David Marshall

I interviewed 150+ B2B buyers in the last 6 months. Here’s the most surprising thing I learned: AE's asking for a 30 minute demo call kills pipeline For a buyer, 30 minutes is a HUGE ask. And if you are using a scheduling link and making them wait 2 weeks for that call, you're dead on arrival.    There are over 1,000,000 sales reps in the United States. These 30 minute demo calls add up to millions of decision maker hours every month. You need to use your buyers time (and attention) more responsibly Buyers want instant answers. They do not think 30 min is fair ask just to get clarity on a few questions The problem isn’t the demo but how and when you do it. Here’s what's actually working for sellers today: 1. ChatGPT: Get the answers to your qualifying questions on ChatGPT and spare the buyer with obvious questions 2. Trust : Use the time to build trust and “really” understand the buyer needs. Ask “What value can I provide you with today to earn the right to another call?” 3. Actively Listen: Let the buyer speak. Listen between the lines. Record the call and listen to it again. 4. Reduce time: Reduce the time for discovery calls to 15 min but try to do it within 24-48 hours 5. Solve problems : 30 minutes isn’t enough to build trust. Trust develops over repeat interactions through consistent problem-solving. Get the process started. 6. Many 15 min calls: Try to do multiple 15 min calls with emails or slack. Use the cadence that works best for the buyer to get immediate value. 7. Provide Micro Value: In every call try to deliver something of value - content, free demo, insights, recommendations or introductions. Ask how you can be useful. When buyers reach out they are often looking for expertise and not a demo Sooner they get the answers, the faster they can move through the buyer’s journey Don’t try to slow them down with relentless qualifying questions or irrelevant demos. The future of sales will not be driven by 30 min demo calls It will be won by sellers that respond fast, solve real buyer problems and earn trust in every interaction.  At Zeer AI, we are building research tools that make this future possible. Until then review your content for the 30 min demo calls and keep earning the right to your buyers time.

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Enterprise sellers: if you are waiting for SDR/BDRs to open doors, you’ve already missed your number this year. The SDR-led outreach model doesn’t work for your mandate. It never did, not even in boom times. It's being dismantled in favor of leaner/better GTM teams. And you can’t outsource it to AI. You can’t automate or delegate getting to the big leagues. This is not taking anything away from SDRs/BDRs. It is an observation after 26 years in and around the field of enterprise sales. Here’s why this is increasingly the case in today’s market: 1. Sequence-based outreach has poisoned the buyer landscape I routinely speak with customer executives who tell me they receive 400 - 500 unsolicited sales emails per week (some per day). Even if they neglected the entire remit of their executive day jobs they couldn’t READ let alone process and respond to every one - good, bad or irrelevant. You can’t, won’t, will never reach executives with traditional email sequences. 2. Decision-making power has risen to senior executives and boards Since Covid, corporate spending has become an executive-only game. I am now hearing more from sales leaders that boards are getting involved in smaller deals. Relying on your SDR to engage a decision-maker is like relying on archers to knock down castle walls. 3. SDRs/BDRs are not trained in outreach tactics that work The vast majority are only given attrition-based plays that annoy over time, “We help companies like you with problems like ____…. Worth a call?... Did you see my email?... Bumping this to the top of your inbox….” (It’s not their fault, it’s all they’ve been trained and armed to do). 4. SDR/BDRs are not compensated in a way that incentivizes deep account research With huge numbers of calls to produce, they are motivated to REACH, not ENGAGE. Nor are they trained on anything past a few minutes of googling, LinkedIn profile scanning and a quick read of the news. They will never craft a point of view that resonates with today’s level of corporate buyer with that model. You, enterprise sellers, (should) have the runway for these activities as they should have a much lower number of accounts so you can go deep in each. 5. Financial fluency matters and NOBODY is trained on this. Without knowing how to frame your solution’s value in the context of your customer’s financial reality any outbound message will be ignored. I haven’t seen a single tech company invest in financial fluency training for SDRs (very few for ENT roles too) so YOU (ENT reps) need to dig in, learn it on your own and leverage it if you want to have a prayer’s chance of starting conversations that will lead to closable business by the end of Q4. - This Thursday, I’m hosting a live Financial Fluency Webinar to show sellers exactly how to turn financial red flags into green lights at the executive table. {EDIT} Register here: https://lnkd.in/dk4Y7A9q

