Jason Thayer

Why are Referrals becoming the forgotten growth channel? Too many SaaS execs build 2025 pipeline plans without even mentioning them. 😬 Why? ❌ “They’re not scalable.” ❌ “They’re not repeatable.” ❌ “They take too long.” But here’s the thing: ✅ Referrals work. ✅ They close faster. ✅ They convert better. ✅ They cost less. 💸 According to Aaron Ross, inbound and outbound strategies have led for decades. Yet in today’s competitive landscape, word-of-mouth has become equally essential." 👂 🔥 2025 growth leaders will systematize referrals — not sideline them. Full Episode: https://lnkd.in/dEBuSBb9 #SaaS #B2B #SalesStrategy #DemandGen #PipelineGrowth #Referrals #GrowthHacking #affliatemarketing #MarketingStrategy #LeadGeneration #CustomerAcquisition #BusinessGrowth #WordOfMouth #SalesFunnel #Networking #ClientRetention

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EVERY ZoomInfo customer can connect Claude and ZoomInfo together right now- but how about in Slack ? With Claude? Here’s how to build a targeted prospect list and account plan without leaving Slack. (In <5 minutes) Step 1: Ask Claude directly inside Slack to build you a list I asked for… “25 CROs and VPs of Sales based in Boston, at software companies between 500–1k employees, with $100M+ in funding. Name, title, email, mobile, total funding.” It taps straight into your Zoominfo database and all comes back right there in the channel. It even flags who is on your do not call list. Step 2: Pick an account. Ask Claude to prep you for the call, directly in Slack. It uses Zoominfo to pull every conversation you've had with them - calls, emails, pain points they've raised, products they use. It comes back with the leadership you NEED to know, what's happening at the account right now and specific angles that could help you win. This works inside Claude too when you connect it up to our MCP server - you can even ask it to build you a custom interface to sort, edit, and work the data however you want. Zoominfo is going to show up EVERYWHERE. Slack, Claude, wherever you're doing GTM work, your data should follow you there. Every ZoomInfo customer already has access to this - connect ZoomInfo to Claude here: https://lnkd.in/eM-UbCJt

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You can predict 90% of a rep’s future performance from one interview question. Not experience. Not resume polish. One question that exposes how they handle pressure, ownership, and effort. It’s wild how consistent the pattern is across SMB sales teams. Ask a rep, “Are you competitive?” They’ll say yes. Ask, “Do you work hard?” Yes again. These questions measure nothing. Instead, ask: Think of a few times where you had to push harder than anyone around you. What were those situations, and what did you do? You’re looking for: - How fast they retrieve examples - Whether the stakes felt real - Whether they take ownership - Whether they learned anything from it We broke down the exact interview framework for finding the best SMB sellers in the ultimate guide for vertical SaaS sales leaders. Comment “rep” below and I’ll share the full guide 👇 Always satisfying when chaos turns into something predictable.

