• Ep. 127 - Session Diagnostic: Why should you do a diagnostic before you apply AI to your GTM - Part 2
    2026/05/20
    General Episode Description:In this continuation of the Selling Intelligence Diagnostic Session, Mark Petruzzi, KK Anderson, and Alan Rudolph go deeper into what happens when AI is layered onto a broken go-to-market system.The team explores real-world examples of companies that accelerated pipeline volume with AI, only to later discover collapsing win rates, longer sales cycles, and poor ICP alignment. They also unpack the critical difference between sales activity metrics and true behavioral competency, highlighting why qualification skill remains one of the biggest hidden weaknesses inside modern sales organizations.The conversation closes with a deep dive into the “discount trap,” forecasting discipline, and the operational signals private equity firms use to evaluate the maturity and long-term value of a revenue organization. What You’ll Learn:AI on Top of Broken GTM Systems: Why more pipeline volume can actually create worse outcomes.Qualification Competency Matters: How weak qualification destroys sales efficiency and forecast reliability.AI Done Right: What happens when strong ICP discipline and human judgment combine with AI-driven signals.The Discount Trap: How discounting erodes enterprise value and creates downstream operational pressure.Forecasting as a Maturity Signal: Why investors care more about predictability than heroic overperformance.Key Topics:AI lead scoring increasing volume while lowering win ratesWeak qualification competency as a hidden scaling bottleneckOMG sales competency assessments and qualification benchmarksAI-powered signal intelligence for outbound prospectingUsing hiring patterns, LinkedIn activity, and market signals to prioritize outreachHuman judgment combined with AI-assisted targetingBehavioral competency vs outcome metrics in sales organizationsTwo teams with identical win rates but completely different operational healthThe “discount trap” and the dangers of unmanaged pricingWhy selling value matters more than discounting to win dealsForecast accuracy as a signal of operational maturityThe shift from “gunslinger” sales cultures to data-driven revenue organizationsPE diligence around trends, forecast reliability, CAC efficiency, and sales disciplineGuest Spotlight: Alan RudolphAlan Rudolph is the leader of the private equity division at AGS and a strategic operator with extensive experience building and scaling enterprise revenue organizations. With a background spanning sales, operations, and enterprise value creation, Alan helps organizations diagnose GTM inefficiencies, improve operational discipline, and build scalable growth systems. Resources & Mentions:AGS (Advisory Growth Strategies)Objective Management Group (OMG) sales assessmentsConcept: Diagnose Before You AIConcept: Qualification competency in enterprise salesConcept: The Discount TrapMetrics: Win rate, cycle length, forecast accuracy, CAC efficiencyAI-powered signal intelligence for outbound prospectingClari, Aviso, and Collective[i] forecasting platformsAGS Sales Cycle Diagnostic Tool🎧 Listen now and follow Selling Intelligence for more diagnostic sessions, AI strategy insights, and practical frameworks for scaling modern revenue organizations.Mark Petruzzi (00:38)So KK, what does AI applied to a broken front of funnel motion look like? What are the ramifications of getting that?KK Anderson (00:47)Mark, let me share with you an actual real live case study, a real customer of ours. this is a growth stage SaaS company. They invested heavily in AI lead scoring and outreach. And they were ecstatic because, their pipeline jumps up 40 % in one quarter. The amount of leads coming in the door was just through the roof.leadership was celebrating and what happened and when they ended up calling us is that six months later, all of a sudden, their win rate is collapsing and their sales cycle is just getting longer and longer and longer and deals keep getting pushed out into other quarters. And so it got worse. And the reason why, once we did the diagnosis is because what it turned out is that the underlying qualifying motion of the sales team, when it comes to win more,was weak. It was deplorable weak. And to the point that Alan made earlier, the ICP was not the correct ICP and that was not disciplined. But because the sales team had a weak qualification competency, they were not prepared to be able to accept more of anything, even if it was the right ICP. And so it's interesting, just a note on that qualification competency,objective management group who is a partner of ours here at AGS, they have assessed it's got to be close to three million salespeople by now and interesting fact that of all of those three million people only 27 % are strong in the qualification and competency. So I said 27, two seven. So that means that if you're a CRO listening to this, it is likely that your team is notsuper effective at qualification. Right. And these are the things that you need to know before...
