What Not To Do
by Elizabeth Italiano
Missing Revenue Targets? Get no-bullshit strategies, execution plans and support that is rooted in real-life experience.
Welcome to What Not To Do. An operator turned go-to-market consultant’s tragedies, triumphs, tips and services that helps capture revenue opportunities, increase sales, and customer retention.
Rooted in reality and IRL experience – If I am writing or talking about it, I’ve actually done it and not just talked about it on LinkedIn.
Welcome!
The Why behind What Not To Do.
About Me
ELIZABETH ITALIANO
Elizabeth Italiano’s 19-year career spans sales, marketing, and customer success across various company scales, from startups to public enterprises. Notably, she contributed to successful exits, including Radian6’s acquisition by Salesforce. During her career she has scaled teams in her sales and customer success executive roles leading to highly successful revenue and retention results.
Shifting to consulting, she founded What Not To Do. Passionate about Sales and Customer Success strategies that drive revenue, she guides companies in optimizing their commercial teams and go-to-market strategies. As an “operator consultant,” Elizabeth ensures her strategies and execution translates into revenue.
Her personal life embraces dog training, running, cooking, reading historical fiction, and cherishing family visits in Nova Scotia amidst her love for travel.
Elizabeth was listed as a Top 100 Female GTM Leader, and is also an award winning Customer Success expert and was named in the Top 100 Customer Success Thought Leaders for 2023.
A WHAT NOT TO DO TIP
As the Winston Churchill saying goes “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” I fell into this trap during my website relaunch, aiming for a complete vision before the big reveal. The result? Slowed progress and unnecessary delays. I overlooked my own advice on incremental change, roadmap creation, and the “crawl, walk, run” approach. I’ve realized it’s alright if my planned video series isn’t ready from day one. Launching in phases is acceptable. While quality matters, perfection is unattainable. There’s always more to add or edit. My lesson?
What Not To Do
Don’t aim to launch with the final product. Don’t stall progress in pursuit of perfection.
What To Do
Set milestones and goals for each one. Build a road map and put target dates in place for each milestone. Launch when you are providing value and helping to solve a problem. Then build on that.
Join me on my journey of progress over perfection and as I aim to share my knowledge and learnings from my experience. As the site, the market, and I evolve, let’s navigate this together. #WhatNotToDo #ProgressOverPerfection
RESOURCES
The Power of Storytelling for Revenue Roles: Leveraging the PART Framework
In revenue-generating or revenue-enabling roles like sales, marketing, sales enablement, customer success, and account management, data and strategy are crucial. But what often gets overlooked is the power of storytelling—the
Leveraging the PART Framework in Marketing Content
I have written quite extensively about our PART framework lately and how to leverage it for sales and customer success. In a recent conversation, I confided to a colleague of
Personalization in Sales and Customer Success: The Key to Effective Engagement and Messaging
Personalization in Sales and Customer Success: The Key to Effective Engagement and Messaging In today’s competitive sales environment, personalization has become more than a buzzword—it’s a necessity. Buyers and decision-makers
Speaking to CFOs: The Language of Profitability
In today’s market, profitability has overtaken the "growth at all costs" mindset, placing CFOs at the forefront of decision-making processes for vendor evaluations and purchases. CFOs, who are responsible for
Modern Day Communication Channels: Reaching Stakeholders Effectively
In a world where our inboxes are inundated with a high volume of spam, the ability to reach and engage stakeholders through the right communication channels is just as important
Leveraging the Cost of Inaction to Progress Your Deals
The Cost of Inaction (COI) has been gaining a lot of traction on social media lately. While it may sound like a new thing, COI is actually a well-established principle