Gradual

GTM Strategy, Advisor to CEO

“Jill’s unmatched expertise in sales, community building, partnerships, and ecosystems has been pivotal in shaping our product vision and go-to-market strategy. Her unique insights and strategic connections have unlocked new opportunities and accelerated our growth.” – Jerry Li, CEO & Founder

Gradual is a community platform that centralizes all community experiences, driving product adoption and deeper customer relationships.

Strategic Advisor

Stage 2 Capital

Stage 2 Capital invests in early-stage B2B software companies and sits shoulder-to-shoulder with leadership teams to operationalize sustainable revenue growth. We provide expertise and capital to help companies scale. 

Our LP base of 500+ seasoned GTM executives is matched with the strategic and operational needs of our portfolio companies. We involve our network in 100% of our investments, which often includes joining a portfolio company as an executive, board member, or advisor.

In 2018, I helped raise our $15 million Fund I from LPs at Asana, Atlassian, Box, Gong, HubSpot, Okta, Slack, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, Toast, Twilio, Workday, Snowflake, Zoom, and many others.

$15m Fund I, LP, and Associate Member
$80m Fund II, LP
$150m Fund III, LP

GTM Advisor & LP

Klue

GTM Advisor

Competitive Enablement platform that combines market, competitor, and buyer insights.

Raised $81 million from top VCs including Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Global, Craft, and OMERS Ventures.

Advisor

Folloze

Advisor to the CEO

Enterprise customers include Adobe, Autodesk, DocuSign, Okta, VMware, UiPath, Cisco, and ServiceNow. 

Integration partners feature 6Sense, Demandbase, Marketo, Outreach, Qualified, and Salesforce.

nearbound.com

Assisted in the design, launch, and growth of the Nearbound category at Reveal. In June 2024, Reveal merged with Crossbeam, with the unified focus now on driving Ecosystem-Led Growth.

While outbound interrupts and inbound attracts, nearbound surrounds.

Nearbound is essential because buyer behavior has shifted from the ‘How’ economy to the ‘Who’ economy. Buyers now ask, ‘Who can help me solve X?’ and seek out trusted nodes in their network.

Strategy & Champion

Guild

Advisor to the B2B GTM team.

On a mission to unlock opportunity for America’s workforce. When opportunity is as evenly distributed as talent, everyone benefits. Individuals rise, companies grow, and our economy thrives.

In June 2022, Guild raised a $175 million Series F funding round at a $4.4 billion valuation. The round was led by prominent investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Cowboy Ventures, Emerson Collective, General Catalyst, GSV, ICONIQ, Redpoint, Workday Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Oprah Winfrey.

GTM Advisor

LoopVOC

Voice of the Customer software for B2B SaaS Companies. Advisor to CEO & Founder.

Affinio

Member Board of Directors

Sales for Life

Advisor & Partner

Nudge.ai

Acquired by Affinity, a relationship intelligence platform.

Advisory Board Member & Investor

23 years in B2B SaaS Go-To-Market at Salesforce, Eloqua, HubSpot, Marketo. Customer Obsessed. Partner Obsessed. Living-In-Market. LinkedIn Member #320,966

Majored in Customer. Minored in Go-To-Market. Live in-Market. 

24 years in B2B SaaS. Early employee at Salesforce (first 100), Eloqua (#13), HubSpot Advisor (2014-2016), Marketo (2018).

Love startups, especially category creators.

Born Sales. Bred Marketing. Building Partnerships. 

I spent six years in management consulting, 52 quarters in software sales at Salesforce and Eloqua, six years doing professional speaking, 2018 reporting to the CEO of Marketo (acquired by Adobe for $4.75B), Limited Partner "LP" and GTM Advisor at Stage 2 Capital and GTM Fund. 

I started investing in 2012 and maintain my personal portfolio of investments in sales and marketing technology startups. I also started advising startups in 2012 and joined my first Board of Directors in 2016. Four of the companies I've advised have had successful exits -- HubSpot, Accompany, DataRPM, and PartnerHacker. 

My work keeps me focused on the changing B2B buying environment and what revenue teams need to do to evolve their culture, skills, processes, data, and technology. 

****If you want to connect with me on LinkedIn, don't send a generic invite.****

Jill Rowley

Generic GTM is dead → Go to my featured section for actionable GTM insights and elevate your marketing game 🔥| Co-Founder of TACK | Creating the category of People-first GTM 👥| 13+ Years in B2B Marketing 📈

I help B2B companies build go-to-market strategies that prioritize real connection because relationships, not just reach, drive growth.

After 14 years in B2B marketing, I’ve led field marketing, demand gen, community, and influencer programs. I know what works, what doesn’t, and what’s changed.

Too many companies still treat buyers like leads. That’s not how modern GTM works.

I’ve helped 35+ B2B brands shift from transactional tactics to connection-driven growth, building scalable strategies, launching communities, running 30+ webinars, and rolling out on-demand models that replaced bloated in-house teams.

Today, I work directly with brands, founders, and marketers to build go-to-market engines that scale—without the spam.