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    17 分
  • Ep. 126 - Diagnostic Session: Why should you do a diagnostic before you apply AI to your GTM - Part 1
    2026/05/13
    General Episode Description:In this first-ever Selling Intelligence Diagnostic Session, Mark Petruzzi, KK Anderson, and Alan Rudolph go deep on one of the biggest questions facing revenue leaders today: where does AI actually belong inside the go-to-market motion?Rather than a traditional guest interview, this episode introduces a new format focused on unpacking real operational challenges from inside the work AGS does every day with CROs, CEOs, and private equity-backed companies. The team explores why “diagnose before you AI” has become a core principle in modern GTM strategy, and how AI can either accelerate enterprise value creation or amplify existing operational problems.The conversation also dives into the bow tie revenue framework, ICP discipline, and why retention and customer outcomes matter far more than simply generating more pipeline activity. What You’ll Learn:Diagnose Before You AI: Why AI amplifies both strengths and weaknesses inside your GTM engine.The Cost of Moving Too Fast: How scaling AI without operational diagnosis creates value erosion.The Bow Tie Framework Explained: Why “find more, win more, keep more” changes how leaders think about revenue.ICP Discipline Matters More Than Ever: How weak ICP alignment destroys CAC efficiency, retention, and enterprise value.Why Gut Feel Is No Longer Enough: The growing importance of data-driven decision-making in AI-enabled sales organizations.Key Topics:AI increasing productivity while amplifying broken processesThe pressure CROs face from boards, CFOs, and AI vendorsWhy “slowing down” can actually accelerate long-term resultsEnterprise value creation and AI investment decisionsThe hidden danger of filling pipelines with the wrong customersThe relationship between ICP discipline and long-term retentionThe bow tie model: find more, win more, keep moreWhy investors care more about post-sale execution than contract signatureCustomer onboarding, time to value, and retention as core valuation driversThe evolution from founder-led growth to scalable GTM systemsCAC payback, pipeline coverage, and modern SaaS benchmarkingThe rise of data-driven CRO leadership in the AI eraGuest Spotlight: Alan RudolphAlan Rudolph is the leader of the private equity division at AGS and a strategic operator with deep experience across growth-stage companies, enterprise sales, and operational leadership. With a unique background operating at the COO level, Alan specializes in enterprise value creation, GTM transformation, and aligning revenue organizations with board-level priorities. Resources & Mentions:AGS (Advisory Growth Strategies)Concept: Diagnose Before You AIFramework: Bow Tie Revenue Architecture (Find More, Win More, Keep More)Concept: Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) disciplineMetrics: CAC payback, pipeline coverage, gross retention, net retentionWinning by Design bow tie frameworkRay Rike and SaaS benchmark analyticsConcept: Founder-led growth vs scalable revenue operations🎧 Listen now and follow Selling Intelligence for more diagnostic sessions, GTM insights, and practical frameworks for AI-driven revenue growth.Mark Petruzzi (00:00)Welcome to Selling Intelligence. I'm Mark Petruzzi, joined as always by my co-host KK Anderson, and in a very special way today, joined by Alan Rudolph, who is the architect and the leader of our private equity division at AGS. Alan has been a guest on Selling Intelligence before, so our regular listeners will know him already.He brings a rare lens to the revenue conversation. He's operated inside growth stage companies. He's advised PE boards time and again, and he's built sales and go-to-market engines from the ground up. But most importantly for us today, he's built those engines from the CIO level, which gives us a really distinct and important vantage point to.really how boards and CEOs and COOs need to balance these initiatives when we're looking at growing faster or building our revenue. He's also a close friend and I'm really happy to have him with us here today. Quick note for our listeners, today we're trying something entirely new. We're calling this format Diagnostic Sessions. No traditional guest interview.just three operators going deep on a single revenue topic from inside the work that we do every single day. We've been getting so many questions from our listeners about what we actually mean when we say, diagnose before you AI, because that mantra has been showing up in nearly every CRO conversation we are having. So we decided to spend the full session unpacking it, and Alan is joining us from the operating.side of this conversation because we really feel it an operator's voice as well.KK Anderson (01:44)Thank you, Mark. We're so excited to be here, Alan. We're so excited to have you. And we're going to keep bringing you the amazing guests and the revenue leaders and the business operators that you've come to know and expect on the show. Don't worry. But from time to time, when there is a ...
