Sales & GTM Leadership

Building the systems that make revenue predictable.

15+ years scaling SDR, acquisition, expansion, and account management organizations, building the management layer that turns revenue volatility into consistent quarterly delivery.

Career experience

GoogleMarketStarMotivePodium
Portrait of Fredrik Romar
Layton, UT

Career impact at a glance

170+

AEs & AMs led

Third-line leadership over a distributed account org

$100M+

Revenue segment

Annualized advertising revenue owned as a third-line leader

76→102%

Retail bookings attainment

Retail SDR turnaround in 12 months at Podium

2.3×

Response-time SLA

Inbound SLA improvement in 60 days

Who I Am

A senior operator who thinks in systems first.

I've built my career at the intersection of people leadership, sales systems, and operational discipline. Whether scaling an expansion org from the ground up or turning around an underperforming SDR team, I approach revenue problems the same way: fix the system, then scale what works.

My experience spans vendor-managed and in-house GTM models at Google, MarketStar (Pinterest vendor program), Motive, and Podium, giving me fluency across SDR, expansion, and account management organizations.

Explore my experience

SDR Turnarounds

Rebuilt Podium's Retail SDR org from 76% to 102% attainment in 12 months.

Hypergrowth Scaling

Scaled Motive's outbound expansion org from 10 to 103 AEs and 1 to 13 managers, with 102% attainment across the full inbound and outbound team.

Vendor GTM & Acquisition

Led a 170+ person AE/AM org driving new advertiser acquisition and expansion as a third-line leader on the Pinterest vendor program.

Revenue Operations

Lead routing, SLA infrastructure, handoff quality standards, and reporting frameworks.

Agentic AI for GTM

Designing multi-agent systems that automate research, scoring, and outreach in the pipeline.

AI Advisory

AI can handle the work that's slowing your business down.

I work with small business owners to identify where AI tooling fits in their operations, which tools are worth the time, and how to implement without a six-month project.

The same operational thinking I apply to enterprise GTM applies here. Most businesses have three to five processes where AI can meaningfully reduce time and cost. I help you find them.

Learn about AI Advisory

Process Audit

Map your operations and find the highest-ROI places to apply AI tooling.

Tool Selection

Cut through a noisy market and match tooling to your actual situation, not a vendor pitch.

Implementation Support

Stay involved through setup until the time savings are real and the team is using it.

Available Now

Currently exploring senior GTM roles, from IC to VP.

If you're building or scaling a revenue organization and need an operator who can work at the system level, I'd like to hear about it — the title matters less than the mandate.

Get in touch → View LinkedIn
Career

Leadership Experience

Fifteen years across four organizations, building pipeline systems, scaling distributed teams, and designing the operational infrastructure that turns revenue aspirations into quarterly delivery.

Google

Digital Advertising & Sales Leadership

Dublin & Tempe, AZ • 10 years

Enterprise GTMDigital AdvertisingProduct Launch

"Ten years across four roles, from closing new business to launching a product line and scaling the team behind it."

I spent 10 years at Google across four roles, starting in new business acquisition on Google Ads in Dublin, where highlights included hitting 164% and 153% of quota in separate quarters, and earning the NACE Impact Award for that performance. From there I moved into Large Customer Sales, managing financial services accounts in South Africa and running quarterly business reviews with C-level stakeholders.

I later moved to Tempe to lead Sales Operations for the US agency channel, aligning shared pipelines and forecasting standards between agency partners and Google's internal sales teams. My final role was Sales Manager for Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs, where I led the go-to-market launch of Local Services Ads: building the quota model, scaling the team from 30 to 75 reps and management from 3 to 9, and exceeding annual targets three years running (115%, 126%, 110%).

Across all four roles, the common thread was operating inside a GTM environment where process discipline and data rigor weren't optional. That standard shaped how I've built every team since.

Key highlights

164% and 153% of quota in new business acquisition, earning the NACE Impact Award

Led go-to-market launch of Local Services Ads, scaling the team from 30 to 75 reps

Exceeded annual quota three consecutive years: 115%, 126%, 110%

MarketStar

Director of Sales, Strategic Accounts

Ogden, UT • Pinterest vendor program

Vendor GTMNew Advertiser AcquisitionPinterest

"Owned full revenue accountability for a $100M+ segment as a third-line leader over 170+ AEs and AMs."

