Florin Tatulea

Sales Leader | LinkedIn Top Voice 2023 | GTM Advisor | Focusing on Seed → Series B

I'm a passionate leader that lives and breathes all things sales.

I was lucky enough to be the first sales hire at Loopio and have had the opportunity to be a part of and contribute to the exponential growth that had led us to a sales team of ~50 strong. In my 6.5 years at Loopio we grew revenue by 65x. 

I am now doing it all over again at Common Room

Whether it's been as an SDR, AE, Manager or Director, I'm constantly looking for ways to reinvent myself and my team.

I'm a people-first leader that understands that leading a team is not about me. It's about lifting others up and seeing them succeed. My success is simply a bi-product of my team's success. 

As a sales leader, I'm curious about scaling sales teams, generating pipeline, increasing win rates and lowering ramp times in a remote world.

As an individual, I'm passionate about copywriting, sequence/cadence building, leveraging social selling and the future of sales technology.

Director of Sales

SDRs - Your cold call opener doesn’t really freaking matter. 

Sorry to break it to you. 

I've seen SDRs absolutely kill it using "Hey, how are you?".

I've also seen others kill it using a permission-based opener like: 

"Hey Tom, I know, I'm calling out of the blue. Mind if I take 30 seconds to explain why I'm calling? If it's not interesting from there, feel free to hang up".

Most of the ACTUAL battle is your tone, energy and confidence.

These are all things you can work on with enough practice.

You need to:

1. Deeply understand your persona - read books/blogs, look up what memes/jokes they like, how they talk, what they are measured on, where they hang out, how they think. Obsess over it.

2. Repetition - nobody likes to hear it but you just have to make thousands and thousands of calls. Period.

Get yourself a fantastic data platform like FullEnrich so you actually get shots at bat with real people.

(Their 30-provider enrichment waterfall is NUTS for mobile numbers… we use it).

3. A "just get it done" mentality.

4. Stop trying to be other people - The exact phrases that work for another person WONT work for you! 

Use words you are comfortable using, sense of humour (or lack thereof), natural tone etc. 

It sounds rehearsed and awkward (and probably makes you nervous) to try to force someone else into your calls. 

So…..

Stop analyzing everything all the time. Just make the damn calls and learn from your mistakes.

It's really not rocket science.

#FullEnrichPartner

GTM Leader | LinkedIn Top Voice | Advisor

PSA to all sales reps. 

Nobody is reading your ESSAY of a follow up email after a sales call. 

Why are we still doing this? 

Stop with the links, case studies and generic templates.

Here’s a template that’s short and sweet that I stole from Salman Mohiuddin  Mohiuddin a few years ago: 

——-

Hi , 
Appreciate your time today. 
A few highlights from our call yesterday:

* X
* Y
* X 
Confident {Your Company} can help solve all of these things and excited to continue the conversation. From here:

* XX
* YY
* ZZ

Anything I missed?

——-

That’s it. 

Oh, and maybe don’t just send the same email to everybody on the call. 

Tailor each one to the different people on a call. 

It’s really that simple. 

#sales

undefined undefined

Obtained a GPA above 3.5 for the entire academic year 2011-2012

Dean`s List

E3 Business Case Competition

Top Ranked Junior Tennis Player - Canada  

Talk Master Certification 

Competed against 20 business schools across the U.S. including Wharton, Stern, Berkeley and Sloan. 
This competition asked students to choose a stock to either long or short, with the only requirement of it having a 30 day SMA of over $200m in market cap. Our team, being the only international presence in the competition,  chose to pitch Iridium (IRDM), a satellite communications company, and have received a final judgement score of 24/30 based on Stock Selection, Presentation, and Q&A. 

Georgetown Stock Pitch Competition

Cold Email Conversion Machine by Florin Tatulea

Prospecting from the Trenches | Florin Tatulea | Substack

Working with Local Food Plus, a not-for-profit aiming to drive a sustainable food model to the benefit of local farmers and retailers in Ontario

An important lesson here that dooms most GTM teams from the start.

Why is it so hard to grasp?

How you target and build your account lists is MORE than half the battle. 

First - let's start at the account layer.

Saying that your ICP is venture-backed "B2B SaaS" companies isn't helpful. 

There are so many differences in how a B2B SaaS company goes to market. 

Let's use their GTM motion as just ONE example:

An org can have a GTM motion based on Product-Led Growth, Sales-Led, Open Source-Led etc... all of these companies go to market COMPLETELY differently. 

