Selling the Cloud

By Mark Petruzzi, KK Anderson, Paul Melchiorre

Selling the Cloud delves into the stories of C-suite veterans in Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and RevOps, revealing the secrets behind building successful SaaS empires. Each

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FAQs about Selling the Cloud:

How many episodes does Selling the Cloud have?

The podcast currently has 104 episodes available.

Selling the Cloud episodes:

November 30, 2025 Ep. 104 - Turning Personal Networks Into Pipeline: Inside the Relationship Intelligence Era with Drew Sechrist - Part 1
In this episode of Selling the Cloud, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Drew Sechrist, CEO and co founder of Connect The Dots and longtime Salesforce veteran, to unpack why traditional ABM motions and high volume outbound are running out of gas and what comes next. Drew shares how relationship intelligence, warm introductions, and network aware playbooks are giving revenue teams a durable performance edge over cold, volume driven tactics.
Drawing from his experience leading enterprise teams at Salesforce and now building Connect The Dots, Drew explains how to operationalize real relationships at scale, how to reimagine the role of the account executive as CEO of the territory, and why senior sellers should lead the shift from spray and pray to relationship driven go to market.
What You’ll Learn:
• Why ABM has reached peak utility and where it still fits in a modern go to market motion
• How relationship intelligence and warm paths consistently outperform cold outbound and one to many ABM
• Why the best enterprise sellers behave like CEOs of their territories and how that model broke during the growth at all costs era
• How to design KPIs that expose when your current motion is tapped out and ready for a relationship first rethink
• A practical 90 day approach to shifting from volume based SDR motions to relationship driven plays led by senior sellers
Key Topics:
• The limits of high volume ABM and cold outbound as primary growth levers
• Mapping networks, scoring relationship strength, and surfacing warm paths into target accounts
• Dreamforce era relationship building and how those habits still drive enterprise deals
• The return of the account executive as CEO of the territory, not just a cog in the sales tech machine
• Using AI and systems like Connect The Dots to make relationship based selling scalable and measurable
• Reweighting your go to market mix across ABM, intent, and relationships instead of relying on mass spray and pray
• How SDRs evolve into behind the scenes orchestrators of introductions, routing requests through executives and board members without breaking trust
Guest Spotlight: Drew Sechrist
Drew Sechrist is the CEO and co founder of Connect The Dots, a relationship intelligence platform that helps go to market teams tap into the power of real relationships at scale. Before founding Connect The Dots, Drew spent more than a decade at Salesforce during its hyper growth era, rising from one of the first account executives to leading enterprise sales teams. His career has been built on leveraging networks, warm introductions, and trusted relationships to win complex, high value deals.
Resources and Mentions:
• Company: Connect The Dots
• Event: Dreamforce
• Topics discussed: account executives as CEOs of their territories, relationship driven GTM, shifting off pure volume motions
🎧 Listen now and follow Selling the Cloud for more conversations on modern go to market, revenue leadership, and the future of relationship driven selling in an AI enabled world. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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24min
November 25, 2025Ep. 103 - Operationalizing Process and AI for Real Sales Impact with Paul Fuller - Part 2
In this episode of Selling the Cloud, Paul Fuller, Chief Revenue Officer at Membrain, joins KK Anderson and Mark Petruzzi for a compelling conversation on how modern sales leaders can use AI to coach more effectively, eliminate wasteful pipeline rituals, and build real self-leadership within their teams.
Paul outlines how high-performing sales managers are shifting from performative metrics to meaningful enablement; using AI to flag risk, generate insights, and equip reps to close complex deals. He also shares how sales leaders can establish operating rhythms, drive accountability, and lead with trust; all while reporting to the board with metrics that prove the business value of relationships.
What You’ll Learn:
AI-Enhanced Coaching: How to pair red/yellow flag systems with AI insights to pinpoint stalled deals and coach with precisio
Cadence of Accountability: How to replace unproductive pipeline calls with actionable, written commitments that build trust and execution
Manager Enablement: Why coaching the coach is the next evolution in sales performance systems
Board-Ready Metrics: Which numbers matter most to prove relationships and strategic selling actually move the needle
Practical AI Use Cases: Where AI drives effectiveness now (e.g., summarization, follow-up, personalization), and where it still falls short
Key Topics:
Operationalizing AI in pipeline reviews and deal strategy
Moving from activity tracking to outcome coaching
Systems for continuous manager development
Real intelligence vs. performative sales theater
CRO priorities in the AI era: focus, trust, proof
Enabling full-cycle reps with better content, follow-up, and insights
