Fullfunnel.io

At Fullfunnel.io we are growing B2B companies with long and complex sales cycles since 2006.

We were and still are “in trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, and bring to the table our 30+ years of combined experience and knowledge.

I've been selling and marketing B2B tech and services since 2006. 

What makes Fullfunnel.io different?

1. Ins and outs of selling to enterprise

Coming from the mid-market and enterprise world, I know all the ins and outs of selling to these segments: the research and evaluation processes, decision-making procedures inside the buying committee and the approval workflows.

We’ve been there, done that, and know how to generate opportunities with these segments and influence the decision-making processes.

2. Niche experience

While we could help many B2B business, since 2007 we focus exclusively on two verticals: high-value B2B tech (enterprise SaaS, blockchain technology, hardware) and service-based companies (software development, consulting, cybersecurity, DevOps as a service, etc).

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge.

3. Knowledge transfer and in-house operations

We believe that the real growth can only be driven in-house. You need to have people who are in the trenches every day, talking to customers, experiencing the sales hurdles, refining the messages and positioning.

We join your team as external marketing advisors, provide consistent support and training including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack and process maps.

As a result, you get an evergreen in-house growth engine.

Co-founder

Trenches - B2B marketing community

Trenches — a community created by B2B marketers for B2B marketers who are in the trenches every day getting their hands dirty in growing B2B companies with high ACV and long sales cycles.

We talk about ABM (account-based marketing), marketing-sourced pipeline, demand generation, lead nurturing, GTM strategy, buyer’s journey, and all other hot topics that are ignored in the sales communities.

Community is FOREVER FREE.

Co-Founder

6-Week ABM Playbook

An actionable account-based marketing playbook and training to consistently land sales opportunities with your dream clients in 6 weeks or faster. 

Cut through the noise and get busy decision makers to respond to your campaigns without spammy outreach, wasting money on enterprise tech stack or expensive ip-based advertising, and significant shifts in the company’s organization.

The account-based marketing strategy and campaigns we are sharing in this playbook can be executed by a team of 2 people (1 marketer + 1 sales) on a Ramen budget.

Author

Scale XL

Helping B2B entrepreneurs install a reliable process to predictably fill their pipeline with high-value clients. 

Scale XL process addresses the 4 critical challenges of client relationship building:

1. TARGETING: identify, target and engage with more of YOUR business’ ideal potential clients, not someone else’s. 
2. ATTRACTING: define, create and communicate compelling messages that cut through the noise and clearly establish your business as a natural answer to your ideal potential client’s problems.
3. QUALIFYING: qualifying which prospects are ideal for YOUR business and which of them are ready, and then applying different processes to sales-ready leads and those that need nurturing.
4. ROI: fix low return and underwhelming results of B2B marketing 

Scale XL relies on a process to build relationships with more key decision makers in your market by targeting, attracting and nurturing your ideal clients, not someone else’s.

And if your business is anything like 100+ niche B2B software and service companies I’ve helped before, it’s likely that my methodology could help you do just that.

To find out if this process can work for your business, feel free to get in touch here, or visit our website at scalexl.com.

Founder

Lean Startup Circle Brussels

We're a group of entrepreneurs taking lean startup and customer development techniques to practice in our startups. We're ready to talk implementation and share data from our experiments.

http://www.meetup.com/lean-brussels/

Every meetup addresses a different (lean) startup topic (minimum viable products, go to market, sales for startups, customer interviews...)

Most startups fail not because they fail to execute and build their product, but because they fail to build a viable business around it. Lean startup helps us validate our business model as fast as possible. Lean startup is a collection of techniques built around maximizing validated customer learning thought fast Build/Measure/Learn iteration loops.

*The Lean Startup is a trademark and service mark owned by Eric Ries.*

Co-Founder and Organizer

Growth Hacking Belgium

Your new business went online yesterday and you've got a marketing budget of zero. How are you supposed to create a movement around your product? How can you get to your first thousand - or million - customers? Starting from zero, it feels impossible. Enter the growth hacker. You may not have heard of growth hacking yet, but you've certainly used the billion dollar brands built by it: Hotmail, AirBnB, Facebook, Dropbox, amongst many others. This group is for people who want to adopt the growth hacker mindset. It is all about sharing hands-on tactics that bring you results.

Grant Snap

Grant Snap is an online service that helps you get your innovation funded by providing guidance in preparing winning R&D grant proposals.

€375 billion gets granted annually in the EU. Get your share.

Sirris

I help software companies in different phases of product development and innovation:
•	For entrepreneurs: to turn their ideas into viable product concepts by applying customer development and lean startup™ methodologies
•	For companies building product for early adopters: introduce flexibility needed to quickly respond to new opportunities and changing customer requests 
•	For companies shifting their focus from customer to market: to master product management
•	For companies established in a market: to deal with increasing product complexity and how to differentiate through innovation

Account Manager Software Industry

Development activities (middleware components of a distributed data storage system, test management system, framework and tools used for automation of system tests) 

Participating in introduction of agile methodologies in two R&amp;D teams and setting up test automation infrastructure

Senior Software Engineer

Sony

Participating in the transition of an R&amp;D team into a product development organization 

Development activities (several packages of DVB MHP standard for digital television, an integrated environment used for development, execution and automatic reporting of functional tests for digital television)

Setting up a test department (conceiving a test strategy and infrastructure, test specifications/reviews, recruiting, supervising and training of testing personnel)

Full-funnel ABM for B2B brands with 5+ figure deals | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

You need more pipeline that turns into revenue. But:
- Most marketing leads never convert to deals
- ⁠Outbound is in continuous decline 
- All the investments in trendy programs, agencies or tech didn’t move the needle. 

It’s time to try implementing full-funnel sales and marketing programs. 

Why? 

So you can:
- Accelerate this quarter’s revenue while building the future pipeline
- ⁠Convert 5-15% accounts to pipeline
- ⁠Bring marketing and sales teams together to drive the KPI that matters the most: sales velocity. 

We helped dozens of B2B tech companies implement full-funnel marketing and sales programs with 10%+ account-to-pipeline ratio. 

We will take your team by the hand and together, implement a scoped pilot program with clear milestones to prove the key KPIs, before investing in operationalization and scaling. 

