Sales Process Optimization

Last week, I heard from a super impressive customer who has cracked the code on how to give salespeople something they’ve always wanted: more selling time. Here’s how he transformed their process. This customer runs the full B2B sales motion at an awesome printing business based in the U.S. For years, his team divided their time across six key areas: 1. Task prioritization 2. Meeting prep 3. Customer responses 4. Prospecting 5. Closing deals 6. Sales strategy Like every sales leader I know, he wants his team to spend most of their time on #5 and #6 — closing deals and sales strategy. But together, those only made up about 30% of their week. (Hearing this gave me flashbacks to my time in sales…and all that admin tasks 😱) Now, his team uses AI across the sales process to compress the amount of time spent on #1-4: 1. Task prioritization → AI scores leads and organizes daily tasks 2. Meeting prep → AI surfaces insights from calls and contact records before meetings 3. Customer responses → Breeze Customer Agent instantly answers customer questions 4. Prospecting → Breeze Prospecting Agent automatically researches accounts and books meetings The result? Higher quantity of AI-powered work: More prospecting. More pipeline.  Higher quality of human-led work: More thoughtful conversations. Sharper strategy. This COO's story made my week. It's a reminder of just how big a shift we're going through – and why it’s such an exciting time to be in go-to-market right now.

Here's how to simplify your pitch and 10x your sales: 1. Talk less, sell more. Short sentences = more sales. Hemingway once bet he could write a story in 6 words that'd make you feel something: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Your pitch should pack the same punch. 2. Complexity is for people who want to feel smart, not be effective. The worst salespeople make simple things sound complicated. The best make the complex simple. 3. Complexity says, "I want to feel needed." Simplicity limits to only what is needed. 4. Read your pitch out loud. I remember when I'd asked my COO to read the manuscript of my book. He chose to do it aloud. All 258 pages. Ears catch what eyes miss. The final version reads like butter. 5. "Be good, be seen, be gone." This was the best sales advice I ever got. - Good: Deliver value - Seen: Make an impression - Gone: Don't overstay your welcome People buy from those they remember, not those who linger. 7. Speak like your customer, not a textbook. We like to sound sophisticated. "We create impactful bottom-line solutions." But we like to listen to simple. "We help small businesses explode their sales." Which one would you buy? 8. Every word earns its place. Your pitch should be lean and mean. - Be specific - Avoid cliches - Check for redundancy - If it doesn't add value, cut it out 9. Abstract concepts bore. Concrete examples excite. ❌ "We'll increase your efficiency." ✅ "We'll save you 10 hours a week." Paint a picture. 10. People buy on emotion & justify with logic So tap into their feelings: - Fear of missing out - Desire for success - Need for security Then back it up with facts. 11. The "Grandma Test" never fails. If your grandma wouldn't get your pitch, simplify it. No jargon. No buzzwords. Just plain English. 12. Benefits > features. Dreams > benefits. ❌ "Our group hosts 10+ events per year." ✅ "Our program helps you close deals." 🚀 "Let's take back Main Street through ownership." 13. Use power words: - You - Free - Because - Instantly - New These words grab attention and drive action. Two final things to keep in mind... Simplicity isn't just for sales. Apply these principles to: - your business operations - your thinking processes - your next investment - your relationships - your to do list Sales isn't just for car dealerships. You pitch when you: - Negotiate a raise - Interview for a job - Post on social media - Hire someone for a job - Talk to an owner about buying their biz If you found this useful, feel free to share for others ♻️

