“I knew the CEO at the time, John Ledger, used to hang out at the W Bar in Seattle, and so, Before an on-site, that night before, I just stayed in that W bar, like, just hanging out, and John Ledger came in, and I went up to him, and we spent time chatting. And then the next day, I saw him in the lobby, I'm like, hey John. He's like, AJ, good to see you again. And that was like, as I was walking into a CIO meeting, and Cody Sanford at the time was like, how do you know John?”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
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More from AJ Tennant
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Many enterprise customers say Microsoft Copilot is falling flat
“Look at like Microsoft Copilot, I mean, Many customers are saying it's falling flat. Like, it's just not delivering the value that was advertised.”
AJ TennantOct 23, 2024▶ 26:42AJ Tennant: How to Build a Sales Machine and Where Most Go Wrong | E2118 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Early-stage sales teams should not segment or rush upmarket too early
“I think the worst thing you can do early stage as a sales organization and a go to company is segment too early and move way up market and just like, let's say we rewind the clock. If I all of a sudden moved all my sellers to just focus on the Fortune 50 or Fo…”
AJ TennantOct 23, 2024▶ 17:20AJ Tennant: How to Build a Sales Machine and Where Most Go Wrong | E2118 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Enterprise AI tools without clear ROI will churn within two years
“AI budgets that are based on just, hey, we need to quickly enable our employees to be AI-centric that aren't tying it back to business outcomes, impact, Top line, bottom line. A year from now, two years from now, we're going to churn.”
AJ TennantOct 23, 2024▶ 23:47AJ Tennant: How to Build a Sales Machine and Where Most Go Wrong | E2118 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Enterprise AI implementation takes 6-12 months or $5M in services
“Everyone is being sold A bag of goods and a dream of this sort of AI enabled workforce or Automation, top line, bottom line, and then when it comes to implementation, it's taking six, nine, 12 months, or it comes attached with a five million dollar services bu…”
AJ TennantOct 23, 2024▶ 26:02AJ Tennant: How to Build a Sales Machine and Where Most Go Wrong | E2118 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
PredictionNot publicly verifiable
Glean withholds AE commissions unless deployment success plans are completed
“I took a page out of Dave Schneider's book from ServiceNow and We're implementing a system where we're not paying AEs on their deals unless they have an approved deployment success plan filled out.”
AJ TennantOct 23, 2024▶ 27:43AJ Tennant: How to Build a Sales Machine and Where Most Go Wrong | E2118 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Glean ties CSM compensation to user activity rather than direct upsells
“We're actually tying the compensation of our CSMs not to an upsell. I guess it's sort of embedded into the NDR piece, but it's frankly more about, are you getting users active?”
AJ TennantOct 23, 2024▶ 29:10AJ Tennant: How to Build a Sales Machine and Where Most Go Wrong | E2118 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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