Seth DeHart

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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Thrilled to share that SaaS Sales Advisors launched their latest update to help with visualizing ICP data to take real action. Plus some positive feedback from nodaFi. Improving unit economics is critical for any growing business, and this new release takes a laser-focused approach to boosting Avg Rev Gen Per User (ARPA), optimizing profit margins, retaining more customers, and keeping acquisition costs down. The key? Making sure your sales team is selling to customers who truly match your Ideal Customer Profile, across every region and segment of your business. This means not just your average firmographics teams mostly utilize today and say 'we're good'. If you're looking to level up your unit economics, definitely check out the details on this latest release and snag one of the free assessments Brent Holloway is offering.

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Had a great discussion yesterday with 25 sales leaders from our of our investor client's portfolio companies. Topic was 'Hiring and Ramping A Player Reps.' Some of the key take aways below: 1. Most organizations don't have an 'Ideal Seller Profile' (aka ISP). Take the time to get very specific about what you want your sellers to know and be able to do. 2. Develop a behavioral interviewing scorecard that aligns with your ISP and stick to it. Most regretted hires are those that were good on paper but not great vs. ISP scorecard. 3. Having a consistent knowledge/skills profile doesn't mean hiring people that are otherwise the same. Lots of great stories about candidates with diverse experiences who have been great performers. 4. Decide what knowledge/skills you want someone to have coming in the door and which you will teach. Many organizations aren't consistent here and it makes it hard to properly resource the ramp up period. 5. Define what 'ramped' means at your organization. This is a shockingly rare practice. Personal recommendation is ramped = full quota performance. 6. Clearly articulate the milestones that lead up to full ramp. These should encompass knowledge (i.e. can you talk through the personas we serve), skills (i.e. can you run a proper first call based on defined standards) , and results (i.e. do you have X qualified pipeline by Y timeframe) 7. Have standards that go along with the knowledge and skills someone needs. Less 'knows our product' more 'can give 15 minute demonstration that aligns with our 'best demo' framework and scores a 8/10 on our demo rubrik' If this sounds like hard work, it is. It is also way cheaper than churning 40% of your salesforce every year.

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Some predictable pipeline reflections from GTM audits this week: 1️⃣ Many companies are selling too fast, and it's ironically slowing down closed deals. Talking about product and price too early, pushing buyers faster than they're ready to go, dragging buying committee members along that have no idea what you're talking about. Sometimes three steps is faster than one. Be methodical to accelerate pipeline velocity. 2️⃣ Inbound is often fool's gold. The numbers make you feel good but the quality is fleeting and inconsistent. The healthiest companies combine inbound and outbound into an "allbound" strategy that drives more predictable performance and results. 3️⃣ Marketing programs and budgets in complex sales cycle situations need to be managed from the bottom up, not the top down. Cost per lead isn't nearly as important as customer acquisition cost (CAC) and managing a body of work that's at and below that number on a consistent, repeatable and scalable basis. 4️⃣ Smaller numbers are most often your most important numbers. Stop celebrating webinar registrations, booth drop-bys and social followers. Even engagement doesn't matter unless it's paired with an accurate, comprehensive ideal customer profile (ICP) definition. 5️⃣ Politics is killing internal progress and innovation. The most successful leaders create a culture of collaboration and transparency, maintain a "team sport" mentality to go-to-market, and encourage if not require ongoing professional development and learning.

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Customer Success isn’t just about keeping clients happy, it’s a boardroom-level conversation that investors will scrutinize. ⬇️ At #SaaStr2024, Nick Mehta from Gainsight broke down 10 critical questions that every founder and customer success leader should be ready to answer when engaging with investors. #CustomerSuccess #SaaS #TreeAndLeafPartners #NickMehta #Investor #Leaders #SaaStr2024

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Learn about driving value selling across the sales team

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If something in your sales process isn't working, you need to look 1-2 stages back for root cause. If we aren't converting initial meetings into next steps> are we targeting right personas and is our messaging aligned with our buyers priorities and problems? If we are getting stuck in proposal > did we do the right discovery? If we are getting slammed for discounts at the end > did we build a compelling value discussion before we got into commercials? If something isn't working, the answer is almost always 1-2 stages back.