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    27 分
  • Ep. 125 - Enterprise Value Creation, ICP Discipline, and Building Efficient Revenue Engines with Alan Rudolph - Part 2
    2026/05/06
    General Episode Description:In this continuation of Selling Intelligence, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Alan Rudolph, Strategic Advisor at AGS, to explore how sales and marketing alignment, time to value, and retention strategies directly impact enterprise value.Alan breaks down why misalignment between sales and marketing often starts with a lack of shared ICP definition, and how that disconnect destroys both efficiency and effectiveness. He also shares where AI is creating real leverage today across prospecting, coaching, and personalization, while emphasizing that human judgment remains critical in enterprise sales.The conversation closes with a deep dive into time to value, gross versus net retention, and the bow tie revenue model, highlighting how leading organizations connect the full customer lifecycle to long-term value creation. What You’ll Learn:Sales and Marketing Alignment: Why ICP clarity is the foundation of both quality pipeline and efficient execution.Where AI Actually Works: Practical use cases in prospecting, coaching, and personalization.Time to Value (TTV): Why speed to value is now a critical metric owned by the entire organization.Retention Metrics That Matter: How gross and net retention signal true business health.The Bow Tie Model: How “find, win, keep” connects the full customer journey to enterprise value.Key Topics:Marketing optimizing for volume vs sales needing qualityThe breakdown of lead quality when ICP is not alignedAI enhancing research, call coaching, and content personalizationLimits of autonomous SDRs in enterprise sales todayDefining and reducing time to value (TTV)Gross retention vs net retention and their impact on profitabilityThe hidden cost of poor retention on CAC and EBITDACustomer journey ownership across the entire organizationThe bow tie revenue framework: find more, win more, keep moreWhy traditional funnel thinking ignores retentionThe importance of cross-functional ownership of the customer lifecycleStrategic priorities for CROs: ICP discipline, full revenue ownership, and efficiency as advantageGuest Spotlight: Alan RudolphAlan Rudolph is a Strategic Advisor at AGS with deep experience advising private equity-backed companies and scaling enterprise sales organizations. With a strong operational background at the COO level, Alan specializes in aligning sales, marketing, and customer success to drive measurable enterprise value and long-term growth. Resources & Mentions:AGS (Advisory Growth Strategies)Concept: Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) alignmentConcept: Time to Value (TTV)Concept: Gross vs Net Revenue RetentionFramework: Bow Tie Revenue Model (find, win, keep)Concept: AI-assisted sales and marketing workflows🎧 Listen now and follow Selling Intelligence for more insights on enterprise value creation, GTM alignment, and building high-performance revenue organizations.Mark Petruzzi (00:34)Alan, let's talk about the marketing side of this equation. Because in our experience at AGS, sales and marketing misalignment is one of the biggest destroyers of both efficiency and effectiveness. What does a well-aligned value creation oriented sales and marketing motion look like? And where does it usually fall apart?Alan (00:53)So it's fascinating because when it's working, it just works, right? It's invisible. It doesn't matter. But when it starts to fall apart, It's usually, and this is where we start tying all these pieces together in terms of ICP, because it's the definition of that qualified lead or the quality, maybe said another way of that qualified lead, right? So marketing is always going to optimize for volume, right? Throughput.not the quality, right? The actual lead that comes in and making sure it's a good lead. And then sales just starts ignoring it. Sales starts going, doing their own thing and marketing thinks they have this great volume and sales is saying, you no, because they're not matching back to the ICP and that shared definition, that quality of how do I bring a great customer in the door?KK Anderson (01:44)That makes a lot of sense. And Alan, let's pivot to everyone's favorite topic, AI, for a minute here to round out this topic. So AI is reshaping both how we find customers and how we serve them. And so in terms of this kind of efficiency mandate, where are you seeing AI create real measurable leverage for sales and marketing teams right now?like in your port codes that you're working with or have worked with in the past, like where's it working and where is it still mostly noise?Alan (02:14)three areas are where I see it working. First of all, and let's frame this all in the context of making us humans better, not replacing us humans. let's start there. That's first and foremost. so number one, prospecting and research, right? Who should I be talking to? Who should I be reaching out to? Right? That time spent in building those lists, et cetera. Number two is call intelligence and coaching.And I can remember,...
