Sales

I always get in trouble for these types of posts, but age or arrogance, I do not care anymore. I have interviewed 100 of the best sales leaders over the past 5 years. None has impressed me as much as Carles Reina at ElevenLabs. He scaled their GTM from $0 to $330M in ARR in just 3 years. Today I released our episode with him and have gone over it to condense my biggest lessons from the discussion. 🚀 8 Lessons on Building a $330M+ Revenue Machine 1. The "20x" Quota Rule Forget the standard SaaS 6x–8x multiple. At ElevenLabs, the rule is simple: you must bring in 20 times your base salary in revenue. If your base is $100k, your quota is $2M. It sounds aggressive, but it sets a high-performance bar where over 80% of the team hits their targets. 2. Hire "Hunters," Not Just Product Experts A common mistake is hiring for product knowledge and hoping to "train" the sales muscle. Carles learned the hard way: you need people with a natural "hunter" mentality who are hungry, driven, and passionate. You can teach the tech, but you can’t teach the hustle. 3. Be "Ruthless" with Pipeline Reviews Carles holds monthly pipeline reviews where he drills into every detail in front of the entire team. If you aren’t doing your job, you get called out publicly. This transparency ensures everyone learns from each other's mistakes and keeps the team on their toes. 4. Salespeople Belong on the Road If the sales team is in the office for multiple days, Carles starts getting worried. A remote culture works if it’s a "road" culture. Sellers need to be out talking to customers face-to-face, not just hiding behind virtual meetings. 5. Land Small, Expand Fast Don't get bogged down waiting months for a six-figure enterprise deal. Land with a $12k contract to bypass layers of approval. Once the MSA is signed, the "land" is over, and the "outbound" mission begins to capture every other team in the organization. 6. Forecast with Brutal Negativity Optimism kills sales organizations. Carles advises being as negative as possible when forecasting. If a deal is worth $500k, forecast it at $24k. This prevents "inflated" pipelines and forces the team to work twice as hard to ensure the real targets are hit. 7. The 72-Hour "First Contract" Goal Onboarding at ElevenLabs isn't about weeks of reading manuals. New hires join calls immediately. The target? Sign your first contract within your first two weeks. Some have even closed enterprise deals within 72 hours of joining. 8. Treat Customers as a Community, Not a Transaction Transactional selling leads to churn. Building a community—where you give customers your WhatsApp, interact constantly, and do what's right for them even if it costs you money—is how you retain them forever. Huge thanks to Mati Staniszewski and Luke Harries for helping to make this one happen. (link in comments) #founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

Vietnam's E-commerce ecosystem is growing at a staggering pace. +35% Year-on-Year growth has pushed the total GMV to $16.4 Billion in 2025. 🤓 While the top-line numbers make headlines, the real story lies in the "Shake-Out" happening to professionalize e-stores. The "Wild West" era of digital retail is effectively over, active sellers are down by 7.4%. Rising costs, fierce competition, and higher consumer expectations are weeding out small-scale and amateur vendors. 🟠⚫️The battle is a two-horse race. Shopee is still the market leader with a 56% share, but they are visibly losing ground to the TikTok Shop juggernaut, which has surged to 41%. Shoppertainment has officially moved from a "nice-to-have" to a "must-execute." 👉 Winning Categories: Beauty, Home & Lifestyle, and Women’s Fashion remain the undisputed champions of the digital basket. 👉 Industrial Provinces Surge: Binh Duong led with a 122.1% jump in sales, followed by Long An, up 63.41%, and Hung Yen, up 39.41% 👉 The "Mall" Dominance: Here’s the key - flagship, official stores account for only 2% of current stores but capture 32% of the value. 🤔 ... 📦 I find the "Fewer Items, Bigger Baskets" trend particularly telling. While transaction volume grew by 15%, total revenue surged by nearly 35%. This shift compels sellers to pivot their strategy from not just driving volumes (at overt discounts), but enhancing quality of product & marketing. That makes for a healthier value chain. Is the era of volume-driven expansion behind us? As the market matures, the winners won't be those with the most listings, but those who master product quality, brand positioning and operational efficiency. Building a sustainable, long term ecosystem for a brand starts with price structure & a willingness to invest to 'hold it'.👌 Source: Metric, YouNet ECI, The Investor, VnEconomy *While information from Asia Circles is publicly accessible and derived from third-party sources, its verification and validity are not guaranteed. #ConsumerInsight #MarketInsight #VietnamMarket #EcommerceTrends #Shoppertainment 