Measuring relationship impact: customer engagement, strategic touches, lifetime value
Guest Spotlight: Paul Fuller
Paul Fuller is Chief Revenue Officer at Membrain, where he brings structure, strategy, and coaching to complex B2B sales organizations. A strong advocate for elevating leadership and execution within sales teams, Paul focuses on embedding process, insights, and AI into daily workflows to help reps and managers improve continuously.
Resources & Mentions:
• Company: Membrain
• Book Recommendations:
– The Greatest Sales Question Ever Asked by Brent Long
– A Mind for Sales by Mark Hunter
– The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey
– Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
• Sales leader to follow: Matt Green (Sales Assembly)
🎧 Listen now and follow Selling the Cloud for more real conversations with revenue leaders building tomorrow’s go-to-market playbooks.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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22min
November 18, 2025Ep. 102 - Operationalizing Process and AI for Real Sales Impact with Paul Fuller – Part 1
In this episode of Selling the Cloud, Paul Fuller, Chief Revenue Officer at Membrane, joins KK Anderson and Mark Petruzzi to reframe how revenue teams win in complex, multi-stakeholder deals. Paul explains why many orgs over index on apps and one-off skills while under investing in operating rhythms, leadership habits, and relationship-driven execution. He introduces the idea of real intelligence as the who and why that guide the how, and shows how process plus AI inside the workflow can coach managers, focus reps, and change what happens every Monday morning.
What You’ll Learn:
Defining real intelligence: moving beyond tools to leadership, service, and wayfinding
Building operating rhythms: weekly coaching, clean pipelines, and a cadence of accountability
Embedding insights in the workflow: checklists that coach, not just boxes to tick
Activating AI where it matters: individualized multi-stakeholder follow ups and manager signals
Proving what boards fund: focusing on measurable behaviors that move win rate and cycle time
Key Topics:
Systems over one-off training for durable behavior change
Process plus AI to guide day-to-day actions in CRM
Coaching frameworks that reinforce who, why, then how
Multi-threading effectively and right-sizing stakeholder engagement
From performative pipeline calls to meaningful operating reviews
Guest Spotlight: Paul Fuller
Paul is the Chief Revenue Officer at Membrane. He helps complex sales organizations operationalize process, coaching, and buyer-centric execution so managers can coach and reps can execute without bouncing across tools.
Resources & Mentions:
Fathom and Gong for call capture and summarization
Membrane workflow checklists and coaching cadence
WINS framework for servant leadership based selling
Books: The Greatest Sales Question Ever Asked by Brent Long; A Mind for Sales by Mark Hunter; The Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey
Leader to follow: Matt Green of Sales Assembly
🎧 Listen now and follow Selling the Cloud for more GTM insights from enterprise operators and CROs. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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23min
November 11, 2025 Ep. 101 – Unlocking AI’s Potential: Mastering the Art of Smarter Questions (Webinar Replay)
In this replay of Mastering Sales with AI, AGS Co-Founder Mark Petruzzi is joined by KK Anderson and Scott Stollwerk, Chief Sales Officer at Pest Share, together with Gabriella Koenig of Collective[i], for a lively and practical discussion on how AI is reshaping the art of selling.
The conversation dives deep into what separates average sales teams from AI-empowered ones—and it’s not the tech itself. It’s the thinking. The panel explores how smarter questions, better hypotheses, and trust-driven selling can transform AI from a productivity tool into a true strategic partner.
They share real stories from the field: how AI predicted buyer shifts before humans saw them, how teams replaced pipeline calls with signal-driven insights, and how great sellers now act like the CEOs of their own territories—with AI as their superintelligence.
Whether you’re a CRO, RevOps leader, or AE curious about where to start, this session shows how to go beyond surface-level prompting and turn AI into an amplifier for strategy, trust, and results.
What You’ll Learn:
• Why AI transformation in sales is not about technology—it’s about better thinking and sharper questioning
• The “value hypothesis” framework for creating AI-assisted prep before every customer meeting
• How leading teams like Pest Share use AI to forecast, coach, and prioritize deals in real time
• What happens when sales leaders replace pipeline reviews with AI signal reviews
• How to coach teams to trust and collaborate with AI rather than resist it
• Why the best sellers now operate like CEOs of their own pipelines—and how AI makes that possible
Featured Speakers:
• Mark Petruzzi – CEO, Accelerant Growth Solutions (AGS)
• KK Anderson – Co-Founder, Accelerant Growth Solutions (AGS)
• Scott Stollwerk – Chief Sales Officer, Pest Share
• Gabriella Koenig – Moderator, Collective[i]
Key Topics:
• Prompting for insight vs. prompting for confirmation
• From search to strategy: moving beyond AI as a shortcut
• Trust, empathy, and human connection in the AI era
• Smarter forecasting and self-coaching with collective data
• Building AI-driven sales cultures that embrace change
#SellingTheCloud #GetAGS #ReimagineGrowth #AIforSales