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    20 分
  • Ep. 124 - Enterprise Value Creation, ICP Discipline, and Building Efficient Revenue Engines with Alan Rudolph - Part 1
    2026/04/29
    General Episode Description:In this episode of Selling Intelligence, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Alan Rudolph, Operating Partner at AGS, to break down what enterprise value creation really means for modern sales leaders.Alan shares why CROs must move beyond just hitting quota and start thinking like operators responsible for long-term enterprise value. The conversation explores how retention, expansion, deal velocity, and cost of acquisition directly influence valuation, and why aligning go-to-market execution with investor expectations is now critical.They also dive into the shift from founder-led growth to scalable sales organizations, the importance of ICP discipline, and why effectiveness and efficiency must now coexist in every revenue team. What You’ll Learn:Enterprise Value Creation Explained: What it actually means for CROs and sales leaders beyond hitting quota.The ICP Foundation: Why defining and sticking to your ideal customer profile drives valuation.Efficiency vs Effectiveness: How modern sales teams must balance both to compete.Destroying Value Without Knowing It: Common mistakes like discounting, churn masking, and selling to the wrong customers.From Founder-Led to Scalable Sales: What must change to build repeatable revenue systems.Key Topics:Value creation plans and their connection to company valuation multiplesThe four drivers of enterprise value: retention, expansion, deal velocity, and acquisition costThe “discount trap” and its impact on profitability and valuationNet revenue retention as a core board-level metricCustomer acquisition payback and time to value (TTV)The bow tie revenue model: find, win, and keep customersTransitioning from founder-led sales to structured go-to-market systemsLeading indicators of inefficiency: activity without outcomes, extended sales cycles, poor handoffsThe role of ICP in both agentic workflows and traditional GTM executionWhy misalignment between sales and delivery destroys trust and valueGuest Spotlight: Alan RudolphAlan Rudolph is a Strategic Advisor at AGS with decades of experience working with growth-stage and private equity-backed companies. Known for operating at the COO level, Alan specializes in aligning sales, marketing, and operations with investor expectations, helping organizations build scalable revenue engines that drive long-term enterprise value. Resources & Mentions:AGS (Advisory Growth Strategies)Concept: Enterprise Value Creation (EVC)Concept: Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) disciplineConcept: Rule of 40 and evolving efficiency benchmarksFramework: Bow tie revenue model (find, win, keep)Metrics: Net Revenue Retention, CAC payback, Time to Value (TTV)🎧 Listen now and follow Selling Intelligence for more insights on scaling revenue, aligning with investors, and building high-performance go-to-market teams.Mark Petruzzi (00:28)Welcome to Selling Intelligence. I'm Mark Petruzzi, joined as always by my co-host, KK Anderson. Today we have a guest who sits at a genuinely rare intersection. Someone who has operated inside growth stage companies, advised P backboards, and built sales and marketing engines from the ground up.and also from the COO, Chief Operating Officer, Level, which has been his core focus. He's also a close friend and a member of our team here at AGS. Please welcome Alan Rudolph, Strategic Advisor at AGS. So,Alan (01:03)Thanks, Mark.to be on the podcast today.Mark Petruzzi (01:06)Great, we're happy to have you, Alan. So Alan brings decades of experience across boardrooms, PA backed operators and enterprise deal cycles. He's known for helping leadership teams connect the dots between investor readiness, revenue acceleration and overall sales team performance. And also for making the case that great sales leadership is not just about hitting a number.It's about building a machine that creates lasting enterprise value. That is exactly where we would like to go today. We're going to talk about what enterprise value creation actually means for the sales leader, why efficiency now sits alongside effectiveness as a C-suite mandate, and how the boat-time revenue model, finding, winning, and keeping customers,maps directly to the metrics P investors care most about. Three topics we'll cover. EVC, enterprise value creation, what it is, why sales leaders need to understand it and own it. Effectiveness versus efficiency, the dual mandate for modern sales and marketing leaders and why building an efficient team is no longer optional.The third one is time to value retention and the revenue bow tie. How customers onboard focus on gross retention and how important net retention is to the overall enterprise value and what the best senior operators do about it. Again, Alan, we're so happy to have you here. Let's jump right in. So, okay, first topic, enterprise value creation.You know, really what a sales leaders get wrong here. And let's start with a framing question because this concept of enterprise value ...