To learn more or ask me anything, connect with me here or visit our website at fullfunnel.io



Vladimir Blagojević

Accounts that fit your ICP ≠ buying intent. Instead of wasting SDRs' time and ads budget, segment your accounts into three lists:

1. CLUSTER ICP
= Vendor unaware + Product need unknown

🎯 Goal: Build brand awareness at scale
📢 Marketing: Cluster-based demand gen
🤝 Sales: light touch, <10% of effort (e.g. connect with DMs and Champions)
📊 Opportunity likelihood: <5%

2. FUTURE PIPELINE
= Vendor aware + Product need unknown

🎯 Goal: Validate product need & nurture
📢 Marketing: Cluster-based demand gen, feature in content
🤝 Sales: multi-touch, 30% effort (progressive profiling, connect with buying committee, trigger-based engagement, invite to ABM events...)
📊 Opportunity likelihood: <30%

3. ACTIVE FOCUS 
= Vendor aware + Product need evidence strong

🎯 Goal: Sales opportunities
📢 Marketing: Personalized content, interviews, gifting
🤝 Sales: 1:1, 60% effort (multi-threaded engagement, personalized offers, strategy sessions...)
📊 Opportunity likelihood: High

----

The impact when you align your playbooks to this routing:
→ SDRs stop wasting time on unaware accounts
→ Stop irrelevant personalization 
→ Ad spend has higher returns
→ Marketing-sourced revenue increases
→ You build future pipeline while accelerating this quarter's deals

Full-Funnel ABM and Demand Gen For B2B Companies w/ High ACV | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

No VP of Sales ever said: "I expect marketing to orchestrate our engagement playbooks". 
Yet this is what often happens with ABM:

Marketing:

- Creates multiple sales playbooks & engagement sequences
- Designs timeline
- Add best practices

Then, marketing shares with sales 87-pages deck and asks to implement.
One month later: "Sales doesn't use our playbooks and content".

This year we've interviewed two dozen enterprise B2B Saas VP of Sales to dive deeper into the challenges they want to solve with ABM and get marketing hands-on help.

Here are 5 core areas:

1. AWARENESS AMONG STRATEGIC ACCOUNTS

Awareness is not created by running more ads, drip personalized nurturing and outbound cadences.

Awareness is not created by creating more AI content nobody is going to read.

Awareness is created through the engagement with ICP ecocystem:

- High-quality thought leadership program with SMEs & execs
- Top-notch events
- Collaborations and direct engagement with the target accounts
- Constant engagement with the communities and thought leaders

2. CONTENT THAT CHALLENGES THE STATUS QUO

Modern B2B buyers don't need one more "How to cut your costs" whitepaper. Modern buyers want to see:

- Industry trends and stats
- Concrete practical examples and best practices: dashboards, workflows, templates
- How to challenge an internal inertia and status quo

In most cases, sales don't use marketing content because it doesn't fall in any of these categories. 

3. COMPLETE ACCOUNT ENGAGEMENT

Most organizations use lead handoff as a default function:

MQL generated -> assign to SDR.
Webinar signed up -> Assign to SDR

In 2026 to cut through the noise you need to have a holistic visibility:

- Who engaged with what content and ads
- What were historical interactions
- When was a spike in high-intent page visits
- Which events buying committee members has attended

This way sales move from desperate pitching to meaningful 1-1 account planning.

4. BUYER ENABLEMENT

You don't win deals with fancy pitch decks. You win when your Champion can sell your product at the next internal meeting.

Sales can create business cases showing challenges, cost of inaction, and recommended solutions.

But they need marketing's help with:

- Product screenshots that address specific buyer questions
- Relevant customer testimonials and references
- Data snapshots

5. CLEAR MESSAGING

Nothing frustrates sales more than prospects asking: "But what exactly does your product do?"

--- 

In many organization, sales ignore marketing, don't buy in for joint programs like ABM, and gate-keep access to customers. 

How to fix this:

- Make both functions revenue-responsible
- Get fundamental alignment on GTM strategy (ICP, buyer journey, value prop, metrics)
- Fix knowledge gaps through joint planning, involvement of SMEs
- Define a small pilot team on one market/vertical
- Run regular pipeline review meetings during the pilot
- Document and share results before scaling

Why Sales Ignore Marketing

What's marketing role in sales outreach and engagement?

A VP at Snowflake got this question at a sales summit:
"How can a rep get your attention with cold outreach?"

His answer: "You can't."

"I don't trust cold outreach. But if someone I trust vouches for the solution, I'll take a look."

This is the reality for most enterprise buyers.

They ignore cold outreach, skip your ads, filter out your nurture emails.

But they listen to their team, peers and trusted industry voices.

That's why your ABM team can't just target buyers.
(and why marketing needs to own part of the engagement)

Here's how to engage the entire ecosystem around your buyers:

1. Peer-to-peer multithreading

The other day I heard from a VP of Sales: "it's hard for a young SDR to get the attention from a senior executive".

Their solution? Their CEO and CMO regularly share thought leadership insight on LinkedIn, and book senior executives as guests on on their podcast.

2. Non-decision makers with influence

Back to the Snowflake VP: "The best way to get my attention is to have my team bring something to me."

Executives rarely care about the tactical problem your product solves.

Here's how it works: A power user experiences a problem daily (e.g. losing candidates to poor hiring experience). That problem impacts a business objective the executive does care about (e.g. slowing market expansion).

You engage the power user. They bring it to their boss when the problem comes up. 

3. Industry peers

People trust their peers more than they trust vendors.

Our buyers mention they discovered our content because someone from their network engaged or shared it. Often someone who will never buy from us.

The more you're present and connect to people from the industry, the more your brand or content get recommended.

4. Industry voices 

These can be leaders in renown companies, leaders from technology partners, or even local "micro-influencers" known in a city or a region.

We regularly host partner webinars, local partner events in target locations, and run an annual summit with people respected by our buyers. 

5. Niche media and communities

Event organizers, industry media companies, communities and podcasts. 

♜ Arthur Castillo shared: "The best community sponsorships weren't standard packages. They were custom programs: co-hosting research, integrated campaigns, or bringing community members to our dinners in key cities."

--- 

Cold sales outreach won't get you in the door with senior buyers.

But when the whole team builds relationships across the ecosystem, you become known, and increase the chance of ending up in their consideration set.  

That's the shift: marketing isn't just generating leads and providing air cover.

Marketing creates trust, presence, and recommendations in the networks your buyers already rely on.

P.S. Andrei Zinkevich and me are breaking down the role of marketing in ABM on our next Full-Funnel Live: 
https://bit.ly/48azQnB

ABM ≠ industry & persona personalization. This misses: 
- Actions matching buyer intent & awareness
- Progressive discovery & personalization 

Here's a framework that shows this more clearly. 

1. Level of intent (vertical axis)

- TAM*:  Any company that could potentially use your solution (e.g. My HR solution is used by companies 200+ employees)
- ICP*:  Companies matching your ideal profile (e.g. 200+ people tech companies who are actively hiring)
- Cluster: Priority segment with competitive advantage (e.g. SaaS companies with distributed dev teams, hiring remote developers)
- Need:  Validated problem that needs solving
- Buying: High-priority, can't postpone, actively looking for solutions

(* yes, I know that strictly speaking "TAM" and "ICP" are about fit, rather than intent - but look at my drawing skills, do you think I could draw a 3D diagram?)