What I do:
→ Build integrated campaign strategies that drive pipeline
→ Coach creators and brands on influencer marketing
→ Design community-led and field programs that actually work
→ Speak on GTM, content, and creator-led growth
→ Act as a fractional marketing leader or advisor

📚 Author of B2B Influencer Marketing: Work With Creators to Generate Authentic and Effective Marketing (Kogan Page, 2025)

👋 Let’s work together: DM me or visit https://linktr.ee/NickBMarketing

Nick Bennett

Looking for a Marketing Manager who actually gets that traditional playbooks don't work in niche B2B markets.

$95-110K. Remote US. You'll own the whole marketing engine within 8-12 months.

But first, you'll work directly with me.

I'll teach you my systems. The ones that took clients from zero pipeline to predictable revenue. The frameworks that actually work when you can't just blast ads at everyone.

You need:
- 3-6 years B2B SaaS experience
- HubSpot chops (automation, workflows, scoring)
- Content skills that don't put people to sleep
- Experience with ABM, events, demand gen

But honestly? What matters more is you're tired of being told to "just run more ads" when you know that's not the answer.

This company has strong product-market fit. They just need someone to build the marketing engine properly. Not spray and pray. Not random acts of marketing.

Real systems. Measured results. Actual pipeline.

You'll start with fractional leadership support (that's me). I'll help you nail the fundamentals. Set up the operations. Build the programs that scale.

Within a year, you're running the whole show.

Fair warning: This isn't for someone who needs daily hand-holding. You'll get direction and strategy, but you need to execute independently.

Also, if you're not using AI tools in your workflow already, this isn't for you. We're building for the future, not 2019.

DM me for the full JD. Moving fast on this one.

Want to work with someone who's been in the trenches and actually knows what drives pipeline? Who won't make you reformat PowerPoints while ignoring your pipeline recommendations?

Let's talk.

EDIT: US only - Thanks for all the DM's so far.

15+ Year B2B Marketing Leader Turned Founder | ABM, Field Marketing & Events, Influencer Marketing & More | DM Me to Learn More

I've been tracking LinkedIn DM patterns for 6 years.

Not the exact numbers. But the weird behaviors people have before reaching out.

Like this guy who DMd me last week. Says he's been following me since early 2020.

Since I started posting basically.

Never liked a post. Never commented. Nothing.

Just... watching. For almost 5 years.

Then my random post about being useless despite being the CMO's favorite? That's what made him reach out.

Not my frameworks. Not my playbooks. Not the stuff I spent hours on.

The throwaway post I wrote in 10 minutes while annoyed.

"This is exactly my situation. Can we talk?"

This happens constantly.

I'll post about some GTM thing and get a DM about something completely different.

"Saw your post about ABM. BTW we need help with our entire marketing org. You available?"

Or my favorite:

"I never do this but I've been reading your stuff for like 3 years and we just fired our agency and I'm desperate."

I never do this but...

Dude, you're literally doing the thing LinkedIn was built for. Connecting with people who might help your business.

But we've made it weird somehow.

People feel guilty about reaching out. Like they're bothering me by potentially paying me money to solve their problems.

Meanwhile I'm over here specifically putting "DM me" in my headline.

The wild part is what actually triggers the DM.

It's never the post I think will drive business.

The post with 3 reactions where I admit I don't know something? Five DMs.

The post with hundreds of reactions about some framework? Cricket sounds.

Because people don't hire frameworks.

They hire humans who get their specific mess.

And they need to trust you first. Which apparently takes watching you show up for years before they work up the courage to type "hey."

Some lurker reading this has been following me since 2021. Has my posts saved. Thinks about reaching out every few weeks.

But doesn't.

Because... I don't know why actually.

Fear? Timing? Waiting for permission?

Look, half my business comes from people who finally said "screw it" and sent the DM they'd been thinking about for months.

The other half comes from people who responded to my DMs checking in on them.

That's it. That's the whole business model.

Show up. Share what's real. Stay consistent.

Eventually the right people reach out.

Not because you're the best.

But because you're the one they trust.

And trust takes time. Like, way more time than you think.

But it's worth it.

Because when someone's been watching you for 4 years, they don't need convincing.

They just need to know you're available.

20 things I learned running ABM programs for 15+ companies:

1. 25 target accounts performed better than 500 every single time
2. Sales, marketing, AND ops picking accounts together changed everything
3. The CFO sending one email beat 24 marketing touches
4. Intent data was right about 30% of the time
5. Direct mail got 5x more meetings than digital campaigns
6. Geographic territories killed 3 programs before we ditched them
7. One $5K gift beat $50K in digital ads
8. Account-specific landing pages doubled conversion
9. Early wins came in 60 days but real ROI took 6 months
10. Customer success knew more about buyers than sales
11. Tier 2 accounts needed completely different playbooks
12. Competitive accounts took longer but paid 2x more
13. Executive dinners beat virtual events even post-COVID
14. Dedicated ABM manager or don't bother starting
15. Generic content got 0% engagement from enterprise
16. Multi-threading saved 8 deals when champions left
17. C-suite alignment meetings prevented 90% of problems
18. Testing on best-fit accounts proved ROI faster
19. CAC went up 40% before pipeline caught up
20. The companies that committed for a year won

Every company wants ABM to work in 90 days.

