John Barrows

JB Sales

I don’t waste time on sales training that never gets used. I help sales teams and individual reps improve where it counts. They develop real sales skills, follow a clear sales process, and close more business. My sales training is blunt, practical, and proven because sales is about results, not fluff.

I have worked in the trenches as a sales trainer with teams at companies like LinkedIn and Salesforce, helping them sharpen how they sell. I know what does not work. Scripts, gimmicks, and long-winded pitches. I teach what does. Simple, repeatable steps. Real conversations that move deals forward. Sales skills your team can use right away.

The sales training programs I deliver are built around your reality, your buyers, your team, and your pipeline. No gimmicks. No jargon. Just tested strategies that keep deals moving and help people buy from people.

If you are looking for a sales trainer who tells it like it is and a sales training program that actually improves how your team sells, let’s connect. I will show you how to build sales skills and a sales process that actually works.

GTMfund

Most funds just write checks. I roll up my sleeves. As a Limited Partner at GTMfund, I work directly with SaaS founders to help them build go-to-market strategies that actually work. I bring years of experience running sales training programs and building repeatable revenue systems that teams can execute with confidence.

I coach founders on designing the right sales training for their teams, creating playbooks, and delivering sales courses that strengthen sales skills across the board. I act as a sales trainer, a sales coach, and a trusted advisor, helping them simplify the sales process, hire effectively, and build the kind of sales training programs and coaching frameworks that scale.

At GTMfund, we back companies that care about selling the right way from day one. No hacks. No shortcuts. Just consistent pipeline, strong buyer relationships, and internal clarity. I stay engaged through quarterly syncs, deal flow reviews, and community panels, making sure founders have the sales training courses, systems, and support they need to grow the right way.

This role keeps me close to the front lines of how modern SaaS companies scale and gives me a way to give back by helping the next generation of founders build the skills, processes, and programs that actually deliver results.

Limited Partner

Sales Community

This is not another networking group full of theory and noise. Sales Community is where GTM operators, sales reps, and leaders come together to focus on what works and what to avoid. As an Advisory Board Member, I help keep the conversation grounded in execution, ethical selling, and enablement programs that actually deliver.

I bring my perspective as a sales trainer and sales coach to help members simplify the sales process, strengthen their sales skills, and build sales training programs that produce measurable results. We tackle hard topics including buyer trends, pipeline pressure, leadership burnout, and bloated tech stacks. I make sure the discussion always cuts through the noise and leads to actionable strategies that teams can apply immediately.

I contribute to events, roundtables, and panels on outbound strategy, coaching cadence, and SaaS sales leadership. My work helps members design impactful sales courses, scale sales training programs, and build coaching systems that improve team performance and confidence.

Serving here allows me to give back to a community of high-integrity sales professionals by helping them sharpen their sales skills, master the sales process, and lead their teams with clarity and results.

Advisory Board Member

The Jack Welch Management Institute

I worked directly with Jack and Suzy Welch to help launch the Jack Welch Management Institute MBA program. They brought me in to build the go-to-market plan and enrollment sales strategy from scratch. This was a blank slate. My role was to establish a sales training program, develop the sales process, and coach the admissions team to produce measurable pipeline.

I embedded with the internal team as a sales trainer and sales coach. I designed the first sales training courses and created a sales manual that became the backbone of their admissions playbook. We focused on strengthening sales skills, building confidence in the sales process, and testing outbound messaging that connected with ambitious working professionals.

I supported event strategy and enterprise partnerships to help move intent-based leads through a higher-consideration education sale. We applied narrative-based selling, buyer mindset frameworks, and credibility sequencing to keep the approach authentic and effective.

This project laid the foundation for JWMI’s growth model. Even in a short time, it proved how the right sales training courses, coaching, and process clarity can transform a team. To this day, I still draw on what we built here whenever I think about positioning and persuasion in high-trust verticals like education and leadership development.

VP of Global Market Development (Consultant)

Basho Technologies

As Director of Sales & Training at Basho Technologies, I delivered enterprise-level sales training programs and brought new business into the firm by helping Fortune 1000 sales teams execute with discipline and earn trust faster. My mandate was clear: scale Basho’s methodology into global organizations and prove its impact where it mattered most.

