Sales Assembly

If you're a CSM/AM walking into a mtg with an exec, you really should open with the bottom line up front (BLUF). Take a look at these 2 openings: "Thanks for taking the time today. I wanted to walk through some updates and get aligned on a few things and see where you're at with..." vs. "Your team cut reporting errors by 15% last quarter, but we're seeing a risk in Region B that could cost you $500K if we don't act in the next 30 days." Which do you think is really going to capture an exec's attention and get them engaged throughout the rest of the meeting? As Brianna laid out during a session she led for Sales Assembly the other week, you have 8 seconds before an exec decides to pay attention or check out. 8 seconds. A mistake that CSMs and AMs make time and time again is that they burn them on setup. When you do that, the exec already begins thinking about their next meeting. Here's what happens in those first eight seconds from the exec's side. They're running a calculation: Is this person about to tell me something I don't know, help me solve a problem I have, or make a decision easier? Or are they about to give me a status update I could've read in Slack? If it's the second one, they've already decided this meeting is a waste. They're just being polite enough to sit through it. And once you lose those eight seconds, you don't get them back. You can have the most brilliant insight on slide 23, but they're not mentally present anymore. The mistake people make is thinking "executive level" means "vague and strategic." It's the opposite. The higher up you go, the less tolerance there is for anything that doesn't directly connect to a business outcome they care about. Execs need meat. Specific numbers, specific risks, specific plans. So what actually works? 1. Start with the outcome (vs the journey). Nobody cares that you ran 47 reports to get here. They care about what you found. 2. Lead with change. "Things are going well" isn't worth a meeting. "We're tracking ahead of target, but I'm seeing early signals that could derail Q4" is. 3. Make the first sentence a decision point. "We need to decide if we're investing in this integration fix before renewal" beats "I wanted to discuss some challenges we've been experiencing." Here' an exercise: start writing the first sentence of every QBR deck before you build any slides. Just that one sentence. What do they need to know? If you can't nail that sentence, you don't have a meeting worth having. Also, it's not just about this one meeting. It's about whether they take your next meeting. Whether they respond to your emails. Whether you're in the room when the renewal decision happens. So if you're opening your next QBR with "I'm excited to share some insights about adoption trends," you already lost them. Start with the outcome. Then show the path. Then shut up and let them talk. 8 seconds. Don't waste them.

VP of Sales we work with tells me his reps carry 30 products. They sell three. The other 27 might as well not exist. I ask him which three...design software, basic analytics, the entry-level package. All inbound. Prospects call asking for them by name. The other 27 require actual prospecting. So here's what's happening: His reps are hitting quota on the easy stuff while competitors are walking into the same accounts selling the higher-margin products his team won't touch. He did indeed run the numbers: - Those 3 popular products: 80% of pipeline, maybe 30% of total revenue potential. - The 27 nobody sells: 20% of pipeline, 70% of the money. His reps are working full-time jobs processing orders for the cheap stuff. He tried fixing it twice. First, dedicated reps for the hard-to-sell products. Failed. Then he segmented by product line. Also failed. IMO the biggest reason why is because he treated this like it was some type of specialization problem. He realized that the products that require prospecting separate actual salespeople from CS reps who happen to have territories. His reps got addicted to inbound. Why cold call when the phone's already ringing? Why learn a complex product when you can close three easy deals in the time it takes to do one discovery call? They're mistaking activity for productivity. Staying busy instead of making money. Here are some of the changes he ended up making that, at least thus far, seem to be moving things in the right direction: 1. He weighted comp toward the hard stuff. Made the ignored products more profitable than the popular ones. Rep closes a $50K deal on the easy three? 10% commission. Same deal on one of the 27 neglected products? 15%. Basically made the ignored products pay 1.5x. 2. Set portfolio quotas. 40% of the reps number has to come from non-core products. No exceptions. 3. Tracked prospecting activity (along with conversion rates). Measured outbound attempts on neglected products. Each rep needed at least 3 qualified opps per quarter from the 27 products. Couldn't count inbound. Had to be sourced - cold outreach, referrals, whatever. But they had to hunt for them. 4. Capped how many "easy" deals counted toward quota. You want this job? Sell the full bag. Maximum 60% of your number can come from the popular three. The other 40%? Has to come from the 27 products nobody wants to sell. The reps who figure it out will make more money doing harder work. The ones who don't will keep riding inbound until it dries up. And it will dry up. Because eventually your competitors train their reps to sell what yours won't. And those "easy" inbound calls will stop coming when buyers realize your team only knows how to demo three things.

