Jonathan M K.

Simetrik | Reconciliation

First Year with Simetrik has been crazy! Here are some highlights of what I have accomplished this year:
BDR>AE process changed to Full Cycle AE process, so I supported, trained, tracked, and helped with sales led programs to create more pipeline which resulted in 500% Increase in opportunities created monthly.
Sales Velocity from July 2023 to the end of December 2023 increased by 25%
Redefined the Sales process... twice.
Planned, in charge of, and executed 2 events for the entire customer facing team
Was given the product marketing team to run
Hired and onboarded 3 new members of the product marketing team to full production in 30 days.
Led a brand refresh campaign and update
Guided the product marketing team on on creating 600+ content assets by request or general needs for the team and buyers journey
Created a competency model and cadence to score performance reviews
Onboarded 7 new sales team members who are ahead of previous cohorts of ramp time
Led the buying process and adoption of 5 Tools for the team, E4Enable, Gong, Momentum, GTM Buddy, & Apollo.
Was in charge of the Project Management of Series B Campaign
Assisted in defining RACI for the entire customer facing team
Led Adoption of Force Management MEDDPICC and Command the Message Methodology
Hired and onboarded 3 people to the enablement team
Created an AI focused strategy with results such as automated AI feedback on every call by persona, competency, exit criteria, critiques and scores.
Created Onboarding for entire team.

Head of GTM Revenue Enablement & Product Marketing

GTM AI Academy

Business Impact & Results>Learning tools.
As Founder of the GTM AI Academy, I spearhead a pioneering educational platform dedicated to empowering Go-To-Market (GTM) professionals with cutting-edge AI insights and strategies. At the core, the Academy is a catalyst for transformation, equipping GTM individuals and teams with the tools to harness AI's potential, driving innovation, and sculpting the competitive edge of tomorrow. Working with me, GTM professionals will unlock a trove of knowledge, tailored learning experiences, and a collaborative environment where their skills will not just grow, but flourish.

Founder

GTM Buddy

GTM Advisor

Symbe

Momentum.io

Sales Assembly

Featured Thought Leader

Sales Velocity Labs

What is the revenue impact of your enablement function?

The ability to answer this question evades even the most experienced revenue leaders.  This is why I have created Sales Velocity Labs.

Introducing the world's first Sales Velocity Simulator™: https://lnkd.in/eFQ53rRH

Founding Revenue Enablement Freelance Consultant

Pavilion

Pavilion is a private members-only organization consisting of 1,000's of the top VPs of Sales, CROs, CMO's, CEO's, Finance and Ops leads globally, as well as those at the Director, Associate and Analyst level. Our membership includes executives from companies such as Square, Greenhouse, CB Insights, ZocDoc, Foursquare, Yext, Shopkeep, Intralinks, WeWork, and many more. Our community is designed to support the professional development of revenue leaders at high growth companies, facilitate the sharing of best practices, and serve as a trusted private community where Members can openly discuss business critical issues with the comfort of privacy and confidentiality.

Executive Member

Replicate

Excited to support and consult Replicate AI

Brand Ambassador

Eltropy

Built the first enablement function in company history, including the overhaul of the revenue team (CSM, Sales, Solution Engineers, and BDR employees). Organized, created, and communicated internal training to bring efficiency and clarity to the prospecting and buying process. Planned and executed the 2022 Eltropy Customer Leadership Summit.
· Increased revenue potential by $700k+ after organizing customer-facing team training, developing internal content, and implementing one-on-one coaching with specific application strategy.
· Delivered $2.1MM in revenue ROI in the first 6 months of position after building revenue enablement functions.
·  Achieved an average increase of $55K per sales rep after overhauling onboarding process.
·  Adopted and developed training for Salesforce CRM, providing increased data clarity for decision-makers. 
·  Decreased onboarding time for new CSMs by 300% (12 weeks to 4 weeks) while increasing retention by 100%.  
·  Had direct and measurable trackable impact on the following: Avg Deal size - 12% increase ($94k to $105k),  Avg Deal cycle - 21% decrease (180 days to 148 days), Win Rate- 25% increase (28% to 35%). 
· Created and Certified the entire sales team in demo level 1 with the purpose of speeding up sales cycle.
· Organized, created, communicated content of various types to assist in the prospecting and buying process.
· Coached team members on adoption of Salesforce CRM usage to provide clear data for decision making.
· Conducted company wide product launch training, industry research training, and integration training bi-weekly.

