Paul Buday

The #1 pricing mistake MSPs make in BDR: They double vendor cost and call it profit. They’re quietly bleeding margin — and they don’t even know it. They think, “My backup vendor charges $500. If I bill the client $1,000, that’s 100% markup. I’m making money.” Wrong. You’re not making money. You’re funding your client’s business. Here’s the truth from Doug Lowenthal, who built a $5M MSP with 70% profit on backups alone. The 30/40/30 Rule Every healthy service business should be designed around this model: 30% → Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) — includes your tools and your labor. 40% → SG&A — sales, marketing, admin, rent, taxes, insurance, payroll, etc. 30% → Profit — real profit, after paying yourself a fair salary. So if your backup solution costs you $500, and your team spends 5 hours a month managing it at $50/hour, your real cost is $750. To hit healthy margins, you should be billing around $2,500/month, not $1,000. When you just “double the vendor cost,” you: 1). Ignore the time your engineers spend maintaining, testing, and fixing backups. 2). Underfund your marketing, growth, and future hires. 3). Burn out your team trying to deliver enterprise-level service at budget pricing. You’re not underpricing the product — you’re underpricing your business. If you truly understand your costs — and design services around real margins — you can confidently price for value. Because profitability isn’t greed. It’s what funds growth, protects your staff, and ensures your clients actually stay protected. If you’re having trouble with pricing, reach out to Doug and he’ll get you on the right path. ————————————— Hi I’m Damien, Click my name + follow for proven strategies that help MSPs build BDRs clients trust — and pay for.

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Most SDRs never hit 100%. Not because they can’t... but because they’re focused on the wrong things. According to The Bridge Group, the average SDR attainment in 2024 was just 65%. And Gartner reports that less than 20% of sellers consistently exceed quota. That’s not a talent problem. It’s a system problem. Here’s exactly how I’d hit 100%+ of my SDR target, broken down by tenure 👇 ⚡ If I’m 0–6 months in role: 1️⃣ Triple down on learning my personas. 2️⃣ Double activity... calls, emails, and DMs. 3️⃣ Learn how to nurture “maybes.” 4️⃣ Train twice as much as everyone else. 🎯 Goal: Outwork everyone. Early on, you’re not supposed to be great — just relentless. Make up for lack of skill with effort. 🧠 Bridge Group data: SDRs making 20% more touches in their first 6 months ramp 30% faster than peers. ⚙️ If I’m 6–18 months in role: 1️⃣ Triple down on your top account list. 2️⃣ Double activity on your best-performing channel. 3️⃣ Reduce time on what’s not converting. 4️⃣ Spend 2+ hours a week nurturing warm accounts. 5️⃣ Keep doubling training inputs. 🎯 Goal: Outwork and start out-thinking everyone. You’ve found your rhythm... now master leverage. 📊 Gartner insight: Reps who strategically focus on 20–30 target accounts outperform peers by 1.8x in pipeline generation. 🧠 If I’m 18+ months in role: 1️⃣ Keep your daily focus on your account list. 2️⃣ 2x activity on your highest-yield channel. 3️⃣ Spend 3–4+ hours a week nurturing. 4️⃣ Continue doubling down on training. 5️⃣ Learn the skills for your next step. 🎯 Goal: Out-think and outwork. Experience doesn’t replace discipline... it amplifies it. 📈 Bridge Group: Top-performing SDRs invest 2.5x more time and money in personal development than low performers. Bottom line: Success in sales isn’t quantity vs. quality. It’s both. When you combine smart strategy with consistent output your results don’t just improve, they compound. 💥 ♻️ Repost this to help another SDR hit 100% this November. PS. I’m Chris Ritson, a 7-figure founder who still cold calls daily. If you want to learn how to stand out in a world of AI and automation, follow me for more content.

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Enterprise prospecting isn't "harder SMB prospecting." It's a completely different game. And that's why 90% of them fail in the first 12 months. They bring their SMB playbook upmarket. Then wonder why nothing works. Here's what actually happens when you go enterprise (and why your current tactics will cost you a year): 1. Volume → Depth SMB reps touch 500 accounts per quarter. Enterprise reps? 50 accounts per YEAR. Your calendar shifts from: - 100 emails per day - 60 calls per day - 5 meetings per week To: - Hours research per account - Custom analysis before outreach - Months of relationship building If you're still measuring "activities per week," you're already losing. 2. Speed → Patience SMB: Send emails Monday, book meetings Friday. Enterprise: Top AEs spend 2 months researching before the first email. They buy the product. They study earnings calls. They build custom insights. Then they reach out. Average SMB cycle: 30 days Average enterprise cycle: 6-18 months 3. Solo → Orchestra SMB: One AE owns everything. Enterprise: You need an army. One Snowflake deal involves: - Sales + ABM + Field Marketing - Sales Engineering + Product - Customer Success + Legal + Finance If you're still prospecting alone, you've already lost. 4. One Person → Committee SMB: One decision-maker. Enterprise: 6-10 stakeholders (each with veto power). You need buy-in from: - VP of Sales - RevOps Manager - IT Security 5. 3 Channels → 10+ Channels SMB playbook: - Email - LinkedIn - Cold calls Enterprise playbook (when ACV hits $500K+): - Personalized websites for each account - In-office visits (yes, this still works) - Executive dinners & private events The math makes sense: SMB deal at $15K ACV → Can't justify $500 in direct mail Enterprise deal at $500K ACV → $2K personalized site = 0.4% of deal value 6. 10 Touches → 200 Touches SMB: 10 emails = "persistent" Enterprise: 50-200 touches across 10 channels = "just getting started" But here's what they don't tell you: One enterprise account = 100+ ways to start a conversation. - Top down - Bottom up - Different departments You don't give up after 2 weeks. You stay engaged for 18 months. The Real Shift: Your entire motion needs to change: - SMB metrics: Account volume - Enterprise metrics: Account depth (research hours, stakeholders mapped, custom insights created) Enterprise isn't harder. It's different. And if you try scaling your SMB playbook upmarket, you'll waste 12 months learning this the hard way. 📌 Making the jump? You don't need: - A bigger team (at first) - More tools (you need different tools) - Faster prospecting (you need deeper prospecting) You need the right playbook. That's why I created The Guide to Building an Enterprise Prospecting System. Inside: AI prompts for account research, Account Plan template and Email Frameworks. Comment "GUIDE" below and I'll send it over.

