Kyle Coleman

Clari

Leading marketing, growth, and revenue excellence.

SVP, Marketing

Leading the Growth team at Clari, consisting of:

- Product Marketing
- Customer Marketing
- Growth Marketing
- Growth Operations
- Revenue Development
- Revenue Enablement
- Value Engineering

Group VP, Growth & Enablement

Clari's Growth Department was created in November of 2019, comprising the following teams: 

- Demand Generation
- Field Marketing
- Revenue Development
- Revenue Enablement
- Growth Marketing Operations
- Value Engineering

This unique combination of teams allows for two main visions of the department, one quantitative and one qualitative: 

1. Own the full pipeline number that supports Clari’s new logo and expansion revenue targets. Deliver the specialized programs & optimized processes that create, accelerate, & close revenue. 

2. Create world-class buyer and customer experience that is completely consistent across the entire sales cycle -- attract, land, expand, retain.

ABOUT CLARI: 

Clari’s Revenue Operations Platform improves efficiency, predictability, and growth across the entire revenue process. Clari gives revenue teams total visibility into their business, to drive process rigor, spot risk and opportunity in the pipeline, increase forecast accuracy, and drive overall efficiency. Thousands of sales, marketing, and customer success teams at leading companies, including Okta, Adobe, Workday, Zoom, and Finastra, use Clari’s execution insights to make their revenue process more connected, efficient, and predictable. Visit us at clari.com and follow us @clari on LinkedIn.

VP, Revenue Growth & Enablement

2019 - Revenue Development (aka, Sales Development)
- Inherited a team of 5 SDRs. All promoted to new roles within 6 months. 
- Overhauled hiring & onboarding process, exiting 2019 with team of 12.
- Restructured incentive plans to align with Marketing & Sales goals.
- Defined, documented, implemented new outbound prospecting & qualification process.
- Consistently generated sufficient pipeline for 4x coverage across sales segments, supporting quarterly & yearly ARR targets. 

2019 - Revenue Enablement
- Evaluated, implemented, & optimized Enablement tech stack to support a distributed salesforce (Outreach, Gong, Highspot, Lessonly).
- Modernized approach to Enablement, focusing on short videos & self-guided work in favor of long, expensive live sessions.
- Set foundation for Clari's "Revenue Academy," a marquee program to enable SDRs, AEs, SEs with best practices at every point of the lead & opportunity funnel.

Director, Sales Development & Enablement

Lavender

Strategic Advisor

SDRDefenders

SDRDefenders is a team of revenue professionals on a mission to transform the way organizations think about talent and elevate the role of SDRs. People are our passion and sales (big or small) is a company’s lifeline.

We are creating a community of individuals, leaders, organizations, and cultures that support various roles through curated content and insights while providing hands-on coaching from vetted mentors to achieve long term career aspirations.

Our community of members can engage with each other to learn and grow together — personally and professionally.

Co-Founder

Revenue Collective

Member, Revenue Collective

Looker

Defining, implementing, & optimizing efficient and effective sales dev & biz ops processes at Looker.

2019 – Optimize systems & processes for full alignment between Marketing, SDR, and Sales. 
• Lead in-depth training & enablement sessions to drive quality at the top of the funnel. 
• Created & implemented qualitative feedback loop to best inform go-to-market strategies & effectively assess ROÍ on various Marketing & SDR initiatives. 

2018 – Build a global team; Develop higher level strategies & analysis. 
• Implemented new Marketing to Sales hand-off process (see 2017). Created full funnel analysis to up-level predictability, forecast-ability, and accountability of all Sales & Marketing stakeholders.
• Exited 2018 with team of 50.

Sr. Director, Sales Development & Optimization

2017 – Maturation & incentive alignment; Business Ops focus. 
• Proposed new Marketing to Sales hand-off process to fully align Marketing, SDR, and Sales incentives. Socialized proposed changes with all C-Suite stakeholders through 6 weeks of discussions, analysis, and presentations. 
• Developed close working relationships with Finance, Sales Ops, MarkOps, and Biz Ops to bolster end-to-end understanding of sales cycle, planning, and cross-functional processes. 
• Exited 2017 with team of 36.