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1h
November 04, 2025Ep. 100 – Leading and Scaling Revenue Organizations When the Old Playbook Is Obsolete - Part 2
In Part 2 of our conversation with Neil Graham, Chief Revenue Officer at Disqo, we dive deeper into how modern CROs must rethink their org design, marketing execution, and AI integration strategies to stay competitive in 2025 and beyond. Neil shares why curiosity, humility, and bias for action are now non-negotiables; and how his team is operationalizing those values inside a flat, fast-moving GTM system.
From building AI-generated deal strategy sessions to deploying 24/7 agents on the website, Neil unpacks the real-world tools and team behaviors that are reshaping sales and marketing execution. This episode is packed with tactical insights for CROs leading through change.
What You’ll Learn
Flatter Orgs, Bolder Execution: How Disqo’s three-layer model speeds up decisions and drives alignment across marketing, sales, and delivery.
Non-Negotiables in Revenue Teams: Why curiosity, humility, and action orientation matter more than ever, and how to screen for them.
AI as a Revenue Multiplier: How Disqo uses AI for outbound personalization, content creation, and automated deal intelligence.
Coaching in the AI Era: How Neil’s RevOps team leads enablement through data-driven strategy docs and always-on insights.
Creating New Roles for the AI Age: Why Disqo now has a dedicated AI strategy lead embedded in RevOps, and how other CROs can follow suit.
Key Topics
Scaling outbound without bloating headcount
Redefining RevOps to include data, process, enablement, and AI ownership
Designing a leadership team that balances vision and execution
The future of SDR and BDR roles in an AI-enabled GTM
Using AI agents for 24/7 coverage and real-time buyer insights
Building culture through feedback, modeling, and EQ-based hiring
Guest Spotlight: Neil Graham
Neil Graham is the Chief Revenue Officer at Disqo. A proven growth operator and revenue architect, Neil has helped scale iconic brands like Salesforce, Siebel, and Jive. At Disqo, he’s building a flat, AI-accelerated GTM machine that prizes speed, ownership, and alignment over legacy hierarchy.
Resources & Mentions
Company: Disqo
Frameworks: MedPick, DSF (Disqo Success Framework)
Sales Tools: Gong, Clay, ChatGPT, AI agents
Leadership Inspiration: Carl Schachter, Eli Cohen, John Barrows
Book: Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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23min
October 28, 2025Ep. 99 – Leading and Scaling Revenue Organizations When the Old Playbook Is Obsolete - Part 1
In this episode of Selling the Cloud, we’re joined by Neil Graham, Chief Revenue Officer at Disqo and a seasoned revenue leader whose career spans Salesforce, Siebel, Jive, and Telem. Neil shares a ground-level view of what it takes to lead, scale, and modernize revenue organizations in an era where traditional sales playbooks are no longer enough.
From breaking out of funnel-stage rigidity to building flat organizations that prioritize curiosity, Neil walks through the changes CROs must embrace to stay ahead. He also shares how Disqo is rethinking GTM structure and leveraging AI to drive personalization, speed, and operational clarity; without drowning in tools.
What You’ll Learn
Why the Playbook is Obsolete: What Neil really means when he says the old models no longer work, and what replaces them.
Lightweight Rigor at Scale: How to build process and alignment without slowing teams down.
From Bottoms-Up to Top-Down TAM: How Disqo blends relationship selling with TAM-led targeting for scale.
