Helping leaders at early stage tech companies avoid mistakes in all aspects of growing their sales team | Advisor

Kevin has made 1000s of mistakes but that has made him successful. After building, fixing and growing sales teams at 8 startups and 3 liquidity events, he loves sharing these mistakes and learning lessons from over 25 years at pre-IPO tech companies so that you can avoid these mistakes and see faster success.

With KG, you get experience, not inexperienced opinions.

✅ 3 startups I’ve been with have had liquidity events (none fire sales)

✅ Helped build 3 businesses into Inc 500/Deloitte Fast 500 companies (that means fast revenue growth)

✅ Built sales teams at 8 Startups since 1997

✅ Built teams of 30 salespeople - 550 salespeople with GREAT gross margins

✅ Built multiple Inside Sales, SDR/BDR, Account Management and Enterprise Sales teams.

✅ Been in Sales Leadership since 1997

✅ Started 3 of my own businesses (Recruiting, Advising, Real Estate)

✅ Named to the AA-ISP Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals 6 years in a row

✅ Made lots and lots of mistakes

Check out the recommendations section below to read what other people have said about me. 👇

Kevin Gaither

I’m 55. I've had 3 successful exits in my sales leadership career & never have to take a W2 job again if I don't want one but... 
 
 ...I still don’t know what the hell I’m doing most of the time. 🤪 
 
Just a reminder that the people you may look up to, so-called "influencers," are still figuring it out. 
 
Life is the trip, there is no destination. 
 
If this resonated with you, you might like my book which is a collection of sales leadership stories of me screwing up and figuring stuff out. 
 
🆓 There's even a free sample to download. 
 
https://lnkd.in/gXftNAaw

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Stock Option Course

Sign up for my free 10-email course here:

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/landing-page-email-course-on-employee-stock-options?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_campaign=AutoPlug&utm_id=AutoPlug

And learn what the Founders aren't telling you about your stock options

77 Questions

Ready to hire A-player salespeople? Our free guide is your secret weapon, packed with 77 sales interview questions to help you crush the competition and build a powerhouse team.

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/interview-questions-to-ask-salespeople?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=Comment_Plug&utm_campaign=77_Questions

Hiring Bundle

Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence. Only $9.99, instant access. Link 👇🏻

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/landing-page-hiring-bundle?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=Hiring_Bundle&utm_id=FirstComment

Book Promo

100 Sensational Stories about Sales Leadership Screw-Ups and Big Wins

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/landing-page-book-it-happened-on-the-sales-floor?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_id=First_Comment

VP of Sales Working Out

How to know in 30 days if your VP of Sales will work out....or not

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/will-the-vp-of-sales-work-out?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_campaign=First_Comment&utm_id=First_Comment

Mini-Podcast Series

Buy the $4.99 mini-podcast series here:

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/offers/7P4geryA/checkout?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=Text&utm_campaign=First_Comment&utm_id=First_Comment

Avoid the mistakes that almost cost me my sales leadership career.

New Hire Training & Onboarding (not Pentis)

My free guide:  Best Practices for Onboarding and Training New Sales Teams
 
https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/playbook-for-onboarding-new-salespeople?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_campaign=Taplio_Boost&utm_id=Taplio_Boost

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/offers/z8LkYKe4?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=first_comment&utm_campaign=Hiring_Bundle&utm_id=Hiring_Bundle

It Happened on the Sales Floor

For 100 other sales leadership mistakes I've made, check out my book, It Happened On The Sales Floor: 100 Sensational Stories about Sales Leadership Screw-Ups and Big Wins. Link 👇
 
https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/landing-page-book-it-happened-on-the-sales-floor?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_campaign=Taplio_Boost&utm_id=Taplio_Boost

Model Week

Great sales leaders intentionally manage their weeks. Check out my free guide, How Great Sales Managers Model Their Week, to see how they do it:

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/model-week-for-sales-managers?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=First_Comment&utm_campaign=Taplio_Boost&utm_id=Taplio_Boost

Mini-Pod

3 raw, 10-min audio lessons from my biggest failures as a sales leader...the kind you’ll never read in a textbook.

Practical. Fast. Real Stories. Real Lessons.

Only $4.99 - instant access, money-back guarantee.

