Brendon Cassidy

ZoomInfo meets you where you’re working. 💫 Not only can you access ZoomInfo insights directly inside of Claude, but now you can do it without even leaving Slack. In this video, our CEO and Founder Henry Schuck takes you through how you can build a targeted prospecting list and account plan in under 5 minutes from Slack via Claude. Watch the full video and get started here: https://bit.ly/4coq43O

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The market for B2B sales tools is full of AI features that look impressive in a demo and don't change Monday morning. The ones that do are boring to describe and transformative to use. They remove a step that used to take 45 minutes. They make sure a trigger doesn't get missed because a rep was busy. They turn "we should probably follow up on that" into a task that already exists in the CRM. That's the version of AI worth paying attention to. We've been building toward this at Firmable for a while. AI agents that monitor the market for buying signals - leadership changes, funding rounds, hiring spikes, etc - and push them into your CRM automatically when they fire. Not a dashboard to check. Not another tab to open. But a task in HubSpot or Salesforce that says: this happened, here's the context, here's who to call. The sales teams that figure out this kind of AI first won't just be more efficient. They'll be having conversations their competitors don't even know they should be having. That gap will be obvious within 12 months. I'd start closing it now. #aisalesintelligence

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AEs are not short on activity. They are short on precision. In the last few months, I have seen this pattern repeat across multiple CRO searches in PE-backed SaaS. Reps are running full schedules, logging calls, moving deals. But the pipeline does not reflect it. Stages are inflated, next steps are vague, and qualification is optimistic at best. The issue is not effort. It is inspection. Three things that separate the teams getting this right:  • Clear exit criteria at every stage, enforced by the manager, not just the rep  • Next-step ownership confirmed before the call ends, not after  • ICP discipline that kills bad-fit deals early instead of carrying them for two quarters The CROs who are winning in this market are not running more campaigns. They are tightening what counts as a real opportunity. Inspection beats motivation speeches. What is the one inspection metric you trust most right now?

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Reminder for MM AEs: buyers *appreciate* when you are prescriptive with your process (how they evaluate your product, how you engage evaluators). They already have a million things going on. Optimizing how they run an evaluation cycle (who to loop in when, what to test for at what time, whether to do X or Y and when) of a novel technology, particularly a new category of tech, is something they will generally love to offload to a sales team... in fact, they expect you to do so. This a large part of why you have a job (being an outsourced, assertive project manager), and the sales teams who are more prescriptive with them, educating them on how to evaluate this type of tech and what resources are available from your side or not, while maintaining a *trusted advisor* level of rapport so they feel safe to follow your lead, will steer how they evaluate all their options... yours and the competition. Take advantage of this and be (respectfully) dominant & prescriptive in your conversations with them, while keeping it clear you're 100% looking out for the best outcome for them, be it with your product or not. The art of doing this is one of the arts of sales. The only time this isn't the case is if you're selling to a uniquely organized team, often only found at larger Enterprise accounts where there's an RFP process and a team of evaluators who have careers doing this with new technology and are stubborn about how they run their process. And even then ... If anyone disagrees, I'd be curious to learn why.

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Here’s the dirty secret no one at your next RevOps conference will admit: Your “cheap” data is bleeding you dry. Every time your SDR chases a ghost lead from a bulk database, you’re lighting money on fire. Every time your LLM trains on outdated contact info, you’re teaching it to hallucinate. GTM leaders love to brag about database size. But static data isn’t a moat — it’s a mirage. The future belongs to bespoke data — living pipelines that adapt in real time, powered by contextual signals, human verification, and AI that actually learns from the world as it changes. Stop buying prebuilt sludge. Start owning your GTM fuel. 🧠 The future of GTM data isn’t bulk — it’s bespoke.

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Your AEs are sitting around waiting for SDR meetings while their pipeline coverage drops < 2x. And you're wondering why forecasts keep missing. The linear SDR-to-AE model assumes clean handoffs and qualified pipeline flowing upward on schedule. But markets are tighter now. Budgets are frozen. Decision cycles are longer. You CANNOT afford to depend on a single pipeline source. Parallel prospecting should be, with few exceptions, not even up for debate right now. Here are some standards to set in stone: 1. SDRs focus on top-of-funnel volume. Book meetings. Qualify interest. Create awareness in accounts that aren't actively buying yet. 2. AEs prospect their own territory. Hunt for warm referrals. Expansion opportunities. Build relationships with execs. Go after high-value targets that require account context and business acumen. 3. Execs (yes, you) support in relationship-building Board members, founders, C-suite: everyone participating in opening doors and accelerating deals. Don’t get me wrong - this is NOT about SDRs failing. It's about current market conditions requiring more pipeline from more sources. Some of the best sales teams I know moved away from mass outreach this year and leaned into their network. Asked for referrals. Re-engaged relationships from 2-3 years ago. Fewer touches but higher quality deals. Better logos. Larger ACV. PS - Few teams I know use Vieu to uncover who in the company network (investors, advisors, customers, execs etc.) is connected to target buyers and can make intros. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/g9GB2J8u That's AE-level prospecting. That requires business relationships and strategic thinking that SDRs typically don't have access to yet. The pushback usually sounds like: "But that's what we pay SDRs for. AEs should be closing, not prospecting!" lol ok. How's your pipeline coverage looking right now? If your AEs only work SDR-sourced pipeline, they're dependent on a single source. The implementation is straightforward: - Adjust quota expectations. If AEs spend 20-30% of their time prospecting, quota reflects that or territory size decreases. - Comp structure rewards it. Higher commission rates on self-sourced deals. SPIFFs for expansion within existing accounts. - Track pipeline composition. What percentage is SDR-sourced vs. AE-sourced? If it's 90/10, your AEs aren't really prospecting. - Get the right tech: Vieu for scaling network-led intros, Clay for market signals etc. This doesn't eliminate SDR teams, but it does admittedly change how they work with AEs. In a good way, IMO. Less handoff friction. More collaboration on account strategy. SDRs opening doors, AEs building relationships. Your top performers already do this. They're not waiting around for their next SDR meeting. They're working referrals, reaching out to warm contacts, expanding existing accounts. Make it systematic across the whole team.

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