Curiosity as Culture: Why curiosity is a non-negotiable leadership trait in flat, fast-moving GTM orgs.
Leading Through Change: How to coach teams to self-govern, move fast, and stay mission-aligned in a no-layer org model.
Key Topics
Building sales organizations without bureaucracy or bloat
Aligning marketing, sales, and success teams around business outcomes
Using AI to power real-time customer insight and hyper-relevant outbound
Flattening GTM structures for speed, ownership, and clarity
Creating cultures where experimentation and impact are rewarded
Guest Spotlight: Neil Graham
Neil Graham is the Chief Revenue Officer at Disqo and a proven sales leader with decades of experience scaling GTM organizations from Series A to post-IPO. Known for his ability to bring structure without red tape, Neil has helped some of the most recognized B2B SaaS names balance scale with agility in high-growth phases.
Resources & Mentions
Company: Disqo
Framework: DSF (Disqo Success Framework)
Sales Tools: Gong, Clay, ChatGPT
Books & Influence: MedPick methodology, Salesforce early days, AI-led sales enablement
🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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20min
October 21, 2025Ep. 98 – Driving Symbiotic Outcomes in High-Stakes Sales with Josh Hoffman – Part 2
In Part 2 of our conversation with Josh Hoffman, we explore the leadership mindset required to thrive in moments of high-pressure change, like mergers, long enterprise cycles, and AI-driven disruption.
Josh shares how sales teams can stay grounded in customer value, build trust through co-created plans, and lead with consistency; regardless of who owns the company or what the logo says.
We also talk about the real-world impact of AI on sales effectiveness, onboarding, and go-to-market readiness.
What You’ll Learn:
Leading Through Change: How to stabilize culture and focus teams during M&A, leadership transitions, or high-stakes GTM shifts
Mutual Action Plans that Work: Why aligning around a co-created calendar is a simple but powerful tool for accountability and momentum
Consistency Over Chaos: How sticking to your core value proposition helps drown out internal and external noise
Real AI Use Cases: How Josh and his team use AI for onboarding, writing, analysis, and market research—without replacing human judgment
Leadership in Modern Sales Orgs: The behavioral traits that inspire performance, loyalty, and resilience
Key Topics:
Sales leadership in high-pressure, transitional environments
Using backward-planning and mutual calendars for deal velocity
Staying aligned on value across long sales cycles
Cultural consistency across internal and client-facing teams
AI for productivity, market intelligence, and GTM strategy
Embracing humility and continuous learning as a CRO
Guest Spotlight: Josh Hoffman
Josh is Chief Revenue Officer at Totus Rx and a long-time leader in B2B revenue organizations. He’s built and led sales teams across tech, telecom, and compliance industries, with a focus on building high-trust teams and delivering real value to customers. Josh is known for his practical, human-centered leadership style, especially in complex, high-stakes environments.
Resources & Mentions:
Book: The Challenger Sale
Book: SPIN Selling
Leaders Mentioned: Mark Anderson, Russ Reeder, Todd Abbott, Mike Jenner, Joe Burton
Follow Josh Hoffman on LinkedIn for more insights on sales leadership and culture.
🎧 Listen now and subscribe to Selling the Cloud to hear more from enterprise GTM leaders shaping the future of sales.