Ever noticed how saree shops don’t start with sarees? You walk in. The salesperson barely asks what you are looking for. Yet a chair appears out of nowhere…and before you even settle in, someone places a hot cup of tea in your hand. I used to think this was “good hospitality.” It’s actually brilliant business. Because the moment you sit down, sip tea, and relax… you stop being a hurried customer. You become a guest. And guests don’t browse. Guests stay, explore and trust - which is what the shopkeepers want. Hospitals call it “patient experience.” Startups call it “user onboarding.” Luxury brands call it “client delight.” But Indian saree shops figured this out decades ago. Lower resistance before selling. Let comfort do the conversion. It’s the same principle every business can use: Before asking for attention, create ease. Before asking for money, build comfort. Before selling, make people feel welcome. A cup of tea isn’t a beverage. It’s a strategy.

I was invited by LinkedIn to attend B2Believe, and the message was clear: B2B is shifting faster than most teams realise. Creativity, buyer confidence, and human connection are becoming the new growth levers. Here are my 7 core takeaways (share & save this!) 1. Creativity is becoming the language of B2B Creative that grabs and holds attention multiplies leads by 3x. But while 92% say consistent creative matters – only 12% deliver it. 49% B2B decision-makers say they’re more likely to explore a company if its advertising is creative 40% B2B decision-makers say they’d be more likely to consider a purchase if the ad is seen as “creative” 2. Millennials + Gen Z now make up 71% of B2B buyers You need to engage them differently – they respond to: Cultural references; human stories; faces, not logos. 87% of B2B buyers now prefer content from trusted industry influencers over brand-authored content. 3. Buyability: the new model for growth B2B buying is slow because buyers don’t feel safe with 64% of marketers saying decisions now take longer. The top job-to-be-done is: “Can I defend this decision if it goes wrong?” Buyers don’t need more information — they need more confidence. 4. Your network is a marketing asset — not a distribution channel When employees from your target accounts follow your company, you generate 2.4x more leads. And when senior decision-makers at those target accounts are connected to your employees, that jumps to 2.2x more leads. You are more than 20x more likely to be bought when everyone in the Buyer Group knows you on Day One. Build brand, trust & authority with the right people. 5. Video is non-negotiable Jonathon Palmer said it well: Sound, movement, and visual cues trigger far stronger memory formation than static content ever can. It generates 1.4x more engagement, meaning more people stop, watch, and interact. And most importantly: viewers retain 95% of the message when it’s delivered via video. +20% more leads are driven with video Attention is scarce and recall is even scarcer. Video gives you the highest chance of being remembered — and being acted on. 6. Employee content > corporate content B2B is shifting from logos to faces; from corporate statements to human voices. Even when only 3% of employees post regularly, companies drive 20% more leads. So bring your team to the forefront. 7. Brand and demand are no longer separate Everything now all comes down to trust, Tunji Akintokun put it: “In B2B, trust is the ultimate growth metric that closes deals.” The era of “brand OR performance” is finished. Full-funnel integration is now a growth multiplier with always-on brand activity showing +10% conversion lift. In summary: The brands that win in 2025 won’t be the ones who look good in reports — they’ll be the ones who move buyer groups to act. In partnership with LinkedIn for Marketing #Ad 

Stuck in an endless loop of client changes? Lost track of what revision this constitutes? Yeah. Been there. Done that. The secret? It's not about saying no. It's about saying yes to the right things upfront. Every project that goes sideways starts the same way: Vague agreements. Fuzzy boundaries. Good intentions. Six weeks later you're bleeding money and everyone's frustrated. Here's my framework after 30 years of running two 8-figure businesses: The SOW is your salvation. Not some boilerplate template. A real document that covers: • Exact deliverables (not "design work" but "3 homepage concepts, 2 rounds of revisions") • Hours of operation ("We respond M-F, 9-5 PST. Weekend requests get Monday responses") • Revision rounds spelled out ("Round 1 includes up to 5 changes. Round 2 includes 3.") • Feedback cycles defined ("48-hour turnaround for client feedback or the project may be delayed or additional fees may be incurred") But here's what most people miss— Don't work on client notes immediately. Client sends 37 pieces of feedback at 11pm Friday? Producer sends conflicting notes from the CEO? Marketing wants one thing, sales wants another? Stop. Collect everything first. Resolve the conflicts. Get on the phone and discuss it with your client to get alignment. Separate the "have to haves" from the "nice to haves". Then present unified changes. "Based on all feedback received, here are the 8 changes we'll implement. This constitutes revision round 2 of 3." Watch how fast the random requests stop. No extra work that goes unappreciated. No more feelings of being taken advantage of. Communicate before the crisis, prevents the crisis from happening. "Just so you know, we're entering round 2. You have one more included. After that, it's $X per additional round." No surprises. No awkward money conversations. No resentment. Scope creep isn't a them problem. It's a you problem. And that's good news, because that means you are in control. They're not trying to take advantage. They just don't know where the boundaries are because you never drew them. Draw the lines early. Communicate them clearly. Everyone wins. What's your most painful scope creep story? What boundary would've prevented it? Small Business Builders #projectmanagement #clientmanagement #businessgrowth