Senior Director of Enablement

AI & Revenue Enablement, Acceleration, & Excellence | Proud Dad of Twins #simetrikseriesb

I'm Jonathan, and I have a profound love for pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the business world. With over 15 years of experience as a Revenue Excellence, Enablement, and Acceleration Executive, I specialize in developing, delivering, and implementing enablement programs for global organizations, Fortune 500 clients, and startups.

Throughout my career, I take pride in helping companies double their revenue through transformative sales team strategies and the establishment of efficient enablement structures. It's a great honor to be recognized in SEC's 2023 Enablement Ones to Watch and as an Enablement Legend from Seismic and the Enablement squad. 

I started the GTM AI Academy in 2023 which is all about how to create real business impact using AI vs just learning tools. I focus on all roles or functions of a Go To Market GTM team so you have actionable use cases of how to use AI in your own company.  www.gtmaiacademy.com

Having consulted with several companies in their enablement efforts, I take pride in building three successful programs from scratch, all driven by measurable KPIs. Engaging with communities like SEC, Sales Enablement Society, Enablement Squad, and Enablement Pro, I strive to stay actively involved in the latest trends and best practices.

If you need any assistance with training, leadership, sales training, or entrepreneurship, don't hesitate to reach out. I'm always eager to engage in meaningful conversations and share insights.

- Develop and execute revenue enablement strategies to drive sales growth and enhance customer experience.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align revenue goals, optimize processes, and identify market opportunities.
- Conduct market research and competitive analysis to stay ahead in the payment media industry.
- Implement and oversee enablement programs, including training, tools, and resources for our presales, CSM, BDR, partner, and sales team.
- Analyze sales performance data and provide insights to improve revenue generation and forecasting accuracy.
- Cultivate strong customer relationships and support our clients in adopting Simetrik's solutions effectively.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance revenue processes and strategies.
-Manage the Product Marketing team creating internal and external facing assets such as videos, blogs, one pagers, white papers, case studies, success stories.

I failed miserably this week multiple times.. 

A sales rep that I work with asked for a 1 on 1 with me which is not uncommon for the team and this rep to do so I can assist with an opportunity or help with prospecting, messaging, etc. 

Unbeknownst to me, this session however was a feedback session where I was told by this rep that how I handled something in a group setting made her feel “unsafe and shut down”

Now some context, the team I support is in LATAM mostly and it’s a very different culture. 

They are the warmest, kindest, freakin smart group of people that I respect a ton and are so patient. 

This rep was giving me feedback from a cultural perspective and from her own experience. 

Now I have spent years training as an emotional health coach. In college I was going originally into counseling where I worked with at-risk youth in Chicago. 

Psychological safety is a passion of mine along with developing emotional intelligence. 

Also, the sales rep is a woman on the team who I like and admire her work ethic. 

I have nothing but respect for her and since I grew up with 4 sisters, I am a huge supporter of women at work. 

Hearing this feedback, I was frustrated and my tone of voice and body language showed it. -Failed

How could she suggest that I of all people was making her feel unsafe? 

Cue my ego gettin angry and throwing an internal fit.  -Failed

The sales rep knew I was frustrated which obviously didn’t help the situation.. -Failed

All my years spent in training and being ready for this situation.. -Failed miserably.. again. 

Sensing her sensing me being frustrated, I took a deep breathe after realizing I was talking in a frustrated tone. 

I could see she was feeling like I was angry with her and probably wishing she had never said anything. 

I paused.. and I said, “I want you to know, the frustration I am feeling, is me being frustrated with me.. not with you. 

I want this feedback and I appreciate it. It’s hard to hear, but just know my frustration is with me, not you.”

I then leaned on something I learned from FranklinCovey which is to speak your intention.. so then I said, 

“My intention is that you KNOW I am here to help you win, to push you to your highest level, and to be a safe confidant as well as cheerleader for you. I’m sorry I failed at that.. teach me how to be better.”

We went on to talk about some possible scenarios of how to improve and I gave her permission to call me out if I ever said anything that made her feel unsafe or like I was shutting her down. 

We now have a code word and she knows what to say to me or slack to me that will jolt me to know I’m coming across wrong because I don’t always know if I’m being too American that throws people off. 

We fall, to learn to pick ourselves back up.

I’m really proud of this rep being brave enough to tell me, being patient with me and being willing to help me. 

I failed multiple times.. but I appreciate my team giving me grace and space to try again.

Jonathan M Kvarfordt, MBA

Why is psychological safety important in the workplace?

How can we improve cultural awareness in the workplace?

How can we give and receive feedback effectively?

My friends, it is my birthday tomorrow and I am feeling in a giving mood.