The ones that give it a year build pipeline machines.

The ones that don't blame ABM.

I never took a GTM course. Here's my free 17-point playbook:

Spent $0 on certifications.
Made every mistake possible.
Built GTM strategies for 50+ B2B companies.

These aren't theories. They're scars.

**THE FOUNDATION (Before You Burn Cash)**

1. Your ICP isn't "everyone who could buy." It's the 20% who buy fast and stay forever.

2. Product-market fit is binary. You either have people begging for your solution or you don't. Stop pretending maybes are yeses.

3. If sales and marketing hate each other, you don't have a GTM strategy. You have two departments playing different sports.

**THE REALITY CHECK**

4. Your competition isn't who you think. It's Excel, email, and "doing nothing."

5. Nobody cares about your features. They care about their Monday morning problems.

6. "We're like Uber for X" isn't positioning. It's lazy.

7. Your pricing model reveals your strategy. Complicated pricing = confused strategy.

**THE EXECUTION**

8. Week 1 pipeline matters more than Year 1 projections. Start with 10 target accounts, not 10,000.

9. Your first 10 customers should come from founders selling. Not SDRs. Not ads. Founders.

10. One channel that works beats five channels that might work. Pick. Focus. Double down.

11. Content without distribution is a diary entry. Distribution without content is spam. You need both.

**THE HARD TRUTHS**

12. If your CAC payback is over 12 months in B2B, you're running a charity.

13. "Enterprise ready" is what you say when you can't close SMBs.

14. Your GTM motion should be boring. Boring scales. Clever dies.

**THE MULTIPLIERS**

15. Customer success is GTM. Your best leads come from happy customers, not cold outreach.

16. Speed beats perfection. A decent strategy today beats a perfect strategy next quarter.

17. Fire fast. Hire slow. The wrong GTM hire costs you 6-9 months, not just their salary.

**The Meta-Lesson:**

GTM isn't about frameworks or methodologies.

It's about talking to customers until your ears bleed.
Then building exactly what they're already trying to buy.

Everything else is just noise.

Save your $5K course money.
Spend it on plane tickets to visit customers instead.

That's the only GTM education that matters.

Why I turn down $20K/month retainers.

Sounds insane, right?

But I've learned something after taking on too many big-ticket clients who weren't ready to change.

Money doesn't fix misalignment.

I used to chase every high-value deal. Someone waves $20K/month in front of you, you take it. That's just math.

Except it's not.

Because what they're really buying is someone to blame when nothing changes.

They want you to own their problems without giving you the power to fix them. They need board deck fodder. A line item that shows they're "doing something" about their broken GTM.

Meanwhile you're writing strategies nobody reads. Running workshops nobody implements. Sending Slack messages into the void.

I spent six months doing this once. Made great money. Delivered zero impact.

Know what that does to you?

Makes you feel like a fraud.

Because you are one.

You're not doing marketing. You're just billing hours.

These days I'm brutal about qualification.

Not "do they have budget?"

But "will they actually do the work?"

Big difference.

The clients I work with now pay less. But every single week something ships. Something changes. Something moves forward.

Real campaigns launch. Real pipeline gets built. Real revenue happens.

I can point to actual stuff that happened because I showed up and did the work.

Not strategy decks. Not frameworks. Not advisory hours.

Just marketing that works.

That's worth more than any retainer.

I'm a marketer. I do marketing. If you're not ready for someone to actually get in your HubSpot and build things, I'm not your guy.

Even if you're waving $20K/month at me.

Your best business development strategy isn't saying yes to everything.

It's saying no to the wrong things.

Especially when they pay well.

85% of people who find me come through comments.

Not my posts.

Comments.

While everyone's fighting for homepage visibility, I'm pulling 200-300k impressions weekly from other people's content.

One comment yesterday: 43,647 impressions. In less than 24 hours.

My average post? 2-3k impressions. (Thanks algorithm for showing my content to my mom and 12 other people. Used to drive a million impressions monthly.)

The math is embarrassing.

Most creators are still focused on just posting. Maybe that works for them.

But I'm dropping 25-50 comments daily. Sometimes more when I'm procrastinating on client work.

Here's what actually works:

𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗽 (6:30-7:00𝗮𝗺... 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 7:30):
This is where 80% of my comments happen. Like 20-30 of them.
Coffee in hand. Kids still asleep. Rapid fire through my feed.
Being first matters. Algorithm loves early engagement.

𝗟𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗥𝘂𝗻 (𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗮𝘁):
Hunt for posts with 50+ reactions in first hour.
These are taking off. Jump on.

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗽 (𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗸𝗶𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗱):
Find high-engagement posts with barely any comments.
This is where those random 40k+ impression comments happen.

