Mitch Harris

🎯 The Evolution of Call Transcripts: Insights on the Rapid Shift It’s fascinating how quickly recording every conversation has become standard practice. Here’s a quick overview of how some major players are carving out their niches in the space: * Sales-focused solutions: Gong and ZoomInfo (Chorus) are optimized for capturing individual sales calls. * Meeting assistants: Platforms like Fireflies.ai and Otter.ai focus on supporting various types of meetings, making every interaction accessible. * General record-it-all platforms: Google Meet and Zoom are widely used to capture almost any type of meeting. This is just a snapshot—each platform has unique strengths, and there’s a wealth of potential value companies can unlock. Here are a few trends shaping the way companies are capturing and using these insights: 🚗 Driving Actionable Follow-Up Winning customers requires more touchpoints than ever. These follow-ups aren't just about regurgitating what was said on a call—it’s about ensuring follow-through across multiple, timely interactions. This is where true sequence and funnel management shines. Do you have the insights you need to guide each rep on the right next steps? Can you identify who on your team is most effective at engaging the right persona at the right time in the right way, across multiple contact points? Current transcription solutions are great at summarizing the action items but don't do as well on bridging to the next touch point. 🥅 Capturing Opportunity through Playbooks Playbooks are powerful, but only if they’re leveraged effectively. Is your team consistently applying them? Better yet, who might be succeeding by adapting or going beyond the playbook? Current transcription solutions require a lot of manual effort to dig through calls and understand what is working and what is not. There is also no good way to discover little tricks others might have uncovered which help them succeed. 📊 Revolutionizing Data Capture “I love filling out CRMs,” said no one ever. While today’s AI tools are making CRM data entry easier, the future is all about bypassing manual data capture. Imagine drawing insights directly from your pool of transcripts, emails, calls, and documents—without the tedious data entry. What gaps are still in your CRM? And do they even matter? Being able to ground your insights into specific calls is nearly impossible. And keeping fields up to date is still labor intensive. Extracting insights across multiple calls and contact points is purely manual if done at all, but it doesn't have to be. Any others that stand out to you? Any of these you've seen done well?

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Thank you so much for this great writeup of the PMM role in SMB/MM and Enterprise! Out of curiosity, how do you know if you've accomplished the metrics for success in Enterprise you set out in (3)? Do PMMs in developer/infra focused companies need to be technical to get beyond 'the core?' I'll use an example relative to me. I've used CloudFormation and have some very specific opinions on that product. As such I can semi-credibly outline a customer value prop and highlight use cases for an IaaC solution from Pulumi or HashiCorp. But that clearly can't be what proficiency means to you because then I (or anyone else) would need how to deploy and manage containers to work at Docker, Inc or any company using Kubernetes. So how do you think of what it means to be proficient and how have you gone about getting there throughout your career? Thanks again for the post and for any thoughts you can offer.

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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This post for Alix Partners, on emerging pricing metrics for SaaS providers, is definitely worth reading. Two operational watch-outs for software companies heading down this path: 1. Not every customer will be willing to share every advanced metric (e.g., new customers signed up, customer care calls resolved, etc.) -- that has to be negotiated as part of a contract 2. Not every vendor's billing systems can meter and monetize every possible unit of consumption. Ideas that look great on a whiteboard often get eaten for breakfast by legacy IT! https://lnkd.in/ehjBKqG4

