Chris Pitchford

North Star metrics are the backbone of any successful marketplace. In this clip, Godard Abel shares how G2 focuses on quality reviews, buyer traffic, and vendor revenue as leading indicators of success. Episode 462 of The Full Ratchet dives into his journey of building and scaling G2 to $100M ARR, the challenges of early-stage entrepreneurship, and how AI is transforming software discovery. Link to the full episode is in the comment section below.

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Most sales leaders focus on their top performers. But your best reps will crush quota whether you help them or not. Here's the uncomfortable truth about scaling revenue... Your top 10% will succeed despite you. They'll figure out how to sell your product and close deals even if you give them zero support, no collateral, and an undefined ICP. But you can't build a scalable revenue engine on top 10% talent alone. It's just math. Even with a rigorous interview process and strong recruiting brand, our 12-month retention rate at Levelset was around 55%. And that was GOOD. The key to scaling isn't finding more unicorns. It's raising the floor for everyone else. That means writing down exactly what success looks like. Not just hoping good people will "figure it out." I learned this the hard way. For the first 4 years (or so), we closed deals almost in spite of ourselves. No real sales playbook. No defined process. Just talented people working hard. When we finally documented our exact process - from first touch to close - our ramp time plummeted and consistency shot up. The uncomfortable truth? Most founders spend way more time recruiting than preparing to train and support their hires. Your playbook doesn't need to be fancy. Start with one document: "How to Run a Demo." Make it painfully detailed. Your top reps will hate it. Your new reps will love you for it.

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PE investors / operators: have "hire additional sales capacity" on your VCP or annual plan? HIRING new reps is only half the battle. For the ROI math to math, gotta then make 'em productive. As quickly as possible. But when it comes to making reps productive quickly, B2B companies face two big challenges: →The average tenure of a B2B sales rep is less than two years, YET... → Reps hit their peak performance two to three years in. Translation: Most reps leave before they’ve reached max productivity. Eek. In many cases, weak sales onboarding is to blame. But taking a more intentional approach to sales onboarding has a bevy of obvious benefits: • Reducing sales turnover • Shortening time-to-revenue • Higher odds of achieving your rev targets Hit on this in the book in Winning Move #32, but check out the vid below for a deeper dive on the P's and Q's of sales onboarding ▶️ * * * * * Found this helpful? Plenty more where that came from. Check out the Winning Moves Platform: the ambitious PE leader's toolkit for accelerating value creation. ↳ A digital arsenal of resources, how-to's, and tools to help private equity leaders make value-generating Winning Moves with confidence. Link in the comments below. ⤵️

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John McMahon did a great job explaining sales leadership in this book. If you are a CEO of Founder and you are not yet familiar with sales this is one of the best books available for you to read. If you are a sales leader there are some nuggets and reminders on how to lead your team to new heights. #venture #ceo

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STOP Wasting Time Chasing Deals You’ll Never Close. Most buyers fumble because they don’t know their weak spots. Get your BBR Score and uncover what’s holding you back. 🔥 Don’t guess—get clarity in minutes. Your million-dollar future depends on it. Take the Assessment Here https://lnkd.in/emEzGXZ2

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The transition from founder led sales -> a repeatable GTM motion is hard... Extremely hard. There are so many things to consider to mitigate risk and get as many repetitions on closed loop feedback as quickly as possible. -> what profile of a rep should I hire -> how to assess the right talent -> SDR or AE or growth hacker type or both -> what channels should we be testing -> what does good look like? What does great look like? -> how do I know if we’re making progress? And so much more… We’re discussing all this live next Tuesday at Kiln. If you’re in Utah, come check it out: https://lnkd.in/eQ9dyJK4