I will be giving away the first 10 people to comment a free seat in either or both of the following:

😃 Generative AI Foundations Course (meant for anyone in GTM profession of taking their AI skills to the next level)

😄 Enablement AI powered course (meant obviously for enablement pros)

For those of you who want to be certified as an #ai pro, it is time to hop into the GTM AI Academy, I just ask for a published review/case study in return. Join with 100+ other students.

If you are commenting after the first 10 people, I am giving everyone else from April 26-27, 44% off the bundle as part of my 44th bday.  

You can use the code:  44yoface today or tomorrow.

If anyone who is #opentowork is struggling financially, just hit me up personally and I may have a hook up for you ;)

Let's gooooooo

I help with Enablement of GTM teams and AI tools | Proud Dad of Twins #simetrikseriesb

My friends, thank you for all the kindness shown to me, very grateful for current and ex coworkers, bosses, friends, mentors, leaders, of all kinds, shapes and sizes.

Thank you for letting me be a part of your life.

Predictive Enablement... sounds pretty rad doesn't it? 

Christina Brady and I were talking about her tech, methodology, and philosophy around what she is wanting to deliver with Luster and she talked about this concept where she said, "I want to give teams the ability to foresee the training, coaching, and ingrainment gaps, down to the individual skill, or stage in the sales process."

and then she randomly said, "It's like predictive enablement"

And I was like WHAAAAAT???? Say that again!

Her and her team have been building the tech so not only can you do perfect practice, but you can take it to the next level and predict the enablement that will be needed in the future, based on both real time calls and practice sessions.

When she told me about the concept, I got so excited, because that is exactly where I want and see enablement going with #ai is being able to use the analytical power to predict what is needed next, not only for the teams performance, but for the customer experience.

I am so proud of her and Wes Craig, and Jodi Mesa building this out and honored I can be involved consulting their efforts and success.  Truly an honor.

Predictive Enablement.  Pretty Freakin Rad.

Been holding this back for a while, but SO excited to announce that I have joined the The State of Sales Enablement Podcast as one of 4 co-hosts joining the OG originals of Felix Krueger and Devon McDermott 🪄✨ who I have been huge fans of for years and truly honored to join them.  

Also SOOOO excited that my dear friend Dannii Mathers is also joining as a co-host.  If you do not know her, after one episode you will just absolutely love her and see why she is one of my favorites in the community.

Each of us will have 1 of the episodes every week and having guests of all kinds that I know you will all love in the #enablement community.

Take a listen and let me know what you think! 

Link in the comments

Been thinking about communication a lot lately and how so many people, (myself included) get it wrong. 

Brene Brown said, “Clear is kind, unclear is unkind”

First time I heard it, it resonated with me because of the people in my life who have been clear with:
Expectations
Disappointments
Feedback to improve 
Compliments
Or anything else

Have been the ones who reached me. 

On the other hand, with no communication, unclear expectations, or only communicating a slice of information and expecting someone to figure out the rest usually ends in frustration and more issues than necessary. 

My goal is to be CLEAR when I communicate. 

How are you more clear in how you communicate?

WTF is Enablement? 

Here's one way to think about it.

A $10M company spends $4-8M on the GTM team. 
Revenue Teams cost an average of 40% of revenue—and often MUCH more in early-stage VC-backed companies. 

This substantial allocation highlights the critical role that enablement plays in maximizing the effectiveness of these resources.

Enablement involves:
Maximizing the effectiveness of the $4-8M through strategic focus.
Building strategies based on skill and competency development.
Equipping people with the right tools and skills efficiently.
Continuously improving and refining processes.
Utilizing technology to enhance skills and streamline processes.

The GTM team is often in a constant state of activity:
Sales is pushed to close more deals.
Marketing strives to increase lead conversion.
Customer Service is urged to enhance customer satisfaction.

Enablement's role includes:
Helping teams work more effectively.
Identifying skills gaps and training opportunities.
Amplifying effective strategies and expanding on them.
Addressing and improving areas of underperformance.

This is Revenue Acceleration.

Enablement is not merely a training department, an HR function, or solely focused on creating learning content. When misperceived in such limited roles, the consequences include:

Underappreciated training efforts.
Superficial skills development.
Learning content that does not translate into better job performance.
Strategies misaligned with business goals.
Insufficient tools for teams.
Unstreamlined processes.
Technology that fails to meet actual needs.
Compromised overall efficiency.

Thus, not fully leveraging the $4-8M investment.

The core issues often stem from:
A lack of focus on strategic enablement.
Uncertainty about initial focus areas.
Overwhelm from immediate demands.
Insufficient time to effect substantial change.
No comprehensive plan for enhancing capabilities.

This is Performance at All Costs.

