Lindsay Stevens

❌ Manual errors are more common than you'd think, and when they occur, the blame game begins. Is it the AE who closed the deal without updating details in their CRM? Rev Ops for not validating the contract? Or Revenue Accounting for closing the books with incorrect data? The finger-pointing can be endless! 👉 Avoid the blame game entirely with Klarity's GenAI platform. Our advanced AI eliminates manual errors and automates complex tasks such as document review, data extraction, validation, and analysis (all while staying compliant with accounting standards 😉). ⚡ Let Klarity handle the details with precision, so your team can focus on what they do best. #accountingautomation #accounting #klarity #revenuerecognition #revops #contractreview #monthend

51

3 Comments

Territory design is crucial to setting up your sales team (and business!) for success. But with so many strategies to choose from, how do you decide on your approach? The folks over at RevOps Co-op get into the nitty gritty 👇 https://gag.gl/Nm2xoO #RevOps #Data #DataQuality

3

You know what sucks? Telling an incredible BDR - "Thanks, but no thanks." I just had a multi-week interaction with an amazing BDR that understood my challenges and provided a few great teasers on why I should connect on a call and discuss how we could work together. 💪 Outreach: Superb 📲 Communication: Excellent 🖥 Demo: Fantastic 😇 Personality: Phenomenal 📈 Fit for our needs: Spot on ⌛ Timing: Terrible 💲 Cost: Not feasible today Even if you do everything right, the answer can still be 'no' due to factors outside of your control. When faced with rejection the BDR said something to the effect of "When should I circle back to turn that 'no' into a 'maybe'? What can I do in the coming weeks and months to showcase the value our platform can bring to Callvu? We want to be a business partner for you instead of just another software vendor". They were selling past the "no" and they didn't dump me into a disqualified stage of their funnel prematurely. They were passionate about their technology and genuinely wanted to help us overcome our obstacles and have committed to staying in touch through 2024 - not through some nurture campaign, but through real human connection. We're grabbing some beers in a few weeks. 🍻 They will 100% win my business when the time is right. Hopefully they’ll be the AE for the account when that time comes. 🤑 Be passionate. Be helpful. Be human. 

33

2 Comments

The best proof is always customer proof. Qualified works.

10

Sam Jacobs does a great job calling out CROs who are just glorified heads of sales. The inflated C-level title is why there is often friction with heads of marketing, and why in the CMO community a major red flag is reporting to a CRO and not the CEO or President. The modern CRO needs depth in sales, marketing, and CS - plus some finance, to successfully do their job. If you’re just giving a C-title to your head of sales, you have the wrong person for the job.

8

It’s never been more difficult to be in sales. To be successful, you need high-value outbound messaging that distinguishes you as the right solution for your prospect. But let's face it — not all reps have the time or access to real-time data to truly understand each prospect's needs...  It's time to meet SAM, the AI-powered sales assistant from Similarweb. Only with SAM do you get: 💡Prospect-tailored insights based on buyer intent, sales signals, and your prospects’ use case 📬Hyper-personalized, ready-to-use outbound messaging that spotlights your company as the right solution 🗓️Instantly generated insights accessible through Gmail and Google Calendar, making sales reps ready for any meeting  You can learn more about SAM’s capabilities here → https://bit.ly/3QOi5BB

14

1 Comment

1 RevOps team or separate CX, Sales, and Marketing Ops teams? I spoke with 4 RevOps leaders this month who all had the same painful story about this decision. Here’s how it usually goes: ✅ Start with separate teams: Sales Ops, Marketing Ops, CX Ops. It makes sense early on: - Processes and reporting are function-specific. - Each exec gets their go-to ops person to execute more quickly. But then the cracks appear: ❌ Siloed data and processes. ❌ Finger-pointing due to misalignment. ❌ No clear view of the customer journey. ❌ Ops becomes order takers and firefighters instead of strategic partners. In the worst cases? Ops teams are stuck defending execs instead of being the truth tellers your business needs. What happens next? Painful consolidation. All 4 leaders shared how they had to merge their ops teams into one RevOps function, rebuilding processes and data foundations from scratch to match the customer journey. The results? Functions work together seamlessly: Marketing generates leads that Sales actually works. Pipeline forecasting gets easier. Sales focuses on customers that retain. RevOps becomes a strategic, empowered truth-teller, and finally gets a seat at the table. My takeaway is that it’s much easier to launch RevOps with this foundation upfront than fix it later. But it takes discipline and alignment, which is more challenging in high growth environments. How has your org thought about this decision?

9

2 Comments

🚨 Gainsight has acquired Staircase AI 🚨 Why is this game changing? Relationships with your customers and accounts are complex - they are multidimensional. They are rarely one person to one person, but rather interactions are often occurring between many people at your company and many people at your accounts. Those interactions are seemingly invisible to everyone except the people they're occurring between and key details get lost across chat, email, calls, support tickets, CRM, etc. Missing those details is what causes surprise lost revenue, surprise churn and missed growth opportunities. That doesn't happen with Staircase AI by Gainsight because it analyzes every interaction across every channel occurring between you and your customers - and surfaces customer insights directly to where you're already doing your work.

