Tom Grubb

"The industry’s growth, once fueled by a relentless drive for innovation and differentiation, now sputters as most companies have what they need (and if they don’t, they’re making do). Average marketing budgets have fallen to 7.7% of overall company revenue in 2024, down from 9.1% in 2023, according to Gartner’s latest annual CMO Spend Survey. CMOs are living in an era of less." This article by Gene De Libero, CCXP caught my attention because it captured data around feelings I've had as I chat with various folks across the industry who have seen cutbacks across the board. This leads to a focus on customer retention and expansion, or chasing "differentiators" that come up in the tech hype cycle (hello again AI, and don't forget Crypto). Of the strategies outlined in here, I personally favour the education and thought leadership approach, but overall there's a strong play here in the strategies for composability and the ability to "add on" to the stack you already have.

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Gong's GTM teams love DealHub! We're geeking out over how Gong, the Revenue Intelligence leaders, are using DealHub.io to, well, rock their sales world! Their Deal Desk, RevOps, and Sales teams are all raving about the platform. Here's why DealHub is a hit at Gong: * Less Busywork, More High Fives: DealHub slashed manual work by 50%, freeing up time for what matters – closing those deals. * Crystal Clear Visibility: Say goodbye to pipeline mysteries! Everyone at Gong has a bird's eye view of the sales process. * Faster Sales Cycles: DealHub helped Gong accelerate their deal cycles, meaning quicker wins and happier customers. * Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Collaboration is key! DealHub fosters seamless communication between all of Gong's awesome teams. Curious how DealHub can boost your RevOps magic? Check out the full story! https://okt.to/WeHlgw #RevOpsLife #SalesTeamWins #DealHubLove #CustomerSpotlight

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This question was very revealing of where CSMs are headed in their roles: When asked what training would make them more effective, the top three answers are hard business skills - analytical (forecasting, data, outcome tracking), business (metrics and business strategy), and commercial (negotiating and selling). Lots of great learnings on the state of CSMs.  

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Big News 🎉 @Gong just dropped some MAJOR AI capabilities that deliver new levels of automation, deep customer insights, and standardized knowledge sharing across the entire revenue org. With Gong’s new capabilities, you can: ✨Create smoother collaboration workflows across teams ✨Make coaching more efficient and consistent  ✨Deploy ready-to-use Smart Trackers ✨Centralize process, systems, and data ✨Bring AI-powered context to your sellers   Game. Changer. Learn more about these exciting new capabilities here: https://lnkd.in/gE9Hu8N3

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What are the root causes of poor GTM team alignment? Our recent survey sheds some light on what your revenue team Ops peers are saying. These comprehensive reports provide all the information. https://gag.gl/4YHwRD #RevOps #DataQuality #RevTeamAlignment

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Our latest survey offers a comprehensive look at the current state of selling, featuring insights from 800 front-line sellers. A standout finding: 3 out of 4 respondents believe they could save at least an hour by eliminating the task of creating personalized emails for prospects. While personalization is essential for connecting with prospects, it’s also incredibly time-consuming. Sellers understand its importance, but those hours quickly add up. We know time is money, and we’re dedicated to providing today’s sellers with the tools they need to personalize efficiently and effectively. Additionally, we asked sellers, “What specific tasks in your role do you think would benefit most from AI and automation?” The top three responses were: 1. Follow-up and engagement tracking 2. Reporting and performance analytics 3. Data entry and CRM updating Our survey uncovers valuable insights into the future of sales. Discover how AI can revolutionize your sales process: https://lnkd.in/gMr_3UNA

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"How many CSMs do we need?" "How many customers do my CSMs manage"? We've dug into our nearly $2 billion in client revenue data, analyzed industry standards like the Jason M. Lemkin and Gainsight suggestions, and crafted our own Infinite Renewals approach. Whether you're managing too many accounts or wondering how many CSMs you need, this is for you. A sample is below, but the good stuff is in the full report. The Infinite Renewals team of Kate Mazzini, Kristine Vallila, and Renee Murphy really dug in, and also put together a "choose your adventure" approach, which accounts for ACV, ARR, and allocated time per account. Next Thursday, October 3rd, from 1-2 PM EST, we'll be hosting an exclusive Ask Me Anything session. 📈 Drop "REPORT" in the comments to get the report. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain invaluable insights! 🗓️ Spread the word!

