I lead a team of rockstar BDRs at Sprout Social. But what I’m here for is to share MY story. 

Because I’ve lived the pressure. The rejection. The anxiety that hides behind “hustle culture.”

I believe high performance doesn’t have to come at the cost of your peace.

Here, I talk about:
🧠 Mental health and mindset in sales
❤️ Leadership through empathy
🔥 Sustainable success without burnout

If you’re an aspiring SDR,  brand new leader in sales and trying to keep your head (and heart) in the game then this space is for you.

👉 Follow for honest stories, mindset shifts, and reminders that you’re not alone in the grind.

🍵 Always open to a coffee chat (although I don’t drink coffee!!) … human first, title second.

Marco Santa Maria

Head of Sales | Growth-Enthusiast | Driving hybrid work through the leading people-centric workplace app 🚀

Most early-stage teams don’t fail because of their people, they fail because their revenue system is inconsistent. 

Over the last decade, I’ve built, led, and rebuilt GTM engines across Outbound, Inbound, Demo Execution, Pricing, ICP definition, and Pipeline Architecture. Not as a consultant - but as a hands-on operator.

Today, I work as a Fractional CRO for Seed–Series A companies who need clarity, structure, and a revenue engine that actually scales. Typical problems I’m brought in to solve:

✅ Low demo-to-close rates
✅ Weak outbound engine
✅ Unclear ICP & messaging
✅ Pipeline leakage
✅ Broken handover between Sales & CS
✅ No real revenue ownership

My approach is simple: Diagnose the leaks → rebuild the revenue system → implement it → upskill the team → hand over a predictable engine.

I still lead Sales teams when needed but the real impact comes from aligning the full funnel.If you’re a founder who wants a revenue system that works end-to-end (not another deck or training session): let’s talk!

Benedikt Meuthen

After watching hundreds of demos from different startups, here is one of the major reasons AEs lose after the demo:

They show features. They don’t tell stories.

Sure, your product can look beautiful and easy to use on screen.
But if the buyer doesn’t feel anything, the deal goes nowhere.

In every training I run, it’s the same pattern:

SDRs, AEs, AMs... almost nobody has real stories ready to go.
No Hero Story.
No Feature Story.
No Vision Story.
No “why this problem even exists” story.
No stories from actual customers.
Just click-click-click through the UI.
“And here you can see…”
“And on the right side you have…”

Buyers don’t buy because the screen looks nice.
They buy because something triggers an emotion.
If your demo is built on facts, you’re selling with 20% of the buyer’s brain.
Stories unlock the other 80%.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

If you work in Sales and you can’t tell at least 3-5 strong stories,
you’re not selling. You’re explaining.

Stories won’t magically appear in your repertoire.
You have to collect them.

Today, go to your CSMs.
Ask them for 3 real customer stories.
Turn each into a Mini Hero Journey.
Use them in every demo this week.
Do this for 7 days and your demos won’t feel the same.

They’ll feel deeper.
More relevant.
More “Oh damn… that’s exactly us.”

Because buyers don’t remember what you showed.
They remember how your story made them feel.

Fractional CRO for Seed–Series A | I Build & Implement GTM & Revenue Systems | Hands-on Sales Leadership for Teams up to 25

Every few years, someone declares: “Sales has changed.”

🗣️“More stakeholders than ever before”
🗣️“80% of the decisions happen before the first call.”
🗣️“Buyers are more informed now than ever before.”

I’ve been hearing the exact same pitch since my Showpad days 8 years ago.
Different slides. Same narrative.

Here’s my unpopular take:
The fundamentals of sales have not changed. Not at all!
What separates top performers from wannabes with fancy titles
is still the same thing:

Handcraft.

Can you:
-create emotional tension around the status quo?

-ask follow-up questions that go beyond the script?

-hold control of the buying process without being pushy?

-build trust even under pressure?

-earn the right to talk about stakeholders and process?

That’s not “modern sales.” That’s just sales.

Yes, tools evolved.
Yes, information is more accessible.
Yes, buying groups are larger.

But depth, relevance and psychological skill have always been the edge.
Trends change. Human decision-making doesn’t.

If your team struggles, it’s rarely because “sales has changed.”
It’s because no one taught them the fundamentals.

Last week I shared the 5 story types every rep must master.
Here’s Part 2 of that series and this one is for anyone who runs demos:

5 question types every AE, AM (and honestly every CSM) should use in a product demo.