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Will AI replace solutions and sales engineering? Not likely—but it will change everything about how we work. I feel lucky to be in constant conversations with SE leaders. We’re trading notes and hearing about what’s the top-of-mind across calls, meetings, and private dinners that we host. We recently started asking folks on what themes around AI exploration are top of mind for their teams. Here’s what comes up again and again: Clarity on what AI can and can’t do. There’s a lot of AI companies — large and small — that promise the world and incredible outcomes. Leaders get excited, learn more, test in a POC (or even purchase), and then get disillusioned. It’s a cycle that we keep hearing about. Unfortunately, there’s no true shortcut here except more education on the latest LLM / RAG / agents research. A good proxy can be seeing the type of companies that have successfully implemented the AI solution and how long they’ve been using it in production, but it’s not a perfect one. At Arphie, here’s our philosophy as we use AI agents to help respond to RFPs, DDQs, and security questionnaires: We’re very clear from the get-go on what our AI agents can and can’t do. For example, folks sometimes ask if they can ship out the answers our platform provides out-of-the-box to customers. We tell them that on average, 50-70% of the answers can be used as-is, 20-30% can be used with minor edits, and the remaining will likely need more significant workshopping. Over time, as we ingest more company-specific knowledge and understand their writing style, we’re able to increase the % of usable answers — but we think human-in-the-loop is the right way to approach mission-critical responses. Are there other themes related to AI that are top of mind for you?

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A great SE/AE relationship is built on trust, and each helps the other get what they need. Heard this insight articulated well by Brandi Anderson in a PreSales Collective podcast today. Yes, it's AE's coming to the table with solid background/discovery info when requesting an SE's help, but don't stop there. Don't leave your partner on an island...a good team will work together to continue drawing out valuable info during a call or demo. AE's can jump in with: "Why is this important to you?" "Can you tell us a little more about that?" "This is something <notable customer X> was able to leverage recently to solve a similar challenge." SE's can help move the sale forward by drawing out information the AE needs, helping the customer fill in the commercial model, etc. "When do you need to have a solution in place?" "Let me tell you a bit more about what that one-time fee covers..." "This is how you'd handle new users and scaling...how many licenses do you think you'd need?" A good sales partnership is not about "staying in your lane", but rather working as a team to ensure you have all the info you need to provide real value to the customer and help them on their buying journey. #collaboration #sales #salesengineering #presales

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Today, we are thrilled to introduce Valinor to the world! Valinor is a first-of-its-kind company providing a go-to-market engine for the world’s best technologists building products for government missions. Despite more than $52 billion dollars in private funding that has been collectively poured into top defense and government tech companies, only $22 billion in federal funding has been awarded to the companies in this ecosystem, and more strikingly, 81% of the total amount awarded by the U.S. Government went to a single company, SpaceX (SVDG, 2024). This is not sustainable. Why is this happening? While startups attract the best talent and often build the most innovative products, many fall into “the Field of Dreams fallacy”, believing if you build it, the contracts will come. In practice, building and selling technology to the government is incredibly challenging, requiring credible feedback from end users, accreditation and clearances, flexible procurement strategies, and a deep understanding of the human terrain at all levels. The go-to-market is often an afterthought and companies get stuck on R&D dollars while struggling to convert efforts into long term, budgeted programs. What does this mean for government missions? The best products often never make it into the hands of the users that desperately need the latest capabilities. Our country is facing unprecedented challenges on multiple fronts from defense to healthcare to infrastructure, but process is drowning out the voice of the operator. It is critical we change this paradigm now. In May, after more than a decade of launching businesses with brilliant engineers at Palantir, and driving more than $2B in net new USG revenue, I decided it was time to give back. I want to spend my time making the world a safer place with the smartest people I know, especially now that I have two young daughters. I believe there are better ways to identify critical mission gaps, fulfill these important needs, and drive sustainable gov focused businesses, while ensuring technologists lead the vision and retain outsized ownership in the products that drive impact for the world. I’m thrilled to be on this journey with Catherine McAnney. Thank you to our strategic partners Palantir Technologies Anduril Industries and Helsing notably Shyam Sankar Brian Schimpf and Torsten Reil who are committed to our mission, and Teresa Carlson Dylan Field Veronica Daigle Peter Sorrentino Katherine Gordon Robert Fidler Kurt Freshley Matt Grimm Matthew Steckman Joseph Larson Parag Shah Matt Van Sant Matthew B. Scott Sanders for your early support. Valinor is proud to be founded in partnership with Founders Fund Red Cell Partners and General Catalyst. Thank you Trae Stephens Grant Verstandig and Paul Kwan, who had a vision to better equip, support, and sustain gov and defense tech builders. Are you a hardware or software engineer seeking to build better products for gov missions? Build with us www.valinor.co.

