Sales Assembly

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.

I know an org that had six tools for email cadences. Six! This is what happens when every department buys their own solutions and nobody wants to be the one to say "hey folks, maybe we don't need all this." It's getting worse and worse now with AI and all the point solutions rolling out. These companies make everything look shiny and essential. But your tech stack shouldn't require a PhD in systems architecture just to figure out where your data lives. The cleanup isn't just about saving money, though CFOs love that part. Consider this: - Every redundant tool is a training burden on Enablement. - Every broken integration is a data integrity nightmare for RevOps. - Every workaround is productivity suicide for your reps. So where do you start? Your CRM is the source of truth. Everything flows in or out of there. No exceptions. Then audit by function, not by tool. - How many ways are you prospecting? - How many places are you storing content? - How many dashboards show the same pipeline data in slightly different ways? You're not trying to have fewer tools just to have fewer tools. You're trying to have cleaner processes that don't require three systems just to send a sequence. And look, I get that consolidation hurts before it helps. Reps will complain about losing their favorite tool. Managers will panic about losing their custom reports. Leadership will question whether the disruption is worth it. Push through anyway. Because the alternative is death by a thousand integrations, and I promise you that's a helluva lot worse. One tool that actually works beats ten tools that kind of work.

Todd Caponi built his career on a radical idea: tell buyers about your flaws. Also, he knows how to ride a unicycle. Let's focus on the former for now.... Look, most sales leaders would throw you into a vat of acid for telling prospects why you suck. Todd turned it into the 6th best sales book of all time (per our bffs at Book Authority). The Transparency Sale challenged conventional wisdom in a way that sales books hadn't for ages. Todd's thesis: the harder you push, the more buyers resist. The more transparent you are about flaws, the more they trust your strengths. The more you acknowledge competitive alternatives, the more credible your differentiation becomes. Basically, more behavioral science, less bro science. Most negotiation training teaches reps to be used car salesmen. You know the move - dodge the pricing question, create false urgency, hold firm until they cave. Todd teaches reps to be trusted advisors instead. Which turns out to be way more effective when buyers can Google your pricing during the demo. Fortunately for sellers everywhere, he's joining Sales Assembly as our newest Executive in Residence, teaching the Negotiation Certification. He'll be leading 4 modules each quarter next year built strictly on decision science: 1. Pricing Integrity & The 4 Levers. Stop discounting your way out of value conversations. Todd's framework gives reps actual alternatives - timelines, payment terms, scope, service levels. Basically everything except slashing margin because the buyer asked nicely. 2. Addressing Common Concession Requests. Every rep gets hit with discount requests. Most panic and immediately cut 15%. Todd teaches systematic responses that preserve deal value while actually strengthening buyer trust. Revolutionary concept: you can say no without torpedoing the deal. 3. Addressing Advanced Concession Requests. When buyers demand pilot programs, liability caps, or extreme discounts, most reps fold or flee. Todd's advanced strategies turn these into collaborative problem-solving instead of hostage negotiations. 4. The Foundation for Successful Outcomes. Negotiation doesn't start at contract review. It starts at first discovery. Todd teaches reps how to introduce pricing early, build value systematically, and position the whole thing as partnership discussions instead of "gotcha" moments at the end. So, a natural question would be...why listen to Todd? Well, I'm glad you asked. He's a multi-time C-level sales leader who guided companies through successful exits. Now he applies these frameworks with revenue teams every day. Plus he's got the research chops to back it up - hundreds of studies on buyer psychology, decision-making patterns, and trust-building mechanisms. Turns out when you stop acting like you're hiding something, buyers stop assuming you're hiding something. Groundbreaking research, I know. Someone should write a book about it. Oh wait.

"Let your best reps out-earn leaders." — Matt Green We interviewed Sales Assembly CRO Matt Green recently to chat through his thoughts on comp plans. - What's the best one he's seen? - Should you cap? - What's a healthy progressive plan look like in practice? - What growth stage does he consider the "danger zone" for comp plans? All that and more in our latest Q&A: https://lnkd.in/gFCragpb