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/offers/7P4geryA?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=FirstComment&utm_id=FirstComment

Podcast Promo

Link to the podcast episode here: https://www.salesnotselling.com/1039468/episodes/18403715-episode-69-selling-to-your-customer-not-you-with-guest-kevin-gaither

Job Seeker Course

Free Trial: The No-BS Job Search Playbook. 
First 4 lessons are free. No credit card required

https://www.insidesalesexpert.com/landing-page-no-bs-job-seeker-toolkit-free-trial?utm_source=Linkedin&utm_medium=FirstComment

Helping job seekers stop guessing and start getting interviews | Free Trial: The No-BS Job Search Playbook

Old school: Always Be Closing

New school: Always Be Helping

#PeopleHelpingPeople

This is the way

"Let's have this sales candidate do a demo presentation for us at the end of the interview"

Another galactically ridiculous step sales leaders put sales candidate through during the sales interview.

Here's 3 reasons why it's ridiculous for a sales candidate to do a demonstration during an interview:

1. Limited time: Interviews are typically limited in time and may not provide sufficient opportunity for the candidate to fully demonstrate their skills.

2. Lack of context: It may be difficult for the candidate to effectively demonstrate their skills without access to the necessary tools, resources, and information that they would normally have in a sales situation.

3. Unfair expectations: Asking a candidate to demonstrate their skills in a simulated sales situation may not be an accurate reflection of their abilities and may set unrealistic expectations.

Overall, it may be more effective to assess a sales candidate's skills through a combination of resume review, behavioral interviewing, and role-playing exercises rather than expecting them to perform a demonstration during the interview. 

PS: If you want to dramatically improve your chances of making an A-player sales hire, download my Sales Leader's Interviewing and Hiring Bundle for only $9.99.

Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence.

https://lnkd.in/gDDmYsJH

*Annual* Performance Reviews should be eliminated for salespeople. Here's 2 reasons why: 
 
- They get "reviewed" monthly or quarterly depending on their quota cycle. "Did you exceed quota or fall below quota?" That's one form of clear, objective performance review and 
 
- They should be getting WEEKLY coaching from their sales manager with fresh, relevant reviews/coaching that point out where they're strong and their areas for improvement. 
 
I eliminated Annual Performance Reviews for my salespeople at my 550 person sales org. 
 
Win-win for everybody involved. 
 
Why wait until the end of the year to review your salespeople?

Here's the good news about being bullied in elementary and high school. I developed thick skin. I was weird then and I'm weird now.

Doing things differently and being weird got me punished back then. But I couldn't stop being weird. And only the truly weird work at start ups.

it's easy to take a job at BigCo. Nobody will judge you for that.

But going to a no name company that has a high chance of failure. Oh there were plenty of people who likely snickered behind my back.

But the thick skin I developed after being bullied for 10 years allowed me to continue on.

Now the joke's on them.

And now, I look back on all of the screw ups in my career and thank heavens that I had the guts to do the cringy stuff that LED ME TO SUCCESS.

Heck, I even wrote a whole cringy book about my screw-ups and failures.

The link is in the first comment.

CEO @ InsideSalesExpert.com Helping sales leaders avoid galactically ridiculous mistakes in all areas of building, fixing & growing their sales teams

If you think Inside Sales people are "less than" outside salespeople you are dead wrong. 
 
If you think the inside sales reps are the red-headed stepchildren of the sales team, you had better wake up. 
 
First, aren't we really ALL in Inside Sales these days? I mean, who is really spending 100% of their time on the road? When was the last time you walked into an office with an order and walked out with a signature? Yeah, never. 
 
Second, inside sales is one of the fastest-growing areas of the sales organization. Statistics suggest that one of the largest growth levers of inside sales is the opportunity it presents a company to be a “first responder”. 
 
✅ An outside sales call costs $308, an inside sales call costs $50 (PointClear) 
 
✅ 37% of high-growth companies use inside sales as primary sales strategy (vs. 27% for field sales, 23% for internet sales, 8% for channel sales) (Pacific Crest) 
 
✅ Outside Sales Reps Now Spend 89% More Time Selling Remotely Than in 2013. 
 
✅ Inside sales are said to be growing 15x faster than outside sales. (SalesLoft) 
 
✅ Three-fourths of buyers prefer not to meet sales agents face-to-face. (SalesLoft) 
 
✅ Ten inside sales representatives are hired for every one outside sales rep. (SalesLoft) 
 
So the next time you think the inside sales team is the baby sales team and the grown ups are on the Outside Sales/Enterprise Sales team, watch out. 
 
We're coming for you.

I saw sales reps get promoted, earn bigger comp & title & a bigger quota only to get fired when they fail to hit this new quota. 
 