In economic downturns, smart companies refocus their resources to ensure that the millions spent on enablement are more effectively utilized, supporting sustainable growth and better ROI.

Data from the experts say Enablement has a measurable impact:
Improvement in Sales metrics: https://lnkd.in/gn9vPBq9
Enhancement of Employee Performance: https://lnkd.in/gBtWQzFQ 
Impact on Revenue & Customer Retention:  https://lnkd.in/gwcY548q

Was inspired by Eddie Reynolds so adjusted one of his posts for enablement ;)

What are some best practices for enablement?

What are the consequences of prioritizing performance at all costs?

How can enablement maximize the effectiveness of revenue teams?

Open article: How Performance Enablement Tools Can Change Your Business by rallyware.com • 5 min read

How Performance Enablement Tools Can Change Your Business

Ever wanted to see demos of AI Tools that you could use with your teams?

So I have and am collecting demos from AI tools I have seen recently and with permission of each AI tech teams, I have shared them in the free course in the GTM AI Academy called GTM AI Tools Demo Library.

There are 25 demos there now in different categories and more are being added every week. Teams like Momentum.io, Quantified.ai, Replicate, GTM Buddy, SellMeThisPen, Salesforge 🔥 and more.

I did this because:
1-I always wanted to have access to something like this and never could find one 

2-I felt that it is a good way for both you as a viewer can save time and see the possibilities of what can be done in AI now

3-I love where AI tech is going and wanted to give the ability for different vendors to show off what they can do

If you know of a tool you want to be featured, let me know, or if you have one, just message me.

Enjoy! Link in the comments.

Ever meet people and just click with them? That is what happened when Michael Ocean I met and have spoken several times in the last year, like a brotha from anothah mothah.

Coming at you on Monday next week, Michael Ocean of SellMeThisPen talks about their solution, his unique approach to GTM, and his thoughts with AI in general.

I always suggest to people working with sales reps to understand what does the rep need:

Before a meeting
During the meeting
After the meeting

His solution is one of the few that hits on all 3 and is rad.  If you want to see a demo of it... I happen to have one in the GTM AI Academy AI Tools Demo Library that you can watch for free. 

Excited for you all to see the episode!

Dirty Secret of Effective Sales coaching... from Harvard Business Review.

Research by the Sales Executive Council shows that no other productivity investment comes close to coaching in improving reps’ performance.

Unfortunately, our data show that both managers’ coaching tendencies, and companies’ response, are misguided. In research involving thousands of reps, we found that coaching — even world-class coaching — has a marginal impact on either the weakest or the strongest performers in the sales organization.

The real payoff from good coaching lies among the middle 60% — your core performers. For this group, the best-quality coaching can improve performance up to 19%.

At the end of the day, who your managers coach is just as important as how they coach. The data clearly suggest that organizations should do away with coaching democratically and instead shift the majority of their coaching focus away from low and star performers and towards the core.

So what does this mean in time for a manager? 

In a 45 Hour work week, it is recommended that 30% of their time goes to coaching their team members which is 10-15 hours weekly. With the above in mind that means:

60% of your coaching time with your salespeople with medium skill levels,
15% of your coaching time with your salespeople with low skill levels, and
25% of your coaching time with your salespeople with high skill levels.

This also implies that the ecosystem that the managers sit in, needs to be supportive of these goals.  If managers are not supported and given the time and priority to have this happen, it won't happen.

Even further, giving sales team members individually have room to practice using some sort of AI simulation tool with real time feedback that is trained on your process, methodology, product, personas, situations etc can put this entire thing on nitro.

Lots of room to grow, but gotta start somewhere, where is your org at?

AI Practice for sales is getting better and better. 

A great example is, Replicate with James Pursey. 

When he first approached me to test his tool, I loved what he was doing but what I have loved even more is how fast he has changed things to become better. 

A few weeks ago the posts of a few of us enablement peeps “cold calling” LinkedIn Profiles went viral and he immediately took feedback from that and made the platform even better. Now they’re focused on customization, low latency and user experience. 

If you have not played around with any tools like this, I strongly recommend you go to Replicate, make a free account and test the tech. 

James is on to something and I am excited to see where he takes it this year. 

Ps, he may or may not be a guest on the podcast here very soon ;)

graphical user interface, text, application

What is the key to user adoption with AI tools?

Loved this conversation with Martin Blinder and Xavier Wilders of Symbe where we talk through their very unique tech, how things are changing in the AI world, and the power of Business Use cases to move deals along, especially in our current market.

In this clip when asked about how to get teams to adopt AI, Martin had a refreshingly simple response which I would say applies to any tool, let alone AI. 