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Every sales org has a pipeline: Stage 1. Stage 2. Forecast. Commit. You can recite it in your sleep. But when it comes to renewals? Crickets.... There’s no real-time view of customer risk. No weekly trendline. No forward-looking model that projects retention. Isn't that kinda bonkers? You FORECAST growth, but you DISCOVER churn...usually when it’s too late to fix. The big mistake is presuming retention is a lagging indicator, when it would be more accurate to define it as a neglected one. Think about it...most CS dashboards read like a rearview mirror: - Usage metrics. - Ticket volume. - NPS. Useful? Sure. Predictive? Nah. Because churn doesn’t start when a customer says they’re leaving. It starts months earlier when their exec sponsor stops showing up. If you can spot the risk early, you can unlock more levers: - Re-engage power. - Reset the value narrative. - Escalate to commercial. - Offer roadmap visibility. - Re-map success metrics post-reorg. But none of that works if your team can’t see it coming, which is why you need a churn forecast...just like you do for revenue. Build a churn pipeline. Treat it like sales. Some things to build into this: 1. Define churn stages. Just like deals, risk evolves: - Stage 1 (Early): No exec alignment, lagging adoption, stakeholder turnover. - Stage 2 (Mid): Value not realized, weak champion, limited engagement. - Stage 3 (Late): Renewal live, buyer pushing back, pricing/legal blockers. Assign clear criteria. Surface it in Gainsight, CZ, or Salesforce. Manage it like opportunity stages. 2. Assign prevention plays. Each stage should trigger a play: - Stage 1 = exec outreach + roadmap session. - Stage 2 = commercial review + value plan. - Stage 3 = C-level call + tailored retention offer. Codify this. Don’t let reps improvise. 3. Forecast it weekly. Revenue leaders inspect pipeline weekly. CS should do the same with churn. Ask: - How many accounts moved stages? - What’s projected retention by segment? - What % of at-risk logos have exec visibility? Also, share your churn forecast with the CFO. If the CFO sees new logo pipeline every Monday, but doesn’t see churn risk until Q4? That's no bueno. Start sending a weekly churn report with: - Total ARR at risk. - ARR by churn stage. - Stage progression. - Active recovery plays. - Forecasted retention (with confidence levels). This reduces surprises while also forcing accountability. Why? Because churn is rarely a CS failure, but it's often a product gap, pricing mismatch, or sales promise that aged poorly. When churn is forecasted, it becomes EVERYONE'S problem. Which it is. tl;dr = you don’t “discover” churn. You forecast it. You stage it. You act on it. Just like sales.

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Most sellers only uncover ONE level of impact in discovery. That’s why their deals stall, why their ROI slides don’t land, and why their champions can’t sell internally. The truth? There are 4 levels of impact—and if you miss even one, you’re selling half-blind. Selling is helping. But helping means going deeper than “company KPIs.” Here’s the framework I coach every AE on when they’re trying to win enterprise SaaS deals: 1. Company Impact This is where 90% of reps stop. “What’s the cost savings? What’s the revenue upside?” That’s table stakes. If you don’t tie your software to actual numbers—lost revenue, margin impact, labor cost—your ROI story collapses in front of a CFO. Example: A Service Cloud rep I coached quantified millions lost in unbooked hospital referrals because of missed scheduling calls. That turned a “$500K tool is too expensive” into “8X ROI, no-brainer.” 2. Buyer Impact Your champion has skin in the game. They left a stable job. Their reputation, career trajectory, even their family’s well-being are tied to this project. If you can show them how your solution makes them the hero internally, you create unstoppable personal buy-in. 3. User Impact These are the people who log in every day. If they hate the tool, adoption dies. If they love it, productivity soars, morale improves, turnover drops. Shadow them. Ask what frustrates them. Show them a better day in the life. 4. Customer Impact The most overlooked layer. How does your product improve the end customer experience? Faster service, better outcomes, less stress? For a hospital, it’s not about “efficiency.” It’s about a patient getting a life-saving scan booked in hours instead of days. Stop selling features. Stop selling “savings.” Start selling IMPACT. - Company. - Buyer. - User. - Customer. Miss one—and you’ll miss the deal. Hit all four—and you’ll never sell the same way again. Selling is helping. Always.

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You know the #1 thing I tell sales reps they need to improve on if they want to be more successful in sales? It's not any specific technique. It's business acumen. If you understand all the different aspects of business, how everything works together, the different roles and KPIs, how people are measured, etc. you become far better at every level of sales including: - Your messaging when it comes to prospecting - Your ability to qualify opportunities in and out - Your understanding of business impact and root cause AND Your ability to negotiate. I dove into this and much more with Giuseppe Conti on this week's episode of the Make it Happen Monday podcast. How else do you see business acumen impacting your ability to sell?

