John Black

Revenue leadership is hitting an inflection point. For years, scaling revenue meant more reps, more managers, more playbooks. That model still works. But it’s no longer enough. Just this week, CRO titles at companies like Gong and Apollo.io quietly shifted. Gong’s CRO became Chief Revenue Architect. Customer Success roles evolved into Revenue Architects. Apollo moved CSMs toward GTM Engineers. Those aren’t cosmetic title tweaks. They’re signals. Growth is shifting from scaling teams that run playbooks to designing systems that automate execution - blending human judgment with agentic AI tools. That is a fundamentally different playbook. The idea has been building for years. Manny Medina, founder of Outreach, was early to this shift when he described the emerging AI-native revenue leader - a systems builder, not just a team scaler. Winning by Design helped popularize the idea that GTM has an architecture. Clay made that architecture programmable (if you had the right specialists). Now tools like Claude Code are making true programmability accessible to in-house GTM teams - allowing revenue orgs to build their own system layer without relying on external specialists. And the next generation of sales software organizations won’t just sell tools - they’ll help companies redesign how their GTM actually runs, shifting teams from manual execution to programmable, agentic workflows tailored to their motion. The system layer just became buildable. The implication: revenue leaders are moving from playbook scalers to system architects - designing how people, process, and AI work together. Elite selling will always matter. Great leadership will always matter. But how the entire GTM engine gets engineered is changing for good. This is not the same playbook we’ve run for the last 20 years. Boards are starting to recognize that the next era of growth demands system architects, not just headcount scalers. Revenue leadership has entered its system-building era.

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What if you did not need to wait 2-3 years before success? I think we need to stop following the traditional paths that others are always suggesting? Waiting 18-24 months is way to long for startups and SMBs to implement software. A team of 20 people fully loaded will burn through $2-5 million in 24 months. As we know money does not grow on trees. For 26 years we all have been doing the same thing. We evaluate one problem, we fix that one problem, we move on to the next problem, but none of those problems are being solved togeather as one. This is the biggest problem we need to figure out. Then AI hit and we all wished that everything was perfect so AI would just work. But all AI did was prove that every point solution we implemented was broken. Too many customizations. Too many silos. Too many integrations. Data is located in too many locations. So what does AI do it hallucinates. This is why we all need to think differently: 1. Don’t buy software that takes an army to implement. If it does the software you bought does not exist and being custom built. 2. Don’t accept the old way and find a vendor who built for the future not just to fix one of your problems. 3. Don’t accept paying for all your software upfront, do pay for it when it goes live. You will find you are less disappointed. This is what I learned through the past five years owning a software company. This is not a RevOps problem to solve this is a C-Suite problem and they need to think differently.

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🚀 Revenue isn’t random. It’s built on rhythm. At Clari we believe Revenue Cadences are the backbone of operational excellence. They create the structure and discipline that allow teams to move in sync, make smarter decisions, and drive predictable growth. The best revenue teams aren't lucky. They rely on consistent, repeatable cadences to ensure they’re aligned, accountable, and always one step ahead. That’s why we created our new guide: “4 Essential Revenue Cadences That Drive Operational Excellence.” It breaks down the most critical cadences every revenue organization needs to run with clarity, confidence, and consistency. 👉 If you want to build a revenue engine that runs on time, every time, this is for you. https://clari.to/ui7ru

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Exactly!! A 2024 study by Gartner found that SaaS companies with a heavy reliance on SDRs saw a 15-20% rise in CAC compared to those empowering AEs to prospect directly. A 2023 report from HubSpot revealed that sales cycles for enterprise deals shortened by 30% when AEs engaged C-suite prospects early through personalized cold outreach.

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A CRO's job is about investment, not just sales. Every dollar must convert directly into customer value. A major tech investment is completely worthless until reps connect it to a customer's pain point in a conversation. Waiting for quarterly reports to see if that message lands is a massive, wasted liability. You can't rely on those lagging indicators. Our CRO, Mark Niemiec, uses Salesloft Conversations to validate investments immediately. He doesn't wait for the quarter to end, he listens. He pulls a report to see: Are reps discussing the new initiative? What is the customer's real-time reaction to the messaging? That feedback is the difference between a great investment and a complete loss. You don't just see the ROI, you can hear it right now.