The same message likely won't land for these different motions. 

Second - the persona layer. 

Based on the motion a company has, the problems a "Demand Generation Marketer" has are also completely different. 

Even with the best copy in the world, your message has now failed at the account level AND at the person level. 

Your reps were doomed before you even started.

A lesson I've learned the hard way in the past.

h/t to Yurii Veremchuk for the inspo

#sales #outbound

There's a fundamental flaw with how outbound teams approach messaging that I see over and over again.

We've gotten to a place where "signals/triggers" have become a commodity.

The signal should NOT be your message. 

The signal is actually just telling you that it COULD be the right time. 

Let's say I'm a rep at an observability platform that monitors outages for software teams... I happen to get a pricing page web visit from an ICP persona. 

Unfortunately most reps will default to Example 1 which is a massive problem for a few reasons: 

1. There is no additional value that a salesperson brings to this interaction that can't be automated by a simple marketing email.

2. Being on your pricing page MIGHT indicate interest, but you can't assume it. 

As a salesperson, your job is to take a signal and paint a contextual picture as to why this is the perfect time to evaluate/purchase your solution. 

CONTEXT is what is missing in a lot of outbound messaging and sales cycles. 

Tell an exec something they don't know or help them connect the dots on something they might be thinking about. 

Not enough teams are doing it. 

#outbound #sales

Here are the 10 platforms in our tech stack we ACTUALLY found valuable for our team in 2025: 

1. Common Room - the brain behind our GTM engine. The Jarvis to our Ironman. 

Having one platform where so much valuable GTM data and workflows are unified has helped us and our customers deeply. A lot of people still don’t fully understand how much the platform actually does. Most people at first glance think it’s a contact-level signal & intent platform. Much deeper actually.

Internally in 2025 we used Common Room’s AI agents to “GTM Engineer” and do the following:

TAM/SAM Analysis, List Building, Account Research (i.e. Crawling websites for custom signals, 10K reports etc.), Contact Enrichment (Phone, Email, LinkedIn), Duplicate Detection in CRM, Signal/Intent detection (i.e. CRM data, Gong Transcripts, Web Visits, Negative + Positive Reviews, Product Usage Data, Social + Community Engagement, Job Changes, Tech Stack, Job Listings), Dynamic Lead Scoring, Competitor Analysis...

This info was then summarized by our AI agents, pushed to reps in real time and provided suggested messaging/actions to take. 

2. FullEnrich - contact database and waterfall enrichment across 20 providers. For us, it was especially fantastic for phone numbers across all regions and hard to find contact data for prospects outside of North America. It was so good we built a deep integration directly into Common Room for customers as well.

3. Wiza - As a stand alone contact database and provider, they have some of the best contact info out there right now. 4x connect rates compared to Apollo. Solid workflows from Sales Nav.

4. Nooks - AI-Dialer and Virtual Sales Floor. Doing power hours together, being able to listen in and coach on live calls, all while making it way easier to have more conversations on the phone. We 10x’d the number of conversations we had with prospects per month.

5. Outreach - our Sequencer. Lots of people hate on Outreach, but the backend, workflows and deep integrations into other GTM platforms (especially Salesforce) are still relatively unmatched.

6. Kondo: Superhuman for LinkedIn DMs - LinkedIn inbox management. Made us SO much more efficient at LinkedIn outreach. Can't believe there wasn't something like this sooner. 

7. Gong - Call recording, analysis, deal management & forecasting. Best platform in the market for this IMO.

8. Chili Piper - scheduling and lead routing. Super easy to use and helps us run all inbound.

9. Perplexity - our day-to-day LLM. Deep research, ideation, data analysis, completing tasks that are mundane with ease.

10. LinkedIn Sales Navigator - Still the most up to date database of professionals on the planet. Very helpful for building the best lists. 


Hope this was helpful! Stay tuned for my list of tools I'm bullish for going into 2026 👀 

#sales #gtm #outbound

LinkedIn DMs are a MESS.

What that means is, if you’ve been prospecting consistently over the past 6-12 months...

You probably have at least SIX FIGURES in STALE PIPELINE to re-engage.

The problem is that LinkedIn’s DM search and UI make it nearly impossible to navigate and find buried gold. 

Luckily, I stumbled upon the solution a few months ago and I have a prediction: 

Kondo: Superhuman for LinkedIn DMs will be one of the most widely adopted productivity tools in 2026 with massive growth. 

