Nicholas van Breda

Salesloft and Clari announced a merger. I call it a surrender. The legacy SaaS Unicorns are dying. Creative mergers and cap table restructuring is what happens when you burn through $937m in venture money and cannot grow sustainably. The VCs are paying for their mistakes. Employees equity will be crushed. Welcome to the new era of SaaS Wealth Destruction. But don’t worry, there’s a silver lining on the other side … BACKGROUND: When Salesloft acquired Drift in early 2024, I wrote: “To me, this is a merger that marks the beginning of many such mergers across all VC and PE portfolios that will play out in the next 1-2 years.” The Clari + Salesloft merger is another signal that the current winner take all investment and operating model no longer works. Over-capitalization no longer justifies premium pricing. The biggest and loudest conference booths no longer guarantee margins. The game has changed. Expect few years of “Creative Mergers” just to survive what’s coming.  Let’s first review the merged company: Drift + Salesloft + Clari + 9 other smaller acquisitions raised a total of $937M in venture funding and at its peak it had a combined valuation of $6.2 billion. Since the cap table was restructured with this merger; Clari’s real valuation is likely far lower - meaning investors and employees on both sides took a big hit. This is both a warning shot and a beginning of what’s coming. AI is going to accelerate such creative mergers and associated SaaS wealth destruction. Many Unicorns have to undergo this process to stay relevant or slowly fail. Ironically, the smartest Unicorn founders will choose valuation-crushing deals & rush to merge with other Unicorns. While such mergers destroy wealth and indicative of surrender, they are healthy for the overall ecosystem moving forward. Roughly 350 unicorns raised capital in the last 5 years. Many need restructuring. Why Salesloft + Clari merger make sense for the future? The real battleground of the future is CAC. CAC has already exploded in the past few years (60% for large SaaS). A platform like Salesloft + Clari has the potential  to subsidize CAC across multiple solutions and platforms while premium end point solutions will find it hard to survive and justify the ever rising CAC. Buyers are moving away from “Best of Breed” to “All in One” platform purchases. This also helps with the rising CAC. Every vertical will see the rise of multiple MEGA platforms - often a result of combining multiple Unicorns. With Clari + Salesloft’s combined product portfolio, data exhaust and high-quality customer base, Clari has a good shot at positioning itself as one of the MEGA revenue platform of the future. I hope more Unicorn founders have the courage to admit their mistakes and restructure before the music stops. But in the meantime, buckle up and get ready. We will see many more deals like this in the next 12-18 months. Welcome to the era of SaaS Wealth Destruction.

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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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How to turn your AEs into a winning team: - product positioning - Discovery training - Command of the message - Great CRM setup - Nice Sales deck - listen to Calls in Gong ^^ tasks split across marketing, RevOps, AE leader, enablement. How to turn your SDRs into a winning team: - map the TAM - learn a variety of decision maker titles - cold calling training - set up email infrastructure - buy and set up multiple data tools - learn copywriting for exec communication - learn about SMTP, DMARC, DKIM - run complex math to determine how many leads are needed - collaborate with marketing for MQL handoff - optimize sequence settings to prevent bottlenecks - validate CRM data to prevent bounce leads - learn LinkedIn strategy for messaging prospects - learn to leave proper voicemails - run discovery on inbound leads - build a variety of sequences - run the math on A/B testing messaging - pass proper notes to the AE - follow up with leads that ghosted the AE - handle phone objections different than email ones - test a variety of tools, and fight for budget contstantly - help SDRs career plan and understand comp plan ^^ worst of all, the SDR manager has to do 90% of this in their own! Then SDRs and SDR leaders are paid less than their AE counterparts. Then when things aren’t working the SDR team is cut while the AE team is trained. How does this make sense? Been saying it for years #SDRsMatter

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STOP doing what 99% of salespeople do I've helped scale 2 startups to $10M+ ARR... And trained thousands of sales reps across 500+ enterprises. Here's what I've noticed: Most reps are stuck using outdated techniques from 2010. They pitch features ❌ They chase prospects ❌   They wonder why deals fall through ❌ Meanwhile, the top 1% are using these psychological triggers: 𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 Stop asking "Are you interested?" Start saying "When we move forward..." The brain defaults to agreement when presented with inevitability. 𝟮. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 After stating your price, shut up. The first person to speak loses. Silence creates psychological pressure that closes deals. 𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 "This might not be right for you..." triggers loss aversion. People want what they can't have. Use scarcity as your secret weapon. 𝟰. 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 Don't just say "other clients love this." Say "3 Fortune 500 CEOs told me this exact solution saved them $2M last quarter." Specificity sells. 𝟱. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 "Imagine walking into your office 6 months from now, knowing you solved this problem..." Paint the picture. People buy the future, not the present. The brutal truth? The difference between average and elite isn't talent. It's psychology. Which skill will you try first? ⬇️ ♻️ Repost to help your network and follow Gaurav Bhattacharya for more. P.S. If you're building/leading a revenue team & want early access to our agentic AI that triples pipeline, comment "Agentic".

