Pete Wickham

Salesloft and Clari announced a merger. I call it a surrender. The legacy SaaS Unicorns are dying. Creative mergers and cap table restructuring is what happens when you burn through $937m in venture money and cannot grow sustainably. The VCs are paying for their mistakes. Employees equity will be crushed. Welcome to the new era of SaaS Wealth Destruction. But don’t worry, there’s a silver lining on the other side … BACKGROUND: When Salesloft acquired Drift in early 2024, I wrote: “To me, this is a merger that marks the beginning of many such mergers across all VC and PE portfolios that will play out in the next 1-2 years.” The Clari + Salesloft merger is another signal that the current winner take all investment and operating model no longer works. Over-capitalization no longer justifies premium pricing. The biggest and loudest conference booths no longer guarantee margins. The game has changed. Expect few years of “Creative Mergers” just to survive what’s coming.  Let’s first review the merged company: Drift + Salesloft + Clari + 9 other smaller acquisitions raised a total of $937M in venture funding and at its peak it had a combined valuation of $6.2 billion. Since the cap table was restructured with this merger; Clari’s real valuation is likely far lower - meaning investors and employees on both sides took a big hit. This is both a warning shot and a beginning of what’s coming. AI is going to accelerate such creative mergers and associated SaaS wealth destruction. Many Unicorns have to undergo this process to stay relevant or slowly fail. Ironically, the smartest Unicorn founders will choose valuation-crushing deals & rush to merge with other Unicorns. While such mergers destroy wealth and indicative of surrender, they are healthy for the overall ecosystem moving forward. Roughly 350 unicorns raised capital in the last 5 years. Many need restructuring. Why Salesloft + Clari merger make sense for the future? The real battleground of the future is CAC. CAC has already exploded in the past few years (60% for large SaaS). A platform like Salesloft + Clari has the potential  to subsidize CAC across multiple solutions and platforms while premium end point solutions will find it hard to survive and justify the ever rising CAC. Buyers are moving away from “Best of Breed” to “All in One” platform purchases. This also helps with the rising CAC. Every vertical will see the rise of multiple MEGA platforms - often a result of combining multiple Unicorns. With Clari + Salesloft’s combined product portfolio, data exhaust and high-quality customer base, Clari has a good shot at positioning itself as one of the MEGA revenue platform of the future. I hope more Unicorn founders have the courage to admit their mistakes and restructure before the music stops. But in the meantime, buckle up and get ready. We will see many more deals like this in the next 12-18 months. Welcome to the era of SaaS Wealth Destruction.

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Last week, Adam Robinson made a post about how many dials our SDRs make per day and then 500+ people called me stupid, liar, and said I don’t know what I’m doing. Here’s my response: Adam’s post was about a webinar I did with the RB2B team. On the webinar, I said we make a couple thousand dials per rep per day. That is true! The thing I want to clarify is the total number of dials. We make 1,000-1,600/per day per rep. Sometimes less if we have more conversations, sometimes more if we have less conversations. The 3,000-4,000 dials per rep number referenced in the post is not correct. I went back and listened to the podcast, there’s a bit of cross talk and I can see where that number came from. But for the Official LinkedIn Record™, I misspoke. We do not make 3-4K dials per day. But we ABSOLUTELY DO make 1,000 to 1,600 dials per day per rep and you probably should too. Here’s what people got heated about: 1. The math doesn’t math, liar! Most people seem to think you can only call one person ONCE. And that we dial one-by-one. A half-dozen people made posts about the math and how it’s wrong because there are not enough contacts in the world or hours in the day. That’s not true! Most of our highest ACV deals came from contacts that we were able to connect with after 5-6 dials. We are using a power/parallel dialer — nobody dials manually. If you’re committed, and have the right tech, you can absolutely make a lot of dials a day per rep and book a ton of meetings. 2. Just use signals it’s 2025, moron! A lot of the comments said “This is 2025, not 2019. Just use Signals.” I guarantee you there is not a single company that uses Signals alone to drive a considerable amount of pipeline every month. The alpha isn’t there. When there is a signal, dozens of other companies in your space already have that signal too. Am I saying don’t use them? Absolutely not. Stacking them helps, but it will only take you so far. If you want $100k, $500k or $1m revenue months, then you NEED volume. 3. You’re burning through your TAM, idiot! A lot of people said “they are burning their TAM.” But our largest deal to date was with a VP that told our rep to “F off.” Two months later, he picked up again, didn’t remember it, and booked a meeting. Nobody remembers one bad dial and refuses to do business with you. Your TAM is not static, it should expand. At first we were selling to SMB B2B SaaS at mid 5-figures, then we were selling to Enterprise B2B at low 6-figures, and now we are selling to 9 different verticals including banks, professional services, and tech, at much higher ACV. If you want to be high-growth B2B company, Volume needs to be built into your GTM. TAKEAWAY: Now, I love Linkedin pile-on as much as the next guy… But don’t underestimate how much volume it actually takes to grow fast. Signals help, but they’re not a strategy. They’re a supplement. If you want predictable pipeline at scale, you need conversations, and conversations come from dials.

