Laura Zupan

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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Navigate through the noise and streamline prospecting with ZoomInfo Copilot.  Copilot delivers personalized daily feeds of your top accounts — including high-quality signals, account summaries, buyer intent, competitive intel, and actionable next steps.  Get everything you want and need to know about your prospects or customers right at your fingertips.  Don't just take our word for it! Request a demo to see Copilot in action: bit.ly/3Kj4myP #ZoomInfoCopilot

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Want to break into the exciting world of tech sales? Or interested in accelerating and growing your sales career? Catch a replay of our "Insider Insights: Career Advice from Salesforce Women in Tech Sales," panel — streaming exclusively on LinkedIn. You'll learn from a group of all-star saleswomen building exciting careers as they share their favorite pieces of career advice, and what brought them to Salesforce.

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The job of your sales enablement tech isn't to drive product usage, give you more data, help you pass quizzes or beat bots. The job is to make you more money, by making your reps better. If you improve what your team says and how they say it, you'll generate more leads, close more deals, and boost retention rates. That's why 90% of GTM orgs invest in sales enablement tech. The upside of solving the real issue is huge. YET 90% of the things you teach reps never get used in front of clients. Your tech stack is failing you, and they're probably putting the blame on you rather than looking at themselves. Regardless of what tools you use, your reps don't practice, don't receive enough feedback and you likely have no idea if A) taught skills get used with actual clients and B) if it impacts your actual business. This is why we have struggled with how to describe what we're doing. Because AI Roleplay, Conversational Intelligence, Feedback Automation and even Learning Management Systems just don't cut it when it comes to doing those things. Our entire point of view is that you need 3 things. Practice, Feedback and Measurement. Think of it like an Enablement Trinity. If you solve for that, you unlock the full potential of every client interaction. Everybody wins. The job-to-be-done is not to use a product. The job-to-be-done is to actually adopt the things you're taught. We are creating the world's first Training Adoption Platform.

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I joined Salesforce at the start of the pandemic in May of 2020. It felt like a risk taking a contractor position when so much was happening in the world at the time. But this was Salesforce, the company I had dreamed of working at since starting my career in digital marketing. Salesforce was always "the Show" in my mind, the pinnacle of marketing and technology, and even when the world shut down and people were losing their jobs all around me, the chance to work for Salesforce was too good to pass up. That first year as a contractor was a wild one. I was learning how to operate in an enterprise company for the first time just as Salesforce was learning how to operate in a remote-only world. In a couple of months I went from pulling reports and building dashboards to presenting to sales executives who'd been at the company longer than I'd been a working adult. I met with my manager Megan Buell Hogeboom almost daily, convinced I was going to mess this whole thing up and be found out as a fraud. But with a lot of coaching from her as well as support from the many colleagues and teammates that I only knew through Google Meet, I grew more confident and started really doing the job. A year later, I was converted to a full-time employee. And now, three years after that, my life is unrecognizable. I have grown as a professional as well as a person in ways I would have found inconceivable in 2020. I have done some of the most rewarding work of my life at Salesforce, developed business acumen and skills I never would have otherwise, and become someone who strives to bring value to an organization as well as the world at large. Salesforce has seen me through a divorce, through traveling the country in a van, through home ownership, and through caretaking for a parent. I have met lifelong friends at this company as well as mentors and managers that have transformed the trajectory of my career. I am incredibly grateful for my time at Salesforce, as well as for the many people I've worked with here, supported, or been coached by (I could never list them all, but some include Anthony Rizzo, Cicely P., Gema Rayo, Jacqueline Cone, Jared MontBlanc, Jenny Duda, Matthew Gryll, Meghan Gendelman, Michael G., Ryan Radding, Tracy Foster, Zand Ushijima, and of course Megan Buell Hogeboom who gave me this incredible opportunity in the first place). Through all the ups and downs, I count myself lucky every day to be here, and I can't wait to keep riding the wave 🏄‍♂️