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Enterpret's Wisdom MCP server is now live in Claude as an official Anthropic partner connector. Any Claude user on Enterpret can now query their full customer feedback knowledge graph directly in conversation. Support tickets, NPS, Gong calls, app reviews. Plain language in, sourced answers traced to real conversations out. The insight: we recently tested Claude on 25,000 raw feedback records. It spent 80% of its token budget just searching and sorting files, saw about 10% of the data, and misread sentiment by 8x. The output still read like your best analyst wrote it. That's the gap Wisdom closes. Enterpret structures and connects your feedback before AI touches it, so models reason over your full customer context instead of sampling raw files and guessing. In our test, the difference was "performance is the #1 issue" vs. "97 accounts affected, $237M in ARR, three renewals in 90 days."

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Most midmarket sales teams do not need Gong. Not because Gong is bad. It's a very capable software powering countless winning enterprise sales and revenue teams. Because for a lot of midmarket teams, it is the wrong shape of solution for their actual problem. What usually happens: The team wants a few very specific outcomes: better meeting summaries, cleaner CRM updates, more consistent next-step tracking, less admin time for reps, less manager guesswork, and follow-up workflows that actually happen. So they buy a large conversation intelligence platform. Then reality kicks in: they use a fraction of the feature set, configuration never fully matches the sales motion, outputs do not fit how their team actually sells, managers rely on a few pieces, reps work around the rest, and the team still ends up in Slack, docs, CRM notes, and manual follow-up. That is especially true in midmarket teams because they usually have more idiosyncratic sales motions, less RevOps capacity, lower tolerance for heavyweight software overhead, and less appetite to pay enterprise SaaS pricing for partial adoption. The issue is not: “we need more AI sales software.” The issue is usually: “we need 3–5 sales workflows to work properly.” Things like meeting recap formatted to the team’s exact structure, CRM writeback to the right fields and stages, follow-up drafting based on the actual call, manager visibility into deal slippage, and next-step routing tied to how the team actually operates. That is not a software-category problem. That is a workflow design plus implementation problem. For a lot of midmarket teams, the better move is: scope the workflow in a week, build exactly what the team needs, fit it to their sales motion, handle token costs / model variance / optimization behind the scenes, and keep the implementation aligned to the team instead of forcing the team to adapt to the platform. That’s the shift I think more teams will make over the next 12 months. Less: buy generic AI SaaS because it’s packaged nicely. More: identify the exact workflow you want fixed, then implement for that. For many midmarket sales orgs, you do not need Gong. You need the right summary structure, the right CRM automation, the right follow-up logic, the right manager visibility, and a system that actually fits your team. That is a much narrower problem. And usually a much better investment.

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This is part of your 2026 strategy whether you've named it that or not. Your all being asked to do more with less. The teams that figure this out won't do it by hiring faster, they'll do it by operating at a different level of maturity.

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Hate to break it to you, but your sophisticated routing system may have just cost you another deal. During our monthly RevOps Peer Group that took place last week, someone mentioned their lead routing creating 2-3 day delays between form fill and first call. Round-robin by vertical. Adjusted for deal size. Balanced by pipeline load. Filtered by certification. Weighted by performance scores. Meanwhile, the prospect already signed with the competitor who just called them back in 4 hours lol. The routing logic looks amazing. In reality, every layer of "optimization" adds friction. And friction kills deals. Here's the actual timeline: - Monday 2pm: Lead submits form.  - Monday 2:45pm: Routing engine finally assigns "optimal" rep.  - Tuesday 9am: Rep sees notification (was out of office).  - Wednesday 11am: Rep makes first call attempt.  - Wednesday 11:02am: Prospect says "we already signed with someone else Tuesday." One person on the call stripped their routing back to geographic territories and rep availability. That's it. Response time dropped from 2.8 days to 4 hours. Win rates up 23%. All just because routing got faster. Your buyers don't give a shit about your internal optimization. They want someone to call them back before they forget why they filled out the form! The best routing system is the one that gets leads to live humans fastest. Simple beats smart when speed matters.

