Personio

As Head of Benelux, I'm P&L responsible for the Benelux 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 over hundreds of Benelux customers to enable their businesses so they can focus on what matters most: their PEOPLE.

Head of Benelux 🇳🇱🇧🇪🇱🇺

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

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 - Video Solutions

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

Technori

During my time at Technori, I helped them out by writing articles about entrepreneurship. Besides I did a research project to make an overview of the possibilities to expand Technori's business to Europe (focus on Berlin and Amsterdam).

About Technori.
Technori is a celebration of entrepreneurship, a celebration of those who take risks, chase their dreams, build brands, change communities, and create the culture of Chicago's business community.

Volunteership Program

Mulder Hardenberg

In my final year at the Haarlem Business School, I have been on an internship at Mulder-Hardenberg. The aim was to create more synergy between Sales and Marketing. I analysed the marketing tool problems the sales team encountered during their sales and finally presented a hands-on businessplan in order to implement and start using marketing tools more efficiently.

Intern

For Finance

During my internship at For Finance, I was responsible for analyzing the possibilities to launch a new digital hub for financial services as a marketing tool for their multichannel marketing policy. The match between financial services and transparancy was in its infancy and the Internet possibilities were huge. A presented a business plan in order to try to fill this gap. Next to this, I was responsible for launching a subsidairy called For Living, which aims at an all-in-one concept for home living.

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

Hello, I'm Koen 👋 

Here to help. People Leader. Performance-driven. Eager. Fast learner. 12 years of SaaS commercial experience of which 7+ years in SaaS commercial leadership. 

Interested in growing SaaS startups from early stage (1M ARR+) to scale ups (20M ARR+). Background in different SaaS industries: HRIS, ERP, CRM, POS, Project Management, CPaaS. 

👉🏼 Currently working at Personio as Head of Benelux focusing on simplyfing the HR processes for SMB and Mid Market organizations in the Benelux region.
 
👉🏼 My mission:
I strive to learn new things every day, love sharing it with peers and make sure my team members hit the individual and team growth goals + develop themselves to their preferred next stage in their career. To share all this knowledge I only expect in return: mutual respect and dedication on execution.

👉🏼 Where I can help:

★ GTM/Sales Leadership  
- GTM strategies: inbound/outbound/channel; SMB/Mid Market/Enterprise; Benelux/Northern EU
- Managing P&L; Budget & Forecast
- Leading Marketing, Sales and Customer Success 
- Hiring and People coaching development

★ Sales Communication Training 
- Sales Processes & Development
- Sales Playbook Content and Delivery
- Sales Onboarding, Coaching & Training

👉🏼 Let's connect:
- Connect with me to share thoughts on SaaS startups and scaleups
- Start a conversation about sharing best practices or great business articles or posts

✉ koen.stam@personio.nl 
📞 +31641539141

Here is how I learned to unlock chatGPT as SDR or AE in less than 5 minutes.

I'm more and more amazed about what chatGPT can do to boost your productivity.

3 prompts that gave amazing results in less than 5 minutes to have a general understanding of your ICP and how to reach out to them.

Disclaimer, specially after a chat and valid feedback from Salman Mohiuddin...

You definitely need to finetune the initial output from chatGPT with additional prompting. 

But it is a good start which saves a lot of time and provides a basic understanding.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁 𝟭:

"I sell [define product] to companies. These are the outcomes we provide:

1. Help companies [insert value prop 1] 
2. Help companies [insert value prop 2] 
3. Help companies [insert value prop 3] 
4. Help companies [insert value prop 4]

What departments within companies should I target for my sales outreach?"

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁 𝟮:

"For each of those departments, please summarize the below points. Return the data in tabular format, with the below points as column headers. Each department will have its own row. 

Here are the points to summarize:
1. What individuals in each department care about as it relates to business outcomes 
2. How individuals in each department spend their time to achieve business outcomes
3. What individuals in each department often struggle with to achieve those business outcomes
4. How the solution I sell may be able to help individuals in each department"

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁 𝟯:

"Now, let's write four prospecting emails: one for each department. Here's the outline to follow when writing each email:

1st sentence needs to evoke emotion from the recipient by describing a painful problem they are currently facing that our solution can solve.