A very easy way to improve your Amazon ads efficiency by at least 10% Let’s say you’re spending ₹4–5 lakhs/month on Amazon ads. Your ACoS looks okay. Conversion rate seems fine. But your gut tells you—you’re still wasting some money on irrelevant traffic You’re not wrong At Atomberg, we had found that some of our Amazon spend was going toward search terms that had no business seeing our ads: - “cheap fan” -“rechargeable fan” - “usb fan under 1000” None of these users were in-market for a ₹3,000+ BLDC ceiling fan. But we were still showing up. And paying for those clicks. And it’s not just us. I’ve seen 6–7 brands' Amazon ad accounts across categories over the last few years—same problem, every single time The fix? N-gram analysis Takes less than an hour. You don’t need to be a performance marketing expert. But the results compound What’s N-gram analysis? It’s breaking down every search term into its word components—1-grams, 2-grams, 3-grams—and then identifying patterns that consistently drive waste… or conversion. Example: “cheap rechargeable fan for hostel room” turns into: 1-grams: cheap, rechargeable, fan, hostel, room 2-grams: rechargeable fan, hostel room 3-grams: fan for hostel, etc. When you do this across all your search terms, you start seeing the real picture. Why this matters more than just checking your search term report: Search terms ≠ keywords a) One keyword can trigger 100s of different queries. Some convert. Most don’t. You need to find the patterns. b) Waste is diluted across low-volume terms. Maybe “rechargeable fan for hostel” spent ₹300. You ignore it. But what if 12 other queries with “rechargeable” spent ₹6,000 in total with zero conversions? c) Long-tail is infinite. N-grams are finite. You can’t negate every bad search. But you can block the core terms—“cheap”, “usb”, “mini”—once and be done with it. d) It helps you scale campaigns too. You can find goldmine phrases like “white ceiling fan”, “silent BLDC fan”, “fan for living room”—with 5x+ ROAS. Those became exact match campaigns What you should do: a) Pull last 3 months of search term data b) Break them into unigrams, bigrams, trigrams c) Create a pivot with spend, orders, ROAS by N-gram d) Negate high-spend, low-conversion N-grams (e.g., “cheap”, “rechargeable”) e) Boost high-ROAS ones (e.g., “bldc”, “ceiling fan white”) f) Add exact match campaigns g) Rinse and repeat monthly Try it. Guaranteed to improve efficiency at whatever scale you are operating If you want to read an expanded version of the post, link is in the first comment

What it means to shift from 'spray-and-pray' marketing to a unified, account-based GTM aimed at your exact ICP ⤵ Last September I featured a story about how Parabola did all this (a) in under 30 days, (b) without a RevOps team, and (c) with a TON of 🔥 automation. Here’s the update: pipeline has grown by 717% since September. All with the same size marketing team 🤯 How they rapidly built a scaled ABX motion from scratch: 1️⃣ Identified - ICP-fit accounts & contacts are sourced using Clay, Sales Nav, Cargo 🧱 and ChatGPT - All data gets pushed to Salesforce 2️⃣ Aware - Accounts get warmed up with LinkedIn paid ads, scaled email, LinkedIn connections and referrals – in addition to other bespoke tactics and campaigns - They are flagged as aware if buyers start engaging via email (2+ contacts with 2+ email opens), accept LinkedIn connections, visit the website, or engage in the community - Tools: website tracking (Clearbit, HubSpot), email & LinkedIn automation (Apollo, Outreach, La Growth Machine), community (Slack) 3️⃣ Interested - Accounts progress as they demonstrate more meaningful engagement & intent - Key signals include visiting high-intent website pages (ex: pricing page), starting a free trial, attending an event, etc. - Tools: webinar (Sequel.io), trial (Redshift), website tracking, product usage data, ETL 4️⃣ Evaluating - All of the above is meant to generate high intent, ICP pipeline for sales - Accounts progress here by booking a meeting with sales or requesting a demo - This is where more manual, high-touch outreach comes into play (aimed at warm accounts) - Tools: meeting routing & booking (Calendly), marketing automation (HubSpot) The big learnings over the past 8 months:  - Content & offers are everything for getting a response  - Not all triggers are created equal when scoring account stages  - The data won’t be perfect, don’t let that stop you  - The best GTM plays involve both marketing & BDRs This is what a focused GTM looks like. Marketing, sales, CS, product and even ops all play a role in building pipeline with the right accounts. Huge shoutout to the Parabola team (Alex Yaseen, Ben Pollack, Adam Reisfield) for taking folks behind-the-scenes! PS, Parabola just launched a game-changer for anyone interested in automating workflows like ABX stages (think Cursor for Ops teams). You can check it out here: https://parabola.io/ #abx #marketing #automation

Many salespeople get this dead wrong. They start with cold outreach - sequences, DMs, emails, cold calls… But if you haven't nailed the other 3 layers below that, you’re not doing sales... you’re playing the lottery. Here’s the real order of operations if you want predictable pipeline: 🎯 01 Focus Who are we selling to? ✔ ICP definition ✔ Key roles in the buying process ✔ Buying triggers & decision criteria ✔ Industry-specific motion If you're not crystal clear on this, everything above it falls apart. 🧭 02 Positioning Why would they choose us? ✔ Pain points that matter ✔ Clear ROI metrics & value props ✔ Proof you’ve solved this before ✔ Impact of doing nothing This is where most deals are won or lost - before a single call even happens. 📂 03 Pitch What do we say to earn trust? ✔ Talk tracks that resonate ✔ Smart discovery ✔ Objection handling baked in ✔ Stories & customer proof It’s not about your product. It’s about showing you understand their world. 📬 04 Outreach How do we reach them? ✔ Warm intros ✔ Exec alignment ✔ Multithreading ✔ Cold outbound (done right) Don’t start here. Start at the bottom. Build a system that works in any market, not just when leads are hot. If you liked this, you’ll love SalesDaily, where I curate what’s actually working for top reps, managers, and teams. ✔ Battle-tested tactics ✔ Cold email & call frameworks ✔ Daily insights from real sellers Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/gDwCegjS