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GTM exemplified. When a love ❤️ brand like Gong gives an emphatic high-five for your solution across their GTM teams it's a story worth telling...Shantanu tells it better, his smile is contagious, so watch at your own discretion 😁 watch here >> https://lnkd.in/dY3VWYKw #salesprocess #scale #GTMevolution

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There is a murder scene happening in your GTM org right now. 🎃 But not with people (phew). But with FY2025 budgets getting dished out, many GTM leaders are slashing and redlining their current expenses to adapt to the change in budget or getting rid of things that didn’t work. 🔪 Now, if you are a new CMO/CRO, be careful not to just slash for slashing sake. Especially on operations support. Take the time to dig into what is useful for the team and better yet, lean on your operational support to give you the insights to make these “cost-saving” slashes. And on that topic of “cost-saving” here are places I would look into “slashing” first to save money instead of reducing on brand programs, operations, and consultants that provide value. 😊 • The full GTM tech stack  This is the very first place I would look to find tech bloat. It’s likely you might have tools that do similar things, tools no one has touched in ages, and tools that you could easily replace by building functionality within existing tools. • “Lead acquisition” data vendors Buying lists of “verified buyers” or buying “meetings” is not the way to go. Trust me. • Syndicated Content Maybe you don’t need to completely get rid of this channel (although I would think about it based on all the data I have seen). But the better thing is to invest in building your own content program that your team can consistently stick to and that resonates with buyers. • “Silver-bullet” reporting tools This kinda relates to point #1 but just letting you know - there isn’t one. • Any channel that you have invested a lot of time into but see little pipeline $ Use your data to the best of your ability when making cost changes. But know that marketing takes time and pipeline attribution is a lagging indicator. But if a certain channel or program is just not working - then make the case to stop and invest in an experiment instead. Any others you would add? Would love to hear it!

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Salesloft’s data science team recently gathered insights from over 2,000 meeting recordings and transcripts associated with more than 1,200 deals. What did they discover? The deals that discussed timing early on in a deal cycle tend to accelerate to the next stage faster and are more likely to move to closed won. Sales leaders, your reps can use these timing-related questions and statements in their next discovery: https://lnkd.in/e9G2mumG

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Imagine transforming your sales strategy and boosting your pipeline by 48% this quarter. It's not a dream—it's social selling. Companies that embrace this approach see remarkable growth compared to traditional methods. By identifying key prospects, building authentic relationships, and personalizing your outreach, you can create a flood of opportunities! #SalesStrategy #SocialSelling #DigitalTransformation Read more on the blog:

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When you’re the CMO of 5 different companies you leverage voice enabled conversational AI to deliver high quality leads to your various sales teams. Of course when one of those companies is a conversational AI company you get to write the scripts and prompts at 3:30am! Revmo AI Providertech

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⏰ ICYMI: Our Book is Coming Soon! Accelerating Revenue: Your Definitive Guide to the Theory and Practice of Go-To-Market Enablement is designed for those looking to master the core of GTM Enablement. Whether you're new to the field or a revenue leader aiming to boost team productivity, this book offers practical insights and proven strategies. Curious to learn more about transforming your approach to Enablement? 👉 Head to the Level213 website for more details! www.level213.com/services #book #revenue #enablement #GTM

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B2B organizations face more pressure to be more productive across all their sales channels, especially in complex negotiated contracts. Successful offers must have the right products, at the right prices, with the right incentives, at the right time. Learn how the best of the best win more, and win faster. Join our webinar: From Chaos to Clarity: Using CPQ for Sales Success. It's set for Thu 18 Apr at 10a ET / 4p CET. https://lnkd.in/eHXbZmWm  

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Gong has been named a leader in the new report, The Forrester Wave™: Revenue Orchestration Platforms, Q3 2024. In this report, Forrester analyzed and scored 12 top vendors in the market. Gong received the highest scores possible for more criteria than any other vendor, including:   ⭐ Innovation ⭐ AI and automation differentiators ⭐ Range of analytics insights ⭐ Platform UX and integration “Gong’s AI reveals unique buyer and seller insights to improve deal outcomes. One of the few companies founded with AI at its core, Gong has used its nine-year AI résumé to create transformative insights for revenue organization." Check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gNNFMaSi