What actually moves the needle:
- Tell a story that proves (or destroys) their point
- Share data they missed
- Ask the question everyone's thinking
- Be funny when everyone else is being LinkedIn-serious

That 43k impression comment? 

Someone posted about annual planning being like psychics who specialize in ARR.

I hit them with the below image you see. 

Just dumb enough to be memorable. My DMs exploded.

One comment.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁:

Posts are your brand foundation. Cool.

But comments? Comments are where the actual humans are.

While everyone else is crafting the perfect hook hoping the algorithm gods smile upon them, you're just... showing up where people already are.

Some comments hit 40k+ impressions. Most get like a few hundred. A bunch gets thousands.

But when you're dropping 25-50 daily? It adds up stupid fast.

85% of people who find me? Found me arguing with someone in a comment thread. Or making a dumb joke. Or sharing actual data when everyone else was guessing.

Your next client isn't refreshing their homepage waiting for your perfect post.

They're deep in someone else's comments right now.

Go find them.

I'm 38 and still don't have it figured out.

About to turn 39 in January. And you know what? I'm done pretending that's a problem.

Here's what timeline pressure really is:

It's your dad asking when you'll get a "real job" at Thanksgiving. It's scrolling LinkedIn at 11pm seeing someone younger announce their Series B. It's that voice at 2am whispering you should be further along by now.

It's fear dressed up as ambition.

I spent my entire 30s racing against a clock that doesn't exist. Chasing titles I didn't even want. Comparing myself to people whose lives I wouldn't actually choose.

Know why we do this?

Because timeline pressure isn't about achievement. It's about approval.

We're not actually racing to success. We're racing to prove we're not failures. To our parents. To our high school classmates. To strangers on the internet who don't even know we exist.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗮𝗹:

Every "30 under 30" list is really saying you have an expiration date.

Every "I made VP at 28" post is really saying you're already too late.

Every "built three companies by 35" is really saying you're not trying hard enough.

But here's what I learned after three layoffs, a mental breakdown, and missing too many bedtimes:

The people creating these timelines? They're just as lost as you. They're just better at hiding it.

That 28-year-old VP? Anxiety medication and a therapist on speed dial.

That serial entrepreneur? Third marriage and kids who barely know them.

That overnight success? Ten years of invisible failures they'll never post about.

We're all performing success for an audience that's too busy performing their own success to even notice.

You know what I actually want at 38?

To do work I don't hate. Make enough money to not stress about groceries. Be home for dinner. Watch my kids grow up. Maybe take a vacation without my laptop.

That's it. That's the dream.

Not VP by 40. Not a million by 45. Not whatever milestone LinkedIn decided matters this week.

Just... a good life. With people I love. Doing work that matters to someone.

The timeline isn't just a lie.

It's a trap that makes you miss your actual life while chasing someone else's definition of success.

I'm 38. Almost 39. And I finally get it:

There is no behind. There is no ahead.

There's just now. And whether you're living your life or performing it.

8 things I'm thankful for this year:

1. Clients who don't need 62 slides to make a decision.

The ones who've been reading my stuff for years and just want to get started. No discovery deck. No stakeholder alignment. Just people who trust me to fix their broken GTM.

2. My 4pm hard stop.

Three kids who don't care about my pipeline metrics. They just want snacks and someone to blame for the mess they definitely didn't make.

Best daily reminder that none of this matters as much as we pretend it does.

3. Building something my kids can be proud of.

I grew up watching my parents grind themselves into the ground. 60-hour weeks were normal. Being present was optional.

My kids see me close the laptop at 4. They see me say no to calls during dinner. They see work has boundaries.

That's the real legacy I'm building.

4. The lurkers.

55,000 followers. Maybe 200 who actually comment. The rest of you have been here since 2020. Just... watching.

You're weird. But you're my weird. And half my business comes from you finally DMing after 3 years.

5. Bad clients who taught me good lessons.

The ones who wanted me to own their problems without power to fix them. Who paid well but made me feel like a fraud.

They taught me that $20K/month from the wrong client costs more than it pays.

6. Constraints that forced clarity.

Not having unlimited budget. Or time. Or resources. Because when you can't do everything, you get brilliant at the right things.

My best work happens before 4pm. Because it has to.

7. Actually doing marketing.

Not strategy decks. Not frameworks. Just stuff that ships and drives pipeline.

With people who get that simple beats complex. That done beats perfect. That showing up beats showing off.

8. Teaching my kids that success isn't about the hustle.

It's about knowing when to close the laptop. When to say no. When enough is enough.

Working from home means they see it all. The wins, the frustrations, the actual work. But mostly they see that dad's office door opens at 4pm. Every day.

Maybe they'll grow up thinking balance is normal. Not something you figure out after burning out three times.

That'd be worth more than any exit.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone trying to build something better than what we inherited.

For our kids. For ourselves. For the people counting on us to show up as whole humans, not just productivity machines.

We made it. Somehow.

I hired someone from Google once. They lasted 3 months.

Not because they were bad.

Because I hired a logo instead of a marketer.

