Rob Rebholz

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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🔊⏰ For this week's Confession Fridays I was going to go with one of the last -always candidly crafted- Edrizio De La Cruz posts. But I decided to borrow this one from Brian Requarth. I am aligned with what he says and it is aligned with what I've witnessed in several early-stage boards. It's #boardseason after all... 📋 I'd add that all the MPs from the VC fund/ Investors Fund are important. Especially if they are already GPs. ✍ Here are my three key reasons: 🚿 When years pass, the culture of the fund's GPs will be contagious top-down. 🎱 When facing difficult or long-term strategic situations that can impact the Fund's or GP's performance, all parters' opinions are often included. These are, ultimately, taken by all partners' agreement. 🎯 Network effects are also multiplicative. If the Partner who is the board member doesn't have direct access to a connection/insight/ ops know-how, it will be provided by the other partner or members of the VC. Bottom line I agree with everything Brian's post signals. This is still a people's industry and the impact that individuals have as the sum of the parts of a fund, a startup, an organization -you name it- is exponential. 🤝 #board #startup #VC #strategy #governance

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🚨 Key Framework for Successful Exec Searches 🚨 When it comes to hiring execs, most founders don’t spend enough time on one crucial step: setting up the search right from the start. I recently joined Daniel Huerta and Stephen Huerta for the The Modern People Leader podcast to talk through this and Index's latest book Scaling Through Chaos. Things to bear in mind with exec searches: 1️⃣  Define Priorities Early: Before jumping into the search, figure out the must-haves and nice-to-haves. And get your team involved early. 2️⃣  Choose the Right Partner: A great search partner should not only be able to tell your story in the market but also be willing to give you tough feedback when needed. True partnership = accountability. 3️⃣  Think Creatively: Don’t focus solely on hiring the person who checks all the boxes today. Look for the candidates who can grow into the role and lead you into the future. 4️⃣  The Hiring Doesn’t Stop When They Sign: onboarding is just the beginning. It takes a year or more for a new exec to fully hit their stride, so it’s crucial to keep supporting them beyond day one. Check out the podcast link in the comments to the full episode! #ExecutiveSearch #Founders #Leadership #HRLeadership #Hiring #Scaling #PeopleOps

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Interviewing hundreds of PE CEOs/execs over the last 15 yrs has taught me a lot about effective executive communication. The most effective communicators I've seen: 🔹Use short sentences and small words 🔹Adapt the message to fit the audience 🔹Lead w/ headline & support w/ details 🔹Answer closed-ended Q'swith a Y / N / # 🔹Use story strategically but don't overuse 🔹Recognize the power of metaphor (but don't overuse) 🔹Are comfortable being repetitive to drive home key ideas 🔹Check in with the receiver to see if the message is landing 🔹Understand how you say something is as important as what you say. 🔹Read the room, and know when they're selling past the close I'm working on making better use of a few of these learnings right now.