2016 – Specialization at home, expansion abroad; Manage managers. 
• Made business case for and introduced specialized roles for Inbound SDRs, Outbound SDRs, and Enterprise SDRs. Segmentation led to lift in all KPIs: Meetings created, lead to meeting conversion rates (Inbound & Outbound), down-funnel conversion rates, etc. 
• Hired first 3 SDRs in Dublin, IE, and implemented effective processes from the US. 
• Hired first 3 SDR Managers, on-boarded and trained them to effectively manage individual contributors. 
• Exited 2016 with team of 24. 

2015 – Growth: scale, hire, train.
• Implemented hiring process, and was responsible for each stage: from resume screening to extending offers. This process has remained largely unchanged, and over 65 people have been hired using it
• Created all analysis to gauge top of the funnel process efficacy, run messaging A/B tests, measure quota attainment, and report to C-Suite & Board
• Documented everything, from GTM tactics to objection handling to analytical best practices
• Promoted from Manager to Director. Exited 2015 with team of 15.

Director of Sales Development

2014 – Create processes and develop systems.
• Built entire Outbound process from the ground up: targeting, tools, messaging. Outbound-generated Meetings became 55% of New Business Meetings through 2015
• Built Inbound playbook to maximally process, qualify, and hand off leads to Sales team
• Developed expertise in Salesforce.com, Marketo, Looker, and countless sales methodology tools
• Promoted from individual contributor to Team Lead to Manager. Exited 2014 with team of 8. 

2013 – Scrappy startup, wear all the hats.
• Second Sales & Marketing hire at Looker, same month as Seed funding (March 2013)
• Ran trade shows, processed inbound leads, dabbled in outbound prospecting, managed looker.com, created & tested messaging
• Helped develop initial go-to-market strategies, identified ideal customer profiles (companies & personas) and tested outreach strategies 
• Exited 2013 with team of 2.

Sales Development Team Manager

gyro

Day-to-day execution of assigned client projects, liaising between clients and all agency departments. Coordinate and manage agency resources and ensure that projects are completed on time and on budget while meeting client and agency objectives. Position details include:

Knowledgeable of clients' business, competitive challenges, and how key strategic issues impact client/agency objectives. 

Develop project, creative and media briefs based on client/agency input and present briefs to creative team and other agency departes involved in the project's development. 

Coordinate development of estimates, billing and vendor invoices within approved budget as well as anticipate and identify opportunities to optimize the client's program.

Provide effective and timely communications to agency staff, clients and outside suppliers, and track the production status and schedules for all assigned projects.

Evaluate copy, layout/artwork, media plans and production materials against approved briefs and make recommendations as appropriate prior to concepts being presented to clients.

Account Executive

Sales & Marketing leader with a passion for people development, identifying & solving problems, creating & optimizing processes, and unifying departments across the revenue org. 

I'm an avid runner, reader, podcast listener, and a proud corgi owner.

Leading marketing, growth, and revenue excellence. 

If you don’t have women on your sales team, you’re making a huge mistake.

🏆 In a 2019 study, 86% of women sellers achieved quota vs. 78% of men.

😔 But, women are severely underrepresented in B2B sales. Women are only 29% of reps and 26% of managers.

Let’s go ahead and fix this.

———

To be clear, women don't need to outperform men to deserve a seat at the table. They deserve this seat regardless. (h/t Annie Gray for this sentiment).

❤️ There are many, many benefits in addition to the over-performance seen in sales roles.

———

HBR outlines a few key things companies can do to attract and retain women into their sales ranks.

From an article titled "Why Women Are the Future of B2B Sales" - 

🙌 Diversity-focused recruiting.
🤝 Female mentorship programs.
👩‍🏫 Better coaching.
👩‍💼 More promotions for women.

Happy International Women's Day.

#revenue #sales #womeninsales

I didn’t really understand the risks of buying software in my days as a seller. Different story once I started buying software.

🤑 Monetary risk
😬 Change management risk
🤦‍♂️ Reputation risk

This is a ton of pressure. As a result, it often feels easier to do nothing at all than to introduce something new.