2nd sentence needs to describe how they are likely trying to solve that problem and why it may be insufficient.

3rd sentence needs to describe how our solution could solve the problem presented in sentence 1 better than how they are trying to solve it as described in sentence 2.

4th sentence needs to ask if they are interested to learn more about how we could help. Each email needs to be fewer than 150 words and written at a 5th grade reading level."

Better a good steal than a bad idea... 

So all credits go to Kyle Asay and his AI frameworks 👀

But this is simply too good to not share with a wider audience!

The magic of chatGPT is in the specific prompts and how you follow up on the initial prompt.

For sales purposes you can create prompts for:
✔️ Identifying Buyer Personas & ICPs.
✔️ Helping with Territory Planning.
✔️ Understand Messaging
✔️ Running Discoveries.
✔️ Reviewing Emails.

And much more.

I’m definitely not a genius in ChatGPT.

Want to learn from true sales experts how they leverage chatGPT?

Definitely follow Kyle Asay, Jake Dunlap, Tal Baker-Phillips, and Thibaut Souyris who are true masters of leveraging chatGPT for Sales.

Who are you following to learn more about chatGPT for marketing & sales?

Koen Stam

Go-To-Market Enthusiast & Leader 🌟 | Community Builder @Pavilion 🧡 | Head of Benelux @Personio 🇳🇱🇧🇪🇱🇺

LinkedIn is killing for my Personal Development & Productivity.

Since July 2022, I archived over 2,000+ relevant GTM posts from inspiring GTM leaders.

So much GTM knowledge is shared daily by all these Subject Matter Experts.

But, how to validate the quality of all information shared and who to follow?

Just as with great books, you forget about the key lesson to read if you don’t 𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 and 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 your learnings in a library 👨‍🎓📚.

So that is why I started documenting and structuring valuable LinkedIn learnings in a Notion library.

2,000+ posts later, these are my top 10 GTM topics, I have consumed most content from:

✔️ Stakeholder Management: 🤝🌐
✔️ Internal Collaboration: 👥💼
✔️ GTM Leadership: 🚀📊
✔️ Sales Navigator: 🧭💹
✔️ CFO & C-Suite: 💼🏦
✔️ Multithreading: 🧵🔄
✔️ Prospecting: 🔍💡
✔️ Negotiations: 🤝⚖️
✔️ Sales Demo: 🎥💼
✔️ Champions: 🏆🌟

Why? 

These topics are rather relevant for my role as a GTM leader and for the different GTM teams.

Yes, I do follow many more topics, but my knowledge base in Notion showed these as the most archived.

And who to follow since there are so many people sharing 'GTM expertise'?

Let me share my top GTM experts I’m consuming content from in the last 18+ months:

👉 Nate Nasralla - Selling with Buyers & Multithreading.
👉 Jason Bay - Turn Strangers into Paying Customers.
👉 Amy Volas - Hiring the right Talents & Executives.
👉 Kevin "KD" Dorsey - Sales Leadership Coaching.
👉 👩🏻‍🏫 Krysten Conner - Sell More with Less Stress.
👉 Jen Allen-Knuth - Defeat Buyer's Status Quo.
👉 Samantha McKenna - Show me You Know me.
👉 Kyle Asay - Sales Frameworks, AI & ChatGPT.
👉 Jake Dunlap - Sales Productivity & ChatGPT.
👉 Salman Mohiuddin - AE Sales Fundamentals.
👉 Chris Walker - B2B Growth & GTM Strategy.
👉 Chris Orlob - AE Sales Training & Coaching.
👉 Mike Gallardo - Pipeline & Closing Tactics.
👉 Brian LaManna - Prospecting & Closing.

Comment '𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆' and I will share 2,000+ GTM posts that are all put into GTM categories, practical actions, checklists & tips with the help of Notion AI.