But that is a colossal mistake & it tells me that the sales leader failed to have 2 dead-simple components in their performance management plan. 
 
1️⃣ Clearly documented and objective promotion path 
 
This is obvious. If the rep hits X% to goal X times over X period, they get a promotion. NO qualitative garbage! 
 
2️⃣ Clearly documented and objective demotion path. 
 
This is less obvious and I've rarely seen it. If the rep FAILS to hit X% to goal X times over X period, they get a demotion. 
 
What does this result in: 
✅ A bias-free promotion path. Just the numbers please. 
 
✅ A DEmotion path for reps who get promoted but can't cut it. 
 
✅ A bias-free path to termination (you can only get demoted so far) 
 
I never understood why sales leaders would promote a rep, see that rep struggle in the new higher position and then just fire them if they failed to hit that new, higher quota. 
 
🍼 It's like throwing the baby out with the bath water.

They told me to follow the rules. But then they went and hired their buddy.

I spent weeks tweaking my resume like some crazed lunatic.

Is it 1 page or 2? 
What size font?
Should it be an Objective or a Summary?
I even asked several friends to "review my resume."
WTF did they know?

But then I learned some half-baked "internal referral" waltzed into the job with a limp handshake and a slick smile.

That's when I knew:

The whole hiring process is basically rigged.

It’s not about performance.
It's not about the best resume.
It’s about proximity and safety.

The hiring manager and our friends in HR aren't looking for genius.

They’re looking for someone who is safe, won’t screw up and is vouched for by somebody else.
(Bonus points if Susan in Accounting already thinks you're cool)

So I stopped playing the stupid game we think we were taught to play.
No more "one-click" applying through job boards.
No more overthinking the importance of that marketing vehicle we call a resume.

I started learning how to build the only thing that actually moves the needle...the network on the inside.

Real conversations with real people there.
The kind who go, “Hey, you should meet this person,”
and suddenly your name's in a hiring manager's inbox BEFORE the role is even public.

That’s the backdoor.
It’s not a hack. It's not cheating.
It’s the only door that matters.

If you think it's unfair. You're right. It is. But that's the game you're playing whether you like it or not.

Your resume is just a cute little marketing vehicle that you have to have.
But if you do it right, it's merely a receipt stapled to a decision that was already made.

So yeah...follow the rules if you want.
Polish the hell out of your cute little resume.
Pray to the ATS algorithm gods.

Just realize that everyone who gets in walks through the back door, name already on the clipboard.

Keep knocking on the front door if you want. Just know no one's listening.

Or choose to learn how the game works so you can take advantage of it.

Build a relationship with people on the inside.
Skip the line.

Or stay stuck waiting in one where you never even get to see the inside.

🟢 Of course, job seekers really suck at this part and have no idea how to do this. Intuitively they know they need to do it, but they never do.

But it's not their fault. Our education system let them down once again and never taught job seekers how to job search let alone network.

But that's why I created the 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼-𝗕𝗦 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸.

I give you exact steps to follow to network your way into that first interview with scripts and templates so you know exactly what to say and what to write.

The link is in the first comment 👇

Job seekers aren't going to like what I have to say...but it's about time somebody stopped coddling them and told them the truth 👇

#ToughLove

One of my reps was shooting herself in the foot with her own stupid hangups. Of course, it was all MY fault.

I've learned that sometimes salespeople hesitate to sell the higher-priced option because they wouldn’t buy it themselves.

That thought feels harmless. It’s not.

I talked about this recently after coaching a formerly B-player rep who kept talking herself out of bigger, enterprise deals. Not because the product lacked value. Because she couldn’t see the value from the buyer’s perspective.

Once I coached her on the ROI the customer gets, everything changed. She closed bigger deals, got promoted, make President's Club. Not kidding.

But this isn’t a salesperson problem. It’s a leadership problem. It was my problem. I screwed up.

If sales leaders don’t teach how to think in outcomes, sellers default to their own wallet instead of the customer’s business goals.

I unpack this exact moment, step by step, on a short podcast episode I recorded recently. It’s 16 minutes. No B$. Just a real thought-provoking story (as usual) for sales leaders. 🎧

The link to the short, 16 minute podcast hosted by Stacy Garrett is in the first comment.

VP of Marketing for 💡 Creative 💡 Swag Provider

I've made this mistake and so have you. This is the #1 mistake new sales managers make:

Tolerating Underperformers 📉

I once had a rep on a PIP who worked just hard enough to get off the PIP but then asked me for a promotion. I couldn’t believe it. 🙄

Improving doesn’t mean they’re now a top performer. Effort matters. Improvement matters. But output matters more. 