The best sellers proactively find ways to mitigate these risks. As a result, they win 109% more, according to “The Jolt Effect.”

Offering to start smaller with power users to prove out the use case to limit monetary risk.

Promoting engagements with professional services to ensure thorough implementation and assist with change management.

Establishing out-clauses and risk-free early terminations in case things don’t go according to plan, mitigatng reputational risk.

All of this is from “The Jolt Effect” – a must-read for sellers in 2023.

Take as much risk as you can off the table. Make your buyer comfortable and confident with downside protection. That’s how you overcome indecisiveness.

#revenue #sales #sdr

My first month in tech sales, I asked my boss to review a cold email I wrote. 

His response completely changed the way I worked...

😬 “Would you *actually* say any of this?”

😘 What he meant was: This is full of jargon, is trying to sound too smart, and doesn’t sound like you. Use regular words, simplify it, and be yourself.

That advice was liberating for me, and I find myself giving the same advice to countless salespeople.

Be yourself.

#revenue #sales #sdr

Unfortunately, dealing with rude people is an unavoidable part of sales. 

But it has taught me a very valuable lesson:

🤩 The view is nice from the high road.

There’s really no benefit to meeting them at their level. You may think some snarky response will make you feel better, but it won’t. 

🙌 The best response to rude or upset people is empathy and kindness.

On more than one occasion, the prospect did a complete 180, apologized, and we did business together.

High road, y’all. It’s the best way to live life.

#revenue #sales #sdr

For years, we’ve been told that the best sellers talk WAY less than their peers on calls with prospects.

🤔 Welp, here’s some data that counters that.

Taken from “The Jolt Effect,” the image below shows that sellers interrupt and talk-over prospects MORE in wins than in losses. 

And additional data they’ve got shows that rep talk time is 58% in wins vs. 52% in losses. 

📣 Let’s dig into the interrupts & talking-over.

They point out that the best sellers are actively listening and participating in what they call “cooperative overlapping.”

This is when the listener starts talking along with the speaker, not to cut them off but rather to validate or show they’re engaged in what the other person is saying. Saying things like:

“Absolutely.”
“Yeah, I hear what you’re saying.”
“Yup, makes sense.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Hmm… okay.”

Interesting stuff! They go on to say that there’s a time and a place for strategic silence in calls. But on the whole, engaging in a true two-way conversation is a commonality of top performers. 

Again, I highly recommend you pick up the book and check it out.

#revenue #sales #sdr

Being an SDR in 2023 requires just as much strategy as being an AE. 

And is just as critical in driving revenue. 

🏆 Kudos to the folks already operating this way. Keep experimenting, keep evolving. 

And kudos to the managers and leaders who understand that it’s not 2004 and the role is no longer a simple math equation. 

Happy SDR / BDR / RDR appreciation week. I love you all. 

#sdr #sales #revenue

My VP of sales gave me a masterclass in deal inspection. 

First, how to prepare. It’s inexcusable to not know the answer to these questions ahead of the 1:1 with your rep: 

- How is this deal tracking?
- When is the next meeting?
- Who are you engaging with?
- Why is it in commit?
- Has the contract been sent yet?
- Has the dollar amount changed?
- Is it in the right stage?

You have to create the right systems and expectations to capture this information so it’s at your fingertips.

Spending live time with reps answer these questions turns the meeting into an interrogation instead of a strategic conversation. 

———

Proper inspection leverages the “4 point deal inspection” to drive strategic conversations and close more deals:

1. What’s changed in this deal since the last meeting?

Keep a pulse on the deal’s health. If a deal isn’t progressing, the seller likely needs coaching on follow-up meeting strategies. 

2. Are we building healthy relationships?

Make sure your sellers are multi-threading with the right personas. Economic buyer, use case champions, even detractors. Know the lay of the land and have a plan for engaging with everyone.

3. Is this deal tied to an urgent initiative?

If a deal isn’t tied to an urgent initiative within your prospect’s organization, the deal won’t close. Period. Your solution must meet that bar.

