Founder @ FDTC → I help startups go from $100K-$15M by improving sales processes, playbooks, & people → Building the #1 SaaS sales coaching program for AEs → Featured in Techstars & Sales Hacker → #helpmedontsellme

It was Monday morning, 11 AM when I went to my boss and said, “I’m sorry, this job, sales...it’s not for me” and I left.

That was 13+ years ago.

At 22 years old I landed my first real job fresh out of college ready to be a “career person.”

I crushed the interview.

But when I came into work for my first day at 10am, I quickly realized that I was scared sh**less of sales, and quit within the first hour.

For the next 3 years, I had PTSD and avoided sales like the plague.

I played it safe and stayed in my comfort zone.

No sales-related stuff whatsoever.

I lost my confidence and ambition. 

I missed career opportunities and wasted away my early 20s.

Fast forward to present day:

I'm a former 2X VP of Sales who took 1 startup from $0 ARR to ≈ $10M ARR in 4 years, and another from $1.5M to ≈ $4.6M ARR in 18 months.

I now teaching SMB AEs and teams how to be top sellers, make higher 6-figures, and get promoted through repeatable systems and playbooks.


Want to learn more? Book a clarity call: https://calendly.com/fdtc/30min 


P.S.⚠️ Grab my top (FREE) 24 discovery questions 6,000+ salespeople are using: https://bit.ly/4d3B2sl


Otherwise, you can find me here:
► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@demotoclose
► iTunes: https://apple.co/3Fome9g | Spotify: https://spoti.fi/408V0LS
► Twitter: https://twitter.com/@mistamor

Mor Assouline

I used to say I have no time to work out.

A 30–45 min workout isn’t just 30–45 min.

Between commuting + showering it’s at least 1–2 hours.

But what if it didn’t have to be?

3 of the best purchases I made over the last 6 months:
	1.	A pull up/dip bar for my office
	2.	A stand up desk
	3.	An in office treadmill

All are in office.

Requires 0 commute.

Integrated in my work.

I made it too easy for myself to say yes.

Founder @ Demo to Close | “Success feels like luck. I don’t have a repeatable process.” → I coach SMB & MM AEs on the system for predictable performance | 2X VP of Sales

No alternative text description for this image

SMB sales is overwhelming.

Unlike ENT, it feels like you don’t have time to breathe.

I’ve been there.

- Running 5-6 sales calls every day.
- No time to prep for next meeting.
- Forgetting to follow your call structure.

It’s a lot.

So here’s how I'd reset my focus before the next call:

I’d have a pre call ritual.

Before every call, I’d take a walk around the office, and mentally rehearse what’s about to happen.

It worked for me.

What’s yours?

I audited 47 discovery calls. Inbound close rate = 45%. Outbound close rate =17%. Same MM AE, same approach, but completely different results.

They forgot the most important part of discovery:

You should not treat inbound and outbound leads the same way.

Inbound prospects:
- Raised their hand
- Have a problem they're trying to solve
- Expect to be challenged and questioned

You can be direct: "What's broken that made you reach out?"

Outbound prospects:
- Didn't ask to talk to you
- You're coming to them
- Need context before they'll engage
- You have to earn the right to ask questions

The principle: Your approach should match their entry point.

Inbound = Permission granted They gave you permission by raising their hand. Use it.

Outbound = Permission required You need to earn the right to dig deeper.

Example:
Wrong way with outbound: 
→ "What challenges are you facing with your current system?" (They're thinking: "Who is this person and why should I tell them anything?")

Right way with outbound: 
→ "When I speak with [personas], they tell me they're dealing with [problem A], [problem B] or [Problem C]. So when I did some research, I noticed [relevant trigger] and was wondering if any of that is also something you're experiencing too?"

The lesson: Stop using the same playbook for different situations.

Read the room and map your approach to where the buyer lives.


P.S. Here are 24 of the top discovery questions 7,000+ AEs have been using: https://lnkd.in/eR69raD4

A mid-market AE I just started coaching told me his problem is "inconsistent prospecting." I asked him to screen share and show me his process. 

I found the real problem within 5 minutes.

Me: What does inconsistent mean?

