I am now teaching a CRO Mastery Program | Executive Education at many colleges and universities across North America. I own TheCloudUniversity.com which is going LIVE Q4 2025. The best of our 174K+ schools serviced by the NADLA.org We're like Wonder.com but for education - not food. My buddy from Columbia University put me on the spot. We did a '10 in 10' interview, 10 questions in less than 10 minutes. I said sure, let's go.
Hi Tom,
Thanks for offering your insights re: sales! Below are 10 questions and would welcome your expert opinions on as many of them as you feel comfortable sharing. For the context of a small, but scaling B2B startups:
Which CRM platform would you recommend and why?
{TAC} Hubspot if you are on a budget, Salesforce if you are well funded. Salesforce is great, but expensive.
What communications tools would you recommend and why?
{TAC} I am a big fan of Zoom Workplace. Next would be 8x8 and GoTo and then RingCentral. The Zoom brand is now ubiquitous with UCaaS and they integrate with all major 3rd party apps.
In your experience what has been the best cold email outbound template that worked?
{TAC} THE BEST is to offer a $25 gift card or some other reward for 5 or 10 minutes of their time. But don't cold call, only follow up with those who have visited your website, downloaded a whitepaper, or attended your webinar or trade show booth. Don't talk to strangers! ;-)
What has been the best inbound follow up email template that worked well?
{TAC} We use and sell Dotdigital.com They are the best I have ever used, hands down.
What are 1-2 of the best phrases and general approach to handling objections?
{TAC} I believe there is no such thing as objections. It is expected to have valid questions on any buying decision. The old adage of people wanting to buy, they don't want to be sold. If it is a valid opportunity, have a conversation. Teach everything you know.
To grow a team to handle growth, after the first sales lead, what function should be hired next in the sales team?
{TAC} The key to everything is nurturing relationships. Moving from strangers to clients/customers to community members. It goes: attention > engagement > adoption > utilization. If I don't have your attention I cannot teach you anything, and I certainly cannot sell you anything. So, you need people with situational awareness, excellent communication skills, and problem-solving skills. Hire teachers. Hire veterans.
What does the best framework to prioritize leads looks like?
{TAC} Find out are they shopping? Buying? Researching? Are they the buyer or do they report to the buyer? People want business outcomes. They want solutions to problems. The faster you can find out if there is actually a problem to solve, the easier the process will be. Try to make a new relationship, not a new sale. Remember, he who controls the checkbook controls the company.
What is the best current process to close leads and what's the best close %?
{TAC} Email 100,000 ICP Ideal Client Personas for your product | service | book | course. 10% will become MQLs and 10% of those will become SQLs. 10% of those will purchase. I have made a career of counting on 10% of 10% of 10%. And over time, with proper nurturing, those MQLs and SQLs will also convert.
What has been the best framework to structure sales comp and why?
{TAC} This might be 'Old School' but if you can hire experienced, vetted Sales Professionals, give them a draw and full commission. Have a budget to cover their expenses for 90 days. If they can last 90 days, if they can pay for themselves after 90 days, they can last 90 years.....
What is the best sales tool/tactic that has made the biggest difference for you?
{TAC} Become a storyteller. I sell via stories, parables, and sharing experiences. Try to sell a 'vision' of a future with the product, service, book, course. Paint a picture of how life is better, work is better, everything is measurably better in a world with you (your product, your service, your solution) in it.
Much obliged!
Pete
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There is a 'School of Hard Knocks' on social media. I am sure you have seen the videos on Facebook or on YouTube. They are up to 10M+ followers. The concept is simple: "Excuse me, how did you become so rich...." and the impromptu interviews with (usually) self-made millionaires (sometimes billionaires) is always captivating. It is also interesting how such a social media site went from hundreds of views to tens of millions and growing. Here is something from Jack Dumoulin's LinkedIn:
I'm the co-founder of The School of Hard Knocks LLC, a media company I started in 2021 with two co-founders in Austin, Texas. Since launching, we've built one of the largest media platforms in the business and entrepreneurship space, growing to over 15 million followers and 4 billion+ views across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and a variety of sub-accounts.
Our content features interviews with some of the most accomplished individuals in the world - including Shaquille O’Neal, Mark Cuban, Gary Vee, Kendra Scott, Elliott Hill (CEO of Nike), Steven Williams (CEO of Frito Lay), and many others. To date, we’ve interviewed more than 1,000 millionaires and 15+ billionaires, with the mission of improving financial literacy, inspiring entrepreneurial action, and providing mentorship to those who may not otherwise have access.
We generate revenue through platform ad monetization and high-level brand partnerships, but our impact extends through the ecosystem of businesses we’ve built:
-Organic Content Agency (2023): Full-service short-form video production and management for entrepreneur-led brands. We help clients grow across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
-School of Mentors (2024): A 4,000+ member entrepreneur community with access to the millionaire and billionaire mentors we interview, hands-on workshops, and tactical trainings from proven founders.
-School of Scaling (2025): A high-level training program designed for entrepreneurs scaling to 7-figures and beyond, featuring daily guidance from 7- and 8-figure operators across content, marketing, sales, ops, tech, AI, and finance.
-J3 Capital Group (2025): Our real estate investment fund. We made our first investment this year through a syndication deal.
While I started on camera, my current focus is behind the scenes - leading operations, managing teams, and building systems to scale our company from now 7-figures to 9-figures and beyond.
A few personal milestones:
-University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business graduate
-2017 Microsoft Excel World Champion (1st out of 2 million+ competitors from 54 countries)
-Senior Little League Baseball World Series Player (2x); 3x VA State Champion, 2x Southeast Regional Champion
-Eagle Scout with over 2,000+ hours of community service
-Traveled to 24 countries including living in Korea for 4 years
-First-degree black belt (Taekwondo)
-Proud lifelong Los Angeles Dodgers fan
If you're building something impactful, exploring collaboration, or want to talk content, scale, or investing - let’s connect!
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All of this made me pause and reflect. Lifelong Education. Teaching, training, coaching, mentoring. Living, learning, working, playing in the (now) GLOBAL Cloud COMMUNITY. Yours. Folks like Pete Novak. Folks like Jack Dumoulin. And all of the amazing folks who 'made it' and now are paying it forward. The folks that are teaching everything they know.
It really is a great time to be us!
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