Nipul Chokshi

Great dinner and discussion on the cutting edge of outbound automation and signals. Two nuggets from the discussion: 1) Email deliverability is especially critical for GTM motions with large scale outbound automation (usually selling to SMBs and wide TAM). There doesn’t seem to be a silver bullet, and banking on one deliverability vendor / approach is risky. 2) Bulllish on signals and automation for up-market GTM motions, but needs to be done thoughtfully. Likely keeping reps in the driver’s seat and less end-to-end automation.

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In case you missed her at the Denver Sales Enablement Summit, Seismic VP of Enablement Irina Soriano outlines the Enablement Value Chain (EVC) in a new article for Sales Enablement Collective. What is the EVC exactly? According to Irina, it's a "proven framework to align your analytics, partnerships, and enablement team operating model in a unified approach that demonstrably improves seller behavior and business outcomes." Learn more at the link:

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Revenue Operations (RevOps) stands out as the most desired strategic approach that delivers long-term value in today’s SaaS world.   RevOps was never about just about short-term gains; it’s a holistic, data-driven approach that aligns sales, marketing/content, and customer success/growth teams to drive revenue growth by improving the ratio of customer acquisition cost to total lifetime value. If you’re opting for this approach as a sales/revenue manager you also need to train/hire the right people who demonstrate the following:   1.   Your team needs to navigate changing market dynamics, adopt new technologies (e.g. making personalized videos to make onboarding or sales reach outs easier) and make their peace with the fact that all departments have the same end goal (can be instilled by have a collective incentive) 2.   You need people who will breakdown silos between departments. Seek out individuals who not only excel in their specific role but also thrive in cross-functional environments. 3.   Your hiring strategy should reflect your long term focused will to invest in talent that not only meets current needs but also has the potential to grow with the organization. Consider candidates/training regimes that will instill passion for continuous improvement and professional development.   No sales/revenue manager can do this on their own. They need their team to be on their back supporting their ideas and that can only be achieved if constant feedback is being taken from them otherwise there will never be any ownership of the changing policies. Keep the following points in mind:   1.   Your team members have valuable insights into what’s working and what’s not especially sales and onboarding. You can only learn the ground reality by encouraging an open feedback culture where everyone feels safe to share their ideas and concerns. 2.   The feedback needs to be regular so that it allows you to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize processes and strategies. 3.   As Daniel Pink says when employees feel heard and valued, they’re more likely to be engaged and showcase ownership towards the organization’s success. Actively giving feedback fosters a culture of trust and accountability.   RevOps is a long-term approach that requires a strategic approach to hiring/training and a commitment to continuous feedback and improvement. Invest in adaptable talent and leverage key and valuable insights of your team. #SaaS #RevOps #Sales #B2BSaas  

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CS teams NEED to start "managing up" with execs and the board by talking about REVENUE. Yes, you can keep talking about sentiment and feelings, but start with the $. Don't lead with churn- Bottom-line-focused execs don't like that headline, so you need to tell the story better. An informal poll had CS teams owning over 50% of the revenue of many SaaS companies. Lead with this and have it be your first talking point. From there you will be able to get more things done with other departments, as your requests will be revenue-focused Need to get a Customer Success Platform as you scale? Point to revenue and the potential to lose revenue without efficiencies Need to hire more to prevent burnout? Point to Revenue potential with renewals and upsells Talk in the language your execs and board want to hear.

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Sales people make the money. Sales Ops / Rev Ops / Biz Ops count the money. Sales Enablement explain the missing money 😏 . Building and leading a Sales Enablement function from the ground up is extremely challenging for C-Level Executives who succumb to the mainstream practices because of lack of time and understanding of what the role is all about. Doing more of the same doesn't fit today's economic climate, especially for early-stage startups with limited resources and high demands for fast outcomes. Put simply, Leaders today have a shorter runway. Don't waste it on trial & errors. I've introduced the Moneyball approach back in 2017 and have implemented it successfully ever since. Project Moneyball in a nutshell is a Revenue Intelligence approach to Sales Enablement, exactly what scaling businesses need in times of uncertainty. Hit "Book an appointment" and let's take it from here.