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Most of you won’t know till it’s too late The year is wrapping up and companies are going to continue to do layoffs Every org I’ve worked for in the Saas space has now done a round or more of layoffs ultimately affecting people I’m close with Each person saying they’re going to take some time before looking again They got a decent severance and they’re going to use it to rest and recover My one piece of advice to anyone thinking the same thing DON’T WAIT Listen up… Applications and resumes don’t mean shit anymore There are AI platforms people have develop to apply at mass, clogging the application well Which results in screening apps making it nearly impossible to move from a blind application to the intro call Timeline…get ready for the long haul Average time it takes for people to land there next role, 4-5 months With a single interview process taking an average 2-3 months to complete And that’s if they don’t decide to push it, which, rid the season Show up and show off Competition is crazier than ever and if you’re not willing to go the extra mile, bet your ass someone else will If you aren’t networking like a sales person at a SaaS convention, here’s your sign 💢 80% of my interviews came from referrals or intros from connections I’ve made on here 💢 19% came from previous customers or prospects that I built rapport with 💢 1% came from applications I submitted directly…and I applied like it was going out of style No one has ever said “I wish I didn’t connect with so many people” Build now and thank yourself later #hiring

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Looking to increase your renewal rates before year-end? 📈 Account Manager Ari Manin reveals how ZoomInfo Copilot empowers him to walk into every renewal call fully prepared. With access to critical insights about his accounts, like customer use cases, recent interactions, and pain points, Ari can address each client’s needs head-on — without hours of prep. Ready to see Copilot in action? Request a demo: bit.ly/3ApQeCG

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demandDrive, the industry-leading integrated sales and marketing agency, is transforming their prospecting efforts with the help of ZoomInfo. 🤝 🏁 ☀ AJ Alonzo, Director of Marketing at demandDrive and ZoomInfo Champion, shares how ZoomInfo WebSights helps his team uncover insights about website visitors' behavior — allowing them to personalize outbound efforts and improve their prioritization processes. The result? Millions of dollars in ARR. Learn how demandDrive is turning page views into pipeline with ZoomInfo: bit.ly/4dgBN1G

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Well said. Lars Nilsson and Travis Henry are the exceptions here, as they've built a world-class SDR/Sales Training program at Snowflake. Anyone who goes through that onboarding program is learning a lot more than the average onboarding program of {{insert_random_SeriesA_startup}}. I'm curious, what other modern B2B SaaS GTM Orgs have invested in building out world-class onboarding programs?

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Nearly three-quarters of sales professionals say their role feels more like consulting today. That means sellers need to be true experts — not just in their products, but in their prospects’ needs and challenges. 🧠 To win, you need a sales enablement strategy that empowers reps to dive deeper, learn faster, and deliver more value in every conversation. Check out our five-step framework to build a winning sales enablement program that drives real results: bit.ly/4d14zCK

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Thanks to joining a lot of sales calls, I’ve learned from talented salespeople on ways to overcome these 3 sales meeting nightmares: 1. Prospects start multitasking on the call. You’re giving an awesome demo but see the trouble brewing…you can tell the prospect is checking their phone or is clearly distracted. Is there any way to turn back? 📵 The way to fight this fear is twofold: acknowledge it’s not just you, and try different things to see what works best. In Calendly’s State of Meetings Report, 52% of workers admit to multitasking often or always during virtual meetings with 2+ attendees. So this is a common thing! https://bit.ly/3U9ebEG Now, you can focus on getting them re-engaged. Some of the best ways I’ve seen sales peers do this are: -ask something unexpected to catch their attention. - stop and get their opinion, then further build on that. - give them a simple to-do (such as following up on a specific topic with their team) so they're more committed. 2. Assumptions or plans go awry. The slides look beautiful, your talking points are fully laid out... then the prospect throws a curveball. You can feel backed into a corner without a clear way to get out. 🔀 There is a way to banish this haunting situation. I love this tip from an interview between Morgan J Ingram and Jen Allen-Knuth: approach calls like a dance with key stages you want to hit on and ‘if, then’ moments to follow their lead and take the call in the right direction. Watch the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/eV3UxWxp Build out questions to form a path for the discussion. If the prospect says this or if they object to this, then you know where to go and what to ask next to make the conversation valuable. 3. The deal doesn’t have 'deal insurance'. You’ve got your go-to champion, but they aren’t the only decision maker, and you fall into the black hole of a deal that doesn’t move forward. ✅ You’ve got safeguards for other things in your life and should also have deal insurance. This Masterclass series digs into this important point that can often be overlooked until it’s too late: https://lnkd.in/e3E7Qam7 Your future self will thank you if you take the time to get more people vouching to buy your product or solution. There's always a skeptic in any deal, and you need to be ready to face them. Would love to hear any other sales meeting nightmares you’ve faced, and how you solved it!

