Standing Out In Competitive Markets

Why Being Weird in Sales Works (and How I Learned to Love It) Let me share a story that taught me the power of being unapologetically weird in sales. A few years ago, I was trying to land a meeting with a VP who had gone completely silent after an initial call. I’d sent polite follow-ups, clever subject lines, and even a LinkedIn message—but nothing. It was radio silence. Finally, I thought, What do I have to lose? So, I sent this email: Subject: “Are you ghosting me? 👻” Body: “Hi [Name], I’ve got to ask—did I say something wrong? Or are you secretly testing my persistence skills? Either way, I’m not giving up that easily. If this email feels like a bad first date, let’s change the narrative and schedule a quick call instead. No candles or awkward small talk required. Just good conversation. 😉 Let me know! Best, [Your Name]” Within an hour, I had a reply: “This is hilarious. Let’s talk tomorrow.” Why Being Weird Works in Sales Here’s the thing: prospects are bombarded with sales pitches daily. Most emails, voicemails, and LinkedIn messages look like they were written by the same person. If you want to break through the noise, you have to stand out—and being a little weird is often the fastest way to do that. Weird isn’t about being random. It’s about being memorable, authentic, and a little unexpected. The Science Behind Weirdness 1. It’s Disruptive. People skim emails. A quirky subject line or offbeat opener can stop someone mid-scroll. 2. It’s Relatable. Humor or creativity shows you’re human. Prospects buy from people, not pitches. 3. It Builds Connection. Being different sparks curiosity and makes prospects more likely to respond. Weird only works when it’s intentional :) What’s the weirdest thing you ever did to get unghosted 👻 Giulio Segantini

Sales leaders: After working with 5,000 revenue orgs, I've seen 5 patterns in every great sales team. From InsideSales, to Gong, to pclub.io – my career has been in the walls of revenue teams. 5 things the best do: 1. They know where they win. They don’t chase the market. They chase the segment where they have unfair advantage. They define a surgical ICP and stop wasting cycles on deals that never close. They’re obsessed with: • Where they win • Where they lose • Where win-rate is too low Then they operationalize it. They don’t just "know" where they win. They run the business around it. One CRO I talked to said this: “If you want higher close rates, stop chasing bad deals.” 2. They’re obsessed with narrative. Once they know the territory, they design the narrative that unlocks it. They refine messaging until buyers think: “They understand my world better than I do.” Narrative isn’t a marketing exercise. It’s fuel that drives revenue. When you nail it, everything is easier. Whether it’s the CMO, CRO, or even CEO, someone holds this job: “Chief Narrative Officer.” 3. They build a performance culture. The best sales teams take a page from Netflix: “We’re not a family. We’re a pro sports team.” • Camaraderie? Yes. • Psychological safety? Yes. But also: We’re here to perform. If someone isn’t pulling their weight, the culture addresses it. Elite teams balance two forces: A) High standards B) High safety The paradox: The more transparent you are about: • Performance expectations • PIP criteria …the less fear exists. Performance expectations create short-term fear. But ambiguity creates permanent fear. Open expectations remove "wondering." Reps know where they stand. That frees them. 4. They build rock-solid stages & exit criteria. Great teams don’t use vague stages like Discovery → Demo → Proposal. They design a sales process that exposes the reality of a deal. • Clear stage definition • Binary exit criteria • Aging discipline This clarity drives predictability: • Reps stop guessing • Managers coach w/precision • Forecasts stop lying Process definition is the compass. But here’s the trap: Having a clean process still isn't enough for consistency. Sales stages and exit criteria only define what to do. They do not equip reps with how to do it. 5. They treat skills like a performance system. Strong leaders don’t just tell reps what to do. They build the skill capacity to do it. Once you define a great process, a hard truth emerges: Many reps don’t have enough skill capacity to do it. Great teams systematize skill excellence. They treat skill capacity like a monetizeable asset. These teams don’t view skills as “our people should already have these.” They design skill profiles, measure them, train them. Process without skill is academically strong, commercially weak. Skill without process is chaos. Do both? You unlock revenue excellence. Which of these 5 stood out most?