Too often, new sales leaders unintentionally lower their standards instead of making hard calls. Some reps will improve, but not enough to meet your minimum standards.

😡 And they end up taking more of your time while delivering less than others. 

You don’t have to lower expectations, and you don’t have to give up on them either. Here are two tactics I’ve used to keep standards high: 

1️⃣ Have them self-assess

Ask them to rate their performance in key areas. Then compare their ratings with yours. If they can’t, don't or won't see the gaps, no coaching will work until they do. 

2️⃣ Prioritize your team over individuals

Your time is limited—spending it equally isn’t wise. Ask yourself:

- Would a rockstar rep struggle in the same role? 
- Knowing what you know now, would you rehire them? 

If the answers are no, and you've put in the effort to coach the rep, you need to replace the rep.

If you don't make the move, someone else will make the move for you and likely replace YOU because you're lowering standards on your team not raising them.

Unpopular Opinion: KO your SKO!

6 reasons why I recommend you DON'T do your Sales Kick-Off in the coming months

Most of you are probably right in the middle Sales Kick-Off (SKO) season.

STOP. Don't do it. Kill it. Here's 6 reasons why:

❌ Expensive! The average cost per SKO attendee is between $2,500-$5,000. If you did ANY layoffs this year, don't even think of wasting this kind of money. How many people could you have saved if you didn't spend #SKO money?

❌ Don't fool yourself, SKOs aren't motivational. Salespeople don't come out of the SKO with any long-term improvement in their motivation. Maybe their tolerance to booze may go up but not their motivation.

❌ It's a company distraction. You're likely pulling in people from other departments to do presentations and participate. That's wasted resources again. Also, why don't we have an Engineering Kick Off or an Accounts Receivable Kick Off. Why is there just a SALES Kick Off?

❌ Usually Product/Feature dump. Your Product team will put a great deck together and talk AT the crowd for an hour or so. Save it for a nice email that people can read at home.

❌ Content Retention: Attendees will forget an average of 90% of what they have learned in a very short time. You're going to spend a bunch of money and then people forget 90% of it in a week or so?

❌ Oh, you're going to do it remotely? Good luck. Time for your attendees to catch up on episodes of Severance while they stare into ANOTHER Zoom meeting or a fun little breakout room in Zoom to "collaborate."

💡 Learning Lesson: Ditch your SKO in favor of longer term, practical and structured training with an assessment plan supported by a strong coaching culture.

People who have worked with me know that I've KO'd the SKO at past companies. Do you have the guts to do it?

Be honest, what percentage of your SKO do you find really valuable over the long term?

Learning that SKOs are a big pain in the butt is just one of 100s of mistakes and learning lessons in my sales leadership career.

I document 100 of them in my book, It Happened on the Sales Floor.

The link is in the first comment.

Are SKOs just a huge pain in the @$$ or what?

I don't know about you but I don't think I stepped foot into the career center in College and I couldn't even tell you we had a career center in High School.

But I can tell you that I learned Spanish in High School and now I'm really good at ordering a beer in Mexico and then asking where the restroom is.

Great success!

👉 In reality, especially after having two kids go through high school and college, I've come to the conclusion that the so called career centers at our schools are useless, if they even exist.

Our education system fails us. The main point of school is to teach you HOW to think. But the secondary point is the promise that if you go to school, work real hard and get decent grades, you'll get a good job.

That couldn't be further from the truth.

I read somewhere that unemployment for college-educated 20-somethings is around 9%.

9%! That's insane...and it's unacceptable.

But it's not their fault. Our education system failed them. Nobody ever taught them how to search for job the right way.

Instead they open-mouth breathe and one-click apply to hundreds of jobs they like while intuitively knowing that they're not going to hear anything back and they won't get that job.

But there IS a better way. It's just that nobody ever taught you.

That's why I created my No-BS Job Search Playbook.

-After nearly 30 years as a hiring manager
-After owning my own recruiting business until I sold it in 2018
-After working at the job board, ZipRecruiter for 8 years
-After coaching countless people to teach them how to get their job

I decided to create a no-fluff job search course.

Here's where you're going:

In less than 10 days, I’m going to help you master the entire job seeking process, position yourself properly to get the interviews you want and quickly find your dream job (and avoid landing in a crappy job) for less than a few orders from DoorDash

And you can get a free trial of my course too. No credit card required. If you don't like what you try, don't pay for the rest.