MarketStar runs Pinterest's SMB and mid-market advertising segment as a managed vendor program. I came in as a third-line leader, directing second-line managers and a distributed organization of 170+ Account Executives and Account Managers, with full revenue accountability for a $100M+ annualized segment.

The mandate covered both sides of the funnel: driving new advertiser acquisition to bring fresh accounts into the segment, and account expansion to grow what was already there. I aligned sales coverage, performance standards, and revenue targets to segment priorities so both motions were pulling in the same direction rather than competing for the same rep hours.

Within three months I expanded the team by 25% while integrating the Canadian and US organizations without disrupting delivery. I established tier-based KPIs and a weekly business review cadence that gave Pinterest stakeholders consistent visibility into performance, and I served as the primary point of contact for SLAs, escalations, and executive reviews.

Key highlights

Owned $100M+ in annualized revenue as a third-line leader over 170+ AEs and AMs

Drove new advertiser acquisition and account expansion across the segment

Expanded the team 25% in three months while integrating US and Canadian teams

Motive

Senior Manager, Expansion Sales

Remote, US

10→103 AEs102% Attainment

"Scaled the outbound expansion org from 10 to 103 AEs and 1 to 13 managers, while the full expansion team held 102% average attainment."

At Motive, I directed the expansion sales teams covering the company's largest North American customer segment, overseeing second-line and frontline managers across both inbound and outbound. The outbound side was pure hypergrowth: building an organization from close to scratch rather than fixing an existing one, while inbound expansion ran as a steady, established motion alongside it.

Over the course of the role, I scaled the outbound expansion organization from 10 AEs to 103, and from 1 frontline manager to 13, building the capacity models and operating infrastructure needed to support that pace of growth. I introduced a multi-tier customer segmentation model to align headcount, SLAs, and KPIs by account tier, and I owned weekly revenue forecasting up to the CRO.

I also led go-to-market for Motive's payments and FinTech solution, Motive Card, helping expansion teams displace legacy providers within existing accounts. Across both inbound and outbound, the expansion org held 102% average attainment, which is the number I'm proudest of given the scale of the outbound buildout.

Key highlights

Scaled the expansion org from 10 to 103 AEs and 1 to 13 managers

Maintained 102% average attainment across inbound and outbound throughout the buildout

Led go-to-market for Motive Card, Motive's payments and FinTech product

Podium

Director, Sales Development

Lehi, UT • US & Pakistan

Retail: 76→102%2.3× SLA

"Rebuilt Retail SDR sourced bookings attainment from 76% to 102% in 12 months, then cut response-time SLA by more than half."

At Podium, I led a multi-segment SDR organization across the US and Pakistan, with four frontline managers and a $1.3M monthly pipeline target. Within that org, the Retail segment's sourced bookings attainment was sitting at 76%, and there wasn't a shared standard for territory pairings or pipeline quality there.

I actively managed SDR-AE territory pairings, splitting and merging territories as needed, coached managers directly, and used Gong insights and Salesforce dashboards to get real visibility into what was and wasn't working at the rep level. I also mapped the inbound journey end to end and rebuilt routing, SLA accountability, and handoff standards between SDRs and AEs.

Over 12 months, the Retail segment's sourced bookings attainment moved from 76% to 102%, and the broader inbound rebuild delivered a 2.3× improvement in response-time SLA within 60 days. Neither came from adding headcount. Both came from fixing how the team planned, coached, and handed off pipeline.

Key highlights

Rebuilt the Retail SDR org's sourced bookings attainment from 76% to 102% in 12 months

Delivered a 2.3× improvement in response-time SLA within 60 days

Led a US and Pakistan-based team across four frontline managers

Thinking in Practice

GTM Case Studies

Three examples of how I frame complex revenue challenges, design operational interventions, and measure outcomes. Each case reflects a real pattern I've solved across multiple organizations.

01
Pipeline Performance

Scaling SaaS SDR Pipeline from Inconsistent to Predictable

The Problem

Podium's Retail SDR team was stuck at 76% of its sourced bookings target, with inconsistent management of territory pairings, and no shared standard for pipeline management across the SDR and AE orgs. Leadership had no reliable basis for forecasting.