𝙋𝙎. 𝙊𝙧 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙜𝙤 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙚𝙙𝙄𝙣 𝘽𝙞𝙤 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙤𝙣 [𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙩 𝙢𝙮 𝙬𝙚𝙗𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙚] 😎


99% of sales demos are simply feature dump conversations. 

Here are 2x3 tips + a bonus tip from the best trainer in SaaS to make your demos 10x more impactful.

We all have been there...

We are so proud of our product and what it can do for prospects...

That we take 90 min to showcase all what we got.

After the demo the prospect can’t name any impactful feature since you simply showed too much. 

Instead focus on max 3 pains in your demo.

✔️ Demo max for 30-40 min.
✔️ Start with 10 min (re)discovery.
✔️ End with 10 min questions & next steps.

No longer than 60 min.

And remember, only focus on the key features that solve your customer's pains.
 
After showing each key feature you ask:

1️⃣ On a scale 1-10 how would this solution help you?
2️⃣ Can you see yourself using this proposed solution? 
3️⃣ How would the solution impact your team or business?

Full stop.

More tips to improve your demo?

Here are 2x3 great posts to improve your demo tomorrow.

𝟯 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗯𝘆 Kyle Asay 
💡 Demos that fail. Demos that sell
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eTwWc6RC

💡 One sure way to improve your demos: bucket each feature you show into these three categories:
🔗 https://lnkd.in/en4G-yhV

💡 One of the most challenging balances in sales: showing too little of your solution vs. showing too much.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/e5bDwQTZ

𝟯 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗯𝘆 Salman Mohiuddin 
💡 90% of salespeople will not do these 3 things at the end of a demo.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eHF6FXGG

💡 Your prospect is saying “it’s too expensive” because your demo is too expansive.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eYcH3F57

💡 Three things to end your demo with that will boost your win rate. I call it the 8-min rule.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/e7qUskdU

Focus your demo on key pains; don't make it a feature show.

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙠𝙚𝙮 𝙩𝙞𝙥 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙘𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙨?


𝗡𝗯. How to Crush a Demo by Winning by Design never gets too old for me, thanks to one of the best SaaS trainer on this planet Dan Smith 
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eJHbbjnH

I'm a strong believer that this is 1 of the most underestimated tactics to differentiate from your competition in 2024.

In the recents years buyers are overwhelmed with the number of SaaS solutions for their business.

Take for example the HR industry.

For HR directors, Head of People and/or CHROs it has simply become overwhelming if they are in search of 'the' best fit HR tech solution for their HR problems.

To them 9 out of 10 vendors are like vanilla ice-cream.

90% of the HR solutions are simply too similar from each other.

The buyer simply can't see the main differences between the solutions.

So how can you stand out in 2024?

To me it is offering your customer a true exceptional customer buying experience.

How?
✔️ Enable your buyers.
✔️ Build more human relationships.
✔️ Create more great buying experiences.

How?
👉 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗩𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 𝗮𝘀 𝗔𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗰 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 👈

According to GTM Partners latest ROI study with Vidyard, the use of video can deliver upon:
1️⃣ 85% less effort to connect.
2️⃣ 4-5x more meetings booked.
3️⃣ 2-4x more sales qualified opps.
4️⃣ 25% increase in opps close rates.

I love the power of video.

Simply because it can capture your face, voice, gestures and more...

With the screen share and video editing options you have a very powerful tool to interact in the entire buying cycle of your buyer.

You can enable your champion and/or share the video yourself with several stakeholders within their buyer's organization.

Last, but highly underestimated...  

Video is also a super power which allows you to communicate asynchronously with your buyers.

So in other words: not synchronous means NOT occurring or existing at the same time or having the same period or phase.

So you don't have to be on a call or in a meeting with your buyer or other stakeholders to share very important updates or messages with the use of:
✅ Your authentic face.
✅ Your authentic voice.
✅ Your authentic gestures.
✅ Your authentic messaging.

You need to embrace video in order to stand out in 2024.

Remember this when thinking of differentiating from competition ⬇️

"𝙈𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙡, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩." - Winning by Design 

What is your prediction on how to be successful and differentiate from your competition in 2024?