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GTM tooling is one of the fastest growing verticals in B2B right now. Ton of fluff out there, but there are handful of tools that are * genuinely * exciting. Shortlist of companies we're (actively) test driving: 1. Attention Live sales call recaps, tactical action items, and seamless integrations. Anis Bennaceur + co are building something special. S/o to Dan Jaeck for the flag. 2. Default All-in-one lead routing, scheduling, and automated pipeline workflows. Big ups to Nico F. and Stan Rymkiewicz - building a behemoth of a platform. 3. Unify Warm outbound done right based on live intent signals. IMO the next major untapped B2B growth channel. Watch this space cc Austin Hughes 🤝. 4. 11x.ai AI SDR agents on autopilot. Haven't personally tried it yet but love the concept + impressed with early growth. Excited to test drive it soon - big opp here. 5. Pipeline LinkedIn will increasingly become the go-to GTM and BD channel in the next 12 months. Sudarshan Sridharan and his team are shipping at an insane pace. 6. Seam From a people lens, retaining top performers in a GTM motion is critical. Big fan of what Jacob Honig + Sean Taylor are building. Very happy customer here. 7. Cabal We swear by Cabal for monthly GTM updates and investor emails. Great UI, easy to segment and build referral lists. Brian M. and co are getting a lot right.

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I knew nothing about B2B sales. In the early days with my startup, I Really. Really. Struggled. to sell. Like most early-stage startups, we couldn't afford to hire, so I became the first SDR, AE, and customer success rep. There were Many. Many. Confusing, often exciting, but mostly self-doubting dark days. "Is it me or my product?" But because of these experiences, I learned so much about the art and science of talking to customers. (My favorite method for customer discovery is #JTBD, thanks to Techstars.) I gained real insights into what customers want, need, and, most importantly, are willing to pay for. This real-time feedback was the key to quickly monetizing the solution. That’s why I still believe in founder-led sales until you find product-market fit. Shifting from founder-led to founder-less sales was also challenging. With added responsibilities, it can be overwhelming and easy to lose the direct line to understand their needs, pain points, and feedback. I quickly realized I needed to set some KPIs to track my interactions with customers. Mine was 333: talking to 3 customers, 3 prospects, and 3 partners weekly and keeping track of the data. I truly believe: Your organization can only be truly customer-focused if you, as a leader, remain customer-focused. PS: How do you stay connected with your customers as your company grows? Share your strategies in the comments!

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🌟 Attention all revenue leaders and sales reps! 🌟 Are you looking for ways to give your sales team a competitive edge? As a co-founder of Autobound, I’ve seen firsthand how challenging it can be for SDRs and AEs to craft highly personalized outreach at scale. But what if I told you that there’s a wealth of untapped insights that can cut your research time down from 15 minutes to seconds, right under your nose? Introducing Autobound’s upcoming feature: Job Opening Insights We’ve harnessed the power of AI to analyze a staggering 166 MILLION job openings across 1.5 MILLION companies. Why does this matter? Because job openings are a treasure trove of information about a company’s: ✅ Strategic initiatives ✅ Pain points ✅ Technology stack ✅ Organizational structure And more! By leveraging these insights, your sales team can craft hyper-personalized outreach that resonates with prospects and drives higher response rates. The best part? Autobound does the heavy lifting for you. Our AI engine automatically identifies relevant job openings and extracts key insights, so your team can focus on what they do best - selling. And for new users, we’ll even build out your seller identity based on public information, so you can hit the ground running. Job Opening Insights are just the beginning. With over 150+ unique insights in our platform, we’re committed to helping revenue teams unlock their full potential. Ready to take your prospecting to the next level? DM me or drop a comment below to learn more about how Autobound can help. #sales #aiforsales #salesintelligence #outbound

