Episode Summary: Join us as Ben Holly, first sales hire at cyft.ai, shares what’s really working in outbound for 2025. From mastering ICPs to leveraging AI for smarter sales and recruiting, this episode is a no-fluff guide to winning in modern B2B outbound strategies and tactics in 2025.

What You Will Learn:

• Why understanding your ICP on a deep level is the cornerstone of outbound success.
• How to use AI tools like Clay to build high-conversion prospecting lists.
• The difference between demand capture and demand generation roles in sales.
• Why cold outbound and recruiting share the same DNA—and how to win at both.
• Real tactics for building efficient, effective outbound engines in 2025.
• Common mistakes with SDR teams and how to fix them.

Featured Guest: Ben Holly – First Sales Hire at cyft.ai, Outbound Sales & AI Strategist

Host: Ben Reed, host of the Next Gen Sales Leaders Podcast.

Episode Highlights:

[00:02:00] The Real Outbound Lesson for 2025: Ben shares why AI won’t save your outbound without understanding your buyer deeply.

[00:08:45] Go Tribal for ICP: How spending months with customers in the field can unlock million-dollar insights.

[00:16:10] Culture Matters: Why your buyer’s culture could be the key to better cold calls and conversions.

[00:32:15] SDRs and the Market Disconnect: The mismatch between product-market fit and outbound expectations for SDRs.

[00:45:20] The Power of Cold Recruiting: Ben’s process using Clay and AI to hire and raise capital.

[01:05:00] Tool Stack Breakdown: How Ben uses tools like Clay, Apollo, and OpenAI to hyper-filter massive lists.

[01:26:00] Cold Calling with Context: Researching at scale to craft smarter cold call intros that resonate.

[01:40:10] Final Thoughts: Why recruiting, fundraising, sales, and marketing all start with deep list building & real ICP alignment.

Connect with Ben Holly:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benyaminholley/
• Company: https://cyft.ai
• Website: www.Lazysales.xyz
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazySalesAutomation
• X: https://x.com/BenyaminHolley

Subscribe & Review: Love this episode? Subscribe to the Next Gen Sales Leaders Podcast for the latest in B2B sales, AI tools, and outbound strategies. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please leave a review!

Follow Ben on Social:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-aaron-reed/

Join our FREE Group "Outbound B2B Sales/AI Hackers":

• https://tinyurl.com/3b5ap97x

Episode Summary: Welcome to the second-ever school group recording of the NextGen Sales Leaders Community! In this unique office hours session, host Ben Reed opens the floor to his community members, diving into real-time challenges and strategies for scaling B2B businesses. From solving entrepreneurial loneliness to navigating the complexities of unit economics, team building, and systemizing operations, this candid and highly tactical session gives listeners a behind-the-scenes look at how B2B entrepreneurs are growing smarter and faster.

What You Will Learn:

• How to think about hiring for low-code/no-code roles in tech-focused B2B services.
• Frameworks for creating repeatable, scalable internal systems and SOPs.
• How to use tools like Lucidchart, Notion, and Upwork to streamline onboarding and delivery.
• The true cost of scaling service businesses and how to avoid unit economic disasters.
• Tips on transitioning from agency work to product-based revenue models like software or IP.
• The power of transparency, team culture, and hiring with vision alignment in mind.

Host: Ben Reed, host of the NextGen Sales Leaders Podcast

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:15] Solving Entrepreneurial Loneliness: Why community and connection are critical in the founder journey.

[00:05:00] Hiring for Growth: How to choose between client-facing talent vs. technical talent in low-code environments.

[00:14:45] Controlling Costs: How to create scalable internal billing for internal resources at an agency or service-based B2B business.

[00:17:20] Ben's Personal Agency Unit Economics: Live walk-through of Ben’s internal unit economics spreadsheet.

[00:28:20] Freelancers vs. Full-Time Hires: Strategic approaches on when to hire part-time vs full-time employees, testing new freelancers, and recruiting via Upwork.

[00:35:34] Hiring the ideal employee: Mental frameworks for thinking about who to hire into your business, what characteristics they should have, and how to align their career goals with your goals of scaling or running your business.

[00:41:30] Creating Redundancy and Avoiding Keyman Risk: The value of cross-training and multiple hires.

[00:50:10] From Agency to Product: Using agency cash flow to build scalable software and IP.

[00:59:00] Ideal Hires and Team Culture: What to look for in early team members and how to build long-term alignment.

[01:06:00] Pricing, Positioning, and Firing Clients: When to raise rates and how to fire clients that don't fit your future vision.

[01:13:00] The Power of Productized Services & Affiliate Revenue: How to scale beyond custom client work.

[01:22:30] Final Advice: How to validate markets and build high-margin businesses with focus and persistence.