The link is in the first comment.

Did your high school or college career center teach you skills that actually led to a job? 

Especially this time of year when new comp plans and quotas are being rolled out, many sales leaders seem to be deathly afraid of losing their high-performing salespeople.

And they should take it seriously. Make sure you do the right things when rolling out those new comp plans and quotas.

But don't think for a split second that IF you DO lose your #1 salesperson due to the changes that you're making that your entire sales team will collapse as a result.

That's just the threat.

The reality is that it never happens. I've been in sales and sales leadership for over 30 years and I've never heard of situation where a sales team or a company fails completely when the #1 salesperson leaves.

Make no mistake about it, there is a dip. Some bigger than others.

But if you think that dip is going to be extremely severe when you lose your #1 salesperson, then that should be a huge sign to you as a sales leader or CEO.

👉 If you think that your sales team or company will collapse if you lose 1 or 2 high performing salespeople, then you have single points of failure that you need to shore up.

Develop the systems and processes (hiring, onboarding, training, coaching, performance management) that hedge against losing 1 or 2 high performing salesepeople.

If you don't, you'll feel like your #1 salesperson has a lot of control over you and that's not an environment that's conducive for you to make great decisions that's in the best interest of the company.

If you think hiring based solely on sales experience guarantees top performers, you are dead wrong. 👎 
 
Everybody knows that hiring solely based on experience is a fatally flawed strategy but I continue to see this mistake again and again. 
 
And I know why: It feels like it would be a no-brainer to hire the "proven" salesperson rather than the less experienced salesperson. 
 
But don't fall into the trap of overvaluing experience and undervaluing potential. Ever met a seasoned professional stuck in old ways, stubbornly rejecting change? 
 
Or the "experienced" salesperson who won't lift a finger outside of their job description? 
 
💡 Adaptability and Continual Learning outweighs Experience in tech sales. What was successful five years ago might be obsolete today. 
 
👉 Bet on potential. Find the eager learners. Their experience might be less, but their hunger to learn and adapt is priceless. 
 
Redefine 'experience', invest in potential, and you'll find hiring success like I have. 
 
PS: If you want to dramatically improve your chances of making an A-player sales hire, download my Sales Leader's Interviewing and Hiring Bundle for only $9.99.

Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence.

https://lnkd.in/gDDmYsJH

“We went in a different direction.” That’s the default rejection email (if you even send one) but there's no feedback to the candidate about how to get better...

Cold. Vague. Useless.

I've sent those myself. Hiring managers, we need to do better.

Every candidate you reject still needs help. Especially the good ones. The ones some liked, others didn't and almost made it to the final round.

And guess what? They remember you. They remember how you made them feel when you kicked them to the curb.

Some of you want to help and give feedback to help them get better but either you can't, won't or HR won't let you.

I get it. I've been there. It's tricky.

But maybe you can do better than merely throwing rejected candidates back into the job market with nothing but a bruised ego and a B$ boilerplate email.

Here’s what you can do instead:

Send them this.

I built a job search course that breaks down how hiring actually works and then shows them:

→ How to network
→ How to write cold outreach
→ What to say in interviews
→ How to negotiate offer letters like a pro

It’s simple. It’s fast. It’s free to get started.

And it shows candidates exactly how to improve for next time...without you needing to lift a finger. Win win.

If you rejected that candidate but still respected their time and talent, this is how you show it.

I’m not asking you to be a coach (your HR team might slap your wrist). I’m asking you to be a better human.

You have a boatload of power as a hiring manager.
How you use it matters.

👀 The link to the No BS Job Seeker Course is in the first comment.

Accounts you assign to your sales reps work are yours. 
 
👉 you decide who works the Accounts and Leads 
 
👉 you decide if you want to reassign the Accounts or Leads to more capable reps. 
 
Your sales reps don't "own" the Accounts, they rent them. 
 
As a sales leader, it's wise to set expectations around that so your reps don't feel entitled to Accounts & Leads you assign to them in perpetuity. 
 
I've made that mistake before and learned my lesson. 
 
If you'd like to read about a few more of my mistakes and learning lessons, check out a free sample of my book here: 
 
https://lnkd.in/gVrxP73k

Experience <> (Expertise, Success & Drive)

Experience just means you've done it for some defined period of time but not necessarily well.

I got fooled by hiring "experienced" Enterprise Sales reps who couldn't close their way out of a paper bag.

And that's MY mistake not theirs.

I got duped.