It makes executing on LinkedIn so much easier for reps. 

One of my reps booked 3 meetings right away after installing Kondo.

I almost can’t believe that it took this long to come out with a solution. 

With it you can: 

1. Actually search keywords properly and find profiles 

2. Organize, Label & Tag conversations: I use “Prospect”, “Vendor”, “Customer”, “Side Hustle” tags

3. Set automatic reminders to follow up..

4. See exactly who has accepted my connection request. 

5. Sync convos back to CRM.. much better visibility for coaching reps on how to use LinkedIn

All in a clean UI. 

I’m never going back.

If you want to keep wasting time and navigating an Inbox that hasn't been updated in 20 years, you should ignore this. 

Otherwise, jump on this January promo ending in 2 days...

2 months at no cost 👉 https://lnkd.in/dsYeYi8v

#kondopartner #sales

Most sales tools aren’t actually designed for the nuances and workflows of how sales reps operate. 

I know because I’ve tested hundreds of platforms over the last decade.

It’s usually the small decisions… sometimes even just simple UI/UX designs that determine whether a tool fits in your workflow or fights against it.

One platform with truly thoughtful design is Prospeo.io. 

They just shipped a V2 of the platform and I’ve genuinely enjoyed using it.

3 things stick out for me:

-Triple verified emails and mobiles 
-Weekly data base refreshes (most providers are every month or quarterly)
-Lowest price per mobile number ($0.010 VS. $1 for others)

They actually have the best match rate for verified emails in Clay’s waterfall. 

Sharing a quick video with what changed + why these product designs matter a real SDR workflows.

What’s been your favorite sales tool recently? 

#prospeopartner #sales #outbound

Turns out... I still got it.

Cold Email Showdown on 30 Minutes to President's Club.

Had a TON of fun going up against one of the best cold email reps in the game, Evan Greek.

3 Rounds... very different context for each email. 10 minutes to write on the spot and judged by the man himself, Jason Bay. 

Here's the email that gave me the edge early:

(Situation: Selling vegan burger meat to McDonalds)

------

𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭: 𝐑𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐝'𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐟 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐮𝐬

Saw The New York Times report on Ronald threatening to quit after the market share loss, Jason.

Was looking at both of your menus and noticed a potential opportunity for you all. Have you considered a vegan burger option? 22% of the world is vegetarian, and there is a big opportunity to increase market share that you aren't paying attention to.

Can I send over a couple of patty samples? I promise not to disappoint.

Let's win you back the crown.

------

30 minutes of us walking through our thinking process. 

Give this a watch if you have some time :) 

Full video in the comments

#sales #outbound

Is Juliano Massarelli dominating anybody else’s social media feeds or is it just me? 

🤣🤣🤣

Ronen R. Pessar

I Help New Leaders Thrive, Not Just Survive | When Emotions Unblock, Performance Will Unlock

We build your in-house outbound systems and recruit top talent for your SDR team to outperform your revenue goals... 1 conversion at a time.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY:

💙 “I bet the house on Outbound Operators in ’25. By April, just four months in, we had already surpassed all of ’24’s SQLs. It’s like black magic.”
—Sol Broady, Head of Corp Dev @ MCI
(Hired 4 SDRs instead of 34)

💙 “You smoked them. That’s over. They got the boot. You crushed them. You guys are the winners for SDR.”
—CRO, $300M digital marketing agency
^ after a bake-off against another SDR firm.
(Hired 1 SDR instead of 12)


Outbound Operators delivers a managed outbound system - people, process, and tech - that you fully own (your SDRs, tools, and process). With 40 connects per day, per rep, your AE's calendars will be full quickly, and CAC efficiently. 

🚀 WHAT YOU GET:
ALL done for you:
• Recruit + hire top SDRs
• SDR Stack / RevOps (tech stack build)
• Onboarding + coaching for SDRs and AEs
• All outbound operations done for you (internally owned)

Ramping in 1-3 weeks, your new SDRs will consistently create more qualified pipeline at a lower CAC/TCO than hiring, training, doing tech setup/RevOps, and managing SDRs yourself.

Result: 40 live decision-maker conversations per rep per day.