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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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🚀 Partnerships have been super valuable throughout my career and are the backbone of many B2B companies. Last week instead of going fishing on my birthday week, I went to Austin for the ELG Con to learn and have some fun connecting with other business leaders. ELG stands for Ecosystem Lead Growth, which is all about alliances, partnerships, and channel sales. If you are interested, I’ll share top 10 challenges I heard, and then follow up with 17 steps for strategic partnerships at the end. A couple hundred people and I spent two days networking and learning from a bunch of business leaders from different industries. We were all interested in growing our businesses through partnerships, channels, and alliances. 🤝 It was a great time to make new friends, learn about new tools, share our experiences, and have some great conversations. We even heard about the latest and greatest in partnership enablement and the challenges that companies big and small are facing. There were some great speakers from Gong, Stripe Tim Tsao, Cloudera Steve Moroski, Drata Sydney Sloan, Typeset Kristen Habacht, Bob Moore and more. As someone with a lot of experience in building strategic sales, partnerships, and go-to-market strategies, I was excited to learn what is new in the partnership world. 🌟 The conference was organized by Crossbeam, a platform that helps companies share data to efficiently enable partnerships to collaborate. They put on a great event and did a good job of creating a welcoming and collaborative learning, networking, and community environment. It was great to connect with other business leaders and hear firsthand what's working and what's not. The location and ambiance was first class at the Austin Proper Hotel I highly recommend it. 🏨 #10 biggest challenging themes: 🔹 Partnership strategy 🔹 Partnership management practices and reporting 🔹 Partnership tech stack 🔹 Partnership activation and marketing plan best practices 🔹 De-Risking partnerships that represent significant company revenue 🔹 Activating Cloud Service Provider marketplace!! 🔹 Lack of budget and resources 🔹 Disconnected partnership KPIs from business objectives 🔹 No business objectives or performance standards 🔹 Unfamiliar with the breadth of partnership commercial models and options Common advice was about being selective and prioritize the strategic and engaged partners to go deeper versus wider. 🤔 It is easier said than done. I’m finalizing a ppt on strategy. If you would like a copy message me or leave a comment and I’ll send as soon as it is complete. 📊✨ Lastly it is always great to make new friends Jonathan Kingsepp Piyush Patel Robyn Fisher Michelle Billodeau, JD Gary Morris Jason Howie Vanesa Damiani Rob Rebholz Adam Jackson Bob Lamkin Shubhra Ganguly Melissa Sarver #Partnerships #B2B #ChannelSales #BusinessGrowth #Networking #Marketing #SalesStrategy #Austin #ELGCon #BusinessLeaders #GoToMarket #Collaboration #Learning #BusinessSuccess #marketplaces

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Employee terminations: they're a topic no one wants to discuss but that every company has to navigate. Thankfully, Melanie Naranjo and wonderful Ethena advisor (& Gusto's former People Leader) Jess Yuen are tackling this tricky topic for the next Ethena webinar. Register if you want to learn more about these topics: How to pressure test whether or not termination is the right course of action Best practices for communicating termination decisions How to minimize risk and choose the best course of action when things get tricky Critical pitfalls to avoid

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The webinar today overviewing Previ was a success! So, we are doing another one on Tuesday, May 28th from 12-12:30pm MT! Register below if... - you are an HR leader who prioritizes benefits that don't cost money to launch - you are an HR leader who wants to help your employees save money - you feel your employees spend too much money on their cell phone bill - you'd like to offer something that doesn't require HRIS or payroll integrations, contracts, or data sharing Previ saves employees over $100/month on their cell phone bill through enterprise-level partnerships with AT&T and T-Mobile. Join us for the webinar to learn more and see why companies like Hanes, Shutterstock, Welch's, Qualtrics, and Sunrun choose to partner with us! Register here 👉 https://lu.ma/zf8dy4on

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Matt Sharrers emphasizes the critical role of vulnerability and humility for founders: 🌟 Being a great founder doesn’t mean you’re automatically a great board member or talent picker. 🌟 Ask for help—seek objectivity from experts who can guide you. 🌟 Focus on what’s right, not who’s right—it’s about the best decision for the business. 🌟 Embracing humility allows you to see the bigger picture and make better choices. "Success isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about knowing when to ask for help." 🎧 Watch the full conversation: https://loom.ly/sUc4-T0

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"If you need to be told what to do, don't buy a company-" This is just one of many unfiltered insights from my chat with M&A expert Chelsea Wood. Join us for this profound & unapologetic discussion on The Expertise Economy. Thinking about acquiring a business? Before you do, ask yourself this: When faced with a challenge, do you wait for instructions or take action? According to Chelsea, your answer could make or break your success as a business owner. "If you're somebody that's always just figured stuff out and you'll be fine, then you'll be fine as a business owner too." But if you're not? "Don't buy a company," she warns. Whether you're actively looking to buy or just curious about this wealth-building strategy, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in now. It might just change your entrepreneurial trajectory. #TheExpertiseEconomy #MandA #Entrepreneurship #WealthBuilding

