Marcus Chan

Helping AEs earn $500K+ and max their potential to achieve freedom, fulfillment, & security without grinding or slimy sales tactics | Team + Individual Programs | 4X Salesforce Top Influencer | WSJ Best-Selling Author

Three quarters in a row, the number slipped.
The CRO was out of answers.
Reps were burning out, the board was circling, and pressure was suffocating.

After one framework from our Revenue Engine OS™, that same org hit 114% the next quarter — with no new hires and no extra leads.

A $40M HR tech firm was losing 6 out of 10 deals to “no decision.”
Their pipeline looked full. It was fiction.
After installing our discovery system, deal velocity jumped 65% and win rates climbed 47%.

A fintech startup took 14 months to ramp reps.
After Venli, they did it in 6 and doubled first-year retention.

That is where we step in — when chaos meets quota pressure.

At Venli Consulting, we help CROs, VPs of Sales, and Revenue Leaders fix the invisible breakdowns that quietly drain $2–$10M+ in revenue every year.

Every strategist and trainer on our team has led sales organizations from the trenches.
We have carried quota, built teams, and scaled revenue firsthand.

Because most sales orgs do not have lazy reps.
They have leaky systems:

→ Discovery that fails to create urgency
→ Demos that die in silence
→ Managers stuck chasing deals instead of building people

I’m Marcus Chan, Founder & CEO of Venli and creator of the Revenue Engine OS™, a proven system used by 100+ organizations to turn chaos into predictable growth.

Before Venli, I led a $195M/year Fortune 500 sales organization, earned 12 promotions in 8 years, and authored a Wall Street Journal bestselling book.

Recognized by Salesforce, LinkedIn, and Forbes, I’ve spent my career helping sales leaders stop gambling on effort and start scaling with systems.

If you lead a sales organization generating at least $10M+ annually, I can show you exactly where your revenue is leaking — and how to fix it systematically so you can scale to $100M and beyond.

👉 Benchmark your revenue engine: https://venli.co/47c-sta-vsl

📕 232-page tactical playbook (50,000+ leaders): https://venli.co/xxt-sfss-book

💻 100+ hours of elite B2B sales training: https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/marcuschan

Predictability is not luck.
It is engineered.

President / Founder

We help AE’s earn $250K-$500K+ and develop record-breaking sales skills.

We provide proven sales coaching + training for reps and teams teaching the exact President’s Club winning system that helped me close $140M ARR and hit 100-250% to quota 13 years in a row.

With over a decade of winning awards, crushing sales quotas, and sales leadership experience, we can help you transform your results! Yes, we are sales coaches that have actually achieved real proven results consistently before we started the business!

In under 5 years we've grown from 0 to 600+ clients and have achieved a few of the following things:

✅ 4X Salesforce Top Sales Influencer to Follow
✅ Wrote a Wall Street Journal and Amazon Best Selling Sales Book
✅ LinkedIn Top Voice - Sales: #5 out of 300M+ active users
✅ Featured in Forbes, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! News, MarketWatch, CNBC, and more!

Make sure to access our free most popular free training resources including our on-demand no cost training in the Featured section of my profile.

I've trained thousands of AEs in the last 6 years.

These 9 traits separate the $500K+ earners from the ones updating LinkedIn to "exploring opportunities” … 

Look, AI is eating sales jobs for breakfast.

SDR roles? Nearly gone.
Basic discovery? Automated.
Follow-ups? Already replaced.

If you're a sales leader, you need to know what to hire for.
If you're a rep, you need to become irreplaceable.

These are the 9 traits AI can't touch:

1. Deal Velocity Obsession
Average reps wait for "perfect timing."
Top performers know: time kills all deals.
Create urgency or lose to "no decision."

2. Calendar Architecture
They don't manage time, they architect it.
8-hour prospecting blocks. Non-negotiable.
PACER method. Color-coded. Zero reactive time.

3. Discovery Forensics
Skip "What's your budget?"
Ask "What motivated you to reach out today?"
Uncover $2M problems hiding behind $50K budgets.

4. Pattern Recognition
Every lost deal gets a post-mortem.
They see what others miss.
Close rate jumps from 20% to 47%.

5. 12-Week Year Discipline
Forget annual quotas. Work in 12-week sprints.
Daily wins tracked. Weekly scorecard.
System beats motivation every time.

6. Objection Archaeology
"Too expensive" = "I don't see the difference"
"Need to wait" = "Scared of switching"
Dig past surface. Find real fear. Close.

7. Rejection Immunity
Lost a $500K deal yesterday? Prospecting today.
169 no's to get 1 yes? Make 170 calls.
Recovery time: hours, not weeks.

8. Tech Stack Mastery
Sales Nav + Apollo + ChatGPT + Gong = Pipeline machine
21-day sequences running while you sleep.
First to test. First to find the edge.

9. Executive Presence
Don't pitch products. Advise businesses.
"Your broken process costs $3M annually."
CEOs take your calls. CFOs trust your math.

Let me speak some truth to you.. 

When I ran a 110-person team delivering $195M annually, these were nice-to-haves.

