Podcasts about ZoomInfo

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2026

Here's a question that hits every sales professional right in the gut: What do you do when your email prospecting tanks and you're staring at response rates that are circling the drain? That's the question Tara asked on a recent episode of Ask Jeb on The Sales Gravy Podcast, and it's one I hear constantly from SDRs, account executives, and even sales managers who've convinced themselves that cold calling is outdated. If you're nodding along, thinking email is the future and cold calling is dead, you need to wake up. Email efficiency is going down without bounds, and if you're not picking up the phone, you're leaving money on the table. The Hard Truth About Email Prospecting Let me be blunt: Your email isn't failing because the channel is broken. It's failing because what you're doing is terrible. Before you blame the medium, look in the mirror. Did people ignore your email because you sent them something genuinely personalized and valuable? Or did they ignore you because you followed up thirteen times in five days? Did they ghost you because your seven colleagues already called them that same day? The brutal reality is that most salespeople treat email like a spray-and-pray numbers game. They blast generic messages, add zero personalization, and then wonder why nobody responds. Meanwhile, they avoid the one thing that actually works: picking up the phone and having real conversations. Why Cold Calling Will Always Matter Cold calling isn't going anywhere. It never has been, and it never will be. You want to know why? Because sales is a human business. People buy from people they trust, and you can't build trust through automated emails that sound like they were written by AI. A phone call gives you something email never can: the ability to prove you're a real human being who's genuinely there to help, not just to pitch and sell. When you call someone and say, "Hey, I sent you an email last week with this case study because I saw you talked about this at the Outbound Conference," you're showing them you did your homework. You're not just another robot in their inbox. Here's a line I love: "Would I be the worst salesperson in the world if I didn't also try to call you?" It's honest, it's human, and it cuts through the noise. You Don't Know What to Say? Make the Calls The number one excuse I hear from salespeople: "I don't know what to say." Here's my advice: Make one hundred calls and talk to people. They'll teach you. You're going to learn what not to say. You're going to start seeing patterns in how your prospects think, what problems they face, and what language matters to them. This is how you develop business acumen that separates you from the pack. You can't learn it behind a keyboard. I was in an alignment call today with a new client, and they said, "You totally understand us." Why? Last week, I was with a business adjacent to their industry, learned their language, and pulled that knowledge into the next call. Use Tools to Compress Your Learning Curve Use tools like ZoomInfo to accelerate your learning curve. At Sales Gravy, we use it every day to find information about people, see what they're doing on our website, and get intent signals that build our lists automatically. You can use these tools to learn the language of industries you're breaking into. You can see company news, understand their challenges, and show up on calls sounding like you belong. But here's the key: The tool doesn't make the call for you. It gives you the ammunition. You still have to do the work. Be Strategic and Resourceful Here's a strategy most salespeople are too lazy to try: If you're having trouble getting through to a decision maker, call someone else in the company who'll actually talk to you. Selling HR services? Call a sales rep. They'll talk your ear off about the company and might even make an introduction. Try this: "Hey, I know you're in sales. I've been trying to get hold of Joseph for nine months. Is there any way you could help me out?" That's not being cheesy. That's being resourceful. But you have to be genuine. You can't just ask for something without building rapport. Your Action Plan If you're struggling with email effectiveness: Pick up the damn phone. Stop making excuses about why cold calling doesn't work. It works if you work it. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Introducing yourself to strangers will never be easy, but it's the price of admission for being great at sales. Use data strategically. Build sequences that interweave multiple channels over 30, 60, 90 days. Email, phone, LinkedIn, video. Give yourself the best odds. Don't oversell on the cold call. A little interest isn't an invitation to vomit your pitch. Your job is to earn the next conversation. Make one more call. At the end of the day, when you're tired, make one more call. That's where discipline separates winners from everyone else. The Bottom Line Email isn't dead, but it's not a magic bullet. Cold calling isn't outdated. It's the foundation of everything we do in sales. Stop hiding behind your keyboard. Stop blaming the tools. Stop making excuses. The shortest path to a meeting is through a real conversation. That's how you build relationships, develop trust, and separate yourself from every other salesperson who's too afraid to dial. Get outside your skin. Be genuine. Be there to help. And pick up the phone. Ready to take your prospecting skills to the next level? Join us at one of our upcoming Sales Gravy LIVE events where you'll learn directly from top sales leaders and get hands-on coaching to transform your results.

ai cold cold calling never die sdrs zoominfo outbound conference

Why Cold Calling Will Never Die (Ask Jeb)

B2B Marketers on a Mission

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2026 25:07

Here’s a question that hits every sales professional right in the gut: What do you do when your email prospecting tanks and you’re staring at response rates that are circling the drain? That’s the question Tara asked on a recent episode of Ask Jeb on The Sales Gravy Podcast, and it’s one I hear constantly from SDRs, account executives, and even sales managers who’ve convinced themselves that cold calling is outdated. If you’re nodding along thinking email is the future and cold calling is dead, you need to wake up. Email efficiency is going down without bound, and if you’re not picking up the phone, you’re leaving money on the table. The Hard Truth About Email Prospecting Let me be blunt: Your email isn’t failing because the channel is broken. It’s failing because what you’re doing is terrible. Before you blame the medium, look in the mirror. Did people ignore your email because you sent them something genuinely personalized and valuable? Or did they ignore you because you followed up thirteen times in five days? Did they ghost you because your seven colleagues already called them that same day? The brutal reality is that most salespeople treat email like a spray-and-pray numbers game. They blast generic messages, add zero personalization, and then wonder why nobody responds. Meanwhile, they avoid the one thing that actually works: picking up the phone and having real conversations. Why Cold Calling Will Always Matter Cold calling isn’t going anywhere. It never has been, and it never will be. You want to know why? Because sales is a human business. People buy from people they trust, and you can’t build trust through automated emails that sound like they were written by AI. A phone call gives you something email never can: the ability to prove you’re a real human being who’s genuinely there to help, not just to pitch and sell. When you call someone and say, “Hey, I sent you an email last week with this case study because I saw you talked about this at the Outbound Conference,” you’re showing them you did your homework. You’re not just another robot in their inbox. Here’s a line I love: “Would I be the worst salesperson in the world if I didn’t also try to call you?” It’s honest, it’s human, and it cuts through the noise. You Don’t Know What to Say? Make the Calls The number one excuse I hear from salespeople: “I don’t know what to say.” Here’s my advice: Make one hundred calls and talk to people. They’ll teach you. You’re going to learn what not to say. You’re going to start seeing patterns in how your prospects think, what problems they face, and what language matters to them. This is how you develop business acumen that separates you from the pack. You can’t learn it behind a keyboard. I was in an alignment call today with a new client, and they said, “You totally understand us.” Why? Because last week I was with a business adjacent to their industry, learned their language, and pulled that knowledge into the next call. Use Tools to Compress Your Learning Curve Use tools like ZoomInfo to accelerate your learning curve. At Sales Gravy, we use it every day to find information about people, see what they’re doing on our website, and get intent signals that build our lists automatically. You can use these tools to learn the language of industries you’re breaking into. You can see company news, understand their challenges, and show up on calls sounding like you belong. But here’s the key: The tool doesn’t make the call for you. It gives you the ammunition. You still have to do the work. Be Strategic and Resourceful Here’s a strategy most salespeople are too lazy to try: If you’re having trouble getting through to a decision maker, call someone else in the company who’ll actually talk to you. Selling HR services? Call a sales rep. They’ll talk your ear off about the company and might even make an introduction. Try this: “Hey, I know you’re in sales. I’ve been trying to get hold of Joseph for nine months. Is there any way you could help me out?” That’s not being cheesy. That’s being resourceful. But you have to be genuine. You can’t just ask for something without building rapport. Your Action Plan If you’re struggling with email effectiveness: Pick up the damn phone. Stop making excuses about why cold calling doesn’t work. It works if you work it. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Introducing yourself to strangers will never be easy, but it’s the price of admission for being great at sales. Use data strategically. Build sequences that interweave multiple channels over 30, 60, 90 days. Email, phone, LinkedIn, video. Give yourself the best odds. Don’t oversell on the cold call. A little interest isn’t an invitation to vomit your pitch. Your job is to earn the next conversation. Make one more call. At the end of the day when you’re tired, make one more call. That’s where discipline separates winners from everyone else. The Bottom Line Email isn’t dead, but it’s not a magic bullet. Cold calling isn’t outdated. It’s the foundation of everything we do in sales. Stop hiding behind your keyboard. Stop blaming the tools. Stop making excuses. The shortest path to a meeting is through a real conversation. That’s how you build relationships, develop trust, and separate yourself from every other salesperson who’s too afraid to dial. Get outside your skin. Be genuine. Be there to help. And pick up the phone. Ready to take your prospecting skills to the next level? Join us at one of our upcoming Sales Gravy LIVE events where you’ll learn directly from top sales leaders and get hands-on coaching to transform your results.

ai cold cold calling never die sdrs zoominfo outbound conference

Ep. 203: Why B2B Lead Qualification Fails and How to Fix It

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2026 40:40 Transcription Available

