Sandy Yu

Looking to expand your territory and crush your quota? 👊 In this episode of In Your Corner, our CEO and Founder, Henry Schuck, shows how enterprise account executives can identify new accounts to target in just a few clicks. Using ZoomInfo's Advanced Search, sellers can easily find accounts within their territory that aren't existing customers and connect with contacts who are most likely to engage. Watch below to see how it works. ⬇️

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“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” 💡✨ Attending SaaStr 2024 in San Mateo for the first time felt like stepping into the unknown, unsure of what I’d find or how it would change me. But wow—what an incredible and transformative experience! 🚀 I had the privilege of connecting with hundreds of amazing companies from the SaaS and tech ecosystem, both from California and across the US. From passionate discussions about design, digital experiences, and truly connecting with users to creating products that have a real impact on people’s lives, every conversation was a treasure of its own. 🎨💻💬 What struck me most is that we all share the same passion and understanding of how vital design and user experience are. It’s not just about aesthetics—it’s about solving real problems, creating meaningful connections, and making people’s lives simpler and better. 💫💖 So grateful for this experience, and for all the treasure I found along the way! 🗝️🏆 #SaaStr2024 #DesignMatters #UserExperience #DigitalInnovation #Grateful #TechCommunity

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Great Place To Work® and Fortune magazine have honored Five9 as one of this year's Best Workplaces in the Bay Area. 🌟 This is Five9's second time being named to this prestigious list, coming in at No. 17. Earning a spot means that Five9 has surpassed rigorous benchmarks, establishing itself as one of the best workplaces among companies headquartered in the San Francisco Bay region. Learn more: #Five9 #BestPlacesToWork #CustomerExperience

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Ready to crush your sales goals? 💥 ZoomInfo Copilot uses AI to identify priority accounts and provide tailored recommendations for outreach — allowing you to sell more confidently. 💪 Hear from customers like Patricia Peral, Senior Director at Beeline, to learn how ZoomInfo Copilot will revolutionize the way you sell: bit.ly/3LicWP3 #ZoomInfoCopilot

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Rev Ops / Sales Ops - I believe the toughest part of your job has more in common with parenting than it does with anything else. Follow my metaphor for a moment. The sales operations job is: - making sure the CRM is in order and connected to other sales tools - sales compensation - territory - ensuring sales process adherence - data hygiene - forecasting - sales analytics and many other things. As you look at that list it definitely lines up with somebody who is analytical and a systems thinker. Where it breaks down is once you have everything set up. Once you have the right processes and systems, the weak link is the people. And when the people are sales reps, that's a very weak link. Yes I know some of you hate that statement, but it's true. And that's coming from someone who prides himself on being a salesperson. I don't always do the stuff I'm supposed to do in the systems that revenue operations set up either. My colleague James Hemberg does a great job with tactful reminders. Here's one from last week: Hey team - If you are receiving this email, you are the owner of a non-flat renewal opportunity set to close this fiscal quarter. At this point, if it's not on the cusp of closing it should get pushed out to next quarter or moved to closed/lost. ------ I like the wording of his note. Way better than, "Update your opps you morons." That inspired me to ask the question: Got any bulletpoints on lessons learned from revops on how to get surly sales reps to actually do stuff? His reply: It’s like parenting and what I do to stop having to constantly remind my boys to do stuff: - create routines: be consistent with your expectations on when you ask them to do things and how you want it done. - keep the asks small: makes it manageable and shows you respect their time - lead with empathy and understanding: I know they don’t see personal value in every ask so I explain why the first time. - provide a means to avoid the ask: give them a dashboard or report they have access to at all times so they can proactively avoid having to do the asks. Gives them the ability to do it on their time. ___________ Great advice from someone who is technically and analytically competent, while at the same time understands the human element as a father of two boys. Sales operations people how do you handle sales reps when it's difficult to get them to do stuff? #revenueoperations #salesoperations #salesteam #routine #habit