I’ve seen what separates ‘meh’ from market-beating in growth. It’s not more people—it’s GTM alpha. Winning teams see things others don't and do things others can't. Just like in finance, where alpha represents outperformance over market benchmarks, GTM alpha is the edge separating market-beating sales teams from everyone else. Every GTM team is constantly seeking alpha—even if you don’t call it that yet. Each time you refine your targeting or messaging to beat your competitors, you're chasing alpha. And just like investors, winning GTM teams use data others don't have—in plays others can’t run—to find an edge. I've seen three consistent patterns among winning teams like Anthropic, Vanta and Canva at Clay: 1️⃣ They find unique data advantages their competitors miss Certemy counts OSHA violations to find companies with compliance problems, and Rutter identifies high-value executives who need financial products the moment relevant conference attendee lists become public. 2️⃣ They experiment with high-alpha plays Verkada auto-generates thousands of personalized landing pages for good-fit prospects, using individual company logos and information. Rippling uses Google Maps to find prospects' corporate addresses and calculates commuting distances to identify the most likely active office for direct mail campaigns. 3️⃣ They build GTM engineering cultures Traditional silos where SDRs prospect, AEs close, and RevOps manage systems are being replaced by integrated teams that can find, test, and scale approaches faster. For example, at Anthropic, Adam Wall's Sales Ops team uses Clay to automate lead enrichment and routing so salespeople can focus on high-value conversations. The reality of modern growth is this: there is no permanent competitive advantage, only the continuous pursuit of temporary advantages. Differentiated GTM means better data, better playbooks, and constant experimentation. Companies building AI forward GTM engineering organizations will find alpha—others will get left behind. Read more on finding your GTM alpha in my blog post below 👇

For 13 years, I’ve been on the frontline of the B2B data wars. Here are the 5 strategies startups can use to defeat larger incumbents in their battle for market share: BACKGROUND: When I was VP at ZoomInfo they outflanked D&B by going after SMB. When I was President/COO at Apollo I saw them build a self-serve PLG engine to take that very same SMB segment from ZoomInfo. In the coming years, some B2B data startup will do to Apollo what they did to ZoomInfo, and ZoomInfo did to D&B. That is the nature of the beast. Here are the 5 ways I've seen new companies defeat incumbents: 1. Capture Attention Better Than Your Competition -  Only companies with the ability to cut through the noise succeed -  No matter what you do, there are likely over 20 teams doing the same -  Lower the search cost for the buyer. Nurture a community, develop a memorable brand, think about market virality early on, invest in an Inbound flywheel 2. Just Be Different - There’s always room to innovate - Innovation can be in GTM or packaging (doesn't have to be product) Example (Packaging): ZoomInfo differentiated from D&B by selling a self serve tool for $5K/year; when most data vendors were selling data dumps for $100K+/year. Apollo differentiated from ZoomInfo by selling a self serve tool for $99/user/mo to SMB; when others were selling $25K/year plans to enterprise. Example (GTM): ZoomInfo innovated in GTM with efficient inside sales teams as opposed to D&B’s field sales staff. Apollo innovated with PLG for the data business as opposed to ZoomInfo’s inside sales team 3. Refuse To Copy Your Dominant Competitor - Most entrepreneurs have so much respect for the dominant competitors that all they can think of is playing catch up and aim for feature parity - By the time you copy a feature, the dominant player will build 5 more and the gap widens - Instead, craft your own path. Identify an audience that your competitor is ignoring and roadmap that will make you look distinct 4. Relentless Focus On Optimizing The Low End Of The Market - Most disruption comes from the low end of the market - Zoominfo went after the SMB, which D&B was willing to forego without a fight - As the ZoomInfo business grew, they moved upstream and Apollo went after the low end of the market that ZoomInfo did not care as much about anymore - It’s only natural that Apollo will find going upstream more attractive as the business scales, paving way for a NewCo to acquire the SMB market once again 5. Be the best at something and don't try to be good at everything - Every team can be exceptionally good at something - Identify what your superpowers are - Is it Product, Sales, Marketing, CS? - Double down on your strengths, ignore your weaknesses - Do more of what you are good at to create a competitive edge TLDR: 1. Learn how to capture attention 2. Be different 3. Don't copy your competitor 4. Focus on low end of the market 5. Be the best at something P.S. Have questions? AMA in the comments. 👇