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Here's my 2024 LinkedIn Rewind, by Coauthor: 2024 confirmed what many CEOs and CFOs already suspected: GTM effectiveness continues to erode. One dollar in three spent on GTM is now ineffective - not because teams aren't working hard, but because they're not calibrating investments to take market volatility into account. The evidence is clear: Marketing acts as a nonlinear multiplier of Sales effectiveness (8x) and efficiency (5x). Yet most companies can't see this because they're looking quarter by quarter instead of understanding time-lagged causality and the effects of marketplace headwinds. At ProofAnalytics.ai we've focused on helping companies understand and optimize their true GTM multiplier effect: • Achieved a unique MASB certification for our causal AI platform • Expanded role in developing modern GTM organizational standards • Joined MarTech as columnist and Forbes Business Council as commentator • Conducted extensive CEO/CFO interviews on their understanding and misunderstanding of GTM effectiveness Four posts that sparked crucial conversations: "Brand and Brand Reputation - The ROLEX Example" Your brand is what you say and do. Your brand reputation is what others believe about what you've said and done. https://lnkd.in/g-D2WUCD "Conversation with Upset F1000 CFO" Marketing is a nonlinear multiplier of Sales... but everyone was like 'we've never heard this before!' https://lnkd.in/gY7viNQf "CEO's Airplane Conversation About B2B Marketing" On the dangerous disconnect between marketing practices and customer needs https://lnkd.in/gqNVZ-fT “Sell Me the Pen on Marketing Impact” Call with a CEO and CMO illustrated the fundamental gap in understanding Marketing’s unique contribution to Sales outcomes. https://lnkd.in/gmjXa8eT 2025 will be pivotal. The pressure for marketing accountability will intensify as AI brings unprecedented transparency to GTM effectiveness. Teams that can't demonstrate their multiplier effect will face existential challenges. But those who embrace causal analytics to prove and improve their impact will thrive. To every marketing leader preparing for 2025: The tools exist to prove your value. The question is no longer whether marketing drives growth – it's whether you can demonstrate how much, when, and why. #CausalAI #GTMEffectiveness

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What are your thoughts on seeing their deals mapped out in a deal velocity scorecard? This is part of the performance dashboard we're building for MidFunnel. The idea is that sellers can see how their deals are faring. Managers can quickly get a pulse on deal progress. The velocity is calculated based on the responsiveness of communication. Next we're considering adding qualitative insights on prospect eagerness as well. #sales #sales-tech

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Wondering how to merge PLG and SLG for maximum impact? Japna Sethi talks about how they made this work at companies like Dropbox, Productboard, and Calendly. She calls it "defining the API" between the two growth motions so the right PLG leads get passed on to your sales team and shares the details on the approaches at the companies she has worked. For the full episode: https://lnkd.in/d-2ZAvir

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🧪 CRO Case Study Episode 54 One A/B test → 930K plus revenue 🚀 Swipe to learn how one A/B test added over $930K to our client's annual revenue. The Results Breakdown: +$77,558 per month +$930,696 per year (forecasted) +$0.58 revenue per session Bookmark this!

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More focused sales targeting = faster growth. Most companies stall out around $5MM in revenue and never get beyond $10MM. I learned this the hard way. Let me tell you a story. When we hit ~$1MM in revenue, we were getting buying signals from across the market. We were signing up new SMB customers every day. We had enterprise customers coming inbound. It felt like we had the tiger by the tail. But something happened around $5MM. Churn ticked up. New revenue from new customers slowed down. Growing 100% each year felt impossible. Then we learned that our SMB customers and our Enterprise customers had different pain points and different buying processes. Each part of the market required its own go-to-market approach. So we separated the teams. We separated the messaging. We separated the sales process. And we FOCUSED on our core customer, the SMB customer. It was especially hard to stop pursuing big enterprise customers. But we focused our efforts on a very specific customer profile, and our revenue accelerated. That's what lifted us past $10MM. And the enterprise revenue eventually came. It always does. So focus on your ICP if you want to grow to $10MM faster.