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ZoomInfo Copilot is working 24/7 — surfacing important updates you should know about your top accounts.  With breaking alerts delivered via Slack, you'll never miss when a buying group shifts or a key account spikes on intent. 🔔 Have a question about one of your accounts? Ask Copilot's interactive, AI-powered chat and get answers in seconds.  Ready to give Copilot a try? Request a demo: bit.ly/3Kj4myP #ZoomInfoCopilot

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GTM Ops leaders who understand how to maximize AI in the next 5 years will be 10x more powerful.  Meka Asonye talks with Ben Salzman on the ZI Labs pod.  Here my favorite line: “I’m very bullish on the sales stack looking very different in 5 years than it does today.” Meka said this and I completely agree with it. 18 months ago we didn’t have ChatGPT.  3 months ago we didn’t have ZoomInfo Copilot. Those that are able to adopt (and adapt) to this new environment will become irreplaceable.  Here’s how Meka is thinking about leveraging AI at First Round Capital in a very interesting way: “Normally we spend a lot of time taking decks, summarizing what’s in those decks, figuring out how much money they are raising and putting it into our CRM. We see 1000s of opportunities every single year and right now that is a manual job that individual people do.  There’s no reason that job should be manual.” Imagine a world where that automatically happens.  That’s just one use case for First Round. He also said:  “It’s still mind blowing to me that people manually update their Salesforce fields.” It is wild to think that we have ChatGPT but AEs are still manually updating fields.  We’ll see people disagree on where AI value creation will be created in the sales tech stack over the next 5 years. But… We know that the best way to capture that value as a GTM Ops leader will be to implement it in unique and creative ways. Last year, our team automatically created 35,000 account plans instead of spending 3-4 hours per account and saved $2.1M in employee time (140,000 hours at $100/hr). This year, there are 100 million account plans at your fingertips, when you leverage ZoomInfo Copilot Chat to chat with your target accounts. It’s 2024 - what’s your most unique way of leveraging AI in your tech stack? I’ll drop a link to the full episode for you in the comments.

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The singer Jessie J may have said “It's not about the money, money, money,” but sometimes it is… I’d argue that one of the biggest factors that impacts #CustomerSuccess and retention in SaaS companies is the sales comp plan. And there is no easy answer. Every sales coverage model and comp plan has pros and cons, with respect to churn and growth: 💡 TCV Comp: The “old school” model from on-premise software and hardware is to compensate salespeople on “total contract value,” regardless as to whether the bookings was new or a renewal. The upside of this model is salespeople have a big incentive to make sure clients renew. The downside is reps can make their quota on existing customer retention and growth can suffer. 💡 No Renewal Comp: If Account Executives make money only on new bookings, they can focus on growth. However, if a CSM needs help from a rep for a “resale,” the salesperson has no incentive to help. 💡 Partial Renewal Comp: Some companies give AEs a small amount of comp for renewals (e.g., 20% of on-target earnings come from renewals). On one hand, this is good because it gives reps “skin in the game” on renewals. On the other hand, the 20% dilutes rep commission on new bookings. In addition, the 20% may not be enough to incentivize action. 💡 Net ARR Comp: I’ve met a few larger organizations that pay a rep on the “net growth” in their territory. This means they give a rep a starting Annual Recurring Revenue base for a territory and then pay them on net growth of the base. For example, if the rep has 10 accounts totaling $10M of ARR, then they get paid only on growth ABOVE $10M ARR. This ensures the rep stays close to customers. But it definitely penalizes a salesperson for a big churn that may have been out of their control. 💡 Activation-Based Comp: Some companies try to walk the line by paying reps once clients are activated / onboarded. This ensures salespeople don’t (unintentionally) sell “bad deals” and do use their relationships to assure deployment. On the flip side, this approach can create tension between Sales and CS. What sales comp models have you tried and how do they affect renewals? There is no perfect answer. Every approach comes with a “Price Tag.” See what I did there?

