Trending Articles

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How Windsurf / Codeium Built a Billion-Dollar AI Company and a Winning Sales Machine

SaaStr

5 Key Learnings from Scaling from 3 to 75 Go-To-Market Team Members in Less Than 12 Months The latest SaaStr CRO Confidential is out and Sam Blond did a great deep dive with Graham Mareno, VP of Worldwide Sales at Codeium. I really liked this one and wanted to write up a few more learnings. Codeium has emerged as one of the hottest AI startups, growing from 30 to 150 employees in just one year, with a valuation already exceeding $1 billion.

GTM 96
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Mastering Chess Strategy and Sales Conversations: How Openings Win in Both Games

Iannarino

Discover how mastering strategic openings can elevate your sales game. Learn essential techniques to start strong and secure client trust from the very first meeting.

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A New View for Evaluating Sales Effectiveness

Anthony Cole Training

What you cannot see can kill you. If you don't see the car to your right about to run a stop sign, you might be in trouble. If you cannot see a clogged artery, you might be in trouble. If you cannot see that your sales team is failing to execute the fundamentals of an effective sales approach, then surely that will kill your chances for sales effectiveness and consistent sales growth.

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“We’re Doing Everything Right, But Nothing’s Working!”

Partners in Excellence

I was struck by this sentence in a LI post today, “We are doing everything right, but nothing’s working!” I see variants of this every day: We’re doing everything right, it’s not working as well… We’re doing exactly what made us successful in the past, it’s no longer working… We’re doing what everyone else is doing, and what we have always done, it’s not producing the same results… We’re doing everything we’ve al

GTM 122
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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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‘Share of search’ is the marketing metric you need to be tracking

Martech

Share of search is a marketing metric that looks at all of the branded searches beging done in your category and tells you how many of those searches are looking for you. As marketing metrics go, share of search is relatively quick and easy to find. You can use low-cost or free tools that many marketers are already using to gather the data. Perhaps best of all, share of search is also a really good proxy for understanding your market share.

GTM 99
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How to navigate the shift from Product-Led Growth to Enterprise

Sales Hacker

Hello and welcome to The GTM Newsletter by GTMnow – read by 50,000+ to scale their companies and careers. GTMnow shares insight around the go-to-market strategies responsible for explosive company growth. GTMnow highlights the strategies, along with the stories from the top 1% of GTM executives, VCs, and founders behind these strategies and companies.

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More Trending

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From 0 to 1 Billion Meetings: How Otter.ai Built a Bottom-Up AI SaaS Without a Single Sales Rep

SaaStr

Sam Liang is the co-founder and CEO of Otter.ai. Before Otter.ai, Sam was the founding CEO of Location Labs (acquired for $220M), and the architect behind Google’s blue dot – yes, that blue dot you see every time you open Google Maps. He has a classic Silicon Valley pedigree: Stanford PhD, Google early days, multiple successful exits. The numbers are staggering: they’ve gone from zero to processing billions of conversations, partnered with Zoom as their primary transcription pr

Meeting 93
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Agent Orchestrator launches Adobe into the agentic age

Martech

Salesforce attracted significant attention when it introduced its Agentforce agentic AI platform at its Dreamforce event in the fall of 2024, and everyone knew it was not the last we’d hear about agentic AI. At its Adobe Summit event in Las Vegas this week, Adobe launched Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) Agent Orchestrator, which the company says lets businesses build, manage and orchestrate AI agents from Adobe’s ecosystem and third-party sources.

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Nimble CRM Tips & Updates – March 19, 2025

Adaptive Business Services

We do have two minor Nimble updates to announce and one is that you can now schedule group messages to go out at a later date or time. I personally welcome this release as I regularly schedule many things, messages and posts, to go out later. This is one of the ways that I stay ahead of schedule on my tasks. You can also now choose to see your password when logging into your Nimble web account.

CRM 71
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GTM 139: AI Agents Are Changing Everything — Microsoft’s VP of AI Agents on the New Era of Work and Software | Ray Smith

Sales Hacker

The GTM Podcast is available on any major directory, including: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Ray Smith is the VP of AI Agents at Microsoft. Previously, he was the Global VP of Product for SAP, CRM and Sales Cloud. Before that, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of DataHug, which was acquired by Calidus Cloud in 2016. Ray breaks down why the rise of AI agents is a tectonic shift, how businesses are already seeing ROI, and what it means for SaaS, team structure, and go-to-market strategies.

GTM 61
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The Intersection of AI and Sales: Personalization Without Compromise

Speaker: Jesse Hunter and Brynn Chadwick

Today’s buyers expect more than generic outreach–they want relevant, personalized interactions that address their specific needs. For sales teams managing hundreds or thousands of prospects, however, delivering this level of personalization without automation is nearly impossible. The key is integrating AI in a way that enhances customer engagement rather than making it feel robotic.