Why B2B Lead Qualification Fails and How to Fix It Traffic is cheap, but qualified B2B sales conversions are not. Too many CMOs in the B2B space are watching brilliant creative go to waste at the top of the marketing funnel because what's passing through as a “qualified lead” often isn't really qualified. How can B2B marketers identify where the real lead qualification bottleneck is? Why is rethinking how MQLs are defined, scored, and routed one the most strategic fixes a CMO can make to improve pipeline performance? That's why we're talking to Gabe Lullo (CEO, Alleyoop), who shared some insights around why B2B lead qualification fails and how to fix it at the top of the funnel. During our discussion, Gabe challenged the common misconception that poor lead quality is the issue when sales aren't closing. Instead, he emphasized the importance of a clearly-defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), a strong product-market fit, and a well-mapped B2B sales journey. Gabe also stressed the need for A/B testing, identifying and resolving funnel bottlenecks, and using data-driven decision-making to improve lead conversion rates. He underscored the value of nurturing leads and cautioned B2B marketers against dismissing traditional marketing channels without rigorous testing. https://youtu.be/KXVmywNsfP0 Topics discussed in episode: [02:36] Why top-of-funnel lead qualification breaks down in B2B. [16:37] How to define and operationalize your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). [12:17] When MQLs hurt more than they help, and how to fix them. [26:14] How A/B testing and data-driven decisions improve lead conversion. [27:53] Why lead nurturing is critical to long sales cycles. [34:05] When to test (not abandon) traditional B2B marketing channels. Companies and links mentioned: Gabe Lullo on LinkedIn Alleyoop ZoomInfo Salesloft Adobe Transcript SPEAKERS Gabe Lullo, Christian Klepp Gabe Lullo 00:00 So we’re doing top of funnel activities, and then we’re sending leads over. The sales team takes them, and then what we find, a lot, we hear this all the time, is leads aren’t closing. And what’s interesting is that it was never a lead problem. It was more of a, you know, seller problem. I don’t mean to put blame on it, but companies come to us saying, hey, my sellers are saying we don’t have enough leads, we don’t have better leads, we don’t have good leads, and they’re the ones complaining about the lead. So they come to us to fix the lead problem. We fix the lead problem, but it doesn’t fix the revenue problem. It’s still not closing. So what is it? Christian Klepp 00:30 Traffic is cheap, but conversion is not too many CMOs (Chief Marketing Officer) are watching brilliant, creative go to waste at the top of the funnel, because what’s passing through as qualified just isn’t so how can you identify where the real bottleneck is, and why is rethinking how MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) are defined and scored the single most strategic fix? A CMO can make welcome to this episode of the B2B Marketers on the Mission podcast, and I’m your host, Christian Klepp. Today, I’ll be talking to Gabe Lullo, who will be answering these questions. He’s the CEO of Alleyoop, a sales development agency working with industry giants such as ZoomInfo, Salesloft and Adobe. Tune in to find out more about what this B2B Marketers Mission is, and off we go. Mr. Gabe Lullo, welcome to the show, sir. Gabe Lullo 01:17 Christian. Thank you so much. First off, I’m a huge fan of yours, so is my team, and we just appreciate all that you do for the industry. And I’m so excited to be here. Thanks for the invite. Christian Klepp 01:28 Wow, wow. Thank you. Thank you so much. Right off the gate with the praise, thank you, sir. Gabe Lullo 01:33 Well, you deserve it, man, you’re the best. What do you do. I love it. I love your show, and I love being a part of that. Christian Klepp 01:38 I appreciate that. I appreciate that. You know, we really had an awesome, like, pre-interview conversation. I’m gonna say, like, you know, talking about coming up to Toronto and Buffalo and what have you. And I’m really looking forward to this conversation, Gabe, because, man, you know, what? As much as some Marketers probably don’t want to hear this. It’s an, I think this is an absolutely necessary conversation to have. Right this topic that we’re going to talk about, and I will not keep the audience in suspense for too long. I’m just going to jump into the first question, if you don’t mind. Gabe Lullo 02:09 Yeah, no problem. Let’s get right into it. Christian Klepp 02:11 All right, so Gabe, you’re on a mission to provide the ultimate assist to your clients by setting them up for success. So for this conversation, let’s zero in on the following topic of how B2B Marketers can fix qualification at the top. So here comes the first question in our previous conversation. You talked about many marketing funnels being a leaky bucket. Can you please explain what you meant by that? Gabe Lullo 02:36 Yeah, I think companies right now are going to market in a very hodgepodge type of way, you know, ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), you know, we throw that terminal around a lot, and, you know, people think they know what it is, or feel like they have it drilled down, or feel like it’s completely locked, locked in. And then clients invite us in, and we realize it’s not the case, and it’s not just what the ideal client profile is, which, of course, is quintessential to going to market, and it’s really the first step to qualification, isn’t it, right? But on the other side of it, it is, you know, is there a product market fit? Is there a pricing that needs to be aligned? What’s the competitive landscape look like? So when we’re having live conversations, our sellers are making, you know, 11 million cold calls a year. That’s front of the line conversations, right? And we can hear, understand, and truly, you know, debrief with what each call is sounding like, so we can then narrow in what those qualifications should be. You know, a lot of you know, let’s say VPs of sales come into the sales development side of the house or the marketing side of the house, and they apply sales training methodologies to top of funnel qualifications, and it really gets broken as well. So there’s a lot to unpack, but I’ll give you an example. You know, band for instance, but you know budget authority needed timing. Like, is that really the right qualification at the top of the funnel, or does that really, you know, evolve the seller and the demo and the discovery call at that moment in time. So really understanding who’s in charge of that top of funnel and what their experience is also as a part of it, in my opinion. Christian Klepp 04:13 Absolutely, absolutely and you’re absolutely right. There’s so much to unpack here, but I have to ask just from your experience, and I know you have a lot, it seems like it’s just, there’s so many moving parts in this ecosystem, and a lot of like, well, what causes the leaky funnel? I’m gonna say is a lot of the things that you just mentioned, right? It’s a lack of understanding of who the actual ICP is. It’s probably also, especially the bigger the the organization gets sorry to everyone out there, but the lack of ownership and accountability, the lack of an actual strategy, like, where’s this all gonna go? Right? Gabe Lullo 04:54 Oh, it’s interesting. Yeah, I find this to be our except we so we’re doing top of the funnel activities, and we’re sending leads over, the sales team takes them, and then what we find, a lot, we hear this all the time, is leads aren’t closing. And what’s interesting is that it was never a lead problem. It was more of a seller problem. Now I don’t mean to put blame on it, but companies come to us saying, hey, my sellers are saying we don’t have enough leads, we don’t have better leads, we don’t have good leads, and they’re the ones complaining about the lead so they come to us to fix the lead problem. We fix the lead problem, but it doesn’t fix the revenue problem. It’s still not closing. So what is it? It’s the entire channel, right? It’s the entire sales journey, and we have to make sure that all of those things are working like an engine, right? All the cylinders are working at the same time in the same motion, to truly know what the problem may be. So that that’s really exposed a lot when we step in and start doing top of funnel activities, Christian Klepp 05:55 Absolutely, absolutely. And that segues into the next question, which I feel you’ve already answered to a certain extent. But where do you feel the true bottleneck lies, and that may be dependent on the company, right? Because each company maybe has a different set of challenges. And most importantly, okay, where does the bottleneck lie? And how do how can B2B Marketing teams help address the bottleneck and not be part of the bottleneck? Gabe Lullo 06:21 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there’s an eight step approach to sales. That’s what we call your sales journey, right? You have, obviously, you know, list building, and then we have, of course, outreach, we have qualification, we have discovery call, we have demo, we have, you know, closing or negotiating. We have client success. I mean, that’s the basic funnel, if you will. So is our, I should say, all of those things operating at the best of its ability. And what is broken, and it’s, it’s the old, you know, Henry Ford approach the assembly line. You know, there’s an assembly line and building a car, and there’s an assembly line in sales. And you have to know those steps, firstly, two, you have to know if those steps are working correctly, and figure out where that bottleneck is, and then, you know, take those blockers away so that those cars are flowing in and the production line doesn’t stop and we’re, you know, executing on the results that we need to serve our clients. Christian Klepp 07:16 100% agree. But now I’m gonna throw in another like wild card question, and I know you can handle it, right? When companies like yours come in to help organizations, right, there are times, even from my own experience, where the internal teams look at you and go, What are those guys doing here? Right? Like, is my job on the line. So they feel, they feel threatened, right by by somebody coming in and providing an external perspective. So I guess the question is, how do you deal with that kind of push back to help fix this leaky marketing funnel? Gabe Lullo 07:57 Yeah, it’s very important, right? Because a lot of companies come, you know, come in like us, and say, You know what, we’re going to come in here and try to solve the problem, or rip and replace or threaten the job. And it’s interesting, our point of contact, usually is the person who may be, you know, being fired because of our success. Well, we don’t want to approach it that way. So we set clear expectations that, hey, listen, we’re not here to rip and replace we are here to work as a parallel to what you’re existing doing, so we can A/B test and share best practices and be collective in those results. A lot of companies who have existing teams in place usually put us in scenarios where we’re bringing something new to market, or we’re reaching out to a market that is you know, you know, a new product line or a new segment, and we’re bringing that in. We do, however, see about a 20 to 30% increase in existing production when an outside partner comes in, because, again, we are sharing best practices. We’re all working together, but there is some pressure on the line when they see it. You know, another great player on the team playing ball. However, we did put a mechanism in place that really helps alleviate the fear, if you will, of that rip and replace scenario. Very unique thing to us, only a handful of companies I know about, of hundreds and if not thousands, that do what we do, do this. And here’s what it is, a lot of companies want to hire everything within and bring everything in house, in the sales development side within, because they graduate those people into account executives or closers or higher level performers or managers, so that graduation of career placement is there if you do it in house. So what we say is, you know what? You can have that great feeling of growing and building your team in house with us too. So all of our reps (representatives) who come work here, and all of our clients who enroll with us know that they can hire our reps and and bring them into their payroll and into their in house team with our help. So that’s a really good way of curving the fear, because they know, hey, this person who’s executing this outbound activity could be our next closer, and we can hire them to not take again, to not take away from what their current teams are doing, but to add to and grow that existing team they have. Christian Klepp 10:14 Absolutely, absolutely, and you know where I’m going with this, right? Because, like, you know, far too often, especially the higher ups that are not involved in the day to day, that are looking at this from the, I call it the Mount Olympus perspective, right, looking down at the land of the living, right? Like, why are you bringing in an external partner? Isn’t that your job to fix it? Right? But there are benefits to your point of, like, bringing in somebody that’s external, that’s not privy to, perhaps, some of the bias, some of the, certainly, the, certainly the organizational like dynamics and politics, which may, may be more detrimental than useful, right? Gabe Lullo 10:50 Yeah. I mean, we do punchy contracts, right? We have a six month minimum engagement. But so when we do that, you know, we’re saying, Hey, listen, we’re, we’re going to work with you for six months. We’re going to give it everything we got. And if it’s something you want to bring in-house from our team, great. If it’s you want to continue, great, or if you’ve learned a lot and you’re able to duplicate our efforts, also great too. So again, we’re not going in there saying, Oh, this is our world. Now. Get out of the way. Good luck, you know, and giving pink slips to people, it’s about really, again, how can we help? How can we assist? How can we hit this number? It’s not getting hit. There has to be reasons why. And let’s figure those numbers out, and let’s figure out the reasons why. And then, and then we move on, you know. So there’s short contracts, and then there’s very, very long contracts, you know, ZoomInfo has been a client off and on for the last decade. We’re doing a program right now where they just launched a lot of cool things, and we’re helping them so companies like that, size and stature, still come to outside help when necessary, when the timing is right and the fit is right. Christian Klepp 11:55 Amazing. Amazing. All right. Next question. So why do you believe rethinking how MQLs are defined and scored as the most strategic fix that a CMO can make, and what are some of these other key pitfalls that Marketers should avoid, and what should they be doing instead? I mean, let’s, let’s keep the conversation constructive here, right? Gabe Lullo 12:17 So defining and scoring MQLs is by far one of the first things, if not the most important thing, to start with, right? Because that is, again, the start of that assembly line. You know, garbage in, garbage out. And so if we’re not actually understanding why those MQLs are, the MQLs that we are saying they are, and what those triggering events are causing them to be considered. MQLs could truly dictate whether or not we’re receiving garbage into the funnel versus excellence and extraordinary leads and MQLs into the funnel. So again, it’s going back to that ICP, like we discussed earlier. It’s determining, okay, are these worthy and does it make sense to continue this, lead this MQL down the funnel, and will it produce results? Should it even be in the system at all? So knowing that up front, like I said earlier, it’s like the raw material. You know, if you have really bad raw material that you’re using to build your cars, you know, no matter how great it comes out at the other end, it’s not going to be a quality vehicle. So it’s that, it’s the raw material that we need to make sure that’s first and foremost, because it’s the start of the entire process. Christian Klepp 13:29 Yeah, yeah, no, that’s for sure. Because, you know, how many times have you heard that, right? Like the marketing team says, well, we’ve, we’ve got, we’ve generated the MQLs, we’ve passed them on to the sales team now, so we’re good, yeah, but that’s not where it stops, right? Like, so especially if the MQLs are, like, not qualified, right? Gabe Lullo 13:48 No, I couldn’t agree with you more. And again, having sales and marketing work synergistically in that determination is paramount. You know, so many companies, and it’s the old adage, and I think it’s almost a cliche now, because it’s been said so many times that you know, sales is throwing spears over the fence to marketing, and marketing is throwing another spear back to them, and they’re fighting back and forth over this wall. The deal is, you got to break down the wall and start having conversations. And again, sellers have to give feedback on why we’re seeing this to not be the right fit, and Marketers have to be curious and asking what those things may be happening on those conversations, so they can go find the MQLs that that is worthy. Christian Klepp 14:30 Absolutely, absolutely. And on that topic, what are some of these other pitfalls that marketers should be looking out for, and what should they be doing instead? Gabe Lullo 14:39 Yeah, I think what right now is that you have to really understand your channels. You know, a lot of Marketers right now are doubling down on things that may not be producing the results that they have been expecting. Maybe a year from now, two years from now, every company is different, every ICP is different, and every industry is different. I’ll give you an example. You know, if you’re reaching out to sellers and you know, red. Heads of revenue, you have to have a totally different approach than if you’re reaching out to VPs of technology and cyber security. Now that may sound basic, but if you were coming from a company and you’re in your head of marketing, and you’re coming from a company where your ICP and your persona is all tech based companies, or all tech based personas, and you go into a new industry or a new company, and you come with that lens. It’s not the right approach. You know, sellers like to pick up the phone. They think they’re customers. They use the phone all day long. They pick up the phone all the time. Maybe that’s the right channel, right? CTOs (Chief Technology Officers), CIOs (Chief Information Officers), CSOs (Chief Security Officers), they are not usually picking up the phone. Maybe they’re their channels significantly different, and so you have to realize, understand what your persona is, so you can do marketing activities towards that total addressable market that resonate and hit home and get their attention. And it could be just as much as where they live in regards to where, where do they associate with, what, what channel are they living on? Are they people that pick up the phone? Are they ones that live on LinkedIn? Are they ones that go to Instagram? Are they ones that go to conferences? Where is your audience? And know that first and then go talk to them? Christian Klepp 16:10 That’s definitely a great insight. You know it. I know it. The problem is that there’s so many teams out there that skip this part, right? Like that, like that. That detailed breakdown you just gave us about the different let’s call them like, the different personas, the different behaviors, the different channels, like, Why do you think a lot of teams out there skip this part? Is it because of the the time crunch, the pressure to deliver immediately is all of the above? Gabe Lullo 16:37 Yeah, I think, you know, there’s a lot of boardrooms out there. They come out with this unique product, and then with all they do is they do is they look at the TAM, what’s the total addressable market? But that’s like saying, I want to go catch a tuna fish. But you know, let’s just look at the entire ocean. Like, okay, we have to be more specific. Where do the tuna fish actually swim? Where part of Do they like warm water? Do they like the coast? Are they more towards New Zealand, or are they up towards the Massachusetts? So you have to know where your school of fish are. If you want to go fishing, you can’t just look at the entire ocean as the market. And I think narrowing it down to understand patterns and where people are so you can go talk to them is the right approach, versus this spray and pray mentality that I feel marketing has been living in for many, many years, and now it’s becoming more self evident because of AI, right? Because AI can tell us a lot of these things. AI can do a lot of analysis and research, and it’s giving us insights that we’ve never been able to really see before because of the speed and quickness of it. And so I think we are getting to a point, and I’m hopeful that we are more specific with our total addressable markets in new companies specifically that may not have the experience or the capacity like they used to. And I think it’s exciting. Christian Klepp 16:37 Oh Gabe, you just open the door to another question there. Man. Gabe Lullo 16:37 Like, start with an A. Christian Klepp 16:37 Yeah, it starts with an A. But, like, you know, since you brought it up, I’ve got to ask AI, right? Gabe Lullo 16:37 Yeah. Christian Klepp 16:37 And in terms of, like, helping to fix a leaky marketing funnel, how do you from your experience and your perspective, how do you think AI is helpful, and how is it harmful? Gabe Lullo 17:23 Sure. I mean double edged sword, right? We love AI. We accept it. We know it’s here. We’re not scared of it. We’re not running away from it, but we’re also not ripping and replacing things too abruptly with with the implementation of it, either. For instance, I’ll give you real examples. Are we telling AI to go make cold calls? Well, no, it’s illegal, technically. Secondly, are we using it, though, on the flip side, to train our reps on how to effectively handle great questions and objections through an AI sparring partner? Yeah, we are, and it’s amazing at it. So we actually have our reps when they’re brand new and onboarding or launching into a new campaign. We program the robot, the AI right to be able to have conversations in real life time with our reps, to literally spar with them. And it’s like practice. It’s a sparring partner before they go live onto a campaign, and it prepares them immensely before the live show, before they’re before they’re active, right on the campaign. So this is one way we’re doing it. Other ways, obviously email, messaging, obviously personalization, obviously research, you know, pre-call research, account research, determining who’s picking up the phone when they pick up the phone, how many times does it take to call them? You know, time zones? What’s the best time to call them? And it’s crazy what it could do, but it’s really, really helpful. But it’s not a crutch. It’s an assistant, and that’s how we’re approaching it. It’s not replacing human to human communication. If it was. Maybe you and I would just have our AI avatars do this podcast right instead of we’ll be on a beach somewhere, maybe we’ll be there in the future. I’m not predicting it, but I will say there’s a huge, significant role it plays right now, but it is not a role that’s, in my opinion, supposed to replace everything. It can replace a lot, but not everything. Christian Klepp 20:20 Absolutely. I mean, it certainly requires a lot of like, human intervention, right? And it’s and it’s constantly learning, and it’s learning quickly, which I think is to its benefit, to its detriment. And I think that’s, that’s your point as well. There’s a lot of stuff out there that’s AI generated that just looks off, starting with videos even, even like in I don’t know if you’ve dabbled with Google notebook, right? It can, it can take all that content and turn it into an audio file. And it’s scary. How real it sounds. Gabe Lullo 20:54 It is pretty scary. And I have seen tools like that. I love there’s one right now, where it’s actually tracking not even what someone is saying, but how they’re saying it. So tonality, right is a huge piece of communication, as we know, and so it’s literally listening to calls and sales calls, and not just again, we’ve seen it before, like, you know, Gong and others, where it’s telling, hey, maybe say this. Don’t say that, but it’s also giving that score of how they’re delivering that message, which, in my world, is huge because, you know, I could read a script, or I can, you know, have an amazing performance, and that’s how we approach, you know, the way we communicate on a phone call. So that is why we’re so excited. Because there’s new tools coming out all the time that are really, really impactful, for sure. Christian Klepp 21:42 Absolutely, absolutely. So you’ve touched on this a little bit like in the past couple of minutes, but explain how market research and strategy help to develop a solid marketing funnel, not a leaky one. Gabe Lullo 21:55 Yeah. I mean, I think it’s your playbook, right? You know, you have to have a built out playbook, and it’s your guide. And it’s not just important to go to market with a playbook, but it’s also going to market to scale, right? You know, once you get it to work, the ever everything after that is, how do we duplicate and how do we scale? So the playbook is that design is the architecture behind your strategy. So when we do start pouring fuel on the fire and we’re adding people, we’re adding leads, we’re adding workflows, we’re adding everything outside of that, we still go back to the playbook. It’s like the Constitution, right? Everything based off that in our country. I know we’re in different ones, but my point is is, is you have a framework, right, that we go off of and that playbook is so vital to our importance of market research gives us a great understanding of where that playbook is built and how it’s designed and how it’s architected, and that’s how we that’s how we do it here. Christian Klepp 22:55 And even how the playbook can be iterated, right? Because let’s not forget that it’s not written in stone. Gabe Lullo 23:01 Evolving. Yeah, absolutely. I do want to warn people, though, evolve with time. Be patient, right? You know, marketing, sales, development, it’s not a light switch. Yeah, I always say it’s like boiling water, right? So a watch pot technically does boil. It’s just painful to watch. So, but the point is, is that you have to give it enough time to see if that playbook is yielding results. What you don’t want to do is change the play, you know, too many times in the middle of the game, because then you look confused and confused. People do nothing, right? So, yes, is it evolving? Does it pivot? Does it grow? Do you do you change things up, of course. But also you want to do it in a tactful timeline to make sure that it is truly a working playbook or not. Christian Klepp 23:47 Absolutely, absolutely. And you brought something up, and I have to ask this, this next question, it’s… We know, from a marketing point of view, that rolling out these initiatives and seeing the results takes time, yeah, but we’ve had, I’ve certainly had this experience in B2B, that there are people, again, at the top, that don’t have oversight into the day to day, and probably also don’t understand quite how the process works, that don’t have that patience, right, that are telling you, like, hurry up and deliver like, we want results right now. So what do you say to those, I guess the people that are doubting that this initiative needs more time than they think it does. Gabe Lullo 24:30 Yeah. I mean, I think looking at benchmarks and case studies and past results is very important, like I said, Back to the boiling of water. You can show a thermometer as well, like you can see, is it working well? You can put a thermometer in a boiling pot of water and watch the temperature go up, right? And it gives you a clear indication and forecast, if you will, that you’re going to achieve boiling point eventually. It’s not just again, you put the water in and then. And you all of a sudden, measure boiling. You have to measure along the way, and that’s we want to do. So what the ways we do it specifically is, if we’re working on a campaign that is almost a look alike campaign to another company, maybe it’s in the same industry, same ICP, you know, same your size, same scope, we can look at that historical result and say, Hey, by the way, if we do these, these, these and these, you’re going to we’re going to expect boiling point at this time based on a company that’s very similar to yours. Now, is it identical? No, maybe that company has really bad sellers we talked about. Maybe that company doesn’t really care about content and they’re just missing the boat there. Maybe they have a crappy website, like, I don’t, there’s different levers that could, you know, alter the recipe, but we can absolutely make highly educated guesses, as opposed to just trying to wing it or give false expectations. Christian Klepp 25:54 Yeah, yeah, no, that’s absolutely right, all right. I mean, you’ve given us a lot of, like, recommendations, a lot of actionable tips. So walk us through, and I know it varies from company to company and case by case, but walk us through the process of how you actually fix a leaky marketing funnel. Like, what are the steps? What are those key components that absolutely have to be in that process? Gabe Lullo 26:14 Yeah, you have to, you know, inspect what you expect. You have to understand what your messaging is, and you have to A/B test it all the time. I A/B test everything, whether it’s data vendors, whether it’s email messaging, whether it’s LinkedIn content, what you have, obviously mechanisms, depending on what tech you’re working with, what vendors you’re working with, or your history or historical results are to give you grades and scores and A/B testing everything. So if you have, you know campaigns that are running that are successful, you should be able to know how to measure that. That’s what’s so important. So you have to have inspect, inspection tools in place across everything you’re doing on those campaigns to tell you, Hey, this is broken, this is leaky. This isn’t working. Or on the flip side, this is crushing right now. This is totally resonating right now, and we’re loving these, seeing these numbers, and then pour fuel on that fire and focus on that and remove the other ones, and still A/B test, because you always want to keep getting better. So A/B test everything, define the leaks, and then try to fix those leaks as fast as possible. Christian Klepp 27:23 Fantastic, fantastic. And because we’re talking about marketing funnels, I mean, like, I can’t help myself but ask you, okay, but what about metrics? Because that’s something that people want to see, right? But I’m not talking about like, let’s, let’s come up with this like, laundry list of like metrics, and you go down this deep rabbit hole. Like, what are the metrics that you would say, or you would advise B2B Marketers to look at to say, like, okay, we’re trying to fix the leaky marketing funnel here, and these metrics will help you to indicate that there is progress. Gabe Lullo 27:53 Yeah. I mean, it’s harder now than ever before to metric things out, and it’s because of tech that’s kind of getting in the way. You know, for instance, in an email campaign, there’s been some rules and regulations in the last recent years that prevents us from seeing whether or not there’s clicks and opens that are happening on email campaigns. I’ve actually removed many of those triggers completely away from our campaigns, because it’s preventing deliverability, and it’s preventing our ability to keep domains healthy. So there are a lot of moving parts right now that’s happening because of these AI filtration tools. I just heard Google just released that it’s going to now put disclaimers and emails saying that this was written by AI. And so there’s it’s ever involving so depending on I guess when your listeners are hearing this, it may be completely different in a year, but I will tell you that there are definitely things that we need to metric and we need to have KPIs for. But I think the priority of what we used to measure two, three years ago, is significantly different than what we measure today, because of those rules and regulations. So if we’re talking about emails, I want to know what we’re sending, who we’re sending it to, who obviously is responding. What are those responses look like? Is it turning to an actual lead? Are we turning on warm leads, or are we just looking at set meetings? You know, it’s interesting, right? There is only about 2 to 3% of the market ever wants to truly buy, and they’re in buying mode, and I think a lot of companies are just looking for those people, and about 20% of the market is actually interested in buying and we turn that entire segment off. It’s about 10 times more people. But if we can warm the nurture them correctly, and message them correctly, that’s where the rubber meets the road, and that’s where your gold is. I like to analogize everything. So, yeah, when you have a green apple, right? What do you do with the green apple? You put it on the window sill, and then the sun on the windowsill warms it up. Now, that doesn’t mean you just throw out the apple. That means you have a lot of opportunity. You just have. To nurture, and you be patient. And you have to know that timing is everything in business. So if you’re just looking for the red apples, you’re only gonna get 3% if you’re looking for green apples that turn into red apples, now you’re getting 25% so focus on the 25, be patient. Fix those leaky buckets, of course. A/B test, and then then you measure. Christian Klepp 30:20 Yeah or you get yourself an apple orchard. You mentioned one keyword there, nurture, right? I think that’s the one that’ll I see a lot of, like people in sales and even in marketing, right? They just don’t take that time to nurture those leads. They close in. I keep saying they close in for the kill too fast, right? Gabe Lullo 30:44 Yeah. I mean, go back to that food analogy, that the fruit analogy, again. Christian Klepp 30:49 Sure. Gabe Lullo 30:49 I’m on a roll with that. Christian Klepp 30:50 Please. Gabe Lullo 30:50 It’s the low hanging fruit cliche, right? Christian Klepp 30:52 Yes. Gabe Lullo 30:52 Everyone focuses on the low hanging fruit. They’re not focusing on what else is part of that harvest. They’re not focusing on the nurturing. They’re not focused on watering. They’re not focusing on circling back, following up, checking in, providing value in those checks. Not just say, Hey, I’m following up, no, provide value in those seconds, right? And that’s again, that’s where you see excellence happen, you know? And there’s a lot of young, and I don’t mean to be age, but like tenure, people that are experienced, that are in these experience roles right now, and I feel that they’re just trying to get that quick answer and that quick response. And we’re in this like dopamine, like, you know, hit like social media environment right now. Not to go off topic, but I think people are not again, they’re in this microwave society, and they don’t understand the value of nurturing. And if you do and you treat that part seriously, wow, it usually is a windfall at that time. Christian Klepp 31:47 Absolutely, absolutely. It’s an art, a skill, a craft, isn’t it? Right? All of you love, okay, my friend, we come to the point in the conversation where we’re talking about actionable tips, and Gabe, you’ve given us plenty, all right, but just think of this kind of like a recap. If there was somebody listening to this conversation that you and I are having, and you want them to walk away with three to five things that they that they can take action on right now, when it comes to fixing a leaky marketing funnel, what would they be? Gabe Lullo 32:17 Well, I think the best thing is you have to really decide if you have the right people in place, right, and are they? And it doesn’t mean that they are the ones that are going to bring it home. It doesn’t mean that they’re they don’t need support and training and love, like, do they have the commitment? Do they have good experience? Are they willing to roll up their sleeves and get get a little dirty, and if you feel like you have a great team in place of people that are ready to get to work and solve some problems. I think that is literally step one. Step two is, do we have the messaging in the mark, in the ICP nailed down? We really need to know that, because, again, there’s no point of building a campaign if you don’t know who you’re sending it to. And then, thirdly, you really have to make sure that you’re willing to A/B test. It’s hard enough to build a campaign, but it’s much more difficult to build two or three campaigns. Run three campaigns, right as opposed to one, and score each of them to determine what’s working, what’s effective, and what’s not, and then you pivot based on those results. So I think finding a great team is basic and fundamental. Finding a great ice or determining a great ICP is before you build the messaging and then measure the message across multiple campaigns, and then you should be on your way Christian Klepp 33:29 And test, test, test, everything, right? Gabe Lullo 33:34 Yes, it’s great. It could be working. It’s exciting, but maybe there’s a significantly more effective way of doing it, even though it’s still working, and let the data make those decisions for you and drive everything based off data driven decisions, and that’s how you should be operating. Christian Klepp 33:51 Absolutely, absolutely. All right. Here comes the soapbox question, a status quo in your area of expertise that you passionately disagree with and why? Gabe Lullo 34:05 Yeah, I think the big thing right now, and I have to just kind of talk about my space, because you said in my industries, like, there’s a lot of, you know, people out there soapboxing, to be exact, on things that are dead or not. And I will tell you that, you know, cold calling is dead, emailing is dead. You know, LinkedIn is dead, or all of these things and and when you peel back the onion, you notice that those individuals who are saying that users are trying to sell a book or something, and nothing against selling books, but it sounds like there’s a personal agenda and not actual operational intelligence that is dictating what they’re saying. So to your point about testing everything, don’t assume something is not going to work just because someone said it on the internet. Test it and then decide if it’s going to work. And it may surprise you in a big, big way. Christian Klepp 34:56 I truly believe that, man, I truly believe that. I mean to your point. About, like, email being dead. I mean, I did close one client who was a guest on the show, and it took me a year to close, but I closed it through email. Gabe Lullo 35:09 Yeah. Christian Klepp 35:11 Right. And it’s to your point, it’s sending, sending that person articles that were relevant to that person’s industry and saying, like, Hey, I read this the other day, what are your thoughts on this? And here’s my take. What do you think? Gabe Lullo 35:24 That is the best way to do an email, right? You know, we do a lot of content and on social media, we do a lot of podcasting, posts on LinkedIn, but that’s all great, but where the rubber meets the road is you take that post and you send it in an email or a direct message and say, Hey, listen. This made me think of our last conversation, and I really liked the way that this person mentioned this. Do you think you know that there is, is the timing right here to reopen this conversation, and you feel like the problem is still existing in your world, and love to see if we can solve it for you, that type of content, that type of message, that type of verbiage at the right time in a nurture campaign like we discussed, close one business, right? That’s how it works. Christian Klepp 36:08 Absolutely, absolutely okay. Here comes the bonus question, and for those of you that are listening to the audio version, Gabe’s got two guitars right behind him, so I’m just gonna go on a hunch here that he likes playing guitar, right? So the question is, if you had the opportunity to, like, go on a tour with your favorite guitarist/musician, who would it be, and where would you go? Gabe Lullo 36:36 Wow, I love this question. I do play the guitar. I’m a bet big avid music player. Love Rock as well, but all genres, I will say, in real life, we just actually my family, my wife and daughter and I went to go see Oasis reunion tour, which was in Toronto, actually, out of all places. Christian Klepp 36:53 That’s right, you mentioned it. Gabe Lullo 36:54 Yeah, we went to see that. It was epic. Obviously, the brothers have been apart for many years. A lot of drama there. But yeah, you know, I’m old enough to remember their original songs, so it was cool to reminisce and introduce my daughter to that music, which was pretty cool. We’re gonna go see Paul McCartney in a few weeks. He’s on tour now and never seen him or I’m a big fan of The Beatles, and I think that would be really exciting to tour with him, obviously. And I think those are definitely both of those right there kind of sum up the type of music that I resonate with. Christian Klepp 37:26 Amazing, amazing. I just remember, like, this is, this is a couple of years ago. I think he’s already passed away, but Compay Segundo. Gabe Lullo 37:33 Oh yeah. Christian Klepp 37:34 Buena Vista Social Club. And the guy was in his 90s, and they were, they had a concert, and they they brought him up in stage in his wheelchair, helped him get up, get out of that wheelchair, and they gave him that guitar, and off he went, Man, like, Gabe Lullo 37:48 Yeah, yeah, that’s amazing, man, that’s amazing. Christian Klepp 37:53 Gabe, this has been such a great conversation. Thank you so much for coming on and for sharing your experience and expertise with the listeners. So please quick intro to yourself and how folks out there can get in touch with you. Gabe Lullo 38:03 Yeah, LinkedIn is the best way to connect with me directly. I post twice a day, every day. We’re very bullish with our content. There’s a lot of free material there. We have a newsletter, so please take a look at that, and if you like what you see, and he heard today, you know, reach out, and I’ll definitely be responsive. And you know, anyone who is looking or struggling with the after-sales motion, which are after marketing motion, that sales development function, that’s where we play, and we’d love to look at what you’re looking for and see how we can help. Christian Klepp 38:33 Sounds good. Gabe, once again, thank you so much for your time. Take care, stay safe and talk to you soon. Gabe Lullo 38:38 Thanks, Christian. Christian Klepp 38:39 All right. Bye for now.

