Closing Time: quick insights from sales & marketing experts

AI is already in the agency toolkit. The next step is turning it from a tool into an operating model. n this episode of Closing Time, Ishan Manchanda, co-founder of GrowthSpree, explains the difference between gaining efficiencies by prompting in tools like ChatGPT or Claude and building an AI-native operating model with custom skills, MCP servers, and proprietary AI tools that give every client their own ecosystem. He shares how that setup gets clients live in about two weeks instead of the usual four to six, answers cross-channel questions like what LinkedIn ads are actually doing for direct traffic, and allows his service business to scale like a product company. Watch for quick AI wins, MCP workflows, and to hear why he says AI is making agencies faster but not better.   Watch the episode on YouTube.   Want expert advice delivered monthly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Closing Time newsletter to never miss an episode: https://bit.ly/3C5aZUw Explore Unbounce go-to-market solutions: https://unbounce.com/go-to-market-solutions/   Connect With:  • Ishan Manchanda: GrowthSpree // LinkedIn • Val Riley: LinkedIn  • Insightly's Website // Unbounce's Website

Your landing page's button color isn't your conversion problem—your messaging is. Talia Wolf has spent over a decade helping high-growth B2B brands stop guessing at why CRO isn't working and start understanding the emotional psychology behind every buying decision. As the founder of GetUplift and author of the Emotional Targeting book, she's generated dramatic results for brands like Bitly, Amplitude, and Sprout Social—not by tweaking design, but by uncovering why customers actually buy. In this episode of Closing Time, Talia walks through her 3-step Emotional Targeting Framework: conducting research that reveals real customer pain points, auditing for emotional resonance, and building hypothesis-driven tests that improve touch points across email, ads, and sales conversations. Tune in to see how emotional psychology—not just design—becomes your real conversion strategy. Watch the episode on YouTube.   Want expert advice delivered monthly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Closing Time newsletter to never miss an episode: https://bit.ly/3C5aZUw Explore Unbounce go-to-market solutions: https://unbounce.com/go-to-market-solutions/   Connect With:  • Talia Wolf: Talia's website // GetUplift // LinkedIn • Val Riley: LinkedIn  • Insightly's Website // Unbounce's Website

AI video is here, and it's already changing how marketers plan, produce, and scale content. Have you tapped into its potential yet? In this episode of Closing Time, Hope Horner, co-founder and CEO of Lemonlight, breaks down where AI video is creating real opportunities for marketers—and where human judgment still makes or breaks the final product. She explains how AI fits into the production process and shares use cases for teams looking for quick wins. For marketers today, AI is not a magic button that turns a prompt into a perfectly branded campaign-ready video. It is a faster path from idea to storyboard, from long-form content to social-ready clips, and from "too expensive to shoot" to finally possible. Hope explains what that looks like in practice, what still needs a human eye, and how marketers can start experimenting without handing over full creative control. Watch the episode on YouTube.   Want expert advice delivered monthly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Closing Time newsletter to never miss an episode: https://bit.ly/3C5aZUw Explore Unbounce go-to-market solutions: https://unbounce.com/go-to-market-solutions/   Connect With:  • Hope Horner: Lemonlight // LinkedIn • Val Riley: LinkedIn  • Insightly's Website // Unbounce's Website

Most reps skip straight to messaging. They write emails without knowing who they're targeting, when to reach out, or what the buyer actually cares about. Then they wonder why no one responds. The problem usually isn't the email itself. It's the lack of context behind it. That matters even more if you're using AI for outbound. The way you collect and organize CRM data determines whether AI becomes a force multiplier or a firehose for bad outreach. In this episode, John Barrows shares his Filling the Funnel framework, a five-step system for building a stronger outbound strategy from the ground up. It helps teams improve the CRM data that fuels productive outbound, including ICP, personas, trigger events, messaging, and contact strategy.   Watch the episode on YouTube. Download the outbound efficiency playbook for more advice from John Barrows and B2B sales experts: https://bit.ly/4v66X56    Start a free trial of Insightly CRM: https://www.insightly.com/14-day-trial/ Want expert advice delivered monthly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Closing Time newsletter to never miss an episode: https://bit.ly/3C5aZUw   Connect With:  • John Barrows: John's Website // LinkedIn • Val Riley: LinkedIn  • Insightly's Website // Unbounce's Website    

If your LinkedIn leads are getting more expensive, the problem isn't always your budget—it's your ad strategy. In this episode of Closing Time, Val Riley sits down with B2B growth expert Philip Ilic to unpack one of the biggest questions facing marketers today: how to evaluate the true ROI of LinkedIn ads. Learn why cost per lead is often misleading, how top teams prioritize pipeline generation and lead quality, and what actually drives revenue from LinkedIn. Philip breaks down how to use LinkedIn as a content distribution engine, why thought leader ads outperform traditional formats, and how to connect paid, organic, and outbound to turn engagement into real pipeline.   Watch the episode on YouTube.   Want expert advice delivered monthly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Closing Time newsletter to never miss an episode: https://bit.ly/3C5aZUw Explore Unbounce go-to-market solutions: https://unbounce.com/go-to-market-solutions/   Connect With:  • Philip Ilic: Kiin - LinkedIn ads agency // LinkedIn • Val Riley: LinkedIn  • Insightly's Website // Unbounce's Website