Our model is simple: You own it all in-house. We design it, run it, and hand you the keys.
• Up to two experienced SDRs placed in your org (to start)
• Powered by our proven system that we build for you
• 1 rep produces pipeline =  8 to 12 SDRs

Why clients choose us:

1. Faster ramp: 1–3 weeks to full SDR output (vs. 9 to 12 months for typical SDRs)
2. Low CAC and TCO: Avoid $450k–$1.2M+ in wasted trial-and-error SDR teams with headcount bloat and bad strategy.
3. More output, 10x quicker, with fewer reps (PE friendly): 40 live decision-maker conversations per rep, per day.
4. We prove it before you commit. In a single 90-minute proof of concept we'll get 20+ live conversations with your buyers right before your eyes. The equivalent to 3–4 weeks of work for 1 SDR done in 90 minutes.

🔥 Stop lighting cash on fire with SDRs. 🔥
Plug in a system that works.

📥 DM me here on LinkedIn
🧑‍💻 visit [www.outboundoperators.com](http://www.outboundoperators.com)
📆 find time to chat: [https://tinyurl.com/4h4vf35p](https://tinyurl.com/4h4vf35p)

PS: Not ready to bring the whole kit and caboodle in-house quite yet? Ask about our network of fractional cold callers for hire!

Chief Executive Officer

1 - I build SDR teams to hit pipeline goals as a fractional leader (bespoke consulting)
2 - Cold Call Training (live and course)
3 - Message-market fit: 100% done-for-you email and cold call campaigns. 

**coming soon: Cold Calling Bootcamp**

Ronen 🧡 Pessar

Hiring a part time cold caller ASAP

💰 $6,500-$8,000 per mo (2 months to start)
📆 Daily, 40-50hrs per month needed (60 dials per day)
☎️ List, tools, script, process, and even onboarding provided

Sound like you?
🥇 You're in the top 5% of cold callers
👨‍💼 You already offer fractional cold calling
⏰ You can commit to 2.5 hrs per day (minimum)

Tag someone you know or...

Apply here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gFBeJ3Km

Comment or DM with questions.

#hiring #coldcaller 
#hiringpost

SDR Consulting Plug

📌 not sure where to start with SDRs, grab some time to get clear on the SDR team cost and value (on the house). Or DM me with questions if you're not ready to book a free advisory call.


https://calendly.com/rpadvisory/leadership-coaching-intro-call-30m 

TED Talk - RC

📌 the number 1 proven way to lead is a collaborative way-- check out the TED talk: 

https://www.ted.com/talks/jim_tamm_first_step_to_collaboration_don_t_be_so_defensive?hasSummary=true

Value Vomit VS Probe-Provoke

📌 if you're ready for a modern way, a collaborative way, check out this TED talk: 

https://www.ted.com/talks/jim_tamm_first_step_to_collaboration_don_t_be_so_defensive?hasSummary=true

Zig Quote

"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want." 
- Zig

Founder OS plug

ronen-pessar-advisory

sweet-karma-ice-cream

Stop paying SDRs for meetings, meetings don’t matter | Cofounder @ Outbound Operators

Being an SDR is the hardest job in sales...

And it's not even CLOSE

Most people think it’s hard because you’re bothering people.

Which isn't wrong, but that's only one layer.

The real problem is this:

 ➡️ Most SDRs are playing a math game they were never taught, and leaders thing that if they find the right people and say the right thing, that outbound will work.

Welp, hate to break it to ya. But that's not how it works. 

What they don’t realize is that:

- A workable list is not a reachable list
- Only ~15–30% of “good” prospects are even reachable

And after timing shakes out…

Only 0.5–2% of the original list is open to a sales call right now

So what happens when you have a hungry young buck making cold-calls, and only 3% of those dials turn into convo's?

That young buck gets tired and burns out. 

Outbound isn't failing because SDRs are bad - it's failing because leaders aren't setting them up for success.

Not sure what's worse here...

The pure violence in reminding me that we're closer to 2050 than 2000...

Or that he started the email by saying "heyyo"

You decide ⬇️ 

Anyways, stop cold emailing and get back on the phones ☎️

I'm going to make this post 1M times until every young seller in the world reads it. 

Young sellers need to focus less on "learning how to sell" and more on how do do basic shit well.  

What do I mean when I say "basic shit?"

I mean:

• Showing up with good energy
Not fake hype. Not LinkedIn motivation.
Just being someone people don’t dread talking to. AKA a normal human being

• Listening instead of waiting to talk
Actually hearing what someone is saying - not just scanning for your next objection handle.