This video encapsulates what I've learned about how to have successful conversations with the CFO and the Board of Directors about marketing. Yes, we all know we need to own the narrative and frame the conversation, but the big lesson I've learned is that it's essential to pick WHICH narrative to own and WHICH conversation to frame. Long story short: Don't engage in the ROI conversation. No matter how you own that narrative or frame that discussion, you've lost before you begin. Instead, orient the conversation around pricing power. ROI is subjective and arguable. Pricing power is objective. You either have it or you don't. -- Thoughts? -- Hope this helps. -- Transcript: Interviewer: How do you make a compelling case for investing in marketing in the boardroom? Ab InBev CMO: The big argument I learned myself is you have this big ROI discussion, so what dollar in, and how much do I get back? I've learned that there's a very tricky discussion because ROI discussions, you can lose very quickly. ROI is about efficiency, whereas what the board and the C suite in the first case is looking for, does it work? Do we have impact? Is there an outcome measuring effectiveness you can better do via PRICING So what I learned over time, and one of the key things that I still instill in boards today and whenever I do advisory work and teach students, et cetera, is to say, you have a better chance as a senior marketer to sell that your brands have achieved sustainable pricing power. This is a hard number. You have it or you don't. That is a way to sell in the outcome of your work, as opposed to arguing and nickel and diming with the CFO on efficiency metrics like ROI, where he or she can easily defeat you and say, yeah, but these assumptions that you took, or these assumptions and ROI discussions are tricky. Pricing power discussions are factual. You have it or you don't. I mean, if you allow me the analogy, Warren Buffett, one of the best investors in the world, said the very first metric that he uses to invest or not in a company, they do full due diligence. But what matters to him is, does this brand have pricing power or not? And how he defines it is, pricing power is a dynamic concept. It means that your ability to price at or above inflation, your inflation, not just CPI, at or above inflation over time, then you have a brand. If you don't have this, you don't have a brand. So that's his definition, and he's been applying it for decades in his investment philosophy. And this is what I've adopted in my work and in the work that I share with cmos and say, learn to think like Warren Buffett. Learn to think Wall street before you think like a CMO. -- Btw, check out Uncensored CMO...so many great episodes.