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Struggling with churn? Validate the value your customer receives. This is not a static metric/KPI - it needs to be nurtured, revisited, redefined, and reinforced throughout the customer lifecycle ♻ #customersuccess #sales #customervalue #value

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What do you need in order to improve pipeline health, forecast accuracy, and revenue predictability? >> Effective deal reviews << Join Salesloft + Seismic for a webinar where industry experts will chat through their proven strategies and best practices for holding productive and insightful deal reviews. For sales and RevOps leaders, learn how to establish a repeatable process for deal reviews that is consistent, in-depth, and delivers results. For sellers, learn how to show up prepared and get the actionable feedback you need to win more deals. Join us: https://lnkd.in/eKzr99PN

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We know revenue leaders are under a ton of pressure to create, convert, and close more pipeline. Today, we’re sharing our 5 biggest learnings on how to run revenue. For context, Clari just passed $4 trillion in revenue under management 🤯 . Yes, you read that correctly—$4 trillion in revenue. That’s how much revenue is flowing through the Clari Revenue Platform. And thanks to our incredible clients, we know more about how to run revenue than any company on 🌏. Swipe to see these unexpected learnings.  I am personally having a blast diving into Learning #4! What learning surprised you or is top of mind?!

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Great conversation with Joey Brodsky! Definitely one of the sharpest guys I know. I love his passion, drive and unique perspectives. I have followed his podcast for a long time and was super happy to be able to be a guest. I will share more insights from our time together but wanted to post a quick thank you to Joey and share the episode. #NextGenSales

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"Your ops team is either your superpower or your Achilles heel." - Latané Conant (she/her) @ the Pavilion CMO summit last week. If you're half-assing your RevOps investment, you're going to pay for it eventually. And the price is going up. What an Achilles heel in ops might look like: - A VP of Sales that spends 2 full days before a board meeting "cleaning up the data" - A HubSpot partner that only executes on exactly what you ask them to do and never provides feedback on best practices - An AE that spends 5 hours per week as your Salesforce administrator (in addition to the other 8 admins) because they've been a user for 5 years - A Director of Demand Gen that knows "enough to be dangerous" in Marketo - A CFO that builds a top-down forecast and sets quotas, but has never had a single conversation with a sales rep What other signs of half-assing RevOps did I miss?

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There is often considerable overlap between Revenue Operations (RevOps) leadership and the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) roles due to the interconnected nature of strategy and execution in driving revenue growth. This signifies a move toward a transformation in Revenue executives where decision-makers combine strategic foresight with operational expertise that drives sustainable revenue growth. The opportunity for senior RevOps professionals to take on these executive roles is more relevant than ever. Here is my advice on considering this move: https://lnkd.in/eEp263QR

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Seismic leads the way in G2's Spring 2024 Grid® Report for Sales Enablement for Enterprise Businesses — for the ninth year in a row! 🏆 The best part? Rankings are based solely on real reviews from real customers. If you're curious about how we stack up against the competition, check out the G2 Enterprise Spring 2024 Grid® Report at the link below.