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How to go from SMB AE to MM AE (In 6 simple steps) 1. Pick a company that actually promotes. If you’re at a place that doesn’t grow fast and doesn’t promote internally, the odds are already stacked against you. You can be a top performer and still wait forever because the culture just doesn’t value internal mobility. You want to be somewhere that expects and plans to promote from within. 2. Get to the top of the leaderboard. Every interview process I’ve ever seen starts the same way. The leaderboard. That’s the eligibility filter. So that’s where 100 percent of your focus should go. Until you're at the top consistently that should be your #1 focus. 3. Be a MM AE before you’re a MM AE Find out what actually matters in MM. What’s different. What’s expected. Bigger, more complex deals. More outbound. More strategy. More multi-threading. Then go get results in those areas while you’re still in SMB. That way in the interview you can say. “Here’s how I’m already doing the mid-market job.” Nothing builds confidence like results. 4. Build real relationships with the MM team. Get close to the MM AEs. Learn what they’re working on. What their priorities are. What tools they’re using. What’s working. What isn’t. So when your interview comes around, it’s clear you already understand the role. You’re not walking into a whole new world. You’ve already been around the team and the expectations. 5. Build your internal brand with the hiring team. This is one of the most underrated moves. Find out the #1 priority for MM. Let’s say it’s outbound. Go get results. And then send a no ask message to the hiring manager: “Hey, I heard outbound was the focus this quarter. Booked 7 meetings this month using my cold call flow. Documented it in a playbook. Thought I’d share in case it’s useful.” That's one of the most gangster things you can do. 6. Prep early. Prep often. Don’t wait for the interview process to start preparing. Start building now. A highlight deck. A deal room. Case studies. References. Anything that strengthens your narrative. So when the interview actually opens up. You already have everything done. You just tweak it. Meanwhile everyone else is scrambling. 7. Have a competitive mindset. This is the part most people avoid saying out loud. But it’s the truth. You’re competing. You need to ask yourself constantly. “If someone else has similar numbers, how do I make the case that I’m better?” - That could be your prep. - Your brand. - Your relationships. - Your execution. What you don’t want to do is assume that great work alone gets you promoted. It can. But it’s not the optimal strategy. The optimal strategy is to think competitively. Strategically. And position yourself to win. What did I miss? - Mike G 👉 Get The Best Sales Newsletter delivered straight to your inbox for FREE: https://lnkd.in/g-dHTj7s

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If you can hire SDRs and they can transition into closing roles relatively quick... Don't hire AEs externally. Just hire more SDRs and promote them faster. If you hire external AEs you increase your risk of $180k+ hires, big time. Obviously this won't work for MM or Enterprise sales motions... But if you're selling to SMBs and run a simple sales process, make your life a hell of a lot easier and just nail hiring & onboarding for 1 role. Let the cream rise to the top, promote them fast. They'll ramp immediately and source their own deals. You can run this play for a longgggg time.

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𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 & 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 separate Strategic CROs and RevOps Leaders from glorified sales managers and systems admins. Getting accurate metrics isn’t easy though. Getting real Insights from those metrics is even harder. We need to: 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 Start by identifying the metrics that matter for your unique GTM motion. To help, our 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 will have a 𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘅 outlining the most common metrics in B2B SaaS and how to calculate them. 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 Metrics are only as accurate as the process being executed. If our salespeople don’t know how to qualify deals, for example, our Close Rate will tell us nothing. We have to clearly define processes, train the team, and drive them to adopt and execute in order to be a data-driven organization. 𝗨𝗻𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 It’s not enough to see our Lead Conversion Rate, or Close Rate, across our entire business. These numbers are blended together across different types of leads and lead sources, different segments (SMB, MM, ENT), geos, products, etc. To see what’s really happening, we have to unblend the funnel. More on this in our 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 People only execute processes when held accountable. To get accurate data, we need to inspect the data regularly to be sure it’s accurate. To get real insights into our business, we need to analyze that data regularly to spot trends and take action. This requires the right person/people with the right skills and uninterrupted time to do “deep work.” CROs usually don’t have time to do this well and RevOps can’t if they’re constantly harassed with system admin requests. 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 As we get to this part of the year, finalizing our annual plan, it’s a bit too late. We have dirty data and have to make some BIG assumptions. If we’re in this boat, we need fix this for next year. Additionally, Annual Plans aren’t set in stone. We need to track them and iterate as we hit or miss goals and milestones. More on this in our 𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸. See the Framework and get the high-res version in the link in the comment below. 👇 If you want more breakdowns like this, subscribe to our newsletter at the link to get weekly insights directly in your inbox. ✌️

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