AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 5x President's Club

Creating raving fans @ Gong. Founder of Closed Won. Dad to Monty 🐾 

Brian LaManna

Seeing my name on a NY Times Square billboard is not something I had on my 2026 bingo card... but nor was baby monkey Punch... so here we are. 

Huge thank you to the team at trumpet 🎺 for making that happen.

(The NY Times Square billboard... in case that needs clarifying)

Beyond the surreal moment, I want to give them a genuine shoutout for what they actually helped me accomplish this year.

I used Trumpet in every single enterprise deal I ran. Every one. Deal rooms became a core part of how I sell.

The results backed it up:
-Win rate went up
-Sales cycles got shorter
-Average sale price grew

That's the trifecta. 

And a big piece of that came down to having a professional, organized space where buyers could engage, internal champions could sell on my behalf, and nothing got lost in a 47-message email chain.

2025 was a proud blowout year for me, and Trumpet was part of that story. 

Grateful for platforms that actually move the needle.

Thanks, Trumpet 🎺

Brand partnership • AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 7x President’s Club

6 non-negotiables for me to uncover in every sales cycle.

Without it, you're likely to lose often to 'no decision.'

And no - this is not MEDDIC.


It's the concept of 'why change' and why an investment is required.


1. 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲-𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐨𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞

How to ask:
↳ "Gong aside, what are the top 2-3 strategic priorities you're most focussed on."
↳ "What company-specific objective does Gong align most to, in your eyes?"


2. 𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐨𝐟 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐭

How to ask:
↳ “For this new launch, through your lenses, what's the biggest single risk to making this a success?”


3. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞

How to ask:
↳ "What metric is that most affecting today?"
↳ "Where is that at today?"


4. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞

How to ask:
↳ "In an ideal world, where would you want to get that to?"


5. 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐎𝐈

How to ask:
↳ "If you bridged that gap, have you done the math on what that would be worth?


6. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲'𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤.

How to ask:
↳ What have you already done to try and solve that?



Uncover these 6 and stop status quo from eating you alive.

But you won't uncover all 6 of these on the first call

Discovery is a never-ending process

Not just a sales stage


P.S. Closed Won Club is opening back up in  10 days !!! Be on the waitlist for the full discount: https://lnkd.in/gRwyxSti

AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 7x President’s Club

Software stocks just got crushed. $400B wiped out in a week.

ServiceNow down 50% from peaks. Salesforce off 40%. Even Palantir down 30%+ despite crushing numbers.

What happened? New AI models released from Anthropic changed the narrative overnight.

For the first time, investors are asking: "What if AI replaces software altogether?"

Here's the fear: Companies now have three options instead of two:

1. Buy your SaaS software
2. Evaluate 2-3 competitive options
3. Build their own / use AI agents

But here's what most miss:

As a fast growing company, would you rather pay $100K annually for best-in-class software… or divert your finite engineering resources to build, maintain, train on, and secure your own tool. 

Instead of using those engineering resources to focus on your own product/offering.

Similar to COVID, this is a moment where the strongest SaaS companies get stronger, and weaker ones fall off. 

The companies at risk? Simple point solutions with seat-based pricing that's easy to replicate.

It'll be easy to identify the "winners" a few quarters from now. 

Companies that show YoY revenue is accelerating. They are AI beneficiaries . 

Those slowing down? Their stocks will get decimated. And their down fall will become sell fulfilling. 

Exposing which companies actually have a moat, and which were just renting one all along. 


P.S. Think we see this trickle through to the private markets next... funding will dramatically slow for Software companies and "ChatGPT wrappers."

I've spent 2.5 years selling to CRO's and VPs of Sales

If you can't hold your own negotiating, you'll get eaten alive.

Here's my always / never rules for negotiating:

𝐀𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬:
-Confirm you are vendor of choice
-Be consultative + work together
-Require a live phone / Zoom conversation
-Still schedule a next meeting after finalizing
-Share levers for better pricing (users, products, longer term, etc.)


𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫:
-Negotiate before the 1-yard line
-Try to negotiate over email / text
-Negotiate with a non Decision Maker
-Assume that pricing is the most important
-Use discounting as a crutch for a bad business case



Negotiating is all about learning what's most important to your prospect

That is only learned through strong discovery with the right person

It's not a you vs. them situation 🤝


P.S. Buzzing the 1st masterclass today for Closed Won Club, with Palantir's previous Head of Commercial Sales (ksa) speaking to us... waitlist here for spots in March: https://lnkd.in/gRwyxSti

I’m not sure I would have been successful in 2018 as an SDR if it wasn’t in office. 

Fresh out of college, I had no idea what I was doing. How to open Salesforce, make a dial, what to say, how to handle an objection. 

We learned from screwing up together, laughing, and following each other around when we had one live. 

When we went remote in March 2021, I was pissed. I LOVED being in office. 

A few months later, I LOVED being remote. 

I had an extra 90 minutes. I started working out daily, eating healthier, and got way more done. 

It hit me how much time I was losing between the commute and office chit chat. 

I joined Gong in 2021 in big part because it was remote. I’d never consider mandatory in-person. 


2023 - we opened up a Chicago office for Gong. I went 1-2x a month.

2024 - I started going 2x a week. Was great to see people, grab lunch, and “mix it up.”

2025 - I go every single week. Sometimes once. Sometimes 4x. 

I love hybrid. Never being forced to be in office…

But having that option should you wish. 


Can anyone else not make up their mind between in-person and remote?

Or just keep flip flopping like me? 


P.S. No real point to this post other than sharing things aren’t always black and white. And it’s OK to change your opinion. OG Chicago BrightEdge crew photo below.

Nice guys finish last in sales too.

Being a pushover or a happy ears seller is a good way to get walked all over.

Selling is a 2-way street that is flow of gives/ges.

You have to respect yourself for:
-Your expertise
-Time you prepare for each meeting
-Knowledge in how best to help buyers actually buy
-Time that could be going towards another prospect or customer.

I recently had a prospect go dark for 30 days after committing to an April timeline.

When we got a meeting for early May, most sellers would just be happy they are back online and roll over.

I decided instead to call out the elephant in the room.

A few (real) questions I shared:

“Last time we spoke was April 3rd. We mutually agreed on a timeline to finalize in April and put forward a proposal that reflected that. Why did we not hear from you until early May?”

“Timelines change and we understand that… my ask moving forward is you communicate with us, just as I will with you. Is that a fair ask?”


Respect your time and expertise as a seller.

Because if you do not, no one will.


P.S. Closed Won Club opens up again in <7 days... waitlist just crossed 300+ here: https://lnkd.in/gRwyxSti

Relias team - thank you for inviting me to your Sales Kickoff!

I’ve been lucky enough to work with them for the last 2 years and they are some of the best humans you will meet. 

I got to lead an hour session on leadership deal inspection + coaching. 

And how to leverage amazing platforms like Gong to work smarter, not harder. 

Special thank you to Michael Miller Lara Badanes, MBA Taylor Seus Candace Wallace

Hope to be back in the future for 3 years in a row! :)



 P.S. The healthcare workforce is stretched THIN. That's why 14,000+ healthcare orgs turn to Relias for education, training, and workforce enablement solutions. Awesome people doing amazing things ❤️

Most painful (lost) deals I remember.

-One that had a DocuSign out for signature around March 15th, 2020. The team took a few extra days to look it over... COVID hit... and they never ended up signing.

-6 month evaluation, decided they were going to move to us from a larger competitor, and then not realizing they had an auto-renewal. I take fault for not pressing harder on this.

-21 month deal cycle that continued to push quarter after quarter for a variety of excuses, despite promising interest. Nothing as painful as a super long deal cycle with twists and turns. Eventually turned it Closed Lost.

-Running a successful evaluation with someone who told me "I am the decision maker and signer on this" ... when it came to sign, someone else blocked it from happening. Lesson learned... if someone blurts out "I am the decision maker" .... they are most definitely not the decision maker 🤣


Quickly learned to never celebrate a deal until it's signed.

Time really does kill deals sometimes.


P.S. Redesigned the website around Closed Won Club at https://closedwon.xyz/ ... how do we like it?

One of my favorite workflows right now involves Gong + Clay + Salesforce — and it's solving a problem every sales organization faces. 