• Doing what you say you're going to do
Send the email you said you'd send

• Show up 5 minutes early 

• Learn how to speak clearly and not like a kid that just graduated college

• Treating people better than you need to

Prospects. Teammates. SDRs. Ops.
Not because it helps you today - but because people remember how you made them feel.

• Realizing that doing things for people with nothing expected in return is a 10/10 strategy to go REALLY far in life. 

Most top performers aren’t better because they know some secret framework.

They're better because they're easy to work with, likable enough, and take the time to understand their prospects.

I'm 35. Here's 15 pieces of advice I'd give to someone in their 20's:

- Buy life insurance 
- Explore the world
- Get married early and have kids 
- Spend time to create quality friends
- Build a connection with a higher power. 
- Most important decision you make is who you marry
- Stop worrying about your "purpose." Experiment more. 
- Harness your energy. It's your only differentiator in your 20's
- Put money in the markets, you're not smarter than the market
- Accept the fact that men and women communicate differently
- Most powerful thing you can do is commit: to a skill, a person, an idea whatever
- Learn to be a beginner. The more you can embrace being a beginner, the farther you'll go. 
- whatever you think is important now, probably isn't all that important in the long run.

What's one piece you'd give to your 20y/o self?

You will make 10x more money as a top SDR/AE than as a Manager or a VP

It might be less cool to say that you're an IC at parties...

But IC life is 1000% better than being a manager or a VP and here's why:

1) Eat what you kill - you're completely in control of your own fate

2) Your skills compound - you're in the arena, which means you'll improve at a much faster pace 

3) Zero people babysitting - don't have to worry about handing out PIP's, coaching other reps, morale management, you just gotta be a dawg. 

4) Less politics - If you're convos are converting or you're closing deals as an AE, not much else matters

5) Freedom - Great SDRs and AEs can walk into almost any org and win. If you're a good IC, you'll never hurt for work. 

6) Optionality - You can always move into management later. Going into management too early kneecaps your upside. Get to the peak of the IC world, then debate management. 

I'm not saying "don't go into management."

That advice would be silly because everyones path is different. 

If your goal is to make serious money, landing an Enterprise AE role at a kickass company puts you in a far better position than going from SDR ➝ AE ➝ SMB Manager.

Agree or disagree?

In 24hrs, 414 reps applied to this open job

We already put 4 on the phone, and found our finalist (we move fast)! 

This fractional role is filled, but similar opportunities pop up sometimes. 

Folks in communities like CallBlitz will hear about them first, and we prioritize them for these roles. 

From time to time, CallBlitz members share other open fractional cold caller role they need filled too. 

If you're trying to become a 200k/year cold caller, CallBlitz community is where it's happening.

Just ask some of the high earners already in there like: 
Tony Brophy 
Connor Johnston

👉 https://lnkd.in/gGRJa3fR

Paying SDRs for meetings held is corporate pipeline fraud.

Not illegal.

Just a quiet way to poison your forecast.

Here’s the play most orgs run:

Tell SDRs “your job is meetings.”
Pay them on meetings set or held.
Act shocked when the calendar turns into a landfill.

I watched an SDR “crush quota” like this.

Same account.
Same buyer.
Different titles.

Six meetings held over two years.

Zero revenue.

On paper: top performer.
In reality: perfectly trained.

Protect the check, not the pipeline.

The SDR isn’t the problem.

The scoreboard is.

Outbound isn’t about filling calendars.

It’s about getting to truth fast.

Who is this.
Can they buy.
Are they ready.
Do we move forward or do we park it.

So stop asking:
“How many meetings did you set?”

Start asking:
“How many real conversations did you complete?”

A completed conversation is simple:

You reached the right person.
You got clarity on role, influence, and timing.
You left with a decision, progress or park.

SDRs don’t control budget or politics.

They control coverage and clarity.

Pay for truth and follow-up, and three things happen fast:

Fake meetings disappear.
AEs stop treating SDR invites like spam.
Pipeline starts to look like reality.

If your SDR comp plan pays for meetings, you’re buying a prettier forecast call.

Not revenue.

just now i answered a cold call, "hello?"

The caller was mid-voice message and didn't stop talking, so i try again.

"hello??"

and he kept going.

"HELLO?!?! you there?"

then i realize:

it wasn't a person
it was a pre-recorded voicemail!

