Sean Cook

Most companies are hiring “RevOps”… …but what they actually need is one of these three roles: 1. GTM Operator 2. GTM Engineer 3. GTM Architect And the confusion is costing teams real pipeline. Let me break it down in plain English 👇 ⸻ 1) The GTM Operator (classic RevOps) This person makes the machine run. They own: • pipeline stages + definitions • routing rules • forecasting hygiene • dashboard management • SLAs + handoffs • “why are deals stuck?” • “why does reporting not match reality?” They reduce chaos. They’re the person who makes the org feel tight. ⸻ 2) The GTM Engineer (new-school RevOps) This person builds the machine. They own: • automations + workflows • integrations + APIs • enrichment + data plumbing • attribution infrastructure • “why did this workflow fail?” • “how do we connect all these tools without duct tape?” They reduce manual work. They’re the person who makes the org feel fast. ⸻ 3) The GTM Architect (rare, extremely valuable) This person designs the machine. They think in: • systems design • data models • GTM incentives • long-term scalability • “what should our revenue system look like 12 months from now?” They reduce rework. They’re the person who makes the org feel inevitable. ⸻ Here’s the trap A lot of teams hire “RevOps”… …and expect one person to be all three. So what happens? • tooling grows like weeds • definitions drift • dashboards multiply • pipeline becomes political • forecasting becomes vibes And the business quietly loses trust in its own data. ⸻ A simple rule I like If the problem is: • process + alignment → Operator • automation + systems → Engineer • strategy + design → Architect Same universe. Different superpowers. ⸻ If you’re building a GTM team in 2026, here’s my take: RevOps isn’t a department. It’s a product. And your revenue system needs: • a designer • a builder • an owner Even if those roles start in one person.

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6 Comments

“GTM Engineering will replace RevOps.” It’s not. And it shouldn’t. What’s really happening is that GTM Engineering is emerging because the GTM stack has become too complex to manage without engineering talent, and it's an easy way for poorly engineered software companies to tout an evolutionary new role than to fix their tools. We didn’t build this function because we wanted to reinvent ops. We built it because modern GTM tools are so fragmented, brittle, and overly configurable that non-technical teams can’t keep up. So, enter GTM Engineering: They manage the DIY that's not really DIY software. They tame the API chaos. They turn a pile of disconnected SaaS into something that feels like a system. They are 50% systems admin, 50% API engineer. RevOps own the strategy, the process, the connective tissue between sales, marketing, and CS. They understand the business logic. They historically owned GTM software before it became impossible to manage. RevOps didn't create GTM Engineering. Unfriendly GTM software with a "DIY sticker" slapped on this side did.

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When agents can talk directly to your apps through an MCP server, everything changes. Instead of a human jumping between Salesforce, Airtable, etc... an agent can do it autonomously: Summarize call transcripts for target accounts from Gong Pass those summaries to Inflection to create custom segments Draft a target account campaign based on these custom segments No brittle integrations. No copy-paste workflows. No “please log in and click this button.” The agent just acts — safely, deterministically, and across systems via multiple MCP servers.

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When I started building the GTM strategy for Atlas – Gainsight’s agentic renewal product – I noticed something that didn’t sit right with me: Why were we only focused on the very top companies in our Rolodex? It felt narrow. Why not go broader, faster? But over time, I realized the team was right. And after listening to Jen Abel on Lenny’s podcast this morning, I can finally articulate why. Tier 1 companies are under relentless pressure to stay on top as the market leader. Especially now – in the era of AI transformation – it’s adapt or get left behind. They don’t have time to test every new tool. But when something aligns with their vision of where they need to be, they make the time. That’s exactly what we’re seeing with our Atlas renewal agent – and with partners like DocuSign. They understand that managing the long tail of renewals isn’t just a workflow problem anymore. It’s a survival problem. They see what many others don’t yet: retention is existential, and AI is finally making it scalable. We share a vision for what comes next – humans and agents working together to deliver coverage, consistency, and customer experience at a scale the old model could never reach. If you lead CS, watch what the Tier 1s are doing now. They’re not just early adopters. They’re defining what modern Customer Success will look like in the AI era.

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HubSpot lost ~30% of its value this year. Even Salesforce is down 23.71% YTD. And ZoomInfo is down 86.8% from its all-time high in 2021. As Co-CEO of AppDirect, we were locked into Salesforce. They wanted to increase the price. So we migrated to HubSpot. But the same thing happened with ZoomInfo. No flexibility. No relief. Just stuck in a $400K multi-year contract. Meanwhile, my team was using Apollo’s free version. That’s how the old playbook traps companies: - 6-figure contracts - multi-year lock-ins - with no way out AI-native platforms flip the script: - faster to value - cheaper & transparent - No lock-in, just better value Incumbents won’t be completely displaced. But we are shifting from 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱 to 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. Systems of action capture value from AI agents automating manual tasks, saving teams time and accelerating growth. That’s the reason why incumbents are down and AI-natives are up.