Someone new joins a call. They're clearly a stakeholder. Maybe even the economic buyer. And they never make it into Salesforce.

It happens constantly. You want the right contacts attached to your deals. 

Here's the fix:

Gong's SFDC managed package already lets you push new contacts from a call directly into Salesforce. That part alone is huge. 

But here's where Clay takes it to the next level...

Once that contact hits Salesforce, Clay can enrich it. 

Verified email, accurate title, LinkedIn profile, company data — all automatically appended to the record. 

No bad data. No half-filled contact records sitting in your CRM.

Your buying committee is complete. Your data is clean. And you stop losing threads on your most important deals.

If you're running multi-threaded enterprise deals and not using this combo — it's worth 30 minutes of your time to set up.

What's your favorite Clay workflow?


P.S. A new partnership with Clay!!  Will be sharing video content of real Gong + Clay workflows. Excited to share (anonymously) how my most strategic customers are using both together.

In Year 2 of being a solopreneur, I’ve gone back to back on 6 figures in revenue.

Here’s my tech stack as a Creator (in order of cost)...

Digital Consultant
Video Editor
ConvertKit (email list, automations)
Kajabi (Closed Won Club)
Delphi (AI self)
Senja (testimonials)
Pay Kickstart (checkout)
Unbounce (landing pages)
Quickbooks
Zapier 
Wordpress
WP Engine
Video Shoot
Tax Professional
ChatGPT
Claude
ZenBusiness (Annual LLC Filing)
X
Squarespace / Google Domains
Google Workspace
Google Storage


Solopreneur over here - and an army of consultants + tech around me. 

Wild how quickly this list grows 😅 

Any thing I'm missing?

At my last company, we were required to fill out a field “NSTW” prior to every call. 

Hated having to do the admin work. But it trained my brain.
 
NSTW: Next Step to Win

This is your ideal outcome / next step from the conversation, plus 1-2 backup options. 

Now, I do it in every deal in my own notes and add it to a Mutual Success Plan.

I'll jot out all steps we've done so far to show mutual time invested.

Then I'll add the next 2-3 ideal steps in the process.
 

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜 𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝗽, 𝗜 𝘀𝗮𝘆: 
"Hey Shane - I spent some time last night building a mutual success plan to keep us fully aligned and wanted to get your thoughts on something if that's cool."
 

Plant this seed at the beginning of your call and come back to it at the end. 

Critical: Do not show more than 2-3 next steps to avoid overwhelming.

It’s a compass for what success looks like, not a full roadmap.


Great backdrop (sharing your screen) for your discovery of their decision process too.

MSP template: https://closedwon.xyz/msp/

Happy Friday all.

Corrina Owens

chief evangelist @ purple cork 💜 | 4x B2B SaaS Marketing & ABM Leader | GTM Advisor | Podcast Host

I help B2B SaaS brands build account-based marketing (ABM) programs at scale.

Ready to move upmarket or have a new product launch? ABM could be for you. 

I'll be able to take on new clients in May 2026—let's connect to discuss how I can help you hit your targets.

Fractional ABM

Things we should collectively shed 🐍 heading into tomorrow 🐎:

1. concept of “boys will be boys”
2. pay in “exposure”
3. money > time
4. engaging with people who don’t see our value
5. protecting criminals
6. growth at all cost

my ABM programs build pipeline for B2B SaaS

Account coverage campaigns work best when they’re simple.

The framework I keep coming back to is a simple, 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲:

 • 𝗜𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁: actively in sales conversations/retargeting 
 • 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁: not showing buying signals yet

Here’s what this means for marketing:

𝗜𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 → show testimonials, case studies, custom workshops, etc.

𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 → build brand awareness around the pain points you’re solving.

The mistake is trying to force everything into “top / middle / bottom of funnel.” That’s where systems break down and the message gets muddy.

That simplicity leads to cleaner campaign decisions and a smoother buyer journey.

I break this down more on Spara’s Agents of Revenue with Spara.

Do you have clear “in market” vs “not in market” plays you're running today?

The look I give when a target account list hasn't been enriched:

“How many accounts should we target for ABM?"

100?
500?
10,000?

It's one of the most common questions I hear.