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The salad 🥗 of commercial leadership titles is a pure festival 🕺, but what does it tell us about GTM strategy? TL;DR: CROs aren't better named Sales Executives, but cross function GTM leaders. While they are seemingly growing into that role from Sales leadership, there is a strong argument for CMOs, CCOs as well as RevOps leaders to snatch that spot in the future. Two very interesting conversations are happening right now, which Sam Jacobs, Asad Zaman, AJ Bruno and Kathleen Booth brought together on the last Topline episode. 1️⃣ What is a CRO (Chief Revenue Officer)? 2️⃣ Who in the commercial leadership squad is best suited for that gig? Lets first look at what a CRO actually is. More than ever, we are aiming to bring true alignment to all GTM functions. What becomes a tangible need once your teams outgrow the daily handshake has been amplified in the PEG (Proficient Efficient Growth) era we are finding ourselves in. It's simply not possible to run a revenue engine which is heavily disconnected from each other, steering on siloed metrics and definitions of What Good Looks Like. The CRO is tasked to bring all that together. They should have a deep understanding of the product & market, expertise in leading complex teams and have an outstanding connect to their customers. But that's more for 2️⃣. The thing is: Not all CROs are born the same way or fill in the same position at each company at each growth stage. As always: It depends. In order to find our way into a discussion on what a CRO is, I've outlined possible shapes of GTM leadership. 💡 Product Market Fit: The CEO drives most of the GTM, is intensively close to customers & product and finds PMF. The transition from this stage to the next is the transition from founder led sales to a Sales team. So for now, the CEO is on their own. 📈 Go To Market Fit: An organisation starts to shape, which is led by the CEO. They take the role of the CRO as they lead all GTM functions in the business. Each function builds out their own teams as specialisation needs to happen in order to serve the customer along their journey. As the CEO has lots of other things on their plate, this is a natural breaking point in the endeavour to keep these departments from building silos. 🔥 Scale-Up Fit: We are far beyond $10M ARR and proper organisations have formed. This is the point where we might realise that we have built a beast of org, productivity and alignment goes down. CROs get their first real - and important - role here by taking over New Business as well as Existing Business. They might also take the CMO role, but there are lots of reasons to keeping that separate for now. 🚀 Grown-Up Fit: We might be around IPO. The organisation is mature enough that the CEO moves completely out of the picture concerning GTM and a President takes over what we would now call CRO. How do you structure your GTM leadership team? #saas #cro #marketing #revenue

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Great article by Jon Miller on the importance to resist short-term activity instead of long-term effectiveness. This quote below is great. "When we bombard buyers with unwanted emails, gate content that should be freely available, and sic SDRs on anyone who dares to download an eBook, we're not building relationships — we're burning them. It's not the gating itself that's the problem, it's the terrible experience buyers have after they fill out that form. Think about it: how eager are you to buy from a company that's been calling and emailing you repeatedly just because you registered for a webinar? How likely are you to continue engaging with their content or recommending them to your peers? Short-term, these tactics might boost meetings, but long-term, they erode trust, damage our reputations, and make it harder to engage buyers in meaningful ways." https://lnkd.in/g7dDUQCY

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If you're hiring for revops, here are top traits to look for. It's not pure analytics or tool knowledge. 😀 IC Focused/Exec Aligned RevOps is about helping the front line. The reps. Its not about decks, execs or the CRM. I was at my best when I had this. And my worst when I didn't. The company hits their number when the reps do. Look for servant leaders. They become reps best friends and execs right hand. 🤝 They can rally the wagons RevOps must drive impact through multiple stages of the customer journey. The RevOps pro has to work WITH those teams and not around. 👍 Good Communicator Being able to communicate key findings and implement changes is critical. The right answer stuck on tab 9 doesnt do anyone any good if revops can action it. 📗 High FIFO Factor Figure it the f*ck out. People go to revops to solve problems. New tool? Learn it. Don't know the answer? Find it. Leads broken? Fix it. ⬆ Student of the Game: This person is always learning. Podcasts, books, new tools they learned, etc. RevOps isn't for the static. The game changes too fast. Combine those with a good grasp of data analytics, tools, systems, and process. And you're likely to make a good revops hire.

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Using maps (and AI) to close business and retain customers. This is such an interesting demo from Daniel Schmidt at DoubleLoop. Would be curious what sales / rev ops / marketing folks think. https://lnkd.in/gtKNmSN2

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It’s no surprise that I love to align Executive Teams, and, especially, the GTM Team who builds the core of the revenue engine in alliance with Finance and People. Sales is a critical seat to make customer acquisition, retention and expansion work in partnership with Marketing, Customer Success and “Product”. Really recommend the new Sales Bible written by Jose Carlos F. Pereira (in Portuguese). Probably one of the best sales books ever! #sales #leadership

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I'm doing yet another product hunt launch: https://lnkd.in/esHrd4hX CalendarHunter helps you discover hidden meeting scheduling links like Calendly. CalendarHunter can help you find leads on Linkedin, Twitter, and Reddit. The tool is still early stage so any feedback is welcome. #ProductHunt #GrowthHacking

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