--- title: "From Founder Vibes to Data: Why I'm Obsessing Over Explainability" description: Sales teams mastered explainability years ago. Marketing is still running on gut. Here's why we built Yirla to change that. image: https://www.yirla.com/hubfs/image-png-3.png --- [Skip to content](https://www.yirla.com/blog/from-founder-vibes-to-data-why-im-obsessing-over-explainability#main-content) [![Yirla — unified performance intelligence for enterprise demand gen teams.](https://www.yirla.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Yirla%20Logo%20-%20Clear.png?width=1024&height=278&name=Yirla%20Logo%20-%20Clear.png)Homepage](https://yirla.com) - Platform - [Overview](https://www.yirla.com/platform) - [Decision Engine](https://www.yirla.com/decision-engine) - [Ask Yirla](https://www.yirla.com/ask-yirla) - [Competitive Intelligence](https://www.yirla.com/competitive-intelligence) - [MCP](https://www.yirla.com/mcp) - [Security & Data Handling](https://www.yirla.com/security-data-handling) - [Integrations](https://www.yirla.com/integrations) - Why Yirla - [Yirla vs...](https://www.yirla.com/compare) - [Use Cases](https://www.yirla.com/use-cases) - [Pricing](https://www.yirla.com/pricing) - Company - [Blog](https://www.yirla.com/blog) - [Docs](https://docs.yirla.com/) - [Podcast](https://www.youtube.com/@YirlaAI) - Platform - [Overview](https://www.yirla.com/platform) - [Decision Engine](https://www.yirla.com/decision-engine) - [Ask Yirla](https://www.yirla.com/ask-yirla) - [Competitive Intelligence](https://www.yirla.com/competitive-intelligence) - [MCP](https://www.yirla.com/mcp) - [Security & Data Handling](https://www.yirla.com/security-data-handling) - [Integrations](https://www.yirla.com/integrations) - Why Yirla - [Yirla vs...](https://www.yirla.com/compare) - [Use Cases](https://www.yirla.com/use-cases) - [Pricing](https://www.yirla.com/pricing) - Company - [Blog](https://www.yirla.com/blog) - [Docs](https://docs.yirla.com/) - [Podcast](https://www.youtube.com/@YirlaAI) [Start Free Trial](https://app.yirla.com) ![](https://www.yirla.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-3.png?width=1024&height=1024&name=image-png-3.png) # From Founder Vibes to Data: Why I'm Obsessing Over Explainability ![Scott Schnaars](https://www.yirla.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Headshots/Schnaars%20Headshot.png?width=48&height=48&name=Schnaars%20Headshot.png) Scott Schnaars January 27, 2026 One of the first things that you need to learn to be successful in sales, at least in your bosses eyes, is explainability. You can’t forecast on your gut, you need to be able to back it up. There is a huge difference in how an average rep answers the question “Why do you believe that this will close this quarter?” compared to a world-class rep. The average rep will say “Oh, we have verbal confirmation.” and an average VP will put that in their commit bucket. ![](https://www.yirla.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-3.png?width=470&height=627&name=image-png-3.png) A world-class seller will respond by saying something like “we have verbal conf from our champion and I’ve backed that up with their boss, Lisa. The contract is in legal and their attorney, Morris, has told us to expect light redlines no later than Wednesday. We know that Toni is going to sign off once we approve everything. I’ve got her on text and she has said that she’ll be around on Thursday”.   Which do you have more confidence in? BTW - A great VP will still try to pick holes in that story. The difference is explainability. When we were coming up with ideas for Yirla, one of the things that we heard over and over again were the challenges that marketing teams, and more specifically demand gen / ABM leaders, were still leaning on preferences and assumptions when defending campaign decisions and budgets. While it shouldn’t hold up in any meeting, “I like this better” or this “feels right” is still a commonly heard refrain. Marketers need better explainability. In order to gain, what we call campaign credibility, a demand gen leader needs critical information to back decisions that are made with competitive intelligence. They need to know how a targeted audience is going to perform, and they need to be able to show real signals. We can no longer rely on instinct. It’s the difference between gut feel and actually knowing what to do next. I know that explainability works and as a result, we’ve built Yirla to give demand gen leaders the same level of rigor in how they explain their spend as sales leaders use in a pipeline meeting. Great marketers deserve to be able to tell their story with the same conviction. ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yirla.com%2Fblog%2Ffrom-founder-vibes-to-data-why-im-obsessing-over-explainability](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yirla.com%2Fblog%2Ffrom-founder-vibes-to-data-why-im-obsessing-over-explainability) ## Keep reading ### [![](https://www.yirla.com/hs-fs/hubfs/yirla-blog-cards/03-the-linkedin-audience-overlap-problem--and-how-to-fix-it.png?width=1200&height=628&name=03-the-linkedin-audience-overlap-problem--and-how-to-fix-it.png) Are Your LinkedIn Campaigns Cannibalizing Each Other? What CMOs Need to Diagnose](https://www.yirla.com/blog/are-your-linkedin-campaigns-cannibalizing-each-other-what-cmos-need-to-diagnose) ### [What Is a Paid Media System of Record? A Practical Framework](https://www.yirla.com/blog/what-is-a-paid-media-system-of-record-a-practical-framework) [mailto:hello@yirla.com](mailto:hello@yirla.com) --- © 2026. Yirla - All rights reserved. - [Privacy Policy](https://www.yirla.com/yirla-privacy-policy) - [Terms of Service](https://www.yirla.com/yirla-terms-of-service) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Scott Schnaars", "url" : "https://www.yirla.com/blog/author/scott-schnaars" }, "dateModified" : "2026-01-27T19:01:14.411Z", "datePublished" : "2026-01-27T15:36:59.000Z", "headline" : "From Founder Vibes to Data: Why I'm Obsessing Over Explainability", "image" : [ "https://www.yirla.com/hubfs/image-png-3.png" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.yirla.com/blog/from-founder-vibes-to-data-why-im-obsessing-over-explainability", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://www.yirla.com/hubfs/Yirla%20Logo%20-%20Clear.png" }, "name" : "Spark Foundry, LLC" } } ```