In 2025? They're survival skills.

AI handles transactions.
You handle transformation.

Your move. 

Sales leaders - Stop hiring "experience." Hire these traits.
Sales reps - Pick your weakest 3. Work on them for 30 days.

I've mentored over 50 President's Club winners that worked DIRECTLY for me not even including my clients.

Every single one had 7+ of these traits.

The ones with all 9? Running their own companies now.

—

Remember the PACER Method in # 2? Well, I broke it down here: https://lnkd.in/gbpFye_t

Most B2B sales orgs lose millions in hidden revenue. We help CROs & Sales VPs leading $10M–$100M sales orgs uncover & fix the leaks | Ex-Fortune 500 $195M Org Leader • WSJ Author • Salesforce Advisor • Forbes & CNBC

My old territory’s sales leader just hit President's Club for the 10th straight year.

I haven't worked there in 6 years.

Think about that for a second. 10 consecutive years of President's Club achievers. 

And I left after year 4.

This is Portland, Oregon we're talking about.
Not San Francisco. 
Not New York. 

Not some massive market drowning in opportunity.

When I took over that team in 2012, they were dead last. Worst team in the worst region in the entire company. For years.

People said it was the market. 
They said nobody wins in Portland. 
They called the territory cursed.

I didn't buy it.

So I built systems. Real systems. Not motivational posters and rah rah BS. I built processes, playbooks, scorecards, management cadences. The foundational stuff that actually scales performance.

First quarter we hit 115% to quota. First time in literal years.

By the end of that year... President's Club.

But here's where it gets absolutely wild.

I left in 2015 to run the entire region. 

That Portland team? Still hitting President's Club. 

Every. Single. Year.

The region I took over... Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho... went from middle of the pack to President's Club every year from 2016 to 2019.

And after I left the company entirely in 2019? Six years later?

Still crushing it. The current director was one of my sales managers. Most of the managers running teams now? My former reps.

They're STILL using the systems we built. They're STILL in the training videos I recorded back then.
And here's what blows my mind... they're doing EVEN BETTER than when I was there. Because that's what real systems do. 

They compound over time.

This is the difference between skills and systems.

Skills leave when you leave. 

Systems build legacy.

Most sales leaders are obsessed with hiring better reps, running more training, implementing new methodologies. They're treating symptoms.

But if your systems are broken? If you don't have scorecards driving the right behaviors? If your managers don't know how to run effective one on ones and pipeline reviews? If you don't have playbooks that create consistency?

You're just putting perfume on a pig.

Training fades in 90 days. Systems compound for decades.

I'm watching it happen in real time. A decade later. In a market people said couldn't win.

That's the power of building the foundation right.

— 

Want to build a Legacy System within your org? DM me, let’s talk.

I turned away a $50K deal last month.

The founder was frustrated. They'd just fired their entire sales team. Revenue was flat. They wanted me to come in and "fix sales."

But here's what I saw in the first 15 minutes:

No product market fit. Still pivoting on messaging. Couldn't articulate who they're selling to. Only 1-2 salespeople left in a company trying to scale.

And the crazy thing? They thought they were doing everything right.

So I told them no.

Not because I didn't want the money. Because taking that deal would have been a waste of their time and mine.

You can't fix sales when the product isn't dialed. 

You can't scale a sales team when you haven't figured out who you're selling to. 

You can't train reps to close deals in a company that's still trying to find its footing.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for a prospect is tell them they're not ready yet.

They need to figure out their product. 
Nail their messaging.
Define their ICP. 
Get those foundational pieces locked in first.

Then come back and we'll talk about scaling sales.
The deals you walk away from matter just as much as the deals you close.

I've trained 1000s of sales reps.
I still refresh LinkedIn every 10 minutes after posting to see if anyone gives a damn.

My LinkedIn feed is now full of creators sharing their viral moments:

"My post got 43M impressions!"
"Just hit 278K followers!"
"This one framework got me 19,434 comments"
"My newsletter has 1M subscribers"
"Built my personal brand to $12.2M in 12 months"
"AI helped me 10x my engagement"

Don't get me wrong, I celebrate every win. But let me tell you something nobody talks about.

I get anxious as hell about posting.

I'll drop what I think is fire content. Cricket sounds.

Meanwhile, someone posts "Agree?" with a stock photo and gets 10,000 likes.

I start spiraling:

"Am I losing my edge?"
"Is my content getting stale?"
"Why did that post tank?"
"Why do I suck so bad?"

You might be thinking this is BS. 

But here's my reality:

I compare myself to others constantly.
I check my post stats obsessively.
I get paranoid when engagement drops.

And I KNOW it's silly. 

But every time I post and it doesn't hit?

That voice creeps in: "You suck"

Here's what I've learned… 

Most creators I know are fighting the same demons.

They're not posting about:

The anxiety before hitting "publish".
The comparison trap at 2am.
The imposter syndrome after a post flops.
The pressure to always be "on".
The fear that the algorithm changed and left them behind.

I say all this because if you're posting consistently and not getting the engagement you want...

