Denis Acia

Co-Founder at SaasFluence | B2B Influencer Marketing for SaaS Brands

I’m Denis, Co-Founder of SaasFluence

We’re an influencer marketing agency helping B2B tech brands drive demand and visibility by partnering with LinkedIn influencers.

Currently — with over 200 influencers, we manage influencer marketing programs for B2B sales tech companies like Maildoso, Icypeas, Saleshandy, Fowla, and others.

Why We Started SaasFluence

Before SaasFluence, I ran an outbound agency, Applus Leads. Through that experience, we worked with some incredible B2B tech brands — companies with fantastic products and real value to offer. But despite outbound efforts (cold calls and cold emails), they weren’t getting the traction they deserved.

A big reason?

Their LinkedIn presence and engagement were minimal. Most had only a few hundred page followers and very little visibility in the market.

That lack of recognition made it hard to convert cold leads. Without social proof or brand mentions, prospects were hesitant to engage — especially in the highly competitive sales tech space.
What they really needed was a new approach — one that would:

1. Build credibility
2. Earn trust
3. And drive demand by establishing them as trusted solutions in the market.

That’s where SaasFluence comes in.

Our mission;
To help B2B tech brands leverage influencer marketing to drive demand, increase sales, and grow.

How We Can Help

☑ If you’re a B2B tech founder or business leader with an influencer marketing budget of at least $10K/month,
 ☑ And you don’t have the time to run campaigns or manage influencer partnerships,
We’ll handle it for you.

We’ve launched thousands of LinkedIn-sponsored campaigns, and our clients are seeing exceptional ROI.

If you’re curious, DM me and I’ll share a few of our client case studies so you can learn more about our systems and results.

Or, visit our website to explore further:
 👉 www.saasfluence.co

Lead Generation Partner - Outbound

If my team replies to my Slack messages in 30 seconds I get a little bit worried about our work.

In most agencies everybody feels a pressure to stay active so the boss thinks they are working hard. 

You feel like if you do not answer a DM immediately you might look like you are slacking off. 

But I think that culture is a mistake.

If you are answering me in 30 seconds it means you were not in the zone. You were just waiting to be interrupted. 

A brain cannot do its best work if it is getting interrupted every few minutes.

Tell your team to turn off notifications for a few hours and disappear. Go do hard stuff that requires deep thinking. 

I would much rather wait two hours for a brilliant strategy than get a "On it!" in three seconds.

Remember that you hired adults because you trust them to do the job. You do not need to watch their status bubble to see if they are sitting at their desk.

If your team is answering too fast they might be losing the chance to do their best work.

Fast reply or good work - what matters more to you?

Don't follow up with your prospects today. Trust me on this.

It is the first week of January. Everyone just got back to their desks. I know for a fact their inboxes are a total war zone right now. They have 300 unread emails. Maybe 500. 

They are stressed and they are just trying to survive the morning.

If you send them an email right now saying "just bubbling this up," you are not being a good salesperson. You are just annoyance number 301. 

I like to give people what I call Grace Week. Just give them some room to breathe. Let them delete all the junk and get back to normal life.

I am waiting until next Tuesday. When I reach out, I will tell them I waited because I knew their inbox was probably a mess. 

It shows you have some empathy. It shows you care about their sanity more than your quota.

People appreciate it when you don't act like a robot chasing a number.

Are you sending emails today or are you waiting?

I spent 3 months sending emails to SaaS founders who didn’t have a budget until I found this.

I used to spend a lot of my outbound efforts guessing. I would find a SaaS company through Sales Nav, find the CEO, and send them a pitch for our influencer services. 

Sometimes they replied. Most of the time they didn't. 

Then Matthew from Prospeo.io showed me what they built for their V2 update. It was crazy. 

I finally stopped searching for "companies" and started searching for "signals."

Here is how I use it now for Saasfluence:

→ I set a filter to only show me SaaS companies hiring for marketing roles.
→ I check the "Technographics" to see if they already use tools like HubSpot.
→ I also check "Intent Signals" to see companies that are researching Linkedin marketing.

This changes the whole game for me.

If a company is hiring a marketing leader (or other related roles), I know three things for sure:

1. They have a massive problem they need to solve.
2. They have the budget to pay for a solution.
3. My timing is perfect because they are already thinking about growth.

The data is refreshed every 7 days and 98% of the emails are verified. I don't even scrub the list anymore!

I’m moving almost all our internal searches over to Prospeo.io now because it saves me so much time on cleaning CSV files.

Swipe through the carousel to see how I set this up and the exact email template I use.

I’ll put a link in the comments if you want to try Prospeo.io yourself.

Signal based outreach

Is work-life balance just a lie we tell people so they don’t quit?