Him: prospects once or twice a month instead of weekly.

Me: Why?

Him: It takes 3-4 hours and it's exhausting.

Me: Okay. But why does it take 3-4 hours? What are you actually doing 
during those 3-4 hours?

Him: He logs into database directory, searches a specific vertical and adds 
some criteria, opens 50+ websites. Decides if each one is a fit.

Me: How does you decide which is worth going after?

Him: Gut feel. I just know when I see it.

Me: What IS gut feel?

Him: don't know. It's like... I can't explain it. I just know based on certain 
things I’m noticing.

Me: sounds like its a mix of certain criteria and intuition?

Him: Yes

Me: "So your brain has seen hundreds of companies. Some closed. Some 
didn't. Your brain learned patterns. What "good" looks like. But you never made those patterns conscious. So you can't fully articulate them."

Him: Yeah, exactly. That's the problem. It only works when I do it.

That's the actual bottleneck.

His knowledge is trapped in his subconscious and he’s working off of intuition.

So here's what we're doing:

Step 1: Figure out what his brain is actually looking for.

Pull every deal he closed won → Feed it into Claude → See what's consistent.

The goal: find the patterns of what good looks like.


Step 2: Write it down.

Once we know what "good" looks like, we make it a checklist.

Now it's not in his head (step 1 and 2 will be tedious at first).


Step 3: Let Claude do the work.

Export companies from the data base results that match the initial criteria and upload to Claudecowork.

Claude checks each website against the checklist and returns the good ones.

20 minutes instead of 3-4 hours.

He’ll be able to build more pipeline, faster.

His "intuition" won't be stuck in his head anymore.

It's in a system.

Which means he can repeat it and scale it



P.S. I’ve been spending 3-4 hours a day vibe coding. All this AI can be overwhelming if you don't know where to point it to. The easiest place to start, at least for me, is looking at what tasks are draining my time that I'm doing manually that I can automate.

Every week I run a group coaching call for AEs at companies like LinkedIn, Hubspot, Klaviyo, Nooks, etc.

Every week after the call, I'd spend 30+ minutes doing the same thing:
→ Pull up the Fathom recording
→ Read through the transcript
→ Summarize the key topics
→ Format everything into a lesson
→ Publish it to our learning portal
→ Copy the topics into Slack for the community

It's not hard work.

But it's tedious as hell and eats at my calendar.

So I automated the entire thing with AI (via Claude Cowork).

Now, every Friday at 1:00 PM, a Claude task kicks off automatically.

It opens Fathom, extracts the full transcript, identifies the coaching topics, generates a formatted title and "How to..." summary for each topic, creates and publishes the lesson in Kajabi, moves it to the top of the course, and posts a recap to our Slack channel.

The whole workflow runs itself. I just show up, coach, and it's done.

Fathom uses encrypted video streaming that blocks automated downloads. Kajabi's drag-and-drop needed custom browser scripting to reorder lessons. The "simple" automation required real problem-solving at every point.

Some lessons I'm learning:
1. "Automate everything" is the wrong goal.
2. Recurring tasks are the highest ROI automation targets.
3. AI agents are better at browser automation than you'd expect.
4. The bottleneck is rarely the AI.

We're entering a whole new era where the competitive advantage isn't knowing how to use AI, but it's knowing how to wire AI into your actual workflows.

If you're a seller or sales leader doing repetitive pre or post-session work every week you're sitting on hours of reclaimed time (houuuurs)




P.S. I’ve been coaching AEs in my community on how to leverage AI in sales. Feb and March coaching slots are sold out, but if you’re interested in joining HMU, we have a waitlist.

See this woman to the left?

If you're in SaaS sales, you might not recognize her.

Her name is Erica Feidner

She's known as the Piano Matchmaker

And every serious salesperson should study her.

Inc. called her one of the top 10 salespeople of all time.

She was Steinway & Sons's top salesperson for a decade & sold over $40M in pianos.

Here are 5 things she does that puts her in another league:

1. REDEFINE YOUR ROLE:
Erica refers to herself as a "piano matchmaker" rather than a salesperson.

Her: "My passion in life is to pair people to pianos in a way that reflects their lifestyle and their personality."