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How to Write an Invoice For Small Business (+ Free Template)

Salesforce

Landing your first order is a major milestone for any small or growing business. Its an exciting step in your journey as a business owner and a reminder that every detail plays a role in building a successful venture. Plus, invoices mean you get paid. From writing a business plan to creating professional, accurate invoices, managing your finances is one of the most important aspects of running your business, and crafting clear, well-structured invoices is key to staying on track.

Finance 59
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34% of All Startup Acquisitions Are By Other Start-Ups. A New Record.

SaaStr

So Pitchbook has some new data out on how much M&A of VC-backed start-ups … is by other VC-backed start-ups. And it’s a record: 33.7% of all VC-backed start-ups that are acquired are by VC-backed buyers. Up from 20% in 2018. Now this isn’t necessarily bad: First, it’s not new. 20% of deals even in 2018 were start-ups buying start-ups.

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How Deming’s 14 principles provide the foundation for Positionless Marketing by Optimove

Martech

Andriana18, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons W. Edwards Demings 14 principles transformed manufacturing by emphasizing quality, efficiency and continuous improvement. His ideas werent just about improving production linesthey were about creating a culture of adaptability and excellence. Today, marketing faces its own shift. The traditional, assembly-line model of campaign executionwhere data, creative, and deployment are handled in rigid stepsis no longer fast enough for real-time customer e

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Exceeding Client Expectations III

Adaptive Business Services

This past winter, I had an issue with my heat pump freezing up. This was a first for me. They worked on it off and on for two to three weeks. They never told me that some amount of ice was normal. My expectation, as I did not know any better, was that no ice was normal. I had to ask to find out. All of this could have been avoided if the company had taken the time to clearly set expectations for me instead of allowing me to set my own.

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AI Strategies for Sales Managers: How to Cut Down on Tedious Admin Work

What if you could help your sellers stop wasting 72% of their day on non-selling activities and focus on bringing in revenue? Incorporating AI in your enablement workflows can help you cut down on busy work, get projects done faster, and let your team (and you!) focus on making a bigger impact. We put together this guide to show you how to use AI to cut time and costs for projects, including collateral creation, development of training videos, and automating tedious processes.

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How to Generate Better B2B Leads That Convert (Ask Jeb)

Sales Gravy

Wes from Flower Mound, Texas, has a familiar challenge: how to attract more qualified B2B leads and convert them before they slip away. Hes already tried a variety of channels, including inside sales, social media, and email, but is struggling to ramp up both volume and quality. Below are the key insights from our conversation, along with practical strategies to multiply your lead count and build a system that secures face-to-face meetings with the right buyers.

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3 Ways Marketers Can Use Salesforce Flow to Reach Customers at the Right Time

Salesforce

One workflow and one dataset: its an ideal state for marketers. Imagine a scenario in which marketing, sales, commerce and service teams are connected, providing a unified and consistent customer experience. All the data is in one place, so theres no need to waste time with multiple sources. Now bring in an agentic AI layer to automate building reports and scheduling data refreshes.

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In-Person Sales Generate 3x Higher Conversions Per The CROs of Toast, Splunk, Brex and Slice

SaaStr

In SaaS, its easy to assume that virtual selling has completely taken over. After all, Zoom is efficient, email is scalable. Hyrid and work-from-home made it the default paradigm for many in B2B sales. But if you listen to many top CROs in SaaSlike Jonathan Vassil of Toast, Christian Smith of Splunk, Loren Padelford of Slice, and Sam Blond CRO emeritus of Brextheyll tell you that in-person selling is far from dead.

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41% of brands using AI for video, up from 18% last year

Martech

A new report found that 41% of brands now use AI for video creation, up from 18% in 2024. Wistias 2025 State of Video Report data comes from over 14 million videos and surveys of 1,300 professionals. It also addressed video engagement and budget trends. The report attributes the surge in the use of AI for video to the increasing accessibility of AI tools, empowering marketers to streamline production and enhance video quality.

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Prepare Now: 2025s Must-Know Trends For Product And Data Leaders

Speaker: Jay Allardyce, Deepak Vittal, Terrence Sheflin, and Mahyar Ghasemali

As we look ahead to 2025, business intelligence and data analytics are set to play pivotal roles in shaping success. Organizations are already starting to face a host of transformative trends as the year comes to a close, including the integration of AI in data analytics, an increased emphasis on real-time data insights, and the growing importance of user experience in BI solutions.

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My Shame And Anger! Posted on March, 2025

Partners in Excellence

Typically, I take controversial positions on GTM, selling, leadership and other business issues. I have cautiously avoided writing about anything that could be construed as “political.” I can no longer stand by silently. It would be irresponsible, I have to speak out. Frankly, I don’t care about the consequences, because speaking out, and encouraging others to do the same (regardless of views) has never been more important.

GTM 62
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How AI Knowledge Bases Enhance Self-Service, Support, and Retention

G2

Imagine standing in a queue to order a burger, and by the time you reach the counter, the store is out of burgers. You know that sinking feeling, right? But what if you could use a self-order kiosk to skip the queue and get your burger? Wouldnt it be great to self-serve, save time, and have easy access to what you need? Now, imagine that same convenience in a B2B setup.