4. What is the real revenue for the deal?

You need accuracy in your forecast. The best way to ensure accuracy is to know the real revenue the deal is likely to close for, not a rep’s sandbagging or happy ears. Pressure test these deal values until you’re as confident as the rep is.

———

I'd be remiss not to mention that Clari makes this process extremely easy. Pulling together all the revenue-critical data and making life seamless for reps, managers, and execs.

#revenue #sales 

Alright, y’all. It’s finally time to retire this line:

🙈 “Can you intro me to the right person?”

This call-to-action became super popular for sellers a number of years ago, and it’s always felt lazy to me. 

The much more effective framing is:

🙉 “I see that Josh VanGeest heads up your RevOps team. Mind sending me his way?”

Don’t make the prospect do extra work. Call out the specific person you want an intro to and give your rationale. 

The recipient will appreciate it and your chances of success will soar.

———

💰 I’m calling these little nuggets Revenue Pro Tips. The little things revenue pros do that separate them from the pack. Would love to hear any tips you’ve got!

#revenueprotip #sdr #sales #revenue

Making cold calls from your bedroom is not a natural act.

This new world of selling from home requires huge amounts of mental toughness & resiliency.

Sellers who can ratchet up their proactivity and ability to self-start are the ones at the top of the leaderboard.

This has always been true for sales. Even more true now. 

Lean on others when you can, but know you’re gonna have to dig deep to make it happen. 

#revenue #sales #sdr

I booked my first meeting as an SDR exactly 10 years ago today. 

It seems fitting that I'm going to pass 100k LinkedIn followers on this 10 year anniversary.

😎 Life has a cool symmetry sometimes.

😬 Unless people unfollow me for this self-aggrandizing post...

Thanks to everyone who's supported me on this journey. Your love and feedback mean a lot. 

🙏🙏🙏

Just had an incredible conversation with the king of customer success, Nick Mehta.

Top takeaways to help you protect revenue through the downturn:

1. Gravity naturally pulls toward churn.

Change is inevitable. Disruptors, competition, macro environments, business success or failure. Maintaining a healthy paranoia and ensuring that your relationships with customers are always-on is key to protecting revenue. Don’t get complacent.

2. Obsessively improve time to value.

Too much churn happens because of “failure to launch.” Companies need to have the implementation and value journey orchestrated to a tee so that customers know they’re going to get value FAST.

3. Personal relationships alone are not enough.

Gone are the days of steak dinners and ballgames to seal a renewal. You need to have wide and deep relationships, of course, but achieving tangible, meaningful business outmodes is the only true path to customer health and success. 

4. From reactive to proactive. Tactical to strategic. Vendor to partner. 

Make these mindset shifts to ensure you're delivering value in the short and long term. And don't be myopic about your product, be sure to tie that value to the company's strategic initiatives.

We’ll be releasing the full convo soon in podcast form. Stay tuned.

#revenue #sales #customersuccess 

Before he joined Clari, he sent me one of the best emails I’ve ever gotten.

🏆 So I’m not at all surprised to see this kind of artistry from Johnny Revels. 

From the recipient: “This was a spectacular message… The most personalized I’ve ever received.” They weren’t in a position to start and eval, but we’ll be top of the list when that changes.

World-class, my friend. Keep ‘em coming!

#revenue #sales #sdr

I went through the last 100 cold emails I've gotten and found a few patterns.

🧑‍🔬 The overwhelming majority come early in the week (Mon & Tue). And an even greater majority come early in the day (before noon).

By day of week: 
Mon  💌💌💌💌💌 
Tue   💌💌💌💌💌💌
Wed 💌💌💌💌
Thu  💌💌💌
Fri    💌💌
Sat 
Sun 💌

By time of day: 
Before 8am  💌💌💌💌💌💌 
8am - 12pm   💌💌💌💌
12pm - 5pm 💌💌💌
After 5pm  💌

———

Sample size of one, so take it with a grain of salt. But it tracks to many of the "best practices" I've seen about when to send.

😞 The problem is that if everyone is adhering to the same guidelines, it's harder to stand out.