2. Level of awareness (horizontal axis)

- Cold: No awareness of your solution
- Aware: Know what you do, no relationship yet
- Relationship: Active back & forth conversation
- Meeting: Discovery calls with buying committee members


3. Aligning actions w/ level of intent and awareness

ANY + TAM → Qualify. Do they fit our ICP?
COLD + ICP → Create awareness
AWARE + ICP → Research to uncover cluster and account insights
AWARE + Cluster → Build relationships, start progressive discovery
RELATIONSHIP + ICP or Cluster → Validate the need through progressive discovery
RELATIONSHIP + Need → Book discovery calls
MEETINGS BOOKED → Discover needs, priorities, stakeholders. Create the opportunity.

(In practice, we use a simpler framework with three lists:
- Cluster ICP: Researched accounts, unaware, unknown need. Goal: create awareness.
- Future Pipeline: Vendor aware, need unknown. Goal: validate need and build relationships.
- Active Focus: Validated need, established relationship. Goal: book discovery calls and create opportunities.)


4. Progressive discovery and personalization 

By progressive discovery, I mean: 
- Account research 
- Progressively gathering insider information, challenges and priorities shared by target buyers via
→ Content collabs
→ Webinar polls/Q&As/registration forms
→ Social and email conversations
→ Transcribed interviews and calls

With each new insight, personalization becomes better. 

--- 

The mistake? Assuming that industry and persona personalization is enough. 

In reality
- Same industry ≠ same challenges. Relevant personalization requires deeper insight 
- Most relevant insights come from buyer conversations 
- Outreach by unknown people gets ignored even when relevant

Industry-based ABM v.s. Use Case-Based ABM. 

If your product has multiple use cases, stop targeting industry verticals, and start targeting clusters.

VERTICAL-BASED ABM 

Most ABM programs create vertical-based list, messaging and content. 

But if those accounts have different use-cases and challenges, you risk ending with content and messaging that's either: 
- Irrelevant to the majority of accounts you target
- Generic, “common denominator” messaging that doesn’t differentiate you and doesn’t address the highest priority need

CLUSTER-BASED ABM

Cluster: group of companies with a similar challenge/use-case, despite their tier or vertical.

With cluster targeting you can:

- Cut through the generic noise with messaging, content and case studies that address the highest priority need that's top of their mind
- Differentiate in a way that matters to them (by showing how you're supporting that use-case better than competitors)
- Focus on accounts with a high probability to become a sales opportunity instead of just chasing vertical Tier 1 accounts

EXAMPLE 

As an ABM lead for Hubspot, I might create an ABM program for B2B SaaS companies. After all, they all need sales and marketing tools. It’s also helpful to have industry related assets, case studies and messaging. 

But different SaaS companies have different buying triggers: 

- Switching from a legacy system, because they lack functionality and integrations
- Companies that want to start ABM but their CRM/marketing platform don’t support it
- Startups that outgrew their separate siloed tools

You can already see how each of these use-cases deserves completely different messaging. 

---

Once you've defined the clusters, the next step is mapping accounts to them.

Here is how.

1. Export all your won deals and segment them by use-case

2. Group all accounts by use-case and compare revenue metrics 

- Revenue
- Average deal size 
- Sales cycle length
- Lifetime value 
- # of successful case studies 

You'll be able to make an unbiased decision which clusters have a higher priority.

3. Select a top cluster aligned with your goals and run deal analysis 
- Top 5 clients by LTV/ACV
- Top 5 fastest deals
- Recent 5 lost deals

4. Extract patterns

- Firmographics
- Technographics
- Buying committee structure
- Won and lost reasons
- Signals and account insights that signal the specific use-case

5. Develop a cluster ICP with qualification & disqualification criteria

--- 

Now you can build a highly targeted list of accounts that are more likely to convert into pipeline and be a good fit, and align your program with their high priority needs. 

We recently published results and a breakdown of four programs where a switch to cluster-based ABM generated $7 million in pipeline: 
https://lnkd.in/dZWKNAbC

You have one quarter. 20% of content marketer's time. And you need to generate pipeline.

What do you do? 

1. Place smart bets

Look at your best recent deals and figure out WHY they purchased.

What was the underlying business objective? Why now? Why you?

Drill down to specific attributes, needs, pain points, events and situations so you can:

- Find other accounts with similar needs and priorities (=account cluster)
- Understand what will attract their attention

2. Plan an educational event 6-8 weeks into the quarter

The event (webinar, field event) should address a key challenge or transformation that accounts from the target cluster need to solve.

Why events work:

- Focuses the team on a concrete deliverable 
- Forces them to break down generic challenges into specific jobs to be done, problems, solutions and root causes — then connect them into a narrative
- Each element of the event narrative becomes a LinkedIn post
- Creates a natural milestone with a hard deadline
- Genuinely useful to target accounts

3. Turn the event into LinkedIn content for sales

Sales shares content directly from their profiles because
- They connect daily with buyers
- It creates opportunities to start conversations 

This also shortens the feedback loop: you see which content resonates and leads to conversations. 

4. Break content into three streams 

#1 Expert content (Goal: Nurturing). 
Infographics, templates, proprietary data, how-tos
→ positions sales as trusted advisors
→ each post becomes input for the event deck

#2 Curated content (Goal: Engagement). 
Collaborations, roundups, co-created posts
→ pulls in voices of buyers, peers, partners
→ lets sales use collaborations to start conversations and get insight from target buyers

#3 1:1 account content (Goal: Awareness). 
"Account love letters" and personalized content hubs tailored to specific high-potential accounts
→ guaranteed awareness at target accounts
→ works incredibly well to start conversations with buyers

5. Repurpose outputs

Each piece of content feeds into the next:

LinkedIn --> Event Deck --> Content Hub 
Content collabs (& webinar polls) --> LinkedIn --> Event --> Market research report 

--- 

This is the process we use with clients and for FullFunnel.

In Q4, we did it for a cluster of B2B companies struggling to prove marketing attribution to pipeline while juggling executive pressure to do more with AI.

Results:
- 12 new posts
- 1072 webinar signups 
- 160 people shared their top priorities and challenges with us 
- 52 accounts with deeper back&forth conversations 
- 2 new closed-won deals 

The step most companies struggle with?

Selecting a cluster where they have a highest chance to win, and linking it to a content strategy that will cut through the noise, and help sales start conversations. 

Andrei and me are  breaking this down in detail on the next Full-Funnel Live: 
https://bit.ly/4pSSPZN

Do reps even matter, if 80% B2B buyers buy from vendors they preferred BEFORE contact with sales? 

Here's what Jon Miller says (quoting Kerry Cunningham's update of 6sense's B2B Buyer Experience Report for 2025):  

1. SALES RELATIONSHIPS AS BRAND AWARENESS 

Reps are a critical part of building your brand preference and awareness. 68% of buyers *personally knew a seller* from the winning company before the buying process began (Kerry’s research).

We see this over and over again. The teams who involve salespeople early in the buying process always see way better results from their programs. 

2. PREVIOUS VENDOR EXPERIENCE > BRAND AWARENESS

95% of net-new wins came from *existing vendor relationships* - not just brand awareness. 

