{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The GTM Engineer Podcast","title":"Learn Sales Before You Learn Clay ft. Sashank Koundinya","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/fca6a86c\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1266,"description":"In today's episode, I chat with Sashank, GTM engineer at Interact, about what it looks like to run 15 simultaneous demand-generation engines for a category-creation product—where the job isn't capturing existing demand but making people care about a problem they don't yet know they have. The standout campaign is a segmentation approach that buckets prospects by how urgently the product solves their specific problem, reconstructing their HubSpot in the background from LinkedIn data to simulate their customer base—producing 35-40% reply rates and cutting average sales cycles from 45-50 days down to 18-20. Alongside email and LinkedIn, Sashank is running gifting campaigns, field marketing with Hallmark cards that link directly to the AI agent they're selling, and a \"show don't tell\" philosophy where every campaign ends with the prospect actually talking to the product. His path is one of the wildest on the show: professional musician, artist manager at 17 with an eight-figure exit he donated, keyframe animation studio founder, pre-sales engineer, SDR, CSM at Factors where he built 200+ automations in 14 months, and now sitting on $1.6M in pipeline solo at Interact within one month. His prediction: the \"I'll build it myself\" wave will die when people discover the maintenance reality—software ages like fish, not frozen meat. His advice: GTM engineering is an evolution, not an escape from sales—understand GTM deeply before touching the engineering side. Enjoy 🙂(0:00) Introduction to The GTM Engineer Podcast (0:21) What Sashank Does: 15 Demand-Gen Engines for a Category-Creation Product at Interact (1:40) The Psychological Bucketing Campaign: Simulating Prospect HubSpots, 35-40% Reply Rates (4:39) Show Don't Tell: Every Campaign Ends With the Prospect Talking to the Agent (6:43) Field Marketing, Gifting, and Hallmark Cards That Link Directly to the Product (7:51) Sashank's Journey: Musician to Animation Studio to SDR to CSM to GTM Engineer (12:00) 1,500 Applications,...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/_OACHDe9ElXR9DTbOLoP4tR2qTxfhcBnxoBX4sm6BJ4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yOGJi/ZGE0ZmU3YmNhNjhm/ZDg0NGRiNTFmMmIw/NzEwNC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}