Adam Stonehocker

"Go-to-market" is a flywheel, not a linear process. Every prospect is worthy of a seller conversation regardless of where they sit in a problem cycle. The major issue with modern sales development is 1. Desperately seeking "in-market" opportunities, which is 3% of your market every quarter 2. Missing the market turns and opportunities to displace 3. Nobody is getting coached on running elite follow-up and referral plays Prospect across the lifecycle, and in 12 quarters, you could be market dominant in a market you care about (arguably not your TAM, though...) PipelineHeroes speak to their entire market once a quarter

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Sales tech may evolve, but the core role of a rep? According to Kyle Norton, CRO at Owner.com, that remains the same. Kyle joined James Kaikis on The New GTM Playbook to share his take:  While tools have streamlined much of the sales rep’s day-to-day, the essentials haven’t changed. ➡️ spend time with high-fit prospects ➡️ understand their business ➡️ explain how you can solve their problems ➡️ and help them see “why now” Automation and tech may enhance efficiency, but those fundamentals remain.

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🔍 Just wrapped up an MCA review for a hospitality group with 9 locations. Their current setup looked fine at first glance — but after digging in, we found: ✅ Redundant platform fees ✅ 30% higher processing rates than market average ✅ No fallback for mobile or kiosk expansion They had no idea this was happening until we showed them the side-by-side. Don’t wait until renewal time. Sometimes it’s what you don’t know that costs the most. #Fintech #Payments #POS #FreedomPay #MerchantServices

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🚀 The 2025 Cold Calling Report is here, and one thing is clear—cold calling is getting harder. But that’s actually exciting for two reasons: 🔹 For SDR leaders: Top-of-funnel reps need to be more strategic and sharpen their sales skills. Generic scripts won’t cut it—real, engaging conversations matter more than ever. 🔹 For prospects: The era of low-effort outreach is fading. Reps will have to stand out with relevant, value-driven messaging to earn a response. Despite these challenges, at Cognism, we’ve continued to see success—almost 3x the global cold-calling success rate. 🔥 Want to know how? Check out the full report in the comments

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Sellers today are overwhelmed with choices, tools, and alerts. The average sales team now uses 10 different platforms just to close deals, and—no surprise—94% of sales organizations plan to consolidate their tech stacks to boost productivity. And here’s a jarring stat: Sellers spend up to 65% of their day on non-selling tasks like data entry, recapping facts in pipeline reviews, quote/proposal generation, business case creation, RFP responses and chasing down information, leaving precious little time for actual selling. LinkedIn, email, chat, text, calls, signals…it’s endless noise. What truly matters is creating and capturing the real signals, staying centered on customers, and zeroing in on the high-impact actions that drive value each day. Another new “pane of glass” or add-on tool won’t solve that. What salespeople and leaders really need is insight, data, and automation that works behind the scenes—helping them ask the right questions, with the right customers, at exactly the right time. As AI and Agents heat up (it feels like a new player enters the market every day!), the winning Sales platforms will be those that fit seamlessly into the tools teams already use, amplifying focus and delivering real, immediate value. Example: the CRM has been around since the late ’80s, yet 25+ years post-Salesforce, most reps still see it as just “admin work” for management—and managers see it as a “necessary evil” for leadership reporting. Not a useful, actionable tool that makes them materially better at selling. But AI and Agents can fill in the blanks invisibly, in the background, in a way that’s never been possible before. Imagine a perfectly clean CRM that - - Automatically captures all the data you want from your conversations - Creates and assigns tasks for reps, so nothing slips through the cracks - Tells your teams and managers exactly where to focus each day to maximize productivity, move the pipeline forward, and close more (and better) deals How would that transform your day-to-day sales motion? And perhaps disturbingly - what if your competitors are already there or well on their way?

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