(and now that number is blocked)
((flagged as spam))

If you're prospecting:

Don't leave pre-recorded voice messages,
and honestly, don't leave a voicemail at all.

(before ever having a convo, after is ok)

Because it doesn't increase replies,
...it will lower your pick up rates.

and the next time you call,
they may recognize your number and decline the call

OR WORSE
block you after the voice message and that number is now flagged as "spam"

curious:
do you leave voicemails on cold calls?

Ryan is going to sh*t on me for this...

You all know I'm a believer in the fact that:

"the list IS the strategy"

You can NOT build a successful cold-calling motion with a shitty list. 

That being said...

The list is not the ONLY thing that matters. 

Your script and what you say to prospects does matter. 

"But Ronen, how do I build out a script? I'm a terrible writer 😥"

Here’s the one I’d use.

   𝟭. 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺
   Stop asking “Is this Ryan?”
   Say “Ryan?” then pause.
   It signals confidence and familiarity.

   𝟮. 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿 (𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱)
   “You weren’t expecting my call. It’s the first time I’ve reached you and I was          hoping you could help me for a second.”

   𝟯. 𝗘𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝘁𝘄𝗼-𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲
   “Appreciate that. My name is {name} with {company}. Not sure if that sounds       familiar?”

   𝟰. 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁
   “Purpose is to see if it makes sense to schedule an intro chat when I’m not             calling out of the blue. Do you have time next ___ or ___?”

   𝟱. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺 𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁
   “I have you as {title} at {company}. Is that right?”

If no, get the referral.
If yes, move on.

   𝟲. 𝗣𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵
   “We work with {role} who want {outcome} without {pain or cost}.
   With {tool}, teams move from {current pain} to {future state}, so {result}.”

   𝟳. 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
   “How are you handling {pain} today? Is it mostly {status quo}?”

   𝟴. 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
   “Would you be opposed to a 10 to 15-minute intro call next ___ or ___?”

Plug your product into this.

Run it consistently.

Your conversions will jump.

Do you use a script, or do you freestyle every call?

Meetings booked is the most dangerous metric in sales.

Because it rewards lying without calling it lying.

It turns your entire org into a meeting production company.

And VPs love it.

Not because it works.

Because it gives them cover.

You can miss the number and still look “ahead.”
You can have a full calendar and a dead pipeline.
You can celebrate while your deal quality rots in silence.

Meetings booked doesn’t measure demand.

It measures how good your team is at getting strangers to say yes to 15 minutes.

That’s not sales.
That’s persuasion theater.

Here’s the ugly truth:

If your team is proud of meetings booked, you’re probably selling to people who cannot buy.

Or won’t.

Or shouldn’t.

And you’re burning your AEs to prove you’re “doing something.”

Bad revenue is worse than no revenue.
Bad pipeline is worse than no pipeline.

Because it wastes time twice.

First on the meeting.
Then on the fantasy that it meant anything.

Most VP Sales careers are built on one skill:

Replacing results with activity that sounds like results.

If you’re tracking meetings booked like it’s sacred, you’re not leading a revenue system.

You’re managing your own anxiety.

Either you run a sales org.

Or you run a calendar factory.

---
Day 6 of taking collateral damage selfies til Matt Firestone does an influencer roast (he won’t do it…)

The biggest lie in modern sales is this:

If it’s not booked on my calendar, it’s not real.

I heard it again this week from a sales leader.

We were looking at their numbers and I said,
“Cool. So you’re calling the people who showed interest but didn’t book?”

He looked at me like I suggested we bring back dial-up internet.

“I’m not making calls. I want everything scheduled.”

Let me translate what that means:

A prospect can literally raise their hand, ask a question, show interest, and if they don’t agree to a meeting right now…

Most sales orgs treat them like they don’t exist.

That is insane.

Because you don’t have a pipeline problem.

You have a follow-up problem.

Your CRM is a gold mine full of “almost” buyers:

* the not now crowd
* the timing is off crowd
* the we’re exploring crowd
* the we have a question crowd

And instead of picking up the phone and doing what salespeople are paid to do…

You send an email.
You wait.
You call them “unresponsive.”
You go hunt colder leads.

This is why reps miss quota.

They are trying to create brand new interest in strangers while ignoring the people who already gave them a signal.

Even crazier, we can do the math on this.

Most lists are 100 people.
Maybe you reach 20.
And only a slice of that 20 is even open right now.

So when you find someone who is reachable and interested, that person is rare.

That person is priority.