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    19 分
  • Ep. 123 -Measuring Agentic AI, ROI, and the Future of GTM Benchmarks with Ray Rike - Part 2
    2026/04/22
    General Episode Description:In this continuation of Selling Intelligence, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Ray Rike, founder and CEO of BenchMarket, to go deeper into how companies should measure, operationalize, and compete with agentic AI in go-to-market functions.Ray breaks down why most companies still lack basic GTM measurement discipline, what new AI-specific benchmarks leaders should track, and how legacy SaaS companies can realistically compete with AI-native organizations that are operating at dramatically higher efficiency.The conversation also tackles the hard truth about workforce reduction, the rise of AI operators, and why companies must rethink their entire operating model, not just layer AI on top of existing processes. What You’ll Learn:Measurement Before AI: Why most companies must fix GTM analytics before introducing AI.AI-Specific Benchmarks: The emerging metrics for measuring agentic GTM performance.Competing with AI-Native Companies: Why legacy SaaS teams must rethink their entire playbook.The Role of AI Operators: Why AI expertise is becoming more critical than traditional RevOps.From Pilot to Scale: What success should look like at 90 days and 180 days.Key Topics:Cost per pipeline and cost per ARR before vs after AIAgent cost per opportunity, pipeline, and revenueDesigning modular AI workflows instead of “monster agents”The four-layer framework: productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, and ROIRevenue per FTE gap between SaaS and AI-native companiesWhy legacy SaaS companies struggle to match AI-native efficiencyRadical restructuring: reducing headcount and rebuilding with AI-first processesAI enabling deeper personalization at scale for outbound teamsThe rise of “AI operators” as a new critical roleThe “SaaSpocalypse” and pressure on net revenue retention (NRR)Using AI to improve retention, expansion, and customer insightsBenchmark expectations for agentic SDR performance at 90 and 180 daysGuest Spotlight: Ray RikeRay Rike is the founder and CEO of BenchMarket, a leading provider of B2B SaaS performance benchmarks. With decades of experience as a go-to-market leader, he helps organizations move from intuition to data-driven execution. Ray is also the creator of the AI to ROI newsletter, where he analyzes hundreds of AI developments weekly to help leaders understand what actually drives business outcomes. Resources & Mentions:BenchMarketAI to ROI NewsletterConcept: Agentic AI in go-to-marketConcept: AI-first operating modelsConcept: Revenue per employee as a key efficiency metricConcept: AI operators vs traditional RevOpsConcept: SaaSpocalypse and NRR pressureFramework: Productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, ROI🎧 Listen now and follow Selling Intelligence for more insights on AI benchmarks, GTM transformation, and building high-performance revenue organizations.Mark (00:26)Excellent. All right, well, Ray, let me bring you back into the days of you and I starting all our research and all the pre-work for data and diagnosis driven selling. So I hope that doesn't cause you to develop a Twitch or anything like that, because as you and I both know, that was hard work. So, but let's, you know.What we really saw right up front is, and we really pushed hard on this, is the idea is you can't manage what you don't measure. And you need external benchmarks, not just internal comparisons to know if your metrics are actually good. You know, it's great. It's great to be able to say, improved this process by 20%. But if you were 45 % behind most of your competitors before that,That 20 % still has you on the back of the pack. So how do you bring that same philosophy to measuring an agentic BDR or an AI-powered deal coaching agent? And we've touched on this, but what's the equivalent of a CAC payback for agents and the entire investment?Ray Rike (01:33)Well, I would start with let's make sure you have your go to market measurements in place, because honestly, we've been talking about these for years. Less than 50 percent of companies have great GTM analytics. ⁓ So things like cost per dollar a pipeline, less than 40 percent of people are measuring cost per dollar a pipeline. So make sure you do that and look at your current state before AI and then measure it post AI introduction. Right.So cost and I'm talking right now, I'm looking very specifically at the customer acquisition process. So cost per dollar pipeline before and after cost per dollar of new AR before and after when rate before and after your average and your contract for you before and after. Cause those are all going to be hopefully much better with AI to your point, Mark. I mean, let's use outreach. Everybody had to have a sales engagement platform, right?How many companies actually said, well, after I invested $1,500 per SCR, I had a better conversion rate or a lower cost per dollar of acquisition? Nobody. You're going to need to do that with AI. So that's my first thing. The second thing, ...
