The productivity gap between upstarts and incumbents has never been greater
I spend all day talking to CROs, sellers, and RevOps pros
Starting to see some stark patterns in how companies of different sizes are dealing with challenges: namely pipe gen and an emerging bucket of “seller productivity” (side note: starting to see more and more “seller productivity” titles emerge)
The current generation of AI powered tooling provides NEW ways to solve problems. Solutions that often scale independently of people
As with all new technology, incumbents are slower to react. Because they have businesses to protect, and more to lose if things go wrong
But the quantum leaps in productivity of AI tools mean that smaller companies, whether 10 or 500 FTEs, can quickly plug gaps with tech, while larger ones struggle to plug gaps with people
This is starting to show up in a few places in particular
Pipe gen: Picture this: you have a shortfall in pipe gen, for any number of reasons. (If you’re feeling this… you’re not alone).
The traditional response of a company that’s been successful in the past is to lean on what works: which usually means more hiring, and more marketing dollars. They might be flirting with new tooling, but “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” usually reigns supreme at incumbents.
So you fire up the recruiting machine, hire dozens or hundreds of SDRs and BDRs, deal with the normal attrition that comes during a ramp period, and hope for the best. Maybe you pilot a few tools. But it’s hard because your data and time are valuable, and you’d rather not give those up to a newfangled startup.
Meanwhile, the smaller company is trying 5 tools. Maybe their sellers have already found a few that work without you knowing– because they’re go-getters like that!
One solution might work okay, one might hallucinate a little too much, a few are totally useless, but another shows some SERIOUS promise. Time saved, more meetings booked, happier sellers who are overjoyed that they’ve found a way to leverage themselves. They’re working for sales leadership that cares about their challenges and understands that the world is changing rapidly, and wants to arm them to succeed. Their leaders are receptive to finding new and better ways to do things… especially those that don’t involve their jobs being replaced.
One rep now does the work of 1.5, 2, 3 sellers. And as they get better, we’re seeing even crazier ROI math.
All while the incumbent is a few weeks into a massive hiring push that may or may not work out. And even if it does, investors are going to be perturbed that we’re scaling with headcount, not technology as everyone is promising. Especially considering that you yourself are probably promising the market that you can help them with AI.