How Top Reps Build High-Converting Cadences

Heartbeat For Hire with Lyndsay Dowd

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2026 41:56

If sellers want meetings in 2026, their cadences need to be sharper, more intentional, and tailored for how buyers behave at the start of the year.In this session, Aaron Reeves and Will Aitken walked through step-by-step how top performers build cadences that convert in today's noisy outbound environment.You'll learn how to build your structure, choose the right mix of channels, write tighter messages, and use AI responsibly without losing your voice.Whether you prefer human-crafted messaging or want to use AI to speed up your workflow, you'll walk away with a complete 2026-ready cadence template you can plug into your outbound motion immediately.You'll Learn:What's changed with cadences going into 2026How to build a high-converting cadence without AIWays to use AI to enhance your cadence (not replace your voice)The Speakers:Will Aitken and Aaron ReevesIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo and Aligned

ai aligned converting reps zoominfo cadences aiways

185: The Sales Leadership Playbook Every BDR Team Needs Now with Gabe Lullo

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 14, 2026 32:48

Gabe Lullo is the CEO of Alleyoop, a sales development agency working with industry giants such as ZoomInfo, Salesloft, and Adobe. He has trained over 8,000 salespeople across diverse businesses and, during his tenure in Alleyoop, he has personally hired and managed more than 1,500 BDRs. With over two decades of experience in sales, marketing, and executive recruitment, his strategies have significantly driven Alleyoop's growth and shaped its corporate culture. Beyond his career accomplishments, Gabe graduated from the Barney School of Business at the University of Hartford, and his leadership ethos is rooted in cultivating environments that prioritize both professional development and individual success. Socials: linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lullo/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabelullo/ Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL61t3M6geW84XNxsfKI5iARqa6_M9MuSy Episode Summary: In this episode, host Lyndsay Dowd talks with Gabe Lullo, the CEO of AlleyOOP, a sales-as-a-service company that specializes in helping businesses scale through effective outreach. Gabe shares his unique journey from recruiting to running a company that makes over 11 million cold calls a year. The conversation dives deep into the realities of building high-performing revenue teams that last. Gabe and Lindsay discuss the difficult but necessary decision to fire toxic top performers to protect company culture. They also explore how to keep Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) motivated in a grueling role, the critical importance of a "video-on" culture for remote teams, and why LinkedIn is no longer optional for modern executives. Key Takeaways: - Culture Over Revenue - Mindset is 50% of Success - Video is Essential for Remote Trust - LinkedIn is a Must-Have Episode Chapters: 00:00:00 – Intro to Gabe Lullo and AlleyOOP 00:02:17 – Gabe's background: From fundraising at 11 years old to recruiting 00:06:00 – The three pillars of success: People, Process, and Technology 00:07:40 – Why you should fire your toxic top performer 00:10:14 – Culture as a KPI and the "shadowing" interview process 00:13:19 – What is AlleyOOP? (The "unsung hero" of sales) 00:18:18 – The SDR Mindset and daily "Power Up" videos 00:21:26 – Why a "camera on" culture matters in remote work 00:24:05 – What inspires Gabe and his legacy 00:26:43 – Why leaders and employees must be on LinkedIn 00:31:26 – Where to find Gabe and his podcast, Do Hard Things

[Playbook] State of Outbound: AI and what to expect in 2026

playbook outbound zoominfo

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 30, 2025 60:34

This episode is the audio from our recent webinar on the state of outbound. Sean Dwyer of ZoomInfo joined us to share what's changing, what's working, and how the best teams are adapting their outbound motion in 2026. Check out more free content and get coaching at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://outboundsquad.com.⁠

The Quiet Tools Smart Contractors Use to Uncover Locked Doors

Govcon Giants Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 30, 2025 7:15

In this episode of the Federal Help Center Podcast, Randie Ward pulls back the curtain on one of the most frustrating barriers in GovCon: finding the right person to talk to. From leveraging tools like ZoomInfo and federal data sources to dissecting agency budgets and understanding why program managers are intentionally harder to find, this episode shows how winning contractors turn research into access. Eric also explains why relationship-building isn't about one email or one call—it's about consistent, informed follow-ups that position you as prepared, professional, and serious long before an RFP is released. Key Takeaways Finding the right contact is often harder than identifying the opportunity Agency budgets reveal priorities before solicitations exist Relationships are built through persistence, not one-time outreach If you want to learn more about the community and to join the webinars go to: https://federalhelpcenter.com/ Website: https://govcongiants.org/ Connect with Encore Funding: https://www.encore-funding.com/

relationships tools smart quiet agency uncover contractors rfp zoominfo locked doors govcon key takeaways finding

4 Ways Top Performers Stay Motivated and Close More Deals (Even When Sales Gets Hard)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 26, 2025 37:18

