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

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

Brian LaManna

"If you keep your nose to the grindstone and work hard and you've got the right people, anything's possible."

You don't have to Google him anymore.

🌹 Rose Bowl
🍑 Peach Bowl
🏆 National Champions.

I debated whether or not to go to the last game. Grateful for the people that pushed me to 'take the trip.'

Will forever be one of the most special times in my life. 

We work to live, not live to work. 

Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!!! 🥹

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

Today is Gong's EOY (fiscal). Sadly... we got shared that the super team, is being broken up. 

This was my 1st year in Enterprise Sales and truly a special experience. 

Ryan Burgos is the best manager a rep could ask for... A1 on deal strategy, there for you as a friend, and knows Gong Enterprise like no other (because he did it). 

AJ Trapani is the heart and soul of the team with positive energy. Doesn't hurt he's a perennial club winner and known for his blowout Q4s.

Caroline Lally is one of the best sellers I've ever worked with and the type you trust with your most important account. 

Julie Zwissler is a straight up dawg. Never afraid to ask the tough questions and say what everyone's thinking. 

Daryl (Weinhoff) Girvetz is the type of all-star that figures out how to get to blow out her quota, while being out most of the year on Mat Leave. 

Auryan Sajjadi is the hungry new teammate, who's learning from us... but doesn't realize we are learning from him too. 


Sad that this squad will be all shuffled up for next year.

But grateful we had such a fun and successful 2025.


P.S. Will miss the quarterly NYC trips and foodie tours too!!

Until further notice, this is an IU Football + Mendoza fan account.

We are here in Miami and ready for the National Championship.

I have never anticipated a game more in my life.

Full butterflies. Pit in my stomach.

But confident as ever.

Predictions?


P.S. No matter how it ends… I’m sad this season will be over. A magical run and some of the most fun I’ve had traveling + reuniting with college friends. But we don’t go to war with warm milk & cookies. Time to win.

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Flew into Boston to see one of my favorite -new- customers.

And man let me tell you - they are cooking up something SPECIAL for 2026 and beyond. 

Fun to sit in attendance and witness the complete transformation they are bringing for dealerships this year. 

Very special in-person culture and energy that every company should want to replicate. 

They are NOT a company you want to bet against. 

Thanks for having me!! Joe Kenneally Mike O'Hanlon Eric Richmond Matt McGarry Kurt Bolgen Peter Cullen Maria Walkley Tenley Kyle Mackenzie Josh Constantino Liddy Joseph Josh Annie Matt D. 🚘 


P.S. If somehow unfamiliar... CarGurus brings unmatched transparency to car shopping, using data-driven insights to show real market value and help buyers spot great deals instantly. With the largest selection, trusted reviews, and pricing you can actually trust, it saves people time, money, and stress. And dealerships love working with them.

For a final presentation in a multi million dollar deal, the President and COO wanted to weigh in. 

My champion shared that he’d be joining the conference room and for us to be on our game.  

He joined the meeting with a notepad and pencil, took copious notes, and listened intently to every single word we said. 

Never pulled out a laptop of his cell phone. Never even caught him looking away from the screen. 

Asked thorough questions at the end and referenced every detail of our presentation. 

Will never forget that feeling of him being 100% present and giving us all of his attention. 

If a President and COO of a Multi Billion $ public company, one of the busiest people ever, can be 100% present, why can’t we do the same?

It stuck with me and respected the heck out of it 🚘 


P.S. Announcement post from Friday launching Club: https://lnkd.in/gzCQKSk4

Tech sales $$$ can be life changing.

But only life changing if you're smart with how you use it

Mike Tyson earned $300M and Allen Iverson earned $150M and both went bankrupt. Sellers, unfortunately, you closing 'big deals' won't ever get you even close to that.


5 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐈'𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 5 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬:


1) Track everything with 2 credit cards. I split to have 1 for subscriptions and 1 for all other expenses. 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘀𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘆 𝗮 𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁, unless you absolutely have to. This will help you start building up credit. Set a monthly expense goal and review monthly.