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What does 'Execution Excellence' actually mean? And why are Marc Benioff + Amit Bendov obsessed with it right now? Killer insights from Charlie Moss on how category leaders like Salesforce & Gong are resetting expectations to win despite headwinds!! 💥 “More rigor, more discipline, focused enablement, and a refined GTM strategy are a major part of their approach.” Specifically, Gong is investing in the following: - Greater accountability for the sales team + sales management - Weekly KPIs, weekly results, + monitoring key activities - Tracking every single deal with MEDDIC Achieving 'execution excellence' when it comes to running revenue teams is the WHY behind founding Accord... Ensure rigorous execution across each deal, and translating the winning strategy to the field in a way that actually works for sellers! Including tracking MEDDIC without feeling like homework, automatically updated in your CRM. Sales + CS Leaders using Accord to drive execution excellence understand what it takes for their sellers to win in 2024. Eg, we pulled data across 500+ Opps for a customers at their QBR, and saw: - 28% Win Rate across opportunities without Accord - 56% Win Rate across opportunities with Accord .... 100% increase in Win Rate when using Accord. This market isn’t about doing more with less. Its about doing the right things – consistently.

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"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

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Yes. This. How good are your questions? You can tell by how long the responses are which may indicate how deep the customer (or prospect) goes into their answers. Short yes/no questions lead to short yes/no answers which deeply undercuts the ability to get to know your customers, their problems, and more importantly their desires.

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#AIAgents would soon be able to do all sorts of jobs in near future - right from #SDR to #BDR to #PS to #CSM / #KAM to #Marketing (and even building #products). https://lnkd.in/gkKVvJhe It will be interesting to see how the same AI will replace #SolutionEngineer. E.g: If you're working in a CRM firm and your product only supports Leads, Activities, Tasks as data-structures (on date), how would AI Agent find solutions in: * #Manufacturing for B2B2C (Distributor, Dealer, Retailer, Projects) with Order, Quote, Inventories, Permanent Journey Plans, Territories, DealerBots etc. * #MarketResearch to get Daily SKU prices from Multiple Mandis (where no internet), so that the firm can give "personalised daily rates per SKU per loc/individual" in their End-customer-mobile-app. * #Banca & #Agency in Insurance Sector w/o support of User-Hierarchies and Simultaneous-Multi-Product-Sale (Bank, Branches, RMs, Sales Persons, etc.) & ROI tracking. * #LockerManagement for a #Bank. * #CorporateBanking w/o Customer-360, Account-360, Account-Hierarchies, Target-vs-Achievement-Per-Account-Per-Product-Offered, etc support. * #AssetReconstruction WorkFlows for Retail/Corporate Loans which are marked NPAs where multiple internal/external stakeholders, banks/branches, Legal departments, CAs etc get involved in qualification, approval/rejection. * #LoanOriginationSystem req. in the absence of out-of-the-box KYC integrations, Maker-Checker-Approver-Workflows and Business-Rule-Engine-Integrations and so forth. * #BTLCampaignMgmt from AssetOnboarding to CampaignDef to AssetAllocation to ROICalculation * #BiometricKYC Support in CRM (pre-covid): Find a Biometric partner, sign agreement, build prototype & demo within 7 days. * #CDP + #CRM requirement & demonstrate within 3 days - identifying & signing partnership with firm in diff continent. * #Line Integration demo within 2 days when such support didn't exist. * #Logistics, #Automotive reqs to map ClientReq (Relocation, Sale etc.) to Multiple-Vendors/Dealers & find winner based on profits, distance & availability. * CRM+HIS+Loyalty req. in #Healthcare - submit in 7days & win after 8hr-rigorous demo (against best-in-class-competitors). * #StudyAbroad use-cases, with multi-service-sale support (college-admission/visa/hostel etc). * #Propensity for loan default * #RPA to clone tenants * Etc. And how AI will successfully auto-create & auto-deliver such demos (using a product which didn't support it "out-of-the-box" at that moment), calculate estimates & pricing and win deals and even deliver post that :-). I'm sure my fellow colleagues at #Leadsquared will be able to relate to the examples above and would also appreciate what #SolutionsTeam has done relentlessly over last 5 years, was not as easy as it may have sounded at the first place :-). #Comment how you think AI Agent will positively/negatively impact your job (present status, challenges & opportunities). #AI #AIAgent #Solutions #GenAI #GongAI

