecting questions in the channel above before the coffee chat starts. 3. You’ll be notified to join the huddle when it kicks off June 18 @ 1pm ET. 4. Grab your coffee and join as soon as you’re notified — capacity is limited to 200, and it’s first come, first served.

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Gong's GTM teams love DealHub! We're geeking out over how Gong, the Revenue Intelligence leaders, are using DealHub.io to, well, rock their sales world! Their Deal Desk, RevOps, and Sales teams are all raving about the platform. Here's why DealHub is a hit at Gong: * Less Busywork, More High Fives: DealHub slashed manual work by 50%, freeing up time for what matters – closing those deals. * Crystal Clear Visibility: Say goodbye to pipeline mysteries! Everyone at Gong has a bird's eye view of the sales process. * Faster Sales Cycles: DealHub helped Gong accelerate their deal cycles, meaning quicker wins and happier customers. * Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Collaboration is key! DealHub fosters seamless communication between all of Gong's awesome teams. Curious how DealHub can boost your RevOps magic? Check out the full story! https://okt.to/WeHlgw #RevOpsLife #SalesTeamWins #DealHubLove #CustomerSpotlight

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Ashi from Gong is fast (😮‍💨10k) But not as fast as Gong Engage users when they use Lavender. Access to your Gong calls in our personalization assistant ✅ Access to our coach & "Ashi fast" personalization in Gong ✅ Better 🤝 Faster 3.0 (and so much more) coming soon

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Attention San Francisco! Join me and other RevOps pros at RevOps After Dark to discuss some of the hottest topics in revenue right now: -- AI & Tech. -- Strategic alignment. -- Collaboration. -- Market trends. -- The future of RevOps. Don't miss out on this opportunity to join the conversation & network with like-minded professionals. Check out the link for more information and feel free to share! #RevOps #SanFrancisco #Networking

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The results are in! Gong has been named a leader in the new report, The Forrester Wave™: Revenue Orchestration Platforms, Q3 2024. In this report, Forrester analyzed and scored 12 top vendors in the market. Gong received the highest scores possible for more criteria than any other vendor, including:   ⭐ Innovation ⭐ AI and automation differentiators ⭐ Range of analytics insights ⭐ Platform UX and integration “Gong’s AI reveals unique buyer and seller insights to improve deal outcomes. One of the few companies founded with AI at its core, Gong has used its nine-year AI résumé to create transformative insights for revenue organization." Check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/dzmzU62Y

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Should CRO’s even exist? Not if they’re going to be: - Super expensive glorified head of sales - With no marketing or CS experience - Compensated like an account executive  - No focus on ICP or aligning the entire GTM motion - No coordination with peers in cross-functions - No P&L fluency or ability to read a P&L  - Only focused on new business with no understanding of recurring impact - No knowledge of the bowtie or systems designed to deliver ongoing customer value - Have a short term view and only care about the quarter CROs should absolutely exist if they: - Can come from Marketing, CS, or RevOps not just Sales - Have foundational understanding and respect for other functions - Are compensated like all other executives - Are focused on driving tight alignment across the GTM motion - Are focused on collaborating across Sales, Marketing, CS leveraging data generated from RevOps - Are focused on a customer journey that begins when the prospect lands on the website and continues through at least 3 annual renewals - Have a deep knowledge of the bowtie  - Have built expertise as revenue architects - Have a long term view that balances short term urgency with long term enterprise value Revenue generation is a team sport. Recurring revenue is driven by recurring impact. If you’re leading the revenue function, you have to understand that and you have to be an expert at driving tight alignment across the customer journey to deliver that impact. This is the way.