These are NOT discovery questions.
These are NOT qualification questions.
These are demo questions designed to create tension, contrast and relevance.

Here they are:
1. Hypothetical Questions
Create a “what if” moment that opens the buyer’s mind.
“What would change for you if this workflow took 10 minutes instead of 2 hours?”

2. Imaginative Questions
Force them to picture a better (or worse) future.
“Imagine your team never has to chase missing data again, what would that free up?”

3. Future-Oriented Questions
Pull the impact into a concrete near-term scenario.
“If we go live this quarter, what does your day-to-day look like by summer?”

4. Projection Questions
Let them think on behalf of other stakeholders.
“How do you think your COO reacts when they see this level of visibility?”

5. Situational Questions
Tie the feature directly back to the problem you uncovered.
“Based on what you told me earlier- how would this change the way you handle X today?”
or even sharper:
“What impact would this have on the bottleneck you mentioned at the beginning?”

And here’s what to avoid at all costs:
“Any questions so far?”
“Does that make sense?”
These kill momentum, kill insight, and kill the chance to build relevance.

Great demos aren’t about showing features.
They’re about guiding the buyer’s thinking.

Master these 5 question types and you’ll never have a passive demo again.

Most SaaS founders don’t realize they need fractional sales leadership until things get messy. Not chaotic. Not failing. Just… stuck.

-Pipeline is inconsistent
-Founder is still the best seller
-The GTM motion exists, but isn’t repeatable
-Reps are doing “okay”, but not leveling up
-And nobody is sure what’s actually blocking revenue

This is the moment where a lot of founders think they need a VP.
But they’re not ready for one.
That’s where fractional leadership makes sense.

Not as a cheaper VP. Definitely not as an interim babysitter.
But as a specialist who comes in with one job:
Diagnose what’s missing
Build what’s missing
And hand over a system another leader can scale.

Where fractional leadership creates real leverage:

1. When you can’t diagnose the problem anymore
 Is it ICP? Messaging? Demo? Process? Rep skills? Forecasting?
 A fractional leader has seen 20+ versions of this and finds the signal fast.

2. When the founder is still running the “big deals”
 That’s the clearest sign the engine isn’t ready.
 Fractional fixes that.

3. When reps are working hard but deals keep slipping
 Often not a talent issue.
 It’s a system issue.
 Fractional builds the system.

4. When you’re in-between sales leaders
 Hiring a VP can take quarters.
 You can’t just freeze revenue meanwhile.

5. When you want to derisk the next VP
 Nothing is worse than hiring a senior leader into a messy foundation.
 Fractional leaders clean, structure, and stabilize before the VP lands.

6. When you want “pattern recognition” instead of guesswork
 Full-time leaders bring depth.
 Fractional leaders bring volume - dozens of GTM patterns, dozens of mistakes  already seen, dozens of engines built.

It’s not for every company.
But for many, it’s the thing between:
“We’re moving, but it’s heavier than it should be”
and “Everything finally clicks.”

The worst thing a sales leader can do?

Keep hoping a low performer will magically turn it around.
I used to do exactly that.

In my early years as a Sales Leader, I was an idealist.
I genuinely believed there were no “bad reps” - only bad systems.
And yes… systems matter. A lot.

But here’s the truth nobody wants to say out loud:
There are broken systems.
And there are reps who simply won’t get there - even in a great system.

Not because they’re lazy.
Not because they’re bad people.
But because not everyone is built for sales, and no, not everyone can be coached into it.

It took me years (and a lot of pain) to accept that.
I once kept a rep for almost a full year, hoping:

“Maybe they’ll get it next month.”
“Maybe the new process unlocks them.”
“Maybe it’s my fault.”
“Maybe they just need more time."

A year of hope.
A year of disappointment.
For me, for the rep, and for the company.

I didn't help them.
I didn’t help the team.
I didn't help the business.

I just extended something that should’ve ended much earlier.
Here’s what I’ve learned the hard way:
-Communicate expectations clearly.
-Give real coaching, not wishful thinking.
-Diagnose if it’s a system issue or a talent/behavior issue.
-And if it’s the latter – make the call quickly.

Letting someone go is never fun.
But sometimes it’s the most respectful thing you can do:
For the team that needs a functioning sales engine.
For the company that depends on revenue.
And for the rep who finally gets the chance to find a role they actually thrive in.

Dragging a half-dead horse through the desert is not leadership.
Owning your hiring mistake and acting on it is.

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