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Please, for the love of revenue, stop opening your pricing call by pulling up the proposal and running through the price. You’re not a waiter dropping the check at the table. If the prospect says, “We just want to review the price,” that’s your signal to slow down and give context to the conversation. Every pricing call should start by confirming: - current challenges or problems to be solved - desired outcome for their business - how your product or service is going to deliver the outcome for them Once you are aligned on these three things, you can move forward with showing the price. This is especially important when a new evaluator joins the call. For example, you have been working with a champion who gets to the point where they want to see the price. You schedule the call to review the commercial terms. They invite the CFO or the economic buyer. That CFO has no context for value that you are going to deliver. They haven’t felt the pain you’ve been unpacking over the last few weeks. That's your job to give them the right context. Price only makes sense when you understand the current challenges and desired outcomes. That’s why I always start pricing calls the same way: “Before we jump into numbers, I just want to make sure we’re aligned on the goals of this partnership. Can we quickly revisit the challenges you’re solving and the outcomes you’re targeting? I want to make sure the proposal maps to that.” It’s a hard thing to say no to. And it does two important things: It gives you a chance to reinforce the value. It opens the door for new information or things the buyer hasn’t told you yet, but that will matter in the decision. I have lost many sales opportunities in my career by rushing to show the pricing. I thought moving fast meant being efficient. But I skipped the context. So the next time you have a pricing call, slow down. Frame the conversation. Align on the value of the partnership. Then move on to the commercial terms. ______ If you need help structuring that conversation, I’ve got an executive summary template that makes this easy. Comment "Summary" and I'll send it to you.

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I’ve run many deal reviews over the last few weeks. Three of the deals were “stuck.” My advice for “unsticking” each was the same: “Make the next step easier for the prospect.” Sellers have to remember: 99% of your prospect’s job is not related to buying your product. 100% of your job is helping them buy your product. So you should do all you can to make every step as easy as possible for your prospect. A common time deals get “stuck” is right before a trial or a proof-of-concept. The most common reason deals get stuck at this stage is sellers wait for the prospect to finalize the trial/POC criteria. Think about all the work this creates for your prospect: - Schedule internal meetings to discuss requirements - Document requirements, and determine outcomes - Circulate document internally to get feedback/sign-off from anyone that missed the meeting(s) Add in vacations/busy schedules and these few steps could easily take weeks. A better route is making the next steps easier for your prospect - here's how we did it for our “stuck” deal: 1) Built our recommended PoC requirements and outcomes I told the AE to review the discovery and demo transcripts to make sure we cover customer mentioned required capabilities and tie to customer stated metrics. Then, I told them to add in additional required capabilities we know they’ll need to be successful, along with the outcomes they drive. Ideally, at least a few of these would be required capabilities we know our competition struggles to provide. 2) Position us as experts + make prospect’s job easier Once our recommended proof-of-concept approach was built, we sent to the prospect with a note: “We’re looking forward to kicking off your proof-of-concept. We’ve done a ton of these so we built out an initial template you can use as you build out your requirements - we made sure to include everything you mentioned as being essential in prior conversations + what we’ve seen necessary for customers with similar goals. Feel free to add/remove from this starting point, but hopefully this saves you some time. How’s your calendar next week to discuss this template + any necessary revisions?” Sure enough, this approach got the prospect engaged again. Take 30 minutes this week to review “stuck” deals in your pipeline. For each deal, write out: - What is the next step the prospect has to take? - What part of it can you do for them? And I bet you see a few “stuck” deals get moving again as you make it easier for your prospects to evaluate your solution. If you found this post helpful, you’ll love the AE Operating System. Templates, scripts, prompts, and more for every part of the deal cycle to help you sell more - the same tactics I've taught my teams to 2x our deal size, increase our win rate, and more than triple the percentage of reps hitting quota. Hundreds have already jumped in - and early feedback has been incredible. If you don't have your access yet, you can join at hitmyquota.com!