If you're watching others go viral while your stuff gets 3 likes...

If you're questioning whether your expertise even matters anymore...

You're not alone. You're not failing. You're human.

Keep showing up. Keep sharing your truth. Keep helping one person at a time.

Because "crushing it" on LinkedIn isn't about the metrics.

It's about still hitting publish when the last post bombed.

I see you. Keep fighting.

P.S. Who else is all about face masks?

I got asked a fun question the other day from a buddy of mine.

"Marcus, if you went broke tomorrow... what would you actually do?"

Not hypothetically broke. Like actually broke.

Zero cash. Zero audience. No team. No brand. But still a $28K monthly burn rate and mouths to feed.

Now, here's the thing. I'm a child of immigrants. Grew up working in my parents' Chinese restaurant. Sold Speedos at swim meets to make extra cash. Sold door to door and had a gun pulled on me. 

Hustle isn't new to me. Hard work isn't new to me.

But this question made me stop and think.

Because it's not really about hustle. 

It's not about working 80 hour weeks or grinding harder.

It's about knowing what actually matters in business when everything else gets stripped away.

(Who am I kidding, hustle absolutely matters, but it’s hustling smart, not frantically)

Flip through the carousel. 

Let me know your thoughts. 

What would YOU do if you were broke tomorrow?

—

Check out how I helped a sales entrepreneur go from chaos to $1M: https://lnkd.in/gzRrzwrs

My exact 30 day plan to go from $0 to $20K+

I've analyzed 10,000+ sales calls and discovered something shocking… 

Elite salespeople NEVER discount when asked, "Can I get a better price?"

While most reps panic and immediately cave, the top 1% have a completely different playbook 👇

Instead, they have a systematic approach that PRESERVES margins while CLOSING more deals.

When you're quick to discount, you communicate TWO things that DESTROY trust:

1️⃣ They'll think: "Why didn't they give me the best price initially?" This makes them suspicious of everything else you've said.

2️⃣ You're telling them you don't believe in your own value. If YOU don't believe it, why should THEY?

Before using any strategy, run the objection through my H.E.A.R.T. framework:

- H-ear them: "Cari, I appreciate the ask."
- E-laborate: "Help me understand why you're asking?"
- A-side: “Aside from the pricing, is anything else giving you pause?"
- R-eclarify value: "What did you like most about our solution?"
- T-ransition: Now use one of these 5 strategies...

➡️STRATEGY #1.

"Let's review everything in your package and remove what's 'nice-to-have' versus 'must-have.' Then we'll recalculate."

You're NOT giving a discount. You're reducing what they're buying.

Most prospects realize they want everything and end up paying full price anyway.

➡️STRATEGY #2

"I know we discussed Option X. Another option is Y, it does things 1, 2, and 3 but doesn't have 4, 5, or 6. However, it's $XXX less."

Again, NO discount. Just a lower-priced alternative that creates value comparison.

When they see what they lose, they often stick with the premium solution.

➡️STRATEGY #3

"I can't discount, but I CAN include Premium Support for 30 days. Normally reserved for our highest tier and costs 30% more."

The magic? They often upgrade after experiencing the premium feature!

This is my personal favorite with the highest conversion.

➡️STRATEGY #4

Present good/better/best options BEFORE the price objection happens.

When they ask for a discount, guide them to the lower option.

This makes THEM decide between features vs. price. Instead of YOU deciding between discount or no deal.

➡️STRATEGY #5

Instead of cutting price, adjust WHEN and HOW they pay:

→ Half now, half in 30 days
→ Payments over 3 months
→ Net-30 instead of Net-15

One Fortune 500 client increased close rates 32% with this approach alone.

➡️THE LAST RESORT

If you absolutely MUST discount, NEVER give without getting something in return:

"I can do 10% off if we add 5 more licenses."

OR

"I can do 10% off if you introduce me to 5 other business owners who could use our solution."

You're conditioning how you do business AND maximizing value.

—

Hey sales pros, want to handle objections better? Go here: https://lnkd.in/g-uJ7ECX

Beat Price Discounts in 5 Steps 

A rep called me frustrated.

"I ask all the right questions, but they clam up after 10 minutes. Discovery feels like pulling teeth."

I listened to her last call. She was doing everything "right" according to most sales training.

Except for one thing.

She was treating discovery like an interrogation instead of a conversation.

Here's what I told her:

Stop trying to get everything in 30 minutes. You're not a police detective gathering evidence.
Instead, go deep on what matters most → their pain.

Three questions that changed her entire approach:

"What's driving this to be a priority right now?"
"What happens if you don't solve this in the next 6 months?"
"How is this impacting you personally?"

Notice something? No questions about budget. No stakeholder mapping. No buying process.
Just pain. Deep, emotional, get-them-talking pain.

Here's what happened on next call:

Prospect spent 20 minutes explaining their challenges. Shared things she never heard before. Got emotional about the daily frustration.

Old Rep would've panicked: "I didn't get the buying process info!"

New Rep said: "Based on everything you've shared, this sounds complex. Let's schedule another call to walk through how companies typically solve this."