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Amplitude Announces Third Quarter 2024 Financial Results: - Third quarter revenue was $75.2M, up 6% year-over-year - ARR was $298M, up $8M from the end of the second quarter - We now have almost 3,500 paying customers, with 567 of those representing more than $100k or more per year Q3 was all about winning the enterprise. We are starting customer conversations differently, reaching key decision-makers, and demonstrating fast value in ways we weren’t before. The result is a higher-quality book of business, with better attach rates, longer contracts, and bigger expansions (we had multiple expansions exceeding 7 figures in Q3). Consolidation is another big theme that's been playing out for several quarters. It’s clear that our customers are looking for an all-in-one platform, and they are finding that in Amplitude. And we've continued to make our platform better. In Q3, we launched Amplitude Made Easy, our completely redesigned platform experience that takes the difficulty out of analytics. We also deepened our partnership with our friends at HubSpot, launched Web Experimentation, and acquired Command AI (fka CommandBar). To our Ampliteers, partners, and customers—we couldn’t do it without you! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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SPaCE, the Final Frontier for GTM Enablement What is SPaCE?: Sales, Partner, and Customer Enablement Today's revenue enablement strategies need to support multiple GTM channels.  We have to meet our customers where they're at. Some customers work with our direct sales team, others with partners, and some (more than ever) want self-service & PLG. In today's rapidly evolving B2B landscape, the traditional approach to GTM enablement is undergoing a seismic shift. As millennials and Gen Z increasingly dominate the buying process, companies must adapt their strategies to meet these new expectations. The Changing Face of B2B Buying According to Forrester, 71% of B2B buyers now belong to the Millennial and Gen Z cohorts. These younger buyers prefer digital interactions and often seek to make purchasing decisions without direct contact with sales representatives. Gartner's research supports this trend, revealing that 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience. To address these changes, businesses must adopt a holistic enablement strategy encompassing Sales, Partners, and Customers.  And we need to enable those groups even better than we have in the past…..especially when it comes to Partner and Customer enablement. Our vitally important partner channels have largely been treated like second-class citizens, as partner enablement strategies have generally been very shallow. However, the technology is now available to ensure that they too can achieve their potential. SPaCE needs to be AI-driven and contextual. Static enablement and generic guidance will no longer cut it (it never has). SPaCE may not be the final frontier, but it's something we have to be good at today. You can read a bit more of my thoughts on the matter here: https://lnkd.in/gaakhXA7   #revenueenablement  #salesenablement #revops #revenueoperations Happy selling and enabling! 🙂

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#NACDA2024 Advice: If you have "Athletic Director" in your title, ignore any topic that doesn't align with the following... - New Revenue from Existing Assets: The key here is "existing." Across all leagues, we're seeing (1) the use of LLMs to drive low-risk, high-yield campaigns and (2) content monetization as the low-hanging fruit in this space. This year, you're not adding toys to the garage - you're figuring out how to run the best possible garage sale. - Personalization: Stakeholder trust and perception of clarity with departments are historically low. Learn everything you can about improving specific touchpoints with Athletes, Sponsors, Donors, and Fans. Then do it. That's it. That's the list.