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SF has dramatically changed - but it’s still great. Though it’s not what it used to be, the AI concentration is obvious. I counted 11 billboards from SFO to the city with Enterprise or Gen AI on them. AI SDR billboards (pictured below) are everywhere. For us in sales, the world is changing very fast. Two questions come to mind: 1. How do sales teams adapt? 2. How are sales teams incorporating AI into your sales stack?

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Great Place To Work® and Fortune magazine have honored Five9 as one of this year's Best Workplaces in the Bay Area. 🌟 This is Five9's second time being named to this prestigious list, coming in at No. 17. Earning a spot means that Five9 has surpassed rigorous benchmarks, establishing itself as one of the best workplaces among companies headquartered in the San Francisco Bay region. Learn more: #Five9 #BestPlacesToWork #CustomerExperience

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Last Sunday I had the opportunity to participate in the Ironman California race. For those not familiar with Ironman they include a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride and finishing with a 26.2 mile run. The Ironman race tests you not only physically but just as much mentally. I had a great day and finished with a time of 12 hour and 2 minutes. That is 2 hours faster than my last Ironman race. But race times don't really matter. What matters most is the growth that comes from the journey...not the race. Business and life lessons from the training from this year include advice given to me by my triathlon coach right before the race. "Solve problems one at a time." Through the course of a long race there will be problems. Stay present and solve them one at a time. The more present you can be the more effective you will be at solving what is right in front of you. There was a day that the idea of doing a race that lasts 140.6 miles in one day I would have thought impossible. Completing an Ironman is the realization that each of us are capable of more than we could imagine. My wish in posting this is to inspire anyone chasing a dream. It can be done if focus on achieving your goals one step at a time. Solve the challenges that stand in your way one at a time!!!!

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Become an expert on any account in under 5 minutes! ⏰ ZoomInfo Copilot's AI Account Summaries tell you everything you need to know about a given account — including pain points, upcoming deals, important contacts, and more. Ready to optimize your sales strategy? Request a demo to see ZoomInfo Copilot in action: bit.ly/3VRm9E0 #ZoomInfoCopilot

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One reason RevOps isn’t strategic 𝗟𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽 Let me break this down. 𝟭. 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 RevOps defaults to a reactive whack-a-mole, fielding a flood of inbound requests. This leaves no time to work on strategic priorities. A RevOps Roadmap starts with top priorities or OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). - What does the Revenue Team want to accomplish this year? - This quarter? - What’s our sales target? - What do we need to do to get there? - Improve Close Rates? - Sell larger deals? - Generate more pipeline from outbound? - From inbound? - From renewals and expansion? What are our priorities as a team? 𝟮. 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 The next step is to align priorities with specific initiatives in RevOps. Say we want to improve our close rates. - What will we do? - Define our sales cycle? - Set clearer qualification and stage entry criteria? - Build reports and dashboards to track this? - Improve our pipeline review and/or forecasting process? - Provide more enablement? What are the most important initiatives to help achieve our objectives? 𝟯. 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 Now we get feedback, revisions and sponsorship from leadership. At the end of the day, are they in full support of RevOps prioritizing these initiatives and trying to help the Revenue Team achieve these Objectives and Key Results? If not, what are we doing here? If everything is a priority, nothing is. 𝟰. 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 We have specific Key Results for the revenue team to achieve. - Are we tracking metrics related to this? - Are we reporting this to leadership on a regular basis? - Are we updating leadership as to whether or not we’re on track? - And if we need to make adjustments to get there? To me, RevOps isn't RevOps without Insights. It's just systems admin. 𝟱. 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 The Roadmap comes to life in sprint planning. Over the next two weeks... - Which items on the Roadmap will we tackle? - Which fire-drills and inbound requests do we have? - Does leadership want to delay items on the roadmap? Things change in growth-stage companies quickly. It’s okay to pivot and tackle emergencies if they are truly more urgent than what’s on the roadmap, so long as everyone is aligned. 𝟲. 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 The Roadmap needs reviewed and updated quarterly. We show what was done and not done, what OKRs the revenue team achieved and didn’t achieve. We then leverage this to set OKRs and Initiatives for the next quarter. We want to maintain alignment here. What would you add? What’s working with your Roadmap? 🤔 More on this here: https://bit.ly/3W8fhCq ✌️