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21min
October 14, 2025Ep. 97 – Driving Symbiotic Outcomes in High-Stakes Sales with Josh Hoffman - Part 1
In this episode of Selling the Cloud, we sit down with Josh Hoffman, a seasoned go-to-market leader who has guided sales transformations at Dell, Avaya, Poly, Datto, and now ControlCase. Known for his “sell-with” philosophy, Josh shares what it really means to drive symbiotic outcomes, where sellers, partners, and customers win together.
He unpacks lessons from decades of leading in high-stakes environments, including mergers, market pivots, and rapid scale, and makes the case for consistency, humility, and emotional intelligence in modern sales leadership. From shifting away from zero-sum thinking to building customer-aligned mutual action plans, this episode is a masterclass in outcome-based selling and team-driven success.
What You’ll Learn
Sell-With vs. Sell-To: Why Josh believes the most successful sellers don’t “close deals”, they solve problems alongside the customer.
How to Build Mutual Action Plans: Practical ways to bring partners and clients to the same side of the table from day one.
The Role of AI in Sales Coaching: How Josh’s teams are using AI for prompt writing, context synthesis, and deal prep, without losing the human element.
Coaching Through Change: Why consistency, not charisma, helps teams thrive through high-pressure acquisitions and pivots.
From Manufacturing to CRO: Josh’s story of going from putting screws in motherboards at Dell to building global GTM teams, and what shaped him along the way.
Key Topics
Transforming sales cultures from transactional to consultative
Teaching sellers to ask better questions, and when to talk less
Why top sales leaders reduce the distance between themselves and the AE
Coaching through ambiguity and building career-defining moments
Why consistent behavior builds trust in times of change
Using AI to augment, not replace, frontline coaching and prep
Guest Spotlight: Josh Hoffman
Josh Hoffman is the Chief Revenue Officer at ControlCase and a proven sales leader with over two decades of experience building high-performance teams. With a track record of leading in moments of transformation, Josh is passionate about coaching sellers to exceed what they thought was possible, through shared success, customer obsession, and scalable systems of growth.
Resources & Mentions
Book: The Qualified Sales Leader by John McMahon
Book: FYI: For Your Improvement by Korn Ferry
Company: ControlCase (compliance & audit automation)
AI Tool Mention: Grammarly, prompt engineering
Leadership Inspiration: Todd Abbott, Mike Jenner, Mark Anderson
🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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23min
October 07, 2025Ep. 96 – Scaling Sales with Value Intelligence with Max Elster - Part 2
In Part 2 of our conversation with Max Elster, Co-Founder and CEO of Minoa, we go deeper into how sales teams are actually operationalizing outcome-based selling; at scale.
Max shares how revenue teams at companies like Vanta are moving beyond founder-led, feature-centric narratives, and building scalable, repeatable playbooks rooted in customer outcomes, business impact, and data-backed storytelling.
Whether you’re leading a 10-person sales team or a 1,000-person GTM org, this conversation will help you reimagine enablement, coach for value, and build business cases that win over CFOs.
What You’ll Learn
Vanta’s Transition from Features to Outcomes: How CRO Stevie Case transformed Vanta’s narrative, and drove shorter cycles, higher win rates, and stronger executive engagement by focusing the team on value-led discovery and storytelling.
Why Business Cases Shouldn’t Be Optional: Hear how teams went from building 10 business cases per quarter to over 500, without hiring hundreds of SEs, and how that shift boosted win rates by up to 15 percentage points.
Teaching Reps to Think Like CFOs: Max explains how the best sales teams equip champions to model ROI and outcomes with buyers, not for them, and why the strongest business cases are co-owned with the finance team.
