Mudit Garg

The Sales – Presales Partnership 🚀 Markets have undergone tectonic shift over last 2 decades. Technology advancements are happening at the fastest pace ever and every tech individual/organisation seems to be absorbing and adopting tech to keep themselves updated/ahead of peers/competition. While this journey will keep evolving with Emerging Tech, what I have cherished the most is the way Sales & Presales engage together and lead from the front almost hand in hand driving sales & technical relationships leveraging cross functional units to make fuller impact and pushing the boundaries always. I consider myself very fortunate to have worked with some of the Best Presales in our Industry opening multiple doors for our companies along the way. The way this combo engages with customers has also undergone transformative shift. Capturing some of my observations below: Solution Selling Over Product Selling💡: Sales teams have more or less moved away from feature-based pitches to emphasize tailored, outcome-driven solutions that align with customer business goals. Customers know what they want more than ever with everything available at their fingertips. With due diligence & prework done already, expectation is to drive deeper conversations covering broader scope within their ecosystem. Pre-sales Empowerment with AI 🤖: AI and automation are revolutionizing Pre-sales by enhancing demo capabilities, reducing response times, and providing data-driven insights that lead to stronger engagements. Longer Sales Cycles, Higher Stakes ⏳: As enterprises make more strategic software decisions, the sales cycle is lengthening, but the reward for landing deals is larger as customers demand comprehensive solutions. Hybrid Sales Strategies 🔄: A blend of virtual and in-person engagements is becoming the norm, with Pre-sales playing a crucial role in virtual workshops and proof-of-concept sessions to build trust. Increased Demand for Industry Expertise 🎯: Clients expect Sales and Pre-sales teams to have deep industry knowledge and provide insights beyond software features—focusing on sector-specific challenges and opportunities. Sales teams are increasingly expected to be trusted advisors, with Pre-sales being the technical backbone of this partnership. Exciting times ahead! 🌟 #gratitudeforpresales #sales Shitij Taneja Nakul JainAshhad PathanBakshana Ogra (Baksh)Mahendra SinghSamrat JaligamaRampradeep PakalapatiPiyush AgarwalSylvin DiasGlen SoansAnand (TOGAF EA L2) ❂ Ayyappan

144

1 Comment

Catalyst24 is in the Books ⚡Kudos to Asher Mathew, Chris Samila, Tai Rattigan, and the #partnershipleaders team. Once again, #Catayst24 is where you listen, learn, and be inspired by partnership ecosystems and the scale of the possible. It's rare to find an event dedicated exclusively to people focused on the partner journey. With 700+ attendees, networking with friends, colleagues and new connections was the event's highlight. But wait, there's more... 🌡️ A common theme was the recognition that we are partnership practitioners need to evolve and become more organizationally integrated into our core business. Asher spoke about "getting a seat at the table", understanding the business needs of the c-suite, creating more sophisticated programs, imagining bolder initiatives, integrating operations, and using a common vernacular that peers and, more importantly, stakeholders can understand. Partnerships are still moving upward on the maturity bell curve. How far up, depends on the organization, the people and the program. 💡 Scott Brinker's perspective was refreshingly uncomplicated. A partnership should answer the question: "... how do you build great customer experiences together?".     📈 Brad Pace, COO at IMPARTNER, answered: "... what's the first thing you should do when setting up a partner program?". He discussed the importance of committed revenue plans (quota) by geo/BU/partner type, revenue governance, and attainment/attribution policy; this should be required reading. 📖 Mature partner programs that have gone through this discipline have gained credibility with unimpeachable performance metrics (KPIs) against goals. Too often, we as partner professionals rely on "PowerPoint math," leaving CFOs unconvinced of the partner's participation and impact. As Jay McBain pointed out in his keynote, partner professionals need to get better if we are going to realize the unprecedented market opportunity before us. 🔭 Speaking of Jay, his keynote on the future direction of technology provided the perspective with the widest aperture. If you haven't seen his research yet, I highly recommend it.   Despite overwhelming data demonstrating that ecosystem-led growth creates more opportunities that close faster and for larger contract values, we still face pockets of resistance that negatively impact partner program participation and adoption. Catalyst delivered an embarrassment of riches for strategy, tactics and best practices. It is incumbent on the community to make the most of these insights and continue to push the boundaries of the possible. Shout out to Bryan Williams Karen Chastain, Christiana Christenson, Crystal Chau, Elsa Chan, Pedro Gastal, Antonio Caridad, Rajat Sinha, Kenny Browne, Cody Sunkel Sherry Foster, James Hodgkinson, Diane Schmidt, Jeff Roth, Adam Hmielowski, Greg Portnoy, Chip Rodgers, Kristine Stewart, Rob Rebholz, Justin Zimmerman, Aaron Howerton, Dina Moskowitz, Frie Pétré

