The Force & Friction Podcast

Send a text Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode: 1: The Foundation: Why "How You Sell" Matters More Than Ever Graeme opens with a powerful story that illustrates why sales approach can make or break even the most obvious deals. He shares an experience where a market-leading software company lost a sale at the one-yard line due to poor sales execution. "Their r...

Send a text 1: SPICED Beyond Sales: The Customer Success Framework for Understanding Needs De'Edra opens by redefining SPICED as more than just a sales methodology, it's a comprehensive framework for understanding customer needs throughout the entire journey.  "If I have to distill it down to a really a concise ideology for lack of a better term, it's understanding your custome...

Send a text Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode: 1: The Root Problem: Why Leaders Get Stuck in Their Own Way Mike opens by addressing the fundamental challenge that plagues most leaders: ego and loyalty. These aren't character strengths in decision-making—they're blind spots that create massive obstacles to growth. "My 2 biggest blind spots, biggest risk chara...

Send a text Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode: 1: The Shift to Personal Brands: Why Buyers Trust People, Not Logos Jared explains that the biggest change in marketing is the move away from faceless corporate collateral. Buyers now want to see the real people behind a company. This is where trust is built.   "You started to see more founders and executives step out fro...

Send a text The Real Job of the Operating Model The Operating Model’s job is to transform your GTM efforts from a collection of chaotic, incompatible parts into a unified, efficient Revenue Factory.  It defines: How to connect disparate teams and tools with a shared map (The Bowtie). How to align everyone on a single, customer-focused goal (Impact). How to ensure different GTM motions can work tog...

Send a text Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode: 1: From Scientist to GTM Leader: A Journey of System-Level Thinking Randi Sue opens the conversation by sharing her unconventional path from a clinical scientist with a "math science brain" to a Go-to-Market leader. This unique background shaped her entire approach to revenue growth. “whether it's engineer or cl...

Send a text Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode: Attribution: Still a Mess, but Critical Olga doesn’t mince words when it comes to one of the most debated topics in partnerships: attribution. “The big challenge with attribution is that every company defines it differently… You have to be very deliberate and define what success means to your organization.” She emphasizes the...

Send a text Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode: 1: The Real Job of a Partner Leader? Influence Without Authority Will opens the conversation with a truth many avoid: partnership leaders often lack direct power , but are still expected to drive revenue. That makes influence your #1 skill. “You’re influencing across all departments, but none of those people report to you.” He...

Send a text GTM as a System: Moving Beyond the Duct Tape Era Elio opens the conversation by describing the common GTM setup in early-stage startups: a patchwork of tools, disconnected workflows, and reactive processes. “A lot of GTM still looks like a duct-taped stack. It works until it breaks, but it always breaks.” He emphasizes the importance of thinking about GTM as a repeatable system , not j...

Send a text What is the Revenue Model? Think of the Revenue Model as the financial engine beneath your GTM motion. It’s not just about what you charge—it’s about how your business turns value into income, and how that cash flow shapes your ability to scale. If the Data Model tells you what’s happening in your pipeline, the Revenue Model tells you whether your business will survive the journey. It’...

Send a text Partner Ops Isn’t Support, It’s the Strategy Antonio opens with a clear thesis: companies that treat Partner Ops like back-office admin are missing the point. Partner Ops is where partner strategy becomes executable, and without it, co-selling and partner-led growth simply don’t scale. “Partner Ops is how the strategy becomes real. If you can’t execute it, it’s not a strategy—it’s a sl...

Send a text The Autonomous Business: Outpacing, Not Outspending: Amos opens with a provocative idea: the best GTM teams in the next decade won’t be the biggest—they’ll be the most autonomous. His team scaled rapidly by focusing not on headcount, but on process orchestration, smart automation, and systems that run themselves . “It’s not about how many SDRs you have. It’s about how many inputs and d...

Send a text AI in the Investment Playbook: A Must-Have, Not a Nice-to-Have Nav explains that for modern investors, AI has become embedded in every phase of the deal lifecycle. No longer just an idea or a pilot, AI is now core to how firms like Active Growth Partners source, underwrite, and operate their investments. “AI isn’t a side project—it’s becoming part of the deal DNA.” This shift goes beyo...