How Do Top Performers Stay Motivated When Sales Gets Hard? You know the feeling when you close a big deal. The rush. The quiet satisfaction of updating your pipeline. Maybe a quick high-five with your manager. And then, almost immediately, it fades. You're back to cold calls that go unanswered, emails that disappear into inboxes, and prospects who promised they were interested suddenly going silent. In sales, rejection isn't a side effect of the job. It is the job. That reality is exactly why most people don't last in sales. And it's why the people who do last tend to get paid very well. Over the past quarter, we talked with some of the most consistent sales leaders in the business. Here are four moments from the Sales Gravy Podcast that reveal how top performers stay motivated and close more deals, even when the work feels heavy. Find Your Carrot and Make It Specific Will Frattini, VP of Sales at ZoomInfo, keeps a small Christmas ornament on his desk. His daughter gave it to him when she was five. That ornament is his carrot. During a recent podcast conversation, Will explained that when sales gets hard, that ornament reminds him exactly why he keeps pushing. Not in an abstract or inspirational-poster way, but in a deeply personal one. It represents his family, his responsibility, and the future he's building for them. That distinction matters. Many salespeople say they're motivated by family, freedom, or financial security. Those values are real, but on their own, they're often too broad to sustain sales motivation during a brutal stretch of rejection. When you're fifty dials deep with no connects and another demo just canceled, vague motivation doesn't hold up. Will doesn't just think “my family.” He sees a moment, a memory, and a tangible reminder of what's at stake. That specificity gives his motivation weight. Top performers anchor their sales motivation to something concrete and emotionally charged. A down payment they want to make by a certain date. A trip they want to take without checking their bank account. A milestone that matters beyond quota. The more specific the carrot, the more powerful it becomes when sales gets hard. How to define yours: Write down one specific outcome you want to achieve in the next six months. Not “hit quota,” but the real-world result that quota enables. A number. A purchase. An experience. Put it somewhere you'll see it every day. Work With Customers Who Actually Value You One of the fastest ways to drain sales motivation is closing deals with customers who make you miserable. On an episode of Ask Jeb, Jeb broke down how companies grow faster by focusing on the right customers, not just more customers. When you're behind on quota late in the year, it's tempting to take anything that looks like revenue. Any company that shows interest. Any prospect willing to meet. You convince yourself that a deal is a deal. Then January arrives. That customer floods your team with support tickets, questions every invoice, demands exceptions, and slowly erodes the satisfaction of the win you celebrated just weeks earlier. Consistent performers learn to protect their energy. They get ruthless about fit. Not just company size or industry, but values. They ask questions like, “What do you value most in a partner?” and they listen carefully to the answer. Some buyers want constant responsiveness. Others value expert perspective and challenge. Some want efficiency and minimal interaction. None of those preferences are wrong. But only one aligns with how you actually sell. When sales gets hard, motivation comes easier when you're pursuing customers who respect your approach instead of fighting it. How to clarify your ideal customer: Look at your three favorite customers. The ones your entire team enjoys working with. What do they share beyond surface-level traits? How did they behave during the buying process? Those patterns matter more than any firmographic filter. Slow Down Before You Create Your Own Problems When pressure builds, speed starts to feel productive. You rush contracts. You promise timelines without checking internally. You say yes to custom requirements because slowing down feels risky. On an episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount, Jr. shared one of the most painful stories we heard this year. A $1.4 million deal with a pediatrics practice unraveled after someone rushed the process and placed the client into an early adopter program without a test environment. The result was catastrophic. The client's live system crashed, HIPAA was violated, and the company lost not only the deal but $600,000 in annual recurring revenue. Top performers understand something most reps learn the hard way: smooth is fast. They build guardrails around high-risk moments. Before sending a contract, they align internally. Before committing to timelines, they check with the people who actually do the work. Slowing down at the right moments builds trust. It prevents chaos. And it preserves sales motivation by keeping you from spending the next quarter cleaning up mistakes made under pressure. How to build a slowdown system: Identify the three points in your sales process where you tend to rush. Proposals, negotiations, technical commitments. Create a short checklist for each and make it mandatory. Use AI to Think Faster, Not to Stop Thinking Sales demands constant context switching. Pipeline reviews. Prospect research. Discovery prep. Follow-up. Objection handling. The mental load adds up quickly. Victor Antonio recently shared an example of a window company using vision AI to diagnose broken window seals from photos. Instead of sending a technician, customers submit an image. The system verifies the issue, checks inventory, confirms warranty status, and schedules service automatically. AI hasn't changed what strong salespeople do. It's changed how quickly they get to the work that actually matters. Top performers use AI to handle tasks that drain energy but don't require judgment. Research summaries. Organizing notes. Drafting frameworks. That speed preserves mental bandwidth for conversations, strategy, and relationship building. Used correctly, AI supports sales motivation by reducing friction, not replacing effort. How to use AI without dulling your edge: List the tasks you repeat weekly that consume time but not insight. Let AI handle those. Keep anything involving trust, nuance, or decision-making firmly in your hands. Why This Matters for Sales Motivation Sales has always been hard. Cold calling was hard decades ago, and it's still hard today. You still have to find people, start conversations, build trust, and ask for commitments. What separates average reps from consistent performers isn't resilience alone. It's structure. Top performers know exactly what they're chasing and why it matters. They protect themselves from bad-fit customers. They slow down when it counts. And they use tools strategically to preserve energy for selling. They still get rejected. They still lose deals. They still have months where nothing goes right. But they don't drift. They don't panic. And they don't quit when the work gets uncomfortable. That discipline is what sustains sales motivation long after the initial excitement wears off. If you want a clearer target to aim at when sales gets hard, download the FREE Sales Gravy Goal Guide. It will help you define the goals that actually keep you focused, disciplined, and motivated—especially when rejection starts piling up.

4 Ways Top Performers Stay Motivated and Close More Deals (Even When Sales Gets Hard)

CRM.Buzz - שיווק, חווית לקוח, טכנולוגיה, דאטה ועוד

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 26, 2025

How Do Top Performers Stay Motivated When Sales Gets Hard? You know the feeling when you close a big deal.The rush. The quiet satisfaction of updating your pipeline. Maybe a quick high-five with your manager. And then, almost immediately, it fades. You're back to cold calls that go unanswered, emails that disappear into inboxes, and prospects who promised they were interested suddenly going silent. In sales, rejection isn't a side effect of the job. It is the job. That reality is exactly why most people don't last in sales. And it's why the people who do last tend to get paid very well. Over the past quarter, we talked with some of the most consistent sales leaders in the business. Here are four moments from the Sales Gravy Podcast that reveal how top performers stay motivated and close more deals, even when the work feels heavy. Find Your Carrot and Make It Specific Will Frattini, VP of Sales at ZoomInfo, keeps a small Christmas ornament on his desk. His daughter gave it to him when she was five. That ornament is his carrot. During a recent podcast conversation, Will explained that when sales gets hard, that ornament reminds him exactly why he keeps pushing. Not in an abstract or inspirational-poster way, but in a deeply personal one. It represents his family, his responsibility, and the future he's building for them. That distinction matters. Many salespeople say they're motivated by family, freedom, or financial security. Those values are real, but on their own, they're often too broad to sustain sales motivation during a brutal stretch of rejection. When you're fifty dials deep with no connects and another demo just canceled, vague motivation doesn't hold up. Will doesn't just think “my family.” He sees a moment, a memory, and a tangible reminder of what's at stake. That specificity gives his motivation weight. Top performers anchor their sales motivation to something concrete and emotionally charged. A down payment they want to make by a certain date. A trip they want to take without checking their bank account. A milestone that matters beyond quota. The more specific the carrot, the more powerful it becomes when sales gets hard. How to define yours: Write down one specific outcome you want to achieve in the next six months. Not “hit quota,” but the real-world result that quota enables. A number. A purchase. An experience. Put it somewhere you'll see it every day. Work With Customers Who Actually Value You One of the fastest ways to drain sales motivation is closing deals with customers who make you miserable. On an episode of Ask Jeb, Jeb broke down how companies grow faster by focusing on the right customers, not just more customers. When you're behind on quota late in the year, it's tempting to take anything that looks like revenue. Any company that shows interest. Any prospect willing to meet. You convince yourself that a deal is a deal. Then January arrives. That customer floods your team with support tickets, questions every invoice, demands exceptions, and slowly erodes the satisfaction of the win you celebrated just weeks earlier. Consistent performers learn to protect their energy. They get ruthless about fit. Not just company size or industry, but values. They ask questions like, “What do you value most in a partner?” and they listen carefully to the answer. Some buyers want constant responsiveness. Others value expert perspective and challenge. Some want efficiency and minimal interaction. None of those preferences are wrong. But only one aligns with how you actually sell. When sales gets hard, motivation comes easier when you're pursuing customers who respect your approach instead of fighting it. How to clarify your ideal customer: Look at your three favorite customers. The ones your entire team enjoys working with. What do they share beyond surface-level traits? How did they behave during the buying process? Those patterns matter more than any firmographic filter. Slow Down Before You Create Your Own Problems When pressure builds, speed starts to feel productive. You rush contracts. You promise timelines without checking internally. You say yes to custom requirements because slowing down feels risky. On an episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount, Jr. shared one of the most painful stories we heard this year. A $1.4 million deal with a pediatrics practice unraveled after someone rushed the process and placed the client into an early adopter program without a test environment. The result was catastrophic. The client's live system crashed, HIPAA was violated, and the company lost not only the deal but $600,000 in annual recurring revenue. Top performers understand something most reps learn the hard way: smooth is fast. They build guardrails around high-risk moments. Before sending a contract, they align internally. Before committing to timelines, they check with the people who actually do the work. Slowing down at the right moments builds trust. It prevents chaos. And it preserves sales motivation by keeping you from spending the next quarter cleaning up mistakes made under pressure. How to build a slowdown system: Identify the three points in your sales process where you tend to rush. Proposals, negotiations, technical commitments. Create a short checklist for each and make it mandatory. Use AI to Think Faster, Not to Stop Thinking Sales demands constant context switching. Pipeline reviews. Prospect research. Discovery prep. Follow-up. Objection handling. The mental load adds up quickly. Victor Antonio recently shared an example of a window company using vision AI to diagnose broken window seals from photos. Instead of sending a technician, customers submit an image. The system verifies the issue, checks inventory, confirms warranty status, and schedules service automatically. AI hasn't changed what strong salespeople do. It's changed how quickly they get to the work that actually matters. Top performers use AI to handle tasks that drain energy but don't require judgment. Research summaries. Organizing notes. Drafting frameworks. That speed preserves mental bandwidth for conversations, strategy, and relationship building. Used correctly, AI supports sales motivation by reducing friction, not replacing effort. How to use AI without dulling your edge: List the tasks you repeat weekly that consume time but not insight. Let AI handle those. Keep anything involving trust, nuance, or decision-making firmly in your hands. Why This Matters for Sales Motivation Sales has always been hard. Cold calling was hard decades ago, and it's still hard today. You still have to find people, start conversations, build trust, and ask for commitments. What separates average reps from consistent performers isn't resilience alone. It's structure. Top performers know exactly what they're chasing and why it matters. They protect themselves from bad-fit customers. They slow down when it counts. And they use tools strategically to preserve energy for selling. They still get rejected. They still lose deals. They still have months where nothing goes right. But they don't drift. They don't panic. And they don't quit when the work gets uncomfortable. That discipline is what sustains sales motivation long after the initial excitement wears off. If you want a clearer target to aim at when sales gets hard, download the FREE Sales Gravy Goal Guide. It will help you define the goals that actually keep you focused, disciplined, and motivated—especially when rejection starts piling up.

סטארטאפ ישראלי? האם אתם עושים Cold Email או Outreach? - תזכרו שֶקָר שם בחוץ

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 24, 2025 12:00

‏דמיינו לכם שיום בהיר אחד כל פעילות האימייל של הארגון נעצרת.אימיילים משירות הלקוחות מפסיקים להגיע ללקוחות, לקוחות מדווחים שהאימיילים האלה מגיעים אליהם אל הספאם.הניוזלטר, שבאופן רגיל היה מקבל אינגייג'מנט מצוין מקבל לפתע נפילה דרסטית באחוזי האינגייג'מנט, אימיילים לאימות דו שלבי (Multi Factor Authentication) לא מגיעים, האימיילים שהמנכ"ל שולח מה-google Workspace שלו מקבלים באנר שהאימייל חשוד כספאם.הארגון מושבת! כל תעבורת האימייל נעצרה כמעט לחלוטין.מברור מהיר הסתבר כי בעקבות לחץ שהופעל על מחלקת ה-Growth (שאחראית על הצמיחה בארגון) לגייס לקוחות חדשים, הם חשבו שזה רעיון טוב להשתמש בשירות כגון ZoomInfo, Lusha, Apollo ואחרים שמספקים רשומות לידים מפולחות, כדי שה-SDRים יפנו ללקוחות בפניות קרות - Cold Email. על הסקאלה שבין צמיחה קצרת מועד לבין עמידה ארוכת טווח בדרישות הרגולציה של ספקיות האימייל הגדולות, מהו המחיר שארגונים משלמים כשתעבורת האימייל סובלת פגיעה כל כך קשה? ואכן, ארגונים משלמים בריבית דריבית על הטעויות והשטויות שהם עושים, כשהם מנסים ליצור צמיחה מהירה באמצעות Cold Email. על אתגרי דיוור בארגונים שעושים Cold Email / Outreach. ---CRM.BUZZ הוא בלוג ופודקאסט בעברית העוסקים באימייל מרקטינג, עבירוּת אימיילים ושיווק.יוצר הפודקאסט והבלוג הוא סלע יפה (Sella Yoffe), מומחה בינ"ל לעבירוּת אימיילים ושיווק באימייל, מסייע למדוורים גלובליים, סטרטאפים, סוכנויות אימייל ומערכות דיוור (ESPs) עם מסירות אימייל, אימות אימייל (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI), ואסטרטגיית אימייל.קישור אל הבלוג

growth apollo buzz crm workspace spf cold email zoominfo dmarc dkim email outreach bimi esps lusha

How Top Sellers Make President's Club (and Stay There)

president club sellers zoominfo performancehow

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 11, 2025 44:33

Making President's Club isn't luck, it's consistency, mindset, and execution.Top performers Elmer Lopez and George Horn joined us to share what it really takes to reach President's Club, from daily routines and mindset shifts to the habits that keep them performing at top form.Get a behind-the-scenes look at the systems, workflows, and mentality that separate top reps from everyone else.Whether you're chasing your first Club jacket or aiming to repeat your success, we gave you the practical playbook to get there.You'll Learn:The mindset and turning points that help top reps reach President's ClubDaily habits, systems, and tools that drive consistent performanceHow elite sellers manage rejection, slow months, and stay motivated year-roundThe Speakers:James Buckley, Elmer Lopez, and George HornIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo

[Playbook] How two reps closed a $30M+ deal (the largest in company history)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 9, 2025 61:56

This episode is the audio from our webinar on sales mastery. We were joined by ⁠Rona Cohen and Ryan Smith at ZoomInfo to share how they closed the largest deal in company history ($30M+) and what it takes to get big opportunities across the finish line. Check out more free content and get coaching at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://outboundsquad.com.⁠

history playbook closed largest reps 30m ryan smith zoominfo

Cold Calling Strategies for Year-End Success

success strategy real year end cold calling zoominfo

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 9, 2025 45:58

Most sellers check out in December, but top performers double down.Colin Mokhtary and Sara Uy shared tactical strategies to use cold calls to close deals, re-engage lost opportunities, and set up January wins.Learn how to shift your mindset to see opportunity when others slow down, craft openers that resonate with the holiday season, and drive urgency without discounting. Real examples and actionable scripts show exactly what works in the final weeks of the year.We also covered timing, cadence, and multi-touch approaches to maximize impact. Leave with a clear playbook for turning December calls into momentum for Q1.You'll Learn:Mindset shifts to find opportunity when others slow downOpeners and messaging that connect during the holiday seasonHow to drive urgency and pivot calls to fuel January resultsThe Speakers:Leslie Douglas, Sara Uy and Colin MokhtaryIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo, Tario, and Crdle

The Playbook for Cold Emails That Drive Responses

real drive playbook responses zoominfo cold emails

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2025 29:10

Most cold emails get opened but ignored. Aaron Reeves broke down the exact strategies he's used to craft emails that actually earn responses.Learn how to structure subject lines, openings, and body copy for clarity and impact, personalize without overcomplicating, and build follow-up sequences that convert without annoying prospects.Real examples and actionable frameworks will give you a repeatable process you can use immediately.Aaron also shared creative touches like video, voice notes, and content snippets to boost engagement and pivot your messaging when prospects go silent.You'll Learn:How to structure cold emails for maximum responsePersonalization techniques that don't eat up hours of researchFollow-up strategies that re-engage and convertThe Speakers:James Buckley and Aaron ReevesIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo

