ticket
-
I admit. I may have lost many six-figure deals because the marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) weren’t sales-ready. Our CRM showed 300 “hot” leads – but only 8% converted to sales-qualified leads (SQLs). The culprit? A lead-scoring model that prioritised form-fills over buying intent signals like G2 competitor comparisons or compliance checks. It wasn’t that marketing wasn’t…
-
Most datasheets are designed for sales, not investors. They’re either full of jargon, overloaded with features, or worse – styled like marketing collateral with no substance. But when investors ask for a datasheet, they’re not asking for a prettier pitch deck. They want signal. Fast. What does this product do? Who is it for? How…
-
We were chasing a six-figure deal in the enterprise space. A well-known client. The sale felt like a marathon—demo, security review, procurement, legal.. And then came the kicker: net-60 plus end-of-month payment terms, biannually. By the time the cash landed, it was often a full year after the first discovery call. Meanwhile, payroll, cloud bills,…
-
Most partner enablement webinars die in the first 10 minutes. Too much jargon. Too little relevance. Decks full of features, zero selling tips. The partner nods politely, closes the Zoom tab, and never thinks about you again. But done right, these sessions can do more than check a training box—they can generate real pipeline. The…
-
When Stripe integrated SOC 2 compliance into its developer onboarding in 2015, it cut sales cycles by 17 days. That’s the hidden maths of regulatory alignment – done right, it’s not a cost centre but a growth lever. Why This Matters Now The SEC’s new cybersecurity disclosure rules mean compliance failures now trigger investor lawsuits,…
-
Politics in a 12 Person Company. Yes, They Exist
•
1 min read
At one point, I seen a company with just 12 people. Tight knit, no middle managers, WhatsApp group culture. On paper, no room for politics. I could feel it. Product had “a favourite” in engineering. Sales talked in DMs instead of threads. Founders would workshop a plan in 1:1s, then present it like it came…
-
The Blind Spot in Your Zero-Trust Strategy 58% of ransomware attacks started with DNS-layer exploits—despite 92% of enterprises claiming full TLS encryption coverage (IDC, 2023). Encryption isn’t the silver bullet many CISOs hoped for. When every packet is wrapped in TLS, legacy DNS security tools see only the envelope, not the threat inside. Why This…
-
Most junior SEs are smart, eager–and lost. (In start-ups) they land in a seat with no playbook, a half-written demo, and a vague mandate to “support sales.” Ramp takes forever. Confidence lags. Deals suffer. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With a focused 90-day mentoring plan, you can cut ramp time by nearly…
-
At one vendor I worked with, it was remote-first. So maybe—very naturally—teams started blaming each other. “You don’t do anything, I’m drowning over here.” Tech blamed sales. Sales blamed tech. Accounting had no idea who to blame. I blamed accounting for that. But here’s the thing: everyone was working hard. I mean genuinely. No slackers. Just people…
-
Why Silence is a Competitive Risk You’d think deep technical expertise would speak for itself. In cybersecurity, it often does—just not loud enough. Founders with domain depth get meetings. Period. I’ve seen enterprise buyers ignore polished decks and lean in because the founder dropped a line about DNS poisoning that actually made sense. But too many…