Subscribe & Review: Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to the Next Gen Sales Leaders Podcast for weekly insights from real B2B operators and growth experts. Leave us a review to help more founders discover this B2B scaling podcast and community!

Follow Ben on Social:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-aaron-reed/

Join our FREE Group "Outbound B2B Sales/AI Hackers":

• https://tinyurl.com/3b5ap97x

Episode Summary: In this Office Hours session for the NextGen Sales Leaders Skool Group, host Ben Reed offers high-impact coaching to community member Haitham and Louie Villaverde, who's transitioning from freelancing to building a scalable agency.

With real-world stories and frameworks from Ben’s own entrepreneurial journey—including running a med spa and building multiple sales orgs—this conversation dives deep into systemization, client acquisition, pricing, and mindset shifts essential for growth. If you're stuck between delivery and growth or wondering how to build a real business from your skillset, this episode is for you.

What You Will Learn:

• The crucial difference between freelancing and running a scalable agency.
• How to build systems and playbooks that remove you from client fulfillment.
• Ben’s “Four Ps” framework: Puppy, Process, Playbooks, People.
• The importance of pricing strategy and how to evaluate your margins.
• Whether to take short-term clients or focus on long-term infrastructure.
• Tactical steps to identify your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
• Why hiring a coach can accelerate your path to product-market fit and scale.

Host: Ben Reed, host of the Next Gen Sales Leaders Podcast.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:30] Louie's Background: From agency life to freelancing and the challenges of building consistent lead flow.

[00:06:45] Ben’s Med Spa Experience: The viral toe fungus ad that actually worked—and lessons on using video hooks and visual storytelling.

[00:13:20] Freelancing vs. Agency: Why fulfillment is your bottleneck, not demand—and how to break the cycle.

[00:20:15] Building Your System: The "Four Ps" framework to delegate delivery and scale sustainably.

[00:32:10] Pricing and Profit Margins: Why undercharging limits growth—and how to run a unit economics analysis.

[00:45:00] The Power of Focus: How to say no to misaligned clients and dial in your ICP.

[00:53:40] Get a Coach: Why every entrepreneur needs someone to help them see clearly—and when it makes sense to hire one.

Connect with Ben:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-aaron-reed/

Join our FREE Group "NextGen Sales Leaders":

• https://www.skool.com/outbound-b2b-sales/about?ref=07a56393b2d2435d9366f2e6151e2600

Subscribe & Review: Love this session? Subscribe to the NextGen Sales Leaders Podcast and leave a review to support more content like this!

Episode Summary:

In this episode, Ben Reed sits down with Aviv Joseph Glazer, co-founder of Panda Match, to unpack the truth about B2B data sourcing, cold outbound, and what most people get wrong about building lists and scaling revenue. Aviv shares how Panda Match uses AI to extract company data straight from the internet—bypassing stale, user-generated platforms like LinkedIn and ZoomInfo. This one is packed with hard-earned lessons on product-market fit, agency life, and the evolution toward SaaS.

What You Will Learn:

How Panda Match uses proprietary AI to source fresh, accurate company data

Why traditional platforms like ZoomInfo and Apollo are becoming less effective.

The shift from lead gen agencies to SaaS—and how to know when it's time to pivot.

Key indicators of true product-market fit.

Why outbound isn't dead—most people are just doing it wrong.

Featured Guest: Aviv Joseph Glazer – Co-Founder of Panda Match

Host: Ben Reed, host of the Next Gen Sales Leaders Podcast

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:00] What Is Panda Match? Aviv explains how Panda Match scrapes live website data to build more accurate lists.

[00:10:00] The Intricacies of List Building: Ben explains how building B2B lead lists is not as simple as it may first appear and why.

[00:16:30] B2B Sales Motions Start With Lists: Ben describes that the first activity in any B2B sales-led go-to-market motion is B2B lead list building.

[00:25:00] Agency Struggles: Real talk on churn, client expectations, and why most cold email shops hit a wall.

[00:38:00] Building SaaS from the Trenches: Aviv’s journey from freelancer to SaaS founder and what he learned along the way.

[00:48:00] Product-Market Fit Myths: How to know when you have it—and why it can disappear overnight.

[01:07:00] Strategy Over Tactics: Why founders need to solve the right constraint before throwing money at outbound.

[01:50:00] Mindset + Mentorship: How judgment, mentors, and integrity shape long-term success in business.

Connect with Aviv:

LinkedIn: Aviv Joseph Glazer

Website: https://www.pandamatch.io

Subscribe & Review:

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to the Next Gen Sales Leaders Podcast and leave a review. It helps others find the show and supports our mission to grow revenue-driven B2B leaders.