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Q&A with Xactly CFO Jason Godley — key trends in the SaaS market, how to navigate business uncertainty, and why finance chiefs need to act as chameleons. More in his article with CFO! http://spklr.io/6040qwA2 

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Is your company truly leveraging RevOps? RevOps isn't just a buzzword or fancier term for sales ops; it's the proactive backbone that connects all revenue functions—Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service. By anticipating gaps and building systems, RevOps proactively pushes for high performance across the board. Let’s transform your business approach, shifting from reactive problem-solving to creating a visionary, frictionless revenue operation. #RevOps #SalesOps #RevenueGrowth #BusinessStrategy #ProactiveManagement

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$8.1M in pipeline for a Series A healthtech co. in 6wks Here's how we did it with 1 BDR and systems. The client said they were struggling with leads What they were actually struggling with: • Competitors could easily put their name on messaging. • They were automating outreach like everyone else. • They were struggling with inconsistent positioning. • They glossed over their GTM motion. We took a different approach: • Human intelligence over automation. • Revenue operations fundamentals. • Revenue marketing strategy. • Scaled down tech stack. • Precise segmentation. The problem? • They treated all "providers" the same. • Generic messaging missed crucial nuances. • Engagement and conversion rates sucked. Our approach: • Redefined the "provider" category. • Segment by specialty and sub-specialty. • Develop tailored messaging for each group. • Taught social selling basics. • Cut off mass automation. We dug deep: • Sifted through industry benchmarks. • Gathered data on practice-specific KPIs. • Built business cases for each sub-specialty. • Addressed operational and financial outcomes. Our secret weapons? Perplexity and Telescope • Used these for persona-specific research. • Empathy maps + customer journey for EVERY persona. • Built out persona specific account approaches. • Opened the whole buying committee. • Uploaded directly to CRM for BDR reference. We systemized everything: • Lean tech stack focused on revenue ops. • Integrated call transcripts and outreach data. • Analyzed and refined strategies in real-time. Copywriting got a makeover: • Crafted messages based on empathy maps. • Uploaded scripts and FAQs to JustCall. • Enabled real-time conversation adaptation.    The tech stack was slim: • Lavender 💜  for optimized email crafting. • Close CRM and JustCall integration for consistency. • Clay insights available at every touchpoint. The results? • $8.1M in pipeline. • Higher engagement rates. • Increased conversions. Our edge? • Healthcare expertise. • Precise segmentation and messaging. • Systemized, quality-over-volume approach. Tools that made it happen: • HUMANS (not robots) leading campaigns. • Perplexity for up-to-date healthcare trends. • Telescope for refined prospect lists. • The Org to unlock buying committees • MillionVerifier for email validation • Clay for persona enrichment • CloseCRM as our central data hub. • JustCall for personalized cold calls • Lavender for crispy copywriting. The takeaway? • Generic approaches don't cut it. • Tailored strategies drive real results. • Human touch + smart tech = winning combo. Want to unlock revenue today? Then you need to work with experts. Shoot me a connection and a DM if you want to see the flow.

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Thanks for the shout out UserGems 💎 Your signals should lead to TOFU efficiency vs Cold Outbound. That means it takes less activities, contacts and accounts to book qualified opportunities than your baseline. If that’s not happening. Then change your offer. Stop chasing. Find new signals.

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🚩 Revenue Leaders: Where does your sales enablement live? 🚩 Here’s the thing—many teams are shifting core sales enablement outside the primary CRM (Salesforce) to tools like Apollo.io Salesloft and Outreach But here’s my question: When these tools don’t sync their data back, is your middle-of-the-funnel effectively flying blind? Consider this: With sales enablement siloed in external tools, SDR data often lives outside the CRM. Without syncing, core insights are fragmented—leading to missed handoffs and less visibility. A central CRM keeps data aligned. Every touchpoint, every interaction visible in one place. If demand gen leaders want a clear path from top to bottom of the funnel, shouldn’t sales enablement live in the same ecosystem? If you’re using multiple tools, it’s time to ask: Is the benefit worth the data blind spots? Curious—are you seeing enablement sit within the CRM, or scattered across SaaS tools? Let’s discuss 👇 #sales #revenue #crm #salesenablement