How AI Accelerates Discovery, Coaching, and Differentiation: From call summaries to intent signals to customer benchmarks, Max shows how LLMs and predictive tools are giving reps the context to build relevance at scale, without losing the human touch.
Key Topics
From founder-led sales to repeatable revenue engines
Vanta’s shift to value-led selling, and what it unlocked
Building outcome plans that close deals faster
Why the CRO’s best insights come from AEs
Coaching for customer outcomes, not product demos
How AI is reshaping forecasting, discovery, and enablement
The real future of revenue leadership in an AI world
Guest Spotlight: Max Elster
Max Elster is the Co-Founder and CEO of Minoa, a revenue platform helping companies scale value-based sales across the deal cycle. With a decade of experience in AI and B2B SaaS, Max works with companies like Vanta, Cognite, and others to operationalize value intelligence, from discovery to renewal.
Resources & Mentions
Book: The Qualified Sales Leader by John McMahon
Company: Vanta
Max Elster: LinkedIn | Email: [email protected]
🎧 Listen now and subscribe to Selling the Cloud wherever you get your podcasts. Stay tuned for next week’s episode!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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21min
September 30, 2025Ep. 95 – Scaling Sales with Value Intelligence with Max Elster - Part 1
In this episode of Selling the Cloud, Max Elster, Co-Founder and CEO of Minoa, joins co-hosts Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson to explore what B2B revenue leaders often miss: a clear, consistent understanding of why they win.
Max introduces the concept of a Value Intelligence Layer, a data-driven framework that links discovery, business cases, and outcomes into a single narrative that everyone from SDRs to CROs can use.
Drawing from years of experience across SaaS and enterprise sales, Max shares how leading GTM teams are moving away from feature pitching and toward outcome-led selling, especially in a world where AI has made building software easier, and differentiation harder.
From strengthening discovery questions to creating scalable outcome playbooks, this episode is packed with tactical ideas for revenue leaders rethinking how they sell in the age of AI.
What You’ll Learn
The “Why We Win” Blindspot: Why many sales orgs still can’t answer the most important question, and how that gap leads to poor qualification, forecasting, and deal execution.
From Features to Outcomes: How modern buyers evaluate value, and why understanding customer priorities matters more than your internal product roadmap.
Creating the Value Intelligence Layer: How to unify customer impact, product usage, sales stages, and discovery insights into a single GTM operating model.
Scaling Outcome-Led Playbooks: What it takes to align SDRs, AEs, SEs, and CS teams around a shared value narrative from day zero to renewal.
AI as a Differentiator (Not a Replacement): Why the best teams use AI to personalize engagement, not to automate it, and how AI helps surface deeper buyer context.
Key Topics
Why most GTM teams don’t know why they win
Building discovery questions that lead to business cases
Embedding outcomes into CRM and sales stages
Creating a “value intelligence” system across teams
How AI and call data can power more relevant sales motions
Turning post-sale value into pre-sale advantage
Aligning playbooks across SDRs, AEs, SEs, and CSMs
Guest Spotlight: Max Elster
Max Elster is the Co-Founder and CEO of Minoa, a SaaS company helping revenue teams operationalize their value story. With a background in B2B software and product development, Max built Manoa to bridge the gap between feature-led selling and outcome-driven growth. His team helps sales orgs unify discovery, use cases, and customer impact into one connected system.
Resources & Mentions
Book: The Qualified Sales Leader by John McMahon
Company: Minoa.io
Max’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maxelster
🎧 Listen now and subscribe to Selling the Cloud wherever you get your podcasts. Stay tuned for Part 2 with Max Elster, dropping next week!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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25min

FAQs about Selling the Cloud:

How many episodes does Selling the Cloud have?

The podcast currently has 104 episodes available.