How to Write Prompts That Actually Drive Meetings

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 4, 2025 39:11

AI can do incredible work for sellers, but only if you know how to talk to it. The problem? Most reps give vague prompts that produce vague results.Learn how to write prompts that actually move the needle, ones that research your accounts, personalize your outreach, and help you build messaging that feels human.We walked through proven frameworks, live examples, and step-by-step structures you can plug right into your workflow.This isn't another “ask AI to write a cold email” show. It's about building prompts that think and execute like a top-performing rep, so you can spend less time rewriting and more time booking meetings.You'll Learn:The anatomy of a high-performing prompt, clarity, context, and constraints that get resultsReal prompt examples that help you research, personalize, and message like a proHow to refine and test your prompts to make AI do repeatable work for youThe Speaker:Jed MahrleIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo

ai drive write meetings prompts zoominfo

5 Proven Plays to Win Back Ghosted Prospects

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2025 44:16

End-of-year is peak ghosting season, prospects go quiet, priorities shift, and sellers start chasing silence. But great reps know how to re-engage without sounding desperate.Shari Levitin and Mandy McEwen shared five proven reactivation plays that bring dormant deals back to life.Learn how to read the signals behind ghosting, use empathy and timing to re-spark conversations, and re-enter inboxes with messages that actually get replies.Expect a tactical session full of real examples, emotional intelligence insights, and creative outreach ideas you can use immediately to close the year strong.You'll Learn:Why ghosting happens (and how to prevent it before it starts)Five reactivation plays that restart conversations without pressureSmart ways to turn silence into next steps and keep your pipeline movingThe Speakers:Leslie Douglas, Mandy McEwen and Shari LevitinIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo

plays prospects proven ghosted win back zoominfo shari levitin

Episode 1219: Filling Your Calendar with Qualified Leads with Alleyoop with Gabe Lullo

SharkPreneur

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2025 18:24

What if your sales team woke up on Monday to a calendar already full of qualified discovery calls? In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Gabe Lullo, CEO of Alleyoop, who has helped companies from startups to giants like Microsoft, Peloton, and ZoomInfo transform their sales pipelines. Under his leadership, Alleyoop.io has pioneered a two-step model that separates prospecting from closing—backed by 11 million cold calls a year and a focus on authenticity in outreach. In this episode, Gabe shares the systems, stories, and strategies that have fueled Alleyoop.io's rapid growth and its role in scaling billion-dollar brands. Key Takeaways: → The two-step approach that separates prospecting from closing. → How Alleyoop.io serves both startups and global enterprises. → The “hot lead vs. warm lead” model—and why timing matters. → What really causes sales teams to stall (hint: it's not always leads). → Why most “lead gen companies” aren't actually prospecting. Gabe Lullo's expertise in sales, marketing, recruiting, and management began when he started his own business after graduation from the Barney School of Business at the University of Hartford. He owned and operated his own sales, training, and marketing firm for more than a decade. He excelled in training sales and marketing professionals, and additionally, Gabe has had a successful career in executive recruiting. He has been instrumental in expanding the company's search and placement for IT, Software Development, Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, and Executive leaders. Gabe's most recent success has been with us here at Alleyoop. For many years he has been working to build and grow the company by focusing on our culture, environment, customer success, and sales. Connect With Gabe Lullo: Website: https://alleyoop.io/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alleyoop-io/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ceo university business marketing sales microsoft executives filling calendar peloton hartford customer success software development zoominfo qualified leads alley oop seth greene sharkpreneur

Episode 1219: Filling Your Calendar with Qualified Leads with Alleyoop with Gabe Lullo

SharkPreneur

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2025 18:58

ceo university business marketing sales microsoft executives filling calendar peloton hartford customer success software development zoominfo qualified leads alley oop seth greene sharkpreneur

How Limelight validated the B2B creator market by interviewing 100+ creators before building | David Walsh

Category Visionaries

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2025 28:07

Limelight is building the infrastructure layer for B2B creator marketing, processing payments and managing campaigns for companies spending six figures monthly on creator partnerships. With $2.1 million in funding from Signal to Noise Ratio, Ascend Ventures, Savion Ventures, and strategic angels including the head of AI at Amazon and the former Chief Product Officer at Lyft, Limelight powers creator programs for Clay, Webflow, ZoomInfo, and Bill.com. In this episode of BUILDERS, we sat down with David Walsh, Founder and CEO of Limelight, to learn how he validated the market by interviewing 100+ creators, why he deliberately chose not to build an agency despite customer demand, and how his platform tracks engagement data at scale to prove ROI for performance-focused buyers. Topics Discussed: The pivot from referral software to B2B creator infrastructure after 100+ creator interviews How creator attitudes shifted from refusing brand partnerships to actively monetizing Clay's playbook: building custom Clay tables for creators before asking them to post Why Limelight chose to power agencies rather than compete with them The data infrastructure required to justify $100K+ monthly creator budgets Tracking organic engagement, converting content to paid ads, and attributing pipeline The split between brand/social buyers and performance/demand gen buyers Launching social listening to challenge legacy social media management platforms GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Validate with 100+ user interviews before pivoting: David didn't just chat with a handful of potential users—he conducted and recorded over 100 interviews with B2B creators, asking detailed questions about monetization interest, partnership preferences, and content strategies. He then repeated this process with marketing leaders. This level of research rigor before committing to a pivot is rare but critical when entering emerging categories. The depth of qualitative research gave him conviction to make a contrarian bet when most creators were still refusing brand partnerships. Build where network effects are structural, not hoped for: David specifically chose a creator marketplace after a previous marketplace failure because the unit economics included built-in virality. When Limelight pays a creator $10,000, that creator has tens of thousands of followers who see the transaction result (the sponsored content). Every payment notification becomes inbound interest. He understood that in consumer marketplaces you compete on supply quality, but in creator marketplaces the supply actively markets your platform. Founders should identify whether their marketplace has structural network effects in the transaction itself, not just theoretical ones. Target micro-creators with niche audiences over vanity metrics: The counterintuitive insight: creators with 10,000-25,000 followers often outperform those with 100,000+ in B2B because deal sizes are $25K-$50K, not $100 sunglasses. Smaller creators have higher engagement rates, unsaturated audiences, authentic expertise in specific domains, and haven't been "bought and sold for" yet. When brands face the choice between a 100K-follower creator at $2,000 per post with 200 likes versus a 25K-follower creator at $1,000 per post with 300 likes, they irrationally choose the larger following. Founders should educate buyers that in B2B, targeted influence within specific buyer committees matters more than reach. Build data infrastructure to win performance buyers, not just brand buyers: Limelight tracks every piece of content in real-time (not waiting weeks for creator screenshots), monitors all engagement and segments it by ICP fit, provides self-reported attribution from demo forms, tracks website traffic spikes correlated to posting schedules, and generates qualified lead lists from content engagement. This comprehensive data layer is what allows demand gen leaders to reallocate spend from paid channels. The market is splitting 50/50 between brand/social buyers and performance/demand gen buyers—the latter has larger budgets and treats creator spend like paid media that requires attribution. Founders entering new marketing channels should build attribution infrastructure from day one, not as an afterthought. Deliberately choose infrastructure over services even when customers ask for help: Despite customers like Webflow, ZoomInfo, and Bill.com spending $100K+ monthly and requesting more hands-on support, David chose to build product and enable agencies rather than hire account managers and become a service business. His reasoning: people have tried to replace agencies in recruiting for decades and failed because buyers want the human in the middle. The bigger opportunity is being the infrastructure that powers all agencies, not competing with them. This fork-in-the-road decision—hire CSMs and influencer marketing managers versus build more product—defines whether you're building a scalable platform or a services business disguised as SaaS. Use your first customer to custom-build product, then scale it: Clay became Limelight's first customer when the platform was early. David essentially custom-built features for Clay's creator program, learning their workflow for building Clay tables for creators, their onboarding process, and their approach to creative freedom. This deep partnership gave Limelight the product foundation to scale from managing 20 creators to 200+ for Clay within nine months, then apply those learnings to other customers. Rather than building in a vacuum, founders should find a sophisticated first customer willing to co-develop the product, even if it means initially building something custom. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

The Modern Playbook for Signal-Based Prospecting

modern signal playbook crm prospecting zoominfo conversationshow

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2025 45:35

When pipeline feels quiet, the best reps don't send more cold emails, they start paying attention to buying signals.Alex Vacca pulled back the curtain on how his team rebuilt outbound by spotting and acting on warm intent, things like website visits, profile views, content engagement, and trigger-based campaigns.See real examples of the five plays Alex runs to turn passive interest into active pipeline, complete with live walkthroughs inside the tools he uses.Whether you have access to premium intent platforms or just rely on native signals from LinkedIn and your CRM, this session shows you how to prioritize the right activity, personalize fast, and automate without losing your human touch.You'll Learn:The 5 signal-based plays that consistently drive new conversationsHow to build campaigns around website visits, engagement, and triggersHow to automate and personalize outreach for every signal typeThe Speakers:Will Aitken and Alex VaccaIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo

Yello and Zoom Acquire more #HRtech

RecTech: the Recruiting Technology Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2025 7:55

This week my company, RecTech media announced the official rebrand of our press release newswire service from RecTech PR to HR Technology Wire. https://hrtechfeed.com/introducing-hr-technology-wire/ ZoomInfo the Go-To-Market (GTM) Intelligence and Talent Solutions platform, today announced the launch of its AI Builder Catalog, a specialized dataset that surfaces verifiable Proof-of-Work Signals to accelerate AI hiring. https://hrtechfeed.com/new-hr-tech-from-zoominfo-employ/ Employ Inc., a leading provider of people-first, intelligent hiring solutions across JazzHR, Lever, and Jobvite, today announced the launch of the AI Screening Companion….Built using IBM watsonx.governance, the AI Screening Companion delivers proactive, intelligent assistance that goes beyond basic automation. https://hrtechfeed.com/new-hr-tech-from-zoominfo-employ/ CHICAGO, Nov. 20, 2025 — Yello, a leading provider of early talent acquisition software solutions, today announces the acquisition of Symba, the go-to platform for new hire readiness. Through this acquisition, Yello will help employers reduce the manual work of running internship and new grad programs while maximizing candidate engagement and conversion rates. https://hrtechfeed.com/yello-acquires-symba-onboarding-tool/ SAN JOSE, CA—Zoom has announced the acquisition of BrightHire, a leading AI-powered hiring intelligence platform, in a move to significantly expand its enterprise offering and embed intelligent capabilities into the critical talent acquisition workflow. The purchase, which was announced in a blog post, integrates BrightHire's capabilities directly into Zoom Workplace, the company's AI-first work platform. https://hrtechfeed.com/interviews-zoom-acquires-brighthire/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ai chicago zoom built proof ibm san jose acquire lever hr tech yello zoominfo symba talent solutions jobvite jazzhr rectech

How to Reframe Objections and Keep the Conversation Going

conversations reframe objections mafalda zoominfo

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2025 46:28

Most sellers see objections as rejection, but the best reps know they're a sign of interest.Mafalda Johannsen broke down how to turn resistance into real conversation. Watch and learn how to ditch canned rebuttals and respond with curiosity, empathy, and control.Mafalda shared real call examples and live roleplays that show how a simple tone shift or reframe can flip “not interested” into a productive next step.This isn't another “memorize your lines” session, it's a modern playbook for objection handling.You'll Learn:How to reframe objections as valuable buying signalsPractical ways to replace scripts with curiosity-driven responsesReal examples of tone, phrasing, and timing that turn “no” into conversationThe Speakers:Will Aitken and Mafalda JohannsenIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo

For 2026, Don't do more - Do better (w/ Koen Stam from Personio)

The Revenue Formula

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2025 51:47

Most teams think the answer to growth is simple. Add more. More markets, more products, more layers, more plays. The layer cake approach.It almost never works.It adds complexity, drains focus, and breaks what was already working.In this episode, Toni Holbein and Personio's Koen Stam talk about a better path. Instead of piling on new initiatives, fix the foundation. Improve the things that already drive revenue. Tighten ICP. Narrow focus. Sell better. Enable buyers. Strengthen the ecosystem around you. Document the process so the business does not depend on a few heroes.Do less. Execute better.This episode is brought to you by ZoomInfo, the Go-To-Market Intelligence Platform. ZoomInfo gives you high-quality B2B data and sales intelligence on in-market buyers across companies of all sizes, powered by AI-driven automation with integrated outreach tools to help your GTM teams build pipeline and close deals faster. Check them out at zoominfo.com/revenue-formula Want to work with us? Learn more: revformula.io(00:00) - Introduction (04:37) - Addressing the Great Pipeline Starvation (07:22) - Challenges of the Layered Approach (14:58) - Understanding Revenue Sources (19:19) - Data-Driven Decision Making (24:36) - The Parking Lot Exercise (27:43) - Vanity in Expansion (30:28) - Understanding Y our ICP (31:43) - Building a Target List (34:23) - Enabling Buyers (38:51) - Leveraging Ecosystems (43:55) - Process Over People (48:35) - Final Thoughts and Wrap-Up

How to Identify and Engage Champions to Move Deals Forward

champions struggling forward identify engage deals zoominfo

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 13, 2025 46:13

Struggling to get deals unstuck? The right people inside an account can help move things forward, but only if you identify and engage them correctly.Meg Misiak shared hands-on strategies for spotting champions early, empowering them to advocate for your solution, and leveraging their influence to keep deals progressing.See practical frameworks for mapping account roles, providing value without overloading, and building trust during discovery and demo conversations.We taught you how to unblock stalled deals, facilitate multi-threading, and keep your champions motivated throughout the sales cycle. Leave with a repeatable approach to turn key stakeholders into active advocates who drive deals forward.You'll Learn:How to identify genuine champions and map account influenceTechniques to engage and empower champions to advocate internallyStrategies to leverage champions to unblock deals and accelerate the sales cycleThe Speakers:Will Aitken and Meg MisiakIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo

How AI is Expanding the CIO Role with Chetna Mahajan of Webflow

CIO Classified

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 6, 2025 31:30

In this episode, Chetna explains how new automation strategies are evolving not only productivity, but the role of the CIO. Chetna emphasizes the importance of data quality and security when scaling a fast-growing company, as well as transparency and partnership in vendor relationships. About the Guest: Chetna is an award winning CIO, board member, and VC advisor with over 25 years of experience working in the Fortune 100 and serving as a 3X CIO for hyper-growth SaaS businesses. Chetna currently serves as CIO of Webflow, a hyper-growth Website Experience Platform SaaS company. Previously, she served as CDIO at Amplitude and ZoomInfo.Chetna is an advisor to prominent VC firms including Sequoia Capital, Accel, Ridge Ventures, and Mayfield and serves on the Customer Advisory Board (CAB) at Veza and, Productiv and was formerly at Snowflake and Google Cloud Platform CAB. She served on the Tech Committee with Carlyle and Thoma Bravo, and on the Advisory Board of Ninja Focus and Women & AI.She was a finalist and nominee for the Bay Area ORBIE, CIO award, a finalist for “2019 Markie's Cultivator Award for Best Lead Management Program,” a recipient of the Delta Dental Women in Business Stevie Award of Excellence in Healthcare Transformation, and a Boeing Spirit of Excellence Award recipient. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, hiking, and skiing and has a passion for exploring different cultures.Timestamps:01:41 - About Chetna04:53 - Automation as a starting point07:16 - Employee productivity and the CIO11:25 - Discovering new AI tools13:44 - Evolving revenue systems22:47 - How will the CIO role evolve?28:37 - Lightning roundGuest Highlight:“ AI has really taken productivity at a whole different level now. It has really helped us drive the pace in productivity we couldn't have fathomed before the event of the content generation. It's not just content generation anymore. It's way beyond that. The velocity at which we are innovating on the product is huge.”Get Connected:Chetna Mahajan on LinkedInYousuf Kahn on LinkedInIan Faison on LinkedInHungry for more tech talk? Check out past episodes at ciopod.com: Ep 62 - Running IT Like a Growth EngineEp 61 - What Manufacturing Can Teach You About Scaling Enterprise AIEp 60 - Why the Smartest CIOs Are Becoming Business StrategistsLearn more about Caspian Studios: caspianstudios.comOur Sponsor:This episode was brought to you by Blitzy, the Enterprise Autonomous Software Development Platform with Infinite Code Context.Blitzy uses thousands of specialized AI agents that think for hours to understand enterprise scale codebases with millions of lines of code. Enterprise Engineering leaders start every development sprint with the Blitzy platform, bringing in their development requirements. The Blitzy platform provides a plan, then generates and pre-compiles code for each task. Blitzy delivers 80%+ of the development work autonomously, while providing a guide for the final 20% of human development work required to complete the sprint.Public companies are achieving a 5x engineering velocity increase when incorporating Blitzy as their Pre-IDE development tool, pairing it with their coding co-pilot of choice to bring an AI-Native SDLC into their org.Visit Blitzy.com and press book demo to learn how Blitzy transforms your SDLC from AI Assisted to AI Native. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How to Turn Cold Emails Into Conversations

conversations walk zoominfo cold emails

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 5, 2025 44:21

Your subject line is the gatekeeper, get it wrong, and your email dies unopened. In this show, Jérémy Grandillon and Lauren Goodell broke down what actually makes cold emails get read and replied to.See live, real-time rewrites of audience-submitted cold emails, from subject line to first line, and learn exactly how to fix the mistakes that kill your open and reply rates.Expect frameworks that are easy to use right away, like how to balance curiosity with clarity, personalize without overdoing it, and keep your message short, sharp, and human.Walk away knowing how to write subject lines that earn opens, intros that hook attention, and messages that actually get replies.You'll Learn:Cold call openers that create actual conversations with buyersHow to nail your value proposition every timeEffective ways to ask for the meetingThe Speakers:Leslie Douglas, Lauren Goodell and Jeremy GrandillionIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo's (GTM) 1Q Triumph: Revenue Growth & Sales Surge Led by A.I. Solutions