PS: Hiring salespeople is hard. I know, I’ve screwed it up a ton. 

But that’s why I created the Sales Leader's Interviewing and Hiring Bundle Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence. Only $9.99, instant access. 

https://lnkd.in/g-3wryFJ

I’ve hired over 1000 people.
Unfortunately, I’ve rejected even more.

Most job seekers don’t fail because they aren’t qualified.
They fail because they don’t understand how to 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 conduct their job search from beginning to end.

And I've helped countless others for years and years learn how to do their job search the right way...the way that nobody ever taught them before.

So to help the tons of others that are struggling with their job search...

I built 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼-𝗕𝗦 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸.

It walks you through the entire job search...from positioning yourself to interviewing to negotiating the offer...using the exact words hiring managers listen for.

🟢 First 4 lessons are free.🟢

If you’re tired of guessing,
If you're tired of struggling,
If you're tired of the black hole...here’s the system.

The link is in the first comment

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What a punk. https://lnkd.in/g993hcKb #NameAndShame. 

When did Santa Clara University become an Ivy League School? oh yeah....it didn't.

No, Santa Clara University (SCU) is not an Ivy League school, as the Ivies are a specific athletic conference of eight universities in the Northeast. But I'm sure they're not proud of Justin's actions as it probably conflicts with their "Jesuit Values."

I have a daughter who is just getting into the working world this year and I'm encouraging her to start creating a personal brand for herself on this platform.

I hope that enough of us shame people like Justin Lubarsky (who went to Santa Clara University) so that this behavior goes away...because it's not cool and it never was.

Sorry you had to deal with this Melissa Gaglione ⭐️

CEO & Creator 43k+ followers | 50M impressions✨ Founder of Citrine ⭐️ & Content @ ColdIQ 🧠 | Event Speaker

The dark side of putting yourself out there that no one talks about… a DM I got yesterday 👇🏼

“You’re embarrassing yourself.”
“You do nothing all day.”
“Where did you go to school?”
“Get a real job.”
“Stop being a stereotype.”

And my personal favorite… the OnlyFans dig.

Because a woman can’t make money on the internet without it being OF??? 

When I shared this with my creator cohort, I told them something I tell every creator I work with…

This is going to happen.

You’re going to get hate messages. 
You’re going to get posted on LinkedIn Lunatics. 
You’re going to have strangers who know nothing about you tell you exactly who they think you are.

And when it happens, I want you to think… 

“this is a gas station man”

If some random smelly guy at a gas station yelled this at me? 

I’d think wow, what a crazy person. 

I wouldn’t take it seriously. 

I wouldn’t let it ruin my day. 

I definitely wouldn’t question my entire career because of it.


So why would I give this guy any more power?

He’s just a gas station man with a LinkedIn account.

The truth is, if you’re putting yourself out there, building something, sharing your voice… you’re going to attract people who don’t get it.

That’s not a sign to stop.
That’s a sign you’re being seen.

Keep posting
Keep building
Keep shining

The gas station losers will always be loud. 

But they’ll never be louder than your work✨


And honestly he’s lucky I didn’t put him on blast… I’m classy ✌🏼

Certified Clay Expert & Agency owner | I'll help you build a scalable outbound engine that gets meetings booked on autopilot in the next 180 days | Visit Youtube: @growth-today to see how

Growth shouldn’t feel random.

Most of the B2B companies hit the same walls:
Inbound leads that don’t convert

Outbound that burns reps out without results

Partnerships that look good on paper but never drive pipeline

A CRM full of noise instead of reliable data


I’ve seen it across founders, sales leaders, and marketing teams. The problem isn’t effort, it’s the lack of a repeatable, scalable GTM system.
That’s what we build at Growth Today.

Instead of disconnected tools or random campaigns, we design and implement repeatable GTM engines across sales, marketing, and partnerships that…

✅ Enrich and qualify data
✅ Activate inbound leads into real opportunities
✅ Automate outbound prospecting
✅ Keep CRMs clean and reliable
✅ Orchestrate multi-channel campaigns
✅ Make BDR teams more effective or fully replace them
✅ Align marketing + partnerships with sales for compounding growth

Recent wins:

 → Built a clean, automated CRM that doubled conversion rates
 → Launched a content-driven demand gen engine that 3x’d inbound lead quality
 → Systematized partner outreach → pipeline from alliances grew 40% in 6 months

Growth doesn’t come from more outreach or more tools.
It comes from building the right system once and scaling it.
If you’re a B2B founder or revenue leader serious about building predictable pipeline, let’s connect.

