Stephen Hakami is the Founder and CEO of Wiza - the most accurate way to find verified contact information for B2B prospects. Stephen started the company in 2019 after a sales career of being frustrated with bad data, and set out to build a prospecting tool that's powered by live LinkedIn data.

Discussed in this Episode:

• The frustration with bad data and the inspiration behind building Wiza.
• The importance of email deliverability and strategies for improving it.
• The recent acquisition of Drift by Salesloft and the topic of consolidation in the sales tech stack.
• Stephen's journey from sales to CEO, highlighting the value of creative prospecting. 
• The hardest lesson Stephen learned in sales.
• Effective tactics of cold email and deliverability.

Highlights:
(3:27) Strategies for email deliverability.

(08:01) The journey from sales to entrepreneurship.

(11:06) Sales technology and the consolidation.

(20:41) Strategies for effective cold emails.

(25:49) Understanding your competitors.

(27:38) The importance of being a true consultant.

(28:32) Redefining your competitors.

(31:55) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Stephen thinks is bull$***.

(34:26) One thing that is working for Stephen/Wiza in go-to-market right now.

Guest Speaker Links (Stephen Hakami):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-hakami-5babb21b0/
Website: www.wiza.co/

Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/

Sponsor:
Today’s episode is sponsored by The ELG Conference, presented by Crossbeam and The ELG Alliance. The smartest companies are embracing Ecosystem-Led Growth, or ELG.

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• Case studies from companies like Datadog, Cloudera, and more.
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• A highly curated group of 200 GTM leaders, 85% director level and above across Sales, Marketing, and Partnerships.

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The GTM Podcast
The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Scott Barker, GTMfund Partner, featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.

Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.