Guest
Sushmita Patra,
Head of Inside Sales & Growth Marketing Leader, Altudo
"Revenue Architect Podcast"
Episode 2
Revenue Architect is the podcast for revenue leaders navigating the evolving landscape of sales, RevOps, and revenue management. Each episode features practical strategies, proven frameworks, and real stories from operators who are building and scaling modern revenue engines. Focused on execution and real business impact, the show explores how companies are moving beyond CPQ to holistic revenue management and what that means for deal velocity, forecasting, and margin control.
In this episode, Sushmita shares her hard-earned insights on scaling inside sales at Altudo—from being a solo SDR to leading a 23-member team. This episode is packed with real, practical frameworks for revenue leaders.
Key takeaways:
- How to implement a three-tier forecasting model (Hopeful, Commit, Upside) that aligns with long sales cycles.
- Why defining clear sales stages is key to tracking deal momentum and spotting pipeline gaps.
- The shift from cold outreach to value-led workshops that build trust and accelerate conversion.
- How to use AI tools like ChatGPT to improve SDR autonomy and campaign speed.
- A mentorship-led team structure that scaled onboarding, performance, and retention.
- Why emotional intelligence and people-first leadership are critical for building resilient sales orgs.
Tune in for actionable insights from a revenue leader on building forecasting discipline, sales trust, and scalable growth
Forecasting, Focus, and Flow: Building Sales Systems That Actually Scale
What does it really take to make revenue predictable in a world where sales cycles stretch for months, deals stall in the pipeline, and teams are drowning in tools but starving for clarity?
These questions are at the heart of our latest podcast conversation with Sushmita Patra, Head of Inside Sales & Growth Marketing Leader, Altudo. She has scaled inside sales from a single SDR to a 23-member team, while doubling revenue in the process. This is a playbook about refining forecasting, empowering people, and staying grounded in execution.
If you missed the episode (or just want the actionable insights), this blog is for you.
From Gut Feel to Precision Forecasting
Most teams struggle with forecasting because it’s based on loose definitions and even looser accountability. But not here.
This leader rebuilt the entire forecasting motion around a three-bucket model:
- Hopeful: Early signals of interest, but low probability
- Commit: Deals with aligned stakeholders and clear intent
- Upside: Near-close deals with a few final steps remaining
Each opportunity flows through defined sales stages:
Target → Qualification → Presentation → Proposal → SW → Closed
Weekly pipeline reviews shouldn’t be optional and should be used to solve problems, not just report them.
“We needed to forecast like we planned to win, not like we were hoping to.”
Sales Velocity Starts With Value, Not Volume
One of the biggest shifts? Abandoning traditional outbound in favor of value-first workshops.
Instead of cold-pitching or sending decks, SDRs invite prospects to no-pressure discovery sessions. These workshops focus on one thing: understanding the buyer’s world.
What’s not working?
Where are the gaps?
What do they wish their current systems could do?
The result? Trust. Real conversations. And qualified leads who come back when they’re ready to buy, because they remember who helped them think.
“Everybody wants to sell. Nobody wants to be sold. That shift in mindset changed everything.”
Real-Time Tools, Real-Time Execution
Forecasting discipline isn’t just a process—it’s a system.
The team customized their CRM so sales data updates automatically:
- Calendar invites sync to deal records
- Notes are logged post-call
- Every activity is traceable by stage
- And on top of that, AI is embedded in the workflow. SDRs use ChatGPT to:
- Draft outbound emails
- Research personas
- Generate value props
- Build campaign ideas on the fly
This reduces dependency and increases speed. SDRs don’t need to wait for direction—they’re trained to move.
“With AI, we stopped starting from scratch. We started scaling good ideas faster.”
Mentorship Over Micromanagement
How do you manage a fast-growing team of 20+ SDRs without losing your mind—or your team?
You don’t manage. You mentor.
Each senior SDR is paired with three juniors. It’s a model borrowed from engineering teams, where knowledge-sharing scales faster than top-down training ever could.
Juniors get better. Seniors grow as leaders. And the team culture becomes one of shared success.
Attrition? Almost zero.
“If people are happy, results follow. It’s not the other way around.”
Forecasting = Revenue Engine
What makes this system work is the philosophy behind it:
- Forecasting is continuous, not a quarter-end panic
- Stages are real, not just CRM placeholders
- Data is live, not updated the night before reviews
- AI is strategic, not gimmicky
- People are trusted, not micromanaged
And most importantly, forecasting is no longer a lonely exercise done by sales ops. It’s a team sport—played weekly.
Advice for Revenue Leaders
If you’re a revenue leader trying to make the next quarter more predictable than the last, here’s what this episode teaches you:
- Define your stages clearly and enforce them religiously
- Forecast in layers: hopeful, commit, upside
- Automate CRM hygiene so your team can focus on selling
- Use AI to enable—not replace—your reps
- Shift from selling to solving with workshops
- Grow your team with mentorship, not just metrics
- Lead with empathy, and performance will follow
Final Thoughts
Forecasting is often treated like a spreadsheet. But when it’s built into your systems, supported by real data, and driven by a team that trusts the process, it becomes your competitive edge.
Every quarter’s target matters, but the real win is designing a revenue engine that improves with every cycle.
And that starts with asking: What would your forecast look like if your team believed in it?
As the leading Salesforce AI consultancy, we help businesses bring structure to forecasting, unify sales operations, and scale revenue with confidence.
Partner with Bolt Today to eliminate blind spots, automate intelligently, and build systems that win—quarter after quarter.
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