Hermetic AI

#AI #B2B #SALES

I failed accounting as a Wharton MBA. But I turned that failure into a system for clarity. Here’s how I built a financial cockpit for my business: (you can do this too) It’s straightforward. ↳ but it requires consistency. My strategy since working with a mentor has been… → Building a clear financial cockpit. A cockpit helps me: Maximize cash flow Get extreme clarity Anticipate crises Plug profit drains And when I see a “profit drain” ↳ I can correct course early. You need three “report cards”: 1. The Balance Sheet ↳ Snapshot of your business on a given date. 2. Income Statement ↳ Theoretical, because profit ≠ cash. 3. The Cash-Flow Statement ↳ Cash flow is the best measure of business health. Takeaways: The income statement is a THEORY of how your business is doing ↳ This is money you earned, NOT cash collected. The cash-flow statement is a FACT about how your business is doing. The goal? Convert revenue into profit And profit into cash. Ways of generating cash flow: Sell assets Boost sales Use savings Raise capital Borrow funds Reduce COGS Lower inventory Extend payables Speed up receivables Cut overhead (lowest-hanging fruit) This approach is simple but powerful, ↳ especially for self-funded entrepreneurs. The goal of a business is cash flow: Assets → Revenue → Profit → Cash Flow Here’s the point, fellow entrepreneurs… Anyone can master their business with a financial cockpit.

Here’s the SMB cold call script we’ve used for 10+ years to book 4-6 demos per rep, per day. Nothing earth shattering or new, just has always worked across 3 different companies. 1. Introduction & Pattern Interrupt "Soooo yeah… I'm gonna be honest with ya here [name]. This is a cold call so I do have something to ask you about your business sooo… would you like to hang up on me now or give me 30 seconds and then decide!" 2. Who You Are & Why You’re Calling "Great, so my name’s [name] with [company name], I assume your plate's full so I'll be quick. The reason why I am calling you is because I noticed you're the [job title] at [company], and we help other [job title]’s: [outcome 1] [outcome 2] [outcome 3]" 3. Relevance / Qualification "Are any of those keeping you busy?" 4. Social Proof & Value Proposition "Ok, well the reason why I reaching out to you specifically is we just helped [name], who is the [job title] at [similar company], get [matching outcome], and I wanted to show you how you can do it with or without our help." 5. CTA – Set the Next Step "So the purpose of my call right now is to find a time on your calendar for a brief call so I can introduce my company to you, talk about your priorities and how we can help, and at the very least you walk away knowing how to [matching outcome]?" "Would tomorrow be a bad day for that?" ***This is the basic skeleton/ general framework. There are slight variations to make depending on ICP and tweaks you can make based on skill. I'll explain the psychology, tonality, and KPI's in another post! Happy to help with any questions, drop them in the comments 👇! ♻ Feel free to save & share! PS - I still hop on the phones from time to time using this pitch, and never once do I mention I'm a founder.

#SpeedToLead #Conversion

Let me know if this story sounds familiar... except for the stuff about the pet tiger & private jet... unless you're into that as well? It’s December 19, 2022. I just finished a call with a company whose TCV would exceed the annual quotas of two AEs on our team. I spent most of 2022 chasing this deal, and if it closed, it would be HUGE. As in, Googling 'What’s the policy on bringing a pet tiger on a private jet and how much champaign can you legally drink on the jet?' kind of huge. All the stakeholders were excited, aligned, and agreed to sign the contract at the start of the new year. Jan 2nd at 5pm… crickets. I call my champion… no answer. I send a follow-up email… no response. I try several more times over the months… silence. Then in March 2023, the signed contract lands in my inbox. So why did they ghost me for 2 months, just to pop back up contract hand??? Most assume ghosting means they're disinterested, that’s not the case. Senior-level leaders have no problem saying, “I’m not interested.” If they are not going to move forward, they will let you know. They will also let you know if they are moving forward If they're unresponsive after showing real interest, It's likely the friction from the change itself... that makes them ghost you! Think about it... why else keep the deal alive? They want the solution, but it’s easier for them to stay where they are - until the pain of doing nothing outweighs the discomfort of making the change. Ghosting is not a signal of disinterest - it’s an intent signal with hesitation. You did a good job selling them on your product, but not on the pain of waiting! So you can either wait for the pain of inaction to exceed the pain of change OR You stoke the fire 🔥! Poke the bear. Politely surface the risks of inaction. Let them see the consequences of staying put. Reignite urgency. Remind them why they engaged with you in the first place -what’s at stake if they wait? Clear the path forward. Make the process simple. Offer set up assistance, bespoke onboarding, team training to get buy in. The less friction, the better. Stay visible. You don’t need to be aggressive, just present enough to remain on their radar. Don't badger them... make it harder to stay stuck than to act. Don't push harder - make the change feel easier.

