John Thackston

@businessbarista AI-native

I want to start an AI community for executives. This will be a space for people to share killer use cases, agentic workflows/agents, post-AI org structure, AI governance, AI training/enablement, change management, and more. Comment “AI-native” if you want to join.

@JaredSleeper Everywhere*

Anthropic seems to be just mercilessly pillaging top sales talent from Snowflake.

@jasonlk When you’re a really good sales leader, it takes over your whole life. There’s no space in your mind for anything else. Once someone leaves that headspace, it’s really hard to re-enter it.

The #1 VP of Sales hire to avoid: Anyone who left sales for 1+ years to do something else (influencer, small biz owner, etc.). Sales is a hard, grueling job. Stepping away for too long almost always makes them fail when they come back.

@thedbeaudoin I think we’re gonna see ote to quota continue to move up for 2 reasons. One that you called out and 2 that people are going to have to explain how they are getting ROI from automation

Random Monday GTM thoughts: 1 - I see so many people talk about the "million dollar BDR" or the millionaire Director. A Head of BDR making $1M makes no sense if it's the tools that are powering things, because those tools democratize the power and leverage that that person is theoretically brining to the table. Unless the argument is full blown BDR replacement which for outbound we just haven't/won't see to the extreme due to channel over-saturation, AI spam blocking still to really come in full force, etc. 2 - OTE to quota ratios have changed pretty dramatically. They may change further. In the SaaS world 4-6x was considered best in class/standard, with them being sometimes as low as 3x. Now some of the hottest AI tools have sometimes 8-10x ratios. However, OTE/quota ratio changing is a necessity given that the economics of running the hottest AI products are horrendous. When you don't have SaaS margins on the product you have to make up for that elsewhere, hence 3-4x SaaS ratios shifting to 6-10x AI product ratios.

@BoringBiz_ Saban for business “Success is not a continuum”

The most ambitious mindset you can have for your professional career is that you are only as good as your last milestone This can apply to anything or any profession > Bankers: “I am only as good as the last deal I closed” > Hedge fund analysts: “I am only as good as my last trade” > Private equity MDs: “I am only as good as the last deal I exited” Have noticed that this mentality can both be incredibly motivating and freeing at the same time If something went poorly, it gives you the freedom to know that you can change the circumstance by doing the next one better. It prevents failure from paralyzing you. If something went right, it puts a ceiling on your ego. Regardless of how great you are, you can always fall down a rung if your next one isn’t great too. It keeps you spinning the wheel just as hard at every step Either way, it is a great way to enforce agency in yourself and take control of your life Circumstances can always change. It is never constant. It is upto you to decide which direction it changes to

@RooktoRep Sales isn’t going anywhere. There will be changes for sure, like every tech platform shift. Esp in transactional, PLG adjacent and CS. Consultative / ent is going to grow, if anything imo. Thing that concerns me more is on ramp for early career folks as SDR/SMB gets leaned out

@SOARwithJohn curious ur thoughts on it…

Why am I so bullish on sales? Anthropic - the world’s most advanced AI company is hiring more sales people than any other role. Think about that for a second...

@Kazanjy lol

Can you imagine what industry NRR would be if customer success organizations were run like the Marines instead of Miss Rachel kumbaya kindergartens?

@jeffsentell 1000% it was dialed in

Does anyone still hold a special reverence for how good Ryan's Steakhouse was back in the day? That buffet did not miss. It wasn't fine dining by any means, but it sure hit a sweet spot at that time in our lives.

@saleskhalifa The AI SDR debate hinges on the definition of “SDR” Most of what people are talking about today is processing of inbound leads for relatively simple products/services. Also typically with strong brand. This is not what SDRs do in enterprise or outbound.

My human SDR brought in a 9.7 million dollar deal that took 8 months to close last quarter No AI would have done that

@datingbyblaine I would imagine that most of your clients believe that their behavior is what has enabled them to be successful in life and not yours to comment on while they view “appearance feedback” in your lane Not saying that’s right, but I bet it’s part of it.

