In today’s rapidly evolving sales landscape, generating a consistent and predictable pipeline remains the biggest challenge for many businesses. Frank Sondors, CEO and co-founder of Salesforge, shares his deep expertise on how to tackle this problem head-on by rethinking the sales funnel - especially the critical top of funnel activities. Drawing from over a decade of experience in B2B sales and technology, Frank reveals scalable solutions that blend human effort with AI-driven automation, addressing the steep decline in email deliverability and pipeline generation efficiency. This article breaks down his philosophy, the challenges he’s identified, and the innovative software products his company has developed to fix broken sales funnels for good.
Frank’s journey is a compelling mix of personal sacrifice, relentless work ethic, and visionary entrepreneurship. A self-described workaholic, Frank balances the demands of building a company with fatherhood and marriage, acknowledging the tough choices involved in scaling a startup. He openly reflects on how his intense focus on business has impacted his family life, yet remains confident that the sacrifices made during this high-intensity season will pay off in the long run.
“If you divide your attention, you’re not fully focused.” — Frank Sondors
Frank’s background includes major roles at Google, SimilarWeb, and Black Crow, where he honed his skills in sales, data analysis, and machine learning. His experience as a VP of Sales, managing large teams and navigating legacy sales technology, led him to identify inefficiencies in pipeline generation—particularly the over-reliance on increasing headcount to hit targets. This frustration sparked the creation of Salesforge, a company dedicated to maximizing pipeline output with minimal headcount through smart technology.
Frank highlights that the sales funnel’s weakest link is often the top of funnel - the stage where opportunities are first generated. While the bottom of the funnel, where deals are closed, has many mature tools and processes, the top remains fragmented and inefficient. He explains that most sales reps spend their time on administrative tasks rather than prospecting, and that training new reps to build pipelines is costly and often ineffective due to high turnover. This creates a heavy reliance on hiring more bodies, which drives up customer acquisition costs and reduces margins.
“Training people just to build a pipeline is not efficient.” — Frank Sondors
Adding to the challenge is the steady decline in email deliverability, a crucial channel for outreach. Major email providers like Microsoft and Google have tightened restrictions, making it harder for sales emails to reach prospects’ primary inboxes. Sending too many emails from a company’s main domain increases the risk of spam reports and blacklisting, ultimately killing the effectiveness of email campaigns.
To solve these complex problems, Frank and his co-founders built not just one, but six interconnected software products designed to work as a seamless ecosystem. Their goal is to become the “Gong of the top of the funnel” - dominating pipeline generation as Gong does for deal closing analytics.
Agent Frank, the flagship product named after Frank himself, functions as an AI-powered Sales Development Representative (SDR). It operates within Salesforge, blending automation with human efforts to maximize outreach efficiency. This hybrid model allows companies to test and optimize whether AI agents or human reps perform better at opening doors, helping to reduce headcount without sacrificing pipeline volume.
This is the core platform where both AI agents and human reps manage outreach campaigns. It focuses heavily on email deliverability by adapting to the latest rules enforced by email providers, ensuring more emails land in the primary inbox rather than spam folders.
To protect a company’s primary domain reputation, Salesforge deploys secondary domains dedicated solely to outreach. These domains are “burned” after a few months of use to avoid blacklisting. This infrastructure dramatically reduces the risk of damaging the company’s main email domain due to spam complaints.
This product warms up new email domains, runs DNS and blacklist tests, and continuously monitors email placement to maintain high deliverability rates. It’s a critical piece of ensuring that outreach campaigns remain effective over time.
Leadsforge.ai addresses the data problem by acting as a chat-GPT-like interface connected to hundreds of lead databases worldwide. It streamlines lead discovery and programmatic lead qualification, enabling users - especially those less savvy in sales - to find accurate, high-quality leads and push them into their CRM or marketing platforms.
Frank emphasizes that having the right data and infrastructure is not enough without compelling messaging. Salesforge uses AI to craft personalized, relevant email copy based on two datasets: seller data (value proposition, company info) and biodata (public information about the prospect). Their system dynamically tailors messages to resonate with recipients, including language localization, which can dramatically improve reply rates.
Frank summarizes email success into four critical pillars:
Frank warns against aggressive email sequences, which increase spam rates, and stresses the importance of pacing and respecting the recipient’s inbox. He also points out that even with perfect execution, some campaigns may fail due to lack of product-market fit or saturated markets, underscoring the need for continual testing and adaptation.
Frank’s advice to sales leaders and founders is to move faster and execute harder than competitors, ensuring that no one can keep up. His relentless focus on execution, combined with smart technology, is what drives success in today’s challenging sales environment.
“Move at the speed where competitors always feel like there’s no way of stopping this team.” — Frank Sondors
He also shares a personal philosophy about sacrifice, communication, and partnership - both in business and life. Recognizing that building a company requires intense focus and sometimes difficult trade-offs, Frank encourages transparency and alignment with loved ones to navigate these seasons effectively.
Fixing a broken sales funnel is no small feat, but Frank Sondors’ approach offers a blueprint for companies seeking to thrive in today’s complex sales environment. By focusing on the top of funnel, leveraging AI and automation alongside human talent, optimizing email deliverability, and crafting authentic messaging, businesses can build predictable, scalable pipelines that fuel growth and profitability.
For sales leaders frustrated by declining email performance and inefficient pipeline generation, Salesforge’s integrated software suite presents a compelling solution. As the sales world continues to evolve, embracing innovation while grounding in human connection and execution excellence will be key to winning.
Get started with a free trial at Salesforge.ai.