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Case studies are a pain in the ass. They're filled with blockers like: - convincing your CSMs to let you talk to their customer - getting a customer to spend time talking to you - booking time and then your POC has to reschedule - getting a transcript of the recording - listening back to your own voice (ugh) to find the good stuff - writing something meaningful with just enough detail but not too much and finally... - publishing that case study - showing your case study to the sales team so they'll use it Some of these blockers are bigger than others but if you've ever gone through the process of creating a case study, you were with me from "pain in the ass". But they're a necessary element for B2B SaaS. Prospects *do* want to know what others have accomplished with your help. Publishing wins from a variety of customers is important for your SEO. And people just... expect them at this point. I gotta tell you, I used to dread case studies but I've been testing out Laudable for my case study production and it's gonna be a game changer, and I don't use that term lightly. In less time then it takes Zoom to process the call recording I can produce an entire case study and a wins slide for my team! Is it perfect? No. Does it get me 90% of the way there? Absolutely. And I dunno about you but if I can do 90% less work in one of the many areas I cover, I'm taking it. Anywho, Ryan Quindlen 🦇 or Angela Ferrante can hook you up with your own demo/trial account to see for yourself. Oh and I'll probably get in trouble for this with Blake Imperl since it's Not On Brand™ but if you want to read about what Ellyn Stastny shared with me about Pvolve's success with Digioh, I'll link it in the comments.

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Every customer I speak with wants to unlock the magic ✨ of Slack and Salesforce together to boost productivity and deliver incredible customer experiences. If you work in sales, Slack Sales Elevate is the key! 🔑 By natively integrating Sales Cloud in Slack, Elevate helps you centralize all of your information in one place, simplify processes, and automate admin tasks – so your team can focus on selling. I led sales teams myself for over two decades, which is why I’m especially excited that TODAY we’re releasing a new user experience in Elevate for sales leaders – with access to AI, automation, and a personalized view of your team’s performance that will give you all the insights you need to help your sellers be more productive and close more deals. Read on to learn how Elevate can transform the way your sales team works. Or visit us in-person tomorrow at #SalesforceTour NYC to hear from our Slack experts and catch the Elevate super demo!

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There’s a conundrum when it comes to measuring sales training impact… I’ve worked with a lot of enablement teams that use leading indicators to measure training impact: Workshop Attendance Gong Recordings SFDC Hygiene Rep Surveys The problem: There’s no clear way to connect these metrics to business outcomes. Then, on the other side, you have teams that focus mainly on lagging indicators: Win Rate Pipeline Creation Sales Cycle Length Average Contract Value The problem: It takes a minimum of 3 months to see any results, and even if you do, no one believes that the changes can be attributed to sales training. Basically, if you focus too far down the funnel, no one believes you, but if you focus too far up the funnel, no one cares. Here are the only 3 questions you need to be able to answer to know if your training worked: 1/ Did reps use the training? Did they show up and engage during the session? Are they practicing the skills covered? Are their skills improving as a result of practice? 2/ Is there a clear change in outputs as a result of the new behavior? This is where you can think about leading indicators like (talk ratio, buyer engagement, and business case creation) 3/ Did the the new behavior lead to a change in key outcomes. This is where you tie a thread from the leading indicator to the lagging indicator. (Eg. What’s our win-rate on opportunities that include a business case?) The team over at Replicate Labs are taking what used to be a long drawn out process of measuring impact (that involved lots of help from RevOps), and turning it into a few simple steps. They’ve built one of the only training adoption platforms I’ve seen that allows you to see how practice produces outputs that lead to outcomes. If you’re tired of relying on surveys or waiting 3+ months to see results that no one believes your team influenced, reach out to James Pursey, and see for yourself.