Follow Ben on Social:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-aaron-reed/

Join our FREE Group "NextGen Sales Leaders":

https://www.skool.com/outbound-b2b-sales/about?ref=07a56393b2d2435d9366f2e6151e2600

Episode Summary:

In this episode, we break down Alex Hormozi’s $100M Offers methodology and how to apply it to your business. We dive deep into offer creation, understanding your ideal customer profile, and using frameworks like "The Mom Test" to validate your market before launching. Learn how to craft an irresistible offer, niche down effectively, and position yourself for massive growth.

What You Will Learn:

• The importance of an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) in offer creation.
• How to use The Mom Test to validate your market.
• Why niching down is key to a successful offer.
• The five stages of customer awareness and how to leverage them.
• The step-by-step process to create a high-converting offer.
• How to structure an offer that drives trust and credibility.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:00] Defining Your Ideal Customer Profile – The critical role of ICP in offer creation and why skipping this step can be fatal.

[00:02:00] The Mom Test Framework – How to ask unbiased questions to uncover your audience’s true problems.

[00:03:00] The Dream 100 List – Chet Holmes’ strategy for identifying and targeting your best-fit customers.

[00:05:00] Understanding the Five Stages of Awareness – From problem-aware to product-aware, how to meet your customers where they are.

[00:10:00] Real Offer Creation Example – Learn how I create a new offer from scratch using a real-world scenario and ideal customer profile.

Subscribe & Review:

Love this episode? Subscribe to the podcast for more insights on B2B sales, marketing, and offer creation. If you found value in today’s episode, please leave us a review!

Follow Ben on Social:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-aaron-reed/

Join Our FREE B2B Sales and Growth Community:

https://www.skool.com/outbound-b2b-sales/about?ref=07a56393b2d2435d9366f2e6151e2600

Episode Summary:

In this in-depth tactical session of the NextGen Sales Leaders Podcast, host Benjamin Reed breaks down the fundamentals of cold email, covering everything from lead generation, list building, copywriting, AI-driven personalization, inbox management, and deliverability. If you’re looking to master cold outreach, understand how many emails to send, when to send them, and how to optimize your campaigns for maximum reply rates and conversions, this is the episode for you.

Ben walks through the core components of cold email success—ideal customer profile (ICP) creation, structuring email copy for AI-driven personalization, managing email deliverability, and setting up your cold email infrastructure with Instantly, Clay, and other key tools. He also provides a detailed breakdown of how many emails you need to send to hit your sales targets, the cost of running a cold email operation, and the realistic ROI you should expect.

What You Will Learn:

• How to identify and build hyper-targeted cold email lists
• The best structures to use and how to personalize at scale
• The right way to configure inboxes, warm-up sequences, and avoid spam filters
• Understanding the tools, costs, and sending limits to optimize your outbound system
• The best way to convert cold leads into booked meetings
• Key benchmarks for reply rates, meeting rates, and customer acquisition costs

Featured Guest:

Host: Ben Reed, founder of NextGen Sales Leaders, expert in AI-powered outbound sales and B2B cold email

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:30] Intro to cold email strategy

[00:04:15] The three pillars of cold email success

[00:12:30] The tech stack for cold email success

[00:21:00] Cold email metrics and benchmarks

[00:34:45] Cost breakdown and required email volume

[00:46:10] Cold email best practices and common mistakes

[00:57:00] When cold email is not the right strategy

[01:05:45] How to get help with cold email and AI outbound

Resources & Links:

For the full Notion Training, DM Ben on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-aaron-reed

Join Our Free B2B Sales Skool Community:

https://www.skool.com/outbound-b2b-sales/about?

ref=07a56393b2d2435d9366f2e6151e2600

Work With Us (Cold Email & AI Sales Services):

https://nextgensalesleaders.com

Subscribe & Review:

Love this episode? Subscribe to the NextGen Sales Leaders Podcast for the latest in B2B outbound sales, AI-powered cold email, and sales leadership insights. If you found value in this episode, leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Episode Summary:

In this episode of the NextGen Sales Leader Podcast, host Ben Reed sits down with Alfie Carter, founder of Prosp AI, a cutting-edge automation tool for LinkedIn. With LinkedIn cracking down on automation and outreach strategies, Alfie shares his firsthand experience of how these changes have impacted outbound B2B sales and automation tools like Prosp AI. We dive into how AI-driven personalization is changing the game, the controversy surrounding LinkedIn bans, and the strategies that still work for effective LinkedIn outreach.

