Alex McDonnell

Every sales org has a pipeline: Stage 1. Stage 2. Forecast. Commit. You can recite it in your sleep. But when it comes to renewals? Crickets.... There’s no real-time view of customer risk. No weekly trendline. No forward-looking model that projects retention. Isn't that kinda bonkers? You FORECAST growth, but you DISCOVER churn...usually when it’s too late to fix. The big mistake is presuming retention is a lagging indicator, when it would be more accurate to define it as a neglected one. Think about it...most CS dashboards read like a rearview mirror: - Usage metrics. - Ticket volume. - NPS. Useful? Sure. Predictive? Nah. Because churn doesn’t start when a customer says they’re leaving. It starts months earlier when their exec sponsor stops showing up. If you can spot the risk early, you can unlock more levers: - Re-engage power. - Reset the value narrative. - Escalate to commercial. - Offer roadmap visibility. - Re-map success metrics post-reorg. But none of that works if your team can’t see it coming, which is why you need a churn forecast...just like you do for revenue. Build a churn pipeline. Treat it like sales. Some things to build into this: 1. Define churn stages. Just like deals, risk evolves: - Stage 1 (Early): No exec alignment, lagging adoption, stakeholder turnover. - Stage 2 (Mid): Value not realized, weak champion, limited engagement. - Stage 3 (Late): Renewal live, buyer pushing back, pricing/legal blockers. Assign clear criteria. Surface it in Gainsight, CZ, or Salesforce. Manage it like opportunity stages. 2. Assign prevention plays. Each stage should trigger a play: - Stage 1 = exec outreach + roadmap session. - Stage 2 = commercial review + value plan. - Stage 3 = C-level call + tailored retention offer. Codify this. Don’t let reps improvise. 3. Forecast it weekly. Revenue leaders inspect pipeline weekly. CS should do the same with churn. Ask: - How many accounts moved stages? - What’s projected retention by segment? - What % of at-risk logos have exec visibility? Also, share your churn forecast with the CFO. If the CFO sees new logo pipeline every Monday, but doesn’t see churn risk until Q4? That's no bueno. Start sending a weekly churn report with: - Total ARR at risk. - ARR by churn stage. - Stage progression. - Active recovery plays. - Forecasted retention (with confidence levels). This reduces surprises while also forcing accountability. Why? Because churn is rarely a CS failure, but it's often a product gap, pricing mismatch, or sales promise that aged poorly. When churn is forecasted, it becomes EVERYONE'S problem. Which it is. tl;dr = you don’t “discover” churn. You forecast it. You stage it. You act on it. Just like sales.

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I’ve run many deal reviews over the last few weeks. Three of the deals were “stuck.” My advice for “unsticking” each was the same: “Make the next step easier for the prospect.” Sellers have to remember: 99% of your prospect’s job is not related to buying your product. 100% of your job is helping them buy your product. So you should do all you can to make every step as easy as possible for your prospect. A common time deals get “stuck” is right before a trial or a proof-of-concept. The most common reason deals get stuck at this stage is sellers wait for the prospect to finalize the trial/POC criteria. Think about all the work this creates for your prospect: - Schedule internal meetings to discuss requirements - Document requirements, and determine outcomes - Circulate document internally to get feedback/sign-off from anyone that missed the meeting(s) Add in vacations/busy schedules and these few steps could easily take weeks. A better route is making the next steps easier for your prospect - here's how we did it for our “stuck” deal: 1) Built our recommended PoC requirements and outcomes I told the AE to review the discovery and demo transcripts to make sure we cover customer mentioned required capabilities and tie to customer stated metrics. Then, I told them to add in additional required capabilities we know they’ll need to be successful, along with the outcomes they drive. Ideally, at least a few of these would be required capabilities we know our competition struggles to provide. 2) Position us as experts + make prospect’s job easier Once our recommended proof-of-concept approach was built, we sent to the prospect with a note: “We’re looking forward to kicking off your proof-of-concept. We’ve done a ton of these so we built out an initial template you can use as you build out your requirements - we made sure to include everything you mentioned as being essential in prior conversations + what we’ve seen necessary for customers with similar goals. Feel free to add/remove from this starting point, but hopefully this saves you some time. How’s your calendar next week to discuss this template + any necessary revisions?” Sure enough, this approach got the prospect engaged again. Take 30 minutes this week to review “stuck” deals in your pipeline. For each deal, write out: - What is the next step the prospect has to take? - What part of it can you do for them? And I bet you see a few “stuck” deals get moving again as you make it easier for your prospects to evaluate your solution. If you found this post helpful, you’ll love the AE Operating System. Templates, scripts, prompts, and more for every part of the deal cycle to help you sell more - the same tactics I've taught my teams to 2x our deal size, increase our win rate, and more than triple the percentage of reps hitting quota. Hundreds have already jumped in - and early feedback has been incredible. If you don't have your access yet, you can join at hitmyquota.com!