For new business deals: 
- 48% already bought from that vendor
- 13% used the vendor at a prior company
- 34% evaluated the vendor (but didn't buy)

And get this: less than 5% had no direct experience but were familiar with the brand.

The disheartening conclusion here: our efforts to build a brand have a very small effect (5%). 

Category leaders - companies with the biggest market share - have an enormous advantage. 

But what should the rest of us do? 

Jon's advice: 
✅ Hire sellers with experience selling to your core ICP
✅ Give them time and air cover to build relationships outside active buying cycles
✅ When you lose a deal, make sure you have complete notes, named champions, mapped stakeholders, and a clear path to reconsideration. Because that "loss" might be the reason you win the next opportunity

I'd add: 

☑ Double down on expansion and renewal programs 

And practically, in your net-new programs: 

PRIORITIZE accounts with: 
☑ Buyers who are a former customer 
☑ Existing relationships 

INCREASE "RELATIONSHIPS AS BRAND AWARENESS" by:
☑ Letting sellers work on future pipeline and relationships, too
☑ Increasing the footprint in target accounts by multithreading 
☑ Involve non-sellers (your subject-matter experts, executives...) with industry connections 

MEASURE:
☑ Don't only measure revenue from won deals, but also relationships, target account footprint, and ALL qualified net-new opportunities (remember: lost opportunities account for 34% of future won deals). 

Because, as Jon puts it, the deals you win next quarter were decided 6 months ago.

"Can you give examples of 1:1 content? And the format you deliver it in?"

Here are three examples, along with a step-by-step how-to. 

EXAMPLE 1. Account Love Letter 

Example: "Here is how I'd optimize the new enterprise pipeline ABM strategy for multi-regional B2B tech company like Agicap."
(https://lnkd.in/ebUxaR6w)

Format: LinkedIn post + content hub + 1:1 messages. 

How to: 

1. Every week, check new engagement and intent signals for your target accounts 

2. Identify accounts that reach criteria to be promoted 
- From Cluster ICP to Future Pipeline list (e.g. repeated visits to high intent pages + 1+ named buyer engaged via social or newsletter or webinar)
- From Future Pipeline to Active Focus (e.g. provided insight about priority problem via progressive profiling)

3. Run account research and define blind spots 

- Map the buying committee, their responsibility and KPIs 
- Research information we need to know about the target account to create relevant content and a personalised offer (e.g. they started an expansion to a new region, challenges: lack of brand awareness in target regions, stronger local competition...)
- Plan touchpoints to get insider information (=progressive profiling)

4. Plan the activities you will use 

In this example, Andrei Zinkevich created the "account love letter" LinkedIn post, and used it to connect to the members of the buying committee. He also created a personalized content hub and used in in follow up (see below). 

EXAMPLE 2. Personalized Solution 

Example: "What do cycling and complex B2B SaaS have in common?"

Format: 1:1 letter sent in a parcel with a book about the prospect's hoby (Alpine cycling). 

How to (continued): 

5. Start mapping your value proposition with the identified KPIs, goals, and challenges of every buying committee member.
6. Write a 1-page personalized solution for target buying committee members. Include:
- Context
- How exactly your product helps to achieve their goals or solve the challenges
- Relevant social proof

EXAMPLE 3. Personalized Content Hub 

Example: in both examples from above, we created a personalized content hub. 

Format: deal room tools (e.g. we use Aligned), to quickly spin up 1:1 content hubs. 

How to (continued): 

7. Map content that can help demonstrate how you can solve the challenges identified in research, along with any relevant social proof, product information and answers to questions frequently asked by buyers 

8. 1:1 distribution of the content you've created to the buying committee members. 

---

BONUS EXAMPLE: Answer to Buyer's Question 

The first line of this post was actually a question we got during our last week's Full-Funnel Live. 

I decided to create this LinkedIn post as an answer, and use it to "show, not just tell". 

Next step: I'm going to share it with the person who asked.

"We struggle with 1:1 and 1:Few ABM. We just can't figure out personalization at scale" - VP of Marketing shared on a call (and was laid off a week after). 

Here's the brutal reality in many B2B orgs:

- Teams pressured to "personalize at scale"
- Any "non-scalable" approach is disregarded
- Teams deploy AI research and/or AI SDRs
- Every prospect receives a "uniquely irrelevant message" (Jon Miller)

Teams get blamed. Leaders let go.

Why? 

Because they MISUNDERSTAND what personalization is.

Personalization ≠ "{first}, {some unique insight / signal}" followed by a pitch asking for a call. 

ABM personalization = matching account insights with individual buyer needs across the buying journey.

Here's how we go from manual personalization to personalization at scale.

1. Pick an engaged strategic account

Together with an experienced AE, define:
- Key questions and information you need to know about this account 
- Sources and platforms where you can find that information 
- Run an actual research on that account 

Save as an example of high-quality output.

2. Train AI with proper input

- Deep insights and research about the target ICP segment
- Always request quotes to prevent hallucination and preserve buyer language
- Give AI detailed prompt describing the research questions and sources 
- Show it what 'good looks like' with the example of high-quality output to use as a quality benchmark

3. Make account research a joint responsibility

AI research is complemented by:
- RevOps input on buying signals, engagement and intent data
- Marketing research of industry trends and competitive landscape
- SDRs research of the buying committee, and recent role changes

4. Include insider information 

The deepest insights you gain only from 1-1 conversations.

SDRs and AEs run regular 1-1 engagements with buyers to build relationships, understand where they are in the buyer journey, and their current needs.

5. Create a 360° account view

Create a holistic account dashboard with all collected insights.

6. Create account-specific content, not "personalized templates"

Match content with the buyer journey stages, buyer persona, and current needs.

Sales distributes it manually to target buyers and listen to their feedback.

Save successful examples validated by the buyers (with responses, engagement and calls). 

7. Feed the proven formats to your AI model to replicate them in the future. 

You'll then only need to polish and customize it.

Same principles: deep insight + playbook as prompt + quotes + quality benchmark. 
---
Personalization at scale is only possible when there is a proven playbook in place.

The only way to create the process and quality output benchmarks is MANUAL first. When you see what works, you can scale it with AI.

But it requires JOINT marketing and sales work, not just pushing your VP of marketing to find a solution to "personalization at scale".

Customer interviews are overrated. 
Use progressive discovery instead. 


1. Turn natural touchpoints into progressive discovery

Customer interviews = conversations you have with your customers, from the moment they are prospect through the whole lifecycle. 

→ First sales calls with prospects
→ Business case building with your champion 
→ Demos & discussions with other buyers 
→ The moment someone signs 
→ Onboarding sessions with new customers
→ Quarterly business reviews with existing accounts
→ Support tickets and feature requests

Even: conversations you have with prospects and customers on industry events. 

Where you make a difference: 

2. Ask the right questions at the right time

Good conversations always focus on their world, and ask the right question at the right time. 

E.g. 