I have been looking at my own life lately and I see a pattern that makes me a bit angry. 

Every single time Saasfluence is winning and we are managing MORE clients, my health automatically goes into low priority mode.

I skip the gym and I eat whatever is near me because my brain is always on the next meeting.

Then I get tired of feeling slow and I focus on my fitness. I spend more effort on my health and I eat clean. 

And what happens? My to-do list piles up. I am not pushing the business as hard because my energy is somewhere else.

I'm starting to think you can't have every area of your life in the green at the same moment.

I see these influencers on Linkedin say "My work is my life.” If you spend 14 hours every day building a company, doesn't something else need to die?

Maybe it is your relationship with your kids or your physical health. You only have so much energy in the tank.

Does anybody here have it all figured out? Are you winning at health, money, family, and work at the same time? 

Or are we all just choosing which part of our life we are going to neglect this week?

(Please no AI comments below. I want to hear from humans.)

I used to spend 4 hours a day on LinkedIn trying to grow. Now I use these 4 tools to do it in 45 minutes:

Trigify.io → I use this to find social signals. I don't message random people anymore because that is a waste of time. 

I find people who are leaving comments on my favorite niche thought leaders. These people are already interested in what I'm interested in. Higher chances of converting them.

Extrovert → I used to spend forever thinking of what to say on 20 different posts every day. This tool helps me stay active in the comments. 

It keeps my name visible where my customers are hanging out and I don't lose my mind doing it.

MagicPost → When my brain feels like a dry sponge and I have no ideas, I open this. I don't let it write for me. That is a mistake. 

I use it to kickstart my drafts. I can get a post done in 30 minutes instead of an hour of staring at a blank screen.

Aimfox → This is the heavy lifter for the DMs. Once the other three tools have warmed up my profile and people recognize my name, I use Aimfox. 

It handles outreach at a scale I could never do by hand.

The point is not to use bots to manage my Linkedin. These tools just let me be more human faster. 

I spend less time on boring stuff and more time talking to people who can grow the business.

How much time do you spend on LinkedIn every day?

I have a confession: I am not passionate about B2B influencer marketing.

Do not get me wrong. I love my team and our clients say we do great work…

But I do not wake up every morning dreaming about creator briefs or looking at invoices for software.

I think gurus tell founders a big lie. They say you must be obsessed with your product. 

You must live and breathe your niche every second and I think that’s totally unnecessary.

What I am obsessed with is getting our clients a win. I like when a founder tells me their sales calls are finally converting because of the work we did.

I love the game of building a company. I love finding great people and making a plan and seeing it succeed. The "thing" we sell is just the car we drive to get to the goal.

It is okay to not be in love with the tool. It’s okay to just be in love with the results you get for people.

We shame founders who are not obsessed with their specific niche and it just makes people feel like they are doing it wrong. It’s fine to just love the win.

Are you in love with the product or are you in love with the game?

I found a way to stop the "Day 1" onboarding chaos with one single link.

Do you send an email asking for your client's logo? Then another email with a Google Form? Then another one asking them to book a kickoff call?

The client is already overwhelmed and you haven't even started the work yet.

We stopped doing that. We use a tool called Flowla and we create one "Onboarding Room" for everything.

Here is exactly what we put inside:

→ A 30-second welcome video:

Record it right there in the room. Say "Welcome! Everything you need to get started is right here."

→ A checklist:

They see a list of what they need to do and what we are doing. They know exactly what is happening next so you never have to send "just checking in" emails.

→ An intake form:

We embed a form in the page. No PDFs to download. They fill in their KPIs and their target audience and we get it instantly.

→ A calendar link:

Our Cal(dot)com link is sitting at the bottom. They book the kickoff call as the final step.

→ An upload section:

We ask them to drag and drop everything into the room. It keeps our inbox clean.

We send one link. 

The client feels like they hired a professional team instead of a messy freelancer. It sets the tone for the whole relationship.

Do you have a smooth onboarding process or is it a mess of emails?

fix your onboarding

Why does a lead from a creator close 3x faster than a cold lead?

It’s because of "Distance to Trust."

When you get a cold lead the distance is very long.

Path A:

It starts with a Stranger. Then you send a cold email. They feel scepticism. 

You have to do 3 demo calls to prove you can solve their problem. You earn trust and you close.

That path takes a lot of time.

The distance shrinks when you try to convert a lead from a trusted creator’s post.

Path B:

It starts with a stranger. But then they see a creator's post. The creator hands their trust over to you. 

The prospect comes to you already believing in the product. You do 1 discovery call and you close.

Influence is a shortcut.

Do you want the long path or the shortcut?

I think most of us on LinkedIn are aiming at the wrong target and here’s why…

We look at viral posts and think "I need to post about how to get 10k followers."