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I am not trying to create "balanced" sellers Im trying to help create unfair advantages in the marketplace for the sellers I lead Finding different ways to say and teach the same two things is ultimately my enablement plan. Yes I said "my enablement plan" because enablement shouldn't be outsourced or delegated. Frontline leaders should own this but... Its not about a peanut butter spread of enablement topics to check a box that "we are enabled" across everything you could possibly be enabled on It has to start with identifying the 2 or 3 most impactful areas to focus that will drive the majority of forward progress If we break it down to its simplest form, sellers do this: Generate Pipeline --> Progress Pipeline --> Close Pipeline This year (and for the past 5 years) I have planted my enablement flag squarely in the first 2 buckets. I have found that if you can get really good at - Generating Pipeline - Progressing Pipeline Then the 3rd bucket takes care of itself 21 trainings delivered this year around those 2 topics As a result... We are damn good at pipeline generation We are damn good at creative contracting (pipe progression) Being damn good at those two things means that we always have deals to run at because our pipeline is full... And we have have the skills and tools necessary to create a win/win for any customer no matter the customer situation because we understand finance, cashflow, and how to structure deals to get the customer what they want, when they want it Let me keep it all the way real for a second though. There is a downside to this approach We are NOT very good at a lot of things Some would say that my team is a little out of balance with lots of improvement areas Public Service Announcement: Its intentional that we are good at the things we are good at which means that Its also intentional that we are NOT good at the things we are NOT good at because we dont focus on being good at those things. Not telling you what to do, just showing you that the 80/20 rule applies in frontline sales leadership too!

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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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Co-prospecting If you’re an AE that finds it difficult to carve an adequate amount of time to strategically prospect and you have SDR resources, you should be doing it. During my 8.5 years at Zoominfo, I worked closely with my BDRs, and 8 got promoted: Sam Sheehy, Kyle Volpe , John Basile, Stephanie Siegart, Adam Toothaker, Mark Verrill, Jeremy Delphonse, Steve Nino Sorry if I’m forgetting anyone. Here’s how it works: 📝 Map out your target accounts and identify the key people you want to meet with. This should be the cream of the crop. 🤝 Work with your SDR on messaging. It’s important to incorporate any ideas they have with your own. 🎯 Write an authentic personalized message. Give the prospect a unique compliment, give them insight into the problems you solve with an example, and without being overly salesly. Keep it short and simple. 🏹Finally introduce your BDR on the same email. This is setting them up to call them. You can always drip more content/ messaging. Be sure to follow up with some value. Remember it might take 10 or more touches to land the meeting. This day and age people send video, direct mail campaigns, etc.. This can all be a part of it. But remember not to overdo it. I personally stick to good customer stories. 🏋️This way you’ve done some heavy lifting for the SDR. If the prospect read the note, they are expecting the call, and have already been introduced to you and your company. 📞Now say you’ve done just a handful of these each day, say 5 on average. On Friday, you’ve got 25 calls you can make, easy. Do joint calling sessions with your BDR. Watch what happens to your opportunity creation results. This was a huge key to my success over the years. Be invested in getting your SDR to the next level, they will be movitated to get you meetings and thank you for it. Yes, that might include, giving your SDRs a free meeting once in a while that you prospected. Remember, it’s a team effort. Start co-prospecting today and share some results. #sales #prospecting #coprospecting #sdr #bdr

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What a quarter. Product market fit that is like nothing I've experienced before, world class engineering talent, incredible customers, and the beginnings of a GTM machine that I am so so so proud of and excited about. Some highlights: - We blew the doors off the number. What a statement quarter by the team. 225% to plan with a clear path to doing the same thing in Q2 (and beyond). - We did a deal that would have been the biggest deal at any company I've been at up to $100M in ARR. - Healthy mix of self-serve, mid-size deals, and large deals --> on top of the above, we did 20+ NNL (including one person doing more than 10 themselves). - We are working as a team -- the culture we're building is really special. People work hard, raise the bar, want to win together, are competitive, so so smart, kind, and want to deliver a tremendous amount of value to our customers. Importantly, we are having a lot of fun doing it. - The pace and quality of our engineering is a huge differentiator. Can't overstate the positive impact of having an engineering team that is maniacally focused on building amazing experiences for our customers. - We're measuring the value we're providing. 46% more code written by developers using Codeium, 7-10X ROI, 40-70% faster onboarding of new developers, forecastably faster PR release cycles -- having an AI product / team that focuses on quantifying the impact to our customers is...the best. - We hired a lot of wonderful people. Dave Frankel, Isaac Kim, Jacob Addington, Alex Laubscher -- I am so excited you're here and so energized by what we're going to build together. Welcome! Alex Hart, Andrew Amato, Jeff Wang, Anshul Ramachandran, Varun Mohan you guys have built such an amazing GTM foundation. Very excited to be on this journey with you all -- let's go build something generational! Douglas Chen and entire wonderful engineering team -- thank you all. What you all build is incredible and I am so fired up by what we have coming in the next few months. Want to try Codeium? Check out our free tier. We're hiring in all roles -- particularly (in GTM) looking for AEs, SEs, SDRs, RevOps in Austin / Mountain View.