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📊 It’s not just about having data; it’s about having the *right* data. That’s what Hive found by adopting Gong Engage and Gong Conversation Intelligence. This powerful duo surfaced insights and next steps for John Furneaux and Hive’s sales team. They can now breeze through deals, navigate discovery calls with ease, and uncover more opportunities. The result? A 44% increase in meetings booked and 30% rise in sales opportunities. And that’s not even the full extent of Hive’s wins! Read about the rest here: https://lnkd.in/gh-7X7jG 

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Companies are replacing more martech, focused on integrations and APIs, and still expanding their stacks https://lnkd.in/eRHszHYG #martech Love me this annual Martech Replacement Survey report from MarTech.org. When people replace one martech solution with another, what factors are most important to them in the new solution they choose? You can see the handprint of the CFO and fiscally-minded marketing ops leaders on “cost” being the #1 factor this year, with 61% citing it as an important factor. Good. However, the #2 most important factor is “integration capabilities/open API” with 51% citing it. This shouldn’t come as a surprise — integration has remained at the top of marketers’ demands for better martech for years. Our own State of Martech 2024 report back in May showed that APIs are very important to martech buyers, not only for today’s use cases, but in support of the new data layer emerging in many companies and preparation for the next wave of AI-powered automation. Improved customer/digital experience is #2. Data centralization/data capabilities and ability to actively measure ROI are tied for #4. (As I’ve noted before, APIs, data centralization, and measuring ROI are kind of all bundled together to unify marketing oeprations.) I know, I know, security and compliance should be much higher than 26%. My third and final guess is that these are actually seen as “givens” — the purchase simply won’t pass the approval process if these requirements aren’t satisified — and so it’s not criteria that marketers spend a lot of time consciously debating in the selection process. Overarching takeaway: martech is definitely not standing still.

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Partner leaders- we've got work to do. Sam Jacobs leads a community of CRO and GTM leaders- he's one of the most thoughtful, experienced, and effective people guiding the next generation of business leaders. This week he called out how poorly defined and poorly understood the partner playbook is- not just in the broader market, but even among the community of GTM experts. There's no playbook, it's hard to plan around, and "A bunch of partnership people standing around in a circle talking about how they're undervalued won't move the needle." He is 100% right. On the other side, I just got off a call with Dan McAllister, SVP Global Alliances and Channels at Boomi. Dan successfully led partnerships at SAP, Netsuite, Box, Mulesoft, and Salesforce before this role. When it comes to recognizing the opportunities the ecosystem presents his business, defining a strategy, crystalizing a joint business plan with his peers on the leadership team, and then executing the plan, Dan is one of the best in the world. #Partnerships are not one size fits all. The gap Sam called out in understanding partnerships and the partnering community's ability to close it is real. I'd like to personally invite Sam and all GTM leaders who want to understand partnerships better to join our Ecosystem Business Summit next week to hear how the best partnership leaders define partner strategy, rally their teams to understand the partner opportunity in GTM planning and lead the business through execution. We might all be great at recognizing the opportunity partnerships present, but unless you can rally the business around it you're failing as a partnership leader. We've got work to do! Join in link in comments.

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🚀 Planning Your Most Impactful GTM Kickoff Yet? 📅 Friday, November 15th Join us for a deep dive into planning a successful GTM Kickoff that drives results. GTM Kickoffs (often called SKOs) are one of the highest-profile initiatives Enablement teams lead each year—and typically the biggest investment the company makes in their internal teams. If you’re starting to plan your Kickoff event, you won’t want to miss our upcoming AMA with OneGuide based on the chapter from Accelerating Revenue! In this webinar, we’ll discuss:  📅 Planning a Kickoff event, whether in person or remote 🎉 Balancing education, celebration, fun, and team building 🔑 Incorporating the customer perspective for better insights 🎤 Running an effective rehearsal session (and why it’s critical!) 🎯 Aligning your GTM Kickoff with key initiatives If you’re looking to elevate your revenue team’s performance and ensure your kickoff drives value, this AMA is for you! 📚 Plus, get insights straight from the book chapter dedicated to GTM Kickoffs. 👉 Here’s the link to register: https://shorturl.at/pgnug For a deeper dive into Accelerating Revenue and how it can guide your enablement strategy, stay tuned for ordering details coming soon! #webinar #SKO #RKO #AMA

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