Selling to leadership is tough. Learn to speak finance, and everything changes. (This works for both B2B sales and internal pitches.) Speak the language of financial metrics and business impact, and you’ll earn buy-in. Whether you’re pitching a product, service, or internal idea, this skill makes you a trusted partner to decision-makers. 📌 Strategy without financial intelligence is guesswork. Take my free LinkedIn Learning course and lead with both: https://lnkd.in/g8jNUN98 Here’s why: Executives don’t want fluff.  They need to know *how* your solution or proposal will impact their business financially. Here’s how to make your pitch resonate: 1️⃣ Talk Margins, Not Just Savings ↳ Show how your solution improves gross, operating, or net profit margins. Make it clear how it improves topline or streamlines processes to ultimately add value to the bottom line. 2️⃣ Connect to Cash Flow ↳ Highlight how your solution will boost cash flow, not just the bottom-line. Smart executives prioritize cash flow over simple revenue increases or cost savings because it keeps the business stable and flexible. 3️⃣ Show ROI and Payback Period ↳ Present clear numbers on return on investment (ROI) and how quickly they’ll see a payback. Executives need to know when their investment will yield results. 4️⃣ Impact Key Financial Ratios ↳ Explain how your proposal enhances key metrics like ROE (Return on Equity), ROA (Return on Assets), or EBITDA. This demonstrates that you understand their financial framework and how your solution strengthens it. 5️⃣ Talk Risk Management ↳ Show that you’ve considered potential downsides. Demonstrate how your proposal mitigates financial risk and supports long-term stability—not just quick gains. Why this matters: 1️⃣ You Stand Out ↳ Most sales pitches and internal proposals focus on benefits. When you speak in terms of financial strategy and impact, you differentiate yourself. 2️⃣ You Build Trust ↳ Speaking their language shows you understand their challenges, priorities, and goals. 3️⃣ You Become Indispensable ↳ When you can prove your solution impacts key business metrics, you shift from being just another vendor or team member to a trusted advisor. Remember:  Learn to speak finance, and you’ll open doors that most can’t. ♻️ Like, Comment and Repost to help your network. Follow Oana Labes, MBA, CPA for strategic financial leadership. -------- 📌 The CEOs who scale don't read reports. They engineer outcomes. Join me inside The CEO Financial Intelligence Academy. Curriculum. Coaching. Community. Your CEO Finance Dashboard™, built Day 1. Get your CEO Checklist here → https://bit.ly/4es64ye 

Legal firms spending budget on 'LinkedIn influencers' fundamentally misunderstand platform mechanics. Here's what 18 years of marketing experience and the Algorithm Research shows: Your own employees deliver superior reach and authenticity than any external influencer arrangement. The data is definitive. Company pages reach 2-3% of followers. Employee posts? 10-15% baseline reach that doubles with coordinated team engagement. In my training we call this the Team Boosting Strategy. Instead of outsourcing influence, activate your systematic employee advocacy framework. Have one attorney post valuable industry insight (the 'Hero Post'), while 3-5 colleagues provide substantive comments within the critical 60-minute algorithm window, engaging the 'Hero' in a conversation. This amplifies reach 300-400% while building authentic professional relationships. Your clients want insights from practicing attorneys, not hired voices. LinkedIn is a business platform for professional authority which means you need to treat it accordingly. Strategic implementation: Designate weekly hero rotation, provide comment frameworks, measure profile views and meaningful conversations. Delegate this systematically and you'll outperform any influencer investment. The military taught me that coordinated systematic execution defeats individual heroics every time. Same principle applies here.

Over 1,400 people applied for the Head of Sales role at Aligned. A dozen sales leaders reached out to me asking how I landed the role. Here are the 5 things I did differently (and how sellers can stand out in today’s tough job market): 1. Highlighted HOW MUCH I excelled in previous roles. It shocks me how many salespeople don’t display their metrics in their resumes or Linkedins. All (good) sellers should highlight your quota attainment, honors, awards, and team stack ranking right where everyone can see. At the top! If you don’t, hiring managers will assume you didn’t perform well. You become easy to pass over. 2. Cut through the noise when it’s quiet. I cold emailed CEO Gal Aga long before Aligned announced they were hiring for leadership. I saw AE openings, so I asked ‘with the AEs you’ll be hiring, have you thought about who will manage them?’ Leaders like to see you think a few steps ahead. And it’s easier to compete amongst 0 applications than the 1,400 that came in once a formal req was opened. 3. Mimicked my hiring manager’s language. People buy from people they like. And who is more likeable than oneself? Gal posted a blog titled “Standing Out” in job applications a month prior. So my cold email subject line was “#1 TIP: STAND OUT.” Consciously or not, he likely already identified with the subject because they were his exact words. 4. Made my cold outreach about them. The majority of sellers’ emails start out with “I want to join your company because I am so great! I did this % of my quota. I was the #1 rep.” I, I, I; Me, Me, Me. The most effective way to engage the audience is to make it about them. “Saw that YOU are growing and looking to add to YOUR AE team. YOU are probably looking to add someone with startup experience who can pivot quickly ..." Them, them, them. 5. Studied them like they were gazelle and I was the lion in an African desert. I attended webinars. Read every blog Aligned published. Listened to their podcasts. Followed each Leader on Linkedin (hi Saad Khan hi ⚡️Arthur Castillo). Tagged relevant colleagues or companies in their posts and opened up two-way dialogue this way. Are you studying each company like it’s your last meal, or like they’re a dime a dozen? TAKEAWAY The job market is tough. But by just going through the motions, we make it even tougher. Hope these 5 tips help you stand out in a noisy market. On the hunt for your next sales job? AMA about sales hiring in the comments.