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❓ Trying to break into RevOps? Or maybe level up to Manager/Director/VP? I’ve had the same conversation with a LOT of folks lately - people in between roles, people trying to break into RevOps, and people who are ready for the next rung up the ladder. And most of them start in the wrong place. They jump straight to solutions: “Should I get my Salesforce cert?” or “What other tools should I get certified in?” Here’s what I tell every single one of them: ⭐ START WITH THE PROBLEM, NOT THE CERTIFICATION Before you spend time or money on badges, do this: 1️⃣ Pull 5 - 10 job descriptions for roles you actually want next. 2️⃣ Identify where you already have experience. Don’t undersell yourself - operators are notoriously bad at this. 3️⃣ Circle the gaps. These are the problems you need to solve for. 4️⃣ THEN look at certifications as potential solutions. Not the other way around. If a JD requires Salesforce certs? Great - now you know why you’re getting certified and exactly what box it checks. If it doesn’t? Don’t waste cycles chasing creds that won’t move you closer to the role you want. ⭐ APPLY LIKE AN OPERATOR, NOT A JOB SEEKER The “scroll → quick apply → pray” approach? Doesn’t work. The people who are landing jobs right now treat their job search like an outbound sales motion (which you should be very familiar with in RevOps). Here’s the play: 1️⃣ Build a target account list. Find companies you genuinely want to work for. 2️⃣ Identify your hiring personas. Who would be your manager? CRO, VP RevOps, Head of GTM Strategy, etc. 3️⃣ Map your channels. LinkedIn DM? Cold email? Mutual intro? Community connection? 4️⃣ Run the outreach. Reach out. Follow up. Book meetings. You already know how to enable this for sales - now do it for yourself. This works way better than firing 200 resumes into a black hole. ⭐ LEVERAGE YOUR NETWORK (MOST PEOPLE DON’T) A lot of folks ask me for advice on how to break in or move up. One of the easiest things I do for them: They send me bullet points on their background + what they want next. I make an anonymous LinkedIn post + an anonymous post in the RevOps Co-op Slack. And you know what happens every single time? Introductions start flowing. Interviews get booked. People land roles. Just in the last few months: Someone landed their first VP of RevOps role Multiple folks landed new RevOps Manager/Director roles Others opened doors they’d never have gotten through from an online application People WANT to help you. Make it easy for them. ⭐ FINAL THOUGHT If you’re looking for your next RevOps role, start with the problem you’re trying to solve, then run your job search like you’d run any great GTM motion. And if you want me to amplify your search? DM me your bullet points. I’ll post anonymously and see what opportunities shake loose. Let’s get more operators into roles where they win. 🙌 #revops #revenueoperations

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A great conversation with RepVue featuring our CRO Spencer Tuttle on what it really takes to build a durable, high-performing sales org at a pre-IPO company. Redis continues to build momentum: *Surpassed $300M+ ARR *Powering critical infrastructure across cloud, data, and AI workloads *Scaling rapidly as demand for real-time data and AI infrastructure accelerates In this clip, Spencer breaks down: • Why “never lose alone” defines our sales culture • How an SDR closed a $2.9M deal in 12 months • What “CFO-bulletproof” really means in today’s buying environment • Redis’s role at the center of the AI infrastructure boom We’re also actively hiring across GTM — sales, leadership, partners, and more — and building something special as we scale globally. Mark Peet Ford Williams Steve Jenner Tom Rabaut Yael Fainsilber Robin Fong 方俊强 Ric Singleton Guy Meron Thomas Gregg Jeff Goldberg Jason Marra John Gebhardt Abhoy Kumar Sarkar Olivier AttaliMike Moss Rodolfo Cunha Megan Boone Jim Doran Tony Tiscornia Jonathan Fritz Benjamin Renaud Kristin With James Harrison Etienne du Chaffaut Matthew Hoffman Neil MeulenerMandar Naik Josh Hoffman Bridget Poulos Anton Slaughter William Kim Heidi Gates (she/her) Lijo Alexander Lauren Taylor Ankita Dhanda 🎥 Worth a watch if you’re in sales, leadership, or thinking about your next move: 👉 https://lnkd.in/g8_7wNef

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💬 If it ain't broke then don't fix it. I am sure we have heard that phrase a million times in our lives. But in a GTM ops, Rev Ops, Sales Ops role, it hits differently. Why? Because in Ops you are PAID to fix it. To improve it. To make it all it can be. One of the pitfalls that GTM roles fall into is the desire to fix it all, all at once, when maybe good enough is ok for now. Why is good enough ok for now? Because chances are there are 1000 other things that if operating at peak efficiency will have a greater impact on your business than you focusing on the things that are operating "ok". So next time you feel the need to come into an organization, rip and replace, or enhance every processes, think about the following: 🔹 What does my leadership care about? 🔹 What will have the most impact on company objectives? 🔹 What can I do in the least amount of time with the greatest reward? Then stack rank - pick the top three items and FOCUS on those improvements first. Your company and your leadership will thank you. + it will show the immediate impact of a great GTM leader. #GTM, #leadership, #salesops, #revops, #manufacturing, #ai #sales, #operations, #processimprovement