One skill separates great communicators from average ones: Perspective-taking. The ability to see things from someone else’s point of view. But most people do it wrong. Here’s how to do it right, especially when you’re leading or being led: When you’re the boss, persuading down: You’re trying to convince Maria on your team to do something different. She’s pushing back. Your instinct might be to assert your authority. But that’s a mistake. Here’s why… Research shows: The more powerful you feel, the worse your perspective-taking becomes. More power = less understanding. So if you want to persuade Maria, don’t lean into your title. Do the opposite: dial your power down, just briefly. Try this: Before the next conversation, remind yourself: Maria has power too. I need her buy-in. Maybe she sees something I don’t. Lower your feelings of power to raise your perspective. From that place, ask: → What does she see that I’m missing? → What might be in her way? → What’s a win-win outcome? That shift changes the entire dynamic. Instead of steamrolling, you’re collaborating. And that’s how you earn trust and results. Now flip it. You’re the employee persuading your boss. It’s a high-stakes moment. You’re nervous. So do you appeal to emotion? No. Drop the feelings. Focus on interests. Here’s the key question: “What’s in it for them?” Not how you feel. Not your big dream. → Will it save time? → Improve performance? → Help them hit their goals? Make it about their world, not yours. Why? Because every boss has a mental shortcut: → Does this employee make my life easier or harder? Be the person who brings clarity, ideas, and upside. Not complaints, drama, or friction. In summary: → Persuading down? Dial down your power to see clearer. → Persuading up? Focus on their interests, not your emotions. Perspective-taking is a superpower, if you learn how to use it. Now practice, practice, practice.

The disconnect between sales managers and reps in 2025 is wild. Manager: "Just pick up the phone!" Rep: *sends 47 emails, 12 texts, 3 LinkedIn messages, and a carrier pigeon* Sound familiar? 😅 After 20+ years in sales, I've watched this communication gap grow wider every year. But here's what both sides are missing: It's not about choosing ONE channel. It's about understanding WHICH channel works WHEN. The most successful reps I've seen? They've cracked the code: **First 24 hours:** • Email → Sets professional tone • LinkedIn → Shows you've done homework • Text → Only if they've given permission **Days 2-5:** • Phone call → NOW it's time (they know who you are) • Voice note → Personal touch that stands out • Video message → Shows real effort **The truth?** Your manager's right - calls DO convert better. You're also right - cold calling blind is dead. The magic happens when you warm them up FIRST. Think of it like dating: You wouldn't propose on the first date. So why are we calling strangers without context? **My top 3 strategies that actually work:** 1. The "Permission Play" End every email with: "Would a quick call tomorrow at 2pm work to discuss?" (They expect it now = higher answer rate) 2. The "Multi-Touch Warm-Up" Email → LinkedIn view → Call within 48 hours (They recognize your name = 3x more likely to answer) 3. The "Context Creator" Reference their LinkedIn post before calling "Saw your post about X, had a thought..." (You're not a stranger = conversation not pitch) Here's the brutal truth: Managers: Your reps aren't lazy. They're adapting to how buyers ACTUALLY buy in 2025. Reps: Your manager isn't wrong. The phone still closes more deals than any other channel. Bridge the gap. Use both. Win more. What's your take - Team Phone or Team Omnichannel? P.S I'm running a FREE 6-week LinkedIn Social Selling Bootcamp starting Monday 15th Sept, grab a free spot here https://lnkd.in/eVmxsMbM