Actions Taken

Managed SDR-AE territory pairings, splitting and merging territories as needed

Used Gong insights and data analytics to coach managers on rep-level performance gaps

Built Salesforce dashboards and KPI reporting to track pipeline health and conversion

Implemented standardized performance reviews and weekly revenue governance

Outcome

Sourced bookings attainment improved from 76% to 102% within 12 months. Forecast accuracy and pipeline health improved across the Retail SDR org, giving leadership a reliable planning foundation for the first time.

Metrics

· 76% → 102% attainment

· 12 months to full impact

· 4 frontline managers

· No additional headcount

02
Operational Redesign

Rebuilding Inbound Sales Operations for Speed and Quality

The Problem

Inbound demand was converting well below benchmark. Response SLAs were consistently missed, lead routing was inconsistent, and reps were unevenly loaded, creating friction between the SDR and AE teams over handoff quality.

Actions Taken

Mapped the complete inbound journey from form fill to AE conversation

Redesigned lead routing rules and tooling for consistency and speed

Rebalanced rep workload distribution using data-driven prioritization

Established handoff quality standards between SDRs and AEs

Outcome

Inbound response SLA improved 2.3× within 60 days. Inbound pipeline conversion rates improved, and shared handoff standards reduced friction between SDR and AE teams.

Metrics

· 2.3× SLA improvement

· 60 days to full impact

· Inbound conversion uplift

· No additional headcount

03
Vendor Strategy

Testing Vendor vs. In-House for the Largest Segment on the Team

The Problem

Motive's largest Spanish-speaking customer segment was serviced through an external vendor. Leadership needed to know whether that vendor relationship was still the right model, or whether bringing the segment in-house would perform better and cost less.

Actions Taken

Designed a segmentation model to isolate the segment for a clean vendor vs. in-house comparison

Ran the segment in-house on a trial basis, serviced in English, alongside the existing vendor model

Tracked cost efficiency and performance side by side across both models

Partnered with vendor and internal stakeholders to run the test without disrupting service

Outcome

Bringing the segment in-house proved more cost-efficient and delivered better performance than the vendor model, giving leadership a clear, tested basis for the decision instead of a guess.

Metrics

· Improved cost efficiency (OPEX)

· Improved segment performance

· Direct vendor vs. in-house comparison

· Informed future segment strategy

How I Lead

Leadership Philosophy

These aren't mantras. They're operating beliefs shaped by fifteen years of watching what actually moves the revenue number, and what doesn't, regardless of how logical it sounds in a strategy deck.

01

Pipeline is a system, not an activity.

Activity metrics without systems thinking are vanity metrics. Real pipeline health is measured by quality, velocity, and stage conversion, not dials, emails, or sequences sent. I build organizations that instrument the system first, then optimize human inputs accordingly.

02

Managers define performance ceilings.

The single most important hire in any sales organization isn't a top rep. It's a great manager. Managers set the coaching quality, the accountability standard, and the cultural norms that determine how the full team performs at scale. I invest in the management layer before the IC layer.

03

Operational discipline creates predictable revenue.

Randomness in revenue is almost always a process problem dressed as a talent problem. When I encounter high variance in rep performance or pipeline quality, I examine the operating system before making personnel decisions. Predictability is designed, not hired.

04

AI will redefine, not eliminate, sales development.

The SDR role is being redefined by AI tooling that absorbs low-signal work: research, first-pass personalization, scheduling, and intent scoring. The human value concentrates on relationship judgment and multi-stakeholder orchestration. Leaders who build AI-native workflows now hold a durable competitive advantage.

Beyond Operating Roles

Board & Advisory

Operator experience shapes how I think about execution. Board participation shapes how I think about the business, evaluating decisions at the company level without the pressure of daily operational demands.

Board MemberTechnology Company

Webropol

B2B Survey & Feedback Management Technology

Webropol is a B2B technology company specializing in survey, feedback, and data collection solutions. As a board member, I contribute strategic perspective at the intersection of GTM execution, revenue model design, and organizational scaling.

My role on the board centers on three areas: evaluating how the company's GTM approach is positioned relative to market opportunity, stress-testing revenue model assumptions with the credibility of someone who has operated inside the metrics, and contributing organizational judgment on team structure and leadership capability.

Board participation has sharpened my ability to evaluate business decisions at the company level, assessing investments, market positioning, and leadership effectiveness from a governance and long-term value creation lens rather than solely an operational one.

Board contributions

GTM Strategy

Evaluating go-to-market positioning and sales org design against revenue targets.

Revenue Model

Stress-testing pipeline assumptions and bookings forecasts with operator credibility.