I'm thrilled that we have something special to celebrate this month...

Since April 2023, our Amsterdam office creates remarkable experiences.

And what better way to support the local community by sharing our amazing Riverside Office, as Ingeborg van Harten put it nicely today in her post on the VC Capital workshop she hosted last month at our office.

We truly believe in bringing customers, partners and local communities together in our cosy Stamcafé.

To facilitate them with an environment where they can come together to gather insights, interact and learn from peers.

Last, April we celebrated the opening of our new Amsterdam office with over 100+ colleagues, customers, partners and HR professionals.

Back then we mentioned what our community could expect from us:
👉 Customer events.
👉🏻 Product sessions.
👉🏿 Local HR events.
👉🏽 Partner events.

I'm so super excited that 12 months later we did much more than that.

We have truly opened our offices for amazing gatherings.

To name 5 highlights from 12 months at the Riverside Office aka Stamcafé aka Personio Amsterdam office.

1️⃣ The opening of our office late April 2023 with over 100+ people.

2️⃣ The multiple partner events with Shiftbase, Mobilexpense, Studytube, VW&S Group, 7people ✨.

3️⃣ The Fireside chats with People & Culture experts like Jon Moore, David A. Quella, and Ingeborg van Harten to dive deeper into the world of our HR customers and partners.

4️⃣ The several Pavilion meetups where we brought together GTM Benelux leaders to inspire and learn from each other, in collaboration with André Bressel, Brendon Montgomery, Greg Higgins.

5️⃣ The partner-led workshops, kicked off 2 weeks ago by Coalition Capital & 7people ✨ where 30+ HR experts were educated about all related to VC capital and the impact for People & Culture teams. 

And we will keep opening our office for amazing gatherings. 

What is next?

6️⃣ We will continue organizing partner-led events with some upcoming valuable workshops by People masterminds with their amazing BEYOND academy to level up HR leaders.

7️⃣ We will continue our People & Culture Fireside chat with fractional CPO Marloes Mantel being next on the hot fireside seat next month.

8️⃣ On April 24th we are very pleased to announce in collaboration with Joran and SaaStock, that Personio will be hosting the SaaStock Local Amsterdam. 

9️⃣ On May 22nd we will again host a big community event for the tech scene when Nastie & Erica from the D2 collective will host one of their amazing community events at Personio. 

And last but definitely not today...

🔟 Today, we had our first full gathering of all Personio Benelux together. Our Product Directors Roxna, Amrita and Ludwig gave an amazing presentation on Product deliverables for the Benelux market, the Roadmap and a great Q/A how we can even strengthen our collaboration.

Our office truly facilitates and creates remarkable experiences...

Who dares to host their next event at this amazing venue 👀

I set myself a goal to reach 20,000 followers by the end of December 2024...

Setting goals mean you need to track progress over time.

Currently, I'm at 17K and just like 20K followers it is just a vanity metric.

However, I wanted to prove to myself that consistently posting and sharing knowledge would be the fuel to personal and professional growth.

✔️ Growth in # of followers.
✔️ Growth in creative writing.
✔️ Growth in diverse connections.
✔️ Growth in professional development.

✅ I started posting consistently early 2023.
✅ Back then I was at 7K followers in 12 years.
✅ I grew to 10K followers in less than 10 months.
✅ I continued to scale to 11K in the first 6 weeks.
✅ Now I'm at 17K after the first 3 months of 2024.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗱𝘆?
👉 Writing posts consistently.
👉 Sharing relevant knowledge.
👉 Engaging proactively with others.

And whereas I thought that 10K impression post was not possible before 2023...

I even remember the challenge with my former CEO Rutger Teunissen where we challenged each other to hit 1x a 10K+ impressions post. 

I created 30+% of my posts this year into 10K+ posts.
↳ 30 of my 90 posts hit 10K+.
↳ 11 of my 90 posts hit 20K+.
↳ 2 posts even hit 200K+.
↳ 1 went viral: 435K+.

My best post?
👉 Personal post about my personal development.
👉 Educational post on my professional development.

There is no 1 way of growing on LinkedIn.