- Business triggers, problems, how did they discover you → initial discovery 
- Cost of doing nothing → business case building
- Purchase criteria → consensus building & demos with users and buyers 
- Why us → when they sign 
- Value → post onboarding, reviews 
- General "out of buying cycle" topics → buyer research, customer events, social... 

3. Systematically process and develop customer insights

Interviews ≠ Insights. 

Record, transcribe, structure and process the input to get to real insight. 

Regularly review the insight and updates with the team. 

4. Turn the insight into action

Insights ≠ Actions. 

Lots of teams collect insight, and only use it to update their copy. 

You can do much more. Refine targeting, qualification and disqualification criteria, account research process, content strategy, buyer enablement... 

5. Voice of customer

Use their actual words. 

Not your positioning deck. Their language. Their pain points. Their priorities. 

--- 

Thank you Patrick Cumming  for starting this discussion. 

Patrick's workflow is brilliant: mine first sales call transcripts, extract the top 5-7 pains/gains, use their exact words in your ads.
He saw a 40% lift in SQLs with the SAME budget. Just "using their exact words to build ad content". 

Bottom line: customer research is not a project.

It's an essential, evergreen process that includes progressive discovery, structured insight collection and review, and continuously refining your GTM as the market and your understanding of it evolves.

Personio

As Director of International, I'm cross-functional responsible for all our Revenue operations within UKI, Nordics, Benelux, Spain and our Rest of World teams. Within this operation we are working with 75+ talented professional (Marketing, Sales Development, Account Executives, Partnership Managers, Solution Engineers, Implementation Managers, Customer Success Managers, Account Managers and Support) to serve our thousands of International customers to enable their businesses so they can focus on the HR they signed up for.

Director of International 🇪🇺

As Head of Benelux, I'm cross-functional responsible for the Benelux Revenue operations within Personio. Within the Benelux we are working with 35+ talented professional (Marketing, Sales Development, Account Executives, Implementation Managers, Customer Success Managers, Growth Managers and Support) to serve our hundreds of Benelux customers to enable their businesses so they can focus on what matters most: their PEOPLE.

Head of Benelux 🇳🇱🇧🇪🇱🇺

GTM OS

Pavilion

I represent a group of 150 wonderfully talented Revenue Executives from some of the fastest-growing companies in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Together, we have a confidential and dependable space to share best practices, strategize, and problem-solve with peers.

I'm fortunate to co-lead this chapter with our founding father André Bressel and the amazing Greg Higgens & Brendon Montgomery.

Co-Lead Chapter Amsterdam

Pavilion (formerly Revenue Collective) was founded in 2016 as a support network for revenue leaders. Since opening our first chapter in New York City, we’ve grown into an international center providing peer-to-peer connection, training and development, and career resources for all high-growth professionals. We’re always imagining new ways to help current and future leaders unlock and achieve their professional potential. 

For more information about Pavilion or to become a member of one of our worldwide chapters, visit joinpavilion.com.

Member, Chapter Amsterdam

trumpet 🎺

Async selling isn’t theory for me. It’s how my teams sell.
And Trumpet makes it scalable.

If you're serious about closing deals faster, keeping control, and creating a buying experience that matches how people actually make decisions…

Your team needs a Digital Sales Room. A single place where deals move forward.

Want a behind-the-scenes look at how we use Trumpet in real deals?

DM me “Trumpet” I’ll walk you through exactly how we use it.

Brand Ambassador

Winning by Design

The Winning by Design Ambassador Program is a tight knit community of like-minded GTM leaders, who embrace scientific, sustainable revenue growth at SaaS & Technology businesses.

Interested joining the team?

👉 https://winningbydesign.com/ambassador-program

Ambassador

MessageBird

As Head of Sales - 24sessions, I managed the video revenue amongst our New Business (new logo), Account Management (net expansion) and Strategic Partner Channel team (channel revenue). Acquired by MessageBird in February, 2021

Head of Sales & Strategic Partnerships 24sessions

Teamleader CRM

As Country Manager I managed the Dutch Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success team (16 FTE).

✔️ Country Strategy
✔️ Managing P&L
✔️ Budget and Forecast
✔️ Hiring & Recruitment
✔️ Lead Generation 
✔️ Sales Channel development
✔️ Operational structure & process

Country Manager NL 🇳🇱

Managing and coaching our local sales teams Ghent, Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, Milan, and Paris (45 FTE).
 
✔️ Sales Strategy & Processes 
✔️ Sales Onboarding Bootcamp
✔️ Sales Playbooks & Content
✔️ Sales Training & Coaching 
✔️ Sales Forecasting & Benchmarking
✔️ Peer2Peer Social Learning

Sales Coach & Operations Manager

In the period of 6 months, I have been responsible for creating, implementing, and executing the sales structure, processes, training, and coaching programs for our 45 sales reps in 6 European countries. As Project Manager, I worked very closely with Project Owner Sjoerd Göddeke to successfully implement the Sales Design, Training, and Coaching framework of Winning By Design into our customer-centric sales teams in our Amsterdam, Berlin, Ghent, Madrid, Milan, and Paris offices.

Sales Enablement Project: Winning By Design

Account Executive

WeHandcraft

WeOrder is based on a B2B Transaction Platform & ERP solution to help grow your retail chain or wholesale business. We assist SME businesses doing efficient and better administration. Our online platform makes ordering between you and your customer easy, convenient and effective. No more Excel or handwritten sales or purchase orders or transactions. *Acquired by Blue-Donut.com*

Co-Founder / Business Development

Sweebr (Acquired)

In 2012, Sweebr (founded in Haarlem, the Netherlands) was the first ever software company that provided HTML5 POS-software, offering retailers a solution that is truly independent of POS hardware. Sweebr aimed to liberate retailers from the chains of many of their current POS-providers by having information flow easily between applications. Focusing on smaller retailers in the early days, mid-market retailers were increasingly asking for the same agile, hardware-, OS- and channel-independent solutions. *Acquired by Countr POS*

Happy Customer Scout

Stam-Aardappelen

At Stam I have been responsible for implementing and maintaining Food Safety Procedures according the BRC Global Standard. Five years in a row rewarded with a A status. Next I was responsible for implementing and maintaining SAP Business One ERP system. 

About Stam.
Stam Potatoes is a family-owned wholesale company specialized in delivering high quality potatoes and onions for a wide variety of clients such as supermarkt chains, food wholesalers, restaurants, and more.

BRC Global Standard for Food Safety, SAP Business One Implementation

Preparing for the future by innovation and focusing on efficiency. Implemented new ERP software, fresh new Stam identity, and a focus on the latest Food Safety Global Standard.

Project Efficiency & Professionalism

Head of Benelux @Personio | Unlock the Power of Your People

Over the past 12 years in SaaS, I’ve seen firsthand where most Founders and Revenue leaders fail: 

- No structured Go-To-Market strategy → Running multiple GTM motions at once. Growth stalls, especially beyond the home market.
- No consistent sales process → Relying on individual performance instead of repeatable systems. No scalable growth engine.
- No clear revenue insights → Looking at blended metrics instead of pinpointing what drives conversions. Low rep productivity, declining ARR per FTE.