Send a text Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode: From Global Brands to Local Champions: Finding the Right Fit Kate’s career path took her from some of the world’s biggest names to supporting local tech communities and scaling startups. She shares how the discipline and process of global brands gave her a foundation for creating customer-obsessed cultures at smaller organizat...

Send a text Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode: The GTM Model as the Execution Layer of Revenue Architecture The GTM Model is where all the theory becomes tangible. While the first five models of Revenue Architecture define the who, what, and why of your go-to-market, the GTM Model defines the how. It’s the layer where strategy becomes process, and process becomes pipeline....

Send a text In Season 4, Episode 4 of Force and Friction , we continue our Winning by Design Revenue Architecture Series with Jos de Wit , certified Revenue Architect and founder of MNTM . Jos has helped SaaS and RevOps teams across Europe and North America dismantle faulty assumptions, realign broken processes, and build go-to-market systems that scale with precision. In this episode, Jos deliver...

Send a text Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode: From Crisis to Breakout: Franz’s Unexpected Journey into GTM Franz shares how a failed startup and a global pandemic unexpectedly led him into the Hopin rocketship, where he learned to build under pressure and follow signals others missed, like the rise of agencies during virtual event chaos. “We didn’t have enough capacity. A...

Send a text F rom WordStream to Customers.ai: A Shift Toward Accuracy-First Marketing: Larry shares his journey from building WordStream into a $150M exit to launching Customers.ai, based on the insight that remarketing and website visitor identity are the true low-hanging fruit for marketers, if the data is trustworthy. “Every marketing channel eventually leads to your website. If you know who’s...

Send a text Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode: Bridging the GTM Divide: Conversations First, Revenue Follows Jason’s journey from nonprofit work to sales and partnerships taught him the long-game value of connection. His mantra: revenue begins with conversations—and conversations require trust. “Partnerships are a long game. They’re a compounding motion that starts with a...

Send a text Why Traditional CRMs Don’t Work for Partnerships Fredrik opens with a personal revelation: despite years of working with top-tier CRMs, partnerships teams were still stuck managing workflows with spreadsheets and manual workarounds. “CRMs were built for customer-facing roles, not for partner collaboration. That’s why we built JourneyBee, to centralize partner data, automate collaborati...

Send a text Unlocking Hidden Pipeline with Data-Driven Co-Selling: Many SaaS companies struggle to effectively leverage partnerships because of manual processes, disconnected data, and unclear alignment between partner sales teams. “Partnerships are about more than just referrals—real revenue acceleration happens when teams are strategically aligned and co-selling at scale.” Cassandra explains how...

Send a text The Evolution of GTM: From Relationship-Driven Sales to AI-Driven Intelligence: Over the past 15 years, sales has evolved from a relationship-based model to a data-driven, automated approach. Santosh shares how he witnessed this transformation firsthand while working with ZoomInfo and Apollo , helping sales teams leverage real-time data and automation . “We went from a world where data...

Send a text The Evolution of AI-Powered Video in Sales and Marketing: Video as a prospecting tool isn’t new, but scaling it effectively has always been a challenge —until now. Ben explains how sendspark leverages AI to make personalized video fast, efficient, and scalable . “Sales teams never fully adopted video because it was too time-consuming. With AI, you can record once and personalize at sca...

Send a text Understanding Product-Market Fit: Why It’s Make or Break: Achieving product-market fit (PMF) isn’t about launching a product and hoping it sticks. Nick emphasizes that true PMF is when a product not only solves a problem but becomes indispensable to its users. “Your first users are your most valuable asset. If they don’t stick around, neither will your business.” Nick shares how early-...

Send a text Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode: The Origins of the Cheat Code The cheat code began as a simple concept within Josh’s sales team at LeadMD: “What’s your cheat? How are you going to win this deal?” Josh explains how this mindset evolved into a framework for leveraging partnerships, solving customer pain points, and aligning with internal teams to drive measura...