Here's the thing about hiring:

Most companies get starstruck by the wrong stuff.

They see "Ex-Meta" or "10 years in SaaS" and stop thinking.

Like those brands are some guarantee of performance.

They're not.

I've made every hiring mistake possible. 
Hired for pedigree. Hired for industry experience. Hired for culture fit.

And missed the only things that actually matter.

Here's what I look for now:

➜ Show me what you shipped, not where you worked
I don't care if you were at Amazon.
I care what you actually built there.

One candidate showed me a campaign that generated $2M in pipeline.
At a 50-person startup nobody heard of.

Guess who got the job.

➜ Tell me about a time you had no budget
Big company marketers often struggle at startups.

Why?

They're used to throwing money at problems.

The best marketers I know can drive results with $500 and some duct tape.

If they've never had to get scrappy, they'll struggle when resources get tight.

➜ Walk me through your biggest failure
Not the humble brag version.
The real one.

The campaign that tanked.
The strategy that backfired.
The budget you burned.

Then tell me what you learned.

Because marketers who've never failed hard haven't pushed hard enough.

➜ Show me how you think, not what you know
I gave every candidate the same exercise (paid ofc lol because it's silly to require people to do unpaid work):

"Our pipeline is down 30%. You have 90 days and $50K. What's your plan?"

The best answers aren't perfect.
They're thoughtful.

They ask smart questions.
They challenge assumptions.
They think in systems, not tactics.

➜ Prove you can move fast
Marketing moves at startup speed now.

Even at big companies.

If someone needs 6 meetings to make a decision, they're dead weight.

I look for people who shipped something last week.
Not last quarter.

The harsh truth?

Your industry experience is overrated.
Your big company background might be a liability.
Your certifications mean nothing if you can't ship.

What matters:

Results you can prove.
Problems you've solved.
Speed you can sustain.

Stop hiring resumes.

Start hiring proof.

20 year reunion tonight. Class of 2005.

We're old AF.

20 things from high school (2001-2005) my kids will never understand:

1. Burning the perfect mix CD. 3 hours for 18 songs to flow just right.

2. Your AIM away message being your entire personality. ~𝘉𝘳𝘉 𝘨𝘖𝘪𝘕𝘨 2 𝘵𝘏𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘓𝘓~

3. Waiting for your crush to sign on. That door opening sound still hits different.

4. Calling someones house and asking their parents if they were home. Pure terror.

5. T9 texting under your desk. Typing hey without looking: 4-4-3-3-9-9-9.

6. Racing home to catch TRL. Voting 100 times to keep your video at #1.

7. Downloading one song on Limewire. Three hours later: definitely wasnt a virus.

8. Your MySpace Top 8 causing actual drama. Moving someone from spot 3 to spot 7 = social murder.

9. Disposable cameras at school dances. Wait a week to see if any photos turned out. They didnt.

10. MapQuest directions printed out. Miss one turn and youre lost forever.

11. Blockbuster Friday nights. All the good movies gone.

12. Wearing your basketball shorts over your regular shorts. Fashion genius.

13. Popped collars. Sometimes two at once. Dark times.

14. CD player skipping every bump. AA batteries were currency.

15. Passing notes folded into impossible origami footballs.

16. LiveJournal posts that were just public therapy sessions.

17. Recording songs off the radio. DJ talking over the intro ruined EVERYTHING.

18. Razr flip phones. That satisfying SNAP when you hung up.

19. Facebook requiring a college email. So exclusive.

20. Actually wondering what people were up to. No updates. Just mystery.

My oldest thinks Im ancient.

Wait you couldnt just text them?
You had to REWIND movies?
The internet made noise?

They'll never know getting kicked offline because mom needed the phone.

Or fitting your whole life into 160 characters.

Or memorizing every word to that Eminem song because what else was there to do.

Tonight I'll see people I havent talked to since we thought Xanga was the future.

We'll pretend we havent been Facebook stalking for 15 years.

Someone will bring up that kid who burned a CD of just Who Let the Dogs Out 18 times.

We'll feel old as hell.

But man. Those were good times.

When social media meant writing on someones actual wall with a Sharpie.

When going viral meant everyone in third period knew by lunch.

When you had to actually show up to know what happened.

Class of 2005, we made it.

Even if our backs hurt now and we're in bed by 10.

No alternative text description for this image

Every CEO knows marketing takes 6 months to show results.

But they cut it anyway after sales complains on day 6.

I've watched this movie 100 times. Smart leaders making the same dumb mistake. Over and over.

The psychology behind it is brutal:

𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲.

Sales misses number today = immediate pain
Marketing investment pays off in 6 months = invisible gain

Your brain is wired to stop the bleeding NOW. Even when you know the tourniquet will kill you later.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗽.

Sales: "We need leads TODAY"
Board: "Why is pipeline down THIS QUARTER?"
CEO: "What can we cut THIS MONTH?"

Marketing ROI lives in the future. But pressure lives in the present.

When the house is on fire, nobody invests in smoke detectors.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀.

That deal that closed today? You think it was your killer sales team.

