Isaac C.

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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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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The answer to your outbound problems isn't: ⛔️ AI ⛔️ More volume ⛔️ SDR agents ⛔️ More relevance ⛔️ Dialers ⛔️ Better tools It's your OFFER. Let me explain... Most reps reach out with something like: “Just want to introduce myself and our company…” “Let’s do a quick call so you know your options when budgeting season comes around...” The problem? You have NOTHING to offer. If there’s no immediate need, there's zero reason to take a meeting with you. So you need a way to entice buyers to meet when they have a problem, but are not actively shopping. Here are three types of offers you can use to entice buyers to meet with you: ✅ Offer #1: Good - Pitch The Blind Date Position who the buyer will be meeting with. Hype up the AE, sales engineer, or yourself. Show them that meeting with you will be worth their while. Example: A client of ours sells an automated welding solution. The manufacturing industry is facing a massive shortage of welding talent. Their SDRs pitched it like this: “I’d love to introduce you to Eric. He’s worked with a dozen manufacturers like Caterpillar, Karavan, and more, who are all facing similar challenges. He’ll walk you through how they’re automating the most difficult welds and dealing with the labor shortage. Even if nothing comes of it, you’ll walk away with a better understanding of how the industry is solving this.” Even if the buyer isn’t shopping, they gain value from the conversation itself. ✅ Offer #2: Better - 1:Many Offers These are high-quality, reusable insights that still feel tailored. Think: competitive benchmarks, industry research, or best practice guides. Example: We have a client that sells to ecomm brands. They conducted a mystery shop of 400 competitors to analyze response times, customer service channels, etc. Their reps used those insights to open cold calls with: “Hey Katie, I submitted a ticket on your site, and it took about 48 hours to get a response. It was about 3x longer than folks like Patagonia and the North Face. Again, it’s Jason. Mind if I share more about why I’m calling?” That’s an offer that feels immediately relevant and valuable. It gets a conversation started immediately. ✅ Offer #3: Best - 1:1 Offers These are custom-tailored experiences or resources created specifically for the prospect. It’s you and your organization putting in serious effort to customize the offer. This works best at the enterprise & strategic levels. Examples: - A cyber risk analysis - A benchmarking analysis - A workshop - A personalized audit of a website checkout flow. - Visiting and experiencing the brand firsthand, then sharing insights. - Offering free data, licenses, or pilots. These take more work, but they convert like crazy. ~~~ You don't need better tools. You need a better offer you can deliver on to make meeting with you worth their time.

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90% of SaaS reps overcomplicate objection handling. They’ll write 15-slide decks or “strategic” follow-up emails. But the best objection-buster I’ve ever used took one line: 👉 “Here’s how to get your CFO to approve this tool in 7 minutes flat.” That line alone turned stalled deals into signed contracts. Why? Because it gives the buyer exactly what they need (ammunition to win approval internally). We spun that same core message into multiple weapons: • “The ROI calculator CFOs can’t argue with” • “Your boss will literally thank you for sending this” • “The lazy AE’s guide to instant approvals” Different flavors, same impact: we made the champion look like a genius inside their org. The lesson? You don’t always need “new messaging.” You need the right angle for each buyer. One insight. Three angles. Pipeline unlocked.

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SMB AEs stuck at $5K per month make the same mistake when it comes to creating urgency in deals. They try to manufacture it. "This promo ends Friday" "We only have 2 licenses left" "Pricing is going up next week" Prospects see right through it, and worse, it cheapens the deal (and your product). The best AEs making $10K-$20K don't fake urgency. Here's how: 1. Tie to their calendar, not yours: Instead of “my end of quarter,” they anchored next steps to their business timelines, hiring pushes, seasonal peaks, upcoming product launches, etc. 2. Stack the cost of waiting: They don't say “sign up now or else.” They show what waiting 30 days actually cost (lost deals, more $ spent, etc). 3. De-risk fast action: They reduce friction in the deal by addressing prospect's major FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) and de-risk the decision for them. Before my AEs go after a big deal, I tell them to lay out the prospects: → problem → timeline → reason timeline → benefit to switch now on paper and role play the talk track by tying it all together. When buyers see the cost of waiting, you don’t have to push. They’ll pull the deal forward themselves. P.S. If you liked this, you'll love my Monday morning newsletters 6,000+ sellers are reading: https://lnkd.in/dkuDYfnn

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91% of execs rate sales calls as a waste of time. Yet salespeople still get weak advice on how to sell to the C-SUITE (“Sell high!”). I’ve yet to meet a $300,000+ earner who struggles here. Here are 5 ways they crush it: 1. They DON'T start high. Counterintuitive but true. Top salespeople know this: They have one shot at the C-SUITE. By the time they get there? They've talked to several people in the account. They use what they've learned to nail it. Weak salespeople? They do basic discovery. They're surprised when they get ghosted. 2. They start with a 'What We've Heard' slide In the first 5 minutes, they send a signal: "I'm not here to waste your time." They start with a 'what we've heard' slide. They summarize the top challenges: What they've heard from the exec's colleagues. And those challenges they summarize? They are the same things the exec talks about in meetings. Earns you instant credibility. 3. They ask context-led questions. And they avoid generic questions. They ask questions that have deep observation baked into them. BAD: "So what keeps you up at night?" GOOD: "I noticed you're making a foray into the sales engagement space. That's going to open up new buyer personas, competitors, and problem-sets your salespeople will have to be fluent in. What challenges do you foresee in tackling that?" Bad questions gather basic info. Yu should have done that already. Great questions make execs THINK. 4. They deliver a "point of view" A great POV is an insight that: - upends the status quo - is somewhat polarizing - changes how your buyer thinks - shakes their belief systems - rigs buying criteria in your favor Execs walk out of these meetings grateful. They leave better than how they entered. Your ticket to play this card? Deep industry and problem knowledge. It's hard to fake. Commit to your craft. 5. They don't INSIST on inappropriate exec involvement BAD SELLERS: Try to get the exec on EVERY follow up meeting. GOOD SELLERS: Know execs only need to be on a few key meetings. They work with their champions in the meantime. Keeping the exec in the loop throughout. Then, during a few strategic moments in the sales cycle: They make their ask. Execs don't want to be on every call. Good news? They don't have to be. These tips are not the last thing to say about selling to execs. But I hope they give you a strong start. P.S. Learn how to add an extra $53k to your income in the next 6 months (or less) here: https://lnkd.in/ggYuTdtf

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