Prospect immediately agreed.

Why? Because she proved she understood their world.

The follow up call? Prospect brought their boss. Shared budget range. Outlined their evaluation timeline.

All because the first call was about them, not about her information gathering checklist.

Look, I get it. 

Sales methodology says you need certain data points. But prospects don't care about your methodology.

They care about feeling understood.

When you nail the pain, everything else flows naturally.

The reps's close rate went from 18% to 29% just by changing her discovery approach.

Same questions. Same product. Different mindset.

Sales VPs: teach your reps to be consultants, not interrogators. The reps who master this thinking close bigger deals because they uncover the real emotional drivers behind every purchase decision.

Ever noticed how your best discovery calls feel more like therapy sessions than sales calls?

Strange, isn’t it? 😎

—

How 700+ clients closed $950 million using THIS 6 step demo script: https://lnkd.in/eVb32BUx

Why your discovery calls feel like interrogations

"You guys need to f****** stop and get the f*** out of here."

That's what a prospect told me 5 minutes into an onsite discovery call.

With the ride along candidate watching in horror.

The candidate's face went ghost white.

"Is that... normal?" he whispered as we walked to the car.

"It happens sometimes," I shrugged. "Let's keep going."

That same afternoon:

✅Knocked on 4 more doors
✅Next appointment: One-call close, $50K deal
✅Third meeting: Another close, similar size
✅Booked 2 more appointments

Total damage: Over $100K in closed new business and $150K in new pipeline generated.

Not every sales rejection is this dramatic.

But rejection comes in many forms and sizes:

The ghosting after a great discovery call

"We're going with the competitor"
"Budget got pulled"
"Not the right time"
"We'll think about it" (aka never calling back)

I got asked this recently.

"The rejection in sales is crushing me. How do I bounce back faster?"

Here's my 2 question hack that I've used for years to reprogram my mind after getting rejected:

→ Question 1: What can I learn from this?

Pause and really soak in the situation. Increase your self awareness.

Did I do everything possible?

Sometimes we did 100% of what was possible and that's okay. But often there's something: "I could have done X a little bit differently."

This question prevents you from just moving on without extracting value.

→ Question 2: How can I apply what I learned to a future situation?

Now you're future thinking. Solution focused instead of problem focused.

"What could I do better next time?"

This shifts your brain from dwelling on the loss to preparing for the win.

Here's what happens when you start thinking this way:

Your rejections become your education.
Your setbacks become your setups.
Your losses become your lessons.

That day I got kicked out? I used those 2 questions (internally).

Then closed $100K in new business the same afternoon.

→ The rejection didn't define my day. My response to it did.

Most reps let rejection live rent-free in their heads for hours, days, even weeks.

Top performers extract the lesson in 2 minutes and move forward stronger.

Your resilience determines your results.

Start asking these 2 questions after every rejection.

Watch how quickly you bounce back.

—

This video will make you UNSTOPPABLE in tech sales: https://lnkd.in/gFRKiZ-3

2 Questions that could add $100k to your pocket 

My client just saved a $400K deal that her technical team destroyed in 45 minutes.

Here's exactly how she did it (and why this keeps happening) 👇

My client had everything locked in.
Multi-year enterprise deal.
Champion and stakeholders fully bought in.
Moving to contract.

Then she made one "smart" move:

Brought in her technical expert.

45 minutes later, the champion texted:

"I don't feel confident about you guys anymore. Feels like you sold me a bag of 💩."

Here's what most reps don't understand:

Your technical teams are optimized for accuracy.
Your prospects are optimized for risk avoidance.

Those two things are violently incompatible.

Technical expert: "Well, technically we handle that differently..."
Prospect hears: "We can't do what you need."

Technical expert: "That feature is on our roadmap..."

Prospect hears: "We're not ready for you."

Technical expert: "There's a workaround for that..."
Prospect hears: "You'll have the same problems you have now."

But here's the real killer… 

When prospects have vendor trauma (and who doesn't?), they're not listening for what you CAN do.

They're listening for proof that you'll fail them too.

One technical stumble confirms their deepest fear:

"All vendors are the same. This is going to be another disaster."

So how did my client save it?

No apologies. No excuses. Pure business strategy:

1. Immediate stakeholder swap - Brought in someone who understood the BUSINESS case
2. Addressed fears, not features - "Here's how we ensure that never happens..."
3. Reframed to outcomes - Stopped talking tactical, started talking transformation
4. Isolated the real decision - "Pricing aside, where do we stand?"

What ended up happening?

"You're still our front runner."
Deal back on track.’

Look, I get it.

You want to show technical depth.
You want to prove you can deliver.
You want your experts to build credibility.

But credibility isn't built on technical accuracy.
It's built on business confidence.

And nothing destroys business confidence faster than a technical team that doesn't understand the difference.

My client learned this the hard way.
Her deal survived because she acted fast.

But how many deals have you lost because your technical team was "just being honest"?