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    25 分
  • Ep.122 - Measuring Agentic AI, ROI, and the Future of GTM Benchmarks with Ray Rike - Part 1
    2026/04/15
    General Episode Description:In this episode of Selling Intelligence, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Ray Rike, founder and CEO of Benchmarkit, to tackle one of the most critical questions in enterprise AI today: how do you actually measure success in agentic AI programs?Ray shares why most AI initiatives are stuck in “pilot purgatory,” the common mistakes companies make when trying to automate broken processes, and why an AI-first mindset requires a complete rethink of data, workflows, and metrics. The conversation also explores how go-to-market teams should define ROI, what benchmarks matter in an AI-driven world, and why traditional SaaS metrics are no longer enough. What You’ll Learn:Why AI Projects Stall: The real reasons most agentic AI initiatives never scale beyond pilots.AI-First vs Human-First Thinking: How redesigning processes for AI fundamentally changes outcomes.Data Readiness Matters: Why poor CRM data and lack of governance derail AI success.Measuring AI ROI: The new metrics leaders must track to justify AI investment.The Shift in GTM Economics: Why cost structures and efficiency benchmarks are changing fast.Key Topics:“Pilot purgatory” and lack of enterprise-wide AI focusThe importance of data hygiene and enrichment for AI successRedesigning processes with AI at the center, not as an add-onThe rise of vertical AI and pre-built agent workflowsDefining success with leading, mid-term, and lagging metricsCAC ratio vs AI-driven efficiency benchmarks“COGS is the new CAC” and shifting cost structures in AI-native companiesRevenue per employee as a proxy for AI productivityToken consumption and cost predictability challengesBuilding smaller, modular agents instead of large monolithic systemsThe four-layer measurement framework: productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, and ROIGuest Spotlight: Ray RikeRay Rike is the founder and CEO of Benchmarkit, a leading source of B2B SaaS performance benchmarks with data from over 1,800 companies. He is also the host of the AI to ROI podcast and a founding member of the SaaS Metric Standards Board. With decades of experience as a go-to-market operator and executive, Ray focuses on helping companies move from intuition to data-driven decision-making in both SaaS and AI-driven environments. Resources & Mentions:BenchMarkitAI to ROI podcastConcept: Agentic AI in go-to-marketConcept: “Pilot purgatory” in AI adoptionConcept: AI-first process designConcept: COGS as the new CACOpenAI Frontier AllianceVertical AI platforms (example: Harvey for legal)Metrics framework: productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, ROI🎧 Listen now and follow Selling Intelligence for more insights on AI measurement, GTM strategy, and building data-driven revenue engines.Mark (00:31)Welcome to Selling Intelligence. We're joined today by someone who might have had the honor and privilege of calling both a collaborator and a friend. Ray Reich is the founder and CEO of BenchMarket, the industry's most comprehensive source of B2B SaaS performance benchmarks with data from over 1,800 companies.Ray is also the host of the AI to ROI podcast. He's a founding member of the SAS Metric Standards Board. And full disclosure, my co-author on data and diagnosis driven selling, Ray has spent decades as a go-to-market operator, having served as president of Simply Learn, CEO at Higher Mojo, SVP at Moment Feed,and multiple times SVP market and sales and SaaS companies before founding Benchmark it roughly five years ago. And they have a singular mission, give every B2B reoccurring revenue software operator access to data driven benchmarks so they stop flying blind. Today, we're going, well, first off, let me welcome you, Ray. Thanks so much for joining us.Ray Rike (01:43)Thank you, Mark. Sorry that I'm so old that you had it took that long to read everything I've done.Mark (01:47)Exactly. Well, you know what? That's also a good thing because you've done some amazing things throughout your career and you're not that old. So, yes, let me tell you, let's talk a little bit about today and where we're going to go on this podcast. ⁓ What we'd like to do is tackle what might be the most important and for sure most underserved question in enterprise AI right now.How do you actually measure the success of agentic AI programs? And even more specifically, what does that look like for go-to-market functions? We'll dig into what benchmark its data, what is it revealing, where the industry is setting the bar, and what separates teams that are generating real ROI from those stuck in pilot purgatory. Ray, welcome to Selling Intelligence.Ray Rike (02:36)Okay, excited to be here. Let's dive into it.Mark (02:39)All right, so Ray, you've been collecting SAS performance data for years, and now you're turning that lens on AI. From what you're seeing at Benchmark and in hearing on your podcast, what's the core reason most agentic AI programs never graduate from pilot stage? Is it a data problem, ...