Sales isn’t magic. It’s math. But if your revenue isn’t growing, chance are... It’s not your product. It’s your system. Let me explain. The fastest-growing companies don’t have “better closers.” They have better processes. Here’s what top 1% sales teams do differently: 1. They multiply, not guess. Revenue = Leads × Conversion Rate × Deal Size × Retention Change one variable → growth. Change all four → rocket fuel. That’s not a hack. That’s math. 2. They stop pitching and start listening. The best reps talk 30% of the time. The rest? They listen for gold. People don’t buy when they understand. They buy when they feel understood. 3. They don’t chase. They qualify fast. 🚫 Endless demos 🚫 Chasing low-fit leads ✅ Score prospects early ✅ Cut the dead weight ✅ Focus on buyers who are ready now Time is your most expensive resource. Guard it. 4. They don’t sell the product. They sell the cost of inaction. A great pitch isn’t about what you do. It’s about what your buyer loses by doing nothing. Paint the pain. Then make your offer the obvious solution. 5. They follow up with purpose. 80% of deals close after follow-up #5. But most reps quit after #2. Win the deal by staying in the game. And bring value every time you follow up. If you want sales that scale without burning out your team: • Stop relying on heroics. • Start building systems. • Track the right KPIs. • Make it easy for buyers to say yes. Revenue isn’t a mystery. It’s a repeatable machine. If you build it right. Want your team to sell smarter, faster, and at scale? Let’s make that happen. I'm hosting a free training for founders & CEOs. "How to Accelerate Sales Growth For Your Business" Thu June 26th, 12 noon Eastern / 5pm UK time Join me: https://lnkd.in/dnjfFDuF ♻️ Repost to help a founder in your network. Follow Eric Partaker for more sales growth strategies. P.S. Want a PDF of my Sales Growth Cheat Sheet? Get it free: https://lnkd.in/dcgvWeMv 📌 Our next cohort of The CEO Accelerator starts July 23rd. 20+ Founders & CEOs have already enrolled. Learn more and apply: https://lnkd.in/dRwv7nJF

My team and I get pitched 5–10 new businesses every week. Mostly from entrepreneurs trying to raise money. If you want your message or pitch to stand out to investors, do this: 1. Start with the problem, not the product. If I don’t feel the pain, I won’t value the solution. 2. Be brutally clear. My team should understand your business in 10 seconds or less. 3. Show traction, not just vision. Even if it's small, show me that the market wants it and you know how to deliver. 4. Tell me why you’re the one. I’m investing in you as much as the idea. Show conviction, not just ambition. 5. Make it a conversation, not a monologue. Curiosity builds trust. Ask good questions and make it collaborative. Keep it simple.

For my first 16 years in tech sales, I averaged 240K/year W2 income. In my last 4 years, I averaged 720K/year. In order to triple my income, I had to change my sales approach entirely. Here's what I changed: I started using a new approach that I now call Yo-yo selling: 🪀 Yo-yo selling emphasizes starting at the executive level, conducting thorough discovery within the organization, and then returning to the executive with a tailored business case. Like holding a yo-yo, you are constantly in communication with the Executive Sponsor and updating them as you collect information and conduct deep discovery lower down in their organization. You are literally going up and down the organization, but always taking everything back to the Executive Sponsor to surface your findings along the way. Here's a breakdown of the framework: 🎯 𝐈𝐚𝐧 𝐊𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐤’𝐬 “𝐘𝐨-𝐘𝐨 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠” 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 This strategy involves a three-step process: 1. Start at the Top (Executive Engagement) Initiate contact with a senior executive to understand their most pressing challenges, the reasons behind the need for change, and the consequences of inaction. If your solution aligns with their needs, secure their sponsorship for further discovery within their organization. To secure the Executive Meetings, it's essential to create a tailored POV (point of view) on where you think you may be able to help them based on your initial research of their highest level goals and priorities. Chat GPT has made this research a LOT faster now. 2. Conduct In-Depth Discovery (Middle Management) Engage with department heads and key stakeholders to uncover the day-to-day challenges they face. Focus on understanding their processes, pain points, and the implications of current inefficiencies. Gather direct quotes and insights to build a comprehensive view of the organization's needs. 3. Return to the Executive (Present Findings) Compile the insights gathered into an executive summary and business case. Present this to the executive sponsor, highlighting how your solution addresses the identified challenges. Tailor your demonstration to focus solely on relevant aspects that solve their specific problems. 🚀 Why It Works 1. Accelerates Sales Cycles: Engaging executives early ensures alignment and expedites decision-making. 2. Builds Credibility: Demonstrates a deep understanding of the organization's challenges and showcases a tailored solution. 3. Facilitates Internal Buy-In: By involving various stakeholders, you ensure that the solution meets the needs of all parties, increasing the likelihood of adoption. I'm pleased to share that that Yo-yo selling was recently awarded as a Top 15 Sales Tactic of All Time by 30 Minutes to President's Club, and I received a cool plaque for entering the 30MPC Hall of Fame. Since I have no chance of entering the Hall of Fame for my baseball or golf game, this is a nice consolation prize 😁