I worked as both a sales trainer and sales coach, embedding with sales teams across technology, pharmaceuticals, and financial services. I led sales training courses designed to strengthen sales skills, simplify the sales process, and build confidence for high-stakes boardroom conversations. We drove measurable improvements in qualification rigor, pipeline forecasting, and buyer engagement by giving teams a clear, actionable playbook.

Internally, I developed curriculum and refined our sales training programs based on field feedback and client results. I collaborated with leadership to test outbound strategies, improve coaching cadence, and enhance sales training courses so they reflected what actually resonated with senior buyers.

This role proved to me that repeatable success comes from clarity, coaching, and execution — not theory. The frameworks I helped deliver at Basho still drive results today, shaping how I design sales training programs, lead sales courses, and coach teams to outperform expectations in any market.

Director of Sales & Training

Thrive Networks

I joined Thrive Networks as employee number five and helped grow it from a scrappy startup to an 85-person company that Staples acquired. As Vice President of Sales & Marketing, I owned all revenue. I carried a quota, built the sales team, and developed partner channels while turning our services into a recurring revenue engine.

I built sales training programs from scratch to strengthen sales skills and teach reps how to simplify the sales process. I worked hands-on as a sales trainer and sales coach, running sales training courses for new hires and embedding coaching into our daily rhythm. My focus was making sure the team could actually execute — not just talk about it.

We grew revenue every year through direct sales, referral programs, and smart vertical plays. I aligned sales and marketing, launched campaigns that worked, and refined our message until it stuck. I made sure delivery always matched our promise and that our sales process stayed tight even as we scaled.

Thrive was named one of Boston’s fastest-growing companies and best places to work multiple years in a row. That didn’t happen by accident. We stayed gritty, trained our people right, and kept our edge by listening to customers and outworking the competition.

Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Xerox

At Xerox I sold tailored document solutions to state and local government clients. This was a crash course in complex sales cycles, procurement rules, and RFP execution. It was also where I learned how to navigate the politics and processes inside large institutions.

My focus was understanding workflows and identifying where print, scanning, and digitization tools could reduce costs and increase efficiency. I had to sell outcomes, not features. I partnered with procurement, IT, and compliance teams to get deals across the line.

It taught me patience, planning, and how to manage long sales cycles with multiple decision-makers. It was not glamorous, but it built the foundation for how I handle enterprise sales today. If you can win in government, you can win anywhere.

Sales Executive

DEWALT

I cut my teeth at DeWalt running live demos and driving sales in big-box stores like Home Depot. I built and led the first event marketing team in Boston, making sure customers saw, touched, and bought our products on the spot. It was fast-paced, gritty, and all about showing up ready to win.

I designed campaigns that moved market share and trained reps to run demos that actually worked. I wrote quick sales training programs, acted as a sales trainer and sales coach, and ran sales training courses on the floor to sharpen sales skills and tighten the sales process. Every shift was about execution.

That hustle got me promoted into the Black & Decker sales team where I managed the third-largest territory in the country. The stakes were higher, and the stage was bigger. I kept the same mindset and continued to build sales training programs, lead sales courses, and coach reps to deliver under pressure.

Those early lessons stuck. Hustle. Consistency. Face-to-face execution. Even now, I use what I learned at DeWalt to design sales training programs, lead sales courses, and coach teams that perform when it counts.

Sales/Event Marketing Specialist

Elevating The People & Profession of Sales

I have been in sales for over 25 years. I have made 400 cold calls a week, led a startup to acquisition, and trained some of the best-performing teams at Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Okta. Through JB Sales I teach practical sales execution rooted in real-world experience.

My work focuses on performance. I deliver live workshops, on-demand training, and coaching to help reps fill pipeline, close deals, and build buyer trust. I created Filling the Funnel and Driving to Close for reps and managers who want systems that convert.

I work with SaaS companies, agencies, and professional services teams that want to scale ethically and efficiently. My podcast Make It Happen Mondays has over 100,000 listeners and brings weekly strategy and tactics for sales pros looking to level up fast.

I speak on stage, coach in the trenches, and push for better execution across the board. Topics I cover include outbound frameworks, sales leadership, pipeline velocity, and GTM enablement in an AI-driven environment. I also share openly about mindset, mental health, and managing pressure in this career.

I live in Boston but work globally. I am here to raise the bar for sales and help professionals build careers they are proud of. If that mission speaks to you, let's connect.

My "Why" is to elevate the people and profession of Sales by sharing my earned experience with anyone willing to put in the work so they can achieve whatever level of freedom and success they want in life.