44

20 Comments

Good 4 minute investment to watch if Revenue Intelligence is important to you.

4

Learning a new presales methodology is exciting, but true mastery comes from implementation. Here's how to ensure your team goes beyond theory and crushes their sales goals: 🔑 Coaching is Key: Don't leave your team hanging! Schedule regular coaching sessions to review progress, provide feedback, and tackle challenges head-on. 🤝 Team Power: Include group coaching sessions where your team learns from each other's experiences. Collaboration is a powerful tool! 📈 Track & Analyze: Set clear milestones and KPIs to measure how well your team integrates the new methods. Track progress and identify areas for improvement to maximize ROI. Investing in post-workshop support empowers your team to adopt and master new skills, leading to increased sales success. Check out this article for more tips: https://lnkd.in/gWUdv6GB What are your tips for maximizing the impact of sales training? Share them in the comments! #salesenablement #coaching #greatdemo #growthmindset

10

🚨 Join Shekhar Kapoor and I as we take on some of the hardest marketing and growth questions in SaaS. Look forward to learning from an inspired bunch of people! Details below 👇👇 ______ Sradha Suresh Kingston David Maansi Sanghi #marketing #growth #revenue #SaaS

29

4 Comments

Sales and presales working in silos? That’s not just inefficient—it’s a surefire way to miss big opportunities. When these two teams collaborate seamlessly, magic does happen. A unified strategy creates a message that truly resonates with your prospects, moving deals faster through the pipeline. The numbers don’t lie: companies with aligned sales and presales teams experience shorter sales cycles and dramatically higher win rates. The fix? Regular syncs between your SEs and AMs. When everyone is pushing toward the same goal, winning stops being a solo mission and becomes a team effort. If you want to see real results, break down those silos and watch the deals roll in. 💥 Need strategies to align your sales and presales teams? Let’s start building your winning strategy together.

11

2 Comments

Thanks to Dave Rigotti and team for a wonderful #PLGTM conference in SF. I had great discussions with sales and marketing leaders and here are some observations on how PLG has evolved. Part 1: Time to rethink PLG practice ✔ While the core idea of PLG revolves around self-service adoption and user-driven growth, the practice has evolved, and companies are recognizing the need for a hybrid approach. ✔ For a lot of practitioners, PLG means self-service and users adopt the product without sales support. In practice, PLG leads to increases S&M costs increasing CAC. So, it no more just about building a product but putting the marketing $ behind it. ✔ Enterprise buyers are researching on their own and have good information before they come to the call. Huge number of prospects want sales help in navigating the value prop but want to try out themselves. ✔ PLG does lead to execution speed driving the awareness, showing the value, decreasing sales cycles and enabling simple and faster expansion. ✔ There is a myth that only startups or B2C companies use PLG and has to be bottom-up approach. While many of the companies we know and products we use might be B2C, lot of enterprise B2B companies are PLG as well. e.g. users can simply signup and start using Calendly, Canva or Airtable. teams can start using the products like loom, figma and datadog. ✔ Bringing customers need a hybrid approach in 2024. You need to provide user value created by the product and buyer value created by sales teams. Think about product market fit and product customer fit - leading to greater number of happy customers ✔ Every KPI you are measuring should drive an outcome. If you collect data, ask "what is it used for? " and "how does it help customer or adoption?" ✔ As the PLG model continues to evolve, companies must adapt and embrace a balanced approach that leverages the power of self-service adoption while providing sales support to drive customer success and long-term growth. Thanks to David Yockelson and Dave Boyce for providing engaging discussion on the core of PLG. #productledgrowth #productledsales #salesledgrowth #startups #salesleadership #productmanagement