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FINALLY - AI that actually understands RevOps. We’ve spent years stitching together the perfect GTM engine. Tools connected, intent data layered in, scoring models humming. But let’s be honest: none of it matters if sellers can’t act on it fast. That’s where ZoomInfo Copilot Workspace comes in. It’s the missing link between all the orchestration we’ve built and actual execution. No more watching our workflows get ignored because they’re too clunky. No more great data collecting dust in twelve different platforms. Copilot turns all that complexity into one simple workspace sellers want to use. It makes their job easier, not harder. That’s the unlock. This changes everything. Ops and execution finally move in sync. GTM starts to feel frictionless. This is what AI for RevOps was always supposed to be. 👉 Read Henry Schuck’s blog to see what this means for your team: https://lnkd.in/gJjaT9Rm

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How CS leaders can earn a permanent seat at the GTM table. Earlier this week I wrote about why the VP of Customer Success will be one of the highest-paid execs in SaaS in 5 years. There was a huge response, and the question I got over and over was: “How do I actually get there?” Here’s the playbook I’ve seen work. 1. Speak the revenue language Stop reporting on CSAT and “time to first value” in isolation. Start tying every update to NRR, expansion ARR, and churn impact. 2. Own a number If you want a seat at the GTM table, carry a target. Even better, be the person who consistently beats it. 3. Get close to the deal Be in late-stage sales calls for high-potential accounts. Not to handhold onboarding, but to set the stage for expansion and advocacy from day one. 4. Build cross-functional trust Partner with Sales, RevOps, and Marketing like you’re all on the same team, because you are. The moment you look like “post-sale only,” you limit your influence. 5. Bring data, not feelings Executives operate on facts. Walk into meetings with adoption curves, usage trends, and expansion likelihood scores that Sales can act on. CS leaders who do these things will stop being “customer people” in the eyes of the exec team. They'll become revenue leaders, and that’s when they will get the title, the budget, and the influence to match. ----------------------- Hey, I’m Nicholas 👋 I run Lucidly, the Customer Intelligence Platform for post-sale revenue growth. I post every weekday morning (8:30am PST) about retention, expansion, and building a SaaS from the ground up. Follow for ideas you can put to work the same day. DM anytime.

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"Should we be product-led or sales-led?" Wrong question. It's not either/or. It's when and where. Too many teams get stuck debating which GTM motion is "better" when the real answer depends on 3 critical factors: 1- Complexity of your problem/solution 2- Time-to-value and setup difficulty 3- Whether you're selling top-down or bottom-up You don't choose between PLG and SLG like picking sides in a debate. You match your motion to these realities. What most founders miss is that the companies that get this right don't go "all in" on one side. Instead, they build hybrid models. Here's what that looks like in practice: → Let small companies completely self-serve → Pass high-quality accounts to sales to accelerate deals → Use product data to upsell customers automatically with the product The data backs this up: OpenView's 2023 benchmarks show PLG motions deliver 25% faster sales cycles and 44% lower CAC for sub-$10K deals. Instead of engaging in the product-led vs sales-led debate, ask: "What's the fastest path to value for each customer segment?" That's how you build a GTM strategy that actually works.

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Too much sales outbounding still starts with the same lines:  ☑️ “Just checking in.”  ☑️ “Hope you're doing well.”  ☑️ “We help companies like yours…” The future of selling is rooted in real connection, not automation. Every touchpoint is a chance to differentiate or disappear. Personalization is more than using a name or company, it’s about showing you’ve done the work to understand what matters. That’s how conversations start. Sellers win when they treat outreach as a conversation, not a template. Revenue is a team sport — and that starts with every seller showing up with empathy, insight, and intent. Let’s raise the bar. The buyer deserves it. So does your pipeline.

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Your sales team is drowning in manual research. Your marketing team can’t keep up with lead enrichment. Your ops team is stuck doing data entry instead of strategy. Here’s why Clay's $100M Series C at a $3.1B valuation should matter to every GTM leader: They’re not just building software—they’re creating an entirely new profession. “GTM Engineering” is what happens when you combine growth acumen with AI automation. Think of it like this: one GTM engineer can now amplify 100 salespeople by automating all their research, signal tracking, and data entry. The numbers are wild: → 400+ GTM engineering jobs posted in 4.5 months → $160K median salary (20% above traditional ops roles) → Multiple Clay customers under 30 have scaled agencies to $1M+ ARR in under a year Companies like Anthropic, Cursor, and Thoropass are already using Clay to automate prospect research, track customer mentions, and trigger personalized outreach based on real-time signals. 3 ways demand gen marketers can start using Clay this week: 1. Auto-enrich inbound leads with company size, tech stack, funding data, and just about anything else your heart desires to score and route faster than your competition 2. Build hyper-targeted account lists by combining criteria like “Companies with 1k-5k employees focused on ESG with 100+ retail locations” 3. Track competitor mentions and industry signals to trigger timely campaigns when prospects show buying intent The future belongs to marketers who build systems, not just campaigns. Excited to be a #ClayPartner as they build this new reality for all of us.

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The modern buyer doesn’t want a product pitch. They want a partner who can diagnose problems and design solutions. That means sales training has to evolve. Scripts and objection flashcards won’t cut it. With Pepsales AI, we’ve built training scenarios straight from real calls, where reps learn to ask sharper questions, connect business goals to value, and think like architects, not order-takers. Because in 2025, solutioning is selling.

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