The key is to constantly be experimenting. Try some new stuff this week and see if and how it changes your results. 

Don't get complacent with your process because it's "how you've always done it."

#revenue #sales #sdr

Bad sales leader: My lazy reps aren’t updating SFDC!!

🤩 Good sales leader: My reps shouldn’t have to waste time doing menial data entry.

It’s 2023, y’all. Leaders have to make this stuff as easy as possible for reps:

Data capture, contact creation, deal updates, forecast submissions, mutual action plans, sales methodology tracking, etc etc. 

If it’s not easy, it’s cumbersome. It takes time away from selling and your org experiences huge amounts of revenue leak. 

😏 If only there were a platform purpose-built to run revenue. For reps, managers, execs, and everyone in between. (*ahem* check out Clari!).

#revenue #sales 

If you’re using the same messaging in 2023 that you were a year ago, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

🙄 Don’t go full 2020 “in these unprecedented times,” of course. 

But do rethink your messaging to ensure it tracks with what’s top of mind for business leaders today:

💨 Efficiency
📈 Productivity (aka, “more with less”)
⏰ Time to value / impact
☝️ Tech consolidation

Those are the themes in every exec and board meeting right now. Make sure you’re meeting the moment.

#revenue #marketing #sales

When I started in tech sales, I was too proud to admit I was struggling.

😰 Call reluctance, rejection, imposter syndrome, a ton of stress.

🙅 I thought the struggles were unique to me. I thought I wasn’t cut out for the gig.

Until I started talking about it. To friends, co-workers, salespeople at other companies.

I quickly learned that these struggles are shared, heard how other people were dealing with them, and felt a lot better about myself and my approach.

———

Working remotely has its benefits. But one of the downsides is that it can get pretty lonely.

🤲 If you don’t have it, I highly recommend you create a forum to talk to other people who are doing similar work to you.

Understand what’s working and what’s not. Share your successes and your failures. Learn from each other, and laugh with each other.

This mindset was (and is!) critical to my success. Don’t overlook its importance.

#revenue #sales #sdr

So much sales training focuses on creating “fear of missing out” to disrupt the status quo.

🤕 But a bigger blocker to getting deals done may actually be “fear of messing up.”

This is the thesis of “The Jolt Effect” – by the same authors as “The Challenger Sale.”

As a buyer, this really resonates with me. Buying new software is risky. It requires a leap of faith, an expenditure of precious cash, and huge amounts of change management (people & process).

🤷‍♀️ It becomes easy to simply not make a decision, not make any change, and not risk messing anything up.

The best sellers address these fears proactively. They make it easy to buy. Easy to see the path to value. 

They get creative with commercials. To start small and expand. To give out clauses to keep them accountable.

Highly recommend you check out “The Jolt Effect.” I expect it’ll change the way you think about selling in 2023.

#revenue #sales #sdr 

We’re in a time of radical uncertainty.

✂️ And in uncertain times, most companies only focus on one thing: cutting costs.

But that’s only half a strategy.

If you want to win more deals and protect your customer base — you need to master your Time to Revenue. 

Here’s how:

#timetorevenue #revenueleak #runrevenue

We asked a dozen CFOs how to get their approval to buy new software in 2023. 

🏆 When to ask, how to ask, what's convincing, what's eye-roll inducing.

We packaged all the learnings up in a step-by-step guide you can download and implement today. 

Interested? Check it out below.

#runrevenue #revenue

You don't have to know your prospect's favorite food, hobby, or childhood hometown to write a great email.

💪 You do have to have a deep understanding of their persona, their jobs to be done, and their pain points.

See this example from Wes Toth below. 

📖 Storytelling
👉 Relevance
🤕 Pain points
🏆 Solution

Short, sweet, and to the point. And he managed to name-drop some other member of the recipient's team for an extra sprinkle of personalization. 

(Also worth noting that this was in response to another (very solid) email that got opened a bunch but didn't get a response. So including the image wasn't a risk to deliverability like it sometimes is for cold emails.)

Great work, Wes! Keep 'em coming.

#revenue #sales #sdr 

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