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Dan is talking directly to reps today about how to think about career progression. Most salespeople focus on the wrong things when planning their next move, and it costs them more than they realize.

Dan breaks down the four levels of selling, from transactional roles all the way to global enterprise, including what deal sizes look like at each stage, what skills each one demands, and how the progression maps to management opportunities down the road. He also covers what happens when you take a step backwards and why staying too long at the wrong level quietly limits your future options.

If you're a rep trying to figure out your next move, this one's for you. And if you know someone earlier in their career who needs to hear it, send it their way.

This podcast is brought to you by DataBased. Your partner in building revenue teams that actually perform.

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Dan is walking through something he sees in almost every company he consults with. Most go-to-market teams aren't actually integrated, and it's costing founders and revenue leaders more than they realize.

This is part one of a five-part series on how to build a truly vertically aligned, integrated go-to-market team. Dan covers the first two steps: recognizing the problem, and how to pick the one to three verticals your entire team should rally around. He walks through a real example from a security company in the Mountain West to show how it works in practice.

If you're a founder, CEO, or revenue leader and your teams are running their own version of the strategy, this series is for you.

This podcast is brought to you by DataBased. Your partner in building revenue teams that actually perform.

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Dan's lived in California, Ireland, and Spain, traveled the world for work, and made friends across every kind of belief system. He has one rule for all of it: share openly, never proselytize. This episode is about why that rule has changed him more than almost anything else.

In this episode:

• The one filter Dan uses when deciding who to let into his life and his team
• What happened in Portugal when Russia invaded Ukraine — and how Dan handled it
• Why proselytizing at work slowly shrinks the team you're able to build
• How surrounding yourself with people who disagree without pushing has moved Dan toward the middle

Connect with Dan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-watkins/

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Most reps find a script, follow it to the letter, and wonder why it feels off. Dan's built a career on borrowing the best techniques from the best books — then making every single one his own. This episode is the step-by-step on how to do that.

In this episode:

• Why copying a script without personalizing it costs you the best part of the sale
• How to take any technique — discovery, objections, interviewing — and make it yours
• The herd theory concept that changed how Dan sells, and how he adapted it
• What happens when you get the other person using their own vocabulary

Connect with Dan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-watkins/

📄 How to think through location, comp, and in-office vs. remote for your GTM team

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Most founders pick a city for their office and assume the talent will follow. Dan just got off the phone with a client making exactly the wrong call — and breaks down why location, comp, and in-office expectations have to be designed together, not decided separately.

In this episode:

• Why hiring junior sales reps in-office in Tier 1 cities is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make
• The real comp premium you're paying the moment you hire in SF or NYC
• How to structure your go-to-market team by city tier to actually compete for talent
• Where Dan recommends building your revenue org instead

Book a meeting with Dan

Dan shares the loop that's quietly shaped his career over the last 12 years: ask someone you trust for one thing to work on, find a book on it, and go back to thank them. Simple in theory. Hard in practice when your ego is in the way.

In this episode:

• Why the best feedback comes when everyone's in a good mood — not at a review
• How Dan turned "you leave dead bodies everywhere" into a real lesson
• The book that changed how he thinks about people: The Anatomy of Peace
• Why thanking the person who gave you hard feedback is the whole point

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If you're walking into a meeting and leading with "the CEO said we need to do this" — you're not leading. Dan breaks down why quoting authority that isn't in the room is one of the fastest ways to lose your team's respect, and what to say instead.

In this episode:

• Why name-dropping your boss undermines your own authority
• How to take ownership of a message even when it came from above you
• The difference between inspiring your team and just enforcing someone else's rules
• What your team is actually thinking when you hide behind someone else's name

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Dan's been thinking about this one all day. AI is already changing parts of his business — but most of his team hasn't touched it yet. This episode is his challenge to every founder and leader to stop watching and start building.

In this episode:

• Why Dan is making AI application-building an OKR for every team member
• No-code tools you can use today for under $1,000 — or free
• Real use cases: dashboards, project management, proposals, fundraising, recruiting
• How Dan built his own pipeline forecasting app for $20/month

⁠⁠Book a meeting with Dan⁠⁠

Dan's walking through Lehigh before his next meeting, sharing something that happened with his son the day before. A simple admission changed everything between them.

In this episode:

• Why telling your kid "I don't know what I'm doing" is one of the most powerful things you can say
• How dropping the need to have all the answers opened up a real conversation
• What happened that night that made it one of Dan's best days as a dad

This podcast is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DataBased⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Your partner in building revenue teams that actually perform.

> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book a meeting with Dan⁠

🧠 Are you a me, a we, or an it? Take the test

Dan's driving back from Las Vegas — car on autopilot, honest mode on. He's sharing a mistake he's repeated more than once: getting so locked into solving the business problem that he forgot to bring people along with him.

In this episode:

• The me/we/it framework that changed how Dan thinks about teams
• Why being great at the work isn't enough if you're losing the room
• How neglecting cross-functional relationships ended consulting projects early
• What Dan is actively doing now to close that gap