Welcome to the GTM Launchpad newsletter! Each week I will share a sales play to help you grow your business, level up your sales game and succeed in the trenches

The first half of January is chaos
The second half is truth

By now:

and that’s usually when the real problem shows up

Not in strategy
Not in effort
Not in motivation

It shows up mid-conversation

I’ve seen it all week

With a founder who just went live with a fully built outbound engine
With reps inside Oliv coaching sessions
With teams who want consistency but keep getting “random” results

and the pattern is always the same:

Most deals don’t die in the opener
They don’t die at the ask

They die in the middle

That awkward 60–120 seconds where

Nothing explodes
Nothing feels wrong

It just… goes nowhere

Here’s the hard truth most teams miss:

Discovery isn’t about asking more questions
It’s about picking a direction

Most reps lose control of the call because they’re trying to do everything at once

So the call turns into question dumping

and question dumping kills momentum

What actually works is simpler
and harder

You pick one lane per call

Not three
Not all of them
One

Here are the only three lanes that matter

1) Surface reality
“Walk me through how this works today”

2) Expose friction
“Where does this usually break down?”

3) Create contrast
“If this worked perfectly, what would change?”

You don’t run all three
You choose based on how the prospect shows up

And once you’re in the lane….you stay there

That’s the difference between conversations that feel calm
and ones that feel rushed

This is the framework I coached this week and it’s boring in the best way

Acknowledge → Isolate → Impact

Example:

“Got it so manual review is the issue”
“Is that happening on every deal or just some?”
“What does that delay cost the team when it happens?”

Notice what’s missing?

No pitch
No pressure
No clever closing line

The prospect does the convincing
You’re just guiding the spotlight

That’s how “good days vs bad days” turn into consistency

If your reps feel inconsistent it’s rarely effort

It’s usually indecision in the middle of the call

Most managers coach

Almost nobody coaches the middle

That’s the gap

In call reviews stop asking:
“Did they ask enough questions?”

Start asking

When reps jump lanes mid-call momentum leaks
When they stay disciplined confidence shows up

This is how you turn discovery from a vibe
into a system

and it works just as well on your calls too

Here’s the part leaders underestimate:

You can coach better discovery
You can train cleaner conversations

But if the system around the rep is chaotic execution still breaks

Context gets lost
Follow-ups fall through
Momentum dies between touches

This is why the founder I just wrapped with didn’t just fix talk tracks
We fixed where execution lives

Calls, email, LinkedIn all tied together
All feeding the same workflow
All reinforcing the same lane the rep started in

Which is a perfect segue to this week’s sponsor…

Quick sidebar because I know a lot of you are very skeptical of automation on LinkedIn

Honestly? You should be

LinkedIn is sensitive
The AI/automation wave has been reckless
Most people abuse tools then blame the platform when things break

That’s exactly why I’ve been so intentional with Expandi

In the outbound build I just wrapped for a founder we were clear on one thing:

Email does the heavy lifting
LinkedIn is not the scaled channel
it’s the high-intent layer

So we used Expandi sparingly and with restraint

No blasting
No fake personalization
No “hope this finds you well” nonsense

Used this way Expandi isn’t about automation

It’s about staying human without burning hours manually clicking around and without burning your profile

If LinkedIn is part of your motion in 2026 and you want to use it with finesse instead of force Expandi has earned my stamp

Not for everyone
But for the right use case? Solid

A few things worth checking out this week
GTM and real life included

We dropped Episode 5 this past week and it’s all about the nerves before our daughters first competition

What’s been wild is how fast the cheer world has embraced the show
coaches, parents, gym owners… all of it

Next week we’re recording with the girls coaches for a full competition recap and honestly… that one’s going to hit!

If you’re a parent navigating ambitious kids, pressure and real life
you’ll feel this show

Listen here
Cheer Dads Unfiltered | Episode 5: The Calm Before the Chaos

Find us everywhere → @CheerDadsUnfiltered

My episode with Mike Lindstrom and Scott Leese dropped this week too

No tactics
No frameworks
Just the full story

The childhood stuff
The rebuild
Why I operate the way I do today

If you’ve ever wondered how I became this version of me this episode fills in a lot of gaps

Listen here
Ep 16 | What’s Your Story? w/ Tom Slocum

Prospecting Masterclass: How to Build a Repeatable Multichannel Workflow
January 28, 2026 @ 12pm ET

I’ll be joining Lindsey Boggs and Leslie Douglas to break down:

This one’s for anyone who starts strong… then watches momentum fade by week three

👉 Register here

The Middle Audit (20 Minutes)

This week don’t rewrite your opener
Don’t touch your pitch
Don’t add a new question

Instead do this

Then ask yourself

That’s the work

Coach that moment
Re-run the call with one clear lane
Practice staying there

One cleaner middle this week
beats ten new openers every time

January doesn’t need more intensity
It needs more intention

The teams that win Q1 won’t be louder
They’ll be calmer
Clearer
More deliberate in the moments that actually matter

and the middle of the conversation?
That’s one of those moments

Fix that
and a lot of “random” results suddenly stop being random

We’ll keep tightening it together

See you next Monday
Let’s keep building

🤙

Thanks for reading. See you again next week at 8 am MST!

- Tom Slocum ✌️

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Curious what this could look like for your org?
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