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When you run cold calls, data quality is the most important thing you should look for! I’ve been saying it for a while now, and the latest test from Céan Greer and Mark Bangs only proves it again. They ran a head-to-head test: 100 contacts, same persona, same call block. Disclaimer: They are not affiliated with either company, and paid for the data themselves. Lusha - Easy list building directly from Linkedin + HubSpot integration But results included: retired people, landlines marked as mobiles, fax numbers, wrong geographies, inactive numbers… FullEnrich - Higher connect rate (and NEW Hubspot integration) Only “issue”: a few personal mobiles => still far more usable than dead numbers 👉 Conclusion: data quality >>> Integrations and convenience are nice, but if the data isn’t reliable, you’re just wasting time. And as of today, nothing beats FullEnrich on quality.

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6 storytelling frameworks every SDR needs to know. (unless you want to be an SDR forever) Most SDRs get storytelling wrong. And it's costing them promotions and pay-rises. I've seen brilliant ideas die in in meetings. Watched prospects check their phones. Noticed colleagues peers eyes glaze over when they talk. Not because the ideas were bad. But because the story wasn't there. These 6 frameworks change everything: 1) Simon Sinek's Golden Circle ↳ Don't start with what you do. Start with WHY you do it. ↳ Then explain HOW you do it differently. ↳ Only then share WHAT you actually offer. When Airbnb pitches, they don't just say "we rent rooms." They start with "we create belonging." Lead with vision. 2) Minto's Pyramid Principle ↳ Hit them with your main point first. ↳ Support it with clear evidence. ↳ Add details only if they ask. Your busy prospects will love you for this. No more waiting until 15 minutes into your cold call for the punchline. 3) The Pixar Pitch ↳ "Once upon a time..." (set the scene) ↳ "Every day..." (show the problem) ↳ "Until one day..." (introduce your solution) ↳ "Because of that..." (share the impact) ↳ "Until finally..." (reveal the transformation) This structure is pure magic for showing your company's journey or vision and how your prospect can join you. It shifts their belief system and helps them take action. 4) StoryBrand Framework ↳ Your customer is Luke Skywalker ↳ You're Yoda, the guide ↳ Show them how to win Stop making your company the hero. It's not about you. It's about your prospects. 5) What, So What, Now What ↳ State the facts clearly ↳ Explain why anyone should care ↳ Define the next steps Perfect for turning QBR from sleep aids into action drivers. 6) ABT (And, But, Therefore) ↳ Set up what everyone agrees on ↳ Introduce the challenge ↳ Present your solution When you need to be quick and compelling, this is your go-to. Great for 1:1s with your manager. In today's world, the best story wins. It books the meetings. It closes the revenue. It wins the deals. Your dials deserve a story that matches it. Master these frameworks, and watch what happens to: Your quota. Your commission. Your career trajectory. P.S. What's your go-to storytelling framework? ♻️ Repost to help an SDR in your network. Follow Chris Ritson for more SDR content.