That means YOUR solution may not be the right fit for your prospect (and that's okay)

It took me years to realize not every interested prospect is a fit.

Instead of being a salesperson, be a [solution] matchmaker.


2. PRIORITIZE CLIENT EXPERIENCE OVER THE SALE:
The best salespeople know that buyers don't want to be sold, they want to be helped.

They know that if a prospect feels good with you early on, you're closer to making a deal.

Erica: "What I try to bring to the floor is a wonderful experience for clients and finding exactly the right piano that is in line with their needs and financial comfort zone."

If your prospect's highest priority is price, consider showing them a range of your rates first.

Every sales call should be customized.


3. DON'T RUSH TO MAKE THE SALE:
If the perfect piano isn't available, Erica tells clients to wait until she finds the right one, even at the risk of them purchasing elsewhere.

Her: "If I feel that the piano isn't perfect, I'll tell them to go home and I'll call them when I find the right one."

But, this is exactly how she builds trust and credibility.

I closed a Series D company last year to do onsite sales training for their AEs.

I told the head of sales I'd rather we slow down just to make sure I'm the right fit.

We spent an extra 2 days doing more due diligence.

I earned his trust and closed the deal.


4. READ THE ROOM:
Use conversational cues and body language to understand what the client's sentiment is.

Erica: "I listen to the tone of their voice, the speed of their voice, eye contact or not."

This is why turning on webcam first on Zooms is table stakes.

Example: If your prospect raises their eyebrows in surprise during your sales demo, that's an indicator that they're impressed.

"Sam, seems like this is striking a chord with you?"


5. ADAPT BY PERSONA:
Customize your communication style to fit the client's background and preferences.

Erica: "For instance, engineers might need detailed technical information, while musicians might prioritize sound quality. Once I figured that out, I can speak in a language that they understand best."

For example: In my experience, meet with your prospect before a demo to understand who's showing up and what they care about.

I used to make the mistake of winging it and showing up half prepared.

Half prepared = not prepared.

I review 30+ calls a week for the reps I coach. This is the single most expensive habit I see (it's not discovery).

I was reviewing a call last week where the rep did everything right.

Really solid discovery and demo. 

Then he showed pricing.

Prospect said: "Hmm, that's a bit more than we expected."

And the rep, without missing a beat, said: "Yeah, so we actually have some Q4 pricing incentives right now. If you move forward by end of month, I can probably get you a better rate."

Nobody asked for a discount.

The prospect hadn't said they couldn't afford it.

Hadn't even finished their thought.

The rep just gave it away.

Here's what happens when you do that:

1. You tell the buyer the price was never real. 
2. And you train them to expect a deal every single time you show a number. 

So now every future conversation with that buyer starts with them waiting for you to cave.

I call this flinching.

Most reps don't even realize they're doing it. 

They hear "that's more than expected" and their brain skips to "I'm about to lose this deal."

So they reach for the only tool they think will save it.

The problem: "that's more than we expected" means completely different things depending on who's saying it and why. 

Each version needs a different response.

If you flinch before figuring out which one you're dealing with, you give away money for nothing.

Stop treating every pricing pushback the same. 

Start diagnosing before you respond.

I'm breaking down the full framework in Monday's newsletter. The diagnosis, the talk tracks, all of it (including a cheatsheet you can use).

Read it here tomorrow along with 6.6K+ sellers: demotoclose.com/newsletter


P.S.  It's my birthday today. Instead of cake, I'm giving you a newsletter that'll save you thousands in commission.

I'm consulting for a company that raised over $120M, and we've built AI agents based on my sales methodology to audit thousands of sales calls at scale and score them automatically.

The results are automatically fed into:

a) Slack - real time notifications
b) Salesforce - to generate report on trends

We’re using this to coach reps on high leverage strategies.

It took us about 1.5 months to get to v1 (and still tweaking it)

But the takeaway from implementing this is:
1. What is a high frequency task
2. That is low complexity
3. But is manual and guzzles time,
4. That you can chop up into smaller mini tasks?

Build an AI agent around that and tinker.

Then do it again, and tinker.

You won’t learn about how to be an AI native by reading about it all day.