—

Hey Sales Leaders! Want to see where you team might be leaking revenue? Grab this: https://lnkd.in/g8M-ah5s

My client just saved a $400K deal 

Here are 26 things I do to stay human while building this business…. 

And not turn into a robot.

Let’s face it, running a business is all consuming. It will burn you out if you let it. It will kill marriages if you let it. It will turn you into an absentee father if you let it. It will kill your health if you let it. 

All your business demands is your time and bandwidth. 

And I’m determined NOT to let it happen while also still building an amazing business that helps me and my family live the life of our dreams and make a big impact on the people and orgs I serve. 

Here’s my list. 

It’s pretty intense, but… it actually keeps me sane. 

#1 Calisthenics every single day. I pay for programs. I don't mess around with this. Keeps me mobile, lean, fit. No heavy weights anymore. Just bodyweight and movement.

#2 Mobility work every single day. Same deal. I follow two different programs actually. This is non negotiable.

#3 Journal every single night. I write down my wins from the day. Professional. Personal. Family. All of it.

#4 Weekly reflections. I sit down once a week and go deeper. What worked. What didn't. Where I'm at.

#5 Monthly reflections. Same thing but zoomed out. Once a month I look at the bigger picture.

#6 Monthly think days. This is where I go even deeper. Strategy. Direction. What matters. No distractions.

#7 Gratitude every single night. I write it down. What I'm grateful for. Really big for me.

#8 Morning walks every single day. Just me. No phone. Just walking and thinking.

#9 FaceTime my parents every single Friday after dinner. They know it's coming. My wife. My kid. We talk for like an hour or so. About everything. Life. Family. Whatever.

#10 I started inviting my little sister too because she wants to be part of it. Family time matters.

#11 We try to see my parents once a month in person. Sometimes the kid’s activities makes it crazy. But we make it happen when we can.

#12 I pick up my kid from school every single day. Then we hang out. We play chess together now. That's our new thing.

#13 Our local library lets you rent old consoles for free. Sega Genesis. Original NES. The little updated versions with games already on them. So we're playing Super Mario Bros 3. Street Fighter. Right now we have the Sega one for two weeks. It's actually kind of badass. Takes me back.

#14 We write stories together. Use AI to build images. Print out books just for fun. Really creative stuff. He loves it.

#15 Date night with my wife at least once a month. Minimum. Usually more. Really important for us.

#16 My wife and I go on walks together at least two or three times a week. Just us two. No kid. Just catching up. Being with each other.

#17 Weekly sync and share with my wife. We go through our wins from the prior week. We “rate” each other as a spouse. How we did. Open to feedback. Planning. Anything important.

More in the comments👇...

Your discovery calls are costing you millions.
And you probably don't even realize it.

I just broke down the 5 critical mistakes that separate top 20% performers from everyone else fighting for scraps.

The 5 mistakes:

#1 Diving in too fast (skipping credible rapport)
#2 Weak pain questions (no specific examples)
#3 Not quantifying impact (leaving money on table)
#4 Not mapping their buying process (focusing on YOUR process instead of THEIRS)
#5 No clear next steps (deals die in "I'll follow up")

Here’s what I’m seeing… 

73% of sales teams make at least 3 of these on EVERY discovery call.

The top 20% hitting 120%+ quota? They fixed all 5.

I recorded a 30 minute breakdown showing exactly how to fix each one.

Live roleplay. Exact questions. Real examples.

This is the discovery framework that helped my team deliver $190M annually.

Want access?

Comment DISCOVERY below and I'll send you the link.

Why 73 percent of sales teams lose money on discovery

I took over the worst sales team in the worst region in the company.

They hadn't hit quota in years.

First quarter under my leadership: 115% to goal.

Here's what I did differently 👇

"Just so you know, nobody hits President's Club out here. This team hasn't performed in years."

That's what they told me when I took over as sales manager.

The numbers backed it up:

→ Worst team in the region
→ Worst region in the company
→ Years of missed quotas
→ Reps making excuses instead of revenue

Most new managers would've come in with some motivational speech and hoped for the best.

I did something completely different.
I built systems, not gave pep talks.
First 30 days: Pure diagnosis.

I didn't try to "fix" anyone. I studied the pattern:

Why deals stalled.
Where time was actually going.
What separated our few wins from the losses.
How reps were actually spending their days vs. what they reported.

The problem wasn't effort. It was invisible to everyone.

No clear KPIs. No scorecards. No accountability structure.

Reps were gunslingers hoping to get lucky. Some would figure it out. Most wouldn't.

So I implemented three things:

#1 KPIs & Scorecards

Not 50 metrics. The 5-8 leading and lagging indicators that actually drove results.
Made them visible at every level. Reps knew their number. I knew their number. The team knew their number.

#2 Management Structure

World-class 1:1s that drove performance (not just pipeline reviews)
Weekly training that actually developed skills
Pipeline reviews focused on deal progression, not just "what's the status"
Deal coaching on the opportunities that mattered

#3 Success Playbooks

The A to Z for brand new hires and existing reps who'd gotten off track.
What does a perfect day look like? Perfect week? What are the core KPIs? How do you actually run discovery? How do you manage your territory?