I've delivered my two Signature training programs (Filling the Funnel and Driving to Close) to thousands of Sales professionals at some of the fastest growing companies in the world like Salesforce, Linkedin, Amazon, Okta, Salesloft and many others. 

My membership provides individuals and teams with live monthly training (delivered by me) along with workshops, AMAs and an OnDemand library filled with actionable tips.

None of us have all the answers and things are moving too fast right now for any of us to try and figure it all out on our own.  We need to get back to fundamentals while learning how to evolve and where to add value in this new world of AI. 

If you're willing to put in the work and want to elevate yourself, along with this profession, come join me on this ride.

Sales Trainer & Coach | Building Sales Skills & Sales Process | Sales Training Courses & Programs That Deliver

“Why have we made it this hard?"
"Why have we not thought about the buyer and put them at the center of the experience?”

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Predictable Revenue (segmentation of roles) WAS great for us as companies to scale our sales teams  but it was NEVER a customer centric way of selling?

This is what I dove into with 🎺 Rory Sadler on this week's episode of the Make it Happen Monday podcast. 

Buyers have all the power now. The sales process? Full of friction, too many handoffs, repeated and/or irrelevant questions and almost no personalization.

And guess what’s killing deals? Indecision. 

Not price. Not competition. Just an overwhelmed buyer who doesn’t have time to figure out your product or how to sell it internally.

Here’s what’s shifting fast:
 • The old playbook (predictable revenue, handoffs, stages) is crumbling.
 • Buyers want answers now, not a meeting in two weeks.
 • Sales reps need to bring value every single interaction.
 • Mutual action plans and buyer enablement aren’t “nice to have.” They’re deal savers.
 • Reps who don’t prep, personalize, and guide the buyer? You’re irrelevant.

It’s not about what you sell anymore. It’s how you sell. The experience is the differentiator.

This conversation with Rory breaks down how sales needs to evolve and how reps can step up and win by making the process feel easy, personalized, and valuable.

Are you selling like it’s 2025 or still running the 2010 playbook?

Tell me you don’t travel a lot without telling me you travel a lot. 

I’ll start…

How do you deal with a client who tries to entice you with the promise of future business (non-contractual) in return for a discount on the initial engagement?

You know the ones. 

During the negotiation for the initial deal they ask for a discount and tell you "if this goes well, we'll definitely do more with you in the future."

I can maybe count on one hand in my career the amount of times that has panned out.

I have my thoughts and approaches on how I deal with this but I'm curious what you all think and how you deal with this.

Timing is everything when it comes to effective prospecting. 

In more ways than one.
  
I used to spend 30 minutes prospecting each lead:  
  -  Find the right contact  
  -  Research their business  
  -  Look for a trigger  
  -  Write a custom email  
   
That’s all changed.  
   
With the new Sales Assistant from LinkedIn for Sales, I now do all of that in under 5 minutes.  
   
Here’s how it works:  

✅ You tell it what you sell and the accounts you care about 
✅ It builds a persona based on your ICP and starts surfacing leads at those accounts highlighting the ones most likely to convert 
✅ For each lead, it explains why they were selected 
✅ It maps the warmest path in, using your network 
✅ Then it helps you draft a first email you can use for an inmail or email 
   
With LinkedIn's Sales Assistant, you’re no longer guessing. You’re not digging through filters or sifting through accounts and leads to figure out if they’re a good fit.  
   
Sales Assistant serves the right leads, with context, timing, and a plan.  
   
It turns prospecting from a crawl to a sprint.  
   
If you're still doing it the old way, you're burning time you can't get back.  
   
If you want to try it you can join the waitlist here: https://lnkd.in/eZH46J2U   
   
How long does your prospecting process usually take per lead when doing high quality, personalized outreach? 
 
#ad #LinkedInPartner #SalesAssistant

Objection handling "techniques"? 

Give me a break. What are we in Sales 1985 all over again?

That's what I thought when I went to a training earlier in my career on these two topics. 

I went in with an open(ish) mind and with the mentality I always do when I go to training which is - what's one or two things I can take from this that will help me improve.

I had always "handled objections" earlier in my career but it was almost always reactive and based on my gut feeling. 

I had no approach, no strategy.

As the trainer, and now mentor, Jeff Hoffman went through the training and labeled the different techniques I started to recognize some of them and realize how I had been using them without even knowing it. 

