Inside The Pipeline: B2B Sales and GTM
00:07:06 · Tris Tusa, Nick Casale
[00:07:06] S0: And and so you then move from from Talkdesk to Sendoso. I think you're one of the earliest sales hires there. What was it that made you take that leap to Sendoso? [00:07:18] S1: So the the guy, Chris Rudigrap, who started Sendoso started it at Talkdesk as an AE with me. I was actually his SDR, and then we were AEs together. And I could just never figure out how Chris got so many more meetings than everyone else. And he would, I mean, he would, like, feed me lists and be like, hey. Yeah. Here's, you know, here's more leads you can you can get. [00:07:36] S0: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [00:07:37] S1: And get him all these meetings and then made us both look good. But come to find out, he had he had basically hired, you know, hired a guy to build a plug in to Salesforce so he could type up a note, and it would get sent somewhere and someone would write the note and ship it on his behalf. And that was the the sort of [00:07:55] S0: What what sort of Sendoso. What what sort of response rates were you guys getting [00:08:00] S1: off this? Oh, I can't remember. I mean, the early days, it was like, if you would get... If you got a box to someone's office Mhmm. It was like 50 it was like 50% or higher. Right? Like, we would... The play was was, like, send a box of cookies or a box of cupcakes to someone's office, something that they have to, like, share. [00:08:20] S0: Yeah. Because if use
00:08:20 · Tris Tusa, Nick Casale
[00:08:20] S0: Yeah. Because if use [00:08:21] S1: a bottle of wine or, like, a letter, there's no guarantee that more than just them are gonna see it. Yeah. You know, but if you send the cookies Okay. This is the art of the deal, cookies. K. The cookies end up on the counter. Right? And then everyone's like, oh, and you could put your logo on it Yeah. If you really wanted to, you know. [00:08:39] S0: What what were some other of the popular GIFs that you guys were sent? I mean, you must be literally the master. You must know what [00:08:46] S1: your traits. Yeah. We we joke that one of my one of my my best days from there is is now on the team here, and he still does this. But he's like, hey. Would you... He just puts in the email, he's like, do you want cupcakes or steaks or whiskey? [00:09:01] S0: He's doing steaks? Steaks. [00:09:03] S1: No way. Cupcakes, steaks, or whiskey. [00:09:04] S0: Yeah. So so that goes through a butcher who's then... [00:09:08] S1: No. It's like it's like Crowd Cow. I don't know what you guys have in The UK, but there's websites that do the, you know, the professional vac sealed. [00:09:14] S0: Okay. [00:09:15] S1: Yeah. It's a real... [00:09:15] S0: God, it's it's a business. It's a business. That's some serious alpha for the listeners there.
00:09:15 · Tris Tusa, Nick Casale
[00:09:15] S0: God, it's it's a business. It's a business. That's some serious alpha for the listeners there. [00:09:19] S1: But I will say, I think nowadays you can be much more clever, and I think you can send thought leadership content. You know? You can you can still have sort of an offer. Like, you can have a nice thing with it. Mhmm. But I think you can get more... I think you can be a little bit more more clever now. [00:09:34] S0: Mhmm. [00:09:34] S1: There's ways to personalize it with with AI and whatnot. Yeah. And and what were some [00:09:38] S0: of your numbers when you were working at at Sendoso? Because I know that that business grew rapidly Mhmm. Whilst you were there. Maybe you could talk about some of the highlights in terms of the deals that you that you won and the the logos that you brought on board?
00:09:38 · Tris Tusa, Nick Casale
[00:09:38] S0: of your numbers when you were working at at Sendoso? Because I know that that business grew rapidly Mhmm. Whilst you were there. Maybe you could talk about some of the highlights in terms of the deals that you that you won and the the logos that you brought on board? [00:09:51] S1: You know, it's... I'll I'll... Like, yes, you know, going... I remember going on-site at at, like, Google, and that felt like a big moment in the career and and in the business. There... There's these... There's moments for sure. But the cliche that I always that I always kind of remind my team now as we're on this incredible journey is, like, the numbers and the accolades really, really do fade. Right? And it's like there's deals that I remember so vividly because, like, if I if I if I pull the thread, it's just still there because you just... I don't think you lose it when you're that invested in something. But it's not the first thing that comes to mind when I, like, remember back on that on that phase. It's really, like, it's the people and it's the relationships. And I think that's what I always remind young sellers is, like, when you're... Really, I would I would tell anyone this. But I think, like, when you're evaluating an opportunity, I think people over index aggressively on the numbers. [00:10:50] S0: Really? [00:10:50] S1: You know, it's like it has to have the measurables, but every place... Every every job I've taken, the deal... Like if you were like, oh, what's your ACV? What's your win rate? Like, they sucked always. [00:11:03] S0: Yeah.
00:11:03 · Tris Tusa, Nick Casale
[00:11:03] S0: Yeah. [00:11:04] S1: Right? It's like it's super early stage. [00:11:06] S0: Yeah. Yeah. [00:11:06] S1: Yeah. But I think you kinda gotta believe... If you believe in the people and if you can sort of see the vision, then you... Then you're betting on yourself to be able to improve the numbers and make the deals work. So I probably didn't answer your question at all there. [00:11:17] S0: No. I like that. It's a it's a it's a professional avoid of the question, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so do you feel that that same growth here [00:11:24] S1: at AirOps? From what standpoint? [00:11:27] S0: Just in terms of that feeling, I think you were saying, like, when you were over at Google, you felt like you were part of something that was growing fast, and and so you weren't latching on to the numbers. It was more about this sort of vibe of the growth. And is that something that you feel in the space that you're in right now? [00:11:43] S1: Yes. I think it feels... It's definitely with a a more aggressive tilt. [00:11:49] S0: Like Yeah. [00:11:49] S1: Sort of throws your head back in the chair a little bit. Like, the the car is moving. The the the ship is going faster for sure. I think that's, like, the standard. Right? It's like we're with AI and, you know, in in 2026 versus whatever it was, you know, 2020. Mhmm. It's like, you know, you're driving on on the Autobahn versus the Highway 1. Yeah. Everyone is moving faster. [00:12:12] S0: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:12 · Tris Tusa, Nick Casale
[00:12:12] S0: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [00:12:13] S1: So you do have to, like... The the pattern recognition has to has to get... You've gotta be quicker with it. The the rate of of change, your ability to to pick up when something's shifting in the market. Mhmm. Like, I I really used to tell my first time front line leaders at Sendoso. I would be like, hey. Look. Pick one initiative a quarter to go to go focus on. Right? Like, make sure that, you know, find the biggest problem that quarter and sort of hang your hat on being like, I'm gonna fix it, or else you'll sort of just, like, run around solving insignificant problems all the time. You know, and then the intention was to get them to to sort of focus. Right? Yeah. To just train that muscle. [00:12:50] S0: What sort of initiatives would you guys be focusing on? [00:12:54] S1: I think it... It'll be different for any given business. You could definitely pick, like... It could be win rate. Right? It could be win rate. It could be AE generated pipeline. It could be, like, I think that the way we run our first calls could be better. Yeah. I'm gonna, like, figure out what it should look like. I'm gonna overhaul it. It could be, you our know, expansion motion. Like, you could pick anything. Think it'll be specific to the business. [00:13:18] S0: But you give that a whole quarter to to see how it works and then measure it. [00:13:21] S1: No. No. [00:13:22] S0: No. Okay. So that's changed now. [00:13:23] S1: Have to do that, like, on a... A monthly would even be a stretch. Like, I think it's genuinely weekly now.