This is where I built my confidence in sales.

Wearing a suit and door knocking during in Miami (in summer...it's hot).

The cheapest homes in this neighborhood are $10M-$15M.

2 years prior I had quit my first sales job because I was scared.

That notebook you see me holding was a list of all the homeowners that told us to F off.

I had to make sure we never knocked on their homes again.

I never closed a single deal that year in that neighborhood.

But I walked away with a sales MBA

The one thing that can compensate for lack of sales skill is confidence.

And after 1 year of door knocking and cold calling I was confident as hell.

That’s how I eventually found myself in tech sales and teaching others how to be confident and sell better.

First as an early stage AE.

Then as a 2X VP of sales.

Here are 14 (of the many) rules that will never be dead in sales that I've learned:

1. Always show up even if you're not in the mood

2. Don't move onto another skill until you've improved the current one

3. You'll sell more when asking questions vs talking/pitching

4. Always have a compelling reason for the prospect to listen/show up

5. A few bad experiences and screw ups doesn't mean YOU are a screw up

6. You'll always learn more when you fail vs succeed

7. Betting on yourself is the best seed you can plant

8. Surround yourself with people who you look up to

9. Affirmations are cheesy until you do it consistently

10. Community is underrated, never do it alone.

11. Expect the work to be harder/longer than what you anticipated 

12. There is always a trade-off, always.

13. How you say things is sometimes more important than what you say.

14. Building a brand makes sales so much easier

Helping SaaS build trusted content with third-party expertise • Co-Founder @ AudienceLed • GTM & Partnerships Operator • Your buyer trusts 👉 People, brands, and places they already transact with. Activate them.

I help SaaS revenue teams integrate third party expertise (the people, brands, and places) that influence their buyer to surround them (instead of spam them)  👉 where buyers already transact and spend their dwindling attention credits 👇

Buyers don’t believe brands as much as they believe the people, companies, & places they already work with and listen to.

That’s why your sales and marketing team need a network of trusted people in your ecosystem.

When you activate that network, you get:
👉Warmer doors opening faster
👉Higher win rates
👉Deals that close sooner
👉Bigger deal sizes

Proof I’ve lived this:
✅Built enablement programs that boosted partner retention by 70%
✅Created a partner motion that matched sales revenue with 1/3 of the headcount
✅Outperformed a full SDR + AE team using ecosystem plays
✅Scaled a business to $1M in less than 12 months → acquired

(And yes - I’m in the room developing relationships with the influential people your buyers already listen to.)

Activate an ecosystem-oriented modern go-to-market system that focuses on QUALITY and CONVERSION by:
1) Following me here for weekly systems sharing
2) Or DM me if you want me to show you how to:
- Map who your buyers already trust
- Layer partners into your GTM to build pipeline with less spend (without building any new systems)

Oh, I'm also writing a book on rewiring your mindset, which incorporates psychological, sociological, and philosophical concepts. Go-to-market with your market at www.audienceled.com

Will Taylor

I don't have an MBA, but since co-founding AudienceLed (my first business) in Feb 2025, we grew to $65k MRR.

Feb last year we closed a good month's start at ~$27k MRR. About 2.3x growth (in MRR).

MRR is nice, then we learned cashflow wasn't 100% (about 60% to start).

Since then, we've improved cashflow to ~80% and are aiming for 100% (thanks to Lauren Makielski).

Now we sit at $65k MRR ($780k annualized) contractually.

I reflected this weekend on what that means. Most businesses don't even make money in their first 6 months, even from seasoned business folk.

Since Feb of last year I have also:
- sold my home
- gotten engaged
- saw my brother get married
- went to Italy for another wedding
- went to Nicaragua for another one
- went to 2 conferences (out of pocket)
- planned a wedding (we'll my fiancé did most of it)
- had an offer accepted on a new home (firming conditions this week! 🤞)
- hired 3 people that were supposed to stay on and become partners but... life happens

... and of course interviewed hundreds of third party experts on behalf of our clients.

I am learning at scale. My brain is flooded with information across GTM and business at large.

AudienceLed is a conduit of knowledge share with, for, and through the ecosystem, funneled into our clients.