Then it dawned on me that understanding the actual techniques would allow me to leverage them far more strategically and proactively.

My approach to objection handling flipped from being reactive to proactive and my results went to the next level. 

That's why I still train them as part of my Driving to Close program and will be running a free workshop sponsored by Otter.ai on Thursday, November 20th at 12:00pm EST.

If you want to be far more strategic and proactive with how you handle your objections you're not going to want to miss this one. 

https://lnkd.in/eBz6jfXZ

Demos suck, there I said it.
 
But they're one of the MOST important aspects of the sales process for your buyers. 
 
According to Gartner, interactive product demos are the most useful resource for B2B SaaS prospects. 
 
Where demos fail? 
 
Reps asking basic qualification questions and then jumping into their canned demo, going through every slide, pausing intermittently to say something meaningless like "does that make sense" and end by asking "do you have any questions."
 
No engagement, no customization, no value.
 
Let's be clear - NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE ENTIRE DEMO!!!
 
They only care about the part that is most relevant to them.
 
That's why I believe in the "Sell to the 20%" philosophy.
 
Think about any product you own or service you use. I almost guarantee you only use about 20% of whatever that product or service is (Your car, clothes, Excel, LinkedIn, Salesforce, etc.)
 
Because everyone only uses 20% of what they buy, that's how I believe people buy.
 
They only care about the things that are most relevant to them and their priorities.
 
That's what we need to focus on with our presentations if we want to differentiate our solutions and uncover/drive urgency.
 
That's why I've partnered with Consensus.
 
They help buyers figure out their own 20% before they even talk to you.
 
Every time a stakeholder hits the demo, Consensus personalizes what they see based on their role and priorities.
 
It’s like pre-discovery for everyone in the buying committee.
 
So instead of throwing everything at them, you deliver what they care about most automatically.
 
If you’re trying to break through the noise and shorten deal cycles, go check them out.
 
#MakeitHappen #Sponsor

Everyone talks about finding and using "trigger events" to personalize their prospecting efforts but does anyone really understand the "why" behind the trigger event?

Most don't. 

For instance, an M&A is a trigger event that many reps use but most of them have never been through an M&A in a leadership role and have no idea the phases businesses go through and what they need at each step. 

That's why their messaging falls flat. 

They don't have the business acumen to make the real/right connection. 

That's why I tell anyone who is looking to improve their sales results to improve their business acumen over any technique or tip I could ever teach them. 
I sat down to discuss this and a lot more with Lorenzo Bizzi on this week's episode of the Make it Happen Monday podcast. 

Lorenzo is an author, professor, and real-world business strategist who grew up in Italy, studied business at Bocconi University in Milan, and fell in love with blending theory and practice. 

He's now based on based in Los Angeles and teaches strategy at Cal State and trains CEOs across industries.

This conversation goes deep on one major idea: Sales is applied strategy.

Most reps are taught tactics, scripts, subject lines, cadences, etc but they miss the big picture: how business works. 

And without business acumen, tactics fall flat. Lorenzo argues that if you want to be taken seriously, you don’t just need to sound credible. You need to be credible.

95% of AI initiatives fail.

That stat comes from MIT research. And most people assume it’s because the AI isn’t good enough yet.

I used to think AI would fix the bad data problem. That it could come in, clean up the mess, and make sense of it all.

But the reality? It’s more “garbage in, garbage out” than ever.

I’ve seen companies pour resources into AI tools, only to watch them flop. Not because the tech was wrong. But because the foundation was cracked with bad inputs, disconnected systems, and no governance.

ZoomInfo’s new AI Readiness Assessment cuts through that noise.

It’s a 2-minute tool built on MIT research and real customer patterns. It shows whether your GTM team is ready to actually use AI or if you need to fix your fundamentals first.

Here’s what it reveals:

• Where your data strategy is holding you back
• How your org stacks up on readiness, from Foundation to Leader
• What to fix before you waste another dollar chasing “AI transformation”

If your team is pushing AI without checking the engine underneath, this is your wake-up call.

Take the AI Readiness Assessment now: 

https://lnkd.in/eBnqMiRZ

Clay

Leading the business teams at Clay. 

We are building a complete GTM development environment where teams can turn any growth idea into reality. We serve more than 10,000 customers — including OpenAI, Canva, Google and Anthropic.