Guard rails that guide people to success without micromanaging.

First quarter: 115% to quota.
First time that team hit their number in literally years.
That year: President's Club.

That market continued crushing it every single year after because the systems kept running long after I moved on.

(I got promoted to the director in 2015 and the sales managers have hit President’s Clubs EVERY SINGLE YEAR SINCE)

The biggest difference? Systems that made success repeatable.

—

Your team missing forecast by $5M+ and you're not sure why?

We run the same diagnostic:

→ Analyze your Salesforce data (18-24 months)
→ Listen to call recordings
→ Interview your team at every level
→ Identify the exact constraints killing performance

Then we fix the root cause, not symptoms.

Same process that took a $35M company missing by $8M to hitting quota in 90 days, without a single hour of sales training.

Book a diagnostic: https://lnkd.in/ghh8VCaf

The Territory Nobody Wanted

"We need sales training" is the most expensive lie in business.

It's what leaders say when they don't know the real problem.

Just saved a VP from making this $75K mistake.

Here's what happened.

PE-backed tech company. Missing target by $6M. Team had 100% turnover in 12 months. Monthly beatings from the CFO.

His solution? "We need sales training immediately."
I asked one question: "How do you know that's the problem?"
Long pause. Then: "Well... they're not hitting their numbers."

That's not a diagnosis. That's a symptom.

So we did something revolutionary. We looked at data before prescribing solutions.

Two weeks of actual investigation:

→ Exported 24 months of CRM data
→ Interviewed every rep individually
→ Listened to real customer calls
→ Mapped every conversion point

What we found destroyed his assumptions.

His team didn't need training. They needed focus.

They were calling on 260 accounts. Only 40 generated 80% of revenue. They were wasting 80% of their time on accounts that would never matter.

Zero discovery process. 100% transactional. "Hey, ready to spend money?" No pain uncovered. No urgency created.

No accountability systems. No one knew if reps made 5 calls or 50. No deal inspection. No pipeline reviews.

I made this exact mistake at Cintas.

Territory tanking. Paid for training out of pocket. Spent weeks on "advanced closing techniques."

Nothing changed.

Finally diagnosed the real issue. I was calling on 1000+ accounts when 37 drove all the profit. Fixed that. Became #1 and sold over $1M in my first year in sales off a $450K quota in the last Recession.

The problem was never skills. It was not focus on solving the RIGHT problem(s). 

Here's what nobody admits about sales training:

It's the easy button to push.

Can't figure out the real problem? Order training.

CEO asking tough questions? Schedule workshops.

Team struggling? Must be their skills.

It's intellectually dishonest. 

And expensive.

P.S. I’m not 💩 on sales training. It’s a matter of timing. It comes AFTER you figure out what your org’s problem is. 

P.S.S- Want to find out where you’re leaking revenue? Learn more here: https://venli.co/red-li

WHY your team probably doesn't need more training.

Everyone thinks deals are won in the pitch. They're wrong.

By the time you're presenting your solution, the prospect has already decided whether they'll buy from you. 

They just haven't told you yet.

I've analyzed thousands of calls from reps who close at 20% vs. those who close at 50%+. The difference isn't their closing technique or even their product knowledge.

It's what happens in the DISCOVERY phase.

Average reps ask surface level questions, then rush to present their solution.

Top performers dig DEEP, uncovering the real problems beneath the symptoms.

I recently reviewed a call where a prospect volunteered critical information about their decision making process. The rep just said "thanks" and moved to the next question. 💀

This is like finding gold and walking past it.

When a prospect shares valuable intel, that's your chance to drill down, NOT move on.

I teach my clients the "3 Deep Rule". Never accept the first answer. Ask at least 3 follow up questions to get to the REAL issue.

Because here's the brutal truth about sales:

If YOU say it, it might not be true
If THEY say it, it must be true

The best discovery follows a framework but adapts based on the conversation, like driving on an 8-lane highway. You're heading toward a destination, but you adjust based on what's happening around you.

Use the 90/10 rule: 90% asking questions, 10% talking about your solution.

Master this approach, and you'll close at 2-3X the rate of your peers.

👇 Swipe through for the exact 7 question framework I've used to unlock millions in revenue.

—

I go over the 5 mistakes you can make with discovery. So, combine this video and the carousel, your discovery will be a money maker for you: https://lnkd.in/gEjvUERi

HOW I DOUBLED MY CLOSE RATE ASKING THESE 7 QUESTIONS.

Sales Nav is a $99/month waste of money.

Unless you know the 5 step system. 

You see, most reps open Sales Navigator like they're checking email. Random searches. Random times. Random results.

But I use it differently. My team uses it differently. And it shows in our pipeline.

Here's what 90% of reps do:

Open Sales Nav when they're bored. Search "CXO." Get 10,000 results. Feel overwhelmed. Send 58 generic InMails. Get 1 response cursing them out. Blame the tool.

That's not prospecting. That's expensive gambling.

Here's the system that actually works:

Step 1️⃣ Build your sequence first

Before searching anyone. Have your 21-day sequence ready. Email templates, call scripts, LinkedIn messages. All done.