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Whew. The last few years in SaaS sales have been turbulent. Longer deal cycles, disappearing budgets, HUGE buying committees, and so much "consolidation." Strategic sell betweens and ROI proof are now critical to every deal, no matter the size. Two-thirds of sellers (67%) said a deal of theirs has suffered or been slowed down because they couldn’t produce relevant, specific customer evidence in a timely manner. I'm THRILLED to announce that UserEvidence has launched UserEvidence ROI Studies to help folks get quantifiable proof, backed by real customer outcomes and third-party verification, without the hefty analyst price tag or long wait. Details in comments below.

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Here's what elite sales enablement teams do in their reps' first 30 days. Taylor Jurgens VP of Enablement at Ushur, helped build Auth0's enablement from scratch and scaled it through Okta acquisition. Under his enablement program, 90% of reps hit quota every year. His rules: ✅ First 30 days = PURE enablement ❌ No Salesforce dive in ❌ No account assignments ❌ No distractions What did they do? 🥊 Mostly role plays! ONE focus: Mastering discovery. 📖 Inside this deck you'll discover: how Auth0 achieved ✅ Reps fully ramped in 60 days ✅ First deals closed in 6 weeks ✅ 90% of reps hit quota every year ✅ Sub-90 day sales cycles ✅ 4% sales team turnover

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Who should your first key hire be as a partnerships leader? Mekaela Davis - now the Chief Partner Officer of Trintech - started at Trintech as an SVP of Partnerships and shared her first hire was a Partner Ops/Analytics person. Armed with someone who could provide visibility into how and which partners were driving value for the business, her next task was connecting with the CEO and every functional leader to both explain and understand how partners could help drive strategic goals. Getting clear data, efficient ops, and internal alignment at the leadership level enabled her to further grow - and document - the impact partners were having on the business. This in turn made it possible for her to make the case for becoming a Chief Partner Officer. Without strong partner ops/analytics, it is incredibly difficult to not only prove partners' value to other stakeholders, it is also impossible to direct your team's and your partners' resources toward the highest value activities. HubSpot, Canalys, and Partnership Leaders' 2022 report on The State of Partner Ops and Programs showed mature partner ops was one of the most important factors in whether companies' were driving significant revenue from partners. I have watched the recognition of this role's importance grow over the last 5 years, but due to the combination of partner tech market being in a state of growth, a talent shortage, and the sheer complexity of partner ops, many companies still don't prioritize this role. Mekaela Davis shared her strategic approach to ops and program with Asher Mathew and me on the latest episode of Unlearn. She also shared: ➡ The difference between being an SVP of Partnerships and a Chief Partner Officer ➡ How to create and drive a partner-first culture ➡ The traits and skillset required to be an effective Chief Partner Officer ➡ Tying different partner types to strategic outcomes Listen to the whole episode here: https://lnkd.in/errhqdYP (Spotify) https://lnkd.in/er8AVTK3 (Apple)

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In our latest customer conversation Shane Evans, CRO at @Gong, shares how AI is transforming sales, helping teams become more productive and future-ready. Gong’s approach—capturing complete data and breaking down silos—empowers smarter, more intentional decisions across customer journeys. Check out LinkedIn for Sales blog to catch Shane’s full interview with insights on balancing present needs with future-focused growth and how Gong’s integration with LinkedIn Sales Navigator is driving real impact. https://lnkd.in/d_DKk7Dr #LinkedIn #SalesNavigator #DeepSales #Sales #CRM #Productivity 

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What is the biggest area of opportunity for post-sales orgs? CS AT SCALE. And it doesn't matter if you sell to VSMBs or Enterprise: all orgs want to have an at-scale approach to at least part of the customer journey. If you are a Founder or growing a company, look closely at this incredible talent coming out of DocuSign. They will change your game. #customersuccess #atscale

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