From PLS pioneers and OSS innovators to cutting-edge enterprises, Go-to-market mavericks is where we talk to GTM leaders about the strategies and tactics they use to drive results.
We recently talked to Kimberly Dieter, Senior Vice President of Sales, Americas at HubSpot, about leading sales in the age of AI and a whole lot more.
Here are three of the top takeaways from that conversation (check out the full recording above).
1. Sales reps need an SME shortcut
In a world where B2B buyers do the vast majority of research on their own, the role of reps is becoming less seller and more solutions consultant.
“I think the role of a seller has actually become more complex because they have to be a subject matter expert in all of the products and services and industries that are associated with what they're representing,” Kimberly said.
Modern buyers don’t want the surface-level talk track. They’ve pieced it together on their own. When they talk to a sales rep, they expect to go deeper.
That means reps need to be able to quickly build a compelling point of view and connect the dots between their product and a prospect’s unique pain points. In other words: research.
There’s no shortage of tools to help them do it, but this can be more of a curse than a gift.
If the data reps need is siloed across dozens of technologies, tool fatigue sets in and speed to lead lags.
AI-powered signal captureCommon Room’s AI-powered signal capture automatically fetches contact, account, and activity data from your first-, second-, and third-party data sources. Our machine learning algorithms process this data and turn it into structured outputs for team members to access, analyze, and action on.
“Most employees are toggling between multiple systems, which actually is slowing them down,” Kimberly said. “Which means they have to be more thoughtful of the actions and activities they take because they're like, ‘I'm over here, then over here, then over here.’ [S]ellers are required to do more research in order to be successful."
2. User-friendly tooling is a top priority
RevTech is a noisy space. Especially in the age of AI.
With so many vendors promising to revolutionize revenue growth, it’s sometimes hard to cut through the marketing speak.
That’s why Kimberly focuses on the fundamentals when making any technology purchase. Namely, ease of use, time to value, and integration with existing tools and processes.
“If it's not used by the rep, it has no value,” Kimberly said.
Reps are crunched for time. If a tool sits outside of their day-to-day workflows and is difficult to grok, they’ll stick with the status quo.
Native integrationsCommon Room’s natively built and fully managed integrations sync your stack with an AI-powered system of intelligence. Integrations include popular CRMs and sales execution platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, Apollo, Salesloft, Gong Engage, and more.
“How easy is it going to be for us to get everyone up to speed on this?” Kimberly said. “How fast will we see value? And can we embed it in our tech stack in some capacity? If the answer is no to one or more of those, then it's not going to be a go for the team because I'm trying to minimize the tools we're using as opposed to adding more to it, creating more complexity.”
3. AI is more influential when it’s integrated
Every revenue leader wants to boost efficiency and maximize growth with AI. They’re just not always sure how.
For Kimberly, it starts with getting reps comfortable using the technology in the first place.
“In order for people to get comfortable with AI, they have to use it in their real life, and then their work life,” Kimberly said.
Kimberly and her team use AI to conduct prospect research, summarize customer calls, and automate deal-stage progression.
Research agentCommon Room’s research agent scours the open web to answer any account-level research questions that need answering. Out-of-the-box and custom prompts let you instantly spotlight key information to power outbound, from earnings calls and annual financial statements to user sentiment and product feedback.
These are all straightforward use cases that improve productivity. And for Kimberly, they’re just the tip of the iceberg.
But as with any tool, for AI to truly transform how teams operate, it must be integrated with their existing workflows. The less a technology is part of normal operating procedure, the less it will be adopted.
“The bare minimum is to understand how it’s embedded in your sales tools, processes, and stack and make it easy and fast for your sellers to use and get comfortable with,” Kimberly said. “And they will, and they will see value.”
These are just some of the takeaways from our conversation with Kimberly Dieter.
Watch or listen to the recording for the full story.
And stay tuned for the next edition of Go-to-market mavericks!
Run go-to-market intelligently with Common Room
Get started for free or get in touch to see how Common Room’s AI-powered customer intelligence platform helps you capture, enrich, and take action on every buying signal.