Adrian Hunter

For AEC focused startups, think about GTM this way. For scale and keeping CAC metrics in line. Bottom Up. PLG for PLG : Product Led Growth for Project Led Growth - User focused marketing - frictionless on boarding - No Sales Function (it’s too expensive) Enterprise: Leverage Project based success to sell to the enterprise. - High Level Solution Sales - Proven ROI Metrics - Make the CFO your champion - Have a well thought out - ABM strategies work well here. Enterprise Solution vs Discounted offering for bulk purchase. Spec to Check: Build generic specifications for your product and work with A/E firms to get them placed. This is for Construction Tech Specific. Owner Influence - Everyone’s ultimate customer. - Brand awareness - Thought Leadership - Building Type Specifc Marketing. We have an entire playbook on this type of stuff. Also what we teach in our stage agnostic incubator.

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Hot Take… RIP #PLG, Long Live #SLG But before you throw shade, let me explain… 🔹 There are undoubtedly exceptions, I’m sure many will highlight monday.com, Freshworks, etc. 🔹 PLG works well for low ACV deals with low CAC… think SMB and mid-market customers. Target CAC payback <12 months 🔹 PLG is a fantastic top of funnel marketing channel for enterprise sales ⭐ But for 6-figure enterprise sales, you need enterprise salespeople pressing the flesh with customers

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With quota attainment at 42.7% in Q2-24 (RepVue data), your comp plans matter more than ever. We hosted Gabe Rothman on #RevOps Lab to chat about about comp planning for complex scenarios. CONTEXT Background on Rescale: - Consumption pricing - Margin on deals fluctuate - Customer buy credits over time - Spend fluctuate The context above can create very complicated comp plans. Instead, Gabe and his team choose to what he refers to 1st principles: - Limit complexity - Be outcome oriented - Don’t overcommit - Bend reality to your will The outcome 1. Comp on bookings (new logo, expansion, renewals) - Easy to understand - Transparent 2. Hedge P&L risk for company - Compensation isn't a contract - Opt-out clause for deals where margin creates business risks 3. Excellence in Ops & Finance - Finance & Ops predict margin via Deal Desk - Commission is based on key business fundamentals - Reduces complexity for AEs Any tips on comp plans worth sharing? Comment 👇 -- 🔊 Listen to the full episode - link to RevOps Lab in my profile ♻ Share with your friends Thanks for sharing those invaluable lessons w/ our audience, Gabe! #revops #saas

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KNOW YOUR REAL BUSINESS ECONOMICS • GAAP Revenue • Cash Flow • Cash • Contribution Margin • CAC • CAC Payback FUNDRAISING: PRESENT & SUBSTANTIATE FINANCIALS • Investor needs to know what your forecasts are • They need to believe them David Weiden, Khosla Ventures

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I meet and talk with 5-10 of the greatest GTM minds on the planet every week. CRO’s, VPs of Sales, CMO’s. 100% agree that getting outbound right is one of the hardest parts of their business, why? 1. Recruiting is hard again The same voices that sold tech sales as an easy path to 6 figures are now the voices saying the BDR role is dead. They sold a bill of goods to people who didn’t understand how hard this role is, are surprised these people who chose a path because it was sold as “easy” aren’t performing, and now have ulterior motives to pivot to a new message. Hard jobs are hard to recruit for. 2. Lack of Leadership 2020 through mid 2022 we had a bunch of capital bloat and talent bloat enter the market. Just like we have overvalued “zombie” companies we have overvalued “zombie” leaders who don’t know how to coach good habits for this type of market. Outbound was easy from 2014ish to summer 2022. 8 years is a long time, most of the voices we hear only know those times or only know what type of sales motion. 3. Absolute statements muddy the waters I've been around the block enough to click on their profile and see their track record. 99.9% of folks make these statements only sold transactional commodity technology, sold to GTM teams, or in most cases – only both. What works depends on multiple factors: ASP, buyer persona, and complexity of your sales process/customer’s buying process. Depending on what you sell – sometimes you are going to need to pick up the phone or send a note to get someone’s attention. That will NEVER change. 4. Generational consideration for career pathing is key BDR is still hands down the best route to market for future AE’s. You have to learn to prospect and get meetings before you can run a meeting, qualify, and manage a deal. No argument from me on CAC math – thousands of products require veracious qualification, deal management, and creating customer consensus. You can not run those types of deals and prospect. If any Voice had EVER done that type of role or ran a team that did, they wouldn’t say what they are. For BDRs to stick around for more than 14 months, you need steps in the BDR path where comp, responsibility and role grow over time. 5. Results are tanking Point 1&2. You are the equivalent of a fire fighter that starts a fire then takes the glory when you put it out. I absolutely loved the movie Backdraft – but stop it. These are the ideas of “not famous” GTM people. People who spend all day serving their customer and developing their people – not posting on this platform. They don’t care about clicks, followers, or impressions. They care about revenue and earnings. Outbound is hard. It (almost) always has been. Ya’ll need to block the noise and focus on what works for your business and try everything. Even the hard stuff. #AllGasNoBrakes #DialedIn

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It all about networks and relationships!