Most reps search first, then figure out what to say. Backwards.

Step 2️⃣ Create triggered searches

Stop searching job titles.

Search for movement:

→ New in role (<12 months)
→ Company hiring (job posts up)
→ Recently active on LinkedIn

These people are changing things. They have budget.

Step 3️⃣ Research before reaching out

Found someone? Don't message yet.

Two minutes of research:

→ Check their company growth
→ Look for strategic initiatives
→ Find their actual problems

I use ChatGPT for this. Copy company name, paste, get intelligence.

Step 4️⃣ Execute daily, not randomly

Set prospecting blocks. Same time daily.

No "I'll prospect when I have time."
You won't have time. You'll have excuses.

Step 5️⃣ Monday routine

Every Monday, 1 hour:

→ Check saved searches
→ Add qualified prospects
→ Note their triggers

Rest of week: Just work the list.

Want to see exactly how I do this?

I recorded my entire workflow in a 28:34 video. Every click. Every filter. The ChatGPT prompts. The sequence templates.

Start to finish. Nothing held back.

Comment "SALES NAV" below and I'll DM you the video.

(We need to be connected first)

The 5 Step Sales Nav Sequence

You know you’ve got a great client when they start dressing like you.

This is "Coach" Joe Marino from BrightThinker

We hopped on a call last week... both wearing blue shirts.

So Joe threw on his yellow glasses so we’d look like twins.

That’s when you know it’s going to be a fun partnership 😆

Here’s the wild part.

Before we ever worked together, Joe was already using my free content.

No private coaching. No training calls. Just applying what I share online.

And he took his company from a few million a year to over eight figures.

He 4X’d his number. Built out a full sales team.

And now we’ve officially partnered to scale that success across his entire org.

We just kicked things off, and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s coming next.

Joe is proof that when you actually do the work...

When you study the game...

When you stay curious and execute...

You don’t need luck. 

You need commitment.

Huge congrats to "Coach" Joe Marino and the BrightThinker team. You’ve earned every bit of it. Even BIGGER things coming with the sales team 💪🏼

If you’re ready to build a sales org that performs like Joe’s... it might be time to get some real help. 

P.S. Watch his story here: https://lnkd.in/eE25vTRv

I watched a $400K deal die last week because the business case was written for the wrong person.

The rep spent hours building it. 

Talked about admin hours saved. 
Department efficiency. 
Compliance headaches reduced.

All true. All valid. All completely useless.

Because the CFO read it and thought "Why am I spending $400K to save my team some admin time?"

Here's what most reps get wrong:

They write business cases for their champion. Usually an end user or department head.

But the champion isn't signing the check. The CXO is.

And the CXO doesn't care about admin hours. They care about financial impact. They care about business problems.

The fix is actually simple.

Stop writing business cases FOR people. Build them WITH people.

Here's my exact process:

I get on a call with my champion. I pull up a Google Doc on screenshare. Then I say "Let's build this together so you feel confident presenting it."

We walk through it live. They tell me the numbers. I type it in real time. They edit as we go.

Why does this work? 

Because when they build it with me, they own it. 

When they own it, they actually use it to sell internally.

Every business case needs to answer three questions for the CFO:

What financial impact does this problem have?
What's the risk if we don't solve it?
What's the ROI if we do?

If you can't answer those in dollar amounts, you're not ready to present yet.

Here's the structure I use every time:

Core problem at the executive level. Not "admin inefficiency." 

Instead "compliance gap that puts $2M in fines at risk and threatens three contracts worth $8M annually."

Negative impact in dollars. Not hours saved. Actual money lost or at risk.

Cost of inaction. What happens if they wait six months? Quantify it.

How they tried to solve it before. And why it failed.

Your recommendation. Simple and clear.

ROI calculation. Show the math.

Risk mitigation. How you guarantee results.

Here’s a quick the test for you… 

If a CFO reads your business case for 60 seconds, would they immediately understand why this matters to the business?

If not, rewrite it.

Most reps lose deals because they never made it executive level. They stayed stuck talking about department problems and efficiency gains.

The CXO doesn't care. They care about revenue, profit, and risk.

Build your business case around that and deals get approved.

—

Hey Sales Leaders! Want to find where in your org you’re leaking revenue? Go here: https://lnkd.in/g8M-ah5s

7 steps to write a business case that gets board approval

A sales leader told me "Our forecast is always off by 20-30%. I don't know what's real anymore."

I looked at his pipeline. Every deal in "proposal stage" had an 80% close probability.

I asked him one question: "Has an executive at the buyer's company authorized solving this problem?"

He had no idea.

Here's the problem:

His CRM stages were measuring seller activity.
Not buyer commitment.

Discovery meant "we had a discovery call." 
Not "they acknowledged a costly problem."

Demo meant "we showed them the product."
Not "multiple stakeholders agreed this needs to be solved."

Proposal meant "we sent pricing." 
Not "an executive authorized budget to fix this."

So his forecast was always wrong.