Cannot wait to have you all listen to the full episode when it drops on Monday.

What do Leaders get wrong with AI?

Had a blast talking with Timothy Riffe on the GTM AI Academy podcast about AI solutions. He helps build them from scratch as well as help companies understand how to use AI in their own products or solutions.

When asked, what do GTM Leaders get wrong when trying to work with AI?
He said:

1-They either have huge mistrust of AI
2-They think its the magic bullet to solve everything

AI fits really well into certain categories, tasks, or workflows, but it is not the all in one solution.  Very good convo with Tim.

Will be fun to show you the entire episode on Monday!

What are some common mistakes leaders make when working with AI?

What are some common misconceptions about AI?

If enablement, the team and function, ceased to exist and disappear one day.. 

Would that impact your team or business? 

Aka no onboarding
No coaching
No content
No training
No help with tools
No gap analysis
No competency models
No change management
No cross functional communication
No identifying WGLL (what good looks like) 

No leader enablement
No revenue enablement 
No tools enablement 
No AI enablement 
No performance improvement focus

Nothing.. 

Would it impact your teams, revenue growth, or success? 

Genuinely asking.

Can AI scale coaching?

James Pursey and I had a great chat on the podcast about this very topic and how #ai fits into the picture of coaching, feedback, and improving teams.  The team over at Replicate is doing some amazing things and I had to pick his brain on the subject.

If you have not yet checked out Replicate yet or what the tool can do, you can either see a demo on the GTM AI Tools Demo Library on the GTM AI Academy or you can just go to the website, make a free account and test it yourself.

I love where we are going with #enablement and #ai. The future for me will be where AI and enablement flow together and we create an ecosystem of enablement that is scalable, impactful, and powerful.

Full show drops on Monday!

How someone treats you shows more about them than it does about you. 

And how you respond to anyone shows more about you than it does about them.

Hey friends... if you are #opentowork in #enablement, the person you need to know is Dave Lichtman who runs an agency placing enablement professionals.  Below he has a recording and training using #ai to help with the job search.  

He did an AMAZING job with this and since he is a student of the GTM AI Academy, I LOVE seeing that he is taking things to the next level with his expertise.

Proud of you Dave!

We make it insanely easy for companies to staff their enablement team with the best full time and fractional enablers

For those who were unable to attend the working session on Using AI to Supercharge Your Job Search, here is a recording of the call (link in first comment). As a heads-up, it's a lengthy (1.5 hours) and in-depth (mostly hands-on) session. But, it's a good start if you want to be more competitive in the job market.  

As a fun epilogue, someone who was part of the session wrote this to me the following day: "I wanted to share some exciting news—I advanced in both interviews (with the recruiter and hiring manager) I had today, and I attribute much of my success to the prompts you shared yesterday.  I used the prompts to address potential areas for improvement, such as leadership style and coaching, which proved invaluable during my discussions with the hiring manager. I also found value in the thoughtful questions to ask and potential stories using the STAR method."

Enablematch #salesenablement #salesproductivity #AIJobSearch

Monday Monday Monday!

Ready for the latest from #ai for #gotomarket professionals from GTM AI Academy?

1️⃣ GTM AI Podcast #11: Timothy Riffe who is an AI developer, deep dives into the AI world and what is happening from his point of view.

2️⃣ Goldman Sachs and other Investors see gold mines with AI, is it sustainable and will it help you with raising funds?

3️⃣ Stanford Study shows AI beating humans on multiple performance levels

4️⃣ Choosing the right LLM model Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT?

5️⃣ Tool of the week with business impact: GTM Buddy

What is the one word you are feeling with #ai this week?

View newsletter: GTM AI Podcast & Newsletter

Good Morning, Afternoon, & Evening, it is time for another newsletter from the GTM AI Academy. As a reminder, we are an AI enablement platform to help

Open article: #11-Sweet CarolAI: Building & Navigating AI with Timothy Riffe, AI Investments, Stanford Study shows AI beating Humans, and more by Jonathan M Kvarfordt, MBA • 18 min read

Jonathan M Kvarfordt, MBA on LinkedIn • 18 min read

#11-Sweet CarolAI: Building & Navigating AI with Timothy Riffe, AI Investments, Stanford Study shows AI beating Humans, and more

You know what one skill will help you thrive in the AI age? 

Creative thinking.. 

one of the most human skills there is.

Just got this book, signed and everything from Dayna Williams. 

Big fan of her and cannot wait to dig into the book. 

I have a shelf full of books of friends, experts, and pros from the field of enablement, self improvement, and leadership. 

Will be leaving a review of the book when I get done. 

Thank you Dayna!!

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