How to Build a Competitive Sales Strategy for 2025

I watched a company lose a $1.2M deal last quarter because they were still running MEDDPICC like it's 1996. They identified a Champion and an Economic Buyer. They documented Pain points. They were textbook perfect. The problem in 2025 is that no single Champion can get a deal done. Sales methodologies from the 90s weren't built for today's buying committees, consensus-driven decisions, and distributed authority. The modern sale requires a complete methodology upgrade. No more obsessing over a Champion. You need relationships with the entire team. No more chasing generic Pain points. You need Numerical Priorities linked to business outcomes. No more vague "Compelling Event". You need documented, financially-validated trigger points. No more hoping for Decision Criteria. You need to shape it with objective benchmarks. The best sellers still run a methodology, but it's evolved. They're identifying group priorities, mapping out competing initiatives, and anchoring everything in provable ROI. Try this on your next deal…instead of asking "What's keeping you up at night?" ask "What are the top 3 numerical priorities for your department this quarter?" Watch how quickly you can separate real deals from wishful thinking.

The State of Tech Sales in 2025 AI and automation are now table stakes. If you are still treating them like a competitive advantage, you are already behind. Everyone has AI cold email tools. Everyone is automating DMs. Everyone is using AI call summaries. Everyone is trying to scale conversations instead of mastering them. That is why most reps are getting worse. They are moving faster while building less trust. They are replacing human connection with efficiency. They are cutting corners on the exact skills that actually close deals. Here is what is working in 2025 1️⃣Human connection. Buyers are overwhelmed with automation. They are craving real conversations with people who can understand their challenges and solve real problems. 2️⃣Unscalable tactics. Physical mailers. In person meetings. Handwritten notes. Live events. These used to be normal. Now they are rare. That is why they work. 3️⃣Critical thinking. AI can give you information. It cannot give you insight. Reps who think deeply and provide new perspectives immediately stand out. 4️⃣Creativity. Copying templates and following the crowd used to be safe. Now it gets you ignored. Reps who bring fresh solutions are getting the meetings and closing the contracts. 5️⃣Consistency. Most reps quit when it gets hard. The ones who keep showing up and refining their craft are taking market share. The reps who will dominate the next five years are not the ones with the fastest automation. They are the ones doing the unsexy work that cannot be automated. Master the fundamentals. Build real relationships. Keep leveling up your business acumen. That is how you win in 2025. — These daily habits helped me create $195m/year in sales (even in ROUGH economies): https://lnkd.in/gbpFye_t

2025 is the year to stop giving outbound so much lip service. "We need to create a culture change this year" "Pipeline generation is our #1 focus" You can't have a culture of hunters without: - Enabling the skills required to make outbound work - Participating in those enablement sessions - Making sure their front-line leaders are bought in Giving it lip service ain’t gonna cut it. It’s time to be about it instead of talking so much about it. If you’re serious about making a culture shift and turning reps into hunters, here’s what our best clients do: ✅ 1) Create the narrative A strong “why” and purpose to why outbound is so important for the future of the company’s growth. Bring reps into the vision of where the company is heading in the next 3-5 years and how their individual outbound efforts help with that. ✅ 2) Make it real for every rep Help every rep dial in their sales math—the exact number of outbound activities it takes to hit their earnings target. ✅ 3) Get buy-in from front-line leaders Front-line leaders should be participating in some of the outbound with reps. Run power hours, make calls, send emails. Do the thing with your reps, group workout style. This builds tremendous buy-in. ✅ 4) Focus on behavior change, not just activity Use conversational intelligence to measure if reps use the new cold-calling approaches. Behavior drives quality activity, which drives outcomes. Measure behavior change. ✅ 5) Align incentives There are many ways to do this. Some orgs pay a higher commission on new business. They give more inbound leads to reps who source outbound deals. ✅ 6) Public accountability Create a public leaderboard where you post # of outbound sourced deals, $ outbound sourced pipeline, $ closed/won from outbound, largest outbound deal, etc. Then talk about it in every weekly team meeting and all-hands call. Celebrate it in Slack. ✅ 7) Provide world-class enablement Up-skill your reps. They need world-class strategies and tactics to make this work. And it has to work quick. Don't expect results if all you're doing is providing a talk track and telling them to get after it. ✅ 8) Refine & adapt Last but not least—assess how the program is going and make changes as needed. Analyze what the best reps are doing. Share those best practices. Document them. Scale it across the rest of the org. ~~~ What would you add to the list?