Book your call: https://calendly.com/growth-today/intro-meeting

Brigitta Ruha

You can have the best product in the world…

But without GTM

Nobody sees it.
Nobody hears about it.
Nobody gets it.

Because GTM isn’t some launch moment or a slide deck.

It’s the day-to-day clarity around:

who you’re actually talking to,

why they should care right now,

and where your message shows up.

I’ve seen solid products stall simply because that part was fuzzy.

Nothing was wrong with the product.

The path to the buyer just wasn’t clear.

GTM is what turns good work into traction.

Without it, even great products stay invisible.

Some examples:

- A great product, but no clear ICP → everyone’s “a fit,” so no one really is
- No value in messages → buyers don’t care 
- Good messaging, but wrong channel → you’re explaining value where your prospects aren’t paying attention

You can check Rippling, Drift, Gorgias, and many more companies

Your real moat isn’t the product…..

It’s how consistently (!) you can reach the right prospects at the right moment.

Distribution is most important
(on email, on ads, on cold email).

Be #ATOM

Always Be Top Of Mind

Where it makes sense & wherever you can

Co-Founder @Growth Today | We Build Repeatable GTM Engines Across Sales, Marketing & Partnerships 🚀

I launched 12 campaigns before realizing I was doing it backwards

The thing is, I kept starting with tactics when I should've started with structure

So here's what works when you're building a multi channel GTM campaign…

1. Audience & Triggers 

Figure out who you're talking to and when they're paying attention. 

2. Messaging Angles 

Write the story that stops them mid scroll. They need to relate with your message

3. Channel Mix 

Meet buyers where they usually hang out. 
LinkedIn + email + ads only work if your audience is there

4. Execution Rhythm 

Map the timing so it feels natural, not like you're screaming into every channel at once 👀

5. Impact Review 

Look at what worked and what flopped, coz that’s the point where you learn and get better

Pretty basic but make big changes in your campaign results

I made this cheatsheet so you don't have to learn it the hard way like I did 👇

Btw, do you plan campaigns step-by-step or just dive in?

Does your LinkedIn outreach feel like a never ending juggling act?

You’ve got Slack, Clay, Instantly, and a bunch of other tools running, but they don’t always play nice together. 😅

It’s easy to feel like you’re constantly switching between apps, trying to keep everything in sync 

But the reality is, you're losing time and missing opportunities in the process.

Now, with all these integrations working together seamlessly, everything just clicks.

Aimfox has my back.

No more headaches from jumping between platforms.

When everything works together, it’s like a smooth-running operation. 

I can focus on what I do best 

building real connections instead of battling with tech. And honestly, that feels like a superpower. 😎

When I started doing outbound, I thought more leads would bring better results

I'd export massive lists, send countless emails, and wait for replies

Most of the time, it never worked

Then I learned the hard way that I had to reach out to the right people instead of more people

I was spending hours every week chasing leads that were never going to convert

Had to change that, so I stopped obsessing over quantity and started caring about data quality

- Accurate emails 
- Verified contact info
- Actual decision makers

Started building a workflow around tools that actually delivered clean data.

Prospeo.io helped me with better email finding, and I could finally focus on leads that actually mattered..

That one modification changed my entire approach to outbound

So, if you're still in the guessing phase, I totally get it.

I was there too…. for way too long. 😅

But once you experience what it's like to work with quality data, there's no going back

Your outreach gets sharper, and your replies get better

P.S. If your lead list feels overwhelming or your bounce rate is increasing,it might be time to rethink your data sources. just saying. 😉

I replied to only 1 out of 50 personalized messages I got last month

You know why that one message was different?

It was talking about the problem I actually had.

the other 49? same tired playbook:

- loved your recent post!
- saw you're hiring!
- big fan of your work!

I know these messages took effort.

Someone looked at my profile.
someone tried to find a hook.
someone hit send hoping for a reply.

But effort doesn’t create relevance

and that's the reason why most outreach falls apart

Dropping my name or mentioning my company isn't personalization

Real personalization comes when someone shows they understand the real problem

Not just surface-level stuff anyone could find in 10 seconds.

👇 peep the graphic for 11 messages that feel personal but really aren't

The fix is better questions

→ what problem might they actually have right now?
→ how could I genuinely help?

answer those first. then hit send 😉

p.s. if you wouldn't reply to your own message, your prospect won't either.

