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Dan Jiao
GTM Strategy & Operations Leader
Professional Background
Dan Jiao is an accomplished data-driven Go-To-Market (GTM) leader with a robust track record in various domains, including Revenue Operations, Enterprise Sales, Business Strategy, and People Management. With a few years of experience at the forefront of rapid industrial changes and market dynamics, Dan has consistently delivered exceptional results by solving complex business challenges and building high-performing teams.
With a tenure of more than four years at Ekata, which has gained a significant reputation after its acquisition by Mastercard in 2021, Dan was instrumental in expanding the company's reach into new regions, particularly in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), as well as the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, and various verticals such as Payments and Financial Services. His approach centers on data-driven decision-making and strategic planning to achieve revenue growth and sustained market presence.
Currently, Dan serves as the leader of Signifyd's Revenue Operations team. In this pivotal role, he is dedicated to scaling the company's GTM engine, ensuring that the firm remains competitive while fostering growth through innovative revenue strategies.
Education and Achievements
Dan holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Chemical Engineering from the esteemed University of California, Berkeley, where he honed his analytical and problem-solving skills. Additionally, Dan has accumulated extensive experience in various high-impact roles within different organizations that have helped shape his expertise in GTM strategies and revenue operations.
His career trajectory has been defined by a series of leadership positions and progressively responsible roles. At Signifyd, Dan not only held the title of Senior Director, Revenue Operations but also contributed significantly as the Senior Director of Sales Strategy & Operations, empowering the sales force with insights and enabling them to achieve specific business objectives effectively.
Prior to his time at Signifyd, Dan held multiple positions at Ekata, culminating in his role as Senior Director, Global Sales Strategy & Excellence. His roles within Ekata were characterized by a strong emphasis on strategic sales initiatives, building reliable sales processes, and fostering interdepartmental collaboration to drive growth and support a dynamic sales environment.
Notable Skills and Experience
Dan's impressive skill set includes a wealth of experience and proficiency in the following areas:
- Revenue Operations: Dan excels in a variety of revenue operations activities, including campaign performance tracking, attribution models, ideal customer profile (ICP) definition, sales territory design, and account prioritization frameworks. His expertise extends to negotiation, deal desk management, sales forecasting methodologies, and creating effective onboarding and enablement strategies for sales teams.
- People Management and Leadership: He is well-versed in the art of leading teams and maximizing performance through effective coaching, mentoring, and providing constructive feedback. Dan is adept at managing individual growth through structured career development plans and utilizing frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to drive team performance.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: With a strong ability to work collaboratively across various functions, Dan has successfully led projects that required input from diverse teams, including marketing, business development, and customer success. His experience showcases the importance of cohesive teamwork and leveraging different perspectives to achieve common goals.
- Business Strategy: Dan has a keen eye for business opportunity identification and market validation. He specializes in devising and executing go-to-market plans that cater to diverse regional and vertical markets and scaling best practices across organizational functions to maximize efficiency.
- Enterprise Sales: His background in enterprise sales has equipped him with extensive knowledge of account planning, outbound prospecting, opportunity qualification, and relationship management. Dan is skilled in negotiating high-stakes contracts and aligning solutions to meet client needs effectively.
- Thought Leadership: As a thought leader in his domain, Dan actively shares his insights through presentations, seminars, and webinars. He takes pride in moderating discussion panels, hosting networking events, and contributing articles or blog posts to help educate others and share industry best practices.
Achievements
Dan Jiao's career is filled with significant achievements that underline his capabilities as a GTM leader.
He has successfully driven revenue growth in multiple continents while at Ekata and played a pivotal role in the company's strategic alignment post-acquisition by Mastercard. His ability to establish processes that enhance sales effectiveness allowed Ekata to strengthen its foothold in new markets effectively. Dan's leadership and vision in Revenue Operations help ensure that companies not only achieve their growth targets but also build sustainable operations that can adapt to evolving market needs.
In his current role at Signifyd, Dan is focused on maximizing the revenue potential of the firm by scaling its operations. His efforts are instrumental in creating a dynamic GTM engine that positions the organization for future success in an ever-changing business landscape.
As an engaging speaker and thought leader, Dan continues to contribute to the field by sharing best practices and insights, enhancing industry knowledge, and facilitating learning through various platforms, showcasing his passion for collaboration and collective growth.
Dan Jiao's career exemplifies not only a commitment to excellence in revenue operations and sales strategy but also an unwavering focus on cultivating talent and driving organizational success. His blend of analytical acumen, leadership skills, and dedication to problem-solving makes him a respected figure in the GTM landscape, and he is poised to inspire others as he continues his professional journey.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
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Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
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Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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