Good piece, Sara. Thank you for taking the time to write it.
Two comments for your consideration:
1) Gong.io is an available solution that, in part, addresses the issue you mention in “Reinvent” paragraph #5 (Call Analysis).
2) if you assume we aren’t quite yet in a post-human call/demo world, a needed first step in the process is training. Plenty of room for AI to improve sales training (and many other types of training) outcomes.
Great read Sara. I was a rep and a manager at mongoDB for 5 years. I evaluated tools, and built internal tools. (If I can help, please LMK). So, from a buyer's perspective:
1. How much will the sellers trust the tech - a lot of reps don't/limit the use of outreach because it is known to glitch. Same for other lead gen tools which claim they can give you detailed info on a lead, but don't provide anything of real value. Trust is very fragile with sellers, who typically love control and want to do manage every interaction.
2. How much extra work will it need to manage the new tool. Every tool takes a little bit more time away from revenue generating activities. Every tool has different sync rates, load times, context switching, data formats etc. And typically salesOps doesn't always have the best insights on how the sales-reps use the tools. There is a huge disconnect and tension here.
3. is the tool for the manager or the rep or both? Managers can think they are doing it for the benefit of the team, when it is really for themselves. E.g. Forecasting tools like Clari. And the best example...salesforce.
I'm also a builder. Many of these use cases (e.g. coaching, prospecting, collateral generation with AI) depends on 'enterprise language model and understanding'. Each company has its unique language that needs to be understood. This starts with good data in CRMs. And this is a huge issue because sellers hate data-entry into CRMs.
We're exploring how using call conversations can solve this problem. Can we orchestrate and automate all workflows based off of call conversations & emails? e.g. CRM auto-updates, scheduling, drafting followups emails, executing action items (e.g. collateral search/generation), answering low level Q&A.
Thanks @sara we update the map a few times a year- V10 will be crazy with the Cambrian explosion of AI tools . Working on it now. https://tenbound.com/directory/
We are building Salesroom.com which is exactly what you mentioned as a Live, on the fly direction for reps. We are sale cycle aware so know what type of questions/agenda the reps are aiming for, and analyzing the transcript and buyer behavior in real-time to make sure they're on track or suggest course correct.
Gong and the others built an amazing rear view mirror for the sales leaders, we are more of a front bumper camera for the AE's and CSM's using AI. Happy to show you a demo.
For coaching, I think the AI would allow for more of micro-coaching instead of the bigger, more expensive training sessions (once or twice a year). A machine can identify a key moment, create a quick clip out of it and the AE/Manager review constantly to suggest better reaction/answers.
Good once Sara. Another couple of plays that could be interesting are turning sales into a multiplayer game, currently each sales rep have their own pipeline story running in a day. It is a single-player game. Also building AI that helps reps expand existing accounts would be interesting.
Good piece, Sara. Thank you for taking the time to write it.
Two comments for your consideration:
1) Gong.io is an available solution that, in part, addresses the issue you mention in “Reinvent” paragraph #5 (Call Analysis).
2) if you assume we aren’t quite yet in a post-human call/demo world, a needed first step in the process is training. Plenty of room for AI to improve sales training (and many other types of training) outcomes.
Best,
Adam
Great read Sara. I was a rep and a manager at mongoDB for 5 years. I evaluated tools, and built internal tools. (If I can help, please LMK). So, from a buyer's perspective:
1. How much will the sellers trust the tech - a lot of reps don't/limit the use of outreach because it is known to glitch. Same for other lead gen tools which claim they can give you detailed info on a lead, but don't provide anything of real value. Trust is very fragile with sellers, who typically love control and want to do manage every interaction.
2. How much extra work will it need to manage the new tool. Every tool takes a little bit more time away from revenue generating activities. Every tool has different sync rates, load times, context switching, data formats etc. And typically salesOps doesn't always have the best insights on how the sales-reps use the tools. There is a huge disconnect and tension here.
3. is the tool for the manager or the rep or both? Managers can think they are doing it for the benefit of the team, when it is really for themselves. E.g. Forecasting tools like Clari. And the best example...salesforce.
I'm also a builder. Many of these use cases (e.g. coaching, prospecting, collateral generation with AI) depends on 'enterprise language model and understanding'. Each company has its unique language that needs to be understood. This starts with good data in CRMs. And this is a huge issue because sellers hate data-entry into CRMs.
We're exploring how using call conversations can solve this problem. Can we orchestrate and automate all workflows based off of call conversations & emails? e.g. CRM auto-updates, scheduling, drafting followups emails, executing action items (e.g. collateral search/generation), answering low level Q&A.
Thanks @sara we update the map a few times a year- V10 will be crazy with the Cambrian explosion of AI tools . Working on it now. https://tenbound.com/directory/
Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.
We are building Salesroom.com which is exactly what you mentioned as a Live, on the fly direction for reps. We are sale cycle aware so know what type of questions/agenda the reps are aiming for, and analyzing the transcript and buyer behavior in real-time to make sure they're on track or suggest course correct.
Gong and the others built an amazing rear view mirror for the sales leaders, we are more of a front bumper camera for the AE's and CSM's using AI. Happy to show you a demo.
For coaching, I think the AI would allow for more of micro-coaching instead of the bigger, more expensive training sessions (once or twice a year). A machine can identify a key moment, create a quick clip out of it and the AE/Manager review constantly to suggest better reaction/answers.
Good once Sara. Another couple of plays that could be interesting are turning sales into a multiplayer game, currently each sales rep have their own pipeline story running in a day. It is a single-player game. Also building AI that helps reps expand existing accounts would be interesting.