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    26 分
  • Ep. 121 - AI-Driven Buyer Behavior, Trust, and the New Sales Playbook with Sabrina Parsons - Part 2
    2026/04/09
    General Episode Description:In this continuation of Selling Intelligence, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software, to explore the human side of leadership, trust, and AI adoption in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.Sabrina shares her perspective on diversity in leadership, the realities of building a career as a working parent, and why creating an “integrated life” leads to stronger teams and better business outcomes. The conversation also dives into how trust has become the ultimate differentiator in an AI-driven world, and how companies must rethink how they show up as human, credible, and authentic.The episode closes with practical insights on how leaders should approach AI, where it delivers real value, and how to use it as a tool for thinking, not replacing human judgment. What You’ll Learn:Diversity as a Competitive Advantage: Why different perspectives lead to better decisions and stronger organizations.The Integrated Life Approach: How flexibility and trust improve retention, loyalty, and performance.Human Trust in an AI World: Why authenticity and real human interaction are becoming the new moat.Practical AI Usage: How to use AI for preparation, critique, and efficiency without losing credibility.Leading Through AI Disruption: How leaders can guide teams to experiment with AI while setting the right guardrails.Key Topics:The impact of diversity and inclusion on business performanceSupporting working parents and creating flexible, human-centered workplacesThe myth of “doing it all” and redefining success in leadershipWhy trust is harder to earn in a world of AI-generated contentReal vs artificial experiences in customer interactionsThe role of influencer trust and community platforms like RedditUsing real people and authentic content to build credibilityWhere AI overpromises and where it delivers real efficiencyAI as a tool for critique, feedback, and preparationUnderstanding how LLMs perceive your product and brand through consensus signalsThe shift from SEO authority to AI-driven consensus and reputationGuest Spotlight: Sabrina ParsonsSabrina Parsons is the CEO of Palo Alto Software, makers of LivePlan, and a leader with deep experience across sales, marketing, and executive leadership. She is a strong advocate for women in leadership and brings a unique perspective on building resilient organizations, fostering trust, and navigating multiple waves of technological change. Resources & Mentions:Palo Alto SoftwareLivePlanConcept: AI trust gap and authenticity in digital interactionsConcept: Integrated life vs traditional work-life balanceConcept: Consensus-driven reputation in AI search and LLMsBook: Into Thin Air by Jon KrakauerBook: Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom🎧 Listen now and follow Selling Intelligence for more insights on leadership, AI adoption, and building trust in modern go-to-market teams.Mark Petruzzi (00:31)So Sabrina, you're a strong advocate for women in sales and leadership. In your experience, what do women bring to the sales equation that often gets undervalued? And what does the data actually show?Sabrina Parsons (00:43)Yeah, that's a great question. I think that we've, well, hopefully people have, there's been a lot of data over the years that just shows a few things, I know these days, you know, talking about diversity is, you know, a hot topic and not something everybody wants to hear. But if you actually go and look at the data,Any time you're bringing different viewpoints in, it actually turns out the data shows that that's really good for an organization. That when you have six people who all come from the same background, who went, you know, got similar educations, have the same experiences, you're missing out. You're not getting some of these other alternate viewpoints that...could actually give you different insights and make your company better. So from that perspective, be it women or people of color, people from different cultural backgrounds, every time you have different people in a room, you're gonna win because they're gonna bring different information to the table. And then I think that, you know.Even though it's 2026 and I wish we were in a different place with women in leadership, the reality is that we still live in a world where, you know, there aren't as many women in technology. ⁓ And the numbers just show that and there aren't as many women in technology and leadership. And so women who are there and have made it all the way through, particularly in a leadership role, have probably worked really hard to get there.and probably have some really good insights. From my perspective, one of the things that I think is most powerful and I think can bring a lot of value to a company is recognizing particularly working moms and working parents, but as a working mom, I'm not a working dad, so I won't talk for working dads, thatYou know, there's a lot of very motivated, super smart ...