I get it. Day-to-day operations take over, and revenue inefficiencies stack up.

The bad news? You’re responsible for fixing it.

The good news? I can help you and your SaaS business.

How I help B2B SaaS teams ($5M-$25M ARR) scale faster:

- GTM & Sales Strategy – Structuring inbound, outbound, and partner strategies across SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise.
- Sales Process Optimization – Improving conversion rates and reducing reliance on top performers.
- Playbooks & Execution – Building structured systems, coaching frameworks, and checklists for consistent revenue growth.
- High-Performing Teams – Hiring, developing, and structuring commercial teams with clear accountability.

Results I’ve helped drive:

→ Increased sales team efficiency by 2X through scalable sales team structuring and skill development frameworks.

→ Improved win rates to 25% by implementing structured tactical and operational Go-To-Market tactics.

→ Built GTM playbooks that accelerated ARR growth for early-stage and scaling SaaS companies to $10M ARR.

How we can work together: 

1. Coaching & Advisory – Hands-on support to build a scalable sales engine.
2. On-Demand Sessions – Solving your biggest sales execution challenges.
3. GTM Playbooks & Frameworks – Proven templates for predictable growth.

Scaling isn’t about luck. It’s about building the right systems.

What’s blocking your revenue growth today? Let’s fix it.

DM me and let’s chat.

Koen Stam

You don’t stay for the tech. You stay for the person who believes in you.

Yesterday our CRO, Philip, was on stage at SaaStr.ai.
He talked about what 2025 and 2026 will look like for SaaS companies, a period defined by transformation.

Every B2B tech company needs to evolve.
To become AI-native.
To keep delivering real value to customers.

Some leaders lag behind.
Others lead the pack.

A year ago, Personio wasn’t leading that pack yet.
But something shifted.

Our CEO set a vision.
Our leadership team rallied behind it.
And Philip, our CRO, turned that vision into momentum.

We didn’t talk about AI as a replacement for people.
We talked about AI as an enabler.
A way for our people to serve customers better.

That’s what true leadership does.
It doesn’t just talk about transformation.
It creates it.
From the top, with clarity of vision.
And from the bottom, with collaboration and belief.

The last year has been a masterclass in what happens when leadership drives transformation the right way.
With trust, vision, and empathy.

Because leadership isn’t a job title.
It’s the reason people join.
It’s the reason people stay.
And it’s the reason teams believe they can do more than they thought possible.

Thanks for leading from the front, Philip, and for reminding us what leadership should look like.

Question for you:
What’s the kind of leader that would make you stay?

Leading International @Personio | Building community @Pavilion | Architecting Growth @Winning By Design | Showing revenue teams what’s next @GTM OS

Last night, our Amsterdam office turned into a small think tank.

50+ HR leaders came together for the HR Tech On Tour to unpack one simple question:

→ What’s most exciting or challenging for you in HR tech right now?

The word cloud said it all: integrations. compliance. readiness.
But the real story was behind the words.

Across every breakout, three truths kept surfacing:

1/ AI excitement is real, but readiness isn’t.
Everyone sees potential, but few feel prepared. Most are still learning what “good” AI adoption even looks like.

2/ Integration and compliance are the bottlenecks.
It’s not about lack of tools. It’s about connecting them responsibly, ethically, and meaningfully.

3/ Leadership must lead the pack.
Teams are ready to explore, but they need direction. AI adoption cannot be an isolated project; it must be cross-functional with leadership setting the tone.

That’s what stayed with me most.
AI won’t change your company. Leaders will.

Because this isn’t about building another AI initiative.
It’s about how leaders themselves learn, experiment, and model what’s possible.

If you’re a senior leader, here’s where to start:

1/ Make it personal. 
↳ Spend 20–30 minutes daily using AI yourself. Learn before you lead.

2/ Create one shared use case. 
↳ Start cross-functionally on a problem that connects sales, marketing, HR, or ops.

3/ Enable curiosity. 
↳ Incentivize teams to test, share, and teach each other what works.

4/ Build rituals, not rules. 
↳ Weekly syncs, learnings, and show-and-tells beat policies every time.

5/ Model vulnerability. 
↳ Admit what you don’t know. Curiosity from the top drives courage in the org.

That’s how leadership sets the tone, not by commanding change, but by embodying it.

The energy in the room last night reminded me:
AI is not a tech story. It’s a people story.
And the best leaders are the ones who turn uncertainty into momentum.

How are you leading your team through this AI shift?

You don’t need 10 GTM plays in 2026. You need 3, and an operating system ↓

Most teams treat GTM like a checklist. Add more plays, hope something compounds.
But growth only compounds when your plays have owners, rhythms, and rules.

Here’s how to decide what to run in 2026.

1/ Map your GTM reality

Start with your constraints, not your ambition.
Be honest about your motion, ACV, and resources.
Stage, ARR, and time-to-impact decide more than ideas ever will.

2/ Match your reality to the right plays

Choose one for pipeline now, one for demand and trust, one for efficiency or expansion.
From AI discovery to dark social, the best play is the one your team can actually execute weekly.
Plays compound only when they match your context.

3/ Turn plays into an operating system

Assign a clear owner.
Set a weekly rhythm.
Pick one core KPI.
Define a kill or double rule before you start.
This is how momentum becomes a system, not a streak.

Most founders ask, “Which GTM play should we bet on?”
The better question is, “Which 3 can we run with discipline for 90 days?”

Which 3 will you run in 2026?

“I don’t know which GTM plays to bet on in 2026.”

Over the past 2.5 years, our Amsterdam office has co-hosted 10 unique event concepts and next Tuesday we will add a new one.

We never set out to build just an office.
We set out to build a Stam Café.

In Dutch, a Stam Café is your favorite café.
The one you always come back to.
The place where you meet friends and relatives.

That’s what we wanted our office to become.

Here are 10 of the experiences that brought that vision to life:

 1/ HR breakfasts where small groups of customers shared challenges and solutions over coffee
 
2/ Quarterly meetups, with partners or internal teams, that turned strategy into shared ownership

3/ People & Culture Impact Sessions where we unpacked lessons directly from the Impact Awards show with our partner 7people ✨ 
 
4/ Fireside chats where customers opened up about real-world struggles and wins, helping our teams truly understand their world
 
5/ Workshops with up to 60 people, where our office became a buzzing classroom for sr. HR leaders, like with the BEYOND program by People masterminds.
 
6/ HR Talk Show Live, with guests on stage, questions from the room, and hundreds joining online. We already have hosted 2 very successul editions
 
7/ SaaS and GTM community events, from Pavilion to SaaStock, from the D2 collective to WeLoveSaaS , making our Stam Café feel like their home
 
8/ A pop-up restaurant HR dinner where our executive team sat shoulder-to-shoulder with customers
 
9/ A live podcast with an audience, where people could ask real-time questions.
Another unique concept, co-created with our partners at People masterminds, showing once again that the Stam Café is never finished, always evolving.
 