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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.

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What do winners do? Well, WIN! 🏆 Pumped to see 6Sense absolutely crushing it and leading the pack in the latest Forrester Wave for B2B Revenue Marketing Platforms, Q3 2024! 🚀 This isn't just a win—it's a statement. 6Sense is pulling away from the crowd with their game-changing #AIthatBuildsPipeNotHype and killer 6Sense Revenue AI. They’re setting the standard for what it means to drive revenue in B2B marketing today. Curious about what makes them the best? Check out the full report here: Forrester Wave Report: https://lnkd.in/erd4AfNZ Cheers to the team Jason Zintak Viral Bajaria Latané Conant (she/her) Mark Ebert for this massive achievement! Who’s ready to take their marketing game to the next level? Drop your thoughts below! ⬇️ #B2BMarketing #6Sense #ForresterWave #AccountBased #AI #MarketingExcellence

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I believe two of the big winners over the next 10 years in the SMB category will be PE who are rolling up the businesses and GenAI powered software that makes running these businesses significantly more turnkey and/or profitable. Thanks for having me on Jay Kapoor. If you want spicy takes fast forward to 25 min mark. If you want to get deep in market analysis buckle in for the whole thing. https://lnkd.in/d8M7Jyrx

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Benchmarkit dropped its 2024 B2B SaaS survey, check it out! Confirms what many of the SaaS founders told me in a tough 2023: shrinking growth rates, tougher NRR environment, and lower "magic numbers". Still great businesses to own and scale, but a tougher operating environment spilled over into the M&A numbers. Lets hope for a 2024 bounce back! Thanks Ray Rike for the great work here. How does your business stack up? https://lnkd.in/gVpfQAdU #saas #benchmarking

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🔥 What the top operators discussed in the Operators Guild's open Q&A forum between July 28 and August 2… 💡 Messaging / Positioning Workshop Facilitators – Seeking recommendations for experts in developing enterprise SaaS brand messaging for internal workshops. 📊 Fractional Customer Success Leader – Looking for someone experienced in building CS programs and teams, or recommendations for the same. 💰 Product Launch Readiness – Tips and templates for setting product launches involving ops teams up for success, including milestones, timelines, feedback loops, and roles. 🔍 Debt Collection Agencies – Recommendations for good collection agencies in the US for uncollectible invoices. 🖥 Fractional CFO for Semiconductor Business – Searching for someone with significant experience working in the semiconductor industry. For these and many other hot takes and goodness —> come check out Operators Guild. 🚀 #Finance #Operations #TechLeadership #OGCommunity

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Got to ring in 1 year with GTMfund & GTMnow with our team and community in San Diego. It’s been an exciting year for us. A few highlights: 🟢 Acquired Sales Hacker and rebranded it as GTMnow. 🟢 Consistently sharing exclusive content with 50k+ revenue leaders through a weekly newsletter, podcast, and more across multiple channels. 🟢 Provided 2,000+ candidate introductions for portfolio companies. 🟢 Supported portfolio companies with go-to-market strategy, intros, and much more. 🟢 Incubated our first company, Operator. 🟢 Hosted 10 dinners globally, connecting our community in NYC, Boston, Toronto, LA, San Francisco, and more. 🟢 Held our third annual retreat in San Diego. 🟢 And many more exciting things we can’t yet share. Someone once told me that when you have the magic, you know. If you get it in your career, you’re very lucky. Some people spend their entire careers chasing it. It didn’t take me long to realize we have the magic. Max Altschuler – a visionary who also operates in the details, and gets $*** done. Someone told me at an event last year right after I joined, “I would bet on Max every single time. He doesn’t lose. All I want to do is find more ways to give him my support.” That sums it up well, and I would be at the front of the line for any ship he’s flying. Pictured: quite literally following Max and the team into the abyss / off a cliff. Scott Barker – one of the most special humans out there. I distinctly remember the moment when I realized how much work was simply premised off individual brilliance. Someone so good at their craft while always looking at the bigger picture, every conversation leaves you better than you were before. Grateful is an understatement. Paul Irving – after a year of trying to understand how he covers enough ground for at least 7 other people, I’ve realized that it simply can’t be replicated. I’ve never met someone who actually defines the notion of people singing your praises when you’re not in the room like how people speak about Paul. If you know Paul, you know. Amit Aloni – reliable, resourceful, and always willing to jump in. Never hesitant to learn something new, jump on an ask, or do whatever it takes to level things up. Vaibhavi Nesarikar, CPA, MBA – intelligent, engaging, and a pleasure to work with. So much so that when we went for coffee the first time, we decided to also go for dinner. Can’t wait for Austin together. Joan Mirano – the backbone of the team, ensuring everything runs smoothly with precision and grace. Endless appreciation! The magic comes from a unique combination of internal team and an incredible ecosystem: ⚫ 100+ of the best GTM operators who are LPs in GTMfund, constantly blowing us away with their support and commitment. ⚫ 100+ portfolio companies who inspire us daily. It’s a privilege to be part of their journey. ⚫ 50k+ and growing revenue leaders in the GTMnow community. I’m so excited for what’s ahead! One word: grateful. Just getting started 🚀