Co-Founder & Head of Operations

89 Christopher

89 Christopher is a $2M fund backed by Sequoia Capital and Bloomberg Beta. I started this fund with my best friend Nitin Gupta because we wanted to work together on something, thought this would be fun, and knew we could help founders.

Our fund is named after the address of our 300 sq. ft, 6th floor walkup, shoebox apartment we shared in New York when we were 22. It was in this apartment where we began our journeys working in the startup ecosystem. 

We can uniquely solve a handful of important problems all companies face: 

Compensation: Nitin built the benchmarking product at Pave and is the first call for dozens of founders when it comes to employee + executive compensation. 

GTM: Clay operates at the edge of all things GTM and having built all the business functions at Clay from scratch, I help founders with tactical advice on hiring, marketing, sales, team structure, planning, etc.

General Partner

Newfront

When Newfront merged with ABD, I managed the integration and developed the initial product roadmap/strategy post-merger for the employee benefits, 401k, and wholesale teams (>$100mm in revenue).

Director of Operations

When I was hired, Newfront was a fast-growing, tech-enabled insurance brokerage startup focused on P&C insurance. They wanted to expand to employee benefits, and I built and led that business unit from scratch to tens of millions in revenue.

GM, Employee Benefits/Health Insurance Business

Candid™

When I was hired, Candid had an e-commerce business and wanted to start a retail operation. My job was to build as many stores as possible, as quickly as possible. Of course, I had no experience in retail, site selection, real estate negotiations, store design or construction. But I learned quickly. 

We went from 0 to 27 retail stores in 20+ markets in 14 months, which drove more than 60% of Candid's revenue. Ultimately the business struggled with its unit economics, but I had a great time, grew a lot and met some amazing people.

Head of Expansion

Google

As many of you know, the Clinton campaign lost in 2016. I was surprised, confused and poor. I somehow got this job, via cold email per usual. I thought it would be a good fit because it was at the intersection of geopolitics which I knew and liked, and technology which I didn't know but thought I might like.

Long story short, it wasn't for me. I didn't feel challenged and struggled with the usual big company things. I used my extra time to intern at nights as a prep cook at the restaurant Dirt Candy for a few months, but then I met my now-wife and wanted to spend time with her :)

I was fortunate that my best friend and roommate was a VC and introduced me to the world of startups, which felt surprisingly similar to political campaigns. After the 2016 loss, I wanted to learn how businesses work and develop tangible skillsets. I knew that I learned best by doing, and felt a startup was the right place to do so.

Special Projects & Communications (Jigsaw @ Google)

Hillary for America

Traveled with Secretary Clinton throughout the general election — serving as a deputy to our traveling communications director, managing the 60+ traveling press corps and executing on communications crises as they arose (frequently!).

Traveling Press Aide

Served as the principal spokesman for Hillary Clinton during the South Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey primaries. Developed and executed a comprehensive press and earned media strategy — including TV, newspaper, and radio — for Clinton and high-profile surrogates across the four states.

Won South Carolina by 48 points
Won Florida by 31 points
Won Pennsylvania by 12 points
Won New Jersey by 27 points

Statewide Press Secretary

Special Assistant to Communications Director

Office of Hillary Rodham Clinton

When I was 18 I was singularly focused on politics and passionate about Hillary Clinton. I wanted to work for her, so I cold emailed her top advisor 10 times. Eventually he responded and begrudgingly agreed to meet for coffee. But before he went downstairs, he asked his assistant to interrupt in 5 minutes because he correctly diagnosed that I was "a crazy kid." In any event, the first 5 minutes went so well that I got the job. To this day, working for Hillary Clinton was one of the great adventures of my life.

Communications

Varun Anand

I asked our Head of Finance if I could spend $60,000 to take five enterprise CRO prospects to the Super Bowl. He did the ROI math and it's not looking good for me.

Karan Parekh actually walked me through the numbers on camera - deal size requirements, probability lift benchmarks, estimated ROI, and why our bet at the US Open was 10x smarter.

Some of what we get into:
- How to calculate the real cost per ticket 
- Why a 15-20% increase in close probability on even $400k ACV deals doesn't justify the spend
- My land-and-expand counterargument (which I thought would win him over)
- Our portfolio approach to event marketing budgets and when we measure individual bets vs signal for scaling

In the end, Karan gives a surprising reason why even if all five CROs convert, the Super Bowl isn't worth the $.

