Blog
B2B Sales
Practical takes on B2B sales, fractional CRO leadership and go-to-market, from 20-plus years carrying the number on five continents.
40 Companies, One Category, 20 of Them Israeli. How Do You Sell?
Nikesh Arora counts 40 firms racing to secure AI agents, at least 20 Israeli. When the category is a knife fight, the deck does not win. The sales motion does.
At-Bay Was Valued at $1.35B. It Sold for $575M. Read the Gap.
At-Bay hit a $1.35B valuation and sold to Munich Re for $575M. A valuation is a bet. Revenue is a fact. Here is how founders should read the difference.
In-House SDRs vs Outsourced: What Early-Stage B2B Should Do
In-house SDRs give control but are slow and costly to build. Outsourced and pay-per-meeting give speed and results-based cost. Here is how to choose by stage.
How to Write a Cold Email That Actually Books Meetings
Most cold email fails because it leads with the product. Here is the framework I use to write short, relevant emails that book real B2B meetings.
Why Deals Stall at the Proposal Stage (and How to Unstick Them)
A proposal is not a close. Deals stall because you sent a price before you built consensus and urgency. Here is how to fix it before the proposal goes out.
Enterprise Sales for Startups: Selling to Companies 100x Your Size
Selling to giants means committees, procurement, and long cycles. Land a champion, multi-thread the account, de-risk the buy, and never single-thread.
How to Recruit Channel Partners That Actually Sell
Most partnerships produce nothing. Recruit partners for real fit and motivation, enable them properly, hold them to numbers, or cut them.
How Much Pipeline You Really Need to Hit Your Number
Pipeline coverage is quota divided by win rate, adjusted for cycle time. Most teams undercount because the pipeline is stuffed with dead deals.
How to Set Sales Quotas Your Team Can Actually Hit
A quota nobody hits demotivates your team and hides the real problem. Here is how to build quotas bottoms-up from rep capacity and pipeline math.
Sales Comp Plans That Actually Motivate
A good comp plan is simple enough a rep can calculate their own check. Here is how to set base, variable, OTE, and quota by role, and the mistakes to avoid.
How to Scale From Founder-Led Sales to a Real Sales Team
Founder-led sales does not scale by hiring. Codify the founder's motion into a playbook, hire to that profile, install management and cadence. Order matters.
Why Your Demos Don't Close
Demos fail when they come before discovery, because you are showing features to a problem you never uncovered. Sell the problem first, then demo to the pain.
How Long Should a B2B Sales Cycle Be (and How to Shorten Yours)
Most B2B sales cycles are long because of stalls and weak qualification, not real complexity. Here are honest benchmarks and the two moves that shorten cycles.
Intel Almost Killed RealSense. Then It Fixed Its Sales and Sold for $600M.
Intel nearly shut RealSense down. Spun out, it went from $8M a quarter to a $600M sale. The technology did not change. The way it sold did.
Outbound vs Inbound for Early-Stage B2B: Where to Start
Inbound compounds but takes many months. Outbound buys control, speed, and market knowledge now. Here is why early-stage B2B almost always needs outbound first.
Your First Sales Hire Keeps Failing. Here Is Why.
If your first sales hire failed and the second is struggling, look at the system before the rep: wrong profile for your stage, no playbook, no management.
How to Build a B2B Sales Process From Scratch
A CRM with random stages is not a sales process. How to build a real B2B sales process from scratch, with buyer-based stages and a forecast you can trust.
How to Hand Off Founder-Led Sales Without Killing the Pipeline
Most founder-led sales handoffs fail because founders dump leads on a rep with no motion. Here is how to transfer the sale without killing your pipeline.
Why Your Startup Can't Sell (And It's Not the Product)
Most founders blame the product when sales stall. The real problem is almost always the motion around it. Here is how to tell, and what to fix first.
When to Hire Your First Salesperson (Founders Wait Too Long, Then Panic)
Revenue milestones do not tell you when to hire your first salesperson. A repeatable motion you can hand off does. Here is what ready actually looks like.