It was actually:
- The blog post from 8 months ago
- The webinar from 6 months ago  
- The customer story from 4 months ago
- The LinkedIn post from 2 months ago

But sales gets the credit. Marketing gets the cut.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀.

While you're cutting, your competition is doubling down.

They're playing the long game while you're playing quarter-to-quarter.

6 months from now they'll be eating your lunch. And you'll wonder why your "sales problem" got worse.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁.

Cut marketing for 3 months.
Takes 9 months to recover.

Not because marketing is slow. Because trust is.

Your audience stops seeing you. Forgets you exist. Moves on to whoever kept showing up.

And when you come back? You're starting from zero. While paying catch-up prices.

I watched a friend's company cut marketing (a year ago) in Q2 to "save" the year.

Q3: Pipeline dropped 40%
Q4: Panic hiring of BDRs
Q1: Emergency budget to "fix" marketing
Q2: Finally back to baseline

Cost of the "savings": $2.3M in lost revenue.

The solution isn't complex:

Treat marketing like you treat product development. Long-term investment. Compound returns.

You wouldn't stop building features because sales had a bad week.

Stop treating marketing like an expense you can pause.

It's compound interest on your revenue. And compound interest only works if you don't interrupt it.

Your empty pipeline next quarter is being built right now.

By the budget you're about to cut.

Buyers trust their network 5x more than they trust you.

Yet we still cold call and pray.

I mapped the people around every deal we closed. Same 4 types showed up every time.

Here's who actually influences your deals:

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 1: 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱

Stop focusing on the buyer. Look at who's around them:
- Current customers in their network
- Consultants they work with
- Peers at similar companies
- Former colleagues they trust

We found 73% of our deals had a customer whispering in their ear.

We just never knew it.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 2: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲𝘀

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 - Usually a current customer. They confirm you don't suck.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Consultant or advisor. They shape requirements (usually in your favor if you know them).

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗲𝗿 - Someone at a similar company who did what they're trying to do.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻'𝘀 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻 - Person your internal champion trusts most.

Find these four. Game changes.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 3: 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁

Before you pitch:
- Ask your customers who else they know at target account
- Check LinkedIn for mutual connections
- See which consultants work with them
- Find the Slack groups they're in

One deal: Found out prospect's advisor was our customer.

One intro. Deal closed in 2 weeks.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 4: 𝗔𝗿𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱

Give these people:
- Stories to share
- Data to reference
- Intros to make
- Reasons to mention you

We created a "customer council" just so they'd know each other.

Now they sell for us without us asking.

Deals through network: 67% close rate.
Cold outreach: 2% close rate.

Stop selling to people.

Start selling through people.

20 things nobody tells you about being a terrible leader:

1. Hired someone toxic because they were brilliant. Kept them 8 months. Two people quit. Should've fired them week 3.

2. Your team knows when you're lying. Told mine everything was fine two weeks before layoffs. Trust never came back.

3. We're a family is BS. Families don't fire you when revenue drops.

4. Made my team work all weekend on a deck the CEO looked at for 90 seconds. That's when I learned to push back.

5. Your best performer will ghost you if you ignore them. Lost my best marketer this way. Still think about it.

6. CC'ing someone's boss just tells everyone you can't have real conversations.

7. 30 minute 1:1s are useless. Nothing real happens until minute 45.

8. Gave an all hands where I talked for 50 minutes straight. Someone actually timed it.

9. Promoting your best IC to manager usually ends badly. Different skills entirely.

10. Used to rewrite everything my team wrote. They stopped trying. Just waited for me to do it.

11. Your open door policy is meaningless if you're in meetings all day.

12. Brutal honesty without empathy is just being a jerk.

13. Remote teams need MORE connection not less. Real conversations. Not virtual happy hours.

14. Every pointless meeting costs 2 hours. The meeting plus getting back into deep work.

15. We need to move fast usually means I didn't plan and now it's your emergency.

16. Taking credit for your team's wins feels good for one week. Then they start interviewing.

17. Your weakest performer shows everyone what you'll accept.

18. First time I said I don't know what do you think everything changed.

19. If you're not uncomfortable weekly you're avoiding conversations that matter.

20. That person you can't lose? Already interviewing. Because you assumed they'd stay instead of earning it.

The difference between terrible leaders and good ones?

Terrible leaders pretend they never screwed up.
Good leaders tell you exactly how.

I've been awful at this. Multiple times. With witnesses.

But every time I admitted it my next team trusted me more.

Not because I got better.
Because I was honest about being bad at it.

Your early career disasters aren't failures.
They're your real education.

The only failure is pretending you were good from day one.

Nobody was. Especially not that VP you think has it all figured out.

Most buyer personas are complete garbage.

62 slides of demographics that help nobody.

"Decision makers aged 35-45 with MBAs who value efficiency."

That's literally half of LinkedIn. Your sales team still can't book a meeting.

Know why? Because knowing someone went to business school doesn't help you connect with them.

Here's what actually works:

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 1: 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗰𝘀 

Stop caring about age. Education. Years of experience.