10/ Our own annual largest HR conference, HUG, hosted inside our office to bring customers into our living room. 

And next week Tuesday, we will have 70+ HR leaders and enthusiast joining our Personio office.

In collaboration with HR Tech Europe, we’re co-hosting the ‘HR Tech Europe Meetup: Amsterdam Edition’. It’s bound to be an evening to remember.

It turns out an office doesn’t have to be just an office.
It can be your most underutilized growth channel.
A community hub.
A trust engine.
A Stam Café.

What’s the most unique experience you’ve ever had in an office?

3 years ago, we started running every deal with a digital sales room, and it changed everything about how buyers engaged, decided, and ultimately bought.

At first, it felt like a tactical experiment. Today, it feels like the only way to compete.

Because here’s the reality:

• 85% of buyers already have a shortlist before they speak to sales
• Buying groups now involve 10+ stakeholders, and in many cases the CFO or CEO hold final approval
• 73% expect a tailored, consumer-grade experience from the first touch
• 71% of buyers are Millennials and Gen Z, and most would rather self-serve than jump on another call
• 80% of buying decisions stall, not because of product, but because the process is too complex

That’s why “more calls” doesn’t solve the problem. In fact, it makes it worse.

When we shifted to trumpet 🎺, everything changed:

• Buyers engaged on their own terms, at their own pace
• Champions finally had the tools to sell internally with confidence
• Our team could see signals of internal traction we had never spotted before

The difference was not small. Trumpet’s data shows deals that include mutual action plans inside DSRs can reach up to a 92% win rate.

For us, it’s no longer optional. Every deal, no matter the size, gets a digital sales room. Not to make us better sellers, but to make it easier for buyers to buy.

What is your take on digital sales rooms?

More revenue leaders need to say it out loud: customer success generates more revenue than new logos ever will.

We’ve spent years glorifying acquisition, chasing the next logo and the next pipeline win. But the real test of leadership in 2026 isn’t how fast you can add customers. It’s how deeply you can serve the ones who already chose you.

When the tide of easy growth goes out, retention is the foundation that keeps you standing.

New revenue is only a fraction of what sustains a company. The real engine is the customers who stay, and the people who show up every day to help them succeed.

If you want recurring revenue, create recurring impact. That impact doesn’t come from product alone. With so many alternatives on the market, it’s your people, your customer success teams, who turn commitment into loyalty.

The best companies already know this.
Retention isn’t a metric. It’s a mindset.
Customer success isn’t a cost center. It’s a growth engine.

When you invest in your customers, they invest back.

At Personio, I have the privilege of working with an incredible customer success and account management team led by Alba, together with regional leaders Felipe, Alvaro, and Julia. Their teams build trust with customers every day, across regions and industries. And we’re looking for the next CSM to join our international team. Someone ready to help us deepen those relationships even further.

If that sounds like you, or someone you know, let’s talk.

(Senior) Customer Success Manager Benelux (d/f/m)  

Last week I wrapped up my 10 GTM plays for 2026.
Today I want to start with a simple reflection that has shaped how I think about next year.

2025 was the year I stopped thinking about growth channels
and started thinking about trust systems.

Because you can’t outspend noise.
You can only out-trust it.

Over the past two years, we turned our Amsterdam office into something entirely different.
Not just an office.
A Stam Café.

In Dutch, that’s your favorite café, the one you always come back to.
The place where you meet friends, exchange stories, and feel at home.

We have co-hosted more than 10 unique event concepts with partners, communities, and customers.

From HR breakfasts and talk shows to live workshops and leadership dinners.
Each designed to create connection, learning, and shared ownership.

And this week we are putting that into action again.

1/ On Tuesday we are hosting HR Tech on Tour Amsterdam with more than 70 HR leaders discussing the impact of AI in HR.

2/ On Wednesday one of our alumni from the BEYOND program is bringing their full HR team for an off-site in our office.

3/ And on Thursday we will close the year together with our own Personio colleagues for our end-of-year Christmas dinner in the office.

Three examples in a single week that show what happens when an office becomes more than a workplace.
It becomes a community hub.
A trust engine.

It taught me that community and events are not brand activities.
They are one of the most efficient GTM systems we have.
Because when you combine real experiences with authentic storytelling, whether from a founder or operator, you start compounding trust at scale.

That is what this week’s GTM OS Weekly edition is all about:
how founder brands, community, and events are driving the next wave of efficient growth in 2026.

The best teams are not chasing new tactics.
They are doubling down on what compounds.
Trust.
Credibility.
Consistency.

And in 2026, that is where the real leverage lives.

(Full playbook and examples inside GTM OS Weekly Week 49, link in first comment)

I didn’t become a leader because I wanted power.  
I became one because I wanted to help others find theirs.
 
9 years ago, I became a leader because nothing fulfills me more than helping young professionals grow.

As the year winds down, many people, inside or outside leadership, start asking themselves the same question:

“Is leadership really for me?”

Here are 12 questions to help you find out.
They’re not a checklist. They’re a mirror.

1/ Motivation & Passion

Why do you want to lead? Is it for growth, impact, or recognition?
Do you feel more fulfilled helping others win than chasing your own success?

2/ Influence & Trust

Do people naturally come to you for guidance, and act on it?
When you speak, do others listen or just hear you?

3/ Team Dynamics

Do you build bridges across teams or walls?
Can you mediate conflict without losing respect from either side?

4/ Delegation & Empowerment

Can you hand off ownership without taking it back?
Do you trust your team to solve problems their way, not yours?

5/ Feedback Culture

Can you give feedback that motivates instead of discourages?
Can you take hard feedback without becoming defensive?

6/ Organizational Alignment

Do you clearly understand how your team’s work drives company goals?
Are you ready to connect your team’s purpose to the bigger picture?

7/ Time & Priorities

Can you balance coaching, strategy, and admin without burning out?
Do you spend more time enabling others or proving yourself?

8/ Learning & Development

Do you invest in learning how to lead, not just learning on the job?
Do you seek out mentors who challenge your blind spots?

9/ Adaptability & Resilience

Do you stay calm when things fall apart or add to the chaos?
Can you help your team regain confidence after a setback?

10/ Vision & Identity

What kind of leader do you want to be known as?
How do you want people to describe your leadership when you’re not in the room?

11/ Results & Accountability

Do you set clear goals and hold everyone, including yourself, accountable?
When performance slips, do you address it early or hope it improves?

12/ Cross-Functional Readiness

Can you align with other departments without losing sight of your own team’s needs?
Do you understand the language of finance, product, and operations well enough to earn their trust?

Not everyone should be a leader.
Especially not if the motivation is title, power, or status.

Leadership is a privilege, earned through service, not ambition.

Make sure you’re ready before you take the leap.

What’s one question you’d add?

Async isn’t the future of selling. It’s the present of buying.