61

8 Comments

The latest State of PreSales report from Vivun is here! This edition is all about the impact of AI on Sales Engineering. Over 500 respondents break down a variety of topics… ✔️ Their current approaches and challenges ✔️ Where they see AI benefits and advantages ✔️ How they plan to rollout AI into the future A major takeaway for me is that SE teams are not asleep at the wheel when it comes to AI and trying to leverage it. But there is an appetite for much more SE specific use case support to truly reach its potential for this group. Get the full report here 👇 https://lnkd.in/gFbv4jhR #b2b #sales #presales

14

2 Comments

This Leader ‘sales engineered’ himself into his new job. He knew the Presales leader market was tight. Like a good SE, he took a methodical approach and leveraged all resources at his disposal. In 3 short months, he was back into an incredible Presales leader role at an awesome company! 🙌 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆: 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹: ↳ He leveraged his network to find opportunities and even turned connections into informative interviews. 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝗳: ↳ He didn’t lose steam when he didn’t hear back for several weeks and continued to follow up with the hiring manager. 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄, 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹: ↳ He demonstrated his skills by sharing relevant documentation, training, and work samples with interviewers. 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹: ↳ He continued to apply, ensuring he wouldn't have to start from scratch if things didn't work out. 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗮 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵: ↳ He treated his job search like a sales process, keeping his pipeline full and systematically tracking progress. 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗮 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗗𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵! He started in his new role last week. We’re so excited for him! 🎉 𝗣.𝗦. We'll share more of his story on our YouTube channel next week! Stay tuned!

38

8 Comments

After leading & advising #GTM teams for 15+ years one thing is clear: too many GTM executives don't deeply understand #CS. And it will cost you. Most GTM leaders, like #CROs, come from a sales background, which has many, many benefits. But in today's world, it is not enough to just be great at driving sales. You won't grow, and you will certainly not grow profitability, if your customer revenue is not growing. One key reason is that there is a fundamental difference between sales and CS. Sales is linear in nature. From lead to process to close. CS is dynamic in nature. From onboarding to....many paths...to renewal to growth to advocacy and start all over again. This means that you need to take a different approach to key areas like: ➡️ Analyze ➡️ Plan ➡️ Structure ➡️ Build ➡️ Execute ➡️ Evaluate How you do these things shift from sales to CS. So what can you do? 3 simple things to start with: 1️⃣ Check out the links in the comments, some good resources to review. 2️⃣ Join CS communities and talk to other CS executives to learn 3️⃣ Jump in, talk to customers, analyze the customer base etc - DO both strategic and tactical things Want more advise? DM or AMA 👇🏾 *** 🛎️ If you enjoy my content, follow me Haydar Al-Saad ♻️ Repost to share with your network

16

10 Comments

"When you have time for product... then you kind of bend back into that product space and a bit less than the sales space." - Saurabh Jain of TrialKey. Product Led Growth Leaders Episode 25 features TrialKey's Saurabh Jain and dives deep into the journey of being product-led from the start of your venture. Hear how companies sometimes shift towards a sales-led approach in the middle stages of growth. Discover the challenges of maintaining the right focus, building the right products, and keeping confidence high. Finally, learn how successful organizations strike a balance between sales and product once they've established a strong customer base and cash flow. Tune in now to gain insights on navigating your growth curve and finding the right balance for success! 🎧💡 #ProductLedGrowth #StartupJourney #PodcastEpisode #BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SalesLed #Sales

9

“Are automation tools like SFA, and DMS really helping the Sales Rep's achieve their targets?" "Does it help sell more lines and new products in every call?" "Does it really augment their capabilities to drive sales up-lift in each call, at each store?" Manish Gupta, President of Sales, Emami, raised these crucial questions, regarding the utility and ROI of current sales automation tools like SFA and DMS in making the life of Sales Rep better with the increasing complexity of business. Sales automation tools (SFAs) have created 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗞𝗣𝗜𝘀 for the companies. But current SFA technologies have not kept pace with the growing complexity of business and are 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻-𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲-𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗞𝗣𝗜𝘀. Can #AI recover daily sales loss due to these inherent inefficiencies (not addressed by current technologies), and help in driving Sales at scale? We deliberated on this in greater detail with Industry Leaders and CXOs at #SalesCodeCXOConclave >> https://bit.ly/3XSLUTX #eB2B #FutureReadyTrade #AIPoweredEB2B #Sales #DigitalRTM