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The best SDRs and AEs today are absolute product experts. Just look at the companies who are crushing quota attainment and you'll see exponentially longer average sales tenures. Why? Because in the era of AI and easy access to information, if your salespeople aren't true product and industry experts, they provide no value to the buyer. Salespeople used to be the gatekeepers of information but today the information is publicly available so sellers need to provide additional value. This means the only path forward is longer sales tenures. Firing your SDRs or AEs after 6-9 months is no longer logical unless they show no signs of improvement. If they show signs of improvement it means they're constantly getting better and your long-term investment is likely to pay off in the future. With that said, don't seek overnight success in sales. Seek long-term investment into your salespeople and their expertise will compound meaningfully over time. Average tenure is directly correlated to quota attainment today.

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6 storytelling frameworks every SDR needs to know. (unless you want to be an SDR forever) Most SDRs get storytelling wrong. And it's costing them promotions and pay-rises. I've seen brilliant ideas die in in meetings. Watched prospects check their phones. Noticed colleagues peers eyes glaze over when they talk. Not because the ideas were bad. But because the story wasn't there. These 6 frameworks change everything: 1) Simon Sinek's Golden Circle ↳ Don't start with what you do. Start with WHY you do it. ↳ Then explain HOW you do it differently. ↳ Only then share WHAT you actually offer. When Airbnb pitches, they don't just say "we rent rooms." They start with "we create belonging." Lead with vision. 2) Minto's Pyramid Principle ↳ Hit them with your main point first. ↳ Support it with clear evidence. ↳ Add details only if they ask. Your busy prospects will love you for this. No more waiting until 15 minutes into your cold call for the punchline. 3) The Pixar Pitch ↳ "Once upon a time..." (set the scene) ↳ "Every day..." (show the problem) ↳ "Until one day..." (introduce your solution) ↳ "Because of that..." (share the impact) ↳ "Until finally..." (reveal the transformation) This structure is pure magic for showing your company's journey or vision and how your prospect can join you. It shifts their belief system and helps them take action. 4) StoryBrand Framework ↳ Your customer is Luke Skywalker ↳ You're Yoda, the guide ↳ Show them how to win Stop making your company the hero. It's not about you. It's about your prospects. 5) What, So What, Now What ↳ State the facts clearly ↳ Explain why anyone should care ↳ Define the next steps Perfect for turning QBR from sleep aids into action drivers. 6) ABT (And, But, Therefore) ↳ Set up what everyone agrees on ↳ Introduce the challenge ↳ Present your solution When you need to be quick and compelling, this is your go-to. Great for 1:1s with your manager. In today's world, the best story wins. It books the meetings. It closes the revenue. It wins the deals. Your dials deserve a story that matches it. Master these frameworks, and watch what happens to: Your quota. Your commission. Your career trajectory. P.S. What's your go-to storytelling framework? ♻️ Repost to help an SDR in your network. Follow Chris Ritson for more SDR content.

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The top 3 tools every AE needs in their arsenal to close bigger deals, faster 👇 1️⃣ Salesforce Einstein — Forecast & follow-through • AI-scored deal health exposes silent stalls before they bite • “Next-best action” tasks drop straight into your queue 2️⃣ Substrata — Read the room in real time • Analyzes tone, intent, and signals across calls & emails • Flags hesitation, hidden objections, and power dynamics • Gives you actionable coaching cues to handle tough moments and keep momentum 3️⃣ trumpet 🎺 — Sign on one stage • Digital sales room hosts proposals, demos, mutual-action plans and e-signatures in one link • Engagement analytics reveal who’s reading, sharing or stalling Forecast → Sense → Sign. The Closing Stack. What would you add at #4? 👇 Drop your pick in the comments. StackOptimise ⚙️

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What to do when a prospect responds with interest: (Most sales reps get this completely wrong) There are 6 core concepts for converting interested replies into booked meetings from cold email outbound: 1. Importance of Speed-To-Lead (How to respond in sub <5 minutes) 2. What to reply back to prospects for booking more meetings 3. How to automate syncing outbound leads to your CRM via OutboundSync 4. Follow-up fundamentals that reel in leads for the meeting 5. The most effective way to nurture ghosted/dead leads 6. The "Hail Mary" re-engagement strategy for activating ghosted prospects If you're running automated outbound outbound as a sales rep, GTM engineer, CRO, or even founder -- you NEED these systems in place to make real conversions from your outbound efforts. If you have any questions let me know below, hope you find this one valuable.

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