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25 Comments

Why Your SDR “Pilot” Didn’t Work (And What a Real Test Looks Like in K‑12) I hear this a lot from K‑12 vendors --> “We tried SDRs. It didn’t work.” When we dig in, we find that the pilot was never set up to succeed. The pattern usually looks like this: - 1 rep, part‑time on outbound - No tight ICP (“any district is fine”) - No real enablement beyond a script and a sequence - Judged after 30–45 days in a 6–9 month sales cycle In K‑12, that’s not a pilot. That’s a hope. A realistic 90‑day outbound pilot looks very different: - Start with a clear hypothesis, not “let’s see what happens.” “We’re testing outbound into mid‑sized districts with THIS role, for THIS problem, with THIS offer.” The tighter your focus, the better. - Stop pitching or pushing your product. Build messaging for your team talks about the true issues you are solving and ensure everyone is starting their conversations off with learning, not selling. - Resource it like an experiment you actually care about. Dedicated time (not leftover AE time), clean data, coaching, and a simple playbook for objections. Under‑resourcing is the fastest way to “prove” it doesn’t work. - Define success in stages, not just meetings. Weeks 1–4: learning → Are we reaching the right people? What objections show up? Weeks 5–8: traction → Are conversation rates and replies trending up? Weeks 9–12: conversion signal → Are we creating opportunities your sales team believes in? Decide on scale with evidence, not vibes. By 90 days, you should know: - Which segment responds - Which message lands - Whether your team can convert the meetings you’re creating If you keep running tiny, fuzzy SDR experiments, you’ll keep getting fuzzy answers. In K‑12, the question isn’t “Do SDRs work?” We already know they do. The real question is whether you are ready to get serious about your revenue engine and stop treating SDRs like a side project.

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This list is getting wild. Each company here has 2 things in common: ŌURA Ramp CarMax Paylocity Freddie Mac Range GoodRx Brex Redfin YouGov Upwork Mercury Chartmetric HubSpot JPMorganChase Zapier Pave Comerica Bank Drink LMNT DoorDash Spring Health Vanta MaintainX ZoomInfo Each of these teams has hired editors, economists and/or data journalists to lead content efforts. Not AI, real editors to cover their industry and produce unique coverage from their data and subject matter experts. All based on the realization that in 2025, telling the news can be more effective than waiting to be covered by it. Each also has signed on this year to contribute some of their best stories into the Stacker Newswire, a curation of the best 3rd party editorial across industries. We make that wire available - at no cost - to news outlets all across the country. Places like Miami Herald, Yahoo, St Louis Post-Dispatch, KTLA or PIX11. 2026 predictions: This list only gets longer, as more teams hire journalists to build in house media teams. Some of the most interesting research next year will come from brands hiring statisticians to publish research on in-house data. This cannot replace independent journalism --- but it is going to fund some really good work. And we'll be here to help amplify it :) If you have great editorial but could use more earned distribution - we're definitely looking to expand the wire next year, would be great to talk and see if it makes sense.

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Have an onboarding meeting w a top AE in 30 minutes and want to prepare for the meeting... Historically I'd jump into Salesforce and attempt to review open deals and recent wins. But it's a new world with Claude and our CRM integration. Prompt: Can you tell me all of the active and recent won/lost deals owned by rep x? Tell me anything I need to know about the accounts and why any are stalled. Look specifically at any intent signals, if we have the full buying group in the database, who is missing, and pull learnings from any notes fields or recordings if possible. Look at lost and won deals in last 12 months also and create a list of questions for me to ask that can help my work in marketing in next 90 days. The meetings are infinitely more productive than a standard meet & greet, and I'm learning on the go about where to focus lifecycle initiatives to move the pipeline forward. Now I'm looking into building workflows with integrations to collect this data ongoing and auto update a google sheet. Stay tuned in to see if I figure this out. The suspense is killing you, I know. #AI #Claude #AIforMarketing #MarketingAI

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RevOps is becoming the most leveraged role in SaaS. Boards expect efficiency, CROs need predictability, and CEOs want scale without bloating headcount. RevOps is where those outcomes get engineered. What top RevOps leaders are taking on right now: Building one operating system across Sales, CS, Marketing Wiring data and AI into plays, owners, and SLAs Creating lean handoffs, clean data, and a clean pipeline Improving forecast integrity with models, coverage, and assumptions the board can trust Metrics that show it’s working: Forecast accuracy within ±5% Time from signal → play under 24 hours Lift in NRR and win rate attributable to RevOps programs Pipeline per rep and CAC payback trending in the right direction Where this is heading: RevOps will co-own planning, forecast reviews, and board prep Three moves to make this quarter: Map the Revenue OS with data sources, systems, workflows, owners, and SLAs on one page Automate one cross-functional play, for example...product-usage spike → CSM alert → AE expansion task → exec email Publish a weekly Revenue Health Brief with forecast deltas, risk list, expansion list, top leaks, next actions The revenue engine is only as strong as the people who build it. ---------------------- Hey, I’m Nicholas 👋 I run Lucidly, the customer intelligence platform for revenue growth. I post every weekday morning (8:30am PST) about retention, expansion, and building a SaaS company from the ground up. Follow for ideas you can put to work the same day. DM anytime.

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EVERY ZoomInfo customer can connect Claude and ZoomInfo together right now- but how about in Slack ? With Claude? Here’s how to build a targeted prospect list and account plan without leaving Slack. (In <5 minutes) Step 1: Ask Claude directly inside Slack to build you a list I asked for… “25 CROs and VPs of Sales based in Boston, at software companies between 500–1k employees, with $100M+ in funding. Name, title, email, mobile, total funding.” It taps straight into your Zoominfo database and all comes back right there in the channel. It even flags who is on your do not call list. Step 2: Pick an account. Ask Claude to prep you for the call, directly in Slack. It uses Zoominfo to pull every conversation you've had with them - calls, emails, pain points they've raised, products they use. It comes back with the leadership you NEED to know, what's happening at the account right now and specific angles that could help you win. This works inside Claude too when you connect it up to our MCP server - you can even ask it to build you a custom interface to sort, edit, and work the data however you want. Zoominfo is going to show up EVERYWHERE. Slack, Claude, wherever you're doing GTM work, your data should follow you there. Every ZoomInfo customer already has access to this - connect ZoomInfo to Claude here: https://lnkd.in/eM-UbCJt

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