Start mapping what matters:
- The problem that makes them search for solutions at 2am
- Which 3 Slack communities they live in (get the actual names)
- Who they trust for advice (hint: not you)

Pull your last 20 closed deals. Call them. Ask these exact questions.

The answers will shock you.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 2: 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀 

Traditional persona: "Values ROI and efficiency"

Real persona: "Terrified the board discovers our tech stack is duct tape"

Document the real stuff:
- What failure looks like for THEM (not the company)
- What success means (promotion? respect? sleep?)
- Exact words they use when complaining

We discovered every buyer said "drowning in tools."

Changed our entire messaging. Conversions tripled.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 3: 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲𝘀

Sounds old school but it works.

D types: Send ROI data. 3 bullets. No fluff.
I types: Send success stories. Name drop.
S types: Send case studies. Go slow.
C types: Send ALL the documentation.

Trained SDRs on this. Demo rates jumped from 12% to 47%.

Same list. Same product. 

Just actually knowing who we're talking to.

Bottom line: Stop documenting what people look like. Start understanding what keeps them up at night.

Then help them sleep better.

We had every data signal imaginable. Our SDRs still couldn't book meetings.

CRM data? Check.
Intent signals? Check.
Usage analytics? Check.
Social activity feeds? Check.

47 different data sources telling us who to target.

Zero clarity on what to actually say to them.

One rep literally had 14 tabs open trying to piece together a single outreach message.

For a $250K opportunity.

Took him 37 minutes to write 4 sentences.

The prospect never responded.

I couldn't blame him.

We'd given him data overload, not intelligence.

So we built something different.

Fed all those signals into one AI model trained on:
- Our exact ICP parameters (not generic B2B)
- Our specific value props by persona
- Our actual customer language from closed-won deals

Now when a signal fires:

AI generates the message in 8 seconds.
Not generic "I noticed you visited our website" garbage.
But "Saw your team just expanded by 40% - that usually means [specific challenge we solve]."

Personalized to their exact moment.
In our voice.
Through their preferred channel.

Old way: 37 minutes per message. 2% reply rate.
New way: 8 seconds per message. 18% reply rate.

Our SDRs went from sending 15 messages a day to 150.

With 9x better response rates.

Not because they got better at writing.

Because we stopped making them cosplay as data scientists.

The truth about AI in GTM?

Generic AI is worthless.
"Personalization at scale" is an oxymoron.

But AI trained on YOUR:
- ICP patterns
- Messaging frameworks  
- Customer language
- Conversion data

That's not artificial intelligence.

That's amplified intelligence.

And it's exactly what Common Room enables with RoomieAI Spark.

Your data. Your voice. Your way.

Not another generic AI tool.

A GTM motion that actually sounds like you.

Just 100x faster.

#CommonRoomPartner

Having 3 kids completely changed how I work.

And doubled my output.

Every day at 4pm, I close my laptop.

Childcare ends. Three kids. Just how it worked out.

You'd think that would limit what I could build.

Instead, I'm working on the best projects of my career.

Here's what nobody tells you about constraints: They don't shrink your impact. They multiply it.

Before kids: I was the guy who'd take any meeting. 7am? Sure. 6pm on Friday? Why not. Weekend strategy session? I'll bring coffee.

Now: 4pm hard stop.

No explanation. No apology.

Just "Gotta run."

You know what happened?

I started shipping twice as much.

Because those constraints forced me to figure out what actually drives results.

Used to spend 3 hours going back and forth on a strategy doc. Now I write it in one pass and ship it. Done.

That "let's brainstorm" meeting that always ran over? Killed it. Send me your ideas in Slack. I'll tell you which ones we're doing.

Those "quick syncs" everyone loves? Dead. If it's not worth a real meeting, it's an email.

Actually, it's probably not even an email.

I work on more interesting projects now than I ever did with unlimited time.

Why?

Because I can't afford to waste a single hour on nonsense.

No politics. No process for process sake. No meetings about meetings.

Just pure execution on stuff that matters.

Maybe once or twice a week I'll jump back online at 9pm after bedtime. Handle whatever needs handling. Usually takes 30 minutes.

But that's strategic, not reactive.

My clients don't hire me for my availability.

They hire me for my clarity.

When you work till 4 you get crystal clear on what moves the needle.

When you can't do everything, you get brilliant at the right things.

I'm working with companies I couldn't have dreamed of two years ago.

Building strategies that actually ship.
Creating content that drives real pipeline.
Fixing GTM problems everyone else just talks about.

All before 4pm.

Because at 4pm sharp, someone needs a snack, someone needs homework help, and someone definitely needs a bath because... I don't even know what that is on their face.

And honestly?

That mystery substance is usually the highlight of my day.

The old me thought success meant being always on. Thought I was crushing it because I answered Slacks at 10pm.

What was I even doing?

The new me knows success means being fully present.

Present for the work that matters.
Present for the people who matter.

No overlap. No guilt. No compromise.