49

2 Comments

After 16 years in SaaS and payments, I've learned this: unlocking a vertical SaaS business’ full potential is about more than just delivering software or adding payments. It's about crafting a market strategy and finding those transformative "second acts" that deepen customer relationships and open new markets. Follow Parachute Advisory for expert tips on navigating the ecosystem, building a success plan, and bridging the gap between vendor selection and speed to revenue generation. #verticalsaas #saasgrowth #saasrevenue #payments #embeddedpayments

15

With just a few weeks left in Q4 FY24, it's crucial for us in Sales to focus on driving revenue and closing the year strong. Now is the time to push open opportunities through the pipeline, leveraging year-end urgency to upsell, cross-sell, pull forward and close strategic deals. It’s all about executing tailored closing strategies that maximize value for both the company and our customers. Interestingly, I see strong parallels between #SaaSsales and #gokart #racing: * #Twists & #Turns: Like racing, the sales process is rarely linear. #Agility is key to navigating each stage successfully. * #Barriers: Customer objections are like tire walls—anticipate them, handle them, and keep moving forward. * #LapTiming: Just as racers aim to improve lap times, sales teams should continuously track #KPIs to refine efficiency. * #TrackDesign: Understand the #customerjourney and be ready to adjust your strategy at each critical turn. * #PitStops: Regular alignment with presales, marketing, product, and customer success teams etc. is essential for staying competitive. * #Illumination: Even when deals stall, keep customers informed—shine a light on value and keep momentum alive. Happy Selling! Here's to a great Q4/FY24 finish! #SaaSSales #SalesLeadership #CustomerJourney #KPIs #ClosingDeals #Salesexecution InforTerry SmaghVictor NgNatalia GamarraHideto MorishitaGavin FengSiddharth MahajaniRaghu KishanByungki KwonEunice PohDarunee ChairattanamanokornAungwalar NgankratokWin LimthanopajaiWoranat BoonpitakRosemary G.Fei Xiang Woon

29

𝐈𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞? 🤔 ⁣ ⁣ The answer might be impacting your company’s growth 📈⁣ ⁣ In the debut episode of 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞, Gourav Sinha and I discuss how product marketing can shape strategic growth. 🌱💡⁣ ⁣ 🎧 𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 -  https://lnkd.in/g_7tpt7z ⁣ #PMMPerspective #ProductMarketing #Strategy #Growth #Leadership

6

8 Comments

There is often considerable overlap between Revenue Operations (RevOps) leadership and the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) roles due to the interconnected nature of strategy and execution in driving revenue growth. This signifies a move toward a transformation in Revenue executives where decision-makers combine strategic foresight with operational expertise that drives sustainable revenue growth. The opportunity for senior RevOps professionals to take on these executive roles is more relevant than ever. Here is my advice on considering this move: https://lnkd.in/eEp263QR

26

7 Comments

I've always been a numbers guy. In my years leading teams, I've learned that gut feelings are great, but data is king. We can use data to help with both Enterprise GTM strategy as well as high-velocity sales motions. Here's why every GTM leader and product leader should embrace a data-driven approach: 1️⃣ Objectivity: Data doesn't play favorites. It shows you what's really happening, not what you hope is happening. 2️⃣ Predictive Power: With the right data, you can spot trends before they become problems (or opportunities!). 3️⃣ Efficiency: Focus your team's efforts where they'll have the most impact. 4️⃣ Credibility: When you back your decisions with data, you build trust with your team and leadership. 5️⃣ Continuous improvement: Data helps you iterate and improve your strategies over time. But remember, data is just a tool. The real magic happens when you combine it with your experience and industry knowledge. I am now also leading our product org at Brandwatch and take a similar mindset. We need to leverage data to drive our decision-making process. Product and GTM leaders must think similarly: data should rule our decisions!

71

10 Comments

RevOPs can play a very important role in driving GTM growth and performance. But today, too many of the RevOPs functions fall short of their potential. What if we reimagined RevOPs, moving beyond scorekeeping and running the math, to an initiator of strategic change and performance improvement? https://lnkd.in/gFnF-fA3

6

3 Comments