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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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I've interviewed 100+ sales leaders. These 9 questions show the Average vs Elite: 𝟏: 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 “𝐫𝐮𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥” 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲? Most leaders suck the life out of the room one Salesforce dashboard at a time. A top sales leader can fire up the room with an “us vs the world” mentality even in the ugliest selling environments. 𝟐: 𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐚 #𝟏 𝐫𝐞𝐩? Everyone can hire a junior or average rep. Can you get the #1 rep to leave their seat and work for you? 𝟑: 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬? Most leaders can coach a deal, but never notice the patterns. Top sales leaders build an internal sales methodology with those patterns. 𝟒: 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡: 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐉𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫? I rarely see a top rep learning from their sales manager. Can you level up a rep who might even be better than you? 𝟓: 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬: 𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥? I heard a rep say “I can’t trust my VP with a deal” the other day. If you’re a top leader, your reps are dying to pull you into their biggest deals because you’re the ace in the hole. 𝟔: 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐒 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩? Most leaders abide by the 17 layers of bullshit forecasting methodology where they hedge their rep’s forecast by 30% because they know it’s wrong. Top leaders fix the real problem: If you rep’s forecast every deal correctly, why do you need to hedge? 𝟕: 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬: 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦? Most sales leaders say “make more phone calls” when pipeline is down. But why would you make more phone calls if your team is batting 0 for 10? 𝟖: 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐌𝐠𝐦𝐭: 𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝? Mediocre sales managers give 2 compliments for every critique even when the rep sucks. Top sales leaders tell the rep how it is from a position of care so they can fix it. 𝟗: 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥: 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧? Who cares if an average rep wants to work for you again. If your A Players won’t work for you again, that means they’ve seen enough. *** Two years ago, I asked Mark Kosoglow to be the co-host of the 30 Minutes to President's Club leadership show. In those 2 years, I’ve learned more from him than I have from any sales leader I could’ve imagined. (and he honestly would've saved me so many sleepless nights as a VP of Sales if I knew all this stuff before. Today I’m grateful to share those learnings with the world. Mark’s Sales Management Operating System Course is live today. Get your launch week discount before Friday: https://lnkd.in/gFuweESQ #sales

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Most sales playbooks are missing the most important part. And it's costing you deals. Here's what kills me: I review playbooks all the time. They're full of features, benefits, and process steps. But they skip the ONE thing that actually matters: **What problems do you solve?** Not benefits. PROBLEMS. I just wrapped a training on this, and y'all, the lightbulbs were going off. **THE BRUTAL TRUTH** Ask your rep: "What problems does your product solve?" They'll say: "We save time, increase revenue, improve security." Wrong. Those are benefits. If you save time, the PROBLEM you solve is wasting time. If you increase revenue, the PROBLEM is missing revenue targets. If you improve security, the PROBLEM is data breach risk. See the shift? **WHY THIS MATTERS** People can't picture the future. They can't see that 3X pipeline you're promising. But they can feel the pain of not having enough pipeline RIGHT NOW. Talk about problems they're experiencing today, not benefits they might get tomorrow. **THE PERSONA PROBLEM** Here's where it gets worse: The problems you solve for the VP are different than for the CFO. The pain points for ops are different than for sales. Yet most playbooks treat every buyer the same. My man Keenan . nailed this with his Problem Implication Chart in Gap Selling (still one of my favorites) Map it out: - Problem: No access to customer data in the field - Impact: Inaccurate quotes, wasted time, bad customer experience Problem → Impact → Solution. In that order. **"YOU GET DELEGATED TO WHO YOU SOUND LIKE"** This hit different when I heard it. Talk to the CRO about deliverability issues? You're getting sent to ops. Talk about increasing CAC because response rates are tanking? Now you've got their attention. Same problem. Different language. Different result. BONUS TIP - You have to describe the problem the same way THEY would. Classic Example I hear - 'Working in Silos' - when is the last time you heard a prospect say that vs 'no idea what the other side is doing' You have to describe the problem the same way they would, in THEIR language. **THE FIX** 1. List every benefit of your product 2. Flip it - what's the opposite? That's the problem 3. Map problems by persona 4. Create questions that uncover those specific problems 5. Practice talking problems, not features Your playbook should be a problem-mapping machine. Not a feature factory. Most playbooks start with product. No wonder they don't work. Do you REALLY know what problems you Save this one. Share this one. Put this stuff to work ya'll.

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