Nicolas Vandenberghe

CEO at Chili Piper (sales tech pioneer) & GipsyTime (best productivity app)

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

Quick question, Nicolas
Nicolas, thoughts?
Question for you

To all SDRs, I have a quick message.

At Chili Piper we spend a lot of time optimizing our Sales Development efforts - getting more opened, more replied, more meetings booked.

It's hard.

But w…https://t.co/Af20p3PPAf

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

I have a competition with @alinutzav for who will show up on stage at #saasopen with @NathanLatka with the weirdest pants.
Hers are missing a leg, mine are backwards.
What do you think ? https://t.co/d7QhS1YxMX

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

My wife @alinutzav sometimes bemoans that I only love her as an object.

Today is her birthday and I have a confession to make:
it’s true.

But not the object you’re thinking of.

More like a software engineering object, like a Java object.

One that i…https://t.co/s9CxKkqVlQ

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

"If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective."

Happy MLK day to all our pipers in 42 countries

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

Buyers buy on emotions, not on reason

That's one of the most common beliefs among sales people.
But is it true?

First there's an obvious question: what are emotions and what is reason?

The answers are not as simple as you would expect.

In the her se…https://t.co/oOYLaQ2SHw

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

Amazing what TEAM SPIRIT can do!

24/100 https://t.co/7wMqrj9PgK

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

France won the Wold Cup in 1998 and 2018. The winning teams have something VERY SURPRISING in common.

At both times, the - arguably - best forward player in the world was French: Eric Cantona in 1998 and Karim Benzema in 2018.

Yet both times the coaches…https://t.co/ADPlBm3Fgi

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

The US soccer team just defeated the Iranian team 1-0.
I think it's the first time I hear about people celebrating the loss of their own national team.

As the WSJ explained, "Tehran has already co-opted the team's efforts in Qatar as a tool for propagan…https://t.co/8JlErCnpHq

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

“We’re not a family, we’re a high performance team. 
Families don’t part ways with their uncle for missing a target”.

That’s what I used to repeat every Friday at our All Hands.

I was mistaken.

Yes, Chili Piper is a business, and operates under busine…https://t.co/YsAI7O7FoS

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

Last week we announced some layoffs, the week before we posted about our amazing annual company trip in Morocco. This generated a many comments, mostly negative and judgmental, so I thought it may be helpful to provide additional background info.

People…https://t.co/JTz6GCNVW9

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

As layoff announcements are all over LinkedIn, there's a lot of anger running around. Sometime it turns into plain attacks against CEOs, like
"I'm a bit pissed off. Not just about the hollow and often completely tone-deaf apologies from CEOs, but by the f…https://t.co/MdR5WsJVEK

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

Today at Chili Piper we had to eliminate 58 positions our of 250.
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE 58 PIPERS AFFECTED WAS A STRONG PERFORMER

That may seem surprising.
But over the summer we had already guided out employees whom we could not help reach our sta…https://t.co/3FYRgnYEfX

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

I’m sharing for the first time our new sales training video at Chili Piper

Demo-ing the solution of a simple use case can get repetitive at times, so our senior trainer Enzo shows how to do it with style and enthusiasm

17/100 https://t.co/VQSDfKpIGW

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

Today's election results are a massive and unique cause for celebration.

Not because the Democrats won the Senate or the Republicans are winning the House.
In normal times there are merits to both sides of the spectrum; election results may bring some j…https://t.co/5U5dn7rHIZ

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

The whole world of crypto currencies is a giant Ponzi scheme.

And to make things worse it consumes massive amounts of electrical power at a time when we need it most.

I have no schadenfreude in seeing FTX collapse, but I do hope it's just the beginning…https://t.co/KTcot3lssP

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

210 years ago, Tolstoy wrote at the end of his masterpiece War & Peace:
"Military science says that the more troops the greater the strength.
...[But] in military affairs the strength of an army is the product of its mass and some unknown x.
...That un…https://t.co/35qq9jAX2n

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

14/100 In the desert when it’s time to let go https://t.co/mnmzS1P8qy

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

13/100 Just a little sample of the amazing Moroccan cuisine before I start talking about the lessons of our trip there https://t.co/NIG4eQypMa

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

12/100 for our last night in Morocco our amazing team booked a rooftop overlooking the old city of Essaouira ne set it up to our brand colors.
At the very end we had a special performance of Soukaina Fahsi, a local artist with a stunning voice - here are…https://t.co/14xUhXImPf

[Nicolas Vandenberghe @NicolasVDB]

11/100 for our last night in the Moroccan desert we decided to party all night until our 5am drive towards Essaouira, on a stage especially made for Chili Piper in the dunes. https://t.co/V0qXAQfrYP