TD Ameritrade Network

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2025 8:07

ZoomInfo (GTM) CEO and founder, Henry Schuck, breaks down the company's record 1Q results, including 5% year-over-year revenue growth and a 20% jump in operations business sales. He credits the success to growing demand from enterprise and large customers for A.I.-driven sales and marketing solutions. Schuck highlights wins from clients like Ryder and Google, and explains how ZoomInfo's data foundation sets it apart in a crowded market.======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day. Subscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/ About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

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Cold Call Strategies That Boost Your Connect Rates

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2025 43:46

Are your cold calls getting hung up on before you even get to the pitch? Breaking through in the first 10 seconds is harder than ever, but the right opener can earn you the time you need.Lauren Bailey shared modern cold calling tactics that get reps talking to decision-makers. Get examples of openers that capture attention and learn how to pivot quickly when objections arise.We covered actionable strategies for handling objections in 10 seconds or less, crafting calls that balance personalization and curiosity, and prepping mentally to keep every call dynamic and engaging.By the end of the show, you'll leave ready to make your cold calls count, improve your objection-handling skills, and increase your conversations with prospects.You'll Learn:How to craft openers that earn 10+ seconds of prospect attentionWays to handle objections quickly using tactical, repeatable frameworksHow to prepare mentally and maintain energy, tone, and pace for engaging callsThe Speakers:James Buckley and Lauren BaileyIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo

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Watch Live Cold Calls Get Broken Down

cold brave zac cold call broken down zoominfo james buckley

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2025 45:09

Cold calling is one of the hardest (and most nerve-wracking) parts of selling, but the fastest way to improve is to actually do it live.Brave volunteers jumped on to make mock cold calls to James Buckley, playing the prospect. Then, Zac and Jack broke down what worked, what didn't, and how to sharpen the call for better results.Expect a mix of real-life pressure, expert coaching, and practical takeaways you can test on your very next dial. From openers to transitions to handling brush-offs, see the full spectrum of live calling in action and walk away with tips to boost your own connect-to-convo success.You'll Learn:Proven openers and first 7-second strategies that earn attentionHow to transition smoothly from opener to value prop to the askExpert tips for handling brush-offs, injecting humor, and using silence to your advantageThe Speakers:James Buckley, Jack Frimston and Zac ThompsonIf you want to catch The Daily Sales Show live, join hereFollow Sell Better to get the latest actionable tactics from sales pros at the top of their gameExplore our YouTube ChannelThank you to our sponsors: ZoomInfo

Automate Your Outreach: How to Generate Client Leads Every Day on Autopilot, with Giorgio Zanella

The Resilient Recruiter

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2025

The hardest part of business development isn't effort, it's consistency. Most recruiters know what to do, but struggle to do it every day while juggling clients, candidates, and placements. You know you should be reaching out to prospects daily, but between managing active searches, candidate interviews, and client meetings, your pipeline suffers. The solution? Build automated systems that generate leads while you focus on conversations that close deals. Giorgio Zanella is a go-to-market engineer who's built hundreds of automation workflows for recruiters and founders. Working out of Clay's New York office, he's spent three years mastering the platform and helping recruitment professionals scale their outbound without losing the personal touch. In this behind-the-scenes episode of The Resilient Recruiter, we break down the exact infrastructure, tools, and strategies you need to automate your outbound without sacrificing personalization or sounding like spam. This isn't theory. Giorgio has analyzed thousands of campaigns and knows exactly what separates automation that works from automation that gets ignored. You'll learn why Clay.com has become the number one platform for scaling outreach, how to choose the right tools for email and LinkedIn automation, what infrastructure you actually need (domains, inboxes, and warming protocols), and how to achieve 3-5% response rates on cold email when most people can't break 1%. We cover the complete tech stack: Clay for workflow automation and data enrichment, Instantly for email sequencing, HeyReach for LinkedIn automation, and how these tools work together to create synchronized multichannel campaigns. You'll discover how Clay's "waterfall enrichment" replaces expensive tools like ZoomInfo (saving you $15K+ per year), why LinkedIn outreach gets higher response rates than email (and its hidden limitations), and how to build email infrastructure that protects your domain reputation while scaling to hundreds of sends per day. Giorgio shares the exact formula for safe, sustainable outreach: 3-4 alternate domains, 2 inboxes per domain, 12-15 emails per inbox per day, and the two-week warming process you can't skip. He explains why most recruiters wreck their deliverability by sending from their main domain, how to set up synchronized campaigns where email, LinkedIn, and phone calls happen in coordinated sequences, and why relevance (right person, right time, right message) beats volume every single time. You'll learn what "good" response rates actually look like (spoiler: they're lower than you think, but the ROI is massive), how to calculate return on investment for cold outreach campaigns, and why even a 1% response rate can generate huge returns when your infrastructure costs are minimal. Giorgio breaks down why personalization and timing are more important than blast volume, how to track real-time signals like job changes and promotions to time your outreach perfectly, and the practical first steps to start automating your business development this month. This episode is part of our new course, Automate Your Outreach: How to Generate Client Leads Daily on Autopilot, a four-week implementation program where Mark and Giorgio guide you step-by-step through building your own automation system. Whether you're a solo recruiter trying to scale or an agency owner looking to systematize business development across your team, this conversation gives you the blueprint. Episode highlights: • [00:50] Introducing Giorgio Zanella and the vision behind the "Automate Your Outreach" program • [03:30] What is Clay and why recruiters are using it to automate lead generation • [07:35] The tech stack you actually need: Clay, Instantly, HeyReach (and what to skip) • [12:20] How to replace expensive data tools like ZoomInfo with Clay's "waterfall enrichment" • [18:40] Email vs. LinkedIn outreach: which gets more replies and why • [23:25] How to run synchronized multichannel campaigns (email + LinkedIn + phone) • [31:30] Why personalization and timing beat volume every time • [40:55] Building a bulletproof email infrastructure (domains, inboxes, warm-up rules) • [52:00] What "good" reply rates look like and how to calculate ROI on outreach • [1:10:00] Practical first steps to start automating your BD this month For more information or to register for the Automate Your Outreach course, visit recruitmentcoach.com/automate Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call: http://www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/ Connect with Giorgio Zanella on LinkedIn Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Episode 303: ZoomInfo Co-Founder and CEO Henry Schuck

Thirty Minute Mentors

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 28, 2025 39:59

Henry Schuck is the co-founder and CEO of ZoomInfo, a data intelligence company that generated $1.2 billion in revenue last year. Henry joins Adam to share his journey and his best lessons and advice. Henry and Adam discuss a wide range of topics: entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation, competition, growth and scale, career success, managing through highs and lows, and much more.

ceo co founders zoominfo henry schuck

How to Build an Enterprise Sales Strategy for Startups (Ask Jeb)

Lead(er) Generation on Tenlo Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 28, 2025

Here's a problem that'll tie you in knots: You've got a killer software solution that saves companies massive amounts of money on employee benefits. You know exactly who needs it: Fortune 1000 companies with self-insured health plans. But you can't get a single meeting with the people who matter. That's the situation Peter Kleinman from Provo, Utah, finds himself in. As the sales and marketing guy for his dad's startup, he's tasked with landing enterprise clients while juggling full-time classes at BYU. He has LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and a burning desire to make it work. He also has virtually no chance of success using his current approach. If you're nodding your head right now, keep reading. Because Peter's problem is your problem if you're trying to sell into enterprise accounts without the business acumen, social proof, or strategy to break through. The 100-Foot Wall Problem Here's the biggest issue: Fortune 1000 CHROs and C-suite executives have built a wall around themselves that's about 100 feet high. Their entire job is keeping people like you from wasting their time. And if you're young, inexperienced, or new to enterprise sales? That wall might as well be 1,000 feet high. Peter is doing everything the sales books tell you to do. He's going straight to the top. He's messaging decision makers on LinkedIn. He's targeting the right titles. He's also getting absolutely nowhere. Here's why: It has nothing to do with age and everything to do with business acumen. You can't speak the language of enterprise buyers if you've never lived in their world. You don't understand their buying process, their risk aversion, or the organizational politics that determine whether your deal lives or dies. Most critically, you're trying to sell something they don't even know they need. And you have zero social proof to back up your claims. That's not a recipe for success. That's a recipe for frustration, burnout, and a pipeline full of nothing. The Bottom-Up, Top-Down Strategy If you can't get to the top, start at the bottom. I'm not talking about giving up on enterprise accounts. I'm talking about running a multi-threading strategy that builds your business acumen while creating pathways into those massive organizations. Here's how it works: Find the amplifiers. These are the people in the trenches who actually deal with the problem your solution solves every single day. They're not directors or VPs. They're managers, analysts, and coordinators who feel the pain but lack the authority to fix it. These people are 100 times easier to talk to than C-suite executives. They'll take your call. They'll teach you. They'll tell you exactly what's broken in their organization and how decisions actually get made. Compress your experience. When you talk to these amplifiers, you're not selling. You're learning. You're asking questions like, "Help me understand how you make these decisions," and "What problems are you running into?" Every conversation compresses years of experience into hours. You learn the language. You understand the pain points. You gather insights that become ammunition for conversations with decision-makers. Surface the insights upward. Now when you finally get in front of that CHRO or VP of Benefits, you're not some kid with a PowerPoint. You're someone who understands their organization better than they do. You can tell them stories about what their own people are experiencing and how you can close the gap. That's how you get meetings. That's how you build credibility. That's how you win deals when you have no business acumen and no social proof. The Insurance Broker Shortcut Here's another path Peter needs to explore: Insurance brokers. If you can't talk to the self-insured companies directly, talk to the people who advise them. Insurance brokers work with these organizations every day. They understand the buying process. They know the pain points. They're infinitely more accessible than Fortune 1000 executives. Better yet, they can become your distribution channel. If your software helps them serve their clients better, they'll sell it for you. This is classic fanatical prospecting. When your ideal customer is hard to reach, find the people who already have relationships with them. Build those relationships first. Let them open doors you can't open on your own. Stop Playing in LinkedIn's Sandbox Peter spends a lot of time on LinkedIn. Posting to the company page. Messaging prospects. Running outreach campaigns. Here's the truth: C-suite executives aren't hanging out on LinkedIn waiting for your cold outreach. They're not there. And the few who are there ignore 99% of the messages they receive. LinkedIn is great for research and building your personal brand. But if that's your entire go-to-market strategy, you're dead in the water. You need real tools. A proper CRM like HubSpot to manage your pipeline and run marketing campaigns. A platform like ZoomInfo to identify the right people and get their actual contact information. An integrated stack that lets you execute across email, phone, and social simultaneously. Most importantly, you need to pick up the phone. Real conversations with real people will always beat automated LinkedIn messages. Always. The Real Investment Required Peter's dad hates sales. He wants to build a great product and have customers magically appear. The company is running its entire sales operation on an Excel spreadsheet. That's not going to cut it. If you want to win enterprise deals, you need to invest in the tools, training, and processes that make it possible. You're looking at $50,000 per year minimum for the tech stack alone. Plus conferences, trade shows, and face-to-face relationship building. That sounds expensive until you land your first six-figure deal. Then it looks like the smartest investment you ever made. Your Action Plan If you're in Peter's shoes, here's what you do right now: Stop going straight to the top. Identify the amplifiers at the bottom of your target organizations and start having conversations with them. Learn the language. Gather insights. Build your business acumen fast. Find adjacent markets. If decision-makers are too hard to reach, find the brokers, consultants, or advisors who already have relationships with them. Invest in real tools. Get off the Excel spreadsheet. Build a proper sales tech stack with a CRM, contact database, and marketing automation. Use AI to accelerate everything. Get face-to-face. Attend conferences. Work trade shows. Build relationships in person where trust forms faster than it ever will over LinkedIn. Enterprise sales doesn't require working harder. It requires working smarter with the right strategy, the right tools, and the relentless discipline to execute even when the path forward isn't clear. That's how you break through the wall. That's how you win deals you have no business winning. And that's how you turn yourself from a struggling startup intern into an enterprise sales machine. Ready to master LinkedIn and build a prospecting system that actually works? Grab a copy of The LinkedIn Edge for the complete handbook on leveraging LinkedIn, AI, and modern sales tools to win more deals.

The Sales Leader's Guide to Extreme Ownership (Transform Your B2B Results)

Strategy Show

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2025 39:12

EP148: From Pipeline To Revenue: Rewriting The Marketing Playbook With Gabe Lullo

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2025 36:02

In this Leader Generation episode, CEO Gabe Lullo shares the playbook Alleyoop uses to turn “more pipeline” into real revenue. You'll hear how to fix unqualified pipeline syndrome by aligning on a clear ICP, catching buyers at the right time and using the BDR function as the bridge between marketing and sales. Gabe breaks down simple rules of engagement for MQL-SQL handoffs and the feedback loops that keep everyone moving in the same direction. We also dig into what actually works right now: human-first outreach, SDRs who think like marketers and LinkedIn content that warms leads before a sales call ever happens. Gabe shows how empowering employee voices on social can fuel 40% of new business, while cutting recruiting spend and improving pipeline quality. If you want practical ideas to get better leads, better teamwork, and better outcomes, this one's for you. Leader Generation is hosted by Tessa Burg and brought to you by Mod Op. About Gabe Lullo: Gabe Lullo is the CEO of Alleyoop, a sales development agency working with industry giants such as ZoomInfo, Salesloft, and Adobe. He has trained over 8,000 salespeople across diverse businesses and, during his tenure in Alleyoop, he has personally hired and managed more than 1,500 SDRs. With over two decades of experience in sales, marketing, and executive recruitment, his strategies have significantly driven Alleyoop's growth and shaped its corporate culture. Beyond his career accomplishments, Gabe graduated from the Barney School of Business at the University of Hartford and his leadership ethos is rooted in cultivating environments that prioritize both professional development and individual success. About Tessa Burg: Tessa is the Chief Technology Officer at Mod Op and Host of the Leader Generation podcast. She has led both technology and marketing teams for 15+ years. Tessa initiated and now leads Mod Op's AI/ML Pilot Team, AI Council and Innovation Pipeline. She started her career in IT and development before following her love for data and strategy into digital marketing. Tessa has held roles on both the consulting and client sides of the business for domestic and international brands, including American Greetings, Amazon, Nestlé, Anlene, Moen and many more. Tessa can be reached on LinkedIn or at Tessa.Burg@ModOp.com.