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Want to talk GTM? Join us on October 2nd at Gasworks Brewing for another round of Seattle Founders GTM. #founders #entrepreneurs #startups #gtm Sign up with the link below.

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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 something in your sales process isn't working, you need to look 1-2 stages back for root cause. If we aren't converting initial meetings into next steps> are we targeting right personas and is our messaging aligned with our buyers priorities and problems? If we are getting stuck in proposal > did we do the right discovery? If we are getting slammed for discounts at the end > did we build a compelling value discussion before we got into commercials? If something isn't working, the answer is almost always 1-2 stages back.

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we're making progress with a Slack app that automates driving more & better practice / outputs / behaviors with your AEs & other sellers… goal: make role-playing practice more manageable, realistic, & consistent while applying it to actual deals during prep ofc we're plugging into AI for some fun feedback loops too 😊 our next phase is seeing how more teams react to decide what to build for early customers. we can focus on anything you're looking to improve right now: outbounding, cold calling, disco, negotiation, storytelling, improv, forecasting, testing champs, etc... let me know if you want to test it out with your team, or it's easy to get started with the link below. thx!

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Struggling to measure ongoing knowledge in sales enablement? AI is the game-changer we need. How do you measure your AEs knowledge and readiness over time? Take a monthly quiz? I am pretty sure they’ll leave as fast as they can. Most CROs I know use the proxy of ARR closed as a measure of AE proficiency in product knowledge. But what about when the market goes down? The best of AEs don’t bring in money. That doesn't mean that their enablement is bad. Also, your AEs know details of some topics and for some others, they need help. Today, companies don't really have a way to measure and do focused enablement for such cases. (some exemplary enablement folks find ways) I believe AI will be a game changer here. It can analyze the QnA every AE faces on calls and emails, and create knowledge trend lines by ranking those answers. Resulting in an continually updated stack rank of AEs. Imagine a leaderboard for AEs by knowledge trends: identify the bottom 20%, provide targeted training, and track their progress. Real, measurable improvements for Sales.

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The future of sales isn't just about automating as much as we can—it's about augmentation and balance between tech and human capabilities. 🤖🤝 In the latest post on the Clarify‎ blog, my co-founder Austin Hay‎ dives into the why and how behind this need for balance. ⚖️  As our tools have become more advanced, they've also become less effective. Why? Because everyone's using the same AI-powered playbook.  Our customers are more aware of–and more burnt out by–over-used AI strategies than ever. This means more outreach ends up in spam every day. 😬 So, what's the solution? It's not about abandoning technology, but about using it more intelligently.  Here are some of the key insights Austin shares: 🧠 Context is king: We need AI that understands deep patterns in customer behavior, not just surface-level personalization. 🔄 Rethink CRMs: Imagine systems that actively provide insights without manual input, freeing us to focus on relationship-building. 💡 Quality over quantity: Use AI to identify the most promising leads and craft genuinely valuable interactions. 🤝 Enhance, don't replace: The goal is to use tech to amplify our human skills, not substitute them. 📊 Redefine success metrics: It's not just about volume anymore—focus on engagement quality and long-term relationship building. This shift presents both challenges and opportunities for founders and product builders. How do we create solutions that leverage AI while preserving that crucial human element? How do we build tools that enhance, rather than replace, genuine human connection? 🤔 The answer: Use AI not as a replacement for human interaction, but as a powerful tool to augment our capabilities. It should handle routine tasks and provide deeper insights, freeing up our teams to do what humans do best: Understand nuanced needs, provide strategic value, and build lasting relationships. ❤️ I’ll link Austin’s blog in the comments for folks who want to learn more. 🔗 I’d also love to hear your thoughts: How are you navigating the balance between automation and human touch in your business?

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