Okay, sometimes guilt. Like when I'm on a call and hear absolute chaos upstairs. But whatever.

Having 3 kids didn't limit my career.

It taught me what a career should actually look like.

And it looks nothing like what I thought it would.

Friend called me last week. Their outbound is completely broken.

200 emails per rep daily. 1% replies. Zero meetings.

Asked him to do something simple. Search your dream account in your CRM. How many contacts?

47 people from one company.

Count how many have the same first name.

Long pause.

Their CMO was in there 11 times.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗸𝘀:

You literally don't know who you're emailing.

That CMO? Your team hit him 30+ times this quarter. Different reps. Different pitches. Like some vendor with multiple personalities.

Meanwhile Sarah from accounting who could actually champion your deal? Zero outreach. She's listed as s.johnson@ and your SDR searched for Sarah.

Your CRM:
- Emails from 2019
- Personal gmails from webinars
- Job changes nobody tracked
- Same person marked as prospect AND churned

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝘅𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀:

Common Room's Person360.

One profile per human. Not per email. Per actual person.

It connects:
- All their emails across companies
- LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub
- Which Slack communities they're in
- Job changes in real-time

Instead of 11 confused records, you get ONE view:
- He only uses LinkedIn DMs
- He's in your RevOps Slack
- Posted about your use case last week
- Already uses your competitor

Current enrichment tools: 20-30% match rates
Person360: 30-50%

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗵:

You think you have 10,000 contacts.
Actually 4,000 humans.
Emailing 2,000 multiple times.
Missing 2,000 entirely.

My friend found 3,000+ duplicates. Cleaned it up with Person360.

Same team. Same budget. 3x meetings in 60 days.

Not because he got better at email. Because he stopped sending 5 emails to the same CMO while missing the actual decision maker.

Before you buy another tool, fix your identity layer.

Common Room gets this. That's why Person360 is the foundation.

Your CRM is lying about who your contacts are.

Check your top account right now. Count the duplicates.

Then fix it.

#CommonRoomPartner

We rolled out new pricing that should've doubled deal velocity.

A week later, reps were still pitching the old prices.

Not because they missed the email.

Because finding the new pricing meant:
- Digging through 3 Slack channels
- Opening 2 Notion docs
- Navigating a 17-tab spreadsheet

One rep literally asked a prospect to wait while he searched for the right number.

On a $180K deal.

The prospect hung up.

I wanted to scream.

But honestly? I couldn't blame the rep.

I'd buried critical information in a scavenger hunt.

And expected him to find it mid-pitch.

That's when we implemented Tango.

Now when we update pricing:

Click through the new model once.
Tango captures it.
Lives right inside Salesforce.

Rep opens an opp? New pricing is there.
Builds a quote? The process guides them.
No searching. No guessing. No "hold on, let me find that."

Old way: 3 weeks for adoption.
With Tango: 48 hours.

In Q4, we changed pricing 3 times.

Each time, instant adoption.

Not because we trained better.

Because we stopped making reps think.

The right information just appears when they need it.

That's not enablement.

That's automation.

And it's exactly what sales teams need.

Stop making reps hunt for information.

Start putting it where they already are.

Tango → tango.ai

#TangoPartner

B2B marketers don't fail at ABM because they lack data.

They fail because they forget buyers are human.

I watched a team spend $400K on intent data platforms last year. They knew exactly which accounts were showing buying signals. Had all the tech stack anyone could want.

Six months later? Zero pipeline from their ABM program.

I remember sitting in their QBR thinking, what the hell went wrong?

They'd done everything by the book. Premium tools. Clean data. Account scores updated daily.

But they treated those accounts like logos on a spreadsheet. Not buildings full of people trying to solve actual problems before their boss asks why nothing's working.

Look, I get it. We love our tech stacks. Drop six figures on ABM platforms and feel like we've accomplished something. But buying the Ferrari doesn't mean you know how to drive it.

And slapping someone's name on a PDF isn't personalization. Neither is changing the logo on your landing page. I've watched reps send "personalized" emails that were just mail merge fields. Buyers see right through that crap.

The worst part? Marketing runs these elaborate ABM plays while sales is doing their own thing. I've seen this movie a hundred times. Marketing celebrates engagement metrics. Sales ignores the leads. Everyone points fingers at the quarterly review.

One team I worked with started with 500 target accounts. FIVE HUNDRED. They had generic plays, spray-and-pray outreach, zero focus. By month three they couldn't even remember why half the accounts were on the list.

You know what actually worked?

Starting with 5 accounts. Actually talking to people at those companies. Understanding what triggered their search. What would make their CFO approve budget. What internal battles they were fighting.

Then building moments that mattered to those specific humans.

Not impressions. Not awareness campaigns. Not another bloody nurture sequence.

Real conversations about real problems.

ABM isn't about the accounts you target.

It's about understanding why those accounts would ever give a damn about you.

That's not a tech problem. That's a behavior problem.

And until you solve for that, you're just another marketer with an expensive list of logos and a pipeline that won't budge.

Stop chasing accounts.

Start understanding the humans inside them.

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