How to Hire Salespeople in 2025

The Revenue Formula

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2025 47:42

Most companies still hire salespeople wrong in 2025.They rely on resumes, gut feeling, and vague interviews instead of testing real skills. In this episode, Raul and Toni explain why that approach fails and how to replace it with a system that actually works.They break down a practical process to identify what you really need, define the skills that matter, and test candidates in realistic scenarios. No fluff, no guesswork, just a repeatable way to hire people who can actually sell.This episode is brought to you by ZoomInfo, the Go-To-Market Intelligence Platform. ZoomInfo gives you high-quality B2B data and sales intelligence on in-market buyers across companies of all sizes, powered by AI-driven automation with integrated outreach tools to help your GTM teams build pipeline and close deals faster. Check them out at zoominfo.com/revenue-formula Want to work with us? Learn more: revformula.io(00:00) - Introduction (01:41) - Hiring is Broken (07:09) - Basics of Effective Hiring (12:35) - The Myth of the Perfect Candidate (14:20) - Understand your Needs and Context (16:56) - Time Pressure in Hiring (22:02) - The Three Step Solution (29:10) - Assessing Candidates: Interpretation (30:16) - Assessing Candidates: Talking (31:21) - Assessing Candidates: Showing (32:53) - Assessing Candidates: Doing (36:53) - Iterating on the Process (39:57) - Roleplaying in Sales Hiring (43:33) - Hiring Sales Leaders (46:00) - Final Thoughts and Takeaways

founders ai marketing myth hiring basics hire takeaways b2b context saas final thoughts broken cro roleplaying salespeople gtm revops zoominfo iterating time pressure

How a Carrot Keeps Top Sellers Disciplined (Ask Jeb)

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 8, 2025 10:20

How do you prepare your mindset and create the discipline to be effective every single day? That's what Jeff Velez asked on a recent Ask Jeb episode, and it's the question that separates the pros from the amateurs in sales. Sales is the hardest profession in business. It's the only job where you have to go out and find rejection and bring it home every single day. Every ask you make carries the potential to be rejected at a deep, painful level. That's why we get paid so well. And that's why most people can't hack it. But the ones who do? They've figured out the secret. Find Your Carrot My friend Will Fratini from ZoomInfo nailed it when he talked about what motivates him, or his carrot. His five-year-old daughter once bought him a carrot Christmas ornament, and he carries it with him everywhere as a reminder of why he shows up every day. But here's what matters: Your carrot needs to be specific and tangible. Not some vague "I want to be successful" nonsense. I'm talking about something real. A commission check of X dollars. A boat. Generational wealth through real estate. A college fund for your kids. Think of it like an old-time horse and carriage. You put a carrot on a stick in front of a stubborn horse, and suddenly it'll go forward even when it thinks it can't. That's what your carrot does for you when everyone else is giving up. Your carrot is what pushes you past the point where giving up would be completely justified. It's what separates the best from the rest. The Hard Truth About Sales Discipline Let's be clear about what sales discipline actually means. You have to show up every day and do a certain number of activities. Every. Single. Day. Consistently. And in order to do those hard things consistently, you need that carrot. It's about sacrificing what you want now (which is easy) for what you want most (which requires doing hard things). I want to do things that are easy. But in order to get what I want most, I've got to do things that are hard. That's the entire game. The Scottie Scheffler Example Look at Scottie Scheffler, the PGA golfer. When he makes a bogey, he bounces back with a birdie or better 62 percent of the time. The rest of the field? Less than 18 percent. Why? Because Scheffler is crystal clear about what's important to him. He knows his carrot. He understands what fulfillment means. When something goes wrong, there's no cascade of "everything is wrong." His ego doesn't take a hit because he's focused on what matters most. He picks himself back up, brushes himself off, and keeps moving. But here's what most people don't know: It wasn't always this way. When he first brought on his caddie, Ted Scott, Ted told him straight up: "I'm not working for you unless you get the attitude, temper, and anger under control." Think about that. The caddie refused to work with him unless he fixed his mindset first. That's how important mindset in sales really is. Everything else comes after. Your Visual Cue Go get yourself a carrot ornament. Seriously. Find one on Amazon, hang it in your office, and use it as your visual cue for what matters most. When you're sitting at your desk in the morning trying to get started, or when something has gone wrong and you're trying to bounce back, that carrot will remind you why you chose this soul-sapping profession in the first place. Because maybe the only thing harder than sales is golf. But you chose it. Now own it. The Secret Superpower Here's the bonus that Will dropped that's pure gold: Sometimes your carrot isn't even about you. Sometimes the ultimate sales superpower is genuinely helping someone else be the star of the show. The best sellers in the world don't care about how great their product is. They care about making their customer the hero. If you genuinely believe you're there to help someone else's day get better, you're going to come through. And when you have that extra little carrot hanging th...

christmas amazon sales single generational sellers pga disciplined carrot scottie scheffler zoominfo ted scott

How a Carrot Keeps Top Sellers Disciplined (Ask Jeb)

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2025

How do you prepare your mindset and create the discipline to be effective every single day? That's what Jeff Vellas asked on a recent Ask Jeb episode, and it's the question that separates the pros from the amateurs in sales. Sales is the hardest profession in business. It's the only job where you have to go out and find rejection and bring it home every single day. Every ask you make carries the potential to be rejected at a deep, painful level. That's why we get paid so well. And that's why most people can't hack it. But the ones who do? They've figured out the secret. Find Your Carrot My friend Will Fratini from ZoomInfo nailed it when he talked about what motivates him, or what his carrot is. His five-year-old daughter once bought him a carrot Christmas ornament, and he carries it with him everywhere as a reminder of why he shows up every day. Here's what matters: Your carrot needs to be specific and tangible. Not some vague "I want to be successful" nonsense. I'm talking about something real. A commission check of X dollars. A boat. Generational wealth through real estate. A college fund for your kids. Think of it like an old-time horse and carriage. You put a carrot on a stick in front of a stubborn horse, and suddenly it'll go forward even when it wouldn't before. That's what your carrot does for you when everyone else is giving up. Your carrot is what pushes you past the point where giving up would be completely justified. It's what separates the best from the rest. The Hard Truth About Sales Discipline Let's be clear about what sales discipline actually means. You have to show up every day and do a certain number of activities. Every. Single. Day. And to do those hard things consistently, you need that carrot. It's about sacrificing what you want now (which is easy) for what you want most (which requires doing hard things). I want to do things that are easy. But to get what I want most, I've got to do things that are hard. That's the entire game. The Scottie Scheffler Example Look at Scottie Scheffler, the PGA golfer. When he makes a bogey, he bounces back with a birdie or better 62 percent of the time. The rest of the field? Less than 18 percent. Why? Because Scheffler is crystal clear about what's important to him. He knows his carrot. He understands what fulfillment means. When something goes wrong, there's no cascade of "everything is wrong." His ego doesn't take a hit because he's focused on what matters most. He picks himself back up, brushes himself off, and keeps moving. What most people don't know is that it wasn't always this way. When he first brought on his caddie, Ted Scott, Ted told him straight up: "I'm not working for you unless you get the attitude, temper, and anger under control." Think about that. The caddie refused to work with him unless he fixed his mindset first. That's how important mindset in sales really is. Everything else comes after. Your Visual Cue Go get yourself a carrot ornament. Seriously. Find one on Amazon, hang it in your office, and use it as your visual cue for what matters most. When you're sitting at your desk in the morning trying to get started, or when something has gone wrong and you're trying to bounce back, that carrot will remind you why you chose this soul-sapping profession in the first place. Because maybe the only thing harder than sales is golf. But you chose it. Now own it. The Secret Superpower Here's the bonus that Will dropped that's pure gold: Sometimes your carrot isn't even about you. Sometimes the ultimate sales superpower is genuinely helping someone else be the star of the show. The best sellers in the world don't care about how great their product is. They care about making their customer the hero. If you genuinely believe you're there to help someone else's day get better, you're going to come through. And when you have that extra little carrot hanging there (that house, that milestone, that college fund), it's going to doubly remind you that the reason you're doing this is to serve others first. Sales is really hard because it's hard to put other human beings before yourself. If you have a carrot to motivate you to push through, and you know deep down that your intrinsic motivation is to help someone else, you will do great. That's what turns things around. That's what creates longevity in sales. The Bottom Line Stop overthinking this. The formula is simple: Define your specific, tangible carrot Put a visual reminder where you'll see it every day Remember that you're here to make your customer the star Show up and execute with discipline, even when it's hard When you're tired, hungry, worn out, and ready to go home, make one more call That's how you prepare your mindset, create discipline, and separate yourself from everyone else who's just going through the motions. Ready to dominate your prospecting game? Check out my book, The LinkedIn Edge, and discover how to leverage LinkedIn to fill your pipeline with qualified prospects.

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Desperate for Attention in a Noisy Prospecting World (Money Monday)

ceo founders ai entrepreneur advice product managers herrmann validity suffolk university zoominfo

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 6, 2025

Here is an undeniable truth: The No. 1 reason for failure in sales is an empty pipeline, and the No. 1 reason you have an empty pipeline is that you are not doing enough prospecting. In sales, everything rests on putting qualified opportunities in your pipeline. Prospecting is the beginning and the end, alpha and omega. If you don't prospect, you will fail. That is a guaranteed truth. Each and every sales day, you must connect with prospects, engage them in meaningful conversations, and convert them into pipeline opportunities. It's a Noisy World The problem is that we live in a noisy world in which those same prospects are being inundated with prospecting messages from dozens of other salespeople who are also attempting to get their attention. So, if you don't stand out, you lose. But I doubt I'm telling you anything that you don't already know. It's freaking hard to get attention when prospecting, and it's not getting easier. There are days when it feels like you could be jumping up and down in front of your prospect in a pink bunny suit while throwing hundred-dollar bills in the air, and they'd still ignore you. The Sledgehammer Approach Is Dead One of the key reasons so many salespeople fail to break through is that their entire prospecting strategy is pounding away at prospects through a single communication channel—typically a series of automated emails sent through a sales engagement platform like Outreach or SalesLoft. Sadly, this sledgehammer approach just doesn't work anymore. Recent data reveals that salespeople are sending as many as eight times more emails today than they did five years ago and getting just a tenth of the results. A big reason prospects are tuning out is that AI-powered sales automation tools have scaled email prospecting activity to an extraordinary level. In the past, writing a prospecting email involved strategic thought and taking time to craft a message that was unique to each prospect. It was a slow process, which meant salespeople sent fewer but better prospecting emails. Today, AI engines can pump out hundreds of cold email variations in seconds with shallow, and often cringeworthy, personalization that, more often than not, turns prospects off. And as AI-generated prospecting emails flood inboxes, the sheer volume of this outreach has eroded any impact from the improved efficiency. Constant exposure to this irrelevant, repetitive AI-generated crap has left business executives exasperated. They are overwhelmed and have tuned out, turned off, and are ignoring all prospecting messages—good or bad, human or AI-generated. Break Through the Noise Most sales professionals today are desperate to find new techniques to help them break through the noise and get attention when prospecting so that they can engage in more meaningful conversations. Most salespeople want a bigger, stronger pipeline filled with qualified opportunities. Yet many overlook one of the most powerful prospecting tools right at their fingertips: LinkedIn. Why LinkedIn, Why Now It can be argued that the moment the sales profession changed forever and the door opened to modern selling as we know it was when Alexander Graham Bell said on the very first telephone call, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” The telephone's impact on the sales profession was profound and lasting. Then, as now, the phone remains the most efficient and effective means for conducting real-time, synchronous human-to-human conversations with prospects. Bell made his call to Mr. Watson 150 years ago. Since then, only a handful of pivotal technologies have advanced the sales profession with such impact: The automobile gave sellers the freedom to cover wider regional territories more efficiently. Air travel literally gave sales professionals wings, expanding their reach nationally and globally. The internet put unimaginable data at the fingertips of both sales professionals and buyers. Smartphones put powerful computers in our pockets and made communication ubiquitous. Video calling shrunk the globe and accelerated sales cycles. CRM (we still hate it) made it possible to efficiently capture, organize, and access data. Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we develop insight from this data—revolutionizing targeting, prospecting, communication, deal strategy, and forecasting. But, of all these advances, none has had a more dramatic impact on the sales profession and your ability to connect with almost anybody, anywhere, at any time than LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a Vibrant Sales Ecosystem LinkedIn is a vibrant ecosystem where a billion business professionals are linked together. It's a prospecting and sales Swiss Army knife with dozens of tools and applications for a variety of purposes: Prospecting Networking Research, qualifying, and list building Multi-threading and stakeholder mapping Pre-call planning Discovery Communicating Building familiarity and personal branding Projecting thought leadership and authority What makes LinkedIn truly unique is that this giant database and sales ecosystem is constantly self-updating. This means that the data and contacts are never stale. It is the only sales data center where you are always working with the most current information about prospects and their companies, which makes it an excellent list-building tool. It gets even more powerful when you combine LinkedIn with AI and data platforms like ZoomInfo. This matters because when prospecting, the better your list, the better your outcomes. When you consider that the very essence of selling is connecting with people, building relationships, and solving problems, it's easy to understand why LinkedIn is the most important technological advancement in the history of the sales profession. A Prospecting Swiss Army Knife To break through the noise and earn attention, you need to ditch the sledgehammer and pick up a multi-function Swiss Army Knife. Multichannel prospecting sequences that leverage LinkedIn are that Swiss Army Knife. Sequences diversify your outbound strategies with a multi-channel, multi-touch, interwoven-message strategy that helps you stand out. And LinkedIn amplifies the impact of these sequences. A multichannel sequence gives you the opportunity to meet prospects where they are and how they prefer to communicate. It also allows you to experiment with multiple iterations and formats of your message to hone in on the one message that pulls your prospect in. LinkedIn, when combined with AI and traditional communication channels like the phone and email, can give you almost superhuman prospecting powers. Superhuman Prospecting Powers Sales professionals who harness LinkedIn in their Fanatical Prospecting sequences can transform their prospecting strategy and explode their pipeline with high-quality opportunities by generating more leads, opening more doors, and engaging in more meaningful conversations. To be sure, LinkedIn is not a prospecting panacea. It will not provide an endless stream of inbound leads with little effort. It requires hard work and time investment, and it must be combined with other communication channels to be effective. LinkedIn is, however, a key component of a complete prospecting system. From list building and direct outreach to lead generation and long-term cultivation of future opportunities, LinkedIn's panorama of features can be a crazy powerful weapon in your prospecting arsenal. This is why I want you to stop today and consider how you are using LinkedIn. Do you feel like you are getting everything out of LinkedIn that you should be? Are you scheduling consistent LinkedIn blocks on your calendar, or are you erratic with your efforts? Take some time this week to consider new possibilities for how to make LinkedIn work better for you and recommit to making LinkedIn a core part of your fanatical prospecting routine. The LinkedIn Edge: The “Fill Up the Pipeline” LinkedIn Book In my new book, The LinkedIn Edge, I give you a comprehensive prospecting playbook. You'll gain tools, tactics, and techniques for building a robust pipeline with both fast and long-game strategies for landing big, lucrative deals and dream accounts. Prospecting on LinkedIn can feel utterly overwhelming, so I'm going to teach you: How and where to get started. How to build better prospecting lists and find who and what you are looking for. Develop effective prospecting messaging for InMail and LinkedIn Direct Messages. How to communicate on LinkedIn and conduct more effective prospecting conversations. How to get found and generate inbound leads. How to generate referrals and warm introductions. How to differentiate, build trust, and stand out in a world that wants to commoditize you. My mission is to teach you exactly how to enhance, elevate, and accelerate your prospecting efforts by blending LinkedIn seamlessly into your sales toolkit. Don't wait, go get my new book: The LinkedIn Edge. And here's a bonus: Once you purchase The LinkedIn Edge, you'll get access to a comprehensive LinkedIn Course (a $50 value) with 10 videos and a reading & reflection guide. Just purchase the book, and then take your receipt to salesgravy.com/edge to redeem your free course. And never forget, when it's time to go home, always stop and make one more call.