You need to find 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝘄𝗮𝘆 of growth on LinkedIn.

Here are my 5 key learnings growing my personal brand on LinkedIn:

1️⃣ 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀: I try to share as many personal stories an personal best practices & learnings from my 12+ years journey in the SaaS industry and here on LinkedIn. Personal stories is something people can truly relate to.

2️⃣ 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 & 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀: You eventually write on the platform to educate & inspire your audience. How do you know if they like your content if you don't proactively trigger engaging via commenting and DM? The other way around works the same way, engage proactively with other creators.

3️⃣ 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲: I'm a big believer of sharing strategic but even more so tactical tips that people can consume easily and apply in their day2day the next day. Be practical.

4️⃣ 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗞𝗲𝘆: It becomes more noisy on the platform so you need to earn credibility. I learned to gain credibility by sharing insights and learnings from key content creators, great podcasts or books is key to become seen as more credible.

5️⃣ 𝗕𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰, 𝗕𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂: The only true way to stand out on the platform is to be authentic and tell your personal stories. In this way you are always unique and with such a big user-base you will find enough people that can relate and/or learn from your personal stories.

What is the number 1 reason why you are active on LinkedIn?

Here is how I learned to leverage chatGPT to create Coaching Frameworks for GTM leaders in less than 5 minutes.

First line managers won’t be replaced by AI, yet 😀

Rationally, AI will get to a point where it can coach better than us humans. 

Objectively it simply can give better guidance since there is no memory leakage.

It just knows everything.

But if your manager gives you feedback you are so much more likely to take action based on that feedback from a person of authority than from AI.

But then it is up to us GTM leaders to coach our people.

And how can AI help?

AI can help you create frameworks and structures so you as a GTM leader can just concentrate on the coaching.

With some prompt testing you can now create coaching frameworks with the help of chatGPT.

Where I used to spend hours and days to build comprehensive frameworks, I can now build them in 5 minutes.

For any type of role.

With the right elaborate prompts you can make it for any type of role within your team.

Try it out yourself with the following 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁𝘀:

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁 𝟭:
"Act like an experienced coaching specialist in sales and sales management, with over 20 years of expertise.

You excel in designing comprehensive coaching frameworks for sales professionals, including Sales Managers, Business Development Representatives (BDRs)/Sales Development Representatives (SDRs), and Account Executives (AEs).

Your frameworks are utilized by sales leaders in European SaaS scaleups to enhance their teams' competencies, driving performance and success in a competitive landscape.

Your mission is to assist me in constructing a coaching framework that is detailed, practical, and tailored to improve the skill sets of my sales team. This framework should be structured to efficiently identify and develop key sales competencies within a brief timeframe.

Step 1: Start by identifying the 75 core competencies required for a First Line Sales Manager. Provide a comprehensive list that is targeted, relevant, and based on industry best practices."

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁 𝟮:
"Step 2: Can you shortlist the 25 most key coaching competencies for a First Line Sales Manager for a European SaaS scaleup based on the output from step 1"

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁 𝟯:
"Step 3: Populate all sales competencies in a table overview in the following 4 columns:
- Column A: Coaching Competency
- Column B: Competency Description
- Column C: Coaching Competency Cluster
- Column D: 2 example exercise to improve the specific skillset for this coaching competency."

The result?

A coaching framework so that you as a sales leader don't have any excuses anymore to not focus on the coaching of your people 🤩

Comment '𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸' and I will share a copy of the framework + prompts.


𝙋𝙎. 𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙡𝙨𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙪𝙨𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙂𝙤𝙤𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝙎𝙝𝙚𝙚𝙩𝙨, 𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙚 𝙖 𝘿𝙈.

90% of GTM leaders need to rethink their notion of scaling their teams in 2024.

Simply hiring more people is definitely not the answer since SaaS lost GTM fit.

Let me share my 1 key tip I learned in 2017 on building a successful & efficient team.

I’ve seen too many leaders make the mistake of hiring tons of new people when joining a new team.

Those days are over in the new Saas realm of Efficient Growth.

𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁:
↳ Do you know the Ideal Hiring Profile for this Role?
↳ Did you document What Good Looks Like?
↳ Have you a Repeatable Process in place?
↳ Are 70% of your people hitting quota?

Most leaders are neglecting the importance of building a strong foundation before starting to scale and hire more people.

To set your team up for success and achieve efficient growth, you need to start with a solid basis.

And especially in 2024 where many companies are not longer in the 'luxurious' position to hire a bunch addition people. 

Make sure you have at least 2 consistent successfully performing people in your team.

If you can’t make those 2 successful…

How are you going to make the others successful?

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘀:
✔️ Document the processes.
✔️ Document what has been working.
✔️ Document what good looks like (WGLL).
✔️ After teach, train & coach people on WGLL.

Thanks Kevin "KD" Dorsey for WGLL and DDDD 🔥

Without these fundamentals it doesn’t make sense to hire a bunch more people.

You can’t scale by simply throwing head count at it.
You can scale by building a repeatable motion.

You don’t build a repeatable motion based on theory.
You build a repeatable motion based on best practices.

What if you don’t yet can make those 2 people successful?

❌ Don’t hire. Improve the process.
✅ Make your core people successful.

Then scale.

What is your path to efficient growth with your team(s) in 2024?

This is by far the biggest learning in scaling GTM teams I learned back in 2017...

Here are 3 communication fundamentals that will help you be more customer-centric from tomorrow.

I thought that scaling GTM was about scaling people.

I couldn't have been more wrong, especially because the overall tenure in tech sales is less than 2 years.

So rather than focusing on people as core fundamentals for business growth, you need to focus on the processes.

I learned early on the wise lesson that we need to manage processes in order to coach the people to What Good Looks Like.

Rather than relying on a Superstar Culture of 1 or 2 high performing individuals, you need to build your GTM motion around a Science culture.
 
This reminds me of my days that I had the pleasure to implement a new Customer-centric and Process-centric framework to our growth at Teamleader.

Back in 2017 we implemented the various blueprints from Winning by Design for our 60 customer facing people (marketing, sales, customer success teams):
✅ How to Prospect for SDRS.
✅ How to Win Customers for AEs.
✅ How to Grow Customer for CSM/AMs.
✅ How to have Customer Conversations.

And especially the last one made the most impact on me back then.

To quote Theodor Roosevelt: Nobody cares how much you know... until they know how much you care.

So before you start engaging with your customer, you must master three basic elements:
1️⃣ Be Customer-centric: put yourself in their shoes in any conversation you start.

2️⃣ Understand your Customer: Do your research, understand their role, their persona, their industry, and the specific use-cases and customer stories that will help you relate to them.

3️⃣ Be a Customer-centric professional: Show up every day on time, energized and ready to perform. Your workplace both online (LinkedIn) and in the real world need to be set up to help you and your customer succeed.

Let me share 2 of the core communication fundamentals I learned in 2017 that are still so relevant today.

👉 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗘𝗥 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀:
✔️ Tone: Set the tone; Control your Speed, Pitch and Tone, etc.
✔️ Ask: Ask an open/closed-ended question to start the conversation.
✔️ LIsten: The customer is going to give you hints - mirror them.
✔️ Keep notes: Keep brief notes; structure priority, relationship, tone.
✔️ Elaborate: Dig deeper; be curious with the intent to understand.
✔️ Repeat: Summarize what you thought the customer said.

👉 𝗥𝗥𝗥 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀:
✔️ Relevant: Prove you've researched or refer to others with similar context.
✔️ Rewards: Offer value, such as a link to valuable insights, a relevant blog.
✔️ Request: Call to action based on situation (time, event, date, etc).

Simplicity in Customer Conversation is key.

Train & Coach for the Fundamentals.

What are your key learnings in Customer-Centric communication?

90% of the GTM leaders make this 1 classic mistake when scaling their GTM motions.

How many GTM motions are you actively running in your business?

Earlier this month I discussed in The Revenue Strategy Podcast from Cedric Royer my view on the different types of GTM motions and where & when to apply which.