... and we have yet to even do our own marketing...

I am FIRED UP.

My grandma, who beat breast cancer twice, reminds me:
- buying/selling a home
- planning a wedding
- running a business
- having kids

... are all the top stresses of life.

Well grandma, I decided to take on 3/4 of those at once 😂

And I am grateful for the pain and effort this requires. 

Focusing on humanizing business and operationalizing relationships is worth it...

... every god damn hour of the day.

And I would not be here without the help of my network. Way too many to thank and show appreciation to... even if you've played a small part so far:

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! 🙏

And a big thank you to our clients, our partners, and of course our legendary team that gets deep into the trenches to deliver and manage the chaos... Rob, Lauren, Sam, Amy, Lydia, Dani, and anyone else who has been with us for the ride.

Happy Monday everyone. Much love.

If I can do it, so can you.

Get after it.

My entire career has been in go-to-market tech. Common Room has completely leveled up our craft. That's why I'm excited to share...

... that I get the honour to share that excellence - with and through people just like you - out to the market.

On Thursday Feb 26 @ 4PM ET we will have our first instalment of the new industry event "GTM Heroes Live" where you'll learn:

Real plays
From real customers
And real practitioners
With real experiences
And the real outcomes

AI is not coming for your job. But it will give you leverage.

I first came across Common Room during my time at Reveal (acquired by Crossbeam) and immediately thought about how data can be properly contextualized.

"This is exactly what partnerships needs to impact revenue..." I thought.

Then I dove in. Got an account. Created content with them. Became an advocate for them. And now we work together at AudienceLed.

Sales leaders and practitioners who are stressed to build pipeline do not need another data tool. They don't need more lines of commoditized information to weed through. They don't need another custom CRM field.

They need a place to take action. 
They need prioritized, contextualized information at the ready.
They need PIPELINE gosh darn it!!!

👉 AI doesn't need new gatekeepers.

The promise from other vendors has been leverage for everyone... but then they've created a "specialist trap."

They force you to confuse complexity with leverage. But complexity is a barrier, especially when it is outside of the system of action. 

Leverage should REMOVE work... not add additional headcount.

Common Room has built GTM AI that gives leverage. Not replacement of people. It solves for stale data, research time, CRM management, and figuring out who to prioritize, what to say, and when to say it.

We are going to show you how.

Right from the people - just like you - in the field.

If this resonates with you and you want content that actually moves the needle, join us this Thursday, February 26 @ 4 PM ET to hear from Saad Khan, Jacki Leahy 🪄... with a special appearance from Heath Barnett 🤙, your peers, and YOU.

Everyone is welcome on stage!

Let's figure this out - together.

Here's the link. Bring your hot topics and questions: https://lnkd.in/gS3_W4tP

The bar is so incredibly low. Treat buyers like humans. Respond in a timely manner, empowered by AI. I am deep into the GTM AI scene with the clients we serve. I'm seeing some things:

I just got back from Common Room's SKO. Holy. Moly. This team is on fire. Some of the brightest minds operating here.

Common Room has exciting updates you'll continue to see from people you trust - their customers, their partners, themselves, and allies in the space.

Everyone can buy data from the 5x5 Coop. Everyone can white label another providers intent data. But not every solution is contextualizing it and making sense of it like Common Room is.

Another team - Spara - is taking AI sales and marketing conversion and doing it the right way. Contextualized information, real time, right when you are asking questions and need more information. The implications are massive... take your signals (from Common Room and/or Sequel.io) and leverage that in real time in systems like Spara.

Sequel.io (not a client) taking event data and passing it to other places (pay attention here!). 

The list goes on.

Your buyers want:
- Real time
- Right time
- Right message
- Right relevancy

Spam cannons will not deliver that.

Enterprise and mid-market companies need to deliver a better EXPERIENCE as any vibe-coded app can give the same spot functionality.

Vibe-coded companies look for easy buttons. That's why they spam you.

The sea of noise only continues to grow... to break out of it you need to get intentional.

You need to focus on humanizing the buyer. 

At AudienceLed we are out here, in the field, executing at scale and plugging into all of these systems. 

Blog content on websites as playbooks from experts.

