B2B Sales Strategies and GTM Insights with Maxim Tanevskiy

The Prospecting Masterclass ep. 34

Hey there Croners! Welcome back to The Prospecting Masterclass, the original Crono column that gives you insights and tips from the best minds in sales.

For this episode, the first one of 2025, we’re more than happy to welcome someone who’s fully aware of the power of sales.

Maxim Tanevskiy is Chief Business Officer at Ex-human
Besides this role, he also started S. Strategy Ltd, his own business development, strategy and GTM agency, helping B2B startups building revenue systems and scale growth in various niches.

Let's start with a warm-up: 5 words to describe yourself!

Passionate, energetic, love meeting professional and charismatic people.

Can you give us a quick overview of your career and projects?

I have been doing business development, strategy, GTM and sales for more than 10 years now, working across US, EU, UK, South East Asia and China. 
Initially I had a Chinese studies bachelor’s degree (learned Chinese, Far Eastern languages, cultures) and then switched my career to commercial and business

I did a lot of business development projects (even in some far remote regions, like Philippines, Thailand or China), but also helped companies like KPMG, DELL and IBM build AI, data and ML projects.

One of the examples: creation of an advanced police reports detection & advisory AI model in several languages. Also built and launched B2C cross-border e-commerce marketplace, scaled business development, GTM, and sales in 7 startups totally

My record is from 0 to $1.5M ARR in 9 months being a solo sales and GTM contributor during COVID for RPC LLC.

Why are you passionate about sales?

Sales become boring if it’s only about cold emails and DMs, but you get a privilege to talk to really interesting people. Also it teaches you that with some effort you can reach almost anyone with your DMs.

What are the key pillars for a sales-led growth strategy in B2B?

I think the new trend that every salesman should follow is that being successful with cold outbound is not enough now and you need to add social selling through LinkedIn posting now. It gives you higher visibility, bigger trust with prospects, new acquaintances, followers, partnerships and so on. 

However, sales are sales and will always rely on high quality outbound. Additionally, sales and GTM tech is evolving fast making outbound simpler and smarter, which shouldn’t be denied by sales reps.

Still, don’t overestimate sales tech, because the success of an outbound message is still heavily dependent on the quality of your message

How can strategies and sales systems bring benefits, especially to SaaS and B2B startups?

Whether it’s a SLG, PLG or FLG (founder-led growth) you need sales.

It’s a misconception that a good PLG can work out without proper sales people. PLG can’t sell itself and it’s not its job. It can showcase value upfront through freemium or create product experience that drives user acquisition, but it can’t close deals.

Especially in B2B you need human touch in sales, due to complex B2B buying decision processes, personalised demos, handling objections, educating, nurturing and so on.

Sales skills are the lifeline of any startup—you can’t survive without them.

What are the main sales changes and challenges you predict for the next 12 months?

More than 80% of sales reps didn’t hit quota last year. It’s hard to see that statistic changing anytime soon.
We’re living in the beginning of the AI era, with many inexperienced SDRs that fire spam cannons with low response rates. 
Situation won’t change and buyers will tend to do their own search because they’re tired of spam. 

So, high quality content marketing and target focused outbound will still do its job, but I see it’s difficult for sales reps to hit their targets.

The sales process becomes complicated: longer sales cycles, a lot of inexperienced spam, new tech tools and rise of social selling. The selling process is more complex, but still manageable for skilled professionals.

⚡️Bolt - The B2B Sales newsletter by Crono

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive monthly updates and insights on the future of B2B Sales!