Not “send an email and hope.”

Call them back.
Same day.
Next day.
Every few days.
Until you get clarity.

Not to shove them into a demo.

To figure out where they’re actually at and help them make sense of the decision.

This is the part that separates hunters from farmers.

Farmers wait for the calendar to fill.

Hunters pick up the phone, work the gold they already have, and build market dominance one follow-up conversation at a time.

Hot take for the comments:

If your AEs don’t call back activated leads, YOU DON'T HAVE AEs.

You have professional meeting attendees.

In a sales word filled with farmers & order takers,
...hunters are a dying breed.

'nuff said
✋
🎤

I'm about to hit you nerds with a "day in the life" as a Founder/Father of 3 kiddos 

5:15 - alarm goes off - praying my kids aren't awake yet. Chug water, listen to audible, make coffee (for later) + breakfast for the kids and wifey 

6:00 - jog or Gym time, get the blood moving and endorphins flowing 

6:30 - rest of the house arises. Chaos ensues. 

7:30 - wife takes kids to school. I open Robinhood and continue losing money trying to trade options

7:45 - Bike along the beach to work (shoutout San Diego)

8:15 - Get to the office.  Prayer, meditation, try and get the mind right before the day

8:30-3ish: Six hours of nonstop work: sales calls, client calls, creating videos. Quick bite somewhere in between.

3:30-5pm:  Follow-up work, fix everything that broke throughout the day, plan for tomorrow, wrap-up.

5:30 - Always try and be home by 5:30 (usually closer to 6). Phone down, work down, time to reconnect with the kiddos and wife

7:30 - kids bed time *FINALLY*

8:00 - Watch an ep of Severance - play backgammon online - or if it's football season youtube the Browns, and masochistically watch them lose.

There ya have it!

Most SDRs think they’re paid to book meetings.

They’re not.

They’re paid to create revenue.

-- meetings don’t equal revenue --

Meetings often equal rushed calls, forced demos, and prospects who never wanted to talk in the first place.

You know the talk track:

Prospect: “I thought this was my kid’s school.”
Rep: “Can I just tell you why I called real quick?”
Prospect: “I’m not interested.”
Rep: “What about a quick intro demo?”

That rep could hit their meeting number...
but they won't move the business.

Top sellers play a different game.

They optimize for two things only:

1 • Completed conversations (signal)
2 • Follow up conversations (SQO)

Here’s what that sounds like.

Prospect: “I thought this was my kid’s school.”
SDR: “Sounds like a bad time. I’ll try you back later.”

One week later.

SDR: “Last week sounded hectic. Do you have two minutes now?”
Prospect: “Yeah, what was this about again?”

That second call is where trust is built.
That’s where qualification happens.
That’s where revenue starts.

-- top sellers aren’t thirsty --

They’re patient.

They know most people aren’t a fit right now.
And they always make the follow up call.

If you want to sell like that, we built a community for you

👉 https://lnkd.in/gEwfjZBx

What's your biggest red flag as a seller?

Mine is being too nice. 

Historically, I'd let prospects walk all over me.

I did that because I thought being nice would help a deal get done. 

Turns out that was dumb as hell 

What's your biggest red flag?

AI didn't kill outbound. 

But it has made mediocrity cheaper.

And now every rep thinks they're scaling because they sent 10,000 emails that nobody read.

Parallel dialers? You're burning through lists faster than you can say "wrong number."

Sales engagement platforms? Congrats, you automated being ignored.

LinkedIn automation tools?

Nothing says "I care about you" like a bot that can't spell your name right.

Here's what actually happened: AI lowered the barrier to entry so much that everyone's inbox became a dumpster fire. Prospects are numb to it. They can smell automation from a mile away.

The irony? While everyone's chasing volume with tools, the reps who pick up the phone and actually talk like humans are cleaning up.

You want to stand out? Stop hiding behind software. Do the work nobody else wants to do.

Have a goddamn conversation.

Human to human.

Otherwise we might as well just have bots sell to bots. 

AI should make you better, not lazier.

The tools aren't the problem. It's that most people use them to just do more of what already doesn't work.

Stay above the API.

Hey you, SDR manager, let's chat. 

Can you help me understand why you're justifying your SDR's meeting that he set with an intern?

It's almost crazy how often I've seen this: A lot (not all) SDR managers will do everything humanely possible to justify why an opportunity is "qualified"...

Even though an intern was on the other end of the Zoom call. 