Or we post generic advice about "how to be a better leader."

We are fighting for attention at the very top of the pyramid.

It is crowded there and honestly, there is not much money in it.

The "money" is hidden at the bottom of the pyramid.

It is where people are looking for boring solutions to boring business problems.

A post about "How to get 100 likes" might get you a dopamine hit. But a post about "How to fix a messy CRM so your sales team stops quitting" might get you 10 likes.

But 3 of those likes are from CEOs who have that exact problem right now. And they have a budget to fix it.

If you want to be a famous creator, stay at the top. If you want to build a business, go to the bottom and solve a boring problem.

Do you post for likes or for leads?

If you are a SaaS founder, here is how you make one creator post last for months...

I see this all the time. A brand pays a lot of money for a creator to post. The post goes live, it gets some likes for a day, and then it is gone.

This makes the math very hard for your business because you paid a lot for something that only lasted 24 hours.

You need to turn that one post into a content engine. Try using this playbook:

Day 1: 

You do the obvious stuff. The creator answers every comment. You share it to your company page. You make sure everyone sees it.

Day 7: 

Take the main lesson from that post and put it in your email to your users. Tell them a story about why this creator uses your tool. It feels more human than a standard marketing email.

Day 14: 

You take the video or the image from the creator. You run it as a paid ad.

It looks like a friendly recommendation instead of a boring commercial. Usually your cost per click goes down.

Day 30: 

When someone books a demo on your site, show them that creator's video on the thank you page. Tell them "While you wait for our call, see how this person uses us." 

Day 40:

Write a simple blog post on your site. Title it "How [Creator Name] solved this big problem using our tool." You are just telling their story again.

You paid for the post once. But now you are getting value for more time, and you can repeat this playbook for all creator posts.

Are you reusing your creator content?

Creator marketing tactics

Before I started my influencer marketing agency, I did cold emails for SaaS clients.

And I found one framework that worked for pretty much any tool I was selling.

Here is the exact structure I used to book hundreds of meetings:

1. Salutation

"Hey [Name]" is fine. 

2. Relevant Personalization

This is where everyone messes up. Do not just say "I saw you went to X college." That is weird. You need to connect the observation to the problem you solve.

Example: "I noticed you run a pay-per-meeting model at your agency. That means you cannot afford to waste credits on bad data, right?"

See? I am proving I understand their business model.

3. The Offer

Connect it right back to the personalization. Tell them why you are emailing them now.

Example: "Asking because we just launched a new verification feature at [Tool Name]. It helps you find verified emails without burning your credits on the wrong people."

4. Social Proof

Give them a reason to trust you. A number or a name works best.

Example: "We are already helping 50 other lead gen agencies keep their bounce rates under 1%."

5. CTA

Do not ask for marriage. Just ask if the topic is relevant.

Example: "Would this be relevant to you right now?"

That is it. 

What is your go-to cold email framework?

I haven't used this tool yet, but I'm obsessed with the idea behind it.

When one of our creators puts out a post, we see the likes and comments. But we have to spend hours reading through hundreds of comments just to see if people like the price or if they like feature X.

I saw Trigify.io and it looks like it can fix this mess. 

One thing I want to do is sentiment analysis. I want the tool to tell me if everyone is complaining about a specific part of the dashboard. 

Instead of me guessing, I can get a clear report on what the market hates. That is pure gold for a product team.

The other part is even more crazy. They say they can connect social signals to your pipeline. 

If I can show a client that a single comment from a prospect led to a closed deal in their CRM... that is holy grail.

Right now, the link between a LinkedIn comment and a dollar is very blurry. I think this might be the tool that finally makes it clear. 

Do you track the sentiment of your comments or count the likes?

Sending a cold connection request to a stranger is just weird.

If a random person stops you on a dark street you get nervous. Most LinkedIn requests feel like that. 

You get a notification from a face you never saw before and you probably hit delete because you have zero clue who they are.

We use a method I call the Shadow Strategy. We use a tool called Extrovert for it and it has changed everything for our team.

→ I pick 50 people I want to work with.
→ I add their names into Extrovert.
→ Every time they post anything the tool sends me a notification.
→ I leave a helpful comment within the first hour of them posting.

I do this about three times in two weeks. I'm not trying to sell them anything yet. I'm just sharing my thoughts on their ideas.

When I finally send the connection request they already know who I am. 

They see my name and they think 'hey this guy has been leaving some good comments'. It is not a cold request anymore.

Our acceptance rate is about 60 percent (for prospects).

You spend 15 minutes a day doing this and your outreach stops being an intrusion.

Do you message strangers or do you let them get to know you first?

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.

No alternative text description for this image

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.

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