36

3 Comments

If you've worked with me, you know that product launches are my FAVORITE thing. Want to make sure your reps are prepared for your next one? 🚀 Providing contextual guidance is key 🔑 Highspot customers who use Sales Plays for their product launches report a 12% increase in win rate ✨ Luckily, you can learn how to build an effective enablement plan to ensure every single one of your customer-facing teams is ready for launch 👇 https://hghspot.co/3XAxWqU

7

How I use Gong's ‘Ask Me Anything’ for #SalesEnablement [product launch FAQ edition]. When launching a new product or feature, the Revenue team is naturally faced with A LOT of customer and prospect questions. Some of these can be anticipated and prepared for ahead of time, while others only come up in the moment, during actual customer-facing demos. 〰 Needless to say these kinds of questions are basically a gold mine 💰 ✔ For the Product team - they help identify gaps and blind spots, ensuring the product aligns with customer needs. ✔ For the Marketing team - they provide insights for refining messaging and content to address common concerns. ✔ For the Revenue team - they offer a deeper understanding of customer objections, helping to navigate the sales cycle more effectively. ✔ For the Support team - they allow a heads-up on potential questions and common troubleshooting issues. 〰 So how do you cultivate a good customer question list to benefit your team without listening to dozens of calls? Here’s how I go about it (see quick flow chart below). #productmarketing #saasmarketing #b2bsales #Gong

4

2 Comments

CSMs are the backbone of every SaaS company. Without all their contributions, SaaS companies are doomed to failure. Here’s what happens if they are fully enabled: - They help identify the ICPs to increase conversion rates, reduce CAC, and churn. - They create demand for expansions and upsells for efficient growth - They build meaningful customer relationships to get their commitment and loyalty - They source new and better leads through referrals - They gather the insights that power your product development - They power your marketing with use cases, success stories, and educational content - They help sales reps close more deals when they are brought to the sales process - They provide the intel to build a profitable pricing strategy

6

1 Comment

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

24

2 Comments

One of the most annoying parts of #CustomerSuccess is having to manage a #Portfolio with a high number of customers that are #Unresponsive. Trust me, if you show them that you can drive value for them, this will change! To drive this value, you have to think like them- as #BusinessPartners!

4

Incentives matter... and there's an "incentive paradox" at play when product-led meets sales-led. When you are doing a great job with product education, have transparent pricing, and make it easy for anyone to get started, you will have inherently less meetings as a percentage of traffic. If you are measured on short term performance on meeting volume, it can be tempting to start to add friction back into the process. This is often a mistake. Product-led companies with a sales-led component will often do far better in the long run; as an easy to use, helpful, easy to learn product often attracts more champions, awareness, and funnily enough... demo meetings. You have to work transparently with other teams and to align on the goals and have the tough conversations with the stakeholders ahad of time so you don't find yourself scambling and making rash decisions. #productmarketing

3

After onboarding 30+ SDRs at SpotDraft, I’ve learned that a good onboarding process is key to reducing churn and improving performance. SDR is a high churn function — this is a fact we can’t change. But what we 𝘤𝘢𝘯 control is how we onboard new hires to give them the best chance at success. Here’s what I believe a strong SDR onboarding process should include: 𝟭. 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀: Every tool they need to use, from sales navigator to CRM, should be documented with 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 written instructions and video walkthroughs. 𝟮. 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴: Be hands-on. I review the first 50 emails they write, giving feedback on tone and structure. For cold calling, I make them practice with 5 team members before they’re allowed to call prospects. 𝟯. “𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲” 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆: Create a collection of your best emails and cold calls. SDRs need real examples to learn from, not just theory. 𝟰. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: Automate product learning as much as possible but keep it ongoing. Use your best AE demos and make sure they pass an internal test before getting into action. 𝟱. 𝗢𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Don’t stop training once they’re onboarded. Keep the learning going with monthly updates and enablement sessions. You can’t eliminate churn, but you can reduce it with the right process. Set your SDRs up for success from day one. What’s one thing you’ve found critical in your onboarding process? #onboarding #sdr #sales #growth #spotdraft