Companies are rushing to adopt AI in their sales process, but very few are prepared for what it takes to implement it successfully. In this episode of Closing Time, Val Riley sits down with Deepak Shukla, Founder of LemStudio and AI automation expert, to talk about what actually needs to happen before you start implementing AI. They get into how teams are using AI today—handling inbound lead qualification, drafting emails, booking meetings, and prepping for calls—and why those use cases often fall short without a documented playbooks (rules, workflows, and edge cases) that train your LLM.   Deepak shares his process for rolling out and monitoring AI implementation, where automation is delivering real value, and where AI still needs a human in the loop. If you're thinking about introducing AI into your sales workflow, this episode will give you a grounded look at what works, what doesn't, and how to approach it confidently. Watch the episode on YouTube.   Want expert advice delivered monthly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Closing Time newsletter to never miss an episode: https://bit.ly/3C5aZUw   Connect With:  • Deepak Shukla: // LemStudio // Website // LinkedIn • Val Riley: LinkedIn  • Insightly's Website // Unbounce's Website 

Founder-led sales is one of the most important skills a startup founder can develop. Before you hire sales reps, build a revenue team, or create a formal sales process, founders are usually the ones closing the first deals and learning what customers actually want. In this episode of Closing Time, Val Riley sits down with entrepreneur and Harvard Business School sales lecturer Lou Shipley, author of Unlikely Entrepreneurs, to break down the three stages of founder-led sales and how founders can transition from personally winning early customers to building a scalable sales organization. You'll learn why founders should close their first 15–20 customers, how to avoid common mistakes when hiring your first salesperson, and what changes when your startup begins scaling a sales team.   Watch the episode on YouTube.   Want expert advice delivered monthly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Closing Time newsletter to never miss an episode: https://bit.ly/3C5aZUw   Connect With:  • Lou Shipley: Lou's Unlikely Entrepreneur book // LinkedIn • Val Riley: LinkedIn  • Insightly's Website // Unbounce's Website 

If your CPL is climbing, the fix probably isn't more budget or more campaigns—it's better destination pages.  In this episode, you'll learn the B2B landing page strategy every paid media team needs to turn clicks into qualified pipeline instead of wasted traffic. Val Riley sits down with B2B landing page expert Tas Bober, Founder of The Scroll Lab, to break down her "Core Four" framework designed to support how modern B2B buyers actually make decisions. Discover why buyers rarely convert in a single step, how sending paid traffic to a homepage kills momentum, and why managing dozens of hyper-specific landing pages drains resources without improving results. Tas explains how to earn the conversion with clarity and credibility first, then guide buyers toward the right next step—whether that's exploring use cases, evaluating comparisons, reviewing pricing, or booking a demo. Watch the episode on YouTube. Download Tas' Core Four toolkit: https://bit.ly/4s6UfRo Want expert advice delivered monthly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Closing Time newsletter to never miss an episode: https://bit.ly/3C5aZUw   Connect With:  • Tas Bober: LinkedIn // The Scroll Lab • Val Riley: LinkedIn  • Insightly's Website // Unbounce's Website

Scaling a digital agency isn't just about winning more clients. It's about building systems that help existing clients perform better—faster, more consistently, and without constant friction. That's the approach Found Search Marketing has taken as it's grown into a fast-moving agency managing hundreds of landing pages and significant media spend across competitive industries like higher education and healthcare. At the center of that system is Unbounce. In this Customer Spotlight episode of Closing Time, Caroline Stoner, Director of User Experience at Found Search Marketing, shares the agency growth blueprint her team uses to scale impact through a high-velocity landing page strategy, experimentation at scale, and conversion rate optimization (CRO) that drives real performance gains. Caroline breaks down how Found Search Marketing operationalizes A/B testing across hundreds of landing pages, supports complex qualification flows without slowing conversions, and removes development bottlenecks so teams can move faster and deliver better results for clients.   Watch the episode on YouTube.   Try Unbounce for free (no credit card required): https://bit.ly/46dwxej   Connect With:  • Found Search Marketing: LinkedIn // Website • Insightly's Website // Unbounce's Website 

Is 2026 your year for a career change into sales? And what if that next chapter offers more flexibility, income potential, and ownership over your future? In this episode of Closing Time, we explore why sales is emerging as a powerful option for career reinvention—especially for women considering a midlife career change or looking for a more autonomous, growth-oriented path. Val is joined by reinvention coach Katia Vlachos, author of Uncaged, to unpack what really drives a career pivot, the benefits of changing direction, and the internal barriers—like fear, identity, and confidence—that often hold people back. Watch the episode on YouTube.   Want expert advice delivered monthly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Closing Time newsletter to never miss an episode: https://bit.ly/3C5aZUw Explore Unbounce go-to-market solutions: https://unbounce.com/go-to-market-solutions/   Connect With:  • Katia Vlachos: Website // LinkedIn • Val Riley: LinkedIn  • Insightly's Website // Unbounce's Website // LeadsRx's Website