Org Design

Contributing judgment on team structure, management depth, and leadership hiring.

Market Positioning

Advising on ICP refinement and competitive differentiation strategy.

Advisory Board MemberCoaching & Leadership Development

Uuni

Founder Support & GTM Strategy

Uuni is a coaching and leadership development company. As an advisory board member, I support the founding team on their go-to-market framework and service offering design.

Advisory focus

Service Offering Design

Helping shape the coaching programs and services the team brings to market.

GTM Framework Design

Helping build the go-to-market structures the team hasn't needed yet.

Why Board Experience Matters for Operators

Two altitudes. One perspective.

Operator experience alone produces leaders who are excellent at execution but sometimes blind to strategic tradeoffs. The pressure of quarterly targets can narrow the aperture on decisions that compound over years.

Board participation forces a different analytical frame: evaluating organizational capability, market timing, and capital allocation without the week-to-week pressure of delivery. It surfaces questions that operational leaders rarely have time to ask.

I bring both views to every senior leadership role: the operator's precision on execution and the board member's clarity on whether the execution is pointed at the right problem.

For Small Business Owners

AI can handle the work that's holding your business back.

Most small business owners are spending 10 or more hours every week on repetitive work that AI can handle. I help you figure out exactly where it fits, which tools are worth your time, and how to put it into practice without a six-month project.

Start with a conversation
The Premise

The same problems that slow down enterprise teams slow down small businesses.

I've spent 15 years building operational systems at scale, finding where time is lost, where manual process creates bottlenecks, and where the right tooling removes both. Small businesses deal with the same underlying problems. The scale is different, but the logic is identical.

AI tooling has genuinely changed what's possible for businesses without engineering teams or implementation budgets. But most of the conversation about AI is aimed at enterprises. Small business owners are left with a tool market that's crowded, often oversold, and hard to evaluate without a technical background. I help cut through that.

What I bring to this

15 years of operational systems thinking applied to process problems

Hands-on experience building AI-enabled workflows, not just reading about them

No vendor relationships or software commissions. The right tool for your situation is the only outcome I care about.

Plain-language communication throughout. No jargon, no unnecessarily technical recommendations.

What I Offer

Three things I help small businesses do.

01

Process Audit

We map out how your business actually runs today. Where does time go? Which tasks are manual? Which workflows depend on someone being in the right place at the right time to move forward?

Most businesses have three to five processes where AI can meaningfully reduce time and cost without adding risk. I help you find them, prioritize by impact, and ignore the rest. This alone is usually worth the conversation.

02

Tool Selection

The AI tool market is crowded and frequently oversold. Vendors are good at making everything sound essential. Most of it isn't relevant to your specific situation.

I match tooling to your actual needs, not a generic use case. That means recommending tools that fit your team's technical comfort level, your existing software stack, and your budget. And it means being direct about what won't work for you, even if it works well in general.

03

Implementation Support

The gap between "we bought a tool" and "we actually use it and it saves us time" is where most AI projects stall. I stay involved through setup and early adoption, not just through the kickoff call.

The goal is concrete: your team is using the tools, the time savings are real, and you have enough confidence in what you've built to continue expanding it independently.

Is this a fit?

This is a fit if you are...

Spending 10+ hours a week on admin, reporting, scheduling, or customer communication that follows a predictable pattern

Running a small team where every hour counts and manual processes compound into meaningful lost capacity

Running operations that depend heavily on spreadsheets, email chains, or manual handoffs between steps

Curious about AI but unsure where to start, what's worth the investment, and what's just marketing noise

Willing to invest time in implementation, not just purchasing, because you understand tools don't run themselves

This probably isn't a fit if you are...

Looking for a magic fix that doesn't require process change or internal ownership from your team

Expecting fully automated solutions with no human judgment involved in setup or ongoing management

In a business where core processes change significantly every few months, making systematic AI integration hard to maintain

Primarily looking for custom software development or technical builds rather than advisory and implementation support

The Process

Simple by design.

01

Start with a conversation

45 minutes. No pitch, no commitment. I want to understand how your business actually operates, what's taking up your team's time, and whether there's a genuine fit here before suggesting anything.

02

Receive a clear assessment

A plain-language view of where AI fits in your operation, what's worth automating, and what isn't. Specific tool recommendations with rationale. No jargon, no generic frameworks. Something you can act on.