What You Will Learn:

• How Prosp AI stands out from other LinkedIn automation tools
• Why LinkedIn is cracking down on automation and the impact on founders
• The key to personalized LinkedIn messaging at scale
• The conversion rates of LinkedIn outreach vs. cold email
• The future of AI-driven LinkedIn outreach and best practices for safety
• How Alfie Carter’s personal LinkedIn got banned and what it means for automation tool founders

Featured Guest:

Alfie Carter – Founder of Prosp AI, an automation tool designed to enhance LinkedIn outreach using AI personalization.

Host:

Ben Reed – Host of NextGen Sales Leader Podcast, B2B outbound expert, and founder of a leading cold outbound and revenue operations agency.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:30] Intro to Alfie Carter & Prosp AI – What makes Prosp AI unique in a crowded market?

[00:05:15] The LinkedIn Automation Crackdown – Why is LinkedIn banning automation tools?

[00:10:30] Personalization at Scale – How Prosp AI leverages AI to make outreach messages more human and engaging.

[00:15:45] LinkedIn vs. Cold Email – How LinkedIn outranks cold email in terms of response rates and conversion.

[00:22:10] Trust & Authenticity in Outreach – Why human psychology plays a huge role in LinkedIn connection requests and messaging.

[00:29:35] AI Voice Notes & LinkedIn DMs – How Prosp AI is using AI voice messages to increase engagement.

[00:35:20] The LinkedIn Ban Controversy – What happened with Apollo.io, Seamless, and why Prosp AI’s founder got banned from LinkedIn.

[00:45:55] Is LinkedIn Automation Still Safe? – Alfie breaks down how Prosp AI protects accounts and why users are not at risk.

[00:53:10] Final Thoughts & Future of AI Automation – How LinkedIn outreach will evolve and what’s next for Prosp AI.

Connect with Alfie & Prosp AI:

Website: https://prosp.ai

Join the Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/prospcommunity/shared_invite/zt-2zyunvyuc-8_fPKK6L20vDrDSN5GK7sg

Subscribe & Review:

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to the NextGen Sales Leader Podcast for expert insights into B2B sales, cold email, and outbound automation. If you found value in today’s conversation, please leave us a review!

Episode Summary: In this episode of NextGen Sales Leaders, host Benjamin Reed sits down with Steven Eror from Signals to dive deep into the future of AI-driven outbound sales. They discuss how Signals is transforming sales outreach by leveraging behavioral and profile-based data to power AI cloud SDRs. Discover how AI-powered sales reps can automate event follow-ups, website chat interactions, and inbound calls—all while integrating seamlessly with your CRM.

If you’re a sales leader, founder, or RevOps professional wondering how AI can help scale your outbound motion, improve SDR efficiency, and drive better pipeline conversion, this episode is for you.

What You Will Learn:

• How Signals uses AI-driven SDRs to automate outreach and engagement.
• What differentiates Signals from other signal-based sales intelligence tools.
• The role of AI in replacing or augmenting human SDR teams.
• How sales teams can use AI to personalize outreach and prevent AI "hallucinations."
• The ideal use cases for AI SDRs in inbound vs. outbound sales motions.
• Why AI-driven demo bots and follow-up automation are the next frontier.

Featured Guest:

Steve Eror – Head of Partnerships at Signals, a platform leveraging AI-driven cloud SDRs to automate outreach and engagement.

Host:

Ben Reed – Host of Next Gen Sales Leaders Podcast, fractional CRO, and B2B sales expert.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:30] Introduction to Signals – Steve explains how Signals captures digital buyer footprints and translates them into sales actions.

[00:06:45] Differentiation in AI SDR Tech – What sets Signals apart from other sales intelligence platforms?

[00:12:20] Is AI SDR Tech Ready for Prime Time? – Addressing the most common objections to AI in outbound sales.

[00:19:55] Training AI to Sound Human – How AI SDRs are programmed with tone, messaging, and guardrails to minimize errors.

[00:26:10] AI as an SDR Replacement vs. Assistant – When should AI augment your sales team, and when should it replace SDRs entirely?

[00:34:00] Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) for AI SDRs – Who benefits most from Signals’ AI-driven outreach and automation?

[00:42:10] AI in Complex Sales Cycles – Can AI handle multi-touch, multi-stakeholder B2B enterprise deals?

[00:50:30] The Future of AI in Sales – What’s next for AI-powered sales engagement? Demo bots, full-cycle AI reps, and more.

[01:00:15] Steve’s Background & the Origins of Signals – How Signals evolved from inside sales expertise to AI-driven sales automation.

[01:08:20] Where to Find Steve & Signals – How to connect and start exploring AI SDRs for your business.

Connect with Steve Er & Signals:

• Website: https://getsignals.ai/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenerorjr/

Subscribe & Review:

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to the Next Gen Sales Leaders Podcast for more insights on B2B sales, outbound automation, and revenue growth strategies. If you found this episode valuable, leave us a review!