Solid idea: your org should have a no-fly list. Prospects you refuse to sell to. Not CAN'T sell to. Won't. Like most solid ideas, this one isn't mine. It was brought up by a leader in one of our Peer Groups recently. Here's what's on theirs (and the rationale behind why): 1. Enterprise retail chains: 9-month sales cycle. 18-month implementation. They'll want inventory integration, point-of-sale connectivity, and custom reporting for every region. May was well convert your company to a 501c3 at those margins. 2. Government agencies: 2-year procurement process. RFP that reads like War and Peace. Compliance requirements that need three lawyers to interpret. They'll demand features nobody else wants, pay Net 120 IF you're lucky, then wonder why you can't customize everything for their "unique" needs. 3. PE owned companies: Three months from close, they're getting flipped. New ownership means new vendors. Your champion gets fired. Procurement gets brought in to squeeze margins. You become a line item to cut for EBITDA improvement. 4. The "we need everything custom" crowd: If they say "we're different" more than three times in discovery, run for the hills! You'll spend more on their customization than they'll pay you in three years! But watch what happens without a no-fly list: - Sales celebrates closing Massive Retailer X. - Marketing writes the press release. - CEO posts on LinkedIn about "enterprise traction." Eighteen months later, that deal is consuming 40% of engineering resources and generating 8% of revenue. Your product roadmap is now their feature request list. Your support team speaks only to them. Meanwhile, your competitor with the no-fly list is printing money on boring...excuse me..."boring" MM accounts. If you were interested in standing something like this up, a good place to start would be to track a Deal Quality Score alongside pipeline. Points for: - Standard requirements. - Realistic timelines. - Healthy margins. - Stakeholder alignment. Meanwhile, you could deduct points for things like: - Custom feature requests mentioned in the first call (I mean, you're not a dev shop, right?). - Payment terms beyond Net 60 (you're a SaaS company, not a bank). Score below 60? Add it to the no-fly list. Your sales team might make a fuss initially. "But it's a million-dollar deal!" Yeah, a million in revenue, two million in costs, and three million in opportunity cost. Every bad-fit customer you close is three good-fit customers you won't have time to serve properly. Every customization you build is a standard feature you didn't ship. Every fire you fight is a strategy session you missed. The no-fly list is just about identifying reality and being honest. Some deals aren't worth winning. Some logos aren't worth having. Some revenue isn't worth recognizing. Your competitors can have the logos. You'll take the profits.

Don’t forget to have fun. This Halloween inspired Flashback Friday is a reminder to incorporate FUN into even the most high-pressure, fast-moving work environments. Why? Because fun fosters connection, creativity, and confidence. Without it, a team's rhythm and culture is haunted by burnout and stress. In fact, fun is so important, it is one of the Five F's of the sales framework I learned from Matt Forcey initially and from Todd Caponi's Sales Assembly revenue manager lab. Fun is infectious - when it's prioritized by leadership and part of the culture, your clients and prospects feel it too. Fun doesn't just have to be associated with holidays (although I'd love to lead more sales calls dressed like Madonna) but it should be a big part of the overall culture and, how you feel about the work itself. Every so often, Patrick Ahern (representing 2019 here 👇 ) would ask me; "Are you having fun?" It wasn't a question I was used to getting at work but it always made me pause and think about the work I was doing and who I was doing it with and it demonstrated that it was a priority for him as a senior leader. Hope you're having fun today and maybe even on Monday too.

I afford myself 1 humblebrag a year, and here it is: It was an honor to be invited to share my thoughts with Yamini Rangan, David Cohen, and the HubSpot ELT yesterday around how GTM leaders are thinking about AI right now. Taking a step back, I think it speaks volumes about Hubspot that, as part of their leadership offsite, they dedicated some time to hear from "boots on the ground" to inform what they're building and how they could better support the ecosystem. I'm sure they have limitless data, and while those numbers don't lie, they don't tell the whole truth either. Not every company would go out of their way to get the nuance and context that pure data doesn't deliver to you. Joined by Beau Brooks and Damian Knapp, we spoke about: - The state of AI adoption and measurement. - Shifts in buyer behavior and seller adaptations. - The most likely future model for humans + AI. Along with a whole bunch of other interesting stuff related to all things AI and sales. Really do appreciate the Hubspot team allowing me to share what were hearing from the GTM leaders across the hundreds of B2B tech companies that Sales Assembly works with day to day. This was definitely a professional bucket list item for me. Plus, if nothing else, I at least had the opportunity to share my unfiltered, constructive feedback about Adam Sparks to his leadership team. I'm sure he'll be in for a fun Q4 performance review. 😬

