This is the series where we talk to GTM trendsetters about the strategies and tactics they use to drive results.
We recently talked to Alton Wells, Director of Growth & Marketing Operations at Sigma Computing, about how technology is transforming the GTM landscape as part of our recent event: Embrace change in modern go-to-market.
Here are three of the top takeaways from that conversation (check out the full recording above).
1. Invest in person-level insights
Automation, enrichment, and AI have long been part of the marketing toolkit, from email automation to lead scoring to account-based marketing.
But up until recently, they existed in relatively nascent forms.
Marketers got closer than ever to highly personalized, highly relevant, and highly scalable customer engagement, but they never quite crossed the finish line.
With the rise and rapid acceleration of customer intelligence applications, generative AI tools, and other innovative technologies, the future of GTM feels like it’s finally here.
It may be the early innings, but Alton believes we’re well on our way to unlocking part of what he calls the unified theory of go-to-market (Alton used to be an aspiring astrophysicist, in case you couldn’t tell).
“Part of the piece of a unified theory of go-to market is you need to fundamentally understand in detail everything you can about the individual people inside of your audiences,” Alton said. “And in order to do that … it is impossible to do it without automation, and it is impossible to do it without enrichment, and it is impossible to do it without a form of AI agents going out collecting this data for you.”Person360™
Common Room’s Person360 feature allows you to deanonymize, merge, and enrich signals from every channel connected to Common Room. This makes it easy to reveal the identity, intent, and context of every buyer and customer.
His advice? Start getting hands-on with today’s tech as soon as possible.
“For the 2010s, it was all about the 10x developer,” Alton said. “I think the 2020s, or 2024-plus, is really all about 10x marketing and how can you really do 10x marketing? And I don't see a way around it without tools like Common Room, like Sigma [Computing], and dozens of others.”
2. AIs knock, humans talk
AI is only getting more sophisticated, but it still has its limitations.
Luckily for us, the things AI struggles with are the things we excel at. Namely, creating connections with other human beings.
Sales is the perfect example.
Reps can now use AI to conduct deep prospect research, personalize messaging based on relevant buying signals and fit criteria, and automate initial outreach.
RoomieAI™Common Room’s RoomieAI—a suite of AI-powered tools specially designed for go-to-market teams—allows you to augment your day-to-day workflows to boost productivity. This makes it easy to summarize account research in an instant, create LLM-generated outbound snippets based on every available signal, and much more.
It’s a huge time-saver that boosts sales efficiency and results in more personalized, relevant outbound.
“On the flip side, if you think about what human beings are really good at and what robots are terrible at, it's building relationships,” Alton said. “You're never going to trust ChatGPT to deeply understand who you are and who we are and the relationship that we create.”
In other words: Lean into automating the tedious, time-consuming tasks, but remember that the human element is still crucial to building trust and goodwill.
“You should never, ever, ever have an AI brokering a deep relationship or creating deep connections,” Alton said. “That makes no sense. But you probably should have an AI helping you send mass LinkedIn messages, or send emails, or create content copy.”
3. Avoid the attribution trap
New technologies make it easier than ever to get granular with your data. Look no further than attribution.
Marketers can see which channels—and which campaigns on those channels—are driving the most clicks and conversions with a button press.
But putting attribution above all else comes with risks.
“[Marketers] get caught in the vicious cycle,” Alton said. “It's like, well, this is what the attribution is […] so we have to just do this one thing. And it becomes analysis paralysis.”
Alton points to Webflow as an example to emulate. As he sees it, Webflow became a huge hit with web developers and designers in part because it produced a high volume of high-quality educational content and made it a centerpiece of its growth strategy, from retargeting to advertising.
“I have a hard time believing that you would come up with that strategy based on attribution alone,” Alton said. “So much of what they did was based around a fundamental understanding of who your audience is and where they live and how to create value for them. And I think a good marketer, a really good marketer who has a strong degree of empathy for their audience, is going to understand that there're some things that are going to be very difficult to quantify, especially in the early days.”
Alton isn’t saying to ignore attribution. It’s an essential part of knowing what’s working and where to double down.
But sometimes you have to pursue unproven ideas to see uncommon results.
“To get something off the ground, to get something new, I don't think you can do that from a first attribution basis,” Alton said. “You just have to be like, this is something that's worth doing and place your bets.”
These are just some of the takeaways from our conversation with Alton Wells.
Watch the recording for the full story.
And stay tuned for the next edition of Go-to-market mavericks!
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