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Connect the dots..... between People Process Product Technology & Business Unit Economics. There's no magic bullet. It's that simple and that hard. Over the past few weeks, I've had this conversation on repeat with Founders, CEOs and other GTM leaders. It's like Groundhog Day living rent free in my head. What's on repeat in your world?! #GTM #leadership #revenuegrowthengine

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Renewals are the lifeblood of every SaaS company. However, we don’t talk enough about what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals. Since there are so many lists on what makes a great AE, I thought I’d take a stab at what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals: 1/ They prioritize the renewals that move the needle Renewal rate comes down to simple math. What renewals are going to move the needle for them? Great AMs/CSMs spend their time where they’ll get the most bang for their buck. 2/ They prepare 6 months in advance Average AMs/CSMs prep 3 months in advance. Great ones plan 6 months in advance. This includes asking hard questions well ahead of time during a mid-year QBR, so they know where to spend their time. 3/ They can re-sell the product Stakeholders change. Priorities change. Competitors try to break in. Great AMs/CSMs can sell the product as well as their AEs and know how to position their value props and handle objections. 4/ They know how to negotiate I don’t know any procurement person in the post-ZIRP era who doesn’t try to negotiate their contracts. A great AM/CSM knows how to turn negotiations into win-wins. 5/ They know the difference between procurement and decision-makers Similar to point four, they know how to negotiate and with whom. Negotiating with procurement is much different than negotiating with a key stakeholder. Each party wants something different, and it’s important to recognize what that is. 6/ They know how to rope in their AEs or extended teams Just like the best AEs know how to “quarterback” deals, a great AM/CSM knows how to rally resources to help with renewals. AEs, Execs, SEs, and Professional Services can all be brought in to help show the customer extra love. 7/ They develop a renewal champion We always talk about champions in the presales process, but not enough about champions during renewals. A great AM/CSM knows how to develop champions to help push renewals through. An AM/CSM who knows how to do these things is worth their weight in gold. Keep them happy as long as you can!

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Several CFOs of Series B+ startups told me their outbound motion is broken for SMB. If ACVs are $10k or less and deal cycles are 30+ days, the math doesn’t work. On top of this, reps struggle to prioritize between thousands of accounts (territories are much larger in SMB). The margins just aren’t there. In 2018, LinkedIn’s GTM org had a similar realization and transitioned from sales-led to self-serve for the SMB segment. But for many companies, it’s not trivial, or worth it, to build out a self-serve offering just for SMB. A few predictions on how this will unfold: 1) The SMB segment will be the first to move away from outbound sales because of margin pressure. 2) GTM and finance leaders will embrace automation for this channel, because they have no other choice. They’ll use signals and warm outbound to hone in on the 5% of their vast SMB pool of accounts. 3) As foundational models get better, this will be the most compelling use-case of agent-led SDRs. The accuracy bar for full automation with SMB isn’t nearly as high as with Enterprise, where reps closely monitor a handful of accounts and won’t tolerate mistakes. Thoughts?

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The thing about adaptability is that it drives resilience! 🚀 And that's what the team at QuotaPath has just done! Their latest release provides Mid Market companies with the strongest incentive platform with more adaptability than ever. One reason revenue leaders are so hesitant to make mid-year adjustments to compensation structures is that it’s historically been difficult. If comp plans live in spreadsheets, the risk of breaking them never fades away. However, when leaders manage this process in commission tracking software, the experience has often been too clunky to implement the changes without calling in a support ticket. So, when high-growth teams need to add a comp plan, teammate, or data source, they either avoid it altogether or wait for someone else to do it for them. QuotaPath picked up on this after countless calls with their customers and has announced system upgrades today, positioning it as the most adaptable commission tracking software on the market. I’m so excited to see where this takes them next, as their latest updates improve operations, transparency, and an organization’s adaptability to manage compensation complexities at scale. Cheers to the team and to a new-found adaptability in commission technology.

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