A few weeks ago, during a podcast with 🎺 Rory Sadler,
we talked about how B2B sales will look in 2026.

Halfway through, I realized something.
As a buyer, I already behave that way.

When I evaluate a vendor,
I don’t want to wait for the next available demo slot.
I don’t want to fill in a form or sit through a discovery call.

I want to visit a website that understands who I am,
where I am in my journey,
and what I need right now.

I want pricing.
Proof.
Context.

And if I really need a human conversation,
I want to have it immediately, not next Thursday.

That’s not a prediction for the future.
That’s how we all buy as consumers today.
And it’s exactly how B2B buyers will expect to buy tomorrow.

Deals don’t die because selling is hard.
They die because buying takes too long.

Async and AI are closing that gap.
They help you respond faster without syncing calendars.
Deliver value in shorter cycles.
And meet buyers where they are,
with flexibility and autonomy.

The digital sales room is no longer a nice-to-have.
It’s the natural extension of your website,
where buyers validate, explore,
and feel confident championing you internally.

I’ve seen this first-hand working with trumpet 🎺.
It’s one of the best digital sales room platforms I’ve used,
because it actually helps buyers move at their own pace
and helps teams deliver value asynchronously.

This isn’t about technology replacing sellers.
It’s about designing a buying experience that feels effortless.

Across teams, products, and markets,
I keep seeing the same pattern.

When you reduce friction for the buyer, win rates rise.
When you make it easy to buy, you earn the right to sell.

My reflection for every GTM leader planning 2026:
Are you already building async into your motion,
or are you still asking buyers to wait?

How do you see async changing the way we sell?

Earlier this week, I coached a rep stuck in two 40k deals.
Both stalled for the same reason: no compelling event, no mutual plan.

Both deals had smart buyers.
Solid discovery.
A clear problem.

But without a shared plan or a real deadline, everything just drifted.

Compelling events live on different layers:

• Business → revenue or strategy impact
• Department → team performance or process risk
• Personal → someone’s credibility, target, or promotion

If you don’t uncover all three, you’re not selling to urgency.
You’re selling to interest.
And that’s how deals go cold.

Here’s what I see too often: buyers are inexperienced.
They’re new in role, new to buying, or new to your category.

We, as sellers, have seen dozens of cycles.
We know what good looks like.

Our job isn’t just to sell.
It’s to guide the buyer.
To show them how to buy, not just why to buy.

That’s where a mutual action plan changes everything.

It’s not a spreadsheet or a close checklist.
It’s a shared roadmap where buyer and seller align on the same milestones, tied to the same compelling event.

Without it:
No accountability.
No internal selling.
No deal velocity.

With it:
Clarity.
Alignment.
And higher win rates because everyone knows exactly what happens next.

Most teams agree on the why behind MAPs.
The edge comes from how you operationalize them.

Here’s a simple way to start:

1/ Start small.
Run your first three MAPs on live deals above 20k.
Co-create them during calls and keep them under eight milestones.

2/ Coach and review.
MAPs don’t work if they sit in tools.
Review one in every forecast call. Reward clarity, not optimism.

3/ Systemize it.
Sync MAP status into your CRM.
Add a “MAP live” stage gate so every forecast reflects buyer-verified progress.

Digital salesrooms make this even easier (like trumpet 🎺).
They centralize timelines, assets, owners, and next steps so both sides stay in sync.

This is how the best sellers in 2026 win.
They don’t push harder.
They collaborate smarter.

If your team still runs deals without a mutual action plan, start there.
It will change how you sell.

I’ve also documented the full 7-step Mutual Action Plan System for leaders who want to operationalize this. It’s live now on my Substack.

Six months ago, our GTM team at Personio started experimenting with AI. Today, it shapes how we plan, sell, and serve customers. What began as a company-wide experiment became a step-by-step playbook for AI transformation in GTM.

When our CEO, Hanno, launched “AI Surge Week,” every team at Personio got access to LLMs to build and test ideas.
Adoption rose fast, but real transformation required more than enthusiasm.

We learned that becoming an AI-powered GTM requires structure, ownership, and habit.

Here are five lessons you can use to build your own AI-powered GTM.

1/ Make it a leadership motion

AI transformation succeeds when leaders create the space for it.
Free people’s time to redesign workflows, dedicate budget for experiments, and decide which tools to back.

Try this: pick one key workflow this quarter and give a small team full support to rebuild it with AI.

2/ Build a cross-functional GTM team

Our working group includes data and systems, RevOps, GTM engineers, and business leads.
This mix of technical skill and business context turns ideas into scalable workflows.

Try this: assign one person from each function to identify where AI can remove friction or improve decisions.

3/ Prioritize with clear frameworks

We use Jobs-to-Be-Done to find time drains across roles and Customer Journey Mapping to link those tasks to growth impact.

Try this: shadow one sales or success rep for a day and list every repetitive task that AI could automate or simplify.

4/ Build a culture of AI

Adoption happens when people are curious and safe to experiment.
We lead by example, showcase internal wins, and celebrate them company-wide.

Try this: share one small AI win each week in your team Slack or all-hands.

5/ Combine your stack with your context

Great AI depends on your data quality and internal knowledge.
We started with existing tools like Salesforce, Gong, and Snowflake, then trained models on Personio-specific content.

Try this: before adding new tools, clean your CRM and centralize your customer data.

AI transformation is not a tech project.
It is an operating shift that compounds over time.

Which part of your revenue engine is ready for AI transformation next quarter?

As every GTM leader is closing out Q4, I’m already looking at how we’ll win in 2026.

2025 has been a year of experiments for me.
Dozens of GTM plays tested.
Hundreds of conversations with operators, founders, and RevOps leaders.
And a few motions that consistently delivered results.

When I look at what truly worked this year, five plays stand out.
They’re the ones I’ll triple down on in 2026.

1/ Founder Brand

Nothing drives credibility and trust faster.
When the founder shows up consistently, the market listens.
It compounds faster than any channel I’ve tested.

2/ LinkedIn (Organic + Paid)

Personal brands outperform company pages.
Pairing organic storytelling with smart paid amplification has driven our highest-quality inbound pipeline.

3/ Community-Led Growth

The strongest growth loops come from shared learning.
Building spaces where operators exchange insights creates belonging that converts into pipeline and retention.

4/ Intimate In-Person Events

Small, curated gatherings have outperformed large conferences.
Ten quality conversations over dinner often drive more revenue than a hundred booth visits.

5/ Partner Ecosystem GTM

Collaboration beats competition.
Co-selling and co-marketing with trusted partners opened doors that solo outbound never could.

These five are my 2025 learnings, and they’ll shape how we grow in 2026.

In my latest Substack, which I published this morning, I share these five and the other five GTM plays that will define 2026.
More importantly, I break down how you can practically embed them into your motion starting today.

Read the full GTM OS playbook: How to Leverage 10 Data-Backed Go-To-Market Plays to Drive ARR & NRR in 2026 here:

👉 koenstam [dot] substack [dot] com

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