268

22 Comments

How to turn Gong's new ‘Ask Me Anything’ feature into your 'Aha Moment' machine. Creating a strong ‘Aha Moment’ during discovery calls and demos is essential: 💡 Value realization - It makes the prospect instantly grasp the product benefits and how it can solve their problem. 😀 Emotional connection - It triggers feelings of excitement and relief, creating the necessary switch from "Hmm, interesting" to "Wow! This is exactly what I need!". 📈 Boosted conversion - It moves the prospect down the funnel, as they’re eager to learn more about how the product can benefit them. Therefore, providing Revenue teams with these exact lightbulb-turning-on moments is GOLD. ***************** I’ve been experimenting with ‘Ask Me Anything’ for a while and fishing out ‘Aha Moments’ is definitely one of my favorite use cases. This not only helps you save time (remember the days we used to listen to individual calls?) but mainly helps identify these incredibly subjective nuances that come with buyer intent. ***************** Here’s how I go about identifying Aha moments using Gong + two examples: ✅ Step 1 - Define the specific ICP or product you’re looking to get Aha moments for. As an example, the Aha moment for my company’s eCommerce product might vary between SaaS / Agency / Enterprise audiences. ✅ Step 2 - In Gong’s Conversations > Search tab, filter the calls you’d like to analyze (in my case, I filtered by Introduction/Demo calls for the SaaS ICP). If you’re using the same filter frequently, I recommend creating dedicated Streams for that, which will then appear in Conversations > Company library. ✅ Step 3 - At this point, I query each call manually, which allows you to sharpen the prompt if needed and to get full context. This is probably still quicker than the other alternatives. The prompt I used was “What is the aha moment for the customer?” (which required a few revisions BTW, like opting to use the term “customer” rather than “prospect”, as it generated a more elaborate response). ✅ Step 4 - Aggregate all the Aha moments collected and start looking for interesting themes and patterns. Notice that the relevant video snippet is available at the bottom right. ✅ Step 5 - Share share share. For non-revenue teams - I recommend sharing some screenshots on Slack for visibility. You’d be surprised how many ideas this data can evoke (a new concept for customer success stories, for instance). For Revenue teams - What’s nice is that you can share this data in a very granular way, for example: for SaaS Sales reps, I can provide the top three features that triggered Aha moments for SaaS prospects who were shown the new eCommerce product. These insights can then be applied to sharpen various materials like demos, sales enablement assets, email cadences, and more. #productmarketing #saasmarketing #b2bsales #Gong

13

1 Comment

This week, Ashby announced its Series C round of funding! I joined Ashby at a similar time in its history as I did HubSpot - off the tails of a Series B, strong product market fit, endless customer love in a space that typically didn't see any, and a high functioning team who was accomplishing remarkable things together. The difference? HubSpot was my first real job when I joined in 2011. In other words, I had no idea how unique and special it was to watch a company go from Series B to IPO right in front of my eyes. Nearly 13 years later and working at a number of startups (including my own!), I know how much harder it is to scale a business than the success stories make them out to be. I've seen the wrong composition of leadership teams. I've seen mediocre progress promoted as "big news" in attempts to paint a stronger picture than the reality. I've firsthand felt the immense pressure of fundraising when all odds are against you. Up until 10 months ago, I assumed the HubSpot story was a one-time career experience. I'm so glad I was wrong :) Ashby's Series C comes off the heels of 6x growth in revenue since our Series B. We're already working with some of the most admired and innovative brands in the industry. I constantly see swarms of LinkedIn mentions from customers bringing us up in spaces we're not in. And man, is it refreshing to work alongside a highly productive and thoughtful team, operating remotely from around the world. Every day I get reminded of why Ashby is such a special story. And it's an unreal feeling to be a part of writing it. It'll be one for the books. Thank you to Harriet Johnston and Benjamin Encz for not only hiring me, but for me giving me my dream role following a tough chapter of my career (industry layoffs). Thank you to the whole marketing team for constantly pushing the bar on what excellence looks like and uplifting one another while we're at it - Shannon Ogborn, Antonio Vidal, Euphonia X., Kat F., Lindsay Workman, Menno Drontmann, Rosalia Cefalu, Tony Ramirez, Willem Wijnans. Thank you to the leadership team for the humility you consistently carry and for being just as willing to do the hands-on work - Shane Gallaher, Abhik Pramanik, Jim Miller, Kelsey Peterson, Mike Clapson, Kevin Connolly And of course, thank you to those I bug regularly with favors 😝 Bryce Codell, Jacob Miller, Jack Burgess, and basically the whole team! Onwards. 📈

211

12 Comments

Just got back from an incredibly well-run 2-day Revenue Team Offsite in SF. These were some of the keys to success - 💡 Transparency: Calendar invites were shared with all members of the AE, SDR and CS teams prior to landing in San Francisco. Everyone knew exactly what to expect each day. 💡 Aligning on the "Why:" We spent a good amount of time breaking this down with our individual teams, in-person. 💡 Not "Overdoing it:" It's temping to load up the schedule with back-to-back training sessions, discussions, meetings, etc. due to the fact that we're not together in person every day. However, we made sure to add in breaks, working blocks and time to get to know our colleagues even better. 💡 Have FUN: Sure, going to Happy Hour with the team is nice... But, how about finding unique competition-themed activities to get everyone on the team involved + excited! This time around, we broken into groups and did a post-work Thai cooking competition (side note: the food was unbelievable). 💡 Leave time at the end for a recap session: We gathered in the conference room at the conclusion of our Tuesday afternoon activity to recap the time we had spent together, with the ultimate goal of continuing the momentum once we all arrive back home. Thank you, Origin, for a great couple of days! Origin is not only committed to helping any/all individuals reach financial freedom, but we're also truly devoted to building an amazing internal team culture.

65

13 Comments