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Sales reps today are overwhelmed — large books of business leave little time for prospecting, making it tough to drive growth. But with ZoomInfo Copilot, five minutes is all you need to check in with existing accounts, start an expansion conversation, and engage with a new, likely-to-buy prospect. Watch our own Jake Lehman demo ZoomInfo Copilot’s prioritized accounts, signals, and buying groups features. Coupled with the AI emailer, Jake crafts high-quality personalized outreach to three companies in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee. #ZoomInfoCopilot

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“SDRs are lazy.” “SDRs don’t care about revenue.”  “SDRs don’t take ownership.” If any of these sound familiar, I’ve got news for you: the problem is 𝘯𝘰𝘵 your SDRs—it’s how they’re being managed. Here’s how we approach this at SpotDraft and empower our SDRs to take true ownership: 𝟭. 𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘆𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀: We’ve designed a replicable process that allows anyone on the team to hit around 80% of their target. But getting to 100%? That takes extra effort. The stretch keeps things challenging and motivating. 𝟮. 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀: We don’t just hand out targets. We give our SDRs full visibility into the company’s broader goals, so they know exactly how their work ties into the bigger picture and what’s at stake if we miss targets. 𝟯. 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝗗𝗥𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀: My SDRs are closely involved in 2-3 deals every quarter, right through to closure. This helps them understand the entire sales cycle, customer pain points, and the AE’s perspective on things. We also offer additional incentives for closed-won deals, helping shift their focus from just SQLs to overall revenue impact and see the bigger picture. 𝟰. 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: Whether it’s processes, tech stack updates, or new initiatives that directly impact them, our SDRs are part of the conversation. This involvement creates a sense of ownership and significantly boosts their engagement. 𝟱. 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝘀: Too many orgs treat SDRs like second-class citizens while relying on them to build the entire pipeline. It’s time we change this mindset as an industry. SDRs are just as critical to a company’s success as any other role, and they should be treated that way. 𝟲. 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Enablement isn’t just about skills—it’s about motivation. Writing personalized emails that get left unopened or facing constant rejection on cold calls, can drop morale. We focus on recognizing small wins and giving the team opportunities to recharge, like team dinners or virtual hangouts. 𝟳. 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳𝗳: Once SDRs are trained to hit targets and understand what conversion rates look like, let them plan their outreach. A manager’s role is to advise, not develop every strategy for them. Step in when they’re stuck but encourage them to try things on their own first. 𝟴. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗸𝗮𝘆: As Akshay Doshi always says, “𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵-𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴.” It's only a problem if you make the same mistake again. When SDRs aren’t afraid to make mistakes, they feel empowered, take higher ownership, and have faith in management to back them up. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝗗𝗥𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽? #sdr #sales #leadership #growth #spotdraft