2) 𝗠𝗮𝘅 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝟰𝟬𝟭𝗞 each year - it takes advantage of tax-deferred growth, employer matching contributions, and compound interest, helping save more for retirement + reduce current taxable income.


3) Have a 𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁. Chase and Schwab make it super easy for me. My checkings is where my earnings and go and expenses flow out via credit card.


4) Each month, I transfer money from Chase to my investment account. My goal is to not transfer back to Chase, so I keep it conservative but 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵. 𝗡𝗼 𝗮𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹. If you can automate a certain amount monthly, even better.


5) With an investment account, no need to be a stock guru to start. 𝗗𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿-𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲 𝗘𝗧𝗙. I use "VOO" which is a basket average of the top 500 largest companies. Over a 10-year window, it goes up an average of 8% per year. Meaning if you have $13,000, you'll earn an extra $1,000 per year. Not bad right?


Disclaimer: I'm not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice. Just sharing what's worked for me.

Make money, use money to make more money, repeat 🔁

Advice you'd give to someone just starting?

I now have 12 free resources built for 2026, all of them below.


𝟭. 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 - Organized way to keep track of all your prospecting efforts and people you're going after.

https://lnkd.in/gwjX9Nya


𝟮. 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦 𝗔𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘆𝗺 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Terms I never knew existed until I got into tech sales. 

https://lnkd.in/g9R9WH53


𝟯. 𝗠𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻 - Template to keep you and your champion fully aligned through a deal cycle. Also, helpful to navigate security, legal, and who the signer ends up being.


https://closedwon.xyz/msp/


𝟰. 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄 - Top 12 discovery questions to follow a typical first call flow.

https://lnkd.in/g75tkxRM


𝟱. 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Agenda slide to cut the 2 minutes and show a visual instead. Buyers love visuals. This is it.

https://lnkd.in/gD5vaXf7


𝟲. 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 - Grab a Google Doc template of my exact resume. 2 pages on other best practices, tips, and dos/don'ts.

https://lnkd.in/gESuWPBW


7. 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 - 8 proven openers to get the call started hot.

https://lnkd.in/gdPP_D8J


8. 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 - Actionable sales tips (and some B+ memes) delivered to your inbox every Monday. Trusted by 11,200+ sellers and counting. Read in 2-3 min.

https://lnkd.in/gjeVd_U8


𝟵.  𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Quick reverses for the most common objections and methodology on how to 'handle' them.

https://lnkd.in/g36efdAw


10. 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 on Closed Won.

https://lnkd.in/gVY8Xpxc


♻️ Please consider resharing if it'd help others in your network.

📌 Sellers - what (free) resource should I build up next?

If you’re in Enterprise sales, you should not reach out to a top account right away. 

When you have a finite # of accounts, and each one has $500K+ potential, precision > speed. 

If you put that C Member in a generic sequence and they unsubscribe or you get a negative response, your opportunity may be gone. 

My #1 account in 2025: I didn’t push to land a real opportunity until 87 days in. 


All the things I did first:

-Dug into all previous opportunities and account history (Gong makes this radically easy + comprehensive )

-Set up Google Alerts for the account

-Attended their virtual earnings call and listened back to previous ones

-Watched 3 podcasts different leaders went on

-Added 20 people at the company on LinkedIn

-Connected with 2 AEs to run them past my early POV and get more intel

-Noticed the CRO hosted a charity… and made a donation for his name and sent over a quick note sharing a personal story. 


Slowing down to speed up is a real thing. 

Running it all back in 2026 ⚡ 


P.S. So pumped for the first ever coaching sprint in Closed Won Club tomorrow. Opening up more spots in April. Will pull from waitlist here: https://lnkd.in/gRwyxSti

I used to lose control of some demos.

They ask, “Can we just jump into the demo?” or “Can you click on that tab there real quick?”

Before you know it, you’re bouncing around features, harbor touring, without tying anything back to their goals.

Turns into a product walkthrough, instead of a solution-focused conversation.