Round-up reports of complimentary brands (AEO + SEO benefits...)

Stories with customers delivered to accounts based on look-alike data + the right signals.

Ads being relevant because of better targeting (shout out Vector 👻!) + more human content.

Humanizing the buyer's journey requires activating the ecosystem.

Keep watching. I post weekly. Follow along. More content soon 👀

Cold email reply rates? ~5%. Connect rates? Single digits. 70%+ of B2B buyers expect RELEVANT experiences before they engage...

The bar is low.
And yet… most teams are still blasting 'personalized' emails.

Or... even worse...
The system is hidden behind a gatekeeper (usually an expensive one).

Common Room's SKO taught me one important thing:
👉 Third-party data is a commodity and the market was sold a lie that it all needs to be 'engineered' together.

Their focus?

Creating the cockpit for revenue teams to actually execute. Not some siloed data centre that requires APIs or Zaps or a degree in data.

Make it make sense.
Make it easy.

Everyone has access to the same data.

Not everyone can:
- Resolve identity properly
- Contextualize that data
- Route and prioritize people intelligently
- Empower reps *in real time*
- And deliver a human experience at scale

I wrote this week about other solutions doing this well. Now, I'm hosting two top experts - in the field practitioners that the market trusts - on Common Room's new live series.

GTM Heroes Live 🦸‍♀️

A community-driven space to talk about what is actually working. 

From us. 
From the experts. 
From YOU.

First session:
Signals on signals on signals. What’s next?

I’ll be joined by Saad Khan and Jacki Leahy 🪄 to unpack:
- GTM AI done the right way
- Why data alone isn't enough
- And why gatekeeping cannot be the solution (your wallets depend on it)

Thurs. Feb 26 | 1pm PT / 4pm ET
https://lnkd.in/gS3_W4tP

If you care about building real GTM experiences that humanize buyers - not just engineered workflows treating them like a datapoint - join us.

"You're wrong, do this" will never work in an industry trained to click easy-buttons to build pipeline... especially when it no longer works.

Instead, we need to:
- Align with their incentives
- Integrate into their existing workflows + behaviours
- Still give them an easy button (perhaps even easier than before)

The first wave of partnerships failed.

Not because it was wrong. Not because it didn't work... but because it was being gate-kept with jargon and vendor-speak.

(I should know...)

I'm on a mission to change that - to create seamless integration of a buyer-first mentality into GTM motions. Through trust. Through the ecosystem.

Full convo with Olivier Roth and The Swarm 🔆 here: https://lnkd.in/gqD32yUF

Top GTM teams turn partner overlap + signals into ready-to-send emails. NOT showing up to a meeting saying "where are my leads?"...

Pipeline moves faster in the tools you already have.

In my recent piece with Crossbeam, I broke down what actually makes AI useful in B2B sales.

No 28 step workflow with a dissertation of a prompt.
It’s better context.

Here’s the simple system I advise teams to run:
➡️ Pull second-party partner overlap from Crossbeam
➡️ Layer in first-party CRM data + third-party signals like funding
➡️ Let automation move it into the CRM and sequencer
➡️ Use AI to explain why it matters and draft the opener

Not as a Slack alert alone.
Not as a random CRM field.
But inside the rep’s existing workflow.

Sellers need to stay in rhythm.

In this flow, the message references a real partner their prospect already trusts.

Static data → active workflow.

AI is only powerful when it connects dots sellers don’t have time to connect.
Otherwise it’s just an email assistant.

In the article, I also break down:
✅ The 6 biggest mistakes teams make when introducing partner data
✅ How to make signals explainable so managers trust them
✅ The minimal stack I recommend to operationalize this
✅ A simple checklist to pilot ecosystem-powered AI without overwhelming RevOps.

If AI isn’t improving win rates or cycle time, it’s probably missing ecosystem context ;)

Full article here: https://lnkd.in/gu4s8Qd9

Thanks for having me Andrea V. + Crossbeam!

taplio

The Battle

Mor Assouline

Will Taylor

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMor Assouline's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreWill Taylor's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Mor Assouline

Will Taylor

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Mor Assouline's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreWill Taylor's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMor Assouline's LinkedIn Performance