Sales folks, take note! Spamming a target company's employees with your services and requests for meetings will result in your company making its way onto a buyer's blocklist. As a buyer in the localization industry, I receive dozens of emails and LinkedIn requests every single day from vendors looking to showcase translation, AI, QA services, and more. It's not humanly possible to give personal replies to every outreach. When vendors can't get through to me, they often reach out to everyone on my team... and sometimes to many others across my company. I'd love for this practice to stop. It wastes valuable company time and makes a vendor appear desperate and non-strategic. Here's what to do instead: 1. Appeal to ego! Invite a target company’s decision-maker to a panel, or start a vlog series and ask buyers to appear and discuss industry topics. It’s also a great opportunity to reposition your company as a thought leader. 2. Offer genuine insight, not just services. Share a case study, white paper, or benchmarking data that’s actually useful to the buyer’s role, and do it without a sales pitch. 3. Build a reputation before you build a pipeline. Comment thoughtfully on posts. Contribute to community conversations. If you consistently show up with value, you’re far more likely to get noticed. 4. Target smarter, not broader. Don’t shotgun your message to an entire company. Learn the org. Understand the buyer’s scope. Then send one well-researched, personalized note that shows you actually did your homework. 5. Focus on mutual value. Can you help solve a known pain point or offer perspective on something changing in the market? Frame your outreach around collaboration, not consumption. 6. Use timing to your advantage. Keep tabs on when companies are hiring for roles associated with your offerings, launching in new markets, or attending conferences. That’s when buyers are more receptive to new solutions. 7. Lead with generosity. Offer a no-strings-attached resource, intro, or suggestion that doesn’t benefit you directly. Reciprocity is a powerful trust builder. And please! Don't ever ever call me on the phone! ;)

Elevate your B2B sales strategy and navigate buyer resistance with finesse using these 11 Key Strategies 🌟: 1. Harness Information Asymmetry - Use your unique insights to educate clients, transforming disparities into trust-building opportunities. 🔍 2. Capitalize on Experience - Share your broad industry interactions to guide decision-making with unmatched knowledge. 📈 3. Master Artful Inquiry - Employ thought-provoking questions to uncover deep client needs, positioning yourself as a consultative partner. 🎣 4. Navigate Outcome Asymmetry - Minimize risk for clients pressured to make high-stakes decisions accurately on their first attempt. 💼 5. Leverage "I Know Something You Don't" - Introduce game-changing information respectfully to align business requirements and overcome barriers. 🗣️ 6. Focus on Value Creation - Shift from transactional to transformative sales conversations, aiding clients in understanding their unique challenges. 🛠️ 7. Counteract Misconceptions with Data - Challenge false assumptions with solid evidence to steer discussions constructively. 📊 8. Share Real-world Experiences - Use personal stories of overcoming challenges to build empathy and demonstrate commitment beyond transactions. 🌍 9. Adopt Educational Selling - Transition from a vendor to an educator, differentiating yourself by building long-term, trust-based relationships. 🎓 10. Seek Specialized Training - Enhance your skills with courses on strategic selling and information disparity, staying ahead of trends. 🏅 11. Engage with Leading Resources - Regularly visit top sales blogs for insights on strategic selling and buyer resistance. 📘 Implement these to transform your approach, focusing on education, information, and advisement for success. 💫