A few ways I keep control…


𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆

At the start, I explain why we’ll focus only on the areas that solve their top priority.

“The best part about our solution is how much it can do, but that’s also the worst part. I’m going to focus most today on how you’d use it to solve ___.”


𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴

When they ask to see a random feature, I don’t say no— I just want to know more:

“Happy to dive into that. Quick question: what are you hoping to see there? Knowing that will help me tailor this for you.”


𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝗤𝘂𝗼

Match any small give with a get.

“No problem. We can jump into that. Knowing we have 15 minutes left, is it cool if we carve out time to discuss next steps following?”


Any way you keep control?


P.S. Closed Won Club waitlist here: https://lnkd.in/gcXtJ-RX

I launched Closed Won Club yesterday and limited it to 50 spots. 

In under 24 hours... 🥳 

Every
Single
Spot
Taken

You never know how it'll go when you launch something.

And I'm speechless. No words.

I genuinely believe selling is harder than it's ever been, with the pace of change.

While top performers are widening the gap and earning more than ever, most sellers aren't getting the coaching they need because managers are stretched thin.

Having to prioritize firefighting deals instead of developing real skills. 


Closed Won Club was built to solve this with 2 complementary approaches. 

1st - instant access to evergreen playbooks, frameworks, and tools (including Brian AI and a prompt library) that deliver proven strategies you can apply same-day of signing up.

2nd - monthly 30-minute coaching sprints, quarterly interviews with top 1% performers, and real deal tear downs that address what's happening right now in the market. 

This combination: Timeless fundamentals + rapidly evolving tactics.


I'll be opening a 2nd cohort of spots in ~April once we learn and iterate. 

Pulling from the waitlist queue first: https://lnkd.in/gcXtJ-RX

Pumped to share more about what we are doing!

I made a list of which sales skills I need to improve in 2026. 

Funny enough - one of my biggest areas of opportunity is returning to fundamentals. 

Things I already know, but things you can get sloppy on or slip into bad habits, especially during times where deal volume is extremely high. 

I want to re-nail 3 Brilliant Basics and get 11/10 at them all:


-Quantification of pain / ROI - in Enterprise, we have a world-class VE team we often plug in on deals to help build time to value and ROI models. I sometimes rely too much knowing I have that in my pocket… when we should still do some of that math together earlier in the stage. Tough conversations you have to be willing to have. Is this problem actually worth investing in?


-Compelling Events - I do a strong job at identifying them, but don’t think I anchor to them enough over and over. Once identified, you need to anchor to them and work backwards in nearly every conversation. It’s not just a checkbox to identify. 


-Next Steps… I know. Caught myself in Q4 sometimes not booking next meetings because I’m on a texting basis or have a great relationship with them. There’s absolutely exceptions… but the default should be always booking a next meeting. Need to not be so casual late-stage. Can cause deals to slip. Ensuring there's a true value-add for them in the next meeting is what separates versus a "check in."


Want to revisit this in 3-6 months and know I'm nailing all of them. 

What are you working on this year?

8 of my favorite in-demo questions to keep the discovery 🚂 rolling.

I have these in front of me on every presentation.



1. “What else comes to your mind when you see this in how you would leverage it?”

2. “What would this allow your team to do differently?”

3. “How important are these insights for you to have?”

4. “Tell me about your current process for this today?”

5. “How would you do this without *this feature*”

6. “What are the ripple effects of this challenge on the business?”

7. "How important is this problem to the organization?"

8. “How does this compare to what you are doing today?”



Be intentional with asking strong, open-ended questions

And ditch the "umm so... any questions so far?"

Keep discovery going, keep the deal going.


P.S. Favorite 1st call discovery cheat sheet here: https://lnkd.in/g75tkxRM

Joined Gong in 2021 to sell a -hot- product that (it felt like) everyone already knew. Then June 2023 happened...

We launched Gong Engage with 0 customers.

Suddenly, I wasn't selling just the #1 conversation intelligence platform anymore. 