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As an SDR I went from SMB to MM to ENT in 11 months, averaging 137% across all 3. Each segment was like a completely new role. Want to progress as an SDR? Here’s exactly how I won at each level. 1. SMB It is all about relevancy at scale. Your TAM is huge. You often have thousands of accounts so you don't have the time to personalise for each account. Instead, you should think how can I hit as many accounts with good messaging as possible? This is the process I'd follow. - Define your true ICP which companies to sell to - Define your personas, who to reach out to - Define the trigger, why to reach out - Define messaging, why now This sounds super simple but it works, in theory it would be like: Sales ATL + SaaS companies + Closed Lost. SMB is mostly high-volume sequences with you ripping dials, it’s quite simple. 2. Mid Market Now more of a strategic approach comes into play. Naturally, your time gets smaller because the companies you're going to be going after are bigger. Therefore, tiering accounts is much more important at this stage. A tier 1 account should represent about 5% to 10% of your total book with the rest falling into tier 2 and tier 3. And those tier 1 accounts are the ones where I would give them personalised relevant messages. Things like CEO mentions, key initiatives from the organisation, anything that could only be tied to that company, and that's what you should be referencing in your messaging 3. Enterprise This is where the real fun begins of true personalised prospecting. You could have a book of business from anywhere from 10 to 200 accounts you want to break into, so each account needs deep research. This is where you have to make it specific about the company but more importantly you have to craft a perspective to show how what you solve directly ties into a key business initiative. Enterprise is mostly timing. There's so many things they could be fixing. You have to show why this one issue you solve is the one they should be focusing on. Why this fire out of all the ones they could put out? 4. Processes & SOPs Rep, you should really be building out your processes for each stage because how you approach SMB vs. mid-market vs. enterprise will be completely different. I used to do all of this in Notion. It took me hours but tools like Tango can now make this 10x easier for you to just document what to do so you can do it at scale. Do your outbound as you would normally and let it record everything you're doing. You have a detailed breakdown of your system. The easier it is for you to focus on outbound, the more meetings you’re going to book. I think there's a lot of advice saying that you have to be personal but the truth is that only applies to the segment you're selling into. If you do an SMB focus on trying to be relevant at scale to the bulk of your accounts. If you do an enterprise, make it personal, make it one-to-one. Advice isn't one size fits all.

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Your SDR agent can book meetings. Cool. But can it also answer product questions from a PDF you hand it? Here’s how to make that happen in Agentforce: 📄 Upload your product reference sheet as a PDF 🧠 Build a prompt in Prompt Builder using Flex template 🔗 Use dynamic free-text inputs (Product Name + Product Question) 📘 Attach your new prompt to a custom agent action 🎯 Add that action to your “Respond to Prospect” topic The result? Your SDR agent can now pull details directly from your reference doc — and reply in real-time like it’s product-trained. Ready to level up your AI sales assistant? ▶️ Watch the full demo: 🧪 Or check out SOLVD.cloud to learn more #Salesforce #AIagent #SDRautomation #Agentforce #Salesenablement #SOLVDcloud

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Hiring your Founding AE might be the most important hire in your SaaS journey — and one of the easiest to get wrong. The AE who crushed it at $50M ARR might crumble at $1M ARR. Early-stage SaaS needs a different kind of seller: 💡 Adaptable – thrives without a playbook. 💡 Curious – great at discovery, not just pitching. 💡 Builder – helps create the sales motion. 💡 Resilient – handles rejection and iteration. Your Founding AE doesn’t just sell — they help you build the machine. Full breakdown here 👇 👉 https://lnkd.in/d5SPdbGg #scalewithstrive #accountexecutive #gtmhiring

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Driving AE performance shouldn’t require micromanagement. And yet, in most wholesale lending inside sales teams… it does. There’s a better way: Automated Accountability. Imagine a system where: ⚬ Accounts with no contact in 15 days are flagged ⚬ Missed milestones trigger alerts ⚬ Hot brokers automatically surface ⚬ Leaders get real-time visibility without chasing reports That’s what the top wholesale lenders are doing — and their teams are more productive and more empowered. I’ll be breaking down the exact automation rules you can use to immediately improve your inside sales process. Join the my live class here: 🔗 https://loom.ly/sq7szUo THE INSIDE SALES PLAYBOOK FOR WHOLESALE LENDERS #wholesalelending #tpolending #salesprocess #crm