Every B2B deal has 6 people you need to win over

Have you been in a situation when:

The Champion is excited, pushing it internally, everything's moving... and then it just dies. 😅

Happened to me too many times before I figured it out

I was only talking to The Champion

But while they were selling for me, there were 5 other people I completely missed:

So I started mapping out who's who in every deal.

Added those 6 people on visuals

Once I started paying attention, deals became way less confusing.

I could anticipate objections and address the right concerns for each person.

Because you're not selling to one person, you're navigating a whole committee.

We used to start every day putting out fires.

Slack pinging, campaigns underperforming, and by 6 PM, we'd wonder:

"wait, what did we actually do today?" 😅

So we built a simple morning routine

90 minutes, same time every day.

Review the important things → decide what to fix → tell the team what to do.

That's it.

This is what we check:

→ pipeline health
→ outbound performance
→ ICP drift (are we still talking to the right people?)
→ buying signals (who's ready to talk now?)
→ sequence copy
→ meeting quality (are we booking real opportunities?)

Then we pick the top 5 things that worked today.

and we tell the team in one Slack message.

done.

It's not perfect, but it keeps us from drowning in reactive work.

Is your morning routine anything similar? 😀

Got a BDR team but struggling to get results from cold calling? Here’s the situation:

- No dedicated resources to cold call
- BDRs haven’t cold-called yet and AEs are swamped
- Already cold calling, but can't systematize because RevOps is overloaded

We help by running automated outbound for BDR teams while also focusing on Tier 1 accounts with personalized messaging.

Here’s how we do it with Growth Today:

→ We pull audiences from all GTM initiatives:

     - Handraisers 🙋‍♂️, leads who responded but didn’t convert, app installs,        dead leads, cold audiences

→ Auto-generate tasks for BDRs:

   - Programmatic leads → Our BDRs cold call
   - Tier 1 accounts → Your BDRs cold call

→ We integrate with SDRs to optimize the process and drive enterprise deals

Here’s how we set it up:

→ Sync Instantly data to HubSpot (or Salesloft/Outreach for Tier 1)
→ Pull data from HubSpot/SFDC, enrich with Clay
→ Maximize phone numbers with services like Forager, Prospeo.io and                  LeadMagic
→ Update/Create contacts with fresh data
→ Push contacts to Orum 🥇 to automate cold calling

And the best part :

We summarize everything into a cold call opener, so your BDRs don’t need to read through 50 fields.

Next post: I’ll share cold call opener results ...hit 🔔 on my profile for updates.

P.S.:

If your BDRs need support or you want to systematize cold calling for Tier 1 accounts, DM me!

Your best email insights aren’t in your CRM, they’re in your prospect’s context

I have seen few teams personalizing with whatever data is easiest to grab

Titles, Locations… maybe a LinkedIn mention if they’re feeling fancy. 😅

But the best way is to look beyond the fields in your CRM

The tiny clues that tell you:

“Hey, this person might actually care about what you’re saying.”

We pulled together 10 relevance cues you can use today, including:

- Role pains
- Timing triggers
- Intent signals
- Tech gaps
- micro-segments
- human insight

All the good stuff you wish your CRM captured.

None of this is hard

Start with one signal.

Test it.

See how people respond when the email finally feels like it was written for them, not at them.

And if you already personalize this way, I’d love to hear what signals work best for you. 🙋🏻‍♀️

SaaS companies don’t buy the way we think they do.

(probably you already know this)

You email one person. They like it…. They even agree with it. But they’re not the ones deciding 😅 

Or they need to check with someone else. Or they forward it internally…

…and then it gets passed around internally.

SaaS decisions usually involve more than one person.

Those decisions usually live across teams.

Different people, different priorities.

Founders look at the big picture. Sales looks at the pipeline. RevOps cares about process. 

Tech worries about scalability, products, the roadmap, yada yada.

Everyone’s looking at the same challenge. Just from a different angle. 👀 

This is where a lot of GTM motions stop making sense.

When everything is aimed at one person, and we wait for a yes, we’re oversimplifying how SaaS actually buys.

What changed for me was thinking through:

Who else is involved? Who else influences the decision? Who else also needs to feel confident before anything moves?

That’s also why tools like saasyDB are useful in practice.

You can get the whole buying committee from a very accurate and simple Saas database

& loop them pre or post-sales as you’d like!

One company + whole buying committee = for 1 credit 💪 

If you haven’t tried out SassyDB and you’re targeting SaaS, do it. super easy to use and accurate, fresh database 🥁 ✌

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