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What a time to be eligible for a new role in Technology Sales and Account Management based in California. I have to be honest. I am grappling with putting the "open to work" banner on my LI profile out of pride and bots, and I need to get over it. After 15+ years with Edgecast, Verizon, Yahoo, AOL, and Edgio, all under the same umbrella, I look forward to my next role, which will involve managing Major Accounts for AppSec Security, Edge Compute, and Content Distribution. I have seen a lot of consolidation in the industry, and it has finally come to a head. Plainly, Akamai Technologies, I can appreciate the bid for the Edgio contracts. It was a gangster move that will stabilize the industry's compression over the next 12-24 months. It was almost necessary, and the race to the bottom had to stop. Kudos for taking two of the top five CDNs off the market—it was an admirable move. Now for the recruiter pitch... As a Senior Client Director in Los Angeles with 25 years of expertise in content delivery, web security, and edge computing, I have a very strong track record in managing Major Accounts. I am the tip of the spear for complex management. I understand all aspects of commercial management and contract negotiations, including large accounts with 10M+ in annual agreements. In 2024, I drove $35M+ in annual revenue and achieved significant year-over-year growth, even in a challenging market. I excel in building trusted relationships (my craftwork) and delivering client success across the social, retail, e-commerce, and fintech sectors. FWIW, in the last 16 years, I've had an epic run managing some of the largest institutions on the globe: Twitter (aka X Corp), Broadcom, PayPal, LinkedIn, Yahoo!, Statefarm Insurance, NVIDIA, Walmart, Target, and one of my favorites for fun and personal use: @Vegas.com. I could add 100 more cool brands from over the years...all of which benefited from my account teams. I am very comfortable providing client references from all the aforementioned. Now for the thanks. Over the years, I have had folks who have made an impact, and I have to thank them for my trajectory in supporting myself and my clients—all of whom impacted where I am today. Some of them may be a surprise, and most with purpose because they made me who I am today in this business. Mike Flatin, Matt Haentzschel, Craig Kaplan, Dan Boyan, Danny Nia, Brian Hartman, Jeff Morse, Rithvik Nathan, Richard Yew, Wakonda Robertson, Howard M., Eddie Pryor, Dan Lavorini, Christopher Rodriguez, Dave Andrews, Devender Singh, Frederick Lodge, Corey Kasten, audie caceres, Daniel Franklin @John Logan, Justin Tennant, and 50 other folks whom I should tap for love of our business... I am ready to work with a CDN and/or WebApp security company that is missing that person with the talent to obtain those who do not have them. Fastly Cloudflare Microsoft Google

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Sales excellence isn’t just about closing deals—it’s about building relationships, processes, and a relentless commitment to growth. When I joined Microsoft 11 years ago, I’ll admit—I was overwhelmed. The sea of new product SKUs, rapid changes in customer needs, and the sheer velocity of our work were staggering. I wanted to excel, but perfectionism can be a double-edged sword. My first priority? Listening. I immersed myself in the existing relationships, processes, and leads. From day one, I committed to mastering not just sales but the backend tasks that empower our teams. Leadership isn’t about delegation—it’s about understanding. In sales, the only constant is change. Be a student of the game and never stop learning. Success is about crafting and refining processes for every metric you pursue. Every interaction is an opportunity and the seeds you plant today grow into tomorrow’s success. Never stop planting, watering and nurturing. Treat every customer, large or small, with the same level of care. ✨ Master the Basics: Know your products and processes inside out. Sometimes the biggest value you bring is being able to demystify and navigate your unique resources. 🔄 Adapt: Embrace change and shift your approach as needed. ☑️ Be Transparent, Communicative and Responsive: Address objections before they arise, respond in a timely manner, and passively educate with regular, consistent communication. 🌿 Build Relationships: Consistency and care are your secret weapons. 🌟 Never Stop Learning: Every challenge is an opportunity to grow. Sales excellence isn’t about being the smartest person in the room. It’s about planning, executing, and responding—day in and day out. To every overwhelmed newcomer out there: It gets better. Trust the process, stay committed, and never stop innovating. 11 years ago, my team and I started processes for events, newsletters, outreach, prospecting and mutually beneficial partnerships that made our team #1 in the world for 8 quarters in a row and led to my promotion. Never stop planting seeds for impact! What’s one seed you can plant today that might grow into your biggest success? #SalesExcellence #CustomerFirst #RelationshipBuilding #Adaptability #SalesLeadership #ProcessMatters #ContinuousImprovement #NetworkingSuccess #InnovationInSales