90% of product pages struggle to convert. With conversion rates below 2%. Mainly because of: - Poor copy - Poor design  - Difficult to use Positioning as a premium brand?  Then optimizing for these is even more critical. In this post, using Hawaii Coffee's example, I'll be sharing how you can increase your sales by improving copy, design and usability. Below are the 8 changes I recommend - 1. Adding a short description below product name. This should show the brand's personality and tell something valuable about your product. 2. Using an image that catches attention. This is key. Use an image that leaves a memorable impression. 3. Highlighting key features before add to cart CTA. These should be in bullets and each within 3 words. 4. Making sure the variants are super clear. Consider using images if selling different flavors, colors. 5. Highlighting why someone should subscribe and not just purchase one time. This brings you recurring revenue monthly. 6. Adding short copy that builds trust in the brand and product. Don't hide this under an accordion. 7. Adding FAQs. Check with your sales/customer support team for common questions. Also these are great for SEO. 8. Adding USPs with icons. These are reasons why you should trust the brand and why the product is great. Other design changes I made: - Increased font size in places - Removed the image thumbnails - Moved price close to the product name - Added the weight next to price to show value - Added service USPs below add-to-cart CTA Found this useful? Let me know in the comments! P.S. You can also do this for your ads. Have you ever tried these? #conversionrateoptimization

Last quarter, we spent $1,404,619 on AI tokens - an all-time high - and the ROI wasn’t what we expected… Most of the ROI didn’t come from “flashy AI”, it came from boring AI doing boring work at scale. Here’s where our spend went and what actually moved the needle: 1. Telling reps who to call today (and why) We’re using AI to sift through millions of signals and tell reps who to talk to today and why. The signals that we’ve found matter: Job changes (new decision makers = new opportunities), buying committee changes and intent signals (active web research and pricing page visits). The big ROI driver is helping our customers with daily prioritization so they don’t have to go fishing for actionable info. At ZoomInfo, We’ve seen a 25-33% increase in meeting quality and opp creation when AEs are sourcing using our AI tools. Win rates also jump from 16-20% to 30%. 2. Writing outreach that doesn’t sound automated We’re moving from “20 segments of 1,000” to 20,000 segments of 1. Not “VP IT at enterprise insurance” messaging… but John at State Farm, who we talked to last year, who competes with three of our customers, with context pulled in automatically. Customer ROI here ultimately comes from better response rates and higher close rates by being more relevant. Buyers care when you show you care. 3. Turning sales calls into usable data Every sales call (ours and customers) is recorded using @Chorus and becomes structured data: objection patterns, competitor mentions, deal risk, coaching moments. We’ve found the benefits of this are huge - 25-30% faster ramp time for new reps, and 10-15% larger deal sizes through better discovery and value articulation. The average rep sells more like the best rep. 4. Speeding up low-value engineering work Every engineer at Zoominfo has Intellij and VS Code w/ Cline. AI handles the unglamorous stuff: Boilerplate code, refactors, test coverage. We’ve seen ~25–30% faster execution on these routine tasks, which frees senior engineers to focus on system design and real product innovation. Our biggest lesson so far has been that if your data foundation is garbage, AI just helps you move faster in the wrong direction. You won’t get AI “working” until you have contextual customer/prospect data centralized, and you can actually build on top of it. We’re still early and we’re trying a lot of things but these have been the highest ROI drivers by a mile. If you’re testing AI in your GTM stack, drop a comment with what’s actually working for you - I’m all ears.