Men are 10x more receptive to feedback about their appearance (“your glasses don’t fit your face…”) than their behavior (“she felt like you were conducting an investigation…”) and that feels backwards to me. How you act around women matters more than you look. It’s no less in your control.

@salesxsaas From what I can see 1. Replacing inbound SDRs at more established / brand aware / PLG companies 2. Augmenting outbound SDRs at same kinds of companies Scaling companies (i.e. AISDRS) that don’t have as much brand and scale aren’t able to get as much value right now.

AI SDR/sales agent market is at $5.8B & compounding at over 20% a year Meanwhile every AI SDR company still uses human SDRs to sell their own product Where is the market value being absorbed?

@realEstateTrent ChatGPT is going to be soothing a lot of people after they wish they had made better decisions, too.

Ok so this is a first for us: Broker gives us pricing guidance, we make an offer, and broker gets back to us. “The seller was happy with your offer. But ChatGPT told him it’s worth $2M more, so he’s going to pass.” We are going to see a lot more of this.

@RooktoRep Timeframe makes a big impact on answer. If you’re looking at a career, 95% skill / work ethic. If you’re looking at a quarter or year, I think it gets a lot closer to 50-50. We all know a person who did 500% of plan that can’t tie their shoes. Rarely does it last.

How much of success in tech sales is luck vs skill? Because you can’t say it’s 100% skill, there are things that are completely out of your control. So, if you had to put a % on it… what would you say?

@JHochderffer @realEstateTrent I stand corrected!

@SOARwithJohn @realEstateTrent No, it seemed more electric in the 90s. I don’t think that energy is back yet, but it’s building

I was on the phone today with a friend who’s deep in the startup scene in San Francisco. His eyes completely lit up as he was telling me about the scene there right now. “It’s AI pandemonium out here!” People are flying in from all over the world. They just want to be part of this moment. He said you walk into coffee shops or restaurants and hear every language you can imagine. Young people everywhere, all chasing the AI craze, and they’re all on Claude code all day doing crazy things. He told me the level of disruption right now feels like an absolute gold rush moment. They’re 100% convinced this is the beginning of a massive technological change that will completely change society. Apartments are hard to find. Rents are surging. People are doing whatever it takes to be there. It’s a massive gold rush and everyone wants in.

@BoringBiz_ This is going to be a person specific answer. Some people value societal esteem and having a second vacation home more than their time / interests. Some people value their time/interests more. There’s no right answer to this, just a right answer for a person.

Recently grabbed coffee with a senior VP at a very well-known private equity firm Well above $2M in net worth. Not enough to fully retire but can walk away for a better work life balance if he wants to Just had a kid few months ago and now struggling to decide between continuing this career path or shifting to something that would let him spend more time with family I asked him what is keeping him at the current firm, beyond just money His answer was simple: "Insecurity. I might look back in 10 years and feel bad knowing that my friends are buying their second vacation homes while I walked away to chase an easier life. Whatever job or title I have next would not earn me the same respect" That is when it really hit me A lot of people stay in high-performing careers, not even because they need the money, but rather because they are used to a certain level of status and respect from people around them This only gets worse as you move higher up the ladder and start spending time around people at the same level in terms of career or wealth I asked him if he was okay if I posted this on my X and sought advice on what my followers would do. He agreed. So I am genuinely curious: what would you do if you were in his situation?

@TechSalesGuy The way he casually shrugs after “wtf are you talking about” is fantastic

Sales talking to the CFO

@HarryStebbings In the long run, I agree. In the short run, there are going to be material job losses. Whether it’s because of AI or because companies are inefficient now, not sure. However, talking about how AI isn’t impacting jobs (even if true) comes across as way out of touch to most.

Why Labour Displacement Theory Around AI Is Wrong: " This entire labor displacement thing is a 100% incorrect. It's completely wrong. It's classic zero-sum economics. It's the lump of labor fallacy. It happens over and over and over again. It's always been wrong. It's going to be wrong again." Love to hear your thoughts on this @demishassabis @sama @jasonlk @levie @ylecun

@SMB_Attorney Yes only you can’t call anyone to tell them bc they are either your customer, employee or investor :)

POV: how every entrepreneur feels 99% of the time