James Brown

❌ Too many teams treat qualification as a tick-box. ✅ The best treat it as a discipline—and the numbers are brutal. A recent research piece from RevOps Co-op analysed 655k opportunities worth $48B. The punchline? Well-qualified deals win 6.3× more often and close 21.6% faster, and they’re 1.9× less likely to slip 90+ days. Qualification isn’t a form to fill; it’s the operating system for revenue. Where teams fall down (and quietly tax ARR & margin): 1. “We did Discovery.” Great—then nothing gets updated. Only 36% of opps that pass Discovery have both a qualification score and supporting notes. That’s not rigour; that’s roulette. 2. MEDDPICC theatre: “Champion” gets a name, but Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Paper Process, Compelling Event are MIA—so forecasts wobble and deals slip. (Yes, the high-rigour cohorts close faster and slip less.) 3. Service-firm classic: pricing lives in email, rate cards live in Excel, and renewal risk appears… at renewal. Qualification didn’t fail in Close—it failed months earlier. ⭐ What top performers actually do: • Treat qualification as continuous—rigour compounds from Discovery → Evaluation → Negotiation; nothing is left undocumented by Close. • Disqualify early to protect capacity and fee margin; focus coaching on deals with verified EB/DP/DC (not vibes). • Align Sales + Delivery + Finance around the same deal reality (terms, rate, margin, paper). How to operationalise (HubSpot, service-business edition): • Stage gates with teeth - no stage progression without them. • Playbooks → structured notes: bind MEDDPICC answers to properties (no free-text sprawl). • Quotes & Line Items: embed rate cards/pricing calculators (ACV/ARR/TCV + margin), with approval workflows for discounts. • Renewal pipeline: auto-create 120–180 days out; qualification continues into success/expansion. • Dashboards: pipeline coverage in £ ARR/CARR, proposal→close %, discount impact on contribution margin, slippage by stage. Takeaway: Qualification isn’t optional—it’s survival. If your forecast still runs on “best guesses,” you don’t have a system—you have a spreadsheet full of hope. The Avidity Build Bibles now come with this as standard - not nice to have. #revops #revenueoperations #professionalservices #hubspotpartner #salesoperations #MEDDPICC #forecastaccuracy #ARR #CARRaa

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I’m fanatical about pipeline generation and I think the phone is the best way to generate pipeline. But I still think “org-wide call targets” are stupid for 3 simple reasons: 1) Some reps have high connect rates, some are lower 2) Some reps set meetings with 20% of prospects they talk to, some are lower 3) Some reps convert most of their meetings to opportunities, some convert fewer So how would I set a call target relevant to everyone? Set it too low, and the low-converting reps have no chance to find success while they work on improving conversion. Set it too high, and the high-converting reps are annoyed AND their conversion likely decreases, making them less efficient. So I don’t set org-wide call targets. Instead, we set org-wide outcome targets (e.g., opportunities created), and then use data to inform individual input goals to reach out those outcomes. Some of my favorite “outcomes” to track: - Initial meetings set - Number of conversations - Discovery meetings converting to opportunities My favorite way to track priority outcomes is my “Good Day Framework.” It’s my most popular framework for improving pipeline generation, and you start generating more pipeline with it today here: https://lnkd.in/g879yrCK

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When quotas are hit, most leadership teams take that as proof their system works. But what if hitting quota is actually a red flag? In Varicent's 2025 SPM Market Spotlight, we surveyed over 1,400 revenue and operations leaders and uncovered a surprising contradiction: 90% of sellers say they expect to hit their quotas.  But only 31% of sellers believe those quotas are realistic. Why does this gap matter? When teams consistently hit unrealistic quotas, it doesn’t mean the plan is working. It means something else is compensating.  Often, that looks like a few top reps pulling most of the weight, rushed deals at quarter-end, or margin-eroding discounts.  It’s not a sign of sustainable growth. It's a sign of friction. High-performing organizations approach quotas differently: ● They align targets with actual market opportunity, using territory data, account potential, and realistic benchmarks.  ● They measure median attainment, not just the average, to see whether success is spread across the team or carried by a few.  ● They monitor the ratio of activity to outcomes to make sure seller effort translates into sustainable pipeline and revenue. Real growth is not about whether the number is hit. It’s about how it’s hit. If you're using quota attainment as proof of strategic alignment, it might be time to take a closer look. Access the research here: https://hubs.ly/Q03sG4kD0 The 2025 SPM Market Spotlight unpacks how top-performing companies are redesigning quota models to drive scalable, equitable growth. 

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95% 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐈. But most sales teams are still stuck in manual mode. BetterCloud's 2025 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐒 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞-𝐮𝐩 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥: 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐥 → But automation isn’t.  → Most GTM teams are still buried in repetitive tasks like prospecting, enrichment, follow-ups. 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐦 → 60% of IT teams say manual ops limit their strategic focus.  → Sales teams feel it too: context-switching, data clean-up, scattered systems. 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 → 70% prefer unified SaaS platforms over cobbled-together point tools.  → Seamless AI workflows are the future. 𝐀𝐩𝐩 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐥 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 → Teams use ~106 SaaS apps on average.  → That’s fewer than last year, but still messy for GTM workflows. 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐚 “𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐞-𝐭𝐨-𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞” → It’s table stakes.  → Sales teams who automate early get compounding returns in pipeline, precision, and productivity. 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧. 𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮.

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