July 5, 2025 | Read online
I hope you’re taking some time off this week, even if you don’t live in the US.
I’m on the ferry right now to NY for a weekend with family and friends. As soon as I finish writing this I’ll be shutting down/off all work related stuff and do my best to relax a bit.
I was struggling a little trying to figure out something meaningful to write this week and contemplated mailing it in with a stupid meme about the 4th of July or something, but then I found some inspiration.
Both from Linkedin but for different reasons.
TACTICAL TIPS: Relevance over Personalization
SALES TECH/RESOURCES: AI Agents
SALES FROM THE STREETS: Direct Feedback
TACTICAL TIPS:
Relevance over Personalization
My Linkedin inmail box is an absolute nightmare. I get over 400 inmails a week and 90%+ of them are from spammy AI bots doing their best to achieve “personalization at scale.”
I’ve always thought that was an oxymoron. Personalization isn’t meant to be scaled and I wish everyone would stop trying.
The Holy Grail of prospecting is personalization AND relevance. BUT, if you forced me to choose between personalization OR relevance, I’m going with relevance all day long.
Just because you know I went to the University of Maryland does not buy you any points these days. Yet, I still get emails that start with “Hi John, I see you went to UMD. Go Terps!!” and then they transition to an irrelevant value prop that has nothing to do with UMD or anything I would be interested in.
Case in point. I checked my inmail right before writing this post and came across these two gems:
Both started great with timely and personalized intros.
But neither of them transitioned to something that was relevant in any way.
Here’s the tip: stop with the cadences. Stop trying to engineer personalization. Start giving a shit (GaS).
(p.s. If you want to learn how to do true personalization and understand the “why” behind the output all these AI tools are driving then you should check out my “AIDA Email - Quality” module of my Filling the Funnel program)
SALES TECH/RESOURCES:
Learning About Agents
I’m starting to learn more and more about customizing GPTs and also leveraging Agents. I’m no expert yet but I came across a few websites that are making it a lot easier to figure out.
Check these out and let me know what you think.
- There’s an AI For That
This is basically the Google of AI tools. You can search by task or category (e.g., “sales emails,” “meeting notes,” “presentation decks”) and get a list of AI tools designed specifically for that need.
How to use it: Bookmark it and run a quick search any time you're trying to automate a part of your sales workflow. Want to transcribe calls? Draft proposals? Summarize LinkedIn profiles? It’s got options. Start there before asking ChatGPT to build something from scratch.
- GenSpark Agents Directory
Think of this as a marketplace of mini-AI employees. These aren’t just chatbots — they’re purpose-built agents trained to do things like outbound prospecting, list building, email optimization, and more.
How to use it: Search for a use case, like “SDR research” or “follow-up copy,” and test out the Agents that pop up. Many are built by power users who’ve already done the heavy lifting on prompts and workflows.
(BTW, I used ChatGPT to provide the summary and ‘how to use’ for each of them)
SALES FROM THE STREETS:
Direct Feedback
Here’s another inspiration from Linkedin, but this time for all the right reasons.
As most of you know, I’m a pretty direct person. I remember running away from the Boston area after High School because I didn’t think I belonged and wanted to get away.
When I had the chance to come back for my first job with DeWalt I decided to get to know the city, and not just my small suburban home town (which is what I was really running away from).
As I was driving around the city in my big Dodge Ram pick up truck looking for a place to live I accidentally cut someone off and all of a sudden heard “GET OFF THE ROAD YOU FUCKING DICK BAG!”
I knew I was home.
A lot of people think us Bostonians are rude. I disagree. I just think we’re more direct than most, and people aren’t used to it.
I’ve always tried to give direct feedback to everyone I work with, including reps, managers, executives, and vendors, especially when things don’t go well.
Case in point, this week I received an InMail from someone who I had provided very direct feedback to over a year ago.
He had previously taken advantage of a 50% discount I gave away for my membership, consumed all the content, got a ton of value from it, but then got fired and came to me asking for his money back.
I’m always sympathetic to people getting fired and not being able to afford things but this one was hard for me to swallow.
I wrote a long, constructive response offering him a refund but I also suggested he reconsider Sales as a profession because I didn’t think he was cut out for it.
No successful sales person I know has that kind of mentality and tries to get their money back from something they admittedly got a ton of value from at a discounted rate in the first place.
Now, over a year after my response, his InMail message to me this week thanked me for the feedback, as harsh as it was, and said it was a turning point for him.
He reflected on how he was in a “limiting mindset” not a “growth mindset” and needed to be woken up.
I give him a ton of credit because most people would have taken offense to that kind of direct feedback and considered me an asshole. I’m not saying I’m not an asshole but if everyone stopped being so sensitive they might realize that feedback is one of the best ways to improve and they should seek it out more often.
The moral of the story is - we should all be willing to give AND receive direct feedback as long as it’s constructive and in the interest of continuous improvement.
(p.s. Any direct feedback you have for me on how I can make this newsletter better would be much appreciated)
#getbetter
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