If I ran a commercial sales team of 20 reps and I wanted to beat my 2025 plan by $1M ARR, here’s what I’d do. First, some math. Let’s assume a $20k ACV and 20% win rate. To get an extra $1M ARR, I need: 50 more c/w deals ($1M / $20k) 250 new opportunities (60 / 20%) 12.5 more opportunities per rep (250 / 20) ~1 more opportunity per month per rep (12.5 / 12) That’s it. It's just 1 more opportunity per rep per month[1]. I don’t control marketing, so I’m not going to pray they have a breakthrough—I’m going to focus on outbound. I’d do this: 1️⃣ Identify Customer Lookalikes 2️⃣ Equip the Story 3️⃣ Prioritize Ruthlessly 4️⃣ Measure Account Coverage, Not Activity Let's go into detail. 1️⃣ Identify Customer Lookalikes Identify the prospect accounts in my team’s segment that look like *today’s* successful customers—the ones that do the same things and have roughly the same firmographics and technographics. Tag them AND identify the specific customers they look like. A black box score won't work here. 2️⃣ Equip the Story Give my team 1 paragraph with a use case and outcome for each customer with the most lookalikes. I’d lean on product marketing or write it myself after talking to CS. I might even be able to use AI to summarize CSM notes. 3️⃣ Prioritize Ruthlessly Prioritize these accounts for my team. That might mean a view into their current territory with those accounts ranked at the top or it might mean a full dynamic books approach where I assign those accounts in a small focused book. 4️⃣ Measure Account Coverage, Not Activity Measure my reps on *account coverage* not raw activity. I’d use every 1:1 and every team dashboard to highlight how many of those accounts we’re engaging, how much, how deeply and how well. If a rep isn’t actively working those accounts at all times AND basing their engagement on the right customer story, I’d need a very good reason why. If I don't get one, I’d reassign the prospect to someone else. If I’m disciplined about this[2], I’d bet my 2025 comp on that additional 1 opportunity per rep per month. And if that happens, so does my incremental $1MM. — [1] Yes, it’s actually 1.04 opps/rep/month but even I’m not that pedantic in a LinkedIn post. [2] I’d personally do all this with Gradient Works, but I’m obviously biased.

Your 2025 GTM Motion is only as good as your Sales Funnel. Most teams approach their GTM Funnel like it’s 2022. And it’s costing them. Here’s the problem: Teams focus on MQLs, SQLs, and deal stages. Buyers care about making the best decision for THEIR business. We need a funnel that works the way they buy. The Solution!? ❌ Replace lead volumes and MQLs/SQLs ✅ Track ICP journey + intent signals to track intent and engagement. Here’s how the stages look for B2B buyers in 2025: 1️⃣ ICP Accounts (Companies + Prospects) Find out the number of accounts in your ICP. This isn’t about who’s easy to reach, it’s about who can buy from you this quarter. What to track: TAM size Criteria: industry, company size, funding stage, tech stack. Tools to use: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo.io, Clay 2️⃣ Identified Buyers It’s not enough to know the account names. You need to know the people in charge of the buying decision. What to track: Titles, job roles, and key stakeholders at ICP accounts Tools to use: Clay, LeadMagic, RB2B 3️⃣ Engagement (Awareness) Who is paying attention to you? This is where you track brand awareness signals. What to track: CTR, website visits, LinkedIn engagement. Tools to use: lemlist, Hubspot, Teamfluence™, Unify 4️⃣ High Intent (Interest) Prospects are actively self-educating. They’re researching you and engaging with high-intent touchpoints. What to track: free trial sign-ups, webinar registrations, pricing page views, downloads Tools to use: RB2B, Calendly, Maximise, HubSpot, Getkoala 5️⃣ Active Pipeline (Consideration) Prospects are officially in the buying process, and now evaluating your solutions. What to track: demo calls completed, Free consulting scheduled, product engagement Tools to use: Calendly, Hubspot 6️⃣ Buying Process (Decision-Making) The deal is on the table. This is where you’re actively negotiating, finalizing contracts, and moving them into “closed won.” What to track: Proposals sent, redlines on contracts, final approvals. Tools to use: DocSend, PandaDoc, Accord. 7️⃣ Customers Once they buy, the funnel doesn’t end. Retention, expansion, and advocacy are critical for post-sale growth. What to track: renewal rates, upsell opportunities, advocacy signals. The Bottom Line: The modern B2B funnel isn’t just about driving leads, it’s about having visibility at every stage of the buyer’s journey. If you know: - How many accounts fit your ICP - Who the buyers are - Who’s aware, engaged, and interested - And how many are in active buying cycles... ...you can optimize any GTM motion. If your ICP funnel doesn’t look like this, now’s the time to rebuild. Your 2025 GTM goals depend on it. Let me know: Which stage of the funnel do you think is most overlooked? 👇