Because he was tracking the wrong things.

Here's what we did:

We rebuilt his qualification framework around buyer stages instead of seller activities.

The ADVANCED framework:

Acknowledged problem
Documented issue
Validated by team
Authorized by executive
Narrowed to external
Chosen as vendor
Established timeline
Deal terms finalized

These are buyer commitments. Not seller activities.

When we ran his pipeline through this framework, reality hit hard.

Most of his "80% deals" were actually at 25%. They had acknowledged a problem but nothing was documented. No executive sponsorship. No validation from multiple stakeholders.

𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 65% 𝘁𝗼 93%.

Not because his team started working harder. 

Because they started tracking what actually predicts if deals close.

BTW: 
When you can forecast within 3%, you can predict your income. You can plan for your family. You can budget for that house or wedding or kids' school.

When your forecast is always off by 20%, you're guessing. Your compensation is unpredictable. Your future is uncertain.

This isn't just about making your boss happy. This is about controlling your financial future.

Track buyer commitment. Not seller activity. That's how you build forecast accuracy.

—

Sales Leaders! Your sales team doesn’t need more training. it needs a revenue operating system:     https://lnkd.in/ghh8VCaf

If buyers keep telling you your offer is too expensive… this post is for you.

Every time a rep tells me “Marcus, they loved the demo but said it’s too pricey,” I know what’s really happening.

They didn’t build enough value.

Price resistance has nothing to do with price.

It’s about perceived value.

That’s where the 10x Value Rule comes in.

The 10x Value Rule means whatever you sell should be positioned to deliver at least 10x more value than what you charge.

When the buyer feels that ratio, price stops being a blocker.

Here’s a quick example: 

If your program costs $25K, they should see $250K in impact.

If your product saves 5 hours a week across a 10-person team, that’s 2,600 hours a year… at $50/hour, that’s $130K in value.

But here’s where most sellers mess up.

They talk about features.
They talk about tools.
They don’t talk about the cost of inaction.

Buyers don’t buy the tool.
They buy the transformation.

They buy the freedom that comes from solving the problem.

So next time a buyer says “it’s too expensive,” don’t get defensive.

Say this instead:

“Totally fair. Out of curiosity, compared to what?”

Because now you get to anchor their frame of reference.

If they compare you to doing nothing, show them what doing nothing really costs.

If they compare you to a cheaper option, show them what cutting corners costs long-term.

You win the deal when the buyer realizes your offer saves them more than it costs them.

That’s the 10x Value Rule in action.

Price is never the real objection.

Value always is.

—

Want to be UNSTOPPALE in tech sales? Don’t miss this video: https://lnkd.in/gFRKiZ-3

I wake up at 5:45 AM and immediately write out my 5 year goals.

Every. Single. Day.

People think I'm crazy. "Why write the same goals every morning?"

Because most people set goals once a year and forget them by February.

I'm programming my subconscious daily.

After 13 years of exceeding quota and building a 7 figure business, here's the morning routine that separates top performers from everyone else:

5:45 AM - Wake up, make bed, brush teeth

No snooze button. No checking phone. No negotiations.

6:00 AM - Electrolytes and a 20 minute walk while listening to podcasts or audiobooks.

6:30 AM - Write out 1, 3, and 5-year goals

Not type. WRITE. By hand. Every single morning.

6:45 AM - Visualization + meditation

I recorded myself reading my "perfect day" scenario. I play it back with my eyes closed and visualize achieving every goal. Then affirmations are bolting on afterwards.

15 minutes of positive self-talk to program my mindset.

7 AM Deep Work of things that MOVE the needle in the business. Strategy, building, creating, etc.

10 AM Income Producing Activities 

Prospecting, sales calls, client strategy sessions, closing deals. When energy is still high.

12 PM Planned lunch and quick walk.

1:00 PM Workout

360-480 reps targeting specific muscle groups. High intensity. While listening to podcasts or audiobooks.

Physical strength = mental strength.

2:00 PM - Administrative tasks

Email, CRM updates, proposal writing. Lower-energy tasks when afternoon dip hits.

2:30 PM Plan the next day

3:05 PM Pick up my kid and hang out with him.

Complete stop. No emails, no calls, no exceptions. Family time is sacred.

Evening routine:

→ Write 3-5 things I'm grateful for
→ Review goals again (reading, not writing)
→ 5-minute meditation
→ Read for 20-30 minutes
→ Lights out by 10 PM for 7 hours of sleep

Key insight: Every block is planned. Zero white space in my calendar means zero time for distractions, procrastination, or reactive mode.

The hardest territory to manage is the one between your ears. Your morning routine either sets you up for victory or defeat.

Most people wake up and immediately check their phone, flooding their brain with other people's priorities, problems, and negativity. 

Top performers wake up and feed their mind with intention.

Winners don't wing it. They follow systems.

Your future self is created by your daily habits. What you do in the first hour of your day determines the quality of the next 23 hours.

Start tomorrow. 5:45 AM. No excuses.

—

My productivity system that generated $195M in sales: https://lnkd.in/gbpFye_t

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