And it’s almost always the wrong one.

ABM isn't defined by the size of your list. I've seen companies target 25 accounts and fail. I've seen others target hundreds and build real pipeline.

What matters is whether sales and marketing are actually operating as one team.

Are they using the...

•⁠ ⁠Same logic for selecting accounts?
•⁠ ⁠Same understanding of why they matter?
•⁠ ⁠Same definition of success (# meetings held, pipeline generated)?

That last bullet naturally feeds into the next question...

“How do you determine the types of programs to build out?”

Typically, you need to identify what are the 2–3 high-impact buying signals that generate meetings, pipeline, and increase sales velocity.

Before you think about adding 10 more accounts to your list, first ask if your teams are aligned enough to make any of them count.

If your ABM isn’t predictive yet, I’m going to take a wild guess that you don’t have a good handle on your own data.

And you’ll see this make-or-break at your target account list.

Think about all this data in your systems that identify your ICP...
• Employee numbers are outdated.
• Parent/child accounts mismatched.
• Companies acquired but never updated.
• Technographic details are missing entirely.

And then we wonder why our lookalike modeling feels fuzzy.

You can’t systematically scale what we can’t accurately see.

Sales can ask “I need more wins like X,Y,Z”...but if your firmographic + technographic data isn’t clean and continuously enriched, you’re just guessing.

Enrichment is not a “nice to have” layer on top of ABM. It is the foundation.

Because ABM becomes predictive when:

• You know when someone changes jobs (and you don’t pay 5x for the same update)
• You can map parent ↔ child entities correctly
• You can rescore accounts against actual closed-won patterns Q/Q
• You can normalize account names before they break routing

And here’s the kicker: the teams that could benefit most from AI-driven enrichment (RevOps / SOPs) are often the most risk-averse to changing the system.

So, before you spin up another ABM campaign with yet another list, ask:

Do we actually trust our account-level data enough to make this predictive?

OR are we still operating in “best guess” mode?

I just got back from an exec offsite with CROs and CMOs where we talked about signals for hours, and I kept coming back to the same thought I've had for years:

we overcomplicate this.

Every ABM platform promised pipeline prediction, but many of us failed because we were beholden to their model. And the tweaking it required to get it there was manpower, hours, and hours of consultations. 

We're closer than we've ever been to getting to true prediction, but it still comes down to understanding these four questions when building your GTM programs:

❔WHO should this come from? 
(should the message come from your CEO, a specific AE, a product line...who has the best shot at landing?)

❔WHAT should we be saying? 
(is this a 3rd party validation moment or a warm-up play, like an event invite?)

❔WHEN is the right time? 
(the signal IS the timing trigger.)

❔WHERE will this land?
(direct mail, outbound: call or email, channel is the most underutilized lever I see.)

📌 Not all signals are designed to produce immediate pipeline.

Some signals predict pipeline more directly, like a past champion landing at a net-new account.

Some warm up pipeline, like a company hiring for roles that require specific systems you integrate well with.

You can build world-class signal-based ABM programs if you can answer all of the above.

Before you build account plays, you need a clear view of your ICP as it exists today and a target account list that actually matches it.

When you start there, it changes what happens upstream:

•You stop chasing “more MQLs” to compensate for weak conversion.
•You build focused coverage with a real why behind each account.

That foundation also changes how sales and marketing work together.

Instead of waiting for hand-raisers, you can plan accounts together and run coordinated plays across the right personas.

I broke this down on Agents of Revenue with Spara: https://lnkd.in/eTddXrKd

Who is a marketer who could really use a pick me up this week? 

Shout them out in the comments or DM and let me know the details...want to spread a little love. ♥️

about to make your day:




most of my clients are just realizing today they have Monday off...you just might, too.

This one change will put your demos in the top 1%.

Benchmark yourself against your peers in Navattic's annual State of Interactive Product Demo report → https://lnkd.in/ejw_RfAa

taplio

The Battle

Brian LaManna

Corrina Owens

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreBrian LaManna's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreCorrina Owens's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Brian LaManna

Corrina Owens

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Brian LaManna's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreCorrina Owens's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreBrian LaManna's LinkedIn Performance