Here's what I've been seeing in outbound as of late:

Most teams will enter the loop of "plausible deniability" rather than fix the broken engine. 

So what happens is that most teams don't have a problem setting meetings. 

They have a problem setting meetings that MATTER. 

Meetings that:

- Are with your ICP
- Are with real stakeholders
- Are with people who are actually ready to buy

Now, you can't control the 3rd one. Nobody can. 

You can control the first two. 

But most teams can't even do that. 

So what they do is this: they add on more sequences, more steps, more tools, and more activity that looks like work and produces nothing but a calendar full of meetings that don't go anywhere.

Here’s the part nobody wants to say out loud:

Most SDR managers are professional excuse writers.

They justify why a meeting with an intern is qualified, because their incentives are to do so. 

They keep everyone busy, so nobody has to admit the system is broken.

Meanwhile, the pipeline fills up with “opportunities”:

People who will take a call.

But won’t buy.

My new mantra for 2026: "Bad revenue is worse than no revenue."

Bad revenue steals your calendar and gives you migraines. 

It also trains your team to be customer support for tire kickers, rather than actual salespeople. 

Building a system that only works when you turn up the volume, doesn't work. 

So you have two choices: 

Turn up the volume until everyone goes deaf...

Or build a system that actually works. 

The choice is yours 🤷‍♂️

Openers
Openers dont
Openers dont matter
Openers dont matter if
Openers dont matter if you
Openers dont matter if you cant

REACH

PROSPECTS

ON

THE

PHONE 

(List Reach > scripts)

If your SDR “motion” includes email, social, list building, and 44 dials with voicemails, you built a burn machine.

Not a pipeline engine.

You didn’t hire an SDR.

You hired a human to babysit your anxiety.

Let’s call this what it is.

Email sequences are where bad positioning goes to hide.

Social “touches” are where scared reps go to feel productive.

List building is where leadership dumps the work they don’t want to own.

And 44 dials with voicemails?

That’s not selling.

That’s leaving digital litter so you can say you tried.

You’re paying a fully loaded salary for someone to:

Research people who were never a fit
Write messages nobody will read
Leave voicemails nobody will return
Update fields so dashboards look alive

Then you act surprised when the only thing growing is churn.

Here’s the part that ruffles VPs:

“Multichannel” is the polite word for “we don’t know how to create a conversation.”

So you spread the failure across more surfaces and call it strategy.

It burns money in four ways:

You burn payroll
You burn brand
You burn good reps
You burn your own belief that outbound can work

If your SDR org needs constant activity to justify its existence, it’s not a growth lever.

It’s a cost center with better vocabulary.

Keep funding the theater.

Or build a system that produces real conversations when nobody’s watching.

Here are 3 things I absolutely SUCKED at this year...

And what I'm going to do better in 2026 ⬇️ 

1) My fitness / athletic routine

I tore my ACL and went from “basketball 3x/week” to basically nothing.
I felt like a complete bum. The ripple effects were real: energy, sleep, resting heart rate shot up… the whole shebang. 

Lesson: your body is either compounding for you or against you.
Take the time to physically and mentally fix yourself, otherwise it'll hurt you in the long run. 

2) Selling Outbound Operators (early on)

One thing I sucked at was selling Outbound Operators.  The reason? I was selling from my perspective, not the buyers

And I was focused on the wrong metrics.

What's worse is that I wasn’t framing the comparison.

So buyers compared us to the cheapest thing they’re doing today - which is a great way to lose deals. 

Lesson: if you don’t frame the deal, your buyer will.
Lead with the comparison you want them to make. 

3) Missing obvious product signals

For months we held a hard line: “We don’t build lists.”

But list-building kept showing up as the bottleneck… for prospects and clients.

So we finally decided to just solve it operationally (even if it’s at cost).
Because without it, the entire machine stalls. 

Lesson: When the same objection repeats, it's a signal. Either pay attention to the signal or lose out on revenue. 

2025 wasn’t perfect. But it was by far the best year of my professional life. 

Feeling really grateful to all my clients, friends, and family that have made this year as fulfilling as its been.

p.s. I'm very self-critical so this was an easy exercise 😂

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Florin Tatulea

Ronen 🧡 Pessar

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taplio

The Battle

Florin Tatulea

Ronen 🧡 Pessar

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Posts

Engagements

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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);}Florin Tatulea's LinkedIn Performance

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