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Executives won't open cold emails, but they will open a package. This is my best advice for breaking into Tier 1 accounts... When we were trying to break into big enterprise accounts at Levelset, there was one approach that consistently worked. We sent our top prospects a gift in the mail. Most teams never try this. They send another cold email, another LinkedIn message, or another voicemail. Then they sit around wondering why nothing converts. When you’re going after companies that can change your trajectory, you have to operate differently. Start with the person you are trying to connect with. Before you buy anything, spend time learning about the prospect. Look at what they post. Notice what they care about. Listen for the problems they’re trying to solve. You’d be surprised how often people leave clues out in the open. AI is really helpful at pulling this together for you. It's important to understand what would actually matter to them. Pick a gift that shows you pay attention. It takes more effort to pick something thoughtful than it does to spray a thousand people with the same sequence. But you’re not going after a thousand people. You’re going after the handful who can meaningfully move your business forward. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It needs to be personal. Somewhere in the $25–75 range is enough to show you cared without feeling transactional. Include a handwritten card. Keep it simple. Three or four sentences. Tell them why you chose the gift. Tell them what it made you think about in their business. Then make a clear, easy ask. When everything else in their stack is automated, a handwritten note stands out. Send it in a bubble mailer. Nothing fancy. USPS works fine. A bubble mailer gets opened. People are curious. Just make sure the address is right. We double checked every single one. Full up after it arrives. Don’t assume they saw it. Don’t assume they connected the dots. Send a short email. “Just shipped you something. Should arrive this week.” Then follow up again after it lands. The follow up is where the meetings get booked. Did this work? At Levelset, this was our most reliable way to break into large accounts. The response rates were dramatically higher than anything we did through email or phone alone. And it wasn’t because we were clever. It was because we were willing to put in more effort than everyone else. Most reps won’t spend thirty minutes researching a prospect or writing a card. That’s fine. The ones who do will win the meetings with the best prospects. The Reality This work doesn’t scale. It’s not supposed to. You don’t run this play for your entire TAM. You run it for the hundred companies that would meaningfully impact your business if you earned their trust. For those accounts, a thoughtful gift is a small investment compared to the upside. And if you’re willing to do the work, you’ll end up in conversations your competitors never even get close to.

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Every SMB AE stuck at making $80,000-$100,000 per year needs to know this like the back of their hand (mandatory): Their: - ACV - Lead to Deal Conversion Rate - Deal to Closed Won Conversion Rate - Average Sales Cycle - Average # of Active Opps Worked/Month If you want to make $200,000+ per year as a seller or get promoted, NEVER EVER rely on your VP of Sales to know your numbers.

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Why attend another ecommerce conference when it's in Utah? It's a simple question when so many travel away from home for these events. But you may not know there's an incredible gem in your backyard. This is why you should attend: ➡️ Quality of content - this is the entire reason we started the group ➡️ Connecting with your peers - ie people doing the same thing or that have done it before So, if you don't have a ticket to Ecom Elevated Spring yet (April 15-16th in SLC), powered by our title sponsor Omnisend, then this is why you should attend. Keynotes: 👉 Keynote on how Lume Deodorant grew to $300m in revenue 👉 Keynote on Amazon Best Practices (with an open Q&A) 👉 Keynote on the Power of Persistence with an Olympic Athlete 👉 Keynote on Email & SMS Marketing 👉 Keynote on Shipping & Logistics 👉 Keynote on Multichannel Brand Building Roundtable sessions (just brands discussing ideas & tactics) on partnerships, finance, hiring/team building, sourcing, and fulfillment. Workshop & Breakout sessions: 👉 Building PR for Your Business 👉 Creating Additional Revenue in Email & SMS 👉 Getting More Output from Teams with AI 👉 Ranking Product Pages on AI & Agentic Search 👉 TikTok Shop Wins and What Not to Do 👉 Finance & Ecom - How to Win with Better Money Management We have a few more things planned. What other content do we need to add? BTW code "EARLYACCESS" is 30% off all tickets through the end of the month: https://lnkd.in/gBJiwUiS

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When agents can talk directly to your apps through an MCP server, everything changes. Instead of a human jumping between Salesforce, Airtable, etc... an agent can do it autonomously: Summarize call transcripts for target accounts from Gong Pass those summaries to Inflection to create custom segments Draft a target account campaign based on these custom segments No brittle integrations. No copy-paste workflows. No “please log in and click this button.” The agent just acts — safely, deterministically, and across systems via multiple MCP servers.

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