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☀️ I deleted the seat count from the order form. The deal moved that week.

Aug 4, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ I deleted the seat count from the order form. The deal moved that week.

For years I anchored every deal on license count because seats were easy to forecast and easy to defend to my own finance team. A stalled deal only moved when I threw the seat model out.

☀️ Gartner says 234 billion in software spend is dying. You are still selling seats.

Aug 3, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ Gartner says 234 billion in software spend is dying. You are still selling seats.

The unit of the sale is moving from the seat to the outcome. When the agent delivers the result and the software goes invisible, a per-seat pitch is a pitch for a line item that is being deleted.

☀️ This was the year AI became a teammate. Your job just changed.

Aug 2, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ This was the year AI became a teammate. Your job just changed.

You spent 2026 afraid the machine would take your seat. It did not. It took the desk next to you. The reps who win from here stop out-producing the pod and start leading it.

☀️ Saturday read: the loudest AI company did not win the enterprise.

Aug 1, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ Saturday read: the loudest AI company did not win the enterprise.

One vendor spent two years being useful in the quiet. It just crossed a 30 billion run rate, ahead of the louder one. The lesson for your pipeline has nothing to do with volume.

☀️ 87% of reps use AI. They still spend 60% of the day not selling.

Jul 31, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ 87% of reps use AI. They still spend 60% of the day not selling.

AI gave the hours back. Most reps refilled them with admin and wondered why quota attainment sits at 43%. The dividend is only real if you spend it on the 20% that moves deals.

☀️ Your toughest 2027 competitor already has a desk inside your customer.

Jul 30, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ Your toughest 2027 competitor already has a desk inside your customer.

OpenAI just bought a firm to put engineers inside customer operations. The AI vendor is not selling to your buyer anymore. It is moving in. Here is what that does to your seat.

☀️ Reply rates fell from 6.8% to 4%. The machine now filters the machine.

Jul 29, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ Reply rates fell from 6.8% to 4%. The machine now filters the machine.

Every rep got the same AI that writes outreach. So the inboxes learned to spot it. Volume is a tax now, not a lever. Here is what still lands when everyone sounds the same.

☀️ I gave a machine the best part of my job. It made me better at it.

Jul 28, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ I gave a machine the best part of my job. It made me better at it.

For two years I refused to hand off my account research. I was protecting the wrong thing. Here is the task I finally let go of, and the deal that moved the week I did.

☀️ 41% of enterprise teams now run an AI SDR. The solo rep is the one going extinct.

Jul 27, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ 41% of enterprise teams now run an AI SDR. The solo rep is the one going extinct.

Everyone is scared AI will replace the rep. The real threat is quieter. A human running a pod already beats a human working alone on cost per opportunity. Here is the math.

☀️ The deal was won before it started. It always was.

Jul 26, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ The deal was won before it started. It always was.

Buyers rank you before they call. Agents take the easy sales. The freed hours go to whoever uses them well. Everything this week pointed at one shift. Stop chasing deals. Start earning the ranking.

☀️ Saturday read: AI gave you 12 hours a week. Most reps will burn them.

Jul 25, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ Saturday read: AI gave you 12 hours a week. Most reps will burn them.

The productivity dividend is real. The trap is pouring every recovered hour back into more outreach, the exact low-value work that never won the deal. Here is where the top reps are spending the time instead.

☀️ The buyer researched for 5 hours before you got 1. Match it or lose.

Jul 24, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ The buyer researched for 5 hours before you got 1. Match it or lose.

They arrive knowing more than most reps do. The only way onto their shortlist is showing up with research and a point of view deeper than the search box gave them. Here are the exact prompts I use to get there.

☀️ Salesforce just put its sales agents inside ChatGPT.

Jul 23, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ Salesforce just put its sales agents inside ChatGPT.

Shopper, Buyer, and Merchant agents went GA this month, native to ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, and into WhatsApp and SMS. If a text thread can close your deal, an agent will. Here is the sale that stays yours.

☀️ Your buyer spends 5 hours with AI for every 1 hour with you.

Jul 22, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ Your buyer spends 5 hours with AI for every 1 hour with you.

The real evaluation now happens inside ChatGPT and AI search, without you in the room. And 1 in 3 buyers just bought from a vendor they had never heard of, surfaced by an AI answer. Here is how to be that answer.

☀️ I won the deal a year before the RFP existed.

Jul 21, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ I won the deal a year before the RFP existed.

It closed on the first call, and I almost took credit for the call. The truth is I won it twelve months earlier, with a favor I never expected to matter. Here is the part I got wrong for years.

☀️ 77% of deals are won before a rep says a single word.

Jul 20, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ 77% of deals are won before a rep says a single word.

Buyers rank their vendors before they ever take a call, and they buy the Day-1 favorite most of the time. Your pipeline is not where the deal is decided. Here is where it actually is.

☀️ When the machine does 90% for free, the last 10% is the whole price.

Jul 19, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ When the machine does 90% for free, the last 10% is the whole price.

67% of buyers now prefer to buy without a rep. Which means the ones who still want a human are choosing one for a reason. This week was about becoming that reason.

☀️ Saturday read: AI was sold as speed. Cycles got 22% longer.

Jul 18, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ Saturday read: AI was sold as speed. Cycles got 22% longer.

The pitch was compression. The reality is enterprise deals now run 84 days on average. The reps winning are not faster. They are covering more and reading it better.

☀️ The difference between AI slop and AI signal is one line of input.

Jul 17, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ The difference between AI slop and AI signal is one line of input.

Teams using AI are 3.7x more likely to hit quota, but only when the input is disciplined. Ungoverned prompting is where the whole edge quietly leaks out.

☀️ OpenAI just started selling consulting. Read that again.

Jul 16, 2026

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2 min read

☀️ OpenAI just started selling consulting. Read that again.

The company with the best model on earth decided the model was not enough, and stood up a consulting arm. That tells you exactly where your deals are actually won.