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Top 16 RevOps leaders who are sharing valuable insights on how RevOps is shaping up in 2026. Follow them to level up your career: 1. Jen Igartua Hosts the infamous RevFest conference and runs Go Nimbly, one of the best RevOps consultancies out there. 2. Jeff Ignacio Runs the RevOps Impact newsletter and shares honest takes on GTM, RevOps, and AI. 3. Mallory Lee VP RevOps at Zipline, talks about the reality of using AI in RevOps and calls out the fluff from what actually works. 4. Haris Odobasic Author of The RevOps Pendulum book and talks about how GTM strategy and operations work together. 5. Alexander Muller Founder of Revenue Enablement, talks deeply about how AI is changing the RevOps role. 6. Sean Lane Co-authored THE book on RevOps - The Revenue Operations Manual. Does he even need an intro? 7. Mollie Bodensteiner SVP Ops, Engine. Shares how RevOps leaders should navigate and think about AI. 8. Matthew Volm Founder of Eventful and RevOps Co-op. Calls out the uncomfortable truths about the RevOps role. 9. Justin Norris Runs the RevOps FM podcast and talks about how AI actually gets embedded into GTM workflows. 10. Sara McNamara Founding RevOps lead at Vector, talks about AI, tools, strategy, Clay, and all things RevOps. 11. Ryan Milligan RevOps turned CRO at QuotaPath, talks about how RevOps can start being recognized as the engine of the GTM org. 12. Darrell Alfonso Co-host of the Humans of Martech Podcast, also runs a weekly newsletter packed with MOPs strategies. 13. Tessa Whittaker VP RevOps, Zoominfo. Hot takes and amazing thought leadership on how RevOps is evolving as a function. 14. Cliff Simon CEO & Founder, Polaris Ops. Talks about how RevOps is moving towards strategy and growth with AI. 15. Andy Mowat Founder, Whispered - one of the largest communities of executives helping each other with insights, intros and unposted roles. 16. Leore Spira Fractional RevOps and GTM AI Strategy advisor, LS Consultancy. Calls out how companies want AI-backed answers but are not willing to do the RevOps work first🤷‍♂️ Other non-RevOps people on LinkedIn: 1. Peter Walker Who shares amazing insights from Carta's extensive startup database. 2. Anthony Pierri Because everyone needs help with positioning and messaging. 3. Harry Stebbings Who runs the 20VC podcast (and fund) and should be on everyone's feed! 4. Kyle Poyar To help you with everything pricing, GTM, AI and SaaS. Who am I missing? Btw, this is just Pt. 1, I'll be publishing Pt. 2 with so many more amazing RevOps leaders you can follow! __ PS: We hosted 100+ RevOps Leaders at our RevOps Lab podcast (link in my profile) so tried to focus on people who regularly post on LinkedIn

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Meeting prep shouldn't take longer than the meeting itself. But for most AEs, it does. Jumping between between endless tools and spreadsheets just to show up prepared. ZoomInfo Account Executive Braya Hays demonstrates how GTM Workspace changes that. Watch how she finds expansion opportunities, multi-threads deals by mapping buying committees, automates meeting prep with AI-generated briefings, and prioritizes accounts based on signals across her entire book. All in one workspace. All synced to CRM in real time. No more 12+ browser tabs. Just answers based on your actual book of business. See how Braya manages her portfolio in minutes, not hours 👇 Learn more: https://bit.ly/4oVTnOr

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The fastest way to lose your seat at the executive table as a RevOps leader is to speak only one dialect. Same pattern emerged across every board meeting I sat in as a PE operating partner: - CRO brought pipeline coverage and rep attainment. Board wanted ARR efficiency, NRR trajectory, CAC payback. RevOps — the function built for this translation — was absent from the conversation. The job isn't analysis. Analysis is table stakes. The job is translation. - "Pipeline coverage at 3.2x" translates to "Q3 commit is supportable. EMEA needs attention." - "Forecast slipped 4 points" means "The capacity assumption in the Annual Operating Plan needs to flex." RevOps leaders who speak both get the room. The ones who don't get pushed into the data team. The bridge is the value. Build it deliberately. #revops #operations #PE #privateequity #growthequity