Choosing the number of GMT motions is a real struggle for many of us leaders.

But before we even scale the GTM motions, how do you start and how do you decide what GTM motion is right for your business?

First it is very important to understand who you are actually selling to?

You need to define your Ideal Customer Profile first.

1️⃣ ICP first.
2️⃣ GTM second.

Second, you should definite your Go To Market.

𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀:
👉 Based on regions (i.e Benelux, UKI, Europe).
👉 Based on industries (i.e. finance, construction).
👉 Based on personas (i.e. IT, Marketing, Sales, HR).
👉 Based on segments (SMB, Mid Market, Enterprise).

But as said, first, we need to define our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?

Then we need to understand if the current GTM motion is working or not.

Because here comes the problem of many GTM leaders.

Every GTM leader wants to make an impact from the start and so they are leaning heavily on too many motions, according to Dave Boyce from Winning by Design.

Before you scale the business to a new GTM motion, you need to understand your current motion(s) as a Revenue Architect.

Don’t experiment with new channels if you havent scaled your first motion.

How do you know if a GTM motion works?

Focus on unit economics, like CAC payback.

You need to understand the Science behind the GTM motion.

I personally have become obsessed in understanding the metrics across the entire customer journey.

Do you see certain (positive or negative) trends quarter over quarter?

Does your GTM motion really work before even considering another GTM motion?

Sure you can start a new motion like Partner, Event or Community-led Motions.

It sounds super interesting, but it's super labor intensive. 

Every time you move up a motion your cost to acquire and serve a customer will go up 5x/10x, according to 🐶 Jacco van der Kooij.

And if you then have not even found the right Ideal Customer Profile... 

AND you haven't found a repeatable GTM motion...

You should seriously ask yourself:
✔️ Who to bring to your events?
✔️ Who should be part of your community?
✔️ How to educate your partners without an ICP?

1️⃣ ICP first.
2️⃣ GTM second.

What is your take on the importance of ICP in the success of any SaaS business?

I strongly believe that these 4 grind tactics are fundamental for your SaaS success in 2024.

I started my SaaS career with €36,000 pay and a job title as 𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝘂𝘁 back in 2012.

In my first 7 years in SaaS I truly didn't make any big money.

Especially not in my first 4 years.

But those early SaaS years have shaped me to become proactive, adaptive and innovative.

It shaped me to keep developing myself in the rollercoaster world of SaaS.

Whereas I learned a lot on GTM, Leadership and Coaching in the last 9 years at scaleups like Teamleader, 24sessions, a Bird company, Bird and now at Personio …

My learning curve was the most steep in my first 4 years in SaaS.

In those early days I learned that you need to have a grind mentality in order to succeed in this world.

I hear people saying, what is a grind mindset?

Let me define 𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗱:
"𝘈 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬, 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘢𝘭𝘴."

Learning to apply the grind mindset shaped my early career in tech.

I needed to have a strong work ethic, discipline, determination and working long hours to achieve my early career goals.

And I didn’t had any assistance like we used to have today:
❌ I didn’t have any fancy tech.
❌ I didn’t got proactive coaching.
❌ I didn’t get onboarding and training.
❌ I didn’t had marketing & hot inbound leads.
❌ I didn’t had any documented best practices.

You simply needed to figure it out by yourself.

This seems daunting at the start.

But once you embrace that grind mindset I have learned that you can come pretty far.

How I managed?

Very simple.

I went out in the field and learned all it takes to understand the customer, competitors, and industry.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟰 𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗜 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀? ⬇️

1️⃣ Meeting with customers face2face every month.
2️⃣ Speaking at events to get your name out.
3️⃣ Collaborating with all kinds of partners.
4️⃣ Learning from key industry experts.

Fast forward 12 years, I still see that those old grind lessons are the answer to stand out in 2024.

And now you do have the:
👉 Tech.
👉 Training.
👉 Coaching.
👉 Onboarding.
👉 Marketing collateral. 
👉 Documented processes.

If you combine that with a grind mindset, you will be unbeatable in 2024.

What is according to you the mindset we need to win in 2024?

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