This type of conversation happens every day at Clay. It's how we balance making aggressive creative bets with financial discipline. Whether we're debating a $5k executive dinner or 50-yard-line seats at the most expensive sporting event on earth, Karan's reasoning is keeping us honest.

Yes, he just killed my Super Bowl dreams. But he is (probably) right!

P.S. My schedule just freed up for February 8th, 2026. If anyone is looking for a +1 to the Super Bowl, DM me.

P.P.S. Any other marketing questions you want us to debate? Drop them below👇

This year Clay invested over $1m in billboards.

That kind of marketing spend without clear ROI makes finance people nervous.

But we make a TON of marketing bets like this at Clay, big and small. So here's a look into how Karan Parekh, our Head of Finance, guides our marketing motion without demanding perfect attribution and killing our creativity.

Some of what we cover:
- How brand and performance marketing are linked and why B2B companies invest in brand too late 
- How we use attribution modeling, customer-defined attribution, and incrementality analysis to measure the unmeasurable 
- What marketing works as you move from Series A to scale-up to public company (and why Figma nailed it) 
- Guerilla marketing tactics from Clay's early pre-PMF days

At the end, we share the strategy behind our recent billboard campaign and real examples of how we're measuring impact and ROI. 

Karan is brilliant and I'm very excited for more of the world to get to know him. Anything you want us to discuss next? Let us know! 👇

P.S. We have no idea the ROI of this video.

Next week I am kicking off a 3 week European tour.

Why? Because Clay is expanding to Europe!

This is a MASSIVE market opportunity for us. Europe is already 20% of our revenue and we only have a tiny but mighty team on the ground. That changes now. We are actively hiring for sales, success and support roles in London.

On this trip, I'll be hanging with users in every city, as well as speaking at Web Summit, Slush, and SaaStr AI, and meeting with founders and GTM teams at companies like Lovable, Legora, Miro and Granola. 

Here's my tour schedule:

- Lisbon (11/12 - 11/13)
- Amsterdam (11/14 - 11/15)
- Helsinki (11/19)
- Stockholm (11/20 - 11/23)
- London (11/25 - 12/2)

I am HYPED about connecting with Clay [Clubs] and kickstarting our European expansion. I'll be posting updates and learnings along the way, with plenty of selfies.

I'm hosting or attending 11 public events, I would love to meet you there.

Link to register (and full event schedule) in the comments. 👇

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Karan told me Clay was a terrible idea and I shouldn't work on it. Two years later, he quit his dream job to become our Head of Finance. The night before he accepted his offer, we shared a bed and bonded till 3am. He was the last invite to my wedding. There were three emotional dinners every time he failed to give his notice. This is the story of how I recruited him:

In 2023, Karan had the perfect setup as a hedge fund manager. 9-5 hours, incredible pay, unbelievable culture and returns. And I was looking for the smartest person with a financial skillset who makes every decision better.

In this video, we tell the full story of how we found that person in Karan:

- Why I had him build our financial model as a "favor" when we didn't even know if our Stripe data was revenue or bookings
- The 3 times he said he'd give notice and couldn't pull the trigger (and the 3 intervention dinners I orchestrated with different teammates)
- What happened the night he slept over at my house before attempt #4 - shared bed, emotional wreck, late night pillow talk

I wanted to share how messy, long and emotional exec recruiting processes can be. And also show how wonderful they can feel when you get it right. The trust we have makes everything easier and faster, and it is SO MUCH FUN to work together. Even when we disagree, we resolve conflict almost instantly. I hope you see that energy in these videos, and find this for yourself too!

At Clay [Club] Amsterdam, a top-secret yacht broker to the rich and famous showed me a wild Clay use case I've never seen. He can't be in this video for privacy reasons. But here's how it works:

Use Case #1: Know Your Customer

Imagine you're shopping for yachts. You're perusing, hanging out, drinking champagne, acting rich. And then you go to the broker and say, "I'm interested." But he doesn't know you from Adam. You could be anyone off the street. Are you even wearing a Rolex? Is that a Loro Piana sweater or Old Navy? How does he know you're worth his time?

Well, this is where Clay comes in. You provide brief info through a web form, which kicks off a Clay workflow to find unique data points trying to answer one question: are you going to buy a yacht?

Data points like: What's your net worth? Where do you live? How close is your address to a marina? What are the house prices in your area? What's the average income in your area? What companies did you work for? Do you sit on any boards? Does your region have a boating culture?