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    25 分
  • Ep.120 - AI-Driven Buyer Behavior, Trust, and the New Sales Playbook with Sabrina Parsons - Part 1
    2026/04/01
    General Episode Description:In this episode of Selling Intelligence, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software, to explore how AI is rapidly reshaping buyer behavior and forcing a complete rethink of how companies sell, market, and build trust.Sabrina shares how search behavior has fundamentally shifted toward AI-generated answers, reducing click-throughs and changing how buyers consume information. She explains why this creates new challenges in clarity, especially around the “build vs buy” decision, and why sales teams must now work harder to guide buyers through uncertainty.The conversation also dives into the growing importance of trust, the evolving relationship between sales and marketing, and how organizations can use AI effectively without losing the human connection that ultimately drives decisions. What You’ll Learn:The New Buyer Behavior: How AI-driven search and LLMs are reducing clicks and changing how buyers gather information.The “Muddy Middle” Problem: Why AI has blurred clarity around what buyers actually need and whether they should build or buy.Selling in an AI World: How sales teams must adapt when buyers are more informed but also more uncertain.Sales and Marketing Alignment: Why tighter collaboration is critical to address buyer confusion and build trust earlier.Using AI Without Losing Trust: Where AI enhances the sales process and where it can damage credibility.Key Topics:Shift from keyword search to question-based search behaviorAI-generated answers reducing traditional website trafficAEO vs SEO: optimizing for AI engines, not just search enginesBuyers arriving more educated but with incomplete or misleading contextThe disruption of the “why change” conversation in salesBuild vs buy vs AI: a more complex decision landscape for buyersMarketing’s role in answering buyer questions upfront and building trustThe risk of poor AI experiences damaging brand perceptionUsing AI for preparation versus customer-facing interactionsTurning AI efficiency into better personalization and human engagementGuest Spotlight: Sabrina ParsonsSabrina Parsons is the CEO of Palo Alto Software, makers of LivePlan, a leading business planning and financial forecasting platform. With experience leading both sales and marketing, she brings a unique perspective on how companies build sustainable revenue engines. Sabrina is also a strong advocate for women in leadership and technology, and has guided her company through multiple waves of technological change. Resources & Mentions:Palo Alto SoftwareLivePlanConcept: AEO (AI Engine Optimization) vs traditional SEOConcept: Build vs Buy vs AI decision-makingConcept: Trust equation in modern salesExample: Customer experience with AI chatbots (Oura Ring case)🎧 Listen now and follow Selling Intelligence for more insights on AI, modern buyer behavior, and building high-performing revenue teams.Mark Petruzzi (00:31)Welcome to Selling Intelligence. Our guest today is Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software, makers of LivePlan, one of the world's leading business planning and financial forecasting platforms. Sabrina has been the helm at the company, this company that has over four decades of history leading through multiple waves of technology disruption.Before stepping into the CEO role, she ran both sales and marketing, giving her a uniquely integrated view of how companies grow, how buyers decide, and what it really takes to build a revenue engine that lasts. She is a passionate advocate for women in leadership and technology, a thread we'll weave in throughout today's conversation as well. So three topics we'd like to cover with you and with Sabrina today.how AI is reshaping buyer behavior and what that means for how you sell. We've covered that many times on our podcasts already, but we really are excited about Sabrina's perspective and her experiences in that area as well. The second one is why the human element, why trust, story building and storytelling.And relationships are the only sustainable differentiators that we really can build in today's business climate. And third and finally, what sales and marketing leaders must do differently today and how that integrates into the CEO role and also the board of directors. What can the boards be doing to help their sales and marketing leaders evolve in the way that they need to?Sabrina, welcome to Selling Intelligence.Sabrina Parsons (02:13)Great, thanks Mark, I'm really happy to be here.Mark Petruzzi (02:15)All right, let's dive right into topic one. ⁓ Topic one, AI and the changing buyer. So Sabrina, you've described the buyer behavior online as having shifted more dramatically in the last 18 months than in the prior decade. What are you actually seeing? Why does it matter so much for how we sell and how we need to sell in the future?Sabrina Parsons (02:35)that's a great question. And I'm pretty sure as soon as I start talking, all the listeners ...
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