There’s an AE on my team that hits 200% of quota. Consistently. 🤯 Here’s her secret:  She asks the hard questions. 1. “You mentioned [date] as a goal. What’s driving that timeline, and is that date firm?” Verifies whether the timeline is real or aspirational. 2. "Based on what you’ve seen so far, is there anything that’s giving you pause about moving forward with us?” Invites honest feedback to surface objections early. One of my favorites. 3. “How does our solution compare to others you’re evaluating?” Tests competitive positioning and whether you're the frontrunner. 4.“Who else on your team needs to feel good about this before a decision is made?” Instead of just jotting down names and objections, she builds pages in Aligned to address concerns. That way, when new stakeholders join later, all the context is already waiting for them. 5. “If [insert key stakeholder] were here, what concerns would they raise?” Forces your champion to think on behalf of other decision makers. Great way to learn real objections. 6. “Have you ever purchased something like this before? What did that process look like internally?” Surfaces potential red tape or hidden decision criteria. 7. “What needs to happen between now and [target close date] for this to actually happen?” Pushes them to co create the buying journey and surface risk. 8. “When you picture this going live, what’s the ideal outcome for your team in the first 90 days?” Surfaces their definition of success. These questions do 3 things: – Build trust. – Surface the real decision process. – Give you everything to close/won the deal. 🎯 Bonus Tip: She doesn’t just ask the hard questions, she operationalizes them in Aligned. Here’s how… https://lnkd.in/gs7Gt5Rd That’s how you turn discovery into closed/won deals. - Mike G

2026 planning starts now. If I was the CRO of a $50M business looking to grow 30% next year (i.e. add $15M of net new ARR to end the year at $65M) here’s exactly what I’d do: ASSUMPTIONS: - Selling into SMB and Mid-Market but with a small Enterprise sales effort. - 82% Gross Revenue Retention and 95% Net Revenue Retention (NRR). - A CS team that has renewal targets but expansion is handled by the AEs. - New business team is hitting quota in total but unevenly distributed. 1. Stress Test the Targets and the Revenue Model Look at 2025 growth and compare to total investments in sales and marketing focused on new business growth to understand CAC to ARR growth. Confirm the ratios map to the budget — e.g. you’re not being asked $15M in growth on the *same* CAC investment.    Assume CAC will degrade by 10% and ensure your fully weighted S&M investment is Pro-Rata + 10% to the growth. We’re looking for rough confirmation we’re not being asked to perform miracles. 2. Stress Test Pipeline Coverage and Marketing Performance Ensure we understand Lead to Closed Won Cycle and we have coverage. If we have a 3 month sales cycle and it’s mid-September, we’re on track. But if we wait much longer we’ll be drifting into Q1 and will immediately be behind. As usual, we’re looking for 3-5x pipeline coverage. 3. Understand Demand Generation Channels Word of mouth is not (really) a channel. It’s a “channel” if you can put $ behind it and the more you spend the more you get. If we have our basic framework in place, it’s time to get out the precision tools, modeling CAC, retention, and LTV by *investable channel*. At higher ACVs, we put muscle behind in-person travel, ABM, and targeted field marketing. At lower ACVs, we need investments in data and enrichment to enable effective paid acquisition and AI-enabled inside reps. 4. Review Gross and Net Revenue Retention targets If nothing changes with NRR, we are looking at $47.5M end of year run-rate. Let’s figure out if we can push NRR up to 105%, lowering the burden on new business. How? - Segment accounts by Red, Yellow, Green - Assign commercial support to CS to expand Green through more seats, new products, or deeper usage. Take one high performing AE and turn them into an Account Management expansion focused hunter whose sole job is converting upsells. 5. Drive Our AEs with Great Variable Comp and Route Our Best Leads to Our Best People Top sellers are 5-7x more productive than average sellers. And sellers with unlimited upside and generous accelerators, do better. I'd design our comp plans to pay for over-performance and route our leads to our best people. Target 80%+ quota attainment and be willing to part with the bottom 20%.  Get confidence every lead we send to the sales team closes at a higher rate with a higher deal value. The last step? Pop bottles because we hit our number 🍾 P.S. Want to learn how to do this as a scaleup CRO? Pavilion's CRO School starts 10/2. DM me to join.

Sometimes, best solutions are the simplest ones. When Colgate hit a plateau in growth, they faced a crucial challenge: How do we get people to use more toothpaste without changing the product itself? Most companies might have gone big — a flashy marketing blitz, a brand-new product range, or an expensive rebrand. Colgate, however, chose a far simpler and smarter route. They widened the opening of their toothpaste tube. No new formula. No fancy flavors. No dramatic packaging overhaul. Just a slightly bigger hole. This tiny tweak meant people unknowingly squeezed out more toothpaste each time. Tubes emptied faster, and sales went up — all without consumers even realizing why. It was a masterstroke in behavioral psychology: a change so subtle it flew under the radar, yet powerful enough to shift buying habits. A reminder that sometimes, the most effective growth moves are the quiet ones.