Then they're connecting it back to the CRM to see if there are any mutual connections and assigning a lead score. Finally, they WhatsApp the salesperson within seconds to share whether this stranger is a qualified lead.

Use Case #2: Newfound Wealth Signals

Then they built signals to catch people right when they get rich:

- Company IPOs
- Acquisition events (for employees who just cashed out)
- Estate/trust unlocks that become public
- News mentions
- Even lottery winners

The moment these triggers fire, they're in the inbox selling yachts. 

Use Case #3: ABM for Yacht Teams

Turns out yachting is a B2B industry. Call it YaaS (Yachting-as-a-Service). News to me too.

Super yachts and mega yachts... buy smaller yachts. One for groceries. One for diving. One for fishing. Some owners have a yacht in the Mediterranean and another in the Adriatic.

So they're running ClayBM campaigns on yacht teams—targeting captains, first mates, the yacht support team—to sell them MORE yachts. Your yacht needs a yacht, apparently.

I learned all of this in 30 minutes at Clay [Club] Amsterdam from a guy who couldn't be on camera because his buyers are royal families and oil barons. Very hush hush!

Pretty cool to find unexpected Clay use cases in the most niche industries!

P.S. Thank you to Patrick -- co-founder of Claygency The Kiln and more importantly my EuroTour companion -- for stepping in and talking this through with me :-)

The people have spoken. Clay is coming to Paris! We're adding a late-breaking stop to the Euro Tour.

We'll be taking the Chunnel next week from London to Paris, which I thought for the longest time had windows like an aquarium to see the fishies.

The momentum from this tour has been more exciting than I could have imagined. I just toured offices in central London yesterday. We're going all in!

Come join us for two more exciting events in Paris. First, I'm talking about GTM in the Age of AI with Gabriel at Dust, and then hanging with the Clay [Club] to talk Top GTM Trends for 2026 with our hosts Jérémy Grandillon and Bill Stathopoulos.

Would love to meet you in person!

Register in the comments. 👇

P.S. Some people have been commenting that our Fireside Chats have been "unhinged" and "the most fun I could have had on a Saturday at noon". Come see what all the fuss is about!

I just spent a few hours in Amsterdam with my friend Salar, CEO of Monumental. They're building AI-powered robots and software that autonomously construct masonry walls on-site. And we realized something crazy: Clay and Monumental have the same go-to-market motion. 

When Salar started, everyone told him construction tech doesn't work. His words, not mine. But in a way they were right. Contractors don't have budget for tech.

So, instead of building their GTM around selling contractors AI robots and fancy software, they sold brick walls. 

Contractors already have budgets for brick walls and market pricing already exists. Monumental just shows up with robots instead of masons. If the tech fails? They bring in human masons, eat the cost, and still deliver the wall.

We do the same thing at Clay.

Early on, we'd pitch the dream to CROs and CMOs on all the crazy AI automation Clay could do. We were faced with skepticism. So instead we led with selling data.

These GTM leaders needed data, they already had pre-allocated budget, and we could improve their data quality and prove it quantitatively. Then once we did that, we showed them all the incredible things Clay could do. We showed them our version of robots that can lay bricks. 

Two completely different industries with the same playbook.

With AI it's easy to get caught up selling the dream. And if you don't hit those high expectations, you're setting everyone up for disappointment. Better to start with a wedge for a pre-existing problem and budget, earn trust with quick wins, and build the magic from there.

Last week in Helsinki I went ice dipping in the Baltic Sea with the founders of Google Maps (Lars Rasmussen) and Dust (Gabriel Hubert). I lasted all of 5 seconds. It was fun, it was invigorating, and has absolutely zero relevance to any of you but I wanted to bring you in on this energy!!

P.S. I know some think Clay takes our marketing a bit too far on here, but we draw the line at nipples on LinkedIn. So Peter had to get creative with this edit.

WHAT A DAY AT SLUSH! Yesterday we did some LIVE growth hacking on stage with my dear friends Eileen O'Mara (CRO of Stripe and happy customer!), Luciana Lixandru (Sequoia) and Jane Alexander (CapitalG). 

Let me share one with you. One SaaS founder is building a product to turn WhatsApp messages into a CRM. His problem was they're getting lots of leads but people aren't showing up for demos. What does that scream to me? He's got an ICP problem! Those people don't truly have pain! If they did, they wouldn't be ghosting him.