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Does Context Matter? Introducing ContextualJudgeBench for RAG and Summarization Evaluation

Salesforce

AI is rapidly transforming industries, empowering businesses to enhance customer experiences, improve efficiency, and make smarter decisions. But an essential question arises: How can we ensure that AI is creating accurate and grounded answers? Recently, automatic methods for evaluating model responses, like using Large Language Models (LLMs) as judge models have been deployed to assess and critique model responses on-demand.

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Dear SaaStr: What “Quotas” Should My VP of Customer Success and VP of Product Have?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: What “Quotas” Should My VP of Customer Success and VP of Product Have? For a VP of Customer Success (VPCS), their “quota” or ownership should revolve around two key metrics: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) and Gross Retention Rate (GRR). NRR is the North Star metric for customer successit measures how much revenue youre retaining and expanding from your existing customer base.

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Don't Let AI Pass You By: The New Era of Personalized Sales Coaching & Development

Speaker: Brendan Sweeney, VP of Sales & Devyn Blume, Sr. Account Executive

Are you curious about how artificial intelligence is reshaping sales coaching, learning, and development? Join Brendan Sweeney and Devyn Blume of Allego for an engaging new webinar exploring AI's transformative role in sales coaching and performance improvement! Brendan and Devyn will share actionable insights and strategies for integrating AI into coaching and development - ensuring personalized, effective, and scalable training!

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How the event-first approach to marketing can maximize research ROI

Martech

Imagine you’re sitting in a lunchtime webinar that promised “actionable” insights. Those insights are so “actionable” that you’re having trouble keeping your eyes open. Why? The topic isn’t all that fresh, or worse, it’s a disguised sales pitch. Now, imagine the panelists are talking with you instead of at you.

Launch 61
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Freedom of Speech? The Book Facebook Wants to Suppress

David Meerman Scott

Facebooks artificial intelligence algorithm isnt just an innocent piece of codeits a carefully tuned, profit-driven machine that thrives on polarization and division.

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5 Best Sales Enablement Platforms of 2025

Hubspot

I hate to break it to you, but having a great product or service alone is not enough to succeed in todays marketplace. Sales teams need the right tools, content, and data to talk to customers and close deals faster. Thats where sales enablement platforms help. Ive worked with businesses that spend thousands on software that sales teams end up barely using.

Price 36
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Tips to Optimize Your Ecommerce Store with AI

Salesforce

When you’re running an ecommerce store, the chances are that you keep track of thousands of moving pieces every single day. You have to maintain inventory, help customers, and stay on top of trends all at once. Luckily, with artificial intelligence (AI) , you got this. AI offers an equal footing for small and medium-sized business (SMB) owners competing with big retailers through diverse tools and resources.

Price 52
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How to Optimize Call Monitoring: Automate QA and Elevate Customer Experience

Speaker: Laura Noonan, Chief Revenue Officer at CallFinder + Angie Kronlage, Director of Program Success at Working Solutions + April Wiita, Vice President of Program Success at Working Solutions

Are you still manually reviewing calls? 🤔 It's time for a change! The traditional method of manual call monitoring is no longer cutting it in today's fast-paced call center environment. Industry experts Angie Kronlage and April Wiita from Working Solutions are here to explore the power of innovative automation to revolutionize outdated call review processes!

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Dear SaaStr: When Should You Make Your First Finance Hire?

SaaStr

Dear SaaStr: When Should You Make Your First Finance Hire? Even with all the great AI and other tools out there in finance now — if you are growing quickly, you should make your first finance hire earlier than most founders think. Heres the breakdown: At $1M$2M ARR, hire a full-time Director of Finance if you’re growing quickly. Once youre at $1M ARR, things start to get messy fast.

Finance 66
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Is your email platform built for today’s email challenges?

Martech

Despite the widespread adoption of social media and the rise in SMS and RCS messaging, email remains a vitally important channel for reaching customers and prospects. Research by SAP Emarsys and Deloitte found email was the preferred channel for consumers to interact with brands (chosen by 40% of respondents), well ahead of brand websites (28%), mobile apps (24%) and SMS (21%).

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NVIDIA GTC Is Over: Here’s What You Need to Know

G2

AI is going through an inflection point, said Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO, to an enormous crowd at NVIDIAs GPU Technology Conference (GTC) on Tuesday.

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The Death of Customer Proposals. Stop Sending Proposals and Win More Sales

Membrain

The proposal trap: You just got off the phone with what you thought to be a promising prospect. At the end of the conversation, you told the prospect that youd be sending them a proposal.

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How to Improve Email Deliverability and Optimize Each Send

Learn how to optimize email deliverability and drive greater email ROI. What lands your email in the customer’s inbox? Understanding those factors, otherwise known as email deliverability, is critical to getting the most return on your campaign investments. But the “rules” around which factors land you in the spam folder aren’t always easy to keep up with.