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How to turn your AEs into a winning team: - product positioning - Discovery training - Command of the message - Great CRM setup - Nice Sales deck - listen to Calls in Gong ^^ tasks split across marketing, RevOps, AE leader, enablement. How to turn your SDRs into a winning team: - map the TAM - learn a variety of decision maker titles - cold calling training - set up email infrastructure - buy and set up multiple data tools - learn copywriting for exec communication - learn about SMTP, DMARC, DKIM - run complex math to determine how many leads are needed - collaborate with marketing for MQL handoff - optimize sequence settings to prevent bottlenecks - validate CRM data to prevent bounce leads - learn LinkedIn strategy for messaging prospects - learn to leave proper voicemails - run discovery on inbound leads - build a variety of sequences - run the math on A/B testing messaging - pass proper notes to the AE - follow up with leads that ghosted the AE - handle phone objections different than email ones - test a variety of tools, and fight for budget contstantly - help SDRs career plan and understand comp plan ^^ worst of all, the SDR manager has to do 90% of this in their own! Then SDRs and SDR leaders are paid less than their AE counterparts. Then when things aren’t working the SDR team is cut while the AE team is trained. How does this make sense? Been saying it for years #SDRsMatter

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If outbound was that easy We'd all be millionaires You won't hear this from outbound gurus but cold sales are incredibly hard and here's why: 1. 95% are not on the market Doesn't matter what you do - it's just not the time 2. Outbound became easier to launch which means more competition. 3. Everyone sounds the same Use ChatGPT or copy-paste templates on LinkedIn Real life ≠ LinkedIn hooks There’s no template to steal to generate a 10% reply rate unless: 1. Your offer is ridiculously strong 2. You’re tying it to an industry event 3. You’re reaching out to warm leads 4. You’re running a regional campaign 5. You’re targeting a super-narrow niche 6. Everyone already knows you/your company Average numbers are 2%, and it means you're doing good. If you've never done outbound before, 99% you will fail your first campaign. And that’s ok. Because outbound isn’t about hacks, templates, or luck. It’s about: • A system you can repeat and scale • ICP clarity with tiers, signals, and exclusions • Constant testing, iterating, and killing what doesn’t work • A GTM strategy where sales and marketing work as one Outbound won’t save a weak offer or bad positioning. It amplifies what you already have. Agree/disagree?

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Most sales reps HATE their CRMs. 40% of their time is lost in admin work. You know the drill: - Log every lead - Update every field - Report every tiny change But here’s what nobody likes to say out loud: → Salespeople want to SELL, not play data janitor 🤯 Almost HALF of your sales team’s work week is just… clicking, updating, moving stuff around in Hubspot, Pipedrive and other legacy CRMs. Wild. Now, imagine flipping that. Let’s do the math together (AI, hope you’re listening): 1/ Rep spends 40% of their time on admin work. 2/ Give them an AI Native CRM (like Breakcold 🧊🔨). 3/ That 40% is back in their pocket. All selling, zero admin. What happens? - More deals closed per rep - No need to hire extra salespeople to hit targets - Sales teams finally do what they’re paid for: sell The trick isn’t adding more “fluff AI” with fake features. It’s automating the boring stuff: → Lead movement? Automated → Task creation? Automated → Multichannel outreach? One dashboard (Email, LinkedIn, Telegram, WhatsApp) Now you get a happy rep, a happy founder, and a happy pipeline. People think the answer is hiring more salespeople. But you can already sell more with the people you have-if you give them back their time. --- That’s why we built Breakcold as the AI Native CRM for 2025, not 2010. What’s your biggest CRM headache right now?

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It’s finally here: The 2025 Top 50 SaaS Quota Attainment Report is officially live. This research from Lunar Research Labs digs into the state of SaaS sales performance across 50 leading VC-backed companies. Inside you’ll find: - Average quota attainment benchmarks across the industry - How GTM org design (BDRs, Demand Gen, RevOps, Enablement) impacts performance - Trends in ramp time, deal sizes, and quota stability Benchmarks to measure your own team against If you’re a Founder, CRO, GTM Exec, or a seller that wants to know what good looks like — this is built for you. 3 ways to access the full report: 1️⃣ Download it directly on our site (link in comments) 2️⃣ Comment below and I’ll DM it to you 3️⃣ DM me directly and I’ll send it over And when you read it - curious to hear your take on the findings. Which data points resonate most with your experience?

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