Well who could be his customers? It's likely small businesses. I suggested he use Clay and prospect local companies with Google Maps, scrape their websites to see if they use WhatsApp, and then check their Google and Yelp reviews for people who are complaining about long response times. Have that table run on a schedule and reach out to the owner minutes after the review gets posted. I promise you that person will show up to a demo!

That was a lot of fun to do on the hottest tech stage in Europe, trying to solve real growth problems for founders figuring out their product-market-fit. 

Now I'm off to Stockholm to continue my European Tour. 

Excited to meet the teams at Lovable,  Legora, and hangout with the local Clay [Club]. If you want to meet up, register for the Stockholm events (some later today!) in the comments. 👇

Just had a very fun fireside chat with the RevOps, revenue marketing and product marketing teams at Adyen, the $43b payments juggernaut based in Amsterdam and very happy Clay customer :-) 

We had a great hour-long conversation on a range of topics including the Clay journey, GTM engineering, our culture, marketing ROI, and the future of GTM. 

But certain questions stood out. Why? Because I hear some variation in every event I host for startup teams across Europe and the US. Questions like: How do org structures evolve in AI? What skills should ICs be prioritizing in the age of AI?What are the common denominator qualities that the cutting edge teams all share?

Here's how we think about it:

We see the best GTME teams operating like product and engineering orgs. They iterate and experiment quickly, power through a queue of tickets, and rigorously automate through every revenue function. Teams look less like assembly lines now and more like GTM engineers building systems that help sellers focus on selling.

The best teams are increasingly technical and use Clay and other tools to build sophisticated workflows that automate QBR deck creation, build event invite systems, and weaponize conversational data into ABM, Salesforce updates and prep notes. This shift matches with the tide we see moving to more flexible data warehouses as the system of record, with GTMEs orchestrating many workflows from there through Clay. 

Massive thank you Evelina Petrova-op den Kelder for hosting! We're so happy to be a partner to you and excited to keep working together.

Wow Lisbon what a whirlwind! Two panels at Web Summit, an amazing dinner with our friends at Coverflex and an epic cruise with Clay [Club] Lisbon. 

I'm always so struck by the community we are building. I met so many people on the cruise who have forged deep friendships through the Clay [Clubs]. We can take Reyhan Khan as an example, who's made lifelong friends with Rafael Guerreiro 🚀 and Olivier 🧪 Tytgat through this community. 

At the Coverflex dinner, I finally was able to meet Pedro Azevedo who has been pushing the boundaries of what's possible in Clay for years. I had such great convos with Luis from Amplemarket about what we're excited about in GTM tech, Ollie Cheal from 1Password on the latest security practices, and Norberto Guimaraes a legend who pushed me on authentic marketing and the limits of our jobs data. 

We had such a good time that when I left at 12:30am, half the folks were still hanging! Big thank you to Miguel Santo Amaro 🇵🇹🇮🇹🇪🇸 for gathering this special group.

Just got to Amsterdam, where we have another [Club] event, a fireside with Andrey from Miro and lots of meetings with our customers here :-) 

P.S. Thank you to Andrew Johnson for capturing the this picture of my custom Clay sneakers.

Had two great sessions yesterday. One on the main stage at SaaStr with Amelia Lerutte and then with Paul Adams at Intercom. One question kept coming up: what is behind all our crazy marketing, like Kung Fu and blunt rolling videos!?

Well it comes down to our people of course. And their unique backgrounds that makes the creative magic.

Let's start with Peter Kang, who runs Clay's rapidly-growing social media presence. Peter was an investment banking analyst at Barclays and worked in finance at Clubhouse. But on the side he ran a TikTok about SPREADSHEETS with 200k followers!! How rare is it to find someone with an analytical mindset but a proven creative track record?!

And then there's the inimitable Jessica Jin, our chief schemer in permanence. If you've seen something crazy we've done on LinkedIn, it was probably her brainchild. I can't go into too much detail about her background or LinkedIn will suppress this post. But if you're curious you can look up my past posts on her. The short safe story is that she organized absolutely hilarious nationwide protests and had no B2B tech experience before her scheming began at Clay. But political organizing is marketing.

This is the whole point of the interview process. Learn everything you can about someone and see how you can translate their skills to what you need. That's where the real alpha is in hiring.

Just arrived in Paris today and absolutely pumped to wrap up the EuroTour with baguettes and croissants! 🥐

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