I was selling an unproven sales engagement tool in a crowded market.

Here's the problem we hit immediately:

Every prospect asked: "Who else is using this?"

We had no case studies. Very few Beta references.

And burning through our early adopters on every single deal? 

Not sustainable when you're trying to get to 1,000+ customers fast.

That's when we started using UserEvidence.

Instead of manually tracking down customers for references, UserEvidence automatically captures product reviews, pulls verified stats, and creates battle cards we can actually use.

Now when a prospect asks "who else uses Engage?" - I can instantly share:
* Real customer quotes
* Specific use cases
* ROI metrics from similar companies

No begging customers for time. No stale case studies from 6 months ago.

As we've grown into a true multi-product platform, UserEvidence has become essential. 

Different products, different personas, different proof points - all organized and accessible.

If you're scaling a new product or expanding your platform, you need proof at scale.

Give UserEvidence a look: https://userevidence.com/


P.S. Will be partnering with them closely in 2025 to share other ways I am leveraging them. Thanks all for the support!

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

Tell tale sign of junior sellers is trying to avoid risk in their deals. 

And getting defensive about risk in forecast / pipeline reviews.

Risk is uncomfortable and junior sellers often try to ignore it and 'hope' that it doesn’t come to fruition. 

When in reality the opposite is best.

Get comfortable knowing risk exists in every deal and it doesn't mean it's your 'fault.'


I write out the biggest reasons why I will lose the deal. 

Then 'the action' of how I will get in front of it.

Here’s a (real) scenario of a deal I had earlier this year:
-12 month evaluation and we were named vendor of choice. Fit perfectly to their initiatives. Great critical event with a competitor renewal in 2 months but we aren’t speaking directly with the decision maker on it (CRO). Have 5+ champions advocating for us.

What most sellers would think:
- Wow, we are in a really strong spot! We have so many champions and fit perfectly with their goals. Bummer the CRO isn’t more directly involved but my champ will get it done.


Here’s how I’d approach it instead.

Risk:
- Work/effort to migrate over to a new platform
- CRO not having direct involvement
- Their current vendor will try to save this renewal with aggressive pricing.
 
Action:
- Call out the risk of both next call
- Recommend a 30 min call with implementation to discuss migration
- Recommend a 2nd, 30 min call with CRO and main POC to review one-pager exec business case we will build for them.


For any fans of the book 'The Obstacle is the Way.'

'The risk is the way' in your deals cycles.

Don't avoid it, go through it.


P.S. Closed Won Club goes live 1/26. Be the first to hear about it here: https://closedwon.xyz/

There are 3 levels to motivation.

Learned this one from Atomic Habits.


Goals - Concerned with changing your results 

Processes - Concerned with changing your habits and systems

Identity - Concerned with changing your beliefs and self-image. The deepest layer.


Goal (examples) - Hit 100% of goal

Processes (examples) - Prospect 3 new accounts daily + review each call for coaching opportunities.

Identity (examples) - Be a President's Club winning AE that prides themself on their ability to self-source their own pipeline.



Setting goals, won't help you hit your goals.

Focus most on systems and identity.

Data Protection + Honesty-as-a-Service I Enterprise Sales at Rubrik

I am fortunate to spend my days helping people to solve problems that positively impact their professional lives and their organizations.

When I am not working, you can find me with my family at the beach or in the mountains. I enjoy camping, snowboarding, fly fishing and attempting to golf.

Jacob Karp

I am pumped to announce that I am moving into the role of VP, Sales here at Schellman.

The last 7+ months have been an amazing experience and I am excited to continue working alongside Preeya Voss and our entire sales, GTM, delivery and leadership teams. 

I am grateful for the trust in me and the opportunity that has been provided.

From the top down Schellman operates in transparency and in a way that continuously prioritizes what is best for our clients, prospects and the people who work here. 

2026 is poised to be a big year for Schellman and we are hiring for multiple roles across sales and GTM. Check out our careers page and shoot me a message if you are interested. 