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What wins in a discovery conversation has changed. How do we know? Topics we typically only see *after* discovery, is now showing up *in* discovery calls that convert. Successful reps are now doing two things early: (1) Clearly describing their time-to-value advantage 104% more usage of talk tracks re: implementation, ease-of-integration, post-sales support in successful discovery calls. All else being equal, your ability to deliver *quicker* than your competitor is your advantage. (2) Being ultra-clear about customers' ability to pilot They need to know you can de-risk their investment by partnering with them on building a business case on real (not imagined) value demonstrated. Why? The CFO / Finance functions have gotten more involved in every purchase post the 2021-2022 sass downturn. No business case, no buy. 47% more usage of pilot & proof-of-concept talk tracks in successful discovery calls (Gong data, last 2 quarters)

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"Artificial intelligence without real intelligence is not valuable," - Alex Lazerowich, AVP, Enterprise Sales and Account Management at ZoomInfo AI won't replace your sales job, but it will enhance it. Hear what Alex has to say about AI's role in the sales department below 👇

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🌟 Key Lessons from Our Sales Compensation Webinar! 🌟 Thank you to Ryan and Graham at QuotaPath for an amazing, educational webinar on designing effective sales compensation plans. Here are the top five lessons we learned: ✅ Align Compensation with Corporate Goals: Ensure sales compensation plans are in line with overall corporate objectives to drive the right behaviors and outcomes. ✅ Keep Plans Simple and Motivating: Avoid overly complex plans. Use the “pizza topping rule” – too many components make it confusing and less effective. ✅ Incorporate Accelerators and Decelerators: Use these to reward overperformance and manage underperformance, maintaining motivation and fairness. ✅ Regularly Review and Adjust Plans: Sales environments change. Regularly assess the effectiveness of your sales compensation plans and adjust as necessary. ✅ Focus on Customer Profitability: Design plans that incentivize reps to close deals that lead to high customer lifetime value (LTV) and profitability. Takeaways 🚀 Implementing these strategies can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your sales compensation plans. A well-designed comp plan is not just about paying your sales team but about driving the right behaviors that align with your business goals. If you'd like to catch the replay and the amazing slides (great reference), you can find it in the Sales module of my No Fluff series. Grab it here: https://lnkd.in/gqtTrTDJ

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Many former and current Gong sales reps are now sharing their playbooks and online training on LinkedIn. Generic, one-size-fits-all playbooks and training rarely produce sustainable, scalable results. They're useful for individual contributors, but not for driving teamwide behavior change. On the other end of the spectrum, Challenger offers research-backed advice, but that research is nearly 15 years old. Drawing from our experience rolling out proven methodologies—like MEDDPICC, Command of the Message, Value Selling, and Challenger—and coaching elite sellers at companies such as Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, AWS, SAP, Workday, and Cisco, here are four strategies to help you achieve sustained success in 2025: 1. Design a Buyer Enablement Sales Process Shift focus from exit criteria to stage-specific desired buyer behaviors. This approach should be based on patterns observed in Closed-Won deals, with the primary goal of guiding reps through the buyer’s journey—not just checking off sales milestones. 2. Incorporate Data-Driven Insights Use insights from resources like the 2024 Sales Benchmark Report from Ebsta and Pavilion, which identifies key behaviors that set top performers—those achieving 10x results—apart from others. Leveraging this data will help inform process decisions rooted in proven performance. 3. Develop Sales Process Playbooks Codify how your top sellers approach each stage of the sales process with playbooks tailored to your verticals, market segments, personas, use cases, and messaging. This specificity empowers your team to replicate strategies that work in your context. 4. Build a Playbook Curriculum and Technology-Enable It Deliver a structured curriculum that steps through each playbook stage, defining stage-relevant learning objectives and deal-specific workshops. Use technology, like our Winroom buyer enablement software, to make these playbooks accessible and actionable for both buyers and sellers, moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach. --- Equip your team with these proven, high-impact strategies and watch them crush targets, dominate the competition, and set a new standard for elite performance in 2025 and beyond. Yes, it’s a significant investment in time and effort—it could take six months to implement this approach on your own. Or, you can leverage our frameworks, software, and expertise to be up and running in 30 days for the cost of one or two average deals. Our data shows this approach leads to faster and higher conversion rates, improved win rates, fewer slipped deals, and better forecast accuracy.

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