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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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Super honored to have been interviewed for "Scaling Through Chaos" by Index Ventures, where I discuss some of my hardest lessons learned in leading and building teams through my high growth seasons at companies like Porch Group, ClassPass, and Skyscanner, and others. Scaling Through Chaos covers how to build, structure and run a high-performing team. In it they distilled over 200,000 career profiles from more than 200 startups. It's packed with frameworks and case studies from 60 top founders and operators, and offer stage-by-stage guidance on how to make the right decisions across every part of your business. Sometimes I look back on the last two decades and I often wish I could have journaled every day to distill the nuggets of hard lessons learned (I mean whoa, it's been wild, am I right?), luckily this book basically did that - across dozens of operators. Massive thanks to the Index team for their amazing work on this. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eS5ungfX #entrepreneurship #growth #author

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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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A topic that comes up often with companies we work with is how they think about the (Return on Investment) ROI of group travel for offsites and retreats. I’m excited to share thoughts in partnership with the Chief of Staff network tomorrow at 12 pm EST. You san RSVP here: https://lu.ma/kstmwma6 Before considering the ROI, we should consider the investment itself. 1. Prior to COVID, companies paid for rent (duh). Many companies paid $1.5-2.5K+ per employee per month per rent - Companies didn’t have a choice on whether or not to pay for rent - A right of passage for startups used to be raising a seed round, and taking out an expensive lease - In cities like SF and NY, rent is expensive: $80-100 per sq ft. - Based on avg. sq ft per employee, and other expenses like snacks, security, etc. spend on rent adds up! 2. With distributed work, companies have to spend less on rent (sometimes a LOT less) - Some remote companies are spending nothing or very little on rent - Even for in-person companies, because employees aren’t coming in every day the sq footage needs are down - The price of commercial real estate has also fallen considerably - For example, all we spend on rent at Marco for a few WeWork subscriptions for certain team members 3. Companies are now spending more on T&E (offsites and onsites) - Spend on rent is lower, but spending on T&E has gone up - More employees are distributed, but the need for in-person connection hasn’t gone away - Many companies are now investing in gatherings 2-4x per year - On the whole, companies should be saving money between rent and T&E 4. With much lower spending on rent, and higher spending on group travel, on the whole companies should be saving a LOT I’ll break this math down, and show how we’ve seen companies measure the impact of gatherings like offsites tomorrow! #employeeexperience #offsites #futureofwork

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If there is one video all founders should watch multiple times it’s this one by Michael Seibel. It’s the most discussed topic with founders where I get push back, so to bring in the experts I present some data driven and experience based insights from YC. It might not always fit you, but the frameworks that are mentioned here are a great way to start and will mostly lead you to create long term partnerships that work. So just taking the advice as is will mostly work out just fine. The bottom line is, Always fight being greedy and be more generous.

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🚀 Excited to share Insight Partners' latest resource: the SaaS Marketing Periodic Table! 🌟 This tool is a game-changer for SaaS leaders, offering key marketing metrics to drive growth. Why does it matter? 📊 With data only Insight Partners has from one of the largest B2B SaaS portfolios, this periodic table helps you benchmark your performance and refine your strategy for sustainable growth. 🌱 Whether it's marketing budget, program efficiency, or conversion rates, you'll find actionable insights tailored to your ARR segment. 👉 Dive in now and supercharge your marketing efforts! Explore the Periodic Table https://lnkd.in/eagE3XFm #SaaS #Marketing #Growth #DataDriven #InsightPartners #ScaleUp

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As a strategic partner to our clients, we recognize that not every search requires an agency. BUT every search does require planning and preparation. SearchStart was launched last month to help companies go to market confidently with all information in hand and knowing that their role will stand out in front of their candidates. Want to know what it is all about? Click the link below and fill out the form to schedule a call to learn more! #searchstart #talentacquisition #recruiting

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