In the meantime, I am looking forward to continuing to help global businesses to meet cybersecurity compliance requirements that fuel their GTM growth. 

Onward and upward.

Sales Leadership at Schellman I Cybersecurity Compliance and AI Governance + Honesty-as-a-Service

I’m a 40-year-old seller who has generated +75% of my own pipeline over the last 10+ years. 

I say this because it’s come to my attention that there’s a misconception that longer tenured or higher segment sellers don’t prospect. 

This couldn’t be more wrong. 

No matter my age and tenure, the need to self source pipeline has not changed.

Because I’ve yet to meet a seller who regularly exceeds their number relying on others to bring in the majority of their pipeline.

Pipeline generation never stops. 

But I do think it starts to look different the longer you are in this role.

Heres how I strategically prospect after 12 years:

- Deep account research and lower level converstions to create a POV to send to VP and C-suite 

- Writing ghost notes for my executives to send to prospect execs for alignment 

- Enabling partners to sell on my behalf, by helping them understand our value prop and my POV on accounts 

- Seeking out referrals and warm intros anywhere I can 

- Finding past customers or users in my prospect orgs to engage with 

- Working with my marketing and sales dev org to focus on key targets and operate in tandem to generate pipeline 

- Coming up with creative campaigns and personalized gifts to send to execs 

- Trying to get people out to events and in person 

- Attending industry events and conferences and tracking people down Iive

- Sharing relevant industry insights, articles, podcasts and learning opportunities 

None of that is rocket science. 

The reality is, while I may have far less volume in my outreach, my intent is still the same: set meaningful meetings with key stakeholders that lead to pipeline that will convert and revenue that will close.

And that doesn’t change regardless of age, tenure or segment.

Here is a full breakdown of how I generate pipeline: https://lnkd.in/g7hTH77r

Each time someone on my team books a meeting, I call it out in our team channel as fast as I can. 

A shoutout, some info and details around who, what, where, how. A learning, a nugget or tidbit on what worked and why. 

It is one of the first thing's I put in place in my new role. 

Not because I am a genius sales leader (lot's of learning and work to do to figure out how to be that, if ever). 

But because I did that job for 12+ years. I know how hard it is to book a meeting. 

I know what it takes to do the research, create the messaging, find the right people, respectfully and professionally reach out to them across channels, follow-up with added value. 

And then to do that at scale, day in and day out. Often in the quiet, by yourself, with your mind working against you.

So every chance I get I want to celebrate the little wins. 

That momentum matters for the person who booked the meeting as well as the team. 

And honestly I enjoy doing it, it is the least I can do for a job well done.

Onward and upward.  

#karpediem

A couple weeks ago I received some much needed coaching. 

Not in regards to my new role, but instead for the one I had spent 12+ years doing and working to perfect. 

A role I considered myself pretty capable and experienced in. A role I am now tasked with leading.   

The coaching was completely valid, deserved and timely. 

As I was transitioning out of my role as a seller, I was still overseeing some strategic sales cycles. One in particular had been ongoing for months and wasn't moving as fast or quite like I would like. 

My outreach started to get lazy and I began doing things I knew I shouldn't. Things like "checking in" and "just following up" and asking for their time. Things I have long known I shouldn't do in that way. 

Me focused activities, with no value add for the prospect. Just ask after ask. 

And so, the coaching and feedback was: "think about the give, give, give...then ask." 

Or as I had been taught previously: "deposit, deposit, deposit...withdrawal."

All I could say was that I totally agree, I knew better and appreciated the reminder. And then we course corrected. 

Even after 12 years I still need reminders of how to do this job the right way. And it was perfectly timed as I transition into my new role and think about the way I want to lead. 

No matter how long we do these jobs, the fundamentals don't change. And neither should our ability to receive coaching, regardless of tenure or level in an org. 

Thanks to Preeya Voss for holding me accountable and the coaching. 

If you want to work in an org that prioritizes this type of leadership, we are hiring. 

#karpediem

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