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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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AI is changing how we handle onboarding for new AEs and CSMs. We have so much more data to share with folks on day 1, whether it’s: → Opportunities and accounts in SFDC that are nearly complete; → Slack Deal Rooms and Account Rooms that have all the previous calls captured and summarized; or → Real-time signals on sentiment, product feedback, and feature requests. The goal? Use comprehensive data to guide the process. Here’s how we’re seeing companies leverage AI to onboard their teams faster: 1/ Full context from Day 1. Skip the hours of hand-holding. Give new hires instant access to key conversations, deal history, and customer insights — all neatly organized by AI. You can cut onboarding time in half by ensuring new reps can dive into live data immediately, instead of guessing their way through the pipeline. 2/ Automate the admin stuff. New hires waste so much time on manual CRM updates. Automate it. With tools like Momentum, everything gets logged automatically, so your new reps can focus on selling — not filling out fields. 3/ Real-time coaching. Don’t wait until the next call review. With AI-powered tools, your reps get live feedback while they’re on the call. They learn in the moment, correct mistakes faster, and pick up the nuances without needing weeks of ramp time. 4/ Measure progress instantly. You’ll know exactly where they’re thriving or struggling — because it’s all tracked. If someone’s not following up, missing key details, or taking the wrong approach, you can fix it on the fly. We’ve seen companies shave weeks off their onboarding cycle by giving people real-time access to deal / account summaries and call data. That’s a win for everyone. 🙌

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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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I gave my team the last day of May off, and even though this may sound counter-intuitive for someone with a sales and AM background, it has a purpose. HubSpot has a “unlimited PTO” benefit for all employees, so as soon as I joined the team, a part of my research phase during the first months into the role was understanding how this benefit was being used. To my surprise, I noticed the team was not using it as much, mostly because they were very committed to their metrics and productivity. I know that sounds positive from a management perspective, but if the company has such a great culture and offers this benefit, I understand it’s my job to make sure they are using it - especially knowing so many companies that claim offering it in job descriptions, but in reality it’s all BS. I’m not trying to sound like the cool boss here. I’m still learning how to be a manager, and this is one of my bets for building a solid culture within our team. My goals with this are: 🧡 That the team is comfortable taking time off when they are clearly delivering what’s expected of them ⏱️ That they are motivated to reach their leading and lagging indicators with anticipation, so we don’t depend on a chaotic last day of the month 📈 That they are motivated to go above and beyond when customers and other hubspotters need them, knowing they can slow down whenever they feel like it’s necessary for their well-being, no matter when it is. I’ll keep testing out creative ways to reach these goals by using this benefit, maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. We’ll see. But I woke up today, June 1st, opened slack just to check if something had happened while the whole team was out, and it was all in place. :) #hubspotlife #worklifebalance #teamcaramelo

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Is your team missing out on Request for Proposal (RFP) opportunities? With ZoomInfo, you can stay ahead of the competition by uncovering RFPs weeks — or even months — before they're officially announced. Watch as Sales Manager Andrew Kier demonstrates how ZoomInfo helps you to: • Discover upcoming RFPs tailored to your industry • Use advanced filters and keywords to refine your search • Gain insight into competitors bidding on the same contracts The best part? ZoomInfo Copilot automatically delivers these insights to your team, freeing them up to focus on engaging prospects and winning deals — not running reports. #ZoomInfoCopilot

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