03

Build it together

I stay involved through setup and early adoption. The engagement ends when the tools are working, the time savings are measurable, and your team can continue independently. Not before.

Ready to Talk

Start with a conversation. No pitch, no commitment.

If you're spending hours every week on work that shouldn't require your time, it's worth 45 minutes to find out whether AI can change that. The first conversation costs nothing and comes with no obligation.

Thought Leadership

Insights

Short-form perspectives on the GTM questions I'm most frequently asked about, written for revenue leaders thinking seriously about pipeline, operations, and the future of sales development.

AI & Sales Development

How AI Will Change SDR Leadership

"The coming transformation isn't AI replacing SDRs. That framing misses what's actually happening, and what leaders need to do now."

The question that's most frequently on my mind about AI in sales development is whether it will eliminate the SDR role. The framing is understandable but misses the more interesting and more urgent question: what does the SDR role become when AI absorbs the parts that don't require human judgment?

AI is currently absorbing frequently repeated work: initial prospect research, first-pass personalization at scale, scheduling coordination, intent signal surfacing, and lead scoring refinement. These tasks are time-consuming, repeatable, and don't require relationship intelligence.

What remains is genuinely human work: reading buying signals in live conversation, navigating organizational politics within a prospect account, building credible trust with skeptical buyers, and orchestrating multi-stakeholder consensus. These capabilities can be augmented by AI context, but they cannot be replaced by AI execution.

For leaders, the implication is directional: redesign roles around the work that remains. Organizations that make this transition deliberately will field reps who are faster, better-informed, and focused on the work that genuinely moves revenue.

Operations

Why Pipeline Inspection Matters More Than Pipeline Volume

There's a pervasive measurement problem in sales development: organizations are significantly better at generating pipeline than they are at understanding it. They can tell you how much pipeline exists. Most cannot tell you, with genuine confidence, what share of it will close, at what velocity, and where the highest conversion risk is concentrated.

Pipeline inspection is the practice of maintaining that understanding continuously, not as a forecasting exercise at quarter-end, but as a weekly operational discipline. Done well, it functions as an early warning system. When managers are genuinely close to their reps' pipelines, they surface coaching opportunities before deals slip, not after.

The ROI of inspection discipline is not primarily forecast accuracy, though that improves. It's the deals that don't slip because someone looked closely enough to intervene early. Implementing genuine inspection requires two things most organizations underinvest in: manager capability and data infrastructure that surfaces quality metrics, not just quantity.

GTM Strategy

Vendor vs. In-House Sales Organizations: A Framework

The question of whether to run an outsourced vendor GTM model or build in-house capability is one of the most consequential and most poorly framed decisions in sales organization design. It's typically presented as a binary choice. In practice, it's a spectrum.

Vendor models offer clear advantages in specific contexts: geographic expansion, early-stage market development where speed matters, and high-volume transactional segments. In-house models offer tighter culture alignment, deeper institutional knowledge, and stronger performance over multi-year horizons when built with sufficient management depth.

The failure mode I've observed most consistently is not choosing the wrong model. It's choosing either model and underfunding the governance required to make it work. My framework: before choosing a model, assess your willingness and capacity to actually govern it. The model you can operate with discipline will outperform the theoretically superior model you cannot.

Let's Connect

Currently exploring senior GTM roles, from IC to VP.

If you're building or scaling a revenue organization and need a senior operator who works at the system level, let's talk — the title matters less than the mandate.

The best conversations start with a simple introduction.

I'm selective about the opportunities I pursue. I look for organizations where the GTM challenge is genuinely complex, the leadership team values operational rigor, and there's real scope to build something durable.

If that resonates with what you're building, email is the best way to reach me. I respond to every message from people who are serious about the conversation.

What I'm looking for

Senior GTM roles, from IC to VP, built around real ownership

Genuine organizational scale, ideally 50+ person revenue orgs

Complex pipeline challenges that require systems thinking

Leadership team that values operational depth over activity theater

Room to build, not just maintain what already exists

Email

Best for introductions, role inquiries, and first conversations.

fredrik@fredrikromar.com →

LinkedIn

Connect for networking, advisory inquiries, or to follow ongoing perspectives.

linkedin.com/in/fredrik-romar →

Resume

Download the full resume for a structured overview of roles and results.

Download Resume (PDF)

I respond to all genuine inquiries within 48 hours.