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Aaron Katz has always led with quiet confidence. I first met him back in 2014, when we recruited him out of Salesforce to lead revenue at Elastic. Over the next six years as CRO, he helped grow the business from $5M to $500M, guiding it all the way to an IPO in 2018. In 2021, we uncovered the opportunity to spin out ClickHouse—then a beloved open-source project and the database for people who really know databases. The process wasn’t easy, but, by partnering with Aaron, we were able to get it done. Since then, it’s been remarkable to watch Aaron build ClickHouse into one of the fastest-growing companies in tech, leading an empowered, accountable, world-class team. His leadership style isn’t loud or showy—it’s steady, deliberate, and deeply human. A lot of Silicon Valley leaders take their cues from “larger-than-life” figures like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. Aaron’s approach is closer to that of Tim Cook: thoughtful, low-ego, and happiest when the spotlight shines on others. That ethos is all over ClickHouse—an organization built on trust, clarity, and shared ownership. It’s a culture that scales because the leader at the top doesn’t need to take up all the space. Index just published a great profile of Aaron’s journey as a salesman, entrepreneur, and family man. Go check it out. https://lnkd.in/gyWE-zHX

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Assessing Discovery Skill Levels: How Do You Rate? Many sales and presales practitioners say they are skilled at doing discovery – but are they? Are you? Here’s a simple method to assess yourself or your team, based on seven levels of increasing proficiency: Level 1:  Uncovers statements of pain. Level 2:  Uncovers pain and explores more deeply. Level 3:  Uncovers pain, explores deeply, broadens the pain and investigates the impact. Level 4:  Uncovers pain, explores and broadens, investigates impact and quantifies. Level 5:  Uncovers pain, explores and broadens, investigates impact, quantifies and reengineers vision. Level 6:  Applies these skills to the broad range of prospects represented across the Technology Adoption Curve, “burn victims”, disruptive and new product categories, transactional sales cycles, and other scenarios. Level 7:  Integrates and aligns the skills above into a cohesive discovery methodology. Level 1 When doing discovery, if you or your colleagues simply uncover “Pain” and go no further, then you and they are novices! For example, your prospect offers, “Our current process is manual…” Many vendors leap to propose a solution at this point. Sadly, that’s what happens in far too many “discovery calls.” Operating at Level 1 can barely be called “doing discovery”! It is clearly insufficient and results in losses to more competent vendors and No Decision outcomes. Wondering about Levels 2 – 7? See the full article here! https://lnkd.in/gjHew4fG Want to take action and improve your discovery skills? Books: https://lnkd.in/eqGJs3hK Or take advantage of the upcoming Public Workshops! https://lnkd.in/gb6yteXY

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𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 & 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 separate Strategic CROs and RevOps Leaders from glorified sales managers and systems admins. Getting accurate metrics isn’t easy though. Getting real Insights from those metrics is even harder. We need to: 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 Start by identifying the metrics that matter for your unique GTM motion. To help, our 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 will have a 𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘅 outlining the most common metrics in B2B SaaS and how to calculate them. 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 Metrics are only as accurate as the process being executed. If our salespeople don’t know how to qualify deals, for example, our Close Rate will tell us nothing. We have to clearly define processes, train the team, and drive them to adopt and execute in order to be a data-driven organization. 𝗨𝗻𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 It’s not enough to see our Lead Conversion Rate, or Close Rate, across our entire business. These numbers are blended together across different types of leads and lead sources, different segments (SMB, MM, ENT), geos, products, etc. To see what’s really happening, we have to unblend the funnel. More on this in our 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 People only execute processes when held accountable. To get accurate data, we need to inspect the data regularly to be sure it’s accurate. To get real insights into our business, we need to analyze that data regularly to spot trends and take action. This requires the right person/people with the right skills and uninterrupted time to do “deep work.” CROs usually don’t have time to do this well and RevOps can’t if they’re constantly harassed with system admin requests. 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 As we get to this part of the year, finalizing our annual plan, it’s a bit too late. We have dirty data and have to make some BIG assumptions. If we’re in this boat, we need fix this for next year. Additionally, Annual Plans aren’t set in stone. We need to track them and iterate as we hit or miss goals and milestones. More on this in our 𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸. See the Framework and get the high-res version in the link in the comment below. 👇 If you want more breakdowns like this, subscribe to our newsletter at the link to get weekly insights directly in your inbox. ✌️

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🚀 Onboarding isn’t just a program — it’s a productivity engine. The central challenge for any GTM onboarding team is simple to state but hard to nail: get new hires to full productivity and quota attainment fast. At Gong, we’ve been rethinking what it truly takes to make that happen. I sat down with Danica Schutt and Max Costello White from our GTM Onboarding team to unpack how we’ve structured our onboarding program to do exactly that. From flipped classrooms to AI-driven coaching and deep integration across RevOps, this team has built a machine that’s helping over 70% of new hires hit productivity targets faster than ever. If you’re building or refining your onboarding program, this is a conversation worth reading. https://lnkd.in/gWu_Qsdj

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