Zoominfo (GTM) CEO on A.I.'s Role in Customer Engagement, Moving to 'Offense'

TD Ameritrade Network

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 6, 2025 7:51

Henry Schuck, founder and CEO of Zoominfo Technologies (GTM), talks about how the company uses A.I. to enhance client engagement with customers. He addresses concerns that A.I. will reduce staff head count by making the argument that A.I. actually boosts the need for more sales workers. On the future of tech, Henry believes it will give Zoominfo an opportunity to move on the "offense" instead of "defense."======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors. Before trading, read the Options Disclosure Document. http://bit.ly/2v9tH6DSubscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

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Episode 399: Luisa Herrmann - Founder & CEO, AINovva

The VentureFizz Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 3, 2025 56:41

Episode 399 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Luisa Herrmann, Founder & CEO of AINovva. This episode was recorded live at Startup Boston Week at Suffolk University which is the third year that I've hosted it onsite. Thank you to Stephanie Roulic for the invitation as it's a lot of fun and great to be involved in such a meaningful conference. And, since it was hosted live, this episode is audio only and my apologies for the background noise. Entrepreneurs take different paths when it comes to finding ideas to start a business and how they go about funding it. Her company, AINovva was born out of her own need. After working in AI for several years and learning how to code, she built the product to solve her own content-switching exhaustion called AIFred. It handles email prioritization, meeting prep, and relationship management so busy professionals can focus on what matters. And to fund the company, she has bootstrapped it through consulting revenue. Not every company needs an outside investment and if it does, the longer an entrepreneur can hold out… the better situation they will be in when it comes to negotiating the terms. In this interview, we cover: * Advice on attending networking events. * Luisa's background story in terms of how she got involved in the tech industry and her journey into product management. * Her experience in product roles at ZoomInfo, Validity, and other startups. * All the details about AINOvva. * Advice for hiring your first Product Manager. * And so much more.

[Playbook] Account Executives: Steal this framework to self-source 30%+ of your pipeline (without making hundreds of cold calls)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 30, 2025 61:55

This episode is the audio from our recent webinar on AE self-sourcing. Erika Fuchs from EliseAI, Rob Anderson from TitanX, and Darin Alpert from ZoomInfo joined us to share how top reps self-source pipeline to book more meetings and crush quota, without making hundreds of cold calls. Check out more free content and get coaching at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://outboundsquad.com.⁠

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Sales Advice That Will Change How You Sell Forever | EP 17 ft. Michael Kleinfeld

FrumFWD

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2025 44:49

On this episode of The YM Show, I sit down with my good buddy Michael Kleinfeld, a top performer in B2B sales. We get super practical about how he actually wins contracts—from the first cold call, to follow-ups, to proposals—and how you can apply the same frameworks in any industry.If you're in sales (or you're a founder doing sales yourself), this episode is a cheat-sheet: the ins & outs, do's & don'ts, misconceptions, and yes—the occasional “scheme” to watch for—so you can close more cleanly and build long-term relationships.

How to Start Using AI in Sales (Ask Jeb)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2025 11:33 Transcription Available

Here's a question that'll make your head spin: You know AI is transforming sales, everyone's talking about it, but you're still staring at ChatGPT like it's some mysterious black box, wondering what magical question you should type in first. That's the reality for most salespeople in 2025. They know they need to embrace AI, they've heard the success stories, but they're paralyzed by the complexity and overwhelmed by the options. If you're nodding your head right now, you're not alone. The biggest barrier to AI adoption isn't technical—it's mental. Salespeople are asking the wrong question entirely. The Wrong Question That's Keeping You Stuck Most people approach AI like it's some mystical oracle they need to appease with the perfect question. They think there's some secret prompt that will unlock AI's full potential, like finding the right combination to a safe. Here's the brutal truth: There is no perfect first question for AI. The real problem isn't what to ask—it's how you're thinking about the problem. Instead of asking "What should I ask AI?" you need to flip the script entirely. The Mental Shift That Changes Everything Twenty minutes before recording our latest Ask Jeb episode, I was working on a new training program for Sales University. I had a slide deck and workbook that needed proofreading, and my first instinct was to think, "Who can I get to proofread this thing?" That's how most of us think: "How can someone else do this?" or "How can I get this done?" But I caught myself and asked a different question: "How can AI do this?" I uploaded the slide deck to AI and asked it to proofread for me. Fifteen seconds later, I had a response—not perfect, but a starting point. I refined my prompt, asking for typos organized slide by slide, and boom—seven minutes later, the entire deck was cleaned up. What would have taken me 45 minutes and still resulted in missed errors was done in minutes, with better accuracy than I could achieve manually. Why You're Already Qualified to Use AI Here's what Will Frattini from ZoomInfo pointed out that hit me like a lightning bolt: You already know how to use AI. You've been doing it for years. If you've ever asked Siri for directions, told Alexa to turn up the music, or typed a question into Google, congratulations—you've been using AI. The only difference now is the sophistication and power of what's available. The barrier isn't technical competency. It's the mental block of overthinking it. You don't need to understand large language models or machine learning algorithms. You just need to ask a question and hit enter. That's it. That's the profound simplicity everyone's missing. Think Like a Conductor, Not a Solo Act Here's the game-changing mindset shift: Stop thinking of yourself as someone who needs to learn AI. Start thinking of yourself as a conductor standing in front of a symphony orchestra. You've got Claude for certain tasks, ChatGPT for others, ZoomInfo Copilot for prospecting intelligence, Gemini for research—each AI is like a different instrument in your orchestra. Your job isn't to play every instrument; it's to conduct them all to create something beautiful. The apex predators in sales aren't going to be the people who master one AI tool. They're going to be the conductors who know when to use which AI for maximum impact, iterating and refining until they get exactly what they need. This means developing your prospecting methodology becomes even more critical—you need to know what outcome you're trying to achieve before you can direct your AI orchestra to help you get there. Your Practical Starting Point Stop overthinking this. Here's your action plan: Step 1: Pick one AI tool you have access to. Your company probably already provides something. If not, start with ChatGPT, Claude, or any of the major platforms. Step 2: Identify one recurring task that eats up your time. Email templates, research,

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How to Start Using AI in Sales (Ask Jeb)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2025

You know AI is transforming sales, everyone's talking about it, but you're still staring at ChatGPT like it's some mysterious black box, wondering what magical question you should type in first. That's the reality for most salespeople even now. They know they need to embrace AI, they've heard the success stories, but they're paralyzed by the complexity and overwhelmed by the options. If you're nodding your head right now, you're not alone. The biggest barrier to AI adoption isn't technical—it's mental. Salespeople are asking the wrong question entirely. The Wrong Question That's Keeping You Stuck Most people approach AI like it's some mystical oracle they need to appease with the perfect question. They think there's some secret prompt that will unlock AI's full potential, like finding the right combination to a safe. They're wrong. There is no perfect first question for AI. The real problem isn't what to ask—it's how you're thinking about the problem. Instead of asking "What should I ask AI?" you need to flip the script entirely. The Mental Shift That Changes Everything Twenty minutes before recording our latest Ask Jeb episode, I was working on a new training program for Sales Gravy University. I had a slide deck and workbook that needed proofreading, and my first instinct was to think, "Who can I get to proofread this thing?" That's how most of us think: "How can someone else do this?" or "How can I get this done?" But I caught myself and asked a different question: "How can AI do this?" I uploaded the slide deck to AI and asked it to proofread for me. Fifteen seconds later, I had a response—not perfect, but a starting point. I refined my prompt, asking for typos organized slide by slide, and boom—seven minutes later, the entire deck was cleaned up. What would have taken me 45 minutes and still resulted in missed errors was done in minutes, with better accuracy than I could achieve manually. Why You're Already Qualified to Use AI Will Frattini from ZoomInfo pointed out that "You already know how to use AI. You've been doing it for years." If you've ever asked Siri for directions, told Alexa to turn up the music, or typed a question into Google—congratulations, you've been using AI. The only difference now is the sophistication and power of what's available. The barrier isn't technical competency. It's the mental block of overthinking it. You don't need to understand large language models or machine learning algorithms. You just need to ask a question and hit enter. That's it. That's the profound simplicity everyone's missing. Think Like a Conductor, Not a Solo Act Stop thinking of yourself as someone who needs to learn AI. Start thinking of yourself as a conductor standing in front of a symphony orchestra. You've got Claude for certain tasks, ChatGPT for others, ZoomInfo Copilot for prospecting intelligence, Gemini for research—each AI is like a different instrument in your orchestra. Your job isn't to play every instrument; it's to conduct them all to create something beautiful. The apex predators in sales aren't going to be the people who master one AI tool. They're going to be the conductors who know when to use which AI for maximum impact, iterating and refining until they get exactly what they need. This means developing your prospecting methodology becomes even more critical. You need to know what outcome you're trying to achieve before you can direct your AI orchestra to help you get there. Your Practical Starting Point Stop overthinking this. Here's your action plan: Step 1: Pick one AI tool you have access to right now. Your company probably already provides something. If not, start with ChatGPT, Claude, or any of the major platforms. Step 2: Identify one recurring task that eats up your time. Email templates, research, call preparation—anything that's necessary but not your highest value activity. Step 3: Ask the AI how it can help with that specific task. Don't ask what you should ask it. Tell it what you need done. Step 4: When the first response isn't perfect (and it won't be), refine your request. Think of it like managing a new employee: give feedback, clarify expectations, iterate. The key is starting with problems you actually have, not theoretical use cases you've read about online. The Efficiency Multiplier Effect Remember my proofreading example? That's not just about saving time—it's about the multiplier effect of sales efficiency. When AI handles your routine tasks better and faster than you can, you free up cognitive bandwidth for the high-value activities that actually drive revenue. Instead of spending 45 minutes proofreading, I can spend that time on strategic thinking, relationship building, or developing new programs. That's the real power of AI in sales. It doesn't replace what makes you valuable; it amplifies it. The Learning Curve Is Shorter Than You Think Will shared a perfect example: He used ChatGPT to help organize his kids' toys after a move. He just said "help me" and got a 20-minute action plan that would have taken him much longer to figure out himself. That's the sophistication we're talking about. Not complex prompts or technical wizardry, just asking for help with real problems you need to solve. The learning curve isn't about mastering AI; it's about remembering how to learn by doing instead of overthinking. Your Competitive Advantage Is Starting Now While your competitors are still debating what the perfect AI question should be, you can be building your conductor skills. Every day you wait is a day your competition might be getting ahead by simply starting. The salespeople who embrace this mindset now—who start thinking "How can AI do this?" instead of "How can I do this?"—will have an insurmountable advantage in 12 months. The Bottom Line Stop waiting for someone to hand you the perfect AI playbook. The best way to learn is to start solving real problems with the tools available to you right now. Change your question from "What should I ask AI?" to "How can AI help me with this specific thing I need to get done today?" Then ask it, iterate, and watch your productivity soar. That's how you step into AI. Not with perfect questions, but with practical problems and the willingness to start conducting your own symphony. Want to master AI in sales? Get The AI Edge for the complete blueprint on leveraging artificial intelligence to dominate your competition and accelerate your sales results.

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Sales Prospecting Sequences and ZoomInfo: Buy or Die Without Burning Bridges (Ask Jeb)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2025

Here's a question that'll keep you up at night: What do you do when you believe in "buy or die" but you're terrified of ruining future opportunities with annoying prospecting sequences? That's exactly what Angie Anderson asked during a recent Ask Jeb session, and it's a problem that's plaguing salespeople everywhere. Angie subscribes to the "buy or die" mentality but doesn't want to destroy her odds of winning in the future by becoming the prospect's worst nightmare. If you're nodding your head right now, you're not alone. The tension between persistent prospecting and respectful relationship building is one of the biggest challenges facing modern sales professionals, and getting it wrong costs you deals—both now and in the future. The "Buy or Die" Misconception That's Killing Your Pipeline Most salespeople completely misunderstand what "buy or die" actually means. They think it's about hammering prospects until they crack, but that's not persistence—that's harassment. Real "buy or die" mentality recognizes that the prospect is never not a prospect, but sometimes now is not the right time. The key is knowing when to push and when to pull back. Your sequence length and touch frequency should be driven by one critical factor: deal complexity and account size. Short Cycle Sales Need Short, Aggressive Sequences Run 10-14 touch sequences over 10-30 days with touchpoints every 2-3 days. These prospects have buying windows that are typically always open, and the stakes are relatively low. Complex Accounts Require Long-Term Relationship Building For massive, high-value accounts, you could run sequences that extend up to two years. Touch them monthly or quarterly to stay top of mind, waiting for the right opportunity window to open. The magic happens when you track meaningful engagement. In any properly executed sequence, 30-50% of prospects will give you some form of signal—yes, no, or even "go away." All of these responses give you something to work with. But here's the critical part: When you get complete radio silence from the other 50%, you stop. Pull them out of your sequence, slot in fresh prospects, and circle back in 90 days or six months. You have infinite time to go after them—use it strategically. Why Generic Messages Get You Blocked Every Time This brings us to the second major challenge facing modern salespeople: crafting relevant messages that resonate with busy prospects. James Baldwin perfectly captured this struggle when he asked about leveraging tools like ZoomInfo to create relevant messaging. He sees tons of information but doesn't know what to use or how to use it effectively. This is where most reps completely miss the mark, and it's costing them relationships. The Research Failure That Destroys Credibility Want to know the fastest way to get permanently blocked? Send a message that screams "I know nothing about you or your business." This happened to me recently with a rep from a major software company. They did everything technically right—multi-channel approach, proper timing, professional voicemails—but they failed at the most critical element: relevance. They prospected Sales Gravy without doing even basic research. My LinkedIn profile was right there. My content was everywhere. I've literally said thousands of times that if you mention my books when prospecting me, I'll almost always respond. But they were too lazy to look. That's not persistence; that's sales malpractice. How to Turn Data Overload Into Relevant Conversations The problem isn't lack of information—it's information overwhelm. Modern tools give you access to massive amounts of data, but most reps freeze up trying to figure out what matters. The solution is asking better questions of your data. Instead of just building lists, use AI-powered tools to ask specific questions: "What are three conversation starters that would make this CEO interested in talking with us?" or "Based on recent hiring signals and earnings reports, which accounts are most likely to need our solution right now?" The most insatiable human need is the need to feel important and significant. When you demonstrate that you invested even minimal time researching them, you instantly make them feel like they matter. But here's what separates elite performers from average reps: They use information to craft messages that feel personal and relevant without being creepy or overly familiar. The Three Pillars of Relevant Prospecting Consistent Value Without Seasonality: If you solve a real problem today, you probably solve that same problem every day of the year. Don't abandon strong messaging just because they haven't responded yet. Your value proposition doesn't change based on their response timing. Strategic Information Usage: Look for recent posts, company news, hiring patterns, or industry challenges that you can reference naturally. The goal isn't to prove you stalked them—it's to show you understand their world. Response Readiness: The worst prospecting sin is getting engagement and then going dark. If someone takes time to respond to your outreach, respond quickly and meaningfully. This is where many reps completely drop the ball. Your Prospecting Success Framework For Sequence Strategy: Map sequence length to deal complexity, not arbitrary timelines. Space touchpoints every 2-3 days maximum for executives. Track meaningful engagement signals, not just activity metrics. Build systematic re-engagement for non-responders after 90+ days. For Research and Relevance: Spend 5 minutes minimum researching each high-value prospect. Use AI tools to generate conversation starters based on real data. Reference specific, recent information without being invasive. Focus on their business challenges, not personal details. The Integration That Changes Everything Here's where it all comes together: The best prospecting sequences combine persistent methodology with relevant messaging. You're not choosing between being persistent or being relevant—you're doing both systematically. Your sequences should maintain consistent value while incorporating fresh, relevant information at each touchpoint. This keeps you top of mind without feeling repetitive or generic. Most competitors give up after 1-2 attempts with weak messaging. You'll stand out by combining systematic prospecting with research-driven relevance over extended timelines. Stop Making Excuses and Start Getting Results The tools exist. The information is available. The frameworks are proven. What separates winners from wannabes is execution discipline. Stop overthinking sequences and start working them systematically. Stop sending generic messages and start doing basic research. Elite performers work smarter, with systems that balance persistence with respect and relevance with scalability. That's how you build sustainable sales success. That's how you maintain "buy or die intensity" without burning bridges. And that's how you turn prospecting from a numbers game into a relationship investment that pays dividends for years. Effective prospecting sequences start with working the right opportunities. The LinkedIn Edge is the definitive guide to combining LinkedIn, AI, and proven outbound strategies to sell more, win more, and earn more. Get your copy today.

ceo ai real space focus modern track touch elite james baldwin use ai three pillars stop making excuses sequences burning bridges zoominfo sales prospecting sales gravy angie anderson

Sales Prospecting Sequences and ZoomInfo: Buy or Die Without Burning Bridges (Ask Jeb)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2025 14:00

ceo ai real modern touch james baldwin sequences burning bridges zoominfo sales prospecting sales gravy angie anderson

[Playbook] State of Cold Calling (from analyzing 1B cold calls)