By February of 2021, I had scaled my first company to over 300 employees and after 11 years... it all came crashing down! Here’s the real deal why! From 2009-2016, I did exactly what you’re supposed to do... I built my business to run on autopilot, and in turn, I started running on autopilot myself. My business approach starting from 2016-2021 was pretty straightforward. I barely tried: - I made business decisions without a second thought. - I entered new territories randomly, without strategy. - I gave uninspired speeches at company events. - I ignored feedback from my leadership team. - I never analyzed our budget or expenses. - I showed up and simply pressed repeat. - I hated attending company meetings. - I refused to listen to the market. - I was complacent. I was young, overconfident, and after having success, I believed I could never fail. Then in March 2021, I woke up planning on pressing repeat and WHAM!!! Covid hit. I was in a state of shock. I had no idea how to handle this unexpected challenge, but I did know I could no longer run my business on autopilot. That meant treating my business with intention after 5 years of being asleep behind the wheel. It's very hard to turn something back on that has been off for 5 years. I salvaged what I could, but in the end sold it for spare parts. It was a very different business than the one I run now, but the most valuable thing I gained was the knowledge from that experience. So this is what I do today: - Every decision is fast but intentional. - I study markets before expanding. - I bring energy to my team daily. - I quickly adapt to the market. - I’m present in meetings. - I welcome feedback. - I learn to improve. - I track every $. - I stay hungry. My journey has been a rollercoaster. It hasn’t been a smooth ride. If I could share a couple of insights from this journey, they would be: Don’t let success make you complacent. Good is the biggest enemy of great. Keep Pushing! Good habits can be lost, and hard to rebuild. They're your most valuable asset. Guard Them! Challenges are your compass that will point towards success. When they peak, Your Close! Just NEVER f-ing SLOW DOWN.

I get ANGRY just thinking about this! It was 1:00 in the afternoon on Friday, June 30, 2023, right before a 4 day weekend. The 4th was the following Tuesday so my family had a quick trip to the beach planned to enjoy the long weekend, and we were looking at a 5 hr drive ahead of us. My schedule was light that day, mainly focused on follow ups and CRM updates. I had a few sales calls before noon, and one last one at 4:30. I remember staring at my calendar, thinking, "Why did this guy have to book a call with me at 4:30 PM today?" I rarely take time off and give every sales call 100%. Why did this guy want to ruin my day? He saw my calendar, saw I had availability all day, and still decided to book the last available slot. At the time, my daughters were 3 years and 1 year old. It would have been PERFECT to shoot out a little early, dodge the 5 o'clock traffic, and get to the beach before dark. But noooo, this guy wanted a 4:30 meeting on Friday afternoon before a 4 day weekend when I had wide open availability earlier. I could hear the girls upstairs playing with my wife, and I started to get restless. "Maybe if I just give him a call he'd be down to meet earlier!" ...awesome - I got his voice mail. I calmed myself down, reminding myself that this guy had no idea I was planning a trip or that this was the first one I'd taken since having kids. I did what I could to help get ready to leave, and at 4:25, I logged into Zoom, ready and excited to speak with my next deal. "I will one call close this and make it all worth it!" ...4:31, he's not on the call... 4:32, no sign of him "I'll shoot him a quick email and let him know I'm waiting."... 4:35, nothing "I'll give him another call" - no answer... 4:41, still nothing "This f-ing P.O.S." June 30, 2023 at 4:42 PM was the EXACT moment that led us to build the schedule optimizing feature at Hermetic AI. Making sure every sales meeting scheduled gets clustered with previously scheduled calls, and that Mia will NEVER EVER recommend an isolated early or late appointment time!!! In sales, often we have to cater to our leads request, but no body should have their time stolen! Hermetic AI #sales #scheduling #conversion

Optimize Your Email Timing for Maximum Impact! Choosing the right time to send your emails is crucial for maximizing open rates, alongside compelling design and messaging. Research suggests that emails sent between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM from Tuesday to Thursday, local time, generally achieve the highest open rates. If you're targeting B2B audiences, such as startups, entrepreneurs, or business owners, consider experimenting with evenings or weekends, when recipients may have more time to engage with their emails. Share your thoughts below! 💭 Have a question? Shoot me a connection request! 📩

Most solutions push spray & pray mass email, blog post, or newsletters to re-engage former hand raisers. We're here to fix that! Mia uses each leads historical engagement data to understand what message to send and when to send it! Imagine your newsletter with a 28% open rate had a 98% open rate, and that every single message was completely customized to the recipient, and then delivered to their inbox exactly when they have engaged with your content in the past... What would your results look like then? Find out at www.hermetic.ai

Here's a reality check!!! I talked about B-Players earlier today. This is exactly what happens when you have B-Players working remote and running your sales demos. The rep missed the meeting and it doesn't look like any attempt was made to communicate with the prospect. Mia, checked in with a lead post-meeting, and found out the rep didn’t show. Without this feedback, we'd never know what happened, and that lead? Lost for good? At a bare minimum they have killed the trust! Regardless of whether you use our service to get feedback from your leads... don’t let stupid oversights kill your deals! You should have feedback loops built in to every stage of the funnel or you’re burning money. Edit: To clarify, when I mentioned B-Players, I was referring to underperformers in general... not the A,B,C-Player framework. Regardless of your tolerance for different performance levels, it's important to have feedback at every stage of your funnel to catch issues early and prevent them from hurting your sales. Hermetic AI #b2b #sales