Your deals are dying because you won't get on a plane. Sure, virtual is efficient. Five meetings instead of one. No TSA. No Sbarro. But efficient isn't effective when your $300K renewal is circling the drain. Daryl Seager was running a session for Sales Assembly yesterday on Building Confidence & Trust With Your Customers, and a CSM in the crowd chimed in with a story: They were navigating challenges with a client. Emails were getting tense. Zoom calls felt adversarial. Then they finally got in a room together. "Their whole demeanor changed. It disarmed them completely." That's it. That's the whole insight. Daryl then asked: How many of you have met clients in person? About half said no. Then: Did it improve the relationship? Every single person who said yes talked about how it completely changed the dynamic. Not incrementally. Completely. Because humans aren't wired for Zoom intimacy. We're wired for reading a room. For the conversation that happens walking to the elevator. For vulnerability that only shows up when you're sitting across from someone. Your VP is gonna tell you to "maximize efficiency." Coolio. Go maximize yourself into a 75% renewal rate because your clients think you're a support bot with a calendar link. That $1,200 flight and eight hours of your time might save a $300K renewal. Or close a deal that's been "90% there" for three months. Or repair a relationship that your AE torched by overpromising. The orgs that will win in the future are the ones who still remember that people do business with people. Not with Brady Bunch squares on a screen. But sure, keep telling yourself that virtual is "just as good." Your competitors who are actually showing up will appreciate the market share.

🎉 Badge Unlocked! 🎉 I’m excited to share that I’ve officially earned my Relationship Management badge from Sales Assembly! This experience was more than just a certification - it was a deep dive into the art of building trust, driving strategic partnerships, and creating long-term value for customers. As an Account Manager, these skills are at the heart of what I do every day, and I’m thrilled to continue growing in this space. Huge thanks to the Sales Assembly team for curating such a thoughtful and impactful learning journey. 🙌 #CustomerSuccess #RelationshipManagement #SalesAssembly #ProfessionalGrowth #AccountManagement #AlwaysLearning

So there's a candidate out there right now telling hiring managers she closed $2.3M last year at 38% win rate in MM SaaS. Could be 100% accurate. Could be inflated by 20 points. Nobody really knows until month four when the results start coming in. And here's what sucks the most: there are 46 other candidates saying roughly the same shit. Hiring in 2025 means companies can afford to be picky as hell. That's the worst part about job hunting right now. Yeah, SaaS is still hiring. Tech's still hiring. But for every open AE role, there are 50 qualified reps applying. Companies are shopping because they can afford to do so. Which means if you're trying to break into a better company or pivot segments, you need two things working in your favor. Not one. Two. First: you need a warm intro. Most hiring managers aren't even looking at cold applications unless the person's profile jumps off the screen. 80% of sales hires happen through referrals or internal moves before the job even goes live. So if you're not spending half your energy finding warm paths to hiring managers, you're already a step or two behind. But here's where it gets interesting. Let's say you DO get that warm intro. Great. Now you're in the room. But so are five other people who also knew someone. Now what? This is where someone showed me TrackRec, and it was actually really impressive. Because it solves the second part of that equation: PROOF. You input your actual performance data…deal sizes, close rates, sales cycles, industries, territories, motion type, all of it. Then you get your managers, peers, even customers (if you want) to verify it. Peer-reviewed stats before you walk into the interview. So when you tell a hiring manager you closed $2.3M, you're actually showing receipts and not asking them to just trust you over the other 46 candidates. Warm intros get you in the room. Once you're in that room, you're gonna have to find any way to try and separate yourself from the crowd. A story is always awesome. A story + being able to prove that you've done the job = even awesomer. That's the 1-2 punch that's working right now. Anyway, got introduced to this tech and thought it was cool. Figured share it with folks who are looking for roles right now.

Your executive business review deck has 47 slides. Your execs show up 12 minutes late, multitask through half the call, and ask "can you send me the summary?" Meanwhile, you can EASILY strip your EBRs down to 15 minutes. One slide. Three questions: 1. What's working well? 2. What needs to stop? 3. What needs to change immediately? Don't bother wasting time with ice breakers or shit like that. You'll likely see decision makers actually engaged, and you'll be able to surface real issues before they become renewal risks. Here's why this works: - Execs just don't have the time. Nobody does. Eight-page decks with usage charts and feature roadmaps? No bueno. Remember...what's working well, what needs to stop, what needs to change immediately. That's the lens through which these folks view the world. - Constraint forces clarity. When you have 15 minutes, you literally cannot waste time on stuff nobody cares about. Every question has to drive toward decisions or action items. - Three buckets create focus. Good, bad, urgent. That's how execs think anyway. Don't make them take the scenic route to get there. Hidden backup slides can handle deep dives. When someone wants to pull the thread on a specific issue, you're ready. But you don't LEAD with complexity. Also, make sure you assign ownership during the call. When there's an action item, ask: "Who's going to own this?" Then that person gets looped into the follow-up email with clear accountability. 15 mins. Cut it down. Doesn't have to be pretty, either. Keep in mind that busy execs will always choose efficiency over elegance.