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Attention VCs: Your deal flow is broken. Here's why: - You're fishing in crowded waters - Your time management is a mess - Economic rollercoasters are derailing your strategy - Quality deals are needles in a haystack But don't panic. This infographic breaks down each problem... And offers actionable solutions. Click to see how you can: - Cut through the noise - Streamline your processes - Adapt to market fluctuations - Uncover hidden gems What's your biggest deal flow challenge? Tell me in the comments 👇 --- 📌 If you liked this (and want to support my work): 1. Like 2. Repost Thank you! #BrainDumps | BrainDump #83

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CRO Success Checklist for 2025 (Save this)

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Maintain a sufficient pipeline of 4 times your quota. Adequate pipeline helps to relieve the stress to perform on specific deals. Reduced stress allows you to approach sales as a competitive game and a fun challenge. Do not take success per deal personally. Treat each deal as a competitive contest you can walk away from proud of knowing you gave your best effort. Building relationships with your customers is the fun part of sales. Ask personal questions. Invest time to learn about your customers as humans. Personal relationships require empathy, time, and patience. Extra credit challenge: Getting a hug from your customer confirms you have a personal relationship. Credit to Drew Elam

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Would you hire a recently fired VP of Sales to lead the GTM strategy for your $500K start-up, especially if that candidate had absolutely no industry experience? Likely not, right? Well, LinkSquares did. And I bet they were happy with that decision! So, what's the story? How (and why) did Steve Travaglini (Pavilion 2023 CRO of the year) get fired from one VP of Sales role, after scaling sales from $0-$7M, only to lead growth at LinkSquares from $500K to $50M in ARR over the ensuing 5 years? In the clip below he talks about what he learned in the early days of their rapid growth and what he would change going forward. You can hear the entire episode for yourself on today's episode of The GOATS of Growth podcast, but if he were one of my candidates, here is how I would summarize his attributes: --Gritty --Resilient --Adaptable --Resourceful --Optimistic --Humble And, most importantly, a STRONG bias towards action which was, in opinion, the bedrock for their strong sales culture. Steve, I had been looking forward to interviewing you for a long time and I'm happy I finally got the chance. Thanks for being such a great guest! Please follow Steve to watch as he builds his own startup, Winrate, in public. Listen to the full episode here: https://buff.ly/3Cjhr6Q

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Well said, Jen Abel. And even beyond these ARR guardrails, startups often instinctively throw in enterprise and SMB as dual strategies. Or direct and PLG. Outbound and channel. And more! #startup #sales #GTM #SMB #channel #enterprise #PLG #directsales

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How we drove $2.5+ mil in pipe for a 50+ BDR org: Look at a list of key contacts who left their previous company Enrich in Clay with current company, company size Cross reference with Salesforce to see account owners, ROE Check previous, current accounts with Gong AMA to build out an account brief Push into Evabot AI for Sales Outbound 2.0 to build a 100% custom AI sequence BDRs execute Super admins start a new deal cycle $2.8 mil and counting in pipe generated (Granted... 1 mil came from Coca Cola... but if we helped start an opp at Coca Cola, I'll take it)

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Sales experience is overrated for SMB sales teams. Instead of competing for experience, we built a $500M business by hiring misfits. Our SMB team was a scrappy group of entrepreneurs, teachers, bartenders, door-to-door sellers, and Uber drivers. We figured out how to convert people with limited sales experience into $150k+ earners. You can do this with your team, but you have to think differently about how your hire. Most founders obsess over hiring the “best" sales talent. They spend too much time searching for that perfect 10/10 rep who can figure it out on their own. Here's what we learned building Levelset’s SMB sales team: hire for enthusiasm, ambition, grit, resourcefulness, and curiosity. The rest can be taught. Our best sellers didn't come from fancy tech companies. They came from the service industry. From odd jobs. From grinding it out in the real world. Why? Because SMB sales is about effort and resilience. It's about making 75 calls a day and handling constant rejection. It's about showing up with energy even when you don't feel like it. Once you find the right candidates, surround them with support: 1. Write down exactly what success looks like 2. Show them the blueprint step-by-step 3. Celebrate their first win like it's the Super Bowl 4. Coach relentlessly on the fundamentals 5. Create a path to grow beyond SMB Some of our top performers went from zero software experience to running $200k+ enterprise deals in under 3 years. But it started with mastering the basics in SMB. Stop searching for unicorn sales reps. Start building a system that can turn hungry, coachable people into confident sellers. The best part? When you nail this, you'll never worry about the "talent war" again. You'll have an unlimited pool of future rockstars ready to be developed. Want to learn more about how we did it? I wrote about our exact playbook for hiring and coaching SMB sales reps, comment “SEND IT” and it’s yours.

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