Lessons from Brian LaManna

Brian Lamanna, a standout Enterprise Account Executive at Gong and the founder of Closed Won, has become a prominent voice in the B2B tech sales community. Known for his practical, no-nonsense advice, Lamanna has built a substantial following on platforms like LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok by sharing his daily experiences, winning strategies, and transparent insights. A multiple President's Club winner, his teachings focus on taking extreme ownership of one's sales territory, implementing repeatable systems, and maintaining a consistent, value-driven approach to prospecting and deal management.

On Mindset and Ownership

A cornerstone of Lamanna's philosophy is the concept of the seller as the "CEO of their book of business." This entails a proactive, responsible, and strategic approach to managing one's territory and pipeline.

Key Quotes:

"Sellers need to be the CEO of their book of business." [1][2]
"Great sellers take extreme ownership over the accounts in their territory." [1][2]
"This means you don't wait for inbound or for your SDR to build you pipeline; you must be hands-on and build your own pipe." [1][2]
"The sellers who win create their own path to hitting goals, minimizing dependence on external factors." [1][2]
"It's your job as a seller to actually identify the number one reason why you will lose the deal and to call it out proactively." [3]
"You got to think about your prospect at the end of the day and like every prospect is different." [4]
"I think it's really important to enjoy that journey and enjoy kind of that come up." [5]
"You can post about your failures like what didn't work that day when you you know made a hundred activities and landed zero meetings or it can be celebrating a win." [6]
"Selling is the absolute team sport." [7]
"If you need something done give it to the busiest person in the room." [8]

On Process and Efficiency

Lamanna emphasizes the importance of having structured processes and systems to ensure consistent performance and effective time management.

Key Quotes:

"Time management and efficiency are the seller's superpower." [1][2]
"Brian divides his day into 'advancing pipeline' and 'creating pipeline' activities and rigorously deprioritizes anything that doesn't contribute to those two goals." [2]
"I know as a seller I have 40 hours a week... I know if I can spend as much of those 40 hours as possible on two different things I'm going to be ultra successful and those two things are number one advancing pipeline and number two creating pipeline." [5]
"Every day what Brian does is he looks at the deals in his pipeline and he thinks 'What can I do today to help give myself a better chance at winning this deal?'" [3]
"I'm probably looking across like 15 to 20 different things... so many that I actually built out like a pre-call prep template for myself." [6]
"For me what that system turned into is every Sunday I'd sit down for about an hour get some Starbucks or coffee put some headphones on and I'd write out five posts." [6]
"Do a little bit of prospecting everyday (so you never have to do a lot)." [8]
"I try to almost remove myself from the situation a little bit and like audit my schedule and how I'm going about my week to week." [5]
"My goal is zeroing out on a day-to-day and a week-to-week basis if I can spend nearly 80% of my time in those two categories, I'm going to be ultra successful as a seller." [5]
"It's really taking more of a precision type approach to your best accounts versus spraying and praying." [8]

On Prospecting and Outreach

His advice on prospecting is centered on relevance over personalization and providing value at every touchpoint.

Key Quotes:

"It's far more important to be relevant, which means tailoring a communication so it speaks directly to the prospect's business goals." [2]
"A communication can be highly personalized but still add little value." [2]
"Your message needs to create a compelling reason why they should invest time speaking to you." [2]
"If you have a really good compelling first message repurpose it around the omni channel flywheel... and don't try to create a brand new message each and every time." [8]
"Don't be afraid to double down on what you already do best." [8]
"Subject lines are the gatekeepers of cold email." [7]
"The forgotten step child of cold email advice… optimizing preview text." [7]
"I think email prospecting like every rep wants to do personalization and everyone wants to create those like personalized relevant messages." [5]
"A key to advancing pipeline is finding ways to sell between meetings by offering value-added touches by email." [2]
"This is all about finding a way to add value— not giving homework." [2]

On Discovery and Deal Management

Lamanna's approach to deal management involves deep discovery, building champions, and maintaining momentum.

Key Quotes:

"Win one stakeholder at a time: the discovery call you're winning the manager, the demo call you're winning the director, that big team meeting you're winning over the VP." [3]
"It's really important to make sure first and foremost I can build that initial person into a champion or at least like a strong mobilizer." [3]
"It's really really important to not just have one champion but to hopefully have like an army of champions." [5]
"I want to just go one level up on that ladder because you're often going to fall off the ladder if you try to go too many steps at a time." [3]
"Most deals don't die because of price or value — they stall because the buyer couldn't get internal buy-in. That means there's always a way back in." [9]
"Stop positioning your product as the hero in the story. Psychology tip for framing!" [7]
"I always use this as my 2nd discovery question." [7]
"Discovery is always a work in progress, even when it's closed one discovery is not done." [4]
"Proactively introduce competitors... the number one I re lose deals is due to status quo or no decision." [3]
"Multi Single-Threading: After a big team meeting, send individual follow-up messages to key stakeholders. This helps build relationships without asking for anything, creating future points of contact." [3]

On Personal Branding and Content Creation

He is a strong advocate for salespeople building their personal brand and sharing their journey.

Key Quotes:

"I saw from leadership top down and you know maybe I was a little bit scared at the time but seeing them kind of lead by example and and just sharing a little bit about their journey on a whim I just decided like hey I was going to put myself out there a little bit more." [6]
"Share once a week at first just like what was working well what wasn't working kind of like my overall journey." [6]
"I think just sharing like your authentic journeys the the best way of going about it from the onset." [6]
"If nothing else LinkedIn will be kind of like a public journal for my thoughts and my lessons along the way." [10]
"I think content is the same way you're not going to see results immediately." [6]
"Imitate first and then iterate second." [8]
"You don't want to cheat in school but in in sales cheating is a good thing it's celebrated." [8]
"Find a top performer to imitate (cheating works in sales)." [8]
"I think my overall strategy was like imitate first and then iterate second meaning if you're at an org where you're not just the first sales rep there's going to be other people that are ultra successful there and I think the best starting point is just simply imitating what they're doing and trying to learn from them." [8]
"I guarantee you there's someone a step or two behind in their career... and I guarantee you've learned valuable lessons." [11]

Sources and Further Learning:

For those interested in following Brian Lamanna's work, he can be found on these platforms:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlamanna/ [12]
Closed Won: https://closedwon.xyz/ [2][4]
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brian.lamanna [7]
Interviews and Features:
- RevOps FM Podcast [1][12]
- Sell Better by JB Sales [13][14]
- 30 Minutes to President's Club Podcast [3]
- Gong Blog [9]
- YouTube Interviews [5][11]

Learn more:

Lessons from Brian LaManna

On Mindset and Ownership

On Process and Efficiency

On Prospecting and Outreach

On Discovery and Deal Management

On Personal Branding and Content Creation

Sources and Further Learning:

Written by Antoine Buteau

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