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Come to hear the insights or ask me for the TL/DR afterwards. Timely topic as we see increased utilization and coordination of DR and TOU programs to meet goals of grid resiliency, reduced costs and accelerated de carbonization.

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In the past year, Seismic and Salesloft have DOUBLED the Rev Ops teams. Even an established team at Gong grew ~30%. And this is while many trimmed the Sales team. A LOT 👇 In Q1’23, we published analysis on GTM Systems to Rev Ops team ratios. The orgs featured all had Sales headcount around 450-500 Reps. At the time, it looked something like this: • Seismic: 9 in Rev Ops + 10 on Salesforce • Salesloft: 9 in Rev Ops + 8 on Salesforce • Gong: 27 in Rev Ops + 7 on Salesforce Since then, Sales headcount has gone way down in many cases. • Seismic: -20% • Salesloft: Down slightly despite acquiring Drift • Gong: Flat • Outreach: -20% But as Rep count goes down, the Rev Ops teams are growing: • Gong: +7 ppl • Seismic: +10 ppl • Salesloft: +9 ppl The Rev Ops & GTM Systems Orgs Today: • Gong: 34 in Rev Ops; 7 on GTM Systems • Seismic: 17 in Rev Ops; 10 on GTM Systems • Salesloft†: 18 in Rev Ops; 10 on GTM Systems • Outreach: 29 in Rev Ops; 12 on GTM Systems • Clari†: 12 in Rev Ops; 7 on GTM Systems †Teams in transition following big acquisitions in 2023. There seem to be a few conclusions to draw from the trend. 1. The push toward profitability is fully underway. In 2023, Sales was 35%-40% of total headcount at these companies. Today, it’s closer to 20%-25%. This is largely thanks to economic headwinds and the funding landscape. Frankly, it’s a great forcing function that should drive efficiency. 2. Profitability does, in fact, mean doing more with less. Companies are re-tooling to work smarter when deploying GTM teams. And during the boom times, there was little discipline in GTM execution. EVERYONE was buying. But the music stops, Reps start missing quota, and we need to be smart again. It’s crystal clear that the way to do it is by scaling up Rev Ops. 3. Most companies are still playing catch up when it comes to Ops & Systems. We’re talking about the MARKET LEADERS in Sales Enablement here. Even they don’t have it all figured out. In ‘23, Seismic & Salesloft had slightly inverted Systems:Ops ratios. (You don’t typically see a 1:1 ratio when dealing at this scale.) Much of their Rev Ops hiring is likely to fill in some gaps. In contrast, Outreach had a high-powered Rev Ops team but little on Systems. As their Sales org trimmed by 20%, they are beefing up in GTM Systems. Meanwhile, everyone is talking about Salesforce’s earnings miss last week. And yes, their revenue growth is slowing. But that is the wrong takeaway. It’s not really about Salesforce. Earnings from the SaaS Market Leader are the canary in the coal mine. Demand is softening. GTM Tech Stacks are consolidating. New purchases are heavily scrutinized. The days of a brute force Sales approach to capture market share are over. What do you make of the Sales ⬇️, Rev Ops ⬆️ trend? __ #RevOps #GTM #SaaS

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The key to winning deals and nailing GTM? Aligning buyer and seller priorities. For the buyer, purchasing might be priority #20. Sellers who win are the ones who elevate it to a top 3 priority by understanding and solving what truly matters

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